Chapter 3: The Ring's New Master.

The forces of Mordor has been called to arm. Orcs have been mustered from all parts of Middle Earth to fight and dominate the chaos in the name of Dark Lord Sauron. In the heart of Mordor, the last of the orcs arrived to be armed and ready for battle. One orc master made sure his platoon was ready and armed for fierce battle. "Hurry up you maggots! We got orders to meet up with the advance lead by Gothmog going north." He ordered while cracking his wip. "I want you all ready with in the....." Before he could finish. He noticed the Witch-King passing by on his black horse, fully armored and ready for battle at any moment. He passes the orcs as they fell silent in awe of his presence. He soon moved on and the orc master continued with his commands.

Elsewhere, many miles north of Mordor, Frodo Baggins accompanied by his good friend Samwise Gamgee and their newly appointed guide Gollum continued there quest to take the ring to Mordor and cast it in the fires of Mount Doom and destroy it. Gollum has just lead them into the Dead Marshes, a swamp littered with the corpes of thousands of orcs, elves, and men who died in a fierce battle. Gollum urged the hobbits to keep moving, but they were slow and tired from their long journey. Night fall was approaching and to travel at night would be extreamly dangerous.

"Gollum, we have been walking for days in this marsh." Sam pointed out. "Mr. Frodo need to rest at least for a little while. Besides, that big earthquake could of knocked everyone in Middle-Earth off their feet."

"No time!" Barked Gollum. "Wraiths patrol these marshes. They will finds us and takes the precious back to him. And we musn't let them."

Frodo looked off in the distant knowing that the land was somehow changed by the quake, but he was still focus on his quest. "Gollum, there is no harm in resting for a little while. We will move on after we had some shut eye."

Gollum gave a hiss in fustration. "Fine you supid hobbitses! Take you crummy napses. We wills be gone wraiths come for you." he crawls off uttering fowl words under his breath.

Sam and Frodo got comfortable as they are about to get some sleep for the first time in a few days. "Mr. Frodo" Asked sam. "Should we really let that Stinker go off like that?"

"I'm not worried. As long as i got the ring, he won't go very far."

"I hope not." Sam laid down. A cold breeze ripped trough the air. One that chilled them to the bone. But they didn't shiver due to the cold, they could feel something evil about this wind. "I didn't expect it to be this cold at this time of the year."

Frodo paused for a moment. "I don't think it's supposed to Sam. There is something very foul about this wind." He turned to Sam, but his friend was already fast asleep. Frodo then laid down his head and drifted off to sleep.

An hour passed and the two were still sound asleep. The air seemed to grow more cold and frost began to cover the land. Suddenly, in a pond near Frodo, bubble popped up from the water. The sound awakend Frodo and he turned to look, but all was still. Not seeing anything else, he started to go back to sleep. But more bubbles would rise from the pond and this time Frodo rushed to his feet in fear. He withdrew his sword, Sting, and slowly approched the pond. He looked in and saw the dead body of an elf. He stared at the body for a while with nothing happening for a minute. Then all of a sudden, the corpse's eyes pop open and stared at Frodo. Frodo inhaled to let out a cry of fear, but before he could, a huge spash came from behind him and a corpse emerged from the pond behind him. The undead beast let our a monsterous growl as more corpses came to life around them. They charged Frodo, but Frodo was able to fight off the zombies. "Sam! Help!" Frodo cried out for Sam who awoke, and was surprise at the sight of zombies attacking but he quickly joined in aiding Frodo. The hobbits fought off the zombies but more and more came and they were vastly outnumbered. Frodo looked behind them and saw a small opening in the mob and grabbed Sam by the shoulder. "Lets go Sam!" Frodo and Sam rushed to the opening and managed to run passed the mob of undead. They seemed to put some distance between themselves and the zombies, but Frodo was caught by the sight of Gollum under attack by half a dozen zombies. Frodo hesitated trying to flee or help his guide. In the end, he and Sam rushed to the aid of Gollum. They fend off a few zombies, but are soon surrounded with no way to escape.

"So this is how it ends." Sam said thinking that they were doomed. The three noticed a few zombies getting ready to lunge at them. Frodo closes his eyes and braces himself for the attack, however, moments passed and the attack didn't come. Frodo slowly opend his eyes to see that the zombies completely stopped. If anything, they were even backing off. The mob all turned behind them and began to split. Frodo and Sam could feel an evil cold chill coming from somewhere. Then they could feel un the ground tremors of heavy footsteps and and the sound of plate armor getting closer. The zomies parted and from out of the mob, the silhouette of a tall man with a spike crown appeared from the fog and approached the trio. Frodo could feel the weight of his power almost crushing him. The figure fully stepped into their view. He was dressed with heavy plated armor with various skull designs. His helmat had a crown of spikes and a blue jem on the forehead that glowed blue. His face was hidden, but his eyes glowed a chilling blue. But what was most noticable of this person was the sword he wielded. It was jagged and notched from many battles and it glowed blue as well and at the hilt was the skull of some sort of beast. Sam finally mustered the strength to speak. "It can't be, its Sauron!"

