A Great Evil Unmade -- a tale for March 25

I spent most of the day writing, in order to submit a tale to a HASA challenge before it closed.  The challenge was X Takes the Ring, and had the following description:

I have seen a few stories over the years where for instance Galadriel takes the Ring when Frodo offers it to her. But what would happen if others were to take it, for any reason, good or evil? Aragorn? Boromir, Gandalf, or Pippin perhaps? Or Sam abandons Frodo at Cirith Ungol and goes on alone to try to destroy the Ring...

It wouldn't have to be a member of the Fellowship; maybe Barliman Butterbur finds a golden ring in the room the Hobbits used… or Bilbo loses it on one of his walking trips in the Shire…

These could be anything, serious, funny, dark; from drabbles to multi-chapter AUs, and anything in between.

My own idea had been plaguing me for months, and changed daily -- recently I managed to wrestle it into submission long enough to keep it from becoming another mult-chapter AU.  In any case, it still took me all day to write -- but here it is, and it's still March 25 where I am.

A fitting day for a story about the Ring going to Mount Doom.  ;-)  Read on...

( A Great Evil Unmade )