Chapter 1: Airplanes Suck

Hello! So, first off, I would like to thank TMI Fairy so much for the reviews and everyone else who has read it so far. Also, it gets kind of angsty towards the end. SORRY. So, anyhoo, onto another chapter!

Disclaimer: Tolkien owns Lord of the Rings, not me. I just own Iris, her family, and her cat.

Finally. Geez, people act like their seat is going to burst into flames if they don't get to it on time and there's barely anyone on this stupid plane anyway.

I was ranting quite loudly in my thoughts as I sat down in the airplane and gingerly rubbed my side. There had been a very persistent old lady behind me in the plane aisle armed with a bag that was probably stuffed with bricks…or rocks…or something.

Clearly, I am too tired for this.

Meow.

"Just hold on, Danica. Oh, look the sun's setting, kitty. This is the last one we'll see from home," I crooned to myself and my cat.

"You leaving home, kid? What for?"

Startled, I looked up to see some slightly creepy guy waiting to get to his seat. Hey, that's not nice. He's just making conversation, Iris. Besides, he's not the one talking to his cat. Now, quick say something before he thinks you're crazy AND rude.

Distracted by my inner ramble, it took me a couple of moments to reply, "Oh, um, college. I mean, I'm going to college."

"Hmmmm….really? I wouldna pegged ya for a college girl. I mean you look a little young, but I'm sure you know how to have fun all the same," he leered, accompanying that last part with a disgusting eyebrow wiggle.

Surprised and mostly disgusted, I stammered, "Ex-excuse me?"

"Sir? Excuse me? Sir?! You need to keep moving down the aisle, please!"

Oh thank god.

Saved by the stewardess. The man winked (I think that was supposed to be a wink) and kept walking down to his seat that was blissfully far away from mine.

See, this is what you get for talking to yourself out loud. Not only do you sound crazy, but apparently, you attract crazy, too.

Sighing, I leaned back as far as I could in the stiff airplane seat and settled in for a nap.

With a jolt, I slammed back into reality. Huh, I must've slept through take-off. Weird, I've never done that before. I must've been more tired then I thought. Guess it's even better I took a red eye flight then.

Glancing in Danica's cage, I noticed she was thankfully asleep. Now, what in the world woke me up…

"And once again, we would just like to thank you for choosing us as your airline. Now, tonight, we have a special and rare treat. If you look to your far right, you can see a very, very bright dot with a streak behind it. Apparently, this is one of the brightest comets we will see until Haley's comet appears in a couple of years."

The stewardess' voice warbled on some more on the overhead, but I had already tuned her out in order to gaze out at the comet twinkling in the distance. It was beautiful the way it glittered amongst the blackened starry skies. Mesmerized, I reached up and placed my fingertips against the cool glass where the comet appeared to hang in the sky. It almost seemed to wink playfully down at me in response.

Huh… Is there some sort of illusion that makes comets appear larger and brighter for a moment? Wait a sec…

Several things seemed to happen at once.

What felt like fire and lightning seemed to race down my right arm, all the way from the fingertips placed gingerly on the window then straight through my arm where it seemed to plunge directly into my heart with icy abandon.

Then, suddenly, there was lurch to the plane, that jerked me forward in my seat, knocking my arm off the window and nearly slamming Danica's cage onto the floor. There was a commotion as one of the stewardesses rushed to the front of plane from her place in the aisle and all the passengers shifted uneasily.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please remain calm. It seems to have been just an unexpected bout of turbulence.," she rambled out breathlessly.

No sooner had she spoken the words when the plane started jerking and shaking around, rougher than the first time.

This seems a little too intense for turbulence.

When the shaking seemed to intensify, the air masks dropped down from the ceiling, scaring the shit out of me when I was already beyond scared.

I quickly secured my air mask and tried not to hyperventilate. But I realized I had a pretty big problem sitting next to me.

SHIT. I can't leave Danica to die and I doubt she can breathe up here. FUCKING SHIT.

Trying not to panic still, I struggled to open Danica's cage and move her on to my lap. I didn't have to worry too much about her running off because she was basically scared shitless and there was no way in hell I was letting her run off.

I REALLY doubt they made these stupid air masks for cats, but its worth a shot, I thought to myself while scrambling to hold the air mask over my cat head.

