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The Third Age of Middle Earth; Gondor at the City of Minas Tirith, in the House of Healing... two weeks after the defeat of Sauron...

The girl awoke with a start and sat bolt upright in the bed, evoking a painful wince. She began to cry, but not from the pain of a still-healing wound; but from the same nightmare that had plagued her for several days.

'There, there, child,” the kind woman said as she hurried to the girl’s side.

“It will get better…you’ll see.” Giluen caressed the girl’s left cheek. The girl winced only a bit from the affection; feeling less unworthy than from previous days.

“I…want to believe. Momma says I should, so that’s that, right?” The girl could no more convince her new friend than herself. Of course, it was hard; especially with the nightmares. Her mother was many miles away, finally dealing with her loss along with her sister.

“You can ask for me whatever and whenever…you know that, right?" Giluen said.

Giluen used her arm in a broad gesture to indicate the many empty beds in the House of Healing. Thanks to the diligence and care of many souls, nearly all of the wounded recovered. Those who had not yet recovered were still progressing in being on the mend. Giluen winced at her own words; casting her gaze on the one empty bed that held a special if bittersweet meaning for her.

“Wh…why are the dreams so real…Why can’t I forget?” The girl shook her head; trying to resist the daily grief that beset her. Giluen grabbed her right hand.

“I think sometimes that the bright shores we have heard so much about struggle to be seen past the clouds that often surround us here.” Giluen bit her lip, searching for a word to comfort the girl. Those bright shores had visited the girl in a way.

“I…I know…” The girl cast her gaze down at her lap. The ‘blessing’ for which she had prayed was hard to embrace since the unworthiness she felt came back night after night.

“He…he said we would talk. Momma said he had much to tell me…But he was taken. Why was he taken from us, Giluen? Why did my Poppa have to die?”

Giluen was tempted to answer the girl’s question, but just patted her hand and offered a warm smile.

“I know what Momma says," the girl continued.

"But I will never really know how Poppa would see me now. Will he hate the son who no longer lives? Will he hate the daughter more; the one who now lives in his son’s place?” Even in that moment, it felt like her father was judging her; it was all too much for the girl and she collapsed in Giluen’s arms as she sobbed.

Fate, such as it is perceived, might be seen as having plans. But between the heart of Elbereth and the kind souls who had been gathered near, the girl would learn about the peace of the moments stretched on the road before her and beyond. Because three of those souls knew how painful and inevitable the truth any be in revealing the healing beyond the moment.

A little more than a week before…

The woman was in pain, but the moment was also filled with a bit of relief. If only she could find him. The fighting around here had almost immediately waned after two figures dispatched her attacker. She vaguely recalled the man; her vision blurred by sweat mixed with blood.

“You already have.” No condemnation for being at the wrong place at the right time. And acknowledged not for what she accomplished but rather for finally being seen as who she was.

The present; again in the House of Healing…

With a sigh
You turn away
With a deepening heart
No more words to say
You will find
That the world has changed
Forever

“She’s still having those nightmares, My Lady,” Giluen said as Eowyn walked up to the girl’s bed.

“Yes… I’ve been barely able to soothe her sadness even as her physical pain is waning quickly. She…she feels unworthy.

“I know that pain, dear woman. I know it all too well. But…” Eowyn thought back at her own acceptance and recalled that she knew even before the King had uttered a single word. She knelt down at the girl’s side and grasped her hand over Giluen’s.

And the trees are now
Turning from green to gold
And the sun is now fading
I wish I could hold you
Closer

“Dear sweet girl… Think not only of the words. Though they be vital, they still are echos. We cannot redeem the past through what words we only know, but we can recall what we know by what we remember of what we saw in the one who spoke.” It almost seemed like a riddle until Giluen added.

“When my precious Erruanna passed, she smiled at me. Not just the smile of one who is confident in her own deliverance, but one who still wanted me to be alright. For my sake.”

