The first thing I felt when I became conscious once more was the soft ground beneath my cheek and palms, with the smell of damp earth assaulting my nostrils.

My whole body ached, even more than it had from the physical exertion of trying to keep myself alive throughout that day. With weak arms and shaky legs, I rose to my feet and looked around.

It was dark, completely so. After several minutes, my eyes adjusted until I could only see the outline of trees that surrounded me. The dark forest sparked recognition in my memory, and I shuddered.

It was as though I had stepped back into my hallucination, but the noises that I heard made me certain that I was exactly where I needed to be.

I heard cars. Like, actual cars, the occasional beeping of a horn and the dull drone of their engines.

The noise didn't reassure me, not one bit. It made me feel nervous and entirely uncomfortable in not only being here but being by myself.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry or laugh bitterly at the true realisation that my birth world was most definitely not my home anymore.

I felt like a foreigner; I didn't belong here at all.

Clutching the leather bag in my grip, I bit down on the loneliness and fear that washed over and threatened to drown me. I moved towards the sound of traffic, grasping the cloak close against my body as the cool breeze danced at my skin.

The sounds quickly came nearer, and I saw a dim orange glow grow until I could make out houses.

I knew exactly where I was. This was the neighbourhood where I had grown up, the same one which I had run from all those months ago.

My stomach churned nervously, and I wondered at length whether it would make it easier or harder in being back here.

I knew where I could get the medicine from, but I also knew that it was going to be more difficult to go in without drawing suspicion. The people here would recognise me, especially after Josh and I disappearing.

Looking down at myself, I realised that it wouldn't matter if they knew me or not; I was wearing medieval-type attire, completely covered in blood and various superficial wounds, and carrying two blades at my hips.

I might as well have covered myself in flashing neon lights and begun running through the streets screaming 'notice me!'

Taking in a long breath, I slunk from the tree-line in which I was watching the suburban streets from. I thanked Galadriel for bringing me back at night; if I had been attempting this during the day, there would be no way I would be able to manage it.

The constant day traffic for this area was instead only punctuated with the occasional car here and there, making it much easier for me to avoid unwanted interactions. I kept to the shadows, sneaking along the fences of perfect little houses that lined the streets.

There were families in these houses, people old and young alike that had no idea of what lay outside their homes at night. They lived in ignorance, unaware of what existed within their world and outside of it.

For a split-second, I was overwhelmingly envious of that blissful naivety; they would never know of the horror I had witnessed in my short life. Most would never know what it feels like to experience death in such terrible ways, to take someone else's life, or to be scared that the breath that you take may be the last one that ever passes your lips. They wouldn't know.

The moment passed though, as I thought about the other things that they wouldn't experience. The adventure, the incredible world that I had seen and felt beneath my feet and reached with the ends of my fingers. They would never feel the love of a Dwarf or the friendship of a Hobbit. They would never witness the power of a Wizard or the timeless and untouchable beauty of an Elf. They would never know.

I would never swap places with them, despite what I had seen and regardless of the precarity in which my friends' lives hung.

I had seen a world that people could only dream of; I had felt love and friendship that would make even the richest person envious.

Even though I was risking all that by attempting something that would more than likely fail, I knew that it was those four that were dying back in Middle Earth that I wanted to share that life with. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that they had died because I had been too scared to do something to save their lives.

If I were to ever do this, it had to be now.

Walking through the familiar though strangely alien streets, I crept my way towards the small medical clinic that served the neighbourhood I had grown up in. I remembered it from my childhood as I had taken Josh there occasionally; obviously our father was most of the time too far deep in a drunken stupor to notice when either of us had fallen ill. Therefore, it had been my responsibility to take my younger brother to the nice doctor who ran the clinic.

It was small, and I remembered it only being a woman who worked there. She had a daughter of her own, only a few years younger than Josh, who we used to play with. I remembered Emily vividly, as most kids from school teased us for our old clothes and we were generally social outcasts.

Emily had been one of the few that didn't snub us because of our living conditions, though I remember Josh and I still being somewhat wary of her, almost as if she would one day begin to tease us as well.

I recalled memories of her and her mother as I walked around a corner and saw the clinic. It was still quite small, only the size of the other houses that stood nearby, but there was something different that I didn't quite remember.

