Author's note: This is the new, revised edition of chapter one. For some
odd reason, I grew dissatisfied with the original chapter one, and so
therefore I made the decision to change chapter one, as well as the
original setting of Libby and April's home. Instead of being a hurdler on
the track team, Libby is a race-walker. Instead of it being March 13th, it
is now May 23rd. April does not attend River City High, but is instead
being temporarily home-schooled for personal reasons. Libby's track injury
is not acquired in a race on the 22nd, but is a gift of strenuously speed-
walking almost daily from March until the previous day, the final meet of
the season. She favors not both knees, but her right ankle and shin.
Please, alert me to any inconsistencies that would result from being from
the original edition and accidentally overlooked by myself, so that I could
rectify them. Thank you, and happy reading. I'll also add that while Libby
is a Lord of the Rings fan, she'll forget everything of the vast LotR
knowledge she's acquired when she's dumped into Middle-earth, so she won't
be forewarned about any encounters. Like I said, canon rules. If you ever
desire to contact me, post in my LJ ( www.livejournal.com/~oooootricia00
, feel free to add me to your
friends list) or e-mail me at elf_of_justice_d00m@excite.com
. Good day to you!
~*~Tricia~*~
Disclaimer: You know those very insignificant characters that happen to appear in Tolkien's works? They're not mine. Just kidding, they're still central to the story, and I am trying to remain as true to canon as I can even with introducing what may merit the label of Mary-Sues into the story. I assure you, there shall be no romances between people of inappropriate age gaps. Arwen and Aragorn are, of course, the exception (and Arwen is NOT the one who helps Frodo at the Ford!) to this rule, because that is canon. I even consider the gap between Pippin's 29 years and Libby's 16 to be disgusting, so no romance. Give me a very slow painful death if I ever go back on this vow I am swearing here. I give my word that this won't be the "traditional" Mary-Sue. Libby and April are friends, not potential gamete- sharers. They aren't your prissy Mary-Sue, nor the overtly "heroic" ones. They're just your average, if not slightly aloof, teenagers of the 21st century. Nor do any LotR canon characters come onto them.. they are not pedophiles. I do not wish to make Tolkien roll over in his grave like so many other Mary-Sue writers do. Perhaps some may even deem me to be using too harsh a term like Mary-Sue, but for the more cynical authors and authoresses like myself, I shan't give any bull such as "This is not a Mary- Sue, even if two girls are dumped into Middle-Earth" in my summary. My goal is to have others say this isn't a Mary-Sue, not to say that myself. Good day to you. I shall start the completely redone Chapter 1 now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
"Aww, man, that stinks!" Liberty Artlong whispered fervidly when her friend Olivia Gybczynski broke the news that she had neglected to ask her mom for permission to go to the local library, and the pizza place located down the street from the library. The girls had spoken about these plans the previous day, when Libby had revealed that the county meet that would be occurring marked the end of the track season. Today, Libby had an impending track meeting and practice which she would have cut had Olivia been able to go to get the pizza. Not even the steadily drizzling rain outside River City High School would not have made the two blonde friends cancel their plans. Libby Artlong was a sophomore and Olivia a junior, and they were both in the last class of the day, eighth period math with Dr. Quicke, a strict, slightly loopy figure whom Libby took a sadistic pleasure out of driving up a wall with her incessant chatter. Their class was unusually small for the school of 1200 students; only twelve were enrolled in eighth period math with Dr. Quicke.
"I'm so sorry, Libby, maybe we can do something tomorrow!" Olivia said, her brown eyes displaying remorse.
"I would love to, but I have a chem research paper due Tuesday... And I'm having a small slumber party Sunday into Monday, so I won't have time to do it then. I didn't exactly start the paper yet." Libby said with a sheepish smile. She was not too pleased with the prospect on doing a five- pager on the periodic tables, one of the most insipid topics Libby could imagine. They were paying no attention to the teacher's scribbling some of the day's notes concerning probability onto the blackboard, until Libby felt as if someone were staring at her. She turned her head to meet Dr. Quicke's characteristic angry glare.
"Pay attention, both of you!" Dr Quicke said. He seemed to be in a bad mood, and Libby thought she knew why. After the late bell for first period, the tall and slender blonde had been gathering her materials for English and AP Euro when she heard the noise of what seemed to be an argument down the hall. Dr. Quicke was nearby, conversing with her chemistry teacher Dr. Mandos. Infuriated, Dr. Quicke stormed down the hall with a pernicious glower etched on his chocolate face, hollering at the two imbeciles to break it up. Recognizing the danger signs of possibly being disciplined, Libby hastily wrote some of the notes on a fresh sheet of loose leaf before taking up a piece of scrap paper and writing notes with Olivia. Somehow, the subject managed to metamorphose into Libby's childhood antics. Olivia's extremely slanted, fine script and Libby's wandering chicken-scratch print covered the page with their conversation.
