Warnings: Dog hatred. Some drool from the dog that's being hated. Nothing bad.

October 18th, early in the afternoon

Sam

"Mom?"

No answer.

"Mooooom!"

"Yes, Sam?"

"D'ya know where my ring is?"

"What ring?"

"The silver one, with the green stones."

"It's probably where you left it."

"It's not."

"Why do you need it?"

"I… I just need it! Do you know where it is?"

"No. But you'll find it eventually, dear."

"But I need it now!"

My mother didn't reply, which was smart because this argument was going nowhere, and I just sat down on the floor, in the middle of the mess that was my room. I had practially turned it upside down and inside out, but I hadn't found my ring. And that sucked, because the 19th of October was near, and I had promised to be at the Lonely Mountain by then. If I wanted to be there in time – and I wanted to – then I had to start leaving.

I stood up and banged on the wall between my and my sister's room.

"Soph?"

There was a moment of silence before my younger sister replied; she was probably listening to music with her headphones on.

"Yeah?"

"Have you seen my ring?"

She thought.

"The silver one?" she then asked.

Hope exploded inside of me.

"Yes, that one! You seen it?"

She thought again.

"Evie and I played with it a couple of days ago," she then replied. "Haven't seen it since then. Maybe she has taken it home."

"What?" I yelled, my hope shattering. Fucking kids these days!

"It's not like you ever wear it," Sophie said, and I felt like I could rip every single hair out of my head.

Instead, I pulled myself together and plucked my bike's keys off my desk.

"Where does Evie live?" I asked, forcing myself to stay calm and hope the little brat hadn't put it on and had gotten stuck inside another dimension.

In that case, I'd be in serious trouble. They'd take my ring away, and even worse, they'd wipe every memory of what I had done. And that'd really suck.

"She lives in the apartment building next to the bakery," my little sister replied.

I growled a curse under my breath. The bakery was on the other side of the village.

Great.

I yelled a "Thanks" and sprinted downstairs, through the hall, into the front yard, where I unlocked my bike and started to race towards Evie's house. I almost got run over twice, and I nearly squashed a pigeon myself, but I made it.

I threw my bike onto the fence, not caring about whether it was locked or not, and dashed into the apartment building. There were small discs with the occupants' names on each door, and I had found Evie's pretty quickly. I pressed the door bell, and after a couple of seconds, a woman – presumably the kid's mother – opened up.

She gave me a strange look. I must've looked ridiculous; hair in all directions, out of breath, wearing only socks and two different ones, and probably a face like a tomato. We stared at each other before the woman asked: "Can I help you?"

I nodded.

"Is Evie at home?"

She shook her head.

"No."

"Because," I explained quickly, "she has met with Sophie somewhere last week, and she took a ring with her. That ring's mine. I'd like to have it back. It's kinda important."

The woman frowned.

"I'll see if I can find it," she replied. "Come in."

I stepped into the apartment, and she shut the door behind me. Then she left me there, in the hallway, with a quick "I'll be back in a moment."

As soon as she had walked away, I was attacked by a huge dog. Well, maybe it wasn't meant as an attack, but it certainly felt like one. The beast jumped against me, and drooled all over me, and nearly pushed me over with its heaviness. I wasn't afraid of it, I just didn't like it.

Stupid animals. They drool everywhere, they shit everywhere, and they leave hair everywhere. I unwillingly decided that I just had to endure it – hopefully, at least, I'd get my ring back – but that woman was taking loooong. Much longer than a moment, as she had said.

It seemed to last an eternity before she finally got back. She held up a ring.

"Is this the ring you meant?"

My heart sunk.

It wasn't.

This ring was a plastic, pink, glittery ring with 'Barbie' written on it in fat white letters. I didn't understand how this woman could think that this was the ring of a sixteen-year-old. She surely didn't have much experience with teenagers.

"No," I said.

I was growing a little frustrated. Maybe it had something to do with the dog that was hanging on me. I gently pushed him away – well, I meant to do it like that, but in fact, I nearly threw the animal off me – and just like that, I saw a glimpse of something shiny in the corner of my eye. I looked and felt my eyes grow huge.

The dog.

Was wearing.

My ring.

I couldn't get the words out of my mouth fast enough.

"Your… Your dog has it!" I shouted out.

I didn't wait for the woman to reply. I crouched down and carefully started to pry the ring off the hairy paw. Unfortunately, the dog apparently thought that I wanted to kiss him or something, so he gave me a smelly, wet lick over my entire face. I swallowed away the urge to vomit and stood up, the ring in my hand.

I could only get "Thank you, ma'am" out of my mouth before I ran away, making unhumanly high-pitched, happy sounds. I must've looked insane, but I didn't give a single shit. I had my ring back! Just in time. I hadn't felt this good since I had gotten an A for my English test, three weeks ago.

That feeling stayed there, where it was, as I raced back home – thank goodness nobody had stolen my bike – and packed my bags.

I had learned from last time that it wasn't smart to go to Middle-Earth without weapons and food, so I sneaked a knife from the kitchen, and some canned stuff, like soup. I had just walked back to my room, arms filled with soup cans, when the doorbell rang. I frowned, put the cans down and walked over to the window that looked over the drive.

