Disclaimer: Do not own LOTR or any of its characters. Just borrowing them for a time.

Chapter Two

Colleen turned in her sleep, shivering a little as a light breeze blew across her bare shoulders. Her hand groped for the blanket that she had pulled on top of herself but she did not find it. She groaned as she realized that she would have to get up, but she was so tired. She turned over, frowning as something stuck in her back. Her hand reached behind her to remove whatever was in her couch and instead of soft material, encountered hard, damp ground.

Her eyes snapped open in confusion, expecting to see her creamed colored walls and TV set in front of her but all she saw was moss and dirt. Instead of the comforting ticking of her clock, she heard water flowing. She sat up in complete confusion and stared dumbfounded at the noisy stream that was winding beside her.

'Where's my wall?'

That's the only thought that registered in Colleen's mind as she tried to understand her surroundings. She seemed to be at the edge of a forest, towering trees to her left, flat plains to her right. Colleen stared down at herself.

'This is the most realistic dream ever,' she thought. She was still dressed in her pajama pants and tank top, her feet bare and already turning cold from exposure. She could feel the dampness of the earth seeping through the soft cotton of her pants. She shook her head. When that didn't change anything, her hand quickly moved towards her arm and pinched, hard.

Immediately her nerve endings protested and she winced in pain.

Okay, so that hurt. And supposedly I'm awake. There's no chance though. She stood up and dusted the bottom of her pants of dirt. What the hell is going on?

Colleen started walking slowly, swearing once in a while as her bare foot came in contact with stones. By nature, she was very realistic person. While enjoying tales of fantasy and adventure, in no way did she ever believe that there was a possibility it was real. So the idea that somehow she was transported to a forest while she was sleeping was not even a factor.

Maybe something had been wrong with my fried rice? That thought seemed almost normal.

Yeah, I'm just suffering from a food-poisoning induced hallucination. I'm really at home, sick out of my head. All I have to do is sit and wait for my mind to wake up from this dream. She sat down, determined that this was the truth of the situation. So she sat and waited.

Colleen stayed with that thought for a couple hours, but as the sun started sinking towards the horizon and the wind blew harder, she faced the fact that food poisoning was not the case.

God, this can't be happening. It just can't be bloody real! She sat on the ground, knees drawn up towards her chest, arms hugging herself as she shivered with cold. But it was real. She was by the forest, starting to freeze to death in her pajamas. Now she had to deal with the situation.

She turned and looked at the plains in front of her, there was no sign of civilization anywhere that her eye could see, just far away mountains on the plain's edge that stretched to the sky. No signs of help or a phone or a park station that she could head for and request a nice heated ride home to civilization and her apartment. That left her with the forest.

She turned and looked at the trees. Since night was approaching fast, the forest was probably her best bet to find some shelter from the wind and maybe try starting a fire from scratch. She snorted. Yeah, from scratch. Like I even know how to do that, she thought as she started walking towards the woods. Who knows, she may get lucky? She had watched those survivor shows, maybe she could rub two sticks together and make fire. If the cavemen could do it, then surely a grad student from the 21st century could, right?

Apparently she was wrong. Three hours later, she was lost in the forest, cold, dirty, and her feet were ripped apart from stones. Shock was wearing off and panic and terror was starting to set in as Colleen realized that she wasn't waking up from a nightmare and that she wasn't a freaking Girl Scout in a former life.

She had managed to gather twigs and dry leaves, but to actually rub two sticks together and produce a flame? Yeah right. She stared at the pile. God, why didn't I smoke? That way, when I'm mysteriously transported to a forest, I might have a lighter with me. Tears started running down her cheeks as Colleen sat, wondering how she was ever going to get out of this situation. Soon the silent tears turned to sobs, and she ended up crying herself to sleep.

* * * * *

Colleen woke to sunlight streaming through the trees and the sounds of forest birds chirping around her. Her back ached from sleeping on the harsh ground and her eyes felt dry and swollen from the outrageous amount of tears she had cried. All these things just reinforced the fact that she was still in the forest.

She rubbed her arms as she sat up, desperately trying to warm up. Though the sunlight was helping, the ground had been damp and it seemed as if the cold had settled into her bones. She stood and tried jogging in place for a few minutes, gritting her teeth against the pain in her sore feet. The jogging helped warm her a bit and soon her mind switched to trying to start a fire again. She picked up the two sticks she had used yesterday and chucked them to the side, determined to start fresh and get it right.

After a couple of minutes of rubbing two new dry sticks and getting nothing, Colleen's small store of patience was quickly running out.

God, just light, you stupid pieces of wood, she thought as she rubbed harder. It seemed she had never wanted anything more than fire at that moment. All her concentration turned towards that thought and the want of some warmth and protection. She was so focused on her wish for fire that when the twigs suddenly caught, she fell back with a cry.

She stared in disbelief at the few embers before frantically trying to feed them and make them bigger. After a couple of minutes, she had a little fire going. Colleen felt the first sense of grasping control of her situation since she had arrived there. For a precious while, the fire filled her with happiness until a loud growl came from her stomach and the rest of her needs crashed upon her.

Okay, it was time to make a plan. She just needed to think of her needs.

One: She needed shelter. Okay, so she would have to find branches and vines and things and try to make a fort.

Two: She needed food. Since she had no way of hunting animals and no want to have to kill things with her bare hands, she would search for berries and nuts and things.

Three: She needed to find help. She couldn't wander around aimlessly, so she would have to mark where she was and weigh the pros and cons of each direction and try to figure out where people would be. But she knew one thing; she needed to find people.

Satisfied with these thoughts, Colleen looked up from the fire and straight into an arrow aimed for her. Her eyes widened as she saw that tall men with long, white hair surrounded her armed with bows and arrows. It looked like a hunting party and from where all the arrows where aimed, it looked like she was the prey.

Colleen looked at the men and did the only thing that came to her mind. She screamed.