~I was a total delinquent as a child, Olivia! ~Lol I can imagine ;-) ~Wanna know some of the stuff I did? ~Sure! :-D ~Well, I had this one friend Libya who was also a bit of a prankster, right? ~Yeah? ~Yep. And like, there was this peach farm next door to the Apartments ~Really? Were the peaches any good? ~You bet they were, haha! I ate a lot of them.. Anyway, the said friend and I went there like all the time and stole some of the peaches and then sold them door to door. ~Lol! Were you ever caught? ~Nope, the farmer never found out who the little criminals stealing his peaches were. ~Lol! Did your mom catch you? ~Yeah. she was mad and told me she'd better not find out about my going on the farm again.. And Libya's mom said people could die from eating those peaches! ~WHAT?! Really? OMG did anything happen? ~Nope. no worm halves or poison or anything of that sort thank God. ~That's good! ~Yeah. there were unpleasant surprises sometimes though ~Like what? ~Well, the farmer's dog chased us both off the property once, and another time I accidentally put a piece of glass through my foot, surprisingly I didn't get any scars from that! ~Omg.. Yeowch! That must have really hurt! What other stuff did you guys do? ~So much.. I bet the other people expected to see detention centers in our future. I'll tell you whenever we get to go and get pizza. ~Okay! :-D Hahaha that really does sound like you Libby! :-P
Libby and Olivia were forced to stop writing when Dr. Quicke got suspicious. Libby shoved the paper under her real math notes and showed the scribbles on probability to the teacher, professing, "See, I took the notes!" Dr. Quicke just frowned and made one of his usual empty threats to Libby, something about calling her mom and complaining, or talking to Commander. When the bell rang, Libby and Olivia ascended to their feet. Libby walked with Olivia to the locker of another friend of the latter girl's. Olivia did not know why, but this seemed significant, somehow. Once Olvia had returned what she had borrowed from her friend, Libby walked with Olivia and her sister Anne to the rear entrance. When Libby had seen them out the door and turned to head back in the direction of her locker, Olivia looked
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
As ROTC class had been canceled, Libby went directly to the track coaches' office. After a brief meeting and hearing that season for her and almost the rest of the team was indeed over, Libby messed around on the internet and AIM before the brief meeting, talking with her friend Violet, who had moved further east on Long Island. After the meeting, Libby left the school to head for the library, pulling the hood of her River City sweatshirt over her head. It was unseasonably cold and rainy for May 23rd, the last day before Memorial Day weekend. By all rights she shouldn't have even been obliged to attend school that day, but the students had been forced to make up a snow day. Rolling her eyes as some obnoxious tomfool characteristic of River City called "Hey, baby!" out his car window, she turned right into the library parking lot, quickening her pace so she could get into shelter out of the rain that was most likely causing her hair to frizz out of control. She had it crimped for the day, and as it was loose save for a headband holding it out of her face, there would be no concealing a sudden attack of the frizzies.
To Libby's joy, the computer lab was virtually deserted, meaning she would be able to surf the Internet in peace without puerile chumps starting over her shoulder in an endeavor to read her e-mails or conversations. Clicking on the yellow AIM icon, she logged onto her screen name, RaspberryGal913. She was surprised to find that out of the 197 people on her buddy list, very few were online. Her friend Liz Rivers was on, like she had been in the morning, but her away message was up. Kyle Alvin's screen name KHrdCrDawg was also listed, but Libby was not in the mood to deal with her psychopath classmate, so she ignored the listed screen name. Kyle seemed to have had a crush on every member of her clique at least once, including herself. All of them save Liz at sporadic intervals found him a pestilence and tried to avoid him like the plague.
Clicking the minimize button on her AIM window, Libby proceeded to open a few more windows, entering addresses to various Lord of the Rings fan books where she avidly scrutinized small details of the book with other rabid fans, and opened her e-mail inbox on Excite. She groaned slightly at the volume of messages still in there, a consequence of her going online being a rarity lately. Twenty-six non-spam messages to sift through. Libby clicked on the one inhabiting the top of the list and began reading, intermittently jumping to other windows to post on her favorite site. She was in the middle of a post acknowledging her regrets that she didn't live at closer proximity to Hershey, Pennsylvania, when an IM popped up from Liz Rivers. Apparently she had assumed her throne in front of the computer where she practically lived.
Lizzl312005: Hey. RaspberryGal913: Hey, what's up? Lizzl312005: NM, u?
Libby winced at the redundant Internet-speak. Libby abhorred the lazy version of IM conversation with a passion, but as Liz was her friend she tolerated it.
RaspberryGal913: Not much. just being bored Lizzl312005: Same here. Lizzl312005: hey, whos coming 2 ur party anyway? RaspberryGal913: Cara and Traci. Sarah says she can't come cuz she got entirely too much schoolwork Lizzl312005: Yea she got a lot of hw RaspberryGal913: So do I, come to that.. I kind of have a researchj paper due Tuesday and I sorta kinda haven't started it yetr. RaspberryGal913: *research RaspberryGal913: *yet Lizzl312005: oh RaspberryGal913: Yeah. aargh. I'll be working like all day tomorrow on it!! Lizzl312005: Have fun RaspberryGal913: Yeah, right. School sucks hairy balls.
Libby was relieved that Liz didn't seem to be displaying more bitterness about having not been invited to the very small sleepover she was throwing on Sunday. Guest limits suck.. Haha didn't know my parties were so desirable anyways!
Lizzl312005: brb I gota pee! And eeeew ur sick! RaspberryGal913: kk
Libby X'd out of the window containing the IM exchange and went back to her post, when she was interrupted again by a tap on the shoulder. She looked up over her shoulder and found herself eye to eye with her best friend of all time, April Neverton. The Asian girl was looking slightly better than she had a few days ago.. She no longer had dark smudges beneath her eyes showing the mental strain she'd been through the last months. She was in her black faux leather jacket and pants which laced up the sides, also in black.
"Hey, April!" Libby said, with a smile. She pulled the chair from the computer next to her thanking her lucky stars the shrewish computer lab overseer was out of the room, and invited April to sit.
"What are you doing?" April inquired, eying Libby's typed words in the window of the Lord of the Rings fan site. "Oh, of course it's Lord of the Rings.. First Harry Potter, now this, what's next?"
"System of a Down.. You've gotten me addicted to that "Toxicity" CD!" Libby said with a laugh. The CD for some odd reason didn't work in her regular CD player, but it did play in her home computer, so she used that to fulfill her like for the music, deemed "too hard-core for my taste" by her friend Sarah Ross.
