Disclaimer: Don't own LOTR or anything Middle-Earth related. Bah. The only thing I own is my original cast of characters. So don't sue me, I make no money off of this.
Some background information for this fic: Thranduil is if you probably know by now, the son of Oropher. However seeing as Oropher's parents are not listed, I am going to list Oropher as a grand-son of Elmo (brother of King Thingol of Doriath, at least making Oropher a Lord among the Sindar). They have left Doriath and end up located in Lindon when Thranduil ends up missing. This will show up later.
A/N: I'm not sure how often I will update this story, this is more for me to relax and regain some ideas while writing Blaze & Fade Out (and plotting out Game Over). This is a middle-earth character 'falls' into our world.
Just to get this out of the way: Melissa is a human psychic with empathy, some premonitions, and the ability to 'speak' to spirits and at times see the 'unseen' world (but not all the time). She cannot fight, she cannot sing, and while her home life is far from perfect, she has no tragic back story either. She works at Dunkin Donuts as a shift leader, still lives at home, while she attends college part time. Melissa can dance and she can write, but her ability to draw has gone away. She loves to run, hike, and bike, and her goal is to hike the entire Appalachian trail, graduate to become a nurse, and eventually join up with Peace Corp. Tolkien's work exists in her world too. So if you do not like these details about the character, there's the door. Leave. Romance takes a while to build up to.
As I said, this is my stress relief fic. I need something to write that I am not constantly researching and referring back to materials and characters and trying to think of how to portray said characters.
Between Two Points – Glitch Mob
We've got forever / Slipping through our hands / We've got more time / To Never Understand
Falling Footsteps / Weighing heavy on me
Behind darkness / Beneath Candles / Whispers waltz / Around our dreams
The shortest distance / between two points / is the line / from me to you
Feet turning black / is this the path we must walk? / No turning back / Wish I could just hear you talk
Can something like this be pulled / from under out feet? / Leaving our skin / and burning coals to meet
Tell me now
The shortest distance / between two points / is the line / from me to you
Chapter One
The car beeped as it was unlocked. Two figures walked out of the Dunkin Donuts building. There was a girl with warm golden blonde hair, the other a brunette. They wished each another a good night and they departed to their vehicles. The blonde slipped into her white Nissan Versa. The blonde was one Melissa Gibson. Melissa started up the car and then she plugged in her cellphone. She flipped through the music and decided on her comfort music. Melissa, who was not really a girl, but a woman now twenty-eight gave a great sigh.
"What a night..." Melissa said to herself. She opened her eyes, her eyes a light-blue mixed in with gray. Forever ago, when she could still count on her two oldest friends, when they were best friends, they had described her eyes as the dawn of a new day with the stars peaking out in the flecks of her gray. Another friend had called them a mirror, for if they were surrounded by green, her eyes would turn into a blue gray. All her friends agreed though that her eyes reflected her emotional state, but when they would be such colors, very blue, blue gray, more gray, or a blue-green slightly, they could not and had never decided. It was her eyes that had drawn comments, men saying "hot damn, your eyes are beautiful."
Of course for her, Melissa, it would make her flustered. She was average in height coming to only five foot five, her body was on the stocky and muscular side. Certainly Melissa had curves, her body leaning towards an hourglass shape, but she could always be easily mistaken for a boy. This was easily the case when her hair was cut short and she wore a loose t-shirt and boy jeans. However as the case would have it, her hair was no longer short. She had grown it out for several years now, originally she had wanted it to be long for when she got married, but her fiance and her had called it off.
"Sick of all that we have to be in this life..." the lyrics to Ladyhawke's Crazy World was familiar and comforting as Melissa threw her car in reverse and peeled off.
"Waiting here for a fool to begin his life..." Melissa sang horribly along, enjoying the fact it was only her in the car. Melissa was not the best singer, barely able to carry a tune. She had only taking singing lessons in Middle School and had refused to do so when she hit high school. Oh she used to sing, pretending she would be found and rescued from her 'poor life.' That was also the stage where she wanted to be a power ranger, that she would go off to the Digital World and gain a digimon partner, or maybe she could find herself in her pokemon world. It was her wildest dreams to be off on some adventure far from the real world and far from the depression she had carried through all her life.
