Something was definitely broken. That was the first thing she knew. There was no way she should even be alive after a fall like that. How was she not dead?

Emi opened her eyes. Mushrooms. That was… incredibly lucky. Her eyes darted slightly to the side, peering through a crack in the plant like growth to see the goblin that had attacked her. He was lying on his back, groaning in a pain-induced haze. Emi felt bile rise once more to her throat. She needed to get up. Find a way back to the company, or at least out of this mountain. Hopefully there was one.

"Yessss. Yesss! Gollum, Gollum." Emi's eyes widened as a scrawny, slimy creature emerged from the shadows. It crept around on all fours, appraising his catch. The nightmarish creature started dragging the goblin into the gloom from which it had come from. Hitting the dying thing with a stone when it tried to move.

Emi lay motionlessly on the ground until the thing was out of sight. Then she pushed herself out of the concealing patch of mushrooms. Her arm shot with pain as she moved. The hobbit gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it. Now was not the time to worry about it. She had to get out of here. But how?

She grabbed her sword from underneath a mushroom next to her, thankful that its blue glow had been concealed. Emi started forward and stopped again as something caught her eye.

Perhaps it was fate. Perhaps luck. Most likely, it was the will of the ring. But Emi saw it. A simple little thing that reflected the light of her letter opener. She just had to pick it up. Emi would have considered what she was doing, but a cry from the creature before startled her severely. She slipped the curious ring in her waistcoat pocket and started forward again.

"Too many boneses, Precious! Nothing of flesh!"

"Shut up! Get its skin off. Start with the head." Emi frowned as she crept forward. Through the gloom, she could see a still body of water under the rock.

The cold hard lands,

They bites our hands,

They gnaws our feet!

The rocks and stones

Are like old bones,

All bare of meat!

Cold as death

They have no breath

It's good to eat!

What a horrid song. That was all Emi could think. Until the creature looked up and Emi quickly ducked behind the rock, hiding the glow of her sword. Her arm twinged again in pain at being jostled about.

Another commotion sounded from the rock. Emi watched in horror as her sword's light flickered out. She was plunged into darkness. Then her hair stood on end. Cautiously, she looked up and found herself staring into a pair of huge pale, almost glowing eyes. A deep-throated gurgle sounded from the things throat. And suddenly, the thing of skin and bones hopped down in front of her, a huge smile on its face.

"Bless us and splash us, my precioussssss! I guess it's a choice feast. At least a tasty morsel it would makes us! Gollum." Emi stared wide-eyed as the thing crept towards her, then stopped as it found a sword point at its throat. It made the horrid coughing sound and backed up slightly as the hobbit stood shakily.

"W-who… are you?" she clenched her jaw.

"What iss he, my preciouss?" the thing hissed, more to himself than to Emi.

"I am… Emilie Brandybuck a.. a hobbit. I-I… have l-lost my d-dwarves… my wizard… and my way." She finished, tilting her head to one side.

"It's… lost." The Gollum thing smiled.

"Yes." Emi sighed. "Yes I am lost. I don't know where I am, and I don't want to know. I just want to get unlost as soon as possible!"

"What has it got in its handses?" The Gollum asked, staring distastefully at the sword.

"This is a sword." Emi said quickly as the creature moved forward again. "And I will use this!" she pointed it further at him "…if I have to!" The Gollum hissed back. "Look! Just show me the way out of here and I'll be on my way!"

"Ooh! We knows! We knows safe paths for Hobbitses! Safe paths through the dark!"

"Shut up!" Emi gulped and blinked slightly.

"I… didn't say anything." She frowned.

"Wasn't talking to you!" it snapped, turning away again.

"But yes, we was, precious, we was."

"Look." Emi sighed. "I don't know what your game is, but-"

"Games?" The Gollum leapt atop a rock, beaming. "We loves games, doesn't we precious? Does it like games? Does it? Does it like to play?" Emi tilted her head to the side again.

"…Wait …what?" she shook her head, trying to clear it.

"What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, and yet never grows?" Emi stared blankly at the creature. Not riddles. Anything but riddles.

"The… a… a mountain?" she asked aloud. The creature laughed loudly, and for a moment, Emi thought she had gotten it wrong.

"Yess, yess, oh let's have another one! Yes, come on, do it again. Do it- do it again. Ask us."

"No! No more riddles. Finish him off. Finish him now! Gollum Gollum." The thing charged at her again.

"Wait! Wait!" she cried in alarm. This thing may want to eat her like pretty much everything else she had met so far, but it could be reasoned with. It was… sophisticated. Or used to be at any rate. "I'll play a game with you! And if I win… you show me how to get out of here? Alright?" the creature backed away and looked at her with large hopeful eyes.