"Good, that's exactly what I meant to do!" April said, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing them. After a few minutes, in which Libby deleted the remainder of her e-mail and Liz did not return to her overused computer chair, the short black-haired 15-year-old asked, "Do you want to leave?"
"Sure thing," answered Libby, shaking her golden hair out of her face, and clicking the "submit" button to her final post. The two girls ascended to their feet and marched out of the library. Libby, in her eagerness to finish the post, had missed the IM signaling Liz's return, when she had said, "Hello?? Libby???" and then, "I guess you don't want to talk to me. I guess goodbye for now, then."
"You want to walk a different way?" Libby inquired. "My mom latened my curfew.. Don't have to be home until 5:30 now. It's still too early, but hey, it /is/ an improvement!"
"Okay. how about we go along the railroad tracks to the bridge and then circle around to Pulaski and then walk that way?" April suggested, ducking inside for a glance at the clock then returning outside. "It's 4:30... The train doesn't come until 4:50, we'll be fine."
"That works.. It isn't raining too bad.. Just drizzling," Libby replied agreeably, adjusting her fraying patchwork schoolbag over her shoulder. April also had her bookbag despite not having attended school since November. She kept other things like sketchbooks and poems in there instead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Upon reaching the railroad trestle, April and Libby prepared to climb down from the bridge, when Libby spotted what looked like a purpled crystal imbedded in the timber. Nudging April, Libby pointed to it.
"Hey, that looks awesome. should we try and get it out? It could come in handy." April asked, admiring the beauty of the crystal. It looked as if it were the sort of thing that could come in handy for a spell.. April was a Wiccan. She wrung her shoulder-length black hair with crimson highlight in the very front as she awaited Libby's answer.
Libby chewed her lip slightly, before replying, "sure!" She stooped to attempt to pull out the crystal. This proved fruitless for both girls; the crystal remained stubbornly stuck.
"Aargh, we need pliers or something. I'm pretty sure we have plenty of time to quickly go to my house and get a pair, it isn't even 4:50 yet I reckon, or a train certainly would have come by now," April cogitated. She wiggled the enticing crystal slightly, hoping to dislodge it.
"I guess so.. Apparently the conventional wiggle it, pull it out isn't working in this case," said Libby, throwing up her hands in defeat. She didn't care to quite the extent April did, but it was pretty and besides, her friend wanted it. "Move your hands a sec." Libby lifted her right foot, ewhich was sore from the track meet of the previous day, and attempted to use it as a lever. No good, the crystal stuck fast. Sighing, Libby slipped her bare foot- she had taken off her annoying ped socks in the morning when they kept slipping down into the backless glittery-and- rhinestoned sneakers- back into the shoe.
"That was worth a try," April said, ready to climb down the bridge with her friend to run for the pliers.
"Here's an idea- maybe we could get it out doing it at the same time? Your boots are slightly pointed in front, you can maybe wedge the toe under the crystal, your feet are pretty small. And we can both grip it and pull."
April glanced down at her slightly pointed flat boots. Libby /was/ raising a good idea. "I say we go for it.. But you'll just have to get the knees of your pants a little wet, I'm afraid." She knew Libby was loath to get any sort of wetness or dirt on the knees of her studded capris, which were among her favorite clothing items. the tracks were soggy from the steady drizzling that had persisted since mid-morning.
Groaning her discontent at the prospect, Libby reluctantly dropped to her knees with her friend next to it in an awkward sitting position with one foot wedged underneath the crystal. If any motorists were coming down the deserted street, they would roll their eyes at the sight of two teenagers bending over what would look like nothingness from the angle below them.
"On three, now," April said. A pair of pale hands and a pair of hands with the skin tone typical of Asians gripped the crystal, ready to pull. "We better watch out for unexpected falls should it come loose. one, two, THREE!" Tall blonde and short Asian alike heaved on the crystal. Suddenly, both of them felt as if an explosive force had hit them, and the world exploded into a mist of swirling colors of every part of the spectrum, circling all about them, engulfing them. To their amazement, they both acquired the sensation of their feet lifting from the ground, and they felt a sensation akin to as if they were flying. They were overcome with shock, wondering what on earth this phenomenon could be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Without warning, their feet hit the ground with such force that a burst of pain shot up Libby's right ankle, overly abused from the winter and spring track seasons as she fell over. She inhaled sharply and winced very slightly.
"Wow.. Guess we weren't expecting that." April commented, helping her friend to her feet. Libby cringed again as she gingerly put her weight on the ankle. Shin splints were a nuisance.. At least she could walk on it, it felt strong enough to support her, though it would hurt her.
"Where ARE we?" Libby asked, looking all around at the completely unfamiliar terrain.
"Hmm. good question. this is really weird. I guess there was something funny about the crystal.. Spirits in it or something," April mused contemplatively. "But whether good or bad I do not know."
"What crystal?" Libby asked, staring at April as if her shorter friend had grown an extra head.
"Crystal? It seems as if I were talking nonsense.. Those antidepressants they put me back on do that to me sometimes. And make me bitchy, so don't mind me if I ever get a funny turn or anything," April said.
Libby gave her soul mate a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. They had both been put through entirely to much these past few months. For April life had been pure hell, while Libby had felt the heavy load of the prospect of her mom and herself being made homeless dumped onto her shoulders, as the new landlord had decided to be an immoral jackass.
