The Lord of the Rings: The Banshee Queen

Chapter 14

Dawn was still asleep and it made sense.
She spent last night writhing about in ecstasy and I somehow woke up before her, starting a fire to cook a meager breakfast.
The bacon popped and sizzled as I flipped two sausages in the pan, a pipe between my lips.
Thunder boomed and the sky quickly darkened, the fresh scent of rain hanging in the clean air. Before I covered the food with the heavy lid, the rain poured from the heavens, drenching both our breakfast and myself.
"Oh!" Dawn exclaimed, wide awake.
I stripped off my coat and tunic along with my trousers and I sat there in my wet undergarments.
"Were you cooking breakfast for us?"
I confirmed her question and she added, "Tell me it's still warm."
I kept my mouth shut and shook my head.
"Eh, I'll eat it anyway. I'll eat anything as long as there's no mushrooms."
Good thing Pippin wasn't here to hear her say that.
Thunder roared and lightning flashes across the gray sky.
"Since it's only us, it does allow me to do something I have always wanted to do," she said.
"What is that, love?"
Twisting around, Dawn immediately peeled her clothes off and there she stood, naked and wet, her wine-colored curls dark and sticking to her flesh.
I tensed up and breathed in deeply, blood rushing to my face.
"Oh, Baggins, you've put your mouth on my breasts, stuck your tongue in my privates, and released yourself inside me! Don't tell me you're embarrassed seeing someone naked!"
She got me there to be perfectly honest.
"Frodo, join me! No one is around! We're free to do whatever we want!"
She danced, her arms outstretched and her feet skipping happily; a beautiful smile on her face until she fell into a mud puddle, now coated in the wet brown dirt.
I laughed, "Dawn Starkin, my beloved pig!"
Her face twisted in playful mischief, she scooped up some mud and flung it at me, hitting me right in the chest.
She stuck her pink tongue out, shouting, "Now you're like me, Frodo! We can both be pigs!"
As she cackled, I retaliated, pitching some mud at her.
Two naked Hobbits, one male and the other female, throwing mud at one another in the rain.
She smothered the mud all over her body without getting it on her privates, swirling her fingers in the viscous substance.
Blush went from my cheeks to my ears and she wriggled towards me, her hair a drenched curtain.
"Kiss me, Frodo," she murmured, closing her eyes.
The mud wasn't a problem for me. I pressed my mouth on hers, neither of our tongues mingling; the kiss here was pure and it was all I wanted.

The storm ceased and Dawn was lying next to the small fire, her tresses frizzy.
We both agreed that we didn't care about smelling; we looked at the map Aragorn gave us and knew that our next destination was the river Entwash.
"Frodo, why do you keep secrets from me?" she blurted out.
The question caused my blood to stop flowing and hairs on the nape of my neck stood up.
I swallowed anxiously and responded, "What do you mean by that?"
I dug through my mind to find any horrible secrets and for the life of me, I couldn't find any.
The relief I felt was immense when she clarified, "We have known each other for six years yet you still never told me what happened to your finger. And what is that strange wound near your shoulder?"
There was no point in hoping she would forget about those.
When I arrived home, everyone constantly asked me why my finger was gone and why I don't join them in grand celebrations anymore.
I cracked my knuckles and drank some water, sighing and began the story I never told her in the six years we have been neighbors.
"No one else in the Shire knows this, but before you arrived there, Sam, Merry, Pippin, and five other companions joined me on a quest to destroy the One Ring. It was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in the fires of Mount Doom. Bilbo found it in a cave and kept it hidden to everyone until his 111th birthday. He went to Rivendell and left it to me, ignorant of its dangerous power.
"The quest was full of horrors; Nazgûls, Orcs, a spider that stung me, and this despicable creature called Gollum who was our guide for Sam and I after we were separated from the others. When we made it to Mount Doom, I almost succumbed to the Ring. I had it on my finger when Gollum bit it off. We struggled, falling off the cliff inside the mountain, but as you can tell I survived and he fell into the lava below, the Ring in his hand. All's been peaceful since...then Gandalf told us about your mother."
Silence.
My face scrunched as the fat tears leaked out my eyes.
Then my screams broke the quiet night.
I endured through so much horrors and pain just for one piece of jewelry; I was burdened with carrying that object as it nearly drained my life away.
My mind had no recollection of cherished memories in the Shire at that point in time.
My throat hoarse, I buried my face in my hands, continuing, "And the scar on my shoulder? I was stabbed by the blade of the Witch-king of Angmar. It has never healed and never will for as long as I live."
That whole story was bottled up inside me for too many years.
Yes, Sam, Merry, and Pippin were by my side yet as hard as they tried, I was terrified that they wouldn't help me get better.
Dawn and them are the only hope I have left and if Dawn were to be corrupted by her own powers, what will I be then?
A husk; a hollow shell.
"And if you're wondering why you only met four of them during the Council, one of them died without me knowing."
Snuffling and coughing, I whimpered and grabbed her perfectly intact hands.
"Dawn, I know you have several questions and I promise you I'll answer them, but to tell you my previous adventure is so relieving. I have written in my uncle's Red Book about it; I have told the others about it. But now I have told you...the light in my dark life...my dearest Dawn."
Her bottom lip quivered and she took me in her arms, sobbing herself.
Nuzzling her hair, I smiled.
The Banshees will not take her. And if they do, I vow that they have to take me instead.