A/N: Part III begins!

Sam's Unfortunate Events

Chapter X

"Minas Morgul, the Stairs and Shelob"

…

When Sam woke up, he did not open his eyes. He hoped that everything that had happened would turn out to be a dream. He hoped that Frodo, Gollum, Faramir, Boromir's death, Gandalf's death, Legolas' death, Merry and Pippin being captured, Aragorn and Gimli by themselves or dead, how everyone was so terribly cruel to him, everything, that it had just been a dream.

He opened his eyes, hoping to find himself back home in his bed. But, once again, he was left disappointed. He was in the same cave he had been in the night before. He groaned, then got to his feet. Frodo was still asleep, but Gollum was outside, looking at their path ahead.

"Good morning, Gollum!" Sam called to him. "What's going on with our road?"

"Terrible, terrible!" Gollum called back. "Orcses everywhere! But maybe we won't run into any nasty things! Good morning, fat one!"

Sam smiled, then he turned to wake Frodo.

"Mr. Frodo," he said, shaking him. "We've got to be off. Wake up."

Frodo pulled himself up and yawned. Sam got some Lambas and handed it to Frodo, who ate it cautiously.

"You know, Mr. Frodo, we may run out if we're not careful," Sam noted.

Just then, Frodo looked up at his gardener with a determined expression. "You know, if we don't be careful, we'll probably run out of bread! What do you think, Sam?"

"Yeah, but…oh, nevermind."

They followed Sméagol through the rest of the bare tree forest. He led them into a thick forest, with much overgrowth, where old statues still stood. They saw one particularly large statue of a king on his throne, but there was a bolder in place of his head.

Frodo looked at it and noticed red Orc prints all over. 'Blood,' he thought to himself.

Sam spotted the king's head on the ground. It had flowers arranged around it, and the sun was shining on its head, like a crown. Sam smiled, before turning and following them further.

Suddenly, Frodo stopped. He had a feeling he would not be coming back.

"Sam," he asked slowly, "have you ever had the feeling that we might not live after this journey?"

Sam stopped dead in his tracks and turned to his master, saying instantly, "No! Don't ever say that! In all the great tales, folk lived to the end of their days!"

"But, Sam, this isn't a tale," Frodo pointed out. "It's real life. We may never see this place again. We may not be coming back, after all."

"Don't ever say that!" his gardener insisted. "That's just overthinking, you're letting your thoughts get away with you. Of course we'll come back! We'll through this place, all the way back to the Shire! But first, we've got to follow Gollum to Mordor! Okay?"

Frodo still was not convinced, but he did not argue further. He followed Sméagol out of the forest and into a rocky area. Sméagol led them up a mountain, and over many steep cliffs.

They stopped to rest at a particularly high cliff.

Gollum crawled over to them and hissed, "Little rest, then Sméagol leads you to the top. After that, comes the dead city! The stairs we shall go up, and then into the tunnel!"

Frodo and Sam both fell to the ground and fell asleep.

Sam was dreaming of being back home in his own bed. He dreamed of the Shire's green hills and tree tops. He imagined little Hobbits playing in the little rivers of the Shire.

He was suddenly woken up when he heard someone yell, "For me!"

Sam kept quiet and heard Gollum talking to himself.

"She longs for sweeter meats. Hobbits meat. She must eat! All she gets is filthy Orcses!"

"And they doesn't taste very nice, does they, Precious?"

"No, not very nice at all."

"The Precious will be ours once the Hobbitses are dead!"

Sam heard this and was quickly roused. He ran over to where Gollum was and said, "So, you meant to kill us? After all this time, you want to kill us!"

Sam punched him in the face, and watched him fly back into a tree. He got up and ran away from Sam, who was following him closely, angrily. Sam grabbed him by the leg and pulled him back to the camp.

"What's your plan? Tell me!" he demanded. "You'll feed us to some girl creature, much like yourself?"

He punched him again and again.

"Master! Master!" Gollum yelled in pain.

