Lord of The Rings Redemption
"Hello Smeagol, it seems we have something to discuss."
Smeagol blinked, his tired eyes opening slowly. It took him a few seconds to recognise the voice but when he did, he sat bolt upright as though a fire had been lit beneath him. He stared straight into the eyes of Frodo. Nearby was a guard but Smeagol didn't care he was that surprised.
"Master?"
"No, Smeagol, I'm not your master. Not any more. We are both free of the Ring. But, are we free of each other yet?"
"Smeagol wants to go fishing. Fishies."
Frodo chuckled. "Well, I suppose that's one way of answering it. Do you feel it though Smeagol. Do you feel the lightness, the absence of the Ring?"
Smeagol scratched his head. "How do you feel something that isn't there. Silly Hobbitses."
Frodo stretched and continued, "It's like wearing something really heavy like armour. and then you take it off and you feel so light."
Smeagol frowned as he realised what Frodo meant. Not so silly Hobbitses then. He didn't care that much though, he just wished he was fishing.
"Smeagol wants to get out of this jail now. If white wizard and all the pretty people meant what they said before, then Smeagol should have a new task!"
Frodo nodded. He knew what it was like to carry the Ring and in talking with his companions, had come to realise that Smeagol's one reason to exist was gone, and now Frodo was as close to understanding that as he could ever get.
"Smeagol's new task is to help Master-" his words became hesitant, "to help Frodo gets better now."
Frodo smiled "It will not be easy Smeagol. You were not the best of your people even before the Ring. The ring saw that and used it and made it painful. But you are free!"
"And Smeagol will stay that way!" He remembers now, so long ago in warm fields and large ponds with lots of fish. Smeagol's memory is his own now and he can remember the words Stoor, and Gladden."
"Will you walk with me now and taste of freedom?" Frodo asked gently.
"Big men are letting Smeagol go?"
"Not yet. They wish to see that you can abide by new rules they have for you and you must walk in the setting sun to show them that you can."
What Smeagol was kept unaware of for now, was that Frodo knew full well that the people of Gondor would flinch and shun Smeagol, for he still looked like a fell gangrel creature. For his part it seemed to Frodo that Smeagol was happy enough to just walk free.
It wasn't an easy route to the river, for Frodo endeavoured to keep himself and Smeagol from the site of the citizenry. This was in part to spare Smeagol from gawking and in part to spare himself the same. With them went Sam Gamgee and Legolas the elf.
Sam was deep in thought though he occasionally talked about fish with Smeagol, doing his best to get some idea of what was going on in the latter's head.
"Silly Samwise, why put salt in to add flavour lost through cooking, when all you have to do is not cook them?"
"Smeagol is correct Sam," Frodo said, "after all a great elven delicacy is made with fish by adding herbs and spices."
"Yes well, that's elves and others for you, but Mr Frodo and I are Hobbits and we use herbs and spices differently."
Smeagol frowned. They said the names of herbs differently. They even said the word herb differently. He decided he would just say 'herb' the way frodo did and use the 'H'.
They arrived at the river bank about a league from the walls of the city where Gimli son of Gloin awaited them. The dwarf sighed and looked at the still moderately pitiful being, He fixed him with a stern look.
"Smeagol, come here a minute and let me have a good look at you." Gimli's tone was gruff and commanding but not exactly threatening.
This put Smeagol in mind of a few times Frodo had given him orders, so he hopped forwards, keeping an axe swing and a half's distance away from the dwarf. Gimli chuckled at this, understanding exactly what Smeagol was up to and even nodded respectfully.
Gimli cleared his throat and then a mirthful look appeared on his face and he grunted. "Well, if I can be fair to a pointy eared elven princeling who shows off instead of getting on with the job, then I can be fair to you."
"Hey!" said an indignant Legolas.
"Forty Two," replied Gimi and that was answer enough to quiet the elf.
Smeagol looked around and when he saw that Sam and Frodo were as confused as he was, he was content. He spotted Gimli looking him over then and took a few steps back as the dwarf unhitched his axe and laid it down gently, but still ready in front of him.
Gimli grinned, "I find myself wondering who would win in a contest of fishing Between Elf and.. Uhh.."
"Smeagol," answered Smeagol.
"...Smeagol, that's the word I was looking for." Gimli smiled with the kind of smile that Smeagol recognised as someone playing a little joke,
"No it wasn't," said Legolas.
"Yes it was." said Smeagol."
"Whose side are you on here?" Legolas practically pouted.
"Mine." Smeagol let out a small chuckle and capered for a few seconds then.
Gimli gave legolas a triumphant look and then stroked his beard, then looked at Smeagol earnestly. "Very well then master Smeagol, one minute of an elf with a bow shooting fish, against your skill at diving in and fetching them out."
"Silly elfses! He is going to lose." Smeagol cackled. Unbeknown to Legolas, Smeagol had already been planning to try the same wager with Sam and had been thinking the whole thing through already. A poncy looking elf would do just as well as his target.
Legolas raised an eyebrow and looked sceptical. He tilted his head at Frodo and said."Frodo will referee to be fair. I think."
"Frodo," said Frodo, "is going to lie here and enjoy the peace and quiet and not be involved. Sam will adjudicate thank you, if that's alright with you Sam?"
