A/N: Well, not much to say here. A bit more from River Tower, the last chapter for a long long long while that will take place there. Sam is very kindly narrating this one for me. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: And though the Fan Fiction Writers were given the gift of the Review by the Valar, they were also cursed with the Disclaimer, a vile reminder that they were not the genius who had so perfectly woven together the stories of Middle earth.

I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.

-Steven Wright

Hidden Paths

Sam's Journal, Entry Six

Days passed quickly at River Tower. I tried to spend as much time as I could watching over Fred, but more often than not, Addams shooed me away after a half an hour or so. In the time that I wasn't with my healing friend, I hung out with Pete and Merry, or talked with Kat, or just read in my room or in one of the many libraries throughout the tower.

The day after our arrival, while browsing the shelves of one of these rooms, I heard a small cough behind me, and turned to see none other than Billy Baggs standing in the doorway.

I dropped the volume I had been holding, and flew across the room to hug him.

"Billy!" I wrapped my arms tightly around him, then stepped back, surveying him at arm's length. "What on earth are you doing here?"

He gave me a smile. "I came to stay with some friends for a while."

I shook my head. "This is where you ran off to? Billy, why didn't you tell Fred?"

He looked sheepishly at the floor. "I-I meant to… but well, there wasn't… I mean, I couldn't… well, it just never seemed…right?" he finished lamely, making the last word more of a question then a statement. "I mean, he did know I was leaving, but not… I never told him when. I don't think he expected it to be so soon, if ever. The boy knows me too well to be sure I'll stick to the plans I make."

"But he was worried!"

"I know, I'm, well, I don't suppose it will do much good, but, I'm sorry. Really, I am.

I wasn't sure I could forgive him for running off just yet, but still, he did seem genuinely sorry. I decided I could give it time, and changed the subject.

A couple of times, Stride tried to give me lessons with a knife or a gun, but I was fairly hopeless, and most of the time, I ended up sitting on the sidelines laughing with Stride's girlfriend, Aria, as the two of us watched Stride attempt to teach Merry and Pete, while making sure that no one lost an eye. Or worse.

Sometimes, I worried a bit about home, and how my dad was doing, but the concern always passed quickly, and I would find some way to occupy myself.

Fred was mending, although Addams always seemed to think he was at death's door, and there was hope that it would be only a week or two until he was well enough to travel. The wound had closed, and although Ron told us that there would always be a scar, and a bit of unhealed internal injury, our friend would be quite the same as always.

Finally, on a day a little while after our arrival, I entered Fred's room to see him awake, and talking with Faldang.

"Fred!" I yelled, and, without thinking, rushed over and threw my arms around his neck.

"Ouch!" he muttered, but hugged me back.

"Oops, sorry." I backed away a bit. "How're you feeling?"

"Okay." He shrugged, and then winced. "My shoulder twinges a bit, but other then that I'm alright."

I had seen the flicker of pain in his face as he shifted his weight, and wasn't sure he was being completely honest, but decided to let it slip.

"Why didn't anyone tell me you were awake?" I asked, a little miffed.

"Because I've only been conscious for about five minutes?"

"Oh, okay then." I turned to Faldang. "When will he be able to be on his feet again?"

"A few more days, I would guess." Faldang said, "Although, with Addams around, it might take a bit longer." He smiled a little ruefully.

At that moment, the bustling doctor himself scurried into the room, and seeing Fred wide eyed and alert, hurried Faldang and myself out of the room with an

"Oh, wonderful, wonderful! You've woken him up I see! Out! He needs rest. No more visits today! You can see him tomorrow after he's had some sleep!"

Personally, I thought that, considering he had just been unconscious for several days, he was probably rested enough to carry on more than three minutes conversation, but, having had some experience with Addams by that point, I knew that protest would be pointless. Instead of arguing, I rushed off to find Merry and Pete and tell them the good news.

When I finally found them in the large gym that rather resembled an armory, and told them that Fred was up, they both dropped the blunt knives they had been circling each other with, and immediately began discussing methods of getting past Addams to see him.

I left them to their planning, and went to my room to start packing up a bit. If, as Faldang had said, Fred would be up in a few days, then it couldn't hurt to be prepared to leave.

I was right, in a way.

Four days later, Addams finally allowed Fred out of the confines of his room, and back into the world of the living. Along with Merry and Pete, I spent the day showing him around the tower, and chatting about our adventure on the way. Fred seemed to be functioning well for someone who had recently received a bullet wound, although I saw him wince in pain more than once.

As we turned a corner and headed back towards the boy's rooms for dinner, a door to our right opened, and Billy stuck his head out.

"Fred, my boy!" he smiled jovially, "They've finally released you!"

"Yup, Addams finally gave in." Fred grinned back.

"I was wondering, could you spare a moment?" Billy asked, and I could hear the faintest bit of caution creep into his tone.

