The sun was glaring off the gleaming gate that acted as a barrier in the middle of the busy street. There, waiting among the other travelers on the sidewalk, stood a young woman. She squinted against the brightness of the day as she gathered all of her hair to the top of her head so she could uselessly wave a hand to the back of her neck in a pathetic attempt to cool off. She lamented her decision to leave behind her sunglasses at home but she never did care for having things on her face. Her backpack felt as if it was getting heavier and heavier each moment longer she had to have it hanging from her shoulders. It was on such unbearably hot days that she despised being a full-time student with no car. She could have handled the weight of all her books if she didn't have to take the bus every single day. Or she wouldn't have minded taking the bus every day if she didn't have to haul around so many textbooks.

Stella Villanueva ignored the man who was attempting to speak to her, throwing him an uncomfortable smile that she was sure looked more like a grimace than anything else, as she adjusted the straps of her backpack. When the man was in the middle of a sentence, she turned about face and shuffled away to stand further down the sidewalk next to a man whom she saw on the bus every day but never actually spoke to. He offered her a comforting glance but did nothing to help her. Stella didn't actually expect him to help, for people rarely did, but being around a familiar presence was still nice.

She released a sigh of relief when the bus turned around the corner, as she was eager to get away from aggressive strangers and the even more aggressive heat. After stepping on the bus, she glanced around for an empty seat. Her gaze froze on one particular dark figure and her lips twitched up along the corners as she made her way towards him. Stella had no doubt who it was, considering she only knew one idiot who was dumb enough to wear a leather jacket on such a hot day.

She plopped herself down in the seat next to young man and yanked his headphones off. "Hello, worthless human."

He rolled his eyes before grudgingly putting his headphones away in his pocket. He greeted in return, "Hello, bride of Satan."

Stella's smirk melted into a wide smile as she wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned her head upon his shoulder. He reeked of cigarettes. The smell was disgusting but familiar. "It's good to see you again, Lorenzo."

He wrapped an arm around Stella's shoulders in return, making a point to send the man who had been pestering the woman at her stop and began to glare at Lorenzo an obscene single fingered gesture. "It's been a while since I've seen your perpetually startled face. You heading home?"

"Yeah. What about you?" Stella asked, flicking the cuff of his jacket before tugging his dark red scarf with a grimace. "Aren't you hot?"

"You're going home, I'm going to school. Just thought I'd take a different bus route today," he informed her as he slapped Stella's hands away. "And no, I'm not. It was cool this morning."

"That was this morning, idiot," she rolled her eyes as she straightened up.

"I'm suddenly remembering why I didn't miss you," he sighed as he pulled away from her.

"Shut up," Stella laughed. "I'm still the coolest ex-girlfriend you've ever had."

His face remained neutral as his eyes flickered to the side so he could peer over to Stella. A person who did not know Lorenzo well would have thought him irritated with the girl. But such a person would never have captured the faint curl of his lips that lingered for the briefest of moments before he turned away to tap the case of his violin that sat in his lap. It used to irritate Stella that she had to hunt down the smallest hints of emotions on his usually expressionless face but since their break-up, she had managed to make a game out of it.

"You have a point there," he conceded, making Stella beam. "I mean, what other guy can say he has a girl who does a weird dance gig with fire for an ex?"

"It's not weird," her eyes hooded over in exasperation.

"The shortest, sweetest girl I know gets paid to swing around things lit on fire for the entertainment of anybody willing to pay. It's pretty weird."

"What does short and sweet have anything to do with fire dancing?" Stella let out a small laugh as she stared past his shoulder to look out the window.

As tiresome as taking the bus everyday could be, Stella could not ignore the sense of tranquility that overcame her when she took the bus home. There was a long stretch of road in the middle of the city that was absent of crowds of people and buildings. Dry bushes, dying trees, and the smallest trickle of a stream was all that existed by that road. It was unbearable to walk through but was quite beautiful to look at when driving by. Stella's favorite part was the small bridge that went over the deepest part of the stream. When the bus went over that bridge, it always felt like the bus was floating and she could pretend that she was being sent somewhere else. Stella smiled to herself at the thought of the approaching bridge before focusing back on Lorenzo.