"Well, then. This is not good.. We dunno where we are! We're lost!" Libby groaned. She glanced all around. The area was filled with hills and they were situated on the highest one. /Definitely/ not River City, which was flat, barely above sea level, and which only had the sporadic woods and the polluted Peconic for natural landmarks. At least the main section of River City- other parts of the township had beaches and large woods, like Treading River and James Harbor. They were standing near stony walls.. This looked almost as if it were a ruins of Stonehenge or something! She also felt uncomfortably hungry.. She'd just nicked one of the lollipops out of her own fund raiser bag, plus eaten a pack of Little Debbies, for lunch. It had just been her and Claudia Jameson in the cafeteria, as Tia Teetermann had been absent. Tia and Claudia were friends of Libby's from ROTC class.
April remained silent listening to Libby groan about their being lost. She debated revealing the heavy secret she had known for two weeks, ever since she had returned to River City, that Libby had not been warned of yet, but she decided to keep it to herself. All in good time, April decided firmly. It was best that they were together in one place than both alone in separate places. They were best friends, so it was only fitting. Besides, April had let Libby "choose" the place, although her memory would be wiped of any knowledge of the said place that she possessed beforehand, as had also been revealed to April. She had been warned, and that dream had confirmed her worst fears. Only a few things were left to April to decide with this knowledge: whether to make this event a morbid coincidence or explainable by being together. At least to those not with them. this was almost like a second chance, especially for herself. The dream had been the final impetus for her decision, and had prevented her from doing anything foolish.
Suddenly, the two girls heard male voices, one deep, and the others high-pitched and squeaky. Alarmed, April pulled Libby behind a mound of rock and they impatiently waited for the sudden strangers to leave so they could step back out into the open and have a look around the premises.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The source of the voices that Libby and April were hearing was four hobbits and one man. Unbeknown to the two River City High students, the purple stone had transported them to the queer world of Middle-earth, onto the summit of the tallest of the Weather Hills, Weathertop. Two of the hobbits, a corpulent fellow named Samwise Gamgee, and a sharp-faced, hazel- eyed individual called Peregrin Took, had just returned from staking out the area and were now giving the account of their observations to Merry Brandybuck, who had rather bushy eyebrows, and the tall, cleft-chinned hobbit Frodo Baggins. Most eager for the information was the almost frighteningly tall Ranger, Aragorn, who was known as Strider to the hobbits, as he had been introduced in Bree. Aragorn sat down on a small boulder and crossed his mile-long legs listening to the tale.
"Strider, there's a spring in this area, and there were footprints!" Pippin said, wringing his hands
"And there has obviously been a recently kindled fire," Sam added, remembering the charred twigs, and then the neatly stowed firewood he had chanced to come upon. "Someone has to have been here."
"Do you reckon it may have been Gandalf, Strider?" Frodo asked, his blue eyes sparkling with an expression of hope. He wondered who else could have recently paid a visit to a premises. Black Riders were unlikely to use a fire, being not truly alive, but tormented, purely evil wraiths.
"I sure hope it was Gandalf!" Pippin said in a rather loud voice.
"Shh," Strider chastised through his teeth. "We ought to keep our voices down, exercise caution. I feel a sense of unease, and Sauron's servants could be nigh at hand. In fact, it is likely, as the trinket is here, in Frodo's pocket." The Ranger made sure to keep his voice to such a low octave that the hobbits were obliged to lean it to detect what he was stating. He wished to impress upon them the serious danger of their situation, and they certainly needed his aid and protection.
"But.. They don't know everything about the Ring and who has it, do they Strider? They can't pick out who has the Ring by sight, right?" Pippin imprudently asked, forgetting earlier adventures.
"Don't mention it!" Frodo squeaked frantically. "We don't know who's listening!"
"Frodo is corr-" Suddenly, Aragorn's voice stopped dead; he thought he had just picked up a quick intake of breath that did not belong to and of the hobbits. He listened for a few seconds, then continued, lowering his voice further. "He is correct, someone could be listening."
The next sound came not from one of the five companions speaking, but a loud, high-pitched sneeze. Aragorn jumped to his feet like lightning, his gray eyes suddenly agitated.
"Who's there?" Merry asked in a high treble, filled with sudden fright. Yet, he did not feel as he had at Bree, right before he had passed out or whatever he had done when he'd seen the Black Rider..
Aragorn's eyes fell on a stony sort of wall. He reached it in four giant steps and disappeared around the wall. The hobbits heard a faint thud, and the ringing of a sword. "Who are you two? Speak, now!" Strider's voice came from around the wall. That meant that two of- something, had been listening to possibly the entirety of their conversation. The hobbits just hoped it wouldn't prove ill for them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
After what seemed an eternity, the voices still hadn't departed. They were saying very strange things, things which sounded familiar but neither girl could seem to figure out what the words meant. Words such as "caution" and "Sauron" and ring" and "Don't mention it, we don't know who's listening!" These words meant something to Libby, but she had absolutely no clue as to the reason, or even the reasons they sounded so familiar. Libby felt herself blanch as soon as listening was mentioned. Suddenly, she felt an urge to sneeze. She raised her hand to hold her nose, but too late. She sneezed her loud, high-pitched "ACH-CHOOIE!" The unidentified people went dead silent. Libby felt as if her heart had stopped. Why couldn't that have been her squeaky sneeze? Libby had exactly two types of sneezes: the deafening one and the tiny little squirt of a sneeze. April looked at Libby, her expression clearly saying, "Now you've really done it."
