Leah-(England-Earth)

The Thing that leapt out of the portal was like nothing I had ever seen. A grotesque monstrous creature, like a wolf that had devolved in a dark cave for generations.

I dropped my phone and screamed as it landed on the forest floor, snarling like some rabid dog. An arrow was lodged in its right shoulder and its left leg was bleeding but that did not stop it from moving with speed. The monster jumped straight at us claws first.

I was frozen, eyes wide in terror. It was like every nerve in my body was firing, telling me I needed to do something. But it was a crowd screaming in a hall, all of them shouting over each other, contradicting each other, echoing off the walls. I couldn't think, couldn't move.

Mum wasn't in the same state as I was, she was mobile and moving towards me. With surprising strength, she shoved me away from her. Not a second later the creature launched itself through the spot I was just standing in. It could not stop its momentum and careened straight into a tree. The force of the impact shook the whole tree and I swear I heard the trunk crack. A strangled yelp escaped its throat as it crumpled to the floor.

I landed several feet away, the suddenness of it buckling my legs under me. The fall seemed to knock something loose in my mind and my senses returned to me. I needed to do something. I needed a weapon and fast. Something big enough to actually injure the thing.

The monster backed away from the tree, shaking its head as if dislodging something.

I scanned the ground hurriedly, looking for something to hit it with. My eyes caught onto a rock a few feet in front of me. Large and jagged. Perfect. I was just about to reach for it when Mum's voice cut through the night.

"No Leah. Don't. Move" she said through gritted teeth.

I looked up, fear in my eyes, questioning. Then I could see why. The creature had recovered from its hit and was now growling, looking between Mum and I. It was deciding who it was going to go for. Any sudden movements could trigger it to attack.

I held my breath, trying to anticipate its next move. Why won't it just stop? It was already deeply injured.

In a split second it made its decision. Its rabid stare burned into me and with a blood-curdling snarl, it made to attack. My heart beat spiked, so loud in my ears I almost couldn't hear anything else. I'm going to die!

This time I reacted, my body finally deciding on a plan of action. I hurled myself at the large rock and grasped it in my right hand. It was almost too big to hold and its sharp edges cut into my palm. With a cry and a guttural sound of my own I smashed the rock into the side of its face. Not before its claws raked down my arm, tearing through skin and sinew. The burning shock of it lanced through me and I cried out.

The rock caught it in the eye. A deep gouge cut down from its eye socket to the hole already in its face. A spray of blood escaped its wound, dousing me in the process. The monster fell to the left with the force of the blow. My hand, now shaking, lost its grip on the rock. A wave of nausea rippled through me when I looked down and saw the mess of my forearm.

"Holy shit, holy shit," I panicked.

The skin was split and tattered and blood poured freely from the wound. There was so much of it blooming out of the scratches, down my arm and onto my pyjama bottoms below. Bile burned the back of my throat and it took everything not to throw up.

The beast staggered, trying to find its feet again. But before it could recover, Mum was there, wielding a huge tree branch as if it was a mighty battle axe. Her eyes were set and determined, her mouth open in an angry roar. Mum brought the branch down as hard as she could, bludgeoning the thing around the head. It was sent sprawling several feet away.

"Go back to where you came from, monster!" Mum screamed, eyes like fire and re-brandishing her weapon.

The monster's demeanour changed, its ears flattened and its head lowered. No longer primed to attack, it slowly slunk backwards, away from Mum and her weapon. Mum advanced on it, swinging the branch around to intimidate it further.

I grabbed the rock again, with the uninjured arm, and launched it as hard as I could towards it. The rock missed but it seemed to do the trick. The thing finally turned tail and ran straight back to the portal. The centre swirled like smoke as it hurled itself back through.

We waited, frozen, but it seemed to have disappeared for good.

Tears stung my eyes as I brought my injured arm closer to my body. It felt like I could not get enough air in. I was almost definitely hyperventilating. Mum rushed over to me as soon as the coast was clear.

"Mum," My breath came out in short rasps. "What was that?"

Mum grabbed my face with both hands. Her thumbs rubbed soothing circles over my cheeks.

"Shhh, whatever it was it is gone now," She lifted my chin up so that I was looking into her eyes. "Now you need to take some deep breaths. In and out. In and out"

I did as she said, taking in heaving breaths. After a few stuttered inhales I started to feel more in control.

"Let me see your arm," said Mum, her voice smooth despite the panic she probably felt. Her astonishing ability to compartmentalise never failed to impress.

I looked down at the blood–both mine and the monsters–dripping down my arm and staining my clothes. Shaking, I held my arm out to her.

