This takes place just a few years after the events in The Hobbit. I hope you all like it, this is my first attempt at writing in a looooooong time.
I do not own anything except for my character, Samantha. Everything else belongs to the late and great J.R.R. Tolkien.
I woke up that Saturday afternoon, feeling nothing out of the ordinary. What I did feel, however, was the usual regret and despair from having wasted yet another day of doing nothing. For months I had been trying to find a job, and all of it in vain. I must have applied to over twenty different businesses in the last two weeks alone, and not even a phone call.
I sighed heavily as I sat up. What was going to make this day any different? I had horrible luck, and it would stick with me forever. I had to remind myself daily to keep applying and calling the recent places I applied to to see if they had even received my application. Everyone I called would either tell me that "they'll keep a look out," or "we'll let you know if we want to schedule an interview." Never a clear answer.
As I woke up, I ran through my head what I could possibly do today. I couldn't really do any extensive shopping, since I was tight on money. I had just finished my most recent book last night, so I went to my bookshelf to see if there was another one to pick up.
I browsed the rows and could only find titles I'd read before, nothing new. I wasn't really in the mood to read a book I had read before. So I figured I might as well get a new one. A trip to the local bookstore it was.
As I drove, I let my mind wander. What kind of book should I get this time? Usually I like historical fiction, but I was starting to get tired of it as of late. I wasn't much of a fan of non-fiction, unless it was a historical biography. I figured I would just look to see what the store had and decide then.
I looked in my rear view mirror then, and noticed something in my teeth. I tried to pick it out, but it was stuck pretty good in there. Great. I caught my own eye, and noticed they were especially green today. Must have been the sunlight. My long dark blonde hair wasn't managing well today, no matter how much I had brushed it and straightened it.
I'm not what you might call a "beautiful" girl. I'm a bit on the heavy side, and I'm lazy as hell. Since I haven't had work in a while, I had grown used to sitting all day at home, doing nothing. As a result, I was out of shape and flabby. I kept telling myself that I would soon put myself on a weight loss regimen, but even I knew that wasn't going to be happening in the near future.
As my self-loathing thoughts droned on, I finally reached the parking lot after frustratingly dodging crappy drivers. There were a lot of them today, I noticed. Well, hopefully I was going to find a book that would take me away from this hopeless and unforgiving world, if even for just a few short weeks.
I rolled my eyes as I walked into the bookstore. There were some obnoxious teenagers there, and they were basically doing anything and everything that renders as disrespectful to the written word. They took random books and kept holding them out in front of their crotch area, mimicking humping. Disgusted and annoyed, I made my way around a bookshelf to avoid them.
As I browsed for something, I couldn't help but think that civilization was really going downhill, since most youths these days don't appreciate good literature. All they want to do is drink, do drugs, have sex like there's no tomorrow, and make a mockery out of anything that is good in this world. I just hoped that someone might be able to turn the world on its hinges and snap reality into everyone before it's too late.
I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm really not. I had just grown to discover that the world has become a huge disappointment to me over the past several years. We're constantly proud and bragging about the latest technological advances discovered every day, but the human race, it seems, is reversing back to the stone age.
I continued browsing the literature section, and passed by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I smiled when I saw The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I had read the former, and planned to read the latter. I had already seen the recent movie based on The Hobbit, and I have to say, I very much enjoyed it. I couldn't help notice the several different covers for that book: the various older looking ones, and the new one with the movie cover art. Usually I don't like it when books change the cover to that of the one used for the film adaptation, but this one I didn't mind.
I went ahead and decided to grab one of the copies with the movie cover on it, and, after reading the enlightening synopsis on the back, I continued to look for any other interesting-looking books. Even though I was growing tired of the historical fiction, I decided to scope for some anyway. But after another ten minutes of looking, I didn't find anything worth getting this time, so I just took my one book (which is highly unusual for me) and proceeded to the cashier.
I once again passed the immature assholes I saw when I first came in, and they were hovering over a Kama Sutra book, laughing at the example pictures. God, I hate children. I was surprised the employees hadn't discovered them and thrown them out for their lewdness. But I ignored it nonetheless, paid for my book, and left.
As I was walking to my car, my phone went off, and checked it to see that I had just gotten a new email. Right as I reached my car, I put my phone away and went to unlock my door, and when I did, the sight I saw absolutely floored me. What looked like a floating whirlpool was in mid-air before me, with a collection of colors swirling around the center slowly, almost calming. It looked kind of like when you dip a wand into that bubble liquid stuff and see the solution swirling around in the middle. I noticed there was a faded image of a big green field within the whirlpool, and the picture was moving around, like a video camera. It finally came to rest on a collection of what looked like houses under hills. I realized in an instant what I was looking at, but before my thoughts could collect, I was rendered paralyzed.
