Hers

There were fields; fields on both sides. The barn was large, but not as large as the house. The house was the focal point of the farm. Gamling initially told me that the house had been cozy and warm and over the years, he on occasion mentioned modifications.

It had a wrap-around porch, with an over-hang. I wanted to stop and stare, to appreciate what she, they had accomplished. But there was-

“Oh Béma! The East Field! My late corn!” She rode to the well, several buckets sitting by the side. She dismounted, dropping the water bucket and began to roll the wheel, lifting it. I did not dismount, watching as she poured water into the two buckets and headed into the field, disappearing into the greenery.

The smoke was smoldering, hiding... much...

“Wudurose!” Staying on my horse, I rode in after her, from my great height, I could see over the stalks, past her, where she was rushing headlong.

Where I could see smoke and corn rows waving more than usual.

“WUDUROSE! STOP!” I rode around her, destroying several stalks, I am sure, heading towards the smoke. As I reached the point, I saw the ground smoking, the beginnings of a fire started. But to the left, moving as swiftly as they could, two orcs were moving off, running together.

I prayed to Béma they wouldn't split up, wouldn't head off in different directions. No sooner than my prayer left my lips, they did just that; one moving to the south, the other to the east. I unsheathed Gúthwinë.

The metal sang as I pulled the sword from its scabbard. I took off after the closest one, catching up with him in under a minute. My stallion, Firestorm, was more blood-thirsty and war-mongering than his sire, and upon smelling orc-flesh in the air, he lowered his head, ready to give my sword room to work and willing to use his armored body as a battering ram. Considering I had another orc to kill, I allowed my equine warrior to mow the orc down, my sword swinging down as the monster fell beneath his hooves. If he wasn't dead, he wasn't going anywhere to be sure, so I could come back and finish him off.

As the orc screamed, I looked up, finding his partner. Sure enough, the beast stopped, looking back in fear and seeing my helmet and tail flying above the corn rows, took off faster towards the river. As I had done with his mate, I allowed Firestorm to chase him, run him down. Under normal circumstances, I would have toyed with the foolish thing, but Wudurose was still behind me, more than likely pouring water over the fire. I quickly put it out of my misery and headed back to the first orc.

I found the first orc, Wudurose standing over his dead body and a sword I recognized as Gamling's stuck through its chest. Gamling's horse stood behind her. I dismounted, not taking my eyes off the orc.

“How?”

“I whistled. Gamling taught me how and trained Byldu to respond to me.” She turned her back and stalked off. “Would you get that? The fire...” her voice died off as she disappeared back into the crop.

Gamling's horse stood perfectly still, looking dispassionately at the orc, dead on the ground. I pulled the sword from its body and wiped its black, thick blood on the fiend's tattered tunic. Replacing it in its sheath, I took the reins of both horses and headed back to the house. Seeing Wudurose running past me with full buckets, I rushed to the well and tying the horses to a tree, I grabbed two empty pails and filled them, joining her.

It took several trips to put the smoldering embers out. I kicked dirt over the campfire – that is what is was, a simple, low campfire. Once we were assured there was no longer a threat, Wudurose took a look around, taking in the damage. She walked through the stalks, taking the first path, and then the second, counting on her fingers. Some stalks, she was able to right, others; I didn't know if she would be able to salvage them or not. I made a mental note to check back through the planting season, make sure there was enough wheat and grain for the people and the livestock.

Make sure there was livestock!

“Well, it could be worse,” she finally admitted. “I'm sure I lost 11 stalks, but-”

“I will make sure yo--- the community will be given what they need, replace what the orcs destroyed.” I went and retrieved Gamling's stallion. “Let's go check your barns and house, and then we'll head out to the fields where you loosed your cattle and start rounding them up.” I smiled. “Come. Tell me about Edric. I want to know everything he was into and what a wretched pain in your arse he was.”

She shook her head and started to laugh. “He was your normal, average, climbing the trees-”

“No.” She looked up at my nose. “He was my son and I missed everything about him.”

“Éomer-”

“I want to know all.” I could see what she was thinking. “He is as much my son as Elfwine is. He's as much my child-”

“I know.”

We checked her barn, going through the loft, thrusting the pitchfork through the hay piles. We went through her home, the one Gamling told me about. The thatched roof was scorched, looked worse than it really was, but it was easily repairable. The home itself was sturdy, and I tried to imagine the loft when a young boy lived there, what I would have done to the space had I been growing up under the eaves.

I saw it when I came down the ladder. “You kept the rug.”

