Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Lord of the Rings.

A/N: This story was a random idea that appeared during a conversation between me (Emma) and my best friend, Lady Excalibur (Kayleigh). As a matter of fact, she's writing this for me because I don't have the patience. The two main characters are actually us but this is written in the third person.

Chapter 1

Never Mess With Magic

Emma sat at her computer desk adding the final touches to a spell she had been working on for two days. Her best friend, Kayleigh, was coming round and this would be the first spell they ever cast together. Both girls had an interest in spell-casting but had never actually tried it. Usually their weekends were spent at re-enactments or practice, but this weekend was a three day weekend and they had a whole extra day to play with. Satisfied that the spell was finished, Emma took a quick glance around her room. Since her brother had gone off the University and her sister had moved into his room, Emma finally had space to herself. There were drawers down one wall containing various items, a computer in the corner and her bunkbed. Her Lord of the Rings posters were around the top bunk, though the Fellowship movie poster had a piece of blutack over Legolas' face. It was a longstanding joke that Emma thought he looked at her funny. Just then she heard the front door open and someone yell, "Oi, half-elf girl, get down here and help me with these things!" Emma ran from her room and down the stairs, narrowly avoiding her dad's spears.

Kayleigh was stood at the bottom of the stairs with two large bags. One was overnight stuff, the other her costume for re-enactment. While Emma had been doing re-enactments most of her life, Kayleigh was still fairly new at it, though her throwing arm was something to be reckoned with. Emma preferred archery while Kayleigh was pretty good with swords and axes. The girls seemed the most unlikely of friends. Emma was a fanatic about anything supernatural where Kayleigh was a pirate-loving Goth. Emma was happy wearing pretty t-shirts and jeans; Kayleigh was usually a mass of fishnets, eyeliner and studs. Like today, she was wearing a black jeans with chains on them, a black t-shirt, a blazer that was suspiciously similar to her school one, her black HIM beanie hat, black Converse which had left and right written on them, fingerless gloves, a black studded wrist strap and a Pirate of the Caribbean replica medallion. Her eyeshadow was black and she had masses of black eyeliner on. Emma however was wearing a purple long sleeved t-shirt, jeans, her boots and a triquertra necklace. She didn't have any make-up on. One thing connected the girls; they had both dyed their hair black. Their re-enactment captain was constantly having a go at them over it; it didn't look authentic when one of your archers' roots didn't match the rest of her hair apparently. Kayleigh usually got away with it as she always wore a helmet except for one time. Kayleigh had gone to the Download festival at Donnington for the first time with her cousin and several other 'metal-head' friends including ones known as Big Gay Joe and Matt the Big Scary Goth. She had come to practice the following week and their captain, Steve, had nearly had a heart attack. Kayleigh had come back with lime-green hair. Thankfully the dye had washed out a few weeks later and it was back to black. Kayleigh never had the patience to leave her hair its natural colour for more than three weeks. She hated her natural hair colour, a mousy brown-ginger catastrophe.

"Well?" she asked, "Are you gonna stand there all day or are you gonna help me?" Emma grinned and half-ran down the stairs. She grabbed Kayleigh's overnight bag, knowing it was the lighter of the two. The two girls went upstairs to Emma's room.

"Your love is a razorblade kiss!!!" Kayleigh sang out of tune. Emma just laughed. Kayleigh was if anything predictable. Her life consisted of three things; eating, sleeping and members of the opposite sex, including Ville Valo. Hell, depending on how drunk she was, it didn't have to be members of the opposite sex. After two or three pints, Amy Lee from Evanescence became the hottest thing on the planet to Kayleigh and it would take a semi-naked picture of Joey Jordison to bring her back to being straight for the evening! But her wandering sexuality aside, Kayleigh was dependable most of the time. They threw Kayleigh's bags on the floor and dropped onto the bottom bunk which was made to look like a sofa.

"Where are we going again?" asked Kayleigh.

"Rockingham," said Emma, "Remember your first show?"

"What? Where Aidy, Shaun, your dad and the others started talking about erections and masturbating in front of me?" Emma nodded.

"The one where you confiscated my phone and let your dad answer it when Chris rang?" Emma nodded again.

"The one where the saxons shield-charged the cowboys with the Indians and I drank all the rum?" Emma nodded a third time.

"No, can't remember a thing, except for those sodding toilets," said Kayleigh. She opened her over night bag and pulled out a big bottle of Jack Daniels.

"Hello, my lover," she said, pulling off the lid and taking a swig before replacing it.

"We've got half an hour before Dad gets back," said Emma, "Want to mess with magic?" Kayleigh nodded excitedly. Emma got out the stuff and put her bag that had her kit and regular clothes in it. She also put on her quiver. Kayleigh looked at her quizzically. "You never know, it might actually work," she said. Kayleigh grinned and grabbed her bags. Emma set up the four candles, facing north, south, east and west. She sat down. She also wore a homemade black cape, for a real witchy effect. Kayleigh sat down opposite her. Emma held out her hands, palm up. Kayleigh placed her hands over Emma's. A wave of giggles over took both of them. They waited until the giggles had stopped and then sat up straight. "Ready?" asked Emma. Kayleigh nodded. Both girls closed their eyes so they couldn't set each other off giggling again. Emma cleared her throat and the girls chanted together, "Hear my words, hear my cry, spirits beyond my sight, take us where we desire to be, show us what we desire to see!" Kayleigh opened one eye then the other, Emma opened hers too. "Told ya it wouldn't work," said Kayleigh. Suddenly the ground began to shake.

"What the hell? An earthquake?" she said.

