I'll Show You What I Can Be

By Lily Rae

Full Summary: "Erin Sawyer and Isaac Williams wake up in darkness. With no memory of how or why they arrived in a strange, unknown land they manage to fight off monstrous beasts, eventually running into a Company of thirteen Dwarves, one Hobbit and a man claiming to be a Wizard. And the two strangers have questions, but even Gandalf the Grey cannot answer them. They figure out one thing: they are in a different world. With no other option, they accompany Thorin Oakenshield and his band of merry men. Erin cannot help but be entranced with this new and exciting world but Isaac pines for home. Will they find a way home? In the end, will they even want to go home? This Quest will change them both forever."

Pairings: Kili/OC at the moment; possibly Tauriel/OC too

World: Movie-verse. IMPORTANT NOTE: In my story, there will be NO KNOWLEDGE of Middle-earth in our world. So no Tolkien, etc. Erin and Isaac literally have no idea as to where they are. Will also continue post-Quest.

Genres: Adventure, fantasy, hurt and comfort, romance, friendship, drama.

Warnings: Violence and some sexual scenes (only mild)


Show me what it's like

To be the last one standing

And teach me wrong from right

And I'll show you what I can be

And say it for me

Say it to me

And I'll leave this life behind me

Say it if it's worth saving me.

Nickelback – Savin' Me


Chapter One: From Darkness

At first, there was only darkness.

Erin's green eyes fluttered open, meeting only the darkness around her. She winced, feeling only the cold, hard ground she was sitting on. Her head ached terribly, telling her she was hit by something, or someone, hard. Blood had dried in her dark hair, it would seem.

Shaking, Erin reached out but her arms hit metal. She grabbed the metal and a jolt of panic ran through her; it was a cage. I'm in a cage. Erin, stay calm. Stay—

She continued gripping the bars, feeling for a way out, but even through the darkness she knew she was trapped.

"Oh God, oh please God no..." Erin muttered, wiping her damp eyes with the back of her hand. Terrified, she bought her knees to her chest for some, any, comfort, all the while desperately trying to figure out how she got in this predicament.

I was walking to work, I'm sure I was...how did someone grab me in daylight? Or did I go somewhere willingly?

"Think Erin, think," she murmured desperately, trying to find an explanation for finding herself in darkness, locked in some sort of metal cage. Whatever had happened to her, it was wiped from her memory.

But then, suddenly, to Erin's right, a shuffling noise interrupted her thoughts. It stopped. A few seconds later, it started again.

"Who's there?" Erin shouted, trying to sound braver than she felt.

"Hello?" replied a male voice. Its owner sounded groggy, as if he had only just woken up too. "Oh God...I think...I can't get out!"

"No, I can't either," Erin said, almost in relief, glad to have a friend. If he would be a friend.

"What's your name?" asked the darkness.

"I'm Erin," she told the male voice. "What's yours?"

"Isaac," he replied. "I don't suppose you remember how we got here?"

"No," Erin said, her eyes brimming with tears at the sound of another human voice. Her voice began to crack. "No, I've no idea where we are or how we got here."

"Hey," soothed the voice, "it'll be alright, Erin. I promise you, we'll get out of here."

Erin smiled at his attempts to comfort her. She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand once more.

"Erin, I need you to do something," Isaac said. "I'll do it too. Just reach your arm through the gap in the bars and see if you can feel anything. Anything that can help us."

"Right," said Erin, and they both began to feel around, but all they were met with was a hard, stony ground.

"We must be in some sort of cave," Isaac muttered.

Erin sighed, and sat back against the bars in defeat. "I didn't find anything," she told her companion, squinting through the darkness to see if she could make out an outline, or anything. But Isaac and his own cage remained a mystery, for now.

Then events were to take a terrifying turn. Events and creatures which Erin and Isaac were not to understand. Not yet.

The sound of a door opening and light flooding the cave caused Erin and Isaac to squint away from the direct source of light. Torches on the wall, it would seem, were lit and so even more light filled their cave. Erin found some strength and turned to see Isaac finally. He was tall, barely fitting in his cage, and had wavy brown hair. He looked around Erin's age; she was nineteen herself. They smiled at each other.

The relief in seeing Isaac did not last long. Whoever had entered and lit the torches with a flaming light were now in view and Erin screamed. Even Isaac yelled in fear at the monstrosity that stood before them.

There were five of them standing around the cages. Erin didn't know what they were, but they looked like something out of a horror film. Out of one of her nightmares. They were ugly, filthy, bow-legged and long-armed. Their skin looked burnt; their eyes were slanted and evil, with fangs baring at their captives. Erin would have bet money that they had a taste for their flesh. They wore noting but tatty rags, with even piercings and tattoos on a few of them. Whatever they were, monsters living in secret, perhaps even representing all of the monsters that Earth had folklore for, they were miserable, but vicious and crafty looking.

One spoke. In a harsh-sounding language.

"Do you know what language that is?" Isaac asked Erin in a panic.

"N—no," Erin replied, her voice shaking. "What the hell are they?"