"I just think of you as this girl who is short and sweet with a face that always looks surprised and your twig arms - "

"Oh, thank you," she interrupted with an eye roll.

He continued on as if she hadn't spoken, "And I don't think, 'Oh, she's a fire dancer.' You look more like a ballerina, if anything."

Stella bit the inside of her cheek "Well…I guess. But I never thought – "

But Stella never did get the chance to tell Lorenzo what she thought. Just as they were less than halfway across her favorite bridge, a horrendously loud noise echoed in the bus before the bus lurched violently to the side. She was thrown out of her seat and into the aisle with Lorenzo landing painfully on top of her. She flailed for a moment to grab the seat above her and watched in horror was the driver struggled to gain control of the wheel. But before he could, the bus broke the flimsy barrier of the bridge. And then they were flying in the air.

Lorenzo's arms were painfully tight around Stella's waist. He curled his form over hers, making the both of them fold into a small ball. Under the sound of the screaming from the other passengers, she could barely hear his voice in her ear.

"Stay with me, Stella."

Before they hit the ground, all she could do was grip his hand tightly in hers.

The first thing that immediately came to her mind when Stella woke up was that her back was killing her. She groaned out load as she turned on her side to remove the pain. Landing and laying on top of a full backpack was never meant to be comfortable. The second thing that came to her mind was the uncomfortable presence of dirt. When she turned on her side and took a deep breath, she immediately began to choke on all the dirt that went down her airway. After she caught her breath, she lifted her head up to get an idea of where she was.

Her brow furrowed at the lush trees that towered over her. The gorge the bus crashed in was gray and brown and filled with dry bushes. The clearing she was in depicted the exact opposite of that with its thriving greenery. Maybe the stream under the bridge had a stronger current than Stella thought and carried her away after the crash. That would explain the lack of a crash site. But there was nothing to explain, that if that were the case, why her clothes were dry and why there was no river, stream, or any presence of water at all around her. Stella squinted in the sunlight as she weakly pushed herself up. In the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a curled up ball of dark clothing.

"Lorenzo!" she called out, scrambling up to her knees so she could crawl over to him.

When she reached him, Stella pushed him onto his back so she could see if there were any injuries. After carefully peeling back his jacket and scarf, she was relieved to note that despite a vague grimace on his face, he was curiously absent of any injuries. Like Stella, he didn't even have a scratch or a bruise on him. His head tilted towards her hand as she smoothed his hair back in an attempt to coax him awake.

"Lorenzo," she shook his shoulder. When his eyes fluttered opened, she snapped her fingers in his face to wake him up faster and to gain his attention. "Come on, Zo."

"Stell?" his voice croaked. "We're alive?"

"Alive and lost," she said grimly.

"Lost?" he repeated as he sat up, rubbing his middle fingers at his temples.

"I don't know where we are or how we got here," she told him. "There isn't a bus crash, we aren't in the gorge, and there's nothing that could have brought us here."

"Try your cell?" he asked, already pulling his phone out of his pocket.

She pulled her backpack off her shoulders to dig in for her phone. She was glad to see that she had a decent amount of battery left but was dismayed to see that there was absolutely no signal in the area. She put her phone away and heavily sighed, "Nothing."

"Same," Zo said softly as he tapped the edge of his phone to his lips. "What are we going to do?"

"I guess we walk and look for others."

He nodded with another sigh and helped Stella up from the ground. After shrugging her backpack back on, they briefly took a moment to search for Zo's violin before finding it in a nearby bush. Immediately, the tick in his jaw relaxed and he stroked the black case with a ring-covered hand. He wouldn't want her to ask so she didn't. Stella knew that his violin was important to him but she never knew why. All she needed to know was that it was precious to him so she always left it at that.

