OVER ONE HUNDRED REVIEWS!!! WOOT!!!
(A/N - And I have no one but you to thank, so I do! THANK YOU!!! You've made me so happy amidst the dark days of ailment and nasty rumors around school I'm enduring via a jealous exfriend. Also, today is the one year anniversary of posting this story! OMG! I need to update more if I wanna finish this by the time I'm married, lol. Thank you for all the support, and I'll update ASAP!)
. Reviewers .
x) bdrake07 - Hehe... It was a Pippin thing to say, huh? I thought it fit, and it was funny, so I added it, and you commented! Thanks! Thanks for reviewing, too, and enjoy the chapter!
x) jennyplz. - New York was hysterically awesome and fun, lol. I got to bargain in Chinatown! Woot! Glad you continue to like the relationship as it builds! Keep reading, and thanks for reviewing! Enjoy!
x) Jack.Sparrow.1245 - Yes! Two people commented on the sausage scene so far, lol. I'm so glad I didn't cut that and go right to the Ringwraith attack. Thank you for your review and your patience, and I hope you like this chapter just as much!
x) Elwing-Evenstar - I had a blast on that trip, lol, but the aforementioned rumors above by the jealous friend are actually based off of a joke made in New York that she wasn't even involved with. But it's okay; we know we're innocent. Aside from the drama, thanks for reviewing again! Enjoy!
x) Padme4000 - LoL. You're fine. I've had a busy schedule, too. We can get through it! haha... Thanks for the review, and enjoy the new chapter!
x) Ellie - OMG! I missed you! Hawaii sounded awesome, and I have to say that I'm not making much headway on this right now, too (still pulling from the archive). But don't worry. I send in my college app for IUP yesterday, and as soon as I know, I can breathe again, lol. Thank you for reviewing and returning to my life, lol. I'll email you ASAP!! P.S. - You're my one hundreth reviewer, lol. GO YOU!
x) Inkyish - FrAngie, lol. I like! Maybe I should hold a contest of morphing the two names together as a shipper? Nah, we'll just stick to FrAngie, lol. And if you liked that puff of fluff, wait til Frodo's dream... Thanks for your review, and enjoy the new chapter!
x) TheLoneShe-Elf - The trip was super cool! I took dramamine for the first time ever because we went on a dinner cruise and I didn't know if I'd get sick on a boat for four hours, so I took two, and I passed out 20 min before it was over, lol. I don't remember getting off the boat or into my hotel room; it was scary, lol. But I'm okay, and Mr. M will not let me take dramamine ever again, lol. Thanks for revieiwng, and I hope you like the next chapter!
x) Toria Sparrow - Woot! New reader/ reviewer! Is Toria short for Victoria? Awesome name either way, though, lol. Thank you for reviewing, and keep reading! Enjoy!
.. NY rocked, but the rumors do not ..
- Dis/Claimer -
. Chapter Sixteen .
.. The Blade..
At the top of the small hill surrounded with tall grass, Frodo and Angie stopped in the center, and Frodo looked around. Hundreds of small white flowers were mixed in with the tall grass that seemed to be glowing lightly in the moonlight. Captivated by the eerie yet beautiful aura around these tiny little moon flowers, Frodo reached out to touch them gently, almost to make sure that they were real. Angie laughed at how he had reacted, but she knew that he would appreciate it. Frodo smiled over to her plucked a flower from the others.
"It's lovely," he said. "I've never seen any flower like it."
"I know Sam would be astonished," Angie giggled, walking up to his side. "We'll have to bring him here someday."
"Tonight's a full moon, too," Frodo pointed out, looking upwards to the moon. He looked back down at the flower twirling between his fingers with a pleasant smile. He glanced over at Angie. "Thank you for bringing me-"
SNAP
Both of them gasped and looked down the path to the little clearing. A dark figure stood at the bottom of the hill motionless. Angie began to step back slowly, and Frodo gently pushed her behind him with his eyes still fixed on the figure. He swallowed a hard lump in his throat since it was still not moving; Frodo himself was becoming paralyzed with fear. Angie was looking from over his left shoulder frightfully.
