1 It is set in the time of Eldarion, Elessar's son.
2 Minas Tirith is now a giant city, one of the biggest in middle earth.
3 The events of the War of the Ring are now little more than seldom-heeded tales to the people of Gondor, lingering only as a shadow upon the early childhood of those who lived to see it. One such man was Borlas of Pen-arduin, the younger son of Beregond.
4 In his garden by the Anduin in sight of Minas Tirith, he is in conversation with a young man named Saelon. Saelon is his friend, but he has been disappearing alot lately, and this is one of the first times Borlas can actually talk to him again. Borlas speaks of the constant presence of evil in the hearts of Men, a Dark Tree that cannot be felled forever, its roots can never be fully destroyed so that evil will once again arise if the 'tree' is left untended or unwatched. He says this after he heard his other friend, Ano, talking about it. Saelon is doubtful of a Dark Tree.
5 Saelon recalls the time when Borlas scolded him in his youth for wasting unripe fruit from his garden, calling it "Orcs' work", much to Saelon's disdain at the time. Borlas replies that misuse of unripe fruit robs the world and hinders a good thing of fulfillment. Saelon brings up Men's habit of felling trees for their own use, to which Borlas says that if the wood is used for decent purposes and not wasted then no wrong is done.
6 Borlas grows tired of the conversation, but Saelon wishes to continue their discussion of the nature of growing evil. Saelon claims that it couldn't have been memories of Borlas childhood mischief that began their discussion of the Dark Tree, saying that he must have heard of Herumor. Saelon goes on to say that a growing number of people are not content in the days after the death of the Great King. Borlas asks what the growing unrest plans to accomplish, to which Saelon asks how Borlas came to know the name of Herumor in the first place. After some disagreement on who should answer first, Saelon offers to tell Borlas all that he wishes to know if he joins him after nightfall clad in black at Saelons house. With this offer, Saelon takes his leave of Borlas's garden.
7 Borlas then sits down on his bench to think. Borlas thinks about what his father Beregon would do. He thinks his father would go to Saelon, but he would be prepared if anything goes wrong. Borlas then thinks he should go to his brothers to learn about this ‘Dark Tree’. Borlas then takes leave to go to his older brothers in Gondor named Huliernas and Oriman, who are part of the great council of Gondor. The brothers live together. His brothers house is in Minas Tirith, where the council men live. He walks there and knocks on Huliernar’s and Oriman’s door. Huliernar comes out and invites him to come in and have dinner. During dinner Borlas slowly tries to get his Brothers to talk about the Dark Tree, but Oriman scolds him and tells him to leave his house. Borlas then agrees to walk back to his own house. Borlas then sneaks up to a open window on the side of the house and listens to his brothers talk. They talk about how Borlas should not have found out about the Dark Tree, because he may talk start talking about it in the open and get himself into trouble. His brothers then talk about the possibility of Borlas learning more about the Dark Tree and joining the cults forces. They then talk about how the power of the cult may overthrow even Minas Tirith. Borlas then learns that the Dark Tree is a cult. Oriman then says to close the windows so they don’t get in trouble for talking about the Dark Tree, and Borlas runs away before Huliernas comes to the window. Borlas then goes home to get ready for the meeting with Saelon.
8 Borlas goes home to get prepared for his meeting with Saelon. He brings his father’s scimitar, his black cloak, candle, and matchbox. As he strikes the match and lights the candle he steps into the windy night. He worries that he will be spotted by someone, so he avoids the river Anduin because strange people use the river during the night. So Borlas walks through the forest. Once at Saelon’s house he knocks on the door and Saelon tells him to come in quickly, and they go into Saelon’s downstairs. Borlas has never been in the downstairs. Borlas notices a painting of a huge black tree. Saelon pours Borlas tea and they begin talking.
