A/N: Woah! Hey! Remember me? Erin? You know, the author who says she's gonna update regularly but never does?

Yeah, I'm not even gonna make that promise anymore. I really am sorry for keeping you loyal readers waiting for so long, and I'm also sorry that I've been making the same stupid excuses for not updating all the time. -_- Currently the bane of my existence is my rather embarrassing math grade, which I seriously need to fix (though that in itself is Mission: Impossible), but that really has nothing to do with why I've been seriously slacking off with this story. If you want a real answer, blame the fact that I've suddenly become a fan of the BBC TV show "Sherlock."

On the plus side, though...other than math, life has been pretty great! And let me just start by saying that I ACTUALLY GOT THE EXTENDED LOTR MOVIES FOR MY BIRTHDAY! After all this time, I got them! :D Sadly, I haven't had much time to watch them since they're so long (I'm like halfway through The Two Towers), but I still love them. And I also was able to buy The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on iTunes via a gift card from a friend, so that was another amazing gift! :D :D :D Add RED's new "Release the Panic" album to the mix, and I can proudly say that I got all the things I really wanted for my birthday this year, so it was pretty fantastic.

Speaking of The Hobbit...Did anyone see the special Desolation of Smaug Livestream event the other day?! I was kept up to date via Tumblr, and...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! SO. MUCH. THRANDUIL. SO. MUCH. LEGOLAS. I don't think I'm going to make it to December alive. D:

Chaos Unleashed: Chapter Seven

Kaia's POV

"And...there. That's pretty much all you need to know about cars." I turned around from where I stood in our driveway, then laughed when I saw the horrified and totally confused expressions on the Fellowship's faces. "What?"

Sam was the one who broke the silence, and timidly pointed at the car from where he was partially hidden behind Frodo. "...And you expect us to get inside that thing?"

"Yeah, pretty much." I turned and patted the roof. "It's not that bad. You'll get used to cars real quick, trust me. It's how we get around here."

"You do not travel on horseback?" Legolas questioned.

I shuddered and shook my head. "Thank God we don't. I'd probably end up dying if I tried."

"Kaia!" I jumped a bit as I looked up to see Kathryn come practically flying across the lawn. "What did you do? Why was everyone screaming?"

"She wants us to get in that...thing!" Boromir cried out before I could speak.

"And it made the most awful roaring noise!" Merry piped up. "It sounds like some wild animal that could kill us!"

I rolled my eyes and groaned. "You guys aren't ever gonna survive here if you can't adjust, and we need to get going. We're already short enough on time as it is."

Kathryn nodded. "She's right. Trust us, they won't hurt you. Cars are just another invention that's special to our world. They're actually really convenient for going places because you travel much faster than on foot." They all still looked wary. "Can you at least try it for now? Maybe we can talk about other alternatives later."

I shot her a look and stepped closer. "Other alternatives? There are no other – OW!" I hissed as she elbowed me in the gut.

Thankfully the men were able to come to a quick decision. "...All right," Aragorn said. "We have no reason not to trust you. You've been gracious to us all thus far."

"Great!" I said with a grin. "Now, who's riding with who? We've got two cars, and Kathryn and I can each drive one."

Kathryn raised a hand quickly to grab everyone's attention. "Let's make this easy instead of waiting for them to choose. I'll take Boromir, Frodo, Sam, and Legolas. Aragorn, Gimli, Merry, and Pippin can go with you."

"Sounds fine to me," I said. "Is that cool with you guys?" They nodded. "Then let's go! Kathryn, you've got your wallet, right?"

"Eeyup," she said, holding it up. "And yours?"

"In my bag," I said, gesturing to my car as I walked over and opened up the dark blue doors. I then faced the four who would be my passengers (aka victims) for the next several minutes. "Okay. Three of you can fit in the back here, and one person can sit in this seat here, next to me. Merry and Pippin should probably be in the back, but beyond that I don't care where you sit. Climb in." I ran around to the driver's side of my car and plopped down into the seat, smiling when Aragorn slid in next to me. He looked ridiculously uncomfortable, and it was pretty funny. "If you want a little more room for your legs," I said, "you can just reach under the seat and pull upwards on a bar that's down there. Then you can just slide the seat back a bit." He nodded and adjusted a little so he wasn't so cramped.

