Note: Here is another Middle Earth/Forgotten Realms crossover. This time, it's a "marooned" type of trope, one of my favorite tropes. It's AU as you can already tell from the presence of Dinin, and as you can also guess, it's another Dinin redemption story because there just can't be enough of those! And all my favorites from both worlds are here. Including my two OCs Asphodel and Brenna, from my Hobbit fandom days. I really needed to give Entreri some love after finishing the Servant of the Shard book recently. As usual, this story will be high on platonic love. Friendships, bromances, that sort of thing. There will be a little romance, and I may add more OCs later to further that, but for now, I want to play around with the interaction between all these characters. As usual, I write spontaneous prose, as in writing with no outline, so pay attention to the tags and warnings because they will change as the story evolves. I'll warn of any triggers as they happen as I don't know how dark this story will go, but most of my stories usually descend into darkness at some point.

Pairings: Drizzt/Ellifain, Fili/OC, Kili/OC

Warnings: lots of psychological trauma. Past abuse, past trauma, past sexual trauma and abuse (just read Entreri's bio on the wiki, it's rough),

Disclaimer: Of course, I don't own The Hobbit or the Forgotten Realms works and this work is solely for enjoyment!

Drizzt gasped as the truth was revealed even as he lay against the cave wall, so grievously injured. Across the room, the elf grinned as her magical disguise fell away and the drow could see her for who she truly was.

"No…" Drizzt stammered as he gasped for air even as blood filled his mouth. If he had known who it was he had been fighting he would have never found the strength to raise a blade to her. And now, they both lay dying from identical wounds.

"You are dead, Drizzt Do'Urden," the elf stammered, her voice weak as she lay where she had fallen. "My village is avenged."

"Ellifain…" Drizzt mumbled her name, the name he had been told belonged to her. He could only stare at her, he knew they had very little time left, not enough time to tell her the truth of it, to make her understand. If only he had known.

But even as he lay there, blood pouring from the slash wound across his left lung, he noticed the slight distortion behind the wall. He focused on it, eyes narrowing as he tried to shake the sluggishness of his mind.

The elf frowned as she followed his gaze. The shimmering, glowing light grew bigger, coming more into focus, spreading out across the cave wall. As the shimmering whiteness covered the entire wall, Drizzt was certain he was gazing at the afterlife. He could almost see the world beyond.

Without thinking, without a clear understanding of his own actions, Drizzt groaned and pushed himself forward, collapsing forward across the floor. He coughed, gasping and sputtering as his lungs struggled to take in oxygen. He squeezed his eyes shut as the white hot pain nearly sent him into darkness.

Somehow, with failing strength, he pulled himself up to his hands and knees and inched forward, eyes focused on the fallen form. The elf lay still, Drizzt winced as he feared she had already succumbed. But as he finally reached her, gazing over her as she lay, pale and still, blood on her lips, he reached over and pressed a trembling hand against her neck.

The very faint thump of a pulse was there, but barely. Gathering all the strength he had, Drizzt pulled the female forward, dragged her to him and tossed her limp form across his own shoulders. The weight of her body on top of his nearly caused him to falter, but he couldn't give up.

He didn't know why he held compelled, but he turned to the light, to the realm beyond this one, and slowly inched towards it.

The energy drew them in immediately and they passed through. Drizzt blinked as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. This didn't seem like an after life. He found himself on some sort of wooden deck, gazing out across a vast grassy plain. Beyond, he thought he saw trees.

And, as if to confirm that he was in fact still alive, his strength finally gave out just as he collapsed into the wood, his chin impacting with a thump as his white hair spilled out around him. He quickly gave into the darkness.

Drizzt didn't even notice the shadowy figure as it came forward to peer at the two elves. As his consciousness faded away, he thought he heard a familiar masculine voice.

"So we meet again my adversary…"

Artemis Entreri glared at Jarlaxle as the mercenary leader examined Drizzt's injuries. "Strange that he should have arrived here considering he was dead when last I saw him." His accusing tone only caused the drow to smirk as he pressed some salve into Drizzt's wound.

Even though he was unconscious, Drizzt moaned and writhed in bed, pain etched into his face. Entreri had to wince in sympathy.

Jarlaxle ignored his comment and focused on replacing the bandages. Once he finished, he pulled the blankets up before turning to Entreri. "I've managed to repair the damage to his lungs," he explained. "I'm afraid my magic has dulled somewhat in this place."

Entreri sighed as he pushed his accusations aside for now and followed Jarlaxle out into the hallway. He was still adjusting to his situation here. One minute he had been in the dragon's lair where he and Jarlaxle battled his treacherous lieutenant, and the next, he, Jarlaxle, and Berg'inyon Baenres, the drow he had been fighting at the time, found themselves inside some sort of realm.

