Chappie 6

The Winding Stairs… of DOOM!

A/N: Here it is… The Return of the King! Buahahha! Look for annoying telepathy of doom!

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, other than Elanor.

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Much to all of our relief, Gollum had decided to take a path through the woods for some miles, avoiding the roads, along with giving us the cover of the trees. Faramir had provided all of us with plenty of dried meats and fruits, along with several loaves of bread. At the rate we went at, we covered some twenty miles before resting for the night. The sun fell very early, and my brain still hadn't adjusted to going to bed so early. However, my body gave up a good fight and I collapsed at the foot of a large tree.

That morning, (or whatever time it was) I woke up to see Gollum hovering over me. I let out a scream.

"How dare you lean over me like that!" I sat up. "Did I ever give you permission to come over me! What's your problem! Back off!" Sam grinned.

Gollum crawled backwards, getting some good distance from me. I help up the paperweight defensively.

"So sorry, yess. But hobbits must get up at once, yes, they must!" He said. "Long ways to go still, south and east. Hobbits must make haste!"

We went along at the same pace, almost the same way as the day before. I noticed that the silence around us deepened the further walked, though. Gollum occasionally stopped to sniff the air, and then made us move along at a faster speed. Several hours later, I became aware that the trees had cleared, and we were nearly standing out in the open. The trees were scattered far and wide, and there was no move of any bird, or small animal for that matter, to be seen. Gollum became even more wary, and made us hide in the shadows of the trees.

With night approaching, we finally came to the end of the forest. We were standing over a large valley, overlooking another forest ahead. To the left, I saw what had to have been Mordor. It looked barren, with no signs of life to be seen. Mount Doom leered over us in the distance. On my right, I could see a red sunset, framing Gondor. My mind went out to Lorwen, for I felt utterly afraid, and knew that either one of us may not make it back to see each other.

I had just remembered! We both had telepathy. Smacking myself on the forehead, I tried to contact Danielle.

"Danielle? It's Elanor."

"Where are you?" She asked.

I tried to remember where we were headed next. "We're coming to the witch-king's tower."

"Well, the battle of Helm's Deep went pretty okay..." Uh oh. Danielle never trails off like that. Something was up! I knew it!

"I can feel your sadness...what happened? Did Lego or Bubbles die!"
"No...Haldir fell during the battle.." I stopped walking. The poor thing, after all of that… they could have had a house together, with three kids, and a little white picket fence, and a dog named 'Skippy' with a black spot over one eye!

"Oh, God...How in the world are you handling it? I myself by then would have committed suicide by drowning myself in a vat of blueberry muffin dough..." I resumed walking. We were coming towards a dark road, and I could sense we were getting closer to the Witch king's tower.

"I have to go, we have reached the tower. Time for Frodo to act possessed! Please do not worry too much, I don't want you to become a sad elf. Sad elves are not cool elves, ok?"

I 'hung up,' and stood, looking up at the tower. It was completely dark outside, but there was a pale light coming from the building. Not any light, mind you! It was of a greenish color, and although it illuminated the building, it stopped a few inches away from the walls. Gollum continued to lead us through the darkness, occasionally looking back at us.

We came to a white bridge, leading into the land of the Witch king. A river foamed beneath us, giving off steam. I began to walk the other way, when I caught Frodo walking over the bridge. I let out a cry.

"Frodo, no!" I shouted. I ran over towards him, and grabbed him by the arm. He continued to stumble forward, reeling like a drunken man.

"Not that way!' Gollum hissed. "No, not that way!" This time, Sam ran over and took Frodo by his other arm.

"Hold up, Mr. Frodo!" He came by Frodo's ear. "Come back! Not that way. Gollum says not, and for once I agree with him."

Frodo stopped struggling, and brought his hand up to his brow. He twisted his head away from the tower, and finally turned back.

We trudged along a dark, narrow path for a while, having nothing to light the way aside from when Gollum would turn his head around. I swear, I was going to have nightmares from his eyes! We finally reached higher grounds, away from the stream. It had just hit me like a rock how far we had walked, and I begged to stop for a rest. They complied, and we sat down near a large boulder nearby. At once, Gollum started to complain.

Frodo leaned over, looking to be half asleep. Gollum continued to tug on Frodo, beckoning to come.

"Not yet, not yet" He replied. "I must rest." I looked over at Gollum, who just made more attempts to get us to leave.

"Not here, no. Not rest here. Fools!" Gollum hissed. "Eyes can see us. When they come to the bridge, they will see us. Come away! Climb, climb! Come!"

Sam turned to Frodo again. "Come, Mr. Frodo. He's right again, we can't stay here."

I looked to Frodo, full of worry.

"All right," he replied, "I will try." he stood on his feet. I went over to him, and felt the ground shake.

"Earthquake!" I whispered, dropping to the ground. Californian instincts never really left me. Gollum hoisted me up.

