Hello all, this is my first Lord of the Rings fanfiction and my first fic in almost two years. I'm pretty excited about this one because it is going to be fun to write, but it is pretty much just going to be a tenth walker fic (I know, I know, shitty fic alert right there). I'm just testing out my writing right now and getting geared up for a class I'm taking next semester so bear with me, please. Most of the chapters will be longer than this one (I hope) and I will try to get into a regular update schedule.
Note on timeline and other various issues: This fic will be following movie events (with a few book events thrown in but those will be explained as we go) as it is easier to write based on that (i.e. I'm less likely to make mistakes). I'm not a Tolkien expert, though I have read the books, but please do not kill me if I make any lore mistakes, it's super hard to keep up with all of it. Even though I know Westron/common speech is not the same as English, I'm just going to write this as if it was because I am lazy. Also this is kind of set in Toronto, but I don't live there so please forgive any mistakes on that. If anyone knows a good Sindarin online dictionary, please tell me because I'm going to need one soon :) The other a/n will not be this long, I just had a lot to say, sorry. Now on to the story.
Prologue
Mary-Lillian Littlerock was, in her own mind at least, a perfectly normal York University student that merely had a passion for the fantasy genre and penchant for dressing up as her favourite characters. Her mother on the other hand, believed her to be an eccentric Lord of the Rings fan (which she was) who spent too much time and money going to oddly named conventions when she should be studying (which she did). Her grandmother, a tiny Ojibway woman with a heavy backhand, thought that the time her youngest granddaughter had spent in the city had made her crazy and ruined any chance she ever had at getting married. Lilly, being every bit as stubborn as her grandmother, did not care about these opinions and went on being every bit as odd as she wanted to. Family gatherings, of course, became battle grounds.
However, beyond all doubt and reason of her family, it was because one of these oddly named conventions that Lilly's story, through coincidence, luck, and a fair bit of chance, began.
The public transit system of Toronto, though cleaner and more efficient than it had been in the past, was a source of high anxiety for Lilly even after moving to the city for university nearly a year ago. A small town girl, this bustling city dependent on buses and subways sill felt foreign to Lilly, whose home town was so tiny that seeing a taxi cab, let alone a city bus, was a rare occasion. The ebb and flow of the city, though calming to some, made Lilly feel like an outsider in the country she had been born in. The skyscrapers and the smokestacks only made her miss her home in the Canadian Shield, and her tiny dorm room made her miss her family, no matter how awful they could be.
Seated on one of the hard plastic benches on the subway station platform, Lilly waited anxiously for the train that would take her to the convention centre at the heart of the city. Her mother would disapprove of this venture, and that was the only thing her and her mother-in-law could agree upon; Lilly needed to stop this very odd form of self-expression.
Lilly clutched her overnight bag tightly and twirled a lock of hair between her fingers as she waited. The contents of her bag were of an incredibly precious variety and most definitely something her mother would hate. Folded carefully on top of her pyjamas and toiletries was the elven style dress she was going to wear at the convention. She smiled inwardly as she thought of the dress she had spent hours slaving over and prayed that nothing would happen to it during her busy day around the con or afterwards at the friend's house she was staying at.
A tightly wound bundle of nerves and pre-convention anxiety, Lilly jumped up like a jack-in-the-box at the arrival of her train and nearly sprinted aboard in her excitement. Even though it was bright and early on a Saturday morning, the train was crowded with all sorts of people-young, old, mothers with children, and even a few other convention goers already in full costume. The only two available seats on the train were beside a mother with a screaming toddler and an old man that looked like he had not showered in his life, so Lilly meekly stood near the doors, trying to make herself as small as possible.
One hand on the above head bar and the other on her bag, Lilly felt the slightest tickling of fatigue hit her; it most likely caused by her very early start to the day. The cause of her earlier than normal wake-up had partially been due to excitement, but was mostly caused by the long time it took to do her makeup and weave an intricate elven braid into her hair. Stifling a yawn, Lilly cursed the day she ever realized her nose was crooked; that little facial feature had taken a great deal of time and makeup to straighten out.
As the train drew closer and closer to its destination, Lilly grew more and more excited. She loved this feeling that took away every fight she had ever had with her parents and every mean name she has been called. In her excitement, she failed to notice any of the strange happenings aboard the train. Movement and any form of noise abandoned the train as it pulled up to the station. Lilly, perhaps by bewitchment or ignorance of her own choosing, did not see the cease of movement nor did she see that the dirty old man had somehow pulled out a large wooden walking-stick, as old and gnarled as himself, and was muttering to himself in a tongue long forgotten by this world.
Lilly rushed to cross the threshold of the door as it opened with a ding and a whoosh and when she tried to place her foot onto the platform she fell down, down, down into a dark deep abyss.
And that's it! Hopefully will be able to write more for later chapters and will update soon. Please give me some constructive criticism, I need it to grow :)