Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings or any character in the books and/or movies. Wish I did though...

Yeah, I know this is a Mary Sue...sorry about that. I just HAD to write it. It was nibbling away at the back of my brain for so long that I felt I might end up without a brain if I didn't just go ahead and write it. I published it on here because at least then someone else can read it and maybe get a laugh out of it. Try not to be too hard on me though. This is all just for fun!

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled as I curled up tighter on my couch in front of the tv. I loved nights like this. I felt so secure and safe inside knowing that even though all of nature seemed hell bent to destroy my dwelling I was safe and warm and dry. I sighed and took another sip of my hot tea as I watched the storm rage at Helm's Deep on my screen the same way the storm was raging right outside my own four walls. I'd made sure I was very cozy, dressed in my favorite blue sweat pants and tight white spaghetti strap shirt, so that I could watch a marathon of my most favorite trilogy ever, Lord of the Rings (next to Star Wars that is!)! And yes, I was watching this alone. None of my friends would have been remotely interested in watching this marathon with me. They had more important things to do, like being workaholics, or playing live rpgs with their husbands and his cronies, or even going and hanging out at sleazy bars. Hell, one of my friends was probably screwing some girl senseless as I thought about all this. Ewww...why did I have to think about that?! So anyways, those were the reasons why I was watching this all by myself, and being quite happy about it. My sister and I had always loved the books and were delighted when the movies were made. We had taken it upon ourselves when we were young to learn Elvish so that we had a secret language to speak to each other in. That was so much fun, and to this day, whenever we talked in front of other people we would revert to Elvish so that no one knew what we said. Ah yes, we were nerds, but happy, silly nerds!

Oh yes! The part where Legolas "skateboards" down the stairs! I love this part. I giggled. Man, sometimes I really wished that I could be part of something like this. An epic adventure. But whenever would a poor, average, 25 year old animal shelter worker EVER get to be a part of any adventure, let alone an EPIC adventure?! Not likely. But one could wish and so wish I did as I kept my eyes planted firmly on the screen, reveling in the pictures that flew before my eyes and temporarily took me outside of my own petty little universe and my own petty little problems and let me live, if only for a moment, a truly epic adventure.

So, I don't know if I dozed off or what, but the next thing I knew there was a really bright light, a thunderous clap and then I was sitting on my butt in the middle of, well, nowhere! I certainly wasn't in my home anymore and I wasn't inside a building either. Thankfully, wherever I was it wasn't raining. At least that meant I wouldn't get wet. But where the fuck was I?! A brief thought flickered through my head. Maybe my wish was answered and I was actually now a freaking Mary Sue in Middle Earth! Not like I really wanted to be a Mary Sue but going to Middle Earth would be awesome! Then I laughed at myself. Yeah, like that would ever happen. Maybe there was a tornado and I had been deposited outside my totally destroyed house. Yep, that sounded much more realistic than my Mary Sue idea. Well, wherever I was it was pitch black, just like it had been at home. What kept nagging at the back of my mind, however, was that it wasn't raining and the grass wasn't even wet. If I was at home, wouldn't the grass at least be wet from all that rain? I shook my head and pushed myself up off the ground. Time to try to find my way home. I peered all about in the darkness. I couldn't see a thing, so with a sigh I just set off in the direction that 'felt' right.

I don't know how long I had been walking through the trees, but my legs were aching, my bare feet were screaming at me, and my eyes could barely stay open as I noticed that the sky was finally lightening. Of course that also allowed me to see my surroundings a little bit better and what I saw wasn't promising. I had never seen this completely untouched forest before. In fact, I'd never seen a forest quite like this one before in all my life and I'd seen many forests. After all, one of my pastimes was hiking and I lived in a little clearing surrounded by woods. So, I should know. These woods were strange. They looked as if no human had ever laid axe or even foot in them. The foliage underfoot was thick and the trees were almost unbelievably tall. This was so odd. I stopped walking and ran my hands through my shoulder length, curly black hair. Okay, this was getting me nowhere. I obviously wasn't any where near my home right now. Probably not even in my country if these strange woods were anything to go by.

I nearly stopped breathing when I heard a snapping twig and low voices somewhere up ahead. People! Was I saved? I better be cautious one way or the other. Who knew if they were nice people or not. So, I crept quietly, or as quietly as my poor, tired legs would allow me, through the trees towards the sounds ahead of me. What I saw as I stopped to peer carefully around a large tree nearly made my heart stop. Right in front of me was an incredibly handsome man gently lifting a, oh my god! A hobbit! He was lifting a hobbit onto his back and three other hobbits were loading the remaining packs on to a large nondescript brown pony. My mouth fell open and I just gaped for a few minutes. I WAS in LOTR, in Middle Earth! How the hell had this happened! I was a fucking Mary Sue!!! No way!!! Okay, this could be cool, but I had really wanted my own adventure, not to follow someone else's. Guess I would take what I got, though. How in the world was I supposed to explain myself to them! And my clothes! Sooo out of place! I think I was about to hyperventilate. I was so caught up in my thoughts and staring at the hobbits, who sadly, weren't all that much shorter than really short me, that I just about passed out when I felt the business side of a cold, long knife pressed against my throat. I froze. A low voice spoke smoothly and threateningly into my ear, "Who are you and why are you spying on us?"