Melissa was pretty much as normal as they could be, for the most part. Maybe it would be better to say that Melissa was an average person in our world, she was not a genius with music, nor did she have a genius level high IQ. The most outstanding quality of her was her eyes, her imagination, and creative abilities she refused to pursue. Melissa was a daydreamer, but it meant she always had her head up in the clouds. She was a dreamer who always had plans but did not know how to manage to get from Point A to Point B half the time. But we digress from this story...
The home Melissa arrived in was silent and dark. Only the barking of two little dogs was the sound of any company to the house. There was cars there, three cars to be exact besides hers. They belonged to her mother, her father, and her sister who were not at home. Her parents had left taking her sister to go on a vacation. Melissa entered her home and greeted her two small dogs, Thor and Tiny.
"Hey babies! Did you miss me?" Melissa greeted her two dogs, petting the Yorkshire terriers. They barked and ran around her seeking love and adoration from her two dogs. Melissa giggled at them and indulged them for a bit before quickly doling out food for them. Melissa tossed her empty food container from work in the sink carelessly and walked to her room and quickly changed into her bathing suit. She grabbed a beer from the fridge and popped the cap open before heading out into the porch.
It was another beautiful clear night, even if the air was cool. Melissa shivered and threw open the cover and walked over to the porch railing and placed her cellphone blasting music for her. She slipped in and took a gulp of the beer. Tiny and Thor ran around on the porch chasing after the moths. This brought a smile to Melissa's face while she turned her face towards the stars. Her love for stars, was more of her love for the universe as a whole, which she adored. The music switched to Disney tunes and Melissa sang along with it, her voice struggling to keep up with the notes and in time to the words. Eventually her voice fell silent and she sat there drinking her beer quietly.
Suddenly there was a bright light behind her and Melissa stood up suddenly gripping the edge of the jacuzzi. Her jaw dropped at the strange light, it was...so out of this world. She clenched her jaw in fear as the giant ball of light began to recede slowly.
"Take care of him," a disembodied voice said. Melissa clutched the edge of the jacuzzi as if it would give her comfort. The light fully receded and there was a man on her deck, unconscious. She felt torn then, wanting to check him to make sure he was okay, or to run and call the police. How was she going to explain to the police his strange appearance? He wore armor colored with red, his sword still clutched in his hand. That was really made Melisa worried, the sword in his hand.
"Who are you?" Melissa asked him. She carefully got out of the jacuzzi and circled around him. There was little to tell other than the fact that he had long blonde hair that Melissa could only feel jealous about. She was struggling to get her hair to the middle of her back. The man was also wearing armor and what looked like leather boots. Melissa pursed her lips and then moved closer, slowly. She inched ever closer to the man, ready to flee if he started to stir. He did not stir even when she finally reached his side. Melissa touched his right wrist carefully, feeling for a pulse. She found it strong, never missing a beat, this caused her to sigh with relief. She did a visible search afraid to continue to touch this man, but there was no injures upon him.
"Who are you?" Melissa asked again. She did not want to let him in the house, but did not want to leave him out here alone. Who knows what he would do when he woke up and found himself wherever he was supposed to be? It would not due for him to awake and find her dressed as she was, if this man was really from the Middle Ages, her state of undress would be surprising. There was also going to be a language barrier...
"Okay, faeries that are out there, this is a really unpleasant joke. Can you take him back, please?"
"No," the voice teased in her ear. Melissa startled fell backwards from her kneeling position and quickly shifted to her feet to turn around her again and again.
"Look, this is really uncool of you! Stop it! I am twenty-eight, I have my life to live! I am not at the beck and call of ye gods and spirits!" Melissa said out loud, but she only heard distant laughter. This was the other part about Melissa, the part that made her strange to the world at large, except for those who were involved in the pagan and witchcraft communities. Melissa was what people would call psychic, sensing things before they happen (but often used tarot cards and a pendulum to aid her abilities), feeling others emotions, but also being able to communicate with spirits. It was more like a voice echoing inside of her. Of course Melissa also spent half the time thinking she was crazy, but she had never been led wrong and her fourteen years had taught her this. This was also why her fiance had left her to begin with, she was far to strange for his normal atheistic self.
