Hey guys, going over my earlier chapters and polishing them up a bit, so bear with me! If new to the story, welcome!
There had been nothing special about the day to Cricket when she woke up. Nothing out of the ordinary or different, just another beginning to her day. She had planned on eating, going on a hike at the park, and playing skyrim on her pc until it was time to hit the bar with her friends. she had just put on a new mod on skyrim that made all the dragons Thomas the tank engine, and honestly it was scarier than the real thing. Not only that but one of her friends was finally dumping her ass of a boyfriend, and they were celebrating by heading to the dueling piano bar tonight. Thank goodness for her work schedule allowing her to actually go out on the weekend.
She had woken up at 9AM, after staying up all after work the day before to get back on a regular sleep schedule. She hopped out of bed, hearing her sister and 4 month old nephew already awake in the living room of the apartment. After stopping in her bathroom to brush her teeth and step briefly on the scale to check if she had lost anymore weight, she left the bathroom and walked into the kitchen towards the fridge, pausing long enough to mumble a good morning to her sister and smile at her gurgling nephew trying to eat her Deadpool funko. Her sister popped Deadpool back on the shelf with her Dean Winchester and Loki funkos, then switched it for a spoonful of baby food.
"Is he finally taking to real food?"
"Yea" her sister said smiling, a bit of food on her face."I gave him pears this morning instead of apples and he seems to like it a lot better, still just as messy though."
"Thats good, hopefully he'll sleep a little better through the night now, our walls are paper thin, and you aren't the only one who wakes up when he cries."
"Yea yea...and dont worry I will wipe off Deadpool when I finish feeding him, he just really likes him."
"That's because he's a smart kid, he must take after his Auntie."
"Whatever."
Cricket smiled as she took out the stuff for her morning smoothie. She had made them for one meal a day for a month now, had already lost ten pounds from it, and was still going strong. Todays ingredients were a container of boston cream pie yogurt, half a cup of ice, a white chocolate milk mini carton, a scoop of vanilla zeal protein powder and white chocolate syrup. All that went into her blender for a pretty filling meal. It was also the only way she could stand yogurt, so even better. Most of the time she added a third cup of fiber plus almond milk as well, but she was out today. "I know, I think I'm going to get him that Deadpool plush I found on Etsy. That and the Fairy Tail symbol for my car."
Cricket was a bit of a nerd, but honestly didn't care if people thought that was a bad thing. She had a batman tattoo on her wrist, Sonic the hedgehog shot glasses, Comic things everywhere in her apartment..she even had the Zelda sword on her wall. One of her life goals was to meet TeamFourStar in real life at an anime panel...
"What time are you going on your hike today?" her sister asked." I think the last of your bag is supposed to be in today."She wiped baby food off her face as she asked this.
"As soon as I finish with my shower I'm going to head out and get it over with, that way I have plenty of time to relax a bit before we head to the bar. A night out will be good for her after the shit she has been through."
"It will be good for you as well, just try not to drink too much and punch a redneck in the face again. He did deserve it and it was pretty funny, but you don't need to get kicked out of the bar. At least last time the bouncers saw what he did before you punched him."
"I'll promise to try" Cricket said smiling at the memory, before finishing off her smoothie and washing it out in the sink. She then headed to the bathroom, picking out some clothes before jumping in the shower. She quickly washed her hair face and body, luckily not needing to shave as she had gotten waxed the day before, wanting to try it out before she headed to Australia next year, along with celebrating losing her first ten pounds.
Some celebration it was though, her legs still stung.
The only consolation was that she wouldn't have to shave for at least 3 weeks. She wanted to be ready when she headed to Australia with her friend next year, thus the hiking, leg waxing and smoothie drinking. She wanted to be in somewhat good shape for it, and so far had a good start going. She also had a farfetched dream that she might meet Liam Hemsworth and Travis Fimmel while over there, but that was besides the point. She probably wouldn't even be able to talk to the Vikings star if she did meet him, just stand there and stare...or hide.
