Chapter 3-The Strange Meeting

Disclaimer: I don't own LOST or LOTR

A/N: Hey guys thanks for the awesome reviews. I wanted to give you this chapter before I leave for a week so you won't be in suspense. Well you will be in suspense after this chapter anyways but for a different reason. Laughs evilly I will be writing my stories while I am goneso when I get back I will try to type up everything quickly and will try to have it up by next Tuesday night. Please stick with me till then! Ok here we go. In order to tell what has happened, we will start out right after the two groups left the hatch.

LOST POV-Right after both groups left the hatch

Kate looked around for anything out of the ordinary as they walked. It would get dark soon and they would have to stop for camp but Kate wanted to go as far as possible before doing so.

"So guys, what exactly are we looking for?" Charlie asked.

"Basically anything that catches your eye, anything weird, things like that." Jack replied.

"Also if there is excessive breakage of branches or something. Michael could try to leave us signs. I am also looking for footprints." Kate added.

"Oh okay." Charlie said. He didn't like the awkward silence that was around them. He supposed it was supposed to be that way so they could hear if there was something different but he didn't like the feeling. He would take anything over being with Locke though. He wondered if the other group was making any better progress than they had.

In fact, the other group had. They were going much faster than the west group, which were Charlie, Jack, and Kate. They had walked very fast. Though they hadn't spotted anything weird, they had still gone a long way, which was good.

Locke and Sayid were walking very fast, while Ana lagged behind a bit with Sawyer behind her.

"You enjoying the view?" Ana asked Sawyer. She figured she might as well find something to pass the time while they walked.

"Sure. Why not?" Sawyer replied.

"No I don't mean the scenery. I mean my butt." Ana said.

"Oh that. Didn't even notice it Annie." Sawyer grinned.

Ana did not like being called Annie. She fell silent again not thinking of a good comeback.

"What's wrong Annie? Got your feelings hurt?" Sawyer asked.

"Nah. But you'd better be careful about what you say or your foot is going to go up your mouth." Ana replied.

Sayid stopped and looked back. Ana and Sawyer were lagging behind. "Come on Ana. Let's go."

"I'm comin I'm comin." Ana replied. This was going to be a long night. She hoped the west group was having more fun than they were.

Unfortunately for Charlie, the west group was having almost a worse time than the east group. There had been occasional times where one of them would say something then there would be a discussion for a minute or two but then everyone was silent again.

"So… " Charlie said.

"What Charlie?" Jack asked, glad to be able to talk.

"You guys want me to sing a song from my album or something?" Charlie asked. Charlie felt really tired all of the sudden, like he had just ran a marathon. He didn't have any reason to feel that way whatsoever because the group had only been walking.

"Why?" Kate asked.

"Cause you guys are boring. You don't' talk at all." Charlie replied. What was up with this? He felt really tired.

"We don't always have to talk Charlie." Kate said,

"Ok fine what do you want to talk about?" Jack asked.

"I don't know.. anything." Charlie said, glad they were actually talking for more than a minute.

At this time it was pretty dark out and they couldn't see very well.

"Do you miss Claire Charlie?" Jack asked.

"Why are you asking me that?" Charlie got all-defensive.

"I don't know. Just something to talk about." Jack replied.

"If we're gonna talk about that, then let's talk about you two." Charlie said.

It was dead silent again.

Charlie groaned a couple of minutes later.

"What?" Kate asked.

"I hate the silence. Okay fine. Yes I miss Claire. Is there something wrong with that?" Charlie gave in. At this point, he would do anything to get Jack and Kate to actually talk for once. This whole time they had been walking; they never spoke to each other. Always to Charlie.

"No there's nothing wrong with that. Look Charlie, I know this seems impossible, but I know that Claire cares for you. You just need to give it time." Jack said,

Kate listened to their conversation, almost taking Jack's advice for herself.

Charlie gave a half laugh. "Uh huh.. so one day Claire is just going to pop up and say she loves me."

"Well maybe not quite like that." Jack replied.

"So what about you?" Charlie asked.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Yeah it's not like the two of you have been getting along." Charlie pointed out.

"Charlie, everything is fine. " Jack said, not wanting to go into details.

"Right and I'm bloody happy to be alive right now." Charlie muttered. Jack could barely hear him.

