okay, I have no idea. Hopefully this isn't one of those things that sounds good in my head, but is really weird when written down. Oh well. The characters will probably be out of character, but hopefully I'll sort that out later in the story.
Please, please, please review. I seriously need people to help me improve.
I don't own Lord of the Rings.
It was the end of another torturous school day for most, but to Ivy Williams it wasn't even close, she was captain of the netball team, member of the mathletes, a tutor for year eights in chemistry and physics and was a reluctant member of the cheerleading squad. What anyone saw in jumping up and down with pom-poms escaped her, the only reasons anyone watched them was because the team was basically made up of "hot" girls that jumped around in skimpy skirts that didn't cover their butts. But, that was her opinion, she supposed it would be fun, if you liked being thrown up into the air and doing crazy flips and things.
She glared at the passing people around her; she was a loner, a freak. Well, that's what everyone else thought, but Ivy liked to think of herself as a lone wolf. Silent as the night and deadly. Not that she really was, but she tended to get quite violent in her head. She supposed it was a bit of a problem. Sighing, she shoved her way through a crowd of jocks, all laughing and celebrating after a winning game. "Unintelligent apes" she thought darkly. Okay maybe she was unsociable and hard to talk to and even harder to befriend, but she was…nice?
"Oi, watch were you're going, freak" one of the jocks jeered at her, the rest of the team - football? - laughed, taking delight in tormenting another person. Ivy stopped, "Shove it Anderson," she hissed over her shoulder. The jock, Anderson, sneered "I don't think I will, freak". Ivy sighed again and turned, today just wasn't her day, "Anderson, did you want the whole school to know that you're failing all your sciences and maths classes and need a freak like me to tutor you through year ten science when we're in sixth form?" she fake gasped, "oops, didn't mean to reveal your little secret" she glared at the gaping footballer and stalked off. Idiot.
Lily Everhart gulped, she'd just arrived from America and was supposed to be 'getting to know her future classmates' the day before she officially started school. She was not in her element. She was a pureblooded American, what on earth was she doing in London, England. Oh, that's right, because her new foster parents moved here after the last ones began their own family, and the ones before that, and the ones before them, and the ones before those, and…well, you get the picture. Sighing, she pulled her hoodie closer around her, damn English weather. Making her way towards the library she smiled, she couldn't wait to loose herself in another thrilling book - they were far better than reality. Oh how she wanted to just get sucked up into a story and leave this hell they call reality for adventure and thrill and maybe even a little romance.
The smell of books overwhelmed her when she pushed open the library doors, the librarian glared at her, much like a mother bear over her cubs, as if Lily would do anything to harm the books around her - she loved them too much. Grabbing a book off the shelf - she rarely looked at the cover, not wanting to judge the book before she opened it - and settled down on a huge red sofa to get lost in another world for the next few hours.
An alarm brought Lily back to the present, she looked around but there was no-one, the librarian must have left. What was this alarm? Lock-down? She hadn't been around long enough to know the different alarms yet. Leaping from her chair and placing the book she was reading - the wizard of oz - carefully back on the self (and act that cost her several vital seconds) and ran towards the library doors. In her haste, she wrenched them open only to be greeted with a huge ball of fire rushing forward, the heat singeing her long brown hair and her eyebrows, smoke was filling the room. Instinctively, Lily crouched down low - she'd read in a book that smoke was the main cause of death in fires - and ran in the opposite direction of the fire in search of an exit, anything. But there was nothing. Coughing violently, she hit windows but she wasn't loud enough, no-one heard her. Pressing herself against the wall she prayed that someone would find her, that she'd be safe. She felt heat tickle her ankle before a blinding pain shot up her leg, consuming it, spreading up and up and covering her entire right side, fire, she was on fire. Screaming helplessly and sobbing she went limp, there was no-one there.
Just as she was blacking out, she saw a figure in the distance, a helmet, a torch, a….fireman. Covering her with a fire blanket and picking her up he said, "don't you worry lassy, well get you out of here in a jiffy, you hold on there, do you hear, you hold on there". She succumbed to the darkness.
Ivy was in the chemistry lab when the alarm rang, she swore, this couldn't be a worse time. She was working with flammable liquids in the middle of a fire, great, just great. She felt she had to dispose of her experiment before she could run, so she told her chemistry students (she was tutoring them after all, the little year eights) to get out and she'd sort it out. She was an idiot.
She grabbed as many beakers of solution she could and ran to the sink, tipping them out as fast as she could, then running back for the last two. As she poured them out, she felt the heat rising. She had minutes, seconds. Panting, she grabbed her coat, hearing the crash as the lab stool fell to the ground and tested the door to make sure there wasn't a fire behind it. Then she opened it and ran out.
There was fire all down the corridor, in the beams in the ceiling, along the walls. Beams cracked and fell, obstructing her path to safety. "You can do this" Ivy said to herself, choking on the thick smoke. "You're going to live". But just as she said it, a thick beam cracked above her head, Ivy leapt forward to try and dodge it, but she was too slow. Her legs were trapped. Yelling in anger more than anything she tried to pull herself from under the heavy beam. But she could only watch as it caught fire, the flames burning through the wood leaving a trail of ash behind it, coming closer and closer to her trapped body, frantically she began pulling herself from under the beam again.
