Dear Sam,
I sat up again to find the pain in my face had all but disappeared. I gingerly touched my face and winced as my fingers traced the deep cuts. I hadn't been able to fall asleep so I had continued trying to work on provoking a vision. I got a blurred image of two figures on a brilliant white horse and another of my uncle resting peacefully among the elves of Rivendell but then Sam caught me and forced me to get some sleep.
"Are you asleep yet?" Sam asked for the fourth time that night.
"The ground is wet, you keep questioning me, and I've got a terrible headache where I fell yesterday. It's okay…I like being with you," I answered scooting closer to him and burying my head in his chest.
I felt Sam laugh and felt his head nodding against my forehead. I knew we both were remembering yesterday and the time we shared. I smiled at the memory before I remembered my last vision of Frodo dying in the tunnel.
I closed my eyes to calm my thoughts but regretted it the second I saw the replay of the spider's sting shoot out and jab my brother in the back. I saw him turn and look me in the eye mouthing "run" before his mouth filled with foam and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
"Primula, are you okay?" Sam asked as he caught a quick glance of my face and the cursed tear that was sliding down my cheek.
I looked up at him and couldn't control the tears that started to fall freely as I remembered him filled with rage over my brother's lifeless body.
"What is it?" He asked his eyes filled with worry. I tried to break free from the hands holding me close but it was futile and it only proved there was something dark on my mind.
"Primula?" Sam asked me trying to catch my eyes finally cupping my face and bringing my eyes to his.
"Samwise, please don't ask me. I can't tell you. It's something you would never understand," I answered trying to hold back the tears as I looked into those totally innocent and trustworthy brown eyes, flashing again to the hate and pain I had seen reflected there.
"Primula, is something wrong?" I heard a voice say from behind me.
I turned around and winced to find Frodo watching us curiously, standing with his hands on his hips. My brother saw my tears and quickly walked over to me. He wiped me face with his thumbs and took me from Sam's arms cradling me like a child. I felt embarrassed that all this attention was being given to me but I knew from experience, Frodo wouldn't stop until he knew I felt better.
"Don't tell me what's wrong if you don't want to. I know it's from your second vision last night. But please, let me comfort you when you need it," Frodo said quietly making sure that Sam wouldn't hear anything.
I wanted to tell him to let me comfort him when he needed it but I knew it would just do more harm then good. I shook my head helplessly and felt myself shudder as his dying face flashed across my mind. Frodo noticed and held me closer while Sam stroked my hair. I was so upset that I couldn't control the small hiccups that came out of my mouth as I tried to hold back the tears, but there was nothing I could about it my thoughts constantly flitting back to my vision.
Slowly I steeled my resolve and bit back the flood of tears that would need to be released later when no one was around. I got out of the men's grip and wiped the tears still sliding down my face with the heel of my hand.
"Is the hobbitses ready to travel the…Dead Marshes?" I turned to see Gollum crawling from the ledge he had slept on the past night, looking up at us expectantly.
Frodo climbed to his feet and helped Sam up, who watched Gollum with a look close to murderous as he watched me wince from the cuts still on my face. Soon we were all ready to leave, I caught Sam and Frodo talking but I had to believe that weren't talking about me, although I doubted it.
I turned on my heel and walked to stand beside Gollum watching my brother and Sam finish their conversation and stand behind Gollum waiting for him to start leading us through the bog.
It was a wasteland from the worst nightmare imaginable, second only to Mordor. The ground was dead, sprinkled with choked grass and weeds that had somehow managed to survive if only for a small time. Pools of filthy water lay everywhere on the ground inviting and seducing you to step in and be lost forever. I saw Frodo scan the miles and miles of marshes that separated us from Mordor and clutch at the Ring dangling at his chest. Sam glanced at him worriedly and started forward, but Gollum began walking and it seemed that Frodo's eye unglazed and his determination was set.
It took us two minutes before someone fell into a hole covered by a thin layer of marsh mud. Luckily Sam got his hands out of the straps of his backpack and managed to break his fall. When he got up he was caked in mud from his knees down and his elbows down.
Frodo and I chuckled while my brother helped Sam out of the mud. Then Frodo grabbed his upper shoulder and complained of a pain, and we all remembered why we were here and not in the Shire.
"He is calling for it, Gollum," Gollum whispered from a foot away watching Frodo's chest hungrily.
"We'll be rid of it soon enough then we can return to the Shire and I can get back to my gardens at Bag Ends," Sam encouraged picking Frodo back off the ground.
I elbowed him gently and shot a glance at Gollum making sure Sam followed my gaze. None of us wanted our guide to learn of our intentions to destroy his Precious. Sam got the point and shut his mouth; luckily it didn't seem that Gollum had heard him.
"Stop worrying about me Samwise, I'll be fine in a few minutes," Frodo said wobbling slightly on his feet as he regained his balance.
I raised an eyebrow at Frodo's obvious lie but it served its purpose and Sam retreated just enough to give Frodo some room. I watched on helplessly as my brother continued forward stumbling and tripping, but always catching himself before Sam could intervene.