Then it was silence again. Charlie didn't understand why he was so tired. He shouldn't be this tired.

"Guys, I hate to be the party pooper, but I'm tired. Can't we rest now? It's getting dark. " Charlie asked.

"Yeah we can Charlie. Let's just find a good place to sleep first. I think that we need to find a clearing where-" Kate stopped talking. Charlie could hear her gasp. It took Charlie a minute to reach Kate as he was a little ways behind her.

"Kate what's going on?" Charlie asked, confused. He walked right beside Kate and saw what she saw. A little midget, well he supposed that would be what you called them. The midget was dressed in weird clothes and as Charlie looked him over he saw his feet.

"Disgusting." Charlie said.

"YOU'RE THE VOICE!" the little midget said. At the same time Kate and Charlie leaned back a bit. They had no idea what this thing was.

"Wha-what are you talking about?" Charlie asked. Kate had grabbed Charlie's arm, not knowing what to think. She saw the knife sticking out of the midget's belt and was scared.

Before the midget could continue, Jack appeared. "What's going on you guys?" He stopped when he saw the midget.

"Are you all humans?" the midget asked.

"Yeah of course. What are you, a elf?" Jack asked, more of a joke then an actual serious question, but the midget took it seriously, almost offensively.

"No of course not! Elves are like 6 feet tall! I am a hobbit!" the hobbit said.

"What the heck's a hobbit?" Charlie asked.

"There's the voice again. I heard you! You were talking about being alive and wanting to rest." The hobbit said, pointing at the human before him.

"How did you know that?" Charlie asked, astonished.

"I don't know. I heard you. I was a ways away from here so I don't know how." The hobbit said.

"What is a hobbit?" Jack was annoyed. He wasn't in the mood for these childish games. What was this thing anyways?

"Jack don't irritate it." Kate said, pointing to the knife.

"You've never heard of a hobbit before? Wow… well it's a Halfling." The hobbit said.

"What's a Halfling?" Charlie and Jack asked at the same time.

"What's wrong with you people?" the hobbit asked.

"Look I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Jack, this is Charlie, and that is Kate." Jack said, determining that the "hobbit" was harmless.

"I'm Merry Brandybuck of the Shire." Merry said, offering his hand.

Charlie bent down to accept the handshake. "Your name is Mary? Wow I feel sorry for you."

"Why? Is that bad?" Merry asked, confused.

Then Merry's and Charlie's hands touched and all of the sudden, Charlie and Merry saw things. Merry saw Charlie, in a sort of building. It was shaking, and then Charlie was in a small room, smelling something. Then he saw Charlie out by water, talking to a female. It wasn't the Kate girl here; it was a blonde haired girl. Then he saw another male, and Charlie hurt the person. The guy fell down and Merry was sure he was dead. Charlie had used some sort of weapon Merry could only guess, but he had no idea was it was. Then he saw Charlie with the blonde haired female. The female had a baby in her hands.

Charlie was seeing Merry, in some sort of town or something. It was very green. Then he saw Merry with another thing that looked just like him. They were getting fireworks out of a wagon. Then they were running through ha forest. Then they were in a bar of some sorts with two other things that looked just like Merry. Then they were at this other place that looked very scary. One of the things suddenly disappeared. Then this black thing came up to the spot where the thing had been and put a knife down. The thing reappeared and was screaming. Then the four things were at a beautiful place with lots of different, things, he would say people but they looked much different than people.

A lot of other images passed through both Charlie's and Merry's minds. Finally, the two let go of hands and they were back in reality. They just stared at each other. Jack and Kate were standing up, not knowing what to do. Kate had unknowingly grabbed Jack's arm and was holding on tight. She had no idea what to make of the situation. Had the three of them finally gone crazy?

Jack was thinking the same thing. He didn't notice Kate hanging on him; he was too deep in thought. Was he going crazy or was this really real? If it was real, were there more of these "hobbits"? Was this hobbit an Other?

"Merry! Where are you?" The four heard the voice and turned towards the direction of it. Who was it?

A/N: I'm sorry that only one of the LOTR characters met only some of the people from LOST in this chapter. In the next chapter there will be more of the groups meeting each other. Please let me know what you think!