The Wild Westfold

By: Lauthica Green Clinkenbeard

Chapter Twenty-three: From Within the Mists

I sat upon the small boulder watching these two gentlemen with a raised eyebrow nibbling on a chuck of bread. I wasn't happy. Don Vonce insisted that we make frequent stops to allow for Rembaulk to catch up on the road and now he was refusing to travel at night, though the sun was barely setting. I was half tempted to bash each one in the head and drag them the rest of the way, but I do not think Théoden would be amused.

We had stopped to make camp by the same stream I stopped at on my return journey to Edoras. It could not have been more than a month since I returned but so much had happened in those long days it felt like a lifetime. I glanced up and looked at the sky. The first few stars were beginning to twinkle. I was bored and annoyed and could not help but let my mind wander. However, it wandered into the darker corners of my thoughts. The darker corners of my memory really. I remembered what it felt like to feel Eomer's lips against the skin of my neck. I remembered how warm and dewy his flesh was. I remember watching his muscles ripple as he moved on top of me. I remembered the way his chest hair tickled at my bosom. I remembered…

"Are you ill, woman?" Don Vonce asked. "You face looks as if you have taken to a strong fever."

I did not even notice his approach and I felt very embarrassed and angry at the same time. I was greatly enjoying my memories until he spoke.

"I am neither ill nor tired." I said. "We can still cover plenty of distance until it is truly dark. At this rate we will not reach Lord Mekastre for another day, maybe two."

"You speak as if you are in a hurry. Tell me, woman, what is so pressing in your thoughts that would lay whips at your heels and hasten you back to the Golden hall?" he asked.

"I need to return to the service of my king. It is my duty to protect him and lay my life on the line for him." I said feeling my cheeks grow flush again. I was half lying, but someday Eomer would be king.

Don Vonce scowled at me again, "You are unlike any lady I have ever met and I must say that I find it distasteful. You were once quite lovely or would have been quite lovely if not for the scars there on your cheek and just there above the neck of your chemise. You dress now as a commoner woman, but you serve on the court of royalty and proclaim to be a member of the guard. If you were to walk into my city you would be thought of as a poor window, or a washed out whore, yet King Théoden treated you like a member of his own family. You must have secrets in your past in abundance. I cannot even begin to imagine what manner of personality you have."

"And I cannot imagine having to sit here and listen to your words spewing from that whole in your face while the wind whips your fancy clothes around. I think I may call you the butterfly man for outfit certainly makes you look like one." I said sternly. "I have no interest in friending you Gondorian and I do not wish to spend another moment in your company or the company of your beastly companion. Let us simply pass this journey as quickly and quietly as possible and get back to doing our jobs. Do you understand?" I asked.

His eyes widened in shocked. "How dare you! How dare you!" he exclaimed. "I will not stand here and let some ragged woman who lies in hay barns with horse cock in between her legs talk to me this way! I swear, woman, I will…"

"Don Vonce will quiet. Rembaulk sees courage in woman. Don Vonce will leave woman alone." Rembaulk said appearing behind me out of nowhere. I turned around and gave him a funny look. Of all people to take my side!

Don Vonce glared at Rembaulk and then back at me. "Curse you both! I'm going to retire to my tent!" he said and he stormed off to the little canopy he had hung from the tree by the stream. I turned and nodded toward Rembaulk.

"Thank you. It would seem I have judged you too harshly. You are quite kind and chivalrous." I said. He said nothing back only nodding his head and he too headed over by the tree.

I sighed and I jumped down from the boulder. Thenhines was lying down in a patch of soft grass just behind the rock. He whinnied when he saw me and I reached out and ran my fingers in between his ears and down his nose. He licked my hand and I giggled. I unfastened my armor and set it aside. I took off my cloak and laid it down on the ground next to Thenhines. I laid down, scooting until my back made contact with my horse's side.

I closed my eyes inhaling and exhaling deeply. The night was calm, comfortable, and clear. The stars and the sliver of the moon casted just enough light to make me feel as if I was in a homey chamber with a fire.

Until it got brighter…and brighter…and brighter. I opened my eyes at once. Thenhines was gone and the sun was high in the sky. I looked around and realized I was back in Edoras. I was outside, next to the wooden city walls. I stood up and nearly stumbled. My sides and back ached and when I looked down I thought I would feint. My belly was extremely swollen with child.

I gasped and had to lean against the wooden walls. My heart raced in my chest. What happened? Where are Don Vonce and Rembaulk? Where is Eomer? I composed myself as best as I could and headed for the main road until I heard the sound of horns being blown from just beyond the main gate.

Slowly and carefully I climbed the stairs to a lookout tower to see what all the commotion was about. The entire city was gathered just outside the gate near the tombs. The Simbelmyne were in full bloom and the sun made the grass glitter like an emeralds. It was a scene as if taken from an elvish painting.

