The Wild Westfold
By: Lauthica Green Clinkenbeard
Chapter Nine: Dreams and Truths
My eyed widened as I looked toward the front door of the mead hall. Gandalf and Théoden had entered but they were not alone. Freda stood at the wizard's side and Théoden was carrying Eothain. Freda ran from Gandalf's side toward me. I reached out and embraced her pulling her tightly against my chest.
"Freda!" I exclaimed clutching her to me. I had thought the worst of them when I did not find them upon my arrival at Edoras.
"We found them on the plains out by the tombs." Théoden said and he walked over and laid Eothain down on a table.
"They are not hurt, just hungry and tired." Gandalf said and he sat down at the table and put his hand over Eothain's eyes. He said something in hushed tones and Eothain stirred. I sat Freda down at the next table and hurried over to look him over for wounds. Aragorn walked over quickly.
"Here," Aragorn said handing out a water goblet.
"Thank you," I said taking it. Gandalf helped me lift Eothain into a sitting position. I put the goblet to his lips. He groaned but he raised his hands and took the goblet from me. He drained it as if he were as dry as parchment. Eowyn came over with two bowls of the stew from the fire pit. She set one bowl in front of Freda and the other in front of the seat next to her. I refilled Eothain's goblet and then made one for Freda. Eothain got down off the table and sat next to his sister at the next table. He hungrily dug into the stew. Théoden came over to me.
"You know these children?" he asked me.
"Yes. They are the children of my friend, Morwen, from the town of Lord Mekastre in the Westfold. They fled the town as I was, bound for Edoras, but I lost sight of them on the road." I said.
"Where is there mother?" he asked.
"I don't know. She said she would flee instead to Helm's Deep in hopes of locating her husband. I do not know if she survived the raid or not." I said. Théoden's eyes sparked for a moment when I mentioned Helm's Deep, but he didn't say anything more. He took off his cloak and handed it to a servant. He went to sit in his throne and heaved a heavy sigh. Gandalf walked over and sat next to him. I sat down back at the table next to Aragorn and across from Gimli.
"You mentioned Lord Mekastre, Deya, what became of him? He is not in Edoras either." Gandalf asked me.
"I do not know. He escaped with his family long before I did." I said.
"What happened when the Uruks came?" Aragorn asked. He was cleaning out his pipe for a fresh smoke and looked up at me.
"It was not just Uruks. There were many Wildmen who traveled with them bearing the same white hand." I said to him. Gandalf chuckled for a moment.
"So, Saruman has enlisted the Wildmen of the hills as well? What fools they are. He means for them to be the weaker targets to protect his Uruk Hai." Gandalf said.
"What happened to your town?" Legolas asked.
"I was heading to the river to get water to launder with Morwen, my friend. The village across the way was in flames. We were able to warn the town but several others were not as fortunate as I." I said. Aragorn looked back down at his pipe now filled. He lit it. Théoden raised a hand to his brow.
"Warn the town?" Eowyn asked sternly casting a look in my direction. She was kneeling by Freda but stood up. "They had no warning. They were unarmed. Now the Wildmen are moving through the Westfold, burning as they go. Rick, cot, and Tree." She said as she placed a blanket around Freda.
"Where is Mama?" Freda asked but was only hushed by Eowyn. Gandalf looked at Théoden.
"This is but a taste of the terror that Saruman will unleash. All the more potent for he is driven by the fear of Sauron." He said. Théoden moved his hand back to his lap. He said nothing but looked in deep though. Gandalf continued, "Ride out and meet him head on. Draw him away from your women and children." Gandalf leaned toward Théoden and rested his hand on the arm of his throne. Théoden looked down at Gandalf's hand with an uneasy expression. "You must fight!" Gandalf exclaimed.
"You have two thousand good men riding north as we speak. Eomer is loyal to you. His men will return and fight for their king." Aragorn said. I reacted to Eomer's name. I drew in a sharp breath and looked up at Aragorn. Théoden stood up quickly.