It was still open.

"Shit," I murmured shallowly. When had it been a twenty-four-hour clinic?

My initial plan was to break in and grab what I needed, but obviously this wasn't going to work as I had hoped.

I walked within the shadows around the perimeter of the clinic, hoping to find some alternate way inside. When that idea was snuffed out, my only luck was found in the fact that there were no patients inside.

There was only one car in the parking lot at the front, and I waited for a long time to see if anyone was going to come out. The only person I saw was an older lady at a counter near the front of the glass door.

Drawing in a deep breath, I walked to the front door of the clinic.

I wasn't going to like what I was about to do.

Opening it up, I saw the woman look up from the counter behind black spectacles. She had a warm smile on her face, but as soon as she saw me she jumped up from her seat and scrambled around the counter towards me.

"Oh my lord, sweetie, what happened to you!" She went to reach for my arm, when she stopped dead in her tracks in realising what I was dressed in. Wide eyed, she looked back at my face, her confusion paramount.

"Dear, what is-what has happened?" She began to stutter, before there was a flash of something in her eyes.

"Do I… Do I know you?" I didn't reply, looking at her much more thoroughly than I had before. Her blonde hair had begun to streak grey, and there were many wrinkles in places where there had not been before, but it was her.

It was the woman who had always run the clinic, the mother of the girl Josh and I used to play with.

As I had been observing her, she had been doing the same to me. With a gasp and a complete look of shock to fill her face, I saw the moment that she realised who I was.

"Amelia? Amelia Cosgrove, is that you? Oh my, oh dear where have you been? What happened to you? We have been searching for months and months, with no sign of you and Josh! Oh, sweetie why are you covered in blood? We all thought... We all thought you were dead! The police didn't hesitate in arresting your good for nothing father, but he would never tell where you or your brother was! He always claimed he had nothing to do with your disappearance, of course everyone knew that was ridiculous…"

Her rambling trailed off when I quirked my eyebrows at her in surprise, trying to absorb what she had just said.

Our father was in jail?

They thought that he was behind our disappearance?

I didn't know what to say in reply, but all thoughts on my father's arrest were put out of my mind as she moved back around the counter, speaking as she did so.

"I must call the detectives! They have been so wrapped in finding you, oh how glad they will be to know you're alive!" My heart begun to race in my chest as she picked up the phone, and I quickly reached over the counter and put the phone back on the receiver before she could even press a button.

She looked at me in bewilderment, even more so when I moved around the counter towards her. I didn't want to do this, but I had no other choice. I had to save my friends.

I unsheathed my sword and outstretched it towards her; her eyes almost popped out of her head at the sudden movement, and she began to scramble backwards towards the wall.

"Amelia, what on earth are you doing? What is going on!" I stared back at her as she looked at me, completely dumbfounded and absolutely afraid.

"I need you to fill this up right now. I need bags of universal-type blood and nutrients, IV needles and tubes, bandages, alcohol, stiches, lots of antibiotic medicine and syringes." For the first time in my life, I felt overwhelmingly relieved that I had spent hours of my time watching medical shows instead of studying. It gave me an incredibly basic understanding of what I needed, but it was a start.

She looked at me in shock, before I spoke the words that I didn't want to utter; I didn't want to completely terrify her, but I needed to save my brother and my friends.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you try and call anyone. Understand?" She nodded her head ardently, and I threw her the bag.

"Now do as I say."

Her whole body shook as she made her way into the back of the clinic. We entered a larger room with a small medical bed in one corner, holding cabinets and cabinets full of glass bottles and equipment. There was a small fridge out of view which she made for first and grabbed out handfuls of blood bags and dozens of nutrient bags.

"W-why do you need this stuff?" She whispered, her voice quivering audibly as she continued to move to other shelves. I saw her put several bottles of what looked to be cleaning alcohol in the bag.

"I need the equipment to clean, stitch and bandage flesh wounds. I need to be able to clean them efficiently, and I need antibiotics to fight off bacterial infections of the wounds. I need the blood and nutrient bags to increase the blood count, they've lost too much blood."

She looked at me as if I had well and truly lost it.

