Ok so this is my second ever story. I like to multi-task, so fans of Magma needn't worry, they'll both be written at the same time!
Disclaimer - As is per usual, I own nothing! Zilch! Zip! Nada! Except for my lovely OC's and any other randomers I add, everything else belongs t Tolkien or Peter Jackson!
Once upon a time...
Our story begins in a room. But this wasn't a brightly lit, cheerful room; it was a simple, cozy room. The room was dark, and two figures huddled in the centre, swathed in thick blankets, surrounded by pillows, as well as bowls and plates over flowing with food. It wasn't cold, but the blankets had been carefully, strategically tucked over and under legs, and were now being clasped beneath the chins of two young women, who stared wide eyed at the flickering television screen.
For you see, this was the living room of one Cassandra Twist, "Ollie" to her friends. One such friend, Bridget Daize, better known as "Dodge", was huddled next to her, their legs over lapping as they nibbled on cold pizza whilst they watched the final scenes of one of their top movies play out.
Ollie was currently the sole occupant of the house, as her family had gone away for the weekend, and signs of her seclusion were everywhere.
Her laptop was open and sitting on the long dining room table, the wires from the charger tangled along the wood to drop off at the end. The charger was plugged into a socket, which also housed her phone charger.
The kitchen was clean...ish. A few bowls and plates, the odd pot or pan, maybe a small puddle of milk on the work surface, but still clean enough.
Books on the care and welfare of animals piled high beside her laptop, and a variety of books she read just for fun were scattered around the living room. Monuments to her passion as a book worm.
Beside the TV was the historical romance tower, next to the DVD's was the pillar of horror, and finally, poetry and legend came together in the skyscraper balanced lovingly on the coffee table.
As the chorus of Journey's hit song plays out, the two girls jump up, and start dancing round the living room, holding hands and spinning round, screaming at the top of their lungs.
"Don't stop! Believing! Hold on to that feeling yeah!"
"Street lights...people oh oh ohhh!"
The pair collapsed back onto the cushioned floor, breathless, and started talking.
"Can you believe? I mean, I didn't know Tom Cruise could sing!" Ollie exclaimed.
"I know right! It's just...I mean...gosh I just can't right now!" Dodge sighed, flopping dramatically onto her back, sending a bowl of popcorn flying and spreading it's contents all over the floor.
"Shit Dodge, can you not? We have to clean this all up tomorrow you know!" scolded Ollie as she scrabbled through the debris to grab at the remote. She made a noise of disgust when she realised something sticky had, at some point, attached itself to the device, and she wiped it off on the duvet with a shudder.
"So what next?" she said, remote hovering infront of the tv.
"Shh, can't talk, Tom Cruise induced coma over here, let me enjoy it." muttered Dodge from her place on the floor, lifting up a lazy hand to indicate herself before allowing it to flop down lazily beside her.
"Wow, just wow." laughed Ollie, as she scrambled over her friends legs to eye up their pile of selected movies. The majority of them were musicals, with a few actions and adventures thrown in. The girls had seen every one in that pile at least twice, but love made them enjoy them more, not less, with each viewing. Ollie was in a musical mood tonight, and plucked a golden oldie from the pile, and dangled it above her friends prone from, humming one of the best known songs in the world.
She knew the humming would get Dodge's attention, as neither of them could resist a sing-a-long.
"Yes! Oh my god yes! Yes! That is it! Put it on, now!" Ollie squealed in excitement as she threw "Grease" into the DVD player, and huddled back into place beside Dodge. Back in the cosy duvet-slash-igloo they had created, they both "assumed the position"; duvet over head, legs criss-crossed over each other, hands clasping the duvet together beneath their chins. The pair couldn't keep still, a mixture of too much sugary junk food and plain old fashioned excitement gave the pair a bad case of the wiggles.
"ICE CREAM!" shouted Ollie suddenly.
"What?" shouted Dodge back, giving her hysterical friend a look.
"We. Need. Ice cream."
"No."
"Yes."
"Why?"
" 'Cause."
There was a brief, wide eyed stare-off, but Dodge sighed and jumped up to go and grab the ice-cream. Truth be told, she really wanted some too. Ice cream and Grease? A better combination she'd never heard.
