Disclaimer: I don't own The Hobbit. Or any of the other character, except Karra. If only….but oh well. I don't think I need to say it again (be sure I will tell you when I do get a hold of any of the characters! :D). So no more disclaimers from now on.

Author's Note: I could have very well posted this chapter a couple of days ago, but I only have 15 chapters written, and I don't want to catch up to myself too soon! This chapter starts pretty much exactly where the last one left off, with Karra waking up riding behind Fili.

Chapter 2-Ponies and High Heels are Uncomfortable

The first thing Karra noticed when she woke up was that her bottom was very sore. And then she noticed it was getting somewhat dark. And then she noticed that she had her head on Fili's shoulder. She sat up quickly, wincing at the soreness in her, um, behind. How embarrassing. She had just slept most of the afternoon asleep with her head on Fili's shoulder. And she had only just met him. She realized as he turned around, noticing that she had woken, how unappealing she must look. She knew without touching it that her hair was a complete mess, and she must look horribly groggy.

"Ah you're awake now." There was a hint of amusement in his voice. "Did thinking of dragons put you to sleep?"

"I guess I slept all afternoon," Karra mumbled. "Sorry."

"Sorry? And why would that be a bad thing?"

"Because….oh, I don't know." Had she just been about to say, I just met you, and I had my head on your shoulder for hours? He was probably inwardly laughing at her awkwardness. "Are we stopping soon? Because I'm really ready to get off this beast."

Fili smirked. "Beast?"

"I've never ridden before. I don't think I like horses."

"This, my dwarf-lady, is a pony."

Karra felt irritation rising in her. "I'm not a dwarf," she said through her teeth. "And besides, being that I don't really know much about horses—I mean ponies—I really shouldn't be expected to know that."

"I suspect you're only reacting like this because you just woke up," Fili said mildly.

Karra flushed. "I officially declare this conversation ended," she said sharply. "Seriously, are we stopping soon?"

Just then, as if by some secret signal, the whole company stopped.

"Well, I guess that answers my question," Karra stated. She was ignored.

Soon everyone was unloading. Karra managed to get down off the cursed, uncomfortable beast —she would call it that, no matter what anyone said—with a good deal of help from Fili, mostly consisting of him swinging her down off the pony with his arms around her waist, and her ending up a good bit closer to him than she would have liked. With a fair amount of flushing and some slightly awkward giggling on her part, she quickly stepped back a bit, and then walked off to watch camp being made.

The first thing she did was to take off her somewhat uncomfortable dress shoes and pull her hairstyle down. While she was running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to untangle it (that was the nuisance of her hair—it seemed to get tangled so easily), she caught Kili staring at her.

"Oh, stop that, you," she snapped. "Haven't you ever seen a lady combing her hair before?"

"I was simply thinking that most dwarf women have a good deal more hair than you," he commented lightly.

"I always thought my hair was really thick," she said shortly.

"Oh, I was talking about facial hair," said Kili, a slight smirk on his face. "Most dwarf women have a good deal of facial hair."

Karra stopped 'combing' her hair for a moment. "Wait a minute, are you saying that dwarf women have beards?" Kili simply nodded, still with that annoying (though kind of cute) smirk. Karra shook her head. "Ew…that's kind of gross."

"On the contrary," Fili broke into the conversation, "I think it's rather appealing."

"You actually like…..? You have a really weird taste in women." Both of them smirked at her now. She shook her head and said, "You guys are weird," before getting to her feet and walking even farther away. She didn't need any annoying young dwarves bothering her right now.

As she sat on the fringes of camp, she began to reflect on what a strange day it had been. It had begun….why, it had begun in the evening! What time was it in her world? Her world. What a strange thought, another world. Where was she? And what was happening? She sighed and leaned back against a rock, which really wasn't too comfortable. What if she was trapped in this alternate reality forever? She was inside a book. It might have helped if she had read The Hobbit more recently, she thought. She inadvertently let her thoughts drift in a morbid direction. What if something horrible happened to her here and she….never mind. She wasn't going to even think of that.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a tap on the shoulder, and she was rather glad.

"It's supper time," Bilbo said gently. "I thought you might want to know."

"What?...Oh, thanks." She stood up and wiped her dress clothes off. Maybe when she woke up next morning, she would be in her apartment. Comforting herself with the thought, she headed towards the campfire. Riding a pony all day did make one rather hungry, after all.

The first thing Karra thought the next morning was that her alarm hadn't gone off. The next thing she thought was that she had an important class at 8:00 that she really couldn't afford to miss, and she now hated her alarm clock. The next thing she thought was…

She flew up and stared around her. This was not her apartment! As a matter of fact, this wasn't even a bedroom. She suddenly realized that she was dreadfully uncomfortable. She felt like she had been sleeping on the ground all night. For that matter, the bed below her felt like the ground. Wait a minute—it was the ground!

Suddenly all the events of yesterday flooded back into her memory. She was inside a book! How could this be happening? She had felt sure she would wake up in her apartment this morning. And she was still here.

