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It’s come to the point where it’s not getting worse by the day, but by the hour. Each step of the way, Sam can see the dark circles under Frodo’s eyes become heavier, his shoulders slump more, his fingers itching as if desperately wanting to crawl under his cloak and clutch the very reason for this escapade.
The times when Frodo doesn’t eat and even refuse to accept the water he offers him, when his eyes are hard and cold, an unyielding surface of steel that Sam thinks he sees way too often these days and when the darned creature that leads their way smirks and smiles, then it’s all he can do not to rip the chain off and fling the ring as far away as his strength will allow him. But he knows that won’t help one bit, so he walks instead, an endless walk that almost seem useless, because it ends in hell.
It would be enough to break any man. But Sam is nothing if not faithful and he remembers a promise made to a less-than-pleased wizard, on a cold night back in the Shire (home)
Yes, it would break any man, but Sam thinks it’s an easy decision, as he turns back into the spiders lair and battles Orcs and horrors his imagination could have never even conjured up on its own.
It’s the easiest decision since leaving home, to save the life of his friend.