When she returned with the whole 500ml tub of Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ben and Jerry's ice cream and two large spoons, her best friend in the entire universe had lovingly paused the film to await her return. They settled down, resumed their position, though with their hands free to scoop up the slightly defrosted, gloopy deliciousness, and then entered the world of 1950's America. Musical style.
Ollie woke up to bird song. Really, irritating, birdsong. Groaning, she lifted her head. Her thick dark purple hair stuck to the position it had been in on the floor, the side she'd been lying on plastered against her face and tangled about her head. She rubbed at her cheek, where three pieces of popcorn fell from her skin, and her hand encountered yet more of the disgusting goo that had been on the remote last night.
Last night.
Ollie groaned again, loudly, when she saw the state of her living room. Popcorn was gathered in little clumps everywhere, looking as though it had grown from the dark green carpeting like daisies in a field. Thankfully, the pizza was still on its' designated plate, but the tub of Ben and Jerry's had somehow landed on its' side in front of the TV, melted ice cream creating an interesting brown puddle around the wayward tub. God only knew where the spoons were at this point.
Wiggling her tongue around, she recognised the tell-tale stale furry-ness that could only truly come from a night of semi-heavy drinking, and released another irritated groan at the sight of several bottles littering the sides and floor.
Rubbing at the sticky patch on her face, she vaguely remembered tearing up at Sandys' "Hopelessly Devoted To You", and that Dodge decreed alcohol would be required for any and all "mushy-teary girl crap". Unfortunately both girls, though they could hold their alcohol, were relative lightweights and became drunk quickly, as they were sobbing by Rizzo's performance, and sang a very slurred, very teary "There Are Worse Things I Could Do". That song spoke to them on a deep, spiritual level.
Forgoing another groan, Ollie decided to sigh at the mess instead, and began eyeing up the pile of DVD's she had no recollection of watching, though none of them were in their cases, and "The Labrynth" was even in the DVD player.
"Dodge." she called, poking her toe at a large lump beneath the duvet that looked vaguely human shaped.
"Dodge!" she tried, though her dry throat prevented her getting any real volume. Ollie decided to just kick the lump instead.
Aiming at the thicker bundle of grey and white striped fabric that seemed to gather in the arse area, or at least, that's what she guessed, she pressed both feet against it and pushed hard.
"What?" shouted the bundle.
"Get your arse up. We need to tidy before things one, two and three get back."
The bundle made an unintelligible groaning noise before shifting to reveal the blonde haired girl underneath. Dodge looked as bad as Ollie felt.
Her blonde hair was in a slightly better state, being straight rather than wavy, but her tank top had a suspicious dark stain running down the front, deepening the pink to burgundy-brown. Her eyes were puffy, the dark circles making the chocolate orbs seem even darker.
Ollie eyed her face enviously, noting the lack of sticky goo.
"The fuck is on my face?" she muttered.
The brown eyes narrowed in intense concentration at Ollie's cheek, before taking in their chaotic surroundings.
"...Melted Haribo."
"What?"
"Melted. Haribo."
"When did we melt Haribo's?"
"No idea, but it looks like you have the remains of two teddy bears on your face." Groaned Dodge as she stood on wobbly legs. Ollie had to admit to some slight satisfaction when she noticed the stain on her pink shirt had apparently travelled all the way down her fluffy pyjama bottoms.
"The fuck is on my clothes?" she asked.
"...Ben and Jerry's."
"...Well fuck. These are my favourite bottoms!"
Ollie made the appropriate consoling noises as she de-tangled herself from her own duvet, and then the girls preceded to tidy up their mess.
Duvets were stripped and thrown into the washing machine, DVDs were put back in their correct cases,
"Dodge, do you remember watching any of these? I don't remember shit after Grease."
"Umm, I remember singing along to David Bowie."
"Oh yeah, we had that whole thing about his tights."
"Mmhmm..."
empty bottles were thrown away, full ones were placed into the fridge, the dreaded hoover was taken out to suck up the popcorn, much to the disgust of two pounding heads. Everything was cleaned, water had been consumed by the bottle full, and now the girls were standing over their biggest challenge yet.
