Strength Within
-Prologue-
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters Tolkien created. Anyone else is mine.
A/N: Yes, one of those 'Person goes into book!' sort of story…but, hey, I'm trying to make it readable. R/R if you want, I'd appreciate it.
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It was late one summers evening that Nami was lazily sprawled out on the mahogany wood porch steps of her boyfriend's. Her head was placed very neatly in his lap, and she was content to just stare up at the stars from her viewpoint at the top of the stairs and allow Chris to stroke her hair. They had started to sit outside a lot, sometimes talking, sometimes not. They had started the night talking, but all topics had been exhausted and finally they had turned to the silent yet comforting moment of cuddling against each other. She glanced at him briefly when he moved a little, taking the sight of him in.
He was a very fair looking guy, not because he wanted to, but his face was almost baby-like. In fact, if not for the couple of scars on it, he could almost be described as delicate. He looked down at her and gave a half smile – his smiles always made her want to laugh because of it's lopsidedness – and leaned down to kiss her on the nose. She batted his face away after he had done so, playfully almost, and he laughed.
"What are you looking at, anyway, Na?"
"Nothing really." She answered with a smirk, sitting up finally. Her neck instantly stiffened and she winced, rubbing the sore spot. She probably had been hitting a nerve in that position all night. She swung her legs around, placing her feet firmly on the first step down. She fixed the cuffs of her pants – how had they rolled up? – and stretched. She pressed her palms against the wood paneling and leaned back, putting all her weight on her arms.
"Nothing, huh? Looked like you were gazing longingly at my face. Didn't know I was so cute."
She snorted, shaking her head. Chris always was full of himself, at least joking-wise. She hardly knew how they had ended up starting dating, with her being so quiet around people. He was like her polar opposite. In fact, if he hadn't smashed into her that one day on his skateboard, they would have never even crossed paths. She did not answer him and looked back at the sky, where millions of stars doted the sky. It was a beautiful sight, but around where they lived it was always dark enough to have such a celestial showing. They lived in a nice part of California, one away from LA and all the lights and excitement, and she was actually content to a life of calmness.
She had the beach and she had her friends and her ambition in life, and that was all she needed. She liked middle class suburbia, unlike half her friends who dragged her to the more exciting cities of her state more often then she would like. The only good thing about that situation was that she had more things to draw, but past that – she wasn't very fond of it. At least Chris didn't force her to go to those places, unlike her friend Emma. He was content enough to go to skate parks around their neighborhood when she was around, and was more then happy to go to the shore for some water fun.
"I'm hot." Chris spoke again, blowing out a sigh. It wasn't bad at all outside, and it never really was, at least where they lived. He gave a cheeky smile, which was even more hilarious then usual because it lit up his face, almost making him look comical. "Literally and figuratively, of course."
"Of course." She replied sardonically, ruffling his black hair. He didn't have long hair, but it was spiked – and when she messed with it, it looked horrible. He swatted at her hand before she did any major damage and grumbled.
"Aw, c'mon! I don't mess with your hair like that!" he complained.
"That's because you know I could care less." She replied, grinning. Which was true, she didn't. She loved messing with her hair. The messy look was a look, after all. At that moment though, her hair was tied into pigtails – very J-pop like – because her sister kept saying she was Asian and she needed to start acting like it. Apparently, Asians wore their hair like that. She had tried to explain to her very American sister that Asian teenagers weren't very much like the ones on the Korean channel they got on their TV, but she wouldn't hear of it. Not that she would know for sure, because she had only been in Japan for about four years of her life before she was adopted by her new family.
She just hoped the girls weren't liked that, because then she would have to be ashamed of her race. She tugged at each of them, freeing her hair from their bindings and smoothed it out with a quick flick of her hand. She stretched again, yawning.
"How long have we been out here, anyway?" he asked, looking around. They had come out to see the sun set and hadn't left since. She looked at her watch and saw it was eleven at night. She had sworn to her mom she would be back before midnight. She scowled, knowing she should leave, as his home was a half hour away from her own. She didn't really mind that her mother gave her curfew, but she hated driving at night.
"It's eleven. Guess I should start getting back home now."
"Ya have to?"
Nami stood up, brushing a stray hair from her face. He stood up too, frowning, his face almost forming a pout.
"You know my parents, Chris."
"Yes yes, home before twelve." He said, mimicking her mother. She laughed and leaned into him, giving him a hug. He hugged her back, and then suddenly picked her up, causing her to squeal loud enough to wake up the neighbors. She clamped her hands around his neck, clinging to him in fear he might drop her down the stairs. He didn't – he probably picked up boxes heavier then she at her job. She was only a hundred ten, after all. He carried her down the stairs, chuckling as she wiggled to free herself. She finally let her down at the foot of her car, and she mock shoved him.
"You're an ass sometimes, you know that?"
"You love me for it." He teased. They shared a short kiss, because if she got any deeper she may not have left for another couple of minutes.
"I'll call you when I get home."
He gave a wave, watching as she went into her old car. It was as beat up as they came, but it was the most she could afford to keep. She sat down, buckling her seatbelt. She gave one last wave to her boyfriend before starting the car and driving off. The road to her home was made easier through the back roads, which she knew like the back of her hand. She turned off onto the first road she came upon; her car eloped by the trees that surrounded Chris' house. She silently cursed his parents' decision to live in a place so far away from her. She sighed, sitting back in her seat, yawning. The lack of sleep she had been going through was really getting to her. She suddenly became aware of how bad her car smelt, and then remembered how she had been meaning to clean it out. It was so dirty that she had no idea what exactly was IN the car. Thrown wrappers and clothes and books were tossed on the ground, on the seats, precariously on the dashboard…all her friends and family. She really needed to get some neater people to chauffer.
Books. She stopped the car abruptly at the side of the road, flicking the light on. Had she forgotten the book? She had asked Chris to lend her the third book in a series she had been reading for her English class. She had read all of them already, but needed to be refreshed to write an analysis of it. She didn't have the third book, on the account of her sister's boyfriend's dog ripping it to shreds. She moved around some things, but found no sign of the book in question. She would have to go back. She started her car and did a K-Turn, driving back toward the home.
She sighed – she was definitely going to be late. She needed that book, though. She glanced around, hoping maybe she missed it. What she did miss was the fact a car was coming down the road, toward her. She jerked up when she saw the headlights blinding her, and swerved to the left to get out of the way. Her car couldn't take such a jolt, and she realized her breaks were lost when she went into the grass at a very quick speed. She bounced as her car hit rocks and grass and mud, until she finally saw that her car was about to slam into a tree. She grabbed the when and tried to turn but it was too late. Her last memory was the feeling of impact and the sound of crushing steel. The whole world went black as she went unconscious.
The first thing she could recall was waking up, though her eyes didn't seem to cooperate with her brain's commands. She felt two variations of warmth – one was the sun, which was shining directly on her, it felt. The other was a bit more terrifying – it was warm and on her body. She tasted it when she took a breath. Blood. She felt as though she was covered in blood. She had no energy to move. Her ears seemed to be picking up a strange noise, very faint and almost buzzing sounding, which seemed to be garbled voice. The only thing she could make out was "Help!"
She felt something touch her again, flesh – a hand upon her skin. Then she blacked out again.
TBC…