9 Saelon begins to talk about how there is a group that Saelon has been studying. Saelon says that the group protects a tree, one of the last of the ‘great trees’. Borlas doesn’t think that there is such thing as a ‘Great Tree’. When Borlas asks about the painting of the black tree, Saelon says, ‘It is the symbol of the Dark Tree group.’ Borlas is then surprised that the group is called the Dark Tree, and Borlas asks about why he studies this group. Saelon changes the subject and asks what Borlas knows about evil. Borlas then is brave and asks Saelon why people call the Dark Tree a cult. Saelon says that the men who call the Dark tree a cult don’t believe the right thing. Saelon also says that what men believe isn’t right; what men think is darkness, is actually light. Borlas asks why he says ‘men’, and asks why he says men instead of people, and what other race he could be talking about besides men. Saelon says that the Dark Tree knows the answer to your question. Borlas then thinks that Saelon is part of the cult in some way. He is suprised.
10 Borlas does not want Saelon to know that he knows that Saelon is connected to the cult. Saelon looks at the painting of the tree. Then Saelon starts to bring up the 3rd age and Sauron. Saelon, instead of saying Sauron, he calls refers to him as the ‘True King’ or ‘The Eye’. He then goes further back to the 2nd age and says Sauron was ‘wronged’ when the great ring was removed from him. Borlas says that that isn’t true, and Sauron was a great evil, because during his childhood he was in war. Saelon then even goes back and says that in the 1st age Morgoth was a wonderful ruler. Saelon keeps talking but Borlas does not pay attention. Meanwhile, Borlas sneeks up the stairs with his scimitar in hand away from Saelon, because something is cleary wrong. Then Saelon looks away from the painting and sees Borlas leaving, and says “Where are you going? Don’t you want to join the Dark Tree, Borlas?” Borlas then replies ‘What have you done Saelon? I thought you where one of my friends!” Saelon then hurls a large elvish- looking knife into Borlas leg, and Borlas falls down the staircase and is knocked out.
11. When Borlas wakes up he is tied down to the floor of a wagon, and he wakes up to find he is staring in the face of a bear. He is frightend and yells “Where are you taking me?” It laughes at him so Borlas just turns his head and goes back to sleep, because there is not much he can do because he is tied down. He dreams of a spider, a huge spider with several eyes, looking down apon him. The spider jumps on him and he screams as he wakes up. He wakes up with fright, for he is now being carried by what appears to be small men. He looks around and sees he is being carried through some sort of dark hole or cave. He sees Saelon in a black cape, and the bear from earlier, so Borlas yells “Let me go, or I will kill you all!” He then jumps away from the small men, and pulls out his scimitar, but when he tries to fight the small men and the bear, he crumbles down on his knees because of his injuired leg. The small mens eyes become red as Saelon grabs Borlas’s scimitar and Saelon kickes Borlas in the face and Borlas hits the floor and is knocked out. He wakes up and is on the floor of some big opening in the cave.
12 Borlas is on the ground, and as he sits up, he sees he is surounded by men, dwarves, some strange short humans with black eyes, and large men. He is terribly frightened and tries to back away from the animals, but his scimitar is pointed to his back by Saelon. He turns all the way around and sees Saelon and another large man. He thinks that the man standing next to Saelon is actually the bear, and he can somehow shapeshift. Saelon then suddently grabs him, pulls him up and says “You should have listened to me.” Then Borlas replies “I thought we where friends! Why did you have to join this cursed cult!” To which Saelon says, “You should have joined the Dark Tree. Now you will be punished!” He is then grabed by the bear- man, and the big man and Saelon walk him farther into the dark cave. Borlas guesses he must be under a mountain, and took in a wagon from Saelons house to the entrance of what ever mountain he under, where he was then carried by the black eyed men into the heart of the mountain; where he is now. He now is going into an even bigger opening and sees a giant tree. This was not a ordinary tree, because it has no sunlight to grow off of, only torchlight; and it is massive and has roots sprouting out of it from every direction, except the direction Borlas is being pulled to. He then saw something, he saw a jewel, a extremely bright jewel that was attached to the front of the tree. He knew what this tree was; it was the Dark Tree, the tree that the cult protects. Suddenly, Sael’on and the big bear man back off from the tree and let Borlas go, and Borlas stares at the tree. Then he hears a voice in his head, a deep voice, telling him to come closer. Rapidly, the Tree grabs his leg with a root, and starts sucking his soul out, in exchange for darkness. Borlas could feel the Tree filling him up with darkness. Borlas then grabs Saelon, and hurls Saelon at the root sucking away at Borlas. The root brakes, and the whole cave quakes. Borlas takes his scimitar from Saelon, and attacks. He hacks away at the tree, and the cave shakes even more. The dwarves and men then attack him, and he blocks off there attacks, until he is flung into the air by a bear hand, one of the bear men. Chaos breaks loose, and every one is smashing and fighting everything. Borlas smashes into the wall, and falls into a dark crack, right when something or someone falls into the crack with him.
