[A/N: Hello! I hope you're enjoying The Three Girls so far. The very first chapter, "A Strange Encounter", was originally written (by me) for the personal enjoyment of myself and my two friends Rachel and Elizabeth. I was soon inspired to continue weaving the three of us into the story, and I intend to finish it through to the end of Return of the King, and a little bit past that. As the story continues, you'll see more original scenes and twists. Please, keep reading… You won't be disappointed :)]


Part III: One Small Step

The three girls must find their way back to one another without changing the Fellowship's storyline. As they forge stronger friendships with their companions, they travel ever farther from home. The events from The Two Towers begin, and it gets more and more difficult to believe that they will ever be able to return to their families. Yet hope remains…


Frodo awoke suddenly from a nightmare, breathing heavily. "Gandalf!"

"What is it, Mr. Frodo?" Sam asked, concerned. Frodo shook his head and lay back down, a far-off expression on his face.

"Nothing. Just a dream."

Later, they climbed down a giant rock in the Emyn Muil, with Elizabeth at the very top. Frodo was the closest to the ground, with Sam in the middle. Thankfully, the rope Sam had received from Lady Galadriel was strong and sturdy, but their climb was shrouded by mist as far as the eye could see.

"Can you see the bottom?" Sam asked.

"No," Frodo said, hiding the shakiness in his voice. "Don't look down, Sam! Just keep going."

Sam did look down, and scrambled to maintain his grip on the rope, and as he did, something slipped out of his pocket. "Whoaa! Catch it! Grab it, Mr. Frodo!"

Frodo reached out a hand to catch the little wooden box. He got it, but lost his footing and let go of the rope in the process. "Agh!"

"Mr. Frodo?"

Frodo landed safely, about a foot down from where he had been climbing. "I think I've found the bottom."

"Are you okay?" Elizabeth asked worriedly from where she was on the rope.

"Yes… I'm fine," Frodo assured her. Sam and Elizabeth descended as quickly as possible while Frodo surveyed their surroundings. "Bogs and rope and goodness knows what. It's not natural, none of it," Sam muttered.

Frodo glanced down at the box he now held in one hand. "What's in this?"

"Nothing. Just a bit of seasoning," Sam replied. "I thought maybe if we was havin' a roast chicken one night or something."

"Roast chicken?!" Frodo exclaimed, while Elizabeth giggled at the expression on his face.

"You never know," Sam said matter-of-factly.

Frodo smiled. "Sam… my dear Sam."

"It's very special, that," Sam pointed out. "It's the best salt in all the Shire."

"It is special," Frodo agreed. "It's a little bit of home." He glanced up at Sam's rope, which was still hanging down from the rock it was tied to. "We can't leave this here for someone to follow us down."

"Who's gonna follow us down here, Mr. Frodo?" Sam asked. "It's a shame, really. Lady Galadriel gave me that- real Elvish rope. Well… there's nothing for it. It's one of my knots- won't come free in a hurry." He gave it a gentle tug, and suddenly, it came free and landed in a neat coil at Sam's feet.

"One of your knots," Frodo said wryly.

Elizabeth shrugged. "Maybe the rope untied itself," she noted. "It is Elvish, after all."

"Good point," Sam agreed. He knew his knots were too good to have untied with a simple tug.

They climbed on in silence for a while. Elizabeth's staff, her gift from Galadriel, helped her get over the rougher parts, and she handed it to the hobbits whenever they needed it. As they got over a particularly high ridge, they could clearly see their destination, red against the black sky, far off in the distance.

"Mordor…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- and it's the one place we can't get. 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."

Sam and Elizabeth both glanced over at Frodo, who winced all of a sudden. "Mr. Frodo?" Sam said hesitantly. "It's the ring, isn't it?"

"It's getting heavier," Frodo admitted. Sam took that as a sign that they needed a break, and he sat down, motioning for Elizabeth to do the same. Frodo plopped down onto a rock, watching as Sam dug around in his satchel. "What food have we got left?"

