"You have to go now." Sam whispered quickly. "Use the Ring. Just this once. Go, Mister Frodo."

"He's right." I said, straightening Frodo's cloak, securing it more on his shoulders. "Stay off the path. Eat the lembas sparingly, our bags must be in here somewhere."

"Fali, Sam I couldn't just leave you two here."

"Do you remember the knots I showed you? For snares?"

"Not well enough." He shook his head.

"Never mind, the lembas should last."

"What about Sam and you?"

"Sam will have me."

"And what about yourself?"

Sam stepped forward. "I'll keep an eye on her, Mister Frodo."

"Thank you, Sam." I glanced down to the Ring briefly. "I hate to make you use that thing…but it may be your only chance of getting out of here. Just be quick, and as soon as you're far away take it off and never wear it again."

"I couldn't." Frodo replied, and I was almost relieved to hear he had no interest in the Ring. But a time like this called for the opposite.

"Don't argue with me now Frodo." I said firmly. "I could get you to do just about anything as a child, and it's not going to change today."

"Wear it, just this once." Sam begged, as our narrow gap of time continued to close.

"I can't. You were right, Sam. I'm sorry. The Ring's taking me, Sam. If I put it on, he'll find me."

With the decision made, and our time to send Frodo away over, Faramir entered with a sword drawn. I pushed the two hobbits behind me, and glared.

Well, so much for being nice to him…I thought to myself, eying the sword in his hand.

"So… this is the answer to all the riddles." Faramir said.

"What are you going on about now?" I countered, boldly.

"The Ring of power, within my grasp." He answered, and I swallowed, holding my glare. "A chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to show his quality."

Faramir pushed his sword past the gap in between my side and outstretched arm. The tip of the sword poked past Frodo's shirt, and took hold of the Ring.

Frodo pushed the blade away defiantly, and it struck against my arm. I glanced away from Faramir for a second to see only a thin line of blood. "Damn." I muttered.

"Stop it!" Sam rose to Frodo's defense. "Leave him alone! Don't you see…? He's got to destroy it. That's where we're going. To Mordor, to the mountain of fire."

"Sam." I said, stopping him. My friends were not very good about keeping secrets. We were as conspicuous as a dozen dwarves floating downriver in barrels. Nevertheless, the words had been spoken.

Luckily another man stepped in and this caught Faramir's attention as they began to exchange words. Their tone implied something serious was happening not far from here.

"Please, it's such a burden."

"Sam." I said a bit more forcibly.

But no amount of words, said or withheld, could stop our fate from being sealed. "Prepare to leave." Faramir gave the order. "The Ring will go to Gondor."

/

"At least the Ring is making it's way to Gondor around your neck." I said, as we were marched along the path.

"Ever optimistic." Sam smiled. "The Gods gifted you with that Fali."

"Someone should be…" I sighed. "We don't know what we'll find, wherever they're taking us." I was glad that the men had the good sense to return out weapons to us. Though we were being watched so closely we'd never be able to use them to escape, I felt more secure with my sword in my belt.

"Is your arm alright?" Frodo asked. He glanced apologetically at the cut left by Faramir's sword.

"I am fine, Frodo." I said. I lowered my voice even further. "You should still consider putting on the Ring and slipping away."

"I couldn't Fali…"

"You can, and maybe you should. Right Sam?"

"It would be a smart idea, Mister Frodo." Sam whispered. "No one would blame you for using it, just this once."

"No!" Frodo hissed, and I thought my friend actually sounding menacing for once in his life. "I won't! The two of you hissing in my ears doesn't help matters at all! If anything it sounds just like the Ring to me!"

There was a smart stabbing in my heart, being rebuked at by such a dear friend. "Sorry." I mumbled in reply.

"We meant no harm." Sam sounded wounded as well.

"Wait, I-" But if Frodo meant to quickly apologize for his words, they were cut short by the image of smoke and flame rising over a city.

