How many stories have you read that involve two girls getting magically "dropped" in Middle Earth and end up joining the fellowship? Plenty, I'm sure. Mine's probably no different it seems, but read on, if you'd like. I'm sure you'll notice at least some changes! Please read and review! It's my first story here and I'd like to know what all of you have to say.

Dropped into Middle Earth
Chapter One: "A Ringwraith Welcome"

Caitlin and I had agreed to work on our photography class assignment together. We are friends, although frankly we could easily annoy the hell out of one another. But for the project, we partnered up, and decided to go to the river and shoot some nature scenes. So after school we headed over there.

"Who's shooting the pictures, and who's being in the shots?" Caitlin asked almost immediately. I rolled my eyes. I knew she would want to be in front of the camera, rather than behind it. But she was too modest to say anything. I on the other hand, rather enjoy taking pictures, not being in them. There's nothing wrong with me, I'm just camera shy. I'm just not drop dead gorgeous like the ever-lovely Caitlin. While she has her long, shiny dark brown hair, mine's dirty blonde, shoulder length and average. I'm rather short too, not at all model thin and long legged like Caitlin. I'm five feet to her five foot seven inches. One witty snob compared with one average brain.

I looked up at her and answered her question. "I'll shoot. You can be in them you want."

"Fine with me. Here's the camera then," she replied, handing over the case. "Be careful though. It's my brothers and he'll kill me if I break it."

"No problemo. I know how to work one, ya know."

Conversation stopped as we turned the corner into the park and tried to decide where to do the pictures. Caitlin pointed a ways down the river, and away we went, with her leading the way. We trudged along, and I noticed that the woods were empty, even on such a beautiful afternoon. But we reached a stone path in the river and crossed over, me being careful of Caitlin's brother's camera equipment. Lousy little stealer she was.

Caitlin ran a little ways ahead and scrambled up onto a branch, preferably one leaning over the river. I took the camera out to take the shot.

"Not yet, you dope! I gotta get ready." Caitlin proceeded to smooth out her hair and fix her clothes, finally smiling at me and posing. I picked up the leans to my eyes, and began shooting, taking a few shots and then stopped, getting ready to shoot some pictures elsewhere. Caitlin jumped down and started walking towards the stones we had crossed before in the river, and as she jumped, I took a shot.

Suddenly, there was a splash, and the next thing I saw was Caitlin sitting on her butt in muddy water. Tall reeds and grass sprung up everywhere, and I realized that we were not in the park anymore.

"Elli, what the hell are you trying to pull! Where the heck are we?" Caitlin was screaming, clearly ticked off that her expensive jeans and designer t-shirt were soaked and caked with mud.

"What makes you think I did this? I went to take a picture, and poof we end up in a bog!"

"Well I didn't do it!" Caitlin screeched as she pulled herself out of the water. "And what's a 'bog'? You sound funny talking like that."

Another second later we heard noises behind us, and turned to find a few men meandering through the swampland. Well, they weren't exactly men, at least for four of them. One was a tall man, dressed in black and darkly cloaked, but four of them were tiny little people, brightly dressed but clearly dispirited.

"Tell me I'm seeing things."

Caitlin stared blankly at them, showing no sign of knowing acknowledgment. "And 'they' would be?"

"Caitlin, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

"No kidding Dick Tracy, but for your information, we were never in Kansas!" Caitlin's remark came out in a scream. I heard her take a few steps towards me, and when I turned to my right to look at her, my eyes were staring at her muddy knees.

"When the hell did you grow six feet?" I asked irritably.

"When the hell did you become so damn little?" she commented back. "And where'd you get a curly wig so friggin' fast?"

"What?" I shrieked, and then I reached up my hand to touch the top of my head. Curly. Not straight like it always was, but curly ringlets. I had long curly hair. I decided to go for the gold, and lifted my feet one by one out of the water.

"ACK! I'm a little hobbit! Caitlin I'm a hobbit!"

A voice from the group of men called out to us suddenly. "And what's so bad about being a hobbit?"

My eyes darted at the men, now traveling towards us. Caitlin couldn't contain her laughter, and nearly feel on her butt again into the mud. I glared at her, and watched as she flung her head back, noticing for once that I wasn't the only one transformed. "Caitlin!"

"What, 'little hobbit?'" She really couldn't get over that.

"You got pointy ears, Missy. You became an elf."

"A what? I'm not a LoTR fanatic like you! I don't want to be no stinking elf!"

"Well, silly girl, guess what? You are an elf!"

Caitlin lifted her hands up to her ears. Her eyes widened and she suddenly screamed. One long, monotonous scream. I turned and saw the five 'men' running as fast as they could through the marsh to get to us. But hobbits are too little, and the dark dressed man reached us before any of the little hobbits could find some firm ground.