Frodo was awoken and he ran to pull Sam off him. "Leave him alone!" he yelled.

"But, Mr. Frodo, I overheard him!" Sam exclaimed. "He said he'd kill us! We have to get rid of him!"

"No, Sam!" Frodo retorted. "Unless you know exactly where we are, and how to get back, or if you can prove it, I'm not sending him away! Lay off him!"

He paused, shaking his head at his gardener, before snapping, "I'd like to see you try and guide us to Mordor!"

Gollum ran behind Frodo and started smirking at Sam's humiliation. When Frodo turned around to face him, however, he stopped, looked up at him innocently, and they walked hand-in-hand back to the cliff.

Sam frowned. 'I thought Gollum was my friend!'

He walked behind the other two slowly.

They followed Gollum up the cliff, and when they got to the top, they saw a horrible sight. It was a building, an exceptionally large, dark building, guarded by large gates, with horrible faces and hands. As they neared it, pausing only briefly behind a few rocks, Frodo felt something calling him into the—

"Very nasty place, the dead city of Minas Morgul. Full of…enemies," Gollum looked at Sam as he said the last word.

They followed him over to a steep, rocky side of a very, extremely high cliff. It led up to a high, black hole, as it looked. After a few moments of staring, Sam realized that there were stairs that led straight up, carved into the wall. If this was the stair that Sméagol had been talking about, it was going to be a very steep climb.

"The secret stair!" Gollum hissed in his ear. "Climb! But, don't fall, or you will perish! Perish, yes, precious, you will!"

"Thanks," Sam said sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Sméagol returned absentmindedly.

"I was being sarcastic."

The creature looked at him pointedly, clearly pretending as though this was a trifling matter. "So?"

"So, you're not supposed to say you're welcome."

"Does Sméagol care? No!" Gollum said, irritated.

"I don't care if you care! And besides, I thought you and I were friends."

"Friendses? Fat one and Sméagol friends? Gollum! Gollum!" and when he said 'Gollum', it was in a raspy voice, that sounded much like a cat that's trying to cough up a hairball.

"Ew, what was that?" Sam asked.

"What was what? What was what, precious?"

"That, 'Gollum' thing."

"Gollum, Gollum! That's what nasty Elveses and Mens call us. They call us it because of the sound we make, and makes us forget our own nameses! Poor Sméagol! Gollum!"

"And why do you call yourself 'us' and 'precious'?"

"Mustn't ask questions, not its business! Gollum!"

"Mr. Frodo?" Sam interrupted their conversation, when he realized that Frodo was walking towards the gate. "What are you doing?"

"Master? Where you going? What's you doing?" Sméagol demanded. "Not that way!" He quickly followed Sam over to Frodo.

They grabbed him and brought him to the foot of the stairs.

"But they're calling me!" Frodo exclaimed, in a voice much unlike his usual one.

Suddenly, green light shot up out of the top of the dark building. Sam shrieked, and started climbing up the stairs. Sméagol pulled Frodo up in front of Sam, and behind him, because, of course, he had to lead the way. They climbed up, and continued climbing for a little while, until they heard the Witch King's yell.

Frodo was petrified!

He stopped dead. He felt the blade go through his shoulder again, as it had on Weathertop. He shrieked, and nearly let go, but Sam caught him as he stumbled.

"You're alright, Mr. Frodo," Sam insisted. "I've got you, it's alright."

"Let go of me, Sam!" Frodo immediately snapped, shoving himself out of his gardener's hold.

"I just saved your life!" Sam returned, before looking down at the Orcs coming out of Minas Morgul.

Frodo shrieked, and quickly hurried after Sméagol. Sam rolled his eyes and followed behind the pair of them. However, every now and then, he would look back down, at the Orcs, at the enormous army marching out of the gates of Minas Morgul.

About 3 hours later…

They were still climbing, and the Orcs were still coming out.

When nightfall hit, and they were two-thirds of the way there, they stopped to rest on a flat rock, where the stairs stopped, and would later start up again.