"Sure Billy." He answered without hesitation. "You guys go on. I'll be with you in a second." And with a final smile in our direction, he followed Billy into the room.

We looked at each other, and shrugged.

"Come on guys!" Pete took off down the hall, "I'm starving, and I heard there's lasagna for dinner tonight!"

Merry hurried after him, and I jogged to keep up, rather hungry myself.

A few minutes after we had settled down around the small table in their room, digging into the steaming plates of food that had been brought up for us, the door swung open, and Fred came in sniffing at the air.

"That lasagna?" he asked, with a longing expression.

I laughed. "Yup, if you hurry, you may be able to eat some before these two scarf it all down."

"'ey!" Merry protested around a mouthful of lasagna, "'m nt scrfflg!"

"What?" I smirked.

Merry swallowed quickly, almost choking "I am not scarfing!' he said defensively.

Fred and I snorted in unison, and Fred sat down, helping himself to the meal.

"So, what did Billy want to talk to you about?" I asked conversationally.

He shrugged. "Nothing, just saying hi, glad I'm out of Addam's clutches, all that sort of thing."

For a moment, I though I saw something else flit across his features, and his hand moved toward the ring around his neck, but then his face was back to normal, and the hand changed course, grasping his fork instead.

"Oh, and he said that there's going to be some sort of meeting about the Ring tomorrow. Apparently I have to go to it. Seven in the morning in Ron's office, so I guess that means I actually have to get up tomorrow."

Pete looked up sharply. "Hey! What about us! We helped get the ring here too!"

"Yeah! They can't just leave us out!" Merry nodded emphatically.

"Yeah, but Fred was the one who carried it." I said quickly, hoping to avoid an argument, although personally, I couldn't help but agree with them inwardly.

"Still, it's not fair." Pete pouted a little.

"No, I guess not." I agreed, "But if you want to be the one to go to Mr. Del or Faldang and tell them that, then be my guest."

"Well, you'll at least tell us everything, won't you?" Pete looked confidently at Fred.

"Of course." Fred nodded.

"And then we'll be headed home!" I put in happily.

"Oh, yeah, right." Fred said, almost looking surprised, and even a bit doubtful. "Home…"

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"No come on, really, what?"

"I dunno." His forehead furrowed. "It's just, well, I guess I hadn't really thought about… " His expression suddenly cleared a little. "You know what? Never mind, your right, pretty soon we'll be home."

I looked at him questioningly, but he ignored the glance, and pushed his now empty plate away. He stood up, and yawned, "I think I'm going to get some sleep."

"I think I'll leave too." I said.

"Alright, Merry, feel like a couple rounds of Mario Cart?" Pete asked cheerfully."

"Sure!" Merry agreed enthusiastically.

Fred and I said our goodbyes, and left as the others took off towards the TV.

Once outside, I turned to Fred. "Okay, now, what's wrong."

He shook his head. "I don't know, Sam. It's just… I don't know, a weird feeling." His hand stole towards the Ring again, and he jerked it away quickly. "Probably just the painkillers Addams has me on."

"Probably." I said, not convinced.

His eyes softened. "Don't worry Sam, soon we'll be home, and we'll have our own cool adventure story like in the books and movies, complete with firefights and spies."

I smiled back. "Yeah, I guess we will."

He hugged me. "Good night, Sam. I'll see you tomorrow after the meeting."

"G'night Fred."

Then I went into my room, pulled on my PJs, and curled up with one of the books from the shelf, wondering what exactly would happen at the meeting tomorrow, and wishing I could be there to see it first hand.

The next morning, at exactly 4:30am, my wish was granted, as I woke up to being pounded repeatedly over the head with a pillow.

"Hey! Wh…" my words were smothered as said pillow was smashed over my face.

"Shhh, it's us!" Pete's voice came from somewhere by my feet.

I shoved the pillow away, and reached over, flicking on the light. "Pete? Merry? What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed.

"Hey! Be nice, we're doing you a favor here." Merry whispered.

"What favor, Merrick?" I snapped quietly, "Since when is waking me up by bashing me with a pillow at some godforsaken hour of the morning a favor?" I rolled over, looked at the clock, and groaned.

"The first reason we had to wake you up now is thatthis is the only time we can be sure we won't be overheard, even if we did debug both our rooms first." Said Pete, a touch of pride in his voice.

"And why, may I ask, do you not want to be overheard?"

"Because what we came to tell you is, we found a way of eavesdropping on the meeting today."

I sat up straight. "Really?"

"Yup." Merry grinned smugly.

"How?"

"Well, last night after you left, we were trying to figure out some way of getting in there, but there isn't even an air duct that we can listen through. So then, We remembered the whole crawling through ceiling things that spies always seem to do, and, luckily, the ceiling in there is perfect, all we have to do is sneak up through one of the panels in one of the rooms on that floor, and crawl over to above the office. Piece of cake!"

