Hello, readers, thank you for clicking on this story :3 For those who have read my other fics, thank you for being nosy, and I'm sorry for not updating my other stories for...ever. lol
Unfortunately, their updating might go a little bit slower than what you, and I, would like. I procrastinate alot.
I hope you enjoy this fanfiction, I have been wanting to write this for a long, long time - ever since the first Hobbit movie came out, in fact.
1 – Down the Hill – 1
The wiper blades swished back and forth, clearing snowflakes from her field of view. The red light from the brake-lights of the vehicles ahead of her lit up water droplets and snow crystals on her windshield, reminding her of the Christmas lights she saw hanging from various houses lining the street.
Her little Honda CUV puttered along as she worked to safely navigate the streets. There had been a big dump of snow a few days before, and the town was still struggling to clear the roads, thus letting the snow be tread down and become slick.
In the backseat of her car, her father's birthday present was cradled gently. It was a high-end compound long bow that came with a few arrows, and she had managed to pay for it all herself with the money she had managed to earn while working at the local pet store. The strength needed to draw the string could be adjusted from between 10 to 70 pounds—a range that her father would need just in case he needed to shoot some wild animal that might go after the horse or the cats.
It was the only thing her father really wanted for Christmas, and she was happy to get it for him—even if it took a sizable chunk out of the "extra-curricular-spending" fund she was filling for the time when she was away at college.
The lights from the streetlamps and the headlights and the taillights created eerie and surreal surroundings.
Marcelle tucked a lock of chocolate brown hair behind her ear as she prepared to turn up Main Street. She slowed as she approached the intersection and flicked on her indicator. A few seconds later, she allowed the car to coast into the intersection before she turned and went up the hill. She followed Main Street as it went up the hill. It was lined with storefronts, most of them closed due to the hour. A quick glance at the clock to the right of the steering wheel told her that it was approaching five in the evening. She hadn't told her mother that she was going out to shop for the bow, and few other gifts that she didn't want anyone to see quite yet, so she had the feeling that she was going to be chewed out when she got home.
After all, she was supposed to be home an hour ago, and she had forgotten to tell her mother that she was going to be home later than suspected.
Her phone began to ring as she slowed at the last stoplight separating her from the nearly stop-less, ten minute journey home. She quickly hooked the Bluetooth headset earpiece to her ear and answered the call. "Hello?"
"Marcelle Temperance Bowman, where are you?" barked her mother's familiar voice.
Even though she was twenty years of age, she still hadn't gotten used to how harsh her mother's voice could sound when she was angry. That was why she tried to avoid it more often than not. "I'm just driving past the last set of lights on Main Street now, Mom," Marcelle told her as the lights turned green. She pressed lightly down on the gas pedal as her mother huffed.
"You were supposed to be here an hour ago, young lady! What on Earth have you been doing?!"
Marcelle ground her teeth as she fought to keep her temper in check. She couldn't lose it now, not when she had to focus on driving. Once she left the boundaries of the town, she would have to watch for wildlife, with varied from moose to deer to, well, pretty much any other large wild animal that wandered around in the Albertan wilderness.
"If you really want to know, Mom, I was out Christmas shopping." It was nigh impossible to keep secrets from her mother. Most of the time, she spent her hours chauffeuring her mother, grandmother, and occasionally her younger brother from grocery stores to Walmart to doctor's appointments. Her mother had damaged her knees so badly and now she could no longer get into the driver's seat without hurting her them. Hardly ever could Marcelle get out of driving her family around, and hardly could she ever go shopping without her mother guessing what she was getting.
"You should have told me!"
Marcelle often wondered if her mother could read her thoughts—because, sometimes, when she truly managed to keep her mother from seeing her present when she came out of the store and made it back to the vehicle, her mother somehow still knew what she had gotten her for Christmas. Realistically, Marcelle figured that her mother went and rummaged around in her room when she was off at work.
"Look, I really do not want to talk about this, Mom," Marcelle insisted. The last thing she wanted was to arrive home and have to listen to her mother berate her on her poor decisions until she went to bed. Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight—that way I can escape with only minimal badgering? She knew her mother was only worrying about her, but sometimes she felt that she went a little bit overboard.
"I want to talk about this—!"
"I love you, Mommy," she said, cutting her mother off before she could go into a tirade. Once she got into one of those, she would never stop, and sometimes Marcelle worried that one of her blood vessels would burst from high blood pressure.
Flicking on her indicator again, she pulled out onto the North Road, which was actually a highway that lead deep into the wilderness, to who-knows-where. She slowly pressed on the gas pedal again, urging the vehicle to slowly accelerate. Her mother and father had gone to great lengths to make sure her Honda was prepped for winter—even though they couldn't afford it. It made her feel so guilty. With studded winter tires, she could gain more traction on ice, but it still couldn't keep her from sliding through intersections. She had done that a couple of times already, both in the same intersection.
"I love you so much, Mommy," Marcelle continued. "I know you care so much about me, but don't you think you're being just a little too overprotective?"
The North Road stretched off into the darkness, farther than her headlight brights could reach. This was where she felt she would have to focus more. Her headlights lit up the road, but not much of the ditches to either side.