Mum gently took my arm and assessed the damage. "It's okay Leah. The blood is making it look worse than it is. They aren't too deep, though they will probably need some stitches."

I nodded, her composed demeanour made me feel calmer and I reached out to hug her as tightly as I could, while still being wary of my right arm.

"We're okay, we're fine," Mum whispered into my hair.

When we finally let go of each other, I felt like I could breathe normally again.

A pained moan rang through the air and we froze. It had not come from either of us. Our eyes were drawn towards the middle of the clearing. The portal still shone, glowing ominously with that ethereal light. But right below it–

Oh my god!

In all the chaos, we'd forgotten that something else had fallen from the glowing doorway. Not a wolf but a man. A very injured man. Another pained sound escaped the figure. A prolonged groan that tapered off into a wracking cough. If they weren't conscious before, they definitely were now.

Mum and I both clambered to our feet and rushed over to the stranger. My legs shook noticeably, but they held my weight and didn't collapse from under me.

"Do you think he's hurt?" I asked.

A stupid question. He was clearly injured.

The humming from the portal was back with full force. It disappeared during the chaos but now it had returned with full vigour. The closer we got to it the louder it became. I could feel it vibrating through my chest, like when a firework explodes or you stand too close to the speakers in a club.

I pulled my eyes away from the otherworldly wonder, forcing myself to focus on the tangible. On the flesh and blood person that needed our help. They seemed to be human at first glance. 2 arms, 2 legs, a head. No monstrous features that I could see. Long brown hair fanned around his face and delicate stubble dusted along his chin.

He wore very strange clothes. A long blue shirt, that I guess could be called a tunic and a huge leather overcoat with geometric designs sewn into it. His boots were huge and metal capped, carved with what looked like runes.

Is that a quiver attached to his hip?

The guy looked like he'd just stumbled out of a LARPing convention. He was also soaking wet as if he'd stood in torrential rain. But it hadn't rained in at least a few days. The ground was dry.

He writhed in pain and gripped onto his left arm. Patches of deep red blood stained his arms and parts of his leather coat hung in tatters. I dropped to my knees beside the man, placing my good hand on a part of his chest that didn't look injured.

"Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

His eyes opened, blinking against the light. That's good. Consciousness is good. His eyes widened at the sight before him. Bright light and shattered glass-like shards floating in the air. His eyebrows rose up and his breathing quickened. He would go into shock if he kept that up.

I shook him slightly, trying not to jostle his wounds. At this, his eyes darted to me and settled on my face. As gently as I could I told him "Don't look at that, just keep looking at me."

He seemed to understand me, which was a blessing. Doing as I asked, his breathing slowed slightly. Perhaps seeing that he wasn't alone was a comfort to him.

"Just ignore whatever the hell that is behind us," I gestured with my left arm. "Because if we don't we'll probably panic and end up hurting ourselves more, okay?"

"Okay?" said the man

Speech! We're getting somewhere. I sat back on my heels. "Do you think you could sit up?"

He deliberated for a moment, looking down at his injuries. He shrugged his shoulders, testing whether he could move them without too much pain. After that he nodded, "I think so".

When he attempted to move, his face bunched up in pain. He put his right arm down to leverage himself up but that only caused him more agony. Hastily, I reached across him and grabbed his right shoulder. Almost like a hug. Together we managed to get him into a vague sitting position.

"Is she okay?" said the man breathlessly.

"What?" I said following his gaze.

That's when I saw her. Stock still and staring, transfixed by the portal in front of her. Mum's face was a strange picture of anguish and bewilderment. Could the portal be doing something to her? I did not have enough information to know if the thing itself was dangerous. A strange, sad smile stretched out across her face and she reached out to one of the fragments floating in front of her.

"Mum, don't!" I shouted.

Nothing catastrophic happened. No explosions or tortured screams. Her hands moved straight through it, as if it were a hologram. A shard floated close to my head and curiosity got the better of me. It felt like sand moving through my fingers.

The everpresent humming then seemed to transform, almost like a song playing in reverse. The shard in my hand shot away back towards the centre. All the air rushed passed like it was being sucked back into the chasm. With one mighty *Woosh* all the shards of reality unified once more. The cracks between the pieces glowed brightly before they melted back together, looking like nothing was ever there.

Mum collapsed to the ground and a heart wrenching sob broke free from her "No!"

I had no idea what was happening or what to do. Why was she breaking down like this?

Mum grabbed the ground in front of her, steadying herself. She took deep breaths and her eyes screwed tightly closed.

"Mum?" I murmured, concern lacing through my voice.

