After Frodo failed to destroy the ring Sauron managed to seize it. The Ringbearer meets the Fellowship. Everyone is in despair.
" Why...Why...", Sam moaned in a barely audible whisper, his eyes blinded with tears, his heart numb with despair. Only this uttermost darkness could have prompted him to verge on something like a reproach.
Frodo didn`t stir. His empty wide- open eyes were gazing blankly at the prison`s wall.
Sam froze. This indeed was the end of everything.
" Master believes you will enjoy each other`s company. You all have so much to talk about and share. But I reckon the Ringbearer`s tale will be the most interesting one to hear"/
The Fellowship, thus gathered together, hardly heard the sheering voice. They were still stunned by the battle and overmastered by black despair.
The door close. Aragorn heavily sat down, Merry and Pippin collapsed near him.
Gandalf`s eyes travelled to the dark corner, to the tormented eyes of Samwise and the stricken down figure of the Ringbearer. Silence.
"Let me see you wound", Legolas urged as suddenly Aragorn swayed and nearly collapsed on the floor. This seemed to spur Gimly.
" What happened, Ringbearer? You were there. You reached Orodruin"
Frodo was motionless.
" We hoped so much", burst from Merry.
Frodo raised his head at this piteous uncondemning wail.
" I was there", he said dully, " I could have done it"
" Then why... Frodo, you were holding the fates of us all, the whole Middlearth in your hands"
Not a shadow of pain flicked across Frodo`s fase as he listened to the anguish- wrought words of Isildur`s heir. He was past feeling anything, past shedding tears.
"Dont...Dont you reproach my master", began Sam and teers coursed freely from hie eyes. " You don`t know, you can`t know what he passed through. If he didn`t do it, it was because he couldn`t!".
" Yes, I could. But I willed not to." ? spoke Frodo`s even voice. "I failed you all/ I betrayed myself and through that you all, the Shire, Middlearth, everything I loved. "
Gandalf tried to speak, but words failed him. Frodo lay back. He was silent.