"And how do you propose to get up there without anyone noticing?"

"That's the second reason we got you up at four-thirty in the morning."

I groaned again.

Five minutes later, having quickly dressed and met the boys outside their room, I crept quietly down the hall after Merry, who kept slowing down, speeding up, and zigzagging, as he avoided the beams of the CCTV cameras, which methodically swept over the hall. We were fairly sure that any security guard would be either asleep, or far to tired to be paying close attention to cameras monitoring such an innocent area of the tower, but still, it didn't hurt to be cautious.

We took the stairs up to the thirtieth floor, afraid that taking the elevator was bound to alert someone, and crept down the hall. Merry ducked into an alcove to the side, and looked up. "I think we can get up here." He whispered.

Pete and I joined him, and Pete nodded. "I'll bet we can reach the ceiling from that windowsill."

"Exactly." Merry agreed, hopping quickly onto said sill, and balancing himself against the window with one hand, reached up and pushed against a plaster panel of the ceiling with the other. The section gave way, and, with a final shove, it slid to one side. Merry grabbed onto the edge of the hole, and with an effort, hauled himself up through.

"It's not as easy as it looks in the movies." He muttered, as Pete smothered a chuckle.

Pete went next, swinging himself up a bit more gracefully, and then it was my turn.

I balanced myself on the sill, grasped the sharp edge of the hole, and, with graceful skill worthy of an Olympic gymnast, managed to half drag, half squirm my way through, into a dusty, cobweb filled, cave-like space, with barely enough room to crouch in.

I tried not to cough, pushed the tile almost back into place, leaving just enough of a crack that we would be able to pry it back up when we needed to get out again, and followed the others as they crawled towards Ron Del's office.

When we had located approximately the right area, we settled down to wait. The gap between the floor and the ceiling had widened quite a bit here, and we found relatively comfortable perches on the rafters and beams that created a tangled maze all around us. After a quarter of an hour, I began to realize that, although four-thirty in the morning might mean no one around to see us sneaking through the halls, it also meant that it would be a good long while of waiting for us.

For a bit, we whispered quietly, speculating on what would be said at the meeting, periodically, checking the glowing face of Merry's watch, and munching on the granola bars that Pete had dug up from somewhere. After about an hour though, conversation died, and we sat in bored, and increasingly restless silence.

As the minutes ticked by, and more and more sounds of life were heard below us, the nervous feeling that we might be caught, and the irritated impatience of waiting rose in a slow crescendo, until finally, just as I felt I would explode with boredom, impatience, and claustrophobia, there was the click and creak of a door below us opening.

We were all immediately alert, as the murmur of apprehensive voices rose up and filled the dusty, stale air.

The indistinguishable mutterings continued for a few minutes, and I was beginning to grow impatient again, when Ron Del's Voice cut through the garbled voices.

"Please, everyone, take a seat."

There was the scraping of chairs being dragged out, and the cacophony of voices died.

"Thank you all for coming here for such a vague reason. I'm afraid that the lack of information in the invitation was important, as we couldn't run the risk of the real reason for this meeting falling into the wrong hands."

There was a ripple of hushed voices.

"Fred," Ron's voice was grave, "the Ring."

The ripple grew into a wave, as cries and exclamations rang through the room.

"As you can see," Ron continued, raising his voice above the shouts, "We have, after many years of trying, located Sarn's Ring."

The wave became a tsunami of noise.

"This," Ron was practically shouting now, "is an event which, I am sure you will agree, requires immediate attention. Our plans about the Ring, thus far, have been hazy, and it has recently been brought to my attention that Sarn may be in the midst of planning something, perhaps even mustering an army. If there is even the faintest possibility that this is true, we cannot be sure that the Ring will be safe here."

Uneasy mutters now.

"Not only that, but we cannot be sure it will be safe anywhere. Leonard here has just informed me that a prisoner he and his people had been keeping for us, one who knew the approximate location of the Ring, and who is also desperate to find it, has escaped, giving us one more enemy to contend with. This same prisoner, before we came into custody of him, was a captive of Sarn, and, without a doubt told his captor as much as he knew about the Ring. Therefore, Sarn is once again looking for it, his efforts redoubled. So, I ask you, what do we do now?"

The tsunami was back, the voices climbed higher and louder, as each person tried to make his or her opinion heard.

"Please! Ladies, gentlemen, quiet!"

Slowly, the tsunami sunk back into quiet, and Ron spoke again.

"Bear Stewardson, what do you say?"

A deep, ringing voice spoke. "Why not use it? If Sarn is gathering an army, the only way to take him down might be to use the Ring. At the very least, it would give our people more than a fighting chance!"

