It was a full thirty days after the fords of Isen, and a total of forty five days of travel, when any amount of luck I had disappeared.

It had rained five times, interspersed in those thirty days, allowing me to soak up water in my very valuable moss and keep myself from dying of dehydration over the days without a water source. I mostly ate grass, but a few times I managed to find bushes with berries, or trees with nuts or seeds. The first berry bush left me vomiting after a couple ingested berries turned out to be not so healthy. Needless to say, I avoided that particular type of berry for the rest of the travel. The nuts and seeds seemed to have no negative effects, so I collected as many as I could when I saw the plants they lived on, and used the upturned and tied hem of my tank top as a makeshift bag to hold them.

The land I was now traversing was sloping and riddled with hills, which made it difficult at times for me to manage. My rest breaks became longer and more frequent as the time between finding anything to forage grew longer, and my moss had dried up a few days ago with no new rainfall to renew it. The hunger that had long ago faded into a numb emptiness, now caused dizzy spells and made me feel even weaker than I already felt. Getting up from my curled up position was now exceedingly difficult, and some mornings I briefly considered whether it was even worth it to keep going. At least if I died out here, no one could abuse my knowledge of the story.

I was always quick to banish those thoughts, though, forcing myself to move faster, with more purpose whenever they came around.

Halfway through the forty five days, I had the misfortune of having to deal with my period. I managed to get my underwear off before too much blood had soaked into them, not wanting them to get too ruined, as they were really all I had. I spent the next five days in a state of constant misery. The trickle of blood down my legs was the most unpleasant, as I'd gotten used to my body cramping up and hurting already from the walking and hunger.

I was glad when it was over, and even more grateful when it rained shortly after, and I managed to clean the worst of the blood off my legs and put my underwear back on.

It was on the forty eighth day of being in Middle Earth that I came across people.

Or rather, they came across me.

I was sitting against a small, thirsty looking tree, commiserating with it quietly at the lack of water. It showed it just as much as I did, though, obviously in different ways.

It was then that I heard voices. They were low and gravely, definitely male, and it sounded like they were arguing.

"What're we doin out here, eh? Havn't seen a sign of wildlife for days. We're not going to find game here. We oughta keep on north, there's always nice huntin' up there."

The first voice, despite being low and gravely, was obviously whining. I huddled against my tree, knowing it would not offer me protection for much longer, they sounded like they were getting nearer.

They didn't sound particularly friendly, but there was little point in running, it was difficult even standing and walking at this point.

"We always get attacked by those pointy ears when we go up there. Territorial about their huntin lands, greedy lot. Aint gonna share with us. a'sides, we'd be travelin another four or five days just to get to the edge, and there's no promise we'd even find anything worth takin back. We needs to find somethin round here, then once we do, we meet up with the rest at the bridge an' see if they got any people to bring back to the village. We needs some new women, we do. You lot keep bein stupid and kill'in 'em."

The second voice was stronger, definitely in charge of their little expedition.

I was relieved to hear how close I was to potentially being found by helpful elves. Maybe there would be a patrol and I could ask for help.

"Oi, it ain't my fault, them women weren't letting me have any fun wit' them."

The whiner, as I dubbed him, trailed off, then spoke again, voice excited now.

"What's this? Those're footprints. Small footprints. Maybe one'a them pointy ears is about? We could probably sell'em!" The voices were getting louder, they sounded a bit excited, I could only assume they'd noticed the trail I'd left. Not intentionally, of course, but I was far too tired to make any attempt at hiding it.

"Halfling, maybe?" The whiner said, voice more excited, "Mayhap we aughts to help the poor Halfling back to his home, might nab somethin' good outa it. Bree's not too far off, yeah?"

For a moment, when the leader responded, he sounded irritated, as if he really wished he didn't have such an idiot to deal with while hunting.

"Definitely not, halflings have big feet. Footprints look bare. One a them fair folk, yeah? They'd Definitely give a reward if we pressed." The leader sounded much more excited now, and not half a minute later, the whining one yelled "There it is, against the tree! Think it's sleeping? Caught it unawares!"

That was followed by a yelp and a quiet smack as the leader hit him. "Shut up, if it was sleeping, it isn't now. Why isn't it moving? Maybe it's injured. Might be able to get more out of the greedy folk if they've got a time limit for how long it'll be alive."

I pried my eyes open from where they'd fallen closed when I started listening, and looked to the side towards them just in time to catch a glimpse of something brown coming towards me.

Then I was knocked over as one of the men tackled me. He let out a triumphant sound at the same time that I let out a pained cry of surprise.