"And if it looses precious? What then?"

"Well if it looses precious, then we eats it." Emi stared at it motionless. It repeated itself in a simpler way. "If Hobbits looses, we eats it whole."

"I guess that seems… fair." Emi gulped, standing and sheathing her sword, which was hard to do without hurting her arm further. Once her sword was back in her sheath, the creature spoke up.

"Well, Brandies first." Emi turned to it in surprise.

"Oh… well… let's see. Thirty white horses, on a red hill. First the champ, then they stamp, then they stand still."

"Chestnuts! Chestnuts!" Gollum grinned. "Teeth! Teeth is the answer! But we… only has six." And he proceeded to show them off. "Our turn."

"Voiceless it cries, Wingless mutters, Toothless bites, mouthless mutters."

"Wind." Emi said quickly, which quite impressed herself. And put her in a very good mood, and Gollum in a very bad one. And so it was Emi's turn. "An eye in a blue face saw an eye in a green face. 'That eye is like to this eye' said the first die, 'But in a low place not a high place'." Emi watched carefully as Gollum thought for a long hard time.

"Sss, sss, my preciousss." He said at last. "Sun on the daisies in means, it does." Emi let out a sigh of annoyance. She was quite hoping she had stumped him on that one, for she was running quickly out of riddles.

"Cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, ends life, kills laughter." Unfortunately for Gollum, and very fortunately for Emi, she had heard this kind of thing before and the answer was surrounding her.

"Dark." She answered. Gollum snarled.

"Very clever, Hobbitses, very clever." He started approaching her again, and the hobbit had to quickly pull out her sword.

"Ah, ah, ahhhhhhh- a box! Without hinges, key, ooooooor lid! Yet, golden treasure inside is… hid?" Emi watched anxiously as the creature stressed loudly in confusion. "Well? What is it?" she asked, her impatience getting the better of her. "The answer's not a kettle boiling over, as you seem to think from the noise you're making."

"Give us a chance, let it give us a chance my precious!" the creature shook his head.

"Well?" Emi asked after a long moment.

"EGGSES!" the creature shouted, startling Emi severely. "Yes, Grandmother taught us to suck them yesssss precious." Emi sighed. "Alive without breath, as cold as death, never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail, never clinking." Emi frowned as walked off a little in thought.

"Is it nice, my precious?" Gollum wondered aloud, grinning to himself. "Is it Juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?" Emi felt a pair of hands around her next and turned around in shock, swinging her sword and almost beheading the creature behind her.

"Half a moment!" Emi cried. "I gave you a good long while!"

"Quickly, quickly!" it hissed.

"Fish!" the hobbit shouted as the thought sprung into her head. Gollum was dreadfully disappointed, but Emi wasted no time in asking the next question. "No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near on three-legs, and four-legs got some." Gollum grinned deviously.

"A fish precious. On a table. Man at the table on a stool. The cat has the bones." Emi cursed herself silently. Why did she have to ask it right after the fish riddle?

"This thing all things devours." Gollum whispered, disappearing into the dark. "Birds, beasts, trees, flowers." His voice echoed around the cave "Gnaws Iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal. Slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down." Emi paled. This riddle was not easy. That's why Gollum had picked it. For the creature was getting hungry and the game had gone on long enough. Emi sat down on the ground, her tattered skirt billowing out around her slightly. And she thought.

She thought for a good long time, then thought some more. And she continued to think as the creature's big pale eyes appeared again across from her.

"It's stuck." The thing whispered gleefully. A nagging voice in the background. Gollum crept forward. "Brandies is stuck." Emi shook her head and looked away. It inched closer, one arm reaching out for her. "Tell us the answer now!"

"Time! Time!" Emi shouted. Very luckily too might I say. For she had meant to say 'Give me some time!' but in her frazzled state, 'Time' was all that came out. And time also happened to be the answer. And she had not realized it at first until Gollum hissed loudly and threw a fit. Emi coughed. "Wasn't really that hard."

"Last question." Gollum rounded on her. "Last chance."

"Oh.. uh…"

"Ask us." Gollum smiled as the hobbit got up and walked away in thought. She couldn't think of any more riddles. "ASK US!"

"Shut up and let me think!" Emi shouted back. Surprisingly, the creature did. For a moment. And in that moment, Emi's hand went to her pocket, and felt a ring that she had picked up and quite forgotten about. A curious little thing. So simple, yet…

"What… have I got in my pocket?" she wondered to herself. However, she had said it out loud and Gollum thought she was talking to him.

"That's not fair." The creature said indignantly. "It's not fair! It's against the rules!" he threw a rock that he had picked up in disgust. Emi snorted slightly. "Ask us another one!"

