SUMMARY

18-year-old Akiko completely reinvents herself after the war between her Japanese and Western cultures leads her to leave her home and traditional mother. Armed with tattoos, piercings, and a bad attitude, she finds herself living in LA until an accident lands her in Middle Earth. But this isn't the same story her father read to her.

After finding out she can never return home, Akiko learns she is something called a Gift. Someone who possess magic but was born into a non-magical world. She must overcome her past and face adversity far greater than she ever thought possible. All while on a quest to slay a dragon, and win back a mountain.

STORY

Akiko groaned at the loud beep beep beep of her alarm clock. She hated working on Saturdays. Fumbling for the off switch her hand knocked the evil device onto the floor and under her bed.

"Fuck!" She grabbed the cord and ripped it out of the wall just as her neighbor started pounding from the other side.

"IT'S OFF! STOP YOUR FUCKING HISSY FIT ASSHOLE!"

The only response was one last bang as Akiko stumbled to the toilet. She hated her studio apartment almost as much as she hated working on Saturdays but living in LA wasn't cheap and this was the best she could afford without looking for a roommate. At least it wasn't that shelter she had been living in six months ago. That place had been hell with all the druggies and hookers she had been forced to share a dorm with. Not that there weren't some nice people too but they found jobs and got out as fast as they could just like her.

She nearly tripped over the footstool she kept at the sink to see the mirror when she went to wash her hands. Being only 4 foot 10 inches tall was a big problem in the job hunt after high school. Almost nobody had believed she was old enough to be looking for a job and when she had first shown up at the shelter a year ago they had tried to put her back into the system. It had taken the local CPS office days to work it all out. She was 17 and graduated from high school so they had let her slide.

Akiko was sure they just didn't want to try to force her to stay with some family or in a group home for only a few months and risk her running away again. In the two years, she had been in the system she had run away thirteen times. But all the homes were just as bad or worse than living with her mother back in Japan. At first, the workers had wanted to send her back to her mother but as soon as the bitch saw she had gotten a tattoo after running away for the first time she wouldn't take her back and with no other family, she had been placed. Akiko had broken every rule at every home she possibly could and either ended up running away again or was kicked out. In the process, she had accrued twenty-one piercings and five different tattoos. She was a CPS nightmare. None of the caseworkers wanted her and after they couldn't find homes to take her they had tried group homes which she only ran from sooner.

Quickly applying her makeup Akiko couldn't help but stare at her silver-blue eyes like she did every morning. They reminded her of her dad. She had inherited his eye and hair color. Once when she was younger, before he died, she had been proud to have them. He had told her it just made her all the more beautiful. She was that pretty little Japanese girl with the silvery eyes and pale blond hair. Now at 18 almost 8 years since his death she could only feel sadness seeing them looking back at her from the dirty cracked mirror. When her mother had moved them back to Japan after the funeral her favorite part of her looks had become the reasons she was bullied. And her mother had changed making it worse. She expected Akiko to be like the other girls, her grandmother had wanted the traditional demur granddaughter. Akiko was none of those things and life became almost too much. At fifteen Akiko left never to return. She forced her thought towards the day ahead. The past was over time to focus on now.

She grabbed her old army surplus store backpack and checked to make sure her wallet, extra jewelry (in case she lost one at any point) and a spare pair of clothes were in it before tossing in her cell phone and heading out the door coffee in hand.

"Hey there girly!"

Akiko flinched at the high pitched voice of Krista greeting her as she walked through the door to the self-defense studio they both worked in.

"Kris, one of these days I'm going to throw my fucking coffee at you."

"AWWW! I love you too Ko!" Krista bounced over and hugged her.

"How can you be so awake and happy at 7 AM on a Saturday?"

"Oh, you know me. I love the morning. And It's SPRING! The days will be getting longer. And maybe I can finally get you out of those dark clothes! You know you look like a vampire most the time right?"

Akiko turned her friend out. Krista was a talker. The two were polar opposites despite having both spent time in foster care. The bubbly strawberry blond had it way worse growing up than she ever had and was probably the sunniest person Akiko ever met. The day moved quickly Akiko was set helping teach the classes since her small frame showed that self-defense really did work. At closing time Krista was going on about the latest Hobbit movie.

"I heard that all three die in the end." She whispered it like it was some big secret.

"The book was written in the 30's Kris. Everybody knows they die."

"Wow, you are cold Ko. An entire family is destroyed!"

"An entire fake family."

"Ok true but are you going to come watch it with me?"

"You know I haven't seen the first two yet, besides I have a hair appointment. The green is almost gone and it's getting too long again."

"It's only to your shoulders."

"Yep too long. I'm going to get an under the cut. Go with cherry blossoms on branches and do blue and purple for the longer part."

"Well, do whatever makes you happy crazy lady. I have a date with a large popcorn and soda at the 9 PM showing." Kris blew her a kiss and walked away. Akiko headed off to her hair appointment.

