Chapter One
Frodo POV
"You cannot pass!" Gandalf roared.
"Gandalf!" I yelled. We watched as the Balrog stood upright, and flames flew out of its torso.
"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor." Gandalf said. He held up his staff. "The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun!" a bright light came from the staff. The Balrog held up a fiery sword. It brought it down towards Gandalf, but some sort of dome covered the wizard, and blocked the blow. The Balrog roared. "Go back to the Shadow." Gandalf commanded. The Balrog placed one foot on the bridge, and took out its fiery whip. It whipped it, as in either a warning or a command. "You. Shall not. Pass!" Gandalf yelled. He put his sword and staff together, and then banged his staff on the ground. The Balrog jumped back, surprised. Then, it walked forward, and the bridge crumbled and broke underneath it. It roared as it fell to the very bottom. Gandalf watched it fall, and then, relieved, turned to us. As he walked back, the whip came back up, and grabbed him by his ankle. Rowan screamed as Gandalf fell, and clung onto the edge for dear life. I ran forward. Boromir blocked my path.
"No! No!" he yelled.
"Gandalf!" I screamed. Gandalf tried to climb up, but found it was useless. He stayed there long enough to say, "Fly, you fools!" and then fell.
"No!" I screamed, trying to get out of Boromir's grip. "Gandalf!"
I sat up. "Gandalf!" I yelled. Sam placed a hand on my shoulder.
"What is it, Mr. Frodo?" he asked.
"Nothing." I answered, and lay back down. "Just a dream."
Later
Sam tied the rope up at the top, and we were climbing down the side. Sam looked down at me.
"Can you see the bottom?" he asked.
"No!" I answered. I started freaking out. "Don't look down, Sam! Just keep going!" I told him. A bit later, Sam slipped. A small box flew down.
"Catch it! Grab it, Mr. Frodo!" he yelled. I caught the box as it bounced off a rock. It literally landed in my hand. Then, I slipped and fell, screaming the whole way. "Mr. Frodo!" I landed, and was actually shocked that I wasn't that far from the bottom. I looked up.
"I think I've found the bottom." I said. Sam came down, grumbling.
"Bogs and rope, and goodness knows what." He grumbled. "It's not natural. None of it." I looked at the box in my hand.
"What's in this?"
"Nothing. Just a bit of seasoning. I thought maybe if we was having a roast chicken one night or something." Sam answered.
Roast chicken...? "Roast chicken?"
"You never know."
Yeah, roast chicken on the way to Mordor. That's Sam for you. But he was still my best friend. "Sam." I said, trying to hold in a laugh. "My dear Sam." I opened the box. It was salt.
"It's very special, that." Sam said. "It's the best salt in all the Shire."
"It is special." I said, quietly. "It's a little bit of home." I walked past Sam and gave him back the salt. I looked at the rope. "We can't leave this here for someone to follow us down."
"Who's gonna follow us down here, Mr. Frodo?"
Rowan, maybe. Maybe she found our trail or something! And now she's following us. Right now! Stop thinking that Frodo, that's stupid. Rowan wouldn't follow you. Leastways not here.
"It's a shame, really. Lady Galadriel gave me that." Sam continued. I approached the rope. "Real Elvish rope. Well, there's nothing for it. It's one of my knots." Sam walked up to me. "Won't come free in a hurry." He tugged on the rope. The rope moved like it was pulled loose. Then it fell and landed in front of us. I looked at Sam.
"Real Elvish rope." I said. Sam just looked up, confused.
Later
We climbed up some rocks. "Mordor." Sam said, as we looked into the distance. "The one place in Middle Earth we don't want to see any closer. And it's the one place we're trying to get to. It's just where we can't get." He looked at me. "Let's face it, Mr. Frodo, we're lost. I don't think Gandalf meant for us to come this way."
"He didn't mean for a lot of things to happen, Sam, but they did." I said. I could suddenly feel the Eye looking at me, and I fell. More like sat down, but I almost fell. Sam looked at me, worriedly.
"Mr. Frodo?" he asked. I didn't answer. "It's the Ring, isn't it?"
"It's getting heavier." I clutched my chest. I heard Sam sit down. I drank some water, and then looked at him. "What food have we got left?"
"Let me see." Sam said, digging into the pack. "Oh, yes. Lovely." He pulled out some Lembas bread. He looked down. "And look! More Lembas bread." He held up another thing of Lembas. I bet we can't use the seasoning on that. He broke some off and threw it at me. I caught it, and we began to eat. "I don't usually hold with foreign food, but this Elvish stuff, it's not bad."
I looked at him and smiled. "Nothing dampens your spirits, does it, Sam?" I asked. He smiled back at me, and then looked out into the distance.
"Those rain clouds might."
Later
We sat there, getting soaked, because of the rain. The cloaks helped, but not a lot. There was thunder in the distance. I heard some growling but dismissed it.
