Reviews (39)

Author's reply

I have always loved horses. *The good ones* have a quiet companionship that is really quite relaxing. There are few things I love quite so much as riding a smooth gaited horse across an empty field. I see the horse as the livelihood of the people of Rohan and, pretty much, the live or death of the Riders of Rohan in so many cases. Therefore, I believe that each Rider would have a very good relationship with their mount, often resulting in mourning every bit as bitter as if their own family member had been killed in battle. Thank you for your continued reading and reviewing. Both are appreciated.

Author's reply

Please forgive me for taking so much time to answer your review. But the truth is that just as I was about to dial up to answer you, our telephone wire was accidentally cut and we have been without a phone for five days. :( Still, thank you for your review and you are quite right, Ceorl has not lost his memory (thankfully) and we hope he's going to recover. His condition is rather critical right now and the Healers are at a loss. :) Next chapter is on its way!

Author's reply

As Eomer was nice enough to mention, he has not lost his memeory. But if you remember there were fragments of the arrow still in his shoulder which have become infected and the pain is excrutiating. Coriel and I thought that, since Beleg was such a nice guy, that he might have been young Thranduil's hero in Doriath, so he might have wanted to name his son Beleg, but his wife wanted to name him after her father Dorlas, so they compromised. But that's just us.

Author's reply

So glad you liked it. I was going to turn that part into a whole bunch of dialogue, but it just seemed to me that it would turn out better without it. Thanks again for your help, and I hope to have the next chapter up soon.

Author's reply

So glad you liked it! I'm not very good at love letters and such. The idea was forged in my mind from the French moive version of Cyrano de Bergerac, actually, if you want the truth. :) I didn't copy it, but I tried to write like he did. That was a great movie!

Author's reply

I actually have a kid down in the caves picked out to be Aldor. He's a real cutie pie and looks to be about the right age, big blue eyes and all. I don't know which one is PJ's son, but I know his daughter was one of the little hobbit kids. I'm not sure when "Aldor" is shown, even though we just picked him out . . . last night was it? Or the night before? My memory has been going lately. Maybe I need more sleep. Hang in there, and thanks for the feedback!

Author's reply

I'm not very good with Elves, so I'm glad you liked it. I thought long and hard about that scene and it's good to know that it came off right. Much of his memories are based on what Coriel has done with his history, but I like what she's done, so I went ahead and put it in there. I would think that even Elves would have to redo their braids now and again, right? I have a hard enough time keeping mine in while just sitting around the house! How much harder is it when you've been riding at breakneck speeds all day?

Author's reply

I'm glad you found it too. As much as we object to having the Elves fight and die at the Battle of Helm's Deep in the movie, seeing Elves in battle is always so much fun! I just couldn't resist!

Author's reply

Legolas is only in here because Coriel insisted. No, actually, I really like Legolas, but I have a hard time coming up with things to write about him as I relate better to the race of Men. So his appearance was more than welcome. :)

Author's reply

Hirilian is rather a firebrand, really. She takes after her father's mother a great deal. Ceorl was created to be a gentleman in every sense of the word. Hope you enjoy the rest!

Author's reply

Sorry if you found that confusing, but yes, the lovely rider from earlier was Hirilian, Eowyn's granddaughter. I'm glad you like it. I really only wrote this story because I was out of ideas for Westerns. The fact that I had some nice characters to work with and an idea from a Western helped too. I hadn't intended for it to get this long, really. Hope you like the rest of it.

Author's reply

I thank you, Eomer, Third Marshal of the Riddermark, for your kind words. I tried extremely hard to show that Ceorl and Aldor were very close. In a world of split homes, I wanted my characters to be a close and loving family, even closer than my own. I also thought it would be interesting to see the Battle of Helm's Deep from the point of view of one of those cute little kids down in the Glittering Caves. I thought of having Legolas also interact with Aldor as a little kid, but let's not get carried away. Hey, maybe Aldor even saw Eodreng! This chapter spent a lot of time on my floppy-disk in its blah, skeletal form before I went back through and "put some meat on its bones." I try very hard not to write those "He did this, he did that" stories. Dialogue is so hard to write, though! I never thought putting words in someone else's mouth would be so difficult. The next chapter is in its very, very early stages. I really don't know what's going to happen in the middle, or when it will be posted. The beginning is almost finished, but that's about as far as I've gotten. Five days into the battle, and there's still quite a bit to go.

Author's reply

Thank you for the feedback! This story has been slowly peetering out due to lack of feedback. Legolas and Hirilian have a brother-sister kind of relationship, but for the most part he's just a very good friend. As to the other chapters, I really have no clue. My main problem is that I'm writing them in rather mixed up order because I have great ideas for later in the story and have to get them down right away. As it is, I have the next chapter written, I just need to go through and edit it. My characters tend to ramble in this next one. Thanks again! :)