13 He is falling, farther, and farther down until he falls down on the ground. Someone lands next to him, and he finds out Saelon is there. They are in darkness and talking to each other, wondering what to do. Saelon wants to try to climb back up the crack; but Borlas wants to walk around till he finds something. Borlas finds a light, shining through a little tunnel in the wall. He crawls into the tunnel and Saelon follows. They find themselves in a room, with the tiny men. Saelon yells out that he is part of the Dark Tree, and a bear comes and knocks Saelon out. They ask Borlas if he is part of the cult, and Borlas says no. The tiny men believe him. Borlas asks them what race they are, and they say they are a forgotten race called the Drúedain, and they are similar to men. The Drúedain are pale skinned and wear nothing but a loin cloth, but a few have small jackets that look like they are made up of leaves sewn together. The bear shrinks and becomes a big man again (Which suprises Borlas alot, even though he guessed the bears may also be the big people) and the big man says he is a Beorning, a man that has the power to change their shape into great bears. The Beorning is named Anleorn. The Drúedain is named Rewaith-Eth, and he invited Borlas to come into there meeting room and have something to eat. As Borlas walks away from the dark cave with the Drúedain and the one Beorning he notices that he is entering some sort of cave system, but the walls are smoothed and there is a hairy- animal fur like carpet to walk on. The Drúedain and the Beorning both have nothing on as clothing but loincloths. The Drúedain has some sort of symbols painted on his chest.
14 When they arrive at the meeting room Borlas talks to the Drúedain for a while, about how they survive down underground and why they came underground. Rewaith says the Drúedain are free people, and they live in the Drúadan Forest as well as under the White Mountains, where they are now. At the end of the war that the men had, a king named King Elesar gave them this land, and anyone from Gondor would be punished if they came here. Borlas says he is from the great city of Minas Tirith. Rewaith does not get mad, but he says he must not be here and must leave very soon. To Borlas’s suprise, Rewaith-Eth says that the men of the White Mountains used to be friends with some people in Gondor. He says that Ghân-buri-Ghân, his grand father, helped the men of Gondor in time of need, years ago. After that, the Drúedain spoke the language of men, and almost forgot there old language. He says that actually some Drúedain lived in Cape Andrast, which was a part of Gondor. Borlas asks why the Dark Tree cult stays in these mountains. Rewaith-Eth says that no one from Gondor will bother them here. Rewaith says that some years ago, a few Men, Dwarves, and Beornings came to this mountain range. They carried a bright crystal of power. The cult then created the Dark Tree. The more the Tree grows, the more followers the cult has. The Tree has been corrupting the Drúedain, by grabbing them and filling them with darkness when Drúedain come near. Once someone has been corrupted, they act normal, but inside are evil and join the cult. The Dark Tree has got more and more followers, because the people of the cult abduct other people, who then are brought and corrupted by the Dark Tree. The Drúedain hate the Dark Tree, because the Dark Tree cult abduct Drúedain. The Drúedain want to kill the Dark Tree once and for all, and they are very mad at the cult for everyting they are doing, kidnapping there people, and the kidnapping of all free peoples. The Drúedain say that they get along with most peoples, except the orcs, and the men of the east. Borlas says that the orcs are gone forever, so there is no worry.
