I felt as though I had done the wrong thing, though in many ways what I had told Eowyn had to be said sooner or later. And I was quite sure saying them any later than I did would not have made a bit of difference in her reaction. So perhaps I had done the right after all…hadn't I? For the hundredth time that day I groaned to myself. Kien, my impish half-elven cousin, was the only person I knew who could speak with a lady and leave the conversation, whatever had been said between them, good or bad, and seem to have not hurt any feelings. He had a charm many envied.

The only person who could really compete with that silver tongue was his brother, my other cousin, Tauris, who was so polite and so mannered with his words that one had to take ill news from him as a frank reality. I recalled vividly the day Tauris had broken a plate from being reckless at the young age of what humans considered eight. He had apologized so diplomatically to my aunt he escaped justice, and left those of us who had witnessed his fault open mouthed in wonder.

But diplomacy and charm, though I had some, were not enough in my person to save me from being too frank with Eowyn. If Fali had been there, I could only imagine how she would have stamped her foot, and said something along the lines of 'Look what you've done now, Gideon'., finishing it all off with a glare before racing after Eowyn to comfort her a little.

But I was not Fali, and instead I went back to find Gimli, and asked…deliberately asked…to have lessons with him. As I expected, the axe was heavy, the techniques straining, and Gimli's stories of Gloin relentless. But I felt I deserved it all, down to the last critisim of my practise from him.

"Feet set farther apart."

It was done.

"Keep your head up."

I raised my head again.

"Don't look as though your arms are killing you."

"That is a little harder for me to do." I admitted, between teeth gritted in strain.

"You should be striking fear into the enemy." Gimli encouraged me. "As it is you look as though you may faint."

"Gimli…"

"Feet closer together."

"But you just said to keep them farther apart."

"No I didn't."

"Yes, you-"

He shot me a look. "I am the instructor here, aren't I, lad?"

I shuffled my feet closer together.

Hours later, I was released by him. I was eating a small meal in the kitchens when Eowyn walked by, and I hoped the sight of me, exhausted and hardly able to lift my goblet to my lips because me arms were so numb, may soften her a bit. But she looked away as soon as she noticed I was there. Mahal curse my tongue.

No sooner had Eowyn retreated from the kitchen Merry and Pippin entered it. Once they saw me eating, they took it upon themselves to join me, though they hardly needed an invitation to eat. Merry chatted on about their run-in with the walking trees, the Ents, as they were called. Pippin seemed…quiet. The normally outgoing and lively hobbit was now more reserved and appeared to be distracted.

At one point Pippin seemed to fall into a reverie, I had to repeat his name several times before he snapped out of it.

"Pippin…Pippin…Mister Took…Pippin!" I touched his shoulder and he flinched, startling himself back into reality.

"Yes?" He gazed over at me.

"Is something the matter?" I asked. I had never been as close to Merry and Pippin as Fali had been, but I still felt a sort of responsibility over them in her absence. It only felt right to keep an eye on them until we all met again.

"It's nothing." Was his empty response. I sighed. I couldn't talk to anyone today it seemed.

My own silence was taken for an upset stomach, according to Merry.

It was comforting in a strange way, to have ones misfortune taken only for a simple malady.

I tried to seek out Eowyn again, wanting to explain myself more clearly, but she stayed hidden from me. I searched everywhere, the halls, the training grounds ( I had hoped to find her there, with wishes that a good spar would help her to spend her emotions as it usually did with Fali, but this was also unsuccessful), even the courtyards. But it was clear by midafternoon that she had sought out a private corner of her home.

Just when it seemed I had made it through one trouble, I found it replaced by another.

My fingers crossed over the otter shaped pendant from the lady Galadriel. My emblem since birth. Good fortune. Today the symbol was ironic, and despite myself, the smallest of smiles was on my face when I thought about it.

/

I tossed in my sleep during the night. Memories of women I had upset before. Fali, Vesper, Eowyn now. My mother also ventured into my memories, and I relived bits of my childhood where her notorious temper flared up at me for my wrongdoing. She had rarely lost control of that fire she had in here and directed it at her children, but on occasion we had done things (Fien getting intoxicating for the first time, and the second, Fali missing an entire counsel she had promised to sit through with her to go hunting, and on my own part, feigning an illness to miss lessons one day) where she simply couldn't hold it back. I'm proud to say that apart from Frerin, who was too perfect to be snapped at, I received her chastisements the fewest amount of times.

