Hello everybody. Back again. Just a quick foreword just in case you don't read my other story – I have now decided on a new policy to help me stay on track with this story. I have decided from now on I will update both stories at the same time on Sunday every week. This should help to stop myself from procrastinating because I know those who do read my stories will be expecting something to happen on that day so unless I have a very good excuse, from now on, both chapters go up on Sunday. So you should expect another update exactly a week from now. And if you don't get one, feel free to yell at me. Stop my laziness!

Enjoy the chapter.


To Be a King

Chapter 50:- Nazgûl in the Night


For the most part, the walk through the Dead Marshes was made in silence. And the silence seemed to do nothing but make the place more eerie, hanging over everything like the fog that also seemed to drift through the place. Fortunately the fog only seemed to come in thin wisps, so if anything the silence was even heavier than the fog itself. Which didn't exactly make things better for any of the company of nine trying to make their way across.

But none of them could help it. None of them dared to make anything more than a whisper, though it was on a subconscious level. It was as if they thought that if they spoke loudly enough, the dead bodies would rise up out of the water and lurch towards them.

They knew it wouldn't happen. The bodies really were just bodies and they weren't dangerous as long as you didn't fall into the water where the spirits of those bodies could get at you. Or at least that's what they were all trying to convince themselves.

But the Digimon in particular felt horrible chills creeping up their backs. All of them except Lunamon had been there during the time that Xros Heart and Blue Flare had entered Vampire Land, home of NeoVamdemon. Dondokomon and ChibiKamemon had actually seen a LadyDevimon burst out of the ground in the middle of a graveyard and lunge at them. And those LadyDevimon had been amongst the scariest foes they had faced, largely because it took total disintegration to actually make sure they stayed dead.

None of the company had the power to disintegrate a body in their current forms.

So none of them wanted to risk anything that could make a similar scenario repeat itself.

Still, at least they had shrugged off most of their fear. Now that they had more of a sense of purpose and they had a promise that they were definitely heading in the right direction to get out of this godforsaken place, they were moving much faster. Because all of them, including the Monitamon that had only recently arrived here, had had more than enough of this place. They all wanted out as soon as possible and that leant wings to their flight.

Still it wasn't an easy trip. The tussocks of grass made it difficult for the small creatures to move. Dondokomon was having a particularly difficult time of it since he didn't have proper hands to help steady himself when things went badly. He tripped over a tangle of grass and stumbled to the side, flailing his drumsticks wildly and his bulbous body not really helping his balance. But moments before he went stumbling into the stagnant water, Sam managed to grab one of the drumsticks and pulled him back upright and away.

"Phew," Dondokomon breathed a sigh of relief, looking perturbed at the body and the little flickering flame where he would have fallen. "Thanks Mister."

"At your service, Master Drum," Sam nodded, helping Dondokomon still further by hefting the small Digimon into his arms and carrying him – an action that Dondokomon had nothing to complain about. Sam's eyes fell on the back of their guide's head as he walked. Gollum bounded on ahead, doubling back every so often to make sure that they were still following and that they didn't lose him in the mist.

Sam was still trying to puzzle Gollum out. Before, he had been dead set on the idea that Gollum was nothing but a villainous scoundrel that was only helping them to get close to them so he could get a chance to steal back the Ring that he so craved.

But then of course then Gollum had gone and saved him, pulling him out of the swamp after he had gone and fallen in.

What was Sam supposed to make of that? Sure, he could have saved Sam to look good in front of both of the Hobbits and so get them to further lower their guard. Sam reckoned that he was certainly crafty enough to do it. But at the same time, surely if Gollum knew that falling in the water would end in their death, it would have been in his best interest to let the spirits have Sam. If it had been Frodo then sure, pulling him out would have been his only choice because if he lost Frodo then he lost the Ring. But Sam should have been expendable in Gollum's view.

So what was the deal with that?

Could it be true that there were really two sides of Gollum? He remembered Mister Bilbo's stories of the wretched creature. One moment he had a happy face and was grinning and smiling and the next he would be snarling and hissing. And apparently he kept telling himself to 'shut up.'

Sam shook his head. He resolved to watch Gollum carefully anyway to make sure. He wasn't ready to give Gollum his full trust yet. But maybe he was more willing to admit than before that there actually might be some good in the guy. Somewhere.

But he would have to see that for himself. He was still insisting that he be between Gollum and Frodo for the time being, though fortunately Frodo didn't seem to have picked up on that fact yet.