And then they walked. They walked for hours through the trees but they never saw anything or anyone that may have been on the bus with them. The sun was slowly moving across the sky but thankfully, wherever they were, it was not as hot as it was downtown.

"Stella, what if we're here for a while?" Zo asked a few hours after they woke up, checking his phone again for the tenth time and being disappointed that there was still no signal.

"I don't know, honey," she cleared her throat so she could ignore the dryness.

They quickly made it clear that Stella was the only one who had food and water. But the little food she had was only a couple bags of chips and half a sandwich, which was only meant to get through the small twinges of hunger that she felt in-between her classes. She only had half a bottle of water and they had yet to come across any water. They agreed to save the water for when they would really need it.

Stella and Zo only ever saw each other once in a blue moon. They used to be close during high school and dated very briefly after but they were always extremely affectionate with each other, despite how long they could go without seeing each other. After waking up, Zo never did let go of her hand and she quickly reverted back to their usual pet names. Maybe their closeness was the reason why they could never introduce the partners they had after they dated to each other. Stella had a tendency to date jealous guys and Zo had a tendency to be a bit distant from whatever partner he had so whenever they all met together, their partners immediately disliked how well the two got along. As unfortunate as it might have been, Stella never regretted or questioned how weird it was that they still were close after they broke up. She always thought it was just a sign that they were meant to be great lovers but even greater friends. So that was how they kept it.

"Okay, now it's hot as hell," Zo finally admitted as he adjusted the case on his back.

They had only been walking for an hour when the heat finally got to him, though he refused to say so. Stella's only indication that he thought so was when he abruptly let go of her hand to peel off his jacket and scarf. After carrying both in one hand and his violin in the other, he eventually got tired and cleverly used his scarf to tie his folded jacket and violin to his back. Stella jealously glared at his seemingly light load and briefly debated if she should dump her textbooks or not. They cost a lot of money but were unbearably heavy. She already left her sandals behind long ago. She was far more comfortable walking through the grass barefoot anyway.

Before she could ask him to stop so she could pull out her books, the sound of a howl filled the air. "What the fuck?" Zo spoke out her thoughts. "Is that a coyote or something?"

"I don't know. It might be."

"This is getting too fucking weird and it's pissing me off," Zo kicked at a tree.

"You're telling me. If only we could -"

Stella was cut off by loud growling. The both of them immediately froze before slowly turning around. There in front of them was the ugliest animal Stella ever saw. Its huge muscles ripped underneath its matted fur as it stalked towards the two of them. Its teeth were black and dripping with saliva as it snarled at them. Its dark eyes glittered maliciously, keeping Zo in its sight, clearly marking him as the bigger threat or the most entertaining.

"Stella," Zo spoke lowly. "Please tell me you're still as fast as you were in track."

The sound of another, dreadful howl in the distance made Stella flinch, causing the animal to look towards her.

"God, I hope so."

"On three, about face?" he asked.

"Got it."

The sound of the animal's growling increased as it stalked closer. It kept switching its gaze between the both of them. And then, all at once, all the sounds stopped. Beyond the cease of growling, the birds that they had been hearing earlier stopped singing.

"Three!"

At Lorenzo's voice, Stella immediately whirled around and tore after him through the trees. The vicious snarl of the beast roared in her ears before its trampling form followed behind them. Before that moment, Stella always resented having to join the track team in high school. Her legs were too short for her to be considered too fast so she was useless in the shorter runs but Stella was lucky enough to have high endurance. Her parents only made her try out because they thought she needed something to do after school and it would look good on college applications. She never thought she would actually be in a situation where she had to use her training to actually save her life.

Thank God for persistent and annoying coaches.

