Just so I don't get sued: I don't own any Lord of the Rings or any of Tolkien's works. They belong to the Tolkien Industry thingy… Stupid rich people. The song for the chapter is My Immortal by Evanescence.

- - - Merry - - -

We pulled up onto the shore. I had no clue where we were. I kept hearing Aragorn and Legolas talking about Amon Lhaw so I presumed that that was the place we were at. We were going to cross the river at night into Emyn Muil. I heard there were tons of orcs over there. Even more than in Moria. I was scared stiff at just the thought.

I steered Grace off to sit on a rock as soon as she had gotten out of the boat so she could dry off. Then I sat down beside her and we talked a bit. I didn't want to help unload the boats. Let the big, strong men do it. And those un-lazy hobbits.

"It's beautiful here. What's the Shire like?" she asked.

After thinking for a while, I tried to describe my home for this girl beside me. "There are rolling hills and hobbit holes in them. The best thing to do is to go into Farmer Maggot's field and take some of his carrots." I clapped my hand over my mouth. "Ooops! Shouldn't have said that!"

Grace started to laugh. Then she reached over and messed up my hair, the same way an older cousin would. "Don't worry, I won't tell. Cross my heart and hope to die."

"What?"

"It's just a saying from where I come from. It means that I won't tell anyone ever." she tried to explain to me. I still didn't understand. So, I nodded and smiled. When in doubt, nod and smile. That was my way out of everything. That, and running. Me and Pippin used that one a lot.

I think she knew I didn't know what she was talking about. I could hear Pippin calling our names. He probably wanted us to help him do something. What a lazy ass. Well, I guess I wasn't much better, I had run off with Grace so we didn't have to unload boats.

Pip joined us and we spent almost an hour sitting in the sun, talking and laughing.

- - - Grace - - -

I had considered telling them. Really, I did. I could imagine all their reactions. Merry, Pippin and Sam probably wouldn't understand. Gimli would disapprove, especially of a lady doing that. Boromir wouldn't fully comprehend my agony, he would assume I was crazy and run off. Legolas would hate me. Just like Haldir would. They were elves. Life was beautiful for them! They loved to live and would be shocked to know someone rejected the chance for life. Frodo would be bored with me. He was too consumed with the Ring at times to even notice what was happening around him.

After our talk about everything, from stealing apples and food, to the Shire, to what we were going to do after our journey was done, we - Pippin, Merry and I - headed back to where everyone else had set up camp. Since I hadn't helped to set up, I decided to get wood for a fire that we would need later.

I wandered off far enough that I couldn't hear Gimli telling everyone how he had gotten a lock of hair from Lady Galadriel. A hair! Woohoo, let's all cheer, he has a piece of blonde hair! I had about three fairly big pieces of wood in my arms. Listening, I could hear someone speaking.

"Lend me the Ring!" It was Boromir. ¹

"No! No!" I heard Frodo cry. "The Council laid it upon me to bear it." ¹

I listened to them argue some more until Boromir sprung over a stone at Frodo. His fair and pleasant face was hideously changed; a raging fire was in his eyes.¹ I saw Frodo disappear and Boromir was left alone, yelling horrible things out to no one. Finally, he broke down and cried. I could only watch.

Suddenly I remembered the fate of everyone rested in the hands of one little, frightened hobbit. I took off to find him as fast as I could. I found a stone sort of platform. Suddenly, he appeared, falling of the top.

"Frodo!" I cried, running forward to him.

His eyes were wild and he ran back from me. Cautiously, like I would with an unfamiliar dog, I reached out one hand to him.

"I won't hurt you, don't fear me, please." His eyes pleaded with me to take the Ring, relieve him of his pain. "I don't desire the Ring. You must bear it." I said.

"I must go, you know that, don't you?" he asked me. I nodded and kneeled on the ground so I was almost the same height as he was. He looked at me and in that one moment, and understanding seemed to pass in between us. We were different than the rest of the Fellowship. Something separated us from them. Something that we had experienced that they never had.

I reached forward to hug him. He really was an adorable thing. I prayed I would get to see him again some day. Swallowing, I nudged him the way I guessed shore was. At the same moment, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Aragorn. He looked at the hilt of Frodo's sword - I could see it glowing blue - then nodded to Frodo, urging him to go.

I stood up and watched as Frodo ran as fast as he could. No matter how fast he ran, I knew he could never outrun it all.