I was awoken when someone returned to the chamber where we all slept. When my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the room, I discerned that it was Aragorn. "What are you doing?" I asked, my voice still thick with sleep.

"I am going to visit our elven friend." I turned over to glance at Legolas's bed, empty. The elf, as well as Master Gandalf, had a habit of sleeping with his eyes open, giving him the illusion of constantly being awake. The first few nights of the quest it had unsettled Fali and I, but by now I had grown used to it.

"Where have you come from then?" I questioned further.

"Many of us cannot sleep tonight." Aragorn answered. "There is something stirring out there."

"Spies?" I asked. "Scouts?"

"Do not worry yourself." He calmed me. "If the enemy is to move, we will know." He took up his cloak and as he exited finished his answer with "The lady Eowyn cannot sleep either, her dreams interrupt her."

Eowyn. So she was having as much trouble as I was now. The new common ground gave me a bit of hope. "Where is she now?" I asked, getting up from my bed quietly and following Aragorn through the doors.

"Trying to rest, in the Hall." Aragorn said. "You intend to speak with her now? At this hour?"

"It's important." I replied. "I must explain myself."

Aragorn looked at me curiously, but did not press for more details in the matter. Whatever he thought it could be, he seemed to be sure I could handle it on my own, and understood it was between Eowyn and I.

"Good night, Master Gideon." Aragorn said in parting before we went down opposite halls. I nodded, and entered the Hall, where only a handful of braziers were lit, giving it a cavern like appearance. For a moment I could believe the walls were all stone, not wood, as thought it were a chamber back home in the mountain. The Hall was quite empty, but as Aragorn had said, there was a day-bed, where Eowyn had chosen to sleep in the night. It looked as though someone had thrown a blanket over her recently. Aragorn, I realised, had been the doer of the kind gesture. I pondered if I was very welcome in Eowyn's company yet.

All the same, I approached, to find her sleeping, her eyelids fluttering. Whatever she could be thinking of, it was keeping her sleep light. I sat at the edge of the day-bed, unsure of how to wake her, or if I should. I placed a hand on her shoulder, which did not immediately wake her, but after a few short moments of me sitting there like that, her eyes opened, blinking away a dream, and she looked up to me in the briefest of confusion. "Theodred?"

I was now in her place, for all those times her appearance had reminded her of Fali, when my mind was dulled by sleep or other circumstances. "No Eowyn." I said, gently as I could. "It's me, Gideon."

She recognized me then. "My apologies." She cleared the matter quickly.

I did not resemble her cousin in any way, from the glimpse I had gotten of his body being laid to rest, but the room was dim, and her dreams had not left her. 'You've no need to apologize for that." I dismissed it myself. "I've made a similar mistake."

She smiled, weakly, and a silence fell between us. I broke it, awkwardly, unable to do it any other way. "Eowyn I did not mean to upset you today."

"He came in here with this," She touched the edge of the blanket. ", and woke me by accident. I was dreaming of being swallowed up by water."

"That was very kind of him." I nodded.

"It would be easier if he were less kind." Eowyn said.

"It sounds like you have other, more dire, troubles." I said. "Being swallowed by water?"

"I couldn't move." She said. "I told Aragorn as well. He said I should rest while I could, while we still had the time."

"It sounds as though you feel as if the world is ready to swallow you up." I said, hand still on her shoulder. "You've taken a lot of responsibility, you're not used to so much being on your shoulders."

"I feel as though there's nothing I can really do." Eowyn said. "The night of the battle I was set on fighting alongside my uncle. But I was in the caves with the women that night instead."

"You were just as needed there." I reminded her.

"I could hear everything that night. The army approaching, and the thunder, all the fighting, that terrible explosion. I couldn't see what was happening, it was like being in a cage. I thought the world was falling apart, being blown to pieces by fire and metal."

"It felt like the same thing out there."

"It would have been better if I could have least seen it." Eowyn said. "Knowing would have been so much better than waiting, and hoping the doorway didn't get knocked off it's hinges."

It sounds as if you were waiting to be swallowed up and unable to move away, just like your dream, I thought. I patted her shoulder gently, like my mother used to do to me.

"It was so dim," Eowyn went on. ", and it only grew darker as our torches burned out their fuel and the candles melted down. It was hot with so many people, and though everyone tried to be quiet you couldn't escape noise. Crying, breathing, whispers between everyone. It was all dizzying. I just wanted to burst out of the ground and do something besides sit there."