After enjoying the thought of a shirtless Ragnar for a while, she dried off and pulled on some underthings, a pair of pants and a cream-colored long peasant blouse, along with pulling her red tinted dark brown hair into a messy ponytail, a few thick strands of hair escaping to turn curly along the sides of her face. She finished by quickly applying some tinted moisturizer and grabbing some socks before heading back into the living room.
"Hey, your package came in while you were in the shower, I set it on the couch for you to open." her sister said before heading out the door for a quick smoke, the baby playing in the floor with Deapool yet again. Lucky for her he hadn't started getting his teeth in yet.
Grinning and sitting down at the couch, she grabbed a small knife and slit open the package, excited to have the last piece of a year-long project. She had put together a ready for anything bug-out bag, buying two pieces a month, or one depending on how expensive the item was. It wasnt that she was expecting something particular to happen, but was a firm believer in being prepared for when something did happen. So far she had a weather-proof hazard backpack with attachable solar panel, a portable filtration bottle that filtered 100 gallons of water, three-piece tactical weapon set that included a shovel, tomahawk and karambit with a shoulder holster, 150 piece emergency kit with some extra stuff thrown in herself, pocket chainsaw, Eat'n'tool, 12-in one pocket tool, Lumen tactical flashlight with extra batteries, Fire knife, pocket socket hand generator, tactical station grip gloves, two sharp medium-sized daggers in sheaths and todays package, a long handle tactical hammer she was going to double as a walking stick on her hikes. All of this went into or onto her backpack along with a full change of clothes, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, mini roll of tp, protein bars, various small long-term foods, 2 Mres, large bottle of water, a tablet with all of her music, movies, pictures and ebooks on it, razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, bottle of all-in-one shampoo and bodywash, mini manicure set, headphones, book, lipchap,a couple of 5-hour energys, brush with hairties, folded monster energy rain jacket, belt, towel, washcloth and her extra pink fox racing beanie.
While this might seem like a lot to some people, she thought it was a perfectly acceptable amount of things to keep in there, and it all just fit, considering all the weapons but two would be on her or on the outside of the backpack. It also all managed to fit with just a small bit of leftover room. Prepared she definitely was.
"You should practice lugging that heavyass thing around with you today." said her sister eyeing the well-stuffed pack as she walked back in."It should be quite a good exercise walking the trails with it."
Cricket thought that was actually a pretty good idea, so after pulling one her dark brown leather jacket and brown combat sketchers, she grabbed the backpack and long hammer, thinking it was a good thing the park would be mostly empty today, as everyone would still be at work or school and wouldn't be there to wonder why someone was walking around with a backpack and a hammer. After waving goodbye to her sister, she headed downstairs to her car.
And in the distance on a perfectly clear day there was thunder...
Meanwhile at the Prancing Pony...
Thorin sipped his ale as he watched the wizard finally sit down. He had already finished his meal and was getting tired of waiting. They were meeting up one last time to finalize things before they all met up together to meet Gandalfs burglar he had kept insisting on. While he understood how one might come in handy, he was worried he would just end up a liability. He supposed it wouldn't be fair to judge until they met, but from the little he already knew about hobbits he didn't have too high of hopes. As he continued down this train of thought, he realized Gandalf was saying something to him.
"What?"
"I said are completely prepared for this journey? It will not be an easy one as you well know, and with as much you have riding on it you cannot to jump in half heartedly."
"I am, just thinking to myself. Are you? i would hate to lose our wizard this soon..."
Gandalf sadly smiled at Thorin."I am glad to hear you say that, as I need one more thing promised before we start the journey to Erebor. It is a small thing, but a thing none the less I must have assurance of."
"You are being more vague than usual wizard, what else could you possible need promised? We are already going to get your chosen burglar, which we agreed on when we started planning on the quest. What more could you need?" Thorin was starting to get angry, banging his fist on the table as he finished speaking.