"Who's there?" A high-pitched voice squealed. Before the girls could do anything, a tall man, rounded the stone and roughly jerked the two girls to their feet, causing a jolt of pain for Libby because of the sudden maltreatment to her knees. The man slammed both girls into a mound of rock and drew a long sword, holding it too close for comfort. "Who are you two? Speak, now!" Libby began shaking, wondering if the end for her and April had suddenly come just like that. April's face remained oddly stoic, Libby realized, though her stomach felt like it was flopping around inside the confines of her ribcage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author's note: So how do you like the ah, revamping of this story? Right now I'm only uploading the edited barebones, and then I'm going to develop my new idea to add to the plot of Libby and April's personal saga more. It may be a while yet until I upload a totally new chapter, so tell me if you want me to e-mail you with my progress. Feel free to post suggestions. Plus, I'll divert more focus to the canon characters, switching off POVs so that Libby and April aren't the only central characters. Expect a lot of Frodo in this phase, plus some Aragorn and some Sam. For those who have read the earlier edition, what do you think of the changes? Please enlighten me either here or after having read the later chapters. What do I need to work on more? How am I doing so far? Should I carry on or scrap this?
Disclaimer: You know those very insignificant characters that happen to appear in Tolkien's works? They're not mine. Just kidding, they're still central to the story, and I am trying to remain as true to canon as I can even with introducing what may merit the label of Mary-Sues into the story. I assure you, there shall be no romances between people of inappropriate age gaps. Arwen and Aragorn are, of course, the exception (and Arwen is NOT the one who helps Frodo at the Ford!) to this rule, because that is canon. I even consider the gap between Pippin's 29 years and Libby's 16 to be disgusting, so no romance. Give me a very slow painful death if I ever go back on this vow I am swearing here. I give my word that this won't be the "traditional" Mary-Sue. Libby and April are friends, not potential gamete- sharers. They aren't your prissy Mary-Sue, nor the overtly "heroic" ones. They're just your average, if not slightly aloof, teenagers of the 21st century. Nor do any LotR canon characters come onto them.. they are not pedophiles. I do not wish to make Tolkien roll over in his grave like so many other Mary-Sue writers do. Perhaps some may even deem me to be using too harsh a term like Mary-Sue, but for the more cynical authors and authoresses like myself, I shan't give any bull such as "This is not a Mary- Sue, even if two girls are dumped into Middle-Earth" in my summary. My goal is to have others say this isn't a Mary-Sue, not to say that myself. Good day to you. I shall start the completely redone Chapter 1 now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
"Aww, man, that stinks!" Liberty Artlong whispered fervidly when her friend Olivia Gybczynski broke the news that she had neglected to ask her mom for permission to go to the local library, and the pizza place located down the street from the library. The girls had spoken about these plans the previous day, when Libby had revealed that the county meet that would be occurring marked the end of the track season. Today, Libby had an impending track meeting and practice which she would have cut had Olivia been able to go to get the pizza. Not even the steadily drizzling rain outside River City High School would not have made the two blonde friends cancel their plans. Libby Artlong was a sophomore and Olivia a junior, and they were both in the last class of the day, eighth period math with Dr. Quicke, a strict, slightly loopy figure whom Libby took a sadistic pleasure out of driving up a wall with her incessant chatter. Their class was unusually small for the school of 1200 students; only twelve were enrolled in eighth period math with Dr. Quicke.
"I'm so sorry, Libby, maybe we can do something tomorrow!" Olivia said, her brown eyes displaying remorse.
"I would love to, but I have a chem research paper due Tuesday... And I'm having a small slumber party Sunday into Monday, so I won't have time to do it then. I didn't exactly start the paper yet." Libby said with a sheepish smile. She was not too pleased with the prospect on doing a five- pager on the periodic tables, one of the most insipid topics Libby could imagine. They were paying no attention to the teacher's scribbling some of the day's notes concerning probability onto the blackboard, until Libby felt as if someone were staring at her. She turned her head to meet Dr. Quicke's characteristic angry glare.
"Pay attention, both of you!" Dr Quicke said. He seemed to be in a bad mood, and Libby thought she knew why. After the late bell for first period, the tall and slender blonde had been gathering her materials for English and AP Euro when she heard the noise of what seemed to be an argument down the hall. Dr. Quicke was nearby, conversing with her chemistry teacher Dr. Mandos. Infuriated, Dr. Quicke stormed down the hall with a pernicious glower etched on his chocolate face, hollering at the two imbeciles to break it up. Recognizing the danger signs of possibly being disciplined, Libby hastily wrote some of the notes on a fresh sheet of loose leaf before taking up a piece of scrap paper and writing notes with Olivia. Somehow, the subject managed to metamorphose into Libby's childhood antics. Olivia's extremely slanted, fine script and Libby's wandering chicken-scratch print covered the page with their conversation.