15. Rewaith- Eth says that they want to get rid of the Dark Tree cult forever, and asks Borlas if he will help him. Borlas says yes. Rewaith Eth says that the Drúedain will have to summon deep magic to stop the dark magic. Rewaith says that Anleorn will lead the attack, and the Drúedain will follow. They will take care of the cursed men and Drúedain, and Anleorn will attack the Beorning on the dark tree’s side. Rewaith- Eth says that he needs Borlas to attack and destroy the tree. Borlas says yes. Borlas asks what Saelon will do, but Rewaith- Eth says that he cannot help because he will most likely side with the Dark Tree cult. Saelon is to be chained in a cell of the Drúedain until the whole attack is over. Borlas needs to destroy the crystal in the tree, and by destroying the crystal, the tree will lose its source of power, and the tree will not corrupt anything or anyone else. Borlas asks why the Tree can corrupt things, and what it is, but Rewaith says he doesn’t know. Anleorn says he doesn’t know either. With that, they get ready for the assault.
16. This part is from Saelons point of view. Saelon is in a big crevice in a wall, that is dug out and covered with square wooden bars. Saelon overhears the plot that the Dark Tree is going to be destroyed, because he overhears some guards talking about it. He also hears that almost every white mountain Drúedain will be leaving to the battle, and he sees his chance. He takes out his eleven knife (Which he hid under his shirt in his armpit) and watches as the guards leave to fight in the battle. He then saws slowly through the wooden bars, and makes a square in the wood that is big anough to slip out of. Since he has lost lots of weight, he is able just to slip out of the crack he made in the wood. He sees that there is one guard, so he throws the guard into the wall, where the guard is knocked out. He then thinks in his head ‘What should I do? If somebody destroys the tree, the whole cave system will fall down, because the tree has made the cave system unstable. So should he run to the exit of the mountain, or should he go and help the cult?’ Saelon is really tempted to run and help the cult, but then the whole cave shakes violently.
17. Borlas is in battle now, and things aren’t going to plan. Anleorn, who is supposed to be dealing with the one Beorning of the Dark Tree cult, is outnumbered because the Drúedain just found out that the cult has more than one Beorning. The Drúedain are doing fine fighting the cursed Men, Drúedain, and Dwarves, because there is tons of Drúedain on the good side. But then a winged mighty lizard, (which he finds out is a Fell Beast, one of the last Fell Beasts,) emerges from a cave, and starts picking up, flinging and killing Drúedain. Borlas yells out in shock as Rewaith is smashed by the Fell Beast, and the Fell Beast hears Borlas, and attacks Borlas. Borlas is then saved by Anleorn, who jumps on the Fell Beast and slays it in bear form. Borlas gets out his scimitar and runs to the Dark Tree, and starts hacking away at it. The Tree then screams and tries to grab Borlas, but Borlas dodges and keeps hacking away branches and limbs of the Tree. The whole floor is rumbling as Borlas keeps hacking away limbs. Finally, there is only two limbs left on the tree, and Anleorn, in bear form, tries to help Borlas again, and tears away one of the two limbs left on the tree. The whole ceiling starts to fall apart. The Dark Tree then grabs Anleorn, and strangles the bear to death. The the Tree suddently moves, and takes the shape of a large, tree-ish black man, and grabs Borlas by the leg with its one limb/arm. The Dark Tree starts filling Borlas with darkness and walks closer to him. The black tree man has one eye, the jewel.
‘I AM YOUR NEW LORD! FOOLISH MAN! I AM YOUR NEW LIGHT! I AM YOUR NEW DARKNESS! I AM THE NEW HOLDER OF THE ONE SILMARIL! I AM THE NEW SHADOW TO WALK UPON MIDDLE EARTH!’
As the Dark Tree yelled that, Borlas stabbed behind Silmaril, and the Silmaril fell from the Dark Tree. Clutching the Silmaril, he watched as the Dark Tree shriveled up into a black mass, and Borlas, feeling more alive than he has ever felt, shone the light of the Silmaril at the black mass, and the black mass screamed and exploded, bringing the whole ceiling down upon Borlas and everything in the mountain.