"They will be three hundred leagues from here by now." He stepped down from the pedestal and looked at Aragorn. He walked over to the table with the children and then paced back to the center of the room by the fire pit. Gandalf stood and walked toward him. He looked like he was going to say something but Théoden spoke again. "I know what it is you want of me, but I will not bring further death to my people. I will not risk open war."
Gimli sighed between bites of his supper and looked at me and then Aragorn disappointed by the king's words. Aragorn had his pipe in his mouth but he removed it.
"Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not." He said. Théoden turned around to look at him. He looked less than pleased.
"When last I looked, Théoden, not Aragorn, was king of Rohan." He said coldly. The hall was silent and thick with tension for several moments until Gimli burped. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Gandalf started to walk toward Théoden.
"Then what is the king's decision?" he asked. Théoden turned back around toward Gandalf. He kept his eyes on the floor for a few seconds and then looked up at the wizard.
"Deya mentioned that her friend fled first to Helm's Deep." He said and he turned back around. "Hama?" he asked. Hama came up to him and bowed.
"Yes, my lord?" he asked.
"First thing tomorrow morning I want you to make a public announcement. All of Edoras must empty and we will travel to Helm's Deep." He said.
"Yes, my lord." Hama said and he returned to his post at the front door of the mead hall. Théoden looked back to Gandalf. Gandalf stared at him with daggers in his eyes but said nothing. Théoden walked past him swiftly and left the mead hall. Gandalf walked swiftly out of the front doors and down the stairs to the main road.
"I was ready for Gandalf to retort at any moment. Tomorrow will be interesting." Gimli said.
"Théoden is a good king." I said. "Imagine if you fell asleep for eleven years and were plagued with terrible nightmares….only to awaken and find they were truth all along."
"You speak of dreams, but Théoden remembers nothing." Legolas said. "He went to sleep leaving his land peaceful and having his loved ones near only to wake and find the world burning and blood suffering."
"I think Théoden has made the right choice." I said sternly. "And I think most of the people in this room can agree that we have exhausted the topic." I said standing up.
"Please don't leave, my lady." Aragorn said and he grabbed my hand. "I think you know more about the workings of Rohan's royalty than we do. The affairs of Rohan have become our own."
"I have little concern for your affairs, ranger, elf, and dwarf." I said pulling my hand away. "You may have helped saved the king but I will not be a fly on the wall for you. Your arrival is strange and your motives are clouded. You have yet to earn my trust."
Aragorn raised an eyebrow. "Are you always so quick to anger, my lady?" he asked. I said nothing and I started to walk toward the archway that led into the halls.
"Drega! Drega!" Freda shouted as she jumped from the table and ran to me. Eowyn followed her and took her hand.
"Come away. You must eat." She said.
"Leave her be. I will look after her." I said and I took Freda's hand from her.
"You told me your name was Deya. Why do they call you Drega?" Aragorn asked gesturing toward the children with a hint of spite in his voice. "An alias, perhaps? You would criticize our motives as clouded when it is your motives that remain the true mystery."
I felt my temper ripen very quickly. I knelt down to Freda. "Wait for me in the archway." I whispered to her. She nodded and darted off. I walked over to Aragorn and pointed to the table that was across on the other side of the hall. "Do you see that table?" I asked. Aragorn raised an eyebrow, but nodded.
"That is the table that I sat at when I was invited to supper with King Théoden eleven years ago. I was brought to Edoras half dead and wounded from trying to run away from the house of my father. My father came looking for me. He burst into this very hall through those very doors." I said pointing to the doors. I then reached out and grabbed his hand and brought it up to my cheek. "My father gave me this horrible scar himself. He ripped the stitches in my back while kicking me and left an even more distorted and deformed blemish on my flesh!" I said raising my tone of voice. He pulled his hand away and stood up taking a few steps back away from me.
"Calm yourself, my lady!" he said. I walked over and punched him in the gut hard. He groaned and fell to his knees. Legolas hurried over to help him. Everyone else in the court was watching with shocked faces.
