Disclaimer: I still own nothing. But, but. If you wish it so, you may have the lint in my pockets. :D Author's Note: Here's chapter two, please bear with me. Mae shall be beta- reading my wonderfully wonderful fic. xD She is now my slllaaaave. whiplashes

Poke.

Poke.

Poke, poke.

'What the hell?' was Erin's first coherent thought as her muddled mind surfaced to consciousness.

Erin started to become aware of herself. She was laying on her back, on something hard and uncomfortable. Her head was pounding, and even though her eyes were closed, she saw a flash of color every time her head pulsed. Erin's whole body hurt, the only thing she wanted to do now was to go back to sleep. The only thing that stopped her—

Poke, poke.

Poke. Pokepokepoke. POKE

With the last poke Erin couldn't hold down a groan.

'That's it,' she thought angrily. 'One more poke and I'm gonna get violent.'

For a tense moment, there was nothing, and Erin let out a small happy sigh and then

-Poke,

Erin snapped open her eyes and instantly regretted it when harsh sun light greeted her. From somewhere beside her came a shout of surprise.

"Curse you, you evil sun." mumbled a very grumpy teenager as she rolled to her side.

Ever so slowly she tried once again to open her eyes. It was still too bright. Erin brought up her hand to shield the sun from her squinting eyes. Her movements were slow, her whole body felt weak. With as much energy as she could muster, she slowly sat up. The first thing she noticed when her eyes adjusted to the light were the colors blue and black.

'Oh looks like eyes.' She thought remotely.

She was staring into someone's blue eyes. The eyes themselves were so close to her face that they were all she could see.

'Really big creepy eyes...'

Erin stared into the eyes.

The eyes stared back.

When the eyes suddenly blinked, it broke Erin out of the small trance. And she came back to her senses.

Erin jerked backward with a squeak.

The person with blue eyes also let out a scream.

Erin, in her haste to get away from this new person, leaned as far back as she could causing her to promptly fall off the rock she had been sitting on. The wind was knocked out of her in a whoosh as her back hit the rocky ground.

"That'll leave a mark," she groaned. Almost painfully, Erin pulled her self up and got the first good look at her new surroundings.

She sat in a vast field. The field itself was barren, except for a few large rocks like the one she had been laying on. To her right was a hill. On the crest of the hill stood an emaciated ruin. This place was like nothing Erin had seen before.

An excited voice to her left drew her attention. There stood the weirdest people she had ever seen. There were four short men and another man—who was taller, why he even looked like a regular human—who stood off to the side. They all had curly hair of various lengths. None of these four were wearing shoes, which let Erin get a glimpse at their large hairy feet. And all of them were short, really short. They were lucky if they reach four feet high. Three of them were staring openly at Erin, mouths gaped. The fourth was talking rapidly to another man who looked stern and tense and his hand, Erin noticed, gripped a sword. And hey, was that—a pony?!?.

All four midgets, as Erin had come to think of them, dressed, well, Erin wasn't sure how to describe what they wore. It just looked weird to her. The clothes were traveling clothes from an earlier century.

Erin's attention was once again drawn to the man with the sword. The tall man had chin length dark hair. He looked like something out of the dark ages, and he looked dirty. As if he hadn't had a bath in days. He was cute in a scruffy ragged sort of way. He too was staring at Erin now, his right hand tightening around his sword.

'Ok, strange man has a big sharp sword thing? It's time to find out what the hell is going on and where the hell I am.'

"Excuse me...?" Erin began quietly but she trailed off. The three midgets were talking amongst themselves now, pointing at her every now and then. The tall man seemed to be lecturing the other midget, never letting his eyes leave her form. Erin couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Hello," she tried again a little louder, but again they ignored her. Erin felt her left eye twitch. She needed answers and these weirdoes weren't helping.

"HEY THERE YOU MIDGETS!!!" Erin yelled. She had the satisfaction to watch them give a small surprised jump at her shout. All of them turned and faced her. Erin was happy. 'Time to get some answers' but her thoughts were cut short when a tall man rushed her. Next thing Erin knew her face was in the dirt and tall man had pinned her arms behind her back.

Erin finally came to her senses and started to struggle. Quicker than she thought possible, her hands and feet were tied with a strong itchy rope. She was then pulled into an uncomfortable sitting position, being forced to sit on top of her legs. Things officially sucked.

"PLEASE DON'T RAPE ME!!!" Erin shook her head violently back and forth.

She tried to figure out if this was really happening. If Erin wasn't currently sporting a new cut on her elbow, she would swear that this whole thing had to be some kind of nightmare brought on by stress. But, you couldn't get hurt in your dreams, and that scratch stung. So this must either be real or Erin was crazy. Preferring to think herself sane, she decided that the other people, who carried swords, were not only crazy, they were dangerous.

Now if only she thought of that before they tied her up.

She was rather roughly shaken from her thoughts by the tall man. Apparently he had been trying to get her attention for quite some time. Once he was satisfied he had her full attention, he began to speak.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Erin started angrily, interrupted before the man started to speak. However, the strange group of men ignored her- again. The tall man started to talk to her in a serious voice.

