Chapter Two-Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Walking for what seemed like hours, and every now and then losing the faint path, I finally found myself at the edge of a fast moving shallow creek or small river. I was used to the mighty Fraser River, and even though this was quite wide, I didn't think it was really large enough to be considered a 'river' as such; so I figured it was just a really large creek. Yup, I'm a snotty Vancouverite. Hey, they never said how large the body of water had to be to graduate from creek to river in Geography, so I'm sticking by my decision, executive and all.

It was moving fast, but I didn't think the undercurrent would drag me under. I rolled up my jeans to my knees and stuck the toe of my Tevas into the water to test the temperature. The water was crisp, but I figured as long as it didn't get too deep, and with no long term exposure, I shouldn't get frostbitten. I gave a quick prayer, as water can make me nervous, I don't like drowning, having done it once before) and I walked in to the creek. Looking down, I moved slowly across the smooth rocks and nearly slipped a couple of times. Gave the old heart a bit of a start, to say the least.

I had just about reached the other side when the throbbing in my head worsened, and I felt a stab of pain move from the back of my skull to my thoracic spine. Stumbling to the edge of the water, I fell to my knees and grabbed the back of my head. Pulling my hand away, I saw fresh blood. This was not good. I needed help and quickly, before I lost consciousness. The sides of my field of vision started greying out and I knew it was too late. I dragged myself to the grass under the foot of a tree and felt myself blackout again. My mind fell into the darkness.

I felt someone grabbing me by the waist. I groaned and more pain shot through my head from the movement. I knew I should be worried, there was some stranger manhandling me, but I was so out of it I couldn't muster the energy. Some strange language was being spoken to me, but I couldn't place it. The person hoisted me up over some large object and murmured some more words in my ear, and I felt myself fall into a deep sleep.

I regained a smidgen of consciousness and felt myself moving at a lolloping walk, my head bouncing slightly against the side of what seemed to be a horse. Just what was I doing on a horse? Had I landed on someone's ranch? If so, I hoped there weren't pervy ranch hands lining up for a grope. I wasn't exactly in the shape to kick heads in. My head was throbbing more with each jostle. I decided to let my pain become part of the public record.

"Uhhhn, God. Do you think we could stop the jostling? My head hurts like the dickens." I moaned for good measure.

Some more of the unknown language was uttered, as the person riding behind my body leaned into my ear. I felt darkness close in again. Drifting into the placid warmth of sleep, I heard the person say one more thing.

"Be at peace, all will be well."

I woke up again, feeling the softness of a mattress beneath me and a pillow under my head. The throbbing had been reduced to a mild ache in the back of my skull. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was in a mutely lit room. Wood was everywhere. There was a fire crackling just out of my line of sight. I could smell some fragrant herbs, perhaps from potpourri, but why on earth would ranchers put out potpourri? It seemed a bit femme for a bunch of rough-hewn guys. Lifting my head from the pillow, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A willowy woman moved into eye line. She motioned for me to lie back and said something in the unknown language.

"What? I'm sorry, but I don't understand you." I laid my head back against the pillow.

She smiled and motioned for me to stay where I was and left the room. A few moments later a tall willowy man entered the room and walked over to my bed. Concern and kindness resonated from him and I relaxed and blew out the breath I'd been holding.

"Good day," he said, smiling at me. "We were worried about you. That was quite a nasty concussion you suffered. We've stitched up the gash on the back of your head and given you some herbs for the pain. Do you remember what happened?"

Nodding my head slightly, I grimaced at the memory. "I was walking home from the bus stop and I had a funny feeling like something was going to go wrong. Then a wind kicked up and loosened a branch high in the trees above me. It cracked and fell on my head, and I blacked out."

He frowned, "What do you mean, 'coming home from the bus stop'? I've never heard of the word 'bus'."

I thought about the feeling I had, not being able to sense home and the chasm I felt. This guy felt okay. I got the distinct impression he was intimately aware of the wiggy, so I decided to take a chance.

"I'm going to tell you some stuff that sounds odd, but I have the feeling you're going to understand." I took a deep breath and began. "Never mind the bus; I don't think they have them here. The important thing is, when I woke up I wasn't on the gravel path leading to my home. I was lying on dirt and I couldn't sense my home, anywhere. It feels like I'm such a long distance from home, that time or space is creating some kind of chasm. I don't think home is anywhere near here." I didn't have a clue if I was making sense.

He frowned and then said, "That is odd. Why don't you tell me about yourself, and maybe we can get to the bottom of this mystery?"

I wasn't sure where to begin, but being well-bred, I thought introductions were in order. "My name is Karyn and I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I'm terribly sorry, and you would be?"

