"Well, putting these things over our heads wasn't very polite of them." I said sarcastically, my voice low. The three of us were standing somewhere. I had no idea where, for they had put black hoods over our faces and then continued to parade us around in circles (at least it felt like circles) until finally we entered some sort of keep, though I could not tell if it was a cave or tent or house. I had since just closed my eyes, not able to see even a chink of light.

"It's not the hood I'm so worried about, but the people who put it on." Sam whispered back.

"We'll get out of here soon." I tried to build our spirits again. "There is still Gollum, and he must have followed us…"

"Our savior…" Sam replied, his own tone sarcastic now. "If all our hope lies in that creature now, we're doomed."

"I have faith in him." Frodo said.

"He'll come to find the Ring." Sam muttered. "We're just the three people who happened to be attached to it in his eyes."

"Having Gollum as a rescuer is better than having no rescuer at all." I concluded, before any more ill words could come between them. I sighed, and then added, amusedly, "If I stand here with my eyes closed a moment longer, I will fall asleep upright."

Without notice a hand reached over my head and pulled away the hood. My eyes smarted briefly, but the cavern we were in was dim and I saw Frodo and Sam had their hoods off as well. The man who I had spared with, who had lead those who took us, was seated across from us, on a few boxes. I resumed my glare from before, but it did not produce much effect, apart from a meager annoyance.

"My men tell me you are orc spies." He started.

"Spies!" Sam retorted. "Now wait just a minute."

I laughed softly to myself. Orc spies. Who in all of Middle-Earth would take us for orc spies? It was clearly a lie to get a bit of truth out of us. My snickering had a larger effect than my glare did, for the man glared back at me this time.

"If not spies, then who are you?" He proved my assumption, and I smirked. His glare hardened a degree.

I quite enjoy this game of faces, I mused internally. Finally, something I could use to fight back a little. Maybe this would be a spar of sorts that I could win.

The hobbits were smart, and stayed silent, which only serviced to make my smirk seem all the more mocking.

"Speak!" The man ordered, his tone turning harsh. My lips stayed pressed together in the smirk.

"We are hobbits of the Shire." Frodo replied, after some hesitation. My smirk faltered, and I felt as though I had taken an attack in the spar of glares and smirks. Quickly, I set a stoic glance on myface and kept it there. "Frodo Baggins is my name and this is Samwise Gamgee, and Fali of-"

"Frodo." I snapped, cutting him off before he could reveal anything more about me. Why had he decided to give up our names?

"Your bodyguard?" The man nodded in Sam's direction.

"His gardener." Sam replied, jokingly, and clearly not in any mood to be questioned.

"Then the lady surely?" He glanced over at me.

"I'm just here for moral support." I found I could smirk again. "Of course, the sword I had with me had it's useful points."

The one I had pointed at him earlier in particular, I thought to myself.

"And what of your skulking friend? He had an ill look about him."

Once again, my smirk was cut back. He knew of Gollum. How? Had he seen him before? Had he noticed him after we had been taken? If so, then the creature had followed us. But our element of surprise was clearly gone now.

"There was no other." Frodo replied. He spoke firmly, but his words still seemed to fall short of being completely believable.

Thinking quickly, I turned my head toward Frodo the smallest bit, and whispered, more loudly than was needed "I told you we were being followed."

"What?" Frodo seemed confused by my statement, as I had more than enough encounters with Gollum to last my entire life.

I replied, whispering loud enough to be heard by our captor, "There was something following us."

He seemed to catch on, and fell quiet again. With any luck, our connection with Gollum would go unnoticed, passed off as a mere coincidence. The less we knew about him, the better.

"Regardless," The man continued and I had the chance to take a calming breath, glad we had evaded the topic of Gollum, "We still have reason to believe you are a danger." He stared at us, coldly. "I would confess what you are doing out here, if you wish to live."

My expression leveled again, and a tense silence fell for a few minutes, as the three of us looked at each other from the corners of our eyes. Fortunately, we were doing nothing wrong, but neither could we reveal what we were doing exactly. My eyes fell to Frodo's shirt, and I was relieved to find the Ring was not peeking out from between the buttons as it had many times before. When the silence became uncomfortable my mind began racing. They wouldn't kill us would they? We had given them no reason to hurt us…true I had fought, but such was out of defense. Apart from that we had been very cooperative captives, in my opinion. A few snickers and glares from myself would not be enough to turn the temper of this man.

"We set out from Rivendell with nine companions." Frodo spoke up, and Sam and I turned our heads in surprise. Before either of us knew what to say to stop him, Frodo was speaking of our Fellowship, trying to save our hides. My tongue was trying (unsuccessfully) to form the words "Frodo, please be quiet", and my mind was racing to process what he was saying, checking it all over in my head to make sure the information did not give too much away.