He was sitting on my sprawled form, one of his knees on my arm, pressing it against the ground sharply and at a rather painful angle, the other arm held roughly by one of his hands, and the majority of his weight on my midsection. I felt something in my chest crack, instantly followed by a burning pain where the man's knee was pressed. My breath was forced even more from my body in another pained noise. When I sucked in the tiny breath that was all the man's weight on me would allow, it made the burning pain worse.

I felt my hair pulled violently as he angled my neck to get a glimpse of my ears, and then my hair was released and my neck was grasped hard, cutting off my breath.

Then, a sigh, and I identified the one that tackled me to be the whiner. "Not fair folk."

The other one sighed as well as he looked me over, "Ugly thing is practically dead already. Look at it. Starved, been outside too long. No one is going to give anything of value for this whelp. Leave it, we have enough mouths back at the village. It'll die soon enough as it is."

The whiner released my neck and I gasped, choking and coughing in an attempt to pull in air faster than I could handle. He grabbed my hair again, tugging at it, and I felt a hand roughly caress my neck, the whining one's voice had a leer in it when he spoke again, "May as well use it while it's still alive, though. Could take it with us on the way North, make the trip a bit more pleasant. Leave it there when we find game to bring back. Might be able to get a little bit for it, and even if we don't...It would be enjoyable."

I bit my tongue hard. Up to this point, I'd been dazed from being knocked over so abruptly, and having trouble breathing with the weight of the man sitting on top of me and what I was sure was a cracked rib. Now I started struggling as much as I could, which wasn't much, given my already weakened state.

The leader laughed, a cruel sound, "Doesn't even have the energy to fight back. I suppose, we don't have to feed it. We'll just toss it off once it dies. You have to carry it though, doesn't even look like it can walk."

The weight disappeared, and I coughed a few times, managing to gasp in a few shallow, shaky gulps of air.

Breathing hurt. That was a bad sign.

While north was the right direction to be going, I wasn't sure I liked the price I might have to pay to get there.

But it would get me there...I just had to stay alive.

One of them, I was assuming the whining one, grabbed my arms roughly and dragged me to my feet, shoving his face against my neck and growling into my ears.

"Try'n struggle and I'll cut you until you behave. I might even reward you if you're a good whore."

Tears gathered in my eyes, both from the rough handling, the threat, and the insult.

Mostly because the insult nailed down in my mind exactly what he wanted me for.

I'd realized before, but had been hoping that I was wrong.

He bit my neck roughly, and I whimpered, but didn't pull away. The way he was holding me almost felt like my arms were about to pop out of their sockets.

I was, oddly enough, saved from further assault by the leader yelling, "Hey! Save it for tonight when we make camp! We got a lot of ground to cover. Just get it to your horse."

The whiner shoved me down slightly, through the haze of pain I could see his face was screwed up in irritation. He grabbed one of my arms again and started dragging me back the direction I'd heard them come from. I was horribly unsteady, so it ended up being half dragging and half carrying. Or a quarter carrying and three quarters dragging. He wasn't gentle.

He threw me to the ground, pulling my wrists behind my back and tying them with what felt like a leather strap.

"What kind of clothes is this, whore?" He asked me, voice sounding a mix of disgusted and appreciative.

"It knows it's place, at least. Dressing to show it's station." Drawled the leader.

I couldn't have talked back if I wanted to, so dizzy and unsteady from being thrown around.

I heard him mount his horse, then my world was turned over as the whiner grabbed me off the ground and shoved me up across the front of his horse, mounting it himself.

I couldn't tell how long we traveled. My chest ached. I hoped it was just bruising, but was quite certain at this point that it likely was a cracked rib, from when the whiner tackled me moments ago. At some point, I lost consciousness for a while from the pain of bouncing up and down on the trotting horse so continuously.

When I came back to awareness, we were slowing down. Most of the light had gone out of the sky, and they were discussing where to make camp.

"If we go until dark, we'll make it to the river, we can camp there." The whiner offered, voice much more amiable with his companion that it had been with me. It seemed his whining days were passed, now that he had gotten what he wanted, going up north, and unexpected entertainment along the way…

"Fine, but you're making camp. Fire tonight only. Closer we get to those greedy elves, quieter we have to be." The leader sounded mildly annoyed with the whiner still, but he also had the resigned tone in his voice that made it seem like he was used to it, so they were probably traveling companions quite often.

I took stock of myself, feeling much more aware than I had before. I was no expert on ribs, so I still couldn't tell if they were cracked or just bruised. Either way, they hurt like hell. My shoulders both ached something fierce, too. The muscles had apparently disliked the way the whiner had held them as much as I did. My mouth felt incredibly dry. I was pretty sure they wouldn't give me any water, but maybe if I asked after they'd stopped for the night, and eaten something, they would be in a good enough mood to give me some.