"Blah blah blah." This continued for some time.

That's all Erin heard. It took her a second to realize that he was speaking some strange language she didn't know. Her confused face must have clued him in to that fact. After that, as far as Erin could tell, the tall man tried several different languages. For the next ten minutes Erin managed to amuse herself by trying to guess what he was saying.

After twenty minutes he was back to the first one he used. He was obviously frustrated and Erin could clearly see a vein throbbing on his forehead. If he wasn't so proud Erin was sure he would be rubbing his temples in exasperation. Erin smirked at the thought.

She frowned a little when she realized that none of them spoke English. Erin thought it was too bad that she had never bothered to learn another language.

He then sighed, rather dramatically, breaking her train of thoughts, and turned to talk to his short companions, who were already chatting with each other.

Erin took this time to try to figure out how the heck she got here. She could remember going to bed last night, and she had a dream. Erin couldn't recall what the dream was about, only the feeling it gave her. It must have been an awful dream if she couldn't remember it. And then she woke up here, on a rock, in the middle of no were, with five freaky men and one cute pony.

The tall man walked back toward Erin. His conversation with the short dudes was over, and seemed to have come to a decision. He bent down so that he was eye level with Erin.

"Strider" He said clearly, while pointing to himself. He looked to Erin and waited for her to respond.

'Yes you Tarzan, me Jane...' Erin thought sarcastically.

Looking back at the man, she found that he still waited for her to say something.

"Erin." she said while pointing to herself as much as the ropes would allow.

The tall man, now known as Strider nodded. He then pointed to the four short men, naming each one in turn.

Frodo had black hair, and stood slightly behind Sam who was a little chubby. Next to them stood Merry, as Strider called him. Erin felt bad for him, thinking he must have been teased a lot when he was growing up for having such a girly name. Beside him was Pippin, who looked younger than the others. Strider said something to them and the short guys started gathering their things. Sam took the pony's reigns and started to walk him toward the large hill with the ruin on top and the other midgets followed.

'Their leaving me here? All tied up?' Erin thought wildly.

She looked back to Strider who hadn't started to walk away yet. He looked down at her for a moment before pulling Erin to her feet in one swift motion. Erin became aware of pain as soon as she was standing. Sitting on top of her legs for so long cut off the blood flow and now it was rushing back.

She also became aware that he was way too close. And, yes, she was right about the lack of bathing. Being so close to a strange man unnerved her—not to mention his choice of bath soap, or lack thereof.

"Ok, how 'bout some space here. Respect my personal bubble." Erin had a sudden urge to bite his hand that was currently keeping her up, but withheld herself for fear of catching something—like lice?

The man ignored her, and he took a knife from who knows where, and Erin felt her self grow cold.

'Oh god, he's going to kill me.' Erin thought as she tried not to panic. When Strider merely cut the bonds around her feet, she felt her self relax slightly, and she let out a shaky sigh.

'Maybe he was going to let me go after all.' She thought happily.

However, her hopes were dashed when Strider got a firm grip on her upper arm and started to guide her toward the hill. The "firm" grip would most likely leave a bruise. Erin briefly thought about cooperating, and then quickly dismissed the idea.

'Why should I make this any easier for my captors?'

The rest of the way to the hill Erin tried to drag her feet in the ground in an effort to slow them down. Every few minutes she would trip or stumble, and Strider had to stop and set her on her feet again. This caused him to grow annoyed very quickly, and Erin was delighted when she noticed that the vein on his forehead was convulsing again.

However Erin found it less than amusing when Strider ended up lifting her off the ground and carrying her over his shoulder.

'Yes, I know. You Tarzan...me Jane.'

But the muscles in his back... she definitely didn't mind those, oh no. Erin used her knee to poke his stomach.

'Talk about abs of steel. I wonder how many sit-ups he does a day?'

Poke. Poke. She looked back over her shoulder and saw a muscle in his cheek twitching now. Erin smiled. Poke.

However her new found happiness quickly faded. To say that she was less than happy about this arrangement, was an understatement. Not only was all the blood being rushed to her head, she had to breathe out of her mouth, for fear she might choke to death on his body odor.

He even managed to pass the midgets with his new pace as he walked. This gave her a lovely view of the short dudes, who not only were also dirty but they keep making funny faces at her. By the time they reached the ruins on top of the hill the sun was starting to set, and Erin was in a foul mood. It didn't help any when Strider dropped her, ever so gracefully on her butt.

For a few seconds Erin thought she was going to pass out. All the blood drained from her head in a matter of seconds.

When she looked up, Strider was giving all of the short men dagger-like swords, and then walked off.

'Oh yes, just hand out sharp pointy objects and don't even stick around to make sure no one pokes out an eye. Very smart.'

The short men all started to give their swords experimental swings. One almost hit her.

'How do I get myself in to these messes?' Erin wondered dully.

TBC

This might be the last chapter I post. No one reviewed my last chapter. If no one likes my story, then I won't write it any more. Please review and tell me if I should continue.