Thank you for coming to give my voice a shot! What inspired me to write this story is fellow fan fiction writers, honestly! I have ALWAYS loved the atmosphere, the whole story of LOTR.. SO I am excited to write my story.

Claire has her hard earned life finally paying off, and she is making her way to her goals for real. She has a fiancé, a lucrative business and is well content with her existence.

While visiting Italy during the closing of a sale, all hell breaks lose on a yacht and she is transported into the world of Tolkien. While there, she will find out exactly what she has been missing out on in all of her prior life, and gets a chance to live this second, albeit unwelcome and uninvited, life.

More importantly, what happens with Middle Earth is hit with an ambition-drived, business savvy, ledger balancing woman?

I expect this story to run a Romance Drama with an ultimate pairing with Thranduil. I am going to call this story "Mature", but only for the mature themes as I do not write erotica.

Chapter One

"Wow, this restaurant my Dad recommended is amazing," I said to my Fiancé on the line,"I think you'd really like it…. It has dry-aged Italian steaks…"

"Honey, I am in the States preparing your closing magic. Do you really want me devouring your food?"

"I love you…" I sing-songed,"and I can't wait to see that report in less than half an hour…"

He laughed,"Too cute, Claire. Okay, let me get to it then!"

"Fine.." I said and we both said our Goodbyes and hung up our phones. I liked teasing Nick, he was so easy to tease. He and I had an on-going foodie competition no matter where I was on the globe, our easy camaraderie and good coordination made me excited for when we would seal the deal on our heart merger.

I am in the beautiful, the antiquated glory of the city of Venice, Italy, enjoying a sunset you simply can't get in Sacramento, CA. Reds, pinks, wonderful shades bounced off the water so near me and my partially finished cappuccino. Various people were walking around me, talking with their hands and words I didn't understand.

I was prepping my speech in my mind, the one I had tailored to my next potential client who I had flown from so far to have a meeting on his private yacht. Mr. Verger, thank you so much for inviting me to have this meeting with you. Before we start, what made you choose the enchanting city of Venice to conduct your affairs?

Oh, that's wonderful! May I call you Jack? Well, to get started, I have been in touch with your Assistant and…

My moment ended sooner than I would have liked, by a text on my phone from my Assistant, speaking of.

Lizzy: Hey, I'm pulling up. I rented a Cadillac, I see you a block down! Let's move it!

I did a little clueless look around me and spotted her in short order, chugged my last bit of cappuccino, set my tender on the table and Hi ho, Hi ho off to work I go. Diamonds, hi ho!

xXx

Mr. Verger looked to be in his mid-forties, but having studied up on him I knew he was only in his thirties, the dehydration and radiation from the sun adding years to his complexion. He was actually on his private yacht enjoying a cigar and the ever-deepening blue of the sky.

When I was nearing this vessel of masculinity and wealth, I called,"Hello, Mr. Verger, from Sacramento! Can I join you?"

He nodded, and I walked cautiously across the plank connecting the dock to the rocking boat in my three-inch heels. When I got close enough to him, he gestured with one hand to the beach chair across from him, a coffee-table in between us with an ashtray. "Hello, Miss Claire. Thanks for coming all the way out here to meet with me! From what my Assistant tells me, this might be the best conference I have had all year!" He said with one quick elevator look from my no-frills blonde bun and pearl earrings to my white-pressed blouse, diamond ring, black skirt and black pumps.

"Of course! Mine, too, just from allowing to come all the way to Italia! What made you choose this country as your main base of operations?"

"The sun and the water combination, the art. I feel like when I am walking the cobblestoned streets, I am walking in the footsteps of great scholars and leaders…"

"Well, wonderful! I think I know just what you mean. The feel of Sacramento is just so young. But, I have to say I love Sacramento more, mi amore tips the scales for me."

He smiled,"Love does make the world go round!"

No, it doesn't. Love can't buy you necessities… I thought but said,"You said it! Mr. Verger, can I call you by your first name?"

"Sure!"

And with our bit of reality established, a pleasant start to a conversation, I controlled the flow to seamlessly go towards the beautiful portfolio my Nick had made for me to reel in the dough, as the yacht started in motion out to sea.