"I say...hot water and washing-up liquid with a bit of elbow grease."
"No, if we scrub, the carpet'll stain."
"...shit."
They were, of course, standing above the horrific Ben and Jerry's ice cream tub.
"At least your carpet's not white."
Ollie directed a half hearted glare towards her best friend, before wobbling her way over to the computer, where she took a seat, and began googling their problem.
"Did you find the spoons?" she asked.
"In the sink."
"So we actually did something intelligent last night?"
"I know, right?"
Ollie scanned through the internet for a solution while Dodge rubbed her aching head, leaning against the wall that separated living room from kitchen, before her first genuinly bright idea of the day caused her to move suddenly into the kitchen itself. Ollie didn't move, or even notice her absence really, until a glass of cold water was placed on the table beside her with a clunk, two little white tablets sitting beside it.
Ollie turned to see her friend chugging her own glass before slumping dramatically to the floor, head leant against the cream wall.
"Oh Nurofen, blessed be the pill that takes this ache away!"
Ollie eyed her own pills suspiciously.
"Don't worry, yours are just run of mill paracetamol." sighed Dodge.
The pills were down Ollie's throat before she'd finished talking. Taking a big gulp of air after chugging all that water, she sighed.
"You genius..."
"I try."
"Why didn't we think of that earlier?"
They chose to ignore that particular question.
Finally finding a reasonable idea on Google, the two set down to clean the spillage. It took five trips to the kitchen, bringing back fresh cold water and cleaning the cloths, but soon the ice cream itself was gone and all that was left to do was ensure it wouldn't stain. After emptying the water a sixth time and collecting a clean new sponge, Ollie told Dodge to go have the shower she was dying for.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, by the time I've done this you'll be out and I can jump straight in, so go ahead."
"Thank you!" Dodge called from the stair case.
Ollie was just finishing off blotting away the last of any noticeable staining when she heard the shower cut off. Brushing her tangle of hair out of the way, she looked up to the ceiling, heart leaping in joy when she heard Dodge moving out of the bathroom and back to Ollie's bedroom.
Not bothering to throw the water away into the kitchen, she leapt up and ran towards the stair case and the sweet relief of running water.
The bathroom itself was still steaming from Dodge's shower, but Ollie reached over and immediately switched the water back on before running quickly to her room.
"Just grabbing a change of clothes!" she yelled, and then aww'd when she saw Dodge had taken out her black shorts, blue tank, denim jacket, and knee-high fluffy black socks, and left them across her bed.
She reached over and grabbed the blonde from behind in a quick hug as she ruffled her hair in a towel, before grabbing her favourite underwear and taking it all into the bathroom with her.
The warm water was sheer bliss as it ran down her body, washing away all trace of last night. She washed her hair twice with conditioner to get the tangles out, before dragging a wide toothed comb through it. She then grabbed her favourite facial scrub, tea tree, and went to town on her face, scrubbing hard on her cheek to get rid of any and all gummy bear or other Haribo representative that had taken root. She also brushed her teeth and shaved. She sighed when she saw that all her products were nearly empty, but she'd packed all her full ones ready for their girls camping trip. It was gonna be amazing!
Finally satisfied that she'd checked all the cleanliness boxes, she grudgingly turned the steaming water off and climbed out.
Her bathroom was amazing. The walls were covered in large, sandstone tiles which gave an air of luxury, the shower was set off into one corner, while the bath was straight ahead when you walked in, the shower curtain wasn't really a curtain, but was made of foggy glass, and all the appliances were woody brown. Best of all was the full length mirror by the side of the bath tub. Though really, it depended on your taste. Most said it added an air of charm to the room, others said it made it really easy to do your make-up. For Ollie, it was an inescapable reminder of where she'd come from.
Whenever she left the shower, she couldn't help but be drawn to the mirror; which, thanks to strategically placed open windows, never really fogged up. When she looked at her full length, naked reflection she could see the scars of her past. Literally.
She'd had a large tattoo of a stag leading a group of does with other animals such as birds and frogs in black and grey commissioned to the upper portion of her arm, this hid the worst of her scars, though you could still see if you looked closely enough. But she couldn't hide all of them, no matter how much she wanted to.
