An Unusual Repast
The elf child cried out plaintively into the darkness, her clear, bell-like voice reverberating off the jagged stone walls. Likely the place had never had a voice so beautiful, albeit desperate, sound in its depths.
She was bleeding. Spots of her blood on the rocks had been like fiery arrows to Gollum, pointing the way toward the wounded youngling. He watched her from behind a rock, absently dipping a single long, dirty finger into a half-congealed splash of blood and licking it greedily.
The blood streamed down her thin, white legs in dark rivulets. Probably she had skinned her knees and shins falling down a hole or ravine.
She again yelled feebly for help, her legs folding under her as she collapsed to the unyielding ground in either despair or blood loss.
Gollum wondered how she had come to be here, so close to his home in the lake, in the roots of the mountain. Perhaps she and her family had been captured by the goblins as they attempted the treacherous passes. Maybe she had wandered off and gotten hopelessly lost.
Either way, there was no hope for her.
He decided that he had watched her long enough, and he began descending toward her, spider-like on all fours, green eyes flaring with intended murder. He hissed slightly as a loose pebble gave way under his broad feet, tumbling away, echoing in the shadows.
"Who's there?" whimpered the girl, looking about wildly. It was no use. Even her elf-enhanced eyes could not pierce the darkness that reigned in Gollum's realm.
She had time for one more shuddering breath before Gollum was upon her.
Deft fingers wrapped around her flawless throat, Gollum bore her to the ground. She thrashed and flailed. Long, surprisingly sharp fingernails dug at his filthy skin, carving deep, bloody furrows. Gollum hissed and spat in anger but held true to his course.
Eventually, she slowed and stopped, falling limp in his arms. She ceased to live under his fingers, just as dozens of orcs had done. Just as Déagol had.
Gollum slowly extricated his fingers from her neck, his small body heaving from both the exertion and the exhilaration her felt whenever he strangled somebody. Rocking back on his heels, he examined his kill.
She was in that stage in between girlhood and womanhood. Taller than he, she might have beaten him in a fair fight had she been in full health.
Of course, Gollum never fought fairly.
She had the most radiant yellow hair, only slightly out of place from her wanderings and their scuffle. Her eyes bugged out at him, shock plainly registering on her face. Tenderly, he closed her eyelids with his fingertips.
She was beautiful.
Abruptly something lurched inside him. A scream of utmost anguish echoed from the depths of his mind.
What have I become? screeched a faraway voice from inside his head.
Gollum's lamp-like eyes narrowed. Where had that come from? A fluttery image took shape in his mind, one of sunlight glinting off the surface of a river as he fished with friends. Mercilessly, he crushed the memory.
"Nasty Elveses," he muttered disparagingly. "Even dead they makes bad memories come. So beautiful. Beautiful elf…" He reached out to touch her face, and then drew it back swiftly, a growl growing in the back of his throat.
With a savage cry, he brought both fists over his head and brought them down on the elf child's face, raining down blows again and again. Seeing little effect, he snatched up a large rock and bashed her head in.
"Tricksy little filth," he snarled at the bloody pulp in front of him. "That will teach you to be beautiful. Nothing is beautiful here. Nothing!" He gave her face another taste of the rock for good measure.
He stood up fully on two feet, seeming to tower over her, letting the rock fall to his side. "Except my birthday present," he added thoughtfully after a moment of consideration. Nothing was as beautiful as his precious birthday present from so long ago.
He turned to leave, but stopped as he felt his stomach rumble. Turning back, he tangled his murdering fingers in the elf child's lustrous blonde hair.
"Let's see if they tastes good, Precious," he muttered, dragging her headfirst toward the lake.