ATE: Okay, I know it's been a LOOONG time since I've posted or uploaded anything on this site, and some people may have thought "What happened to her? Why hasn't she updated in so long?" Here's my answer: for some strange reason I temporarily lost my drive to write fanfics after I last updated back in July last year (which is a pretty long time even for me). But I decided to make a comeback with this story here that I'd like to call Snow White In Middle Earth (I couldn't think of anything else for the title so this might be the working title or a permanent one).
The reason as to why I wrote this story: I read a lot of fanfics for The Hobbit category and liked the idea of a girl ending up in Middle Earth (what person hasn't read one and found one they've liked?). But my story here is different! I decided to basically make it a sort of modern day Snow White falls into Middle Earth, since for some reason I was thinking Snow White and then, "Oh look! Dwarves! And not just 7, but 13 of them!"
Just a fair warning, it's not going to follow the plot of Snow White completely. This story will follow the events of the movies (and probably a bit of the book if I feel up to it) while making some parallels to the story of Snow White (like the OC's appearance being based off of Snow White, her having a stepmother, yadda yadda yadda). It'll incorporate some of the plot for the fairy tale as well.
Also, seeing as this story will follow the events of the movies, I'll have to wait for the third movie to come out on DVD (I'm also going to use scenes from the extended versions of the movies when I get my hands on the last two, seeing as I own the extended version of An Unexpected Journey).
So I might either write the part of the story concerning Desolation of Smaug from the regular version and then go back and rewrite the chapters a bit to include the scenes from the extended version when it comes out, or wait for the extended version of said movie and then write along with it (I'm thinking of leaning towards the former, but we'll have to wait and see how long it takes me to finish the plot of the first movie).
What else can I add that I haven't said yet? Oh yeah! I did some research for some of the details I add into this story so that I make references to aspect of the world Tolkien created. So, yeah...
Declaimer: I don't own The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, or anything related to the franchise, books, or movies. J.R.R. Tolkien owns the rights to the books, while Peter Jackson owns the rights to the movie. I only own the OCs in this story. We good?
Snow White In Middle Earth
~*~Prologue~*~
Once upon a time, a man married a beautiful woman and had a child. No one knew exactly where the woman came from before they met, but the man loved the woman and his new child regardless. They named their child Silvia*, not because it was beautiful name, but because of the woman's love for the forest and nature itself. The new family was happy and Silvia was loved, growing as beautiful as her mother as she aged.
One day, however, the happiness ended. Silvia's mother had gotten sick for some strange reason when she was only 10 years old. No one could figure out how she had gotten sick or what she caught, and because they couldn't figure out how to make her well she passed away. Silvia's father grieved for the loss of his wife, but he continued to love and care for his daughter, for that was the promise he made her on her deathbed.
Two years passed had past and the father considered having another motherly figure in Silvia's life, if only to be supportive when she would someday make the transition into womanhood. He had found a woman named Emily** to become his new wife and serve as the mother figure he believed his daughter needed. When Emily first saw Silvia, she grew jealous of the young girl's beauty, for the woman had worked hard to obtain her own beauty her whole life while the child before her had been born with it. The woman hid her jealousy while Silvia's father was around, pretending to love the girl like her own daughter, but as soon as he turned around she would act coldly towards her and glare daggers.
When Silvia had gotten home from school one day, she had found the police outside her house and had gone inside to find out that her father was dead (having shot himself when he was drinking, they had told her) while an hysteric looking Emily cried her eyes out. Because of this sad incident Emily was given full custody of Silvia. But it didn't end there.
Following the death of her father Emily's treatment of Silvia got worse since he was no longer around. The woman would verbally abuse her for the most part and would strike the girl if she got out of line. Emily hoped to damage Silvia's self-esteem for making her feel inferior, and for a while it had worked.
But one day it stopped working.
And that day was Silvia's 18th birthday.
Silvia was woken up by the sound of her alarm clock blaring loudly. She silenced the alarm, seeing the red glowing numbers read 5:00 a.m. making her groan sleepily. Ever since she started middle school Emily (she refused to call that woman her 'mother') had been making her wake up so early and getting her to go to bed late, but Silvia had figured a way out of this by saying that she had a lot of homework she need to do when in reality she had done it at school. Silvia got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom to take a shower. On the way she stopped to look at a photograph of herself and her parents.
'Before mom died.' She reminded herself.
Silvia's mother had been the most beautiful person she had ever known, having fair colored skin, long light blonde hair, and high cheek bones. Her brown eyes sparkled merrily as she looked into the camera lens, a beautiful smile on her face while her slender arms wrapped around a giggle young Silvia. Her father, she mused, seemed to contrast his wife's appearance, having black hair, tanned skin, and blue eyes.