Small, round scars dotted along her arms, areas of her chest, and her upper thighs. There was even one behind her ear, but that was easy enough to hide.
Ollie was a foster child. This wasn't really her home, not in her mind. To her, home was a foreign concept. She'd been with this family five years, and was happy. She knew she was too old for them to seriously consider adopting her, especially with her father in prison arguing that "he'd changed" and would "be a real father" when he got out, but they never said anything about kicking her out when she turned 18 two years ago. Her foster mother and father, and their son, were the best thing she could have, close to a family, but not quite. Those scars would always remind her, lest she forgot.
She sighed, and pulled on her clothes, wiggling her toes happily in their warm socks. She unlocked the bathroom door, and left in a cloud of thick steam, flipping her head over to rub at her hair.
"Dodge? I was thinking we could go to Honey's for a full english? It'd be nice after last night, then we can set off? Plus, I really need to eat something so I can take my...whoa!"
Ollie suddenly found herself flat on her face beside Dodge, who was sitting with her legs crossed and looking wildly around, a wet towel forgotten in her lap.
Ollie scrambled upright, brushing dirt and leaves off of her clothes.
"Dodge..." she began, but stopped.
They were in the middle of a forest.
A fucking forest.
This is not where my bathroom leads, Ollie thought. Out loud, she had only one thing to say.
"The fuck...?"
Stop hyperventilating! Hyperventilating is not the answer here! Thought Ollie in a blind panic. How did they get here? The last time she checked there was no forest in her fucking house.
"Fuck me." whispered Dodge.
"Nice to see you can talk again now!" shouted Ollie, her voice high and screechy in fear as she paced back and forth behind her silent friend. Clearly, they had different coping mechanisms.
"Don't yell at me, I didn't know your house had its' own fucking forest!"
"Don't start, neither did I!"
The pair stared hard at each other, before Ollie rolled her eyes and flopped to the ground next to her friend. They leant close to one another, needing the comfort and normality each provided.
Ollie's sock covered knees brushed against Dodge's bare ones, and she leant over to wrap her arm around Dodge's shoulders. Dodge had also chosen to wear shorts, though hers were dark blue denim, and her orange shirt read "I don't run, and if your ever see me running, you should run too, because something is probably chasing me." in black writing, which she wore beneath a black zip-up hoodie.
"Ok..." she began, voice wobbling, "So, how much did we drink this time?" It was a crap joke, but they both giggled anyway, they knew that no time had passed since they left the shower, their wet hair was proof enough.
"Well...I didn't see anything, my towel was over my head, you?" asked Ollie, since Dodge had fallen silent again.
"Mine too." she said, staring into the forest, and then abruptly straightening like someone had given her an electric shock.
"Oh fuck off!" she yelled, jumping up and storming to the bushes.
"What? Dodge what are you doing?" call Ollie, jumping to her feet after her friend, who turned around with...
"Are those our camping bags?" she said in disbelief.
"Yes they are our god damned fucking camping bags!" she yelled, "Fuck!"
Dodge screamed the profanity, throwing the bags down at her friends feet.
The two bags were very large back packs, one was dark purple, the other dark green. Both had matching sleeping bags rolled up small and attached securely to the bottom, with matching metal 1ltr water cannisters attached and placed snugly into the bottle holder on the side.
Reaching for her own purple bag, Ollie dug through, finding her shampoo, conditioner, facial scrub, facial mask, a spare pair of clothes, money, book of myths and legends, book of poetry, toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, tampons, mints, hair brush, razor and cream, hair bands, bobby pins, soap, lip balm, nivea moisturising cream, a Swiss army knife, matches, and most importantly; her three week supply of tablets.
She knew that Dodge's bag contained almost identical items, including another three week supply of Ollie's tablets, though she carried a book on wild plants rather than legends, as she planned on studying the local flora on their camping trip.
Or at least, she had planned to.
"Ok...so we've arrived at the buttcrack of nowhere after stepping out of the shower, with nothing but what we're wearing and the camping bags we'd packed...anything else we should know?" ranted Ollie irritably, storming back and forth as she kicked at tufts of grass. She kicked gently though, as she had no shoes.
