CHAPTER 6: The Creature Called Gollum

Alec tested the weight of the twin blades in her right and left hands. The arm-length blades were shorter and lighter than the swords of the elven guards but longer than a normal dagger. The lightweight metal gleamed in the late afternoon sun as she thrust them forward. They sliced the air with barely a whisper. One. Two. Three. She drove each forward in rapid succession, the jabs hard and heavy. She would never be as graceful as the Eldar who practiced in the training grounds around her but she didn't need to be. All she needed to do was to be accurate and deadly.

She lunged before stepping back, holding the blades high to block the imaginary onslaught. A quick parry before a riposte. In. Out. Her body remembered the drill, honed muscles flexing beneath her dark blue tunic and tight pants. She dropped to a roll before she leapt up to spin and deliver a roundhouse kick to the groin. But instead of connecting with the stationary practice dummy, her foot was stopped by the outstretched hand of Legolas.

"I thought I might find you here." Unlike her, he was not dripping in sweat from physical exertion. Truthfully though, she had yet to see him break a sweat since she first came to Mirkwood nearly two years ago. She doubted he'd ever had.

She sheathed both blades. With her other hand she grabbed a small piece of black cloth from the curved stone bench on her left and promptly began to towel off. "I have no doubt." The sarcasm dripped from her words. She pulled her hair into a loose knot at the base of her neck. It had grown out and now reached halfway down her back. "There can't be that many women with armed escorts running around this place."

Alec eyed the silvan guard that watched her not far off. His hand still rested on the sword at his side, the other carefully placed against the quiver at his hip. She had no doubt that if she had so much as looked the wrong way he would not hesitate to put an arrow through her throat. King Thranduil had made good on his promise. The only time she had ever felt both her visible and invisible watchers turn away was when she closed the door behind her in her rooms.

Legolas shook his head as he ushered her to sit down beside him. In his riding greens and with the pale blond of his hair unbraided he looked no different than the day she'd first met him. "There will come a time when my father will see reason."

Alec scoffed. She eyed the ancient trees that stood vigil around the edges of the grounds. "Yes, when I'm fucking dead. I have no illusions about that."

Legolas turned to her and placed a warm hand on her arm. His jaw loosened but he did not speak. He too followed her line of sight, knew what she contemplated. I am only a passing thing whereas these will endure. They both knew there wasn't anything he could say that could counter that. The fact that she would eventually die, if not from injury then at the very least old age, whereas the youthful face he presented to her now would never change, not even in another thousand years, was something neither of them could refute.

Around them the other elves continued their own exercises, oblivious to their exchange. In the silence she could hear the thunk of arrows hitting their targets. Alec balled up her fists. It wasn't like she intended to stay here long enough to witness any of that. Didn't she?

Legolas pointed at the small leather-bound notebook that she habitually carried at her side. "Did you manage to find out anything from today's session?"

Alec shook her head. For the last several months she'd been seeing Gwaedhel every week, the healer having been kind enough to attempt to cast spell after spell to see if that might dislodge any of the memories she'd lost. There had been precious few successes. She'd taken to jotting the few scraps of images and disjointed phrases down in a journal but there really hadn't been much to them. A flash of red in the shape of a cross. A burning building. The words "Black Sky" scrawled underneath a bridge. A golden ring in the palm of a hand. Blinding light from the end of a steel tube. The numbers 02391. Smoke. The scent of blood on crisp morning air.

Legolas squeezed her arm in sympathy. He'd warned her before that it was a long shot but he'd supported her nonetheless. Same as what he'd done for everything else she'd asked for.

Alec eyed him as she smoothed her hand against the cold stone beneath her. Even now she still could not understand why Legolas would suffer to involve himself with her. The prince was loved. She, on the other hand, was ignored as best or despised at worst. She could still recall the suspicious glares she received when he'd first started teaching her swordsmanship. Or the way the guardsmen's eyes narrowed even more when it became clear she was no neophyte when it came to weaponry. "I still don't understand what you stand to gain by helping me."

Legolas raised a perfectly sculpted brow at her. "Why must there be a reason?"

Alec sighed. "It can't have been easy getting permission for someone like me, an aiano, a stranger, to wield any weapon. Let's face it. I may be able to walk these halls but this is no different from being under house arrest. I'm still very much a prisoner and that won't change. Not now. Not likely ever."

He looked away. An emotion or thought passed through Legolas' features that Alec could not place. She opened her mouth to call him out on it. But before she could utter a word, he lifted a hand up. Dodging the question again, are you? Alec glared at him. I won't let you go easy this time. "Don't you fucking shush me, you ..."

