Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings.

Chapter 11 – The Second Tough Decision

After spending a full day of rowing down the river, the fellowship landed on the shore to make camp for the night.

"Run!" Boromir yelled over at Merry and Pippin.

There was a battle going on. There were numerous creatures with metal armor covering them from head to toe.

Merry and Pippin quickly complied with Boromir's order. They ran behind him.

Though they were on the sidelines, they still contributed to the battle by throwing rocks at the hideous creatures.

As Boromir was fighting, another creature, this one without all of the armor, came up unnoticed. This creature had big brown eyes and an ugly bluish-black and red face. It was holding a crossbow aimed at Boromir.

Within a split second, the first arrow was fired. It hit Boromir in his left shoulder.

Boromir stumbled after taking the hit. Once the initial shock wore off, he stood once more and continued fighting.

A second arrow was loosed. Boromir was struck on the left side of his abdomen.

Boromir fell to his knees facing Merry and Pippin. Taking a look at them, he got up and continued fighting to protect them.

The third arrow hit in the center of his chest.

Using what little strength he did have left, Boromir valiantly stood one last time. He took out as many of the creatures as he could before falling to his knees once more.

The image blurred.

Boromir was laid out in one of the boats from Lothlorien. The arrows had been removed and he was lifelessly clutching his sword to his chest.

The boat went over a waterfall.

Tammy awoke with a start. 'No,' she thought. 'Not again.'

Tammy never did fall back to sleep the night before. She had been too worried. That was the second dream she had of a fellowship member dying in which the death needed to occur.

She knew what she had to do, she just wasn't sure that she could do it. She didn't think she had the strength to just stand by and watch a second time.

Taking a moment of peace from her thoughts, Tammy looked up to see to large stone structures on either side of the river they were traveling on. They were gargantuan statues. Each had one hand outstretched in a 'stop' gesture.

Shortly after they had passed through the statues, the fellowship went on shore. They needed to establish what course they should take from that point on.

"We cross the lake at night fall," Aragorn began, once everyone was settled. "We'll hide the boats and continue on foot. We approach Mordor from the north."

"Oh yes, just a simple task of finding our way through Emin Muil, a labyrinth of razor sharp rock. After that it gets even better," Gimli commented sarcastically, none too pleased, "festering marshlands as far as the eye can see."

"That is our road. Rest and recover your strength, master dwarf."

"Recover my strength," Gimli huffed.

After a few moments of tense silence among all but Aragorn and Legolas, Merry returned with more firewood. "Where is Frodo?" he asked as soon as he discovered Frodo was missing.

Everyone looked around in worry, looking for any signs of the hobbit. It was then that Boromir's disappearance was also discovered.

Tammy started to panic. She had a feeling that this was it. Boromir's end was mere minutes away.

Not thinking about what danger she could end up putting herself in, she frantically raced through the forest, searching everywhere for a sign of Boromir.

When she finally did find him, he was sitting on the ground muttering, "What have I done?" to himself.

"Boromir," she called softly, hoping that her fear and uncertainty didn't come through.

He slowly got up and then turned towards Tammy. "You really shouldn't stray from camp alone," he reprimanded.

Choosing to ignore that comment, she began to say what was on her mind. "There's something that I need to…" '…Warn you about,' was what she wanted to say, but she stopped herself, knowing that she couldn't say anything about her dream to him.

"What's wrong?" Boromir asked, growing concerned.

"Nothing," she said almost too quickly. "I mean there is something. It's just… Frodo's missing. Have you seen him?"

Although he knew that wasn't all that was bothering her, he let it slide, for his guilt came back full force.

"I tried to take it away from him," Boromir explained, voice heavy with guilt. "He ran away."

Tammy nodded. Though she knew that she should move to search for Frodo, her feet remained rooted to the ground.

It was then that the first signs of the creatures from her dream vision came.

She drew her sword to defend herself, as fear, panic, and the weight of what she knew was to come came crashing down on her.

Boromir, too, took his sword out of its sheath once he saw what it was Tammy had been staring at.

The battle had begun.

"Stay close to me," Boromir ordered.