"Fuck. And neither of us are wearing shoes." she grumbled.
Dodge had gone silent again, standing rigidly where she stood behind Ollie.
"Run." she whispered.
"What?" asked Ollie, turning to face her friend.
"Run!" Screamed Dodge, grabbing both bags.
Ollie simply stared behind her, as the ugliest, largest, creepiest wolf she'd ever seen pricked up its ears in their direction, before giving a chilling howl and racing towards them.
Ollie registered her purple bag flying towards her, and caught it with a grunt, shoving her arms through the straps, before taking off in the same direction as her friend.
"What the fuck is that!" she screamed.
"How the fuck should I know? Just run!"
They ran.
They ran as fast as they could, jumping over roots and stones, ducking under branches, weaving through the trees'. Desperately trying to run for their lives whilst still keeping sight of each other. Neither dared look back, as they could hear the deep panting and heavy foot falls of the creature behind them. Ollie could swear she felt the hot breeze of heavy breath on the back of her neck.
"Oh crap." Ollie breathed to herself, as she saw another shadow of a creature moving to their side.
"Dodge!" she called out, but Dodge suddenly wasn't there. With an anguished cry, she'd fallen off the edge of a hidden outcrop.
"Dodge!" she called again in panic, speeding her way to where she'd last seen her friend, just to go sailing over the edge as well.
The outcrop wasn't steep so much as it was sudden, and it broke into bits and pieces, like a rocky stairway, which Ollie went bouncing and rolling down after falling from that first steep step.
She landed on the ground a few feet away from her target, Dodge's prone form lay spread eagled on the damp forest floor. Her pack had saved her head from any strong blows, but it seemed that Dodge had not been so lucky, as Ollie could see a streak of deep red on her forehead.
The worst part was, several large men stood between them.
She scrambled up in a panic, throwing herself forward towards her friend.
"Dodge! Dodge wake up!" she cried, shaking the blondes shoulders.
"Here now lass..." said a soft voice from beside her.
"Back off!" she yelled, swinging round to face the stranger. His hair was the purest white she'd ever seen, and he had the most interesting beard. Though he looked kind enough, she wasn't taking any chances with her unconscious friend and a creature chasing them.
"Lass calm down..." he tried again, reaching for her shoulder.
"I said back the fuck off!" she roared, crouching over Dodge protectively.
When he held his hands up, she scanned the rest of the group. They were all men, and they all had beards, and very interesting ones at that. When one particularly well groomed specimen made to walk forward, she tensed, grabbing a large rock that was near her hand.
The original white haired man made waving motions to his group, and they all took one step back.
I really don't like the way you guys are looking at me, she continued to glare as she shook at Dodge's shoulder.
"Dodge? Dodge wake-up. Seriously we need to go! Dodge!"
"She's unconscious lass." spoke the white haired man plainly.
"Yes I can fucking see that!"
"Well, she took a tumble. Wont wake for a while I imagine."
Breathing heavily, Ollie looked about the group of men, should she trust them?
The answer; of course not.
Throwing her weapon to the ground, she quickly checked to make sure Dodge could still breathe, before gathering her into a firemans carry over her shoulder. She wobbled at first but steadied, and looked up to see all the men frowning at her.
"Lass...?"
"I ain't trustin' ya." she said, then coughed and swallowed. Her accent became stronger when she was frightened.
"You may want to run." she said, before turning and stumbling as fast as she could, her friend over her shoulder. Luckily, Ollie was the larger of the two girls. Neither were particularly large, but Ollie was rounder, curvier, and stockier than her slim friend. Today that came in handy.
She heard snarling from behind, followed by whimpering, and suddenly a roar combined with a slashing sound that was so unexpected that she tripped over her own two feet, landing hard on the ground.
When she turned, she saw that the two wolf creatures had been cut down by the strange group of men.
She definitely did not want to be a part of that party.
She managed to roll herself and Dodge between two tree roots, hoping that would be enough coverage. Checking Dodge again, she arranged her into the recovery position before curling herself into a ball, and sticking her hands into her wet hair, breathing harshly in pure panic.
"Just breathe, just breathe. Oh my shit. Oh god, ok." she whispered to herself, fear and panic digging their claws firmly in and destroying any logical thought.