"Frodo, who is that?" she asked. "What is that?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," he said uneasily.
"Why isn't it moving?"
"I don't know! Maybe we should run."
"I think we're surrounded and don't know it," Angie confessed anxiously.
"By who?" Frodo asked incrediously, glancing back at her with wide eyes.
"I don't know! I just think that it's too late for us to do anything!"
As their arguing continued on what to do to get away from the menacing figure at the bottom of the hill, Pippin's head poked up from the moon flowers and tall grass quietly. He saw Frodo and Angie with their backs to him, and at the bottom of the small hill, Merry was standing still as stone as Frodo and Angie panicked a mere six feet from himself. He smiled evilly as his eyes became bright with mischief. He slowly ducked down in the flowers again to think everything over one last time.
"Come on, Pippin... come on..."
At the bottom of the hill where the frightning figure stood was Merry - he wasn't near the scary outlined thing, he was the scary outlined thing. His fists were clenched tightly as he just stood there waiting for Pippin to do his half of their little revenge strike. He wanted to move badly... oh, he wanted to move terribly! He leg was starting to hurt from being planted to the ground so firmly. He tried to fight it off with determination on staring intently at Frodo and Angie to scare them as his leg's discomfort grew. He mumbled under his breath again for Pippin to hurry.
"Come on, you... Hurry..."
"Angie, I say we run for it,"Frodo whispered again.
"No." Angie shook her head and ducked behind Frodo again. "I'm too afraid."
"We'll run together," he reassured her, letting his eyes fall away from the thing in front of them.
He looked at his hand as he reached around to take hers, and she let him take it along with her trust. He gripped it tightly, and she did the same as their eyes moved back up to the motionless figure. Angie felt herself getting short of breath just standing there. Frodo felt the hair on his neck stand on end as her warm quick breaths shocked his cool skin. He was beginning to feel nervous now.
"Quick, before we don't have the chance," Frodo said to her. His eyes were leading from the figure some as his head turned to hear Angie reply better.
"Frodo... I don't want to..."
"We have to."
"No we don't."
"Angie."
"What?"
"Just hold on and run."
He squeezed her hand tighter and began to run straight down the hill towards the figure. Angie's eyes widened in horror at what he was doing and felt herself slipping out of his grip as another force pulled her in the opposite direction. Panic dawned on them both; Frodo looked back, trying to grab for her hand again as he kept running faster down the slope, and Angie didn't want him to let this other force get her.
"Frodo!"
"Angie!"
As their hands lost touch with each other, Frodo made one more stretch to her, but in the process he stumbled forward into a very uncoordinated tumble. His feet tangled and brought him crashing down to the ground where he rolled a few times against the damp earth until he landed on his stomach in a painful and awkward position.
Time stopped for a split second as he laid there. Frodo was afraid to move and listened for sounds of the figure moving and waited for a rush of pain from somehwere in his body after his fall. But neither came, so he looked up cautiously around him. He pushed his hands into the ground to try and bring himself up, but he winced at the sudden aches throughout his arms, shoulders and back and let his stomach sag to the ground again. Then, after a second of recovering, he overcame the painful sensations in his upper body and pushed himself into a crouching postion.
Happy with this much success, he looked round him carefully. The figure was gone, and the air was silent except for a light passing breeze. The little moon flowers in the tall grass on the hill were swaying gently, but they were alone up there; Angie was gone. She was not lying anywhere nearby from what Frodo's limited sight allowed him to see, and the figure was gone.
What was going on?
He stood up with the weight of his hurting arms beginning to throb a little. He walked around without a sound as he whispered for Angie around the brush and shadows, but to no avail. Angie was gone, and the figure must have taken her somehow. How, he had not even began to fathom yet (with Angie being behind him and the figure being in front of him and all), but he had to find her before he could go back to Brandy Hall. He didn't know exactly where to how to find her, but then a shrill yell echoesd around him, and he immediately looked in its direction.
