A/N: You think I have even the remotest chance of claiming these? Of course they're Tolkien's. Tell me when it's my turn to bring chips & dip to MSA, Dread Lady Freya. (What, you think I'd give that away?) Dutch's Girl, you're probably right on the bow. While I don't think he'd have much trouble pulling it, a six-foot weapon of destruction is a bit awkward to transport. It's now changed, for future readings.
After he returned to camp, Aragorn told the others: "Tomorrow we'll separate. I'm no wizard and I can't make your choices for you. It will ultimately be up to each of you individually on whether you ought to go to Gondor or Mordor." Frodo said he wished to go for a walk to think things through, and Aragorn let the hobbit go with a gentle warning not to stray too far from camp.
Frodo wandered aimlessly, his thoughts more upon the Ring than the path in front of him. He made his way up to a high stone platform in this fashion, gripping the chain about his neck firmly with one hand. Facing southeast toward the tower of Mount Doom in contemplation of the next step of his task, Frodo never noticed the tawny-haired form behind him. "It's not safe to walk the forest alone, Frodo," the tall, unexpected being said, sending the hobbit jumping two feet into the air.
"What news, Boromir?" Frodo asked, attempting to shake off his initial fear. Despite this, the Ring Bearer's suspicions rose with every step the man took toward him.
"Chev'yahna's returned with a roe buck in tow. It's cooking now, whenever you're ready for dinner." Boromir gathered up another couple of sticks into the sizable bundle he held under one arm. He gestured openly with the last of these branches. "You look like you could use some friendly advice, Master Baggins. Do you want to talk about it? You know I'll always be willing to help you with this."
"Indeed." The hobbit said with a soft, biting tone. "Your words would ring true were it not for the warning in my heart."
"Warning? I'm just a friend trying to help you." The Steward's son affected indignant surprise.
"It is a warning against delaying any further. A warning against the path that seems easiest. And, though I hate to admit it, it is above all else a warning not to trust you." Frodo stood as tall as he could, one hand on the Ring and the other upon his blade; the inheritance of his uncle's adventures.
"What witch has corrupted your mind? I seek only to ease your burden." Boromir took a step toward the hobbit, his free hand opened toward the Ring Bearer beseechingly.
"It will only be lightened when this has been cast into the burning pits of Mordor," the hobbit said tightly, clutching the Ring to his throat.
"Why must you be made to suffer so much over such a thing, Frodo? Such a little thing…" A long hidden malady glazed the prince's eyes. "Give it to me, Frodo. Perhaps it corrupts the weak-hearted, but my will is strong enough to fight corruption. I do not desire it for a dark lord's power, simply to protect my people. For in the right hands it could be a great strength for our side. And only the strongest, most ruthless survive and triumph. I am willing to use that strength, even if you and Strider are too afraid, hiding until Sauron's armies ride down atop you. Why don't you let the boldest use it? If you and the Dunedain are too womanish to use a powerful weapon when it falls into your lap, why don't you let a real man lead you?" In the distance the wolves howled a warning, an ominous chorus to Boromir's raving delusions of grandeur. Frodo had backed as far away from him as possible, but he could not keep from the madman forever. "And they tell us to throw it away!" Boromir continued. "If we had a chance of destroying the Ring I would have a different opinion. But is sending it with one small halfling into our enemy's greatest stronghold where he has every chance of reclaiming it really the best plan the council of the wise could come up with? You're afraid, Frodo. I cannot blame you." Boromir, easily twice Frodo's height and weight, all pure muscle, loomed over the small hobbit. "Simply let me attempt my plans, will you?"
"The council entrusted the Ring to me," Frodo choked out.
"You can blame it on me," Boromir said more gently. "You can say I was too strong and overpowered you. For I am much too strong for you, halfling!" Dropping the bundle of firewood, the big man lunged at Frodo. "The Ring came to you by chance. It could have been mine. Should have been mine. Give me the Ring!" Boromir growled as Frodo dodged him behind a rock. Not wishing to face the onslaught any longer, Frodo slipped the One Ring onto his finger and disappeared utterly from view.
Boromir stood in shock. Then he heard the crunch of the previous autumn's leaves going down the hill of Amon Hen. "I see your mind now, you treacherous halfling, you little thief!" he cried out, drawing his sword. "You'd take the Ring back to Sauron and betray us all to your master!" Boromir started to run after the invisible Ring Bearer, but then he tripped over one of the scattered sticks and fell flat on his face. The blow to his head was finally enough to clear Boromir's deranged senses. "What have I done?" he whispered, not bothering to get up off the ground. "Frodo! Come back, Frodo! A madness possessed me, but it has passed. I beg of you, please come back!"