"Come on, GCSE Geography, Kayleigh," said Emma, "We're not supposed to feel earthquakes let alone get ones this strong." The shaking became so violent that Kayleigh fell backward. She hit the floor. But it wasn't the wooden floorboards of her bedroom. It was rough, bumpy and felt like cold stone. She sat up straight away. It was pitch black. She couldn't see a thing. Suddenly something grabbed her. She screamed. "Relax it's just me," said Emma's voice in the darkness, "Where are we?"

"I have no idea," replied Kayleigh. She looked around but could see nothing but darkness. Then a deep heavy gurgling noise. Kayleigh grabbed Emma's arm.

"Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Emma, "What is it?" Then there was a deep rumbling noise, like an earthquake. The gurgling stopped and something ran about six feet past them. The place they were in seemed to be getting lighter. "What is going on?" asked Emma as both girls got to their feet. Soon there was enough light for the girls to see they were in some kind of hall, they were surrounded by huge stone archways. The light was coming from the far end of the hall, through a doorway. It was big, bright and orange. Almost like flames except there was no smoke. Then huge claws that looked like they were made from hot rocks seized the door and ripped it away. It revealed a huge monster, surrounded by flames. It's head had horns like a ram's and looked like one of the skulls the girls had seen in a museum of early humans. The monster let out an almighty roar. Kayleigh seized Emma's hand and did the first thing that came to mind…she ran. Pulling her friend along behind her, Kayleigh ran. It wasn't easy with the kit bags and weapons and not knowing where she was going and the only light coming from that monster meant this was incredibly stupid. If it went dark she would get even more lost, if it was light, it meant she would probably get caught. The girls ran over thin bridges and up and down stairs desperate for a way out. They went down one set of stairs to discover dozens of skeletons of what looked like children and a dead end. "Oh man, we are so screwed," said Kayleigh. "No, wait!" said Emma, "Look, there's a seam here, it's a door."

"Errr, look for a button or switch or something," said Kayleigh. It was starting to get lighter, meaning the monster wasn't far away. The girls pulled at the cobwebs covering the sides of the door. "Got it!" said Kayleigh. She pressed in a stone which had an inscription on it, only for the stone to come out with her hand. "You broke it?!" said Emma. Kayleigh stared at the stone in her hand and then at the door. It was beginning to creak open. There was a roar. The beast wasn't far away. "Not now," said Kayleigh and she pushed Emma through the gap in the door and quickly followed. She through the broken stone to one side and both she and Emma pushed the great stone doors and shut them. They felt something strike the door on the other side but it held fast.

Now the girls were outside, they could see that it was early morning. There was a narrow mud path leading around a huge pool of water. Emma was sat on the steps by the door, panting. Kayleigh didn't even stop, she immediately followed the path. "Where are you going?" asked Emma.

"To find civilisation," said Kayleigh, "You can just sit there if you like and wait for that thing to break out if you want." She carried on walking. Emma pondered for a moment and then yelled, "Hey, w…w…wait for me!" She followed Kayleigh down the path. After a few hours walking the girls emerged from their rocky surroundings into brilliant sunshine. Kayleigh looked behind her and saw they were emerging from a mountain range. She turned and carried on walking. There was grass and plenty of it. "Oh boy," she said. There was no river or road with which to guess a route. "Which way?" said Emma.

"I have no idea," said Kayleigh, "Flip a coin?"

"Ok," said Emma. She rummaged in her bag. She came up empty handed.

"No purse?" said Kayleigh, "We'll have to use this." She took off her Pirates medallion. "Heads or death?" she said jokingly. Emma frowned.

"Fine then," said Kayleigh, "Skull, we go that way, funky looking pattern the other way." Emma nodded. Kayleigh flipped the medallion. It landed on the dry, yellow grass, skull facing up. "North it is," said Kayleigh, picking it up.

"How do you know that's north?" asked Emma.

"I don't, I'm guessing," said Kayleigh. Emma sighed and followed. They came to the top of a hill. "Wow, pretty," said Emma. They could see for miles but still no sign of civilisation. "Great," said Kayleigh. She carried on walking. Walking, they did a lot of that. Thankfully, Emma had a bottle of lemonade in her bag as well as Kayleigh's JD. It stopped them from getting too dehydrated but meant a lot of toilet stops for both of them. They were smart girls and soon learnt how to set up a camp fire at night and to take turns sleeping while the other kept a watch. They were in the middle of nowhere with no idea of what animals were around. Emma's cloak made a very good blanket and the big bars of chocolate she had stuffed in her bag, originally intended for a midnight feast, went someway in satisfying their hunger. They tried to ration it. They had come across a pure clean brook which provided enough water to drink when the lemonade ran out, but eventually their favourite treat, their only food, began to run short. Within a week of escaping the beast, they were out of food. To make matters worse, on their ninth night out in the wild, it rained. They took shelter under some rocks, tired from carrying bags and weapons which were too valued to be left behind, and pulled Emma's cloak over their heads. "Do you think we'll ever get home?" asked Kayleigh, her strength, both mental and physical about to give way on her.

"I don't know," said Emma, no doubt the stronger of the two, "Get some sleep, I'll keep an eye out." Kayleigh leaned back against the rock and closed her eyes. Emma could see nothing in the black rain. Just shadows. At one point she thought she saw people. As the storm raged on, the shadows started to look like people more and more. One looked like it was moving towards them. A light began to appear and a second person-shaped shadow appeared as if carrying it. "I must be going mad," she said. The shadows came closer and closer. "That's it?" she whispered to herself, "Nine days in the wild, and I've gone completely batty." Eventually the two shadows turned into people. Two men, identical, one holding a lamp. They half ran over to Emma and Kayleigh. One of them spoke to her in some language she didn't understand. His voice was calm and very soothing. She felt her eyes grow heavy. She had to shut them. Her vision blurred as her eyelids closed and she fell asleep like her friend. The two men looked down at the two girls. "Talo hi," said one, "Bado na Ada."