A/N: Thank you for the reviews! I wasn't expecting even one, let alone 4. I think that we're going to have so much fun, ladies. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own none of the characters, besides Fai. Only thing I own is a damn exam in 2 hours.
The night was cold and dark, and a stiff wind was stroking Fai's face. That, and the bouncing cause by the horse riding made her partly open her eyes. She felt a rough fabric brushing her bare arms making her feel itchy, and a long, white beard tickling the tip of her ears. Oh, must be Gandalf's, she thought.
MUST BE GANDALF'S?!
Suddenly she came to her senses and felt as if someone had dipped her in a pool of ice cubes. And it couldn't be from the weather, since she was wrapped in the tails of GANDALF'S ROBE, it was from the shock. In fear of the unknown, Fai couldn't even move a muscle. She sneakily looked around without tilting her, trying to catch a glimpse with only her eyeballs moving. However she couldn't see anything but the wizard's hands shielding her from both side, in the same time directing the horse. This is presumably Shadowfax, she thought. I am on Shadowfax. With Gandalf, the whi- wait, the grey?
Not trying to figure out whether it was a dream or not, she tried to understand what was happening in that particular moment. Gandalf is still grey, so I didn't only travel through places, but also went back in time, inspected the overly-confused fangirl. And they were on a horse, seemingly in a rush looking by their speed.
And then there was the excessive pain. She wasn't aware of the damage, it could be a broken bone or something. All her body felt sore like she exercised non-stop for a week. As they kept going, she wondered what happened to her. Was it a dream or not? She fell, and didn't "wake up". She was in pain, and it wasn't feeling like a dream kind of pain. She had been hurt in her dreams before, killed even, but the pain wasn't this real and the dream had ended after being killed. She started coming to terms with the fact that she really was in Middle-Earth and riding with Gandalf, and the realization took her breath away. She couldn't hear the wind anymore, there was only the annoying ringing in her ears. Suddenly there was a bad taste in her mouth, and she started sweating cold. Last thing the girl knew was that they were slowing down, and then she passed out,
Again.
"Excuse me. A tad excessive, isn't it? Have you got a cheese knife?"
"Cheese knife? He eats it by the block."
Voices.. Lots and lots of voices. One of them was squeaky and shy while others are rotund and joyful. Had she fallen asleep in the middle of a gathering? Her head was aching way too much to prevent her eyes from opening. She wanted to wake up but it wasn't that easy.
"Excuse me, Mr. Gandalf, can I tempt you with a nice cup of chamomile tea?"
So still Gandalf, it is. It was either the dream was way too stubborn, or none of them was a dream at all. It was time to open her eyes, but maybe she could stay half asleep for a little bit longer-
"Oh, no thank you, Dori. A little red wine for me, I think."
What in the-? Did he say Dori? Could it be-
"Gandalf, the lass is waking up."
She must've opened up her eyes from the shock of hearing a Dwarven name. And her awe doubled up when she finally saw where she was.
"Well, it was about time." said Gandalf, standing up from the little chair he was perching on and walked slowly as he bent over to dodge the chandelier that was threatening his head. He was looking even taller now that he was in a Hobbit's home with a pretty low ceiling.
"How are you feeling, little lady? You fell out of nowhere back there!"
Gandalf the Grey. Was talking to her. "I'm- my leg- I'm feeling pain but promise not to pass out." Fai stuttered. She didn't know how to speak with him and naturally she was still in shock. She was just about to cross the line of believing that these are not a dream, but the reality itself. She wanted to live in a different universe since the day she started reading. And that universe was the best thing she could ever wish for!
"Oin, a friend of mine is making a salve for your leg. You're lucky that it's not broken, but a branch cut it deeply when you fell."
She could barely held back her laugh to the thought that Gandalf thinks she doesn't know Oin. Bring me a piece of paper, she thought, and I'll draw your complete family tree. It was starting to get really fun, when she spotted Bilbo furiously walking around with the things he wanted to protect from the dwarves.
Now wait a second. Dwarves.. Is this the night when-
"So, you've woken up!" a cheerful voice interrupted her thoughts while another curious one followed, "I still can't believe how you've managed to stay passed out in the middle of all these noise."
Her heart skipped a beat. More than a beat, actually, she thought that it won't ever beat again. There they stood, the two male dwarf, with interested smiles on their faces. They were looking beyond charming, and Fai had their full attention.
"Fili."
"And Kili."
At my service, she cried in her head. Got a bit confused while noticing that they were looking like the twins of actors who played them, only better. Fili's hair was looking like pure gold while Kili.. Kili was indescribable. She felt her cheeks burning, and she wasn't even the blushing kind! The trauma of being there and the other from seeing these brothers neutralized each other. She was no longer questioning how she ended up there, and decided that maybe it wasn't be a dream. No dream could feel this real.
"Are you OK, my lady?" asked the blonde one, looking at the girl who apparently carried a tomato now, instead of a head. "I mean, you pretty much messed up your leg and Gandalf said that you've hit the ground really hard when you fell."
While Kili remained silent and kept studying her, she tried to adjust her voice to a moderate tone and answered Fili's question.
"Actually, I don't remember it very well. All I can remember was a bright white light." she lied. She wouldn't be able to come up with an explanation when she doesn't know what happened and how she ended up in Middle-Earth. Especially in the night that dwarves gather in Bilbo's house and hold a meeting about taking the Lonely Mountain back. She couldn't see Thorin around, but she knew better than her own name that he was the last to arrive. And she also knew that he'll be grumpy as hell for getting lost twice.
"What were you doing on top of a tree, dear Lady?" asked Gandalf.
"I heard noises and I was trying to hide.." she confessed, no harm in telling the truth with this part. "I'm a wanderer and very far from home as I can recall. It must be the fall, I don't remember much. Only, my name. I'm - Fai." she stopped before considering whether her name was an acceptable one in Middle-Earth.
"It must be one nasty fall, but our lad here survived worse. He lives with a bloody axe in his head." said Kili with a warm smile, pointing Bifur with his hand. He was at the dinner table, rambling in Khuzdul and eating with Bombur - comparing with the way Bombur shoves huge pieces of cheese in his mouth, Bifur could be mistaken for a lady. The axe in his head was shining under the rather dim light.
"Uhm.." she mumbled, finding the right words that'd conceal her knowledge about them all was beyond hard, even without Kili looking at her with a gorgeous face. She remembered all the things in tumblr about him tried really hard not to chuckle.
"Oh, didn't mean to scare you, I- only you know, trying to tell you that you'll be alright."
"Yeah, in his own weird way." cracked up Fili. They had mistaken her struggle for fear of the axe in his head, but that was OK and bought her some time. She wriggled under what seems like someone's cloak, and froze in realization that she was wearing a damn Lord Of The Rings t-shirt, which would be impossible to explain if they were to see it.
"I- I want to wash my face-" she said, trying to get up. Holding on tightly to the cloak, she felt two pairs of arms escorting her. So, the brothers were really that gentlemen, like she had read dozens of times in countless fan fictions. She was about to reject their help just a second before she got stabbed by the sharp pain in her leg. So she skipped on one leg while the brothers on her both side kept her stood up.
She got in the bathroom and closed the door behind her, only to see her the print of her t-shirt was covered in mud when she had fallen from the tree. Sighing in relaxation, she dipped her hands in the wooden bucket of water and washed the dirt off of her face. So yeah, basically Fili and Kili were waiting for her behind the door and she had this messed up face covered in mud, tangled hair and ridiculous clothes.
"Yeah, at least I did one thing right when I didn't study for that bloody exam."
Ending Note: Hope this will only get better with each chapter, and I hope you enjoy reading it! :)