Her heart almost burst out of her chest when Stella felt sharp teeth grasp her long skirt. Thankfully, her skirt was made out of thin, sheer material so it easily ripped out of the beast's mouth as she jumped over bush to get away. But her brief relief did not last long when Stella and Zo were forced to split up by a large tree that they hadn't the time to move around together. She could feel her gut sink when the beast made the quick decision to chase after her friend instead of her.

Stella could barely hear Zo tearing through the forest and the animal running after him over the sound of her own heavy breathing. She stumbled and almost fell onto her hands and knees when a searing pain shot up from her foot but she pushed herself to keep going. Preparing herself for anything that could happen next, she shifted course so she would run into the pair. It was difficult to estimate where she could run through the trees so she would be at Zo's side instead of the beast's.

She was lucky enough to run into Zo but unfortunately, she literally ran into him, causing them to move off course. They both stumbled for a moment before continuing to run. The other beast that they heard earlier howled again. Stella could only hope that there were only two and not a pack. Just when she was beginning to think that we would never be able to get away, Stella and Zo ran into them.

"Shit, fuck, short dudes with sharp things!" Zo cursed as they skidded to a stop.

There before them was the most bizarre group of men Stella had ever seen. She had neither the patience nor the time to count them but, curiously, the some of them were her height. More than a few were even a few inches shorter, which she found interesting, considering Stella barely brushed the five feet tall mark. Even more interesting, besides their strange clothes, was the fact that they all carried large amount of weapons ranging from swords to axes to bows and arrows.

They were joined by a man who had to be more than a head shorter and two tall men in robes. At first glance, the taller of the two appeared more peculiar with his long gray robes, which could not have been comfortable in the slightly warm weather, and his long staff and pointed hat. Stella had to double glance at the other. He could have blended in with the tress. If she wasn't trying to catch her breath, Stella would have gagged when she noticed the bird droppings on his hat. And, oh, God, really? It was dripping into his hair and it was caked to his face.

They all appeared to be in the middle of a serious discussion when Stella and Zo fell into their group. The tall man in gray was about to speak when the familiar sound of growling was hear above them.

Stella could feel the beast's presence before she saw it. Its malicious gaze sent an ominous chill down her spine. In her mind, she could see it crouching down, ready to pounce. There was no getting away from it this time. Her legs were frozen and her lungs were burning. What would her dad think when they told him that she was never coming home?

And in a moment that went by too quickly for Stella to entirely comprehend, her arm was grabbed by one of the shorter men and she was roughly yanked into him. He slightly pushed Stella behind him but did not let go as he kept a large arm around her waist as she clung to his shoulders. He took a quick step back and the beast pounced. One of them lifted a long sword and brought it down upon the beast and it did not come back up. She could hear Zo cursing as another one of the beasts came from another direction. Stella clenched her eyes shut and hid behind both the man's and her hair. An arrow flew past them and the beast fell but shifted to make its way back up. With one arm, the man holding her lifted his sword and cut the animal down. The beast snarled once before it abruptly fell silent. She slowly lifted her head up, eyes and mouth wide in shock, but she did not let go of the man. Her hair fell from where it had flipped over his head.

"Well, fuck, double tap for safety," Zo called from the back.

"Excuse me?" one of them asked not unkindly.

"It might just be down from pain. It could still be alive and eat us."

"Trust me, lad, if we say they're dead, they're dead," he answered with a smile that did not seem appropriate.

"What the hell are those things?" Stella asked, making all of them look at her. The one that held her quickly let go and stepped aside with a glare. "Is it a wolf-bear hybrid? Oh, God, is the Army doing experiments?"

"Stell, you watch too many movies," Zo shook his head, making her glare at him.

Before she could retort, one of the older men, or so he seemed with his long white beard, cast her a curious expression and asked, "You've never heard of a warg, lass?"

"Warg?" she scoffed. "Yeah, sure, Tolkien."

"Who?"

"Wargs don't exist. If they do, then I am Thorin Oakenshield."