"Let me see," Sam said, smiling a little sarcastically. "Oh, yes- lovely. Lembas bread. And look!" He pulled out several more leaves full of the Elvish way-bread. "More Lembas bread." Sam tossed a piece to Frodo and handed some to Elizabeth, then took a bite, himself. "I don't usually hold with foreign food, but… this Elvish stuff- it's not bad."

"Nothing ever dampens your spirits, does it, Sam?" Frodo said softly.

Sam glanced up at the sky, which was getting gloomier by the second. "Those rain clouds might."

They moved on as the sky grew darker and mistier.

"This looks strangely familiar," Sam pointed out, squinting at the rocks around them. "It's because we've been here before. We're going in circles," Frodo exclaimed, upset.

Elizabeth put a hand over her nose as a horrid stench began to permeate the air. "Ew…" "What is that horrid stink?" Sam asked. "I warrant there's a nasty bog nearby. Can you smell it?"

"Yes, I can smell it… we're not alone," Frodo said ominously.


They went to sleep under a small overhanging rock that jutted out from a cliff, wrapped as warmly as possible in their Elven cloaks. It had rained earlier, but the sky was clear now. The moon shone bright as a thin, slimy little creature crept around the rocks above them.

"The thieves, the thieves… The filthy little thieves. Where is it? Where is it? They stole it from us…My precious... Curse them, we hates them! It's ours, it is, and we wants it!" It crept closer and closer to them, finally reaching out a hand to snatch the Ring from around Frodo's neck.

Sam, Frodo, and Elizabeth suddenly jumped up, and the hobbits pulled Gollum off of the rock face. He slithered free, caught sight of the Ring again, and lunged for it, gurgling with hatred. Sam shoved Gollum off of Frodo, but Gollum threw Sam aside with surprising strength, kicked him in the face, and went back to Frodo, grappling madly with him in an effort to grab the Ring. Elizabeth helped Sam to his feet, and he wrapped his arms around Gollum, yelling with the effort of dragging him away. Sam wrestled with Gollum, who bit his shoulder, and they rolled around, grunting in pain, until Gollum lay behind Sam with him in a headlock.

Frodo sprang to his aid with his sword drawn in Gollum's face. "This is Sting," he said dangerously. "You've seen it before, haven't you…Gollum? Release him or I'll cut your throat."

All of a sudden, Gollum was all smiles. "Yesssssssss." He finally let go of Sam's throat, and the hobbit gasped for breath, feeling at his neck. Elizabeth stepped forward with the coil of Elvish rope, and Gollum started wailing.

The next day, they continued to try to find their way out of Emyn Muil. Sam jerked Gollum roughly along behind them with a rope leash tied around his neck.

Gollum screeched in pain with every step, flailing from rock to rock. "It burns! It burns us! It freezes! Nasty Elves twisted it."

"He's being awfully loud," Elizabeth said anxiously.

"Take it off us!" Gollum wailed, falling to his knees and staring up at her. "Nice girl, pretty girl, clever girl, take it off us!"

"Quiet, you!" Sam said angrily. Gollum responded by wailing even louder. "It's hopeless. Every orc in Mordor's gonna hear this racket." He glanced at Frodo. "Let's just tie him up and leave him."

"No, that would kill us! Kill us!" Gollum howled.

"It's no more'n you deserve!" Sam shouted. Gollum started rolling on his back, moaning in anguish.

"Maybe he does deserve to die," Frodo said quietly. "But now that I see him, I do pity him."

Hearing those words, Gollum scuttled towards Frodo, giving him puppy-dog eyes. "We be nice to them if they be nice to us," he reasoned. "Take it off us… We swears to do what you wants. We swears."

"There's no promise you can make that I can trust," Frodo pointed out.

Confused, Gollum's eyes darted from side to side as he tried to come up with a plan. "We swears to serve the master of the precious. We will swear on... on the precious! Gollum, Gollum," he hacked out.

"The Ring is treacherous. It will hold you to your word," Frodo said, stepping closer.