So it continued for the rest of the day. We all fell many times, except for Gollum who seemed impervious to falling, and by the end of the day we were all covered in mud and muck. Very, very soon all four of us were sick of the landscape we were in.
"Mister Frodo, Primula look," Sam yelled back at us kneeling in front of a pool of water.
We hurried forward, as Gollum came back, and stood behind Sam gazing over his shoulder at the dirty water.
"There are dead things, Dead faces in the water!" Sam whispered able to see what was in the pool better then we could.
I stopped and tried to suppress a shudder. I had always feared the dead since I was a child and learned my parents had died. I had dreamt their ghosts had come to take me every night for a month afterwards.
"Primula, don't look," Frodo ordered knowing my thoughts like only a sibling could, glancing back at me to make sure I listened to him.
Sam looked up curiously but whatever was in the pool drew his attention again. Then Gollum crawled up to him.
"All dead all rotting, Elves, and Men, and Orcs a great battle fought long ago," Gollum croaked trying to pull Sam away from the pool.
"Bilbo used to talk about it, when you were asleep. He said that they push living beings to look at them and then they ensnare them forever," Frodo said watching as Sam backpedaled rapidly from the pool.
"I remember that, it was a battle from Isildur's time. I used to listen to Mister Bilbo talk about it, the Men and Elves were caught off from the main army and the Orcs decimated them," Sam whispered glancing up at my brother to see if he was right.
I closed me eyes and felt myself shudder. Frodo pulled me closer and continued walking, keeping my head tucked into his shoulder as we passed the Dead.
I pulled my head away and pushed Sam's hand of comfort. Frodo needed the comfort and protection more then I did, and I wouldn't let them forget it.
Although I had not allowed the others to comfort me, I still couldn't bring myself to look over at the pools which I knew contained my fears.
So that's how the day passed, us continuously falling in the mud, and me skirting pools filled with the beings of another age. Frodo seemed to grow weaker and weaker as the hours passed. I tried to ignore the fact that he was steadily falling behind gut I noticed that Gollum was slowing his pace accordingly and glancing back to make sure his Master was still there.
"I got you Primula," Sam said as I started to fall.
He caught me around the waist and lifted me back up to my feet. I felt him turn me around and I smiled as he pressed himself against me lending me comfort and love through the connection. He noticed the blush that was creeping up my cheeks and gave me the smile that I dreamt about before letting me go with a soft kiss on the lips.
Some people say that siblings are linked so closely so that if something happens to one, the other will know about it before they should. That's how I felt, this sense of dread as I turned around to where I had last seen my brother. I blinked as my necklace blazed white and I heard a splash from my right.
"FRODO!" I screamed watching the water settle and hide my brother from my sight.
I ran forward and was shoved aside, roughly, by Gollum who raced to the edge of the pool and dove his hands in, searching frantically for any part of Frodo. I held my breath as Sam helped me to my feet and held my hand knowing how scared I was. Suddenly I heard Gollum grunt in effort and watched him yank my brother away from the pool and the Dead.
I fell to my knees and grabbed my brother not wanting to ever let him go; feeling the sobs that racked through my body Frodo grabbed me back and stroked my hair whispering comfort to me in Elvish, personal things he didn't want the others to understand.
When he finally let go of me to comfort Sam (who was almost as relieved as I was) I looked around and gave Gollum a hug trying to express all my gratitude in that one action.
"Thank you Gollum," I whispered before letting go.
Gollum looked at me strangely and then allowed a nod of his head to show he appreciated it. He stalked off after that, not used to the praise I had given him. I watched him go for a minute or two before I turned back to Frodo to make sure he was alright.
"Come on we have to get a fire going and you into dry clothes," I said as I noticed Frodo hide a shiver in his wet clothes.
"I'll go find some moss we can use as kindling and I found a tree a little while back we can chop for wood," Sam suggested already setting off to get everything that would be needed.
"Primula, it's not safe to light a fire this close to Mordor," Frodo scolded casting a glance at the mountains in the distance.
"And it's not safe for you to catch a cold this far from medicine," I replied calling to Gollum to head back and that we would camp here for the night.
We waited for about a half an hour in which time I had Frodo change out of his wet clothes and into one of the spares he had brought with him. By the time Sam came back and a small, smokeless, fire was lit Frodo was nearly asleep.
"Good night Primula," Frodo said as I pulled him into a resting position on my shoulder, not wanting him to be uncomfortable tonight.
"Good night Frodo, I'll see to it that your clothes are dry by morning," I whispered back nodding to Sam to take my place beside my brother so I could tend to his clothes.
I was for a few hours after everyone else had fallen asleep, tending to Frodo and Sam's clothes since I was to wound up to doze. Gollum kept me company for some of the time before I ordered him off to bed saying I would join him in a few minutes.
Finally when everything was ready for the next day's march I extinguished the fire and lay down near my brother making sure he was warm and didn't have a fever.
Good night…