Authors notes: Thank you to both Early Blessings and BellaRu who reviewed my first chapter, as well to anyone else who's giving this story a chance.
Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Lord of the rings.
Emma could hear birds chirping in the distance as she lay on the soft ground. She could also feel the warmth from the sun's rays. The weather was nice and a little cool, as though it was only the beginning of fall. That was of course impossible since Canada was experiencing the start of a very cold winter. She opened her eyes, and promptly shut them again, as the sun stung them. Sitting up, she slowly opened her eyes again and looked around, taking in her surroundings. Beautiful trees with yellow and red leaves surrounded her. The grass was green and lush and the sky a nice and clear blue without a cloud in sight.
Her head spun, how in the world could she be in the middle of a forest, on what felt like a nice fall day, when the last thing she remembered was being stuck in a traffic jam, a result of an accident probably caused by the horrible weather, in the middle of a bridge?She then remembered something else. Didn't the bridge collapse? That's right, she had been stuck on the bridge and then it collapsed, taking her and probably many others with it.
I'm dead, She thought weakly. I've died and gone to heaven oh God! Her panic caused her to start hyperventilating. But then, why would heaven be the middle of a forest? Shouldnt it be somewhere in the clouds with big, shiny, gold gates and soft beautiful music playing? Right! She couldn't possibly be dead! Thank God! But hten how could she possibly be here, what- she Kidnapped off a bridge and dragged to the middle of a forest, in the middle of a different country somewhere in the southern hemisphere? That was so stupid! Never mind the fact that she clearly remembered falling, in her car, with a chunk of the bridge, into freezing freaking water!
She was dead, she was actually really dead.
'Dont panic, dont panic, dont panic,' She started chanting to herself, her voice going shriller with each word. 'Its going to be okay, everythings going to be fine, calm down, breath in, breath out...' she took her own advice and breathed in deeply and exhaled after a short pause. It didn't work at all.
'Okay, think clearly here Emma, I can not be dead, If I were dead, I wouldnt feel anything right?' She then pinched herself hard on the arm, which she should have done before, because when she felt the dull pain, she immediately calmed down and actually started laughing at her foolishness.
"Ha! God Im so stupid, of course Im not dead. If I was dead I wouldn't feel pain or have a panic attack! If my body was dead it wouldnt respond to anything!" She let out a relieved, but still shaky, breath with a big grin on her face.
Then she noticed something, or some things to be precise. One of her suitcases was about ten feet from her; and her others bags were also in nearby but scattered apart. Trying not to dwell on how or why her bags had been brought with her, she gathered them all up and put them next to her as she tried to figure out her - interesting and unusual situation.
"Where the hell am I?" She pondered out loud. Then she thought of books and movies she had read or watched; where a character somehow ends up in a different place, time or even world. She immediately tossed that idea out of her head with a snort.
'You know what', She thought to herself, 'Forget how I got here for now, your not going to get any answers in the middle of a forest, concentrate on how to get out'. She picked up and opened her handbag and checked her cell. 'No bars, figures' She thought exasperatedly.
A ,now, useless cell, no GPS, her laptop would definitely not work, and no compass – how the hell was she supposed to know what direction to take to get to the nearest town? Sighing yet again, she looked down at her things- there was no way in hell that she could possibly carry all these bags while hiking, for lord knows how long to... wherever. She didn't know how far or long she would need to walk for- she might be stuck in the wilderness for days! She was going to have to ditch a good amount of her things –'great., just great,' she thought to herself.
Emma went through her things, putting aside 2 suitcases full of clothes that would be unpractical to hike in, her makeup kit and a few other items. She now only had one suitcase, which wouldn't be too hard to pull along as the forest floor was quite even; her duffel-bag with some of her winter gear (now including her winter coat) which she would need if – no- when she was back home; the emergency stuff her dad had thankfully left her, her school bag which contained her electronics, some food and drinks. Her sleeping bag was secured to the top of it.
Instead of putting her school bag on her back, which was now incredibly heavy, she attached it to her suitcase, put the duffel-bags strap across her chest and started walking away from the clearing she had been in, leaving behind some her favourite things.
After walking and struggling with her bags for several hours, the trees had thinned out a little and she had a better view of the darkening sky. Exhausted, Emma decided to take another break (which she had been doing every half hour) and set her things down and sat at the trunk of a large and old tree. Resting her head against the tree, she closed her eyes for a moment before grabbing her schoolbag and then ate a few crackers and drank some water. She glanced up at the sky again and sighed. She grabbed the flashlight and one of the smaller bottles of pepper spray her dad had packed her. Emma stood up, put the pepper spray in her jeans pocket, grabbed her things, the flashlight dangling from a string on her left wrist (like a wii remote) and continued walking.
Now that it almost nighttime, it was somewhat colder than earlier that day, making Emma glad that her hoodie was so warm and thick. She continued walking for another couple of hours before deciding to call it quits for the night – her feet couldnt take it any longer. She sat down on a piece of stone for a moment or two, recovering from her hike; and the she heard something- like a twig snapping from being stepped on. She tensed, and looked around, turning on her flashlight as she did so.
"Hello?" Emma called out, her voice waving slightly out of fear and nervousness. "Hello, is anyone there?"
She started breathing a little heavier and could feel her heart pounding in her chest – aiming the light from her flashlight in the surrounding area. She stepped forward, flashlight in one hand, pepper spray in the other; and called out again:
"Hello. Is anyone out there?" She said, forcing to keep her voice steady.
Nothing. Perhaps it was just an animal? She turned back around and was about to sit back down, when a figure stepped out from behind a tree, out of the darkness and into the light cast by the moon. The creature had blue scaly-looking skin, yellow beady eyes and, in its hand, a rusted sword.
