The cold air hit the skin of my face, causing me to shiver and burrow deeper into the warm I was encased in. A tickle started in my face forcing me to move my hand and touch whatever was making it happen. The sound of crunching leaves was loud in my ear. Leaves? What the hell… the last thing I remembered was being on a beach, with sand.

It was lightning.

I sat up as quick as I could, throwing a bunch of things on top of me off and onto the ground all around. It was an assortment of branches, leaves, and blankets of wool. It was almost light outside, but still dark enough that I could see the sun rising in the distance under the hill and the moon on the other side setting. In front of me was a burnt out fire pit. Did I crawl home and build a fire and fall asleep after the beach? Why don't I remember actually doing it?

At least I didn't dream of Kili.

The thought brought pain to my heart, but I pushed it aside as I stood and stretched. This is a start of a new Laurel. No more imagining make believe and trying to escape life through fantasies of a handsome dwarf.

I looked out into the sky, gasping by the millions of stars and crescent moon that were present. There were different hues of blues and purples in between the endless amount of bright lights above me. They were not very saturated due to the rising sun. The moon even looked larger than I have ever seen it, almost twice as large.

This was not my sky.

Around me there were some leather satchels and blankets, even a large wooden sled.

Where the hell was I?

A quick check of my person told me I was still in the same clothes I left the house in, and that none of them have been removed. Running my fingers through my hair, they got caught in a knot. Fingers pulling and plucking, I found it was not a knot at all, but a small three strand braid on the bottom layer near my neck. At the end it was tied off with a piece of leather strand.

In the distance I could hear a commotion. It sounded like arguing. Looking off towards the direction it came from there was a large fire. Is it possible I was with someone? Did they move to another fire? With caution I tip-toed into the woods to investigate. The closer I got to the fire, the more my eyes grew.

Before me were three large…monsters. They were sickly gray and bulky as boulders, as tall as a four story building and as wide as a few sheds. One was sitting on the ground poking at the dirt, while another was leaned over the fire. The last was standing and watching something on the other side of the flames.

They were people in…potato sacks? I got as close as I could to the tree line on my stomach, watching intently. When the one in front of the fire moved, I could see even more people tied up and being rotated like rotary chicken on a spit above the licking orange streams. These monsters were going to eat those people!

"William, how many dwarvies do we want ta start cooking," one of the monsters asked almost as if he were excited.

"I don't know," the one who was tending to the fire muttered, "but do we want to skin them, chop them up, or boil 'em alive?"

I had to do something.

There were horses tied off to the side by the trees on my right. Next to the horses were a pile of what looked like swords and axes. Maybe I could grab a sword and try to cut some of the people in sacks out. I reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out my pocket knife. It was a nice little knife, but it was no use at cutting rope or cloth quickly. If I was going to succeed at this, I needed to be quiet and blend in.

My jeans were very baggy and my boots large and clunky.

Without much noise I toed off my boots and took my knife to my jeans, cutting the pants off at the thigh. Should have worn my boot cut jeans today instead of the damn hippy ones.

I crawled to the pile of weapons and looked around at what I could find. On the very top was a long recurve bow, very recurved. It looked as if it came straight from the tree on how the wood was cut on the edges, but everything else was clean and smoothed. The handle of it was another wooden notch with geometric designs and other wood work. It was gorgeous. To the left on the bottom of the pile was a quiver of arrows.

Excellent.

Keeping my eyes trained on the monsters, I grabbed the bow and the arrows. I slung the beauty over my shoulders and handled the arrows as I crawled backwards into the nearby bushes once more. When I was far enough that I could rise and they wouldn't notice me, I paced around the tree line looking for a good tree to shoot from. I quickly shed my baggy camouflage sweater and started to climb.

My bare feet were chilled as the tough soles touched the harsh bark of the oak tree. It took me a while to climb up the giant, but I found the perfect branch to shoot from. It faced the campsite and was wide enough that I could stand properly.

As I studied the monsters I could tell their skin was very hard and leathery, so trying to shoot them anywhere that wasn't soft was a waste.

Through it eye it would be then.

Pulling an arrow from the quiver, I admired it shortly. It was as long as arrows I normally used were, perfect for the bow it came with. The feathers on it were odd, and yellowish orange that I had never seen before. The tip of the arrow was a smooth metal that gleamed in the light, but had notches down the side of it. Not exactly for hunting, but also not for target practice. None the less it didn't matter, I was killing something.

Notching the arrow I took a stance and deep breath. I was maybe twenty yards from my target, almost eye level, just slightly below. I pulled the taught string of the bow and took aim. It was much heavier of a weight in pull that I expected for such an elegant bow. I tried to aim quickly before I lost the pull and released the string. I was gripping the bow so tightly it curved into my forearm, catching me and causing me to gasp.

"Ow, something bit me," the monster I took aim for shouted. The arrow hit him just between the eyes, a mere three feet to the left of my original aim of its' right eye.