The procession continued on its way, with ChibiKamemon in the middle and Lunamon at the back, carefully placing her feet wherever Frodo did to try and make sure she didn't end up back in the water. She also wanted to put as much distance between herself and that Gollum as possible. He seriously creeped her out. And considering he had attempted to kill her and was intending on eating her, this was hardly surprising.

She was certain that she wouldn't miss him when they parted company at the edge of the marsh.

Still, it looked like the marsh was beginning to thin out, which was perfectly fine with all involved, even Gollum. He didn't particularly have a problem with this place in terms of its spookiness but he was hungry and the only thing this place had to offer him in terms of food were bugs and apparently creatures that he was not allowed to eat. Like that juicy white rabbit traipsing at the back of the group. That looked crunchable. But apparently if it could talk then it wasn't allowed to be food.

He supposed that meant he wouldn't be allowed to eat any goblinses if they came across any. Not that they would here.

As Frodo looked up, towards the dark distant mountains of Mordor that were inching closer with every step, he felt as if the chain around his neck got heavier in that precise moment. He tried to ignore it and step on, but it was as if the darkness of Mordor was spreading out across the sky towards him.

Then for a moment he thought it actually was, as if it was seeking to engulf him.

But then he just realised that it was more like a giant cloud of ash that covered the entire land, blotting out the sun over Mordor. The shadow layer was slowly spreading out across the other lands too, rendering it darker than it should have been at this time. It was almost like twilight at all times.

"Have you noticed?" Frodo broke the silence again. "The night seems to come on earlier and earlier with each passing day. And we're in a time of year where it's supposed to be doing the opposite."

"And it's doing it at a bigger rate than usual. Yes, I noticed it too, Mister Frodo," Sam nodded with a grim expression. "It's like the closer we get to those mountains, the earlier the Sun leaves us behind. I don't like it. Not one bit."

"Yes, yes," Gollum's voice came from up ahead as he twisted around to look at them. "It is the work of him. There is no Sun over Mordor. The yellow face never shines over there. The close we get, the quicker the darkness comes."

"Well, that's mighty reassuring," Sam muttered.

"What is that place?" Lunamon asked, stepping up to Frodo and hiding behind his leg. "Behind those mountains? What's there?"

"Nothing good," Frodo said. "But nothing you should worry about either. You don't have to go there."

"But you do?" Lunamon asked.

Frodo pretended he didn't hear the question and stepped forwards. "Come on," he said. "We should try and cover as much ground as we can before it gets too dark to carry on safely."

"Something tells me that's not going to be long," Sam replied, watching as the air visibly seemed to turn darker around him.


However, it didn't take them much longer before they all decided they needed a rest. The darkness had not set in properly yet but the sky they could see in the distance had the orange-golden colours of sunset. But neither of the Hobbits could tell what time it was anymore. It was like they had totally lost track of it. And after a long time trudging through the marshes, most of them were ready for sleep.

The Digimon huddled together with the Hobbits as they settled down. Frodo was still a little uncomfortable in their presence, convinced that any one of them could leap for his throat and try and prize the Ring away. But he tried not to let it show. These creatures all claimed to be from another world and though he could scarcely believe it, if it were true, then they knew nothing about the Ring.

And Frodo was determined to keep it that way for as long as possible.

"It's a good thing that this lot won't be travelling with us beyond the Marshes, Mister Frodo," Sam murmured to him. With six extra mouths to feed even the lembas bread would run dry much faster. We'd have to keep stocking up supplies."

"Well," Frodo offered a smile. "At least for now they're decent company."

"This stuff is just so weird," ChibiKamemon stared at the wafer of bread held in his hand. "I don't think that I'll get used to this even if I ate this for the rest of my life. One measly bite and I feel like I can keep walking through the night."

"Yeah, but still, what I wouldn't give for a decent box of DigiNoir right now," Dondokomon said, as he took his own bite of the bread. "That would be a real treat."

"At least these nice Hobbits are good enough to share," Lunamon said as she was passed the leafy wrapping. "Just like Shoutmon."

"Oh yeah, I remember," ChibiKamemon nodded. "He gave you his entire box that time, didn't he?"

"He's a very generous King, for sure," Lunamon nodded with a smile.

"Ooh, does somebody have a crush on the King, huh?" Dondokomon snickered, nudging Lunamon with a drumstick conspiratorially.

"No!" Lunamon protested. "No, nothing like that! I don't have a crush on him. Well… maybe I had a bit of one back when I first met him but it was just a silly kiddy thing. It was mostly hero worship. But I do think he's the most awesomest of awesome Digimon ever. He's so cool."

