~Darkness~

All is dark and empty. The Ring is gone, and the last thing I remember of consciousness was being carried by the eagles away from the Mountain of Fire. My body is unconscious, but my mind is not. I go over and over the situation in Mount Doom, as if I am in a nightmare I cannot awaken from. The Ring was never mine, never subject to me. I try to use this argument against the part of myself saying that I betrayed Middle-earth by claiming it. It claimed me at the very last. I was not responsible. Still, that is easier said than believed.

I remember back to when Merry, Pippin and Sam decided to come with me. Oh, dear friends, if you only knew the cost of such a quest before hand…but we didn’t.

My dear innocent Pippin, I heard before I slipped into complete blackness, is now a knight of Gondor, and has felled a troll. Oh, Pippin. He is far too young for war. What will they think of him when he returns home? His mother will never believe he’s so grown up now.

Merry, my brother in spirit. I know he’d do anything for me, and I can only imagine how much it pained him to be parted from me. But he had other tasks to fulfill, other battles to win. I would not have wished him to come with me.

Sam. My dear Sam. He followed me, would not let me go alone, and before the end I realized how much I needed him. He gave me hope and strength I would never have mustered on my own. He carried me when I could no longer walk. He stayed with me till the end, willing to die with me, rather than desert me.

I am dying now. I can feel it in my heart. Whether I die today or in five years, my life will never be the same. My soul is empty, burned away by that horrid thing. No matter how hard I will try, I know in my heart that there is nothing left in Middle-earth for me now.

~The End~