"Go," Aragorn said. "Find some place safe. Battle is no place for a lady." I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off. "You don't know how to fight. I will find you afterwards."

Just him saying that he would find me after, that there would be an after, made me understand that I really needed to get out of there or else all he'd find of me were little pieces. In my last look back, I saw Aragorn duck, and hit a huge, gorilla-ish creature with his sword. Go Aragorn!

I ran, hopefully not right into those slimy gorillas, as fast as I could away from the stone platform. The next thing I saw was Boromir, sword out, with Pip and Merry behind him, fighting off ugly gorilla men. I yelled out a silent cheer for Boromir. My hero! Well, not really. That was Aragorn's job.

Well, I guess I cheered too soon. How can you cheer for someone right after they've been shot with an arrow? My point exactly. Getting hit with an arrow was enough to make Boromir faulter. He fell to one knee and most of the gorillas ran past him, picking up the hobbits on the way. I almost let out a yell then, but I didn't want to get caught did I? No, I did not.

One arrow was not enough to stop Boromir though. Oh, no. He took another two and was still conscious and trying to stand. What can I say, that guy was brave. I wouldn't be that brave when I had an arrow in my face. Granted, Haldir had done that to me, but Haldir wasn't a dirty, stinky, gross, vomit-inducing, ape man.

That, I took as my cue to step in. As Mr. Gorilla Boy was drawing his arm back, about to let Boromir have an arrow right between the eyes, I let out a Xena-like cry and ran forward. I smashed into him (I have to admit, it was quite the tackle) and he fell over, me on top of him. Needless to say, he was surprised. If he hadn't been, there would have been no way for me to get off of him and two feet away without losing some limbs.

Uh oh… I might have saved Boromir, but who was gonna save me? This guy knew how to fight. It was sheer luck that I had managed to knock him over. And I guess luck was with me because who should burst through the trees to kill this overgrown gorilla for me but Aragorn? While Mr. Hot Ranger Dude was doing battle with Gorilla Boy over there, I crawled over to Boromir.

"They took the little ones!" he gasped out.

"Shhhhh, it's okay, you're going to be okay." I tried to sooth him. Okay, I admit, that would be the last thing I would wanna hear if I was impaled on three arrows and knew everything was definitely NOT going to be okay, but what was I supposed to say?

He must have known I was lying to him because he shook his head and said, "This is the end. At least I will die with honour."

Well, there's a kick in the pants! What was I going to say to that? Yep, you're dying! or You're going to get out of here and you're going to make lots of babies! Titanic anyone? God, gag me with a spoon. The giant gorilla over there, seemed to be trying to do that to Aragorn right at the moment but I thought he could handle it so I stayed with Boromir.

"Boromir," I said, trying to tell him my secret before he left forever, "I just wanted you to know that those um, cuts that everyone wondered about… were uh, caused by me. I thought, maybe, you should, kinda… I dunno… know if you… y'know… didn't make it." Wow, how lame was that?

I guess he didn't have too much time left to be shocked, so he just reached up and touched my face. "I'm sorry I never got the chance to show you Gondor. You would have loved it, beautiful one. Never give up hope in yourself or the Fellowship. "

Then, Aragorn decided to interrupt this little moment of ours; I guess the stinky gorilla hadn't been a match for him. I backed off to let them have a last macho-man moment. Without knowing it, I had been crying. I turned around, not wanting to see this.

And look who was here. Legolas and Gimli. Little late guys? Why didn't they come before he got shot? One look was all that Legolas needed of me to see I was upset. Now, from what I've heard about elves, they're not really the touchy-feely sort. So, you can guess how surprised I was when he laced an arm around my waist and squeezed a bit. Good ol' Leggy! Gimli clapped a hand onto my shoulder. I turned and smiled a very watery smile down at him.

The worst was when Aragorn said we had to move the body. Can you say scarred? After we had put what was left of Boromir into a boat and sent it over a waterfall Aragorn just had to say: "Let's hunt some orc!" I hope I never hear that ever again.

(A/N: Haha! Poor Boromir… Oh, and I know the people were weird in the boats. I moved them around so it would all work out. I switched Pippin and Gimli and then added Grace in. I hope you don't mind! Sorry if I got the names of places wrong! Tell me in REVIEWS if I did. Later dayz!)

¹ The Fellowship of the Ring, page 390