"Ah. Well if you ever do fall in love with another Digimon make sure you don't tell them that," Dondokomon stated.

"Thanks for the advice," Lunamon said dryly.

"Your King sounds like a fine man," Frodo noted. "Not unlike a Man that I myself know."

"Well he's not a man, he's a Digimon, but yeah, he is a great one," Lunamon nodded.

"No doubt about that," ChibiKamemon agreed. "I wish he was here. If he was, I bet we wouldn't have to worry about any nasty old corpses. He'd pulverise them."

"I wonder where he is right now," one of the Monitamon murmured, and the group lapsed into silence again. Sam and Frodo were wondering now what had become of the rest of their party as well. Frodo felt a great guilt in his heart at how he had just left them behind. Last he'd seen of Merry and Pippin, they had been distracting a group of those giant Orcs to allow him to get away. Did they escape? Aragorn, similarly, had been battling them to give him the chance to escape.

What had happened to them all?

He had no way of knowing.

The sad atmosphere stayed over the campsite as the darkness crept further in and eventually the group lay huddled on the ground, most of them sound asleep. Frodo however, couldn't sleep. He hadn't been doing a lot of that recently anyway but no matter how tired he felt, he never seemed to get beyond an hour or so.

As always happened when he thought nobody was looking, he ended up pulling the Ring out from where it was hidden beneath his shirt to look at it. It was almost like it seemed to get stronger in the darkness and he could feel, as he always did, the near-irresistible urge to put it on. He knew he couldn't of course, but it was like an unconscious nagging always at the edge of his mind.

He hated the damn thing but at the same time he couldn't help but admire it. He ran his fingers across the smooth golden surface because doing this seemed to help resist that urge to put it on, as if he was stroking a dangerous animal that was highly tempted to devour him, but was putting it off for the moment because it liked being scratched behind the ear. He had no idea whether that was the case or not, but that's what it felt like.

But there was also the horrible black thought in his brain that he was petting it because it was…

…Because it was precious to him.

There was that word again. Precious. It seemed to follow the Ring around everywhere. Bilbo once told him that even Smaug had referred to it as more precious than gold.

And as if Frodo's thoughts were being broadcast, he suddenly heard Gollum muttering to himself nearby. "Such a deceptive little thing, it is," he said, prompting Frodo to jump and stuff the Ring back down his shirt where Gollum wouldn't see it. "So lovely. So pretty. Nothing like anything else He ever made, no precious, no."

"What?" Frodo gasped, looking up at him. "What are you talking about?"

Gollum had his back turned and was staring off in the direction of Mordor. "Master knows what we mean. The Dark One makes orcs and spiky towers and death. But his most dangerous weapon is his most beautiful. And it was once our birthday present, wasn't it? Yes, yes it was."

Frodo got to his feet, unsure if he wanted to be lying down and more vulnerable when Gollum was talking about this.

"Birthday present?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"Mustn't ask us," Gollum turned to look at him out of the corner of one large eye. "Not its business. And a long time ago it was. We can barely remember it ourselves."

"A long time ago?" Frodo stepped towards him. "You're talking about before you lived in the Misty Mountain, aren't you? Gandalf told me that you lived on a river out under the Sun. Is that where you were? When you found it?"

Gollum hissed. "It wasn't us that found it. But it was my birthday. And we wanted it."

"But back then… that was before you were Gollum, wasn't it?" Frodo insisted. "Before everything bad happened to you. I heard that you were once a Hobbit yourself. Or at least something like a Hobbit. Isn't that right? That's what Gandalf said."

Gollum said nothing, but kept avoiding Frodo's eyes when he stepped around him and knelt down to look at him.

"Was he right?" he pressed. "Don't you remember anything else? Back when you went by another name… Sméagol?"

Gollum froze for a moment, his head twisting upward to look at Frodo in wide-eyed shock. His voice came out in barely a whisper. "What was that you said?"

"I said Sméagol," Frodo repeated. "Gandalf said that was your real name. The one you were born with. Before Gollum, there was Sméagol. Is that true?"

Gollum looked stunned. "We… I… I had a name," he breathed. "The one my mother gave to me. We had forgotten it… We… I… am…Sméagol…"

And for the first time that Frodo had seen, Gollum actually had a smile spreading across his face. Not a bright grin or a wide-eyed appealing look to his master but a real, genuine smile of happiness, as if Frodo had just given him the greatest gift that he could imagine. Frodo wondered how much else he could have forgotten about his past. What had he gone through in his five-hundred years in the cave. What things did a person have to go through for them to forget their own name?

