Happy New Year everyone!

2023 was one of the hardest years of my life but I made it. I heard views were slowly coming back so thought I'd update. With all the issues with fanfiction and emails I missed a tonne of reviews last year. Please DM me if you have an account and you wish to ask/tell me something about my stories. I feel awful about missing all the reviews, so please reach out to me if you can.

Hope 2024 is amazing for you.

Lots of love,
LSH xxx

A Wild Heart – Part 15:

Éomer sat outside the Mead Hall deep in thought, wondering just how he'd missed the signs with Éowara. He'd known that their sister had been more affected by the events of their childhood but he hadn't realised just how much until Aragorn's revelations. He sighed as he thought about Éowara and how everyone had tried to shield her from the horrors of everything but they had succeeded but also that she had been more affected by things than they'd ever known.

His thoughts were disturbed when he looked and saw his younger sister sitting down next to him.

"Éowara?" he asked.

"Sat with our cousin," Éowyn spoke, "are you angry with me for hiding the truth about our sister from you?"

"I am not. There would not have been much that I could have done from Edoras without seeing her for myself," Éomer spoke as he took his sister's hand in his, "I will take her out for a ride tomorrow alone and speak to her and learn what she went through in Cardolan and with Boromir."

"She loved him," Éowyn spoke as she looked at her brother, "she loved… loves… him like I love Faramir and Aragorn and Arwen love each other. I had no idea that she had fallen in love with him. It was Faramir who saw it first. He is grieving for his brother and she lost her fiancé. I did not know. The ring she wears is the one that matches mine. Faramir and Boromir agreed to give their mother's rings to the women they were going to marry. I wear the one of Faramir's and our sister wears the one from Boromir. That was when I learnt that Gondor and Rohan would have been joined in more than one way."

"I feel like we failed her," Éomer spoke as he looked down at the ground, "I feel like I failed to protect her. She learnt a lot about being a shield-maiden, as did you, but she… seems to be more affected by everything than we were," he said.

"Nobody has failed anyone Éomer. If anything she's lost more than we did as children," Éowyn spoke, "we remember our parents and she does not. She was too young and unable to understand what was happening. She grew up in Edoras, same as us but she was a child and we used that as an excuse for keeping her out of lessons. Uncle doted on her the most then myself and you were another son to him. I had lessons as did you… Éowara was taught differently and I believe that mistakes were made with her, mistakes that may have influenced events now but she is still so like me but more rebellious."

"You are so alike each other and I still see that now when looking at you both as I have done so much tonight," Éomer spoke, "you two could almost be mistaken for twin sisters if one did not know you are the older of the two."

Éowyn smiled softly as she heard her brother's words,

"We both know that I raised her with Uncle and Théodred," Éowyn pointed out as she looked at Éomer, "what is done is done but we do need to aid her now. We are hoping that her work in the North will steady her and help her in some way."

"Aragorn is going to speak to the Halflings to try and get permission for our sister to enter the Shire," Éomer said, "but she is not to know that in case it is not permitted…"

"I will not say anything to Éowara. The last wish I want is to get her hopes up about this and then have it destroyed," Éowyn spoke before turning.

The door to the Mead Hall opened and Aragorn soon sat down on the other side of Éowyn.

"I know what you have been speaking about and I think we all hope to make her wish happen. It might be the thing she needs as well. I will speak to Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin whilst we are in Evendim and I will be seeking out the Appleblossoms as well," Aragorn spoke before noticing Éomer's confused look, "her Halfilng friends she met during the War of the Ring. They became friends and they might be able to assist us as well," he spoke.

"I could not have done much to help from Edoras and, yet, I do feel that I should have been more firm with her staying here with me," Éomer spoke, "I am the oldest and Éowara was meant to be my responsibility."

"Éowara's home is something no one knows where it will be. I do think she will never find someone to love," Éowyn spoke, "Gondor and Rohan both give her space to run around and be free but I feel that Middle Earth as a whole is her home. She loves Gondor and Rohan but yearns for the Shire. Could that become her home if she is allowed?"

"I do not think that will be where she makes her home," Aragorn spoke, "her true home is Rohan and Gondor but I fear Rohan has horrors, which are no one's fault, which make it likely that Gondor will become her home. It's where Boromir grew up and lived. I think Gondor will be where she makes her home. She will travel between Ithilien and Minas Tirith I feel."

"How do you know this?" Éomer asked, "Queen Arwen?"

"Arwen can see deep into her mind and knows the heart of Éowara. Yes you are her brother and sister but, in some ways, you two are people she wants to try and protect," Aragorn spoke, "Éomer you're now the King of Rohan and that would have been your father if he'd survived. Éowara must be wondering what her father would been like as a King. Éowyn you are married to Boromir's brother and I think that helps in a way. It could also explain why the two have some sort of connection. They are opposites but grieve together in a way that you two cannot understand as you were not family or his fiancée," he explained before the two nodded.

"I will take her out alone tomorrow after we arrive in Edoras but I wish to be kept informed of my sister from this moment forward," Éomer spoke before Éothain opened the door and said that Éowara had fallen asleep.

Éomer rose first and re-entered the Mead Hall and soon was carrying his sister to their, now repaired, childhood room and laid her down in her bed before sitting down in a chair to watch his sister, wondering what she would reveal during their ride alone.