Title: Defeated
Written By: Dreamdancer
Email: dreamdancer@tekken.cc
Summary: After Gandalf tells Frodo about the Ring and the quest to Rivendell, the young hobbit decides to go there…alone. The Nazgul are already in the Shire, however, and because of the difference in time, and Frodo's lack of companionship, there is neither Sam nor Valinor-headed Elves to distract him from the call of the Ring when the Nazgul are near.
Can he possibly make it alone?
Although the One Ring has enough power to conquer armies, even while in Sauron's possession can it truly break the predestined bond that exists among the Nine Walkers?
Or is it inevitable that Sauron will fail, and despite all obstacles, a Fellowship will exist and would free the world from his shadow?
AU
Disclaimer: Characters, places, and events used are all property of Tolkein and his family. Of course I don't own anything. Some lines from the book are used here... No profit is being made…I'm just doin it cuz I love this book.
Author's Note: Inspiration for this story came from hours of frustration when playing the FOTR PS2 game and getting caught by the Nazgul each time. Hahaha, I never beat the game cuz I was so bad at being a sneaky hobbit… I have much more respect for Frodo after that experience…if it is even possible for me to have more respect for the lil guy than I already did…
Yeah and the fic WILL include more characters than the hobbits…Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Boromir, perhaps Gimli and Arwen will also play major roles, as well as all the baddies.
They're all coming…in later chaps.
Enjoy…
~*~
"I am sorry Sam. I cannot take you to see the Elves."
Frodo sighed as the thought entered his mind and he realized that he must leave alone.
He trusted Sam would follow through with their plan despite his absence, and cover up the fact that he left, but if not, that seemed of little importance.
He had realized something when taking tea with Pippin and Sam for the last time in Bag End. He felt the beginnings of guilt stir in his heart, and who wouldn't, seeing Sam's smiling face, and joking remarks, as well as Pippin's? Sam belonged in the Shire, in a place full of peace and beauty, not in an outside world with something horrible enough going on to worry Gandalf. Frodo felt he would be the worst kind of fool to involve his truest friend in all this talk of Rings of Power and the Dark Lord and danger and secrecy… He would come back for Sam when it was all over, and then take him to see the Elves. Just not now…not when there was the risk of losing him.
"So it's settled then. I'm leaving alone," he said aloud, to the walls of Bag End, soon to belong to the Sacksville-Bagginses. And a sense of wrongness filled him as he said those words, but Frodo did not recognize it for what it was, and called it sadness, when it was truly a warning against his current course of action.
Frodo did not heed it. He wrapped up loaves of bread for himself in some cloth, and put on his dark green traveling cloak, opened the door and ran a hand through his brown curls.
The time was not yet sunset – it was at least an hour till.
Green eyes burning with what Frodo told himself was excitement, but was in truth unshed tears of good-bye, Frodo looked up at the blue sky and began to walk toward the forest, promising not to look back.
The Shire had never looked so beautiful to him as on the day of his lonely departure. Children were running back and forth, giggling, and Frodo had never felt so much love for them as he did now, but he dare not show it, for it would arouse curiosity. So he walked on, with purpose, past a turn that would have taken him back to Bag End to meet up with Sam and the others, on toward the forest.
But as he passed the turn, he could not help but think of his friends, and, the setting sun shining upon him, he turned, as if to start walking back. Yet even as he took his first step toward the fateful change in path, his resolve strengthened, and he turned toward the direction of the lonely forest once again.
"I'm doing this for Sam," he said to himself.
He did not know that without Sam he would not be able to do it at all.
~*~
The sun set, and a Nazgul headed for Old Gaffer's home to enquire about a certain Baggins. The retreating sunlight fell further back as he rode onward, the darkness of his form rivaling that of the deepest shadows ever seen in the serene Shire. Yet suddenly, he paused in his ride, and pulled his horse to a stop. A familiar feeling, almost forgotten, yet always remembered, pulled at the remainder of his soul, and quickly he changed his course.
The stars were thick in the dim sky…yet there was no moon. A piercing, unholy scream echoed throughout the Shire, and none could even guess at its source.
~*~
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow if I can,
Pausing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
Frodo smiled as he sang the words of a song he felt he had made up himself, but was sure he had heard from Bilbo in years past. He could almost hear Pippin appreciating the tune, and turned as if to address him in return, but then remembered he was alone, and Pippin could not be there, would not have been there anyway, and wondered at the sense of displacement that was overwhelming him.
He had not met a soul on the road. The way was not used much, being hardly fit for carts, and there was little traffic to the Woody End. He had been jogging along for an hour or more after singing his song when Frodo felt something inside him tell him to stop and listen. He could hear a pony or a horse coming along the road behind, and at once thought it was Sam, Merry, Pippin, or all three coming after him. Or perhaps it was Gandalf! But even as Frodo thought this he felt that it was not so, and a sudden desire to hide came over him.
