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A hundred feet in the water he lowered his webbed feet and strained to hold a painful hard twisted curve through his swimming. The curve meant that he would swim slowly, and now he slowed until the ocean stood still above him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one ... single ... more ... inch ... of ... curve .... Then he stalled.
Gollums, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the water is for them disgraced and it is dishonor.
But Gollum, unashamed, stretching his hands again in that trembling hard curve - slowing, slowing, and stalling once more - was no ordinary bird.
Sullivan shook his head. "If our friendship depends on space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood. When you come to the edge of all the light you have known, and are about to step out into darkness, Faith is knowing one of two things will happen; There will be something to stand on, or you will be taught to fly. The only answer I can see, Gollum, is that you are pretty well a one-in-a-million bird. Do you have any idea how many lives we must have gone though before we even got the first idea that there is more to life than eating, or fighting, or power in the Fellowship? A thousand lives, Gollum, ten thousand! And then another hundred lives until we began to learn that there is such a thing as perfection, and another hundred again to get the idea that our purpose is to find that perfection and show it forth. Do you know what perfection is?"
"Yessss," said Gollum. "It's my preccccioussssss. My preciousssss. And I wants it!"