~I was a total delinquent as a child, Olivia! ~Lol I can imagine ;-) ~Wanna know some of the stuff I did? ~Sure! :-D ~Well, I had this one friend Libya who was also a bit of a prankster, right? ~Yeah? ~Yep. And like, there was this peach farm next door to the Apartments ~Really? Were the peaches any good? ~You bet they were, haha! I ate a lot of them.. Anyway, the said friend and I went there like all the time and stole some of the peaches and then sold them door to door. ~Lol! Were you ever caught? ~Nope, the farmer never found out who the little criminals stealing his peaches were. ~Lol! Did your mom catch you? ~Yeah. she was mad and told me she'd better not find out about my going on the farm again.. And Libya's mom said people could die from eating those peaches! ~WHAT?! Really? OMG did anything happen? ~Nope. no worm halves or poison or anything of that sort thank God. ~That's good! ~Yeah. there were unpleasant surprises sometimes though ~Like what? ~Well, the farmer's dog chased us both off the property once, and another time I accidentally put a piece of glass through my foot, surprisingly I didn't get any scars from that! ~Omg.. Yeowch! That must have really hurt! What other stuff did you guys do? ~So much.. I bet the other people expected to see detention centers in our future. I'll tell you whenever we get to go and get pizza. ~Okay! :-D Hahaha that really does sound like you Libby! :-P
Libby and Olivia were forced to stop writing when Dr. Quicke got suspicious. Libby shoved the paper under her real math notes and showed the scribbles on probability to the teacher, professing, "See, I took the notes!" Dr. Quicke just frowned and made one of his usual empty threats to Libby, something about calling her mom and complaining, or talking to Commander. When the bell rang, Libby and Olivia ascended to their feet. Libby walked with Olivia to the locker of another friend of the latter girl's. Olivia did not know why, but this seemed significant, somehow. Once Olvia had returned what she had borrowed from her friend, Libby walked with Olivia and her sister Anne to the rear entrance. When Libby had seen them out the door and turned to head back in the direction of her locker, Olivia looked
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
As ROTC class had been canceled, Libby went directly to the track coaches' office. After a brief meeting and hearing that season for her and almost the rest of the team was indeed over, Libby messed around on the internet and AIM before the brief meeting, talking with her friend Violet, who had moved further east on Long Island. After the meeting, Libby left the school to head for the library, pulling the hood of her River City sweatshirt over her head. It was unseasonably cold and rainy for May 23rd, the last day before Memorial Day weekend. By all rights she shouldn't have even been obliged to attend school that day, but the students had been forced to make up a snow day. Rolling her eyes as some obnoxious tomfool characteristic of River City called "Hey, baby!" out his car window, she turned right into the library parking lot, quickening her pace so she could get into shelter out of the rain that was most likely causing her hair to frizz out of control. She had it crimped for the day, and as it was loose save for a headband holding it out of her face, there would be no concealing a sudden attack of the frizzies.
To Libby's joy, the computer lab was virtually deserted, meaning she would be able to surf the Internet in peace without puerile chumps starting over her shoulder in an endeavor to read her e-mails or conversations. Clicking on the yellow AIM icon, she logged onto her screen name, RaspberryGal913. She was surprised to find that out of the 197 people on her buddy list, very few were online. Her friend Liz Rivers was on, like she had been in the morning, but her away message was up. Kyle Alvin's screen name KHrdCrDawg was also listed, but Libby was not in the mood to deal with her psychopath classmate, so she ignored the listed screen name. Kyle seemed to have had a crush on every member of her clique at least once, including herself. All of them save Liz at sporadic intervals found him a pestilence and tried to avoid him like the plague.
Clicking the minimize button on her AIM window, Libby proceeded to open a few more windows, entering addresses to various Lord of the Rings fan books where she avidly scrutinized small details of the book with other rabid fans, and opened her e-mail inbox on Excite. She groaned slightly at the volume of messages still in there, a consequence of her going online being a rarity lately. Twenty-six non-spam messages to sift through. Libby clicked on the one inhabiting the top of the list and began reading, intermittently jumping to other windows to post on her favorite site. She was in the middle of a post acknowledging her regrets that she didn't live at closer proximity to Hershey, Pennsylvania, when an IM popped up from Liz Rivers. Apparently she had assumed her throne in front of the computer where she practically lived.
Lizzl312005: Hey. RaspberryGal913: Hey, what's up? Lizzl312005: NM, u?
Libby winced at the redundant Internet-speak. Libby abhorred the lazy version of IM conversation with a passion, but as Liz was her friend she tolerated it.
RaspberryGal913: Not much. just being bored Lizzl312005: Same here. Lizzl312005: hey, whos coming 2 ur party anyway? RaspberryGal913: Cara and Traci. Sarah says she can't come cuz she got entirely too much schoolwork Lizzl312005: Yea she got a lot of hw RaspberryGal913: So do I, come to that.. I kind of have a researchj paper due Tuesday and I sorta kinda haven't started it yetr. RaspberryGal913: *research RaspberryGal913: *yet Lizzl312005: oh RaspberryGal913: Yeah. aargh. I'll be working like all day tomorrow on it!! Lizzl312005: Have fun RaspberryGal913: Yeah, right. School sucks hairy balls.
Libby was relieved that Liz didn't seem to be displaying more bitterness about having not been invited to the very small sleepover she was throwing on Sunday. Guest limits suck.. Haha didn't know my parties were so desirable anyways!
Lizzl312005: brb I gota pee! And eeeew ur sick! RaspberryGal913: kk
Libby X'd out of the window containing the IM exchange and went back to her post, when she was interrupted again by a tap on the shoulder. She looked up over her shoulder and found herself eye to eye with her best friend of all time, April Neverton. The Asian girl was looking slightly better than she had a few days ago.. She no longer had dark smudges beneath her eyes showing the mental strain she'd been through the last months. She was in her black faux leather jacket and pants which laced up the sides, also in black.
"Hey, April!" Libby said, with a smile. She pulled the chair from the computer next to her thanking her lucky stars the shrewish computer lab overseer was out of the room, and invited April to sit.
"What are you doing?" April inquired, eying Libby's typed words in the window of the Lord of the Rings fan site. "Oh, of course it's Lord of the Rings.. First Harry Potter, now this, what's next?"
"System of a Down.. You've gotten me addicted to that "Toxicity" CD!" Libby said with a laugh. The CD for some odd reason didn't work in her regular CD player, but it did play in her home computer, so she used that to fulfill her like for the music, deemed "too hard-core for my taste" by her friend Sarah Ross.
"Good, that's exactly what I meant to do!" April said, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing them. After a few minutes, in which Libby deleted the remainder of her e-mail and Liz did not return to her overused computer chair, the short black-haired 15-year-old asked, "Do you want to leave?"
"Sure thing," answered Libby, shaking her golden hair out of her face, and clicking the "submit" button to her final post. The two girls ascended to their feet and marched out of the library. Libby, in her eagerness to finish the post, had missed the IM signaling Liz's return, when she had said, "Hello?? Libby???" and then, "I guess you don't want to talk to me. I guess goodbye for now, then."
