Hi everyone! Thanks for checking out my story. I've been getting really excited, coming up with different ways I can take this. If you have any scenes you want embellished, please shoot me a message or review, I'm really up for recommendations. If you find any spelling or grammar mistakes, let me know, because they piss me off, and I'll fix them right away. I'm attempting to make this as decent as I can get it, I want it to be really relatable so you can inject yourself into the main character, I want to make the emotions all feel-y so you don't just read it and keep going without actually getting what I'm trying to do, because that would make me a bad writer. Anyway, enjoy, lovely people, and seriously, throw me any ideas for what you want. Whether you want to see more of a character, if you want to see a relationship (romantic or not), go in a certain direction or experience something. If you want more describing of the way things look, more or less dialogue, bloody anything - I eat it up.

One minute I was crossing the road, phone in hand, looking down at it as I flicked through Facebook. I had just walked home from the movies, still swept up in the after-glow of a new plot-line, new characters. I lived in movies, I was constantly dissatisfied with the boringness of real life, bearing in mind, I wasn't exactly helping myself as I had spent the majority of my gap year sitting on my bed doing nothing, but that's hardly the point. Real life is boring, compared to the worlds I watched and read about with magic and animals and attractive men and-

I heard the screech before I saw the truck. I should have heard it, I was used to this stuff! I lived next to a highway and a school, for god sake. I knew how to cross a main country road, you could feel them coming! Why didn't I feel it coming? I was metres away from home but I never reached it. The cattle truck, stocked with cows, loomed over me. I couldn't even smell it yet, it was going so fast. This was a 60 kilometres an hour zone, 40 during school hours, this truck was still blaring along at 100. The driver must have missed the signs. We lived right on the edge of town, one side was houses, the other was literally a snow-pea field that stretched out into other farms as far as you could see. I understood why he was going 100, it was easy enough to accidentally miss the merge from 100 to 60, I got it. I just didn't get why it had to be me, why hadn't he seen me, why hadn't I picked up on him?

I had literally less than a second to comprehend the fact that I was about to be hit before I was. He hit me having only pressed the brakes a few metres from me, barely having slowed down, and the bug-splattered grill smacked straight into my ribs, my legs flying between the truck and the road, and travelling me a few metres before I was sucked underneath the truck. It didn't hit me straight on, I was closer to the left wheels than the right, and as I was sucked under, hitting the road on my right shoulder, the truck swerved belatedly and one of the middle wheels went over me. I didn't even have time to scream. The air had left my lungs the second my ribs had been impacted and as the truck crushed my legs, the back wheels went over my spine. In the back of my mind, I heard the loud crack that my body made. A completely unnatural sound, though no pain was caused by it. A mild surge of panic went through me as my body bent like it had been broken in half. It wasn't the fact that I was being run over by a truck, but just how off it was making me feel, how wrong it was that my body was doing something it wasn't made to do, what came after. Pain? Debilitating injury?

Everything went bright white as the truck finally passed over me, and in the back of my mind I could still hear the persistent squealing of the breaks as the truck drove too far to the left and bashed into the poles that divided the road from the side street that ran parallel to it. Panicked moos came from it as the back part of the truck teetered on two wheels, settling back down.

It was a weird feeling to be suddenly so still after being swept up by such a fast moving object. All I could focus on was the uncomfortable numbness I was currently experiencing. Like when you've been in bed too long and you know it's time to get up. But there was no getting up. I felt kind of sick, the intense brightness of an Australian summer sky was impossibly blotching with grey. This was something I'd experienced before. When I'd fainted. That sick feeling and how you became blind before there was nothing. Was nothing coming? My mind suddenly jumped to my mum who was waiting only about 100 metres away back home. Did she know I was here? It didn't even occur to me that of course she wouldn't know that her child was currently lying in the middle of the road, broken beyond repair. But that's where it was jumping, I was waiting for her. Waiting to see her lean over me, the dark curls blocking out the sky. I just needed to know she was there. I needed her to know what was happening, because then she'd be in control of the situation and I could just let go, knowing she'd sort it out. I struggled against the dark clouds brewing across my vision, holding on, waiting for my mum. Where was my mum? She was coming wasn't she? She was here. She knew. Why wasn't my mumma with me? My face felt hot as tears leaked out of the sides of my eyes, making them sting as they messily fell down the sides of my face. It felt yucky. Why wasn't mumma there? Why did no one care I was crying? Why did no one care I was still on the road? I could get hit by a car. Mum would be angry at me if I got hit by a car. Angry, but worried. Mumma, I need help getting up. Why aren't you helping me? The sky was unobscured above me. No curls, nobody.

