Charlie was frozen, more with shock than fear.
This was the park, why was she being attacked?
Maybe this was some kind of gang or a middle age festival.
"Joey!" Charlie yelled suddenly. In her fear,
she had dropped his lease. She sighed with releif when she felt drool on her flipflops.
"What business do you have?" the man said more angrily. Charlie looked up. He was on a horse and surounded by about five other men, also on horses. Her thoughts automatically changed from, 'geeko treckies are gonna kill me', to 'horses are gonna eat me alive.'
"Do you speak the common tongue?" he said more slowly.
Of course I can understand you, she thought, I just can't speak because of fear. Please don't kill me.
"Does anyone here know any other languages," he asked the men. They all remained silent. "She's probably a traveler, but we should bring her to the King to decide." The men nodded in agreement.
The man who had been speaking grabbed her and lifted her into the saddle in front of him.
"Joey!" Charlie screamed. "Joey, eg parfnast hjalpar!" She was scared that they would leave Joey and so scared of the horse she was riding that she slipped back into her native tongue.
"Tie the dog's rope to your saddle," he commanded one of the men. "We'll have to ride slow."
It took about twon hours for them to reach a city. It was very rustic looking, but the people were happy. The two hours had given Charlie time to think. The only way to get out of there was to pretend to be a traveler.
Then she would go back to the place where they had taken her from and go back home. She just hoped that she could remember the way back. Her eyes had been closed for the greater part of the trip.
They came to a large mansion, where she could only think that the head trekkie lived at. It was a nice place. She could see a pleasant balcony that didn't have rails around it. If they took her prisoner, maybe she could escape.
They went up stairs and a man opened two large doors. Charlie's breath caught in her throat as she looked around the hall. It was made of stone. At the end of the hall was a throne with celtic-like markings surrounding it. The hottest guy Charlie had ever seen, with the execption of Brad Pitt of course, sat on the throne. Eyes that see through you, strong build, and blonde hair. Charlie rolled her eyes. On top of the blonde hair was a circlet of gold. The king of their cult. All the good ones are gay, tooken, or freaks, Charlie thought as the man who had captured her pushed her forward.
The man bowed beside her. Charlie stood straighter.
She was not bowing to some freak.
"Eomer King, we found her in the riddermark. She doesn't speak the common language. I beleive her to be a traveler."
"She does not appear to be traveling to me," He said standing up and walking towards them. He inspected her. "She has no cloak, no supplies. But she does seem harmless."
Joey chose that moment to jump from the man who was holding his lease onto the King and lick his face. Charlie held her breath in terror as the King staggered back, but did not fall.
"What is this beast?" He yelled as the man who lost his lease came to reclaim Joey.
"A dog, it was with her, my lord,"
"It does not look like our hunting dogs, nor the lap dogs.
Maybe a warrior dog from the south," He said.
Charlie tried not to laugh. Last week Joey had cowared under her bed for five hours because there was a mosquito in the house.
"I cannot decide on this. Gandalf is due in by nightfall.
Lock her in a room until then, the beast with her,"
Gandalf, that sounded familiar. But where did she know him from, and would he tell them to release her? She shuffled along with the man that had captured her to a door off to the side of the room. Joey followed her in and they closed the door, leaving her alone.
It wasn't too bad. It must have been a meeting room. There was a wooden table and chairs in the middle of the room.
Shelves full of scrolls covered two off the walls. She saw a window at the end of the room and ran to it. It was covered with glass. It was thicker and grainier than any window she had seen, and it did not open.
"Joey, what are we going to do?" Joey layed down and gave a small whimper. "But, I don't want to wait for Gandalf. We have to get out of here."
Charlie looked around the room. "Do you think a chair would break this window?" She looked around the room again. It seemed to be deserted. "No time like the present to find out, eh?"
She picked up one of the stairs, staggering at its unexpected weight. She dragged it towards the window and picked it up over her head.
"Maybe you know her language?" the door open and the King and an old man came in. Charlie lost her grip on the chair and it fell backwards, her going with it.
"Are you injured?" the old man said comming towards her.
"Joey, attack!"
Joey jumped up and bared his teeth, his hair fluffing in all directions. He ran towards Charlie and nipped her on her leg.
"Ow! Not me, them!" He ran to the old man, took his staff from his hand and ran through the open door, into the hall.
Charlie smacked her head as Joey promptly offered the staff to a guard and wagged his tail, waiting for him to throw it.
"If we ever get back, I'm getting a doberman!" Charlie yelled.
"Let me speak to her alone," the old man told the King, who was still in shock. As he walked out and closed the door,
Charlie could hear the men laughing. She blushed and remained on the ground.
The old man set the fallen chair back on the table and offered his hand to Charlie.
"Thank you," she murmured, standing up.
"I was told you couldn't speak the common tongue," he said.
"I don't beleive many can with an arrow at their face. Who are you where am I, and how do I get back home?" she demanded more than asked.
"I am Gandalf, this is Edoras in Middle Earth, and you cannot go home."
"What do you mean?" Charlie asked.
"There are other dimensions, are you aware of that?"
"Like the Faerie world and that stuff?"
"Exactly."
"Somehow I imagined faeries to be more kind."
Gandalf laughed. "This is not the world of the Fae, it is Middle Earth."
"That sounds familiar, but how did I get here?"
"There are portals between worlds that only open at certain times, at certain places, for certain people, and then,
only when they want to open."
"So I wandered into a portal. How do I get back?"
"You don't."
"Come again?"
Gabdalf sighed, and Charlie could feel his empathy.
"Is there someone I can talk to who knows about other worlds, any hope at all?"
"In this situation, hope is an empty word,"
"What will I do?" Charlie was in shock. There had to be some way of getting home, this old man was stupid.
"I can secure a place at this court, or with the elves if you prefer. I would not recommend traveling, though.
A war has just ended, and theives follow wars."
"How do you know I am from a different world, how do you know I cannot get back?"
"I met a person from your world before. It was seven hundred years ago. Her reaction was the same."
"Did she ever get home?"
"No. It is, as I sais, hopeless."
Charlie and Joey were given a large room on one of the upper levels. Charlie knew that she should have explored her surroundings, but she was too tired, and she layed on the bed without using the coverings. The sheets were covered with animal fur. She didn't know how she was going to sleep under a dead animal, but she had to figure it out soon because as the sky grew darker, the room grew colder. There was a fireplace on the far side of the room, but she didn't know how to start it.
She rolled her eyes at how primative these people were, and got under the blankets. Joey jumped up and layed on her legs. He didn't mind dead animal at least.
"This could be your brother, you're laying on you know.
Well I hope they don't expect me to eat meat"
She drifted of to sleep, dreaming all night of horses beating her with heavy chairs.