Lex ran through the cold, empty hallway of her community college, her gym back banging into her lower back, her grey and red backpack heavy with textbooks and a paper clutched tightly in her right hand. Her left hand clenched both straps of the hanging bag and backpack to help keep them steady and not flinging further away from her body. She released the bags as she wrenched open a door at the end of the hallway to climb the stairs to the second floor. She stumbled up the stairs, cursing herself for being late to class when the term paper was due, under her breath and kept moving. She grabbed the door to the second floor and breathed a sigh of relief, she'd just make it in time. She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them she was no longer in her college hallway. She was surrounded by dense, murky forest.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" She growled, loudly. She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head.

"I knew all this working and classes would get to me, but a forest? I must have passed out!" She continued to mumble to herself as she took in her surroundings. She pressed her lips together and looked to the right then to left, considering what she should do. Move forward? Shout for help? She cocked an eyebrow up and decided the first thing she needed to do was put away her paper so she would have her hands free.

Lex lifted the strap to her gym back over her head and lowered it to the ground softly followed by her backpack. She squatted and shuffled around in her pack, pulled out a binder and slid her paper into it, sighing to herself. She had stayed up for the past few days till at least 2 am to make sure this paper was perfect and now…now it was a waste. She shuffled around again and pulled out her pink pepper spray bottle, her car keys and her cell phone. She placed the keys between her fingers (sharp points up, much like cat claws),pushed the side button of her phone to turn it back on and clutched the pepper spray in her left hand. She stood and shouldered the bags again and began to walk forward. While she walked she kept an eye on her phone. No Signal blinked on and off.

"Well this is great…no service….no calls….no messages…"she continued to grumble. As she looked at her phone again she didn't notice the giant mud puddle in front of her and slipped. She flailed her arms and fell flat on her butt. Groaning, she threw herself backwards, laying on her back.

"Oh man….really?" She pinched herself, hoping that this would all go away and be dream…nope. She lifted her hand and let her curiosity make the best of her. She licked her hand. Lex sputtered and coughed, definitely not a dream! If this was a dream I would have fallen in a puddle of chocolate. She grunted and pulled herself up. Suddenly the sound of thudding hoofs echoed behind her. She ran to the closest bush and dove under, of course, the bush she chose to dive under was rife with thorns. She hissed as they scratched her arms, hands, face and through the fabric of her jeans. That was also when she noticed she had left her phone lying next to the mud puddle. Needless to say she was having a bad day.

A small band of people came through the darkness and were starting to ride past her when one of the riders caught sight of the blinking light on the phone.

"Please…"she whispered. "Just keep moving, leave the phone, please…" She put her hand to her mouth and bit her pointer fingers' knuckle.

"What is that?" A deep voice queried. He wore a dark blue hood which covered his face and dark leather riding jacket, which was open, from what she could tell. Lex sucked in a breath as she saw him dismount his horse and pick up her phone. She also noticed another rider had dismounted and had come over to him, the whole group had stopped. This man also had a deep voice, though she could just make out the rumbles as he spoke to the other person. He wore a brown hood but she saw dark blond, long, hair peeking out of the sides. His coat had thick amounts of fur around the collar that stopped at the middle where a large belt held the jacket together. The rest of the group crowded around them, Lex hung her head. There goes my phone…

"Eeep!" she squealed as she was dragged out from under the bush by her boot.

"Oy!" She yelled. She closed her eyes tightly as hands pulled her to a standing position and she tried to move forward against them. I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! She peeked her right eye open and saw bright eyes, twinkling with amusement. She opened both eyes and looked at the man in front of her. His hat caught her eyes first, it was large, and reminded her of bat ears. Fur trimmed the bottom and she thought it was made from leather or suede. He had a large nose, bulbous toward the front and he had a mustache that was long and curled at the ends. His chin had hair and his hair poked out from under his hat like pippy longstockings pig tails. He had a comforting smile and she could tell he was a gentle sort, however that didn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

"Please don't rape me sir! I'm just….well…I'm" she stuttered, trying to find a better suited answer than, I was running late to my class, closed my eyes for a moment and then found myself in this dark forest.