There was only grey. And then there was nothing.

I died feeling alone.

I was awake before I opened my eyes. My whole body ached. No, not my whole body. My legs were fine. At least there was that.

Groggily, I tried moving my arms to a position that I could push myself up but was halted when the rotation in my right shoulder sent sharp spikes of pain to my brain, telling me bad-wrong-damage. When I let the arm relax, it still hurt, but now it was a dull pain, a pain that said it would be there for a while. I squinted, cracking my eyes open and scrunching my brows. It was dark. How was it dark? It had been the middle of the day!

It came back to me, then. Not that I'd forgotten. I'd just been distracted by the new information. I'd been hit by a truck, and passed out, why wasn't I in hospital? Reality started to set in. Was this death? Darkness? I had always thought that death would be nothing, like when you're asleep but not dreaming. Your consciousness simply didn't exist. But darkness. Darkness was something – was this heaven? Or some sort of afterlife? Was there darkness in heaven? I wasn't in hell, was I? My eyes opened properly as I started to panic, trying to take in the situation. Was a demon going to grab me and take me to the pit to get tortured? I had to be ready to run! As my eyes adjusted, I noticed that I wasn't alone. Someone else lay opposite me. Now that I noticed, it wasn't actually all that dark. The sky was so clear and full of stars, the moon unobstructed by clouds and illuminating a dense forest around us. The whole sky glowed. This wasn't like home. There weren't this many stars at home, and we lived in the countryside!

Turning my attention back to the person across from me, I noticed that it was a girl and she was starting to stir. She lay on her back, arms sprawled, palms facing upwards. I remained pressed against the ground, cheek in the grass as I watched her squint as I had, raising her arms to rub at her eyes. Lucky bitch, my shoulder hurt too much to do that. I tried again to move my arms and though the right one protested, the left moved and I sighed in relief, patting the ground for a comfortable position to push myself up. The girl squinted again and threw herself forward so she sat with her legs lying in front of her. Looking around she took in the surroundings until her eyes landed on me.

"A-are you okay?" She asked hesitantly, her voice incredibly confused. I tried to push myself up, but only managed to do a weak sphinx-like impression before my elbow began to tremble and I tried to lower myself back to the ground before my arm collapsed.

"I-" I began to start as I tried pushing myself up again, trying to fold my legs so that I could kneel. But they wouldn't. No matter how much strain I put into sending movement into my legs, they wouldn't respond. Frowning, I let myself back down again and tried to focus solely on moving them. Kick, roll an ankle, flex a toe. I couldn't even feel-

That's when it hit me. My legs didn't feel good, they didn't even feel uninjured, they felt like nothing. I couldn't feel the material of my pants against my legs. I looked down to make sure my pants were definitely on. Yep. Faded black, thick, baggy track pants. They were there.

"I-Ican't feel my legs." I said in a panicked whisper, looking to the girl. She frowned, worriedly, and moved closer, kneeling over me. Gently, she laid a hand on the back of my calf.

"Can you feel that?" She asked softly, concern in her expression. I picked up an American accent.

"No!" I whined, trying to push up with my uninjured arm again. I was able to push up enough to flip myself onto my back, my legs sprawled over each other in the tumble. From this position I was able to lean forward, my hips still working, I could sit on my butt without falling over. My right arm lay limp at my side, and I reached forward with my left, grabbing the right leg by the pants and dragging it off the other so they sat in front of me. I couldn't feel even that. I groaned, not sure what to do, breathing too heavily. Was this hyperventilating? Was this a panic attack? My breaths rushed in and out at an unnatural pace as I struggled to control myself. What was I supposed to do without legs? What do I do? I just stared at them, wanting to crawl away, wanting to get away from the part of my body that I couldn't control anymore.

I felt a hand on my right shoulder and gasped with the pain the slight amount of pressure gave me. The hand flittered away to land between my shoulder blades.

"Sorry!" The girl said, shocked. "I didn't know you were hurt there too!"

I waved her off. It was fine. " Do you know where we are?" I asked, looking at her.