"Be quiet." Legolas pressed his palm against her mouth to drown out any further words. His voice was sharp, urgent. Alec looked at him hard. Something had caught his attention. He was no longer paying attention to her, his alert gaze directed outwards onto the hallways beyond the training grounds. His eyes darted about, watching the movement of elves in the distance with an intensity she'd not seen before. Alec stilled. She could almost feel the muscles in his arm tense. His mouth thinned to a grim line.

He swiveled to face her but his eyes continued to stare intently ahead. "Wait here." Before she could protest any further, he grabbed one of the sheathed weapons in her hands and walked swiftly away.

Legolas saw the half whispers exchanged by the guards that patrolled the hallways beyond the training grounds, the way their hands tightened on their swords as they listened, the way their steps became heavy after they'd heard.

Something was going on. Whenever the news was passed on, the guards' eyes flitted in the direction of the palace gates. That was in itself odd. They did not expect anyone, not even from their kinsmen in Lothlorien. Still they must have a visitor. An unannounced and unexpected one. And clearly not just any visitor if their reactions were anything to go by.

With quick strides he made his way towards the front courtyard where the newcomers likely were still. With one hand he fastened the blade he'd taken from Alec to his side. It was shorter and lighter than what he'd have preferred for an encounter, having been specifically forged to her height and build, but it would have to do. The few words he snatched from the hushed and hastily cut conversations he overheard along the way did nothing to calm his unease. Creature. Foul-looking. Misshapen. These were not words used to describe a friendly face. Could Sauron have created a new breed of evil?

The courtyard, although rarely used, was well lit with lanterns in the approaching dusk. In the middle of the spacious opening was a throng. Surrounding what he could not tell amidst the densely packed circle of elves that surrounded it. Legolas approached. His fast footsteps raised tiny clouds of dust on the flat earth. The guards gave way to him as he barged through the mass of onlookers, all of whom had blades half-drawn or bows half-strung.

The first thing Legolas spotted when he got through was a familiar back clothed in well-worn leather caked in the dust and mud of distant travels.

"Aragorn?"

The Dunedain turned and gave Legolas a welcoming smile. "Gwador, it is I this time that must impose upon your good graces."

Before Legolas could ask him what exactly he meant, Aragorn turned aside so he could see what was behind the Ranger.

The creature, for there really was no other term to describe it, was a gangly misshapen thing that sniveled in its bonds. Its thin emaciated limbs twisted and turned, trying to break loose of the rope that bound them tightly. A few lank hairs from its wrinkled head trailed against the floor. It looked like no orc that Legolas had ever seen nor any other thing that walked, crawled, flew, or slithered in Mirkwood.

The creature mumbled the same sentences over and over. "My precious...must find precious. They's took it from us, yes they's did. Must get precious before he finds it, gollum."

It spat at them in between the obscenities and the odd guttural noises it made. It's overly large eyes were fixed at Aragorn's back in pure loathing. On instinct, Legolas drew the blade at his side. Before he could level it at the foul creature on the ground, he felt the press of calloused hands above his.

"There is no need to raise your blade, hanar. This creature, Gollum, poses no harm to you or to me." Aragorn gripped his other arm with a black gloved hand. "There is, however, need for one of your father's dungeons."

Legolas understood. Searching the crowd, Legolas nodded at two of the guardsmen. "Take this creature away." They bowed and immediately set out to comply. Turning, Legolas motioned at the familiar face of one of his father's personal attendants. "Gaelin, please inform my father that we will see him shortly."

With the creature taken away, the crowd that surrounded them began to dissipate. Legolas watched Aragorn take down his pack from the brown horse beside him before it too was taken away, this time to the stables. Although Legolas had not seen the Dunedain for some years, it seemed that the cares the man bore wore heavier than what he'd expected. New scars, the puckered flesh still faintly visible, peeked through his friend's shirt. The laugh lines of the man's youth had been replaced by the down-turned mouth of adulthood. And although his kind would age slowly, even the blood of Numenor could do little to stave off the few strands of grey that now graced the man's dark brown locks.

"Legolas." Aragorn's voice was pensive. "Things are moving faster than we anticipated." He slung the pack over his shoulder as he turned to the elf. In the darkening light, the shadows on his face deepened. "There are forces conspiring. The roads grow perilous, even for me."

Legolas peered outwards as the last light of the setting sun turned the horizon a dusky orange. Or was it from the re-awakened fires of Mount Doom? The elves of Mirkwood knew well the dangers that had been creeping stealthily and of late aggressively in the darkened spaces of the land. They hunted it as much as it hunted them. But Legolas had to agree with his friend. Things were no longer the same. The reports that came from the scouts they dispatched spoke of a growing menace that was palpable. The forest creatures had grown scarce, clearly fleeing from it. "Yes. The forest has been restless of late."