At the sound, Mum seemed to snap out of it. Her whole body jolted in shock and her eyes flew open. She sat back on her heels and turned towards me, taking in the injured man I was supporting. A look of guilt passed over her features and she raced over.

"What happened? Did it hurt you?" I asked.

"No, no. I just…I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry. I'm okay now."

She did not look okay. She looked shaken up and wrung out. Like the portal had taken something monumental from her.

"But-"

She ignored me, shifting into protective Mum mode. "We need to get you back to the tent, the first aid kit is in there."

She left very little room for argument as she collected the torch and my phone from where they had fallen and urged us to stand. Winding up the torch a few times to generate some power, she lit the way and between us, we managed to drag the injured man through the forest. He was a lot heavier than I thought he'd be and he was actually quite short. At least a couple inches shorter than I was. Mum had to take most of his weight as I struggled with my injured arm.

When we got back to camp Mum placed us both down near the tent. She found the first aid kit and methodically treated our wounds. Mine was treated first as mum said it wouldn't take as long.

Thankfully, mum was medically trained. She had been a nurse before she met my dad. That's how she met him actually. Dad had broken his leg and mum was the triage nurse. Apparently he was still charming even with his leg broken in two places.

Mum cleaned my arm and bandaged it up as best she could with the equipment available. Then it was the injured man's turn. Mum's voice was very clear and calm as she explained what she needed to do. The poor guy stared with a befuddled expression. He raised his eyebrows at Mum's first aid kit, seeming confused about its contents, but still let her tend to his wounds. She bandaged as much as she could and created a makeshift sling for his arm.

We haven't even asked him for his name, or told him ours. I realised

I cleared my throat. "My name is Leah," Then I pointed to Mum "My mum's name is Ellen, What's yours?"

"My name is Kili" he answered "Thank you for helping me, I do not know how I would have fared if you were not there."

"Can you tell us anything?" Mum asked "Do you know anything about the light you fell through or what attacked us?"

"And where did you come from?" I interjected. He definitely didn't look like he was from around here.

He looked around then, as if seeing the area for the first time. His eyebrows drew together. "This isn't Ered Luin is it." He stated.

Ered Luin? That sounded familiar but I couldn't put my finger on why. Was it french?

I shook my head and answered back "No, it's not, we're in a forest near Wales."

He looked concerned then "I've never heard of this Wales before, is it near the Grey Havens?"

Both Mum and I looked on with equally blank expressions and shook our heads. "I don't know where that is either." I conceded.

Kili was looking more and more lost. He shook his head and took a deep breath "Well then I believe I should start with what transpired, then we might start getting somewhere. I was out in the woods that surrounded my home, I wanted to get some target practice in."

That explained the quiver at his side then. But who has a bow and arrow in this day and age. Was he from the past or something? Did the portal transport someone in time? My mind reeled just thinking about it.

"My brother was with me and it was raining. We ended up downing a deer," A little smile pulled at the corners of his mouth at the mention of his brother and bringing down a deer. Then his smile faded. "We were celebrating and we didn't hear it until it was already on us. A huge warg must have scented the deer."

Wait, warg?

"I managed to shoot it in the shoulder and Fili hacked at its back legs but it was too late and it ended up sending us over the edge of a cliff. Then I woke up here and it was night time."

Warg, Fili, Kili. That just…that just can't be right. Wait, now I know why I recognised Ered Luin, It's the Blue mountains, home of the dwarves in Middle Earth.

"Holy Shit!" I said under my breath "You're trying to tell me that you're a dwarf from Middle Earth"

"Well yes, is it not obvious?" He said pointing to himself "And why do you say Middle Earth as If we're not in it?"

"Obvious? you're not even that short." I exclaimed.

He looked back, affronted.

"That's not possible," Mum breathed, shaking her head.

None of this should have been possible. But none of us could deny seeing the reality shattering singularity that opened up in front of us.

Is anything possible now? Even fictional characters showing up at your feet. That could not be right, there had to be another explanation. Maybe he was cosplaying and hit his head and then a great big portal sucked him up and spat him out.

Sure, that's more believable.

Mum and I shared a concerned look. Leaning forward, she looked into Kili's eyes. Kili backed away from the sudden closeness. "What are you doing?"

"I'm seeing if your pupils are dilated," she reached up to probe around his head "Do you have a head injury?"

"I do not think so," He said, his voice slightly muffled.

Mum sat back on her heels, leaving his head alone for now. "Okay, can you tell me who the current prime minister is?"

"Bit of a harsh question Mum, we've had like three in a year."