Frodo ran quickly to a little hollow not far from the road, and lay flat, listening. A sudden pang of what could have been curiosity assaulted him, and he hesitated to hide for a second, but as the approaching sound of hooves grew nearer, he threw himself down in a patch of long grass behind a tree that overshadowed the road.
When the rider reached the tree it stopped its horse. It appeared to be a large man to Frodo, dressed in a great black cloak, his face shadowed and invisible. From inside the hood came a noise as of someone sniffling to catch an elusive scent.
A sudden unreasoning fear of discovery laid hold of Frodo, and he thought of his Ring. He hardly dared to breathe, and yet the desire to get it out of his pocket became so strong that he began to slowly move his hand. The advice of Gandalf seemed absurd. Bilbo had used the Ring. "And I am still in the Shire," he told himself, and his hand touched the chain on which it hung. At that moment the rider sat up and shook his horse's reins. The horse stepped forward, walking slowly at first, and then breaking into a quick trot.
Frodo sighed in relief. After seeing the black rider, he was more than pleased with his decision to leave Sam behind.
~*~
"Where do you think he's gotten to?" Pippin questioned, peering into the darkness. He was sitting on his pack on the back porch. Sam had just come back from draining the contents of the beer-barrel in the cellar. All traces of a drunken stupor had disappeared when he discovered that Frodo was nowhere to be found.
"Perhaps he found out that we found out and has made off on his own," Merry suggested, frowning.
"No. Mr. Frodo would never do that," Sam said strongly, his worry rattling his nerves. The three fell to silence then, the sounds of the night permeating the air.
"Which way would he go if…if he did…decide to go on his own, not leaving us behind but just…checking out the way ahead, if you take my meaning…?" Sam asked, not looking at his companions, but straight ahead, waiting for Frodo to materialize out of the darkness. The hobbit sighed. "Yesterday evening, my Gaffer told me that a strange fellow had come around asking for Mr. Frodo. Said it hissed at him when he said Mr. Frodo had left for good…it gave him the shudders."
Merry and Pippin regarded him curiously but Sam said no more.
"Well I'd say he's probably heading to Woody End, Sam. And if he thinks he can go on an adventure without us, he's wrong!" Merry decided.
"Let's get him!" Pippin agreed, bouncing up from the porch and clapping Sam and the shoulder. "Ha! I can't wait to show him how hard a Took is to get rid of!"
And despite Merry and Pippin's jovial, unworried moods, their pace was as quick and urgent as Sam's.
The unearthly screams that echoed in the night did not ease their minds.
~*~
Frodo stopped suddenly and stood silent as a tree shadow, listening. There was a sound of hooves in the lane, behind him, coming clear and slow down the wind. Quickly, he slipped off the path and ran in to the deeper shade under the oak trees.
As the hooves drew nearer he had no time find a hiding place better than the general darkness of the trees. The sound of hooves stopped. As Frodo peered up he saw something dark press across the light space between the two tress, and then halt. It looked like the black shape of a horse led by a smaller black shadow. The black shoadow stood close to the point where he had left the path, and it swayed from side to side. Frodo thought he heard the sound of snuffling. The shadow bent to the ground and then began to crawl towards him.
Once more the desire to put on the Ring assaulted Frodo. He felt his hand move, as if by its own accord, to the chain where he wore it around his neck. The shuffling sounds grew closer, and Frodo felt the presence of evil crawling all over him. His breathing stopped, and he squeezed his eyes shut, the internal struggle to stop his hand from moving causing him to sweat. His heart thudded in his chest, and as he slipped the ring onto his finger, he felt as if he was waiting for something to interrupt him, and he almost heard the laughter of Wood Elves, but realized it was his imagination once more. And so there was nothing to save him from the temptation of the Ring.
Suddenly the world changed, everything was hazy, and Frodo jumped up in surprise, and then noticed he was fully wearing the Ring. He heard a shriek, loud, yet muted somehow, by some words by some voice he could not identify, but was everywhere, and suffocating. He turned around, and he saw the Nazgul in its true form, and just as it pierced him with its sword and reached out to grab the ring, he turned to the left ina vain attempt to block the blow. His eyes fell on Sam, Merry, and Pippin, who were watching him in horror, and he felt a sudden sense of failure when he realized that they wouldn't get away either. For there were four more Nazgul behind them, even though they did not know it.
Were those tears on Sam's face? But he had left alone to avoid those tears. Maybe it was his own tears, just blurring his vision.
Then the Rider took the Ring, and as the world went out of focus Frodo realized he had also failed Gandalf, and wondered what would happen to the world now.