I so wanted to gulp at that moment, but if I gulped I'd probably get nicked by the impossibly sharp knife. So instead I opened my mouth and managed to get out the words, "I'm Alyssa, and I'm not spying! I'm lost and I heard voices, so I followed them and found you." I heard what sounded like a skeptical grunt from the man who held the knife to my throat.

"Well, you certainly don't look like anyone I've ever seen before." He commented, still talking in a low voice. "And those clothes are nothing I've ever seen before either."

I sighed. "Just let me go and I'll explain everything. Really, at this moment I don't care who I travel with, I'm just very lost and want to find some place to be safe at least."

I could tell my captor was thinking about my request and apparently he found it suitable because the next thing I knew he was removing the knife from my throat and stepping slowly away from me. I groaned and rubbed at my poor little throat and then turned carefully and looked up at the man who had held me captive only a moment before. Oh my god! It was Aragorn! His voice sounded nothing like the voice of Viggo Mortenson and he only resembled the actor slightly, but just enough to let me know that yes, this was Aragorn. And man, this guy was friggin' tall! I had to crane my head back to look up at him. Well, I know I'm short. I'm only 4' 10", but still, this guy was tall! He must have been well over 6 feet. I just stared at him for a moment and then my mouth opened and the only coherent thing that came out was, "Dude, you are TALL!" Aragorn just stared at me.

"Are you going to explain now?" He asked with a hint of impatience in his voice.

"Oh! Oh yeah, um, well...I was sitting on my couch at home, watching a movie and there was a big thunderstorm outside and the next thing I know I'm sitting on my butt in these woods." Man, that sounded lame, I thought to myself.

Aragorn looked at me suspiciously, his gray eyes narrowed. "Well, that makes absolutely no sense," he finally spoke, "but, I'll take you with me to Rivendell and we'll have Lord Elrond and Gandalf take a look at you and see if they can make any sense out of your strange story." He looked over my head at the hobbits who were gathered around Frodo, looking anxiously into the woods after Aragorn. "I'll trust you for now since you have no weapons and you don't look like you could or would hurt us and we need to get Frodo to the Elves as fast as possible. But if you try anything I'll truss you up so tight you won't be able to move a pinky finger!" he threatened.

I gulped. "Yes sir!" I responded, sufficiently cowed. He nodded his head and then took my arm to lead me back to the clearing where he had left the hobbits and the pony. I went with him willingly of course. This was the best thing that could have happened, him taking me to the elves. I had to go somewhere and I had no idea how to get home. The elves were my best bet.

When we stepped into the clearing all the hobbits looked up, even Frodo tried to raise his head slightly, although he really didn't even know what was going on. Poor Frodo, I thought.

"All of you, this is Alyssa. She will be coming with us to the elves since she is lost. Alyssa, I am called Strider and these 4 Hobbits are Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. Now," and Aragorn lifted Frodo onto his back once again, "we move out!" And he was gone, running down the path with the hobbits dashing after him, leading the pony. I eeped and took off as well. Aragorn either must not think me much of a threat or he is just overly concerned for Frodo, because he didn't even pause to see if I was coming, or if I was being good, or anything. He just ran, never looking behind him. Come to think of it, he didn't even point out which Hobbit was which, he just gave me their names and then took off. In a hurry much?!

Great, so now I had to run after having walked all night long and with bare feet no less! I could seriously sense my imminent death. Somehow, though, I managed to keep going until we paused for breath and to check on Frodo, around midday. Frodo was doing horribly and by this point, so was I. My feet were bleeding and my breath was coming in gasps. My side felt like it wanted to tear itself away from me and form a new person. I SO was NOT in shape! I watched from my position with my hands on my bent knees as Aragorn pulled Sam aside and had him start looking for King's Foil while Merry and Pippin kept watch over Frodo. Panting heavily I made my way over to the three hobbits and collapsed next to Frodo. He was tossing and turning and his eyes had a glazed over look as he continuously moaned incoherent things. This did not look good. He was MUCH worse off than me. Merry and Pippin watched me carefully, but they were too worried about Frodo to pay too much attention to me. I stood up stiffly and walked over to Bill, the pony, and taking the waterskin down from his back I tore off a few strips of cloth from his worn saddle blanket and stumbled back over to Frodo. I knelt down beside him again and soaked one of the pieces of cloth in the water from the waterskin and then gently laid the wet cloth on his feverish forehead. Then, watching him carefully I dampened the other two rags and wound them around my sore and bleeding feet. Wow, that already felt better. I was about to let out a nice sigh of relief and reposition myself so I could flip Frodo's wet cloth over when I suddenly heard voices right behind me that weren't Hobbit voices!

Startled I looked up and behind me and nearly died of shock when I saw Arwen standing there with Aragorn. How in the world did they get there without me hearing them?!!! Without pausing to contemplate this disturbing fact too much I scrambled to the side and backwards, making room for Arwen to come forward and check him out, which of course she did, but only after giving me the oddest look ever. The only thing I could think of the whole time that Her Gorgeousness leaned over the dying Hobbit was 'this must be the movie universe, or else it would be Glorfindel here.' Stupid thought when you have Arwen actually sitting an arms length from you, I know. Her examination of him ended up with him on the saddle of her horse in front of her and them riding with all speed to Rivendell.