Mum gave me a hard look and turned back to Kili. His face was awash with pure confusion "What's a prime minister?"

That wasn't a good sign, he might have a concussion.

"Kili, this isn't Middle Earth or Arda, this is just Earth, a completely different world." I said

"Another world. No that can't be...How?" He made to get up, looking like he wanted to flee.

Mum reached out, her demeanour still calm despite the revelation. She put her arms on his shoulders to prevent him from getting up "Moving won't help, you'll just make your injuries worse".

"Middle Earth isn't real, it's from a story" I said "You must have hit your head or something"

His face contorted with anger. "How dare you. How can you say my home isn't real? Of course Middle Earth is real."

He sounded so scared, I felt guilty for saying anything. Mum's soothing voice cut through before things could escalate.

"In this world, Kili, Middle Earth is a story, you are a story. No one ever thought that it was real. But you and that Warg showing up must mean that it is," She continued.

Why is she encouraging him? Surely that could do more harm if he did have a concussion. Kili stopped trying to get up and looked into my mum's eyes. He looked so vulnerable at that moment. Like his whole life had just been turned upside down.

"What do you mean by 'a story'? How can I be a story?" Kili asked.

"A person in this world, wrote about the histories of yours. Everyone thought he'd made them up but apparently not." Mum added "He wrote about the dwarves and about you...at least I think it's you. Are you Thorin Oakenshield's nephew?"

His eyebrows shot up to his hairline but he nodded all the same.

"Mum, that's not helping. He needs to see a doctor," I implored

Mum quieted me with another look.

"Well how do I get back? I can't leave my brother and my amad, I need to get back." Kili blurted.

Mum interjected then "None of us know what's going on right now okay. We are in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night and both of you are injured. We need to prioritise and not panic. If we try and look for a way back right now we could end up lost or hurt even more. Both of you need a doctor," Her tone left no room for questions "So we need to try and get out of this forest as fast as possible, Okay?"

Both Kili and I nodded. It made a lot of sense.

We didn't have time to change, which left me in blood soaked Marvel pyjamas to traipse through the woods in. Mum decided it was best to just leave the tent and to only take what could fit in our bags. I felt guilty about the littering but we just couldn't bring a whole tent with us. Especially when we struggled getting it up here in the first place.

Kili, thankfully, could walk pretty much unaided. An improvement from earlier. However the bumpy forest floor was difficult to traverse. Both me and Mum had a torch shining our way. But they weren't the brightest of torches and could only shine a few metres in front of us. Every sound was heightened in the dark, I let out a scream when a particularly brave fox ran across our path. The whole situation was beyond stressful.

Sometimes we wouldn't be able to find our little stone towers and I would panic. However, surprisingly, it was Kili who came to the rescue. He seemed to be able to sense where they were. It was amazing.

When I asked how he did it he gave me a pointed look and said "Stone sense, all Dwarves in Middle Earth have it."

He emphasised the words dwarves and Middle Earth to hammer in his point. Maybe there was some truth in what he said. I would never have found those stones in a million years. I still struggled to believe he was a fictional character though.

I breathed a happy sigh of relief at the sight of the car through the trees. We'd made it. Seeing the car made everything seem more sane.

Kili settled against a tree looking astonished by the sight of the huge machine. If he was adamant that he was a dwarf then he probably had no idea what it was. I needed to explain it in terms that he would understand. A car could be rather startling if you had never seen one before.

"Kili" I said. He turned to face me at the sound.

"This is called a car," I pointed towards it. "It's like a carriage, only it doesn't need a horse to pull it"

He looked at me like I was slightly mad. "I don't quite believe you, I'll have to see it first," he said with a small smile.

I smiled back encouragingly. It was probably also a slight dig at me not believing him.

We put all of our things in the boot, including Kili's things. The dude had a sword, a quiver of arrows and a wicked looking dagger! Kili didn't want to give them up initially but Mum convinced him that they were safer in the back. Reluctantly, he let them go.

We all clambered into the car. I decided to go into the back to sit with Kili. I helped him to fasten his seatbelt over his injuries before fastening my own. Kili messed with the belt secured against his chest, lifting it up and watching it snap back against him.

"Leave it." I said "It's for safety".

Kili dropped the belt. But then Mum pulled off and he grabbed for anything to hold onto. Fear shone in his eyes as the car moved.

"Believe me now." I said, raising my eyebrows.

He let out a breathy laugh "I guess I do." His fear gave way to excitement as he saw the scenery blur. I'd never seen someone look so amazed by a car. My heart jumped a little at his astonished smile.

"I've never moved so fast before," he mused.