Emma froze, fear paralyzing her as it came towards her, grinning maliciously, showing its yellow-brown teeth and licked it's thin lips.
"Hello pretty little girly, lets have us some fun eh?" It jeered.
The monster was about 2 feet away from her, when she regained control of her body, lifted her arm, took aim, spraying the monster in the face. It howled in pain as she turned around to run. However, before she could get far, another monster came out of nowhere, directly in front of her. Before she knew what was happening the monster had knocked the pepper spray out of her hand and had tackled her to the ground.
She screamed and thrashed against it, trying in vain to get it of her. It was straddled her and held both of her wrists with one hand. She screamed, if possible even louder, trying to break free. The creature on top of her seemed to be amused and –excited by her struggle. It traced a finger along her cheek and down to her neck. The monster than leaned down and licked where it had just touched her, chuckling as she screamed even louder as tears fell from her eyes, before she began pleading to it.
"Please,... please dont hurt me!" She begged. "Please stop... get off me!" She chocked out.
The creature laughed darkly, took out a dagger and held it to her throat.
"Shut up! or I'll slice up your pretty little neck," the creature spat out. It licked the side of her face again and she gagged as the smell from its rancid mouth filled her nose.
It sat back up, still holding tightly onto her wrists, its sharp nails digging into her flesh, and Emma whimpered, tears streaming down her face as the creature unzipped her hoodie. She redoubled her efforts to free herself from his grip and, angered, the monster took its dagger and cut a long but shallow gash from her wrist down to her elbow. She gasped out in pain, but kept as silent as possible when it brought the dagger back towards her throat threateningly.
When it was satisfied that she would stay still and quiet, it took the dagger away from her throat. It was about to cut open her cami, when out of nowhere, three figures leapt out into the clearing. The other monster that had still been clutching its face in agony was decapitated by a tall man. The monster on top of her was too slow to react and was knocked in the head with an axe held by a short bearded man. Emma, now free from her captor, got up and stumbled backwards. She turned around, about to run, when she ran right into another man.
She tried to back away from him, but he had already grabbed onto her arms. She struggled to get way from him in vain as he brought her closer to him, and wrapped one arm around her back, and put his other hand behind her head. He then started talking to her, in an unknown and beautiful language, with a soft and soothing voice,
Emma stopped struggling with the man; instead she found herself clutching at the front of his shirt and sobbed as he continued rubbing her back and speaking soothing words to her.. How long she cried in his arm, she did not know; but when she finally stopped, she wiped her eyes and looked up. The man, who was about a foot taller than her, was tanned with dark brown hair that almost reached his collarbone. He looked to be in his forties with kind, sympathetic blue eyes and was smiling sadly down at her. She also noted how he and his companions all wore medieval clothing and had, like the creatures that had attacked her, swords. Confused, but still to shaken to really care, she gave him a small smile back before looking back down. She then turned around, the two other men were nowhere to be seen, neither were corpses of the two monsters that had attacked her. The man gently put his hand on her shoulder to get back her attention.
"Are you hurt?" He asked gently, looking her over quickly. He found his answer as he noticed the blood dripping down her arm. He gently took her lifted her arm and looked at her wound.
"Oh...no, it doesnt hurt," she said softly, her mind still on what almost happened to her.
He looked up at her, noticing the distant look in her eyes, and frowned. He pushed back the rage and disgust he felt towards the orcs that had attacked the young woman in front of him and analyzed her. She was a beautiful, with light brown skin and dark brown eyes. She was also quite small, standing at only five feet five and looked to be about seventeen summers. Her hair was black, long and curly; and because she had her hair pulled back, he had a clear view of her ears, which had pink metal rings attached to them! Shaking his head he also noted that the girl was not wearing a dress, something completely unheard of. Instead she wore black tight-fitting breeches, boots that nearly reached her knees, and some sort of long sleeved vest over a yellow top. He had never encountered anyone in all his travels with such clothing.
"Where do you hail from lady...?" He paused waiting for her to supply him with her name.
"Emma. Emma Venika Dubois-Chretien," she answered. He stared oddly at her for a moment- only hobbits had last names.
Pushing that thought aside, he asked: "And where do you hail from lady Emma?"
Emma nearly laughed, lady Emma? Why the hell was he calling her lady Emma? 'This Dude is soo weird,' she thought. He seemed to be taking the whole medieval role playing thing waaay to seriously.
"Ottawa," she answered. He gave her a blank look. "Ottawa, you know, the capital of Canada." He was still staring at her as though she was speaking gibberish. "Canada. Oh come on! Its only the second biggest country in the world! You know the one people from other countries think is a frozen tundra!" she exclaimed, deeply annoyed.
He had never head of a country named Canada, perhaps the girl was delusional? But then again her clothing and her belongings were evidence enough that she was from a far distant land. He was interupted from his thoughts as she started speaking to him.
"Sorry about that," she said sheepishly."I shouldn't have blown up like that. Anyways, I told you my name. What's yours?" she asked.
He was somewhat amused by her and answered her with a slight smile: "Aragorn, son of Arathorn," he then searched her face for any sign of recognition and found none.
Instead she simply smiled at him, held out her hand and said: "Well, Aragorn, thank you so much, your friends too - you guys saved my life." she said, her voice full of gratitude.
He bowed his head again at her, took her hand in his, and instead of shaking it, raised it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. She raised a brow and blushed. He smiled at her, lowered and released her hand, before gesturing for her to follow him; to where the rest of the fellowship were waiting.
This was a hard chapter to write, hopefully as I continue it will get easier. I know usually when the girl falls into M-E, they don't have much things with them but I just can't see someone, especially a girl, spending such a long time in the wilderness without the basic things like a different set of clothes, hygienic products ect. especially surrounded by attractive guys. The electronics will serve an important purpose too. Please review!