What Frodo had not been aware of though was the fact that Lunamon, who obviously had large ears, had woken up part way through their conversation and had overheard much of what they had said. The small rabbit Digimon was watching them both from where she was lying and while she still found Gollum to be as creepy as heck, she felt her heart going out to the guy. She didn't know his full story of course, but it just sounded so… miserable. And lonely.

And if he had once been like Frodo… what went wrong? What in the world could have caused him to become the creature that he was now? Her stomach churned at the very thought.

The closest thing that she could compare this to would have to be the time where she had come into the thrall of Olegmon, back when the pirate Digimon had been evil. But asides from the fact her mind was warped into being a servant of evil, that experience really hadn't been that bad. Most of the time she'd just messed around and had fun and chanted "Gappo gappo viva Oleg-na" over and over again, whatever that meant.

She'd thought that that experience of losing yourself had been bad at the time.

Now it just seemed like a joke in comparison to what she understood about Gollum. Or Sméagol as the case may be. Because even then, she'd never forgotten her name, or indeed anything. To her, it had all just seemed like she had made new friends, which was really what Olegmon had been intending since he too had found friendship to be a valuable commodity.

Gollum had been through stuff several million times worse than that. She didn't know what, but she didn't have to know to know that it was true.

But just as she was pushing herself to her feet to go over and join the conversation, a sound ripped through the air that froze her blood in their veins and seemed to cause all her muscles to freeze up and stop responding – a high-pitched wailing scream that seemed to jack-knife right out of the sky and directly into her brain.

Simultaneously, everyone else shot up, all those who had been asleep rousing at the exact same instance and the blood draining out of Sam's face as he did so. Frodo practically fell over and Gollum flattened himself to the ground.

"What was that?" ChibiKamemon cried.

"The corpses are after us!" Dondokomon shouted.

"Worse!" Sam yelled, seizing the two Digimon by their limbs and pulling them away. "It's them! The Black Riders! Quick, get under cover!"

"Hide, hide!" Gollum was shouting, springing for cover, darting across a short expanse of boggy water and pressing himself underneath an overhang on one of the banks as far back as his spindly limbs could push him. The Monitamon wordlessly followed him, huddling together underneath and Lunamon, who had never felt such terrible fear strike her so quickly, remained frozen to the spot, her eyes wide like a dear in the headlights.

Frodo, on the other hand, had a more violent reaction, yelling and keeling over backwards and clutching at his chest, screaming as if in agony and holding just above his heart. He almost flattened Lunamon as he fell and she saw his face had gone completely white, his eyes telling a tale of untold horror that she never wanted to hear told.

Sam had leapt across the water and deposited ChibiKamemon and Dondokomon underneath the bank when he heard Frodo's scream and turned back. "Mister Frodo!" he yelled, jumping back over and seizing Frodo by his shoulder and arm, hauling him up and dragging him back with him. Frodo scrambled to stay upright and go with him but yelled again as another scream, louder this time, penetrated the air and he almost lost his footing again. The feet of the two Hobbits sloshed into the water, but neither of them noticed or cared at this point as Sam threw himself under the bank, bundling Frodo under with him and crouching down as best they could.

"Not them again!" Sam hissed. "I thought they were dead. Drowned up near Rivendell!"

Gollum looked at him like he was an idiot. "Dead?" he hissed. "The wraiths of Mordor do not die so easily!" He then looked out across the marsh and hissed, "The bunny! What's it doing!"

"Lunamon, hurry!" ChibiKamemon waved wildly from beneath the bank.

"Get over here, quick!" the Monitamon were bounding up down. Lunamon seemed to get the message and unfroze, beginning to scramble in their direction, but the scream sounded again and for a creature with such large ears the noise almost shattered her eardrums this time. She keeled over, almost falling in the water again and pressing her ears flat against her head, right as a shadow fell across her.

"It's going to give us away!" Gollum moaned, but everyone else had lapsed into a deep silence, listening with bated breath and unable to move a muscle. They heard a swooshing noise above them, like a flapping canvas, and it was followed by another sound – not a scream this time but a noise that sounded like a combination of a screech and a roar, and as they peered out from under the bank they were hidden beneath, a huge winged shape shot across the sky above, causing them to pull back even further.