END OF BOOK 1
1 Saelon is alive, he came out of the mountain before the mountain fell. Borlas is now dead.
2 When the dark tree is destroyed, the darkness leaves Saelon, and Saelon is ashamed that he was part of the Dark Tree, and he blames himeself for Borlas’s death.
3 Saelon is mad at himself and says ‘I have done too much evil, and he must now sail into the ocean and die at sea, because I have always been scared of the sea, and now since I killed my friend, I must kill himself where I am most scared.’
4 Saelon journeys for a couple days walking to Minas Tirith, eating only what he finds in the wild, and he meets some Drúedain of the Druadan Forest, but when they ask him what happened in the mountain, Saelon says it was his falt that everyone died.
5 Saelon arrives at Minas Tirith and buys a small boat he can ride to Cape Andrast. He also gets lots of food for the journey.
6 Saelon sets out to his journey.
7 Saelon rides on the Aduin river day and night, even sleeping in the boat. He meets a few fishermen and trade boats, but nothing exciting ever happens.
8 After some days when he is near the end of the river and the start of the sea, he goes to shore and sleeps a night at Cape Andrast, near the shore.
9 When he wakes he sees a white boat approaching the shore. He waits for the boat. It is a elven ship by the looks of it, and Saelon has rarely seen stuff made by elves, because most elves have dissapeared from middle earth. The boat arrives on shore, right in front of Saelon, and a man Saelons age steps out of it. The man has a white staff, long white hair, and even though he is young, his face looks as if it has seen much. The man greets Saelon, and asks why he is here. Saelon says he has done a terrible deed and is here to kill himself. The man says that a man can never do a deed so terrible he has to end himself. Saeon asks what a young man would know about death and terrible deeds. The man then replies that he has lived before most men even existed. Saelon then asks what the man is, and he says he is a wizard, coming back to middle earth to make some things right. Saelon asks the wizard for his name, and the wizard says he has gone by many names, and will need a new name this time. The wizard says he shall go by Esualon, since Saelon was the first person he has met. Esualon says that Saelon should not kill himself out at sea, but Saelon says he must. Saelon says he must leave now, and Esualon gives him good luck and then the wizard vanishes, leaving Saelon to himself.
10 Saleon gets his boat and goes in it to the ocean. The water is very shallow and light blue, but as he floats further in the water becomes darker.
11 Saelon travels for many days, becoming sea sick, wondering when he will perish.
12 After several days he is on top of a underwater sea weed forest. Then he is attacked and a large tentecle of kelp wraps around the ship, slowly breaking it. Saelon yells out ‘Take me beast of kelp, for I have came here to die’ when he says that the kelp dissapears, just to reapear and grab onto the ship. A beast suddently hoists it self out of the water. It is a big, almost frog like animal that has long kelp growing out of the top of it. On closer inspection, the whole creature is made of kelp, and the legs and arms are made of kelp root. The animal talked, a bubbly high pitched speech. The animal asks what Saelon is doing, and what race Saelon is. Saelon says he is a man, and he is sailing out to the sea to die. The kelp animal says he is against men, because they love destroying the sea life. The kelp animal says that is Saelon keeps sailing he will reach the undying lands. Saelon says it is not true and is just a fairy tale. With that the creature leaves him.
13 Saelon keeps sailing on, waiting for something to happen to him. His food storage is running low, so he wonders if he will die of starvation first. He keeps on sailing.
14 Saelon is starving. He is very weak and knows he is going to die of starvation. He feels like he will never meet the end of the sea. Suddently, he spots land. It is a very small island, about 9 miles round, and is mostly beaches. Saelon pulls up to the beach, and very slowly gets out of the boat, because he is very weak. He says ‘This is where my end will be, so I shall name this island, Last End Isle.’ He lays down on the beach, with sunlight on his face, and closes his eyes, and never opens them again.
