Where Dreams Take You…

It was a long road, full of pain and darkness and loneliness all at once. The path that he was walking was un-traveled for many ages, or perhaps he was the first to ever go down it.

He did not know what he was doing here, save that he had a task of great importance to complete. He could not go back home until then, and he knew, in his heart, he would never be the same.

He knew that, when he was walking down the road, he would walk it for forever, and once he first set foot upon it, he could not turn back. But he realized that he had made his choice long, long ago. So long ago that he could no longer remember light, or song, or joy. He could not remember what was fair and beautiful, for his thoughts and gaze and heart were filled with emptiness and dark shadows that seemed to reach out and grab at you, reaching with long fingers that seemed to yearn to grab hold of fabric, or an arm, anything at all and drag him away even deeper into darkness more dangerous than the road he was walking.

If he looked up, his eyes could not see stars, something that made him feel great pain in his heart, though he did not know why. Where he was, he barely remembered what stars were.

There was a figure up ahead of him, vague and shadowy, staggering and reaching out to grab hold of things that were not there, a hand clamped tight around something that hung around his neck.

He realized then, that he had sworn to protect this shadow in front of him. That the figure was the whole reason he was here, dust and darkness clouding his gaze, dark things reaching out to him. But he could not turn back, although he had the choice long ago. But he did not take the road back home—something he wasn't even sure of—choosing instead, the dark, un-trodden path that lead into doom and destruction.

He was aware, he had always been aware, that doom and death was that which awaited him. He would die, choking on dust, eyes seeing only shadows and shadowy fingers reaching out to take him away to a doom worse than the one he wandered in now…

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With a start, and a silent scream, a young Samwise Gamgee awoke; heart pounding in his small chest and eyes scanning the shadows fearfully, as if afraid the shadowed hands would reach him even here, outside of his dreams.

He could remember with such clarity, years later, the dream he had when he was a young hobbit-lad who though of adventures and elves and the next meal and story at Bilbo Baggins' knee.

So it's only right and proper that the first thing he though of in later years, when it all began, was the thing which frightened him most.

"If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home that I've ever been."