Lunamon, still out in the open, got the full view. At first she thought it might be MailBirdramon, as it had a similar body shape, wings and legs and a head on a long neck, but its tail was long and thin instead of short and three-pronged. And the wings were leathery and bat-like and flapping, not metallic and plane-like and stiff.

The huge, winged beast wheeled around for another pass across the area and this time, silhouetted against the moon, Lunamon could see something was riding it. Between its wings was a figure the size of a man, hunched over in the shadow and its long black robes billowing in the wind. Another terrible screech rent the air and Lunamon felt paralysed by fear again. But the scream didn't come from the flying steed. She could definitely tell it came from the terrible Black Rider.

"Lunamon…" hissed Dondokomon. "Quick, get over here. Before it sees you!"

But Lunamon could only shake her head and flatten herself against the ground, looking up in terror as the giant winged beast dove out of the sky right in her direction. It shot overhead so fast that the wind from its wings blew her backwards, almost sending her rolling right into the water.

The air seemed to grow heavier as the fear filled everyone up. An unnatural amount of it entering their bodies and trying to clam them up. Frodo felt his eyes rolling into the back of his head as once again his mind was filled with a fog that seemed to blanket out all of his thoughts except for one. Put on the Ring. Hide. Disappear and it'll never find you. There was some rational thought clawing at the edges of the fog, telling him that he'd already put the Ring on in front of them and they'd been able to see him just fine, that if he did, the Black Rider would know where he was instantly.

But the rest of him seemed to smother out that thought and he found himself reaching for the Ring.

Lunamon, meanwhile, was watching as the flying dragon-like creature twisted around in the air again, evidently finding this section of the marsh very interesting. It was dipping lower than ever and Lunamon knew for sure that if they hadn't done already, this time it would see them when they passed overhead.

That was the point where a long-fingered hand seized her by the arm. She started to screech in terror but another hand clamped over her mouth, muffling the cry before it could begin. She looked up and saw the bleached, ugly and terror-ridden face of Gollum. The haggard being had dashed out and grabbed her and bounded back towards their hiding place, throwing her ahead of him and causing her to crash straight into Frodo and roll down into his lap. Frodo yelped and pawed at the Ring he'd just let go of when Lunamon hit him, causing Sam to notice what he was trying to do and seize his wrists, pinning them to the ground as Gollum tossed himself back into place next to them.

"Mister Frodo, it's okay! Don't do it! Don't put it on! Remember what Gandalf said!"

The Digimon stared at them in bewilderment, particularly when Gollum added, "They're searching harder for it! They know it's closer than ever!"

ChibiKamemon was about to ask what they were talking about when there was a thud from nearby. Everyone instantly froze up, knowing what that sound meant. The huge winged thing has just landed nearby, and now, all of them could hear the blood-curdling snuffling noise coming from its rider. They must have seen Lunamon and come down to investigate.

Nobody was breathing beneath the bank, hearing scuffling noises coming from not far away that indicated something heavy was trying to find a comfortable position. Lunamon had her hands together as if praying and was trembling with terror. ChibiKamemon was fighting the urge to shrink into his shell and Dondokomon had his drumsticks crossed over his face.

The Monitamon, on the other hand, were more hyped up and one of them scooched to the edge of the bank as much as he dared before peering out. The huge draconic creature was standing not twenty metres from their hiding place, and the rider was scanning its head backwards and forwards like a surveillance camera, a motion that creeped even the Monitamon out and that was saying something since its own head was a television set. Just as it turned in their direction and the Monitamon pulled back, he noticed that there was no visible face in the folds of the hood. Not even a trace that there was even a face there.

What do we do? He asked the other two Monitamon on their own internal servers to make sure the rider couldn't hear them.

The other two looked at it each other in bewilderment for several seconds before one of them had an idea. Before any of the others could comment on their behaviour, they darted out of hiding, but did so at a blazing speed so fast that the eye couldn't keep track and they vanished into the darkness.

"What are they doing?" Sam hissed. "Are they mad?"

But the Black Rider and his mount gave no indication that they had noticed anything amiss, and none of them could see the Monitamon anymore. But the other Digimon knew they were there. Even rookie Monitamon were very good at keeping themselves hidden as long as there was something to hide them.

And then, suddenly, a white rabbit emerged from a hole nearby. Frodo and Sam blinked and Lunamon looked surprised, but evidently the rabbit caught the attention of the Black Rider and his mount. The bat-winged mount roared and spread its wings, launching itself into the air and passing a mere couple of metres overhead of their hiding place. Its huge jaws lanced down and snapped up the bunny, before it rose into the air, letting out another roar as it did so. The Black Rider let out one final screech before it wheeled around and the two of them headed back towards the distant mountains that marked the borders of Mordor.

