Daylight

Chapter 1

Willow had never in particular been a morning person. Whenever she woke up on a morning, she would always bundle up in the covers and lie there for a further half an hour, trying to summon the will to eventually get up. Unfortunately, this typically meant she had to set her alarm much earlier than necessary to allow her this time just to avoid being late to work. Which unfortunately didn't always happen.

This particular morning, as she opened her eyes, she had no such trouble getting up. Her bed felt hard and lumpy, as if she wasn't lying on her mattress at all, and the sun seemed so bright she was beginning to wonder if she'd forgotten to close her curtains the night before. Her eyes widened as she realised that was not the case. She was right when she thought she was no longer in bed, in fact she seemed to be lying on the ground wearing nothing but her Winnie the Pooh pyjamas, in the middle of what seemed like a forest no less!

Trying her best to remain calm, she sat up, rubbing her eyes. Maybe she was still dreaming? That had to be it, the only explanation! It wasn't like she could have sleep-walked here after all, she lived miles away from anything even resembling a forest! The closest thing to her was a small, treeless park...

"Maybe I was kidnapped…" she muttered to herself. Oh yeah, they kidnapped you and just dumped you in the middle of a random forest! She thought afterwards. Get a grip, Willow! "Well, there's nothing else for it, I suppose I need to try and find out where I am."

Standing up, Willow cursed silently when she saw that however she had got to wherever she was, she had got there without shoes. She span round, trying to find a direction to walk, but unfortunately, each one looked exactly the same to her. So picking a random way, she gingerly started walking, cringing at the squelching noises that came from the slightly damp grass. At least this should be a good enough excuse to get me out of work for the day, she thought with a chuckle. Although I think I would actually kill for a coffee right now. She was never the kind of person that needed a coffee in the morning, although it certainly helped. I bet I'm hours away from the nearest Costa!

Her suspicions seemed to be right as she continued to walk through the forest. She had no idea whether she was just looping around in a circle or if she was making any progress, but at least in her mind she was going somewhere. The grass seemed to at least be dryer the further she walked and the air was getting warmer; she hadn't actually noticed how chilly it had been when she'd woken up, considering all her pyjamas consisted of was a t-shirt and long fluffy bottoms.

"This is ridiculous!" she complained. "It must have been at least two hours I've been wandering around aimlessly. I'm never getting out of this bloody forest!" She kicked at the grass. "Every single shitting tree looks the same. How does anyone even find their way through these places?" Getting frustrated, she pushed aside a tree branch that was in her path, only for it to snap back and hit her square in the face. "Fucking trees!" she shouted, grabbing said branch, snapping it clean off and proceeding to hit the tree trunk with it. Unfortunately for Willow, she then heard a deep, throaty chuckle. Putting both hands on her tree branch, she span around and held it in front of her. After all, you never know what kind of weirdos are just randomly hanging around in forests… me excluded… she thought, with a huff.

"Find something funny?" she snapped.

"Of course not, my lady. I'm sure the tree had it coming." He smirked. Willow narrowed her eyes, although she was now shaking. The man she had stumbled across seemed to be a similar height to her, but he looked rather muscular. He could snap me like a twig or like... well, this branch. His hair was a deep, dark brown with streaks of grey throughout, and he had a short, brown beard that did nothing to hide his smile. But what drew Willow's attention the most was the sword that he had casually hanging at his side. The very sharp looking sword.

"It did as a matter of fact. Who are you?" She narrowed her eyes. Clearly this guy thought he was some kind of medieval actor or something. There couldn't be any other explanation for his strange appearance.

"Should it not be me that asks you that question, my lady? You are, after all, the one that ran into my camp." He replied, calmly.

Willow thought about it. Surely, if he was going to kill her, he would have done so already? He clearly had the means to, after all! But she had always been taught to never give her name to strangers… Screw it, I'm 22 years old. I'm sure I can hold my own against him, although that thought was immediately followed by an internal scoff. I just got taken out by a tree, as if I could fight him!

"I'm Willow. Evans. Willow Evans." She said, wondering how hard it had been to say her own name. It's been a long day. "Now you go."

"Now I go where?" the man said, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"What? No, I… I mean, now it's your turn to tell me your name." Willow was now really starting to doubt this guy was an actor, things just weren't adding up in her head. He seemed genuinely confused by her phrasing.

"What an odd way of phrasing that. I am Thorin Oakenshield, at your service, my lady." He bowed, looking at her like she should know who he was. When it was clear she didn't, made obvious by her blank stare, Thorin cleared his throat. "Now, if I may ask, what is a Dwarf woman like yourself doing on your own out in the wilderness?"

"Excuse me? Dwarf? I'm an average five foot six, thank you very much!" she bristled.

"I believe you must be mistaken, my lady. I am amongst the tallest of my kin and I stand at four foot nine. You are at least a few inches shorter than I."

"Four foot…four foot nine?" Thorin nodded, giving her a careful look. "I've… I've SHRUNK! I've fucking shrunk! What the hell?"

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, my lady. But you seem distressed."

