Thank you to the few of you that reviewed the last chapter, they mean a lot. This is the second half of Chapter 10. I hope it's good, I really didn't get a chance to proof read this chapter because I'm really tired right now, but I wanted to finish it and post it as soon as I could. Let me know what you think please!

Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Lord of the Rings.

Chapter 11

Cynwise opened the door and Avelina peered inside to see King Theoden sitting at a desk looking over parchment, however, as Cynwise stepped inside he looked up. "Ah, thank you Cynwise for bringing Avelina. Come in my dear," the kind said with a smile. Cynwise looked at Avelina's hesitant face and smiled as she ushered her inside.

"Go on child," Cynwise said very quietly. Avelina nodded and stepped inside only have Cynwise step out and close the door behind her.

"You wished to see me, my lord?" she asked quietly as she bowed her head and fidgeted with her hands nervously. She silently prayed that he was not angry with her for her talks with Éomer. Even though he looked at her kindly, lords and kings often lost that look once their subject was comfortable.

"That I did," he said as he stood and walked over to her. Theoden found it discomforting that she would not look him in the face. It was almost as if she was afraid of him. He walked over to her and lifted her chin with his finger. Her wide dark blue eyes met his and he mentally sighed when he saw the fear within their depths. "Do not be frightened," he whispered and he saw her relax slightly. He lowered his hand and she kept her eyes locked on his. "Gandalf told me more of you, and bid me give you news that I do not believe myself, but yet I am told it is the truth and that I must make you believe it." Avelina furrowed her brow. He took her hand and led her to a chair near a small burning fire. He had her sit and she did so keeping her eyes on him as he sat across from her.

"My lord, what is it that Gandalf has bid you to tell me that you do not even believe?" she asked and the king gave her another kind smile.

"That horse of yours, Sigeric is it?" he asked and she nodded. "He is different than any breed I have ever seen, and he is better behaved than the most trained horse in all of Rohan. He is the reason you have come here. He led you here, to my nephew and his company. You were not meant to be in this land, as this time is long from yours." Avelina looked at him with even more confusion and he sighed with a shake of his head. "Perhaps it was not wise for the wizard to leave me with this news to share because I do not have the knowledge he does to answer your questions."

"This cannot be true," she whispered. "You must be misinformed! I simply cannot have traveled through time! That is impossible!" Forgetting who she was speaking to she stood angrily and glared at him. "When next I see Gandalf, I shall speak to him of his lies! I am simply lost from my home and soon I will find my way back to it!" She lifted her skirt slightly and stormed out of the room as quickly as her legs would take her. She rushed through the hall, passing Gimli, Aragorn and Éowyn as she did so. Éowyn watched her new found friend with confusion laid across her face at seeing the tears that rolled down the woman's cheeks.

Avelina ran down the stone steps and to the stables where Sigeric resided. She stepped into his stall and he calmly looked at her as she threw the blanket over his back. "I'm not mad!" she whispered fiercely. "I am merely lost and I will make my way home this very moment." She lifted the heavy saddle and turned to put it on Sigeric when a form stopped her. Her tear stained eyes looked up and met the concerned filled dark hazel eyes of Éomer.

"Avelina, what is it?" he asked and she just shook her head.

"Your uncle and Gandalf think I was not meant to be in this land. They claim Sigeric is what brought me here, that he led me to you . . . to your company," she said hastily before she adjusted the saddle in her arms and stepped around him and threw the saddle on Sigeric's back. Avelina made to secure the saddle when Éomer's hands enclosed around her trembling ones.

"Surely you are mistaken. Perhaps-," Avelina jerked her hands away from his and shook her head.

"Perhaps I fell off of Sigeric and struck my head and am lost in a world of dreams and none of this is real." Éomer furrowed his brow. This was not the woman who smiled and laughed so carefree with him just an hour before. She had turned into the woman he had found all those weeks ago. She was lost, broken, and very frightened. Éomer put his hands on her shoulders and she looked at him sharply.

"This is not dream. If you do not remember we've already had this discussion long ago, when you first came to m-us," he said gently. He raised his right hand and gently caressed her cheek. "Perhaps it is true. Perhaps you came from another world, but why should it matter?" Avelina looked at him with wide eyes as he wiped the tears from her face.

"How is it possible? How is it possible that Sigeric could travel through time and bring me here? How?" she asked shakily, finally letting her anger disappear and be replaced by the confusion and fear that laid underneath it. Éomer gave her a small smile and shook his head.

"Why should it matter? You are here now. You are here with new friends and in a world where you are not just a servant. You are so much more than that, if only you could see that." Avelina let a sob escape her lips and she threw herself into his chest. Éomer closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her as she wrapped her arms around him.

Sigeric turned in the stall and faced the pair. Éomer slowly opened his eyes and looked at the horse. To him, it looked as thought Sigeric was trying to speak to him and through his eyes Éomer felt he was telling him that she would need him. She would need him to help her understand that she was meant to be where she was, that her life would have been unhappy were she to have remained in Sandria, and that there in Rohan she would find the happiness she deserved. Éomer nodded and Sigeric bowed his head before he shook it and turned back to his position in the stall.

Éomer looked down at the top of Avelina's head as her face was buried deep into his chest and her hands clung to his back as though he was her only source of life left in the world. He raised a hand and rested it on the back of her head and ran his hand down her head.

"Avelina," he said gently, "listen to me. Think not of what my uncle told you. Think of the times you have shared while you have been here, with Eothain, with Éowyn . . . with me. If we meet Gandalf again, then we shall find the answers you seek, but for now just live your life here and think nothing of your past." She raised her head and looked at him with red eyes.

"It will not be the same. Nothing shall be as it was." Éomer just looked at her and he was unable to form the words he longed to tell her. He wanted to tell her that it was going to be fine and that all will turn out in the end, but he couldn't. He didn't even know if he would survive the impending war, how could he give words of such comfort to someone when he didn't even believe them?

"It may be different," he said at last, "but for the better." He cupped her cheek once again and shook his head. "This news does not change my view of you, Avelina. I have had a feeling for some time that you were not of this world, but there was something in you that made me doubt that. Perhaps your soul was once one of this world and upon your passing you moved onto another and it longed to return to the one that was once your own." Avelina smiled at the thought.

"For a warrior you seem to have a way with words, Lord Éomer," she said gently. Éomer smiled at her.

"Only since meeting you, Avelina, have I found words that justly describe what I feel and think."

"And only since meeting you, my lord, have I found comfort in another's words and arms. Before no words of attempted comfort have been able to do so, but yours seem to calm my aching soul." Éomer's thumb caressed the tender skin under her dark blue eyes and wiped the dampness from it there.

"Then I shall do my very best to keep my promise to you Avelina," he whispered. She gave him a small smile and Éomer found himself leaning into her slowly. Avelina's eyes did not leave his as his face inched closer to hers and just when she could feel his warm breath caress her lips, Sigeric neighed and stomped his front hooves hard on the soft ground of the stable. Avelina blinked and quickly pulled away from Éomer who looked at her with confusion written across his face.

"Forgive me," she whispered before ran from the stables and away from him. Avelina ran through the hall thankful not to spot any of her new friends. She ran to her chamber and closed the door quickly before she sat down upon the bed. Midday had not even come close to approaching and already Avelina had been on a whirlwind of emotions and now her heart was racing because she nearly kissed the nephew to the king. She laid back on her bed letting the events and news of the morning swim through her mind before exhaustion took over and she fell into an un-restful sleep.