Ok ladies & gents! Sorry for the late update! I plan on sending a couple of chapters this week to make up for it so this one's a bit short. Enjoy! Reviews are welcome & appreciated!

Enzi would have been lying if she said she enjoyed the idea of talking to Boromir when he was in such a state. He was sitting near the edge of the clearing on an old log, brooding to himself. Enzi looked back to see where Aragorn was and he was settling himself down to rest a bit before the sun came up. It appeared that he truly was leaving Boromir in her hands.

"You should be resting," Enzi said quietly, trying to figure out how best to tackle the situation.

He looked back at her for a moment then took a slow breath, as if taking a moment to calm is emotions. "So should you Haradress." He sighed for a moment, then moved over to the right on the log, signifying that he wanted her to sit beside him.

Enzi complied, still unsure how to start this discussion. It was amazing how their relationship had changed since Rivendell. Had she seen him a year earlier, she would have killed him without question. For that matter, if he'd made a move against her at Rivendell she would have killed him. But that was not there relationship now. They were, at worse, comrades, and at best . . . . she wasn't sure. His behavior since her injury still shocked her. True, every other member of the Fellowship suddenly became unnerved after her injury, as if noticing that she was a female for the first time. Enzi inwardly wondered how much they had seen when Aragorn had dressed her wounds. But Boromir was different. He'd begun to take a special interest in her, worrying about her and trying to even protect her from further injury. She was sure that he would not have done the same with anyone else. Even among the seeming liberation of her tribe, she knew only two types of men became extremely protective of their female counterparts – those who viewed the female as family, and those who viewed the female as someone to be pursued. What exactly was happening between them?

Had she giving him indication that she wanted anything more than a comrade on this journey? The thought of Boromir "pursuing" her made her throat constrict. She didn't know what her feelings were for him. Male attention had not exactly been an important element in her life. It wasn't that she had a low opinion of her own worth of beauty. Quite the opposite. She was born to be tribute, a representative of her country. And not just any tribute; she was royalty. Her title and family honor had to be represented in every manner in which she carried herself from the nature of her fighting to her looks. There had been no such thing as an "ugly" member of her family.

But being pursued was something different. Romance had been as far from her mind as east was from west. But, then again, the Men of the North and West were still unfamiliar. She could be misinterpreting his intentions. She pushed the idea from mind, visibly shaking her head to rid herself of the images.

"Enzi?"

She looked up and her almond-shaped brown eyes met his narrow blue-gray ones. Boromir sat watching her in confusion, waiting for some sort of explanation. Enzi smirked a bit and looked down a bit embarrassed. " Still sleepy, I guess," she lied.

"Hmmmm . . . " Boromir said, disbelief lining his words. "If you say so." Enzi had to change the subject but found that she could not figure out an appropriate way to start. Luckily, Boromir did. "He will not listen to reason."

"Aragorn?" Enzi knowingly questioned.

"He trusts the elves, dwarves, little folk, and even you, Haradress, but not his own people. The road to Gondor is the safest path." This was an old argument, one that she thought she'd solved by telling all of them that her people would be patrolling near Gondor but he seemed to have forgotten that.

"Maybe he has other concerns," Enzi reasoned. "Maybe he's worried about how the One Ring will affect your people."

Boromir turned slowly to her as if she'd just declared war. "And what, exactly is wrong with my people? Are you saying that the courage of the hobbits is greater than the men who protect all of Middle Earth from the borders of Mordor?"

"No, Boro-"

He was standing now, indignant. "My people have died to protect the country he was given as his birthright and abandoned! And now when it suits him, he decides our fate! He decides that this great power should be destroyed rather than used to protect everyone?"

Enzi stood in front of him, trying to reason with the increasingly angry Gondorian. "The Ring corrupts all who touch it. Even among my people, the One Ring is considered too dangerous to bear."

"And yet the fate of the world is in the hands of a Hobbit? A quiet child among forces he cannot protect himself?" His eyes were wild and searching, as if he expected an attack from every corner of the wood. "If he keeps the Ring, we will die." He was sweating, and Enzi could see that he was gripping his sword.

Why was he acting this way? What could vex him so? Then, slowly, she began to hear a voice. A dark, deep, melodic voice. "Bure yangu. Bure yangu." It did not belong to her, or Boromir, or anyone else in the Fellowship. She looked slowly at Frodo, who was now trying to drift into the soft grip of sleep. His eyes were closed and his breathing slow, yet the voice continued to call out. And it seemed the more she focused on the hobbit, the stronger the voice became, as if begging her to free it from its prison around Frodo's neck.

Enzi turned back to her comrade. "You hear it, don't you? It's calling to you. Begging you to free it."

They both knew what she was referring to but Boromir feigned confusion. "You are mistaken, Haradress," he said quietly, turning and walking away from her.

Enzi sprinted quickly until she was in front of him and continued. "It calls to all of us. You are no exception. It is the nature of the One Ring." He looked at her for a moment, his eyes full of guilt. "There is no shame in this."