Gollum nodded fitfully, staring up at Frodo. "Yes… on the precious, on the precious."

"I don't believe you!" Sam shouted, rushing forward. Frightened, Gollum shrieked and scuttled back towards the rocks, but Sam yanked the rope, yanking Gollum down roughly. "Get back here!"

"Sam!" Frodo exclaimed, trying to stop him.

"He's trying to trick us!" Sam said loudly. "If we let him go, he'll throttle us in our sleep."

Elizabeth looked on as Frodo approached Gollum. "You know the way to Mordor?" he asked.

Gollum edged backwards. "Yes."

"You've been there before?"

"…Yes."

Frodo lifted the rope off of Gollum's neck. Gollum looked at him in surprise. "You will lead us to the Black Gate."

Gollum scampered ahead of them on all fours, out of earshot. "To the Gate, to the Gate! To the Gate, the master says!" His voice changed subtly. "No! 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!" "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 rushed on as the hobbits and Elizabeth hurried to keep up with him.

"Hey! Come back now! Come back!" Sam shouted. Gollum disappeared ahead of them. "There! What did I tell you? He's run off, the old villain. So much for his promises."

Gollum popped into view right in front of him. "This way, Hobbits. Follow me!"


The Uruk-Hai trotted tirelessly on through the rocky plains with their captives trussed up on their backs. Ariel was dealing with her painful broken left wrist by gritting her teeth and clearing her mind- it wasn't helping much, but it still helped. Merry had a gash on his forehead, and he kept slipping in and out of consciousness. Pippin was the only one who was more or less unharmed.

"Merry! Merry," he whispered. He didn't get to continue as the Uruk-Hai stopped for a rendezvous with orcs who hailed from Mordor.

"You're late," one of them, Grishnak, sneered at Ugluk, an Uruk lieutenant. Our master grows impatient- he wants the Shire-rats and the female ape now."

"I don't take orders from Orc-maggots," Ugluk snarled. "Saruman will have his prize. We will deliver them."

"Merry? Merry!" Pippin tried again, as quietly as he could. "Wake up!" He looked around frantically, noticing that one of the Uruk-Hai was drinking messily out of a flask. "My friend is sick," Pippin begged. "He needs water. Please."

"Sick, is he?" another Uruk laughed. "Give him some medicine, boys!"

The one with the flask forced some vile-looking brown liquid down Merry's throat. Merry coughed and sputtered as he woke up.

"Stop it!" Pippin cried in horror.

"Can't take his draught!" one of them jeered.

"Leave him alone!" Pippin exclaimed.

"Why? You want some?" The Uruk with the flask held it up. Pippin shook his head quickly. "Then keep your mouth shut. And you?" He tromped over to Ariel and shoved it in front of her face. She just glared at him coldly, and he chuckled haughtily. "This one's got fire in her. Too bad we have to deliver them unspoiled, eh?"

Several of the other Uruk-Hai laughed raucously at his remark. Ariel's jaw tightened, and although Pippin felt bad for her, he took the opportunity to talk to Merry, while the Uruk-Hai were distracted. Luckily, the Uruks who were carrying them were standing fairly close to each other.

"Merry."

He glanced up feebly. "Hello, Pip."

"You're hurt."

"I'm fine. It was just an act," Merry lied, trying to make his cousin feel better.

"An act?" Pippin asked, relieved.

"See? I fooled you too," Merry said softly. "Don't worry about me, Pippin." He glanced over at Ariel, whom the Uruk-Hai were still taunting. "Worry about her."

At the head of the column, one of the Uruk-Hai raised his head, sniffing the air.

"What is it? What do you smell?" Ugluk asked quickly.

The other one sneered. "Man-flesh."

"They've picked up our trail," Ugluk announced gruffly. "Let's move!"

"Aragorn," Pippin whispered, astonished. As the Uruk-Hai and Mordor Orcs combined started shuffling off again at an increased speed, Pippin pulled the Elven leaf brooch off of his cloak with his mouth and spat it on the ground, hoping and praying that it would help the others find them… somehow.