Disclaimer: LOTR does not belong to me. Thor and Hunter do. For a more detailed disclaimer, go back to Chapter 1.

Chapter 2

Middle-Earth

"Hunter!" Thor yelled as she saw her friend fall. She dropped to lie by the blue patch, just far enough away to not fall in. She heard nothing. Absolutely nothing. And this made her very afraid. "Hunter!"

She stared at the patch, which betrayed absolutely nothing. It was just there--a spot that looked like a white cloud stained with light blue ink. 'Well, there's no point in staying here,' she thought. And then she made up her mind to follow Hunter into whatever place he had fallen into. They'd stuck together through more than a year of high school, among students who didn't want Hunter and Thor there. Thor was not going to abandon Hunter. She stood up and inched over to the edge of the patch, closed her eyes, and stepped in.

She felt as if she had been trapped in a whirlwind of darkness. Flickers of light edged her consciousness, but they quickly disappeared and the whirling stopped.

"

Hunter awoke to find himself in a rather comfortable bed. He yawned happily--and then groaned as an ear-splitting headache swiftly descended down upon him. He opened his eyes and then wished that he hadn't as the light caused his headache to be even worse. When he finally adjusted to the light and the headache had lessened (slightly), he looked around and found himself to be in a beautiful room.

Sunlight streamed in from all around him and he gasped in delight when he saw how it lit up the intricately carved arches that were the walls. 'This is place is beautiful!' Hunter's amazement was swiftly extinguished when the thought hit him. 'Where the hell am I?' he shouted to himself. 'Am I dead? No, no, that can't be right. What the--what the hell is happening?' He sat up and anxiously look around in the room. No one was there. No one appeared to be close. He breathed a sigh of relief. Now he just had to figure out what had happened before anyone found him.

'Where's Thor?' Now that was a question that needed answering. He prayed that she wasn't in any danger (not that he could have helped her if she had been), but Hunter didn't even know if she was in this...was world the right word? Or was she in...that...the Dreamworld, he decided to call it. He knew now that this was definitely not a dream, but he had fallen asleep, so maybe he'd come here through a dream. Anyway, the Dreamworld had a nice ring to it.

He noticed that he could hear a waterfall in the background. He turned and saw where he was. It was as luxurious as a palace, but he didn't think that was the best word to describe it. It was beautiful, elegant...yet simple.

A voice shocked Hunter out of his reverie. "Ah, you're awake. Finally." He spun around to see a person standing at the foot of his bed. But...he just didn't look normal. He was tall, with pale skin, blond hair, and...were those pointed ears? Then the realization hit him. He was looking at an elf.

Hunter fainted.

"

Erestor was extremely concerned when the boy fainted. He knew that he shouldn't become attached, since the boy could easily turn out to be an enemy. He didn't know where the child was from, but his closest guess was Harad.

But some parts of the puzzle just didn't fit. The boy's was far too dark for him to be from Harad. And he was just a boy, too young to be wandering so far north. He hadn't come on a horse, and then there were his clothes. His boots--well, they were really more like sturdy shoes--were made of something that the elves had never seen before. His clothes were clearly not made for such a long journey, and the boy had not even been wearing a cloak! Nobody had even seen the child before Estel had discovered him lying unconscious in the library.

Well, he could at least hope that the child might have some answers. There was a pitcher of water and a goblet on the table, and Erestor poured some water for the boy. He supposed that he should stop thinking of him as just a boy. He wasn't very tall, but he appeared to be physically mature, more a young man than a child. But Erestor didn't know the boy's name, who was clearly not a man, so he simply thought of him as 'the boy.'

As Erestor gently poured some water into the boy's mouth, the child gave a start and almost spat out the water. "Relax," Erestor told him. "It's just some water." The boy nodded weakly and swallowed. Erestor gave him the goblet and the boy obediently drank. When he finished, he gave it back to the elf. "What's your name?" Erestor asked, hoping that the boy would tell him.

He did. "Hunter. Hunter Jameson."

Erestor nodded. "Hunter, son of James." He noticed a flicker of emotion pass across Hunter's face. He chose to ignore it. Perhaps Hunter had not had a great relationship with his father.

"Where's Thor?" Hunter asked.

Erestor was startled. "Who?"

"My friend. She's a girl, my age, with light brown hair, blue eyes. Do you know where she is?"

Erestor shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not." Hunter appeared rather unhappy to hear this, and also quite worried. The elf smiled, just to see if that would help. If it had any effect, Erestor could not tell. "Stay here and take some rest. Your body needs to recuperate. Do you understand?" Hunter nodded and Erestor left him to sleep.

