Sucked Into Middle Earth...Just My Luck!

Chapter 10

When we finally reached the shore before the falls I made sure to keep an eye on Boromir, and Karma made sure to keep an eye on me. I knew she wouldn't approve of the choice I'd made but I was determined to keep Boromir alive. He, more than anyone, deserved to live and I was in a very rare position where I could change his fate.

"I'm only going to say this once: don't do anything I wouldn't do" Karma told me sternly and I nodded.

"That's fair" I told her tensely but she nodded back and took me at my word.

I hated lying to her but I had to. I HAD to.
Nobody else noticed Boromir slip out of camp to get more firewood except me and I used that fact to my advantage to slide out of camp after him, grabbing his shield on the way. We would need it soon enough. I made sure to keep far enough back that he didn't know I was following him but stayed out of the path Frodo would soon take to stumble upon him. I had to let them meet, I wish I didn't, but if Boromir tried and failed to get the ring then his guilt for it might be enough to ground him from his influence ever again, or so I hoped. I watched as he spotted Frodo and wandered towards the hobbit, picking up a piece of wood from the ground to get his attention. Frodo whirled around and I watched from behind a piece of old ruins, waiting to intercept him before he could get killed.

"None of us should wander alone; you least of all Frodo" he said and the hobbit eyed him wearily but otherwise ignored his statement so he continued, "I know why you seek solitude. You suffer, I see it day by day. Are you sure you do not suffer needlessly?"

Frodo eyed him again and I sighed silently. He means well, even when being overcome. God damn it, this man is too good to let fall. He deserves to get to go home to his brother one day, and I'll make sure it happens.

"Let me help you. There are other ways Frodo...other paths we might take" Boromir explained.

"I know what you would say, and it would seem like wisdom but for the warning of my heart" warned Frodo.

Boromir scoffed, "warning? Against what? We are all afraid Frodo. But to let that fear drive us to destroy what hope we have...don't you see that is madness?" He said and I could hear the frustration building.

"There is no other way" Frodo told him firmly.

"I ask only for the strength to defend my people" Boromir reasoned with him but Frodo shook his head and turned away causing Boromir to drop the wood he'd been carrying angrily and then desperately trying again, "if you would but lend me the ring..."

"No..." said Frodo now putting considerable distance between them while I just sat silently, feeling terrible that I couldn't just erase the rings influence from Boromir's mind myself.

"Why do you recoil? I am no thief" defended Boromir.

"You are not yourself" Frodo told him.

"What chance do you think you have? They will find you, they will take the ring and you will beg for death before the end" spat Boromir, well and truely under the influence of its evil now. Frodo turned again to leave the situation but Boromir suddenly advanced on him and tackled him, "You fool! It is not yours save by unhappy chance...it might have been mine! It SHOULD be mine! Give it to me, give me the ring!"

Frodo panicked as Boromir pinned him and used the rings power to become invisible before hitting Boromir once and making an escape, the only evidence of his existence being the leaves he kicked up in his haste. I slowly crept forward, restraining myself from running in right now to slap Boromir back to sanity.

He got up and made to follow hissing, "I see your mind...you will take the ring to Sauron. You will betray us! You go to your death and the death of us all. Curse you! Curse you AND your halflings!"