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A New Problem	By : Nathalia Category: Lord of the Rings Movies > Het - Male/Female Views: 2789 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Lord of the Rings book series and movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Disclaimer: I don�t own Lord of the Rings. They all
belong to Tolkien

Summary: See previous Chapters
A/N � This chapter will be
seen from several different perspectives. Also, there will be some foul
language.

Chapter Nine

~~~~~Eowyn�s Point Of View~~~~

We are riding through Fangorn Forest.

�We� consists of myself, my
Uncle King Th�oden of Rohan, my brother Eomer, my new and very dear friend
Natasha, her cousin Bella and the Fellowship of the Ring, which currently
consists Gandalf the White, Boromir of Gondor, Aragorn � a ranger of the north
�, Legolas the elf, and Gimli the Dwarf. From what I hear, we are on our way to
find two other members of the Fellowship, Merry and Pippin.

Natasha and I ride side by
side, taking turns riding with four-year-old Bella.

Bella is currently sitting in
front of me while Natasha talks with Boromir about something. I glance over my
shoulder and let out an exasperated sigh. My idiot brother is staring at
Natasha again.

He has been acting like this
ever since they met after the battle of Helm�s Deep, although lately he has
been throwing in the odd glare in Boromir�s direction. Boromir seems to be the
Fellowship member Natasha spends the most time with.

To his credit, Eomer has not
been gazing at my friend with a star-struck expression like just about every
other unattached male in Rohan. Instead, he looks at her with a mix of
curiosity and fascination, as if he has never seen anything like her before and
does not know whether to approach or flee.

I allow my horse to slow
down, coming alongside my brother�s. It takes a rather solid poke, but I get
his attention.

I give him a cool look. �What
are you thinking, Brother-mine? And do not try to pass it off as �nothing�.�

To his credit, Eomer does not
bother to deny this. �Your friend is a mystery, Eowyn. A very complex mystery I
am trying to unravel. I see that you have taught her to handle a sword, yet she
seems so gentle with children. She intrigues me, but I know little more than
her name.�

I give a slight nod of my
head. At least he is honest about it. He was not getting off the hook (a phrase
Natasha is fond of) that easily, however. �Just be aware. This is the first
friend I have had in a long time. Hurt her and I will make you regret the hour
you first saw daylight.� That was another of Natasha�s quotes, which she tells
me appeared frequently when dealing with her sisters.

~~~~Eomer�s Point Of View~~~~

I acknowledge my sister�s
threat. She and Natasha are obviously close and seem to be very good for each
other. I cannot recall the last time I saw my sister so happy.

Ahead, the object of my
thoughts is laughing at whatever the son of Gondor�s Steward has just said. I
glare at him. She has a very nice laugh, but, irrationally, I want to be the
one to cause it.

As I told my sister, I know
little of Natasha aside from her name. I know that she is nearly nineteen, with
an identical twin and a younger sister. She is the eldest of three girls and
works taking care of children. She is from a far away land and while she seems
happy enough here, I know she misses her home. She seems to be full of life and
joy, but there is sorrow in her past. For some reason, I wish to know that
sorrow and help to ease it.

She is intriguing, and I want
to know more of her. I want to banish the sorrow in her, see the way her eyes light
up on the rare occasion that she does laugh. I want to stand by her side, even
if only as a friend, and curse that I find it so hard to talk to women.
But Natasha is so unlike the
women of the Riddermark, and seems able to hold an intelligent conversation,
perhaps she will be easier to speak with, and certainly worth trying.

Isenguard comes into sight.
It is absolutely flooded and there are four figures at the gates. Two appear as
children while the other two seem almost grown women. Interesting.
I had thought we went to find the two hobbits, nothing was said of these two
young women.

~~~~Boromir�s Point Of View~~~~

I watch as Natasha laughs at
my attempt to assure her that my injuries are fine. I will admit that it is
becoming something of a game, much like Legolas and Gimli trading insults. She
has come a long way from the scared maiden we met near Lothlorien. Since that
meeting and the present time, she has quickly become a confident young woman,
mature beyond her years.

Farther back along the trail,
I can feel Eomer of Rohan glaring at my back. He has been doing so ever since
Natasha and I began to ride near each other when we set out and, frankly, it is
starting to get annoying. It is not my fault that he is smitten with her. Nor
am I to blame that Natasha is convinced that I am down-playing my injuries. She
is far too perceptive.

I do not think that I will
ever marry, and my initial exposure to three active children has made me
seriously consider leaving the line of succession up to Faramir. People find a
friendship between a man and a woman to be unusual, but I am glad to call
Natasha that. Truly, I begin to think of her as a younger sister, to be loved
and protected, regardless of whether or not she wants or even needs the
protection.

Lady Eowyn rides up beside
us, handing over an exited four year old. Natasha smiles at her; the two of
them became fast friends in a very short time. Eowyn flicks her eyes back the
way we came, looking amused. Natasha turns to see what is so funny and catches
Eomer�s gaze, smiling at him.

The nephew of King Th�oden
returns it, and then looks past her to the gates of Isenguard. Natasha follows
his gaze then freezes, taking on the appearance of a marble statue.