And he ran towards it.
x x x
Angie struggled tremendously to reach for Frodo's hand again, but as he fell forward, she fell back. The force pulling her had suddenly taken a form as she had landed on it, and it had squealed in pain. She emitted a scream in fright as she tried to scramble away on her hands and knees, but the thing pulling her grabbed her ankles roughly. She turned on her back near tears and began kicking as hard as she could to throw off her attacker, but just when its grip had lessened and she thought she could get away, two hands were suddenly tight around her ankle. She looked back in shock to see two figures now wrestling with her feet and didn't know what to do.
She sat up, trying to hit them and get them off, but they overpowered her. In a flash, all three were tumbling down a steep slope through the moon flowers and tall grass. It lasted forever (fifteen seconds can really feel longer than that sometimes), but then they landed in a jumble at the bottom in a small patch of grass and dirt. Angie heard a small stream nearby as she tried to get away again, but she ran into thick thornbushes. She tried another way out, but the side of the hill was too steep and the thornbushes enclosed them in every other direction.
She was trapped.
Merry and Pippin, troublemakers that they were, had known of a way out (seeing as that was the plan). As Angie kicked herself away from them left them to moan for a minute, they caught glimpses of her running into one dead end after another and panicking. Merry didn't smiile; he wanted revenge for yesterday and the kicking she had bruised them up with. He got up and motioned to Pippin for hgim to follow, and together the two of them crossed the brook and passed into a clearer portion of thornbushes. They congratulated each other as they left Angie there terrified.
She didn't see or hear them leave. But once she had tried a good four times to get out, she noticed that they were missing. This scared her more. What was happening? Where were her captors? And why had they left her here? She sat down against the sheer hillside with her knees to her chest as she began to feel herself fighting back tears. She looked up; the tall grass of the hill was so far up. She thought of yelling, and her mind seemed to like the idea as well. She suddenly began calling out for Frodo to her surprise.
"Frodo?" she whispered at first. Then she leaned away from the hill, stood up, and craned her neck to see the top of the hill. "Frodo!" she said louder. "Frodo!" she shouted this time. "Oh, where are you?" she asked helplessly.
She began to sink back down to the ground when she heard something rustle. She looked up quickly towards the hilltop, but a small rock hit her shoulder.
Then her eyes flashed. Someone was up there.
.. x x x ..
A strange dream had overcame Frodo.
Pleasant though it was, it was still strange.
x
He turned the corner out of the private study in Bag End after doing a good deal of writing with an empty cup in his hand. As he entered the main room, Bilbo was there atthe table by the windowtalking to Angie. Bilbo looked much older, but Angie still looked the same. Her dress was still plain but complimentary to her figure, and her hair was still brilliant red and flowing down over her back. As they sat at the table pointing out things in books and on maps, Frodo approached curiously and sat his cup down. The map showed Mirkwood, the large forest in which Bilbo and his dwarf companions had gone astray in on their way to the Lonely Mountain years ago.
Suddenly, Angie went to the kitchen, and Sam was standing next to him looking at the books with interest. Frodo looked at Bilbo. He looked tired and so much older now with his white hair and cane propped against the chair. He had many wrinkles on his face as well. He remembered feeling sad during this part of the dream until Angie came in and handed each of them a piece of cake. Carrot, Frodo had recalled oddly enough.
Angie smiled at them and then stood next to Frodo, putting an arm around his lower back as she and Bilbo laughed together. This surprised him greatly, but as if instinct, the dream Frodo put his arm around her waist casually while the voice of his real mind thought it was incredible that this was going unnoticed as surprising to anyone, including his dream self as if it were perfectly fine! His eager mind let the dream continue as he just stood there comfortably entertaining guests with Angie next to him. He knew he had smiled; it was nice just standing there with her. In the dream, they were a couple, and that was obvious. Snippets of conversation drifted in and out of his memory of the dream.
"Oh I miss my days of fighting dragons..." Bilbo's voice said, longing for youth again.
"Can I get you anything else?" he rememebered Angie ask Sam and Bilbo several times.
Sam did not talk in his dream; he was far too interested in the books scattered on the tabletop.
