I still don't own Hobbits, though that would be cool, or giant eagles or LotR(except I do own the books and movies, in that I bought them, not in that I would own any rights to anything but reading/watching them and technically I think that means I only read or watch them on my own… So you can't have them. That would be against copyright.) I'm not sure I own my OC either, as OC is a pathetic sack of nobody, and actually owning them would be the same as admitting that OC deserves ownershipness. And I'm not a lawyer, I'm an art major. Really. I don't own a time machine/magical time traveling eagle, though that would be epic.
Chapter Two starts here.
Then a pair of Giant Magical Eagles swooped out of the sky and grabbed both of us. I wasn't actually expecting that, and I wasn't expecting for them to start time travelling either. Anyways, they did that. By that, I mean time travel, of course.
Before I had a chance to work out the details, the eagles dropped us in a tree and flew away to go hunt deer or something. So I sat there for a minute, and the Hobbity Man climbed out of the tree and looked around. "Where do you suppose we are?" He said.
"I have no idea. Probably the future." I watched a flying car fly over us, something which belonged in the future, most definitely. "It looks like the future."
"Oh not again! I'm tired of all of this, it doesn't even make sense!" He looked dejectedly around, his gaze eventually settling on a highway of sorts for the flying cars, which seemed rather ridiculous until I considered how important it would probably be to regulate flying cars in some way, to avoid collisions.
While he watched the flying cars, I got to work climbing out of the tree. Climbing out of the tree was harder than you might think, to be honest. I ditched my heels on the third attempt, realizing that Janet's fashion opinion meant next to nothing in this situation. I ended up falling anyways, but by that time I had already made it down to a reasonable distance from the ground, and didn't suffer any actual injuries.
"It was bad enough," he was saying, "for me to end up in the future the first two times. But now I have to do it again, and with some idiot who enjoys sock-hops and speakeasies!"
"I don't actually enjoy either of those, and I think you're getting your time periods confused. Were you reading books when you were stuck in our time period? You should have picked up a newspaper instead."
He ignored me to continue his train of thought. "You know, you'd be a lot more useful if you'd come from just about any other time period. What skills have you got? Math?"
I found all of this very offensive, with good reason. "Not just math! Accounting! Besides, Math is a useful skill, I'll have you know. At least I was in accounting instead of sales, like some people."
"Right. Because you were stupid enough to do a harder job for less money."
"It's more respectable that way! And I was in control of your money! I could have moved a decimal point!"
"And had yourself fired!"
"That's right!" I turned around and ignored him while he continued his long string of complaints about the future. It reminded me of my days spent listening to Janet.
"-worth absolutely nothing, if you ask me!" He got quiet, and I figured he'd run out of steam.
"You're done, then?"
"Hardly."
"So we're just going to agree that neither of us wants to be in this situation, and it would be for the best if we just got up and tried to find those eagles, right?"
We decided it would be a reasonable way to phrase our quest parameters and moved on. It wasn't like either of us would get home any faster if we kept up the arguing. Technically the eagles weren't going to show up until it was particularly convenient according to fate, but at least we could put up a good show of trying to find them first.
This led us into town. We both wanted a meal, so we made it our first priority. It would have been a lot easier to find a decent meal if the people in the future hadn't been so very health conscious. There were plenty of vending machines with various health smoothies and soylent products, but no actual restaurants. Apparently, nobody sat down long enough to eat in the future.
We found a set of treadmills, the closest thing to a park bench in the whole city, and discussed our options while the news was blaring from a radio across the way.
"So… I take it this mental disease of yours is contagious?" I was grasping at straws, but it would be better to go crazy than to be stuck in the future.
"I'm as sane as you are, you saw the eagles."
"That's what I'm worried about. So, what about this ring thing everyone keeps talking about?"
"Oh, that? Well, I can't do that until I figure out a way to get back where I came from."
He started humming. It was very annoying. Later I would learn just how annoying Hobbits and their humming could be. Humming and singing, that sort of thing. Don't even think about giving one an instrument. It's just bad.
"Can I see it?" Really, I was just interrupting. I didn't care much about the ring. It was the humming that got to me.
"I'd rather not-" He patted a few pockets, with a terrified look on his face. "Did you steal it? You stole it! No, you're too stupid to steal it… I dropped it. Wonderful. Just wonderful."
I wasn't the least bit offended by his analysis. At least he was counting me as an innocent.
Just as we started to give up hope, the eagles showed up, which was pretty typical for them. Never trust a giant magical eagle to show up any sooner than 'just in the nick of time'.
"There, tell the magical giant eagle that you can't find your ring."
Here ends chapter two.
Chapter three involves more magical giant eagles.