SlickRick69
I'm God here!
"He was a troublesome bother of a Brandybuck, for sure..." Londro frowned and cried. "But, he was a good friend, never one to turn away from adventure, or danger, or trouble of any sort...
"Curse me, and this blade, Sting, for not striking fast and hard enough!" Londro slammed the hilt of Sting against the petrified log and hard ground. "Curses! Curses!" again and again, Londro pounded the earth with the butt of the sword. Only once he was spent, drained of anger and energy over the loss of his friend, did Londro collapse against the log, and hug Jimbleberry close.
"What? What's that?" Sethilor spoke up, after shaking off his wounds, and wandering over the log to be with his fallen companions. There, on the ground, lay a crystal gemstone, encrusted with gold...
"What?" Londro sighed, shifting his gaze from Jim to Seth then to the ground. "Oh bother..." he pouted, picking up the clear crystal; it was the hilt-stone at the base of the sword Sting, and it had fallen free from the sword. Cousin Bilbo would certainly have Londro's hide for this!
"Ah, Bilbo..." Londro found his thoughts drifting to his missing cousin. "What could the Orcs have wanted from you? And, why do they still lurk about, if they had found and killed you??"
Londro picked up the crystal and tried to jam it back into place on the base of Sting's hilt, but his efforts failed in two ways. First, because the base of the sword was now so clogged and packed with earth the gem would not sit deep enough to stay. Secondly, the golden band which encircled the gemstone slipped form the crystal, and would not stay back in place. Where once there was only the sword, Sting, now there was the sword, the stone, and...
... the golden ring!
Londro sighed, and sobbed, scooping up the crystal and the ring, pocketing the artifacts and slipping Sting back in his belt-loop.
FLASHBACK To a time after Bilbo had returned to the Shire upon acquiring the Ring, but before knowing any more if its true nature and evils, only knowing that it was powerful and would render the wearer invisible. Bilbo, realizing what a glorious treasure such a ring would be to all of his thieving cousins, fashioned the hilt of Sting into a hollow, into which he hid the ring and capped the base of the hilt with a perfectly cut crystal stone, sealing the Ring inside, out of sight, and out of mind, the magic of Sting shielding the Ring from other scrying, prying divination spells...
But, one eye saw beyond the mask, the illusion, the simple trick...
The Eye of Sauron, though rendered weak and all-but-powerless now, (between the Hobbit and the LOTR) knew of the Ring's potential, and followed the course of the Ring, using agents of Sauron to track the Ring-bearer across the known world. Humans and elves defended the Ring bearer, so those places would be first easy targets for Agents of Sauron, until the Evil Lord's power would grow to be sufficient enough to draw the Ring bearer to him, to reclaim the Ring for himself, and to rule the world...
"Oh, Bilbo, we must find you... dead or alive, I must know your fate, even if it becomes my own fate!"