A small town about two days ride from Edoras was home to Emmawynn.  She grew up with two brothers at her side, one older and one younger.  She loved the horses even more so than her brothers and riding was as natural to her as walking.  The horses loved her back.

Emmawynn learned from her mother and grandmother all of the social graces a woman of good reputation in Rohan should know.  While she preferred to be running free with the horses, she could blend perfectly into social settings with poise and grace. She knew her childhood was coming to a close and she would soon have to take on the role of woman, a wife, and someday a mother.  

Her kind hearted father waited patiently for her to be ready to grow up, but in a day,  really an instant everything changed.  She was out riding Bansil, her favorite, a majestic black stallion when they were set upon by a small band of Dunlending horse thieves.  What might have happened had she let him go, no one will ever know because she loved the horse too much.

She had some training with a blunt blade, but it was all sparring in a controlled environment and she felt unprepared as she found herself drawing the sword that her father insisted she travel with.  She swung it and cut a small gash in the arm of one of them, and barely a scratch on the leg of another before they secured her and dragged her away secured on the back of her own horse.

Emmawynn had both a natural and learned cunning and once she realized that fighting would be futile she resolved to wait.  She watched the comings and goings.  She made allies. Most of all she waited for the perfect opportunity.  After thirteen months, the opportunity came.  Emmawynn and Bansil escaped.

Her heart wanted to return home, but Emmawynn realized that would only put her family in danger.  Instead, she traveled westward, they avoided roads, became very adept at hiding, and lived off what she could gather.  Bansil kept her warm at night, and warned her when people were near and over the next five months they only encountered three other people.

They had just passed north of Bree, and it had been several days since she had eaten anything other than berries when Emmawynn spied a lake.  She carefully approached the lake hoping to find some fish when she noticed a campfire and a small group of people.  Hunger and loneliness finally won out over caution and she hesitantly approached the group.  Finally ready to find her way back into civilization.