Title: Golden Summers
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: All
Length: 649 words
Content Notes: No Warnings
Author Notes: Part of Road to Mundburg, set several years after the ones already part of the series. Finngaer's siblings call her Finna because Deorwine had difficulty pronouncing her name at first, and Eradan and Morwen picked it up from him.

Summary: Morwen is impatient to leave for Edoras, and her sister is being difficult.

"We'll be home for Mettarë, Finna." Morwen rolls her eyes as she checks the tack on her horse like her mother had taught her, even though she knows the stable hands are competent enough to put it on right. "And it's not as if we're going to be all alone. It's Edoras."

Finngaer scowls, shaking her head mutely as she drops down to sit next to the water trough. It had taken a command from their mother to get her little sister just to come down to the stables, and Morwen is sure their father is going to have to lift her into the saddle in front of their mother before they can leave.

"Aunt Lothíriel will let you stay inside the hall and work on your needlework." Morwen grabs the front of her saddle to help heave herself up onto her horse's back, wrinkling her nose at her graceless mounting before glancing down at her sister, who is still shaking her head, a little more violently than earlier. "Leofwyn will probably sneak you sweets from the kitchen like she did last time, too."

"Leave her be, Morwen. You know Finna is as stubborn as a dwarf." Eradan beckons her over to where he and Deorwine have guided their horses while they wait for their parents to deal with their youngest sister.

Morwen snorts, rolling her eyes again. "But we're only going to Edoras. Like we have half the summers since she was a baby. Mother says we should know more about the world than just Minas Tirith."

"At least you get to stay in Edoras." Eradan makes a face. "I don't like Annúminas. It smells like the lake."

Deorwine snorts from the other side of Eradan, and Eradan reaches out to shove at their brother. Morwen wrinkles her nose before twisting in her saddle to look at Finngaer, though she can't see her sister past her father, who's crouched down to talk to her. Maybe he'll get Finngaer onto a horse soon, and they can leave.

"I wish I could go with you to Annúminas," Morwen says as she turns back around, smiling brightly at Eradan. "It would be an adventure."

"Mother wouldn't let you go." Eradan shrugs, pointedly ignoring Deorwine when their brother jostles their horses together. "You're too little to go all the way to Annúminas."

"I'm eleven summers!" Morwen glares at her brother. "I'm not so little."

"Deorwine is fourteen summers, and he isn't allowed to go to Annúminas yet, either, so you have to be too little to go." Eradan smirks at her, and Morwen scowls, punching him as hard as she can. His yelp is immensely satisfying, and she smiles when he glares at her.

"Eradan's right that mother won't let you go, even if you're not too little." Deorwine shrugs when Morwen scowls at him. "You know she won't. And it's fun at Edoras, anyway. Easier to get away from the tutors."

Morwen sighs, slumping a little. She does like Edoras, but the idea of going into the north, all the way to Annúminas, is very appealing. An adventure, like her father had gone on, and even the King had gone on.

"When you're older, Morwen." Éowyn's hand comes to rest on Morwen's shoulder, startling her a little when she realizes her mother's heard at least some of the conversation with her brothers. "I'll ask Queen Arwen to take you with her when she and the King go to Annúminas. But not this year."

Straightening a little, Morwen smiles again, twisting around again to see if her father's gotten Finngaer on a horse finally. It's a long ride - days - to arrive in Edoras, and the sooner her sister is gotten on a horse, the sooner they can go.