Laura
"Sam, we're still in the Shire! What could possibly happen?" Frodo laughed. I grinned delightedly. Enter Merry and Pippin! And just on cue, they did so!
"Frodo? Merry! It's Frodo Baggins!" Pippin said cheerfully. Sam removed Pippin from Frodo.
"Oh, didn't see you there, miss!" Merry said as he turned round and banged into me. "I take it you're travelling with Frodo?" I nodded.
"Oi! Get back here!" Farmer Maggot yelled. For a moment my head started aching, then I was caught up in the fun of running away as Merry shoved a lettuce into my hands. Being the biggest by a couple of feet, I could run much faster than the others and so I ended up at the bottom of the pile, underneath four solid hobbits. I stood up and giggled as I watched Pippin and Merry scramble to the mushrooms.
Frodo and I both turned to look down the road at the same instant. A gust of cold wind hit us and the ground seemed to swirl before coming up to meet me.
Maia"Help me get her off the road!" Frodo yelled, panicking. "Get her off the road!" I blearily opened my eyes and found myself tucked underneath a tree root with four little people. I shuddered and tried to wiggle away to get myself some space, but the ones on either side of me glared at me and indicated that I should stop moving.
I heard a loud sniffing sound and looked up nervously. A cloaked figure was crouching above us. I bit back a gasp as I realised that it was a Ringwraith from the Lord of the Rings.
Why was I in Middle Earth? I wasn't supposed to be there. I wasn't needed there, I'd only mess things up. The characters wouldn't want a girl in the Fellowship, I wasn't an elf, there were too many people for me in Gondor and I couldn't ride a horse so I couldn't live in Rohan. Maybe Aragorn or Elrond would know what I should do.
We ran. I ran at the back of the group, obviously. I didn't know where I was going and no one could watch me if they were all in front of me.
Laura"Come on, miss Laura-May!" Sam urged when my feet got tired. I was so tired that for a lot of the day I'd been running on autopilot, not thinking and unable to remember the details of where we'd run.
Merry grabbed my hand and pulled me down behind a tree when a Nazgul appeared on the road. The Nazgul kept giving me blinding headaches when they appeared, the sort of headaches that hurt so much you can't think about anything for ages and when it stops hurting you feel fine again, but you can't remember what you did while it was hurting.
MaiaI shuddered as the Nazgul sat at the top of the hill on its black horse, silhouetted against the night sky like a drop of pure darkness against a grey page.
"Those riders are looking for something – or someone," Merry said. "Frodo?" I watched the look of unease on Frodo's face as he told Merry that he had to leave the Shire. Then the strange look on Merry's face as he told Frodo where we were going to run to. It wasn't a look I was familiar with. It wasn't one I could ever remember being directed at me. It gave me a headache.
LauraI smiled at the bond between the hobbits. It was so totally obvious that they would have gone to the ends of the earth to save each other. Actually, that was what they would be doing in a few months. We ran, and ran, and ran until we reached the ferry. My head started aching as the Nazgul appeared but there was no way I was fainting and distracting the hobbits from getting away. I grabbed Frodo and threw him onto the ferry and jumped myself. As soon as I landed on the raft I let myself black out.
MaiaI opened my eyes and sighed. My memory blanks were getting worse and worse. I couldn't tell anyone about them though. They'd laugh at me and call me a freak and hate me.
Sam turned to me and felt my forehead, an expression on his face that I didn't understand. Pain exploded in my skull at his touch.
Laura"Are you alright, miss?" Sam asked, a concerned look on his face. I contemplated for a moment then decided that I was.
"I'm fine, just a bit tired," I told him, flashing him a pearly white smile. "So, how long until we get to Bree? I would pay big money to see a town again. The Shire's lovely, but you can't beat a nice city," I said with a grin.
"It's not too far from here," Merry informed me. I grinned and relaxed on the ferry, glad to have a chance to sit down after all the running I'd done that way. And in Bree I'd get to meet Aragorn!
A while later, we were finally at Bree and I stared at the gate. I began to get a slight headache, although I brushed it off, thinking about the Prancing Pony and Strider.
"Four hobbits and a girl!" the gateperson exclaimed. I flashed him a smile.
"We wish to stay at the Prancing Pony," I told him confidently, in my best Middle Earth dialect. Frodo poked me hard.
"Our business is our own," he stated, poking me again.
"If you want to feel me up, please do so in a less painful manner," I told him as the gate opened. Frodo blushed and stuttered. I giggled and ruffled his hair.
"So, onwards to the inn? Water is nice when inside a bathtub but I'm not too keen on rain when I'm not wearing a coat," I said, and grabbed hold of Pippin's hand to drag him towards the pub. Then I realised I didn't know the way, so I found the nearest passing local.
"Excuse me, could you please direct me and my companions to the Prancing Pony please?" I asked sweetly. The man leered at me and gave me the directions, staring at my chest the whole time. The hobbits all shifted their postures, obviously ready to stop the man from harming me. Which I was sure he wouldn't do, just being afflicted with a case of wandering eyes, but I appreciated the gesture of friendship all the same.
When we arrived at the Prancing Pony, I stared around in delight. It looked just like it did in the film, loads of men laughing and drinking. Of course, there was one major difference – in the film, the pub seemed huge, but obviously it seemed smaller because I didn't see things in hobbit-scale.