"There are many planes of existence," Jarlaxle had suggested. "It would seem that the destruction of the crystal shard caused a rift into this world."

Whether that was what happened or not, Entreri could only speculate. All he knew was that when he woke up, he had found himself in the middle of the grassy plain alongside Jarlaxle, Berg'inyon, and Dinin, another former Bregan D'aethe member who had accompanied Berg'inyon as a pair of fighters. It had certainly unnerved Entreri to learn that Dinin was in fact Dinin Do'urden, Drizzt's brother.

"Mr. Jarlaxle," the voice down the hall had Entreri turning to see the small halfling- Hobbit as she had called herself- standing halfway in the open doorway to another bed chamber.

"How is the female?" Jarlaxle asked as he and Entreri approached. The hobbit was young, her brilliant red hair bounced about her face as she moved. She was certainly beautiful and Entreri found himself thinking of the halfling he had known in Calimport. Perhaps the only sole in all the realms that Artemis Entreri could call a friend- Dwahvel Tiggerwillies, the proprietor of the Copper Ante, a well known gambling establishment that the assassin had begun to frequent since his return from Menzoberranzan, if only to seek her council.

But this Hobbit, Asphodel was her name, was not from Calimport, or from anywhere in the realms from what Entreri had learned when he had arrived in this strange place. She was from a different land- perhaps a different reality- altogether.

"She'll recover," Asphodel explained, "but there were times when I was sure she was lost. Her injuries were very severe."

"Very good," Jarlaxle tipped his hat and the hobbit disappeared back into the room, closing the door behind her. Jarlaxle motioned to Entreri to follow before leading him through the hall and out into the main room of this house.

This was a quaint wooden home that was certainly showing signs of decay. The wood creaked with every step, the thick smell of mold filled the air. There was a draft through the holes in the walls and the broken windows. Looking up, Entreri could clearly see holes in the roof. The place was barely inhabitable. And it was certainly a mystery as to who had even built it.

"It would seem that the crystal shard had more power than we could have possibly imagined," Jarlaxle spoke as the two of them passed through the main room and stood on the back deck, gazing out at the tree line far in the distance. "I believe the rift it caused reached not only our location on the material plane, but perhaps into another material plane altogether. This Middle Earth as our elf and dwarf friends called it."

As the mercenary spoke, Entreri spotted the tall blonde elf as he led his horse into the barely standing shack that had been the remnants of a barn. The assassin closed his eyes for a moment, trying to absorb it all. He and Jarlaxle hadn't been here for very long, only a few days. The arrivals from Middle Earth had been here for about two ten days. But all in all, the nine of them- twelve now with Drizzt and his elf companion- had found themselves plucked from their former lives and deposited into this land.

And though the land seemed barren, it was not uninhabited. Grazing animals of every description could be seen in the grasses, munching happily on the multitude of brush and vegetation around them. Horses, zebras, herds of deer, elf, and various types of buffalo were all here in droves. And lurking as a present danger were the various predators that hunted them- lions, wolves, coyotes, and hyenas were just a small sampling.

And the forest in the north brought even more diversity of animals and plants. And to the east, the prairie gave way to the ocean.

Entreri couldn't deny the peaceful tranquility of this place. But with the diversity of animals, so came a wide diversity of monsters. The orcs and trolls that inhabited the mountains in the west were a constant danger. And to the south, about five miles from their house, was a small town of humans. Entreri couldn't tell if they were natives in this realm or if they were the descendants of people who- like them- had fallen in from wherever they had come from.

"It doesn't matter to me how this happened," Entreri mumbled to his drow companion. "What matters is how do we get back to our own reality?"

Jarlaxle only shrugged. "Dimensional magic is a mysterious thing," he said. "Few possess the knowledge needed to wield it properly. Kimmuriel Oblodra might have been able to be of use here, but conveniently, he seems to have escaped it. For now, we must make the most of things. This is not such a bad place. The sun is perhaps a bit too bright for my taste, but we are quite beyond the reach of our enemies here."

Entreri scoffed at the mercenaries' words. He could sense the meaning behind his words. The assassin had been lost ever since his return from Menzoberranzan. The drow city had changed him and he had been struggling to understand where he stood in life. The streets of Calimport, where he had made a reputation out of fear and intimidation for so many years, held no interest for him anymore.

And the assassin couldn't deny that he was relieved to be away from the crystal shard. Everything about its ability to control and manipulate people was an affront to his need for independence and self-reliance. He hated the crystal shard perhaps more than he hated the dark elves who had destroyed everything that he once was and then had the audacity to infiltrate his city.

Perhaps, for now, this place would do.