A/N: I know, I know, one, I'm an anime writer, and two, this is another one of those stories where the person from our world falls in and does stuff, usually love. But ha, this is not a love story, this is just fun. So sit back and enjoy it people, cause I'm only doing this once.

Chapter 1: Falling and Waking

Terra was freaking out. Not cool! How would you feel if you were on a nice family picnic, happily conversing with your family, and suddenly fell into a hole that took you God knows where? Okay, they hadn't exactly been having a nice picnic or happily conversing, but that was besides the point. The fact that she had been attempting to make everybody else just as miserable as her and had been bickering with her bratty little brother was besides the point. She would haveprefered to leave the trips to Wonderland to Alice, thank you very much!

But no, it was a proven fact that fate hated her. She had realized that right afer she caught her first boyfriend making out with her best friend, but that was besides the point. The point was that she had fallen down the evil hole of doom and landed head first in a lake. In the middle of a forest. In God knows where. Damn you fate, I will get you some day.

At least her tee shirt had dried out quickly. And she was wearing jeans, so she was good for the whole forest thing. And sneakers. Sneakers were good. Too bad she had no clue what she was doing. Oh sure, she was semi-athletic, and her mother had forced her into girl scouts as a child, but gym class and her brownie troop were a long way away.

She had long since given up sulking and hoping for a convinient rescue. Failing that, she seriously doubted hugging a tree and yelling for help like they taught you on Barney would help at this point. Also, she doubted the 'stay put' theory would work. If she was lucky, by the time they found her she have a few bones left to identify her. Nope, that was definately out. So, that left building a signal fire or wandering hopelessly. Unfortunately, they had not quite gotten around to fire building in brownies. Plus she had nothing to build the fire with. So, that left wandering hopelessly. Hurray.

After about an hour of this, her sable hair was matted hopelessly with branches and dirt from repeated falls, which she blamed on the roots that conviniently found their way in front of her feet while she was walking. After about seven roots and eight scratches, she was ready to chop down the forest single handed... Even though she didn't have so much as a toothpick.

Her hazel eyes flashed, "Will the evil trees stop trying to kill me!" she shouted angrily. Suddenly there was a massive creaking, and roots moved to the side, exposing a well trodden track. Leading somewhere. Hopefully somewhere non-deadly, "Uh, thanks?"

The trees creaked what she hoped translated into a 'you're welcome.' Deciding that she might as well take advantage of the trees' kindness, she followed the trail. As the sun set, she found herself talking to the trees.

"You know, I think I might know where I am. The only place I've ever heard of having living trees is Middle Earth. Cool, but crappy at the same time. So, I don't suppose any of you could tell me where the nearest civilization is...?" she asked hopefully. Simultaniously, the trees lining the path pointed their nearest branches down the path she was travelling, "Oh, silly me. Of course you would want me out as quickly as possible. Understandable. All I ask is that I not die or become hopelessly lost... Wait, I already am, scratch that. Okay, so not become more lost. Lost is bad. Oh well, I just hope there are no orcs around. That would be bad, since I don't have a weapon. Or any knowlege of how to use one."

Before she even completely finished the sentence, she heard a loud thump behind her. To say she was surprised would be putting it mildly. To say that the poor branches on the trees above her were straining from her weight would be more accurate. She turned slowly. When she saw nobody behind her, she took a deep breath. Then she noticed the lump on the ground. Grabbing a large stick, she made her way over to it and poked it, not being able to see it in the failing light. When it didn't move, she stepped closer, noting it's long, thin shape. Carefully reaching out a hand, she felt smooth leather. Grasping it, she realized she was holding a sword. Pulling it free of it's scabbard, she recognized the symbols on it as elfish writing. Hurray, now she was armed. A strong cord was wrapped though her belt loops, strapping the sword to her left side. Convinient that the cord had been there in the first place. She was really starting to like these trees.

"So, I don't suppose you could tell me where I am? I'd rather know who I'm going o be attacked by. So, am I near Lorien, Gondor, Rhohan, Imladris...?" she figured that the trees would be more farmiliar with the old term for Rivendell than the newer one.

