Three Hobbit Ladies and a Ring/Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Past

> Originally from: *https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12378544/2/*
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Bilbo was gone. Gandalf sat there, pondering at what had happened to his friend the moment he told Bilbo to let the ring go.

"It's mine, my own, my precious!" said Bilbo's voice.

"Riddles in the Dark," Gandalf said, remembering Bilbo's chapter of him facing Gollum.

"Bilbo! Bilbo!" Frodo shouted. He stopped and looked at the ring on the ground slowly picking it up. He looked to see Gandalf was sitting there and approached him. "He's gone, hasn't he? He talked for so long about leaving. I didn't think he'd really do it. Gandalf?"

"Bilbo's Ring," Gandalf said. "He's gone to stay with the elves. He's left you Bag End…" Gandalf held out an envelope up to Frodo, who placed Bilbo's ring into it. The wizard closed it shut. "Along with all his possessions. The Ring is yours now. Put it somewhere out of sight."

He got up, making for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"There are some things that I must see to."

"What things?"

"Questions. Questions that need answering!"

"But you've only just arrived! I don't understand."

Gandalf stopped and looked at Frodo.

"Neither do I." Gandalf answered. He bent down and placed a hand on Frodo's shoulder. "Keep it secret. Keep it safe."

Several evenings later, Frodo returned home, departing from Sam. They would see each other in the morning. However, when, Frodo came home that night, he saw the door was opened. The hobbit quickly rushed inside to see his house in disarray. Suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulder, and Frodo panicked, but calmed when he saw it was only Gandalf.

"Is it secret?! Is it safe?!" Gandalf asked Frodo, who nodded. He looked for it in his great-aunt Belladonna's hope chest and found it. Gandalf took the envelope and threw it in the fire.

"What are you doing?!" Frodo asked. Gandalf immediately pulled it out.

"Hold out your hand, Frodo. It's quite cool." Frodo complied and was touched by the little bit of heat.

"What can you see?" Gandalf asked frantically. "Can you see anything?"

"Nothing. There's nothing," Frodo answered. However, he changed his answer. Ruins were appearing on the ring. "Wait. There are markings. It's some form of Elvish. I can't read it."

"There are few who can," Gandalf said. He looked at Frodo. "The language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here."

"Mordor!" Frodo gasped.

"In the common tongue, it says: 'One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness, bind them," Gandalf answered.

Rosie was walking out of the inn, helping her father lock up shop when she began walking home, bidding her family goodnight. She walked past the Bag End house hold while she heard the sound of trees rustling. Rosie looked curiously at it and began approaching Bag End. She began going further into Bilbo's (now Frodo's) garden when someone grabbed onto her. Rose began panicking and almost screamed but that someone turned her around and covered her mouth. She breathed in relief and anger when she saw it was Sam. He released his grip on her.

"Sam, what are you doing?" Rosie asked.

"Shh," Sam said and then hid behind a window. He gestured to her, so Rosie rolled her eyes and came closer to the window to listen to Frodo and Gandalf's conversation.
"Are you sure you want to be doing this/" Rosie asked.
"Shh," Sam began.

Back inside Bag End, Frodo made tea for Gandalf as the old wizard told the tale.

"This is the One Ring," they heard Gandalf's voice. "Forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in the fires of Mount Doom, taken by Isildur from the hand of Sauron himself."

"Bilbo found it- in Gollum's cave. "

"Yes. For sixty years, the Ring lay quiet in Bilbo's keeping, prolonging his life, delaying old age. But no longer, Frodo. Evil is stirring in Mordor. The Ring has awoken. It's heard its master's call. "

"But he was destroyed. Sauron was destroyed."

"No, Frodo. The Spirit of Sauron endured. His life force is bound to the Ring, and the Ring survived. Sauron has returned. His Orcs have multiplied. His fortress of Barad-dur is rebuilt in the land of Mordor. Sauron needs only this Ring to cover all the lands in a second darkness. He is seeking it- seeking it. All his thought is bent on it. The Rings yearns above all else to return to the hand of its master. They are one- the Ring and the Dark Lord. Frodo, he must never find it."

