'Great, first day back from my vacation and I'm going to be late,' she thought as she rushed around her small apartment, trying to grab both bags in hand, the bulky bag, that carried her uniform and equipment, and the lighter weighing purse. She stuffed her phone in her back pocket and made sure the music wasn't obnoxiously loud coming from the earbuds. Quickly, she slipped out of the apartment and rushed to get to the public bus stop. The grey sweater did almost nothing to protect her from the cold blasts of air.

The young woman looked up and down the abandoned street, the eerie darkness of the early morning slightly scared her. A lamp post beside her flickered, the snow falling around her fell faster, and the wind picked up. She thought she heard a crunch but when she turned no one was there, and brushed it off as her imagination. She shook her head at her own foolishness and moved her head slightly to the beat of the music that flooded her ears. The hairs on the back of her neck standing up sent shivers down her spine- not the kind of feeling cold but the feeling of being watched.

She turned her head once more to look around her but saw nothing again but the outlines of the apartment building. The brush of a hand against her neck and the sting of her necklace clasp breaking brought her to alertness. She turned and tried to get back the necklace but succeeded in only feeling the sharpness of a knife puncture her skin and reach deep into her stomach. The knife was taken out just as quickly as it had been placed inside of her, the ridges of the knife scraped her insides and made the pain more agonizing than it already was.

She was pushed down onto the ground and her head hit the curb, she felt her head crack slightly at the contact and heard her attacker dig through her purse and take out the amount of cash she had and ran off into the dark. She placed her hands onto her wound, trying to put as much pressure on it as she could. The pain coursed through her and the cold seemed so inviting. She could feel the warmth of her blood on her hands and the snow fall on her face. Her hands became as numb as her nose. The lamp posts around her flickered, she closed her eyes and her breathing began to shallow. The young woman slipped into unconsciousness and heard a melodic voice but could not make out what it was saying.

She opened her eyes expecting to be looking back up at the same sky but found herself looking at tree branches. Instead of the cold, she was met with a warm breeze and the sun shining down around the forest floor.

'Where am I? What happened?' this was all she could think at the moment and is probably understandable. She looked around and spotted her bags not far away from herself. The music was still coming from the earbuds, so she took her iPhone out and turned the music off. She stared at the phone and could see the words No Service staring back at her.

"Fuck."

She brought her bags close to her and stood up, brushing off the pine needles and dirt from her clothes. A bird close to her chirped at her and flew away immediately. 'What do they do in those survival shows… Find water and follow it, right?' Even if she wasn't certain about that she decided to follow it. She gathered the bags and decided to turn left.

Walking through the forest was not fun for her but she powered through it. The scenery on the other hand was absolutely gorgeous. 'The trees back home aren't a match for these ones that's for sure.'

Around, what she assumed was the early evening, she sat down on a fallen tree and dropped her bags on the ground. Her shoulders were in pain as well as her back. The warmth in the air was reminding her of the amount of layers she was wearing. She slipped of the knitted sweater and was left her in the black long sleeved shirt. The hat and scarf joined the other layers in her purse. The woods around her became void of any of the sound of wildlife she heard only moments ago, she looked around, not taking it as a good sign.

Fili and Kili stalked through the woods to look for any kind game for dinner for the company but found a woman stripping off articles of strange clothing. Kili looked over at his older brother and gave him a confused expression.

"What should we do about her?" Kili whispered.

"I do not know. Just avoid her is probably best." He watched her look around the forest.

"She looks lost though. Shouldn't we help her?"

"Kee, I don't think that's a good idea."

The brunet rolled his eyes and silently placed the knocked arrow back into the quiver on his back.

"Fine," Fili said. "I'll go first."

Kili smirked and made a gesture for him to go out.

The birds around them went silent. Fili looked back at his brother and huffed. Slowly, he rose from the bushes and walked cautiously towards the woman. She had her back to him and seemed to be fiddling with something small in her hand, hitting it repeatedly on her palm. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she screamed. The woman with the black lined eyes fell off the tree and scooted backwards from him on her bottom. She kicked up leaves with her feet moving fast.

"I'm not going to hurt you." he told her as if he was speaking to a child.

"How could I be so sure? I know how these things end! I've watched the stories on the news."

Fili made a face of confusion, forehead wrinkling and mouth open before forming words that were suited for the situation.

"What are you doing out here?"

"I don't know. I was just waiting for the bus and I woke up in this god forsaken place."

He turned and saw Kili walking towards her. He sighed in both frustration and confusion of the present scene. The entire thing was ridiculous and he didn't understand why he had agreed to this.

"Who are you people?" she asked. She looked over their clothing a weapons, mind racing at the idea of what could be going on.