They'd already said they weren't going to waste food on me, though, so I wasn't liking the chances I had. Maybe I could try to steal some..

Oh yes, my hands were bound behind me.

If I weren't so sore, I knew I was flexible enough to curl up and put my feet through the loop my bound arms made, to get them in front of myself.

That would at least give me the ability to grab things, possibly try to get the bindings off. Maybe while they were sleeping? I wondered if one of them would keep watch..That would certainly put a damper on escaping.

I was shoved quite violently off the horse when they stopped, and they both laughed when I cried out again, trying to keep myself from whimpering like a kicked puppy. I bit the inside of my mouth hard, and tasted blood. This was not a good situation to be in, but I hadn't come all this way just to be broken by two cruel thugs.

I was quite certain there was something wrong with my ribs now, as the drop from the horse left me gasping for breath, seeing spots, and with the burning pain returned with reinforcements in my chest.

From the spot I'd been unceremoniously thrown on and left lying, I watched as they went about setting up their camp. The leader sat back against a tree, relaxing mockingly as he watched the whiner, who I could now see looked to be younger.

He wasn't lazy, at least. He was quick to tie the horses up, light a fire, roll out a couple furs that I assumed were their bedrolls, and refill their water skins. He then dug in another pack, pulling out a bundle of cloth and opening it to reveal a stack of dried meat strips. They spent what felt like forever chewing on their meat strips and drinking water. Finally, I could stand it no longer. I shifted my body slightly, trying to get up on my side, or sit up at all. That definitely didn't feel very good on my ribs.

My voice was scratchy and pitiful when I spoke, "C-could I please have some water?"

The leader glanced at me indifferently, then went back to chewing his meat strip and staring into the fire, clearly having decided that I was the sole responsibility of the younger one.

The younger one leered at me and came over, sloshing the water skin in his hand.

"What, are you thirsty, whore? Do you want some?" He shook it at me, spilling a bit of water on my face. I frantically tried to catch the drops with my tongue, not caring how pathetic it made me look. Whatever it took to survive.

That was likely going to be my new mantra until I made it to Rivendell.

He laughed at my attempt to catch the water, and pushed me away with one of his feet, causing most of the water to spill on the ground. I'm not going to lie, I teared up a bit, not that you could tell through the water that escaped onto the rest of my face.

What had I done to deserve this?

How was it fair to get transported to Middle Earth with no idea why, and then be tortured and humiliated like this?

I gritted my teeth, looking at him with pleading eyes.

"Beg."

He ordered with a nasty sneer, holding the water in front of my face again.

I wasted no time. Begging was the least humiliating thing he could ask me to do. Begging was just words.

"Please, I beg you! It's been days since I've had water! Please! Please..please.."

My voice still sounded scratchy and harsh, now it was shaky too, as I attempted not to sob at the combination of everything that had been happening to me lately. I tried to make my expression look pleading, though it likely already looked pathetic.

He grabbed my chin, shoving the top of the water skin into my mouth and upending it. I tried to swallow, but ended up choking on most of the water, it overflowing and spilling down the sides of my face and onto my body. He laughed at my struggle and pulled the water away, mockingly asking "Had enough, then?"

He shoved me down again and went to refill his water skin. I was grateful for the reprieve, coughing violently to try to get the water out of my lungs and catch my breath. It didn't work very well, as the coughing ignited the burning pain in my chest, which in turn made it more difficult to breath.

The leader stood up, stretched, and then went over to where one of the furs was laid out.

"You keep watch first, play with your toy. Wake me in a few hours, I'll take the rest of the night and we'll get moving at first light."

I saw the whiner nod through my bleary, water filled eyes. He was coming back. I tried to calm my struggled breathing. If I was going to get any advantage out of this, I needed to be calm, which meant I needed to be breathing.

He grabbed me by the arms, hauling me up again and then dragging me out of the camp towards the river. We were still within easy yelling distance, and he could no doubt hear if anything disturbed the camp.

I tried to act seductive over the next few minutes, attempting to convince him to untie my wrists so it would be better for both of us, while trying not to gag at how filthy it made me feel to be playing along.

I didn't think I did a very good job, but apparently I did something right, or he was so crazy with lust that he had somehow forgotten my apparent unwillingness from earlier. He ended up cutting my binds in lusty haste, then carelessly discarding the knife he'd used a few feet away from us. I twined one arm around his shoulders and tried not to make my other arm reaching in the direction of the knife too obvious, though I think he was too far gone to notice at that point, because he seemed to take it as a good sign.

