Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR, The Hobbit, and the songs Cooler Than Me, Pirates of the Caribbean, and all others mentioned...

Chapter 2

The first thought that came to my mind when I woke up was, I have a headache worthy of Chuck Norris. The second thought, Whoa, hey, what's going on here?

I was lying on the floor of the forest. The trees were really tall, and their leaves blocked out most of the sun, but tendrils of sunlight illuminated spots of the carpeted forest floor. I sat up, brushing leaves out of my hair. Am I dreaming? I spotted my recorder and a pair of drumsticks nearby, and I leaped for them, grinning. The drumsticks had been a gift from my friends in the pit and the percussion section for Christmas last year. They had taken different colored sharpies and drew and wrote all over them. My recorder I had been given in elementary school, where we had learned how to use them. However, me being the awesomeness that I am, decided to take it further. For the past five or six years or so I had been learning it off and on.

Okay, so them I am dreaming. Because why else would I be in the middle of some random forest, holding a pair of graffitied drumsticks and a plastic recorder? Deciding that it was a dream, I sat down under a tree and started playing Pirates of the Caribbean on the recorder.

After I had done the second part, I felt something shift behind me, and turned to see an arrow in the face. "Ahhh!" I yelped.

The person holding the bow was a wicked tall guy with long blonde hair. His eyes were narrowed and distrustful. "Who are you?"

"I think the question is, who are you?" I yelled, modeling my voice to sound like Mooshu from the movie Mulan. I was about to continue with the quote, but the figure cut me off.

"Who I am is none of your concern. Tell me your name now, intruder, before you find an arrow in you." The arrow suddenly seemed closer to my face.

"CARRRLLL, THAT KIIILLLS PEOPLE!" I yelled, but relented at the angry, serious look on his face. "Okay, okay, sheesh, who spit in your bean curd? The name's Sammy. But not Samantha. Sam's okay, though. And by the by, why is my subconscious being so weird? Normally people don't threaten me with arrows in my dreams..."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?" I could tell he was trying to get a grasp on the whole situation.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm dreaming. Meaning, you're just a figment of my imagination, and I should wake up soon." I grumbled under my breath. "Damn alarm clock...never wants me to be together with my poor bed... I hate the jealousy issues!"

The guy gave me a look as if he definitely decided I was a nutcase. I felt offended. He couldn't tell just by looking at me?

"Milady, you are not dreaming," he said, slowly lowering his bow. "You are on the outskirts of Imladris."

"Im-hooey-whaa? And DENIED! Correction: I AM dreaming. Kay?" I gave him a cute smile and stood up, stretching. I cast him a curious look. "What's your name?"

"I am Glorfindel, milady," he said. He turned to the trees. "You need to see Lord Elrond of Imladris. Please follow me."

I looked up at the sky, or what I could see of it anyways. "So this is one of those weird quest dreams?" I called. I nodded slowly, thinking it over. "Okay. Okay. I'm cool with that. I respect that." I followed Glorfindel into the trees, toward a horse, ignoring the weird looks I was receiving from him, and singing Mike Posner's Cooler than Me under my breath.

~..*..~

I could tell that Glorfindel was getting very annoyed with me. "Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, what's it to ya? If I jump between the sheets with nothing on at all!" I finished my song with a flourish, beaming. I had learned the song at the summer camp that I went to, and Glorfindel's name reminded me of it.

We approached an archway, and I hummed the funeral march under my breath as we passed underneath it. "Milady, would you please stop singing?" Glorfindel asked in exasperation.

"Ousch, I'sh shlain! Look, buddy, just 'cause I ain't no Taylor Swift doesn't mean that I'm gonna stop singing," I growled. "And besides, I got mah drumsticks. Don't mess with me."

He pulled his horse to a stop, and dismounted. He held up a hand to me, but I swung myself of the horse, and fell. To make it seem like I had planned on doing it, I did a ninja move to right myself again on my feet. Glorfindel cast me a strange look. I shot him an imperious one right back. "I'm a ninja," I explained.

He decided to ignore me, and led me up some stone steps and through stone hallways. The place had a look that screamed 'medieval times'. The people that we passed all gave me curious looks, and they seemed to walk with a grace that I had never seen before. They were all very tall and really beautiful. Feeling unnerved, I hurriedly caught up with Glorfindel so I could walk next to him. "Umm...so where are we again?"

Without looking at me, he answered, "Imladris. It is an elf haven, for-"

"Wait!" I interrupted. "Elves? Okay, so I'm having a J.R.R. Tolkien dream. Okay. That's cool. Except, it's getting kinda freaky because everything's becoming pretty real...I have vivid dreams but not this vivid..." I continued to babble on under my breath, nervously looking around.

"Umm..so yeah...Glorfindel, it's been great, it really has. But...goodbye." I pinched my arm as hard as I could and yelled from the pain. "OUCH! FUDGE! THAT HURT!"