"That is my brother Fili and I'm Kili." The brunet- Kili- she reminded herself, shot her a bright smile which she could only give a small smile but looked more like it pained her to smile.

"Are you alone?" Kili asked.

"What does it look like?" she asked, bitterness lacing her voice.

"Fee, we should take her with us. She's alone."

"Uncle wouldn't be pleased."

"He can be practical you know. She does need our help."

"I'm right here you know." Kili waved her off and she scoffed internally. "Would you like to come with us? Gandalf might be able to help you get home." she looked to both of them and stood up. She looked down at the men that were shorter, much shorter, than herself and began to feel a strange feeling in her stomach.

"What is your name?" Fili asked.

"It's Avtonoma."

The three of them walked in silence for the most part. They tried to talk to her but she just looked down and stayed quiet. She was trying to piece together what was going on but she just couldn't. The amount of weapons, especially the blond man, worried her. She listened to them carefully and the amount of names they mentioned from their group gave her even more worry. If they were all as loaded as the two she had already met, she was screwed.

Fili would every so often look over his shoulder to make sure she was still with them. The shock of finding a woman in the forest had worn off the closer they got to the camp.

They broke through the forest line and she was surrounded by short men. Each of them possessed a beard and were stocky in build. Except for the shortest. He had a clean-shaven face and was by far the best dressed, even weirdly so, as they were in the middle of nowhere.

"We found her in the woods." Kili announced to the crowd of men.

"The poor lass is barely dressed!" one of them said. She believed that it was the one with the hat but she wasn't sure at this point. It was overwhelming her and she looked around and saw the tallest one to be an old man in grey robes holding a walking stick.

"This is Gandalf. The wizard in our company. And Thorin, leader of the company." Fili ushered her over to Gandalf and an angry looking man with long black hair, streaked with grey.

"Wizard? Are you guys like role players or something?" Toma asked. Fili shook his head, not knowing what a role player was, and left her with the so called "wizard" and grumpy.

"And what is a female doing out in the woods alone?" the grumpy one asked almost condescendingly.

"Well, like I told your blond and brunet buddies back there, I was waiting for my bus so I could get to work on time. I should probably get a car." she added on as an afterthought to herself.

The "wizard" looked down at her and leaned against his staff. He eyed her like some sort of science experiment.

"Do you know where you are?"

"No."

"My dear, you are in Middle-Earth."

Her eyebrows furrowed and laughed slightly.

"You're kidding right? Am I in America or not?"

"I've no idea what birthing goats have to do with this but I have never heard of such a place." Thorin scoffed and walked closer to her. Toma was starting to panic at this point and Gandalf seemed to have seen it.

"I don't think she is in the right state of mind. I say the girl travels with us until we can leave her close enough to Rivendell so she can be treated by healers."

Thorin glared at Gandalf and started to object but sensed it would not be argued about. She was dismissed by the wave of the hand by Thorin. 'All of these men are dwarves. Wait, not in the right state of mind.' she thought. Toma sat down on the ground next to her bags and stared off into the forest. Until she felt a presence beside her. It was the man with the curly hair.

"Hi." she said, drawing shapes into the dirt with her finger, at the moment it was a simple flower. Toma looked over at his feet when she saw his feet and sighed.

"And I suppose you're a fairy, if these men are dwarves." The short man's feet were large and exceptionally hairy. She heard him chuckle weakly and continued on with her drawing.

"No, actually I'm a hobbit of the Shire. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End."

"Very formal," Toma brushed one of the braids that kept her hair out of her face over her shoulder. "Avtonoma Balanov. Toma for short," she said. "Do all hobbits have big, hairy feet? Oh god, that was rude. I'm sorry if I offended you," she spluttered out, her face starting to heat up and become red with embarrassment.

"Well, yes. And no you didn't offend me. Not many people have heard of hobbits." Toma smiled over at Bilbo in relief.

"Do all of those of the race of men get that embarrassed?" he said jokingly.

Her brows furrowed, not really understanding why the hobbit referred to her like that, "Are we staying here for the night?"

"Yes."

"I guess tonight will be awkward for me. They probably all think I'm insane because of what Gandalf said. They don't look very welcoming."

"Some are but for the most part you're right."

"You know from experience?" Bilbo looked down at his feet. "I'll take that as a yes." They sat in an awkward silence as the conversation came to a stop and she came to the conclusion that she was having an extremely vivid dream.

"Alright, dinner's finished lads!" the fattest dwarf said.

Toma decided that maybe the best thing to do in this dream was just to let it roll on and that she should just hang back and watch it.

"Lass, you want anything to eat?"

"No, I'm good. Thanks though."

The dwarf in the funny hat shrugged his shoulders and continued to pass out bowls.

It was perhaps the weirdest dream her mind had conjured. She sat back and watched them eat in small groups.