While Silvia had inherited her mother's beauty and fair skin, she had received her father's black hair and blue eyes. She found it ironic that she had a little bit of both her parents' traits even though they were both gone, making her feel as if they were still with her to this day.
Silvia then remembered why she came down this way in the first place. Shower, she told herself. After getting her morning rituals done she quickly got dressed and headed downstairs to get the house cleaned up and the dishes from last night done before starting on breakfast, knowing that Emily would be waking up at 7 a.m. The only reason Emily was waking up early was because there was a Renaissance Fair going on that day that she was a part of, being picked to be the Queen. Emily came into the kitchen a few minutes past 7 a.m. and went to sit down at the table, her head in her hands as she shut her eyes and her brown hair fell in her face.
"Tough night?" Silvia asked, filling a mug with coffee and mixing creamer and sugar in before placing it down on the table in front of the woman to drink.
Emily lifted her green gaze to glare at Silvia.
"Don't talk to me about last night." She sneered.
Silvia knew better than to ask, seeing as she saw this outcome for her stepmother. Her most recent boyfriend had dumped her and because of that she had gone drinking. And now she was dealing with the consequences of a hangover.
'Serves her right.' She thought, feeling no amount of pity for the woman before her.
Silvia placed Emily's breakfast in front of her before taking a few strips of bacon for herself. She sat quietly waiting for her to make the next move. Emily soon finished her breakfast before suddenly getting up from the table.
"I have something for you." Emily said.
"For what?" Silvia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"For your hard work, and because I want you to be a part of the festivities today." Now Silvia knew that whatever Emily had to give her wasn't going to be pleasant. And she was right to assume so when she saw the ugly brown peasant costume the woman pulled out. She even had the nerve to plaster on a fake smile on her face. "Happy birthday, Silvia!"
Silvia frowned at this. So far her birthday had been anything but happy.
"Why am I not surprised?"
Emily dropped her fake smile, showing how furious she was. Before she knew it, Silvia's cheek was stinking from being backhanded.
"You ugly spoiled brat! How can you be so ungrateful when I have given you so much? I've placed a roof over your head, provided you with food and clothing, even given you your own room when I could've left you to the system. And this is the thanks I get? If only Richard could see you now. He'd be so disappointed in you."
Silvia's jaw tightened, angry that Emily had brought her father into this discussion. Even in death she still used her father against her as her own twisted version of the guilt trip. This wasn't fair! Why was she stuck here with Emily for so long when she should've been with her grandmother? Silvia took a deep breath in order to calm down before pretending to be guilty.
"I'm sorry, Emily." She lied. "I've forgotten that you've done so much for me, and it wasn't right of me to act the way I did when you went through the trouble of getting me a gift."
Emily regarded Silvia with a thoughtful look before speaking.
"Apology accepted." She responded, handing the costume to Silvia. "Remember that the Fair starts at 9. I still need to get ready since I have to be there an hour before it starts."
"Yes, your Highness." Silvia made a show of doing a slight curtsy.
Emily ignored her and she knew she had gone back to her room. Silvia had a feeling that she slept her way into getting the part of the Queen, which wouldn't have surprised her.
Silvia picked up Emily's dishes, rinsed them off, and stuck them in the dishwasher. She was trying to keep herself busy as she waited for the woman to leave the house. And when she came downstairs, she saw Emily in the beautiful yet generic gown that was made for the role of the Queen.
"You look beautiful." Silvia told her, hoping to placate her.
"Of course I do!" Emily said, sticking her nose in the air. "I'm the Queen!"
'And also vain.' She added silently.
With that Emily left, slamming the door behind her. Silvia waited a few minutes before running up the stairs (with the ugly costume in hand) to her room. She placed it on her bed before going to her closet, pulling out a beautiful dress. Silvia had known that her stepmother would try to upstage her (pun not intended) on her own birthday and had made this costume months in advance so it would be ready for today.
The whole outfit was floor length with a long sleeved turtle neck dress that was to be worn underneath the light blue overdress. The sleeves of the light blue overdress started slightly puffy, but cut off at the end near her bicep where it opened up and flowed out.
She was proud of the dress she made and carefully packed it up before turning to the brown peasant costume. She would wear the costume, but only so she could get into the Fair without Emily knowing she'd gone behind her back and made her own costume. And once she was inside she would make her fist stop the restroom in order to change.
Silvia went over to a drawer and pulled out the only memento of her mother that she had. It was a simple necklace with a silver chain and a smooth garnet stone set in a golden oval case. She smiled down at it, a determined look in her blue eyes.