"Osgiliath burns. Mordor has come." One man said.

"What could have started a fire like that one?" Sam asked.

"Torches…a spark of flint over a thatched roof…dragons." I said, preparing myself for the worst. Given the downward spiral of our luck I had a feeling something brutal was to be expected.

"The Ring will not save Gondor, it has only the power to destroy." Frodo tried to warn Faramir. "Let us go." Faramir and his men proved desperate though, the warning fell on deaf ears. The power to destroy was what they wanted…so long as it was destroying their enemy. They refused to acknowledge the fact that it would be destroying them as well. Already the hearts of these men were being corrupted by being in its presence.

The only one of us who was continuing on as though nothing was burning down was Gollum, who was acting out at having a rope around his neck, much like he did the first time. A few swift kicks from the men had muffled his cries and babblings, but he continued to writhe around and tug pathetically at the rope.

Osgiliath was in shambles when we arrived. I didn't want to enter the city at all. I could smell rooves burning and hear monstrous noises echoing from within. The sound of battle, the sound of chaos.

"Perhaps this is what it felt like to be in Dale on that horrible day." I caught sight of fire, this one just a harmless flame in a pit, more for light to see by under than dim skies than anything else. Nothing so terrible as what was eating away at the city in other places, or even close to the calamity of Smaug.

My family had probably never looked at fire the same way again after what they had been through.

The tension only grew from there. Frodo began to stumble, his legs going weak suddenly, and his balance coming and going unpredictably. Gollum became more frightful. The men were tense. One came running over with a terrible message. Orcs on the eastern shore…too many…overrun by nightfall. Each sentence more ill than the last. I was somewhat thankful for having expected the worst. At least my mind was a little more prepared for it than Sam's or Frodo's. Perhaps this was why Gideon thought the worst of everything. One couldn't change their circumstances, but they could choose to not be surprised by them.

Frodo stumbled heavily again, and Sam tried to steady him. "Mister Frodo."

"It's calling to him Sam…it's eye is almost on us."

"Hold on." Sam pressed, beckoning me over.

"Is it speaking to you?" I tried to get an answer from Frodo.

"Are you sure Mister Frodo? Are you alright? Perhaps you've become ill?"

Frodo's eyes wandered over our heads and up at the sky, drifting over our faces blankly. It was as though he couldn't even hear us.

A part of me was very scared, and easily irritated with the confinement around these men, and everyone talking about what to do with us, and now that they had the Ring in their precious burning city we'd soon be useless to them. Frightened and frustrated I shook Frodo harshly by his shoulders. "Answer us, Frodo!" I snapped.

I could have sworn I heard a snarl and a hiss, coming from within his shirt.

"He sees us." Frodo answered. "It's him."

I was about to stress to my friend how he was being vague, and his eyes remained unfocused on my face as he spoke, when Faramir said that we were to be delivered to his father. "Tell him Faramir sends a mighty gift. A weapon that will change the course of this war."

Boromir, how am I supposed to like him?, I groaned inside, as I imagined my friend telling me to give his little brother one more chance, for he would prove himself yet.

Sam's face boiled with rage, completely out of character for him. "Do you want to know what happened to your brother? Do you want to know why he died?!" The hobbit was so harsh.

Boromir would have hated to hear we threw his death into the face of his younger brother. I guessed he would have struck Sam in the face for such a thing, whether or not he was usually friendly to those he met. But I was silent, still trying to get Frodo to stand steady on his feet.

"He tried to take the Ring from Frodo, after swearing to protect him." Sam continued. "He tried to kill him! The Ring drove your brother mad!"

I was not myself…I am lost….

I closed my eyes hard and tried to push back the memories of those last moments in which I saw him. How vulnerable he had been and then how strong…and I would not see him ever again.

Moments like that should not have belonged to me. They should have been spent with Faramir, who had known him better than any of us.