He made mention of Merry and Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf and how he had fallen in Moria…he even mentioned Gideon. He said no names, but it still oddly hurt to hear about them, and give them away. They were our friends. Gideon was my brother. How could we speak about them to this man? Frodo was trying to keep us safe, but I felt as though I would have rather stayed silent.

Finally, he spoke of Aragorn and Boromir. "There were two men. One was Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and the other Boromir of Gondor."

I was about to wince at how he had let two more names pass his lips, when I noticed a change come over the man opposite us. Something like surprise, and then sadness, one that went deep. "You were a friend of Boromir?"

"Yes." Frodo nodded. "On my own part."

"He considered you a friend Frodo." I said, remembering how broken Boromir had been when I found him on our last day with the Fellowship. "He considered us all friends."

The man stood. "It would grieve you to learn that he is dead."

Dead. No, I thought. Impossible, no, he was standing so strong when I left him. He had been watching my back as we searched for Frodo and Gideon and the others. He was a brave warrior, a skilled man. Boromir could not be dead. No, no, no. He said he would find us later…he promised, and then told me to run off and find Frodo, and Gideon. He had to be alive. Alive, and perhaps a bit annoyed that we had all gone off where he could not find us.

"Dead? How? When?" Frodo demanded.

"As his friends I would assume you could tell me." The man went on.

"If something happened to Boromir, we would have you tell us." Frodo gave a tight reply.

"His horn washed up on the riverbank, six days past. It was cloven in two."

No, no, no. Please, no.

"You're lying." I replied.

"I am not lying to you."

"You must be lying!" I snapped back, my tone sounding more upset than I would have liked. "Boromir was one of the strongest among us. He was chosen by Lord Elrond to join us. He knew what he was doing, I saw him the last day we were among our friends, he was fine!"

"I am sorry to say that has changed since you left your companions."

I scoffed. "You're not sorry. You only want to see if there's anything we haven't told you."

"Miss Fali." Sam reached out for my shoulder to stop me, but I shrugged his hand away.

"Your remarks, however spirited they are, won't return him."

"You're lying." I repeated. "What do you know of Boromir anyway?"

"Everything." The man hissed at me, in anger. "I knew the force of his spars, and the warmth of his friendship, and I know he is dead. Not just be a broken horn, but because I am Faramir of Gondor…and he was my brother."

It was the fatal blow of that small spar that had been going on between Faramir and I, as my mouth fell agape, and the horrible sinking feeling in my stomach gave way to something even more crushing. I felt like the ground had opened beneath me and I was falling into some deep, dark cavern where there is no light, nor hope.

We were pulled away, to a deeper and dimer part of the cavern where we could more easily be guarded. My footsteps were numb. I kept thinking of Faramir's face, and seeing the similarities. The structure of the face, but a bit softer. The form of their noses, nearly identical. The red of their hair, the same. The more I thought of it, the more I believed he was his brother.

And the more I believed him to be Boromir's brother, the more I believed Boromir was dead.

/

Frodo and Sam had fallen asleep, after we had sat for what seemed like ages, grieving quietly. But I did not unburden myself of my emotions by sleep. I felt that someone must stay awake, if only for the fact that these men may not be trustworthy still, though they had not shown us any more unkindness.

Death. How had he died? I would not know for a long time, not until I met again with Gideon and Aragorn and the others. Gandalf and Boromir. Two of our eleven would never be seen again in this world. Maybe more of them by now, there was no way of telling. I shut out the horrible thought completely, feeling a salty sting at my eyes. How had Boromir died? The thought surfaced again, after I shut out the more awful alternative. Faramir had said that the broken horn had washed up on the Riverbank…had he drowned?

I bit upon my lower lip. Drowning seemed so horrible. Opening your mouth to breathe and only finding water to fill your lungs and suffocate you, no matter how you struggled. How awful, and how frightening.

Sam had nearly drowned trying to get to Frodo when he parted from the Fellowship.

And my dear 'uncle' Oin, old as he way have been, had been drowned by that horrible thing in the water outside Moria.

All three of my uncles were dead.

Death. So much death.

I thought of Gideon, and had to draw in an unsteady breath to calm myself. I thought of him, at home now, sitting with my family. They must have been so broken hearted to return home without the children they left to the Shire with. They must have been so scared when Gideon returned home sooner than expected, without me in sight. Oh, it must have killed Mother. It must have broken Father. I was their youngest, and their only daughter. Gideon would have told them I was fine the last he saw of me, but he still would bring the difficult news that the Fellowship had broken apart.

Glancing around me, at uneven stone walls and the two hobbits trying to rest as we waited for our captors to decide what to do with us, I could only think bitterly "This was the adventure I was looking so forward to…what I was so excited about all my life…" and feeling I had woefully romanticized the hardships. I had neglected to see them as they were meant to be seen: nasty, brutish unfair and…unstoppable.

"Hello Fali."

