--------------------------------------------------
Three days passed after their encounter with the not-so-brave Faramir. The only thing that kept Sam from slamming his head against the nearest tree was the fact that there WERE trees. This small area was such a change from the dead, unfoliated wastelands that they had previously traveled through that it made Sam want to dance and sing. Not that he would.
For those three days, Sam tried to revel in the splendor of his surroundings. And then, it all came crashing down around him. The moment they turned east, the trees vanished for dead thorn bushes and an arid desert was all that was in sight.
"I should have taken that left turn in Albuquerque," Frodo said. Sam turn and glared at his friend, but knew that nothing could be done. Hopefully, they were close to their goal.
Days passed, and the wasteland was affecting them all. Sam was getting a little more edgy with each passing moment, Frodo seemed to be getting more and more insane, and Gollum... Well, Gollum seemed to be plotting something in his deranged little mind. Sam did not want to know what though.
About a week into their stay in the lovely land of Oh-Valir-I-Didn't-Know-Things-Could-Get-Worse, Sam and Gollum were blissfully asleep, and Frodo decided it was time to wake them up. He stepped up beside Gollum.
"You've got to wa-a-a-ke up, honey... oh no, you wet the bed again... Why can't I have a normal child without these problems?" Frodo sighed, and Gollum jumped up and shrieked. Sam was awake shortly after and did his morning things, and they were set to start leaving.
It was not long before they entered Morgul Vale.
"Hobbits must hurry!!" Gollum said, while Sam and Frodo followed behind. Sam was slightly suspicious of why Gollum seemed to be in such a hurry, but Frodo had other things on his mind.
"The captain of your brainship is drunk," the crazed hobbit muttered under his breath. Gollum merely glared and stopped, pointing ahead of them.
Before them all were the steepest set of stairs the hobbits could ever had imagined. They seemed to stretch past the heavens and into oblivion.
"The stairs," Gollum said in awe. Then, he got a crazy glint in his eyes. "What rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs..." Gollum started sing.
"For the love of the Shire, no!" Sam yelled and threw a frying pan at the singer's head.
Gollum managed to duck out of the pan's path but hung his head in defeat. "It's Log, Log, Log!" He finished under his breath, and they started up the stairs.
After what seemed like forever, they reached the top of the stairs and found themselves at the mouth of a dark and dank tunnel. "What now?" Frodo asked Gollum but, when he received no answer, he turned and found the creature gone. "He's gone!" Frodo told Sam. "Where could he have gone?"
"WHO CARES!" Sam was a little more than happy with the disappearance of the creepy Gollum. "We might as well go into the tunnel. It's the only place those cursed stairs lead to, anyway." And so, they did.