"

Hunter lay back and tried to relax. So Thor wasn't there. 'Then where the hell is she?' he wanted to scream. She was the only real friend he'd had in high school, and now he was alone. Alone is a world where he didn't belong.

'Where are you, Thor?' he wondered, willing her to respond, even though he knew that was impossible. But Thor wasn't here...whatever here was. Where the hell was he?

'Wait--elves?' Hunter thought. 'So I'm locked in a world of Nordic mythology--before the elves shrunk!' Before there were short little elves to help Santa Claus, Old English and Nordic mythology had elves that were tall, magical, and rather capricious.

'Capricious?' he wondered. 'No, that guy didn't seem like that. Okay, so not strictly mythology.' Then it hit him. 'We were going to watch the Lord of the Rings in class. I fell asleep. I'm in the Lord of the Rings!' He almost wanted to laugh now, though not through joy. Girls in his classes were always daydreaming about going to Middle-Earth and living happily ever after with Frodo, Legolas, or whichever other character they were in love with.

He would have gladly traded places with them. He was in a land that was going to become a war zone, in the midst of people who probably already thought him the enemy, and the last time that he had read the books was more than a year ago! 'Okay, Hunter, calm down. First, Rivendell doesn't get attacked. Mirkwood does...three times, right? Or is that Eregion? Whatever. Not close to here. Second, they've never seen anyone who's actually black. There's the Wild Men and the Haradrim. And the Rohirrim and Aragorn make an alliance with the Wild Men. So that leaves the Haradrim, and they're lighter, aren't they? And they probably speak English---Common, got to remember that--they must speak with accents.' He had to smile at this. Hunter, who loved Shakespeare and was actually part of a Shakespeare theater group, spoke with a slight British accent because of his love for the Bard's work. He hadn't read the books in a long time, but he had been obsessed with them in the seventh grade and practically knew them by heart. So he didn't need to worry.

'So, I'm in Middle-Earth,' he thought. 'Rivendell or Mirkwood?' Rivendell, he decided. From reading The Hobbit, he'd figured that Thranduil's dwelling was more like a castle than Elrond's. 'Hell, this place doesn't even look like it could have dungeons!' he reasoned, thinking of the dungeons that the dwarves had stayed in while in Mirkwood. 'So who was that guy?' Hunter wondered. He quickly thought of all of the elves that he could remember. 'Elrond--maybe. Lindir--probably not. Elladan--yeah, probably not, same for Elrohir. Glorfindel--not a chance in hell. Erestor? Hm...maybe. So Elrond or Erestor,' he concluded. 'Both of whom have names started with the letter e. Or it could have been just some elf who Tolkien doesn't mention. Well, it's not like I really need to know the guy's name. Would be nice, but it's not too important.'

He heard several voices that seemed to be coming from somewhere a few rooms down from him. Wanting to hear what they were saying, he got up (as painful as it was for his sore muscles) and walked over to the door. Now, he could at least hear snatches of conversation. Elves were not very loud, but Hunter had very keen hearing.

"...boy...asleep now...don't think..."

"...very strange..."

"...hasn't woken...Hunter...girl." Hunter almost collapsed. Girl? Was Thor here? 'Wait, he said something about not having woken...he must've been talking about her!'

"...seems fine..."

"Erestor...don't you think..."

He listened for a few more minutes but couldn't hear anything about Thor. Then he heard footsteps coming towards him, so he scrambled to get away from the door and into bed. A few seconds after he flung himself under the covers, he heard an elf come in. Hunter pretended to be asleep, though he didn't know if he was fooling the elf. Finally, the elf left.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him and he wanted to laugh. 'Hunter, son of James!' He hadn't bothered to tell the elf that his father's name was Elias.

"

Elrond smiled as he left the room. So, his charge had been eavesdropping, had he? That was amusing. Not that he hadn't expected Hunter to do that.

It was a strange name. Hunter, son of James. Hunter...that was unusual...that kind of a name in the Common Tongue. However, it was not too unlike his Estel's alias Strider.

James. He'd never heard that name before, which is very strange, considering how old Elrond was. It sounded vaguely Numenorean, but that was just a guess.

Thor, that was the girl's name, right? Interesting, he'd never heard that one before either.

He'd let Hunter see his friend the next day, and talk to the boy, and that might resolve a few of the mysteries surrounding this situation.

Next Chapter: Thor wakes up and she and Hunter talk.

A/N: I've decided that there will be a romance between Hunter and Thor. But I haven't decided when they'll realize it. I'm thinking about Amon Hen. Maybe later.

Now, do you see that purple button? Yes, the review button. I appreciate any and all reviews (yes, flames included), but I prefer constructive criticism and suggestions. More reviews impel me to write faster.