A/N: I know you guys don't want to hear excuses. I'm sorry. I really am. Life just got really busy… first of all it was the film (you know, the one I'm making) … and then exams happened. And then my birthday happened (I'm 14 now guys!) and then this weird writers block thing happened. It was like, writers block but not really—more like, I knew exactly what I wanted to write but every time I tried it just sounded dull and cliché. There was also the fact I only got 3 reviews on the last chapter and didn't feel really motivated… But the point, is, I'm back now! And because exams are over, and I've got my muse back, the updates will hopefully become more frequent again! :)
Maragorn: Yes, I have considered writing a book. In fact, I've tried quite a few times! The first novel I wrote when I was 10, and I was so certain I was going to get it published that I blew up at my parents when they told me the chances were very slim… unfortunately, it was the worst piece of writing I think I've ever read in my life… the last novel I attempted was last year, and it was okay, but it had so many plot holes I eventually stopped writing it…
Melissa: Yeah, Phillip is definitely the most dedicated boyfriend ever! But, I mean, Romeo comes pretty close to. I mean, he did kill himself for Juliet… that's dedication, man!
So… here is the long awaited THIRTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER!
…..
[11th February, T.A. 3019]
The end of the 26 days had been fast approaching for a long time now. Gollum-watch had become more exciting—what if he were to appear early?
It had also become scarier, Julia decided. Because what would they do if he were to appear early? What would they say? How would you talk to someone like Gollum?
Ginny assured them she had a plan, she knew what she was doing, they didn't need to worry.
But when day 26 actually came around, Julia was more nervous than ever.
The morning of day 26 began just like any other morning. Julia had woken, lay in bed for a few minutes, before propping herself up on her elbows to see Lola eating lembas in the morning sun. She looked so peaceful, tranquil, in the fresh light.
"Morning," Julia yawned, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.
"Hullo," Lola greeted Julia, swivelling around to face her. "Survived another night, yeah?"
Julia laughed a little. This was an ironic morning ritual of theirs. Nothing had happened for the past 26 days, nothing had tried to harm them. Of course she had survived the night.
"Yeah," Julia said, sitting up properly, "Can you pass me some lembas?"
Lola did so, a look of concern passing over her face. "We're getting low on food supplies."
"Oh." Julia frowned. The thought that they might run out of food had never crossed her mind before. Food had just always been there. She wasn't really sure how to respond to Lola. "Oh…"
They ate in silence. Luckily only a small amount of lembas was required to give them strength for the day. Maybe they'd have to make their rations smaller from now on. The lembas formed a doughy lump in Julia's throat. She swallowed nervously and took a gulp of water to wash it down.
The air around them now felt heavy and uneasy. Lola rubbed her eyes. "I've got a headache, do you think some of that flower crap will help?"
"'Flower crap'?" Julia laughed, "You mean, the gloop stuff?"
"Yeah, that." Lola stretched out her arms before letting them fall at her sides.
"I need to think of a name for it," Julia mused, digging through her belongings for it. Ginny had fashioned a better pouch out of some various materials she could find around the dale, with the lembas wrapping as a base.
"Yeah."
"Like, 'Flower Power: Magical Healing Gloop'!"
Lola raised her eyebrows, and Julia collapsed into fits of laughter at her unimpressed expression.
"Okay, yeah, that's pretty lame." She admitted through her giggles, turning back to her bag.
"Yep." Lola said, but then she went very, very quiet.
The silence was so eerie and still that Julia instantly knew something was up. She glanced up at Lola, frowning. "What's wrong?"
Lola was staring, wide-eyed, at something at the top of the dale.
"Lola?" Julia asked, trying to figure out what she was looking at.
"Wake up Ginny and Tran," Lola said, standing and picking up her sword, "I'll pack up our stuff."
"What? Why?" Julia asked, bewildered.
"Just do it."
"No, actually, why?" Julia stood up too.
Lola pointed towards something at the head of Dimrill Dale. Julia peered at it. It was difficult to see from far away, but soon she realized was Lola was talking about.
Julia just got a single glimpse of the scrawny figure before he slunk back into the shadows, but it was all she needed to see.
The 26 days were up.
Tran was right.
Gollum was here.
…..
"How do we know you know what you're doing?"
Ginny sighed exasperatedly and turned to Tran, who was looking at her uneasily. Lola and Julia, beside him, also looked slightly concerned.
"I know what I'm doing, okay? Just trust me." Ginny peered back over the large boulder the foursome was crouched behind. In the shadows they watched, lurked a wretched, twisted creature—a living example of what the ring could do, a being yet cupped in the gnarled hand of insanity.
Ginny's hard blue eyes scanned the rocks. It was light out, too light perhaps for Gollum to move around. He was practically nocturnal… she turned to Lola for reassurance.
Lola, as if reading her thoughts, said, "It's too bright for him to come out. He hates the sun."