Akiko was making her way home from the salon after getting her hair cut. The cherry blossoms in branches covered nearly one half her head. The other half was all layers of bright purple and blue that barely reached her chin. She felt the new cut showed off her different piercings very nicely at least the visible ones. She made her way to the subway ready to be home. Her appointment had run long and it was well past dark by now. She checked her phone. Krista had texted her a kissy face. The girl was nuts sometimes. Akiko sent back a short reply before putting the phone back in her bag. Thunder rumbled overhead as the rain started to pour forcing Akiko to pull her hood up.

"Hey!" a larger body slammed into her knocking her down. She tripped over the back of her leather trench coat the heel of her boot getting snagged and stopping her from catching herself before she ended up in the street. The last thing she saw were headlights coming at her before pain exploded through her body and the last thought she had before everything went dark was how pissed Krista was going to be when she didn't show up for their girls day out.

It was still raining at a light drizzle when Akiko woke. It took her several long minutes to pry her eyes open. She was face down the smell wet of earth was heavy in her nostrils. The pain was the next thing to make itself known. Akiko groaned into the earth as she took slow deep breaths taking stock of her body. She breathed a sigh of relief when nothing shifted wrong. It took more effort then she would ever admit to get to her feet and look around.

"What the fuck?" She was in a forest. It looked to be an old forest too. The trees were large and the undergrowth looked to be mostly untouched. What happened to LA? Was she abducted after she fell? Why didn't someone take her to the hospital? She looked around frantically for her backpack and spotted it just a few feet from where she had woken up. Yanking it off the ground she hissed in pain as she dug through it for her cell phone. Her ribs were defiantly bruised she thought maybe even cracked. Finally finding her phone she pressed the power button and found no signal. She tossed it back in her bag with an angry snort. Ok, plan B time.

"Hello? Hey! Anybody out there?" She started looking around trying to spot anything in the gathering darkness. That didn't make sense either. It was dark when she had been in LA but the sun was still going down here, where ever here was. How long had she been out? She started walking hoping to find some kind of help. Akiko had no idea how long she had been wandering before she spotted the flickering of a fire. She stumbled forward tripping over what she thought must be every stick and root in the whole damned forest.

"Stupid fucking trees. Stupid fucking nature. When I find whoever dropped me in this fucking forest I'm going to kick their ass so hard their grandparents are going to wish they never met." Her rant was cut short as her foot missed finding firm ground. She let out a shriek as she fell yet again. This time she found herself rolling down a hill right into the clearing with the fire. The smell alone was enough to make her gag. When she looked up there were three large grayish creatures in front of her.

"Blimey! Bert, it's a female!"

They could talk? Better yet what were they? She had to be having a coma dream or something.

"Ohhhh she'll go perfect with the rest! Grab her!"

Akiko screamed as one made a grab for her and real or not she didn't want it touching her. Her sore body wasn't fast enough to completely avoid the hand coming at her. She grunted as the creature knocked her sideways, making her already painfully sore ribs throb, into a wriggling mass of brown sacks. She was quickly snatched up and stuffed into her own sack. When she was tossed back down with the rest her head smacked hard against something hard making lights pop in behind her eyelids. There were voices yelling all around her but she was finding it hard to concentrate with her head throbbing. Bits and pieces came to her. But none of it made any sense.

"The dawn will take you all!"

There was more yelling as she faded out.

Thorin was seething tied up in the trolls sack. This was all the hobbits fault he thought while gritting teeth. Thorin started straining against the bonds holding him when a sudden cry drew the attention of everyone. I short slim figure fell into the clearing.

"Blimey! Bert, it's a female!" Yelled the largest one.

"Ohhhh she'll go perfect with the rest! Grab her!"

That one must be Bert. It made to catch what Thorin thought must be a child. She was far to slim to be a dwarf and short to be an elf or grown woman. She was too slow to avoid the trolls and ended up in a sack like the rest of them. When they tossed her down into the pile the back of her head connected with the metal toe of Dwalin boot. He caught a flash of color from under her hood.

"Why bother cooking them? Let's just sit on them and squash them into jelly." Thorin's attention was drawn back to the problem at hand.

"They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage. And the female will make a nice sauce on top."

"Ooh, that does sound quite nice. But are you sure she's enough to make a sauce? She looks really tiny."

"Never mind the seasoning; we ain't got all night! Dawn ain't far away, so let's get a move on. I don't fancy being turned to stone."

"Wait! You are making a terrible mistake." Thorin winced as the hobbit got to his feet and started hopping over to the beasts.

"You can't reason with them, they're half-wits!"

"Half-wits? What does that make us?"

He wanted to smack Bofur. This was not going to end well. Where was that bloody wizard?

"I meant with the, uh, with the seasoning."

