Summary: Isabel wakes up in a world not her own, unaware that she had landed at the time of War. To make it worse, she had the unfortunate luck to find the One Ring the others are after. Suspicion. Loneliness and awkwardness. Her time in Middle Earth will not be an easy one…AUnish.

Author’s Note: After a while of writing for the Harry Potter fandom, I’ve decided to dip into the LoTR pool. Sure, the idea of a girl dropping into ME is overdone, but I’ve been interested in writing one for a while. As I did not want to make the story the same as the rest, I’ve decided to twist the original storyline by a margin -or two- and see what would happen from there. Which is how I came up with the plotline for this story.

Like the majority of my stories, I will try to make the OC as realistic as possible. Well, as realistic as a stranger waking up to ME will react, that is!

This story has not been beta’d. Flames will be laughed at and will likely be countered.

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Chapter One:
Awakening

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A player must accept the cards life deals him or her.
But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide
how to play the cards in order to win the game.

- Voltaire

Nothing disturbed her sleep; in fact, she was not much of a light sleeper to begin with. For starter, she always slept with her radio clock turned on; music was something that lulled her to sleep, so it wasn’t a bother to her at all. Secondly, unless the night wasn’t cold, she would not bother searching for her blanket that had slipped off from bed. In the end, Isabel could practically sleep through any sounds that anyone could possibly make. That involved ignoring the source, which in return gave her the time she needed to dedicate to her dreams.

That is until she felt something against her cheek; rough in texture and obviously not her pillow. Her body was no longer in a comfortable position, as she was laying stomach down - a position she rarely slept on. Along with the roughness of her strange bedding, she could feel the unyielding surface her body laid upon. Her arms -which were naked- felt the prickly sting of grass. Her hands where laid palm-down, into which she slowly burrow her fingers on the flat surface, only to clutch grass. Quickly, she opened her eyes.

It took her a second or two before her sight adjusted to the world, took her another second to pull herself off from the floor she was laying on. Now kneeling and with her heart quickly beating against her chest, she began observing what stood before her.

There was no room. No apartment buildings. No streets. No cars. No nothing. The ground was practically plain as far as her eyes could see. There was the rocks and hills, the large amount of grassland that covered the surface but there were no trees. There was also no sight of civilization either. It was apparent that she was no longer in her city, much less in the same state by the looks of it.

A sudden gust of wind came from behind her, her dark, shoulder length hair whipping along with it. Turning towards the sky, she saw the ominous looking clouds, and as she stared, she could see them slowly moving. She could not tell time, much less guess how long she has been sleeping on the hill. ‘Where the hell am I?!’ she thought, as she began slowly scanning her surrounding again. Turning on her knees, she finally saw something very different from what she saw earlier.

There was no guessing of the distance, but she was sure it was not a three-minute walk to reach it. From afar, she could see trees and lots of them. It was a forest, a forest standing amidst the plains she was now upon. It was apparent that the trees did not take up with the rest of the land, as it appeared that it rounded at the end. The geography of the land she had awoken to did not correspond to what she had learned, with the forest and the plains. Then again, she had no clue.

Another strong wind met her face-on, and unlike last time, she felt the cold weather around her. Looking down she saw she still wore the same clothes she went to bed in, which was a relief. Either way, the clothes she was wearing was not the perfect choice for the situation she was in, especially if those dark-looking clouds were just waiting to let the rain fall. She had purposely slept in a white tank top, the straps of her black bra now peaking from underneath. Wearing a pair of black, white stripe, gym pants, she appeared to be ready to go out for a run - which was not the case. Isabel had purposely went to bed that way, as a way to get an early start the following morning; the day she should had awoken to was commercially known as ‘Black Friday’ the day after Thanksgiving. So sleeping in the clothes she was now wearing had been the perfect strategy. It is then, that she realized she was not wearing shoes.

Shoes are important in a situation like this, so waking up to see she had none was not a good thing. Isabel did not know whether it was even safe to walk around barefooted, especially if people had ventured around here; she had once cut her foot with broken glass when she was sixteen, only to receive seven stitches as a reward for it, which was a situation she did not want to revisit again. Having no other choice, she finally stood up, relieving her knees of the hard pressure against the flat and uneven land.

Standing in her full height did not give her an advantage. The sights still looked the same; perhaps she did notice a “bit” more but nothing different. Then again, she was only 5’4” and that was not a desiring height to begin with. She began rubbing her upper arms, as a way to keep the cold from being absorbed. ‘Should have slept in that sweater after all, then again I had never thought of waking up in this’ she thought, as she looked over her surroundings again.

There was no sign of time but she knew she still had to do something; the clouds now promise rain and there was no shelter in sight, unless she was a bug into which she could have just crawled under one of the many rocks. Being twenty-two, there was no reason to start freaking out now -which she already had- but she had to put her common sense into practice. Standing out in the plain is a bad idea, walking towards the forest would provide some shelter. Maybe even create a shabby shelter to stay for the night or something, but she was not good at building things from scrap. Looking around to see whether there was anything of hers -which was none- she started her trek towards the forest.