She felt it before she saw it, the excruciating pain in her legs as the fire burned them, she smelt burnt flesh but refused to acknowledge it was her own flesh burning. Groaning and yelling she pulled herself free, moaning in pain, she stumbled to her feet only to collapse because her burnt legs couldn't support her. Her grey eyes flashed and she shoved her curly blond hair behind her ear, nothing was stopping her from getting out of here. She was not dying in school. This was not how she was going to die.
But she was loosing consciousness as she dragged herself further and further from the flames, she was loosing an incredible amount of blood and was slowly suffocating.
Lily woke to the sound of an ambulance, frantic voices around her.
"Oxygen, give her oxygen"
"Third degree burns over victims right side"
"We're nearly there, hold on"
But Lily felt herself fading,
"We're loosing her"
The doctor's were frantic, using defibrillators to get her heart going, but Lily couldn't fight it. She felt her body shut down. She felt the pain stop. The voices faded away. Gone. she was gone. Dead.
Ivy was in much the same situation as Lily, not that she knew of course. But she was a fighter - she could hear them in the ambulance and refused to go.
"Fourth degree burns over her left leg and third degree over her right"
but, like Lily, she felt herself slipping. It was so peaceful, so quite. She heard the voices around her fade and she lost feeling throughout her body.
She let go.
She died.
Waking up on a forest floor after you've just died in an ambulance due to third and fourth degree burns is completely normal, happens to everyone, it's not like you've just died or anything. Lily opened her eyes, the forest was dense but she could see specks of light through the leaves. Groaning, she sat up certain she'd find half her body covered in bandages and pain to shoot up her body. But she was wrong. She was dressed in a green tunic and grey leggings underneath, with a sturdy brown belt around her waist and a dark green cloak. She was surprised to find a bow and arrow strapped to her back and a dagger at her side. Well this is new she thought.
She heard a groan to her left and instinctively drew her bow - how she knew how to she had no idea - and crept forwards. Behind the bush was another girl, with curly blonde hair (Ivy, but Lily didn't know that). The girl moaned and sat up, opening her blue eyes. Seeing Lily pointing a deadly weapon at her, she leapt to her feet grabbed a staff that was next to her and pointed it towards her. Lily frowned "What on earth is a piece of wood going to do against a bow and arrow?" she asked, the blonde girl glared at her "it's better than nothing" she hissed. Lily relaxed, "I'm Lily Everhart" she said holding out her hand, the girl nodded still not trusting her, "Ivy Williams" she replied.
Leaves cracked behind them and they twisted around weapons raised. A giant figure came towards them, a man, but not a man. He was larger than anything they'd ever seen and had a face like a squashed pig, he looked like his face had been burnt to a crisp. And he was evil. He roared and more of these monstrosities emerged. Still roaring, they leapt forward.
Arrows whipped past Lily's face, impaling oncoming monsters. Two men leapt from the rocks above the two girls, one tall and pale with long blonde hair and an arrow raised, the other just slightly shorter and shoulder length dark hair and a sword. Just seconds behind them a short man carrying an axe the size of his head followed his taller companions. Glancing at each other, Ivy and Lily charged into battle as well. Sure they'd never used the weapons they had, sure they'd never seen these monsters before, but something drove them to help.
Lily raised her bow, shooting monster after monster until there was a circle of dead bodies around her as each monster tried to get near her. She noticed Ivy fighting near her right.
Ivy raised her staff, and her her eyes sparked, to her surprise a lightning bolt shot from the staff, killing three monsters, again and again it shot the tide of monsters, keeping most at bay. But as they got closer, she grabbed a sword from a fallen monster and stabbed and slashed them.
It was over as fast as it began.
The three men who came to their aid turned to them. "What are you doing here?" The dark haired one asked, his eyes concerned. Ivy answered "I'm Ivy Williams and this is Lily Everhart," she turned to Lily, "I don't know about you but I just woke up in this place after a school fire, I think I…I think I died" she went pale, "Oh my god, I died, but that's impossible if I'm standing here right now, logically I shouldn't be able to hear, smell or even feel, how is this possible?" Lily opened her mouth to speak, "No, shut it, I'm trying to think" Ivy said raising her hand. Lily rolled her eyes and ignored the blonde haired girl, "look," she said, turning to the trio of men who were looking at them like they were crazy, "we both have no idea where we are, the last I remember is being half burnt in a school fire in London,". The short red haired man laughed, "London? I have never heard of such a place, and I know all the cities in Middle Earth".
"Middle Earth? Where the freaking hell is Middle Earth?" Ivy said, near a full scale panic attack. The dark haired man stepped forward, "I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, this is Legolas son of Thranduil, and he is Gimli son of Glóin". Ivy narrowed her eyes at the trio, "what were those things?" The red haired man, Gimli, laughed "A sorceress and an elf who don't know about orcs? This only proves that dwarves are the most intelligent race in Middle Earth" he said smugly, but the blonde haired man, Legolas, only rolled his eyes. Lily stared at the group, "A sorceress and an elf? We're human" she stuttered. Legolas walked forward gracefully, while the other two where panting from fatigue with blood splattered on their faces and clothes, Legolas was spotless without a hair out of place. "You are an elf" he said melodiously motioning to Lily, "and you are a sorceress" he said glancing at Ivy, but Ivy stared at him "What drugs are three on?" she muttered under her breath, if the elf heard her (which he did) he made no sign of acknowledging her.
Aragorn glanced around, "we're exposed here, let us find shelter or we'll be ambushed by more orcs". Gimli and Legolas both nodded and turned to walk away, but Legolas turned "you are welcome to find shelter with us for the night". Gratefully, Ivy and Lily followed the retreating men.