"Please tell me he will understand me at least?" There was no answer. Melissa dashed into the house and quickly changed into capris, a sports bra, and a loose t-shirt. Hopefully her sense of dress would not be offensive to her strange new visitor. The gods had to be laughing at her right now, tossing her this strange event into life. Sure she had always questioned if what she had experienced was really and always held doubt about it. Yet this event had taken the cake in her strange life besides the car accident where she had incredibly walked out alive. Melissa walked back onto the porch, staring at the man in thought. It was then the man stirred, his eyes opening agonizing slow. He groaned as if in pain. His eyes seem to be trying to take in his surroundings before they locked on her. Melissa couldn't help but note how they were a bright blue, like shining lights, and then suddenly they had darkened ever so slightly. Oh he was angry.
"Please at least let me know if you understand me before you get angry?" Melissa interjected. The man slowly sat up glaring at her. The words seemed to come to him slowly, suddenly they made sense to him.
"I understand you well and clear mortal woman. What have you done to me?" The man demanded. The words coming out of his mouth made sense to him, but sounded strange and foreign as if being forced through something. The language one he had never come across but suddenly understood.
"I want to know who did this to you. I was personally not expecting any guests and I was having a nice life before suddenly poof! There is this magic light and this voice with no body saying 'take care of him.' I mean, I know fey like to pull pranks on people and some gods do too, but cannot I not have a say? It is not like I have to be taken down a peg for pride! Lucifer encourages pride!" Melissa ranted, confusing the man. He stared at her with mistrust.
"Look, I could care less if you trust me or not, but please believe me when I say I have nothing to do with your predicament. I will do my best to help you adjust to this world, this time line, whatever it is okay? Just don't kill me! Man!" Melissa said sensing his extreme distrust between the feelings and his hardened expression.
"I am not a man!"
"Oh? You are not? Then tell me what are you? Fey? Angel? Demon? Vampire?" Melissa began and started to list of races he understood at times and did not understand what they were. Trolls he understood, demons to as they were fallen maiar, but what were fey? What were vampires?
"I am an elf," Melissa's strange visitor asserted.
"Oh, by golly gee. You are an elf. Are you a certain kind of elf?"
"I am a Sindar Lord, I am Thranduil, son of Oropher," the elf said with regal authority. He stared down at Melissa, expecting her to shrink under his gaze. The human female just tilted her head and smiled as if amused by some private joke.
"The gods are really playing a joke on me this time," the human female muttered, she sighed then and stood up to her full rather short height compared to Thranduil. Thranduil continued to stare at her with suspicion
"I am Melissa Gibson, um daughter of Bruce and Susan. I am not a lady, no noble blood runs in my family, other than the fact that my family has always been military personnel and people seeking adventures. However, just because I am some commoner does not mean you can treat me like an ant beneath your feet. I am going to be helping you, so treat me with respect. I will try to find out who dropped you here and when you can return, alright?" Melissa said. Oh she was going to have words with the spirits tomorrow when she did her devotions. She was going to ream out whoever set this little event up. She was by far from happy, loathing the fact that a character from her childhood book had winded up in her world. Magic had always been about controlling the currents of life in this world and not like a sudden appearance of an elf, an elf who would be all alone without other elves. At least Melissa had her community, even if she disagreed with the lot of them half the time and there was always some drama going about.
"I will...accept this help," Thranduil said, knowing he had no choice. He glanced around noticing the strange setting of the world and bubbling steaming water in the corner of this balcony. Two little dogs came running out of the house barking at him.
"Thor! Thor! You listen to me now! Do not bark at the elf!" Melissa ordered her dog. The dog glanced back at his mistress and continued to bark at the strange.
"Thor," Melissa growled, her voice dropping low. The dog sat then and stared up at his mistress, tilting his head to the side.
"You are to cute boy, you mop bucket you," Melissa said with a smile. Melissa crouched down low and the two little dogs ran to her, running around her, rubbing against and turning their bodies to be scratched. Melissa laughed at her two dogs and kissed them both on the head. Thranduil decided he could maybe trust this human female, considering the animals loved her. This was different from dark forces and their mounts was trained to endure them. Melissa stood up then and gave Thranduil a small smile.
"Well Thranduil, would you come into my humble home? I am sure you would like to get out of your bloody gear and maybe wash up?" Melissa asked.
"I would indeed like to wash up," Thranduil admitted.
"Please follow me and I will show you to the bathroom. Just please, do not break anything, no matter how strange it may seem?" Melissa said to him pleadingly.
