++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Day 15++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Eomer, Eothain, and the Shadow

"She's alive, Eomer, I'm telling you, I can feel it in the marrow of my bones! For the love of the Valar, Eomer, you have to believe me!!!"

Eothain, eldest son of the Lord of Deorwang, gazed beseechingly at his comrade and brother-in-arms, eyes bright like brittle emeralds ready to be shattered at the slightest word against him and his brilliant shining hope that flickered within his eyes. He clutched the hem of his tunic in both fists, worrying the dark blue material in his hands, trying to calm himself enough to make himself sound rational.

"Eothain," Eomer yelped, "I can't… how do you know? You can't know!"

"But I do know, Eomer, I do know! She's in Fangorn, and she needs our help!" The lad began gasping for breath suddenly, and sank back onto his bed, his hand pressed to his chest. The poison had weakened his body, Eomer knew that. The Prince rushed to his friend's side and did the strange rubbing motion along his back that Gwynaeth, Eothain's mother, had shown him to help with his breathing. Slowly, he regained control of his breath.

"What do you expect us to be able to do, Eothain?" The Prince demanded, though his voice was gentle, not harsh or angry. It was more than Eomer had expected from himself- the thought of Deorwyn, naggy little tag along lady-girl who wanted to learn to ride, fight, swim, and become a Rider of Rohan made his chest feel swollen and hot, like an infected cut. "If she is alive, and she needs help, we have to tell your father."

"I've spoken to my father," he said sullenly, clenching the blankets in his fists. "He doesn't listen. The only reason he hasn't completed the Rite of the Burial Chest is because my mother swore she would leave him if she did."

"L-leave-"

"Eomer… something is coming. I can feel it, and it's all about her. Deorwyn. She is entangled in this web of fate somehow. I know it, Gleowine knows it… I think even Delwyn knows it. We're all connected, us four. We know each other, we're part of each other. We know when the others are in danger, need help. Deorwyn is doing something big right now, something so grand and important that if it fails, all of Rohan falls, and the War won't be a War, it shall be a slaughter."

"War… what war? We're not in a war."

"But we will be," Eothain whispered. "We all will be. This war that's coming… from Isengard and Mordor-"

"Mordor!? Isengard?! Mordor's been shut for over a thousand years, the Enemy from the East died in the great war from the Second Age. And Isengard is our ally!"

"It isn't," Eothain cried, and dropped his head into his hands, drawing a shuddering, half-sobbing breath. "He's trying to kill her, Eomer! And she's going to kill him. They'll all kill each other, everyone's going to kill each other, but the arrow, the white and silver and black arrow of the Queen's Flight, it's going to end the oncoming War, but Saruman is going to try to kill her now, and if he gets to her now the kingdoms will fall apart and-"

"Eothain, who are you talking about?"

"Lothiriel! Deorwyn, Eryniel, the Princess of the Woses, all of them, they're… I don't… Eomer, we need to ride again. We need to ride out to Fangorn and help her. We must. If we don't, everything will end now, before its proper time. We've got to go! We have got to go, we have to ride to Fangorn, we have to help her or else everything is lost and-"

"Eothain, I- who's there?!"

Both boys leapt to their feet as a shadow darted past the cracked door to Eothain's room and down the hall. By the time they made it to the hallway, the shadow had disappeared and both boys were filled with a sick sense of dread.

oo8oo8oo8oo

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