"Why does you're friend scream like so?" he asked when he was closer. "Is she ill?"

"Nope. Just crazy. Caitlin my dear, you're an elf. Get over it!"

"I CAN'T be an elf! I don't want pointy ears or special eyesight or whatever else a silly elf has! And I certainly don't want to be in the same species as Legolas!"

Now the tall man narrowed his eyes at us, clearly confused with us. Caitlin was still complaining, and the hobbits were still finding their way to stand with us.

"Who are you both?" asked the tall dark man. "And why are you dressed funny?"

"I'm Elli O'Neill," I answered as I looked down to see that the skirt I had been wearing was now muddy. Half of it was sunk deep in the marsh and brown colored. What wonderful luck I had.

"And who is you're shrieking friend?" he asked.

"Oh, that's just Caitlin. And can I ask who you five are?" The little hobbits were standing behind the man now, clearly wondering where the heck we came from.

"Can we trust you? You seem to know Legolas. And I can not help but wonder what business two girls like yourselves have in the Marsh?"

"Indeed, we're harmless. Caitlin will you shut-up! Help me prove my point!"

Caitlin looked down at me, her face covered in mud and her hair knotted. She seemed rather confused, but then looked up at the guy, and spoke for both of us.

"Listen whoever you are. I've just been dumped into a swamp, I am stuck with Elli here in god-knows-where, and I'm now an elf. Now, I don't care if you think were safe or not, just tell me who you are and how far to the nearest gas station?"

"Gas station? I do not know what one is, but I can assure you that you are in the Marsh Land, east of Bree and that this is Middle Earth."

"Middle Earth?" Now it was my turn to shriek. "No way!"

"Yes way, Elli. Now, dark man and four little people, can I have you're names?"

Thanks be to Caitlin for being blunt.

"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. I have with me four hobbits, like Elli here." I glared up at him for just a moment, then let him proceeded. "They are Frodo, Samwise, Peregrin and Meriadoc," he finished, pointing at each hobbit as he said their name.

"Elli, now I know this is you're fault," said Caitlin. "No one else would think of dropping us into Middle Earth to just 'coincidently' bump into half the Fellowship!"

"I didn't do this! Sure I'm enjoying it, but I sure as hell didn't do it on purpose!"

"Are both you girls ok?" asked Aragorn. "Indeed, if not then you can accompany us. We are on our way to Rivendell, and Master Elrond I'm sure can offer you guidance. Or whatever kind of help you may need."

"Thanks a bunch, but like I said, I want a gas station," remarked Caitlin.

"There are none, you half-wit!" I told her. "The only thing remotely close to that is Rivendell."

"Is that the place with the elves?"

"Yes, just like you now, O' elven one!"

"Shut-up ya little hobbit las!"

"I'll bite your pointy ears off you tall brat!"

"You can't reach that high!"

"Ladies!" interrupted Aragorn, picking me up around the waist and holding me under his arm like a prized pig. I started squirming immediately, trying to wriggle my way out of his grasp. "Indeed, if we were to leave you out in the wild, I'm sure you'd attract every evil being within miles, although with both of you so fierce towards one another, you'd likely scare them off, no doubt. You shall accompany us, for I dare not leave you out here with so much evil lurking."

"Wait, a minute," I said. "If we haven't gotten to Rivendell yet, that means that those Ringwraiths are after us, right?"

"You are correct, but how do you know that?" This time a hobbit spoke. If my memory served me well, it was Frodo, and he had a sizeable amount of worry etched into his face. Poor little fellow. He had a long journey ahead of him.

"Where Caitlin and I come from, this whole story is in books, and now turned into a movie. So we have a pretty good idea of what's happening."

"Books? Hear that Mr. Frodo, we're in books!" I guessed that little hobbit to be Sam, the semi-chubby blonde one. He looked like a happy jolly fellow, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what made people think he was homosexual.

"So, shall we continue on, now that we know who each one is? Rivendell is still many days ahead of us."

And on we went, traveling through marshland beyond marshland and still more marshland. Finally, at nightfall, we stopped in some stable land that was dry and big enough for the seven of us. We cooked, we ate, and then we slept. And in the morning we kept on going. I knew that we still had to deal with Amon Sul, and I certainly didn't want to run into any of those creepy Black Riders. I called over Caitlin, and we fell behind a little bit, so I could talk with her.

"You've seen the movie, I know that. Do you remember the part with the Ringwraiths, where they attack the hobbits on Weathertop, and then Aragorn comes and saves their butts?"

I let her think about it a moment. "Yeah. I remember it. So what about it?"

"We haven't passed that part yet. It's probably gonna happen tonight or tomorrow. But what do you think would happen if we found a way to avoid it, to pass by that part entirely?"

