The two siblings were tucked in under the covers, the snow had been pilling outside fast. It was warmer to share a bed during a blizzard; the stone palace was very cold despite the tireless efforts of the servants to keep the fires going. In fact, the fire in Eowyn's room was roaring happily, keeping the young kids warm and cozy. Theoden had asked the servants to always tend the children's fire first, even though the children were unaware of the fact.

"Eomer" Eowyn tapped on his shoulder. "Eomer!" She insisted, calling his name louder and pulling his sleeve.

"Mmmm"

"Are you asleep?"

"Not anymore" he groaned.

"Great! Tell me a bed time story!" Eowyn sat up and hugged her teddy bear closely, her eyes shining with the firelight and excitement. In the process of jumping up in a seating position, she uncovered her brother.

"Eowyn!" He was fully awake now. "Be careful it is cold!"

She saw an opportunity to press her claim and grabbed it. "Tell me a story!"

"Get under the covers, and I will". Eowyn promptly lay back down and pulled the covers to her chin. Eomer turned on his other side so he could face her excited little face. "What story do you want to hear?"

She spend sometime thinking on it, before an epiphany came to her. "Dragons!"

He required a moment or two to collect his thoughts before he started narrating the first thing that popped in his mind.

Once upon a time, in the land of the Dwarves in the far cold North...

"Was it colder than here?" She interrupted.

"Oh yes, much, much colder, your toes can fall off with frostbite even when you are within the house!" She shivered with excitement and fear at his response.

... a great Knight lived. His name was Eom the magnificent.

"Oh come on! You just named the character like you!" She rolled her eyes, while he shot her a warning glance.

He had a rat as his pet servant, whose name was Eow.

"Whaaaaat?" She exclaimed disgusted. His little sister did not like rats.

"If you interrupt me once more, I will not go on!" He warned her. Eomer waited for a moment or two, just to confirm her compliance before going on.

Eom and Eow were fierce and grim warriors, as much clever as strong. They walked among the land of the North seeking for adventure, and often they found it. Sometimes, however, adventure found them.

It was a starless night when Eow came across a single silver coin on the snow. She sniffed it to see if it was real; once she sneezed she knew, it could be spend to a tavern and secure a bowl of warm stew for her master.

Eom was surprised to see her finding, but it was welcome, nonetheless. Coin was sparse this time of the year and they were in dire need of it. He pocketed it and carried on. Eow left him to scout ahead once more.

"Where her toes not frozen off?" Eowyn asked and Eomer wanted to scream. Every time he tried to tell her a bed time story, the same thing occurred; she would always interrupt with all sorts of questions.

"Nope, because she is a rat". He kept narrating before she could disagree once more.

A bit further down their snowy path, she found a ruby, glowing like a drop of blood on top of the sparkling white snow. The rat once again tested to confirm whether the ruby was real, and it was. She returned to Eom once more with her finding, who could not believe their luck.

This time he did not wait for her to go ahead and scout, he followed her. There it was, as he half suspected a gold coin, shining cold against the snow. Eom picked it up and walked a bit further down. Another cold coin, then a hip of copper jewellery and later a single diamond, all of them leading them towards the side of a mountain looming on the horizon. He had a bad feeling about this, but he wished for warm food and money and glory.

The two heroes noticed a side entrance and what else could they do but go inside? It was a cold night and they were adventures after all. Once inside, they saw the most amazing thing, something they did not expect. A huge room full of treasure awaited for them, and on top of this pile a white dragon.

The dragon was not too big, but big enough to bite off a good junk of his body with one try. The white smoke coming of its nostrils, rising up to the ceiling, smelt like firewood and promised of fire. For now it was sleeping, perched on top of its hoard.

The two heroes had a silent exchange, which would have gone something like that if they did not fear speaking out loud.

"Go and find the biggest and most expensive piece of jewellery" Eom pointed towards the heap of gold.

"The dragon will eat me" the rat's moustache shook with fear.

"I will take care of the dragon" the man pointed to his chest.

The rat sighed, gathered her courage and ventured forward. She disappeared beneath the gold coins, only a ripple at the surface betrayed her location. All went well, and Eom thought they would make it out alive, but suddenly, a large section of the hoard slid down and clattered to the stone floor with a loud bang, which was multiplied by the echo in the cave.

The dragon's eye opened immediately, then the other one and finally, its head rose. "Who dares to steal from me?"

"Steal? Steal?" Eom leaped forward and shouted on top of his lungs. "I am not hear to steal from you..."

"...Lady Stonebeater" the dragon supplied rather politely, before she remembered herself. "Why are you here then, if not to steal from my impressive collection of stuff?"

"To entertain you!" Eom had spoken the first thing that popped into his head and now regretted it. How would he entertain a dragon?

"Entertain me?" She turned her head to the side so she could assess him better. "How?"

He saw with the corner of his eye Eow trying to disentagle from the heap of coins. "Dancing!"

And without any further ado, he started leaping up and down, moved his hands, made a few pirouettes to an imaginary tune. He started running back and forth and Lady Stonebeater moved her head matching his movements.

He noticed Eow heading towards the cave opening, dragging behind her a long necklace. Eom moved a bit further from the entrance, to cover for her exit. At the same time he started moving in rounds, making himself dizzy. Making himself dizzy was promising; the dragon would get dizzy as well, right? He moved faster and her head matched his movement, he was close to vomiting when he thought for the first time he might faint and become dragon food. Who would take care of his rat, then?

He was close to fainting when he saw the eyes of Lady Stonebeater roll back in her head and collapse in front of him. Eom did not take a second look at her, he just wobbled outside the cave.

The cold winter air was welcome for the first time in a while. It helped him clear his head, but still he needed a few moments to take a few deep breaths, clear his head and ease his sick stomach. Eow came close, dragging behind her a long gold necklace, bound around twelve diamonds. He bend down to pick it up and observe its value.

"Well done, Eow! This will buy us food for a very long time… We could get a horse for me and a tiny bow for you. Should we bugger off?"

Eow climbed up his sleeve and hid in his shirt's front pocket, while he stuffed the necklace in his front pocket. Our two heroes moved away in the snowy landscape whistling a tune that would fit their earlier dance with the dragon…

Eomer's voice trailed off. He observed his little sister for a while, as she seemed skeptical, a state of mind that she did not have often. Finally, she said "At least the dragon was a woman". And with that she went to sleep.