Four shakes. Hmm, this could make it easier. Multiple choice. She might even be able to find out what to expect.

"So, first, second, or third age?"

Two shakes.

"Oh good. We're before everythiing happens in the movies, possibly even post-The Hobbit. But then, we could be a thousand years or more previous to that. So, has it been two thousand years after the end of the first age yet? One shake yes, two shakes no."

One shake.

"Huray again. So, have the battles begun?"

This was met with what seemed to be confused shaking. How she knew that, she had no idea. She just kind of did. Oh well, she had always been good with plants.

"Um, I guess that's a no. If I were you, I would start to stock up. Big war coming, bad orcs with a fettish for chopping down nice trees. So, there's one thing I'm curious about. There were only two places on Middle Earth where average mortals were able to talk trees... sort of. But that was Fangorn and... that one place by Hobbiton. I forget. But you said we were close to Imladris. How does it work that I can talk to you?"

She was given what she assumed was a tree shrug. Which was really weird looking, especially since the trees were too stable to do more than shake their limbs. But once again, she just kind of understood. Weird, but once again she shrugged it off.

Finally, the last bits of twilight faded, and she settled in for the night. She picked a particularlly old and nice looking tree and snuggled against it.

Sometime in the night, she was awakened by the tramping of feet. She opened her eyes to see that a troop of orcs was barrelling past. The funny thing was, they didn't seem to see her. One stopped and sniffed carefully, but he continued as his fellows out distanced him. She breathed a sigh of relief and snuggled back more firmly against the tree. At this point, she didn't really care how she had been protected, she was just glad to be alive. She fell back into an exhausted sleep.

When she woke again, she stood carefully, pstting the tree gratefully. She noticed with some interest that there was new growth on the tree that she was sure had not been there before, but she once again shrugged it off. Why worry about what she had no clue about?

It was about mid-afternoon when she realized that she was about ready to die of thirst. And she was starving. When she voiced this to the trees, the rustled back and forth, and she realized they were speaking. Creepy. Very creepy. She knew she was going to have to stop soon to rest from the lack of nutrition.

She was just about to stop when she heard the noise of a battles. Swords clashing, roars of pain and triumph, both human and inhuman. She peered over the edge of a cliff, interested and slightly unnereved. Elves and orcs were doing battle in the field below her. They were slightly out numbered, but they were holding there own against the filthy creatures. Perhaps she could help. But what could she do? She wasn't trained for something like this!

Suddenly, a cry of pain caught her attention. An elf had been backed against the cliff she was on and surrounded. He had held his own, but he had just taken a heavy hit to the shoulder. His comrades were too far away to prevent what was about to occur, and the orcs had no intention of letting them get close enough to interfer. Seizing the blade given to her by the trees, she set her face and jumped the few feet that separated them and stood in front of the wounded elf. She slashed the first orc she saw, making her allianse with the elves plain. She didn't even clear his armor, but her blade slid across the armor into the under arm, a weak spot in the armor. Her blade bit deeply into his flesh.

She had no time to celebrate, as the next orc was upon her. She slashed at him, this time aiming, and hitting, his throat. He fell to the ground, bleeding heavily and prbably dead. By now the elves had managed to route most of the orcs, but just as an elf stabbed an orc from behind, he took advantage of her weak stance and lack of armor to stab her shoulder. She winced and clutched the wound. Holding the knife still as his loosening fingers jarred it, she bit her lip. The last of the orcs fled as she fell to her knees and sat back on her haunches.

The dark haired elf before her looked down at her in surpise. Shr looked back, equally surprised. If she wasn't mistaken, she was in the presence of one of the sons of Elrond. Glancing over her shoulder, she realized that the other was the one she had saved. Well, she must be close enough to Rivendell for this to be a patrol. Good, that meant she would be able to get there by herself. Standing shakily, she took stock. Not too bad, the wound to her shoulder wasn't the worst wound she'd had. She couldn't think of any worse ones, but give her time, and it'd come to her.

She looked up when someone gripped her shoulder that wasn't injured. Out of instinct, she grabbed the fingers and twisted sharply. When she heard a slight hiss, she released. Looking up, she noticed that she had grabbed the hand of one of the brothers. She grimaced and apologized.