Willow gave Thorin a wide-eyed look. "Really? What gave it away? My high, squeaky voice or the fact I was previously hitting a tree with one of its own branches?"

"I was more referring to your state of…" He cleared his throat awkwardly. "…of undress, and the fact that it sounds you do not know where you are. Or your own height, it seems."

Willow looked down at her pyjamas. Even if she was somewhere else, even where she was from, going out in pyjamas wasn't exactly what one would call dressed. And he was right, she didn't know where she was. But, if she had indeed shrunk which it seemed like, she was just grateful her pyjamas had shrunk with her. "Are you just pointing all this out?" she asked. "Or are you going to help me?" She gave him a small smile to try and soften him up. The first smile he'd actually seen her give so far.

"I do not believe it would be appropriate for you to come with me where I am going." Willow's face dropped. Sure she was still a little uneasy of the guy, but she was now convinced he didn't mean her harm, leaving her with the happy thought that he was actually going to help her! Now, it sounded like she was going to have to continue to wander alone in the woods. I don't even know what berries are poisonous or not. I'm actually going to starve if this Thorin guy leaves me. "However, I do not believe I can leave a member of my kin who is lost and alone here in the forest. Especially a young woman such as yourself." He seemed to think to himself for a further moment while Willow stood there shuffling her feet from side to side. "Yes, I have decided. You will accompany me."

Willow beamed. Things seemed to finally be looking up! "Thank you, thank you! I can't tell you how excited I am to get out of this forest! I can't believe… wait, accompany you where?"

"That's all you're going to tell me? You're meeting some friends and going travelling?" Willow was now starting to regret following Thorin. He'd packed up his camp and told her they'd be travelling for the rest of the day (she'd been informed it was only around midday) towards the nearest town to sort out her 'unacceptable attire'. She agreed, if there was going to be travelling involved, she could hardly stay in her pyjamas. Somehow, she hadn't needed much convincing she was no longer 'home'. There was no denying it, once it had been pointed out. Willow couldn't help but notice how much shorter her legs had got. Walking seemed so much slower now. But she was still clinging on to the faint hope that it was all some kind of practical joke and she'd turn up at home the next time she woke up from a sleep. But, for now, following this Thorin guy was the best course of action.

"Yes, that is all you currently need to know. I am sure you will find out more in due course." Thorin replied.

Willow had come to realise in the hour or so she'd been questioning Thorin that he definitely wasn't much of a talker. He tended to stick to one word answers unless asked for more details, and rarely asked questions of his own. Although after more talking, Willow had come to find out where she'd ended up, although she hardly believed it. He'd called the land 'Middle Earth', which if Willow remembered correctly, was the land in the Lord of the Rings books she'd heard so much about. Unfortunately, she'd never bothered to read them, or watch the movies; in fact, she knew literally nothing about them, no names, nothing! If this was the land of Harry Potter, I'd be set, she thought. At least I've seen those films… I mean, what's the point knowing about the books and being here, but literally nothing else! Her thoughts went around and around in her head as she tried to believe what Thorin had told her. How could she possibly be in another world? She'd fallen asleep in her bed as she usually did, ready for another typical day at work. So what had happened? Which led back to the thinking that this was all one big prank. But by who she didn't know.

"Well… this place looks…quaint." She managed as they stood on the outskirts of the town Thorin had mentioned. She didn't remember what he had called it, but it was enough to convince Willow that this was, indeed, not a prank. The people here (Men, Thorin had informed her with a small look of disdain) seemed to be at least two heads taller than Willow. She had to crane her neck just to look at them. And the buildings all looked like something out of a reenactment village you went to on a school trip.

Thorin managed to drag her over to what looked like a clothes shop as she looked around eagerly, trying to take everything in. Everything just seemed so different. Without much attention on her part (although she noticed a lot of people staring at her for what could only be her current set of odd looking clothes) Thorin had already chosen a set of new clothes for her to wear, that consisted of a pair of trousers, a shirt, a coat, a deep green cloak, and a sturdy pair of boots which she was very thankful for. God only knows how filthy my feet are, she thought. She was just surprised Thorin had found something that would fit her, and it actually looked nice. He didn't seem the type to know about fashion.

"We will stay in this inn for the night to allow you to prepare yourself. We still have a couple weeks of travelling before we reach our destination." Willow looked at Thorin as he spoke. He had led her to a door in the inn they'd found, revealing that there was a freshly drawn bath to wash inside that he'd sorted for her while she'd been 'daydreaming' and that he'd knock on her door in the morning when he was ready to depart, "So make sure you're up and ready." Willow nodded with a smile and a thank you, hoping to convey her gratitude to the Dwarf that she'd hardly known a day. Thorin gave a small nod and smile in return before turning into his own room for the night.

Willow, once she'd entered her own room, had never been more thankful to see a bath in her life. Her feet were a dark brown from walking bare foot the entire day, and her hair felt like some kind of nest. Why I never put it up considering I have a hair tie on my wrist is beyond me, she thought, rolling her eyes. She spent the next hour scrubbing herself clean with the bar of soap that had been provided. Every inch she could reach was washed, giving extra attention to her hair. After all, god only knows when she'd be able to wash it again given everything that had happened so far!