"All right. We put it away. We keep it hidden. We never speak of it again. No one knows it's here, do they?" Frodo was unsure. "Do they, Gandalf?"

"There is one other who knew that Bilbo had the Ring. I looked everywhere for the creature Gollum, but the enemy found him first. I don't know how long they tortured him. But amidst the endless screams and inane babble, they discerned two words: Shire and Baggins.

"Shire? Baggins? But that would lead them here!" Frodo said. He took the ring and forced it onto Gandalf. "Take it, Gandalf! Take it! "

"No, Frodo." Gandalf told him calmly.

"You must take it!"

"You cannot offer me this Ring!"

"I'm giving it to you!"

"Don't tempt me Frodo!" Gandalf shouted. Frodo stopped as Gandalf calmed down. "I dare not take it. Not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo, I would use this Ring from a desire to do good, but through me, it would wield a power to great and terrible to imagine."

"But it cannot stay in the Shire! "

"No. No, it can't. "

"What must I do?" Frodo asked.

"You must leave. And leave quickly." Gandalf instructed Frodo. The hobbit quickly put food and change of clothing in his knapsack.

"Where? Where do I go?" Frodo asked.

"Get out of the Shire. Make for the village of Bree."

"Bree. What about you?"

"I'll be waiting for you at the inn of the Prancing Pony."

"And the Ring will be safe there?" Frodo asked, putting his pack on his back.

"I don't know, Frodo," Gandalf answered. "I don't have any answers. I must see the head of my order. He is both wise and powerful. Trust me, Frodo. He'll know what to do. You'll have to leave the name of Baggins behind you, for that name is not safe outside the Shire. Travel only by day."

"I can cut across country easily enough," Frodo said.

"My dear Frodo. Hobbits really are amazing creatures," Gandalf said with a smile. "You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you."

They heard a sound from the window.

"Get down." Gandalf snapped at Frodo who immediately fell to the ground.

"Confound it all, Samwise Gamgee! Have you been eavesdropping?" Gandalf demanded of the Hobbit.

"I haven't been dropping no eaves, sir, honest," Sam swore. "I was just cutting the grass under the window there, if you follow me."

"A little late to be trimming the verge, don't you think?" Gandalf remarked sarcastically. The wizard looked deep into the Hobbit's eyes.

Gandalf knew that Sam wouldn't be alone. He knew that someone was with him.

"Where are they?" said Gandalf, and saw that Sam was being "hopelessly confused" at the moment. "Your little conspirator friends. Where are they?"

Suddenly, a hobbit girl emerged from the Bag End's gardens. Gandalf immediately recognized her as the girl Sam was in love with: Rosie Cotton, who just gave a sincere smile.

"Save me from the curiosity of Hobbits," Gandalf breathed. The wizard released Sam.

"Don't blame her, Mister Gandalf," said Sam, or rather begged then stated it. "I dragged her down and convinced her to listen with me. Don't blame all of this on Rosie. In fact, don't blame it on her at all, blame it all on me!"

"Miss Cotton, get in here!" Gandalf yelled at her. "NOW!" Rose jumped a bit. She got in through the window as Gandalf lifted her inside and immediately placed her down. Then he had her and Sam at the same direction.

"Now, what voices that you heard," Gandalf said. They stayed silent. "SPEAK!"

" N-n-nothing' important! "That is, we heard a good deal about a Ring, a Dark Lord and something about the end of the world," Sam pleaded with Gandalf. He looked at Rosie. "Please Mr. Gandalf, sir, don't hurt me. Don't turn us into a toad and a lily pad!"

Frodo was actually smiling at his two friends.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that to you or Miss Cotton," Gandalf said. He looked at them knowingly. "I have a better use for the two of you."