"No, I believe I am him," the dark one with a glare that only her mother – and by extension, Stella – would be able to resist stepped forward.

She stared at him unimpressed before rolling her eyes. "Fine, be Thorin. Nobody likes Thorin anyway. Too arrogant and moody. I'll be Bilbo! Everyone loves a nice hobbit."

At her statement, the entire group looked startled before whirling around to look at the smallest man, the dark one, or the tallest one. The tallest one rested both hands on his staff but said nothing as his eyes flickered between Stella and Zo.

"You're such a fucking nerd," Zo sighed as he rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"Shut up," Stella snapped before whirling back around to face the older man, who appeared to be the nicest so far. "Can those things climb trees?"

"No, but they can wait and can be quite clever when they wish to be," he answered after casting a hesitant look to the dark one.

"Well, fuck," the girl chirped with a wide, forced smile. "I hope you can do the stabby thing again because there are more of those coming. Let's go, Zo."

Before Stella could push Zo in another direction, they were stopped by the blade of the drawn out sword from the dark one. His glare never faltered, "Who are you and why did you bring those things with you?"

With another roll of her eyes, she pushed the sword away from her. "Look, pal, I've had a long day and I don't have the desire to be killed by freaky animals because a cosplayer with a superiority complex wanted to play games. We're leaving."

"Who are you and why did you bring wargs with you?" he repeated, bringing up his sword again.

"Who we are is none of your business and those things have been following us for almost half an hour. We're lost, idiot," she snapped before pushing forward.

"Young lady, it would benefit the both of you to come along with us. You have no weapons. We will keep you both alive if you agree to some questions that I would like to hear answered," the tallest one spoke, causing the dark one to glare at him. Like her mother would have been, the tall one was unperturbed by the fiery stare.

"Protection for interrogation," she muttered before casting a silent stare to Lorenzo, who gave an indiscernible nod of his head. "Fine."

"I doubt two people dressed in such a manner would bring wargs with them," the man said before he turned to the dark one. Stella furrowed her brows in confusion at his statement and Zo simply shrugged. "Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?"

"No one," replied the dark one.

"Who did you tell?" the tall one repeated furiously.

The dark one's eyes flickered towards Lorenzo and Stella before quickly confirmed, "No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?"

The tall one went grim before answering seriously, "You are being hunted."

"We have to get out of here," the one who held Stella spoke up.

Two of the shorter ones ran down a small hill and landed up on a boulder, calling out, "We can't! We have no ponies; they bolted."

The man in the long brown robes stepped forward and said, "I'll draw them off."

The tall one whirled around in exasperation. "These are Gundabad wargs. They will outrun you."

"These are Rhosgobel rabbits," he answered as he shot a thumb over his shoulder and smirked defiantly. "I'd like to see them try."

Apparently, that meant something substantial, considering the mildly impressed look the tall one cast him before nodding his head. He shuffled all of the shorter ones together before shoving us through the trees. The one in brown hopped on a sled that was being pulled by the strangest looking rabbits Stella had ever seen. She shared a begrudged stare with Lorenzo before they adjusted our load on their shoulders in unison and followed behind.

The tall one, who Stella assumed to be a Gandalf cosplayer, led them to a huge rock that was just outside the edge of the forest. An entire pack of grotesque looking men on more beasts lingered at the edge. She could see the leaves on the trees and bushes moving before the brown one – a Radagast, maybe – flew through the trees on his rabbit-driven sled, laughing wildly. He goaded the disgusting men, who followed after him without a second thought.

The Gandalf beckoned everyone in the opposite direction and they continued running. As they ran, they would often stop to hide behind the huge boulders whenever they noticed the warg riders in the distance on the plains. A few times, one of the men would accidentally run ahead and had to be pulled back to avoid being seen. Lorenzo and Stella stayed in the middle of the group, mostly of their own free will because they had no idea where the men were heading (to be honest, Stella didn't think even they knew) and they had no desire to be left behind.