“Yes.” She followed my eyes. “It is still in good shape. Warm on the toes.”

I opened my mouth, but realized what was going to come forth might not be appreciated. I snapped it shut, the question unasked. I was quite certain our son was conceived on that fur. I did not need to know if her daughter was.

I clicked my teeth. There would be time on the ride back to Edoras to ponder on many things. But right now, we needed to find Wudurose and Gamling's livestock and-

“We have another barn; Edric's house-”

“Edric's house?”

Wudurose went through the kitchen, me following, heading out the door in the back. Grabbing her skirts and heading up the incline, she shouted over her shoulder, “It was Gamling's house before we married. Edric moved in a few weeks back.”

In Rohan, there is only one reason for a son to move into his own home. “Edric is getting married? This young?”

She turned, a smile on her face. “Edric has been sweet on Eadwynne since they were young, several seasons to be sure. Her da, however, thinks at sixteen and eighteen summers, she and Edric are too young to make such an important decision. Both are stubborn, so Edric decided to prove to her da that he is a responsible young rider. He earned his first cloak last year, has the responsibility of not only the upper spread until Gamling and I decide to retire this one, but working in the smithy as well. Chances are he'll take over the blacksmith when Tondhere decides to pass it on.”

We came over the rise and in the distance, I could see a barn and beyond it, another barn and a small dwelling. The field was open between one structure to the next and I was reminded of when Elessar told my now father-in-law that Rohan was like a sea of grass.

We spent the next several hours, scouring the countryside, rounding up loose cattle and horses. We came across several Rohirrim, mounted, on the same mission as we were. I sat quietly as Wudurose sent them here, there, round this group to the homestead down close to town on the left, the house with the yellow roses at the door, those taynors go to my homestead, the barn near the larger house...

I sent Éothain and the group with him back to Wudurose's homestead, told him to find the two dead orcs and find a safe place away from the crops and homes and burn them, taking any weapons of use.

Between here and there, and this group of mounted Rohirrim and that one, she told me of my son, her travels to this part of the Riddermark, being tired of riding and the home, the farmland just being... perfect... as if this was where Béma wanted her and the babe to be. She talked about the cold, wet winter, walking the fields, trying to decide what to plant where, she talked about 'nesting' – I knew about that, I watched Lothiriel go through it four times. I thought she was at her most beautiful and it hurt that I had not experienced it with Wudurose.

It hurt that Wudurose went through all of it alone.

And not telling me. Thinking I did not need to know. Or maybe thinking I did not want to know.

“Edric knows?”

“Aye.”

“Your queen? She knows?”

Funny. She refused to call Lothiriel by name. But for years, I refused to call Wudurose by name. I was afraid to.

“Aye.”

We ambled, searching the fields for several minutes.

“How did she take the news?”

“What news?”

“Éomer!”

I had to laugh at her exasperation. “I'm not quite sure how she took the news.”

“Somehow, I do not believe that.”

I decided to tell her the truth. “She wanted to know if I was sending you enough food. We watched your son eat enough food for three people in a matter of moments. She threatened to take the shoes from my horse if I had forced Gamling to marry you. She's fond of Gamling, you know.” I was staring straight ahead, trying to keep a straight face. “If I were you, I would be quite worried the queen would run off with your husband if I ever made her angry.”

“You are a liar.”

I tilted my head. “Terrible thing to call your king.”

She burst out laughing, which I quickly joined in. We rode along and eventually turned back towards the town. “The horse Gamling gave him some years back-”

“The stallion he broke?” Part of a young Rohirrim's training was breaking his first horse.

She snarled. “A year after Gamling and I married, Gamling brought Edric a half-grown colt, one that was head-strong and so ill-tempered, at least to everyone else, that I told him to return it back to where ever in Mordor it came from. Gamling stared at me as if I had grown a second head and Edric pitched such a fit, that I told him if the beast injured him not to come to me to patch him up. After nipping and biting anyone else who attempted to help Edric break him, he was docile and gentle with Edric, followed him around like a lovesick girl. As a result, Edric is the only one who could ride him.”

“When Edric returns with Elfhelm and his men, I will tell him about the origins of his stallion.” The town came into view and he winked at me. “There is a very special story behind him.”

“Gamling didn't acquire the horse, did he?”

“No. He was a gift.”

“You just gave him a horse, just to give him a horse.”

“No.” I waved at the sentry. “I gave him a gift a father would give to a son. I gave him a gift Éorl would have given his heirs.”

“What gift is that?”

“A colt descended from the Maeras.”