~~~~Natasha�s Point Of View~~~~

Oh, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

This cannot be happening.

If Bella had not been less
than a meter away, I would have turned the air blue with curses. As it is, if I ever find out who is responsible for my two sisters
appearing out of nowhere�

Having to look after Bella
and myself in a strange land was bad enough. Now I also had my twin and younger
sister to look out for. Alice
will only go camping or bush walking if there is no way to avoid it, not to
mention she is almost incapable of maintaining a civil attitude to strangers.
If that were not bad enough, I would have to keep her and Sarah from each
other�s throats as well.

OK, finished with the mental
rant.

The others of our party were
dismounting and coming to see what was with the unexpected arrivals. I handed
Bella down to the nearest person, who happened to be Aragorn, and managed to
dismount without falling flat on my face, a step forward from all the other
times I had ridden a horse. Alice and Sarah came running toward me as I took
Bella back from Aragorn, ignoring the relieved expression on his face.

I will admit that the kid can
be a handful, but if he and his Elven sweetheart ever get married, he needs all
the practice he can get.

Both of my sisters grabbed me
in a hug, cutting off my air supply, and then both started talking at once,
making it impossible to understand whatever they were saying. I held up a hand,
getting them to quiet down slightly. I pulled them away from the main group,
leaving Gandalf, Aragorn, Th�oden and Gimli to talk to Treebeard and the
Hobbits.

Alice instantly started up again. �Where did you go? Mum is
in a panic, the whole family is in an uproar and Dad even came back from America when all this happened! Not that he is likely to stay
for very long, though. He is too obsessed with his girlfriend for that. Who are
all these people and what is with the dark haired man. He looks like he hasn�t
had a wash in years!�

I took a deep breath.
�Unbelievable as it seems, we are in Middle-Earth. Look around and you should
be able to recognize most of them. The dark haired one is Aragorn, he looks a
mess because we just finished the Battle of Helm�s Deep and because the
Dunadain have a scruff factor built into their genetic make-up. Also, could we
please not turn this into a rant about Dad and Pat?�

Alice scowled but let it lie. Then Sarah spoke up. �But who
is the little girl, I don�t recognize her?�

I sighed, �The little girl is
Bella, one of the kids in the centre. I think I told you about her before.�

Alice smirked, �The one who asked if you were married and
pregnant just because you were a teacher?�

I chose to ignore the burst
of laughter from where the rest of the group was trying to look as though they
were not eavesdropping. I glared at Alice, �Yes, that one, and don�t you start.�

Sarah started up again. �I�m
glad we found you again. I don�t know how much longer I could have managed with
only Alice to talk to.�

I closed my eyes. Had my
sister ever even heard of tact? Now they were going to start arguing again.

Sure
enough� �Thanks a lot. That makes
me feel just great!�
�Well it is true. I like
talking to Natasha better than you!�

I doubted that I would be
able to stay out of this one, but there was no harm in trying. I wandered back
to the rest of the group and started to explain who my sisters were and what
was going on.

I was about half way through
when Sarah and Alice, who had finally managed to drag me into the middle of the
argument, interrupted us.
�Natasha, you agree with me,
right?�
I tried to head that off. �I
do not have the faintest idea what you are talking about and furthermore, I
plan to stay out of this argument.�

I failed and they were off
again.
Sarah: �But you�re my twin!
You should agree with me!�
Alice: �She just said that she had no idea what we were
talking about, idiot! But that isn�t fair! She always takes your side just
because you are her twin! Besides, why didn�t she try to come
back home?�
And so on and so on.

They continued like this for
a while, until I finally blew up at them.

�Will the both of you think
about someone else for once in your bloody lives? I don�t even know what you
are arguing about and I do not always take Sarah�s side! Her comment was
uncalled for and I was taking Alice�s side on that. If you wish that to change by all
means keep fighting! I am not the fucking be all and end all and I am sick of
you both treating me like I am! Do either of you ever think about how Mum and I
feel when you tell us to choose between you?�

I paused for breath and continued.
�I have spent almost two months here in an environment where everything is
strange to me, I had no way of knowing if I would ever get home and I had to
take care of two four- and a three-year-old by myself! I had a chance to return
but I stayed because only two of us could return and the price of Gretal and
Collum returning was that I would stay here for a while longer! You think I
didn�t want to go home? I had no way of getting in contact with my friends, my
family or anyone to tell them I was even alive! As to your supposed inability
to be civil to one another; I managed for nearly fifteen years, surely you
could have managed a few months! You have no idea what has happened to me
recently and until you do, I would prefer that you keep your comments to
yourself!�

Patience is a necessity when
working with children and I tend to have a very long fuse when it comes to
temper. I take after Mum in that. Sarah and Alice both got Dad�s much shorter
one.

