There's a small sliver of smoke rising from behind the bushes. Yes, there is. We can see it. We can smell it.
Foolishness! Stupid fat hobbit! Burning sticks to make a fire, using his pots and pans to ruin the fish he took from the pond. Nice, fresh fish. All charred and black. Smelling now. Reeking of weeds and smoke.
Not like the fish I hold. Tasty fish. Good fish.
Good master, giving poor Sméagol a fish before fat hobbit can ruin all. Before fat hobbit chases Sméagol away again with harsh words.
We hates the fat hobbit! Him and his pots and pans and ropes. We wish we could wrap our hands around his neck and squeeze so hard he can't breathe anymore! Would take him away from the master like his kind took the precious from us. Thieves. Thieves all!
No. No, we don't want to do that. We don't want to hurt kind master. Sméagol likes the master. He's good to poor Sméagol.
Fish. Good fish. Tasty raw fish. Not charred and burning with weeds and potatoes.
"Gollum? Hey, where are you?" Fat hobbit yells, looking around. Can't see us in the bush. "Damn that creature. He's never here when I need him." Sounds quieter now, like speaking to himself.
Stupid hobbit. Talking to himself like that. Not answering himself.
We don't want to be seen. Why would fat hobbit need us anyway? Nothing but angry words and looks for poor Sméagol. Will eat our fish here, far from the stinky fire.
Fat hobbit is tenacious, though. He's standing up now, with something in his hand. We look, and it looks like he is holding up a knife. A shiny knife. We should take it and stab him with it. Kill him before he can hurt us again.
"Come on, Gollum. I've got one extra fish here. If you want it, come and get it."
We can't help looking up from the bush at that. No knife. It's a fish. A nice, fresh fish. Fat hobbit is done with ruining good fish, and is offering one to us.
Why? Must be something wrong with the fish. Yes, precious. Maybe it's poisoned. Best not to take it straight ahead. Smell it first, taste it, if it's any good. We are not trusting fat hobbit. He hates us, we hates him back!
No. Fish doesn't smell bad. Tastes good. We stares at him for a moment, and then hurry back to the bush to eat in peace. Will not disturb master. He's sleeping again. We can see him twitch in his sleep, hand wrapped around our precious.
Fish loses the taste as we watch master sleep. Yes. Sleep sweet sleep with our precious!
We hates master as well! Hates him more than anything! Filthy little thief playing with our precious! Touching it, holding it like that! It should be ours again. Ours. Not belonging to stupid hobbitses.
If only fat hobbit would go away for a moment, we could go to master and take the precious away from him. We have strong hands. Could strangle him in a moment, with no sound at all. We could go home, away from these mountains, where He is always watching. Always watching, searching, reaching out for our precious. All thieves. All want what's ours.
But fat hobbit never leaves master alone. Never goes far from him. We watch him put out the fire and eat some of bad hot fish and weeds. Stupid hobbit!
He goes to sit next to master. Reaches out with his hand. No! Must not take away our precious! We almost runs to him, to stop him from stealing. But fat hobbit is not going to take the precious away. He touches master instead. Trying to wake him up. Yes. Wants him to eat something.
Stupid hobbit! Doesn't understand. Sleep with precious is more important than charred fish. He should leave master be and eat his ruined fish himself. Sméagol can go and fish master more fish. Fresh and still twitching. Or maybe more rabbits. Still warm. Not from fire. Warm from hopping in the sun.
Master is not waking up, though. Too tired, like we are. Poor Sméagol. Running around, trying to please master with gifts of fish. Never time to sleep. Never sleep with precious. Never hearing the whispers anymore.
We miss the song of the precious. We miss it. We wants it back!
Fat hobbit sees master is not hungry. He puts hot fish away, brushes his plate clean. Work. All for nothing. We don't need plates and hot fish. We don't need the hobbitses. We need only one thing.
