1 PRECIOUS

1.1 CHAPTER 2 - BRINGING UP BABY

As Gollum looked in shock at the giggling infant, which he had now called Precious, a smile crept across his face. He had not smiled since the day he lost his birthday present.

"It is my Preciousssss, it is," exclaimed Gollum with glee, picking her up. The baby let out little squeals of excitement as Gollum spun her around, hopping back and forth on his little island on the lake.

Gollum stopped dead in his tracks, and twitched his nose.

"What is that smell, my preciousssssssss?" asked Gollum.

He brought Precious closer to him and took another sniff.

"Could it be coming from Precioussssss?" asked Gollum.

He turned the baby round, cautiously pulling down the child's garments.

"Preciousssss has made a mess, my preciousssss," sighed Gollum.

Panicking for a brief moment, Gollum realised he was surrounded by water, and got an idea. Gollum took the clothes off of Precious, laying her down carefully on the material he had found her wrapped in, and dipped the clothes in the icy cold water. Gollum grabbed a smooth stone and rubbed all the excrement from Precious's clothes as he cleaned them in the lake.

Gollum dried the clothes with the material he had laid Precious in. He therefore had to hold Precious under his arm while he did this. When the clothes were ready, he put them back on Precious.

"Look at my Preciousss now," announced Gollum proudly, "It is all clean!"

Gollum wondered what to do with his new companion now. He tried to ask her a riddle, but the baby did not answer. In fact, Gollum was starting to wonder if Precious talked at all.

After a while, the baby started to cry again. Gollum quickly checked under her garments again, but she was still clean.

"What does it want now, my precioussss?" asked a confused Gollum.

Suddenly, a sharp pang of hunger hit the chest of Gollum. He realised that he had not eaten all day: he needed some fish. Then he realised why Precious was upset.

"My Preciousssss must be hungry too, my precioussss," hissed Gollum, "Does it want some fishes?"

So Gollum took Precious into the boat with him. Gollum soon caught a fish and, although he was ravenously hungry, he fed a small amount to Precious. Her crying soon stopped.

"We were right, my precioussss," laughed Gollum, "Preciousss only needed some fish in its belly!"

After finishing his fish, and drinking some of the lake water with Precious, Gollum returned to his island. Gollum was now feeling quite tired, so he turned round, and prepared for another sleep filled with haunted dreams of his ring. However, Gollum could not get to sleep because of the baby's chuckles.

Gollum turned round, wondering how he could get the baby to sleep. He considered hitting it on the back of the head, which could knock it out, but decided against it. Gollum cast his mind back, long into the past when he was a child, when his grandmother used to sing him to sleep. Gollum decided to give it a try:

"Far, far away, high up in the sky,

Lived a.bird, which liked.erm.pie,

One day, this bird met a duck,

Who said go away, and get to."

He didn't need to go any further. The baby had somehow found Gollum's dreadful singing voice soothing, and had fallen asleep.

Gollum smiled, very proud of himself, and settled down to welcome sleep himself.