Thank you to my AMAZING reviewers. You are small in number, but great in awesomeness. And a hello to anyone who's still reading this (cough)Gorthaur(cough).

Random reader: It's about time you updated this thing! We've been waiting for months!

D. L.: Eheh. Sorry 'bout that. I got preoccupied with other stuff. Sometimes life sucks like that. Anyway, I don't have much to say here except that 1. I think it's obvious who the romance is going to be between here (No, it's NOT Shagrat and Isthey. That would be incest because they're brothers. They're not gay, either. And besides, this is NOT slash.), and 2. I OWN LOTR!(I wish)

- 3. Relief and a Sad Tale -

Later that night, the three orcs were seated around the cook fire in Isthey's house. Shagrat feeling relieved that he wasn't going to be thrown out or disowned. Maybe his life would start to turn around now that he had found his brother. Maybe it would be like it was before the Ring.

Wait…before the Ring. The Ring!

With a jolt, Shagrat realized he didn't know what had become of the Ring! Had the Halfling succeeded? Was Sauron Restored? Was Mordor saved?

"Shagrat? You all right?" Isthey asked from his right side.

"Huh? Oh, um, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…" He trailed off.

"Just what?" Nia asked, "What is it?"

"Oh…i-it's nothing. Just something very important that I was supposed to do for Mordor." Shagrat replied.

Nia laughed. "Now I'm confused. First you say it's nothing, then you say it was very important? Which is it?"

"Sorry." said Shagrat, "I mean it's nothing to you all, but it was very important for me."

"Tell us." Isthey urged. "What's important to you is important to me."

"Well…all right, if you really want to know-"

"We do." Both Nia and Isthey answered in unison. Isthey followed that with "Tell me EVERYTHING that happened to you there." So Shagrat told them the long, sad story of his life in Mordor. How he had been treated by the marauders and his fear when the Mouth of Sauron arrived and bought him, along with several others. The cruel things the Mouth did to them on the way to Mordor. How Sauron had, for reasons no one ever figured out, chosen him from the group and raised him like a son. How he had felt safe and loved in Barad-dûr.

Then he told them of the forging of the One Ring. From his meeting with Sauron, where he first received his task, all the way up to meeting the Halfling in Cirith Ungol. He then told of his journey to Barad-dûr and his audience with the Mouth. Isthey let out a soft growl when he heard that the Mouth had grabbed Shagrat by the neck and thrown him hard against the wall. This changed to cringing as Shagrat told how the Mouth had so cruelly beaten him almost to death. He left out the fact that he had cried and called for Sauron to save him, thinking this would make Isthey lose respect for him or think he was weak. He saw Nia cover her face with her hands.

"Ohhhh." she gasped and put a hand on his arm. Shagrat felt a jolt through his whole body, but he dismissed it as nothing and continued, telling about the destruction of Barad-dûr which had saved him from death. He then recounted his awakening and his journey to meeting them

When he finished, Isthey seemed astounded.

"All that and you're still alive!" He shook his head in disbelief, "I don't know how you did it. You're tougher than I thought, baby brother." Shagrat couldn't help feeling pleased with himself for earning the compliment.

Isthey stepped outside, with Shagrat and Nia close behind, "Well, it's getting dark, so we'd better get some sleep."

"I'll be back in the morning. Night." Nia said as she left.

"Night." the other two called back. Shagrat followed Isthey inside, where Isthey stopped so suddenly, Shagrat walked right into him.

"Oh, Shagrat, I'm so sorry." he cried.

"For what?" Shagrat asked.

"I don't have anywhere for you to sleep ready. And I am NOT making you sleep on the bare ground." Isthey rushed about his house, grabbing things and muttering to himself. Finally he seemed to remember Shagrat.

"Come on." Isthey said, and led him to a corner of the house where he saw two mats of woven grass, each one covered in blankets that were various colors and designs. Isthey gestured to the one on the right, which looked like it had more blankets than the other. Shagrat went over and spread one of the blankets over the mat. Then he laid down on it and spread the others over himself. They were soft! He hadn't had soft blankets since he'd lived at Barad-dûr. He wriggled down deeper under his covers.

"Good night Shagrat." Isthey said.

Shagrat yawned, "Good night, Isthey." before he closed his eyes and drifted into much welcomed sleep.

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Nia woke them early the next morning, before the sun had even risen. Shagrat yawned and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he forced himself to wake up.

"Come on." she urged, "There is much I wish to do today. We must get an early start. Come!"

"Let me at least get Shagrat something to eat." Isthey said stubbornly. He went inside the small mud-brick house and came back a moment later with two hunks of dried meat.

"Here," he said and gave one to Shagrat. "You can eat that on the way." Isthey began gnawing on his piece, but Shagrat decided to wait a little bit before he ate his. He ran to catch up as Nia beckoned them on and disappeared into the forest.

The Mouth of Sauron shoved the last bit of rubble away and climbed out of the ruin of the tower. It realized it still had the whip clutched in its hand from where it had been punishing the orc. That was what it had been in the middle of when the tower exploded. It remembered watching with delight as its victim screamed and cried out to Sauron, how the orc had twisted and writhed on the floor, its face contorted with pain. The Mouth had smiled then, imagining its teeth sinking into the orc's flesh and tearing it apart, ripping into it like a rabid animal. The crunch of its bones, the tangy taste of its flesh, the sweet and salty flavor of its blood…

Quite suddenly, it kicked the rubble hard, loosing an agitated scream and cursing the collapse of the tower for making it lose its meal. This only resulted in an audible crack in its foot as its toe broke and even more cursing.

"It's all that stupid orc's fault," it growled, "If it hadn't invoked the wrath of Sauron, the tower would still be standing and my servants still here." It flicked its whip and beat a piece of debris from the tower.

"I'll KILL that orc the next time I see it! I swear to Morgoth, I'll kill it! I'll do it with my bare hands if I must!"

Now, the Mouth was many things, but it wasn't stupid. It knew it couldn't just go hunting down one single orc. That would be wasting valuable resources and minions which it needed to rule Mordor… That thought stopped it in its tracks. It turned back to face the ruins of Barad-dûr and saw that the Eye was gone.

Wait…the Eye is gone! That means Sauron is gone. Which means…I AM NOW THE RULER OF MORDOR!

As it thought this, a sinister grin split its face. It smiled inwardly as it walked away from the tower to look for anything that might tell it if any of those sorry slugs Sauron called orcs were still alive.

The Mouth was thus oblivious to the fact that it was not the only one still alive after the tower collapse. Somewhere else in the great pile, something stirred and rose from the debris.

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Ooh, I wonder who or what that could be. Read & review and leave your guess with your review!

Thanks.

D. L. Sauron- AlmightyLOTRnerd