Turning back to the shadows, Ginny ran through her haphazard plan again in her head. Would it work? Maybe. It was their best chance. She had had twenty-six days to think about it…
"So, what do we do now?" Julia asked, looking into the darkness wearily.
Okay, Ginny thought, enough stalling. It's Showtime.
"Julia, walk in there," She said confidently.
"What?!" Julia squeaked.
"Just do it." Ginny sighed exasperatedly, but a grin was creeping onto her face. They really didn't trust her… it was extremely amusing.
"But… but Gollum's in there!" Julia spluttered.
"Ah, I think that's the point." Tran raised his eyebrows.
"Come on girlie." Ginny smiled sweetly, shoving Julia out from behind the boulder. Julia squealed and tried to get back behind it, only to be stopped by Ginny.
"Trust me," Ginny said forcefully, "Nothing bad will happen to you."
"Ah, excuse me?" Julia frowned, "There is a freaking thousand-year-old mutated mentally unstable and potentially dangerous hobbit in there, in case you didn't realize!"
"Five hundred and eighty-nine years old, actually." Lola corrected.
"Yeah, well," Julia waved off this comment, "Who cares. The point is: I am not going in there, whatever you say!"
Ginny sighed and shrugged.
"Fine. Lola could you—"
She was cut off by a hissing noise coming from the shadows. Looking up in alarm, Ginny was met with two large, slightly luminous eyes imbedded in a drawn and sunken face.
"What's this? What's this, precious?"
Ginny jumped back in surprise and with a chink Tran's sword was drawn. Gollum hissed and spat, backing off.
"Tran!" Ginny cried, pushing his sword down. Tran scowled at her but lowered it anyway.
Gollum was obviously upset at being threatened. "We doesn't do anything to them, precious, no we doesn't, but nasty man still tries to kill us, precious, gollum, gollum."
"Ah… hello, Gollum." Ginny spluttered. He had caught her off guard appearing like that, and everything she had been preparing to say had suddenly flown out the window.
Gollum stopped hissing to himself and looked up at her sceptically. His eyes were dark, his furrowed brow weighed down with dozens of queries, but all that came out was: "What does the orange girl want with us, precious?"
Lola burst into fits of laughter but was silenced by a single glare from Ginny.
"The dark one laughs at us, she laughs, yes…" Gollum muttered darkly to himself.
"Gollum," Ginny interrupted, trying hastily to scrape together the words she had dropped in surprise when Gollum had come out of the shadows. "We—"
"How does she know our name?" Gollum hissed, scowling.
Ginny was caught off guard once more. Gollum may've been a 589-year-old mutant but he was no idiot. She tossed around some ideas in her head, swallowing as she contemplated how to answer that question. Finally, she decided what she would say: the truth.
Or something resembling the truth, twisted and manipulated to fit her purpose.
But still the truth.
"A man from where we come from wrote a book featuring you," Ginny said swiftly, "A man named Tolkien."
Gollum was silent for a moment, before replying, "How did he know our name, precious?"
Damn. He was good. Ginny searched her mind frantically for another answer. This had not been in the plan…
"He… he was… a seer!" Ginny said finally, thankful for the sudden brainwave, "He saw the future."
Gollum muttered and mumbled to himself. He was sceptical, Ginny could see that. And why wouldn't he be? Gollum's world was full of deceit, his own thoughts were mendacious, his life was practically a lie. Ginny knew she'd have to be a pretty good liar to deceive Gollum. Though, Frodo and Sam hadn't done too bad a job dealing with him…
"Tricksy girl…" Gollum mumbled, "Girl playing trickses on us, yes, precious, maybe… we don't trust them, no, tall man draws his sword, he does, tries to stab us, tries to stab, poor, poor Smeagol…"
"Whelp, you stuffed up," Lola whispered to Tran. Gollum looked up at her sharply and Ginny could hear Lola's breath catch in her throat.
"And the dark one laughs at us…" He breathed, "Cruel, dark girl laughs and laughs at us, yes precious, and her eyes, they scare us, precious, and she laughs and laughs…"
Then Gollum's eyes trained on Julia, who was standing slightly back from everyone else. She had not spoken yet, and Gollum's face seemed to soften slightly—or maybe it was a change in light.
"But… the quiet girl does not laugh, precious, or try to stab us, no—and she doesn't try playing trickses on us, no, no… we likes the quiet one, don't we, precious?"
A strange choking noise came from the back of Julia's throat. When Ginny turned to look at her, her face was twisted in repulsion.
Ginny nudged Julia in annoyance and Julia turned to her angrily.
"Look, he hates all the rest of us, you're our only chance!" Ginny hissed. Gollum didn't hear—he was too busy murmuring to himself.