Boromir still seemed torn, his eyes dancing between hers and the small hobbit's possession. "My father needs me to bring this to Gondor. Only then will we have the strength to save our people. I have sworn an oath to protect my city and my people. He trusted me to do this. Their fate -"

"Will be sealed if you take the Ring, Boromir," Enzi countered. He shook his head, indignant and still unsure of the best course of action. He was being drawn again, pulled by the power of the One Ring. His eyes didn't even register Enzi until she enveloped his face with her hands to insure his attention. "Listen, Boromir. Listen to yourself." She paused, allowing him to process the voice that she was sure called to him. "These words are not from you. Not truly. It takes your thought and fears and twists it to its own design. It only wants to go home and will do whatever it can to achieve its own ends. " He nodded understanding slowly and she continued. "I took an oath too. An oath to lead my people and the armies of Mordor. But then the treachery of the Eye was discovered and I had to make a decision. To follow my oath or to do what was best for my people, even if it meant their suffering. Even if it meant mine." She looked deeply in his eyes, willing strength into them. "You must hold onto that. The only way for all people to be free is to be rid of it. Keeping it won't save anyone. You must fight it, Boromir. Fight the ring's call."

Boromir looked deeply into her eyes, a his eyes showing a storm of emotion. "I fear I do not have the strength to win this fight, Enzi," he stated simply. As he said it, she knew it was true. He was terrified. Truly terrified, as if he had been placed in the body of an animal he neither understood nor could control. And that fear she saw in his eyes, made her fear for the safety of all. But she couldn't show this. Instead, she smiled, and slowly slid her hands down his face. "You are a soldier of Gondor. You have faced the Ring and you will defeat it."

Breakfast was eaten in relative silence. Boromir and Aragorn didn't even acknowledge each other. Gimli muttered ever now and again about one thing or another that he wasn't satisfied with while Merry and Pippin fought over the last slice of bacon and Sam packed up the cooking equipment. Frodo seemed a bit detached, choosing to sit at a more remote section of the camp, shrinking back as if afraid of something.

Aragorn and Legolas were talking near the boats in elvish to each other while Boromir was slowly packing his boat, every now and again, eyeing Frodo from a distance. Enzi observed all of this in silence seeing Boromir internally war with himself on what to do. She could see him restraining himself, fighting the urge to go to the hobbit and demand the ring. It was still calling him, as it called all of them, but he was fighting it.

Boromir's eyes found hers and he looked away quickly, embarrassed and ashamed that she'd seen the battle he was still fighting. After a moment of pretending to pack something away, he looked back and noticed that Enzi was still watching him.

He muttered something about going to stretch his legs and began to walk away from the camp. Aragorn called for him to return and started to follow him but Enzi stopped him. "I'll get him Aragorn," she said quietly and ran along the trail he made in the bush of the forest. It didn't take her long to reach him and stopped him a few meters from camp.

"I can't go with you!" he said in a hushed voice. "I'm a danger to all of you if I stay!" He turned to her, still angry but unable to look her in the eye. " The thing calls to me every moment now. I can't stay."

"You can't go alone either," Enzi countered, whispering back. "We can talk to Aragorn. Maybe he can-"

"I will NOT ask for his help! Besides, if the ring calls to me, how much more does it call to him. His ancestor was a ring-bearer." He finally looked her in the eye, determined. "You must not tell him. Promise, Enzi. You must NOT tell him."

"I won't say anything . . . . if you stay."

Boromir hesitated, still uncomfortable with the idea of going back to camp while the Ring was still so tempting to him. "If I-"

"You won't. I will be right there to help you." Boromir still hesitated between walking away and going back to camp. Did he have so little faith in himself? He was almost a shadow of the man she'd known in Rivendell. "Please, Boromir," Enzi continued, pulling him by the arm as she walked back towards camp. "Come. Come." He said nothing but gruffly complied, following her lead to camp.

In a matter of moments, the camp was packed up and they all began to board the boats. Aragorn stopped to ask her if everything was alright before boarding his boat and she assured him it was. Perhaps it was best for all that Aragorn not know Boromir's struggle. She would keep an eye on him.

No one except the hobbits and Gimli talked much throughout the day's journey. Aragorn seemed lost in thought as they traveled and Legolas was busy searching the shorelines for signs of danger.

Enzi had kept her promise as best she could. She'd kept Boromir's struggles a secret and even placed her boat between his and Aragorn's insuring that he would have to pass her in order to get close to the late afternoon, he found a relatively secluded camp side and took the lead to guide the other boats in.

"We cross the lake at nightfall," Aragorn said after a while. "Hide the boats and continue on foot. We approach Mordor from the north."

"Without a night of rest after boating all day?" Enzi said quietly. "I wouldn't suggest it. Patrols may have already started. We need to rest before we change paths."

"And every moment of rest makes us vulnerable," Aragorn countered. "We are being tracked and we must lose him soon."

"Oh, yes?" Gimli exclaimed. "It's just a simple matter of finding our way through Emyn Muil? An impassable labyrinth of razor sharp rocks! And after that, it gets even better! Festering, stinking marshlands, far as the eye can see!"

"That is our road," Aragorn said after a moment of irritation. "I suggest you take some rest and recover your strength, Master Dwarf."

Enzi patted Gimli's shoulder as he grumbled in anger at Aragorn's words and continued unpacking everything out of her boat. She was so consumed that she didn't even notice the rest of the conversation between the men. That was, until one question was asked.

"Where's Frodo?"

Enzi stopped in the middle of pulling a bundle of food out of the boat and looked at Merry, who was still searching the camp for Frodo. She listened for the call of the Ring. She could not hear it, meaning it was far away, and Frodo with it. And then she saw Boromir's shield and the rest of his gear lying near a tree without him.

Bure yangu. Bure yangu. – Free me. Free me.