"You want to walk a different way?" Libby inquired. "My mom latened my curfew.. Don't have to be home until 5:30 now. It's still too early, but hey, it /is/ an improvement!"
"Okay. how about we go along the railroad tracks to the bridge and then circle around to Pulaski and then walk that way?" April suggested, ducking inside for a glance at the clock then returning outside. "It's 4:30... The train doesn't come until 4:50, we'll be fine."
"That works.. It isn't raining too bad.. Just drizzling," Libby replied agreeably, adjusting her fraying patchwork schoolbag over her shoulder. April also had her bookbag despite not having attended school since November. She kept other things like sketchbooks and poems in there instead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Upon reaching the railroad trestle, April and Libby prepared to climb down from the bridge, when Libby spotted what looked like a purpled crystal imbedded in the timber. Nudging April, Libby pointed to it.
"Hey, that looks awesome. should we try and get it out? It could come in handy." April asked, admiring the beauty of the crystal. It looked as if it were the sort of thing that could come in handy for a spell.. April was a Wiccan. She wrung her shoulder-length black hair with crimson highlight in the very front as she awaited Libby's answer.
Libby chewed her lip slightly, before replying, "sure!" She stooped to attempt to pull out the crystal. This proved fruitless for both girls; the crystal remained stubbornly stuck.
"Aargh, we need pliers or something. I'm pretty sure we have plenty of time to quickly go to my house and get a pair, it isn't even 4:50 yet I reckon, or a train certainly would have come by now," April cogitated. She wiggled the enticing crystal slightly, hoping to dislodge it.
"I guess so.. Apparently the conventional wiggle it, pull it out isn't working in this case," said Libby, throwing up her hands in defeat. She didn't care to quite the extent April did, but it was pretty and besides, her friend wanted it. "Move your hands a sec." Libby lifted her right foot, ewhich was sore from the track meet of the previous day, and attempted to use it as a lever. No good, the crystal stuck fast. Sighing, Libby slipped her bare foot- she had taken off her annoying ped socks in the morning when they kept slipping down into the backless glittery-and- rhinestoned sneakers- back into the shoe.
"That was worth a try," April said, ready to climb down the bridge with her friend to run for the pliers.
"Here's an idea- maybe we could get it out doing it at the same time? Your boots are slightly pointed in front, you can maybe wedge the toe under the crystal, your feet are pretty small. And we can both grip it and pull."
April glanced down at her slightly pointed flat boots. Libby /was/ raising a good idea. "I say we go for it.. But you'll just have to get the knees of your pants a little wet, I'm afraid." She knew Libby was loath to get any sort of wetness or dirt on the knees of her studded capris, which were among her favorite clothing items. the tracks were soggy from the steady drizzling that had persisted since mid-morning.
Groaning her discontent at the prospect, Libby reluctantly dropped to her knees with her friend next to it in an awkward sitting position with one foot wedged underneath the crystal. If any motorists were coming down the deserted street, they would roll their eyes at the sight of two teenagers bending over what would look like nothingness from the angle below them.
"On three, now," April said. A pair of pale hands and a pair of hands with the skin tone typical of Asians gripped the crystal, ready to pull. "We better watch out for unexpected falls should it come loose. one, two, THREE!" Tall blonde and short Asian alike heaved on the crystal. Suddenly, both of them felt as if an explosive force had hit them, and the world exploded into a mist of swirling colors of every part of the spectrum, circling all about them, engulfing them. To their amazement, they both acquired the sensation of their feet lifting from the ground, and they felt a sensation akin to as if they were flying. They were overcome with shock, wondering what on earth this phenomenon could be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Without warning, their feet hit the ground with such force that a burst of pain shot up Libby's right ankle, overly abused from the winter and spring track seasons as she fell over. She inhaled sharply and winced very slightly.
"Wow.. Guess we weren't expecting that." April commented, helping her friend to her feet. Libby cringed again as she gingerly put her weight on the ankle. Shin splints were a nuisance.. At least she could walk on it, it felt strong enough to support her, though it would hurt her.
"Where ARE we?" Libby asked, looking all around at the completely unfamiliar terrain.
"Hmm. good question. this is really weird. I guess there was something funny about the crystal.. Spirits in it or something," April mused contemplatively. "But whether good or bad I do not know."
"What crystal?" Libby asked, staring at April as if her shorter friend had grown an extra head.
"Crystal? It seems as if I were talking nonsense.. Those antidepressants they put me back on do that to me sometimes. And make me bitchy, so don't mind me if I ever get a funny turn or anything," April said.
Libby gave her soul mate a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. They had both been put through entirely to much these past few months. For April life had been pure hell, while Libby had felt the heavy load of the prospect of her mom and herself being made homeless dumped onto her shoulders, as the new landlord had decided to be an immoral jackass.
"Well, then. This is not good.. We dunno where we are! We're lost!" Libby groaned. She glanced all around. The area was filled with hills and they were situated on the highest one. /Definitely/ not River City, which was flat, barely above sea level, and which only had the sporadic woods and the polluted Peconic for natural landmarks. At least the main section of River City- other parts of the township had beaches and large woods, like Treading River and James Harbor. They were standing near stony walls.. This looked almost as if it were a ruins of Stonehenge or something! She also felt uncomfortably hungry.. She'd just nicked one of the lollipops out of her own fund raiser bag, plus eaten a pack of Little Debbies, for lunch. It had just been her and Claudia Jameson in the cafeteria, as Tia Teetermann had been absent. Tia and Claudia were friends of Libby's from ROTC class.