In that instant, I felt the exact same feeling that has been described by every fictional character that has been teleported somewhere: stomach-wrenching, dizziness, a pulling sensation, and a blur of colors flashing past. I couldn't help but think I was either dead or someone slipped me a very powerful psychedelic drug. It felt like several minutes, but really it only took a few seconds, and I found myself forcefully dropped to the ground.
I was huddled in some grass, and every body part was sore. I didn't even want to open my eyes to see where I was. I already knew that I wasn't in the parking lot anymore. I finally did open my eyes, and a very bright sun immediately blinded me. As I waited for my eyes to adjust, I noticed that I wasn't wearing the same clothes I was wearing before. Strange. I also saw that what was my purse had changed into a sort of leather knapsack. And last of all, I was barefoot. But these were not my small, delicate feet. No. There were HUGE, and there was hair all over them.
"Ew..." I muttered to myself as I wiggled my humungous toes. Then it hit me. The thought I had right before that thing sucked me in. What I had seen was something I'd seen before, but not in real life. What I saw was a representation of The Shire from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. And it looked exactly as it did in the movies.
All of a sudden I was aware of someone watching me. I turned around and saw some small men in similar clothing to the ones I had magically adorned, and they were all staring at me with a perplexed and annoyed expression on their faces. I immediately realized that these men were hobbits. Whatever drugs someone somehow slipped me, they were strong. I stood up and right away succumbed to lightheadedness. I rubbed my sore head, and turned to the hobbits that had gathered to stare at me.
"I am so sorry," I said to them, and I felt my words come out almost like mush, as if I was drunk.
"You-you just appeared," one of the hobbits spoke up.
"Yeah," I replied. "Don't ask me how."
"This has to be the work of a wizard," I heard one of them mutter to another.
"Are you guys actors or something?" I asked.
They looked at one another, confused. "What is an actor?" one asked.
"I'll take that as a 'no' then," I muttered to myself.
Then I noticed that as I stood, instead of expecting them all to be two feet shorter than me, I was roughly the same height as them. I reached up and felt my hair, which is always straight, and found it to be shorter and curly. I then felt my ears, and was shocked to feel them in a larger, more pointed shape at the tops. My hands were shaking as I brought them back down to my sides, and the hobbits standing in front of me now eyed me as if I had just picked my nose.
I tried not to panic, considering I had just been whisked away from my world by a mysterious whirlpool, brought to Middle-earth, and turned into a hobbit. There was no way this was happening in real life. This had to be a dream.
"Who are you?" the first hobbit asked me. He was holding a gardening hoe, and I noticed he now had it positioned like he was either defending himself or he was going to attack me. I put up my hands, like when cops point a gun at you.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to harm you," I tried to reassure them.
"Tell us who you are!" a second hobbit shouted, his gardening tool also pointed threateningly at me.
"My name is Samantha," I quickly replied. "I don't know how I got here, but one minute I was minding my own business, and this...thing appeared in front of me, and before I knew it, I was pulled somehow and I just ended up here. Can any of you tell me how I might be able to get back?"
The three hobbits didn't change their defensive positions, but they looked at one another, puzzled.
"And where exactly do you come from, girl?" a hobbit asked.
"I come from a planet called Earth, I live in the country of the United States of America. You might not have ever heard of it," I added, seeing their even more perplexed faces.
"Indeed, we have not heard of any of those places. And do they have hobbits where you live as well?"
I looked down at myself, seeing the hairy feet and simple clothing.
"No, just humans."
"A world dominated solely by Man?" asked a hobbit.
"Um...yes, I suppose," I answered. "Though they are the only race in this...world."
"Then why do you appear to be a hobbit?" one of them asked, and I could tell he did not trust me in the least.
"I honestly don't know, that's what confuses me," I tried to reassure them. "I am normally a human, but once I slipped through that thing, I changed into...well, a hobbit I guess."
After this, they all looked at each other again, and seemed to share a look of mutual understanding. I did not like this, one bit.
"We have decided not to believe you, girl, and have come to the conclusion that you are a hooligan that means to cause trouble for us," the first hobbit said menacingly.
"But I'm telling you the truth!" I shrieked. I was now shaking uncontrollably. I needed to get away, somehow, but I had no idea where to go.
"Silence, girl!" one of them shouted at me, and they all started to advance on me. I quickly looked around me, but I had no idea where to run, and since I'm a terrible runner to begin with, it wouldn't take them long at all to catch me. Plus, the lightheadedness was getting worse, and I could barely keep my balance or even keep myself focused.
"Please, please, you have to believe me!" I was practically yelping as they pointed their gardening weapons at me.
"What is going on over here?" I heard a voice come from behind me, and oddly enough, it actually sounded familiar to me.
I turned around to see who it was, but as I did, my vision swam, my hearing gave out, and the next thing I knew, I felt myself on the ground, and everything had gone black.