I twisted around in my seat to look at the other three, who'd been able to squeeze in together. Merry was on the left, Pippin the middle, and Gimli on the right. "Okay, now if you look down at where your hips are, you should see a little plastic box sticking up out of the seat. Can you guys find that?"

Merry nodded and tapped his for me. "Got it." The others did the same.

"Okay. Aragorn, Merry, and Gimli, you guys have to look on either side of you for one of these. It's called a seatbelt." I grabbed mine to point it out to them. "All you do is grab it, pull it so that it stretches out over your chest, and then push this little metal part on the end into that box that you found. It's a law we have here in America. You have to put them on when you're in the car."

"And what about mine, Kaia?" Pippin asked as the others clicked theirs into place.

"Your seat belt is gonna be down in the seat, too," I said. It'll only go over your legs, but that's fine since you're in the middle. Got it?"

"Got it," he echoed.

"Awesome. You're learning well," I said with a wink. I buckled myself up, then faced forward and twisted the key to bring the engine roaring to life. Just as I was about to pull out into the street and wait for Kathryn, the built-in CD player caught my eye, and my grin grew two sizes. "You know, while we're here...I might as well introduce you to some of our music..."

oOo

Kathryn's POV

"Okay, we're here!" I pulled the key from the ignition and opened my door. "Everyone out!" The five of us clambored out of the car and locked the doors just as Kaia pulled up in the parking spot beside us. A muffled thumping could be heard from inside, and as soon as one of the doors opened, the unnaturally loud pounding beat of a bass guiter blasted out into the open air. All of the guys who'd been in my car cringed and flinched as Benjamin Burnley let out a deep, traditional rock growl.

"What in the Valar is that?!" Boromir all but shouted from beside me. Legolas had his hands clapped over his sensitive elven ears and looked both irritated and scared out of his wits.

Halfway through the chorus of "Lights Out," the sound sharply cut off as Kaia removed her key and climbed out, still headbanging a bit. "Hey!"
"Breaking Benjamin?" I asked, shooting her a look. "Already?"

"Gotta break 'em in somehow," she said with a shrug.

I rolled my eyes, but smiled anyway. "Just don't blow their eardrums out in one day, all right?"

"No promises."

I looked past her and towards the rest of the men. "Sorry, guys. You'll get that a lot with us."

To my complete shock, Gimli actually spoke up with a wide grin on his face. "What're ya apologizin' for, lass? That was great! I look forward to more long car rides if it's like that every time!"

I raised an eyebrow as Kaia laughed and gave him a brofist. "Yes!" Aragorn was watching them with a "God help me" expression.

"And she taught us how to do that, too," Merry said. "The brofist."

"Really?" I smiled as he and Pippin demonstrated. "I'm impressed." Then to Kaia, I went on. "You've taught them more than I have."

"Why wait? These are essential life skills here, Kathryn!"

I laughed and shook my head before reaching into my small over-the-shoulder bag and checking my phone for the time. "So...it's 9:30 right now. We've got until noon to get our shopping done, and then we'll grab some lunch here before heading back home. Stick with whoever drove you here," I said as I started walking across the parking lot. A thought popped into my head, and I spun on my heel to yell back to Kaia as she started leading her group to another one of the mall's entrances. "You have enough money, right?"

"Yeah! I'm good!" I nodded and face forward again as my group followed after me.

Legolas was the first one to catch up. "So we are going in there?" He looked at the big building ahead.

"Yeah," I replied.

"And what is in there, exactly?"

"Lots of stores. Stores that sell different kinds of stuff." Now Boromir and the hobbits were matching our pace as well.

"Is it much different from what we had in Middle-Earth?"

I smirked. "Very."

"How so?"

I shot him a mischevous glance. "You'll see."

The elf returned a look of confusion and looked ready to protest, but was cut off by a certain ginger hobbit. "So! ...Where are we going?"

"Don't be stupid, Pip!" Merry scolded. "We're going in there!"

"What are we doing first, then?" Pippin asked, ignoring the blonde as we approached the large glass double doors.

I pushed one open and ushered everyone inside. "We're gonna go to a store where I can get you guys some more shirts and pants. Stay with me, okay? There'll probably be a decent amount of people here, and if you guys get lost then we're all screwed." I noticed that they seemed awed by seeing a door made out of glass and tried not to laugh. "They're just doors, you guys. Nothing special." I passed through a second set of them and stepped inside the mall itself.

