On a cool spring day in April, with mist and fog still shrouding the trees, the last thing Ainne wanted to be doing was scaling a tree.

She had gone for an innocent hike in the mountains of Inverness, relishing the fact that it wasn't raining, although it couldn't fairly be called a sunny day. Having spent all her life in this town, she wasn't a stranger to the hiking paths, and it was to her utter astonishment that a few hours in she was completely lost. The trees were terribly dense, and there was a small dark pond that she didn't recognize surrounded by stones of various size and shape, all ringed by the trees.

Knowing the rules of being lost in the woods like the back of her hand, she had plopped down on the nearest stump and waited for rescue. But it wasn't long before she jumped up and decided to take her rescue in her own hands. She thought if she could see over the tree line, she would be able to spot the town and head in the correct direction, even if she couldn't find the path again. She figured she couldn't have gone that far in just one morning!

Which was how she found herself halfway up a tree, half soaked as the dew from the leaves soaked into her lightweight hiking clothing. She squinted upward, trying to gauge how she was going to reach the next branch. She had picked the tallest tree she could find, but it was making upward progress difficult. The branches were far apart from one another, and she wasn't terribly tall in the first place.

As she was contemplating the branch above her, she heard a deafening CRACK! She screamed as the branch she was standing on fell out from beneath her and she went plummeting to the ground. Instead of hitting the ground, though, she fell right into the small pond, the impact of the water making her world go instantly black.


Ainne woke groggily, peering through squinted eyes at a bright ray of sunlight coming through the window. She grew very still as she looked at the window, noticing immediately that she was not in her own bed in her own room, but in a place that was completely unrecognizable. She shot up into a sitting position, looking around wildly, her heart thumping in her chest. What had happened? She gripped her head in her hands, willing herself to remember something, anything that would shed light on her current predicament. The last thing she remembered was…well, she was having a hard time thinking through the haze of sleep. She swung her legs to the side of the cot she had been lying on, cursing as her head started to swim and her damp clothes stuck to her uncomfortably.

Damp…clothes….wait a second, she thought to herself in confusion, why am I all wet? All of a sudden, a memory of deep, dark water swept through her mind, and panic welled up in her. "What is going on?" she whispered to herself.

Then, the sounds of a kitchen in use reached her ears. Warily, she stood up, using the walls and furniture to help keep her propped up. She walked on tiptoe slowly to the door of the small room she was in, and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. As she made it to the hallway, the sounds of pots clanging stopped, and she strained to hear what was going on in the other part of the strange house. Suddenly, a man appeared in the doorway in front of her, delicate china cups in one hand, a steaming kettle in the other.

"Ah, you're awake! Would you care for tea?"

Ainne screamed and began wildly backpedaling. In response to this startling action, the man also screamed, cups and kettle going flying as he startled back through the doorway. Catching her foot on a small wooden chest, Ainne tumbled backwards into the wall, upsetting a bookcase that crashed as books and glass landed in a broken heap on the floor. She landed hard on her hands on the floor, hissing as several pieces of glass pierced her skin.

"Oh my, oh my goodness! Everything will be alright, please calm down!" the man pleaded with her, wringing his hands helplessly as he watched the hallway collapse in chaos.

"Where am I? And who are you?" Ainne said furiously, fear and pain making her shake. Plus, her head was still swimming alarmingly. When she laid eyes on the small man, she thought she had seen bare feet poking out from the hems of his pants that were most certainly not normal.

"Why, how rude of me! No wonder you're so startled, I haven't even introduced myself. Forgive me, my lady, I am Bilbo Baggins, and this is Bag End."

Ainne stared at him blankly. "That…that means nothing to me. Bag End? Is that somewhere in Scotland? How did I get here?"

It was Bilbo's turn to look blankly at her. "Scotland? No, my dear, this is Hobbiton, in the Shire. Do you not remember coming here? I found you by the lakeshore, sopping wet and asleep, and brought you here to recover."

Ainne blinked. "The Shire? Like, England? I don't remember going swimming, in a lake of all places…" She clutched her head in her hands again, willing any memory, any memory at all to come back to her. Last thing she remembered, she'd decided to take advantage of pleasant weather by going for a hike. How had she ended up in a lake?

Bilbo began to look very uncomfortable, and looked behind him as if to look for reinforcements for the crazy girl sitting in his hallway amidst papers and broken glass. Ainne almost began to feel sorry for him, because for all she knew she WAS crazy. He certainly didn't seem the kidnapping type, and appeared at the moment to be far more afraid of her than she was of him. Besides, she thought, he's not much bigger than me. Worst case scenario, I could probably take him down if I need to. With that thought making her feel a little better, she gingerly stood and held out her hands in an age old gesture of good will.