Aragorn shook his head. "It is more than that. I do not yet know what is coming but even Gandalf senses it. He spoke with such haste and disquiet when we last exchanged words."

"Mithrandir? How is the old man faring these days?"

Aragorn clasped Legolas's shoulder. "You will have a chance to ask him yourself." At his raised eyebrow, Aragorn pointed in the direction where the elven guards had dragged the creature away. "He is coming. He intends to speak with Gollum. He intends to find out the truth."

Alec seethed. She wasn't a dog that could be ordered around. Or made to stay. Stay, good doggie. That most definitely was not her. Hadn't Legolas learned that about her already in their two years knowing each other?

She let the elf walk some ways forward before she stood up, eager to do the exact opposite of what he'd expressly asked her to do. She followed.

If Legolas sensed her trailing behind him, he did not give any inkling. Nor did he seem to veer away from his intended course. If she didn't know better, whatever preoccupied the elven prince's mind and had diverted his attention earlier was troubling enough that he did not take note of any pursuers. The same could not be said of hers. She could feel them trailing behind her, ever watchful of her every step.

What she'd said to Legolas earlier was no idle query. In fact of late the thinly hidden glances of suspicion had grown. Even the servants tried to avoid her as much as they could. And when they couldn't, they made haste to leave her presence. More eyes watched her. She could swear even the birds that sometimes came into the palace were in on it too. And ever since the scout reports came in two months ago she'd seen a palpable change in the inhabitants of the palace. Legolas, even he, seemed more tense and serious these days.

She stopped when she reached the edge of the courtyard. Standing beside the columns that marked the end of the entrance hall, she looked down at the commotion below. In the middle of the clear earthen field she saw a large number of elves cluster around something she could not see. Guards and servants alike were congregated in a tight circle. She watched Legolas make his way through the crowd, every one of them parting for him with a small bow and a graceful sidestep. It was a few minutes before the throng began to break away, the outermost group first, like an onion being peeled. From the gaps between the bodies she could see Legolas giving orders beside a tall dark-haired man at the center of the ring. She was too far away and without the benefit of their enhanced hearing and eyesight to be able to make out what was being said.

That was when she saw it. The creature. For "creature" was the best way to describe it. It was all arms and legs, all bones and awkward movements. If it wasn't moving she would have thought it was a corpse. It struggled between the two guards that escorted it away from the group. With both its arms and legs bound it was less a question of walking as of being dragged away. But no matter how slim the elves were, there was no denying the strength they possessed. Despite the creature's shrieks and attempts to kick its captors, they simply handled him like how one might handle a newborn baby.

And as revolting as the creature looked, there was something in it that called to Alec. Have I seen it before? Alec shook her head to herself. None of the images that she'd written down spoke of anything with skin as pallid and chalky as this creature's. Nor was there anything she'd seen like it in the brief time she'd spent in the palace. She had no doubt that this was the first time she'd laid eyes on the thing and yet she felt like she had. More than that, she felt as though she ought to know what that thing was.

The guards' path took them right up against her. Their armor clinked as they transitioned from earth to stone. She made way for them. As they half carried, half dragged the thing up the few steps into the hall and past her, for the briefest of moments their eyes met. Her brown and grey orbs and its egg-sized blue ones. The creature stopped. Its hands stopped its squirming. Its body stopped twisting. Its voice stopped whining.

That thing stared at her. Through her. The voice that came from its tortured body was only a whisper. No guttural noises. No elongated consonants. Suddenly, like someone else decided to speak through the creature, the voice was clear and sharp as a blade.

"You don't belong here."

Alec held her breath, waited for any further words but the thing had resumed its babbling as it was carted further away. "My precious, its hurts us. Elves hurts us. It no fair."

What did that mean? Sure she knew she did not fit in this entire tableau. It was a fact that was rubbed at her every day since she came here. She was no elf. But there was more to it than just that. Did that thing know who she was? Did it know something about her missing past? She'd taken a step forward before she'd even realized. Behind her, Legolas was still with the newcomer. Their voices carried through the now empty courtyard but the words were unintelligible. She'd ask Legolas who that was later. Right now Alec knew what she had to do.

If it means that breaking into that thing's prison cell is what it takes to learn what the hell that was about then so be it.

Without turning back, Alec broke into a run.

Notes:
aiano (Quenya) - stranger
gwador (Sindarin) - sworn brother
hanar (Sindarin) - brother

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