"I promise," Thranduil said with ease, feeling more curious about where he was suddenly. He had noted the light fixture upon the wall that was not lit up with fire. He followed Melissa into the house passed a strange see-through blanket and found himself in a tiled floor room with a table, chairs, and another light fixture and other rather peculiar furniture. He continued to follow her through the house, noticing the mixture of tiled and wooden floors. There was no dirt floors in the home and it was well crafted despite the strange furniture. They entered into a darkened part of the house and Thranduil saw her hand go to the wall and suddenly there was light. He stared up at the ceiling, startled by the sudden light and noticed a similar strange light fixture that clung to the ceiling instead of the walls. They entered through a door way into a small room and once again light flooded into the small room.
"Alright, so this right here is called a sink. See, you flip up this, uh handle, like this, and it turns it on. To the right you get cold water and to the left you get hot water. The hot water takes a bit to come out as it has to warm up a little," Melissa explained. She also began to explain what each item was and insisted that since tomorrow was her day off, she would get him this toothbrush. Melissa moved over to a strange seat and pointed at it.
"This right here is called a toilet. To be utterly frank and crass here, you pee and shit in there. No where else in the house, and certainly not outside. See here? You lift up the seat and you can pee in there. You can sit down if you just lift this top. This part is the seat. Once you are done, wipe yourself with this toilet paper here and then flush the toilet. See this handle? You pull it down and it flushes what you did down into the septic system." Melissa explained about the strange seat to Thranduil. Thranduil was horrified by her boldness of words but also in awe of the world he was in. It was so far from his world, so different! Melissa walked behind him then and shut the door. She opened another door, but this one was glass and somewhat foggy.
"This here is called a shower," Melissa said and began to explain it to him. How to use it, what the items inside the shower was used for. She then closed the shower door as she called it, and then opened up the bathroom door. She opened a small closest and took out a towel and placed it on the sink.
"You understand what I just told you right? It is not to hard?" Melissa pursed her lips while waiting for Thranduil to answer. Thranduil glanced around, it was easy enough for him to learn. It was not to difficult, just a turning of nobs and lifting of handles.
"Yes I do," Thranduil ground out.
"I will be right back. I will get you a change of clothes, but I do not think they will fit all to well. I will buy you some clothes tomorrow once I measure you." Melissa walked out the door and Thranduil heard her mutter about using the money she had saved up for her trip upon Thranduil. Thranduil was left feeling ire at her bitterness. It was not like Thranduil asked to disappear from defending Lindon and be placed in a different world! Melissa came back into the room and quickly explained the clothes to him, saying they were sleeping clothing, pajama bottoms, a t-shirt, and what was male underwear. Thranduil wondered if it was her husband clothes or her father's clothes he was using and felt uncomfortable at the thought. Melissa left him alone telling him to come to her once he was done. Melissa closed the door. He heard her footsteps walk away down the hallway and then strange music. He sighed and took his clothes off, placing it in the bathtub instead of the floor with carefulness. He found a strange object with an image of him in a pocket. He pulled it out and stared at it for a moment before setting it aside.
Thranduil was surprised at the warmth of the hot water and took great delight thinking about the waterfalls he had seen in the past. These were cold and this was warm. He marveled at it. When he was done, he dried himself off, and slipped on the clothing Melissa had provided him. The shirt was rather large on his frame, but the pajama bottoms came up a bit short. Thranduil walked down the hallway to Melissa to ask her what he should do with his dirty clothes. He found her upon the couch with those two small dogs watching people on a screen. He sat down next to watching the screen flash with images.
"What is...that?"
"This is called a TV. We watch it for entertainment, but also it provides us with news around the world and locally," Melissa said distractedly.
"What should I do with my armor and clothes?" Thranduil asked after a moment of watch the TV show the image of a woman with smiling teeth, it was something about having 'white teeth.'
"Just leave it where you left it, I will deal with it tomorrow."
"This news around the world would you care to show it to me?"
"I probably should, but I am sure upon seeing you will either feel depressed, disappointed, or angry, or a combination of it all. My world is a crazy world," Melissa said, once again her smile was one indulgent of a private joke. Thranduil wondered if he would ever understand this strange human female who was different from the Men of Arda. She was certainly different from Beren, with her boldness of words and strange appearance. Melissa switched to a channel startling Thranduil and she explained to him what she did noticing his mystified expression.
So began Thranduil's introduction to the modern world of present day Earth.