"It sounds like the forge back home." I said, kindly, finding I could be optimistic for Eowyn's sake. "Especially in the summer. It gets swelteringly hot, and your clothes will just stick to you, and the air is too heavy to breath and there's constant noise." I shook my head a little. "I never knew why my brother, Fien, loved it there so much. He was the most dwarvish out of us I think. It was probably in his blood."

"When did you last see your brother?"

"A long time ago, by now." I answered. "Not that I had seen much of him when I was back home. He's married now, and they have a son, still a baby as far as human ages go. I can't blame him for having his hands full. " I glanced around us. "When I entered this room, it felt like I was back in the caverns back home." My gaze returned to Eowyn. "You shouldn't be sleeping here, it won't do you any good. It will only remind you of that long night in the caves. It's probably what is fueling your nightmares." I held out a hand and stood up. "Come, we can find you a nicer place to rest, some place where you can see the sky, with any luck."

She touched the edge of the blanket Aragorn had laid across her again, and caught me looking. "Much like Theodred, I cannot stay mad at you when you're being so good hearted."

"It would be rather unfair to go on disliking me." I joked, lightly.

She sat up, and we were about to go off to find better sleeping quarters for her when there was a noise so sudden it caused us both to jolt. This was followed by yells, which echoed down the halls in a ghostly way. "What is happening?" Eowyn was now at her feet.

"It sounds like it's coming from our chambers." I took off running, with Eowyn quickly following at my heels. "It sounds like their voices."

It sounded as though one of the Fellowship was in pain. And there was another, strange sound, like a storm was rising. There was a great wind, which seemed to be beating against the outside walls, and whipping around from within the building. The closer I got back to the chamber the more I could tell the voices apart. Gandalf, trying to regain some control over whatever was happening in the room, Merry, who sounded concerned, but not in pain, and a gasping sound, which was from the person who was currently in agony.

"I think it may be Pippin." I shouted back at Eowyn. "Otherwise Merry wouldn't be so concerned."

I shoved my shoulder against the door, but it did not give way. "I can't open it!" I shoved against the door again. "Eowyn, help me!" The lady threw herself against the door with just as much force as I had, slamming into it. "Harder." I tried again. "Together." And we threw ourselves to the door in unison. It bent inward from our combined force, but it refused to open.

"What is happening inside?" Aragorn demanded, he and Legolas finally arriving, also in a rush.

"It won't open." I replied.

"Something's not right." Eowyn said. "It's not supposed to be this heavy."

"It must be Pippin." I added, for the benefit of the others. "Once more Eowyn. Join us." I nodded back at Aragorn and Legolas. The four of us pushed against the door, which strained, and finally broke open, causing us all to stumble inside.

Pippin looked to be in the throes of a fit, like in stories I had read of men who went mad. In his hands he grasped a dark orb, which was shaking as though it were alive in some way. The force of the shaking had brought the hobbit to the ground, and yet the orb remained in his hands, though it was causing him such grief. Aragorn pushed past me and Eowyn without ceremony and grabbed the orb from Pippin's hands. The moment the orb was out of his hold, Pippin collapsed. Merry and Eowyn hurried to his side, but he remained in a trance, eyes unblinking, still in shock.

The orb then began to have the same effect on Aragorn, and in the mess of people waking, tending to Pippin and the wind still howling in every corner I made to take it from him. The ranger and heir wouldn't let me, giving out a sharp "Stand back, Gideon." I obeyed the command, with the help of Gimli holding me back by my elbow. Legolas was gripping Aragorn by his shoulders, and finally he managed to let go of the orb, which went black, and rolled harmlessly (or what I thought was harmlessly) over the floor. Gandalf, who knew better than I, threw a cloak over the orb as though it were a burning coal that had rolled out of the hearth.

I wretched my elbow out Gimli's hold. "What were you thinking?" I demanded of Aragorn, who was still on his knees from holding the orb, and rubbing at his hands. "Of all the stupid things you could have done, you decide to-"

"I could ask the same of you." Aragorn mentioned my brief attempt to take the orb from him.

"Well someone had to-"

"Exactly." Aragorn nodded.

I sighed, aggravated. "Of all the stupid things." I muttered under my breath.

"Pippin…?" Merry asked, shaking his friend's shoulder.

Our attention turned to the hobbit, who was still lying on the floor, unmoving.