"Rape you?" He questioned. He lifted his eyes to the rest of the group and cocked an eye brow up. The two riders with her phone tilted their heads to the side and they all moved toward her. Oh goody…

Lex panicked and moved backwards from the group coming towards her. She ran directly into the man's chest, he reached forward to steady her. She felt thick wool gloves at her waist, she looked down. He wasn't trying to be fresh with her, she knew that, however at this moment she had some man's hands on her waist who she didn't know. She pushed forward and sidestepped, however another of the group was there.

"Who are you?" a regal voice question. It was laced with anger, distrust and was lacking amusement. She looked to find the person who belonged to the voice and looked straight into ice blue eyes which made a shiver trail down her spine.

"L-Lex..I'm lost…I was on my way to class, closed my eyes for a moment and suddenly I'm here." She shrugged, deciding not to lie.

"Ha! See! I'm not the only person who falls asleep during lessons!" The deep voice from the blue hooded rider boomed, it was filled with laughter.

"Kili!" The blue eyed man snapped.

"Oh please uncle…this slip of a girl can't be dangerous." The man named Kili laughed and pointed at Lex. Lex lifted the tube of pepper spray and held her finger to the top.

"I may not hurt you however you deem necessary, but I can still hurt you" she hissed. Kili looked at incredulously

"What is that" He questioned and reached for the unknown object, to him, and pulled it from Lex's grasp.

"Ek!" She squeaked again. "Give it back!" she pushed forward and kicked him square in the knee and he dropped the mace and grabbed his knee, cursing in a foreign language. The blue eyed man looked down and shook his head, the man with the brown hood struggled to hold back his laughter and helped the other man to the ground and began to look over his knee. The rest of the group? They had all fallen over laughing, tears were being wiped away and fingers pointed to the one they called Kili.

"This is why you shouldn't have come along…"The blue eyed man groused. Kili groaned in response. The brown hooded man let down his hood, stood and faced Lex. He didn't look thrilled and took a menacing step forward. Lex held her breath. He held his hand out to her.

"I apologize for my brother…he can be…a bit forward. He's just overly curious" He sighed and wiggled his hand at her again, she looked at his hand as if it was covered in warts and oozing puss. She tentatively reached forward and gingerly shook his hand.

"I'm Fili and you've had your experience with my brother, Kili." He spoke softly, gently to her as if she would spook and run away at a moment's notice. He continued to point each person out and say their name when Lex interrupted him quit loudly.

"Wait what?! You're joking…that's only a story!" she yelped. Multiple eyes looked at her, confused.

"Pardon Miss Lex?" He asked.

"You're saying that I've fallen into Middle Earth and that I've landed amongst dwarves? You have got to be joking." She dropped her head and rubbed her eyes vigorously. She looked up again and around, of course this is where she landed. She dropped her bags and pushed through the crowd and stood over Kili. He looked up at her and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Then you're with an elf or supposed to be dead" she poked him directly in the chest.

"Hey!" he smacked at her hand.

She squatted down, reached forward and pulled Kili's face directly to her and kissed him hard and fast. He stared wide eyed and remained frozen as she pulled back from him. Que more laughing. He looked at his brother as if he knew what to do, Fili shrugged. Lex rose and walked over to who she assumed was Thorin and poked him on the tip of his nose. He glared at her, arms crossed tightly over his chest and Lex swore he growled at her. She walked over to Bofur and smiled, reached her arms out wide and hugged him to her. He laughed a little and hugged her back. She turned and looked back at Fili and tilted her head to the side and smiled softly.

"You always were more manly than your brother." A snicker wound its way through the group. Fili's beard twitched but she could see the smile hiding underneath.

"I'm not sure manly is the word you would use." He chuckled. Lex's smile grew.

