((Grettiawyn's story, I feel, is best told by her own self, so I shall have her unveil it, through a conversation with her granddaughter Alinchen.))

Grettiawyn's home, evening, some time after dinner.

With a tired but tender loving smile, the latter something few would have thought Grettiawyn capable of.. she pointed at the free chair next to her own.
"Now now, child, sit down here with me by the fire, my old bones have been feeling the cold more and more in recent years.. just throw a few more logs on, will you, and then I shall begin telling you, so that you may finally find out about your true heritage."
Alinchen, eager to hear her grandmother speak, obeyed quickly, reaching from where she had sat down, for the neatly stacked logs. The dried wood, added to the already existing ones brightly aflame, caught fire fast, adding more cosy warmth.
"Wonderful, so harken down my little, and try not interrupt me, for it will be painful enough to recall some of the events, thus I wish to not speak of them more than I must for you to understand your past."
Alinchen gave her a silent nod to show her understanding, excited but also somewhat wary to finally hear this story.

"I was once young just like you.." Grettiawyn began, her eyelids closing to a half, probably to find better focus. "My youth was spent just as that of any other young Rohirrim girl. I learned to cook and mend clothes, I cast only shy glances at handsome young men, and tried to overall be a good daughter to fine parents. Your great grandfather was a blacksmith, responsible for supplying our settlement with needed nails, tending to the horse's feet, and hammering cooking pots and shovels into shape. I had 2 younger sisters and one even younger brother, but none of them breathes air any longer. They passed away before I even returned to these lands. My life would surely have matched theirs, in dreams and hopes and daily toils, had it not been for one of my cousins falling in love with a travelling merchant. The man had hailed from the Dale Lands, a well off fella, not unpleasant to the eyes either, and although her family was sad to imagine one of their own to live far away, they agreed to let him have her hand in marriage. He however wished to have their bond properly tied and celebrated in the lands he knew as his own, and thus it was decided she was to travel to her wedding day, all that long journey, to the Dale Lands.

Of course she could not travel alone, and as her family was much loved and respected, every household in the village wished to send someone with her, to guard her as well as to have someone present to witness this happy event. Of our family it was I who was chosen, oldest of the children, while father could not abandon his anvil, and mother had to tend to those younger than me. It was a great excitement, as I had never travelled before, and I felt beyond my years to be allowed to represent our family on such an important and joyful matter. As you can imagine, it was a long journey, even though we had decided to not burden ourselves with wagons, only taking what we could tied to our horses, nonetheless the road did seem to wind endlessly before us. We were in good spirits however, accompanied by some of our finest riders, we feared nothing, and there was much jesting and laughter travelling alongside with us.
How naive we were.. believing none could harm us.. but for almost all of the journey we indeed stayed safe and well. It was not until we passed into the deeper regions of Rhovanion, heading for a settlement along The River Running, that we found ourselves ambushed by a people we had never encountered before. The men attacking us had eyes as black as coal, hair as dark as raven feathers, and their skin was of milky coffee. Our brave riders were slaughtered by them too fast for those of our blood to even mortally wound one of theirs, they had the greater number and advantage of surprise and knowledge of surrounding. We women had no one left to protect us, unable to battle these enemies where even our men had failed, and those of us who had not fallen alongside our riders, ended taken by the strangers. I was among the latter, little more but a frightened child, clinging to my poor cousin, who was eventually torn from me, and until this day I do not know what became of her, or of the others for that matter.

It was a dire time of fear and despair, and I do not wish to remember it in too much detail, so please excuse that I shall not delve deeper into the events directly following. Instead let us move on to a time a bit later, when I found myself in those alien lands of the East, among alien people, beyond the Sea of Rhûn, their culture a mystery to me, even their language, but at least I had survived, and it is wondrous how the gift of life alone can sometimes comfort us, even when all else seems to have been lost. I was a slave girl now, keeping my head low and my voice even lower, silently following orders, mostly given by the wave of a hand or some other gesture I could understand. I clung to life as the only thing I had left, trying not to draw attention to myself, but such can prove difficult if one stands out with hair like sunrise among those who have hair of night. All attempts of mine to keep out the way, failed, also due to being led by errands into the path of others. It was a big settlement, the one I had come to serve in, bigger than the one I had known from my childhood days, with many of that dark hair and skin like milky coffee, but regardless, eventually I ended crossing path with their Thane, a fierce chieftain of broad and intimidating frame. I had been sent on another errand and with my head low, almost ran into his horse, which at first earned me a sharp strike of his whip. It was at that moment, I think, that my Rohirrim pride finally won over all my fears, and I lifted my eyes in defiance and locked them with his. I had known our riders, but never had I met one whose soul seemed to have been made of burning amber.. and he sized me up, then simply grabbed me by the arm and pulled me so that I came to rest lying before his saddle. This is how I came to meet your grandfather..."