"Snaga." The same thing pointed at them and said what sounded like, "Snaga." He turned, walked towards the back of the cave and leant against it, looking smug.

He looks like he's about to enjoy something...

Before Erin and Isaac knew it, the rest of them leapt towards the cages, fumbling with a large key to get their cages open. Erin shrank to the back of the cage, terrified and shaking. A grinning monster threw her cage door open and reached in with a burnt-looking hand, pulling her out by the leg. She shrieked, kicking and punching and clawing at this thing. If she was going to die, she was going to damn well die fighting.

"Erin! ERIN!" screamed a helpless Isaac, but Erin couldn't see him for being surrounded by the monsters.

"Isaac!" she screamed back, to let him know she was alright. For now, at least.

But 'for now' would not last. They tortured their young victims for a time, and Erin was sure she would die. What did I do to deserve this? As a claw came into contact with her skin, the monsters laughed and her blood ran down her skin. Erin winced and heard Isaac too whimper in pain.

"NO!" she screamed in defiance. "I said NO!"

A burst of energy, some form of hope, had erupted inside of her. A voice told her not to give up; a woman's voice. Grab that sharp object. Grab it Erin!

Erin had no idea who was talking to her inside her head but she turned, the monsters distracted by laughing at their own sick game, and was amazed to see a sharp, metal object, what looked like a shard of something, on the ground. Erin grabbed it and yelled, swung the metal object till it came into contact with the nearest beast.

It howled, and Erin leapt up. Their laughter stopped now, and they growled at Erin, crawling towards her menacingly. One leapt up, and Erin penetrated it instantly; she winced at the sound and feel of metal and flesh. Erin pulled it out and fought the final beast that was tormenting her.

He had grabbed her arm and raised it up, his sharp nails digging into her, drawing blood, but she never dropped her weapon. It was her lifeline. His other arm grabbed her throat and pushed her against the wall. Erin kicked out, so her foot came into contact with his groin and he stumbled backwards. Before he could attack her again, Erin stabbed his neck and yelped at black blood squirting out at her. She grabbed her weapon once more from his neck, the fiend falling to the floor, and ran wildly towards where Isaac was lying.

Erin yelled in frustration at the remaining two monsters, including now the one who was originally just watching, hold Isaac down by the arms. He struggled and struggled, but one opened his mouth, ready to take a bite of his flesh—

Erin pounced, but was met by the other beast that had pushed her away from the leader of the group, who had taken a little bite from Isaac's arm. Erin panicked at the sound of Isaac crying out in pain, and stabbed the monster a few more times than she probably should have.

Finally, there lay only one of the things in between her and Isaac. It grinned at her, baring bits of flesh in its teeth, blood dribbling down its chin. Erin snarled, leapt forward and stabbed it. It threw her off of him, and she hit the ground with a thud; it was too late. The last of the monsters gasped his last breaths and it, too, died.

Erin quickly got back up, aching and hurting all over due to the torture she had endured previously. The spark of hope and fight had suddenly left her, leaving Erin wondering what the hell that was, where it had come from and who had spoke to her. She dropped the sharp metal shard.

Shakily she walked over to Isaac, who lay staring at the ceiling, as white as a sheet and looking extremely shocked. His hand was clasped over where the thing had taken a bite.

"T-thanks," he whispered.

"Come on, sit up," Erin soothed, doing what he had done to her previously: comforting him. "There you go. I think we're alright now."

Isaac nodded, pushing his wavy hair away from his sweaty face. "We should get out of here, Erin."

"Agreed," Erin said, as they stood up, stretching at the freedom. "Oh, here..." Erin tore a bit of her white work blouse and wrapped it around Isaac's main wound tightly. He winced.

"You're covered in wounds too," he whispered, cupping her face in his hand.

"None as bad as that," she whispered back, smiling in pity. "We'll get ourselves sorted out later."

Isaac nodded and they crept around the bodies, to the source of light. They peeked out of the entrance to their cave, and noticed just stone walls and a stone ceiling; several passageways lit by torches. Erin looked back at the bloody mess she had just created, swallowed a lump in her throat, and felt a comforting squeeze of her hand by Isaac.

"Quietly does it," Isaac murmured, as they crept out. Around these passageways, as they tip-toed down what seemed a labyrinth, were other entrances, to other caves like the one they found themselves in. Some had the same monsters in, some had their supplies, tools, weapons in. Eventually, with Erin thanking her lucky stars, they found the way out. Real sunlight was creeping around the corner of the exit, and the sound of the wind could be heard, alongside the smell of grass and moss.

They ran to the exit, and had to stand for a while outside, to get used to the strong sunlight. After their eyes adjusted, they saw where they now were.

The cave entrance was actually hidden pretty well, to hide those awful creatures in, behind a cascade of rocks over a cliff face. They were now in some sort of wood, with tall trees, grass. That was all they could see. They both panted, as their racing hearts still pumped furiously from the adrenaline rush. They were ok, for now.

"Time to figure out where we are I suppose," said Isaac, and they set off quickly, away from Hell.

