For AnnMarwalk's birthday, with thanks for the way she welcomed me to the company of fanfiction writers; and for all veterans everywhere, including my father, my stepfather, my brothers, my sister-in-law, and my beloved husband. Beta by RiverOtter.
As they came to the small island on the Isen where the mound had been raised over the body of Théodred Théodenson and his Riders, all stopped, and Frodo looked down upon it with pity. “Boromir told me,” he said softly to those who rode next to his pony, “how it was the son of Théoden King himself who chose the horse for him he rode northward on. He would have grieved so, knowing that one fell here. He appears to have cared deeply for him as a friend and brother at arms.”
Those of the King’s Guard who had ridden with their Captain-General and High Warden of the Tower indicated their agreement. As they rode by, they saluted the mound solemnly, in memory of the princes of both houses of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth.