Chapter 2

Author's Note:

I just posted the story and I've already broken my schedule of weekly updates -_- oh well, I couldn't wait and plus the first chapter was a bit slow going and a Guest reviewed so I felt AMAZING from that so thank you :)

To those who favorited and followed, thank you so much and don't be afraid to review! I like feedback, and it can help me improve the story. So, chapter 2. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

"To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable." –John Milton

That Morning

"Dad! There's going to be a hurricane today." Madison said with a hint of worry in her tone as she handed her father the thermos of coffee. James, her father, took the thermos in a rush and planted a hastened kiss to her forehead.

"Okay," He sighed. Why did those blasted storms have to come on the worst days? "Get the supplies and stuff in the storm cellar and tell your sister." He directed his oldest daughter and caught her worried expression. "What is it?"

"Category 4, Dad." Madison warned, the concern evident in her voice. James dropped the thermos to the floor, soon after cursing under his breath. He didn't want to wake his youngest girl, Nina.

"How's that possible? We never get them that bad." James reasoned incredulously. Madison shook her head vigorously, something the whole stubborn family of them tended to do.

"Dad, the people on the news were taking it very seriously." She reasoned back, definitely the wise one in the family.

"What time are they thinking it will hit?" James sighed, taking a bite of his breakfast sandwich. He practically lived off of those things.

"Around 4:00, so you better just stay home today. It would be safer."

"No," James sighed, gathering his work paraphernalia. "I'll get fired if I skip another day. I'll come home early today, and make sure I'm back around 3:00. There shouldn't be any traffic to contend with." He replied, Madison sighing and shaking her head the whole time.

"Everyone's probably thinking that! You'll never make it home in time, and what if their wrong and the storm comes sooner?" Madison argued. James ran a shaking hand through his unkempt dark hair and messed with his work tie.

"I'll come home around 2:00 then. Madison just stay home with your sister today. I think that would be better." James ordered gently, placing a warm hand on his daughter's shoulder. "You remind me more and more of your mother each day, you know that?" He chuckled lightly, giving her shoulder a small squeeze.

"Thanks," Madison let go a small albeit stressed laugh. "I'm glad at least that's something I know about her." James offered her a warm smile, knowing the girls had a hard time knowing that their mother was foreign to them.

Madison was only two years older than her 18 years old sister, and their mother had died in a car accident shortly after birthing Nina. Madison, only two at the time, didn't remember her mother at all. When James saw Madison and thought of his beautiful wife, Sarah, he was speaking the truth. When he saw Madison, he did see his wife. Their voice and mannerisms were identical, and both were the wise peacemakers of the household. Nina however, looked much like a mixture of the two parents. Her golden locks were just like that of Sarah's, and she smiled like her too. Though the rest of her face was from her father, with her sharp features and tan skin. The freckles that dusted her face and arms were all her own though. Her striking blue eyes were her mother's.

"I'll be back at 2:00, Mad." James called as he started off to the front door. "Oh and uh, let your sister sleep in a little today. She's been kind of stressed with school lately."

"I know what that's like," Madison mumbled lightly as she waved to her father goodbye, silently praying he would come back to her safely by the end of the day.

1 Hour before the Storm

"You came home later than we agreed on," Madison commented with a scolding tone after Nina had gone out. It was three o'clock, though her father had said he'd be back at two. "Are you sure it's a good idea for her to be outside now?"

"She'll be fine, the hurricane won't come until 4:00. I only allowed her ten minutes anyway." James answered nonchalantly as he began scrubbing the blue out of the carpet in Nina's art room. "How did this happen?" He grunted while scrubbing. Madison laughed lightly from her place against the doorframe.

"Nina said the paint slipped from her fingers, but I think she was daydreaming again." Madison answered.

"Hmmm," James hummed in thought. "Well, I suppose there's no harm in a dreaming child." He looked up, giving his oldest girl his signature mischievous smile before returning to his task of cleaning the carpet.

"Dad," Madison suddenly called out with an urgent tone. He looked up again to see Madison peering out the back window restlessly. "The wind's picking up now. I think you should get Nina."

"It's just an autumn breeze, Mad." He reasoned once he had moved to stand behind her. "Quite different from a hurricane wind."

"If you say so," Madison sighed uneasily with her arms folded, gazing anxiously out the window. James sighed for the millionth time that day and returned to his cleaning.

"Just keep the news on so we know what's going on." He called.

"Sure thing, Dad."

"We are urging people to stay indoors as we draw closer to the hurricane's predicted time. Remember to make sure you're stocked up on food, water, and medical supplies just in case. We see the wind here is picking up quite a bit, and we are advising that all please remain indoors now."

"Do you see Nina coming back?" James asked as he listened to the man on the news giving the weather report.

"She's still out," Madison replied uneasily from her place behind the kitchen counter overlooking the living room.

"She's not coming back yet?" James raised his voice in fear.

"No, Dad I think you should go get her. Maybe she got turned around somewhere." Madison suggested urgently.

"You're right," He trailed off as powerful gusts of wind started to pick up outside. He grabbed his coat. "I'm going out there."

"It's not safe alone, Dad! Let me go with you!" She clung to his arm like a little child.

"Madison you stay here and watch in case I need you to call for help." James responded evenly as he yanked on his coat. "I'll be back when I have your sister."

"Please be careful," Madison whispered hoarsely. James stopped, setting a hand to her shoulder.

"I promise I'll be back. I promise." He planted a kiss on her forehead and headed out the door, trying not to look so taken aback by the wind's force.

It pulled him this way and that, making James half-tempted to run back home. No, he thought, Nina was still out there. His little girl was out there. He screamed the girl's name thousands of times before the wind drown him out. He couldn't even think with all of it.

He had almost collapsed right then and there from the exhaustion of fighting the storm. It was god awful having to be out there, and his muscles screamed in protest every time he took another step.

"NINA!" He bellowed in despair, hoping beyond hope that his blind little girl was still ok.

"Dad!" He heard the call from her. It was so faint, James couldn't tell at first whether he had imagined it or not. When the call came again, it seemed too real to be his imagination.

"Nina!" He screeched desperately, running purely on adrenalin now. "Hold on!" He looked up just in time, and in horror, to see a tree coming down upon him. He jumped back quickly and scrambled backward as the tree just missed him. He knew she was in the woods.

"Daddy!" She called again, this time in a whimpering, fearful tone. James felt tears running down his cheeks, and he could only differentiate them from the rain by the salty taste.

He climbed over the fallen tree and branches as he delved deeper into the woods. He tried his best to follow the sound of Nina screaming for him, but the wind seemed determined to drown everything out. Thunderous cracks from above interrupted his search and just before him three trees fell, and his path was blocked. James let out a gut-wrenching sob. The screams of his daughter that he had been listening to fell silent and his heart leapt into his throat. Nina couldn't have made it at this point. But he had promised he would return with the girl, and the last thing he wanted was to go home to Madison's lost and crushed face when she sees the lack of Nina. But if he stayed any longer, he wouldn't return home at all. James silently begged Nina for forgiveness for what he was about to do. He took one last look at the woods before him and stood himself up straight. He couldn't get through until the storm had passed.

And he turned and headed for home.

"Daddy!" Nina screeched one more time before letting her battered and wet face fall into the squishy dirt she currently lay on.

She sobbed into the dirt as the trees fell rapidly around her, though none actually hitting her. For the first time since she had first become blind, Nina was terrified at the darkness that consumed her. She couldn't see what was happening around her. She couldn't understand what had happened. When had they ever had hurricanes this horrendous in Virginia?

"Nina, do not be afraid." A voice inside her head spoke evenly. Nina couldn't recognize it, it sounded so ethereal and unfamiliar.

"Just kill me already!" She shrieked at the sky, directing her words at the storm. "Just let me die in this already!" She crawled only a little ways before the horrors of the storm overtook her and a tree trunk fell straight for her.

Nina let out a terrified shriek as she heard the rapid wood cracking right in front of her and she scrambled backward as fast as her shaky limbs would go, muscles screaming the whole way. She didn't make it far. The only thing left for Nina was to look up and—to her surprise—she saw the tree. Nina saw the tree trunk tumble down and hit her.

And then all went black again.

Nina woke up to a soft cloth beneath her, what felt like her bed. She let go a contented sigh as she stirred peacefully on her cloth.

"I see you're up then lass." A gruff voice said. Nina shot her eyes open—not that it really made a difference in her vision. She noticed the man's accent, it sounded almost Scottish. Why was she in the presence of a Scottish man? Nina shot up far too quickly from her bedroll. Her head started spinning and she felt dizzy in her familiar darkness as she started breathing heavier.

"Lass?" The gruff voice sounded more concerned. Nina panicked. Where was she?

She stretched out her hands in any and every direction in hopes of feeling familiar signs of where she was. Nothing was familiar. The grass surrounding her was far too soft for Virginia; the trees were frightfully warm from what she could reach, and the breeze was warmer than anything back home.

"Dad!" She screamed in terror when two strong hands held her down. "Help me!" She lashed out desperately at her attacker, only to hear his annoyed grunts.

"Lass, calm down you can see I'm not going to harm you!" The voice unintentionally bellowed. Nina ceased in her struggles gradually, and soon plopped her head in her hands and quietly sobbed. If she wasn't blind, she would see him.

"No, I can't see." She whispered hoarsely. She could feel the man leaning down beside her. "I couldn't see if I wanted to." She slowly and tentatively showed her face to the man, allowing him to see the pale silhouette over her blue eyes. The man gasped.

"My apologies lass, I didn't know." He mumbled embarrassedly. Nina let out a mirthless chuckle.

"No one ever does, I'm not offended." Nina replied, feeling only a fraction of little bit safer with him. The man seemed nice enough, though Nina still didn't trust him one bit.

"My mother had no sight too, you know." The man sighed quietly, as if he didn't expect Nina to hear. She turned her head towards the sound of his voice.

"Did she?"

"Aye, and my brother and I always promised we'd care for her." The man sighed again, most likely regaining his wits in the middle of an emotional story. "It's a dangerous world we live in, lass, especially when you've no means to see the danger." Nina nodded in agreement, though his ways of speaking confused her a little. He was odd.

"I'm sure you've been taking care of your mother very well, sir." Nina forced a polite smile. She knew the struggles her family had while they constantly had to cope with a blind loved one. This man seemed to be undergoing the same thing.

"Aye we did, before she passed on." The man's gruff and cold voice seemed to return after that, and he awkwardly cleared his throat. "Dwalin, at your service, lass."

Dwalin.

Nina couldn't believe it. She had read the Hobbit, she knew (roughly) the story. She didn't like the story, but she knew it. Nina gasped.

"As in," She gulped. "A dwarf… of Erebor?" She knew she had to be in some kind of hell for this story to be the one she was trapped in. She had surely died in the hurricane, left her family home to mourn, and she was stuck in this horrible story.

"How do you know of Erebor?" Dwalin growled threateningly. Nina breathed a little quicker than normal as his heavy footsteps approached, and she scooted backward until her back slammed into a warm tree trunk.

"I…I…" She what? Nina knew she couldn't very well say she read the book, considering it obviously didn't exist here. "I used to hear stories about it when I was little from my father." That wasn't really a lie. Her father was crazy about Tolkien and his works, and his face would light up when he spoke of it to Nina and her sister. The thought of her family brought tears to her eyes. What did they think? Was she really dead and being punished for some awful deed?

"And who is your father?" Dwalin growled again. Nina racked her brain for anything that could help her. James didn't sound much like a Middle-Earth name.

"I don't remember…" She trailed off in a croaky whisper while rubbing her head subconsciously. It was half true, her not remembering things. All she remembered was seeing a tree plummet down onto her head. Wait. She remembered seeing a tree. Why had she seen it?

"Lass, you've truly nowhere to go, do you?" Dwalin sighed. Nina nodded hopelessly up at where she presumed Dwalin to be. He huffed. "I am on my way to the Shire, and we're not too terribly far now. You can join me if you wish. But once we're there, I'll be finding you a proper place to stay there."

He seemed to stress the fact that Nina would not be joining the dwarves on their quest. Not that she minded. Nina hated the quest they embarked on, and from what she had read she hated Thorin Oakenshield.

"Do you know of a wizard of any kind?" Nina squeaked as Dwalin lifted her onto his pony. He was very strong, the way he cradled her so she wouldn't fall, treating her like she was light as a feather when hoisting her up.

"I know a Gandalf," He replied once Nina was situated shakily on the pony. "Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering," Nina yawned. Dwalin's deep rumbling chest signified he was laughing as Nina helplessly lay against it. She still didn't trust Dwalin whatsoever, but at the moment he was the safest thing she had. And she couldn't exactly fight back if he decided to hurt her. She was no kung-Fu master or anything.

"Sounds to me like you need some rest, lass." His voice was oddly softer than the original gruff sound she had heard at first. Nina felt more at ease with this kinder side of Dwalin.

"Maybe I will…" She trailed off exhaustedly. Nina discovered that she was in no position to argue with Dwalin. In that case, Nina resolved to simply sleep on him as the rhythmic sound of hooves beating and his steady heartbeat sent Nina to sleep. She would find Gandalf in the Shire. He could fix this.