"We can't do that!" another voice chimed in, "It would be stupid to say the least. We all know that the temptation would end up being too much. We might start out meaning well, but once Sarn was gone, with that much power in our hands, where would we stop?"

A third voice, a woman's, spoke up. "But Leonard, what else can we do?"

"Vhatever it is, we need to move quickly." This time the voice was low, and gravelly, with a slight German accent. "Just a veek ago, Sarn sent someone to us, asking vor an alliance. Ve sent him away without a definite answer, but he vill be back, I am sure."

"It could be destroyed." Silence filled the room as Stride spoke.

"We've all heard Faldang's theory about that magnetic mountain before, Stride." The man with the deep voice, Bear said finally. "But even if destroying the Ring is the best thing to do, how do we know for sure that tossing it into Mt. Jishaku will destroy the program encoded in it?"

"It will work." That was Ron again. "Faldang presented that theory to me many years ago. I've had more than ample time to think it over, I'm positive he is correct."

Bear snorted, but quietly.

"I say we destroy it." This was a new voice with a heavy Italian accent.

"I agree." The woman put in.

"Very well." Ron said. "We will put it to a vote. Who says the Ring should be destroyed?"

There was a chorus of 'Aye's, and then a silence that seemed to stretch on forever. At length, Ron cleared his throat, and I could practically feel him bracing himself for what came next.

"Very well, it is a majority, and now we must decide, who will take the Ring to Japan?"

Dead silence. I thought I heard a pin drop somewhere down on the first floor.

Then, there was a sudden explosion of noise. People talking, people shouting, arguing, yelling, it carried on and on until, in the midst of the chaos, I heard a voice.

"I will take it."

Fred.

No.

The jumble of arguments continued, drowning him out.

"I will take it!" Louder now, the voice holding it's own among the others.

A few people stopped talking, and I could just picture them staring at my friend.

"I will take the Ring!"

This time, everyone heard, and the voices stopped dead.

He repeated himself more quietly.

"I will take the Ring."

I couldn't silence the sharp hiss of my gasp.

No, Fred, please no.

"Very well." Ron said at length, and I could hear something sharp, and pained in his voice. "Will anyone accompany Fred?"

"I will go." Faldang said finally, a reflection of the pain in Ron's voice in his tone.

"And I will too." That was Stride.

"If the Ring is going to be destroyed, than I will do anything I can to help." The voice that the woman had called Leonard said quietly.

"I vill go." The gravelly voice added.

"And I will come too." Bear proclaimed.

"No one else?" Ron asked.

Wait! What about me? Fred couldn't go off on his own! Who was supposed to keep him from getting into too much trouble? Besides which, no way was he going to continue this story without me. It wouldn't be fair! Not fair at all!

I didn't even notice that my death grip on the beam I was sitting on had slipped, until I was falling, falling, falling…

I crashed through the plaster of the ceiling. It might have been strong enough to hold us crawling slowly over it, but my hundred odd pounds falling on it from a few feet up was too much, and I tumbled to the floor of the office in a cloud of dust and broken ceiling.

I didn't have time to worry about the bruises though, there were more pressing matters at hand.

"Wait!" I cried, as everyone gaped at me, "I'm going with Fred too!"

For a moment, Ron just stared, then a small smile forced his lips into a curve. "Yes, yes I suppose you are."

Suddenly, there was another thud, and I turned to see first Pete, then Merry drop through the hole I had left in the ceiling.

"Us too!" Pete scampered over to me, with Merry close at his heels.

Ron sighed, but his smiled still didn't quite fade, as much as he tried to conceal it. "Very well, Peter, Merrick."

"Yes!" Merry crowed.

"Ron…"

"No Faldang, they will go too, I don't think, anything short of tying them up with duct tape and sending them back under armed escort will stop them, and frankly, that would be far to much trouble.

"Trouble." I heard Faldang mutter. "Yes, trouble is a very apt word."

Gollum: Yes, my preciousss, they go now! The nasssty readersesss leavesss usss!

Smeagol: No no no! not leavess yet! Musssst give nice reviewses for author!

Gollum: No reviewses! We hatessss them! Hatessss! No rewiewses for sneaky, trickssy author!

Smeagol: Yess reviewses! Pleassse? Nice reviewses for good, kind author?

Shoutouts:

Jeremy- thank you enjoy the chapter!

Merlyn2- sorry, I should have made this clearer, but I think I sort of got it sorted out with this chapter. No, Gloria is just Glorfindel. Arwen is Aria, but she's not to big a character just yet. And yes, Eliot and Elis are Elladan and Elrohir, I'm glad they were recognizable enough!

Daisymall13- Yes different is certainly one word to describe it… ;-)

Hope you like the chapter!

AshleySciFigirl- hopefully the non-riveting-ness will be fixed soon! I have lots of more exciting stuff planned for the next few chapters: Explosions, firefights, narrow escapes… good stuff