"Who's lost too much blood?" She exclaimed, looking me over once more as if it were me that needed the medicine.

"It doesn't matter who, I just need you to help. If you don't, they will die. Do you get that? If you haven't given me the correct equipment, I will come back for you. Do you understand?"

She nodded again, hesitantly this time though. As she continued, she asked questions regarding the wounds that were being treated, as well as other questions relating to our disappearance.

"Where have you been Amelia? Everyone has been searching for months, though.. .Though we were looking for bodies..." I saw her stuff copious amounts of bandages, stitches, IV needles and tubes into the bag that was now threatening to overflow with the equipment.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I deadpanned and watched intently as she searched through a cabinet full of small plastic and glass bottles.

"I need mostly antibiotics that I can administer with a syringe. They have serious flesh wounds, and if they don't get this they won't be able to break their fevers. Can you give me enough of what I need?"

She again nodded reluctantly and begun to explain the antibiotic that she was filling the rest of the bag with.

"This is used to treat patients suffering deep cuts and gashes from infection. One vial is administered twice a day until the fever has broken." I nodded, and she passed me the bag that was now filled with everything I needed. She looked at me, still scared, but I softened my expression for just a second.

"Thank you," I whispered, before sheathing my blade and quickly running from the room, towards the front exit.

As soon as I pulled open the door to sprint away, I heard the woman begin hysterically crying on the phone.

Shit.

I raced back through the side streets and alleys in which I had come down, holding the pack close to my chest as my whole body caught alight, the aching in my muscles now blazing in pain.

I had only gotten halfway back to the forest when I heard sirens blaring towards the neighbourhood at an incredible speed.

There was nothing I could do but run and stick to the shadows as much as I possibly could.

It took double the time it previously had to get back to the tree-line. The sirens had stopped, but in the place of it, silent police cars drove slowly down the streets with their lights switched on. The red and blue shone all around me, and I feared that from the shadows I would be seen.

I had made it to the row of houses that sat opposite the forest; listening and looking intently for any sign of those who hunted me, I took in a deep breath and sprinted across the road and to the tree-line for safety.

My luck had obviously run out, because the shouts I heard froze me where I stood.

"Hey, you! Stop! Don't move an inch!" I stopped, slowly turning around to face the voices.

Two officers donned in navy blue had just emerged from a street a little down the road. I looked at them, their guns held up towards me, before I turned with as much speed as I could manage and bolted into the darkness of the trees.

I heard their shouts and curses before I realised that they were running after me. Light from their torches bounced off the trees around me, and I ran for my life.

Or rather, the lives of my family.

Erebor, get me back to Erebor. Get me back to Josh and Fili, I exclaimed in my mind. The shouts of the officers sounded close to me, but I couldn't let them distract me.

I had one chance at this, and I wasn't about to lose it.

Erebor, please, get me back to Erebor. I have to get back to the Lonely Mountain, I need to. Fili, Kili, Thorin, Josh. Erebor, Erebor, I continued to chant.

Erebor, Josh, Fili.

I persisted to run, the police officers getting closer and closer to me.

Kili, Thorin, Erebor.

But nothing happened.

I was still running through the same forest. I hadn't gotten to Erebor.

I couldn't get through.

Despite the fear gripping me into near paralysis from the realisation that it hadn't worked, I continued to run as fast as my legs would allow.

There was a sudden silence from behind me and I slowed, expecting the officers to have disappeared.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

The officers had stopped, their guns trained on me as they looked down the barrels of their pistols.

My feet had continued to run as I saw what was happening, though the ground sloped suddenly from beneath my feet and I fell as I heard the fading shouts of the officers.

Tumbling downwards, I felt my arms and ribs crash against the earth that was intermittently punctuated with sharp rocks. They cut against the parts of my body uncovered from the mithril armour that I still wore underneath my cloak, and I cried out in pain from each blow I received.

Finally, my battered body met the bottom of whatever slope I had fallen from, my cheek connecting with force against a solid surface.

There was a blinding pain in my skull that didn't recede for a long time. I laid there until it did become a duller ache, but everything hurt.

I wasn't going to be able to continue like this, not for much longer.

Lifting myself heavily from the ground, I picked up the rucksack and checked that the contents were alright, before I realised where I was.