Eowyn looked at Giluen and nodded. She turned back to the girl and spoke.

“Remember what your father said; but with an eye to recall his face. How did your father look at you?”

The girl shook her head in a near dread over what she would see.

“I know it is fearful for what you might remember. But recall the man he was; the father who was tasked with a very huge burden in difficult times. In the midst of war and the gathering of everyone to safety, you told me he stopped without getting off his horse.

In the midst of all those things pulling at him, he stopped and looked at you and spoke but a few words. Close your eyes.” Eowyn looked up at Giluen as if to ask without words for assistance. Giluen nodded and spoke.

“Remember all the other moments of kindness he offered even as he seemed stern. Remember and close your eyes. Look at his face as he utters the words. It will be alright. I promise.” Giluen could not promise anything but for the trust in the moment orchestrated perhaps by Elbereth herself.

Eowyn smiled at her and squeezed the girl’s hand and spoke at last.

“Go ahead…remember his face and his words and who you are.” The girl shook her head at first, but slowly closed her eyes.

“We will talk of this later,” Háma said as he gazed at his son; with a smile unlike any that Haleth had ever beheld. A freeing smile that seemed to speak of acceptance even if it was mixed with confusion and without understanding why. A loving father’s smile.

She opened her eyes and recalled the necklace with the star-like jewel that adorned her neck; passed down from her father’s mother. It was that necklace Háma had given to his wife Elwyn for the right time. Her father did not know why but he trusted Elbereth would.

“He…he… he loved me.” The girl who had begun her life as the son of Háma.” She leaned into Eowyn and sobbed, but the tears were of relief and increasing joy.

And off to the side, not far from the three stood a young man…barely out of boyhood. He cast his gaze down at himself and drank in the moment as tears fell from his face….her face.

Not long after, the girl was up and walking in the gardens with Lady Eowyn and Lord Faramir of Minas Tirith. As much as she had begun to relax, seeing the woman who had become her best friend being gently pulled by the call of love urged the girl into a longing of her own.

“I must say, dear girl, that you really need to think of a name for yourself. It would hardly do for me to introduce you to a young man as ‘girl.’

She looked at Lady Eowyn and Lord Faramir with a near dread; being alarmed at the possibility of getting exactly what she wanted.

“A young man in the service of the city; Anduril he is. He has been asking me if he might call on you as you continue your recovery. I told him that is not up to me.” Faramir smiled and continued.

“Since you owe your allegiance first to Rohan and while Lord King Eomer has returned to Edoras, it falls to my Lady here to grant the young man's request. I. for my part, believe it to be a good idea.”

“As do I, My Lord…As do I.” Eowyn said with a soft laugh.

“But I shall grant his request only if you decide upon a name for yourself.” Eowyn said, causing the girl’; eyes to widen a bit until Eowyn finished.

“And of course only if you give the word. It’s all new you…to me as well, but I now know what I want and need.” She squeezed Faramir’s hand.

“When you so choose or choose not. It is your life to live as you see fit.’ She smiled at the girl and finished.

“In your time or not at all, dear girl.”

A week later… Eowyn and the girl were again walking in the garden...

“I…If I muh…may? Ca..Can I?”

“Your admirer is glad you are taking the time you need. He only wishes to talk. He sends his word with but one message. “

“’Say to her that Anduril of Gondor hopes and prays that what he reveals to the maiden of Rohan will be understood. That she alone might understand her humble servant. If she says no, I will still be happy merely to have beheld her’”

The girl nodded slowly.

“Puh…please tell the young man I accept.”

A few days later in a quiet area of the now calm House of Healing…

“I am glad to make your acquaintance. I am a simple…girl of Rohan. Please say what you must before we proceed.” Anduril’s eyes widened in surprise at the girl's words and more than just a little apprehension.

“I…I was brought to the House of Healing with but a scratch.” He bared his arm and displayed a long thin red scar; healing nicely but hardly a scratch.

