Short Lord Of The Rings scenes

Drowning

This scene was requested by my friend. This is an alternate version of the Dead Marshes scene from The Two Towers. It is closer to the movie depiction than the book, and contains Frodo x Sam themes, but romantic not sexual. Thank you for reading. Let me know if you have a LOTR scene request. I do not own Lord of the Rings or any of the characters. 

The air was thick and heavy as Frodo and Sam followed Gollum across treacherous paths of soggy ground. Occasionally their feet would sink into the mud, and they would stumble. The ring hung heavy around Frodo's neck, and he trudged after Gollum wearily, breathing ragged, and steps clumsy. 

"There are dead things! Dead faces in the water!" Sam exclaimed, and Frodo, looking down, saw that his companion was right. The water of the marshes contained countless corpses, some floating face up, staring with blank eyes. 

"All dead. All rotten. Elves, and Men, and Orcses," Gollum agreed, continuing to lead the way. "A great battle long ago. The Dead Marshes! Yes, yes that is their name! This way. Don't follow the lights!" 

Sam made to follow, but the ground gave way and his foot slipped into the water. Gasping, he was able to regain his footing on solid ground. Gollum whipped around and scolded;

"Careful now! Or hobbits go down to join the dead ones, and light little candles of their own!"

Sam gulped, and trailed after Gollum. The whispering of the ring grew louder in Frodo's mind as he stumbled to the edge of a clump of mud and grasses, looking down into the water. The ring was heavy. So, so heavy. He was so tired. His feet ached, the chain of the ring had rubbed the skin on his neck raw, and the air was so hard to breathe here. 

Little fires burned on the murky water around him. So different than the clear rivers and ponds of The Shire. He was so, so far from home. His eyes fell upon a corpse floating faceup in the water before him, pale and bloated, most likely a Man who had fallen in the battle Gollum spoke of. 

The face was mesmerizing. More and more often, when weariness and pain were overwhelming, Frodo thought about the Shire, and how he would never see it again. His own death was becoming more and more vivid in his mind. Was this what would become of him? An empty, pale, rotting shell? The eyes of the corpse suddenly opened, and Frodo's heart stopped. He couldn't tear his eyes away, even as the ground shifted underneath him, and he fell forward into the water. He could dimly register Sam screaming his name as he fell, but the water closed over him, his clothes and backpack weighed him down. 

Ghosts with grasping hands and staring eyes swirled around him in the water. He couldn't breathe, couldn't scream. Fear paralyzed him as he thought back to the deaths of his parents, drowned, as he soon would be, and more recently, the fear of losing his dear Sam to the watery depths of the river. 

Sam. 

As his air began to run out, Frodo's thoughts turned to his gardener, his companion, his best friend. I'm sorry Sam.  I'm so sorry. Frodo thought. I should never have brought you along with me. It's my fault you've been through so much danger. I have led us to our deaths. 

The ring whispered in Frodo's mind, and Frodo found himself listening as the ghosts of the marshes pressed closer around him. The ring showed him visions of Samwise, wounded, dirty, and dying on a mountainside, fire and ash raining down around him. It showed Sauron holding the ring and laughing.  

Sam will never go home if you bring him farther. The ring whispered.

If I die, Sam will go home?

Yes, of course. He will go home, because he won't have a reason to continue into Mordor, into danger and his own destruction. The ring promised.