Fallen Leafs, Part IV
by Areli

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They rested the night in the forest, wanting to plan a way to sneak into Mordor and see if Frodo and Sam had been captured. 

"That would not make sense though. Why would the ring escape while they did not?" Legolas said.  

"Perhaps they tossed it into the river before they were captured." Aragorn mused.  

"I do not understand." Legolas said, frowning. "Would they not see the ring fall into the water?"  

"Perhaps not."  

While they talked Gimli was busy sharpening his ax. He wasn't pleased with the way things were going. He glared up at Legolas.  

He will betray us. he thought. He could feel it. A dwarf would never betray anyone he thought scornfully. He never liked elves anyway.  

"I am going to bed." Aragorn announced and simply turned over on the ground away from the fire. "Can you put the fire out Legolas?" he mumbled sleepily.  

"Of course."  

Gimli put down his ax and began to fall asleep as well although he had planned on staying up and watching to see what the elf would do. Instead, his eyes betrayed him and he drifted off to sleep.  

The night pressed onwards as Legolas stared out into the forest. Nothing out of the ordinary. Two birds, a few squirrels and a bear at one point but nothing unusual. It was almost too quiet.  

He sighed and sat down slowly on to a stump nearby, forever watching and listening yet able to think at the same time.  

He thought of his home and how he missed everyone he knew. He almost wished he hadn't gone to Rivendell despite how he loved to battle. Legolas also wondered why Aragorn had denied his heritage for so long. It wasn't until recent that he actually began to accept his fate.  

As time passed his thoughts turned to the ring.  

"Such a small ring..." he said quietly to no one. What harm could it do? he wondered. It was only a small ring. He stood up after a while and began to pace lightly.  

If it is indeed such a harmless ring, then why do people hide it and keep it away from me? he wondered. An answer merged into his mind.  

Because they do not want you to have it. It can give you happiness that they do not want you to have.  

Legolas wanted his ring back. No one should get in his way of finding hapiness.  

He crept towards Aragorn forevering walking in shadows and moving in silence. It was simply the way of the elves. 

The sword was still strapped to his belt. His hand was on the cloth almost on purpose. Almost as if Aragorn wanted to keep the ring from Legolas. 

It didn't make sense to Legolas. It was just one simple ring. 

His hand reached out on it's own and moved around the hand. Without disturbing it in the least, he had managed to take the cloth off of the hilt and unwrap it.  

Legolas looked down at the ring that he held in his hand.  

"One...simple...ring..." he said quietly as he picked it up.  

Before realizing what he was doing, the ring slipped on to his finger.  

The world suddenly fell into wavering shadows. He jerked around and drew his bow and arrows 

I see you... Legolas blinked and saw a great eye staring at him. He shot an arrow at it but found that it did not effect it as it drew nearer.  

The ring! he thought.  

Legolas ran from the eye and attempted to take the ring off but found it was stuck. He began to claw at it, forever running through the shadows against the eye.  

Finally, the ring came off and he realized that he was no where in sight of the camp. He was completely alone in the forest. He simply couldn't believe that he had ran so far that he couldn't hear nor see them.  

 

Meanwhile in Mordor, the ringwraiths were reporting who possessed the ring when they felt it within them like a shockwave. The ring had made itself known by Legolas.  

They rose without a word and mounted on their horses.  

The ring would be theirs in a matter of minutes.

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