Lord of the Rings 1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

A/N: This story takes place in the year 2016. This is my first real fic, so I don't know if it'll turn out to be good. Please, bear with me. The events in this story are all just made up. Oh, and the good stuff might not start for a while. Please, like I said before, bear with me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings.

Lisa woke up to the sounds of her alarm clock waking her up. Her favourite Maroon 5 song was being streamed by the radio. She glanced at her alarm clock on the bedside table. 5:23. Ugh. A while after Lisa had graduated from West Point Military Academy, she had been dispatched to a military base in Georgia. Graduation had been great. She was more than glad to be moving on to greater things. But she hadn't known how tough Georgia army dudes would be and how much harder the real world was compared to the Academy. Every day was long and hard. She loved it, but at the same time, wanted to go home and sleep for a long while and come back again when she was fully recharged. Special Forces was so demanding.

Before she was sent to Georgia, she had been told that she would train with the Georgia people and get ready to be dispatched to Somalia to give them aid and take out the evil warlord and all that good stuff. The situation in Somalia had gotten worse and they needed all the help they could get. But what no one else outside of this base knew was that this operation was not what it seemed. No, nothing at all.

Grinning as she thought about this, Lisa got ready for the day. She tied her hair up in a tight bun and put on her usual combats. This was going to be a good day.

After breakfast, she drove her way from her house to the meeting room at headquarters. She held back her excitement as she neared the room. She had been waiting for this meeting for so long! This was the meeting where all of the operation details would be revealed. She entered the room.

"Have a seat, Lieutenant Scott", said the Colonel at the head of the long table. Colonel Long.

She replied with a respectful "sir" and sat down at her place next to her friend, Mark Brewster. The colonel started his lecture/speech/thing. "As you all know, you have all been chosen to partake in this mission. I know I don't need to say this, but I'll say it anyway. Any word of this mission to anyone outside of this base will result in an immediate release. I know none of you want to be fired. Neither can we afford that." He paused at that, and looked around the room to see that everyone was still listening. He moved on, "Research has shown that there is another world out there. Another dimension, if you will. What's more, is that we have done some tests. We've successfully sent a canine to this other world with a bug attached to it. It wound up in a medieval style city. After some speculation through the canine, we picked up some facts. The citizens of this world have the ability to fight. We retrieved the canine, with success." This earned some applause.

"While our regular forces go to Somalia to give aid, a select few from our branch will venture into said dimension. I've already picked who based on who has shown dedication and skill, so don't get too excited. Looking good in front of me now won't change anything. The remainder of you will assist in this, details will come later at a later meeting. So, travelers, your job will be to collect these fighters and bring them back here so they can assist us in this operation. You may think I'm crazy, but we need to face the truth. Desperate times call for desperate measures. As part of the UN, we need to take action. Here are the few who will venture into that world. He took out a tablet and read, "Major Calvert, Lieutenant Hall, Lieutenant Foster, and Lieutenant Scott."

Lisa gaped. Lieutenant Scott. That was her! She would go into that world! Great! That would definitely earn her something. She had always been one for battle glory.

A/N: Kinda sucky, but I hope it wasn't atrocious at least. Review!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1.

A/N: The fun stuff doesn't start for a while. Bear with me, please. And thanks for the reviews, guys!

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings.

When the meeting was over, Lisa went straight to her room to pack, as she had been told. The thought of going to another dimension was quite exciting. It was like she was in the movies! She grinned to herself at the thought.

"Scott! Hey, wait up!" It was her friend, Lieutenant Brewster.

She gave him a smile and waited for him to catch up. When he did, he patted her on the back and said, "I'd kill for a chance like that. I gotta say, I'm jealous of you and the others. Seriously, that's just sick. Another world, seriously! It doesn't get more sick than that!" And now, he pelted her with remarks of congratulations. "Thanks!" Lisa exclaimed. "I feel so good about this. Oh, and my parents are gonna be so proud." She went on and on and on about it, until she realized that Brewster wasn't listening.

"What's wrong?"

"I thought I'd get a chance to go too. But really, what are the chances of that? I mean, we've got you and Hall and Foster. I guess you guys don't need me because you guys are already a pretty badass team."

"Hey, don't feel-"

"No, it's fine. You don't need to say anything. It's not like I deserve it or anything. I should get used to being under everyone's shadow." After saying this, he looked up with a small smile and said, "Oh, don't let me ruin this for you. Go have fun, get ready for your brave adventure. I'll see you later."

"Come on man, it's not-" she started.

"Going into another world, aww yeah!" A loud, enthusiastic voice made its way towards the two. It was 2nd Lieutenant Hall, Lisa's best friend. "Are you stoked? Cause I'm stoked." He made his way to them and gave Lisa a little friendly punch on the arm and patted Brewster's shoulder. Brewster said, "I'll go now. You two have fun. Now wake me up tomorrow before you go. I wanna see you off." With that, he was gone. Lisa remembered their conversation, but with her best friend around and the mission that was placed on their heads, she couldn't remain all that serious for long.