'No complaints here,' Tammy thought.

It seemed like hours on end that Tammy was dodging, parrying, and stabbing at the orcs and Uruk Hai. It didn't take long for her to be separated from Boromir. She found it was impossible to stay together and eventually had no choice but to let the inevitable happen. The one thing she was thankful for was that she could still see him from where she was.

From out of the corner of her eye, she saw Merry and Pippin come running. They were followed by many more of these horrible creatures. Once they had arrived at the battle that Boromir and her were caught in, they joined in the fight. They fought hard, doing the best they could against this great force of evil.

Tammy felt her heart leap up in her throat as she distantly heard Boromir tell the hobbits to run and saw that they ran behind him and continued fighting via throwing rocks.

Turning back to her own battle, she raised her sword up just in time to block an attack. She rapidly pulled her sword away and thrust it into the creature in front of her. No sooner had she pulled her sword out, than he fell down.

She chanced another glance over in Boromir's direction. She saw that dreaded brown-eyed Uruk carrying a crossbow.

She didn't think. If she had, she may not have done what she did next.

She ran over towards the Uruk, heedless of the danger she was recklessly putting herself in.

The Uruk raised its crossbow up.

She raced forward, bringing her sword out in front of her.

It took aim.

She swung her sword at the Uruk as hard and as fast as she could.

The Uruk released the arrow, dropping the crossbow from the blow he received.

The arrow missed its intended target and instead imbedded itself in a tree.

Boromir was safe.

The Uruk turned towards Tammy, furious that his attack had been thwarted. It snarled as it advanced upon her, stopping only for a moment to grab a sword from one of his fallen comrades.

Tammy raised her sword once more to defend herself as best she could, but the Uruk was too quick. It slammed its sword against hers with such undeniable force that she involuntarily let go of her sword.

'Oh, crap,' she thought. She was defenseless against this monster. 'This is not good.'

The Uruk swung its sword at the now helpless girl.

Tammy dodged the attack, only gaining a shallow cut on her right shoulder instead of what could have been a severe, even fatal, injury.

She stooped down to grab her sword from where it had fallen. She began to stand, but felt a sharp pain. Everything went black as she received a blow to the back of her head.

Boromir blew his horn again, hoping that help would arrive soon. He knew the hobbits were safe. They were right behind him. He wasn't sure about the girl, though. He had lost track of her towards the beginning of the fight.

'Where are all these creatures coming from?' he thought in exasperation. It seemed that each time one was slain, two more would take its place.

"Tammy!" the hobbits yelled as they ran out from behind him.

"Wait!" he called after them. When the hobbits continued running, he fought harder, trying to make his way over to them and, he assumed, Tammy as well.

Before the hobbits even made it halfway over to Tammy, two Uruks picked them up fireman style and began moving out.

"No!" Boromir yelled, but Merry and Pippin were long gone by then.

Aragorn now joined the battle alongside Boromir. Only a few orcs and Uruks remained. The rest left after the hobbits had been captured.

Before long, the two warriors had defeated the last of the enemy.

"They took Merry and Pippin." Boromir informed Aragorn.

Aragorn just nodded gravely.

It was then that Legolas and Gimli joined them.

"We need to hurry," Legolas declared. "Frodo and Sam have gone to the eastern shore."

Aragorn did not move a muscle.

"You mean not to follow?"

"Frodo's fate is no longer in our hands," Aragorn said in reply.

"Where is the lass?" Gimli inquired after a slight pause.

"Over here," came the faint reply.

The two men, the dwarf, and the elf moved over to where Tammy had fallen.

"What happened?" Boromir asked.

"I think something hit into the back of my head," Tammy answered.

"Let me see," Aragorn requested as he inspected her minor head wound. Satisfied that it wasn't severe, he helped her to her feet. "Can you walk?"

Tammy just nodded her head.

"What should we do now?" Gimli inquired.

"We will not leave Merry and Pippin to torment and death," Aragorn replied. "Let's hunt some orc."

With that, the five remaining members of the fellowship took off in search of the hobbits.

A/N: Well, that's it for chapter 11. Hope you liked it!