I spun around, and saw what appeared to be a bolt of lightning shoot up from the ground. A wave of noise and light followed it. The clouds lit up overhead, with the beam of light still radiating. Thunder and more lightning followed, in shades of blue and orange. Thousands of cries came from the tower, horses whinnied and battle cries were heard. Then, a long shriek, with a higher pitch than any I had heard let loose. I cast myself on the ground, holding my hands up to my ears.
The cry finally ended. I looked up, holding myself at eye level with the gate, that was now wide open. The army of Mordor filed out. Their ranks had to be at least ten thousand, as far as I could see into the building, there were orcs. And still they came. There were black horses, and Uruk-hai, captains, trolls, and any other fell beast you could possibly imagine. And at the head of them all stood their King, cloaked all in black, save a crown on his head. I had not previously seen any of the Nazgul before, but it was unmistakable. I turned my gaze towards Frodo, and realized it was that very creature that had stabbed him on Weathertop. Frodo drew his hand to his shoulder, wincing with pain. I crawled over towards him and held his hand.

Suddenly, the entire company halted. The man at front turned his head around, looking in all directions. He was sensing the Ring. I saw Frodo's free hand move slowly towards his neck, groping for the Ring. I stared, unwillingly, having no clear idea of what to do. Then, I saw his hand move slowly back, and grip something out my of sight. He sighed and bent his head forward.

The band of orcs continued walking, row after row, and Frodo spoke.

"The storm has burst at last. This great array of spears and swords are going to Osgiliath. Will Faramir get across in time? He guessed it, but did he know the hour? And who now can hold the fords while the king of the nine Riders comes? And other armies will come. I am too late. All is lost. I tarried on the way. All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will know. There will be no one I can tell. It will all be in vain." He began to weep. And still, the army of Mordor crossed the bridge.

I leaned over to him. "It will not be in vain. You will succeed, and everything will be back to the way it was. And Faramir will overcome his deranged father, and you will accomplish your task. And I'll see Lorwen again… you and Sam will save Middle-earth. There's no place for despair, here. You just need to finish the task that was given to you." Frodo wiped the tears from his eyes. Sam came over, I took my pack and got up.

"Wake up, Mr. Frodo, wake up!" He whispered.

"He's not asleep, fool!" I rolled my eyes. "Maybe tired, but not asleep. We had better get going, it looks like the orcs have finally gone." Sure enough, the last of the orcs had walked out of sight. Gollum came crawling up, cursing.

"Foolish, silly!" He looked at all of us. I shuddered and turned around. "Must make haste! They mustn't think the danger has past. It hasn't. make haste!"

Frodo was now standing, smiling even. I noticed a light shine through his shirt, it must have been the Phial Galadriel gave to him. I walked back over to him, and motioned to follow Gollum. We all began walking.

We came to a rock wall, that appeared to have been damaged. The indentations turned out to be the stairs.

"How the hell are we supposed to climb that!" I shouted. I didn't receive any replies, and they were already starting up the cliff edge. I muttered and started climbing.

It really was hell trying to get up the cliff. Each step was placed unevenly, and a couple crumbled under my feet as a climbed up. After an hour or so of climbing, with no clear view of the top, I started to give of hope of getting there. Gollum looked down at us.

"We're up.' He whispered. "First stairs past. Clever hobbits to climb so high, very clever hobbits. Just a few more little steps and that's all, yes."

I crawled up the last few steps, and threw myself onto the ground. I sat rubbing my knees and feet for a few minutes, when Gollum spoke up again.

"There's another stair still. Much longer stair. Rest when we get to the top of next stair. Not yet."

Sam turned around and groaned. "Longer, did you say?" he asked. I laid back and tried to rest while I could. My legs were still throbbing from the climb.

"Yes, yess, longer." He replied. "But not so difficult. Hobbits have climbed the Straight Stair. Next comes the Winding Stair."

"And what after that?" Asked Sam.

"We shall see. Oh yes, we shall see!"

I backed up a few inches. "Alright, Gollum, you're just starting to creep me out now." He smiled.

Sam brought up the damned tunnel again, to which Gollum told us we could rest when we got to the top of it. Frodo stood at the side of the cliff we now faced, shivering.

"Well, let's go on!" He said. "This is no place to sit in."

At that, we started walking again. We were in a dark passage that seemed to go on for miles. The whole while we seemed to be rising upward, and there was a cold wind coming in on us. We finally came out of the passage, or at least partially. The entire right side of the cliff was exposed, and we were standing atop a large slab of stone. I looked around, trying to discern the shadows around us. In the distance, there was a faint red light. Everything was dark. I felt a tug on my leg, apparently I had gotten left behind. Gollum stood near my feet, trying to get me to move. I started walking again.