Steadily, we left the country roads and more civilization popped up. Even though it was dark you could still make out the shapes of houses. Kili's face changed to something more apprehensive at the unfamiliar landscape.

"Okay, say you are a Dwarf from Middle Earth," I started

"Which I am." He interrupted exasperatedly.

"Then you should know Khuzdul right?"

His expression closed off and he looked defensive. "Of course I do, it's the language of my people."

I decided I would test him, I knew a few Khuzdul phrases that I'd found on the internet. If he knew them then I may start believing him.

"Okay, what does 'Du Bekar' mean?"

He paused, for a second he looked like he wasn't going to answer then he said "It means 'to arms' it's a battle cry"

Damn that was the right answer, I should try a harder one. One that wasn't in the films.

"How about 'abnamul tada abdakhizu'?"

I think I butchered that one.

Kili's eyebrows shot up, shocked and offended. "It means 'nice to meet you' but how did you know that? The Dwarven language is sacred and a secret among all dwarves."

I shrunk back at his words. I'd obviously insulted him, which I had not meant to do. I hated offending anyone.

"I'm sorry Kili, I shouldn't have asked about Khuzdul," I said, raising my hands up. "It's like my mum said, in this world the stories of Middle Earth are written into books, as well as the languages. I didn't mean to insult the dwarven people by speaking it."

He calmed slightly, though he still looked concerned.

"So the language of my people is just freely available here, for anyone to learn?" He said, as if the words tasted bad.

"I guess so. But hardly anyone does, only a handful of people actually know more than a couple of phrases"

He nodded at that and relaxed back into his seat.

"We're nearly at the hospital now," Mum piped up from the front seat.

Mum warned Kili that the hospital was going to be a pretty big culture shock and that it may cause him to panic. She insisted that he was perfectly safe and that nothing bad would happen to him but that he should leave the talking to us. If he said anything about his home or being a dwarf they may think he has a head injury.

Kili simply nodded and we made our way towards the A&E. The loud noises, bright lights and hospital smell wasn't exactly helping Kili stay calm. As soon as we entered he paled significantly. His eyes went wide and he darted his head around everywhere.

I placed a hand on his back and told him to breathe and that it was okay. He looked at me and nodded, carrying on after Mum.

Bleeding directly onto the floor seemed to work to our advantage as we were seen very fast. Mum quickly formulated a tale about renaissance faires and wild dogs. She told the nurse that Kili's full name was Killian Dwarrow. Kili seemed amused by it, at least.

My arm did need stitches and as it was caused by an animal I needed several shots and a course of antibiotics.

Kili had to have blood tests, an x-ray and several other tests that I was unsure of. He managed all the tests surprisingly well considering how scared he looked. Apparently both his ulna and his radius were broken in his left arm. Thankfully, they were clean breaks, meaning he wouldn't be needing surgery.

Though the doctor was more concerned about the actual x-ray images than the break itself. He said he'd never seen an x-ray like it and that his bones were surprisingly dense. The blood tests had a similar story too. The nurse told us that it was unlike any blood type and that it reacted strangely to the tests. Mum somehow managed to deflect the doctor's worries and Kili miraculously evaded secret government testing.

The portal, the stone sense, Kili's Khuzdul and now his non-human physiology. I realised then that he must have been telling the truth. There couldn't really be any other explanation.

This must be a dream or something. How is The Kili, from the Hobbit, actually in front of me? I've always wanted to go to Middle Earth. Had longed for it. But now Middle Earth had come to me.

Also Mum had seemed to believe him straight away, without any evidence. How had she known?

I owed him an apology for acting the way I did to him. He must think I'm an arsehole for not believing him. In my defence though, this whole situation was outlandish. If I believed everyone who told me they were a fantasy character I would probably need psychological help. It just so happened that this one time it was completely true.

I walked up to his bed and sat down on a spare chair next to mum. His wounds were now stitched up and he was waiting to have his arm put in a cast. He had been given some pain relief now so at least he wasn't hurting.

"I need to say sorry." I said

His eyebrows knit together "What for?"

"For not believing you."

"So you actually believe me now? What made you change your mind?"

"I don't know," I said, mumbling and shrugging my shoulders. "Just an accumulation of everything I guess".

"I accept your apology Leah," He said with a small smile.

"I'm also really sorry again about the Khuzdul, I know how sacred it is to dwarves."

"It's alright," he conceded with a sigh.

Then he gazed back up at me, a mischievous look in his eyes "Your accent was terrible, anyway." He laughed, his whole face lighting up.

I couldn't help but laugh along with him, even if it was at my expense.