He slipped the ring over his finger, and watched in delight as it reshaped to fit perfectly, as though it had been made for him. Then the surge of power coursed through his body, tingling along his spine, radiating spasms in his muscles, and he laughed in triumph. It was delicious in rich malevolence.
To the gathered few, watching in horror, his laugh sounded hoarse and forced. It was the laugh that escapes a body in so much pain that nothing else can break free of the clenched jaws and restricted throat. It was miserable, tortured, and terrifying. They scrambled over the loose rocks of the mountain side to find a safe place to hide from his wrath.
Gollum’s eyes burned with the fires of power and hatred. For too long had he sought his precious and been forced to play the fool. For too long had he been separated from his love, and now that it was back in his control, and he felt the full weight of its potential again, he wanted to exact sweet revenge on all who had ever sought to take it from him.
First he would dispose of those miserable hobbits. Then he would tear apart the two towers and bury Sauron under the lava of Mordor. If the humans dared to seek him out afterwards he would deal with them too. They would fall easily under his might.
Stroking the ring lovingly, absently, his fierce gaze easily picked out his enemies as they scurried among the tortured landscape. His smile showed his remaining razor sharp teeth and he purred, “My precious, we shall kill them all, so we shall. Yes. Yes.”
But, then he shook his head, and looked from the ring to Mount Doom, to Sauron’s tower, the eye, wreathed in flame, distracted by some commotion beyond the black gate. “The ring is mine,” he said with true happiness, an emotion he had felt in ages. “The kingdom is mine.”
Gollum smiled to the heavens and danced around gleefully.
And then one of the filthy hobbits tackled him and his happiness was once again replaced by rage.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
This bit of silliness was brought to you by this week’s Inspiration Monday writing challenge and, well, when you see the prompts you’ll see why I had to go with a Lord of the Rings shout out:
The Rules
There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.
OR
No really; I need rules!
Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.
The Prompts:
EXTINCTION
THE KINGDOM IS MINE
EPILOGUE
MELTING MOON
TALK TO STRANGERS
Plus, how could I not use a prompt that had kingdom as part of it?
But, how about you? Does one of these word jump out to you? Why don’t you write up a bit of flash fiction and link it to the Be Kind Rewrite site? You know you want to!
At first I thought this was an alternate ending, but at the end I realized it was his brief moment of triumph in Mt Doom before his death. But in the end he was the last to touch the precious.
Yep, that’s what I was thinking… Though, it probably needs a bit of a rewrite. At first I was going to have it just as a dream he was having, and then I was going to have it be an alternate ending, and then I realized it could all be happening in that one moment where he bites the ring off Frodo’s finger… and I liked that best, but it doesn’t necessarily work with the scene I created leading to that. Oh well…
It’s very believable. I imagine that is what was going through Gollum’s mind at that one beautiful moment.
I always pictured him as caring only about the ring… once it was back in his possession all his other thoughts melted away. No more anger, hatred, fear… just the joy at having his precious again.
I think so too. That perfect moment of attainment. Riddle me this, though, was it Gollum or Smeagol who was doing the happy dance? He was suffering from DID.
OoO, good question. I’d say it was Gollum. Smeagol no longer existed in that moment, there was only the creature and the ring that had created it.
I would almost have gone in the other direction. Smeagol was the passive, easily manipulated personality, but he was the one with the pure joy. Gollum bit off Frodo’s finger, but it was Smeagol dancing, then reaching for it while he was being consumed by the lava. But that’s just me. Sorry for the late reply. Had to go off and get some work done.
I had to do some work too! What’s with that? Oh, well, Tuesday… of course. *shaking fist* Tuesday! How you vex me!!
Normally I complain “So Happy It’s Thursday” however, I think it works quite well for Tuesday also. Have a pleasant evening. Catch ya on the interwebs in the morning.
Hey, it’s the morning… and I’m on the interwebs… imagine that!
I desperately need some coffee though.
Yes it is. A rainy one here. I’m on my second cup. Hopefully that will be enough to get me motivated. hehehehe
Motivated? To do what?
Oh I don’t know. Fix breakfast. Wash my face. Make the bed. Write.
Only one of those sounds interesting at all…. breakfast. Yum.
Oh, that Gollum! Won’t he ever learn?
I’m fairly certain his learning days are over.
Easy come, easy go!
Um… He bit a finger off to get it. That doesn’t really seem like “easy come,” and… easy go? Well, hopefully the heat seared away all his nerve endings before he felt too much of what was going on…
It depends on the definition of easy.
Well, I guess you could be right about that.
It takes a big man or a small hobbit to write Tolkein… poor Gollum. He’s kind of gross and never gets a break. So, in the movie trilogy, I thought they could have made the last installment more memorable by having Gollum revert to Smeagol as he fell (to some extent), and have Frodo feel sad that the little critter was falling to his death… I don’t know, a little bit of sorrow for the poor chap. Can you write me that?
An ending where Frodo is sad about the fate of Gollum? Yeah… I can do that. Tomorrow. If you don’t see it by noonish (PST) send me a gentle reminder.
Done!
Cool! 🙂
Very well written. I read that in Gollum’s voice and could hear him screaming in frustration when he got tackled at the end. Loved it. 🙂
Hooray! Thank you, I’m glad you liked it.
[…] yesterday, when I posted my slightly different perspective of the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Trent asked if I could write in a “little bit of […]
Wonderful, sir!
Thank you. 😀
Silliness is ALWAYS welcome. Though you’re right; this one’s a bit less silly than normal. I can’t help but feel for Smeagol.
Nice work.
Thank you!
Trent had the same thought, about feeling for Smeagol, and asked if I could write up a different ending where we feel a bit of that… so, I did. If you are interested: https://thematticuskingdom.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/it-could-still-be-his/
[…] DJMatticus […]
I’ve always had a soft spot for Gollum – or at least for Sméagol – I have him down as one of those misunderstood characters o fthe literary cannon. Liked that you took something from his point of view and showed his joy and care for the ring. Even for a moment!
It’s been too long since I read the books to see him from that perspective, and while the movies did a good job showing that he wasn’t all bad… I don’t know, it seemed like with all the focus being on Frodo’s struggle we were asked to overlook that the ring had cursed Smeagol the same way… Anyway, it was fun to write, so that’s all I was really going for.