I blinked and saw him, sitting on a crate just as his younger brother had, but this time he was different. He was no longer dripping wet, and the clothes he had worn for most of the journey were replaced with simpler, white garments. I frowned, for they resembled too closely a death shroud to me.

I knew I was sleeping now, fatigue winning out in the end. Greif tired you.

I dared not look at him, fixing my eyes ahead and refusing to meet his face.

"Fali, you cannot refuse to acknowledge me."

"I can." I replied, firmly. "It's but a dream…and my own, as we've said before."

"I'm sorry your meeting with my brother wasn't as…decorous…as it could have been." He tried again to gain my attention. I was quiet. "What do you want me to do?" He asked. "Apologize for dying?"

I shot him a hard look, that was instantly dropped when I met his calm face, and tears were felt in my eyes again. "How could you?" I asked. "How could you not tell me?"

"It's but a dream, and your own." He answered. "I thought we'd both known I cannot tell you anything you don't already know."

It was true, and it made me feel like such a fool to go on believing he could be unharmed.

"There is no need for tears." He said, comfortingly.

"Of course there is, you are dead!" I snapped back, blinking and letting said tears fall.

"There are always certain risks that one accepts when going on an adventure…but you would know about that already, wouldn't you, Fali?" He smiled a little. "After all, you loved those old stories so much."

It felt like he was one of my brothers, chastising me for expecting the adventure to be as tame as a hunting party. I tried to be anger with him for such treatment, but it only fell away to stupid tears again.

"I suppose we're all unprepared to be stories of old." He sighed, getting up and patting my shoulder. "Dry those tears. You have much to do still. I fear you won't enjoy it as much as you thought you would, but it must be done all the same."

I nodded, wiping away the tears, and mumbling "Alright."

"Keep a close eye on Frodo and Sam."

"I will."

"You can be brave again, can't you?"

"I can." I nodded, holding my head a little higher again. "I will be."

He grinned. "Well done, princess."

"Just Fali." I corrected, automatically.

He laughed, and I wondered if I would ever see him again, in illusions like these, or in some other world yet to come. "Be nice to my brother, will you?" He said.

A single breath of laughter came from my throat, and I smiled with surprising ease. "I'll try." I smirked. "So long as he is nicer to us."

There was suddenly a noise, and I was startled away, the peaceful illusion shattering, and dissolving all to quickly to the room where we were being held. I quickly slumped my head and pretended to be in sleep still. Someone entered, and I heard one of the hobbits waking. "You must come with me, now." Faramir, I recognized the voice. Someone stirred.

Don't be Frodo, please don't be Frodo, I thought.

Someone rose to their feet and followed Faramir out.

I waited until the sound of their steps was gone, and then opened my eyes to see Frodo's resting place completely hobbitless. "Sam." I hissed, lowly. "Samwise!" I hurried to wake him.

He woke up, also quick startled and accidently smacked my chin. "What is it?" He shot up, glancing around quickly. "Where did Mister Frodo go?"

"Faramir returned, and took him."

"Only him? Why not us?"

"I don't know." I whispered. "I don't like it Sam. Something's happening."

"Do you think they know he has the Ring?"

A thousand fears started coming to the surface of my mind.

"Let us try to stay calm." I took a reassuring breath. "With any luck, Gollum will choose to reveal himself and we may be able to help Frodo."

Forced to wait impatiently for rescue or the return of Faramir and Frodo, I paced nervously. "Faramir's making it very hard for me to tolerate him." I muttered to myself.

"What did you say, Miss Fali?" Sam asked, as he waited expectantly for something to happen.

"Nothing, Sam." I gave up trying to correct his name for me. "Just keep listening for anything."

A commotion rose up, quietly at first, but quickly rising in volume. A sound I recognized, and to hear it wrenched my stomach with worry. Gollum, shrieking his head off.

Faramir's men entered, and throw the creature to the ground, delivering all the beating that Sam and I wished at times we had. Gollum had a hood over his face and blindly shrieked on. Frodo entered, looking distraught at our guide's misfortune.

"Frodo." I called to him sharply, and I he stood by me and Sam, and the three of us waited to see what they would do to Gollum as they dragged the creature past us to another private corner of the caverns. At that moment, I thought they would just kill him.

Faramir was the last to enter, and gave us a hard glance as he passed. "What are you doing with him?" I demanded. "He's already been tortured before! Pity him, he's practically an animal already!"

"So you all know him." Faramir replied. "The truth will soon be revealed."

He left, following his men.

"He's not going to make it through." I spoke of Gollum. "The last time he was tortured he told them where the Ring was…we can't be here when he does so again."

I looked around, hoping to see a clear exit…hoping to see our weapons around the corner. But there was no way out.

I saw a glimmer and caught sight of the Ring, shining at me.

Somehow it seemed all too pleased with itself.

Somehow it knew it was gaining the upper hand.

Gollum screamed. His words were mangled by the harshness of his throat, but the message was clear.

My precious.