Frodo paused for a moment and studied who stood before them. "No, its not Sauron. This feels different." Frodo was right. This was the new Lich King from Azeroth. There was a pause, but then the Lich King started to advance towards the trio and Sam draws his sword.

"Back you monster!" Sam charged the Lich king bravely, but with one back hand he was knocked away.

"Sam? No!" Frodo cried out and tried to rush to his companion's aid but is met with the tip of the Lich Kings blade, Frostmourn, in his face just a hair away from his skin. The tip of the blade stayed in Frodo's face and he felt as if his soul was being drain by the sword and paralyzing him. However, the Lich King hesitated in ending the hobbit's life. He sence something that this hobbit had that sparked his curiosity. He guided the tip of his blade from the hobbit's face slowly down to his chest. He then proceeded to dig into the hobbit's shirt while Frodo was too afraid to move. After a moment of searching the hobbits shirt, the Lich KIng managed to find his neckess and exposes it, revealing at the end the Ring of Power hanging. The moment he saw it, the Lich King felt it's power and was attracted to it. He balanced it on the tip of Frostmourn just enchanted by the power it was giving off. He then lifted the ring with Frostmourn with the neck chain still attached, causing Frodo to be lifted off his feet and begin to choke on the chain. Sam finally regain conciousness to find Frodo hanging at the mercy of the Lich King. Then the Lich King slashed his blade upward, cutting the chain and causing Frodo to fall to the ground. Frodo look up and was helpless as he watched the ring fall into the open hand of the Lich King. Frodo rose to his feet and grabbed his sword. "No! Give it back!" Frodo tried to attack the Lich King and even Gollum tried to retrieve the ring, but the Lich King blew them away with little of his dark power. Sam helped Frodo up and the tree look on as the Lich King held up the One Ring, studying it and completely ignoring the trio. Then with the Ring in his grasp, he began to walk away. Frodo tried to persue, but were blocked by the counless zombies. Before going out of sight, the Lich King turn his head back to his minions.

"Feast." The Lich King demanded and walked out of sight. The zombies were closing in to follow their masters bidding. Frodo reached into his bag to try to find anything to help them avoid their doom. Luckly, he found the Phial of Earendil. He held it up and a flash of light covered them, blinding all zombies around. When the zombies got their vision back, the trio was gone. They looked around for any sigh of them, but to know avail. The mob let out growls and howls and scurried off to hunt them down. Little did they realize, they fail to look over a strange rock left in the area. WHen all was clear, the rock turned out to just be a magical cloak that the Frodo and his companions hid under. Frodo saw that they were safe, but no relief came to him.

"I lost it!" Frodo said panting in disbelief. "I lost the Ring! I failed!" Frodo buried his face in his hands in shame.

Sam slumped over unable to say anything useful "What are we going to do now Mr Frodo? What are we going to do?" However, Frodo couldn't answer him.

Not too far away, undead warriors continued to gather around the Lich King. Soon he had a great army at his side. But dispite all this, he never took his attention of the Ring of Power. After many minutes of studying it, he finally removed one of his gloves and place the ring on one of his fingers. He vanished and his undead soldiers all growled in disbelief as there was no hint of their king.

In Mordor the WItch-King was still overseeing his army being mustered, but then he sence the Ring being used. With out hesitation, he let out his horrific scream and rode north towards the dead marshes. The orcs were left behind. "The Ring! Sauron's Ring has been found!" The Lich King seemed to have beem taken to another realm, but still remained in the same world. He saw his army around him, but they were all blurred. Then the whole land moved around him as if he was flying across the world, he saw the Black Temple, Orgimmar and other outposts from Azeroth, then he saw new fortresses from this world like Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, Edoras, and Isengard. While he was watching the land, a dark voice spoke to him from behind. "You have something of mine." The Lich King turned to the voice and was greated with the great Eye of Sauron himself, almost blocking out the whole sky. "Return it to me."

The Lich King lifted his hand to the eye of Sauron and revealed that he was wearing the Ring. "You want it?" He said in defiance and then began to remove it. He gave one last look at the flaming eye. "Come and try to get it." With that, he removed the ring and vanished from Saurons gaze.