"It's unlikely. Strider dude over here will find some way to stop there, thinking it safe and all. Won't he?"

"Yeah. I guess we'll just have to hope for the best."

We reached Weathertop just before nightfall. We had been avoiding the main roads, but we knew the Ringwraiths were still after us. That was obvious, by their loud shrieking now and then. I noticed that Frodo would jump when he heard this, and then clutch his front shirt pocket. Sam would try to comfort him, and Strider just plowed ahead, hurrying five hobbits and an elf along as fast as he could.

He stopped us when we reached Amon Sul, bringing us up and into it, clearly thinking this was safer than the ground.

"Here, take these," he said, opening his pack and throwing out four short swords. "These will help protect you, or most of you at least. I'm going to have a look around." And with that he wandered off. Caitlin and I exchanged glances, watching as the hobbits toyed with the swords a moment before putting them down and deciding who was going on sentry duty.

"Make the elf do it. Her hearing is best." That was clearly my doing, and I knew I'd get payback later for it.

"Fine furry foot, but I'd like to see you beat up a Black Rider." Caitlin climbed over to the edge of the cliff, trying her best to use the elf ears and eye sight she'd magically been given. The four hobbits started cooking small meals, eating as little as they could allow. They offered some to me, but I passed, seeing as how we didn't have much anyway.

"Come now, m'lady," Sam said. "You must eat something. You've barely touched the food we've given you. You're gonna make us worry if you starve yourself like so."

"It' alright Sam, I'm not hungry. You guys go on and eat."

"Suit yourself Miss, but don't think I'll be ignoring you. I know that you'll be hungry later, and I'll try to make you eat then."

I smiled. Then Sam wandered back over to sit next to Frodo, and I went and kept Caitlin company.

"I'm sorry for putting you on sentry duty." I felt I should apologize for throwing her into it. Yet she didn't say anything so I went on. "I wanted to talk to you alone, and I figured that this was kinda the only way and that we might share in the task of scouting out Scary Black Folk."

"You never cease to amaze me, shorty. Ok, whatja want to talk about?"

"You know how the story goes, right?"

"Yeah. You made me watch that movie that one day when I was over."

"Right. You remember that Gandalf falls, and Boromir dies and Frodo gets stabbed tonight and we have to hurry to Rivendell. But what happens if we change it? Will the story change that much? If Frodo doesn't get stabbed, will it really make that much of a difference?"

"I dunno, you're the fanatic. You tell me."

"I don't know. And I'm afraid to find out."

Just then, a loud shrill shriek rang through the night. Caitlin and I looked down to see five Ringwraiths riding around on the ground, trying to find a way to climb up. I turned around and saw that the hobbits were on their feet, clearly frightened and clutching their swords in their hands.

"Go! Up that way!" I cried, pointing up the staircase to their right. I quickly followed them up, with Caitlin hot on my heels, and I suddenly realized how scary this moment really was. Strider was somewhere wandering about, and it was only five hobbits and an elf to contend with these scary Ringwraiths. We stood around; circling Frodo and keeping our eyes open for the Black Riders to approach. Sam was guarding Frodo with his life, while Merry and Pippin walked around the both of them in a circle, their eyes wide with fright. I huddled in next to Sam to help protect Frodo. Caitlin, the moron that she is, stood there looking around, as if wondering where the next shriek was.

Suddenly Merry and Pippin stopped circling and their eyes focused to my left. I turned, and noticed three Ringwraiths, all of them drawing their swords and advancing towards us. Since I had no weapon, I felt useless, and had no idea why I was standing in front of Frodo. Well, maybe Caitlin would get to see me get beat up by one of these black dudes.

"Back you devils!" screamed Sam, but he was quickly thrown aside. I looked at him, sprawled on the ground, but confident. He got back on his feet almost immediately. Then Merry, Pippin and I guarded Frodo, but we were thrown aside. I was able to stay on my feet, and watched a few feet to my right as Frodo backed up a step, suddenly falling backwards, tripping over a crack. He shuffled back on his hands and feet, looking like a crab, until he was backed up into a corner. The Ringwraith drew closer and closer to him, and then I saw Frodo look down at his front shirt pocket. He pulled out the ring, and then the Ringwraith pointed the sword at him. I saw Frodo try to resist, as the wraith put out his hand slowly to take the ring. Suddenly Frodo pulled back, clutching the ring in his closed fist.

I couldn't take it anymore, knowing what I knew, and as I saw the sword drawing closer to stab Frodo, I jumped in the way of the blade, taking the pain and saving Frodo.

A/N: I thought I'd leave ya hanging, just so you'd have a good excuse to come back. Stay tuned, I'm in the process of writing Chapter Two now!