"Yes, yes, precious, orange girl playing trickses on us, yes… what does she really want from us, what does she really want, eh?" Gollum gave Ginny a sidelong glance. "What does the girl want, eh?"
Ginny knew he was addressing her now in his cracked voice, and she gulped. How could she reply? How could she manipulate the impossible situation to make it go her way?
"What we're telling you is the truth," Ginny said confidently. Ah well, she had started along that path—there was no use trying to change stories now. "As for what we want—we… we…"
"We seek your assistance," Lola chimed in. Ginny's head snapped towards her but Lola didn't even glance up.
"We are searching for a group, a fellowship of four hobbits," At this word, Gollum looked suddenly interested, "two men, an elf, a dwarf, led by the wizard Gandalf the Grey."
Lola was going to continue but Gollum cut her off, eyes bright, looking excited. "Oh, yes, yes, precious! We are looking for them too, we are. They have something of ours—" Gollum's voice dropped suddenly and his expression turned suspicious. "They stole it… yes, precious, they stole it from us…"
"…yes." Lola said weakly, surprised at his original outburst, "That's why we thought you could help us find them. Maybe we could… work together."
There was silence. Gollum frowned, regarding Lola apprehensively.
"Dark one wants our help…" He spoke slowly, "And tricksy girl and man and quiet girl…"
Ginny, frustrated at Lola taking over her plan, spoke suddenly. "We knew only you would be right for the job, Gollum. You're a brilliant tracker."
Lola sighed. "Ginny, Gollum doesn't want to be praised," She whispered, "He doesn't want valour or glory. All he wants is the ring."
Ginny was going to say something snappy back but Julia piped up suddenly.
"Gollum…" She said cautiously, "What they stole from you… was it a… ring, by any chance?"
Gollum scowled. "…Perhaps; perhaps…"
"Well," Julia swallowed nervously, "Whatever it was, it must have been very, um, precious to you."
"Yes," Gollum said sadly, "Yes, precious, it was… gollum, gollum!"
Julia, seemingly repulsed by the noise coming from the back of Gollum's throat, backed away slightly. "So, what if you helped guide us, and we helped you find your ri— ah, stolen thing."
Gollum hesitated. "Quiet girl speaks well… is she false? Is she tricksy? But she speaks well, precious… we… we doesn't know, precious, we doesn't know!"
"He doesn't trust us…" Julia whispered.
"Well, the feeling is mutual," Lola replied quietly, nodding towards the wretched creature who was now rubbing his knuckles and rocking back and forth, deep in thought.
"We would like help, precious we would… but they might be tricksy. But they might not! But they mights be, precious, and then we would be in trouble, yes, yes… but if they are false we strangle them in their sleep, yes, yes…" Gollum chuckled and Julia gulped. "Yes… yes."
He was now looking at Julia, and it only took a few seconds for her to realize he was addressing her.
"Yes… you mean, you'll do it?" Julia asked tentatively.
"Yes, yes," Gollum said, "Yes, yes, yes, we does it, we does it for quiet girl if quiet girl helps us, we does."
Julia breathed out as if she had been holding her breath that entire time and let out a little bout of nervous laughter. "Oh. Okay."
Ginny was a little bit miffed her plan had been overtaken by Julia, but ultimately was just glad they had got there in the end. "Okay. Are we leaving now?"
"Yes, yes," Gollum said, hopping about, "Yellow face is out, yes, but we will never get anywhere if we don't hurry up."
…..
As the foursome and Gollum hiked out of Dimrill Dale they went over the small river, the one they had washed their clothes in nineteen days earlier. The one Julia had found the coin in.
She still had it, and fingered it between her thumb and forefinger as she walked. There was something comforting about it—it felt familiar, smooth and warm, unlike everything else she had experienced in the last five months.
When she touched it everything came back in a flash—everything she had left behind in the twenty-first century, everything from family to television to Phillip. It all came flooding back in a bittersweet moment of remembrance.
And as she walked over the river she didn't realize that, in the exact spot, billions of years from now, a young man sat on a bed covered in runes, writing a letter never to be read.
And as Phillip sat on his and Julia's bed frantically scribbling on a piece of paper he didn't realize that, in the exact spot, billions of years before now, a young woman wandered barefoot across a lazy stream, trailing behind a small wretched creature.
Maybe, if they had stopped to think, they would've realized something.
Maybe, if Phillip were a faster writer, everything would've changed.
Maybe, if they were more cautious.
Maybe, if they were more thoughtful.
Maybe, if, Julia had glanced behind her, she would've noticed a note addressed to her floating in the river.
Maybe she would've noticed it was written in Phillip's small, neat handwriting.
…..
A/N: Yeah, just saying, you might need to read that last little section a few times before it actually makes sense. :/
Well, guys, I'm back! How'd you like it? The first part was a bit forced but the end came out okay. I think. And how did I write Gollum? That was tricky. And the plot's on the move again; yay!
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