"How are feeling?" Bilbo had asked him.
"Better," the dream Frodo replied. Frodo's mind became perplexed. Better?
"Wonderful."
"How is the book coming?" Angie asked him.
Book?
He knew he had responded, but he didn't know what book they were referring to.
Later in the dream, Angie had left again. Sam smiled at something on the map of Mirkwood and said something about Bilbo's stories from when they were young. Bilbo laughed kindly as Frodo stood idle. He remembered turning around because Angie had called for something, but as he did, he was no longer in Bag End.
The hallway deteriorated into a long stone pathway with firey glow all around it. As this pathway came to a sudden end with what looked like a far drop, Angie just stood there holding another book that had come from the bookcase that used to be there. She was looking at it as she walked towards the drop of the stone path, and Frodo felt panic. He began to run after her.
When he reached her at the end of the path, he threw his arms around her to stop her from falling. She dropped the book in surprise, and they looked down into a huge river of lava as hot winds gusted around them.
In the lava far below, Frodo's eye was attracted to something that glowed brightlynext to where the book had fallen. As he looked closer, he saw a small gold band melting, and he suddenly knew that it was the Ring. A feeling of loss filled him. He leaned forward more to make sure that he was right, but the end of the stone pathway suddenly cracked and broke. He held Angie tighter as the two of them went plummeting to the lava, but before they met their firey end, Frodo woke up.
x
He jolted awake, and his eyes flashed open. He felt his heart pounding as worry and anxiety strained it. Frodo went through the dream quickly and tried to recall what he could. Angie was with him, Bilbo was back in Bag End, the firey cave with the stone path and lava river, and the Ring. He felt the urgencey to put it on after seeing it there in the lava river melting, but he talked himself out of it. He could not fail.
Angie preoccupied these thoughts for now. He felt scared as he pictured them falling together again. It really bothered him. His obsession with the Ring was taking him, and he let Angie get hurt. Not really, but what if something like this really did happen? What if Angie was hurt because of his carelessness and pull to the Ring? He had to stop thinking about it and allowing it to overpower him. His friends meant too much to him for him to let the Ring distract him, even though the Ring did not allow him a say in the situation.
He tried to push all thoughts of the dream from his mind, even the brief part of content when he stood with his arm around Angie and hers around him. The whole thing was hard to let go of, but voices began to distract his train of thought. He sat up and looked over his shoulder; Sam, Angie, Merry, and Pippin were sitting safely around a fire muttering things amongst themselves as they cooked up something to eat.
Frodo suddenly became alarmed when he saw the fire. They would be spotted if the Wraiths were nearby! He jumped up and ignored the smiles and food his friends offered to him and began stamping out the fire quickly. His four friends leaned away as sparks, coals, and ashes began flying out from under his foot.
"Oh that's nice!" Pippin said irritably as he looked at his plate. "Ash on my tomatoes!"
Immediately after Frodo had gotten the fire down and Pippin had issued his complaint, a shrill, piercing shriek split the night air and sent chills and fright through each of the hobbits as they got to their feet. They stared out into the darkness of the land below them frozen, and five fleeting figures glided swiftly towards the base of the watchtower. Angie looked up at the others as they pulled out their swords.
"The Riders..." she said breathlessly as Frodo motioned her friends up the steep narrow path Strider had climbed earlier that evening.
"Go!" Frodo said urgently to her.
He looked back out over the ledge as Angie followed them, taking up her sword from the place where she had slept and unsheathing it quickly. They raced up, up, and up until the path led them to an open floor of stone worn and cracked from age and exposure to the elements. The wind was much fiercer up here in the ruins than down in the overhang, too. Angie felt her breath get caught in a gust. Her mind raced.
Not knowing where to go, she followed Merry, Pippin, and Sam to the middle of the ruins. They stood back to back in a circle with their swords out in front of them, each one slightly shaking. They shuffled around nervously as they wondered where the Riders were and when they would show themselves. Their eyes darted wildly. Angie was scared as she looked at her sword again.
Things were definately serious now.