I choked back a scream when the plane seemed to shake and lurch in earnest. Craning my head to look out the window, I couldn't see anything that could be causing the plane trouble.

In fact, the only thing I noticed out of the ordinary was the comet.

That thing seems to be a hell of a lot closer than it was before.

I squinted my eyes in hopes of telling what it might be.

BANG.

Suddenly, my world became blindingly white and full of scorching heat. The airplane was no longer around me and I fell through the air, sightless, and still clutching my poor cat to my chest.

A unbearable second of unthinkable pain and agony passed as I continued to free fall towards the earth below me and I could only imagine the pain Danica was in, if she was still alive.

Then, just as I was saying my prayers to a god I'd never truly believed in, ice seemed to surge out from my chest, cooling the heat as it went first down my right arm and then outwards around my whole body.

The pain worsened incredibly, but the blinding white light clouding my vision seemed to fade. Black crept in around my thoughts and then, blissfully, I knew no more.

BREAKING NEWS

"A few hours ago, an American air liner traveling from Hawaii to Washington went missing. Authorities received one distress signal while it was still somewhere over the Pacific before transmissions cut off. This has led authorities to believe the plane may have crashed and have sent a search out not long ago to look for survivors and wreckage. Our thoughts and prayers are with those onboard the plane and their families."

*RING, RING *

*RING, RING *

*RI— *

A hand shoots off the bed to grab at the ringing phone in the dark. It nearly shoves the phone off the table in the attempt to answer it before someone else wakes up.

"Ugh…hello"

"Hello? I'm sorry to bother you, but is this Mrs. Claire Caro? Mother of Iris Caro?"

The hand rubs tired, worn eyes that are surrounded by laugh lines: laugh lines caused by spending too much time teasing and fretting over children.

"Hello? Ma'am? Are-are you still there?"

"Hmm? Oh…right. Sorry. I'm here. Of course, I'm here. Wait, sorry…again, but who is this?"

An awkward pause passes by as the voice on the phone clears their throat and the hand stills in sudden anxiousness, and then begins to fidget as the silence weighs down heavily for a moment and tension spills across the phone.

"Well, ma'am, I'm with the government, and I'm terribly sorry to inform you of this, b-but you're daughter, Iris, she was in an acci—"

"An accident?! What kind of accident?! Oh god! Is she okay?"

"I— well, we believe the plane she was on crashed in the Pacific sometime earlier this night. We sent a search crew out a few hours ago and they found the wreckage. They looked in the surrounding areas and anywhere survivors might have drifted, b-but with no luck. I-I'm so sorry, again ma'am, but you're daughter's body was not found and is believed to be dead along with everyone else on the flight…"

The voice prattled on and on about the tragedy or something or other, but nobody was listening any more. The phone had fallen from the hand to drop silently to the sheets below.

Both hands, now covered in wet, grief-stricken tears, tried to hold a woman, a mother together as she fell apart. Soon, when the horrific events could be understood as they fell from pain-filled cries, another pair of hands, a loving father's hands, hugged the woman closer.

And together, they grieved, never to know the true fate of their beloved daughter.

In Middle Earth…

A bright streak of light seemed to burst into the sky from nowhere. To those of the untrained eye, it might seem as if it was merely a shooting star. A few minutes pass and the fiery ball seems to grow larger until it can be heard thundering down towards the earth at an alarming speed. With a loud boom, the light from the ball expands briefly and the ball continues on its way until it crashes loudly in the surrounding wilderness.

Not too far away, a certain wizard and Ranger witness the light appear and disappear just over the horizon where they here it crash. Suddenly, the wizard turns to the man next to him and asks him to continue on without him.

"I will meet you in Bree soon, as discussed, but do not worry, my friend," he tells the Ranger. His tone brooks no argument, so the man offers none.

And with that, the wizard rode off in the direction the meteor crashed with lots of haste and a small twinkle in his eye.

A/N: So...Aragorn is briefly, kinda in this chapter if you caught that? I originally was going to have just him meet Iris in the beginning, but I didn't quite like that and decided to go a different way with it. Sorry if any is disappointed, but we will get to Aragorn soon, I promise!