Frodo, meanwhile, was running away as fast as his bare furry feet could carry him. Boromir was hardly his only concern. After this standoff Frodo knew he could tarry no longer, but he knew not where to go. He ran through the forest, his vision blurred by tears and the strange properties of the Ring. His only immediately rational thought was to avoid the campground. Boromir would return there soon with the news that Frodo had fled from him. The Ring Bearer doubled back along his path, flying up to the very top of Amon Hen where he sat ill at ease upon the stone dais of the ancient kings of old.
Once again, the hobbit was seeing a vision of the terrors of Mordor under the influence of the Ring and his frightened wits. And this time Sam was not there to shake him out of the dream. Frodo felt the burning eye of Sauron upon him, and thought he heard Nagzül sniffing out the Ring just behind the terrified hobbit. The eye seemed to demand its Ring from Frodo. "No! I defy you!" he heard himself shouting, even while some twisted part within Frodo that he had never before been aware of wanted to run to the Eye of Sorrow, run to its master. This latter part of him was slowly taking control as his courage weakened under the continued glare of the fiery eye.
"Take off the Ring you fool!" a voice told him. It had no external source that Frodo recognized; yet the wise council sounded far too much like Gandalf to have come up from inside the hobbit's torn subconscious. It sounded like the most reasonable advice he had heard all day, despite the fact that Frodo could not decide if he was hearing ghosts, going mad, or both. He slipped the Ring off and counted solely upon his race's natural ability to hide until he got back in range of the camp. The hobbit heard the voices of his friends calling for him, spreading out among the trees. Steeling himself, Frodo put the Ring on and waited for the last of the group to leave the area.
Boromir had indeed told the others about Frodo's disappearance, through not the reasons behind it yet. Aragorn had been distrustfully scowling at the Steward's son, guessing silently at the truth. Tasana had looked strangely relieved. The others seemed too agitated by Frodo's flight to divine his motives yet. They had left Sam's warm cuisine untouched, the younger hobbits calling and running for Frodo, heedless of the dangers of the forest, the rest of the company not far behind.
Samwise and Aragorn had been searching together when Frodo's old friend figured out the Ring Bearer's scheme. Not even stopping to warn Strider in his rush to get back to the boats, Sam was just in time to see one of the vessels push off from shore without any apparent passengers or propulsion. "Mister Frodo! Wait for me!" Sam shouted. He waded hip-deep into the swiftly moving water and attempted to dog paddle out to the boat.
"Go back, Sam. Samwise… you can't even swim!" Frodo's agitated voice came from the empty boat. Paddling over to the place where Sam floundered in the undertow, Frodo grabbed his hand and hauled his bedraggled friend into the boat. Then he took off the Ring, appearing suddenly out of thin air with a long-suffering sigh. "I could have been well on my way to Mordor now if it weren't for your blasted interference, Sam," Frodo said, paddling to shore.
"And leave poor liddle ol' Sam behind? That'd be awful cruel, Mister Frodo." The younger hobbit shook himself, attempting to wring out his elven cloak.
Frodo couldn't help but smile at his friend, but nevertheless he tried to keep a serious face. He could not take Sam, no matter how much Samwise wanted to go. No matter how much Frodo wanted to take the younger hobbit with him. "I have to be cruel in order to be kind. I don't want anyone else to have to suffer through this." The expression sounded empty to even Frodo's ears. Yet he had convinced himself of the truth of these words what seemed like a decade ago; was it only two nights before that he had decided to go to Mordor alone?
"I'm not lettin' you go without me, Mister Frodo, and that's a fact. That'd be just cruel hard. I promised Gandalf I'd stay with you and I'm gonna keep that promise." Pippin and Merry had not made such pledges of loyalty, although they too would probably have joined Frodo as well, had they known. It had been Merry who had gotten the three young hobbits under Frodo's window that fateful night. Merriadoc and Peregrine, the old scamps, had been able escape Gandalf's attention, of course, but Samwise was too slow and had been lifted bodily through the window and thrown to the floor, where he whimpered out all he had heard under questioning and stammered out a promise to help Frodo through his quest. Not that Sam regretted that promise. He would have followed his best friend in any case.
"I suppose there's no changing your mind then?" Frodo sighed as his friend nodded determinedly. "Grab your pack, then, and let's go." They left the fellowship behind, never really noticing the horn blasts or wolf howls rising in the distance. "You know, Sam… I'm really glad you came along." Frodo added after a moment, smiling as they paddled toward an uncertain future. "It's nice to have a friend with me."