Finding Your Feet

Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own anything associated with Lord Of The Rings. All characters/places are the property of J.R.R.Tolkein, as are any phrases that I have taken out of the books. Any phrases used from the film are the property of Peter Jackson.

Prologue

As the car slowly rolled to a stop, the young girl felt an immense sense of relief wash over her. Finally, she thought, I am home. Her friend Michelle's mother turned around in order to give her a cheerful, yet completely fake, smile.

"Is this close enough to your house?" she asked, her bubbly voice reminding the girl yet again of Betty Boo. 

"Mother… Leah's house is all the way down the road, you don't seriously expect her to walk home with the weather like this!" Michelle whined, waving her hands about wildly in order to indicate the rain and heavy fog that had descended upon the small city of Brookville that afternoon.

"Leah doesn't mind, do you dear? Besides we're in a hurry!"

"No we're not, you said before that you didn't have anything planned…"

"It's all right!" Both mother and daughter turned to look at the new speaker. "I don't mind walking home, I'll take a shortcut through the park." Gathering her over-packed duffel bag and aqua pillow together the girl began to slowly climb out of the car.

Turning around, she smiled at the older women and said, "Thanks for giving me a lift Mrs. Delacourt, I really appreciated it."

The woman sniffed and replied, "It was my pleasure of course. I hope you had fun on the camp and tell your parents I said… hello."

With a toss of dyed-blonde hair she began to apply another layer of her fuchsia colored lipstick, signaling to Leah that in her opinion the conversation was indeed over and it would be best if she just started walking home. Leah inwardly grimaced, trust Mrs. Delacourt to try and put her down in any way possible. The glamorous woman held a strong, yet completely ridiculous, grudge against her, being a scholarship student and all. It wasn't even like Leah was on a full scholarship, unlike Michelle and the majority of other rich children that attended Lords, the city's most expensive Private high school. Leah's parents had to spend a large part of the wages they received as teachers on the girl's schooling, leaving no money for brand name clothing, holidays and other such things. Not that Leah minded. She was comfortable in the clothes she wore and they lived near the City Library, meaning that she needed no other means of entertainment.

"I'll call you tonight!" Michelle exclaimed, noticing the same thing as Leah.

The raven-haired girl leaned out of the car in order to hug her friend and while doing so confidingly whispered "She's afraid the fog will mess up her hair!"

Leah let out a small laugh and closed the car door gently- God forbid she do anything to harm one of Mrs. Delacourt's expensive cars! The vehicle pulled away and was lost in a sea of fog, while Leah was left with the image of Michelle waving through the window.

She began the journey down the road, her heart filled with happiness at the thought of finally returning home. Today was the day that her class had returned from their compulsory, month-long leadership camp out in one of the bush towns and the young girl couldn't wait to finally see her family again. She wished that they had been the ones to pick her up at the High School but both her parents hadn't been able to take the time off from work. Instead she got stuck having to ask The Queen Of The World Snob Population for a lift home, an experience she would have preferred to skip. The woman didn't even have a job; instead she had successfully taken her ex-husband to the drycleaners when she declared that their marriage was over. Now he was stuck living with his mother while she had more money than her empty head knew what to do with.

With a small sigh, she gave a look around, her imagination wandering at the sight of the trees looming into view through the mist and fog. Shivering slightly, Leah turned of the road veered toward the park area on her right. As she walked through the old trees a feeling of excitement at the thought of being in an "enchanted forest" and on her way to see her family again took over. She began to run, fastening her pace as the ground began to slope downwards, until she had reached the bottom of the rise, where a clearing was situated.  It was there that she realized that instead of thinning out, the trees had actually become closer together. Leah slowed down until she was at a standstill and it was at that point she realized that the trees weren't the same as the ones before. A loud shriek suddenly echoed throughout the forest, startling the girl and making her drop the pillow that she had been carrying in her right hand. Her heart began to race and she spun around to recede the way she came, back up the slight hill. There was no hill. The land now resembled that of a marshland, full of bogs and stretches of water. Gradually spinning around in a full circle Leah discovered that as far as the eye could see was all swampland and the only thing that had remain unchanged was the swirling mist and light spatter of rain. The fog was now thick as soup and as it crept towards her she fell her feet fall out from under her. The last reminiscence she had was of her family smiling, then a thick mist clouded her vision and darkness took over.