It draws us to it. Calling us with no voice. We can feel it. Should hear the song, should touch it. The soft and hard surface. The smoothness.
"Gollum?"
We watch the fat hobbit. He has no more fish, so we ignore his call. He never says nice things to Sméagol. We don't want to hear harsh things. We don't want to feel the rope around our neck. So we stays here in the bush. Quietly.
He calls out for us again. Then mutters some nasty words that we can't hear. He gathers his belongings, all his pots and pans and cloths. So many things he needs to possess. Doesn't know only one thing matters.
It's getting dark here, but we can see him sit there next to master. We can see well in the twilight. We sees everything.
A hiss escapes us when we sees that fat hobbit is staring at precious again. We knew it! He wants it too. Everyone wants Sméagol's precious. It's not fair! It's ours!
Then we still completely. Because he's not staring at precious after all. He stares at master.
Stares him like we used to stare at precious.
What a strange thing. We are puzzled now. Fat hobbit is a curious one. With all his belongings and his need to ruin perfectly good fish. Now this.
Friends. He and master are friends. We can not remember a thing like that. Maybe Sméagol had a friend once. Before precious. We don't remember that though. We don't need friends, if we have precious. Even master isn't our friend.
Fat hobbit is moving the cloak over master, his hands not burning at the touch of the cloth. Pointy ears. Cursed pointy ears make cloth that burn poor Sméagol. Hobbitses have pointy ears as well, but not like the ones that made the cloth. And the rope. Sméagol hates pointy ears!
We love the precious, though. Love it with everything we are. It's everything. It's our precious.
Master knows that. He can feel it call too. We can see it in his eyes. When the Nazgúl was calling for him. When he sits alone and stares into the distance.
He is still resisting. We knows it's not precious to him yet. But it will be. It will be. Precious will have nothing less. It wants his everything. Wants to be loved. Hated. Everything. Poor master. Will belong to precious, like Sméagol does.
Fat hobbit sits with master, looking at him. We wants to laugh at him. Laugh like we laughs at fish sometimes. Fish swimming in the clear ponds. Going this way, going that way. Then caught by us.
He looks at master like master looks at precious. Like we look at precious. But master will never look at him back. He will belong to precious, no one else. Fat hobbit has no chance. Master will always have only one precious.
Why would he want to touch fat hobbit when he can touch precious? Skin will tear and wrinkle. Precious is always good to touch. Time doesn't change it. And precious will always want you. Not like fat hobbitses, who can lie and deceive and hurt. Stupid hobbit.
He will be empty, like we now are. Loving something he can not touch. Can not have. We don't want hobbitses, though. We wants precious.
Shiny, shiny. The only companion anyone needs. Perfect. Sméagol doesn't need anyone. Doesn't need a friend. Doesn't need a silly hobbit to call precious. What a lie. What a lie. To call someone precious. Only one precious. And we wants it back!
We watch fat hobbit sigh. He lies down next to master, looking sad. He should be sad! Now he knows how Sméagol feels without his precious. But we will get our precious back. The difference. We will have what we want, what we need. Fat hobbit will not.
There is a long way to go. We remember the way, we escaped through the caves once. There's time for us to get precious before master takes it to Him.
Time for the precious to claim him as well. We sees he's on his way to become the precious'. In the end, he'll be what we are.
We belong to precious, love it, hate it. Master will be like us. No needs for fat friends then. No need for anything. He will be alone then, and then we'll be there to claim precious back.
Moon is high above us now. Plenty of light to show us a way to master's side. We sits here. Watching master sleep. Watching him hold precious.
We can wait.
Site Info
We are the home of 1292 authors from among our 2552 members. There have been 2904 reviews written about our 3820 stories consisting of 10734 chapters and 29400445 words. A special welcome to our newest member, Rosamundeb.Categories
Skin Change
Donate
Help us keep one of the oldest running LotR archives available to all. Even the smallest donation helps!
Many thanks to our previous donors!
Many thanks to our previous donors!
