Fellowship of the Ring: You think you know someone

The merry tweeting of birds and the bright morning sun woke Velma from her sleep. With a soft groan, she rubbed her eyes and sat up. As she did so, three things came to her attention. The first thing was that she was dressed in an odd nightshirt that wasn't hers and lying in an unfamiliar bed. The second thing was that this unfamiliar bed was in an equally unfamiliar room. The third thing was that there was somebody else in the room with her.

An old man was sitting in a chair by the window. He was dressed in a rough, grey, woollen robe that reached down to his feet. His long silver hair fell past his shoulders and his beard reached down to his chest. He was puffing away at a wooden pipe, gazing absently out into the warm autumn morning. The man looked like nobody Velma had ever met before, and yet he was somewhat recognizable. Almost like...

"G-Gandalf?" Velma stammered.

The man turned to face the teenager and smiled. "Yes, I'm here. And you're lucky to be here too. A few more hours and you would have been beyond our aid. But you have some strength in you, dear Frodo."

Velma raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Where am I? And why did you call me Frodo? My name is Velma. Velma Dinkley."

Gandalf frowned slightly, but appeared amused at the same time. "Velma Dinkley? And since when do you go by that name?"

"Since always" Velma replied, confused. She suddenly became aware of a pain in her left shoulder and lifted the collar of her shirt to see a deep gash which looked to be in the process of healing. Her eyes widened. "What the-? How did I get this? What happened?"

"You mean you don't remember?" Gandalf asked.

Velma shook her head. "All I remember is falling asleep and then waking up here, wherever here is."

"It is the house of Elrond" Gandalf told him. "And it is ten o'clock in the morning, on October the 24th, if you wanted to know."

Poor Velma was more confused than ever. The house of Elrond? October 24th? That couldn't be right. When she had fallen asleep, it had been in the middle of June and she had been in the apartment that she shared with Fred, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo. Had she slept through four whole months?

"O-kay" she said slowly. "But that doesn't explain how I got here, or why I have this gash in my shoulder."

Gandalf's expression became grave. "I'm told that was the result of an unfortunate run-in with..."

"Frodo?!" an excited voice cried.

The two of them turned towards the door to see a young, stout man with bushy, pale red hair and a round face. "Frodo!" he repeated as he ran to the bedside of a rather bewildered Velma. "Bless you! You're awake!"

A smile crossed Gandalf's aged face. "Sam has hardly left your side."

Velma stared at him with widened eyes. "Hang on. Sam? As in Samwise Gamgee?"

The man nodded. "Of course. Don't you know your Sam?"

The same words began spiralling in Velma's head. Samwise Gamgee. Gandalf. Frodo. House of Elrond. With a jolt, Velma suddenly realised where she was. "Oh my gosh! I'm in Middle Earth" she whispered to herself.

A few hours later, after Lord Elrond himself had come in to examine Velma's wound, Velma was allowed to leave her room. She couldn't find any of her own clothes anywhere, so she dressed in a simple blouse and a pair of trousers, then decided to have a look around the place. Sam offered to accompany her, but she said she wanted to be alone. What she really wanted was some space to ponder the weirdness of the situation.

She eventually came to a garden filled with beautiful trees where the ground was paved with cobblestones and there was a small stone pavilion in one corner. Deciding that this was good a place as any to be alone, Velma seated herself under the pavilion and thought and thought. How did I get here? she wondered. And how the heck do I get out?

"Velma!" a familiar voice called.

She looked up to see four figures running out of the house towards her. At first, she couldn't work out who they were but, when they got closer, she noticed that one of them was a dog, and another one of them had long red hair.

"Daphne?" she asked, rising from her seat. "Scooby-Doo?" She then turned to the tall, robust man with blonde hair that came down to his neck, dressed in a silver and black tunic. "Fred?"

"And, like, Shaggy too!" said the fourth member of the group. The person sounded like Shaggy but didn't look at all like him. He had a long brown beard and hair and he wore a suit of chain mail under a wine-red tunic. He had also shrunk to the same height as Velma.

"SHAGGY?!" Velma exclaimed. "What on earth has happened to you guys?!"

They all shrugged. "Like, we have no idea, Velm" Shaggy said. "All I remember is being asleep one minute, and the next minute being in this weird place full of guys with long hair and dressing gowns, calling me Gimli."

"That's what happened to Daphne and me" Fred spoke up. "Except I was being called Aragorn and people were calling Daphne Legolas."

"And do you know what the worst part is?" Daphne asked. "I'm stuck in some hideous outfit that even a hobo would be ashamed to wear!"

The other four all stared at Daphne, taking in her outfit. It certainly didn't look like the sort of thing Daphne would usually wear, even for a bet. She was dressed in a green-brown tunic over a pale blue blouse and brown leggings. On her feet, she wore knee-high brown boots.

"Like, how the heck did we get here?" Shaggy wondered out loud.

"I think I know" Velma said quietly. Everyone gazed at her expectantly. She gave a nervous cough and continued. "Uh, well...there is a possibility that we were somehow transported to the world of Lord of the Rings where we all became characters from the story. Fred has become Aragorn, Daphne has become Legolas, Shaggy is Gimli and I seem to have become Frodo."

"Rhat about re?" Scooby piped up.

"Uh, I think you're still yourself, Scooby" Velma told him.

The dog frowned. "Aw, ruts!"

"But...how are we going to get out of here?" Daphne asked worriedly.

Velma opened her mouth to speak when she was cut off by the sound of Gandalf's voice. "Ah Frodo, there you are." The old wizard smiled as he approached the group. "I see you've already met our visitors. But you must come along now. Lord Elrond has called a meeting and it is vital that you all attend."

"Like, who now?"