"So are we on a quest to take back Erebor? Fight dragons and such?" She clasped her hands together and bounced softly on her feet.

"Um…"

"No" growled Thorin. Lex's smile dropped.

"You grow a lot ya know? Someone needs an enema." She crossed her arms to match him. They glared at each other. A cough broke the silence.

"Um no…we're not on a quest of any sort really. Just looking for work." Fili offered. Lex looked at him, confused.

"Uh…ok? So has the quest not taken place? Or have you not talked to Gandalf?" The looks of confusion were starting to get annoying.

"You have no clue what I'm talking about do you?" She asked, they shook their heads no. She sighed and dropped her arms and head. "Can I at least stay with you all?" She looked up pleadingly. Fili looked toward his uncle who gave a curt shake and back to Kili who shook his head vehemently. He grinned.

"Sure"

Lex launched herself at the dwarf and hugged him tightly around the neck. They teetered backwards until Fili got his balance back. He looked forward into the smiling eyes of Bofur who was giving him thumbs up. He gently patted her back.

"Great hugs, aren't they lad?" Bofur laughed and headed back to the horses, others followed him.

"Um..Lex" he pulled her arms from around his neck. "You can ride with Kili" her face dropped. Kili shot up from the ground.

"You can't be serious!" he shouted. She had kicked him and then kissed him, he couldn't tell what this girl would do again. Lex gave a small nod and smile, gathered up her bags and the phone that was abandoned long ago and walked over to Kili.

"I promise, I'll be good." She grinned, Fili held his hand in front of his mouth to cover his chuckle. Kili sighed.

"You're a wicked one aren't you?" He questioned. Lex raised her arms and shrugged.

"First….put that bottle thing away and second…what is that blinking thing in your hand?" Lex looked down at her hands. She nodded.

"I'll put the pepper spray away and this" she shook her phone at him "this is my phone…though it's really of no use now…" She tucked the pepper spray in her front pocket. Kili eyed her phone. Fili had walked up behind them and was listening in on her explanation of the items she held.

"Phone?" They asked in unison. Lex stared at them.

"That's cute…and yes, phone. Actually it's a cell phone but I digress…it's used to call people…you know, talk to other people long or short distances away. I use it to take pictures…text…"she rattled on explaining about the phone. She stopped when they started to look bored or confused. She couldn't tell which.

"Right…Come on then…the next town is a bit away and we've wasted enough time here…" Kili walked in front of her and Fili walked behind her, she felt like a prisoner of sorts. She tried to wipe the excess mud from her hoodie and pants, she kicked her boots to get the clots off. Suddenly she was lifted into the air and was placed in a saddle. She looked around quickly, startled, gripping to the front of the saddle and a bit of the horses mane. She had been horseback riding before, but it had been years. She loved it! But this…this was different. She wasn't riding alone. She felt the saddle shift to the side a little and watched Kili pull himself into the saddle with her. He sat close behind her, pressing against the bags on her own body.

"Are you sure you're not from around here? You look like you've packed for an adventure." He smiled softly, trying to be comforting, even if he wasn't a fan of hers. Lex bit her bottom lip and tried to move her bags to her front so he could be more comfortable. He pushed in closer to her and she took a breath. His body was hard, that much she could tell even through his coat, shirt and pants.

"I was going for a run after school and didn't have my car today…"she mumbled. He looked at her, trying to piece together what she was saying. He shook his head, another time for that story. He pulled the reigns close and kicked the horse to start. Fili watched from beside them and smiled again.

He was glad to have placed the new girl with his brother, she'd be safe. Hopefully they'd be able to get some information out of her too; Kili was the curious one. Thorin rode ahead of the group and grunted about a girl riding with them. He was pleasantly surprised by Fili taking charge and understood why he had placed the girl with Kili. This girl wasn't a dwarf, obviously, she looked human but was shorter than most. Perhaps she was a cross of human and hobbit? He shrugged and they rode through the forest, every once in a while laughter would carry on the wind into his ears.