I still dreamt, but most of the frightening images of Frodo and Gollum, or Smeagol or whoever he truly was, were gone now. Now it was memories, passing in dizzying spells. The hills of the Shire, when I had laid eyes on them for the first time, my sweet bedroom back home, with the familiar furniture and the dried flower chain, kept in pristine condition since my youth. There was Kegan and the spars we had. There was Boromir, watching over me as I practised.

I drew strength from these dreams. Once they had been unwelcome interruptions to my sleep, and now they had become an escape.

"I win again." I could hear Kegan say. There was the feeling of sand against my back, and then he would offer his hand to steady me back up again.

"Hardly." I recalled being a poor sportsman to some degree. "I really had you for a few moments there. I saw you lose your balance that one time. And what about that?" I pointed to where I had knocked him with my sword in a close encounter.

He nursed a bruise on his arm. "What? This little scratch?" He shrugged it off. "It doesn't bother me."

I scoffed. "You flinched when you got scratched up. You looked pretty bothered about it then."

He frowned, and I smirked. "Do you want to fight again?" I asked, trying to disguise my enthusiasm.

"Do you want to fight again?" Kegan mimicked me in a higher voice, his version of the feminine vocals.

I caught his joking tone, and replied with as much humor "Never mind…it would be unfair to fight a girl."

We laughed, and I woke, somewhat sore, but no longer tired enough to sleep.

Kegan…how I loved that boy now. Father would not like to hear it, and try to pass it off as a fleeting fancy of mine. That being gone for so long had made me think that I had stronger feelings than friendship for long. But I had admired him for a long time, and kissed him in the secrecy of empty halls and training grounds when people weren't looking.

If I concentrated hard enough I could see every detail of his face still, despite all the time that had passed.

Then Sam snored, quite loudly, and my concentration was broken.

"Gods help the woman that marries you, Samwise." I sighed to myself. I thought of Rosie and I hoped she slept deeply at night.

Frodo was quietly asleep not far away and Gollum was nowhere to be seen, though I expected he was not far off.

I got up to my feet and gently nudged at Frodo with my boot. "Frodo…wake up. We better start walking soon," I judged the position of the sun. "I think we may have overslept some."

Frodo blinked a few times, pulling himself up to a sitting position, but giving no protest. "Did you sleep well?" I asked. Perhaps the slight dalliance in our usual schedule for walking and resting had helped him.

"As well as could be expected." He nodded up at me. "Is Sam awake?"

The hobbit in question snored again. "Does that answer your question?" I smiled.

"And Smeagol?"

"Off doing whatever he does." I answered quickly. "I leave him to his own devices."

I stepped over to Sam, and nudged at him with my boot as well. "Sam…" I tried to be quiet in the process of waking him, but he was so soundly asleep I had to raise my voice and snapped "Samwise!"

He woke with a bit of a start. "Good morning, Miss Fali." He pushed aside my foot.

"Another day, another mile." I said, giving my friend a hand, and pulling him up to his feet.

Sam was kind enough to ration out a few pieces of lembas bread, whilst the bedrolls were packed up. Gollum reappeared the way he usually did, seemingly out of thin air, causing my heart to freeze for a second. He would glare briefly at Sam or I, and then go up to Frodo with the wide eyes and eagerness of a hound that has found the scent of a deer, and beckon for all of us to follow him.

We ate and walked at the same time, trying to make up for our rest. Sam sighed at the sight of the landscape we were in. "Just when you thought things couldn't start looking any grayer…" He nodded over to the twisted up trees, which had stopped sprouting leaves ages ago.

"Don't worry Sam, we won't have to live here the rest of our days." I said. "And the faster we walk, the sooner we can leave this place."

"I'm hurrying as much as I can, Miss Fali." Sam caught onto my little remark encouraging him to walk faster. "Fall back a little won't you?"

I slowed my pace enough to walk beside Sam. "That Gollum creature's been acting more and more strange lately." Sam whispered lowly once we were beside each other. "Have you noticed how he vanishes now? Before he used to stay at the edge of our camp, watching over Frodo, and now…"

"He's gone off by himself before, and he always returns." I debated with the hobbit. "How can you be sure that he is acting differently?"

"Before, if one wanted to go looking for him, which trust me I would have rather not, one could find him away from camp, not too far off. Now if I ever go searching for him I can't find him. He's taken to hiding out there. It sort of feels like he's waiting for something to come along…and he keeps watching us." He glanced over at me seriously. "Have you noticed anything yourself?"

I didn't want to admit it but I was beginning to think that I had. "I can't help but figure that Gollum seems to be as protective over Frodo as ever but…he seems less adoring than he did before. His reactions in the morning seem almost too much, as though they may be false."