Inside the broken ring of pilliars, Frodo suddenly had an eerie sensation come over him; he sensed the presence of unfriendly eyes on him and turned. There, against the black of night, figures more black than the sky appeared. Five ghostly forms rose up outside of the pillars, and the color in Angie's face vanished. She felt weak and sickly as the Wraiths surrounded them with their powerful aura, but she bunched together with her friends prepared to fight if she must to stop them from getting Frodo and the Ring. Though they knew it would not do much, they were ready to fight without a choice. They had to try.
As the Wraiths stood towering over Sam, the tight knots in his throat and stomach throbbed painfully with fear, but he vowelled not to give into them. He had to protect Frodo no matter what the cost was.
"Don't you lose him Samwise Gamgee!"
"Back you devils!" Sam suddenly shouted with determination and angeras he ran forward to attack the Ringwraith. His sword had barely met that of the Wraith's when he was quickly tossed aside. He hit one of the old sturdy stone pillars with a terrible force that made him slump to the ground unconscious.
Angie's mouth fell open in horror at the scene that had flashed before her, leaving Sam there unaware of anything and unable to help them. She looked up at the Wraiths terrified as Merry and Pippin came shoulder to shoulder to close the gap between the Wraiths and Frodo. At the last second, she pushed herself into Pippin's shoulder with her eyes still locked on the tall Wraith. But in one swift movement, all three of them were thrown, and Angie landed hard on her back painfully.
She writhed in agony for a time before holding her breath and holding the pain down. She sat up with difficulty and immediately looked to Frodo. He had dropped his sword, fell backwards, and he was now backed against one of the pillars with the five Wraiths bearing down on him in a very calm but quick manner.
She ran over to get Sam so that he could help her. There was no way she could do anything by herself against five of the Riders. She kneeled next to Sam and began shaking him andslapping his cheeks lightly as she stole hurried glances from where Frodo was. After a few more taps, Sam was coming around when Angie was looking at Frodo, and then right before her eyes, he was gone again.
Just like in Bree.
"Angie?"
She shook out of her trance. "Sam! I think Frodo just put the Ring on!"
Sam and Angie looked back to where Frodo had been and saw a the lead Wraith raise him large sword and stab the air. By this time, Strider had emerged from the shadows and began to fight the Wraiths with fire and steel. Sam was trying to get up with Angie's help so they could go to Frodo's aid as well, but before a step was taken, Frodo instantly reappeared with a loud painful cry. Angie's heart stopped for a moment. The Wraith had got him.
"Frodo!"
They ran to his side avoiding the screaming Wraiths and fell on either said of him. They began searching for a wound immediately.
"Oh Sam..."
"Hold on, Frodo," Angie said near tears now.
Then, her eyes met the sight of the injury; a large hole and dark red spot was on his upper left shoulder and growing. She felt everything inside of her tense as she looked up at Sam. Merry and Pippin were suddenly standing over him as one of the Nazgûl emitted the loudest shriek of them all and feld from the ruins. Angie began to sob as Frodo started to moan in agony and gasp for air. He couldn't die like this. Not now.
Sam knew not what to do but tohave the Ranger help him. Strider was at Frodo's side before Sam was through shouting for him, and the four other hobbits looked to him with strained faces as he picked up and examined the sword that Frodo had been stabbed with.
"He's been stabbed with a Morgul blade," Strider explained with a grim expression. Angie knew it must be bad if it had belonged to one of the Wraiths, and her thoughts were confirmed as the blade in Strider's hands dissolved and scattered in the wind. Angie felt her stomach drop and her heart move into her throat.
"You've got to help him!" she suddenly cried at the Ranger desperately.
He gave her an unreadable expression. "This is beyond my skill to heal," he told them,leaning over Frodo now. "He needs elvish medicine." Strider then took Frodo up in his arms without delay and began to leave the ruins. The hobbits followed without voicing their questions as more shrieks from the fleeing Nazgûl could be heard. Sam was insatiable however.
"We're six days from Rivendell!" he said. "He'll never make it!"
"Hold on, Frodo," the Ranger said as they began to race from the ruins.
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