"It is...another companion. I have read the signs, and they say we will have someone traveling a long way to join our quest, someone who will have great impact on it. We will be meeting up with them very soon, and need to ask them to join when we do. The quest will fail if we do not, and it is either we recruit them when the time comes or you can find yourself another wizard!" Gandalf could be quite imposing when he wanted to be, even sitting down, and Thorin knew it was not a good thing to anger him. He waited a minute for Gandalf to calm back down before raising an eyebrow at the wizard and answering.
"Fine, no need to get so upset, wizard. But if they become too much of a burden or endanger my men I will be forced to..re-evaluate my decision. Understood?"
Gandalf sighed and agreed, knowing this was a fast victory considering the stubbornness of dwarves, and even with the but it was a good thing he did not tell Thorin that last member was a female, or the answer would had most likely stayed at no."Agreed. It will not come to that."
"We shall see. As it is we do not know most of what to put in the contract for them to sign. Perhaps you could enlighten me a bit?"
"Just make out a basic contract, we will change what we need to when the time comes."
"Do you even have a name for me to put on it?"
"Yes, the name will be Cricket."
Thorin raised an eyebrow at the name to the grey wizard, but did not press the matter, wanting to finish the night out and get some sleep before heading towards the Shire the next day. Gandalf caught the elbow of the waitress to ask for an ale himself. As he waited for the drink and Thorin finished his, Gandalf wondered briefly about the companion joining them. He did not know much about the young woman as it was, only that he had been sent a sign that she was coming, and the bare reasons for it. Nor did he know how much of an impact a traveler from another world could possibly make, as he puffed on his pipe and contemplated to himself. Only time would tell...
"So tell he how to get to the Shire.." Thorin said as in the distance, thunder started to rumble...
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Forest in middle earth
"Squirrel!"
"For the last time Kee no more squirrels! We have had them every night this week and there is barely any meat on them! Cant you shoot down a bird or something?"
The younger prince rolled his eyes at his brother and put down his bow away."I cant help it if the stupid buggers are everywhere. And don't you think I would if I could find a bird? I think they are keeping away from you." He finished, sticking his tongue out at him before continuing down the path.
Resigned, Fili followed him."Doesnt mean I have to like it" he grumbled, finally taking out a piece of jerky and chomping down on it to stave off his hunger.
They continued through the forest till they found a rocky clearing perfect for setting up the night camp in. There was even a small stream with fish close by, so Fili could finally get something else for dinner. After catching about 6 of them and stringing them together, he came back to Kili finishing up camp right as thunder rumbled in the distance. Lucky some of the rocks formed a small cave for them to sleep in incase it started raining.
"Will you start that fire so we can get the fish cooked? I don't want to be in the middle of it when the rain sets in."
"Yea sure...definately didnt expect a storm tonight, that's kind of foreboding."
Fili smirked at him and elbowed him in the ribs"Dont be such a scardy dwarf, it's just a storm."
"I'm not scared Fee" Kili said smacking him in the arm and glaring at him "It's just sudden and creepy, that's all"
And as the young princes sat next to the cooking fish, the dark clouds rapidly approached them, then thunder getting louder and the lightning closer...
At the same time, 10 other dwarves and one hobbit were all similarly watching the storm approach that had seemingly came out of nowhere...
Cricket had been finishing off her hike when the storm had finally hit. "Where the hell did this come from? It was supposed to be nice all day, stupid weatherman" she grumbled."So much for reading under the trees before I headed home.."
She quickened her step, not wanting to get caught in the downpour when the rain hit, when she heard a sharp crack from above her. She looked up just in time to see a heavy tree branch hit her, having been struck by lightning. The branch knocked her to ground, causing her to smack her head pretty hard on a rock, the rain hitting her in the face as everything slowly faded to dark...
When she came to she clutched her head in pain as she opened her eyes to two other pairs looking down worriedly at her, golden and brown in color...