I hadn't landed on the dirt of the forest; the ground was smooth stone.

Oh my god.

I did it! I had travelled back to Erebor!

My eyes begun to water in happiness. I didn't know how I did it, but I had managed to get back.

A giddy bubble of laughter escaped my chest, though it was quickly stopped by a voice that called out from behind me.

I spun around, wondering who the hell could be in here. Everyone else had still been out on the battle field when I had left.

"Excuse me, but are you quite alright?" A man walked across the large hall towards me; he looked to be forty or fifty years old, with dark thinning hair. His lack of facial hair also slightly shocked me, as I had become so accustomed to the ridiculous hairiness of the Dwarves. The closer he came to me, the sooner I realised how much taller he was than me.

Suddenly I became terrified, a feeling of dread overcoming my senses. I stumbled backwards away from the strange man, reaching for the hilt of the blade at my left hip.

"Please, I mean you no harm! Who are you, and what are you doing here?" He exclaimed, looking me over with a curious glint in his eyes.

"What do you mean what am I doing here? Who are you?" The man frowned at me, and I began to look at him closer. He was clothed in what I would expect from Middle Earth, but he clutched a backpack that was definitely not from this world...

"Where am I?" I exclaimed, fear pressing down in my chest. He too looked at the bag that I was carrying, and a look of realisation crossed past his features.

"You are within Erebor, The Lonely Mountain, Last of the Great Dwarven Kingdoms." I sighed, relieved that I had at least gotten to the right place. But who was this random man who was in here? How did he get past the battle?

"I have no clue who you are, but I need to find my way back out to the battle field. I have medicine and I need to save my family," I spoke in a rush, suddenly aware that my time was running out. I had to get back out to them now.

"What battle?" The man question, his curiosity piquing. I just stared at him. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"The battle, the one that just happened? Have you been living under a rock?" He continued to look at me with a mixed expression, so I continued to ramble in my anxiety.

"We just fought the Orcs and Goblins and Wargs? Look, I need to get out there now otherwise my brother Josh and Thorin and Fili and Kili will die." My voice broke as I spoke, the reality weighing down upon me as though I was going to be crushed under the pressure.

I began to walk past him, when he asked me another question which held me where I stood.

"Thorin Oakenshield? Joshua, your brother?" He turned to face me as I nodded quickly.

"Yes! Do you know where they are?" The man suddenly looked solemn, as he turned and nodded to an area on my right.

I looked towards the area which held his gaze, and half laughed in annoyance.

"I don't care about some dumb statues. I need to get back to them, alright? If I don't get there in time I won't be able to save them, so if you won't help me then I'll find my way out of here myself." He looked at me with sad, forlorn eyes as he walked over to the statues that I could see in the dim orange light of the hall.

I stood for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Truly, I didn't know how deep I was in the halls of Erebor, and this weird man may be my only exit from this place. Reluctantly I followed, trepidation growing in my mind. My instincts told me that something was very, very wrong and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.

As I moved closer, I finally reached the man. He had stopped before the four statues, which I realised had rectangular stone blocks in front of them.

I opened my mouth to question what the hell was going on, when I closed it again.

I had figured out what was happening deep down within my being, but I didn't want to know. I didn't want it to be true. He began to explain nonetheless, opening a small book he held in his hands to read from it.

"Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, son of Thror, fell in the Battle of Five Armies in the year 2941, and died of his wounds shortly afterwards. Fili and Kili, sons of Dis, nephews of Thorin, fell defending their Uncle's body. Both died of their wounds shortly afterwards.

"Joshua, unknown, was the only Human to be buried within a Dwarven Kingdom. Despite his attempts to save the Line of Durin, he fell during battle, and died of his wounds shortly afterwards. Amelia, sister of Joshua, disappeared shortly after the battle was won. Her whereabouts remained unknown."

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.

I stared into the stone faces of my brother, my one, Kili and Thorin, unbelieving and unwilling to believe.

"The year is currently 3149 of the Third Age, over two-hundred years since the great battle."

His words took an eternity to sink in, but when they did, I couldn't cope.

How did I get it so wrong? How did I end up being so close, yet so far away from where I needed to be?