"I can't help it, you're my baby," her mother replied. Good, maybe she could diffuse this before she got home. Then, she would be able to enjoy a nice, relaxing evening with her family.
Goodness gracious, I can't wait until I go to college so I can gain some measure of freedom, Marcelle mused.
It was then that she suddenly hit a patch of black ice—ice she couldn't see. When she turned the wheel to coast around the corner just ahead, the car didn't turn and instead continued straight on. She saw the guard-rail just before she hit and went through it. Marcelle let out a scream of terror as the ground suddenly disappeared from under her car and it plummeted into the ravine below.
The wheels met turf, but it continued to scream downwards. The sudden jolt of the landing caused her face to go crashing into the steering wheel before she could stop it. She could hear her mother calling her name, but all she could do was scream as she careened out of control. Her headlights lit up the foliage before her. Snowbanks, bushes, saplings, and trees rushed by as the Honda picked up speed.
Marcelle managed to steer the car just enough to miss smashing into a mature tree that stood in the way. She steered through a row of saplings that shattered on impact and bounced off her windshield before disappearing into the darkness.
"MARCELLE! Talk to me, baby!" her mother pleaded suddenly, sobbing heavily.
Marcelle finally found the breath and brain cells needed to speak as the hill seemed to become less steep. "Mom—Mom, my car just slid off the road, a-and right now I'm fighting to keep it from crashing into anything. But the h-hill seems to be evening out now—and the trees are thinning—"
"Keep me on the line, baby, and tell me where you are once you've stopped," she told me.
"Alright." Her car hit a large bump, probably a boulder covered in packed snow. Her car was launched into the air again before it slammed down at the bottom of the hill. Something snapped as she landed, before the car did a little hop thanks to its suspension. It kept going, racing out into a field, until it crashed into what looked to be a hill. Marcelle's head smacked into the steering wheel again, and this time the force of it knocked her unconscious.
He woke up with a startled gasp when a loud bang was accompanied by his house shaking like he was experiencing one of those "earth-tremors" he had heard about.
He shot to a sitting position and waited for several minutes after the shaking ceased. It hadn't been for very long, but he couldn't be too careful. If it was an earth-tremor, there could be "after-tremors", as they put it. But maybe it was just a bolt of lightning that struck his house? Some close lightning-strikes had produced thunderclaps loud enough to shake his hobbit-hole before.
The hobbit was now wide awake, so he climbed out of bed and padded out to his kitchen. He went about making himself a cup of tea to help calm his nerves.
He filled his tea kettle and hung it on the hook in the fireplace. The fire was merely embers now, so he quickly put some more kindling on them and then carefully stacked a couple of logs on top. It took a few moments, but soon the fire was roaring again. It heated the kettle quickly, and by the time he had returned with a teacup and a teabag, the kettle was beginning to whistle.
Quickly grabbing the flimsy cloth hot-plate hanging from the mantle, he used it to protect his hand as he grabbed the handle. The kettle stopped whistling once he popped the cap off its blunt spout. He then poured the hot water into his teacup and sat back to wait for the tea to steep.
By the time he figured his tea was strong enough, his curiosity was starting to get the better of him. Was that really thunder that shook his home? He glanced down at his tea before he made up his mind.
He stood from where he was sitting in his chair by the fire, and tightened the sash of his robe. He shuffled to his round front door and slowly opened it. He peered outside and looked up at the sky, looking for any sign of foul weather. There was none. The sky was clear and the moon was full, large, and extremely bright.
Slowly, he edged himself outside. He left his door open a crack, just so if he had to make a quick dive for the safety of the indoors, he could.
He walked through his front-garden gate, which he left open as well, and quickly made his way up to the top of the hill in which he house was built into. His hobbit-hole was one of the only homes built into this particular hill, and had been there since his father had built it for his mother.
When he stood on top of the hill, above his hobbit hole, he cast his gaze about. The moonlight was bright, but it was still hard to see. The light from the moon didn't seem to illuminate anything except the fields all around until you were practically on top of what you were looking for or what was in your way.
That didn't seem to be the entirely case that night, fortunately. For there was something large and metallic pushed up against the side of his hill, reflecting moonlight back into the air.
He slowly walked down to it, unsure of what it was. What could it be? Was it made of metal? How could something so large be made of metal?
In the end, his curiosity got the better of him once more, and he didn't stop until he was standing right next to this…thing.
There were windows in the large metal thing. Was it a carriage of some sort? If it was, it must have lost its horse, and that was why it had crashed into his hill. But where was the driver? Was he inside? He thought for a moment. Could the driver be injured?
He began to search for a door, and soon found one. He tried to turn its handle in order to have it release its latch, but it would not budge. In the end, the door popped open when he pulled on the handle.
Pulling the door open turned out to be no small task as it was surprisingly heavy. But once it was open, he came upon a surprising discovery.
Inside, slumped over in the closest seat, was a young woman of Men.
To let you guys know, if you enjoyed this, I have several chapters written out already. I plan to publish a chapter once a week...so every Wednesday. If I miss the Wednesday deadline, more often than not its because I was really busy and ended up not getting the chapter finished in time :D