It appeared everyone else was up and having breakfast. She reluctantly sat up and slipped on her shoes. High heels were not good camping shoes. Neither were dress clothes good camping clothes. She distastefully smoothed out her wrinkled clothing and ran her fingers through her hair once again. She could really use a comb right now. She pulled her hair back into a short, thick braid. Reluctantly, she pulled a strip of cloth off her shirt to tie it with, realizing she had nothing else. Whatever. By the time she was done with this adventure, her clothes would probably be completely ruined anyway.

The first thing she did upon standing up was trip over a rock. Wincing slightly, she picked herself up and headed over to the campfire. As she approached, the white-haired dwarf whose name she actually remembered to be Balin looked up at her, a slightly concerned look on his face.

"Are you alright, lass?" he asked. "You're limping."

"Oh, it's just these shoes," she mumbled. "They're….uncomfortable."

"I can see why!" he said, rather sympathetically, with an air of asking, what evil person made you wear those torturous things. As Karra sat down, he began to rummage around in his bag, finally coming out with a pair of dwarf boots. "Here," he said, tossing them her direction.

Karra stared in relative horror at the huge boots. How was she supposed to make those things fit her?

"Ummm….thanks?" she said hesitantly. "I…I think they might be a little big for me…." Well, that was the understatement of the year! she thought wryly.

"Try pulling the laces tighter," suggested Kili.

Karra rolled her eyes. "Oh, gee thanks for the genius suggestion," she said sarcastically. Kili just laughed.

She slipped off her dress shoes (leave the darn things here to rot, she thought) and slipped her feet into the large dwarf boots. After pulling the laces as tight as she could, wrapping them around the boots several times, pulling that as tight as she could, and finally asking for some string, which she did the same thing with, she finally got them fitted well enough. They were still a bit big, but they would do for the time being. At least they were better than her high heels. And with fur inside them, they were rather comfortable.

Finally, they were under way again. Riding on a pony for the whole day was not very comfortable, as Karra had learned the day before, and learned again that day. She found herself riding behind Fili again, much as she wanted to try her own pony. Despite what he had said, there was another pony, but it was apparently being used to carry other various belongings. She asked several times if she could have that one, but he wouldn't let her. Oh, he was beginning to really get on her nerves.

That evening, Gandalf interrupted her musings on the edge of camp by walking over and sitting down beside her. She wasn't sure she wanted to talk, but she figured she shouldn't insult a wizard. So she said, in as friendly a voice as she could muster, "What is it?"

Gandalf casually took off his hat and set it down beside him. That must mean he's planning on sitting here for a while, Karra thought. "I wish to speak more with you about the manner of your arrival here," he said.

Karra shrugged. "What more do you want to know?"

"Tell me exactly what happened to bring you here, to Middle Earth," he replied. "For it is obvious that you know nothing of this place."

Is it that obvious, Karra wanted to ask. She hesitated for a moment. Gandalf, almost seeming to read her mind, said gently, "You need not fear that I will think you mentally unstable."

Whaa…..how did he know? Karra shook her head. That was a little eerie. Maybe he could read her mind, she thought.

After a slight moment's more hesitation, she began, "Well, I guess it began when I was just sitting in my apartment, being bored…."

Gandalf raised an eyebrow. "Apartment?"

"It's….it's my place of residence," Karra replied, congratulating herself on how proper she had sounded. "My home, I guess you could say. Anyway, as I was saying, I was sitting in my apartment one evening…"

And so she told him the whole story; oddly enough, leaving out the part the key had played in it, though she wasn't exactly sure why. When she was finished, she leaned back against a rock and said, "Well, what's your opinion on all this?"

Gandalf thought for a moment. "This is all very interesting," he finally spoke. "It is remotely possible that you are indeed from another realm, of sorts, and you encountered a portal, or intersection between realms. Although, such a thing has never been known the happen before. And how you could have lived for years so near the location of the portal and have nothing happen is indeed a mystery." He fingered the tip of his hat. "It is also possible that you were dropped here by the Valar."

Karra looked at him blankly. "The Valar?"

"The powers that rule this world," Gandalf explained.

Karra wrinkled her brow. "You mean, like gods or something?!"

Gandalf nodded. "Yes, they have been called that."

"That's weird." Karra shook her head, then abruptly changed the subject. "Do you know how I can get back?"

Gandalf shook his head. "I know of no way."

Karra sighed. "I thought so," she said dejectedly. "Well, I guess I'll be finding a life here in some town or something. At any rate," and here she glanced up at the dwarves, "I probably won't be with this company much longer."

She didn't know how wrong she was.

Random note: in a first draft of this chapter, I had said, 'She simply shook her head and said "You guys are weird," before walking off to the edge to watch camp being made.' I realized a bit later that I had written, 'before walking off the edge to watch camp being made.' Ah, the mistakes one can make when one is typing too fast.

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