Sméagol took Frodo by the hand and led him over behind a rock, where Sam couldn't hear them, and then he began to whisper.

"Master," he said, "Sméagol feels we must warn you of the fat one. He wants the precious! Sméagol can tell! We sees it in his eye. Very soon, he will ask you for it. You mustn't let him have it! He is trying to betray us all! The fat one wants it for himself, and he will try and take it! You will see!"

Frodo looked back at Sam, who was worn out from climbing, and shot a deadly glare at him, that easily said, "Go to hell!"

The Ringbearer then looked back at Gollum, and whispered, "Oh my God! You're right! He is trying to take it! That fat ass!"

Sméagol nodded his head, then walked away.

"Mr. Frodo," Sam began, as the Hobbit in question returned from around the rock, "do you think-"

"Shut-up!"

Sam returned this with a sour look, as he thought to himself, 'So, he's back to that again? Well, maybe he never really was that nice.'

Frodo lied down, and fell asleep quickly. Sam looked up, and saw that Gollum was asleep. With that to ease his mind, he was able to slowly drift away to another world, as well.

Sméagol opened his eyes. Because, in actuality, he hadn't been asleep. He climbed down to where the Hobbits were, and got the water out. He poured one of the canteens on Sam and then threw the other off the edge. After putting the empty canteen down on the ground beside him, Sméagol then got out the Lambas. He smudged some on Sam's face, put some crumbs around him, and then threw the rest off over the cliff.

Next came the hardest part.

He took the chain, with the Ring on it, from Frodo's neck, and put it on around Sam's. It took great difficulty, not to wake either of them, but in the end, he succeeded.

When he was all finished, Sméagol went back to the spot where he had been sleeping, and closed his eyes.

The next morning, Frodo was roused by Sam shaking him.

"We've gotta get something to eat," he informed him.

He then walked over to his backpack and began searching through it, slowly at first, and then frantically. However, he couldn't find anything.

"Mr. Frodo, it's gone!" he exclaimed, startled. "The Lambas, it's gone!"

Frodo stood up, and, as he did, he took a better look at Sam's face. It had Lambas bread all over it. And the spot where he had been sleeping was covered with crumbs, and even an empty canteen was lying there.

Fixing his gardener with a glare then, Frodo yelled, "You ate the only food we had left, you fat ass! And you drank the rest of the water! Sam, how could you?! What am I supposed to eat?!"

Sméagol suddenly woke up, and saw what had happened.

"Master!" he interjected, crawling to stand between the two Hobbits. "Sméagol's seen him! He's always eating behind Master's back!"

"That's a lie!" Sam yelled.

He punched Gollum in the face. Then did it again, and again, and again. "I never did that!" he exclaimed, amidst the punches. "When I woke up this morning, I went straight to wake you up! Gollum's lying!"

Frodo looked at Sam and snapped, "Stop punching Sméagol! And stop calling him 'Gollum'!"

He grabbed Sam and placed him on the rock, before sitting down beside him. All this intervening, it was really exhausting for him. Sam was so inconsiderate!

"I'm sorry!" Sam began quickly, looking up at Frodo. "I just got so…so angry. I'm really sorry. I never meant for it to go so far!"

As Frodo glanced down, he realized something odd.

"My chain!" he exclaimed. "I can't felt my chain! And the Ring! My Ring's not heavy! It's not digging into my neck!"

Sméagol crawled over to him, and looked at his neck.

"The chainses! It's gone!" he immediately began wailing. "Precious is lost!"

Frodo shot up to his feet instantly. "I've lost the Ring!"

"Wait…," Sméagol said curiously, as he squinted his eyes. "Why does fat one have a chain? We don't remember him having a chain before."

Frodo looked over at Sam and saw it was true. His chain was around Sam's neck. He stormed over to him, and snatched it off of him. With an immediate feeling of relief, he saw that the Ring was still on it. He therefore proceeded to put it back on his neck, before turning to look down at Sam.