"I was beginning to figure that as well." Sam sighed. "Ever since that creature got caught by Faramir and his men, he's been different. I can't say how exactly, but it's off-putting. He acts as though Mister Frodo is still his master but something has changed. Something's snapped inside his head, if you ask me."

I looked Gollum over, from dirty, pale head to toe. "Something snapped in his head a very long time ago Sam. We've only triggered it again."

"Do you reckon he trusts us still?"

"He's never trusted you or I. He's done nothing but hate us from the beginning."

"But what of him and Mister Frodo?"

I shook my head slowly. "I don't know…the creature is too hard to read. When he is passionate about something it often does come in great throes…which makes any time he is pretending to be so friendly and being overdramatic about it seem real."

Silence passed between us for a time as we watched Frodo and Gollum walking on, much like a dog and master, if not for the fact that Gollum was starting to frighten us even more, and certainly made for an ill looking dog.

He glanced back at us again, with a hard glare, which I felt the need to return. Sam expressed his own distaste with a scowl. "I don't like it one bit." He muttered to himself. "Not a bit."

"His head is full of plots." I whispered back. "No doubt ones we are featured in."

"You don't mean…" Sam stuttered briefly with his words. "You don't think, Miss Fali, that he may be planning to…well, you know, get rid of us?"

"Sam there is little else that Gollum could possibly want out of his way."

Sam frowned, and swallowed thickly. "That little monster…" Sam went on. "Soon it won't even be safe for you and I to sleep."

"Hopefully it won't come to that." I tried to comfort Sam. "It's Frodo I'm more scared for than us. There is too much wagered in his success in reaching Mount Doom and finishing what he set out to do. As much as I like my own neck, and prefer for it stay out of harms way, should Gollum snap even further there is less counting in our success."

"Don't be so morbid and ominous." Sam said. "It turns my stomach. Let's have no blood on our hands."

"No one will be dying anytime soon, not while I'm keeping an eye on Gollum." I huffed a little. "Of course, one of us may get a bit scratched up if a fight does break out." I shot a tiny smile at Sam as I quickened my pace again, breaking off from his side and placing myself on the path between him and Frodo. "Gollum." I gave a small nod in the creature's direction.

As I continued to increase my pace I noticed that Gollum seemed to increase his in parallel with mine, often drifting closer to Frodo's side. When I slowed, he seemed to become calmer and let off, drifting away. It raised concern for what Sam and I had just been speaking of and I quickly ran and placed myself directly beside Frodo, shooting Gollum a glare that read "Back away. Now" quite clearly. The creature saw that I knew what he was doing, and may suspect something else in his mind, and shrank back.

"I'm glad you seem to be in better health today." I said, trying to start up a conversation, in order to keep Gollum away.

"You seem to have had brighter spirits over the last few days too." Frodo replied. "I'm glad. You're far better company when you're in a good mood."

"Perhaps we are getting a second wind at last." I said. "It is about time a piece of fortune came our way." I looked around. "Though I don't suppose we can say that the scenery will improve any time soon. What I wouldn't give for some rolling hills." I looked at Frodo. "Well, that will have to wait until our direction finally changes."

"We are not in decent places…" Gollum muttered at a volume loud enough to be heard. He was lurking, not far behind Frodo and I.

"Yes, just as I said." I replied to the creature. I rolled my eyes, looking away so Frodo would not notice, and thought 'Not something that I can blame you for Gollum, though it can certainly feel like it is. There are many things that may be your fault right now but the present state of Mordor is not your doing.'

Frodo stopped in the middle of the path, with a distracted expression on his face. "What is it?" I asked. "Do you need to rest now?" Frodo did not seem very tired yet. "Perhaps we can make it a little further before we stop." I pressed him.

"Come along Mister Frodo." Sam beckoned as he passed him. But Frodo stayed fixed where he was, concentrating on the landscape around us, as if drinking in the details and committing them to memory. "Something the matter?" Sam asked, stepping back, and placing a comforting hand on Frodo's shoulder.

"I just had a thought…a feeling that I would not be coming back."

I knocked Frodo upside the head. "Of all things to think about!" I snapped.

"Ow!" Frodo rubbed at the back of his skull now.

"Now that's just morbid thinking. Doesn't do any good for any of us." Sam said, as he shooed me away, lest I deliver more tough love onto Frodo. "Don't let it get to you yet Frodo. There's plenty of hope for us yet."

"Yes, we've been fortunate to not come across any dangers yet, the lembas is holding up nicely, and the weather has stayed fair enough."