"B-but...they're all glass, and you..." Pippin wasn't even able to finish his sentence as he stopped dead in his tracks, his jaw dropping at the sight around us. Obviously I didn't think it was anything special; they were the same concrete walls I'd known for the past few years of my life, but the guys of the Fellowship seemed to think otherwise. I deliberately slowed my pace a bit as we made our way down the first hallway, and couldn't help but think about how similar their reactions were to when they saw the Dwarrowdelf in the movie for the first time. If only our mall was as cool as the dwarf city in Moria.

"This is incredible," Boromir breathed. Even Legolas seemed overwhelmed as he quietly walked along on my right. "Your people built this all on their own?"

"If by 'your people' you mean humans, then yes," I said. "We don't have kingdoms and stuff here...we're all just normal humans. There's no kings or queens or anything."

"Then who rules over your country?" Legolas asked.

I thought about how to explain that. "Well...we call him the President, but...now's not really the time to explain, and Kaia would be able to tell you about it better than I could. Ask her when we get back to the house later." He nodded. "Now, if you all would just follow me..." I quickly led the guys deeper into the mall and headed straight for a men's clothing store I knew was fairly priced. We all filed inside, and again the four of them stopped to stare at all the clothing that lined the walls.

Pippin looked at a rack of jeans that stood taller than him. "What are we going to get first?"

I motioned for them to follow me a bit further as I slipped between displays and headed towards the back. "Well, the stuff in this store might be a bit big for you and Merry, Pip. I was hoping we could get a bunch of stuff for you two somewhere else, but if you find anything that you think would fit you, just let me know."

"So...we can choose anything?" Legolas asked, eyes dancing over the things hung up on the walls.

"Yep!" I said with a nod. "Look at whatever you'd like." From there we each went off on our own, browsing through all the shirts, pants, and other things that the store sold. It didn't take me long to find a couple of nice shirts for Legolas and Boromir, now that I knew what sizes fit them. Within five minutes I'd pulled out an armful of tops for the two of them to try on and went to seek them out.

I found Legolas first. "You find anything?"

He nodded and pulled a dark green button-down top with a small collar that was made of a light fabric off of a rack. "Is this all right?"

I smiled. "Yeah, that's a good color for you. Where's Boromir?"

"Over here!" the man's voice came from several feet away. I turned to see him holding up a solid teal-colored t-shirt and a pair of lighter-colored jeans. "I've found a few things, though I'm not sure how you're supposed to tell what the size is..."

I laughed a bit as he came over to us and pointed out the tag on the inside of the shirt. "See that? That's how you know what the size is. Different sizes have different letters."

"Then what does 'XL' mean?"

"Extra large."

He seemed embarassed at his mistake. "...Oh."

I laughed again. "No big deal. Just put it back and look for the same shirt with, uh...an 'M' on the tag. Medium might fit you better."

"What about mine?" Legolas asked as the Gondorian ran off to do his job.

I peered into the collar. "Yeah, that's a medium. You look like you'd be a medium, so you're fine." I smiled up at him. "We're making pretty good progress so far! You guys'll have plenty of clothes in no time."

"How much do we need?" he said, raising his eyebrows.

I shrugged. "Oh, I don't know...maybe 3 more outfits for each of you? That should be okay for now. You can mix and match stuff later."

"Ahh."

My attention was torn away from the elf when two hobbits came bounding up to me a second later. "Kathryn! Kathryn! Look what we found!"

I peered down at what Merry held in his hands and laughed. "Hey, look at that! You're on sale for six bucks!" There in his hands was a brown Lord of the Rings t-shirt with each member of the Fellowship printed onto it.

Legolas looked over my shoulder to see the shirt and made a face. "I look ridiculous."

I rolled my eyes. "I think you look fabulous."

"Can I get it, Kathryn?" Merry begged. "Please?"

"If it fits, then sure!" I grinned. "Why not?"

His eyes lit up at my reply, and he turned to give Pippin a high-five. "Where can I try it on?"

I pointed to the very back of the store where the changing rooms were. "There." At that moment, Boromir returned, waving a medium sized-shirt in his hand. "Actually, why don't you all just come back with me? Might as well try all this on now."

A/N: Sorry if this chapter's shorter and/or suckish, but I wanted to get an update out to you guys tonight because I'll be going away on a trip to Chicago tomorrow and I'm not coming back until Sunday morning. :( Hopefully this will suffice...and hopefully the next chapter will come faster. Until then, you guys! :)

~Erin