Three reviews for my first chapter! Thankee y'all who did the reviewing! And Arodiel, look below for double quotation marks!
Chapter Two.
The Fellowship all looked helplessly at Gandalf, who was slowly shaking his head. "This, I do not think even Saruman could have guessed would happen."
"We can't just stay here." Frodo said. "Do the people look dangerous, Aragorn?"
The ranger shook his head. "Not at all. In fact, they look very harmless; there should be no trouble with them at all."
"If this is another world," Merry said. "It seems just like our one. It looks the same, the air is the same, and there are birds and plants like in Middle Earth."
"I wonder if they have food the same in this world." Pippin mused. At Gandalf's sigh, he defended himself: "We were in the snow for ages, Gandalf, and you must be as hungry as I am."
"And, how, Peregrin Took, are we to obtain this food that will fill the bottomless abyss that is your stomach? Do not forget that we have supplies ourselves."
"Actually." Legolas pointed out. "We do not have supplies. They were on Bill the pony, and he has not been taken with us into this new world."
Sam looked dismayed. It was true, although he had not noticed it up til then. Bill was not with them. Pippin looked hopeful at this news, and Gandalf sighed again. He was as hungry as Pippin, but he felt the need for caution more than Pippin did. "Well, we must venture out at some point. It might as well be in the search for food. Very well, Pippin, your stomach shall be filled."
They all went to the gates of the park, and pushing them open, started along down the street. "Do not talk to the locals." Gandalf instructed. "We still do not know where their loyalties lie, or whether this London is near to Mordor. We still have a quest to fufil; the Ringbearer must still be accompanied to Mount Doom, even if we are no longer sure where Mount Doom is."
They carried along in single file along the streets, trying to stick together amidst the people that crowded about. "Why do I get the feeling that we're attracting stares?" Frodo muttered to Sam.
"Now, don't worry, Mister Frodo. Gandalf knows what he's doing, and we're all armed."
"That wasn't quite what I meant."
"I know what you mean." Merry said. "People are staring at us like we've got the eye of Sauron branded on our foreheads. But they look strange as well. They're dressed so differently, and the women are wearing men's clothes, and some of the men have no hair at all."
"Frodo!" Pippin hissed excitedly. "Look!"
"What?"
"I saw a woman with pink hair!"
"You couldn't have, Pippin!" Frodo exclaimed. "Not pink."
"It was! Pink with bits of silver sparkle in!"
Their attention was distracted from the pink hair by a boy who was leaning against the street wall. As they passed, he caught Legolas' eye and grinning at him, waved, and said, "Mae govannen, Legolas!"
Legolas swung around to face him, and asked quickly, "Pedich Edhellen?"
The boy laughed, "Oh, I don't know that much! Only mae govannen, leithio i philinn, and stuff like that. You really look the part, you do. All of you do - just like the actors, except a little different. And you're missing the Elven cloaks. Are you going to a party or something?"
Legolas had not understood half of what the boy was saying about "actors" and "looking the part". Instead, he asked, "How did you know who I am?"
The boy rolled his eyes. "Dude, if you want people to guess at your costume, choose one not so well known, alright? I mean, a five year old could tell you that you're Frodo, you're Aragorn, you're Boromir, you're Gimli, you're Gandalf, you're Merry, you're Pippin, and you're Sam. You lot are the Fellowship. Duh."
As the boy walked away, Aragorn said, "How did he know who we are? And how did he know Elvish?"
"He had an appalling accent..." Legolas muttered.
"This is strange." Gimli said. "It is as though they know who we are, but do not realise who we are...if that makes sense." he finished lamely.
Gandalf frowned. "There is only one way to find out." He approached a woman with a small child tugging at either hand. "Lady." he began courteously. "Do you know who we are?"
The woman looked exasperated, and snapped sarcastically "Excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but you blokes are dressed up as those silly people in The Lord of the Rings, and if you're gonna ask me to do some stupid quiz about whether I've seen the films or read the books, the answer is no, and stop wasting my time."
"I am sorry." Gandalf said hastily, "But you see..."
He spoke to empty air. The woman had crossed the road, yanking at her children's hands in order to hurry them up. "Rude." Gandalf observed. "But she knew who we are, even if she didn't like us."
There was a silence, as they all tried to work out their situation. Then Pippin broke it. "If we brought something to eat, we could enquire - discreetly - at the same time."
"For once, you have made a suggestion that has merit." Gandalf told him.
"That place seems to be one to buy food in." Merry said, pointing down the crowded street, to where a large golden M was visible above a shop door. Certainly, it was full of people. Pippin sniffed the air, and said, "I can smell it. Nice."
They headed towards the golden M, but before they got there, a woman with black paint on her lips stopped in front of Frodo and thrust a sheet of paper under his nose. "Hey, Blue-Eyes," she gushed. "Will you just take a few minutes and fill out this survey for me? It'll only take a second."
"Oh, ah...oh, alright." Frodo said, confused. He took the pen the woman offered him and blinked at the sheet of questions: How many times do buy pop magazines? Do you spend more than £5.00 on pop magazines? Would you recomend pop magazines to your friends? Frodo stared at them, then ran down the page, ticking the "no" box for every question. There was a space at the bottom of the page, saying, Please sign your name here. Frodo did so, and handed it back to Black-Lips. Black-Lips took it, and glanced down the page. Frodo moved away, but she called him back: "Hold on, Bluey! I want a proper name here, not who you're dressed up as!"
"But that is my real name!" Frodo protested. "Frodo Baggins."
"On your bike, Bluey! Just because you might be as cute as Frodo, dosn't make you him in real life!"
"I am Frodo Baggins!"
Black-Lips closed her eyes and opened them again. "Frodo Baggins," she said slowly, as though explaining to a five-year old that two plus two did not make three, "is a fictional character. He - is - not - real. Neither is Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, or any of the hobbits. Where did you lot escape from?"
"Middle Ear-"
"Yeah, yeah, we've done that one. Sheesh, some people just take fandom miles too far."
In a daze, Frodo met Gandalf's eyes. The old wizard passed a hand over his brow, and repeated heavily, " 'Fictional characters'? We are 'fictional' characters? Fictional?"
None of them had ever heard him sound so lost. Before, Gandalf had always known what was happening, what was what, who was who. Now, he sounded unsure, helpless even. They could not blame him. Being thrust into another world, where everything was different, where everyone was different, where they had just been told that they were fictional characters would make anyone feel dazed.
"Well, that explains it." Gimli said. "But what did that boy mean about "actors", I wonder?"
"Never mind that now." Aragorn said. "I think I could do with a drink as well as something to eat. We will be able to think better when we have food inside us."
"What about money?" Merry asked. "We don't have any, and they might use a different sort here."
Pippin's face fell. Sam asked, "Couldn't we sell something?"
"What?"
"Well, don't we have anything? Could you sell one, just one, of your arrows, Legolas?"
"Certainly not!" Legolas exclaimed. "Who would want to buy one arrow, anyway?"
Frodo was looking about him for inspiration, and his eye fell on a man outside the place with the big gold M. The man was sitting on his coat, blowing softly into a small brass whistle, a black and brown dog curled up at his side. In front of him, the man had placed his cap, and occasionally as people went by, one would toss the man a coin. Frodo said, "Look, Gandalf."
They all looked where Frodo was pointing, and Pippin exclaimed, "Yes! We can do that! Gandalf can do some tricks, and Sam can be the dog at his side to encourage sympathy."
"Tricks?"
"The dog?"
"That's a good idea." Boromir said thoughtfully. Gandalf seemed to be struggling with his pride and his sense of responsibility for a moment, then he gave in. He spread his cloak on the ground in front of another shop where lots of people were going in, and stood on it. "They can put the money on the cloak," he growled in answer to Pippin's protest that they ought to do it properally and put Gandalf's hat on the floor as a collecting pot.
Gandalf started his display with lighting up his crystal that was in his staff. Then he raised it up and sent a beam of light up into the sky. That immediately attracted a crowd, who then watched, open-mouthed, as Gandalf drew light-pictures in the air, shaping the light from his crystal into ships, dragons, and warriors waving swords and lances. When he made the warriors fight and slay the light-dragon, all the watchers cheered; then nearly everyone began feeling in their pockets, and tossed coins onto the cloak. The light-warriors got into the light-ships and sailed away, vanishing into thin air. The crowd hung around for a bit longer, hoping for more, but when it became clear that Gandalf was finished, they too departed.
Pippin and Sam began collecting all the money that had been thrown them. "There's fourteen of these round gold coins." Pippin said, holding them in his hand. "And one big gold and silver coin, and twenty-three of these silver coins with too many sides."
"They've got numbers on." Sam observed, handing his to Gandalf, who took them and looked at them intently.
"I should think these will pay for food." Gimli said. "We can see how the food is priced; there are notices inside."
They all went inside the place with the big M above the door. Inside it was full of noise and people. "Find a table," Aragorn said to the hobbits, and as they and Boromir and Gandalf burrowed their way through the people, he and Legolas and Gimli went to stand in the long line of people.
"Why is this taking so long?" Gimli asked impatiently after a while.
"There are a lot of people waiting before us." Aragorn explained patiently. Eventually, the line of people shifted until they were at the front.
"Yes?" asked a bored looking girl in a dirty navy overall behind the counter. She looked up, saw Aragorn, saw Legolas - Gimli was too short to be visible - and blinked. Then she smiled coyly. "And what can I get you?"
For a moment, Aragorn didn't know what to say, not sure what food was avaliable, and not reassured by the girl's smile. Legolas chipped in, "I'd like nine Quarter Pounders with chips and coke."
The girl nodded, and beagn tapping the box in front of her. "What are Quarter Pounders with chips and coke?" Aragorn whispered to Legolas.
"I do not know." the elf whispered back. "I just heard someone saying it."
"Then let us just hope that everyone will like them." Gimli muttered from beneath the counter.
The girl slapped a number of boxes on a tray, and Aragorn put all the money they had gathered on the counter-top. She glanced at it, picked out a number of the gold coins, then shoved the rest back to Aragorn. "There you go, enjoy your meal!"
Aragorn juggled with the tray and money, and followed Legolas and Gimli to the table where the others were already installed. Aragorn gave everyone one of the boxes and the tall containers which held liquid inside. Pippin immediately opened his box, and surveyed the big bun-thing inside. It oozed cheese, vegetables and sauce out the sides. He took a tentative bite, the others following his every movement. Pippin closed his eyes, chewed, swallowed. Then he said, still with his eyes closed, "Eat your's quickly." He opened his eyes, and grinned. "Before I do! This is wonderful!"
Relieved, the others began eating; and their rapturous silence said all that they had not words to express. When Frodo had finished, he reached for the thing with the liquid in. Merry had watched the diners around them, and had collected nine long thin straws which he poked into the hole at the top of the cup. Now Frodo took a long pull at his straw, coughing as the icey-cold, fizzing drink entered his mouth. "What is this called again, Legolas?"
"Coke." Legolas replied indistinctly through a mouthful of lettuce. Aragorn said, "What is it like, Frodo?"
"It tickles, but it is good. It has...bounce..."
Pippin began his Coke as well. Gandalf was chewing slowly with obvious enjoyment; Merry was seeking out stray crumbs; Sam was gazing dreamily at a chip he held between his fingers. "So golden..." he murmured.
Pippin took his straw out of his mouth. "Considering the food, I think it won't be too bad staying here for a while. We can find out how to get back to Middle Earth later."