"Do you think it's possible we're still in England?" asked Erin, as they set off around trees, rocks, stumps, and other such woodland things. She had guessed from Isaac's accent he was, too, English.

"We could be," Isaac remarked. "I mean, there isn't anything unusual about this wood...yet. And the weather is normal."

"What do you remember exactly?" Erin suddenly asked. "The last thing you remember?"

Isaac thought for a moment. "Well, it was morning. I was on my way to...oh yeah, I had just dropped my sister off at school..." He sighed. "God, our families must be worried sick. What about you?"

"Morning, that's right. I was on my way to work, can you not tell?" she joked, gesturing to her black and white clothing.

"Where do you work?"

"Just in a clothes shop," Erin sighed. "I'm not really sure what I want to do with my life...I was thinking of going to college."

Isaac smiled. "I've just graduated from University. I'm—well, I was taking the summer off, before I find a job."

"Wow," Erin breathed. "Congratulations on graduating!"

Before they could talk some more about each other's lives, they stumbled onto a path. Smiling to each other, something was finally going right in this nightmare, they followed it.

"What do you think those things were, anyway?" Erin asked her companion. "A government experiment gone wrong, or something?"

"I don't know," he sighed. "Monsters straight from Hell if you ask me. I don't know what we're going to tell the police and our families when we get back..."

"Hey, what's that?"

As they got closer it became clear what it was. It was a dilapidated house; half the wooden roof had fallen down, the walls had caved in and vines creeped along the ones that were still standing. Erin and Isaac stepped in tentatively, the floor creaking.

Looking around, Erin noticed wooden chairs and tables, wooden utensils, an extremely old fashioned stove...it all looked, well, medieval.

"Erin..." came Isaac's voice. She turned and headed for what was a shared bedroom, complete with patchwork quilts, and saw Isaac staring into a wardrobe. "Look at these clothes."

She grabbed a dress and saw it. It was like something from a historical film she had seen; women from the Middle Ages or maybe later would wear something like this. It had the criss-cross ribbon pattern on the front of it. The men's clothes were just plain fabrics and there were home-made brown boots on the floor too.

"We can't be in England..." Isaac muttered to himself. "This would have been discovered, surely..."

"Then where on Earth—?"

"Do you think..." Isaac started, staring at the walls intently. "Do you think we could have travelled back in time, somehow?"

Erin stared open-mouthed at him. "Well, I...I don't know. I mean, this hasn't been discovered yet so maybe we are abroad, in some deep corner of the world, but then how much time has passed since we were taken?"

Isaac shrugged, sighing as he did so. "All I know is that I'm hungry, tired and sore."

"Look, let's take some of these clothes as ours are ruined...and we'll go find help."

He nodded. "Good idea."

So, Erin changed into some breeches, a shirt laced in the criss-cross pattern, and pulled over a woolly jumper. She also chucked away her broken black work shoes and put on a pair of the brown boots. Isaac had changed into breeches and boots too, with a man's shirt and tattered jacket.

"Let's keep following the path," Isaac said, taking Erin's hand. They left the ruins.

"I wonder what happened to the family who lived here," Erin thought aloud, looking back at the isolated house.

"Those monsters might have had something to do with it," Isaac said. "Maybe we're the first ones to ever escape them..."

"I don't think anyone back home will believe us," Erin sad sadly.

After a long while of following the winding pathway through the wood, the sun began to set behind the trees. Isaac looked up. "It doesn't even look like the trees are getting thinner. And there's no sign of civilisation either."

"Let's stop for the night," Erin suggested, seeing some logs up ahead. After a fire had been started, using twigs and green leaves and many attempts, they wrapped up as the night got darker and colder.

"I'm so hungry," Erin mumbled, curling up into Isaac.

"I'm so tired but I can't...I can't bring myself to fall asleep...just in case." The darkness enveloped around them and the cold bit at their sore skin.

Despite themselves, they did eventually fall asleep out of pure exhaustion. And nothing bothered them that night.

When morning light woke Erin from her slumber, she gasped at the sight of Isaac who was leaning on her shoulder. He was deathly pale; a fever had erupted across his body and he shook uncontrollably.

Erin gasped. "The bite!" How could I have forgotten? She unwrapped his dressing and winced at the sight of what must be an infection. His blood was seeping out and his wound had blackened. "Isaac? Isaac, please, talk to me..."

He muttered something in his delirious state but Erin looked around, hoping for some miracle to happen until the sound of voices...voices! Voices and the sound of hooves appeared!

"Is he a great wizard or is he...more like you?"

"I think he's a very great wizard, in his own way. He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always Evil will look to find a foothold in this world."

Erin didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about but didn't care—they were saved.

"Hey!" she decided to make herself known and ran out to the path. "Hey, help us! Can you help—?"

She stopped dead in her tracks, the words dying in her throat. She was met with a sight of fourteen men (where they men?) on ponies, and one tall man on a horse. They stared at her in shock too, and Erin thought back to her earlier worry.

Where the hell were they?


A/N: Well there you have it, my new story :) please review wonderful readers!