"I'm sorry about your bookshelf. And your cups," she added as she noticed the fragmented remains between her and the small man. "I don't care much for tea, but would you by chance have coffee or hot chocolate?"

Bilbo contemplated, and then said brightly, "I don't know what coffee is, or chocolate, but I do have warm milk and honey."

Ainne found herself staring again, then shook herself and accepted. Bilbo eyed her hands, then said, "But let's fix you up first. You're hands look a dreadful mess."

Sitting down in the offered chair, Ainne stared numbly at the dining table and considered her options.

One, she had been kidnapped and held captive by a crazy small man, who seemed intent on plying her with a hot beverage and determinedly kept up a steady stream of small talk, probably to keep her from distracted from destroying more of his home.

Two, she had somehow been deposited in a world where ordinary folk had never heard of Scotland, England, coffee, or chocolate. This train of thought led her to a third, far more probable conclusion.

"I think I've gone crazy," she said matter-of-fact to the man who called himself Bilbo as he headed towards the table with two steaming cups of milk and a handful of linens. At her words, he slowed, sat himself as far away as possible at the table, and nervously pushed her cup of milk towards her.

"Well, you don't look crazy to me," he said kindly, though he was back to nervously flapping his hands. The poor man was probably terrified of her now, she thought, feeling somewhat badly. No matter the state of her sanity, Mr. Baggins had been nothing but courteous to her, and how had she thanked him? By trashing his home and scaring the socks off him. Speaking of socks…she peeked under the table and eyed his feet. They were far too large for a normal man, let alone one of his size, and covered in thick hair.

"What's wrong with your feet?" she asked, belatedly realizing how rude she sounded. Bilbo looked even more startled, if that was possible, but then relaxed and smiled. "Why, I'm a hobbit. We don't get out of the Shire often. What are you?" he asked curiously, looking her up and down.

Ainne found herself, once again, staring. "A hobbit?" she asked incredulously. "You're a….a hobbit? And what do you mean, what am I? I'm a human!" Bilbo looked at her like she'd grown a second head, which only confused her more. He was the one who was the oddity, not her!

"A human?" he asked skeptically. "Pardon my confusion, it's just that most humans are, you know…" he trailed off, putting his hand way above his ahead and looking at her with significance.

"No, I don't know," she said crossly. "You expect me to believe you're a hobbit, but you question me when I say I'm a human. This doesn't make any sense!" she wailed. Bilbo had gone back to the fluttering, but then remembered the bandages and desperately tried to change the subject.

"Your hands! Here, let me…" he practically leapt over the table and set to work on cleaning and wrapping her hands with the linen scraps. He babbled an apology to her, trying desperately to appease her. "I'm so sorry, of course if you say you are a human, then that is what you are. You are just the smallest human I've ever heard of, that's all."

Ainne sniffed. "I'm hardly that small," she said, though secretly she had always been self-conscious about her short stature. It wasn't that she was tall in any way, but she wasn't so short that she would be mistaken for anything but human!

Bilbo finished tying off the bandages, then stood back a little ways to admire his handiwork. Ainne made a sudden decision, and stood up. "Thank you, Mr. Baggins, for your hospitality, but I really must be going." Where, she wasn't sure, but she was hoping when she got outside she might recognize the landscape or at least a landmark. Bilbo looked upset again, but politely showed her the front door and asked if she might at least take a quick packed lunch.


A few hours later, a completely bewildered Ainne found herself knocking on the door she had left earlier in the day. When Bilbo answered the door, he took one look at her and ushered her inside.

"You know," he said conversationally, "I don't believe I caught your name earlier….?"

"Ainne," she said, accepting the offered cup of tea out of politeness. "Would it be a terrible imposition if I were to stay here for a little while? It would seem I have nowhere else to go."

"Nonsense!" Bilbo said brightly. "I'll have the guest room ready for accommodation faster than you can blink!"

For the next few weeks, Ainne dedicated herself to finding out as much as possible about this strange world in which she found herself. For after wandering for hours around Hobbiton, she had finally accepted that she was no longer in Kansas anymore, so to speak, or even on the same world that she called home. Bilbo wasn't an aberration after all, but the norm in this town. And every time she inquired about directions back to Inverness, or anywhere in the UK at all for that matter, she was met with looks of confusion and even outright suspicion.

Bilbo owned quite a collection of books, maps, and other texts that she devoured in an effort to learn more about this place she was being forced to call home. After realizing that she had an inquisitive streak as wide as his own, the two quickly formed a friendship. Once she had exhausted the supply of books at Bag End, Bilbo pointed her in the direction of the library at town hall. Though it mostly contained records of the Shire and the hobbits that lived there – actual hobbits! – there were some works that concerned affairs of other races; namely humans, elves, and dwarves.

It was on one such trip back from the town hall that her newfound quiet existence at Bag End was changed for good.