April remained silent listening to Libby groan about their being lost. She debated revealing the heavy secret she had known for two weeks, ever since she had returned to River City, that Libby had not been warned of yet, but she decided to keep it to herself. All in good time, April decided firmly. It was best that they were together in one place than both alone in separate places. They were best friends, so it was only fitting. Besides, April had let Libby "choose" the place, although her memory would be wiped of any knowledge of the said place that she possessed beforehand, as had also been revealed to April. She had been warned, and that dream had confirmed her worst fears. Only a few things were left to April to decide with this knowledge: whether to make this event a morbid coincidence or explainable by being together. At least to those not with them. this was almost like a second chance, especially for herself. The dream had been the final impetus for her decision, and had prevented her from doing anything foolish.
Suddenly, the two girls heard male voices, one deep, and the others high-pitched and squeaky. Alarmed, April pulled Libby behind a mound of rock and they impatiently waited for the sudden strangers to leave so they could step back out into the open and have a look around the premises.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The source of the voices that Libby and April were hearing was four hobbits and one man. Unbeknown to the two River City High students, the purple stone had transported them to the queer world of Middle-earth, onto the summit of the tallest of the Weather Hills, Weathertop. Two of the hobbits, a corpulent fellow named Samwise Gamgee, and a sharp-faced, hazel- eyed individual called Peregrin Took, had just returned from staking out the area and were now giving the account of their observations to Merry Brandybuck, who had rather bushy eyebrows, and the tall, cleft-chinned hobbit Frodo Baggins. Most eager for the information was the almost frighteningly tall Ranger, Aragorn, who was known as Strider to the hobbits, as he had been introduced in Bree. Aragorn sat down on a small boulder and crossed his mile-long legs listening to the tale.
"Strider, there's a spring in this area, and there were footprints!" Pippin said, wringing his hands
"And there has obviously been a recently kindled fire," Sam added, remembering the charred twigs, and then the neatly stowed firewood he had chanced to come upon. "Someone has to have been here."
"Do you reckon it may have been Gandalf, Strider?" Frodo asked, his blue eyes sparkling with an expression of hope. He wondered who else could have recently paid a visit to a premises. Black Riders were unlikely to use a fire, being not truly alive, but tormented, purely evil wraiths.
"I sure hope it was Gandalf!" Pippin said in a rather loud voice.
"Shh," Strider chastised through his teeth. "We ought to keep our voices down, exercise caution. I feel a sense of unease, and Sauron's servants could be nigh at hand. In fact, it is likely, as the trinket is here, in Frodo's pocket." The Ranger made sure to keep his voice to such a low octave that the hobbits were obliged to lean it to detect what he was stating. He wished to impress upon them the serious danger of their situation, and they certainly needed his aid and protection.
"But.. They don't know everything about the Ring and who has it, do they Strider? They can't pick out who has the Ring by sight, right?" Pippin imprudently asked, forgetting earlier adventures.
"Don't mention it!" Frodo squeaked frantically. "We don't know who's listening!"
"Frodo is corr-" Suddenly, Aragorn's voice stopped dead; he thought he had just picked up a quick intake of breath that did not belong to and of the hobbits. He listened for a few seconds, then continued, lowering his voice further. "He is correct, someone could be listening."
The next sound came not from one of the five companions speaking, but a loud, high-pitched sneeze. Aragorn jumped to his feet like lightning, his gray eyes suddenly agitated.
"Who's there?" Merry asked in a high treble, filled with sudden fright. Yet, he did not feel as he had at Bree, right before he had passed out or whatever he had done when he'd seen the Black Rider..
Aragorn's eyes fell on a stony sort of wall. He reached it in four giant steps and disappeared around the wall. The hobbits heard a faint thud, and the ringing of a sword. "Who are you two? Speak, now!" Strider's voice came from around the wall. That meant that two of- something, had been listening to possibly the entirety of their conversation. The hobbits just hoped it wouldn't prove ill for them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
After what seemed an eternity, the voices still hadn't departed. They were saying very strange things, things which sounded familiar but neither girl could seem to figure out what the words meant. Words such as "caution" and "Sauron" and ring" and "Don't mention it, we don't know who's listening!" These words meant something to Libby, but she had absolutely no clue as to the reason, or even the reasons they sounded so familiar. Libby felt herself blanch as soon as listening was mentioned. Suddenly, she felt an urge to sneeze. She raised her hand to hold her nose, but too late. She sneezed her loud, high-pitched "ACH-CHOOIE!" The unidentified people went dead silent. Libby felt as if her heart had stopped. Why couldn't that have been her squeaky sneeze? Libby had exactly two types of sneezes: the deafening one and the tiny little squirt of a sneeze. April looked at Libby, her expression clearly saying, "Now you've really done it."
"Who's there?" A high-pitched voice squealed. Before the girls could do anything, a tall man, rounded the stone and roughly jerked the two girls to their feet, causing a jolt of pain for Libby because of the sudden maltreatment to her knees. The man slammed both girls into a mound of rock and drew a long sword, holding it too close for comfort. "Who are you two? Speak, now!" Libby began shaking, wondering if the end for her and April had suddenly come just like that. April's face remained oddly stoic, Libby realized, though her stomach felt like it was flopping around inside the confines of her ribcage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author's note: So how do you like the ah, revamping of this story? Right now I'm only uploading the edited barebones, and then I'm going to develop my new idea to add to the plot of Libby and April's personal saga more. It may be a while yet until I upload a totally new chapter, so tell me if you want me to e-mail you with my progress. Feel free to post suggestions. Plus, I'll divert more focus to the canon characters, switching off POVs so that Libby and April aren't the only central characters. Expect a lot of Frodo in this phase, plus some Aragorn and some Sam. For those who have read the earlier edition, what do you think of the changes? Please enlighten me either here or after having read the later chapters. What do I need to work on more? How am I doing so far? Should I carry on or scrap this?