CORRUPTED & DECEIVED

__PROLOGUE [ MiDDLE EARTH ]

Frodo took in his surroundings, & felt an odd sense of deja vu. Sam lagged behind, but he tried his best to keep up with him.

“This place looks oddly familiar,” Sam muttered under his breath, his knees giving way. He kneeled beside Frodo, who sighed in despair.

“It’s because we’ve been here before!” cried Frodo, voice cracking in exasperation. “We’re walking around in circles!” he moaned, collapsing onto the ground beside Sam. He winced when he scraped his shin against the hard, rocky ground. He reached into his pack & pulled out his canteen. He uncapped it, tilting the nozzle into his mouth, drinking greedily. The water was sweet & refreshing, & quenched his parched throat.

“Be careful with that water, Mr. Frodo. There might not be clean water for hundreds of miles.” Sam sighed tiredly.

Frodo nodded, placing his canteen back in his satchel. “Have we anything to eat?”

“Well, let’s see,” Sam said perkily. He slid his pack off his shoulders & began digging through it, his fingers finally closing around one of the bundles of lembas. “Here we have.. lembas bread,” he said with a small smile. He dug into his pack again, pulling out another bundle. “& look! More lembas bread!”

Frodo smiled wearily, chuckling. “Nothing ever dampens your spirits, Sam,” he said affectionately.

Sam sighed & shook his head, looking east, where the horizon was a dark gray, huge, black clouds blocking their sight of the dark trail to Mordor. Thunder rolled in the distance, & Samwise Gamgee’s heart thudded painfully in his chest. “Those rain clouds would,” he said morosely.

“We must move quickly,” said Frodo, his tone filled with determination now that he had rested & drank his fill. Frodo swallowed hard as the chain around his neck seemed to grow heavier. The Ring was pulsing against his chest, the urge to put it on growing stronger & stronger with every step they took towards Mordor.

The two Hobbits once again pulled on their packs & continued walking eastward, stopping only occasionally to drink a little water or munch on wafers of lembas bread. After walking for more than three hours, Frodo collapsed onto the ground, weary.

“Mr. Frodo, we have to keep going. Just for a little while,” Sam urged him. “This is an open space right here. The Orcs will find us.” He pulled Frodo up, surprised at how light he had gotten. He knew that Frodo had not been eating nor sleeping as he should. His mind is always on the Ring, Sam thought bitterly. He wanted to give Frodo a piece of his mind, but he held his tongue. The Ringbearer was troubled as it was; no need to trouble him any further.

“Alright, Sam, I’m coming..” Frodo sighed wearily, letting Sam pull him to his feet. His eyes were sunken from lack of sleep, & he was awfully hungry.

They walked on until they found themselves at a dead end. All they could see in front & behind them was darkness. Frodo took a cautious step forward, his eyes widening slightly when he felt a cold rush of air hitting him from below. “Sam, I think this is a cliff. We need to get past it somehow. How many leagues do you think there are from here to the other side?”

“You’re not thinking of jumping that ledge, are you, Mr. Frodo?” asked Sam worriedly.

Frodo wordlessly grasped the ring in his clenched fist, watching the gray sky turn a dusty blood red. Day had come. “If I have to, Sam. But first, I must rest.” He looked around him & shivered. A strong, cold wind swirled around them, bringing with it a strong sense of foreboding. Frodo glanced at Sam, who was looking around them, his posture rigid & tense. “You felt it too, Sam?”

“I did, Mr. Frodo,” Sam murmured uneasily. He glanced up at the blood red sky, & then down the steep cliff. “I think we should move on, Frodo. The air has changed. It’s like there’s a kind of evil floating around in the air around us. I don’t like it at all.”

“But where else shall we go?”

Sam nodded towards the cliff. “It’s either back the way we came or down the cliff,” he said with a weary sigh.

After a short debate, Frodo grudgingly agreed that they go down the cliff. Just in time, Sam remembered that he had about thirty yards of Elven rope hanging from his pack. He tied it onto a jutting rock & threw it down into the darkness. “You go on ahead, Mr. Frodo. I’ll spot the rope for you.”

He watched with wariness as Frodo slowly climbed down the rope. A few leagues down, Frodo announced that he had hit ground. It was now Sam’s turn. He grasped the rope, tugging it to make sure it was still intact. He took in a shaky breath, drawing it out slowly before climbing down the rope, every muscle & nerve in his body tense with trepidation.

Sam smiled shakily as soon as his hairy feet hit the surprisingly smooth, cool ground. “I will miss this rope,” he said sadly. He gave it a soft tug, & to his surprise, the knot around the jutting rock loosened & it fell almost gracefully into a neat coil in Sam’s hands.

Frodo looked at Sam, surprised. “Perhaps you didn’t tie the knot tight enough. We’re lucky just to have made it this far without injury.”

“I don’t think it was the knot, Mr. Frodo,” Sam said with awe, touching the rope, its silky texture contradicting with his rough, calloused hands.

Suddenly a hard, brisk wind hit their backs. Frodo & Sam whirled around, eyes widening with fear & wonder. A blood red portal was forming in midair, cold, numbing wind sucking in pebbles & dust. Frodo felt a strange pull on his breast pocket, & then he remembered that had been where he had placed his Ring. The Ring’s chain began spilling out of his pocket, attracted to the roaring winds coming from the portal. Sam stared at it in awe.

“What in the world is that?!” he cried over the loud roar of wind.

“S-Sam!” Frodo cried as the Ring & its chain was pulled out of his breast pocket. He held onto the Ring, but he felt its cool, solid band slipping from his clammy fingers. Soon the wind from the portal became so strong that the hobbits felt themselves being swept off their feet. “It wants the Ring, Sam!” Frodo cried in dismay.

[ iSENGARD ]

Saruman gazed into the palantir in amazement, watching as the Ring, along with its Ringbearer as well as his companion was sucked into the portal. The White Wizard took in a shaky breath, hopelessness overwhelming his entire being. “The fate of the Ring has been altered,” he rasped, as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

He watched with despair as the portal closed, & suddenly there was an uneasy quietness all over the land of Mordor.

[ ROHAN ]

Gandalf halted his horse, Shadowfax, gazing into the east. His white horse stirred & neighed, obviously distressed.

Aragorn son of Arathorn halted beside him, staring into the wizard’s blank face. “Gandalf, what troubles you?” When the wizard did not answer, he whipped his head around to glance at Legolas, who stared eastward with the same blank expression on his fair face. “Legolas, what do your Elf eyes see?” he asked anxiously.

“There is a quiet uneasiness throughout the land of Mordor,” Legolas announced grimly, pursing his lips into a thin line.

“The fate of the Ring has been altered,” Gandalf rasped, his shoulders sagging. He looked as if he had aged more than thirty years. He looked at Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli in turn, swallowing hard. “Frodo no longer dwells in Middle Earth.”

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