"As you brought me here, let me go ahead and get started!" I smiled,"Your exposure has decreased by 78%", I showed him the statistic sheet to follow," Your impressions remain high on Google, but your Cost Per Click has gone up and your acquisitions have gone down. I did some research and found that your competition," I show another graph with several companies and up-trends in their public out-reach programs,"is increasing. You are selling a high-quality product, but your site is not upgraded and running in the same league as these other guys. My team and I can get you more sales by: handling and upgrading your site script, sending out e-mail campaigns, getting the word out there that your company is upstandingly open for business!"

I open up my leather portfolio, and retrieve more documents, going over in detail and answering his questions on how my company, Custom Design and Outreach, Inc., WILL skyrocket his sales within the next six months by utilizing trained technicians to utilize sophisticated, modern technology. Ah, Technology.

"That settles it!" He beamed,"Enough of your vacation time in Italy, lets get you back to work!"

"Excellent!" I laugh, and get him to sign the contracts I prepared, grinning like a Cheshire Cat all the while in the inside. Booya!

Despite being jokingly commanded by my future client to start work, we were in the middle of the ocean and the sky was no longer blue, but completely grey.

With a resounding crack and lightning showing not one second later, close, the raining started.. Then began to pour in earnest. I was actually really happy that just at that moment, not a moment before when I was talking up the sales in a big way, Zeus decided to get in his piece.

"Not to worry," Jack said,"We're on a course back to shore. My captain assures me we will outrun the storm! Cigar?"

I smile and nod. Me man, hear me roar! And offer a cigar to a woman.

And that was when the storm started, and it looked too close to home. Great swells of the ocean were forming and I didn't think his somewhat small vessel could weather the weather. I cocked my head to the side but kept my pessimistic thoughts to myself. The yacht lurched sideways and another crack sounded, lightning showing just a fraction of a second later.

The hair on my arms and neck started charging with static electricity. If I had hair on my legs, it would be standing up too, I felt so electrically charged.

"Jack — " But the statistically unlikely happened and with a final CRACK, BOOOOOOM and flash, the vessel was hit. Oh god, oh god, oh god! My wobbly but I had earlier thought sound ground was splitting and sinking! I can't swim!

I saw the Captain swimming in a life vest and was about to cry for help, except my lights went out as I was hit in my soft head with a hard object.

xXx

The next thing I experienced was a coming into consciousness, with a very, very sharp pain right behind my right eyeball. I opened my left eye slowly, then blinked it. Am I blind? I thought panickedly! I can't see anything. Pitch black!

I open my eye again and wave my hand in front of my face, wondering if I will be able to see the movement. No! No! My heart constricts and I flail my arms out in front of me. If there was a passerby, or a companion, they would have announced themselves by now I'm sure. There wasn't, and I was all alone in the pitch black by myself!

My heart let out a strong BDMP, then began pumping in earnest!

I am petrified of the dark!

I start panting, my forehead is slick with perspiration. I move my hands, and turn them into groping shy tentacles in the dark, starting with where I was sitting, to see what I could piece together… And hopefully ground myself.

I try to sit up but my head, it pounds so! I lay back down on the incredibly hard ground. Painfully hard ground. Scoping out the scene with my hands, I feel the soft and moist cavernous structure around me.. For all I know, I could be washed up on some shore, or in a circular wet sauna powered off. Or in a whale's or Megalodon's hollowed out digestive tract. It just feels slightly damp and like rock. Not squishy, so…

I very, very slowly try to find some wall for me to slide up against and assist in my slow rise, and succeed. I am in a sitting position, but I have a .. solid wall on my back so I don't feel so insecure in this cavernous room. I had done my best to be quiet.

I am incredibly scared, disoriented, and feeling insane.

What have.. I got here.. Air, a pleasant floral smell, humidity. A pain in the head. Possible concussion. What is my name… Claire Moore. I am a successful business leader… I have been in worse situations than this, like the time I lived with rats with my sister in our new rental house. I don't smell rat droppings.

I wish spiders had a smell. I hate spiders more than I hate rats, oh god damn please no spiders. Or if there are spiders just itsy bitsy spiders going UP the water spout.. Not my water spout!

CREEEeeeeeaaaaaakkk. Goes a noise entirely too close to my ears!

Something LARGE lands on my head! And it feels like it has legs!