The feeling pulled at my gut, coiling deep inside. That was it. We had to get out of here. We couldn't spend one more moment with Faramir and his men and let them take the Ring.

"We're getting out of here." I whispered lowly to Frodo. "Now."

"Look out!" It sounded like an echo above the noise.

There was a collective glance toward a tower, which was struck and began to come crashing down. "Now!" I yelled above the crash. With everyone too startled to hold me back I ran.

"Miss Fali, watch out!" I heard Sam call after me.

Please, let him be running too, I thought. And dragging Frodo right behind him.

There was a piercing scream in the air, and I froze suddenly. I recalled the swamp with the dead faces, and hiding under a bush, and black winged serpents in the air. The Nazgul had returned. I ducked into an archway, and watched as the other men scattered, leaving me alone.

Unless one counted Gollum, who was shrieking and cowering, still in my sight.

A hand touched my shoulder and I jolted. I looked up at Faramir, with his sword drawn again. "Where are the hobbits?" I asked. "What happened to them?"

"Your friends are hiding." He whispered back. "Come, we must hide under better cover."

I hesitated. Faramir noticed. "I will not have Osgiliath destroyed because you stood under an archway, and caused the collapse of an entire wall." He tried to grab my wrist, but I moved away from him, inching a bit closer to the open courtyard beyond.

I don't trust him, I debated internally. He hasn't been any help at all, and if not for him we wouldn't even be in this mess right now. He's more of an enemy to us than a hero.

But he is Boromir's brother, and Boromir I would trust. Boromir would want me to trust him. This may be the moment he proves himself more of a friend than a foe.

But Boromir was corrupted by the Ring, and Faramir is making that same mistake.

But Boromir felt guilty.

Boromir was good at heart again when we were in danger.

Now we are in danger again…and we have his younger brother to help us this time.

I stopped thinking it over and I made to follow him. He said nothing and led me quickly along the walls, until we could dash into the security of the outer structures. For a few minutes we were stuck there, watching black outlines stream above the clouds.

"I can't believe they found us again." I closed my eyes as one drifted by rather close.

"You have come across them before?" Faramir asked.

"Yes, but not as close as this." I shook my head.

"Was Boromir with you?" He sounded hopeful for answers. I was too, but I would not know for some time just how Boromir had died.

"No, it was long after we parted from the rest." I drew my sword, quietly.

"You spoke quite passionately of him." Faramir pressed me. "Do you know something?"

"I don't know how he died, the last time I saw him he was still alive."

"Do you know anything of what happened to him?"

I was not myself…I am lost…

"He was very brave." I answered. "And he told me to be brave. When I found him…he was out of sorts." Faramir frowned a little. "It was right after he tried to take the Ring from Frodo. He was not himself. He was…lost, and guilty, and sad." I found myself frowning as well and shook my head a little. "Then we heard a cry from camp. Orcs had followed us, and were attacking. He stood again, and it was as if nothing had happened to him, and we ran off to find Frodo and the others, to protect them." I smiled, lightly. "I fought by him that day…you would have been proud."

"I sometimes have visions in which I see him pass by, lying in a boat, full of water. He floats down river, and moves past me and into the mist." Faramir confessed. "I knew he was dead when I saw him like that."

"I had dreams in which he spoke to me…" I added. "Of course, I didn't know he had died…maybe I should have known, or at least had my doubts. But his words still guided me, nonetheless."

There was a scream from a Nazgul and we fell silent again. "Your friend…Frodo." Faramir nodded up at the top of one of the walls. On it Frodo stood, moving in a daze, his hand outstretched, holding the Ring.

"Frodo!" I screamed, but he did not hear me.

A Nazgul drifted closer, getting closer and closer to his outstretched hand and the weapon inside it. "What is he doing?!" I snapped.

Sam bolted into view, slamming himself against Frodo and knocking them both down a set of stairs. An arrow flew past me and struck the Nazgul in the chest. I looked behind me to see Faramir holding the bow responsible for the arrow.