Her eyes were screwed shut, and her hands had partially covered her ears, and so she didn't hear the group of men until she opened her eyes and saw them standing in front of her.
She squeaked in fear, spreading her hands across the damp ground, sifting through the leaf litter in search of a large rock, but didn't find anything at all to defend herself with. Instead, she covered Dodge from view again.
"How did you know we were here?" barked the man directly in front of her. His voice rumbled like thunder, his eyes flashed like twin sapphires, and his dark hair ruffled lightly in the breeze. He was the specimen she'd noticed earlier, and should the situation be different, she may have even turned to the phrase "Humana humana", with plenty of open mouthed gaping. But for now, she settled with:
"Piss off!"
His eyes flashed dangerously as his brows lowered, and he took two dangerous steps forward. She quaked and cowered back in fear.
"Thorin! Leave them be!" called an angry, powerful voice.
Chest heaving, Ollie squinted up into the sunlight, where she could make out the silhouettes of two very tall, elderly men in strange hats.
"You said we were being hunted, and these two tumbled right into our laps moments before the wargs did." The man, Thorin, snapped.
"Look at them! They are frightened and alone, do you really think they are the sort to cavort with orcs and wargs?" The tall mans voice grew darker, louder, and more powerful with each word, and Ollie looked up, wide eyed and opened mouthed, "They were running for their lives, now leave them be!"
The tallest man squatted down to sit beside her on her tree root, the second tallest hovering near by whilst the dark haired one skulked back to his group. The tall man, cloaked completely in grey, pulled a pipe from somewhere in his robe, and began fiddling with it calmly. Ollie found herself fixated on the old fashioned, wooden pipe, and found the scratching sounds as the man cleaned oddly comforting.
"Gandalf, we have no time for this." growled the dark haired man, sending another glare towards Ollie.
"Hush now Thorin, we will wait...until this young lady is ready." with this he tapped his wooden pipe twice onto a rock, then began to fill it. It was only once the sweet smell of smoke began filling her nose that Ollie was able to close her mouth. She blinked owlishly a few times, and slowly looked from one man to another, until her gaze landed back on the dark haired, growling man.
"Well fuck me." she breathed.
He blinked, face slackening in shock, then glared again, growling.
"Excuse me?"
But Ollie had already swung her head back to the grey man smoking his pipe.
"I'm sorry but...can you not? Dodge is asthmatic." He gave her a long look, before nodding, and putting the pipe out and quickly away.
"You seem a lot calmer now my dear." he said gently.
"Shock." she stated.
"Ah."
The intense staring continued.
"Please tell me I hit my head too. Say I'm currently passed out somewhere and my head is just coming up with some crazy hallucination bullshit."
"I'm afraid not." the grey man chuckled.
Not man, she thought, Wizard.
"You're Gandalf the Grey." He smiled.
"I am."
"And Radagast the Brown." said Wizard waved.
"And...and..." she stumbled, "So many bloody dwarves."
Gandalf sputtered into laughter, and she heard a small snort from just behind him. Ollie craned her head around to look, and was then pretty sure her jaw touched the floor.
"OHMYGOSHANDAHOBBIT!" she squeaked.
"E-Excuse me?" said creature spluttered.
"You're Bilbo Baggins of Bag-End!"
"Well done! You seem to have come to terms, now, what do you say to more running?" she pulled her fan-girl façade together to look back up at the now standing wizard.
"More running?" she groaned.
"Yes, well, we do have an orc pack to out run." he said with a wink.
"Oh. Yeah." Ollie said sheepishly, before turning to look at her still unconscious friend.
"But what about Dodge?" she cried, "I can't leave her here!"
"I'll take her. She'll be perfectly safe, I'll drop her off where you can pick her up later." said Radagast with a wink.
Ollie stared hard into the craggly face. The dude was eccentricity given form; bird shit on his face, weird hat, weird clothes. Like a hippy only better. He wasn't mentioned much in the books, appearing more as a benevolent by-stander than anything, but the films portrayed him as a quirky old guy with lots of love.
That was when she noticed the small mice poking their noses out of his jacket.
Well, if the animals think he's ok...
