Title: Brother in Arms
Author: Rowan aka Sue DeNimme
Summary: Just before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Éowyn thinks of Merry.
Disclaimer: No copyrights were harmed in the making of this fanfic.
Note: Lbilover requested this as her prize for winning my weekly trivia contest on LJ. It was supposed to be a drabble, but stubbornly refused to be reduced to just 100 words, so here it is: a drouble.

~

With steel in our hands and dread in our hearts, together we ride to our fate on the fields of Gondor. How strange, then, that I find my spirit lightened by the holbytlan who shares my saddle.

Last night, he confessed to me that he and two others left his land in hopes of protecting a kinsman that they love, who he says was given a perilous errand that he cannot speak of. Now his kin and friends have gone down different paths, far beyond any help or comfort he can give them. Yet he rides in hope still to aid them in whatever small way he can, even if none of them ever live to know it.

I think of him, this small one whom none would believe has any place on a battlefield -- no more than would I -- but goes to war nonetheless, following where his heart leads him, because he must.

I think of myself, how I forsook my oath to my uncle and king, and am now deceiving my brother and countrymen, looking for death and glory, because a man would not tell me what I wished to hear.

And I wonder, which of us is the truer warrior?

I will not fail you, Merry of the Shire.

~end~