Chapter 30: My Preciousssss!

Loki stared at his current surroundings. He was back in a meadow, no buildings in sight, bounded by a forest. "Now where the Hel am I?"

"Gollum! Gollum!" A squeaky voice sounded. "They stole my precioussss!"

"Where is Gollum and what precisely is a precious?" Loki turned toward the voice, seeing a strange creature slinking along the ground. The creature had burns on pieces of his skin, and a scrap of cloth covering his nether regions.

The creature scowled at him. "You know not where you are?" His bulbous eyes blinked.

Loki glanced around once again. "I'm guessing Middle Earth once again."

"You are correct!" Legolas emerged from the forest. His bow trained on the creature. "How did you survive? Frodo said you leapt into the mountain after the ring."

"Nasty elves. We don't speak to elves," Gollum spat, slinking away from Legolas he sat on the ground and crossed his arms.

"If you insist," Legolas looked at Loki. "Where is my father? He was with you last I saw him."

"He was with me the last I saw him as well. We were at some type of gathering, then I showed up here. Which, to be honest, is quite fine as my brother had shown up. That is not a good thing," Loki replied. "What is this creature?"

"That is the one who stole the One Ring. But according to Frodo, he jumped into Mount Doom after he cut off his finger," Legolas pointed to Gollum.

Loki stared at Gollum. "He does not appear to have cut off any of his fingers, although he does have less than either of us."

"Not him, Frodo's finger," Legolas corrected him.

"Who is this Frodo?" Loki asked. "Have I met him yet?"

"I would guess not since you don't seem to remember him," Legolas moved towards Gollum.

Gollum scampered away, darting behind Loki.

"Do not think I shall save you," Loki hissed at the creature, stepping sideways.

"He is probably harmless now that the ring is destroyed, but I honestly thought he was dead," Legolas said.

"I am not dead!" Gollum hissed.

"Obviously," Loki looked down at him. "And don't spit on my boots. I just had them cleaned."

Gollum looked up. "You're as bad as elveses. Nasty elveses."

"I am not an elf…"

"He is my father's wizard, and if you do not behave he shall turn you into a frog or an elf!" Legolas warned Gollum.

"No," Gollum whined. "Do not turn me into something else. I like my precious."

"Well, at least someone likes you. Now, how did you survive? Tell me or I will have him turn you into something," Legolas said.

Gollum slunk out from behind Loki. "Falling, falling, I was. Then I was here. Precious is missing again," he whined.

"Precious is gone, destroyed!" Legolas frowned. "That does not make any sense."

"Actually, it rather does. I would venture that who ever, ah, saved, me probably did the same for him. Although I cannot imagine why," Loki interjected.

Gollum looked up at Loki hopefully. "Precious is saved?"

"No, precious is destroyed. You were saved, though we know not why," Legolas sighed. "Well, hopefully we can figure this out eventually. Follow me," he said, walking back into the forest.

Loki nodded to Gollum. "Best we follow."

"Not following nasty elves," Gollum grumped.

A wail sounded overhead. Loki looked up seeing a large winged bird.

"Follow me then, or stay here and get eaten by that," Loki pointed to the bird, turned on his heel and stalked into the forest, clearly not caring if Gollum followed or was eaten by the bird.

Gollum glanced up, realizing that he would be easily snapped up by the bird, he chose to chase after Loki. "Waits! Waits for me!"

"What is this precious that the creature speaks of?" Loki asked Legolas when he caught up to him.

"A ring, or more precisely, the One Ring. Frodo was sent to destroy it, and almost failed. If it were not for that creature, Gollum, who knows what might have happened," Legolas explained.

Deciding he was probably not going to learn much more, especially if this ring was destroyed, Loki dropped the topic. "Where are we heading?"

"Gondor. It will take us about a day, but I want to inform the King that Gollum still lives," Legolas snuck a look back and noticed that Gollum was following them.

"I thought you father was the King," Loki replied.

"King of Mirkwood. Aragorn is King of Arnor, and King of Gondor, and our first High King of the reunited Kingdoms. With the destruction of the Ring, and Sauron's defeat, he was able to ascend to the throne," Legolas provided a very brief history of recent events.

"Now, I confess to the fact that I am very confused. Your father has never spoken of these events," Loki replied. "When I first met him, he was looking for some vile creatures and spoke of some war against a dragon."

Legolas looked at him curiously. "That happened over sixty years ago!"

Loki shrugged. "I don't think the Norns care about time."

"Norns?" Legolas asked.

"I believe they are the ones behind all this," Loki replied.

"Oh," Legolas wasn't exactly sure how to reply to that comment.

"It is the only plausible answer I can come up with. And it would explain your friend's being alive," Loki pointed towards Gollum.

"He's no friend of mine!" Legolas was quick to correct Loki about his relationship with Gollum. "I would just have easily killed him when we first found him. Might have saved us a bit of trouble." He paused and looked closely at Gollum. "But you might be right. See those burns?"

"I did notice them. What do they tell you?"

"Well, Mount Doom is a fiery volcano. Since Frodo said Gollum fell into it, that might explain why he has the burns. If he was saved by these Norns of yours. Could they just pluck him out of the fires as he was falling?" Legolas asked.

Loki laughed. "Considering I am standing here very much alive, I would say that yes, they could do that."

"What happened to you?" Legolas asked.

"I was stabbed by Kurse. I ought to have died… in fact, I thought I was dead when I woke up here, in Middle Earth, which is when I encountered your father. I'll take life over death and not complain any day."

Gollum slunk up behind them. "Nasty elveses. Makes us walks for hours with no food."

Without warning, their surroundings disappeared.

Loki grimaced as he realized they'd been sent back to Earth. They were standing in a small hallway, but he wasn't certain where on Earth they were.

"Hey! Stop it!" Thor's voice boomed from an open doorway. Five women were clustered around the doorway, peering into a room. They each sighed.

Loki looked at his new companions. "I do believe we have located my brother. Perhaps your father is with him." Without waiting for an answer, he walked up to the women. Tapping one on the shoulder, she jumped,

"Oh!" she squeaked. Then realizing that there were two more handsome men standing in the hallway – Loki and Legolas, she grinned broadly. "Are you here for the photo-shoot too?"

Loki ignored her and swept past her into the room. Taking one look at his brother, he sniggered before finally speaking.

"Thor, really?" Loki threw back his head and laughed, seeing his half-naked brother soaked in water.