"Right there where you stand, elf, I watched my father take his own life after Théoden passed a judgment of banishment. We were stripped of our title. My family was reduced to less than peasants. My weak and vain brother died a fool. My mother died a broken soul and was buried in rags! So, I changed my name to Drega to forever sever the ties to my name house. I entered a life of servitude working my hands bare and my back tight. I never imagined I would ever return to Edoras, nor be called Deya ever again." I kneeled down to look Aragorn in the eye. "Fate is cruel and unpredictable. Don't play at word battles with me, ranger. I never lose." I said and I stood back up and walked briskly to the archway. I scooped up Freda in my arms and hurried down the hall to Eomer's room. I entered the room and slammed the door shut.
"Drega, I am tired." Freda said. "I want to see Mama."
I knelt down and kissed her forehead, "We will see your mother soon. Let's get you washed up and then you can go to sleep."
I washed her and I dug out a shirt for her to wear to bed from Eomer's trunk. I added her dirty clothes to the pile by the door that I planned to wash as soon as the sun rose. She fell asleep quickly on a palate I made for her on the floor by the window. I added a few more logs to the fire before I also washed up and laid down in Eomer's bed.
Sleep eluded me. I laid there for a great while staring at the wall watching the glow of the fire slowly diminish down to a weak smolder. I sighed and tried to get up to feed the fire, but something was very very wrong. There was a heavy pressure around my waist. Someone was holding onto me. I panicked when I reached down and traced my fingers over a muscular arm; a male arm.
"What on earth?" I exclaimed loudly. I pulled the arm off of me and fled from the bed. I grabbed my dagger from a table by the fireplace and held it up. "Don't come near me, swine!" I yelled.
I watched the man sit up from the bed. He was only a dark shadow in the dim light. I watched as he drew back the covers and stood up. He reached up his hand to his neck and then stretched out his shoulder. He started to walk toward me.
"Don't take another step? I will not hesitate to kill you! What have you done with Freda?" I said. My heart was racing and I felt fear and rage battle within my blood.
"Freda? What are you talking about, dearest?"
My heart stopped. That voice…..I knew that voice. I lowered the dagger.
"Eomer?" I asked squinting my eyes.
"Who else would it be?" he said he lit a candle and held it up as he approached the fire.
"What are you….." I raised an eyebrow and looked around. We were no longer in his room in Meduseld.
"Did you have another nightmare?" he asked.
"Where are we? What happened?" I asked trying to search my memories for any kind of explanation.
"Happened? Nothing happened. Are you ill?" he asked. He was finally standing by me next to the fireplace. I looked up to meet his eye. My mind was thrusted further in confusion. It was Eomer but he was much older. His face bore many lines eroded from passing time and his hair was grey and thinning. I stared in shocked and I reached up to touch his face as if it were an illusion. He reached out and took my hand and immediately placed it on his cheek.
"Dearest, what's wrong?" he asked staring at me intently. His eyes hadn't changed at all and I felt a fire spark in my soul.
"Where are we?" I asked lowering my hand from his cheek. I walked away from him and looked around the strange room.
"We are at our house." He said. I turned around and stared at him.
"Our house? Why are we not at Meduseld?" I asked. He raised an eyebrow.
"We have not visited Meduseld in many years, my love." He said. I watched his expression change slowly from concern to horror. Was I losing my mind? I hurried out the door of the chamber and walked swiftly down the hall. I reached an equally foreign family room. I looked around and then saw the front door. I ran over and flung it open running into the frigid night air. The sky was clear and the moon was bright and high. I looked at the house. It was no more than a small barn and there were a handful of horses in a wooden pen to the side. The house was in the middle of nowhere. I saw no fire lights on the horizon. Eomer came out of the house and quickly wrapped a blanket around me.
"Dearest! Stop this nonsense!" he said and he tried to pull me back into the house. I shoved him away. In his age he lost his balance and fell back onto his bottom.
