Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, they ALL belong to Tolkien. Do you HAVE to rub it in?"
.6.
He opened his eyes. He did not know where he was, or how he got there. All he knew was that he was worm and comfortable. Then he noticed the sun. The sun... how long since he last saw it? 'Too long' he thought.
"Good morning!" the kind voice caused Frodo to move his head, and he was surprised to see Gandalf sitting there, his robes completely white.
"Am I dead?" he asked, remembering that when he had last seen the wizard... then again, maybe he better not remember...
"What! Oh... no, no young hobbit – you are most surely alive. You were not conscious for only two days, nothing permanent."
"What happened?" Frodo asked, noticing a missing presence "where is Sam?" "In the next room. He woke up merely three hours ago. He sleeps again, though. But, tell me: how do you feel?" "Starved." His reply made the wizard laugh "Is that so? Well, then you must be well indeed!" And so, they went to check on Sam.
"So what happened Gandalf?" Frodo asked him again "how came we to be here?" "We went to Sam's room and came back." "Gandalf!" "What?" the wizard was genuinely surprised – if you ignored the amused glint in his eyes.
"I did not mean how we got back to my room, I meant how came Sam and I to be in Gondor!"
"Well then you should have said so!" Gandalf said with mock agitation. A few moments later, in a softer voice, he added "what do you remember?"
"I remember the spider. I remember waking in the orc den and him..."here, Frodo shuddered and trailed off. Gandalf waited patently, until Frodo spoke again. "I remember drifting in and out of consciousness. I think a saw – a dream maybe – a grate eagle. And I think I saw Strider... and I felt strong arms lift me... and I woke up here."
"It was no dream." Gandalf answered the question in his eyes. "Aragorn came to fetch you after Sauron was defeated. Gwaihir carried him. They got you and Sam out just in time. Barad- Dur collapsed completely just seconds after Gwaihir took to the sky."
"We are lucky then." Frodo said, more to himself than the wizard. He thought a little. He thought of the orcs, he thought of Sauron, he thought of Sam sleeping in the next room, about everything Gandalf told him... And then, suddenly, he realized something. "Gandalf?"
"Yes Frodo?" he was expecting this question, and was waiting for the hobbit to ask it "What do you wish to know?"
"You said that Strider came 'after Sauron was defeated'"
"Yes." The Istar confirmed.
"You said that Sauron was defeated!"
"Once again, your words are true. I have said so." A hint of a smile was showing on his face, unable to hide his amusement. "How?" the hobbit whispered "How! I thought the only way was to destroy the ring! You told me the only way was to destroy the ring! I did not destroy it! And I for one find it unbelievable that he did it himself!"
"I doubt he would myself. However, the ring was sent to Mount. Doom, and the dark lord – to ruin." The wizard said calmly, reassuringly. "But how?" Frodo asked again, and Gandalf had no choice but to tell him the story of the battle before the black gates.
Throughout the tale, Frodo sat completely quiet, not interrupting a single time. At last, as the story ended, he asked in a soft voice: "How is he?"
"He recovers his strength. Gimli is with him." The slightly reluctant, somewhat worried tone in Gandalf's voice, did not escape Frodo's sharp hobbit- ears. Once again he asked, this time an involuntary tremble tingeing his voice: "How is he?"