Reviewers: Much thanks! I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but this is a looong chapter and I've already partially started the third. Yay! Much productivity. Also, if this ever actually DOES get to be a romance 'ship fic, it will happen much later and very towards the end. And not with anyone who's like 5-bajillion years older than her. (Elves, Aragorn, etc. Because that's just sick.) Thank you, and on to your chapter!

Chapter 2: Strider

I immediately swam right for the top again, but it was too late. I was definitely not in Arizona, and my father's ranch was nowhere to be seen. What was to be seen was a band of quite possibly the ugliest things I have ever seen in my life. I later learned they were called orcs, but right now I was confused, with quite a bit of fear mixed in. First, I noticed I no longer was in a lake, but a river, running quietly along.

And then they spotted me. I was terrified. Their thick broadswords were enough to make me almost pass out. But the ugly things' voices…they stayed in my nightmares long after.

"What is it?" one of them croaked.

"I think it's a girl." another responded.

"What should we do with her?" another one asked.

"Is she good to eat?" a particularly fat one wanted to know.

Now, it was a pretty thin river, maybe five feet wide at the most, but stalling even a little always helps, so I did my best to get to the opposite side of the river. Once there, I did the only thing I could think of. I shrieked. As loud and high pitched as I could. They ugly things covered their ears, and I thought, 'They should hear themselves some time.'

I heard a horse coming up, and I saw a man. He wore clothes that would have been a few centuries out of fashion at home, and though he looked like a common peasant, he wore regality about him as rich women wore their favorite fur coats. The last thing I saw before passing out was his sword going into the hellish beasts and their black blood splattering on the rocks at the side of the river.

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When I awoke, I was lying in an itchy bed in an inn. I hurt all over —did fainting really take that much out of a person? Then I remembered what had happened. I was probably sore from being taken here, most likely on a horse, no car could get over that terrain. I was just lying there, thinking too much like usual, when an odd fat man came in.

"You're finally awake!" he exclaimed.
I raised an eyebrow at him (I had perfected the technique a few summers before, when I'd had nothing to do), confused. "Who are you, why am I important, and where am I?"

"Sorry, I've forgotten my manners. I'm Barliman Butterbur, and you're at the Prancing Pony, in Bree. I heard you were attacked by orcs."

"Orcs? Oh, you mean those ugly things… Well I think they would have attacked me, but I screamed and this guy came out of nowhere… killed all of them."

The man called Butterbur nodded. "That man's a strange one, and dangerous as well, the one that brought you here. I've heard tales of him…"
"Then it's good that, from what I can tell, he's on our side for the most part." I frowned. Why would I be thinking of enemies? 'Oh yea,' I remembered, 'the orcs.' My thoughts became numerous once more as I put two and two together. 'Ugly baddies… sword-welding, dangerous, apparently good guy…' It was then that I knew I'd seen too many movies. "You've probably guessed I'm not from here. In fact, not even from this world, if I'm thinking right. So tell me, who's the big evil bad guy?"

Butterbur tilted his head slightly, reminding me of a dog not quite understanding something. "So you don't know anything at all of what's happening?"

"Not one bit of it. And I'd be quite happy if you'd tell me."

Just then someone yelled, "BUTTERBUR!" Butterbur quickly apologized for having to leave. "But I'll make sure to have Nob come and tell you. That I won't forget!" He said as he left the room.

I was quite fine with that, so long as someone told me where I was and what was going on… But by the look on Butterbur's face when I mentioned "evil bad guy", said bad guy was very not good, and most likely very evil. And probably not in a "Dr Evil" way either.

As promised, which I later found to be rare with Butterbur, Nob came in maybe half an hour later.

"Mr. Butterbur has told me everything, Miss… well, I don't know what to call you, Mr. Butterbur didn't tell me a name…"

"I must have forgotten to give it. I'm Korialmay (kor-E-al-I-mA capitals indicate long vowels) Arenius (ar-en-E-us), but I usually go by Kori. And you're Nob, and you're here to tell me where I am, what's going on here, and who the bad evil dude is, right?"

Nob looked…astounded to say the least, and I had the faintest impression that the women here must be ignorant gits, or all blondes in hair and brain. "Tha-that's right," he stumbled. "Miss Arenius. So, where to begin…"

"How about, where am I, first off?"

"You are in an inn called the Prancing Pony, in a town called Bree, in the country Shire, in the land of Middle Earth." It sounded almost as if he'd said it in one breath, but he wasn't gasping for air at the end.

"I'd like to know how I got here, but I'm going to guess you don't know that. So who's the evil bad guy?"

"His name is…we do not like to say it…"

"Go on." I encouraged. Poor guy sounded like Hagrid from Harry Potter not waning to say the bad guy's name.

"He is called Sauron," the man shivered at the name as if it were an icicle. "He is an evil creature. All dark things serve him; orcs, goblins-"

"Giant spiders?"

"What?"

"Place like this, all this evil running around, nothing scares people more than giant spiders, he has to have a couple of them, don't he?"

"I suppose…" he said slowly.

"So how'd he get to be evil and powerful? And what's his motive?"

"Well…" He went on to tell me the entire story of the Great Rings and such, which I'm sure you've heard already at least a dozen times. So I'm not putting down in full. "…and now he resides in Mordor."

"With a giant volcano."

"Yes."

"One more question."

"What?"

"What was that man's name, the one that saved me?"

"Around here folk call him 'Strider'." Nob replied uneasily.

"You don't like him?"

"He scares me, Miss."

I laughed. "I think had that sword been pointed at me, I would either be in hysterics or dead right now. Most likely dead unless he took pity on me."

Nob said nothing, but looked at me as if I was crazy. 'Never said I wasn't…' I thought.