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The wind was getting stronger, and there was even a scent of rain but that was yet to make its appearance. Isabel could not tell how long she has been walking, but the sight of the forest was becoming more real which was a positive thing. If anything, she could clearly tell the day was turning to night, either by the clouds hovering one another or the day was really coming to an end. Either case, she was reaching the forest, a more likely shelter. Albeit, her feet were not happy for walking on the rough terrain.

The forest from afar looked like any other forest, but as she got much closer the trees were becoming taller, the thought of making a shelter out of it was not becoming a pleasant idea. The light of day was dimming, it was apparent that she must have woken in the afternoon, a very irrelevant information now. But the forest did not look all-too friendly, which was something that confused her as forest were supposed to look…normal. Not dark, nor spooky. Perhaps the light of the day made it possible to stay in, but now it was not becoming the first choice. Hesitant, she decided to go forward, as far as she could go to it at least.

It was decided, she was not going to walk into the forest, much less stay in it. Standing five feet away from entering, Isabel let out an audible sigh. How was it possible that from afar, the forest looked livable but now, as she was much closer it looked like a death trap? Not only was it dark, but it gave her a strange feeling, the closest she could compare it to, would be walking in a dark alley or something like it. It just did not sit well with her, walking into the forest would be a bad idea, especially since there was no way she could defend herself from some wild animal. There had been two choices she made, as she walked toward the forest. One involved going inside and finding shelter, the other was to walk around it instead. Her choice was clear as day, she will be picking on the latter.

Night has fallen, and a strange sound was coming from within the forest. As she had been walking on the edge of it, she heard the noises. The majority of them could have been a bird or two, but there was one particular sound, a strange sound. It was none she had heard of. It had sounded like a groan, which was impossible, as there was nothing in the natural world that could possibly make that sound. Perhaps it was her mind playing games on her, but it was far too early for that to happen. Sure, she was getting hungry but that was no cause for her brain to start making up sounds. Sighing, she continued on her unknown path.

‘How long have I’ve been walking? Better yet, where the hell…’ “AM I?!” She screamed out into the darkness, into the air, into the world she has awoken up to. There was no sense of time; the sky no longer shone with whatever light it had. It was night, alright and she was becoming frustrated, if not scared. She was alone, hungry and tired. Her feet were not feeling particularly happy, with the stones and the sharp twigs that she stepped on. Then there was the cold, the awful cold that her bones seem too quickly to absorb! Though walking had kept it at bay, she needed the rest. A rest that will surely guarantee the cold will continue bothering her; walking had kept the coldness at bay, as it made her body mobile and in return generated some warmth.

Just then, there was a sudden crunch from the sky above, and no sooner did fat raindrops started falling upon her. Frantically, Isabel began looking around for some shelter, which was futile, as she had decided she would not walk into the dreary looking forest. With no other option, she quickly began looking over to the plains. There were rocks and hills and obviously, there was no shelter to be made out of them. Quickening her pace, she continued to move forward.

The rain was now pouring in sheets, the strong winds were not helping either; her hair was no longer damp, half of what she was wearing was practically soaked through. Each step she took, her feet will sink into mud. There was no chance now of ever finding a shelter and her option of walking into the forest was becoming much more appealing. It is then that she came across a large rock that overlooked the trees; a hollow was formed into its wall, perhaps not much of a shelter for a human, but she decided that it was the next best thing for a shelter.

With her knees pulled into her chest, Isabel began slowly rocking her body to the side as she continue hearing the splat splat of rain falling against the now sodden grounds. The hollow barely gave her shelter, and if she were to outstretch her legs, they would have surely gotten wet. Her hair now hanged limply beside her face, her clothes now sticking to her body; the winds that reached her caused her to shiver, only rocking her body will keep the cold at bay. Waiting for the rain to stop, she began thinking over the situation she barely gave herself time to think over.

She had questioned, had wondered the bizarre possible reasons why she was here. Perhaps she was kidnapped, but why in the world will anyone want to do that, much less drop her in some strange location? Modernization had reached the farthest corners of earth, surely, she should have come upon some civilization by now. As much as she pondered, as much as she spoke to herself, there was no definite answer. It was practically useless to wonder how she came to this land. It appeared as she had been literally dropped into a location, but somehow it had not awakened her up from said dropping. Then there was her parents, her brother and sister. Where were they? But that would lead back to the same question she kept asking to herself, ‘WHY?’

The rain had stopped, and it is then that she heard it. It was very much a still night, and her view could only go so far without the light to guide her. It could already be ten, midnight or even two in the morning, but whatever time it was, there was something out there. With her hands still cupped over her mouth, she had heard it faintly. Whatever it was, it was not near and that was a relief. Though faint in sound, she could still make out the cries and the screams. Keeping herself still, she continued hearing them. It continued, but there was shouts added to the mix; there was nothing she could make out of it, the source was far from where she was sheltered. Whatever it was, it had made Isabel uneasy. With her feet now outstretched, she pushed her back into the rock. Those sounds, those screams… those were not being made out for fun, but surely out of pain. Whatever had caused them could possibly find her, and that is the last thing she wanted.

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