CHAPTER I - The Bookstore on Portobello Road
Disclaimer: Of course I do not own The Lord of the Rings (it would be damn awesome if I did, though).
Enjoy reading :)
"Oh, crap. It's going to rain." Emery felt the tiny rain drops falling down on her arm. The next moment itstarted pouring rain. "Come on," her best friend Ava said, "let's find shelter."
It was Spring Break and the girls decided to plan a city trip to London. Emery and Ava knew London would be much more rainy than Pensacola, their hometown, but still hoped that at least one day the sun would shine. It already was their third day and tomorrow, they would fly back to the United States.
Today, Emery and Ava decided to walk along Portobello Road, but their stroll was rudely interrupted by the typical English weather. "Shit," Emery sighed, "we haven't even visited an old bookstore yet."
Old and vintage-looking book shops with well-known literature had becomeEmery's new aesthetic, so buying a book at those old fashioned bookstores was a must.
They stood under a shed of a greengrocer and scanned the street. "What about that one, at the corner?", Ava asked. Emery looked at where Ava was pointing her index-finger to.
"Gandalf's Bookstore", she read aloud. "No, it says 'Albert's Bookstore'", Ava corrected her and frowned. "Oh",Emery said and looked again. Ava was right, she didn't know how she could've misread that.
They sprinted towards the bookstore and panted as they stood in front of the door. A soft bell was heard when they opened the door. Emery and Ava stood there in awe, looking around the beautifulshop.
"Wow..." Ava sighed as she looked up to the ceiling, expecting it to be closer to her head. But instead, the ceiling was two floors further away. The floors were open in the center of the bookstore and had an overlooking view of the ground floor.
"There must be more than a thousandbooks or so!" Emery said, walking towards a stack of books and picked one up. "Closer to six thousand, I must add." Emery and Ava turned around to see an old man standing next to a bookcase. He had white hair and a walking stick in his right hand.
"Pardon me," he said and smiled, "I did not want to scare you off, ladies."
Emery put the book down after briefly judging its cover. "Oh, of course not, Mr..." she didn't finish her sentence as a gesture she wanted to know his name.
"Albert White", he said. "Well," Emerysaid and walked towards him to shake hands, "it is a pleasure to meet you Gandalf White." The man's eyes widened as she said that name.
"Emery," Ava sighed, "his name is Albert, just as the bookstore's name is..."
"Oh, I am so sorry, Mr. White." He shook his head and chuckled. "You two look interested in old literature, so how about I show you around the book store? Just so you can find everything I have to offer you?" The ladies traded glances and nodded. "That would be really nice, Mr. White", Ava said.
"Well," Albert White began, "on the ground floor, you can find the well-known novels, mostly 20th century." He paused and grabbed a book from the bookcase next to him. It was the famous book '1984' and he put it back on the shelf.
He walked towards the stairs and went on. "On the first floor, the books are mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries." Ava saw a pile of books on a desk.
"Wow," she said and her eyes widened, "this looks like the first copy!" She held the pieces of paperin her hand as if they were holy. "That's because it is", Mr. White said and grinned.
"Cool," she said and looked at Emery, "I think I'll stay here for a moment, Em. I want to look through this copy." Emery chuckled and nodded.
Emery followed the old man to the second and last floor. She was surprised to see he was so fit, yet he looked he was almost eighty years old.
"Now this, milady, has a slightly different theme", he said as he walked around. This floor wasn't lit as well as the floors below. The ends of the room were darker, since the light didn't reach it.
Emery looked amazed, Mr. White could see her curious eyes wander through the bookcases.
"Middle Earth..." she read aloud and grabbed the big book. She looked around for a table where she could put the heavy book down.
"Ah," Mr. White said as he walked over the table, "you have chosen a very good one." Emery looked at him curiously and he half-smiled. She opened it and saw a folded paper between the pages. She unfolded it and saw it was a map, titled with The Realm of Middle Earth.
She frowned, skimming through the map and reading the names of Kingdoms and areas she didn't recognize aloud. "Rohan, Blue Mountains, Rivendell..? What is this place?"
How could a person make this up? It was well formed and looked very professional. Maybe someone liked drawing maps so much he wanted to continue doing it by making continents up. The map was old, it had a sallow color and it was torn on the right side.