"Milady!" Glorfindel growled as several startled elves stopped to stare. "Please refrain from any unnecessary-"

"Why didn't I wake up?" I wailed, ignoring him. "It works in all the movies!"

Glorfindel's face was definitely betraying anger. He grabbed my arm roughly and tugged me through a door. Inside, an elf was sitting at a desk. He looked up, rather startled at the sight of us. "Lord Glorfindel, what is going on here?"

"I found this human wandering around on the outskirts of Imladris. She has been most difficult, believing that this is all a dream," Glorfindel said icily.

"It is!" I wailed. "It has to be! There is no such thing as elves!"

The elf stared thoughtfully at me. "Please leave us, Glorfindel. Thank you for bringing her here. I will try to straighten this out." Glorfindel bowed and left.

The elf looked me over. "Please, take a seat." Nervously, I obeyed. I could think of a few witty remarks, but I chose not to say them. This was becoming a very weird dream...if it even was a dream...

"I am Lord Elrond of Rivendell," he continued.

"Like, from the Hobbit?" I asked, amazed. The Hobbit was one of my favorite books. I had never read the Lord of the Rings, and had only seen the movies once, when I was nine, though. My family had been planning to watch them when they came out on Blu-Ray, but marching band for me and fall sports for my sister got in the way.

Lord Elrond frowned. "The Hobbit?"

I nodded. "Yeah, like with Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves! And Gandalf!"

"You know all of these people?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, not personally. But I know the story of how they reclaimed the treasure from Smaug, and of the Battle of the Five Armies! Though, something has always bothered me...Wouldn't it be six armies if you took the Wargs into consideration? Yeah, because it was the men, the elves, the dwarves, the goblins, and the eagles! But the Wargs fought on the goblins' side, so..." I continued to babble on, before Lord Elrond held up a hand.

"Peace, child. So you claim that this is all a story back home?"

I nodded. "Yep. Created by one J.R.R. Tolkien. They're classics."

He considered this. "Where are you from?"

"I live in Maine, in the United States. Ya know, New England states."

Lord Elrond went deep into thought. "You are not from our world...I wonder what the Valar have in store for you, to bring you here to us."

"Whaaaa? What's the Valar?" I asked, confused.

"The Valar are our Gods, you could say." He looked at me closely, then sighed. "Child-"

"Sammy."

"...Lady Sammy," I rolled my eyes at this, "I believe that it would be easier on everyone if you realized right now that this is not a dream."

A cold hand clutched my heart. "No...It has to be a dream. Elves don't exist. Rivendell doesn't exist. This has to be a dream!"

"What was the last thing you remember?"

I thought hard. "I don't know..." I said slowly. I remembered my life, yes. But did I fall asleep at home? Or-

An image of marching band popped into my head. "OH MY GOD!" I yelled. "FINALS! I was at marching band finals, and I tripped and fell during the show! I was going to splice open my head on the cymbal! Oh, shit, you have got to be kidding me! Right now, I'm probably in a freakin' coma, and this is all a wicked weird, freaky dream I'm having! STUPID HALSBURG PEOPLE! YOU STUCK-UP, PRETENTIOUS PREPPIES! THIS IS PROBABLY YOUR DOING!" I yelled. Halsburg was Sakom's rival in marching band.

Lord Elrond was clearly lost. "You fell? And hit your head?"

I nodded vigorously. "Yes! And I'm probably in a coma! Or something..."

"What is a coma?"

"It's like this...It's umm..." I struggled with the definition. I gave up and put my head in my hands. "Gahh! I hate it when you know what a word means but when told to describe it, you can't!" My head shot up triumphantly. "Oh, yeah! It means when you suffer internal damage, like to your brain, and you kinda go to sleep. There have been comas that last for years..." I trailed off. I swallowed, trying to be brave. "Well, what happens now?"

Lord Elrond stood up. "Now, you will stay in Rivendell, until I can figure out what exactly the Valar want from you. I will have someone escort you to your room." He left the room briefly, speaking in a language I didn't understand. He came back inside with another elf. "This is Naiya. She will show you around Imladris and to your room. She will always show you how life is here in Imladris."

I held up my hand. "I'm guessing that Imladris and Rivendell is the same thing?"

Lord Elrond nodded. "That is correct. Imladris is its name in elvish."

I did a fist pump. "Win!"

"Come now, child. Naiya will take you to your room." I hopped off my chair, grumbling under my breath about being called 'child'. I followed Naiya out of the room, feeling exhaustion and uncertainty filter its way into my body.

Well as they say, I'll take whatever tomorrow brings. And it had better be peanut butter, I thought with determination.

A/N

Second chapter is out! Thank you to my two reviewers! As for pairings, my friend is strongly urging me to go for an Eomer pairing, though I'm not sure yet. As for Faramir, he'd be interesting, but I've always strongly believed that Eowyn and Faramir belong together. And I'd rather stick to the good guys in pairings :)

Sooo yes, please review :)

~Eva Sirico~