"Nonsense? What you do and say is nonsense! You should be the king!" I exclaimed pointing at him. He looked up at me with pain in his eyes and he slowly stood. His bones cracked as he rose and he groaned.
"I had to forsake my title to the throne to marry you, dearest. You were but a maid and Rohhiric law is strict about royal obligations." He said. My eyes widened and I felt tears well up. I screamed out as loud as I could and I reached up grabbing fistfuls of my hair. This wasn't happening!
"Drega! Drega! Wake!"
I opened my eyes and sat up quickly taking in a sharp breath. Freda was sitting next me crying. It took me a few moments to pass the trauma of the dream, or rather, the nightmare.
"You screamed in your sleep. I was frightened." Freda said crying. I reached out and embraced her.
"Shhhhh! Shhhhh! I'm sorry. I had a nightmare. It's alright." I said stroking her hair to calm her. It did not take her long to fall back asleep. I stoked the fire and rekindled it. There was a light knock on the door. I stood up from the fireplace. I grabbed Eomer's cloak that was hanging on the wall by the door and I wrapped it around my shoulders. I opened the door. It was Legolas.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I heard you scream. Is everything alright?" he asked.
"You heard me scream? Was it that loud?" I asked. The last thing I wanted was for all of Meduseld to show up at my door with the same question.
"No, I have more sensitive hearing than Men. That's why I came to investigate in case there was trouble or if you were hurt and needed help." He said.
"I am surprised you bothered after I attacked your friend this past evening." I said crossing my arms.
"While I do not understand the rashness and anger about your actions, I do understand the justification of your privacy. Aragorn also realizes that he was less than well-mannered in his words and I can assure you that he holds no ill-will toward you. He said he would apologize on the morrow."
"He does not have to apologize." I said. "I am sorry if I woke you and I appreciate your concern."
"Very well. Good night, my lady." He said and he nodded at me. He turned to leave.
"Wait!" I said as a realization came to me. Legolas stopped and looked back at me.
"Yes, my lady?" he asked.
"Why do you call me lady? I have no title." I said. The nightmare flashed in my mind.
"I assumed you did. Everyone else was referring to you as a distinguished lady. Does Rohan have a strict law about status? I thought they were pretty lenient about that kind of thing."
"I know not of the matter." I said. "Sorry for making you linger. The nightmare has rendered me wide awake." I said. Legolas smiled.
"It's no trouble at all. If you find yourself awake, perhaps you would like to accompany me to the archery range? I have not the need for a long period of sleep and I use my extra time to practice my skills. Do you have any skills with a bow, my lady" he asked.
"My skills are decent, but..." I was weary about going with him. I have long heard stories of the romantic charms of elvish men and I was afraid that going off with him in the middle of the night might spark rumours that would eventually twist their way into Eomer's ears.
"My lady, I can assure you that your honor and virtue would not be questioned." He said. I widened my eyes in shock.
"Can elves read people thoughts as well?" I asked him.
"No, but we are keen to picking up the littlest details. I saw your reaction when Eomer's name was mentioned in the hall today. The others may not know, but I can tell you hold the Marshall of the Mark in high regard. Besides, your grandmother was a dear friend of my father and my family and so I see you more as a sister than anything." He said.
"I had forgotten you said that you knew my grandmother. Very well. I shall join you. Give me a moment." I said. He nodded and I closed the door. I quickly put on one of the wool dresses Hama had given me over the tan chemise and slipped into my boots. I found an old brooch in a small trunk and used it to fasten his green cloak around my shoulders. I returned to the hall where Legolas was waiting.
"I have no bow or arrows." I said to him as we began walking down the hall.
"That's alright. You are welcome to use mine. Perhaps we can have a little contest and take turns shooting." He said.
"It still comes as a shock to me that you actually met my grandmother. She died long before I or even my brother was born. I know so little about her; only that she was a noble woman and that she was very beautiful." I said. We reached the empty, dark mead hall.
"You had no idea that your grandmother lived with the elves for a time?" he asked. I stopped and looked at him.
