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Heads darting around, the two girls' screams slowly died away to panicked hyperventilating and wide eyed shock. Just a few hours ago they had been fast asleep in their warm beds in their shared apartment. Now they were alone in an unfamiliar place on the outskirts of a dark and foreboding forest. Taking a few calming breaths, the taller girl turned to her friend. "Okay, this is either a creepily elaborate dream or I've gone insane." She enunciated her words slowly, still attempting to take in the strange situation she had found herself in.
"I don't think it's either of those Charlie," her companion stated, "and that's what scares me."
Sighing at her friend, Charlie rose to her feet before turning back to face her smaller companion. "Come on Rayne, maybe if we find someone, they can help us figure out what's going on."
"I doubt anyone will be able to do much," Rayne mumbled as she allowed her friend to pull her to her feet. "But I suppose we could try," she shrugged, before grinning up at her friend. Beaming in response, Charlie linked her arm through Rayne's and dragged her off in search of help. Their search consisted of ten minutes worth of admiring the captivating flora and trying to spot peculiar animals before they were interrupted by a loud growl. Slowly turning to see what made the noise, the girls were faced with a large, dark brown bear with it's eyes fixed directly on them. After a split second, the girls took off running, scrambling to get as far away from the bear as possible.
Sprinting as fast as they could, the girls were beyond panicking when they heard the bear's thundering foot steps as it got closer and closer. That was when Rayne tripped. Her foot getting caught on a twisted tree root, she toppled over the edge of a shallow precipice and into the downward sloping forest below. In a desperate attempt to prevent her rapid descent, Rayne scrambled for something to grasp on, only to drag Charlie over the edge with her. Both girls gasped as the air was forced from their lungs. They tumbled through the forest over rocks and tree saplings until they hit the bottom of the hill with a loud thud.
Bofur peered down at the two girls that had landed at his feet, completely covered in dirt, sticks and leaves. They looked up at him, wincing in pain and out of breath. He offered a brief smile at the girl collapsed by his left boot. She had long, beautiful, dark hair that still seemed to be in perfect condition, despite the fact that they had just fallen down a hill. A loud roar came from on top of the slope.
"RUN!" they yelled at the same time as they jumped onto their feet and started sprinting.
The company started running.
"What is it?" Bilba asked worriedly as she sprinted, unsure of whether or not she really wished to know.
"Oh, it's just a bear," the shorter girl laughed.
"WHAT?!"
After over five minutes of running, the bear had the whole company cornered in a collection of boulders. Looking around for an escape route, the dwarves began slowly shuffling along the rock, trying to avoid any sudden movements lest it upset the bear even more. The beast in question leered down at them, its nose scrunching up as it sniffed at its captives. The bear seemed to be taken with Kili's scent in particular as it lunged forward and pulled him up with its mouth. Rayne dashed forward and grasped Kili's arm, starting a vigorous tug of war match against the large animal. "Give me... him...," she gasped, giving Kili's arm an extra hard pull. Kili's boot slid off suddenly and Rayne and Kili were flung back, landing in a painful pile as the bear began growling at its loss.
For some reason unknown to the rest of the group, Rayne appeared to find this endearing and turned her best puppy eyes on her friend. "I want it."
"No."
"But I-"
"No"
"What if I trained it?" Rayne was getting desperate.
"You're going to train a bear?" Charlie raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
"Yup."
Charlie sighed in resignation. "Fine, but only if you can prove that you are able to train it."
"Yes!" Rayne fist pumped victoriously before turning to the bear. "Drop the boot."
The bear didn't budge and Rayne narrowed her eyes at the challenging look in the bear's eyes. "Drop it," she commanded a little more firmly. The bear looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. Rayne growled slightly in warning and the bear dropped the boot. "Aw, you're such a good boy!" she beamed, the bear didn't reply, she thought for a moment, "girl?" She inquired hesitantly. The bear pretty much smiled and allowed her to start petting its head.
"Um, what just happened?" Kili asked, breaking the company's stunned silence.
"I think she just tamed the murderous beast that was going to eat you a few minutes ago." Fili mumbled in shock.
"Murderous beast? She's nothing but a big sweet heart," the girl retorted, "isn't that right... Caia?"
"You've got to be kidding me," this time the taller girl stepped in. The bear shot her a grumpy look.
"Look," the shorter girl started, "you said that if I could train it, I could keep it." She sent a smug look back at her friend, "and I trained it."
"I didn't think you'd actually be able to do it!" Charlie exclaimed. "I thought we'd just end up running away from it again until it got bored!"
"She got bored," corrected her friend, "and that doesn't matter. You promised."
Charlie rolled her eyes before attempting to reason with her excited friend. "How will you care for it? What will you feed it?"
"I'll feed her these midget men." Rayne stated in a matter of fact tone as she pointed at Kili. "That one first. Caia likes his smell."
"What the- no way!" Kili yelled.
She turned her puppy eyes on the protesting dwarf, "did I mention that it's my birthday?" She inquired innocently.
"No it's-" Rayne slapped her palm over her companion's mouth and gave Kili her one thousand watt smile. Kili glowered back down at her.
"The answer is still no," he growled.
Before they could start an argument loud enough to attract more potential predators, Gandalf joined the conversation. "If you don't mind me asking my dear, could you please tell me your names?" Pausing mid rant, the girls turned to face the old man.
"Rayne," the shorter replied, "and this is Charlotte." She grabbed the other girl by the arm and shoved her towards Gandalf.
"Charlie is fine." The second girl added quickly.
"Sorry to interrupt," Bofur pushed past a couple of other dwarves to speak to the strangers, "but what are you doing here?" Rayne and Charlie did a quick appraisal of their surroundings before answering.
"We got lost."
A/N: Yeah, we know, the whole bear thing isn't realistic at all... But we couldn't resist. Also, we will try to update every week but the next update will be late next week because our internet access is limited until then. Sorry.