And so it was with a lot of heaving and puffing, on Ollie's part, that they loaded Dodge onto his rabbit driven sleigh. He even offered to take Ollie's pack, since it was so bright it could attract attention, which she warily gave up to tuck in beside Dodge.
Before he could take off, she leant over, kissing Dodge's forehead.
"I'll see you later." she whispered, before the wizard sped off.
"Now then, we'll take these few moments to introduce ourselves while Radagast draws them off." Ollie had still been staring off into the distance where Radagast had disappeared with her best friend in the universe, but had turned at the awkward silence following Gandalfs statement.
Thirteen blank stares greeted her, though a handful were clearly hostile in nature.
"Um hi. I'm Cassandra Twist, people call me Ollie."
A dwarf inturrupted her.
"Why?"
His hair was blonde, and he had the most adorable braids in his moustache. Ever a fan of the films and book, Ollie had already put names to faces.
"Long story, Fili."
Ooops.
"I don't remember introducing ourselves to you." growled a very large, very bald, generally just plain scary-looking dwarf.
"Even longer story, Dwalin."
"So," growled Thorin, "You know all our names?"
"Yep?" she gulped, wide eyed. They really liked to growl a lot. She suddenly had an uncontrollable urge to laugh, and couldn't stop the few chuckles that escaped.
"And were followed here by wargs?"
"If those are the scary wolf things, then um," she snorted, trying to pull herself together, " yep."
"What's so funny?" asked Kili.
"Well, you all keep growling," she began shaking, in fear, shock, or amusement, probably all three, "I'm half expecting you to bark!"
Only Bilbo seemed to find that funny, and so the giggling quickly stopped. The shuddering however did not. And judging by the ache in her cheeks, she was grinning like a maniac.
"And you expect me to believe she is not working with them!" he glowered at the wizard, and his tone cause Ollie to shrink back.
"Yes, I do." said Gandalf, simply and with a wealth of seriousness behind each syllable.
"Wait...you guys are dwarves?" asked Ollie, thoroughly confused.
"I thought you'd already figured that out." Kili muttered suspiciously.
"But...I should be taller than you then."
They all turned to look her up and down, though it was mostly down, since she appeared to be shorter than them all by several inches.
"Why's that then?" asked who she assumed to be Bofur, what with his wierd hat and all.
" Well unless I've shrunk, I'm five foot four."
They all blinked at her.
"Well that's simple enough." said Gandalf. "You've shrunk."
Ollie blinked at him.
"By about a foot, maybe a foot and a few inches, I'd hazard." he continued.
"Oh fuck this!" she yelled, "Like five fucking four wasn't short enough, I've been fucking shrunk now too? I really hate this fucking day!"
"Language young lady!" called a stern voice, which belonged to a dwarf with white hair that had been braided very neatly.
She huffed.
"Sorry Dori."
"Well then, any other questions, we should be about ready to set off." chimed Gandalf.
"Yes mister Gandalf," said Dori, before sniffing and looking down at Ollie's legs, "What on middle earth are you wearing lass?"
Ollie looked down at her legs, which had scratches and new bruises blooming across her thighs, and her socks were torn in some places. She wiggled her feet about so she could see the soles better, and hissed at the state they were in; torn and bloody. No wonder her feet stung.
"Shorts," she said with a shrug, "And what used to be my favourite pair of socks. Better than nothing I guess."
The whole group spluttered.
"Most of what you're wearing is nothing!" he cried.
"Enough for now, plenty of time for questions later! Run!" cried Gandalf, setting a quick pace, the dwarves falling in behind him.
Bifur was the only one to notice her reluctance to move, grunting something unintelligible at her before grasping her upper arm and pushing her ahead of him.
Ollie sighed. And more bloody running it was then.
Well, there it is! Let me know what you guys think! Also, an internet cookie to anyone who guesses Ollie's "Disability", or "Health issue" whatever you want to call it. I've always wanted to read about a character who had to overcome more than just Middle Earth itself, or any personality clashes, I've been curious as to how someone with a real-life day to day issue would cope. So we've been told about Dodge, now set your minds to Ollie! There'll be more clues next chapter! Have a lovely day guys, love-ooo x