Two men were standing in front of the door, one tall and one small, both dressed in simple leather jackets. I recognized them immediately by the logo on the jackets. They were people of the Dimensional Travelling Police, the Ditrapo, and I had a slight supposition what they were doing here, although I really thought I hadn't broken any rules. Apparently, getting your ring stolen by a seven-year-old counts as a crime.

They were going to take my ring.

Why now? I wondered. Why me?

Then I got this marvellous idea. You see, travelling to another universe stops the time in the universe you were in when you began. That would mean that, if I was quick, I could visit my friends one more time before I'd lose the ring. It wasn't perfect, but I was pretty desperate at that moment, and it wasn't like I had many other options.

I left my bags for what they were – I was sure I could get weapons and something to eat if I wanted to. Then I took the ring out of my pocket and threw it in the air, hissing: "Middle Earth! Near Erebor!"

I caught the small thing again and closed my eyes. A really dizzying feeling took over my mind, the way it always did, but I knew it'd only last for seconds, so I didn't mind.

I opened my eyes again when the air around me began to grow cold, and I could feel people walking past me. I was standing on cobblestones, on a square, surrounded by houses. Around me, it was really busy. The square was filled with people, and every single one of them was carrying some sort of tool or something else. I thought that they were building their town back up, and my guess was proved right when I saw a sign with the words "Baker Benett: Best Bread of Dale".

I was in Dale, and I was really happy about that.

That meant that I wasn't far away from the Lonely Mountain, and not far away from my friends. It was probably only a walk of a couple of hours. I let out a sigh of relief, and it wasn't until then that I noticed that some woman on the other side of the square had stopped walking and was wispering to a man. They were pointing at me. I grinned at them and waved. The woman walked towards me.

"Do we know you?" she asked, somewhat suspiciously.

I shook my head.

"Don't think so," I replied, shrugging. "That'd be really weird, don't you think, seeing as I've never been here before."

The two villagers shared a look.

"We must take you to the King. Come."

These guys weren't all too friendly, but I was willing to do what I was asked to do. If they decided to lock me up, it'd take me even longer to be in time for the meeting.

The man and the woman led me through a couple of wide streets, and then the man knocked on a door.

"Come in," a voice replied.

The woman, who had grabbed my wrist by then, probably so that I wouldn't run away, pushed the door open, to reveal a half-finished room. The stone throne in the middle of the chamber was empty, to my surprise, and to my accompanists'.

The man shuffled his feet awkwardly for a moment before a man came walking towards him. He was holding a hammer in his hand, and his forehead was covered in small drops of sweat. He was wearing simple clothes: a brown shirt, grey trousers, and black boots. The funny thing was that he was, in fact, the king of Dale, but he didn't look like a king at all.

The man and the woman, who were standing on each side of me, bowed, and so did I, though I was pretty amused by all this.

"King Bard," the woman said after he had straightened up again. "We found this stranger on the square. I do not know how she got past the guards."

"We thought it would be wise to let our King decide what to do with her," the man added.

Bard gave a nod, and the man dropped his gaze. I, on the other side, looked the King straight in the eyes. The other people in the room must've thought that I had no respect inside of me, but I knew when someone liked to be treated like a king, and Bard certainly didn't. He was just a normal man.

"Good thinking, Aveline and Ricchar," he said to the man.

Then he turned to me, bending a little forwards to study my face, probably because I was really small. I had to force myself to not look offended. He squinted a little.

"I believe I have seen you before," he said slowly. "The Tale-Changer, am I right? Sam."

I nodded.

"Bilbo told you about me when he brought you guys the Arkenstone, didn't he?"

"Yes. Yes, he did."

Bard straightened up.

"What brings you here?" he asked me. "Any tales to change? Did something go wrong?"

I let out a chuckle at his worried tone.

"No, just visiting," I replied. "I came to see my friends again."

Bard nodded understandingly.

"The Dwarves in the Lonely Mountain, I assume?"

"Yep."

"I hope you aren't planning on inviting the Orcs?" he asked, half jokingly. It reminded me of something I had said last year.

Grinning, I shook my head. I didn't want to start a war, and get people killed. Again.

Little did I know that the Dwarves – or some of them, at least – had something else in mind.

A/N:

Dun-dun-dun-duuuunnnnn!

No, not really. Just a mention of a war. That will come.

Slightly longer chapter this time, and there are quite some things that've been revealed (Sam's family? Some more things about her ring? The stuff that happened to Dale after the Battle of the Five Armies? There's a war coming and not even Sam knows of it?) but, as I said earlier, there might be some things that I'll change. I'm not sure yet if that Distapo thing will work, or what exactly I'm going to do with it (yes, I'm very bad at planning, I just get ideas and then they have to be in that story, no matter what). So... I'm not sure where I was going with this Author's Note, but oh well.

Also THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ONE THOUSAND AND FIFTY VIEWS! It really means a lot to me. Thank you, and I love you, guys! (okay, that sounded cheesy, but you get what I mean, right?)

xxx