For a brief moment, Grettiawyn opened her eyes to the full again, glancing at the girl sitting near her, as if wishing to check what effects, if any, this story so far had cast upon the girl. When she found her granddaughter waiting in calm patience, no sign of shock or rejection, she continued, once again letting her eyelids slowly drop.

"You must understand, little one, that while the people of the East are clearly our enemies, still they are but humans as we are. This is something I came to learn when I watched them mourn the death of one of their own, or when I saw the young girls sticking their heads together giggling for the passing of a handsome young warrior.. they love and they hate just as we do, and they feel pain and joy in just the same manner. They have been named the Balchoth, the cruel people.. but forced to live among them, I was also forced to find understanding that they are no different to us, really, no matter how much our cultures may differ. Your grandfather was a fierce warrior, unforgiving to any insult or show of disrespect, but when our son was laid into this arms, that same man's features softened and he began to hum a tune of his own childhood memory. He could not marry me, for I was not one of their own, but he showed me all the love and care any wife can ask for from her husband. I found protection in his household, was well looked after and tended to, for he was a good man, deep within, no different to my own father, really, and so I came to repay his kindness with a love of my own. He had known many a woman before me, and his household was home to some of them, but once I entered his life, he visited no other any more, and it remained as such onto his death. Before he came to leave me however, after years of us raising our only son together, and as a very late gift to us.. I was blessed with the miracle of giving birth one more time, and that little girl was to become your mother.

You can not imagine a happier two as we were. Long had we given up on hoping that I would bear another child, it just seemed not to be written into our fate, but then she was given to us, of strong Rohirrim blood, where her brother had matched more his father in appearance. Among an ocean of night, another of sunshine was once again walking, for my hair had meantime already turned to silver, but hers was of golden honey. We gave her a name of Eastern roots, which I shall not repeat, for in my heart and when we were alone, I would call her Anniken, and she was the apple of her father's eye, just as she was mine. A bit more than 10 summers were still granted to him, to enjoy watching her grow, dance and sing, for although she did not quite have the mastery of my voice, her sweet nature sprang forth in every tune she performed. Then though his life drew to an end, and I was left mourning his loss, alas I was still safe, for our son had grown into a strong and respected warrior among them. Without his protection, I am not sure how we had fared, for much hatred had festered in the hearts of those women who felt I had taken their man, and they had handed that hatred on to their children, but as none could match the fierceness of your uncle, who seemed to have come to combine all which is strong and mighty within our two differing bloods, they could not act upon that infected wound. However, as my little girl was slowly growing into a beautiful young woman, the question who was to become her husband, began to occupy the mind of many a man in the settlement, and among them was one who equalled your uncle in respect and honours. There were tensions between his household and the household of my own son, and so my son decided to give his sister to this man, to tie the two houses together. An act very common, and my girl was not opposed, but little did any of us know what demon inhabited her new husband.

In opposition to myself, who had found against the odds among an alien people, a man to love and be loved by, your mother found herself in the company of a man, consequently your father.. who was indeed nothing but cruel and merciless. She bore her fate with great dignity, but I knew what hell she was enduring, without being able to help. Eventually she bore him a daughter, which was to be you, but he had wished for a son, and this made her life worse, and she began to fear for yours, as he did not hesitate to show his disdain in all manner of hateful fashion. The deep scar on your hand, the one I was able to identify you by.. it was he who burned it into your flesh when you had just barely begun to pull yourself up onto your own two feet. Your mother always spoke of you as her light in the dark, and he told her that burning a star into your flesh would only be appropriate, considering her own words. She was so full of fear, so full of despair.. but she did not wish to cause a feud between the families, and so she tried to hold out until she felt she could hold out no more. It was on the eve of your second birthday that she told me she was planning to flee, and I did not know how to stop her thoughts from running wild in madness. She said this way an open feud between the houses could be avoided, we could all just claim she had lost her sanity, to run away, while same time it was her only chance, and yours, to live. Of course I was worried to no end, imagining the perils of such an escape, not to think of the journey to follow, but she was determined to return with you to Rohan. Nothing I spoke to her was to persuade her, and this was the last time I saw your mother.

