My madness deepened as I soared into the unknown north on the horrible thing I scarcely knew how to ride. I drifted in and out of some sort of sleep, continually seeing visions more real than any dream flash before my eyes. I knew not whether these visions were of the the past, present, or future, only that I saw them.

I saw the crowd in Mordor, once again under the authority of the Wizard. The slave boy was gone, but I knew very well what the burning pyre beside him meant. "You are willing to give all to Lord Sauron, who grants Men freedom from death. Are you willing to transcend death and the Doom of Men?" The crowd cheered. He began chanting in the alien tongue, and the crowd followed along with him, until the fire snuffed out and the whole scene became so dark I could see no more.

I saw another scene, with another Blue Wizard standing in the center of a circle of Men of strange appearance, unlike any race I knew of. He spoken an unknown language to the crowd, which nodded in silence and apparent agreement. He raised his arms to the sky, and began speaking the same foul words as the other Wizard, and the crowd joined in chanting along with him, until this scene too faded into darkness.

The first Blue Wizard again, but now above him there swirled a horrible mass of green-white light, made up of what appeared to be the ghastly shades of Mannish forms. He smiled a smile of triumph, one which he was perfectly assured of.

I saw before my eyes the Void, a place devoid of existence. In the center of nothingmess existed Morgoth, who appeared to me as a Man tall as a tower and wearing a Crown of Iron. Around his wrists were clamped a great chain. Voices from a time and place long past floated through my head.

"Now that we have bound Morgoth in the Chain of Iron, we must banish him to the Void."

"You know the Chain cannot hold forever. It will break, and he will escape strengthened by his hatred and malice."

I saw in the deepest mines of Khazad-Dum and the coldest reaches of the North two mighty spirits of fire, Balrogs. They lifted their horrible limbs to sky and their physical form dissolved into nothing, leaving a whirlwind of gold and scarlet light.

The two Blue Wizards, alike commanding their whirlwinds of Men's shades, stuck their hands into the flow. Their bodies glowed with the same bright light, then the shades and Wizards alike dissolved into the same swirls of scarlet and gold.

Yet another new dream showed the sea, with the coast in the distance. A great stream of scarlet and gold flowed in from the land, made up of stolen and forfeited souls. It grew larger, larger, still larger, never ceasing as it accumulated.

Again, the Void. Morgoth lay there still, but then some new existence flowed into the Void. A stream of scarlet and gold now circled the one whose iron chain should never break, should for the sake of all existence never break. The energy converged, flowing into the giant, adding unto him its own power, adding itself to the already unspeakable power of the god. He pulled his arms apart, and a sound like thunder rang in my ears.

I drifted in and out of reality in between those dreams. From the glimpses around me, I saw forests and green and below me, the land of Mordor long gone. As the final vision came before my eyes, I fought to drive it away, but still the unnatural picture came into focus. One the coast of the sea, in this world, the physical world, stood the towering black Morgoth, free from the Void. Hope failed me. If Man was unable to contest with Sauron, what could they do against Sauron's god?

The picture mercifully fading, I felt the Fell Beast descending to the ground. As it touched solid earth I fell to the ground and crawled away. The beast collapsed, dead from exhaustion, and I felt like doing the same. What could I do now that I death embodied walking upon the shore of Middle-Earth?

I looked up at my surroundings. I lay beside a great forest. The old green trees looked somehow very alive, in jarring contrast to the images of death that so plagued my mind, and I felt in this place the complete absence of the Shadow of Sauron.

I heard in the woods a strange noise, which I quickly recognized as singing. Not chanting, but honest, simple singing. Out of the woods ambled the source of the singing, a figure ridiculous and even laughable. He stood about five feet tall, his face reddish and wrinkled, with bright blue eyes and a short brown beard. He wore a bright blue jacket, yellow boots, and a funny-looking hat with a white feather. Though I had no reason to smile with the knowledge of Morgoth, somehow this funny-looking fellow made the affairs of Dark Lords seem far, far away.

"Merry-dol, merry-dol, Tom Bombadil-o!" sang the strange fellow. "Bright blue is his jacket, and his boots are yellow!" I smiled, for the first time in a long while. Tom walked over to me and offered his hand down to me. I grabbed it and he helped me to my feet.

"Thank you," I said. "May I ask who you are?"

He laughed. "You already asked, so Tom will tell you. Tom is the Master of the Old Forest." It all seemed so ironic. Somewhere in mind I knew of the danger of Morgoth, but here I was talking to some eccentric old... Man? Dwarf? Daemon? What was Tom?

"Mr. Bombadil, what, out of curiosity, people do you belong to? You seem rather short for a Man."

He looked at me with a bemused expression, as I had just asked him what color the sky was. "Tom is the Eldest, that's what he is. He was here before the first trees sprouted, and he was here before the Elves..."

"Elves?"

"The tall, pretty folk with pointy ears. Haven't you ever seen one?"

"Oh..." It dawned on me Elf was just another word for Daemon, Elves being their true name and Daemon just a name my people gave them. They, after all, were fighting to defend themselves from the onslaught of Sauron, while my own people were aiding it out of fear. "Yes, I know the people you speak of."

He looked into my eyes. "Something seems to be troubling you. What is it? No matter, for it can't touch you in the Old Forest. Come, have something to eat."

I wanted to resist, to tell him of the impending doom, but somehow my mind was taken off it. I greatly desired food, and nodded my head.

"Tom will return quickly, don't you fret!" He walked casually into the woods, humming to himself. He emerged a minute later with a basket full of food. He sat down, and I did the same when he invited me to. He handed me a roll of bread. "Eat all you like! Tom has more." I took a bite of that food, and no food could have tasted so good to one who had not eaten in two days. He handed me a mug of water, which I drank in my newly realized thirst. He took none for himself, simply singing his nonsense songs as I ate.

This whole ordeal seemed out of place. An ancient evil roamed the land, destroying all, and here I sat eating and listening to the ramblings of... what was he? He wasn't a liar, the simplicity and sincerity of his of his voice told me that much. He wasn't crazy, for he knew very well what was going on around him. He just was, oblivious to the looming danger. In his presence, I began to feel so too, and simply sat there listening to his wild tales and songs.