I saw Aragorn sitting in a regal velvet robe of blue and red with a crown on his head casted to look like eagle's wings. Legolas was standing with a group of his kinsman as well as Lisawe. Both of them were wearing matching, intricate silver headdresses of elvish royalty and leaning in to whisper in each other's ears. I kept looking through the crowd, but I could not see Théoden, Eowyn, or Eomer. The horns blew again and I heard the hooves of a horse approach.

I looked down at the main gate. Eomer sat upon his horse in a slow trot out toward the mass of people. He was wearing his absolute best and most regal clothes and he too bore a crown on his head; the ancient golden horse crown of Rohan.

"Eomer!" I called out feeling my heart begin to race. He glanced up at me and I felt as if my heart came to a stop. His eyes were white and empty and his face was pale and vacant. He had bags under his eyes and there were chains draped over his shoulders making him slouch. This was not my Eomer. He continued on out the gate and into the crowd. He trotted up onto a wooden platform that seemed to appear out of thin air. A woman was standing on the platform. She was small, thin, frail, and beyond lovely. My heart felt like it shattered into a thousand thousand pieces when I realized that the event taking place was a wedding, and the bride standing on the platform was not me.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed. I hurried down the stairs of the lookout only to trip and tumbled to the ground. The lookout vanished and all turned to darkness. Hands with flesh as black as ashes reached out and grabbed a hold of me. The hands grabbed at me and I felt a great pain in my stomach. I smelled blood as I felt the child within me be torn from my womb. I screamed and shut my eyes begging to wake from this terrible nightmare.

"Devil's child…..devil's child….kill it…..kill it….break the whore…break the whore….."

Whispers, eerie whispers all around me as if speaking through the wind and sent chills of ice through my blood. The hands vanished and I started to fall, screaming. I fell through nothingness until I hit the bottom. A slight green glow beckoned me to open my eyes and when I did open them I saw a room of mists. I groaned as I pushed up on my hands trying to stand. When my palms felt the oddly smooth, yet gritty texture beneath them a chill went down my spine. I waved away and bit of the mists and gasped and fell backward sobbing from terror. The walls and floor were made from bones and skulls. I wanted to scream again but my throat felt it was aflame. I had no voice here. This void of death was silent…silent as the grave. I look around watching as the mists swirled and looked almost like the forms of men, no soldiers. My body shook violently as I felt the seams of sanity tear apart within my mind. I curled up and buried my face in my knees rocking back and forth begging to wake up. Wake up!

"If you follow the prince you will find only blood." Came a chilling voice from beyond the mists. I looked up and around desperate to find another person in this terrible room, hopefully a person alive. The voice continued, "If you follow the king you will find only the dead."

Someone stepped from the mists and I saw the empty white eyes. It was Eomer, or at least the same Eomer from the wedding. He stared at me with those deathly white eyes, unexpressive and unblinking. Suddenly his flesh began to melt away from his bones and fell to the floor as ash and dust. I reached out and opened my mouth in a silent scream. All the air in the room of bones vanished and I could not breathe. The mists around me tightened like ropes. I reached up to clutch and claw at my own neck desperate for a breath as I felt my face turning red and my limbs growing numb.

"Follow the prince for Blood…or follow the king for the Dead…the choice is laid before your feet…brave…sad…lady of the Mark." Said the chilling voice again.

"Woman?"

I opened my eyes and gasped desperately trying to suck in air. I groaned out as if in pain and sat up reaching out for anything to hold onto to. Anything solid to make sure it was all really a nightmare. It was only Don Vonce and Rembaulk staring at me with concern. I looked around me and all was as it should have been. Night had truly fallen now and I was still next to the rock beside Thenhines. I was shaking and shivering from cold thought my body was covered in sweat. Don Vonce took off his own billowy cloak and wrapped it around my shoulders.

"What on earth did you have a nightmare about? You were screaming so loudly they probably heard you in Edoras!" he asked as I pulled his cloak around my body tighter. I felt like I was frozen. I could not answer him. I just shook my head no at him. He sighed and bowed his head. "Very well, we will depart at first light. Rembaulk, you will ride with me on my horse." He said and then he leaned in and whispered something but I heard him say it anyway, "This woman is mad and I wish to be rid of her as soon as possible."

I didn't care what he said about me. Perhaps I was mad. No sane and normal person could have come up with a nightmare like that even in the darkest parts of their imagination. "Follow the prince for Blood…or follow the king for the Dead." The words echoed in my head. The prince or the king? Was that supposed to mean Eomer or Théoden? Follow Eomer for blood and follow Théoden for the dead…

It didn't make any sense. Wouldn't Eomer and Théoden be in the same place? I shook my head. Better days were coming. Gandalf is heading for Minas Tirith to help fight off Sauron. That Frodo fellow was on his way to destroy the ring. Peace was coming. With peace comes happiness. I will earn a title. I will marry Eomer. I will defend my country and have everything I ever hoped for…or at least…I hope so. There was a much greater game a foot.