"Ah yes, I was remiss with giving you my name. I'm Elrond, lord of Imladris. You are amongst the race of Elves." He smiled gently.

My mind gibbered slightly. Elves? "I'm sorry, you did say Elves?"

"Yes. You were found on the banks of the river Bruinen; you were unconscious at the time."

Ah, gotcha. Elves. If I wasn't so 'of the wiggy' I might be freaking out about now, but wiggy things happened to me all the time and I had spirit walked to other planes of existence on several occasions. The news that I was amongst Elves just solidified my assumption that I was not on the same plane where my home was located. I was really hoping for a coma, so that I was only just spirit walking. The only problems being I didn't have the silver thread trailing from my foot. Also, I was interacting with the inhabitants of this world. I could never interact when I was spirit walking. This was an unpleasant departure of what I had experienced with the wiggy.

I decided to invest myself in the experience and see what information I could glean to help me get back or adapt to what I was experiencing.

"Well I didn't wake up at the river's edge. I had walked for a while and then crossed the river. Who found me?"

"Lord Glorfindel found you and brought you to us. It was fortuitous he did, for there have been yrch raids along our borders as of late."

"Raids? Like bands of thieves?" I needed to get a grasp on the situation if there was a plausible enemy threat.

"No, these are servants of darkness. They war against the races not aligned with Melkor and Sauron. One should not be alone in the wilds when they are afoot." Elrond placed his hand against my face. "Do you not have anything like them where you are from?"

"No. Not unless you count corrupt men. My world has seen much war due to the greed and hatred of these men." I looked around for my pack. "Where is my pack? I was wearing it when I fell unconscious."

Elrond gestured to a corner of the room. "It is sitting in the corner. You have many odd objects inside it."

"Ummm, yes. My stuff would be strange to you. Would you bring it to me please?" I moved to get up.

"No, I don't want you moving just yet. I will bring it to you." He glided across the floor and picked up my bag. "This is quite heavy for a mortal woman to bear. How is it that you could walk a distance with this on your back?"

I smiled. "That would be the padded back, the waist and chest straps and the wide shoulder straps. It distributes the weight evenly and provides stability when moving over rough terrain. I got it from Mountain Equipment Co-op in Vancouver. They manufacture outdoors equipment. It can go through a lot of abuse and not tear or fray."

I pushed my self into a sitting position and took the pack from Elrond. "Thank you very much." Opening the pack, I pulled out my Evian and my pullover. Reaching deep into the opening, I grabbed the bottle of Percocet and drew it out.

"This is Percocet. It's an analgesic, and is quite strong. It's used for post-surgical pain and other types of pain. I would've used it on my head if I remained awake to take it. I have a whole bunch of medications in my bag." I handed the bottle to Elrond.

He fiddled with the childproof cap and looked at me. "I cannot open this device. Why do you have it on your person?"

I took the bottle back. "I have to carry a whole bunch of medications because I get sick easily and I suffer from big headaches called migraines. They can really hurt me with the pain. I also have a lot of allergies and I have to carry things to prevent my death if I come into contact with what I'm allergic to."

Elrond looked concerned. "What are allergies?"

"Oh, well it when your immune system, the system that fights off disease and helps keep your body healthy, develops a sensitivity to any element it comes in contact with, and it treats it like a disease and fights it. Not everything it comes into contact with will cause this reaction. Just certain things. It can occur at any point in life and disappear just as quickly. My body has been warring with the external environment and as such, I've developed a great number of allergies. For instance, cedar reacts with me and my eyes swell shut and my throat swells, making it hard for me to breathe. It only happens with long term exposure to fresh cedar. Old wood is fine." I looked at him with a reassuring smile. "I think it's the pollen that fresh cedar gives off."

Elrond nodded and got up. "I understand. Some supper will be brought to you, but I want you to stay in bed until I say otherwise. Melima will help you, if you require assistance. I will check on you later." He walked out of the room.

My mind struggled to grasp all the information I had received from Elrond. Was I really in Tolkien's Middle Earth? And if I was, how did I get here? Why could I not understand the unknown language but understand Elrond? Admittedly I had been through quite a bit of unexplainable things, but this was a topper. Being hit by the branch must've caused some sort of neurological distress or catastrophic event, because I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I arrived in a fictional world. Maybe I was in a coma and this was all a chemically induced hallucination. Maybe my brain was having problems with neutropeptides. There was no logical explanation for what seemed to be going on. I filed my questions away and decided to treat things like they were real, until I could figure out what was really happening to me. I didn't want to have a negative effect on my current well-being, so I decided to let the Elves take the lead and try and obtain as much information as I could so perhaps I could rectify the situation and find myself back in my own reality. Whatever that may be.