I threw a few attempts at breathy moans in for good measure.

After a few painful minutes, of my fingers scrabbling gradually in the muddy rocks, I managed to find the tip of the knife blade. Or, rather, it found my finger, giving me another small cut to add on to my growing collection, and I was able to pull it slowly towards myself.

I didn't hesitate, using the hand on his neck to pull his face down to mine for a solid kiss to try and muffle any sounds he made, followed up by plunging the knife through his throat.

He made a sick gurgling sound against my mouth, trying to pull away, but was held fast by my other hand. I tasted blood against my lips, and felt hot blood spilling down my arm from where the knife was buried in his neck. His struggling grew weaker. I twisted the blade a bit, part of me taking pleasure in the twitches it caused in his body, most of me just hoping he'd die a little faster. Finally, he slumped against me, completely slack.

Resolving myself to not think about what I just did until I was well away from here, I struggled to push him off me. I pulled the knife out of his neck and set it aside, making sure to note where it was so I could take it with me. I struggled to get him out of his clothes, donning them myself after quickly rinsing the worst of the blood off in the river.

The trousers were far too big for my scrawny waist, but he'd had a belt on, so I managed to cinch it so they would stay up. The boots were too big as well, but at this point I was happy to have anything on my feet at all. I stuck the knife in its sheath and struggled to push his body into the river.

I watched him float down for a moment before he was consumed by the darkness of night, then turned away, trying to sneak back to the camp as quietly as possible. If I could get a horse without waking up the other man, it would significantly cut down how long it took to travel.

I glanced at the horses, and then at the other thug, consideringly. If I left him alive, he might try to find me and kill me for killing his companion. Or for stealing the horses, if he cared about them more. Either way, it would probably be smarter to kill him too, which would probably be relatively easy with him asleep. Slowly, I discarded the boots where I was at the edge of camp, able to stay quiet much easier with my bare feet, no matter how much it hurt. I crept forward, knife in my hand, until I was near the top of his bed roll.

Not allowing myself to think it through at all, I plunged the knife down into his throat. He made a strangled kind of gurgling sound, and twitched as if to jump up, but a pull of the knife through the rest of his throat, and he soon stilled.

I debated attempting to drag him into the river as well, but didn't think I'd be strong enough to move such a heavy person that far, and ended up just leaving him there as I searched the camp for anything I could use on my trip.

I rolled up the bedroll the younger one had laid out for himself and never used, tying it back to one of the bags, and stuffing all the food, and both of their filled water skins in it as well before putting it on. It wasn't terribly heavy, but I still stumbled under the weight.

I then moved over to where the horses were tied.

The horses weren't saddled. Not a huge problem, except it was difficult to get on one without the stirrups, especially in the state I was in. I was sure I could manage, though. They hadn't taken off the reins, instead having used them to tie the houses to the tree, so if I could get on one, I could still direct it easily enough.

I quickly untied both, whispering to them in an attempt to keep them calm. Hopefully they didn't really like their riders, and would be okay leaving with me.

After that horrible day, I was finally getting some good luck.

They seemed fairly calm, and allowed me to lead them over to a large enough rock to use as a step up. With the help of the rock, I managed to painfully scramble onto the back of the smaller of the two horses.

I wasn't a religious person, but I spent the next couple minutes thanking the Valar, though I did comment that maybe next time they could just give me horses without the horrible experience to go along with them.

The horses seemed perfectly happy to meander from the camp at a slow pace, pausing to drink from the stream before crossing. I set them at an easy trot, not really able to take much more than that on my aching ribs, or the rest of my sore body.

Traveling by horseback was infinitely easier than walking, though I had to pause and stuff the boots into the pack I'd stolen after only a few minutes of riding, as they kept almost falling off.

The bouncing of the horses gallop didn't hurt as much on my sore body and aching chest when sat normally on the horse, though it still wasn't terribly comfortable. I was thankful I'd stolen the clothes off the younger one, or riding bare back would have been much more uncomfortable. Though, my underwear had been torn off in the encounter with the whiner, so that certainly felt strange and vulnerable.

I spent most of the ride slumped over my horse's neck, trying not to doze and fall off.

I stopped for a short time around midday to eat a dried meat strip and drink some water, not able to stomach much more than that.

I tried to offer some water to the horses, but they didn't seem too keen on tilting their heads up so I could pour it in their mouths, and I couldn't figure out how to pour it into my hands without spilling all of it.

The rest of the day was spent riding at an easy trot. I found a small outcrop of trees to tie the horses to when it got dark, and curled up against one of the trees to get a few fitful hours of sleep.