“I helped bear your litter off the field of battle. YOU! “ At Anduril’s words, the girl started to shake. Her tremors subsided quickly, but tears began to fall from her face when the young man finished.

“A Rider of Rohan recognized you… I’m sorry for your weeping, Haleth of Edoras. The son of the Warden of the Door as you were described.” The young man was almost expressionless even as the girl put her hands to her face in shame.

“Weep not in shame, gentle soul.. For I know how you feel.” Anduril pulled back the shirt he wore to reveal two budding breasts. His face…her face reddened with only a bit of dread until she reached over and grabbed both of the girl’s hands.

“Like your Lady Eowyn, I too was unwilling to stay behind. I stole into the city armory and garbed myself in helm and mail” Anduril like the sword that was reborn; the girl became a boy for the sake of her people. Nauriel – the Daughter of Flame became the Flame of the West, if only for a little while.

“I choose to remain who and what I am, but henceforth, unlike your Lady, I also choose to be as I appear now.” She gasped in fear, crying almost as much as the girl from Rohan.

“And… I choose only to remain as I have finally become on the outside as I have always been inside.” The girl said slowly.

The two looked at each other with caution mixed with small but burgeoning trust. Nauriel spoke first.

“May…May I choose you, my lady?”

“Only if I may choose you,” the girl said in return.

Nauriel nodded and spoke not but instead drew the girl into the first of many, many kisses.

“Only one last question. What shall I call you?” she asked. The girl smile through happy tears and said at last,

“When I know so shall you!”

Some time later...

I cannot imagine a more circuitous route to your destiny, but it is a fine destiny." She smiled and the reflection in the mirror displayed two happy women; both young and free and finally content. One had only begun to want what she always had while the other was at last able to have what she always wanted.

"Have you finally chosen a name," the Lady teased.

"Your mother shared the same name as my grandmother," the girl said.

"Théodwyn?" The Lady's hand went to her mouth as she gasped in happy surprise.

"It is a good name?" The younger woman asked with a smile. The Lady…Lady Eowyn of Rohan…wiped her tears from her face with her sleeve; not at all Lady-like but just like herself, so to speak, as she smiled back.

"It is a good name."

And so it happened that on the fifth day of the fifth month in the year three thousand and nineteen of the Third Age that Elwyn and her daughter Aerleen wept for Háma, loving husband and father. And they wept for the loss of Haleth, son and brother, who showed his quality in his death.

And exactly one year to the day, Théodwyn, daughter of Háma and Elwyn stood in witness and kinship to the Lady Eowyn of Rohan as she wed Faramir of Gondor. There was much rejoicing throughout both Gondor and Rohan as joy ruled the heart of the Shield Maiden who finally realized a long-sought contentment and peace.

And Théodwyn found peace and happiness with Nauriel, the love of her life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMiuFpk-_gI

*The Epilogue is an adapted excerpt from this author's Like a
Wind in the Meadow. All scenes from The House of Healing are adapted from portions of Tolkien's Return of the King and are imagined in this author's Into the West.

Giluren is translated from Tolkien's invented Elven language, Quenya, and means Pale Star
.
Erruanna is loosely interpreted from the Quenya and means One of Grace.

Anduril is translated from Tolkien's invented Elven language, Sindarin and means Flame of the West

Nauriel is translated from Sindarin and means Daughter of Flame

Théodwyn, the chosen name of the girl who had been Haleth, is also both the name of Eowyn's mother and also the mother of Elwyn. Théodwyn means Joy of the People in Old English.

Aerleen means Elfin from the Anglo-Saxon.

All original characters of the Lord of the Rings trilogy were invented by the author, J. R. R. Tolkien.

Music expanded from Howard Shore' s House of Healing from the Motion Picture, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. With a Sigh (Arwen's Song) sung by Liv Tyler; words and music by Fran Walsh and Howard Shore/