"Some people say this map, and all the information you can find on this floor was made up, just someone's imagination. Others actually believe this continent, and all of the legends with it, truly existed, and still might exist", Mr. White said.
Emery looked around, stunned by the amount of books that have been written about this place. She left the desk, with the book still opened, and walked towards a big bookcase.
She grabbed a book with the title Mirkwood and its Legacies. "I saw this on the map!" she said and opened it. Shequickly skimmed it until she saw the word Elves.
"Elves?" she asked Mr. White. "Yes," he said, "it is believed Middle Earth was home to many creatures. Here, you should take a look at this book." He handed her a book with a brownish cover.
She opened it and paged through the book. There were drawings and descriptions of Elves, but she also read about the Race of Men, Dwarfs and tiny childlike people called Hobbits. Suddenly she saw a familiar name written down, which made her widen her eyes for a brief second. She closed the book and turned to Mr. White.
"So these books are, like, a major collection of tales and legends of races in this made up world Middle Earth?" She looked at the old man, who had watched her taking in all the information.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, milady, that is for you to believe." Emery frowned and laughed at the thought of this being real. But on the other hand, these books could have never been written by just one person. There were too many books on this floor, and each and every book was about this mysterious place.
She suddenly thought about Ava, who was still looking around on the first floor. It was time for them to leave. Just as she wanted to say she had to go, she saw a map hanging on the wall.
She walked towards it and looked at it. Emery shrugged and wanted to walk away, but felt something beneath her right foot. She was standing on a paper. She picked it up.
It wasn't a map of Middle Earth, but a map of London. Twelvelines were drawn and all of them led directly to one point. She read the name of the street. She kept her jaws clenched as her heart skipped a beat.
"It is believed that there might be a possibility to go from one place to another," Mr. White said as he came up behind her, but kept his distance, "a reef, which allows men to visit Middle Earth."
Portobello Road.
Emery started to feel slightly uneasy. "I'm afraid I'm not following you, sir." She looked at the map hanging on the wall. It also had twelve lines that led to one point, in a Kingdom called Gondor.
She looked closely at the map of London. "According to this map, the altitudes of Gondor and London are approximately... the same", she mumbled.
She turned around, looking at all the shelves. Then she turned to Mr. White. "Do you believe there is a reef in your bookstore to a place that might not even exist?" she asked, afraid of the answershe could get.
"Why don't you see for yourself?" he said as he gestured Emery to walk further, to the somewhat darker ends of the area.
This man is mad, she thought by herself. But she did, hesitating, still thinking everything was just an imagination of a writer, if not, writers.
One last book caught her eyes, Gondor, and she grabbed it. She opened her mouth to say something.
"I don't think there is such thing as a-"
Her sentence was cut off when there was a rumbling sound, that only seemed to make the second floor shake. A bright light suddenly began to form out of the dark.
She looked at Mr. White when the realization hit her. "You are…" she stumbled, "Your- your name is not Albert White, but it is Gandalf the White! I read it in the Book of Creatures!"
It was hard to believe, and her head was telling her- no, shouting at her to run away from this crazy man (wizard?!). Her heart was telling her otherwise.
Her heart and curiosity won. She turned back around, facing the light. It was drawing her in and the temptation was too big. Emery didn't think about Ava anymore as she took a step closer.
"Man, those stairs were killing! I can't believe you-" Ava was panting when she reached the second floor, but snapped out of it when she saw bright light coming from behind a bookcase. "What the actual... Emery?"
She ran towards the bookcase and saw Mr. White standing next to a pile of books. "Oh no..." he sighed as he saw her turning around to the light and ran towards it, following Emery.
"Wait for me! Emery! Where are you going?" she shouted.
The light had already faded when the bell rang downstairs. The wizard sighed as he was making his way downstairs.
Soooooo that was the first chapter of my first ever written fanfic on this platform..! I really hope you guys enjoyed it, and please review this story if you have any tips and even suggestions, as long as they fit in the story. I already have some ideas in my mind… anyways thanks for reading!
Pronounciation:
Emery: EM-u-ree
Ava: AA-vaa