As the Black Rider flew away, the fog of fear that it brought with it fled at the same speed. Each of the company could feel its presence of evil departing, like the shadow was peeling off them, allowing them to breath properly again. Moments later, the Monitamon appeared back under the bank, with smiley-face emoticons plastered across their screens.

"What happened?" Sam asked. "What did you guys do?"

"Quite simple really," D-Monitamon-3 announced. "We knew he came down here because he saw something weird. Probably Lunamon. So we had to make him think that he just saw an ordinary white rabbit, so we used a visual projection to create a fake one." They aimed the antennae on their heads down and sure enough, right in front of the group, a white rabbit appeared out of thin air, scratching at its ears. The Hobbits stared at it in awe and Gollum tried to grab it, but his hands passed through the thing as if it wasn't even there, which of course it wasn't. It was just a hologram.

"That's amazing," Frodo said.

"Yeah, we're glad it worked," D-Monitamon-1 giggled. "Hopefully that rider guy thought that what he saw from the air was a trick of the light and that it was just an ordinary white rabbit, but I imagine that flying thing was a bit confused when its jaws clashed down on empty air. It's probably still wondering what the heck happened."

After a moment of quiet the entire group, with the exception of Gollum, dissolved into laughter. Gollum himself was still trying to grab the white bunny, and was a little put out when the Monitamon stopped their illusion and it vanished again. But it was the first time in days where any of them had been able to have a laugh of any kind and it seemed to overwhelm them a little bit. It took them several minutes to stop and when they did, they were all out of breath.

Then Lunamon remembered what happened and turned to look at Gollum, who had skulked off a little way to the edge of the group, watching the winged beast as it became a dot on the horizon. "You," she blustered, catching his attention. "You… saved my life. You actually saved me. Even though you tried to eat me before."

Gollum stared at her. "Well what does it expect?" he said. "It was putting us all in danger. If the wraith had found it then it would have found all of us, it would."

Lunamon's ears drooped and she looked uncomfortable. "I'm so sorry," she muttered. "I just… froze. And because I was so scared I almost got us all caught by that thing. I couldn't move. It was so horrible."

"It's not your fault," Sam said. "Those things are pure evil. Everybody's scared of them."

"But still…" Lunamon sniffed. "I should have done better. I'll… try to be braver next time. Just like a Xros Heart Digimon is supposed to be. And even if you didn't do it for me… thank you for saving me… Sméagol."

Gollum and Frodo both looked at Lunamon sharply, both getting that she had overheard their conversation before. Gollum looked nonplussed, unsure what to do with this. Nobody in his memory had ever thanked him for anything before and suddenly this little bunny was doing just that.

"Still… what was that thing?" Dondokomon asked. "And why was it trying to get us?"

"More to the point… why was it trying to get you?" ChibiKamemon asked. "What was it looking for when you said they were searching for something?"

"I don't think that your journey is really about what you said it was, is it?" D-Monitamon-3 asked. "All that stuff you were saying before about proving yourself. That wasn't true at all, was it?"

Sam and Frodo glanced at each other.

"Look," Frodo murmured. "We really shouldn't be talking about this with you. We're grateful for your help in making sure the Black Rider didn't find us, but we shouldn't divulge anything to you. This is our quest, not yours. And remember you promised that we would part ways after we reach the edge of the marshes. You wouldn't be able to help us even if you knew what we were doing. And the fewer people know, the better."

"We're not exactly people though, are we?" ChibiKamemon asked. "And we can tell that whatever it is you're doing, its probably insanely dangerous. Especially if you have enemies like that… thing."

"At least tell us what that was," Lunamon pleaded, looking up at Frodo with big eyes.

"Well… I suppose that couldn't hurt," Frodo muttered. "Well… you see that was a Black Rider. Or at least that's what we call them. They're also called Ringwraiths, or Nazgûl. There are nine of them and they are the top servants of the darkness in this world."

"Nine of them?" shivered ChibiKamemon. "So there are eight more of those things out there?"

"Assuming they all survived and apparently they would have," Sam muttered, casting a glance at Gollum. "When we started our journey all of them were chasing us, trying to catch us. One of them stabbed Mister Frodo in the chest with his dagger."