For 6 years she had dealt with Emily's verbal abuse and bullshit.
No longer would she submit to that woman who had tried to destroy her self-esteem.
Silvia was going to make a stand.
She was going to fight!
As soon as Silvia had gotten to the Renaissance Fair she had made a bee-line for the nearest restroom and changed into her own costume before throwing away the ugly brown peasant costume in the trash. Leaving the restroom she wandered around the fairground, surprised at the amount of people that came up and complimented her costume. Everyone liked it. They liked it so much that word got around the fairground of the pretty girl in the beautiful light blue and white dress.
And it wasn't until she saw Emily storming up to her that she realized that the stepmother had found out about her costume change. But despite the furious look on Emily's face, Silvia stood her ground.
"You bitch!" Emily hissed quietly so only Silvia could hear. "Why aren't you wearing the costume I got you?""
"Did you really think I would wear that and let you upstage me on my birthday?" Silvia retorted.
Emily took a step back and glared at her. If looks could kill.
"I've had enough! For 6 years I've had to feel inferior to you for your own beauty while I've had to work hard to get what I have. I despise you for the fact that you were given your beauty. But not anymore!"
Suddenly Emily pulled a gun on Silvia, who froze in place. The security guards (that were dressed up in fitting costumes) tried to stop the woman, but she easily shot them (they might as well have worn nothing seeing how their 'armor' had been made).
Chaos broke out and everyone started running away, including Silvia who had used the crowd to her advantage to hide as she fled from Emily. Suddenly hearing gunshots behind her she looked over her shoulder, her eyes widening to see that the woman was not only trying to shoot at her, but at anyone who got in her way as she chased after Silvia.
She had to get away from everyone or else more people were going to get hurt or killed.
Suddenly Silvia's body jerked forward as pain exploded from her shoulder, followed by more pain in her leg, causing her to fall to the ground. She realized in shock that she'd been shot by Emily when the woman herself appeared in her vision, a sadistic look on her face as she smiled down at her.
"Oh, Silvia. That shade of red really suits your pale skin." Emily taunted before kicking her in order to roll her over onto her back. "It's too bad that it had to end like this, just like with Richard all those years ago."
Before Silvia could even ask what she was talking about, Emily shot her again, making her body jerk slightly. She started feeling lightheaded from the blood she was losing and staining her dress. Emily started saying something, but her voice sounded so far off.
'So this is how I die…' Silvia thought, feeling tears at the corner of her eyes before they fell. 'I don't want to die…'
She felt terrified that she was going to die. She thought back on her life, thought of her loving father and beautiful mother, thought of the happiness she had during her childhood. And this was how it was going to end? At the hands of a vain and jealous stepmother?
Silvia's vision started to slowly fade when the police officers showed up and arrested Emily. She saw one of the officers kneel beside her and say something, but at this point she couldn't hear anything.
The last thing Silvia saw was what looked like the form of a woman concealed in white light, the only feature she could make out was long light blonde hair that floated around the woman's form. The woman reached out a soft hand to caress the side of her face, and Silvia could feel the warmth coming from it. She wondered if the woman before her was an angel coming to take her to heaven.
'Mom…' She thought before everything end dark.
ATE: So we've reached the end of the prologue. Three things I'd like to point out:
(1) Name choices: I chose to be clever with the names I picked for the Snow White OC and the stepmother by picking meanings that would apply to their characters. I actually looked these names up:
*Silvia - (Latin) meaning "From the forest". This will come into play in the next chapter. This choice of name also hints towards her mother's identity
**Emily - (Latin) meaning "Imitating, rivaling". this plays along with the fact that Emily was trying to imitate the role of Silvia's new mother, while she ended up becoming her rival in beauty.
(2) Silvia's mother's identity: It might be obvious, it might not be obvious. It depends on how observant each reader is. There are actually a few hints towards her identity, but more details will be added. I've already picked out a name for her, but that won't be revealed until later in the story (and before you ask, yes the mother is an OC as well). If you've already figured out her identity yet, then good for you and you can mention it in a review to me if you want.
(3) The person that Silvia encounters right at the end of the prologue: This is not an OC of mine and is actually a creation of Tolkien's. Brownie points to anyone who can guess who she is!
One MORE thing: I posted an image I created of Silvia in the costume she wears (it's the same one as the image I used for this story and I have two of them up on DeviantArt, but I'm using the clearer version). Just look up Aerith-The-Evenstar on DeviantArt and look up Silvia Renaissance Costume and you should find it.
Other than that? What'd you think? Was it okay so far?
Thank you for reading and please remember to review! ;D