After what had to have been hours, we came to the winding stair. It wasn't built directly into the mountain, but rather a path winding up along the road. I didn't really see the point of the path going all over the place instead of in one straight line, but Gollum urged us all to keep to the path. I followed reluctantly.

At last we came to a short flight of stairs, which opened up to what seemed to be another level in the mountain. The red light was stronger, which I wasn't able to tell whether or not was a feeble sunrise, or a shadow of the giant flaming eyeball of DOOM, also known as Sauron. We were completely surrounded by rocks and boulders of all sorts, but mostly the large kind. I looked ahead to the end of the road, and saw two massive, black towers ahead. There was a horn atop each one.

Sam lifted his head up, looking towards the towers. "I don't like the look of that!" He said. So this secret way of yours is guarded after all." He turned now to Gollum. "As you knew all along, I suppose?"

"All ways are watched, yess." Gollum said. "Of course they are. But hobbits must try some way. This may be least watched. Perhaps they've all gone away to big battle, perhaps?"

"Perhaps." Sam grunted. "Well, it still seems a long way off, and a long way up before we get there. And there's still the tunnel. I think you ought to rest now, Mr. Frodo."

I pouted, feeling neglected.

"I don't know what time of day or night it is, but we've kept going for hours and hours." Sam stated.

"Yes, we must rest." said Frodo. "Let us find some corner out of the wind, and gather our strength- for the last lap."

We all sat back against the wall, and took a small meal. I was extremely thirsty, but Sam would only let me take a mouthful of water. Damn rationing. After we ate, I went ahead and laid down to get some sleep. Frodo and Sam must have not noticed, because they were talking the whole while.

I woke up later to hear Frodo crying out in his sleep. Taking brief notice of the fact I was laying in Sam's lap, (not to mention I was sleeping next to Frodo) I sat up and turned to the offender. Of course, it was Gollum pawing at Frodo's hand.

"Hey, you!" Sam grunted. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing, nothing." Gollum replied softly. "Nice master!" If I hadn't known better, I could have sworn he was smiling.

"I daresay. But where have you been to- sneaking off and sneaking back, you old villain?"

Gollum leaned back on all fours, recoiling. "Sneaking? Sneaking! Hobbits always so polite, yes. O nice hobbits! Smeagol brings them ways that nobody else could find. Tired he is, thirsty he is, yes thirsty; and he guides them and he searches for paths, and they say sneak, sneak. Very nice friends, O yes my precious, very nice."

"Sorry. I'm sorry, but you startled me out of my sleep."

"Me too!" I chimed in.

Sam shot me the death glare… of DOOM!"…and I shouldn't have been sleeping, and that made me a bit sharp. But Mr. Frodo, he's that tired, I asked him to have a wink; and well, that's how it is. Sorry. But where have you been to?"

"Sneaking." Gollum hissed.

"O very well," said Sam. "have it your own way! I don't suppose it's so far from the truth. And now we'd better all be sneaking along together. What's the time? Is it today or tomorrow?"

"It's tomorrow." Gollum answered. "Or this was tomorrow when hobbits went to sleep. Very foolish, very dangerous- if poor Smeagol wasn't sneaking about to watch."

"I think we shall get tired of that word soon. But never mind. I'll wake master up." Sam leaned over Frodo and smoothed back the hair on his head. "Wake up, Mr. Frodo! Wake up!"

Frodo opened his eyes and smiled. "Calling me early aren't you, Sam? It's dark still!"

"Frodo! You're awake! And smiling!" I leaned over and hugged him.

Frodo took a deep breath and sat up. "Hullo, Smeagol! Found any food? Have you had any rest?" He asked.

"No food, no rest," He replied. "nothing for poor Smeagol. He's a sneak."

"Don't take names to yourself, Smeagol. It's unwise, whether they are true or false."

I coughed. "Sneak."

"Smeagol has to take what's given to him." he said bluntly. "He was given the name by kind master Samwise, the hobbit that knows so much."

"Hey! You're forgetting someone, aren't you?" I stood up and looked over at Gollum.

Frodo turned to Sam. "Yes sir," Sam replied, "I did use the word, waking up out of my sleep sudden and all finding him at hand. I said I was sorry, but I soon shan't be."

"Come, let it pass then." Frodo said. "But now seem to come to a point, you and I, Smeagol. Tell me. Can we find the rest of the way by ourselves? we're in sight of the pass, of a way in, and if we can find it now, then I suppose our agreement can be said to be over. You have done what you promised, and you're free; free to go back to food and rest, wherever you wish to go except to the servants of the enemy. And one day I may reward you, I or those who remember me."

"No, no, not yet. O no! They can't find the way themselves, can they? O no indeed. There's the tunnel coming. Smeagol must go on. No rest. No food. Not yet."

"Well, doesn't that just sound pleasant?" I picked up my backpack. "We had best be on our way then."