"Sorry, I don't normally do that. This place has me edgy. So, where am I exactly?" she asked, slightly embarassed.

He smiled grimly, "It's fine. I owe you a debt for saving my brother. I am Elladan, and you are about ten miles east of Rivendell."

"Oh good. I should be able to get there tomorrow. And you don't owe me anything, I'm sure your brother would have been fine without my help," she dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"Still, I feel I should do something for you. Is there anything you need?"

She wiped her blade on the grass, "No, I think I'm good," just as she spoke, her stomach growled loudly enough for them to hear. The elves that had come up behind Elladan covered smiles. She glared at them, "Well, I should be going. You need to tend to your brother and I need to make camp."

He shook his head, "You're wounded and hungry. Plus, you seem to be traveling alone. You should come with us."

She hesitated. It sounded nice, but she wasn't sure how much she could trust a bunch of elves she didn't know around her. Not because they were elves, but because she was a stranger. Finally, she shrugged, wincing when it jarred her shoulder again.

"Alright, I suppose one night couldn't hurt."

He smiled, "Good. Go get your things and we will make our way to the camp."

She shifted uncomfortably for a moment before sheathing her sword. After a moment, he seemed to comprehend her difficulty.

"That's it?" he seemed surprised. Well, why shouldn't he be? Most travellers were smart enough to carry supplies. Not that she had had a choice.

"That's it," she confirmed.

"When was the last time you ate?" he asked slight concern crossing his features.

"Yesterday morning."

His look of concern heightened. Great, just what she needed, and over protective elf. Let's just hope he hadn't inheirited his father's 'firm' gift of healing. She grimaced. He might try to confine her to bed. Or a bedroll. Whatever.

"Come. You need to be healed more than anyone else here. And you need to eat. And drink," he said firmly, leaving no room for arguement.

She sighed and turned to help Elrohir. Instead, an elf came and picked her up. She protested, noting that another elf was already helping Elrohir.

"Hey! Put me down, I'm fine!"

Elladan called over his shoulder, "You shouldn't let that knife go any deeper or slash it if it fall out. That could happen if you walk."

Terra sulked, but she didn't protest. She knew he was right, and it seemed he had inheirited his father's gift. Firm healing. Huzzah for her.

They had only been walking for a few minutes when they reached a clearing. Packs quickly emerged from the trees, and a fire was started just as quickly. She was placed on someone's bedroll wile water and bandages were boiled. Food began cooking on the other side of the flame. Elrohir was placed on another bedroll next to her. Elladan approached with a small bag which she assumed was his healer's bag.

He grinned at her, "Sorry this has to be me, I'm not as good at this as Elrohir, but we seem to have little choice. So if you could just lay back against that tree and try to relax, we'll do this quickly."

She warily did as she asked, watching him remove alcohol and supplies for stitching a wound out of ihs bag. She realized that another elf was tending Elrohir and was already cleasing his wound. Elladan was probably trying to keep from scaring her, for which she was grateful.

"All right, now we have to remove this blade first," two elves were instantly at her sides, gently holding her arms. She realized that they were there to keep her from struggling, but she glared at them for touching her all the same.

Elladan was studying her wound doubtfully, "The knife is embedded into your ligament. I'm going to have to remove it slowly so I don't do any more damage. Sorry, but this is going to hurt."

She glared at him, "Well, that's reassuring. Just do it already and get it over with."

"Alright," he said, grasping the handle of the knife. Trying to distact her, he tried to make conversation, "So, how old are you?"

She grimaced, knowing what was coming, "Sixteen."

His eyes widened, "Only sixteen? You're brave for one so young," he said as he slowly, aginizingly began to pull. She barely heard what he said after in her haze of pain.

Terra fought her instinct to struggle, tears sliding down her face. The elves at her sides held her firmly in place when she couldn't control her shudders. After a few moments she passed out from the pain.

When she awoke, her nose picked up strange smells. Her eyelids fluttered, letting in daylight from a window. Wait, a window?

"You're awake. Welcome to Rivendell," a male voice spoke from her left.

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A/N: And that is where I leave you. Weird, but I like it. R&R, everybody.