It seemed to Willow like she'd only been asleep two minutes before she awoke to a loud knocking on the door.

"Miss Evans. I hope you're ready. We need to depart. Now." Came Thorin's voice through the wood. So it wasn't a dream... she thought dejectedly.

Yawning, Willow mumbled back with a quick "Give me a minute." She quickly changed into the clothes she had been given the day before and tied her hair back into a messy bun in hopes it would at least look presentable for a few hours. Giving one last look at the room (and a long lingering look at her pyjamas she'd had to leave), Willow opened the door to find Thorin standing on the other side, tapping his foot impatiently. "Ready!" She grinned, leading Thorin to roll his eyes and continue down the hallway without another word.

The next couple of weeks seemed to go by in a blur. As Thorin didn't seem keen on divulging any information about where they were going or what they were going to be doing, Willow decided, in an effort to make conversation, to talk about her own world, something that Thorin did seem interested in. Though it was hard to describe certain things, Willow spoke to him mainly about her job; apparently analytical chemistry was completely unheard of here. Not that that was surprising. It seemed to Willow they had the equivalent of medieval technology here, a fact that disappointed the scientist in her. She also spoke to him at length about her family, a touchy subject but one that seemed to make Thorin open up to her, if just a little.

"My father died when I was a baby." She told him, as they walked. "He was run over by a drunk driver as he came home from work." She knew Thorin wouldn't understand the concept of cars, obviously they didn't exist here, but he seemed to understand the basics of what she was trying to say as his eyes softened. "It seemed to break my mum." She continued, as he didn't say anything. "She always said he was the love of her life, I think by the time she died, she was happy to be finally joining him… she ended up getting sick when I was around sixteen. Cancer, they told me. She had a disease, specifically in her lungs in her case." She explained, seeing his confusion. "They tried to treat it… she got medication for about two years before they finally gave up. She died a couple of months later, just after my eighteenth birthday."

"I'm very sorry to hear that." Said Thorin in a soft voice.

"It's fine. As soon as she got ill, I knew it was going to happen eventually. Didn't make it any easier but I could try and prepare myself, I guess. I just put all of my attention into my studies from then on. Didn't have any other family either, so I could basically just go where I wanted." She gave a small smile. Her mum had always supported her throughout her applications to university. There was no way she was going to give that up, knowing how much it would have disappointed her. "So," she said, clearing her throat uncomfortably. "What about you? Do you have family?"

"I have a sister, and two nephews. You should meet them both, they will be joining us." Replied Thorin, following his tradition of quick and simple answers. Willow nodded in acknowledgment, neither of them saying anything more for the remainder of the day.

"This is where I shall leave you." It was, apparently, their final day of travel before reaching their first destination, and they had just walked up to a small village. Willow widened her eyes.
"You're leaving me? I know I talk a lot, but I can be quiet. Or… I'll try. Seriously, I won't survive out here on my own. You'd be killing me. Please don't…"

"Willow." She'd told him to stop with the 'my lady's' and 'miss' nonsense the morning after their night at the inn. No one ever called her that, and they weren't going to start now. "I will not be leaving you for long. There are a couple more stops I need to make first. But I see no point in you joining me when you can rest here until I return. You are of my kin, I will not leave you."
Willow exhaled with relief. She didn't like how much she'd come to depend on Thorin when she was so used to being independent back home, but she'd been left with little choice. "Okay, okay, good. That's good. That's… fine. So am I just staying here and waiting for you on this hill? Or…?"

"Of course not. I have been informed that we are to meet a Mr. Baggins. He has a blue mark on his door. It should not be difficult to find."

"A blue mark… right, okay. Sounds totally legit. Cool."

"I shall be back in a little while." Thorin paused for a second before putting his hand on his shoulder. "Stay safe." And with that, he walked away, leaving Willow the task of finding the blue marked door. She wasn't happy to find that it probably had taken her near two hours before she eventually climbed the small hill that housed the door she was looking for. And throughout her search, she had received very odd looks from the inhabitants she had passed. She tried not to heed them much notice.

"Not difficult to find, my arse." She muttered as she knocked, not caring that she was knocking on a strangers door like she usually would have if she were in a better mood. "This is the most out of the way, hard to find, awkward little…" Luckily for her, her rant was cut short as the door opened, revealing a small, shocked looking…man? He was shorter than her, had a head of curly brown hair, and the weirdest, biggest feet Willow had ever seen. And it was obvious he had no idea who the hell she was. "Urm… hi?" She stammered.

The man continued to stare for another few seconds before coming to his senses. "Hello…Miss…?"

"Oh, uh… Evans. Miss Evans." She cleared her throat. "Willow. I'm Willow. Nice to meet you, Mr Baggins, is it?" She grinned.

A/N: Okay, so… new story! For anyone that's read my stuff before, you'll know that I have a couple of other Hobbit stories I haven't updated in a while due to uni and work and stuff (It's been a busy few years!). But I'm getting my inspiration back by writing something new and perhaps I'll update those too at some point! Hope you enjoy, rate and review and all that! :)