"What about the seasoning?" One of them was leaning down and eyeing the Hobbit very closely.
"Well, have you smelt them? You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up."

What? He was going to kill that hobbit. It seemed he wasn't the only one. The others were all calling him a traitor.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?"

"Shut up. Let the, uh, flurgaburburrahobbit talk."

"Uh, the secret to cooking dwarf is, um-"

"Yes, Come on, tell us the secret."

"Um, yes, I'm telling you, the secret is … to skin them first!"

And more shouting. Thorin heard a pained moan from the girl. He shifted trying to hide her knowing it was more than likely to fail but he couldn't help himself. She shouldn't have even been this far into the forest, to begin with, and no dwarf worth his stones would let any female come to harm if he could prevent it.

"Tom, get me the filleting knife."

"What a load of rubbish! I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scuff them, I say, boots and all."

"He's right! Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf! Nice and crunchy." Thorin shouted along with the rest as Bombur was grabbed up and dangled over one's mouth.

"Not that one, he's infected!"

"You what?"

"He's got worms in his … tubes."

Thorin managed to curl himself around the girl just enough to keep her from being squashed under the large round dwarf. She whimpered again as they were jostled about. There had to be injuries other than the one on her head. He wondered what had happened to her before ending up here.

"In fact they all have it, they're all infested with parasites. It's a terrible business; I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't."

"Parasites, did he say parasites?"

"We don't have parasites! You have parasites!"

It dawned on Thorin just what the hobbit was doing when he saw the sky was getting lighter. He kicked out and heard a grunt from whomever he hit. They all seemed to catch on after that.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm." How did Oin do that? One moment he couldn't hear someone shouting into his trumpet and the next he was right in the middle of a conversation hearing every detail.

"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!" Leave it to his youngest nephew to try and outdo the rest even with something like parasites.

"What would you have us do, then, let 'em all go?"

"Well…" The hobbit hesitated.

"You think I don't know what you're up to? This little ferret is taking us for fools!"

"Ferret?"

"Fools?"

Movement caught the dwarf kings attention over near a large boulder. Gandalf was finally there to help. He climbed upon the boulder and brought his staff down on it with a resounding crack.

"The dawn will take you all!"

"Who's that?"

"No idea."

"Can we eat him too?"

The trolls shrieked and writhed as they turned to stone in the first rays of morning sun. Once free from his sack Thorin turned his attention to the girl. He gently cut her from the sack she had been forced into. The bright colors peeking from under her hood once again caught his eye. He frowned as he moved her around pulling the hood from her head.

"Gandalf!" He quickly moved away from the girl with her strange hair and piercings in her ears and face. Why did she have so many piercings? Dwarves were superstitious by nature and this girl defiantly wasn't the norm. "What is she, wizard?"

"I'm not sure and until she comes too we can't ask her. For now, let's have Oin take a look at her head."

While the old healer took a look at her Thorin and the rest headed off in search of the troll cave. There was only a small lump but there were other injuries on her body the worst being the bruising that covered half her torso. She looked like she had been through a lot before ending up here. One thing was certain she was no child. There was a good deal of noise going one when another wizard showed up but with the female's injuries, Oin kept his concentration on her. Then there was a howl far to close for comfort.

"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?"

"Wolves? No, that is not a wolf."

Oin was quick to right her clothes as a Warg burst from the trees only to be taken down quickly by Thorin's new sword. Another was taken down by Kili and his bow.

"Warg-Scouts! Which means an Orc pack is not far behind." Thorin was furious.

"Orc pack?" The hobbit sounded unsure.

"Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?" The wizard was in his face now.

"No one."

"Who did you tell?"

"No one, I swear! What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted."

"We have to get out of here." Dwalin was right.

"We can't! We have no ponies; they bolted."

"I'll draw them off." The wizard in brown was braver then he looked.

"These are Gundobad Warg's; they will outrun you."

"These are Rhosgobel Rabbits; I'd like to see them try." A demented smile was on his face now. Were all wizards insane?

"Thorin she's still out." Oin had gathered her bag as he called across the clearing after the brown wizard disappeared.

The King in Exile let out a string of Khuzdul curses before lifting her into his arms and starting to run. She was lighter then he was comfortable with, dams were made far more sturdy. But at least he could carry her in one arm and fight if need be. They had been running over rough terrain for what felt like ages when he could feel her starting to stir and leaned her against a rock when they were able to stop for a moment. Her eyelids fluttered open and she blinked a few times before locking a pair of stunning silver-blue orbs onto his darker blue ones. Such strange colored eyes.

"Can you run?" he demanded as she forced herself to her feet, and out of his reach.

"W-what?"

"Can you run? Or do I need to keep carrying you girl?"

"No. I can run"

She was strong he would give her that. Thorin nodded grabbing her hand and turned to keep running. Soon they were cornered and the wizard was gone. He shoved the girl behind him. Strange as she appeared he wasn't going to let them harm her.