"Yes, and just then I felt as if he was stabbing me anew," Frodo pressed a hand to the spot on his chest where the wound was located. "Perhaps it was the same one. But before they could catch us, an Elf Maiden named Arwen saved me and magically summoned the river to wash them away in a great flood. I thought they had all drowned. But apparently they just gained better things to ride than horses."

"Trying to drown them on those things is going to be a lot harder," Sam agreed.

"Well it sounds to us that your journey has a much darker purpose than you were letting on," D-Monitamon-2 folded his arms, displaying a grumpy face on his screen. "And I don't think I can stand not knowing anymore."

"Yeah, after that, I think we all deserve an explanation," D-Monitamon-1 nodded.

"You don't understand," Frodo said imploringly, looking round at all of them. "If the enemy learns of my purpose…"

"Well, we're not going to tell them," Lunamon promised.

"It's not a simple promise to make," Frodo insisted. "They might make you tell them. The less you know the better, for everyone."

"Mister Frodo's right," Sam nodded. "Look, we're sorry it has to be this way but that's just the way it is."

"Only if you make it that way," ChibiKamemon stepped forwards, placing a hand on his shell. "Listen, I don't know why you keep trying to push us away but I know that's not the way you should do things."

"What do you mean?" Frodo frowned.

"I just mean that you get stronger when you have friends by your side," ChibiKamemon insisted. "That's the main thing we learned from being with Xros Heart. The more the better. Nobody can make it through on their own. And I know that you have one friend with you, but bonds of friendship make you stronger the more friends you have. Please, tell us what you are doing."

Frodo looked at the six faces looking up at him earnestly, his conscience torn about what he should do. There were more reasons why he was refusing to tell than he was letting on. Not only was he worried about putting the quest in peril, but if he told them about the Ring then would they not be tempted by it just as Boromir had been. Surely here their ignorance on the matter was keeping them from falling under its spell.

And there was also the fact that he had not actually told Gollum, or Sméagol, what he was intending to do. All he had told Gollum to do was to take them to the Black Gate. He had given no indication about what he would do when he got there. Of course there was the possibility that Gollum had already learned of their intent to destroy the Ring and had not mentioned it. But Frodo didn't want to risk what would happen if he found out his 'precious' was under threat.

But as he looked out at the faces before him, he wondered if he had much to worry about on the former point. He remembered what Gandalf had said. It was the mighty and the powerful that were easier for the Ring to influence. It was why a Hobbit such as himself had been chosen to bear it. Gandalf was a being of much more power than he, and would have had a far better chance of fighting the enemy. But someone like him would never have made it to Mordor without falling to the Ring's power if he were carrying it.

Of all the companions he could have come across, perhaps these six were among those that were in the least amount of danger of being corrupted by the Ring.

He clenched his fist, unsure what to do. He looked across at Sam, who looked equally unsure, but he looked at Frodo and said, "I don't know, Mister Frodo. But I'll stand by your decision. Whatever it is. It's your choice to make."

Frodo then looked to Gollum, but he was standing on the edge of the bank, his eyes clouded. Perhaps he was remembering more things from his past. Frodo didn't know if he was paying attention or not.

The Lady Galadriel had told him that he needed to proceed alone. But that had mostly been to prevent the Fellowship from falling apart and being destroyed, as it would have done if they had stayed together. Would this new Fellowship, this new group of nine, fare better?

Frodo decided to chance it. After all, given how scared all of this six were, he very much doubted any of them would be willing to follow him into Mordor anyway.

"Very well," he said, and he slowly fished the One Ring out from the Chain around his neck, nodding to Sam to keep an eye on Gollum, just in case he tried something while the Ring was in sight. "This is the Ring of Power. And it's the most dangerous object in this world. This is what the Black Rider was looking for."

And so he told them. Everything. Everything that Gandalf had told him back at Bag End about Sauron's past and how he came to forge and lose the One Ring, right through the Ring's history and how it came to end up in his possession. When they heard about how the Ring had tortured Gollum's mind for five-hundred years, Lunamon had clapped a hand over her mouth in horror, looking like she was about to be ill. Gollum made no move, but he did hiss a little when Frodo explained how his uncle, Bilbo, had acquired it.

Then he told them all about his quest to destroy the Ring and how if he succeeded, then the entire world would be saved. The only way to destroy Sauron was to destroy the Ring and thankfully, the moment that was accomplished the war could end. But he also explained how the only way to accomplish this task was to head to the place where the Dark Lord himself lived – into his own country of Mordor, to destroy it in the volcano where it was made.

