“What’s he doing?”

“He’s leaving.”

The firm shake of your head and your expressive, determined blue eyes tell me more than words can say. Telling me that you had to go…there was no other choice.

No, Frodo, my inner thoughts cried but I kept my composure and my inner desire to myself. Frodo had his reasons and did not intend to have any of us follows him into Mordor. Leaving behind even Pippin and me? But that was hard. We had always intended to follow wherever Frodo was going—we could not possibly be separated.

Swallowing the bitterness of being left behind, I had no more time to think about the situation as an oncoming mass of orcs were running quickly towards us.

“Go on Frodo!” My last glance motioned to him to run, to get out of sight now.

His reluctant eyes spelled out regret and sorrow at leaving us at such a horrible situation but there was no other choice. He gave a last longing, worried glance at us and ran the other way.

Frodo could not be captured at any cost. Never. Pippin now understood what was at stake and ran with me, diverting the orcs away from Frodo— We had to protect our cousin …that was our most important responsibility.

“Hey you! Over here!” I motioned to the orcs to follow Pippin and me. The orcs immediately began trudging towards us with swords and scimitars in their hands.

“It’s working!”

“I know it’s working, now run!”

But there were too many.

Black orcs with swords and armor were swarming all over the place all over us. Fear constricted my throat but at that moment, but suddenly Boromir appeared out of no where and protected us, and a new sense of determination swept over Pippin and me as we continued to fight the orcs and used what wits and courage we had to stall the onslaught of orcs.

“Merry! Pippin! Behind me, quick! No time for fighting! Go on! ” Boromir shepherded the hobbits in front of him as he continued to slay the enemies who were no match against his skill in battle.

Dark orc blood gushed everywhere and many were slain but the orcs kept on coming, flooding through the forests as if an army had been summoned.

Suddenly, an arrow was shot, aimed precisely to Boromir’s chest. Blood gushed out from the wound and horrible pain burst forth. He faltered for a bit, but as if recovering from a huge gust of wind, he continued to pierce all the orcs that were attacking him. He continued to fight and that encouraged me to do so as well.

We cannot hold them, I thought grimly and my heart sank. There are far too many… I slashed at two more hands that were reaching for me and Pippin, keeping myself in front of Pippin. “Keep behind me, Pip… c’mon!” I had to protect Pippin at all costs.

We attacked an orc together and stabbed at it. Collecting rocks, we threw some at the orcs that were coming at us.

Two more arrows pierced Boromir, cunningly aimed at his side and back. Boromir cried in pain, knelt down in his knees in submission seeming as if he was on the brink of death.

I froze, seeming to feel the end of our attempt in thwarting the advances of the orcs. Tears flooded into my eyes but anger coursed in my veins as well.

“Boromir!” cried Pippin anguished. Tears pierced his eyes, and before he could recover from shock of his fallen comrade and continue to fight, strong arms grasped him by the neck and feet and he could do nothing against the strength of the orcs.

“Pippin! No!” I cried. Before I could do anything to help Pippin, I felt a sharp object strike at my head and I fell to the ground, feeling sharp nails grasp onto me.

Trying hard to retain consciousness, I still tried to fight as hard as I could, kicking the nasty orc against its stomach with my free foot, but the orc armor was too hard, and blacking out, I knew no more.