"No," she said softly, "I-I thought I… I was about to-" She stopped, looking into the distance as if she was seeing something that I couldn't see.

"Did you die?" I asked quietly, hoping, but not hoping for her answer.

"Yes." She whispered, looking down at her lap with a pained expression. It was only then that I noticed she had a faint bruise blossoming on the side of her forehead. It looked like it was going to be a nasty one.

"How?" I asked, watching her. She winced, and I regretted asking. But I wanted to know. She looked up at me.

"There-There was a car… In front of me... I was driving… It swerved towards me-" Her hand raised, thoughtfully, to her brow where the bruise sat. Poking it, she exhaled sharply and dropped her hand. Her brow scrunched as she thought of what had happened to her, and then it relaxed as she looked at me.

"What about you?" She asked. I looked away from her.

"A truck." I said, flatly. "I was crossing the road. Didn't see it… didn't feel it. My mum-" My voice broke. I looked down at my legs. Why was I alive? How?

The girl looked worriedly at me and down to my legs as well. I was alive. I had to… I had to do something. I should be dead. We both should be dead. I looked back up to the girl.

"Guess I got off pretty lightly." I said, somewhat sourly. The corner of her lip quirked, and she held out her hand.

"Catherine." She said as I raised my left to take it, only finding that it was the wrong hand, and I twisted it in a weird angle till I sort of grabbed hers and jiggled it awkwardly. She giggled and I quirked a smile, glad I had made someone laugh, despite how crap I felt.

"Ariadne. Ari." I replied, as we continued to jiggle the bizarre handshake.

"Should we try and, like, go somewhere?" She asked hesitantly. I nodded, sucking in my lips. Where even were we?

She started to get up but then looked down at me, then to my legs. I groaned. This was going to be a hassle. I pushed myself over so my hips pressed to the ground, like that yoga position… upward facing dog? I snickered. She frowned.

"What's funny?" She asked, confused at the predicament I was in.

"Just doing some yoga, you know. Need to get in shape." She actually laughed at that one and she kneeled down on my left side, sliding an arm under my armpit so my good arm was slung over her shoulder, taking the majority of the weight, and her hand gripped my ribs as she pulled me up. I let out a sudden cry of pain, slumping. That was where the truck had hit me, and though it should be shattered and had been mysteriously healed, it still hurt like a bitch. She quickly knelt back down, lessening the pressure on my ribs and moving her hand down to my waist.

"Sorry! Sorry!" She squeaked, and I grunted. Trying again, she lifted me off the ground so that she had the most of my weight, though I slumped to the side a fair bit, and my feet dangled below me, the tops of my slip-ons dragging slightly behind us. I gripped her left shoulder with the arm I had slung over her, and bit my lip as I brought my bum right arm around to hold onto my other hand. She was stockily built, loose dark blonde curls fell down her shoulders, not unlike my colour, which was a slightly darker golden-brown, that was fading from a blonde dye. My wavy hair reached longer than hers to my shoulder blades. I was also slighter than her, less stocky, and slightly shorter. She took my weight well, though the position was awkward, and we looked out in front of us. We had the option of going left or right. We had no idea where we were, it could potentially be a dangerous choice.

"Um… Ariadne," She started, looking from side to side. I copied the movement,

"Uh…Left?" I replied, with absolutely no conviction at all. She hesitated a second more and decided to go with it, dragging me slowly down the path, taking us to the left. As she walked, and I held on for dear life, I noticed just how big the trees looked. They positively loomed over us. It kind of looked familiar, actually, kind of like…

"Ari!" Catherine whispered, a tinge of fear in her voice. I ceased my sight-seeing and followed her gaze in front of us. A figure strode towards us in the distance, all that was visible was a dark silhouette.

"Do we turn around?" She asked, still whispering, looking behind us and back to the approaching figure.

"They'd catch up!" I shot through my clenched teeth. What were we supposed to do? "We're too slow to out walk them at the pace their setting, and we're too awkward for you to be able to run, dragging me behind!"

Catherine made a worried sound, looking back behind. "I could try!" She whispered, manouvering me so that she could reach for my legs.

"Catherine, I'm too heavy! You can't run with me!" Stifling the squeak as she threw me slightly so she was able to grab under my knees, bridal style. "Cathy!" She turned to start running the way we came when a loud voice boomed at us from behind. We froze.