"It will never be an easy task," Frodo said. "We're heading right into the most dangerous place in all the land. But we must or there is no hope for anyone in this world. Sauron's army will consume everyone unless he is stopped. And that is the task that we have been given. That is what we must do. And that is what we will do."

All of the six Digimon looked ill. Even the Monitamon had managed to portray the sensation by turning their screens an unpleasant shade of green.

"That sounds… horrible," ChibiKamemon held his stomach.

"How can just the three of you hope to pull of such an impossible task?" Lunamon asked.

"It's madness," D-Monitamon-1 agreed. "It's… it's ludicrous."

"Nevertheless it's the truth," Frodo nodded. "We must find a way. Everything is riding on us. And actually in this case we have a better chance of succeeding with a small force. We have less chance of being discovered in small group. We could do what an entire army could not and sneak past the enemy."

"At least that's the theory," nodded Sam. "We'll have to wait until we get into Mordor to see if it works."

"And you won't have to be there to see if we'll succeed or not," Frodo said. "Like you said, you'll be leaving us at the end of the marsh. But now you know. Everything. And you have to promise that you won't tell anyone about this. Really I only told you because I felt obligated to and…

"No," said a voice, and the other Digimon were surprised to hear it was Dondokomon who said it. The little drum stepped forwards and fixed Frodo with a stubborn eye.

"You can go into Mordor and try and destroy that thing," he said. "But you'll have to put up with me tagging along. I'm going with you."

"What?" Frodo gasped. "You are."

"Yeah," Dondokomon nodded, banging on his head for emphasis. "It reminds me of what Taiki did right at the end of the war with the Bagra Army. He put himself in the greatest danger possible, launching himself into the Dark Stone, so that he could save Shoutmon and everyone who had fought so hard to free the Digital World. He couldn't turn his back. And Akari and Cutemon went with him because they couldn't turn their backs on him either. And we're all Xros Heart Digimon. We're not the strong and powerful ones… but we still are. And that's what we're going to do too. We won't turn our backs."

"He's right," ChibiKamemon nodded. "I meant what I said before. Friends are what make you strong as an individual. And you're going to have lots of friends coming with you, seeing this quest through to the end. We owe it to ourselves, to you and all of our other friends."

"We're with you too," the three Monitamon chorused. "You're not going to get rid of us that easily. No way."

"Technically," coughed Lunamon. "I'm not a Digimon of Xros Heart. Not really." The others turned to look at her as she scuffed her foot, but then looked up with a hardened face. "But in this case I might as well be. And since we can't melt that Ring in the fire of Xros Heart's passion, let's go toss into that volcano right."

"Yeah!" the Digimon cried.

Sam chuckled at their enthusiasm. "Well, what do you know, Mister Frodo," he said. "Looks like we may have picked up a few more travelling companions than we thought."

"You are really all willing to come with me into the depths of Mordor?" Frodo asked. "The most dangerous place in this world?"

"We went into the most dangerous place in our world too," ChibiKamemon said. "We'll do it. We will never bring shame to the name of our army by backing down when there are others in trouble."

"I… I don't know what to say," Frodo said.

"Don't say anything then," D-Monitamon-1 suggested. "Let's just get moving."

"Right," Frodo nodded. "Gol… I mean… Sméagol… will you lead us on."

Gollum held his silence for a long time. An uncomfortably long amount of time. Frodo was just about to prompt him, when he said, "You are trying to destroy the precious?"

"Yes," nodded Frodo, guardedly. "Yes, I am. And I want you to help me, Sméagol. I want us to work together, to free us both from the curse it brings upon us."

Gollum twitched a little, but he turned to Frodo with his face neutral, neither angry nor happy looking at this idea. "We must go," he said. "We will show you the way. The Black Gate is not far now. Come with us, precious."

And he hopped off across the bog like normal. The rest of the group looked at each other, all wondering what was going through Gollum's head right now, but they all got up anyway and followed on. With a new sense of companionship to their group, they struck out once again across the Dead Marsh landscape.


Well, I hope you liked that. Played out a little differently to how it did in the film didn't it? Hehe. Another policy I have started is that I am going to stop doing the little "next time" descriptions at the end of each chapter. The chapter title alone will suffice. Leaves some more room for mystery in some cases, I think.

See you next week. Unless I have a VERY good excuse. Which I hopefully will not have because it would have to be bad to be considered a good excuse.


Coming up:- Chapter 51 : On the Borders of the Shire