Two days later we were reached by the news that she had gone missing, and even though her enraged husband sent many a warrior after her, all returned with no other news than that they had not been able to find her. This caused a brief period of unrest between the two houses, but as she had predicted, that unrest settled, as everyone agreed to agree she had lost her mind and that the both of you were dead, probably having turned to food for some wild animals. I however knew that she had not fled out of insanity, as well as that I was convinced she had succeeded in her flight. You see.. after some time had passed, I turned gravely ill, desperately mourning the loss of the man I still loved, as well now the loss of my daughter and a granddaughter. I felt I had lived for far too long already, and I just wished to find peace in the Halls of Mandos. Thus I came to stand before the Halls, just close enough that I could sense the presence of many I had known. They were all there, including the man I had loved, my parents, my brother and my sisters.. but not your mother nor you.Until then I had feared the warriors who had been sent after her, may had been right, or even that he had given orders to some to kill her if found, without telling this grim tale. But when I was ready to enter the Halls, I knew you two had to still be alive, and I mustered all my remaining strength and pulled myself from the doorstep. I wanted to find her and you, and to see my beloved Rohan once more, and while I have now been reunited with you and are back in the lands of my childhood.. my daughter is still missing. I still can sense inside of the Halls of Mandos, a strange gift, I guess, which has remained with me after withdrawing at the last possible moment from entering, and thus I know she is still walking among the living, but where, I can not tell. She must still be wandering this world, same as you, but what separated her from you and left you to be found by that bear, which still so loyally cares for you, I wish I knew, for I can tell you with certainty, never would she have abandoned you just out of a whim. She loved you, you truly were her light in the dark, and so it must have been an extra ordinary fate which tore her from you, without it ending her life.

I myself came to my son, your uncle, and announced to him my leaving, so that I could search for you and her, and while it grieved him greatly, he allowed me to journey and made it possible for me to do so unchallenged. Some of the men loyal to him, accompanied me as far as it was felt wise, and the rest I against the odds managed to bridge on my own. To him Rohan is naught but a distant land, inhabited by enemies, for the hatred of Gondor and consequently also Rohan, runs deep within the Easterlings, and he feels to be one of them. With Mordor rising again, I fear he could ride alongside those that wish us nothing but harm, and so would his sons, leading our family to be broken in two. A great pain.. but few these days to only know happiness. The rest of us all share into the sadness of this world, one way or another, only the unfeeling shadow itself knows no such hurt."

Opening her eyes fully once more, Grettiawyn drew in a deep breath, her face definitely showing signs of true tiredness now.
 
"Some more logs please, dear child, the evening chill is biting me quite hard tonight.. but yes, now you know at least some of what led to your being in this world. To many my story appears adventurous, but while I did see times of great turmoil, I also lived many a summer  just as others do, only that I lived them in a foreign land among a foreign people. That foreign people though know life's toils in no differing manner to us, and while I am glad to have my eyes fall upon the green lands of my forefathers again, my inner eyes also still see those lands past the Sea of Rhûn. We are Rohirrim, for this blood runs strong in you just as it does in your mother, none without knowledge ever able to suspect either of you to be nothing but of true Rohan stock.. but as I came to find, this world is much bigger than our plains, while same time also very small, as no matter where you journey, Eru has made most of us the same."

Still silent, Alinchen stirred the fire carefully to let enough air get to the flames, then she reached for her grandmother's hand, with tender pressure encircling it in hers.

"Whether it was fate or chance, which allowed me to live, it also allowed me to be found by you, among all the strangers of this world. This must count towards hope that we shall also find her, and I promise you that I shall keep looking, followed by a great gratefulness that I was allowed to finally discover my roots. I may never be able to see the land of the East where I was born, but I am here now in Rohan, with you, learning what it means to have a forefathers home. However, grandmother, it has drawn late, and I feel you need rest. I shall keep the fire burning still, while pondering all that I have heard tonight. Maybe a way can be found to aid our search. If so, have trust that we shall find it."

With that, Alinchen leant forward and placed a gentle kiss upon her grandmother's forehead. The old woman indeed saw wisdom in her granddaughter's words, and thus she rose to retire for the night, also to find peace from some of the memories this conversation had stirred within her... The day would come when the Halls of Mandos would finally open for her with no option to withdraw, and once one had entered, one could not leave again.. but she felt clearly this time had not drawn near yet, despite her already considerably high age. She needed strength to continue and to remain of good health, as to not become a burden to this child, and sleep surely had to be considered a valuable ally in this important battle.