Her endurance had fallen to shit and she was cringing at the searing pain in her side as Zo dragged her along. She was glad when they had fallen against another boulder. She automatically slapped a hand over her mouth to smother her heavy pants when the men fell silent and growling was heard above them. Zo's hand found hers and Stella's eyes clenched shut when the one with the arrows shot down another beast. The others descended upon the animal to finish it off after it fell. Stella lamented over the fact that she did not have more hands so she could cover her ears to block out the sound of weapons entering flesh and bones crunching. With a groan, she pushed off the boulder and they continued running faster than they were before. But before they knew it, they were surrounded by the ones who chased them.

Trying not to give them too much attention, Stella nudged Zo and beckoned him to follow her after she noticed the Gandalf had seemingly disappeared between gaps in the rocks. They followed behind, leaving the men wondering where they went, to find the Gandalf crouching over a deep hole.

"Think it's a decent escape?" she asked.

He peered at her from over his shoulder before replying, "I believe it is worth a try."

"Okay, so let's get out of here," Zo said before he jumped down the hole.

"Young man-" the Gandalf started to speak but Zo had already walked out of visual.

"Zo can take care of himself," she assured him. "He's managed so far and he's still got a long way to go."

The Gandalf assessed her from under heavy gray eyebrows before nodding. She nodded back before drawing her attention back to the hole, where Zo had reappeared.

"It's safe," he called up. "Come on, Stell."

Without hesitation, Stella jumped down, wincing as she felt sharp rocks embed themselves into her leg. Zo helped her up and led her over to a wall to lean against before he knelt down to lift her skirt up to her knees so he could brush away the debris. He froze when he noticed the trail of blood she was leaving behind. He coaxed her into lifting her leg to reveal her torn foot. He hissed in sympathy but she waved him away and waited as he reluctantly wandered down the path. With raised eyebrows, Stella watched the men fall down the hole. There was a brief lull and then the last two fell down with a hideous man with an arrow in his back following behind. Just then, a peculiar sounding horn was heard, causing all the men to glance around before the dark one approached the body on the ground. Stella grimaced as the dark man yanked out the arrow and carefully assessed it.

"Elves," he spat out before tossing aside the arrow.

"Boy!" one called out, causing everyone to whirl around to stare over at Zo, who only calmly turned around with a bored look. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Do you want to stay in this hole?" he replied tonelessly. "There's a path here."

The man with the most tattoos stepped forward. After throwing Zo a suspicious glare, he studied the path before calling back, "I cannot see where the pathway leads. Do we follow it or no?"

"Follow it, of course!" another man replied.

All of them shuffled out of the cavern to follow the path in single file. Zo leaned back to allow them to pass as he waited for Stella to approach him. By the time she limped over, his brows were furrowed together. He gently held her forearm between his thumb and index finger to hold her back before she could follow the others.

"I'm fine," she answered his unasked question softly so the others wouldn't hear. "Just a few scratches. I hope I never have to run again anytime soon."

"I feel that," he agreed with a sigh as he supported her with an arm around her waist.

They followed behind the men in silence, allowing their murmuring to wash over them. The path twisted and curled around, and at times, it felt too tight to squeeze through it if weren't for the push of the people behind them. No noise penetrated the tall stone towering above them. It was only when the sound of trickling water was heard that everyone hurried their pace. When they reached a break in the stone and stood in front of a sliver of a waterfall, they immediately fell quiet at the sight of the glowing city at the center of the valley. The men had growled under their breath at the sight but when the smallest man murmured the name of the city in awe, Stella shared a glance with Zo.

Cosplayers were one thing. An entire replica of Rivendell was just pushing it.

A/N: Yes, it's one of those stories in which a modern human falls dramatically into Middle Earth. I just hope that doesn't turn you away from my story.

I suppose this is the part where I add that I do not the disclaimer that I do not own The Hobbit or anything you may recognize as Tolkien's work.