"Are you alright?" It shouted. Definitely a man, and Scottish, too, the thick accent curled around the words.

"Uh…" Cathy gurgled uncertainly, not turning around. I looked over her shoulder, seeing a tall man, Cathy only came up to his shoulder. His head was bald, save for the ring of long dark brown hair that went around his ears and blended into a tufted, bushy beard. The side-burns on him were long and connected his hair and beard in a clean slope. The top of his head was tattooed with markings I couldn't recognise, and his eyes sparkled with some sort of amusement. I guess it would be amusing, finding two girls in the middle of the forest, one carrying the other like they were about to cross the threshold. He seemed to have some sort of green cotton shirt on, with two layers of raggedy furs covering his shoulders and some sort of leather harness thing, like a great big 'X' secured to his chest. Underneath the straps, he was wearing a sort of tunic, held in place by a massive belt. His muscular, work hardened hands were armoured with mean looking knuckle dusters, the hilt of a sword poked out at his side and two axes peeped at us from either shoulder. I gaped. This wasn't the usual get up of anybody I'd ever come across.

His eyes caught mine and twinkled as they seemed to stare into my soul. I raised my left arm and slapped Cathy's shoulder a few times. She broke out of her trance and turned around, taking a step back to take the man in. I turned my head back to look at him again as well, his eyes following us, taking us in.

"Well?" he said suddenly, his voice rumbling. "What are two young dwarvish women doing out in the middle of a forest? At night? Why aren't you in your father's halls?" He added. Dwarvish? I wasn't a dwarf. I frowned, and Cathy took another step back. The man crossed his arms, not quite sure what to make of us.

"Do you even know what types can be found around here?" He asked, seriousness edging into his words. As if to make his point, an inhuman screech suddenly ripped through the air. It sounded big, and close. A shuddered breath escaped me, and Cathy's fingers gripped into my knee and waist. She took a startled step towards the man, both our eyes flicking around the forest, our expressions clearly confused and fearful. He frowned, taking in our clothing.

"What clan are you from?" He asked wearily. We both looked to him quickly, as another screech, closer, rent through the air. I let out a whimper, not being able to keep it in, and the man's eyes softened.

"Why do you carry her?" He asked Cathy, looking her dead in the eye. This wasn't a question to be avoided. She shuddered, and opened her mouth.

"She-She…" She started. The man shuffled.

"Come on, lassie, I don't have all night, I've gotta' get to town before long." He said gruffly.

"She… can't walk." Cathy managed. "Her legs, she can't feel them."

His brow descended as his gaze shifted to me, an almost fatherly look in his eyes. Something in me responded.

"How long has this been going on?" He said lowly. How did we explain this? We'd died in accidents and woken up in the middle of nowhere, healed. Well, almost healed.

"We don't know what's going on." I admitted, fearfully, hoping he wouldn't take advantage of that fact. He looked confused, though.

"What do you mean, little one?" He asked. My lips quirked at the comment. I wasn't that little. But compared to him, I guess, even Cathy, they were both stocky, him incredibly so, and taller than me.

"We woke up back there." I pointed behind us, hoping we could trust him. He said he was going to town, maybe he could take us there, and we could call our parents! "We-we don't know each other. But we both thought we'd died, but not here. We don't know where we are!" My voice broke on the last word and he frowned even more, eyes shadowed.

"What's the story with the legs?" He asked, glancing at the arm Cathy had draped under them, holding them in place.

"When I died." I couldn't help but whisper it, it didn't feel right. An image of the truck coming at me flashed in my mind. "I got run over, I remember my legs crushing, and my back broke." My voice was pained. "And then when we woke up here, they just wouldn't move. I should be more injured. I should be dead, but I'm just bruised, and this-" I gestured to my legs wildly.

"You were run over?" He sounded alarmed. "By a horse? Why were you outside?"

"No, a cattle truck." I murmured sinking deeper into Cathy's grip. He frowned.

"I know what cattle is, but I am not familiar with 'truck'."

"You don't know what a truck is?" Cathy's voice rang out in the cold air. He shook his head, disgruntled.

"Where are you from?" He asked, directing the question at both of us.

"Victoria?"

"Seattle?"

We both answered at once. He frowned again. "I have never heard of either of those places, and I have travelled far over Middle Earth-"

"MIDDLE EARTH!?" I screamed.