The downside of that,
however, is that a laid-back attitude only makes the explosion that much more
spectacular when I do lose my temper. This was just too much to handle right
now.

I burst into tears, spun on
my heel and ran off into the trees.

~~~~Th�oden�s Point Of View~~~~

Mithrandir, Aragorn, the two Halflings,
the Elf, the Dwarf and I finished our conversation with Treebeard and turned
back to the others just in time to see the normally quiet Natasha start
shouting at the two strangely clad women.

From what Merry and Pippin
had said, they were related to Natasha and had not stopped bickering since they
appeared. Indeed, I had heard them start up again as we spoke with the Ent. If they were always like this at home, it was no wonder
Natasha was so quiet and even-tempered. As she was the eldest, she was probably
required to mediate some of the time.

Now, however, their arguing �
combined with the strain everyone had been under lately � seemed to have driven
her too far.

Even as we watched, Natasha
turned and ran into the surrounding forest, tears falling down her face.
The rest of us stood there,
staring in open-mouthed shock. Her blonde sister was the first to recover,
shouting after her, �You�ll get lost and won�t be able to find your way back!�

Natasha�s voice floated back
to us, �Good! Maybe then I you might find a way to solve your own problems
without dragging me into the middle of it!�

That managed to shut everyone
up.

I hoped that she was not being
literal, as I did not want my niece and nephew running all over Middle-Earth
after this woman. I mean, I am glad that Eowyn seems to have found a friend and
that Eomer is finally taking a substantial interest in the fairer gender, but I
wanted my niece and nephew where I had a fair idea of where they were when I
needed them.

Eowyn and the little girl,
Bella, recovered next, glaring at the two of them and starting after her. Eomer
and Gimli followed them, leaving behind two very subdued young women.

~~~~Gimli�s Point Of View~~~~

I would never have expected
that out of Natasha. Her outburst was almost worthy of a Dwarf woman, and that
is saying a great deal.

We finally found her curled
up at the base of a Willow tree. There was nothing left of the carefree maiden
she sometimes allowed herself to become in Lothlorien, no trace of the strong
woman who had managed whatever Middle-Earth had thrown at her with an enviable
calm. The figure who hid her face in her arms was a scared, lonely child who
yearned for the comfort of something, anything, familiar, only to have those
two somethings fight and place her in the middle.

Eomer and I exchanged uneasy
glances. We had no experience dealing with upset females. Bella and Eowyn,
however, moved toward her, Bella wriggling her way into Natasha�s lap and Eowyn
putting her arms around the both of them. Eomer braced himself as though he was
about to put his hand into fire then sat down on Natasha�s other side,
carefully placing an arm around her shoulders. I seated myself near them as we
waited for her to calm down. I was brought back to the present by Eowyn asking,
�Are they always like that?�

Natasha nodded her head, belatedly
trying to scrub away her tears, �Most of the time, yes.�

Eomer offered her the corner
of his cloak, commenting, �Then it is a wonder that you have such a sweet
nature in comparison. I have seen how gentle you are with children and if it
were not for the similar appearance I would hardly think you related. Managing
that for fourteen years tells of a strength I do not have.� He paused. �Though
I thought your younger sister was sixteen.�

Natasha dried her eyes and
gave him a watery smile. �Thank you, that helps. Alice is sixteen, but she had to learn to talk before they
could start arguing.�

Eowyn shifted into a more
comfortable position. �What do you suppose is happening back with the others?�

Natasha gave a wicked little
smirk, �My sisters are getting lectured by everyone else. Sarah is slightly
indignant about being told off by a tree.� At our confused expressions, she
elaborated. �Identical twins share a sort of bond. It is nothing specific, but
I can sometimes get a general idea of what is happening to her and what Sarah
is feeling.�

Bella put her arms around
Natasha�s neck and said something into her shoulder. Whatever she said, it did
cheer Natasha up slightly. She rose, went over to a nearby stream, washed her
face, then came back and lifted Bella into her arms.

We started walking back to Isenguard.

I hoped the journey back to
Helm�s Deep was not as eventful.

A/N: So next chapter up. Reviews,
anyone?
Thanks.
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A New Problem