"It is Mister Frodo." Sam replied. He knew quite well what Smeagol was like and as much as he liked Legolas, the elf had been a little too full of himself for a while. Apparently he had taken down an oliphaunt outside Gondor's walls. So it would be good for him to be reminded he wasn't perfect.
"Okay Frodo, You have a good nap and I'll look after the scoring."
"Okay, thank you Sam."
Legolas sighed. "And to think I could have stayed on those ships and become a pirate."
Gimli laughed heartily at this. "A tall thin blonde wet behind the ears fellow like you a pirate? It could never have wor-" The dwarf trailed off as he saw it actually working after all. How strange.
Legolas was about to say something else when Sam clapped his hands together gaining everyone's attention.
"Right then, one minute to get as many fish as possible and start!whoever piles up the most fish on the shore wins!"
Legolas drew back his bow with elven accuracy and let fly. His aim was true and he settled into an easy rhythm just as he done so many times during the quest of the Ring. Fish after fish was skewered. Rather than pick them all out one at a time, he shot them near a bend in the river so that once he was finished he would be able to collect them all easily.
"Fifty seconds." Sam's voice carried well here, so he was easy enough to hear.
Smeagol had his own plan. After watching Legolas for a a few seconds, he grinned and waded into the water, and his hands darted in and out flinging fish to the shore.
"Forty seconds." Legolas perched himself near the river bend where his school of shot fish had settled and whilst still shooting more fish he stuck one foot in the water and began flipping fish to the shore, taking advantage of the comparative shallowness of his chosen part of the stream.
"Thirty seconds." Sam called.
Smeagol heard and responded by hopping over the pile of fish that was still in the water next to Legolas and grinned at the elf. "Silly elf is going to lose." The he stuck his tongue out.
Legolas paused and Smeagol took advantage of his momentary lapse to bend down, scoop up several fish and throw them onto the shore to land in his own pile.
"Cheat!" Legolas was outraged but his diminutive opponent just smirked.
"Nope. Rules say that that the one with biggest pile on the shore wins. These fish are in the river, so throwing them!"
Sam nearly doubled over with laughter as Smeagol continued to rather creatively follow the rules of the game.
"You-you..." Legolas redoubled his efforts, realising how he had been outsmarted.
"T-ten seconds." Sam couldn;t quite keep his voice straight.
There was a Legolas shaped blur in the water as the elf shook off his surprise and he started kicked fish to the shore one after the other. One was flung after Sam called time but a familiar dwarven axe smacked it out of the air and it was tossed to Sam.
"The contest is over. so let's count the fish. Time to count."
Legolas counted his own pile, still sulking at having being outwitted. "Forty-two"
Smeagol did a little victory dance as he called out "Forty-three!"
Sam looked at his own feet and shrugged as he said "One."
Frodo chuckled "And you weren't even competing."
Sam grinned before looking at Smeagol and with a raised eyebrow said, "And the winner is Smeagol."
Not again… thought Legolas. He gave Smeagol a weary look as he sat down next to his old friend Gimli. Then he shrugged and started munching on Lembas.
"Well Laddie, today ye learned that no everyone can be as fine and upstanding as You. Others have other skills, but I'll be saying this,' Gimli smiled tightly.'As much as we've been told to teach Goll- I mean Smeagol the halfling there, How to re adjust, we'll be still be near Frodo, at his sides in case the climb back is too much for him."
"Oh."
"Of course, he has my axe."
"And of course, my bow."
"And all of your fish." Gimli chuckled as the elf fell neatly for his teasing.
"You did that to me on purpose." Legolas pouted.
"And it was every bit as fun as usual." Gimli admitted.
"Strange though is it not that whilst men fell to Sauron and were corrupted by the Ring, that only being close to Mount Doom allowed it to overpower Frodo in the end."
"Aye and it took centuries to overpower Smeagol there and he fought his way back in the end, though he, like Frodo, needed help."
"Sam too, fought the Ring. He did not need help but that was for he bore its brunt for only a short time.
"What of Frodo's Uncle Bilbo-"
"Bagginses stole the-" Smeagol began but even as he did so, Frodo sat up and cleared his throat.
"Calm yourself Smeagol." Frodo said. "The Ring betrayed you and left to try and also betray my uncle."
Smeagol stopped and thought, yes, but it was so hard sometimes to remember which memories were his own and which ones the Ring had forced upon him.
Sam started singing an Elven song to calm frayed nerves but it was effective for unexpected reasons. Smeagol teamed up with Gimli after the dwarf made some teasing remarks about elves and how they were all so feminine looking no one could tell the difference between their males and females.
Legolas tried to return fire with female dwarf beards comments but the idea was considered so ridiculous that the advantage was Gimli's from the start.
Frodo listened to it all with a blanket over his face, amused at everything happening around him and indulging himself by not getting involved the exchange. With a sly smile he turned his face away from the group and let them bicker.
As they head back to the city proper later on, Smeagol scampered about doing a victory dance, which irritated Legolas no end. This was not helped by Gimli clapping along merrily and reciting a merry and ancient Dwarven victory chant.
Frodo looked at Gimli and Smeagol and thought to himself, 'that 's a pair to give Merry and Pippin a run for their money.'