"No. I have given my question, and you must answer it. What have I got in my pocket?" Gollum snarled and jumped up on a rock, making Emi take a few steps back.

"Three guesses, precious. It must give us three." Gollum demanded, holding up to fingers.

"Very well." Emi sighed. "Guess away."

"Handses!"

"Wrong!" the hobbit shouted back, who had fortunately just taken her hand out of her pocket. "Guess again!"

"Ah, ah, ah… Knife! Stupid!" Gollum smacked himself.

"Wrong again!" Emi grinned. "Last guess!"

"String!" the creature shouted, and spun around. "Or nothing."

"Both wrong." Emi snorted. Gollum collapsed to the growl, howling in defeat. "Well then? Show me the way out! You promised, remember?"

"Did we say so precious?" Gollum sat up again. "… What has it got, in its nasty little pocketses?"

"That doesn't matter. Show me the way out."

"Patience precious. Show nastieses the way out. Yes. But first we gets some things. To help us precious."

"Well hurry up then!" Emi snapped as the creature slipped away into the darkness. Emi stood in the darkness quite alone. And she very often thought that Gollum had gone back on his deal. Which, of course, he had every intention of doing. But he would be back.

"Where iss it!" Gollum's howl echoed through the cavern, making Emi jump considerably. "Where iss it? Lost it is, my precious! Lost! Lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!"

"W-what's the matter?" Emi called out timidly. "What have you lost?"

"Mustn't ask us!" the voice echoed back in clear distress. "Not it's business! It's Lost!"

"Well so am I!" Emi huffed. "You promised to show me the way out! So come along! You never guess my last question! You promised!" she was getting equally distressed now.

"Never guessed!" Gollum hissed, sounding closer now. "What… has it got in its pocketses? Tell us that. It must tell us first." Emi gritted her jaw.

"Answers are to be guessed, not given."

"But it wasn't a fair question." Gollum sulked. "Not a riddle, precious, no." Emi knew she had to stay on top of the conversation.

"Well, if it's a matter of ordinary questions, then I asked one first." The hobbit said firmly. "What have you lost? Tell me that!"

"What has it got in its pocketses?" The sound was even louder and sharper now. And Emi looked in alarm to see the pale eyes drawing closer again from the water.

"What have you lost?" Emi persisted. The eyes were coming swifter. And Emi wasn't going to wait for them to come any closer. She turned around and ducked blindly into a passage.

"What has it got in its pocketses?" the sound came from right behind her. Though it really was not the moment, Emi had to wonder. What had she got in her pocket? Her hand shoved quietly into her pocket as she felt the cold smooth ring as it quietly slipped onto her finger. Then she stumbled and fell. And Gollum was on her. And then passed her. The creature hadn't stopped at all. He passed by, taking no notice of her, muttering to himself all the while. Emi stared after him in confusion. He could see in the dark, so what did that mean? Painfully, she got up, her arm hanging limply at her side now. Her sword was once again glowing slightly, so she sheathed it. Then the hobbit followed Gollum. It seemed the only reasonable thing to do. As she did so, she heard it mumbling to himself.

"Curse it! Curse it! Curse it!" it hissed. "Curse the brandies, it's gone! What has it got in its pocketses? Oh we guess precious, we guess. It stole it precious. My birthday present. The hobbitses has got it in its pocket! It's tricksey precious. It knows the way in, it must know a way out!" Emi's ears perked. "It's off to the back door! To the back door, that's it."

"The goblinses will catch it then. It can't get out that way precious!" the thing conversed with itself.

"Gollum. Yes, but if it's got the present, our present precious, then goblinses will get it, Gollum! They'll find it! They'll find out what it does! We shan't ever be safe again precious! No."

"Then stop talking precious, and make haste! We must stop the Brandies precious! Quickly! Go, go!" Emi followed just barely as the creature scampered quickly over rocks, counting turns as it went. Emi could not help but smile to herself. This thing was leading her out. She would find her way out.

And then Gollum stopped, and jumped back behind a boulder. Emi worried that it was goblins, but then a gray man appeared in the path before them, shouting to someone, who turned out to be the dwarves. They looked strange. Like an echo were they were as they moved, wisps coming off of them like smoke. It was very odd. She started to call out to them and stopped as she realized there was still Gollum in between her and them.

Her hope seemed to slip away as each dwarf passed by. Until it was silent.

Gollum looked around. There was no one. No Brandies. No birthday present. Wait, a sound. But he didn't see any one, no precious. Scraping. His precious. Something hard whacked into his head and sent him sprawling on the ground. He grasped around desperately.

"Brandies! Thief! Curse it and crush it! We hates it FOREVER!"

:D

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