When Pippin went up to the bar I decided to accompany him, and got roped into conversation with a red-headed man. He could have done with a bath, and he wasn't particularly attractive, but conversation in a pub over an alcoholic drink is generally enjoyable. I looked at him in confusion when he suddenly gasped and pointed along with the rest of the inn at an empty space. I gulped – Frodo had obviously done his disappearing act. Then I grinned – it was time to meet Strider! I quickly excused myself and headed over to where Sam was berating Pippin.
I want to meet Strider! I thought happily, grinning to myself and twirling a strand of my dark hair around my finger.
"He's taken Mr Frodo!" Sam said suddenly, and dragged us all to the stairs. I followed the hobbits, wondering why they were so scared. Strider was a good guy, he was Aragorn, and even though they didn't know that they still didn't know that he was a bad person… all the thinking combined with the beer was giving me a headache, so I focused myself on getting to meet Strider and dragged myself up the stairs.
"Let him go!" Sam yelled angrily. Strider looked at the hobbits, then his gaze turned to me. Why was he looking at me in that weird way? I was happy to meet him, he should feel the same way!
"Who are you?" Strider asked me, just as the familiar pressure behind my skull flared.
MaiaI blinked, then looked at the floor, trying to avoid the cold gaze coming from Strider. I had to stop the memory blanks. They were getting worse and worse.
"Who are you?" Strider said impatiently.
"Maia," I replied, looking at the floor and letting my hair fall over my face. The hobbits looked confused. "I know my name's strange, ok? But it's better than calling myself Laura-May!" I snapped defensively. Strider's eyes widened momentarily before he turned back to the hobbits and told them not to return to their rooms.
"What about Miss Laura-May? I mean, Miss Maia? Can she return to her room?" Frodo asked. I bit my lip and looked at the floor. The hobbits didn't want me around. No one ever did. How was I going to find someone who could help me find a way home?
"It would not be safe. The Nazgul know that she is travelling with you, they may search her room to see if you are hiding there. I should go and find a room for her," Strider said.
"No – don't," I said quickly. Strider turned to me. "Um, you don't need to do that… I can find myself somewhere to hide so you don't have to put up with me," I muttered.
"We don't mind you being here, Miss Maia," Sam said. I felt the familiar headache starting. Why would he want me there? "Just… most girls in the Shire, anyways, wouldn't think it proper to share a room with men…" I blushed and looked at the floor. Why was I so socially inept? Why did I always say the wrong thing? Why could I never understand what anyone was thinking?
I closed my eyes, wishing I could disappear. Sometimes if I concentrated really hard, I could actually block everything out for quite a while and function on autopilot.
LauraI blinked, realising that the headache had made me miss out on some time again. I'd obviously hit my head harder than I'd thought.
"So, we're staying here then?" I said, grinning at the hobbits. They nodded slowly. I turned to Strider and stared at him. He looked… familiar. Not familiar as in he looked identical to in the movie, a different type of familiar which I didn't understand.
"You know, if I didn't know it was impossible I would have sworn I'd met you before," I said lightly. Strider gave me a long, confused look. I shrugged inside – I got that a lot. I always figured that if celebrities got gawked at because of their beauty, then being gawked at myself was obviously a good sign that I looked ok.
"You know what? You're the only person I know with two different coloured eyes," Pippin said suddenly. I stared at him.
"Since when have I had different coloured eyes? My eyes have always been blue. What colour are they now? Is it even possible for my eyes to change colour?" I asked.
"Your left eye is grey and your right eye is blue," Pippin informed me. I grinned and tossed my hair over my shoulder.
"That's fine by me. It sure stops any arguments about whether it's more attractive to have blue or grey eyes if I have one of each," I said. "And technically my eyes are still sky-coloured even though they're not both sky-blue anymore, because the sky is sometimes grey too. I love the sky, don't you? It's so cool when you go on camping holidays with your friends and you can just wake up in the morning and eat breakfast together and the sky's such a pretty colour. All the colours mix together and they look like if they were people they'd be a group of happy friends, all totally in tune with each other. It's fun to find shapes in clouds too. Especially when the first person to not be able to think what the cloud is shaped like has to do a dare," I chattered away. Sure, I was babbling. Who cared? Babbling was just saying what you thought, as you thought it, which was the best way to let people get to know you. If people know how you think then they know you and that's always good.
"You should be quiet," Strider told me firmly. What was wrong with talking? Talking was good. Silence when I was around people always gave me a headache. "The Ringwraiths are near."
The headache grew as the silence stretched out. In the end I leant on the wall and tried to focus on the pain, hoping it would go away. My eyes closed and I knew no more.
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Aragorn surveyed the girl carefully. He knew who she was, the name Laura-May was not unfamiliar to him. But her behaviour was very strange. She entered the room smiling and bouncing, then suddenly became shy and nervous, and then suddenly became smiling and bouncy again.
And the hobbits had seemed so confused when she suddenly said that she didn't want to be called Laura-May, as if that was what she'd asked to be called earlier. And when she'd confirmed that she would be sleeping in the same room as him and the hobbits, for some reason it seemed as if she wasn't actually relating the statement to the conversation she'd just had with him. As if she was just making a random comment.
Aragorn sighed and decided to keep a close eye on the girl.
A/N: Ok, there was chapter 2! Hopefully the characters are more separate now. I did a bit more research and realised that the two personalities shouldn't really be able to both experience the same emotions. I hope you enjoyed it!