"Oh, I've been waiting a long time to get rid of you," he said, as a malicious smile came to rest on his expression. "Now, I've finally got a good reason to send you home. You stole the Ring! You put it on your own neck, and you actually thought no one would notice! Well, I no longer need your help. Go home!"

Sam stared up at Frodo. 'You…you've been waiting for a reason to get rid of me?' he thought sadly.

Tears began falling down his fast, and he couldn't control it, or how fast they were falling. He covered his face with his hands, as he tried to get a handle on the whole situation.

But Frodo didn't care if Sam cried. "You know what you are, Sam?" he continued, his tone biting. "You're a fat, ugly, stupid Hobbit. You're nothing but my gardener, and I've never thought of you as my friend. I wish Merry or Pippin had come! I wish anyone had come but you!"

He turned his back on him, on the sight, and instead turned to his singular companion.

"Lead the way, Sméagol," he instructed.

Sméagol jumped up and led Frodo up the stairs. They climbed, and climbed, for hours, until they finally came to the end of the stairs, outside the tunnel.

When Frodo looked inside, he saw darkness, and a pale bluish light. There was a horrible stench, and all of the walls seemed to be covered by something sparkly and sticky. He looked down at his guide, Sméagol, who was only smiling back up at him, entirely unassuming.

"Is this the only way?" he asked, hesitantly. "Are you sure…there's no other way?"

"You go in, or you go back," Gollum said only.

Frodo stared down at him a moment, and then back at the tunnel. He stuck his foot in, one foot, and then the other. He walked a few more steps, and then Sméagol came in after him. His treacherous guide led him through many passageways, then there was a time when it fell completely dark. And, when Frodo emerged from the darkness, back into the dimly lit area, he realized that Sméagol was nowhere in sight.

He looked around him, in all directions, before yelling, "Sméagol!"

It echoed off the cavern walls, but there was no reply. It was then that he remembered what Faramir had said, how he had warned him not to come into this tunnel, how he had warned him of some dark terror. He found himself wishing now that he had listened to him.

He turned left, then decided to go straight, then he went down. He passed by darkness again, but this time he didn't come back out. He tripped over something, something on the ground, and he fell back. Something hard, and crunchy, fell on him, and he decided it felt like a bone, and it was covered in that same sticky, shiny substance. He pushed it off and backed away swiftly.

'Why didn't I listen to Faramir?!' he thought.

Suddenly, he remembered Galadriel's gift to him. He got out the light of Eärendil, and turned it on. It shined a pale, white light. Straightening himself, he then withdrew his sword Sting and waited.

Just then, he heard something behind him. Turning, slowly, his eyes fixed on the creature, and he saw that there was a giant spider behind him. He let out a shriek, and ran off, hurrying away from it as quickly as his legs could carry him.

'So, this is the dark terror!' his mind raced as he ran. 'Sméagol brought me in here! He did it on purpose! And that means…Sam was right?'

He ran until he saw an opening. It was blocked by a few spider webs, but he cut his way through with Sting, and, at the end, he saw Sméagol. He was waiting right outside for him, just smiling.

Frodo dropped his sword and light and he ran up to Gollum. He punched him in the face, as hard as he could, his temper immediately flaring as he thought of the betrayal, the true betrayal, and, with the force of the punch, Gollum went flying back, off the side of the cliff. He let out a loud, high-pitched scream as he fell.

Frodo smirked, pleased with his work, before walking on, quite forgetting about his possessions that he had left on the ground behind him.

He walked and found some more stairs. However, these were normally shaped stairs, nothing like the stairs they had climbed up to reach the tunnel, and so, he walked comfortably up the normally shaped stairs. When he reached the top, he saw the tower of Cirith Ungol.

The Ringbearer walked forward then, but, suddenly, he stopped, and felt a hard sting on his back. He fell down and remembered nothing more.

Little did he know, there was someone who was going to save him from the giant spider, Shelob. There was someone who was still on his side, even if he didn't like to think it.

That person was Samwise Gamgee.