I vaguely remembered what Galadriel had told Josh and I all those months ago.

This does not mean that your world is running in synch with this one; as I said, it is unreliable. Any one individual not sufficiently experienced in the powers of the Old Magick could end up in a time that is a century, a millennium before or after their own time.

I didn't realise that I had fallen to my knees until the man too, with some difficulty, knelt beside me. No sobs escaped past my lips, no tears flowed from my eyes. There was just nothing left to give.

"They're dead." I said evenly. Despite the statement, the man nodded his head from beside me.

"Galadriel... Galadriel believed in me. My mum believed in me, but I failed. They're dead." My voice broke and I dropped my head to the ground below me. Finally, my chest begun to heave with the sobs that left my body.

I was in physical pain.

There was nothing left for me. All my friends were dead. My family was dead. I was alone, and I had no one.

I had never wished for death in my life, yet that day it had become commonplace.

I wanted nothing more than to just die, so that I didn't have to feel the absolute agony that I was in.

I couldn't do it.

A hand touched my shoulder lightly, though I took no notice until the voice spoke once more.

"You spoke of Galadriel?" A strangled cry escaped my lips before I could respond.

"She sent me back… Back to my w-world… I got medicine to save them, she sent me to save them…"

"Your world? You're from Earth?" I snapped my head upwards to look at him, feeling anger beginning to replace the grief.

"How the hell do you know that?" I snapped at him, and he looked down at the ground below us before speaking.

"That is my home also." I frowned at his words, then remembered the odd backpack he held. It wasn't modern, but it wasn't made from fabrics I had seen in Middle Earth.

"Good for you," I cried, opening my palms and firmly planting my face there.

I didn't want to look at him, and I didn't want to look at the statues of my dead family.

My inability to do something right had ended up in the four people closest to me dying, and me being stuck alone, without any one I had begun to trust and love.

"There are not many with the ability to use Old Magick, yet it allowed you access to this world. Why?" I shook my head, wondering the exact same thing myself.

Wait…

"How do you know about Old Magick?" I gasped, snapping my vision upwards to look at him. He gazed at me, searching my eyes, before a small smile graced his lips.

"I learnt many things about this magic from an old friend, one that both you and I share." I frowned at him, until I realised.

Galadriel.

"You… You can travel between realms?" He nodded slightly, the smile still not leaving his face.

"Yes. I was about to leave this world for the last time when I stumbled across you. I have been wandering between Middle Earth and Earth for many years now, learning, researching, writing. It has been a wonderful journey, though I have one last adventure left back home." I frowned at him, unsure if I understood most of what he was saying. He gave me a few moments to absorb the information before he spoke again.

"Galadriel must have very good reasons for using Old Magick to send someone through realms. She did not approve of my travelling, yet she tolerated it and continued to uphold our close friendship. I suppose, if there is one last favour I can do for her..."

He glanced at me, his searching eyes looking deep within my being once more. With a small nod to himself more than to me, he moved to his feet, helping me with him.

"It was a pleasure to meet the chimerical Lady Amelia. Send my regards to the Lady Galadriel. I suppose she will be seeing me once again, however I will not meet her another day. Hold your bag tightly and relax."

He held my hands within his own, and before I realised what was happening, the edge of my vision began to blur in gold and greens.

"Wait!" I gasped, not satisfied with his cryptic riddles. "Who are you?"

The room began to fade, until the last thing I saw was his face, still smiling with not only his lips but with his eyes as well.

"My name is John Tolki-"

And I was unconscious once more.


Eeeeeee and finally the ideas I had bubbling around my mind months ago have been written! Please, please review and let me know what you think! I have just always loved the idea that perhaps Tolkien was more than just human, and I have always wished that Middle Earth is something more than just fiction (as most of us would like to believe I think!).

I hope this chapter was enjoyable! I re-edited it many times to make sure that I had formed into words exactly what I imagined in my mind. It was only a last minute idea to add that Amelia ended up at their graves (originally she was just going to end up in a random hall in Erebor), but I think it adds a lot more to the story the way I have created it.

Thanks again to my reviewers (Miriel Tolkien and Marina Oakenshield)! I would really love to hear what you guys think about the story now that I am at the tail end of it :)

Have a great day!