The Next Day
We were still walking.
"This looks strangely familiar." Sam piped up. I looked around and then groaned inwardly.
"It's because we've been here before." I answered. "We're going in circles!"
Sam grimaced. "What's that horrid stink? I warrant there's a nasty bog nearby. Can you smell it?"
"Yes." I answered. I stood next to him. "I can smell it." I looked at him. "We're not alone."
Later
We were trying to sleep. I heard that growling again. "The thieves." It said. "The thieves. The filthy little thieves. Where is it? Where is it? They stole it from us. My precious."
I opened my eyes a crack and looked at Sam. "When he gets close enough, pull him down. It's Gollum." I mouthed.
"Okay." Sam mouthed back.
"Curse them, we hates them! It's ours, it is, and we wants it!"
"Now!" I mouthed. We got up, and grabbed the hand that was reaching for us, and pulled Gollum off of the rock. He pushed us away when we got him on the ground and couldn't hold him. He scampered around for a minute, and saw the Ring around my neck. He leaped on my, trying to get it. I held him back the best I could, but he was strong. Sam grabbed his leg and began to pull him away, but Gollum punched him, knocking him away. He leaped back on me reached for the Ring again. Again, I held him off as well as I could. Sam came back, and picked him up, attempting to throw him off me, but Gollum grabbed me, and I flew into a rock. He crawled back up on what we pulled him off of, and leaped on me again. Sam came back, yelling, and pulled him off me. I watched with wide eyes as Gollum fought to get free. At one point, he bit Sam on the shoulder, making him cry out in pain. He pulled him down to the ground where the two fought for a minute, and then Gollum had his arms around Sam's neck. I ran over, holding Sting, and held the tip of the blade to Gollum's throat.
"This is Sting." I hissed at him. "You've seen it before, haven't you, Gollum?" I heard Sam whimper, and I knew Gollum was choking him. "Release him or I'll cut your throat." I hissed at him again. For a minute, nothing happened, but then I heard Sam get up. Gollum whimpered once, and then he started crying.
The Next Day
We had the rope around his neck like a leash. And Gollum was screaming and throwing a fit.
"It burns!" he yelled. "It burns us! It freezes!" Sam tugged on the rope, and Gollum fell. "Nasty Elves twisted it. Take it off us!" he begged.
"Quiet, you!" Sam yelled. Gollum screamed again. Sam looked at me. "It's hopeless. Every Orc in Mordor's going to hear this racket! Let's just tie him up and leave him."
"No!" Gollum cried. "That would kill us! Kill us!"
"It's no more than you deserve!" Sam shouted.
"Maybe he does deserve to die." I muttered. "But now that I see him, I do pity him."
Gollum stopped and looked at me. "We be nice to them if they be nice to us. Take it off us." He held the rope out. "We swears to do what you wants." He bowed. "We swears."
"There's no promise you can make that I can trust." I snapped. Gollum looked at me, and came towards me. "We swears to serve the master of the precious. We will swear on...on...the precious! Gollum. Gollum." He coughed.
"The Ring is treacherous. It will hold you to your word."
"Yes..." Gollum said, nodding. "On the precious." He crawled towards us and looked up at me. "On the precious."
"I don't believe you!" Sam yelled. He ran towards him, and Gollum started to run away. Sam tugged on the rope. "Get down!" he yelled. Gollum made a choking noise and fell. "I said, down!"
"Sam!" I yelled.
"He's trying to trick us. If we let him go, he'll throttle us in our sleep!"
I looked over at Gollum, who was wheezing and holding his neck. I walked over to him, and he started to crawl away in fright, but hit a rock and couldn't go any further.
"You know the way to Mordor?" I asked.
"Yes."
I knelt down "You've been there before?"
"Yes."
I took the rope off his neck. "You will lead us to the Black Gate."
Sméagol POV
I kept looking back to see if Master and Fat Hobbit were following. They were.
"To the Gate, to the Gate! To the Gate, the Master says. Yes!" I said.
"No!" Gollum snapped. "We won't go back. Not there. Not to him. They can't make us. Gollum! Gollum!"
"But we swore to serve the Master of the precious." I objected.
"No. Ashes and dust and thirst there is, and pits, pits, pits. And Orcses, thousands of Orcses. And always the Great Eye watching, watching."
He turned, saw Master and Fat Hobbit, and screamed and ran off.
"Hey! Come back now! Come back!" Fat Hobbit yelled. I followed Gollum in a frightened state.
Sam POV
I stopped running after I didn't see him. Mr. Frodo walked up to me. "There! What did I tell you?" I snapped. "He's run off, the old villain. So much for his promises."
"This way, Hobbits." We heard. "Follow me!"
It was that stupid little stinker. Frodo followed him and I followed reluctantly.