Without saying anything to Faramir I ran off, through the open courtyard, trying to find a passage to the other side of the wall where they had fallen. He didn't hold me back.

"Sam!" I called. "Frodo! Are you here?"

Something grabbed hold of my ankle and I shrieked. I looked down to see Gollum, holding my ankle, and staring up at me, feeble light making his face seem very skull-like. "Followed us…they followed us…" He spoke of the Nazgul.

"Let go of me Gollum!" I hissed. "I have to find Frodo and Sam!"

"Master and fat hobbit?"

"Yes, them." If I hadn't been so scared I might have wondered what Gollum called me. "Keep hiding."

I wretched my foot free from his hold, and ducked under an archway, and into another open space.

It was like entering another world. Sam was pinned down by Frodo, who had his sword, Sting, drawn on him, as he once had Gollum. For a moment I believed I was seeing things. But it was real, and it frightened me more than the Nazgul did. "Frodo!" The hobbit was already sitting back, releasing his friend, but I grabbed hold of his shoulders and pulled him even farther away. Mercilessly, I took hold of his wrist and wretched it back, forcing him to drop Sting.

"How could you?" I asked. "It's Sam…Samwise!" I tried to keep my voice down, but my panic was still present. "How could you, Frodo?"

"I can't do this." Frodo sounded exhausted, in mind and in body.

Gollum came up and grabbed hold of my ankle again. I kicked him away. "What did I say about hiding?" I asked him.

"They are leaving." He motioned to the sky, and sure enough the Nazgul were flying away.

"By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are." Sam sighed. "I know, Mister Frodo." He glanced up at the retreating Nazgul. "It's like in the great stories, Mister Frodo. The ones that really mattered."

Suddenly, from somewhere in my memory I could hear my mother's voice. Once upon a time, Thorin Oakenshield and his company were walking along a twisting, turning, confusing path through Mirkwood…

"Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?"

Once upon a time, your father and I stood in a boat and watched as Smaug crushed all of Laketown as he fell…he was dead, killed by Bard's black arrow…but that wasn't the end of our troubles…

"But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. A new day will come. When the sun shines it will shine out all the clearer."

…and now it is done, and we live happily here in our cozy mountain. Erebor, the home of our people."

A smile, sleepy and warm. "Good night, Amad."

"Good night, Fali."

"Those were the stories that stayed with you. They meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mister Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't, because they were holding on to something."

"What are we holdingonto Sam?" Frodo asked, quietly.

Sam turned around again, and helped Frodo to his feet. "That there's some good left in this world, and it's worth fighting for." Sam reached out a hand for me. "Miss Fali!" He sounded so surprised. "You're crying!"

"It's nothing, Sam." I brushed away the two meddlesome tears, only finding that there were two more in my eyes waiting to replace them.

"Was it something I said?" He asked.

"Was it me?" Frodo picked up Sting with a guilty expression.

"No." I shook my head. "I was only remembering something…" I smiled. "You're right Sam."

"About what?"

"Everything." I smirked, and pulled myself up.

Faramir returned and knelt before Frodo. "I think at last we understand one another Master Baggins." His expression had softened a degree, and it gave me hope.

"You know the laws of our country, of your father. If you let them go, your life is forfeit." One man warned.

"Then it is forfeit." Faramir replied. "Release them."

I grinned. "Thank you."

"Return the rest of their supplies." Faramir said, and the order was carried out. One moment we were captured and the next were were on our way, free.

Faramir sought me out, briefly. "Look after them." He nodded in the direction Frodo and Sam.

"I will." I nodded. "That's what your brother also asked of me."

"With any luck you'll not fail us then." He nodded. He offered a hand. I accepted it, and we parted then, no longer enemies.

You'd be pleased Boromir, I thought. We managed to be nice to each other in the end.

And they parted as unlikely friends :)