It's too much for me to take, I scream blooooooooody murder's bloody murder of murders and make like a coward, for an even darker and more quiet place in my head, involuntarily.

xXx

The next time I come to my senses, I can see light behind shining through my eyelids, and a wonder of wonders occurs to me. My head barely hurts anymore! I must have been dreaming, and am now safe in a hospital! Or somewhere safe safe safe!

I open my eyes.

Nope, nope nope. Just nope.

Shut my eyes, and then open them again, but the same scene still is blessing my mind's eye through my vision.

A yellow tinted cave with roots holding these yellow lights, that fill up the room. The feeling I get from this whole scenery… is dire. Wh-what am I doing in a cave on a cot?! Serial Killer? Cannibal?

Then I thought, lights in a cave like these, HA! Definitely not a cannibal.

Using my hands, I try to get more of a bearing of the current scene by feeling the blanket on myself, it's quality is nice.. And I sit up slowly, cautiously just in case I do have a concussion and am just on pain killers or something like that. Something sane.. Ish like that.

I go methodically from my feet all the way to my head — feet, not hurting and still have all of my toes. Yay! Legs not bruised… I uncover myself from the blanket and see that I am not bloody, either. I feel all around my torso, which feels fine.. My arms, check. Neck, check. Head, bandage but check. I feel around the bandage.. It's a linen of some sort and feels just slightly damp, but the whole place just feels slightly damp.

The room is a small, private affair with basically nothing in it except four cots, and I am the only person filling in this space. There is a door which leads to a hall, I can see through doors now. Because it's only some delicately intertwined roots which leave high visibility..

I get up and start walking over there, seeing what's up. Its locked, that's what's up. I start freaking out again inside my head.

Ok, these cots are made of a sturdy looking wood, that's all I have. I know…. I'll just take one of these legs.. Thanks, captor!

I turn a cot on it's side and try to break off one of the posts for a stake or weapon of some kind before I go asking who owns this fine establishment.

It's much harder to break than I thought, and my head starts hurting. Stupid head! Can't you see that I need you not to interfere with my train of thought! Where is my evolutionary thinking! No pain when in strain!

I manage to split off some of the wood. Since it is a little moist, and I was careful, I don't really make any noise in getting off my pseudo-dagger.

I put the cot back to rights as much as possible, propping it against another cot.

Heading back to the door, I call out,"Hello?"

"HELLLOOOO?" My head protests, and I drag a cot to the door and lay down. Might as well conserve my strength while I am making these calls…

"Is anybody out there? Can ANYONE hear me? Inspector Roma, from the Italia PD? The man who I just talked with on the phone who is on his way?"

I hear footsteps heading towards my cell, two pairs.

One of them rounds the corner and I am struck by how beautiful this LARPer is. It's a woman, around age 30, with a gorgeous old-fashioned light blue gown and long blonde hair. She looks kind.

Right behind her is a man… Someone who obviously spent hundreds on his authentic LARPer costume I like to call "Silent Type Guardian".

"Oh, thank you for coming," I say. "My name is Claire Moore, thank you so much for the bandages and I am glad you are helping me to live." Just got to make myself real as a person.. A living being.. Don't kill me. I have a name!

"Lan lle quena sanya?" She says, in a mellifluous voice.

"I'm sorry? I just need a dictionary to be able to play along."

"I'm glad you are doing better than when we first found you. Greetings, I am Celeblassel, daughter of Branneth and Týril. Priestess of the Woodland Realm. From where do you hail?"

Hmm. Just Hmm.

I put on a serene face.

"I hail from a land far from here, but.. I can't remember entirely, Priestess." I point to my head. "Where do you think I came from?"

"Far from here? No, I do not see that. You are clearly Sindaren. We found you in the cemetery, with a resting King's hand on your head from his tomb. Do you recall any of which I speak?"

Uh, I definitely do NOT.

"There was a storm.. A hard object had impacted my head and caused me to lose consciousness. I would like to apologize again for my lack of recollection." I smile, hoping to seem like a sweet charge.

"I understand, little ellith. We will take this matter up with the King in a week's time to see what is to be done in this matter, and if he can place your heritage so we might be able to connect you with relatives."
xXx

Would love your input! XO