"She lived with the elves?" I asked.
"Yes. You were never told the story?" Legolas asked raising an eyebrow.
"No." I said giving him a confused look.
"Perhaps then I should not be the one to tell you. It is a tale of a less than happy ending and ensnares tragedy and grief." He said.
"There is no one left alive in my immediate family to tell me from their own mouths. What tragedy do you speak of? My grandmother married a wealthy nobleman and had two sons and three daughters. My father was the only child that survived. She lived in the house I was born and raised in in the East Emnet. Everyone spoke only of her kindness and beauty." I said.
"Very well. I shall tell you." Legolas said and he sighed. "Let's get to the range first. Fresh air might help ease the mood of the story." He said.
The archery range was behind the barracks of the Edoras guard and next to the stable that was used to house the military horses of the Rohhirum. The stable was mostly bare apart from the horses of the few guards that remained at Meduseld after Eomer was banished. Legolas sat down on the steps that lead down to the courtyard of the range and he began to inspect his bow.
"Your grandmother came from a small village in the north of the Riddermark. When she was sixteen she found herself pregnant with an illegitimate child. She would not reveal the father but I suspected she was a victim of rape. In those days there were a lot more Wildmen who braved the plains of Rohan. Her parents sent her to Rivendell for her confinement, but she miscarried after a few months past. At least that was what she told me, but I never doubted her honesty." He said as he tested the resistance of his bowstring.
"I always thought she was from Edoras." I said sitting down next to him.
"In her despair after losing the child she traveled east and came to my city in Mirkwood where she stayed until she was nearly thirty; twenty six, I believe. Pardon my lack of fact but we elves do not count age for it means so little to us in our long lives. She traveled with me, my father, and our royal party to Edoras many many years ago upon the request of Fengel. Fengel's son, Thengel took a fancy to your grandmother and she stayed behind in Edoras to work as a maid in Meduseld. She returned to Mirkwood within the year after being exiled for having been found romantically with Thengel."
"Thengel? Théoden's father?" I exclaimed.
"Yes, but this was long before Théoden. When Fengel died and Thengel succeeded the throne he recalled your grandmother's exile. She thought he called her back to marry her, but he had already married by that time. He then proposed that your grandmother marry Rendwulf who was a distinguished noble in the East Emnet."
"Rendwulf was my grandfather…." I said barely above a whisper. Legolas finished preparing his bow and he stood up.
"Your grandmother was a strong and great woman. She was intelligent and skilled in both weaponry and charm. She had a burning passion for life, much like you, but all things that burn also destroy. She died shortly after Thengel passed. I was there that day. I saw your father when he was just a boy and I met your grandfather. The eulogy he delivered painted quite a different picture of her. Her spirit had broken and she repressed herself. Rendwulf did not shed a single tear." He stopped and took in a deep breath and the emotions of that day filled his heart. "I think that they loved each other, her and Thengel." He continued, "In my opinion, Thengel was a fool to choose power and wealth over your grandmother. Then again I should bite my own tongue. I loved her as well, perhaps not as romantically as Thengel, but I did care for her. If I had not an obligation to my own royal family I would have married her myself." He said and he pulled out his first arrow to shoot.
I sat in silence and shock. Shocked of finding out my grandmother got a little frisky with Théoden's father back in the day and shocked about how much like I grandmother I really was. The nightmare flashed back into my head. My family lost their title and so, in turn, did I. I was not a noble anymore. I wasn't sure if Eomer was the man for me to marry as of yet, but could he even marry me at all? If these burning emotions and desires I feel for him is in fact love then what hope do I truly have of being his wife. Even if he reciprocated the affection...Even if we loved each other with the purest emotion...Was this any different from my grandmother and Thengel? Would I share the same fate? When does life and free will become suffocated by duty and obligation?
SHHHHHHHHHH THUD
My trance was broken and I looked up. Legolas had hit a perfect bull's-eye. He smiled and walked over handing out his bow.
"It's your turn." He said.