At that moment a statue came into view, still in perfect condition for the body, but the head had been knocked off long ago, and replaced with a large mass of metal and boulder. "Oh." I said.

"I suppose this land used to be part of the territory of Gondor." Sam said.

"How long do you think that's been like that?" Frodo asked.

"A long time, far before we were even born, I would think. Any way we are getting closer by the looks of it."

I looked over to Gollum who was staring ahead of us, as if navigating the path, but it was clear his ears remained fixed on any conversation between us. "Soon we'll be on our way back home again…"

"There and back again…" Sam echoed me. "Oi, look." Sam pointed to the ground, where a stone head lay, among the only flowers I had seen in days. "The king has a crown again."

" Maybe it's a good omen." I said. "Not much longer now." I added, seeing Gollum have a slight spasm in his shoulder at the words. The creature did not want us to leave…and I was beginning to believe he did not intend to let us try.

/

"Did you watch him as we were traveling?" Sam asked me late that evening, after a day spent walking. Our journey was starting to bring us up to higher altitudes. "He's trying to listen in on us…I know it."

"You may be right." I replied, motioning for Sam to hush his voice further, in case Gollum had chosen this moment to listen in. "What of Frodo?"

"Asleep, for once." Sam said, looking happy again. "He's been having a small respite, and it's probably because Gollum doesn't lurk around us at night anymore. Not with you glaring at him like a hawk."

"Good." I nodded. "Let's hope it holds out for a while longer, he needs to recover some of his strength. He's starting to look so pale." I sighed.

"Where is the creature now?" Sam asked.

I glanced around, seeing only a withering forest a dusk. Gollum had disappeared into the mess of tangled bushes and trees an hour ago, while the rest of us had eaten another ration of lembas, and set up camp. "He's out there somewhere, eating lizards I imagine." Sam made a face at this, his head probably filling with unpleasant images of Gollum's diet. "I know." I grimaced a little with him. "How unfair that we have only the lembas to keep us fed and yet his food seems to be crawling all over this place. Literally." I straightened my back out, causing tired muscles to stretch themselves out and a few satisfying pops and cracks to be heard. "I'll go see if I can find him. I'd feel better knowing where he is rather than simply guessing."

"I'll go watch over Mister Frodo." Sam said, his voice distorting into a yawn at the end.

"Mind you don't drift off to sleep yet, Sam."

"I won't Miss Fali, wouldn't dream of it."

Something told me Sam was fighting a losing battle with his fatigue. I smirked to myself as I ventured off to find Gollum, seeing Sam's eyelids drift closed.

Twilight in this forest was a very eerie time, where shadows seemed to be more alive than usual. "That creature is definitely in his element." I mused quietly to myself. "Gollum." I dared to call out. "Come back to the camp. The night is falling."

No answer, not that I had expected one to be given so readily.

I huffed, and with my hands placed on my hips, one hand wandering close to my blade, called out again. "Gollum!" I was sharp in tone. Perhaps this is why Gollum had always made me so uneasy. He was so much like a living shadow, unstable as a madman and with the capability of a child. Dangerous, unseen, and with ample pity. No wonder Gandalf had warned us of him.

I heard a sound, something like a sigh and a growl almost, up above me. "So you're hiding in the treetops then." I glanced upward, and a dark figure moved along the branches, reminding me of the first glimpses I had gotten of Gollum in that thunderstorm. True to the memory, the moon dashed in between two patches of cloud, giving just enough light for Gollum to stand out against the bark, sickly white, like he had in the lightening once.

"I see you." I said, trying to calm my rising adrenaline. "Come down, Gollum."

He did, crawling in the most inhuman way possible, and likely just to get a rise out of me too. "Where is Master?" Frodo asked.

"Frodo is asleep." I replied. "You can't wander off like this Gollum. It isn't safe for you." Though such a statement was likely true, it still felt like a lie on my tongue. Gollum seemed to understand that the concern I showed was the lie, and frowned a little.

"Unsafe for us." He sounded like he was laughing at the idea.

"We're getting closer to Mordor, something may reach out and grab you in the night." Perhaps I could scare him like a child too.

"Or something could reach out and grab you." Gollum said.

"I'll keep my eyes open then." I said. "Keep a watch on the trees, the hobbits…you."

Gollum glanced back at me. "You never know what might try to grab you in the middle of the night." I shrugged, staring him down.

"Yes." Gollum nodded.

"I have first watch tonight."

I walked ahead, not daring to look back at Gollum, but feeling his eyes burn into my back. The creature was turning more mad, and less child-like by the day.

I didn't know how much longer I could stand it. It felt like the more I kept watch over Gollum, he seemed to be watching me just as carefully.