Notching another arrow I took aim a little farther to the right and released again. The arrow found its target this time, sinking right through the soft tissue and into the monsters' skull, only the notch of the arrow peeking through. Instantly the gray beast fell to the ground on its' belly, twitching softly as it drooled everywhere.

"What just happened," one of the other one's spoke, "did he fall asleep?"

"I dunno," the one called William spoke, "we will wake him up when supper is ready."

Not if I had anything to do about it. Bow still in hand and notched with another arrow, I stomped on the branch, causing it to quake and rattle its' leaves. The other monster that was sitting looked up right at me, eyes squinting to try and find anything that was making the ruckus. I took a deep breath and released as my arrow soared and plunked again into the soft tissue of its eye. This one simply slumped over backwards and didn't move anymore.

The sun finally rose to glare in my eye, but I didn't let it distract me. Each of the people in the sack were saying things all along, but I had to zone out and concentrate. A new loud voice made itself known, saying something I didn't quiet catch, but it allowed for the last monster to look in my direction. Not wasting another moment I took aim with the last arrow and let it fly.

Just as I was releasing the string, the beast groaned and turned to stone.

What the fuck is going on?

The arrow ricocheted off of the stone eye, darting down and into the woods elsewhere. That was a wooden arrow, it should have snapped. I fingered another one in awe, looking at the sleek black wood.

Cheers could be heard from the ground, all the people wiggling about as they were trying to get out of their confinements. Right, I was on a mission to save people. Slinging the beauty of a bow across my shoulders and clipping the quiver to my pant loops, I make quick work of climbing down the tree. At the bottom I shivered and tied my jacket around my waist, I could put it back on after I released those people.

One guy in particular was standing already, hopping towards the pile of weapons.

"Hang on a second, I got you," I called, starting to jog towards him. He stopped dead in his tracks, turning towards me quickly and falling over with a groan. All the other conversations I could hear stopped as I approached him and pulled out my pocket knife. Now that I wasn't in a hurry the knife would do just well. In moments I had him out of the sack, and it took me a little bit longer to get him out of the rope around his hands and feet. All the while he was staring at me in almost awe.

There were more people hanging over a fire, so I didn't have time to get a good look at him. He was just slightly shorter than myself, with a mess of honey brown curls and a short round nose. "This thing will take longer," I pointed to my knife, "go ahead and grab one of those swords over there and get that lot. I'll put out the fire and get them up there."

All the dirt around me was hard with the cold, so I had to stab some of it to release it from the ground's hold. In a matter of five minutes I had the fire out. The men above me sighed in appreciation. "Thank ya lass, it was getting a bit warm over here," one called out. Just when I was trying to figure out how to climb up there to cut them out, a very tall man in a long grey cloak and hat approached us.

"Ah," he took a quick glance at me, "you are awake. Alright dwarves! It is going to be a bit of a fall, prepare yourselves!"

Did he say dwarves?

A long wooden staff he was holding tapped against the spit, some of the ropes appeared to have snapped and one or two of the men fell onto the ground. They were up in a minute waiting for the rest of them to untangle themselves and fall as well. I finally turned and looked at the two monsters I shot, walking up to them and looking into their dead lifeless faces.

Right through the eye into the brain.

Both arrows had in fact sunk in deep enough just for me to get my hand around the notch and try and yank it out. It was as if there was a pencil in a soccer ball their eyes were so huge. The second one was a lot more difficult since I had to climb on top of it and yank from below. When the arrow released, it came out covered cloudy white dripping juices like rubber cement.

"Yuck," I muttered. As I turned around, I had to take a step back, shocked as a dozen or so men were staring at me intently. "Erm, what were those things, and why were they trying to eat all of you?"

One man in particular stepped forward, he was one of the tallest of the lot. His leather coat was lined with fur, covering an odd shirt that had a honeycomb pattern of metal. Long dark brown hair lined with grey in some areas flowed down his back without a part. Just underneath his hairline a braid poked out, tied off with a metal clasp. When he spoke his beard did not flow due to its shortness.

"Those were stone trolls," his voice was deep and lined with authority. I stood a little straighter as he spoke more. "They were trying to eat our ponies, so we came to reclaim them. Trolls will eat anything they can get ahold of. We owe you our gratitude for you aid in our rescue."

"She killed two trolls through the eye," the tallest man in the cloak spoke, "I think that is impressive Thorin."

"I would have got the last one too, but it turned to stone," I trialed off confused. The monster stood just to my left, and was truly made of stone.

Another man started to make his way forward, pushing through the rest.

Just standing feet from me, covered in a leather jacket, he approached me deliberately. In response I took another step backwards, hand pulling out my pocket knife and flicking it open quickly. Dark bushy eyebrows furrowed together as he rose his leather glove covered hand. Something about his dark brown hair that tangled together and pulled halfway up screamed familiarity.

"Laurel."

Instantly my eyes closed and the ghost of fingers trailed through my hair. Soft and full of compassion, his voice was always something that I wanted to hear as I fell asleep and when I woke. It was the same as I always remembered.

"Fuck, I'm dreaming again," I muttered throwing my knife down in frustration.