Lisa and her friend went off and went outside. It was dark already. They lay down and looked up at the fading light. Hall turned to Lisa and said, "When we get back, guess what we'll be."

"We'll be heroes!" Lisa answered with joy.

"That's right. Imagine this, getting a bunch of little cadets, commanding respect from everyone. Oh, I've only been dreaming about this since, oh, I don't know-"

"Ever since grade 11" she finished for her best friend. The two had been best friends since Grade 10. They had met in school and they had already had plans to join the army. The years had passed and they had become even closer after they completed their Basic Training Officer Course. Hard times tend to make people closer to each other. They pretty much went through everything together. "Just think, we've done projects together, graduated from high school and college together, done Basic Training together, and now we're going to another dimension together. That sounds pretty fricking legit to me."

"Just think, we'll be among the first ones to walk in another dimension. I mean, what is that? Legit, that's what it is."

They sat in a comfortable silence. "Hey, Evan, do you think the people there even speak English?"

Evan Hall thought for a second. "I hope they do, but even if they don't, I think I'm quite prepared. I mean, unlike you, I took a language in high school. Oh, sorry, I mean I took 3 languages in high school.

Lisa punched her friend playfully and he said, "Hey! It's not my fault you can't speak French to save your life! Or Arabic, for that matter. Or Spanish..."

"Oh, you little studious creature. Don't forget, I do speak German, and a bit of Korean." Lisa said fondly to her friend.

The two spent some time laughing and celebrating, now even imagining what misfortunes could befall them in the near future.

The next morning, Lisa took out her bag that she had packed yesterday. And she remembered to bring along her everyday necessities. iPod, check. Earphones, check. Solar-powered charger, check. iPad, check. Aaaaand with that she was ready!

She found the colonel and her new travel companions in the "transportation" room. And Brewster, there to say good-bye and good luck to them.

The machine looked like the weirdest thing. It was simple, but not at the same tine. It had chairs, no, little egg-like box-like things, a load of buttons, and a bunch of huge cameras attached to it.

The colonel said, "I hope you have success on your mission. I'm hoping you can all come back in one piece and in 6 weeks. I do apologize for the little amount of knowledge we have of this land. But there isn't much we can do about that."

The scientist man informed them, "With these coordinates, you should all land in the same place our dog landed in. So just walk a few kilometers and you'll find the city. It's a white city with white stones...just look for the whitest city you've ever seen. Put these in." He gave them all little chips to put in their ears. And he clipped on little cameras onto their suits.

"Huh. White city. That sounds familiar. Reminds me of Lord of the Rings", she thought inside her head. Lord of the Rings had been her greatest obsession when she was in high school.

Then the scientist man told the four to go into the egg things. They did so, and Lisa felt a shudder run down her spine. Maybe that was the egg and its other worldliness or maybe it was just her imagination. Either way, it was cool. Excitement filling her up, she curled up into the little egg, kind of feeling like a baby chick. Being the smallest member, it was easy to fit in. It felt like being born again from an egg, only as a human, not a chicken. The thought made her laugh a bit. She shook her head and brought herself back to reality. The man pushed a bunch of buttons. One of the buttons closed the eggs and sealed everyone inside them. The man warned, "This might feel a bit queasy. Good luck." Then he pressed another button, which sent them on their way.

Colonel Long looked up and said, "Are they on their way? Has it been successful?"

The scientist said, "Yes, it has, and they should be getting there in approximately 2 minutes." There was a countdown starting on one of the monitors. The Colonel said, "Lieutenant Brewster, would you mind giving me a coffee from the next room?" Brewster looked up and with a slight look of annoyance, muttered, "Of course, sir," and went to get the coffee. The colonel turned to the scientist and asked, "And we get them back by simply pressing some codes?"

The scientist replied with a yes and, "The sane procedure with the dog. I know exactly how to get them back. Don't worry, sir."

The colonel was about to nod and say something but he was hit in the head by something. Something hot. Something liquid. "Aaah!" He yelled in pain. After that, he was kicked in the leg and fell down to the floor. A tranquilizer dart was then shot into his neck, making the colonel fall into a deep sleep, all in lightning fast motion. The scientist looked panicked and said, "If you're smart, you won't come anywhere near this machine, the colonel, or me." He then called, "Help! Room 126! Help!"

With a small grin, the man said, "Help won't be of any aid, at least not against what in going to do now." He shot the scientist with not a tranquilizer gun, but with a pistol. The scientist fell to the floor immediately and started gasping short breaths. The man heard guards coming and thought, "Better hurry up." He ran to the machine and changed the coordinate buttons and broke some other buttons in the process.

"No..." the scientist breathed.

The man smiled and said, "They're not coming back. Ever." Then he broke all the other buttons he could see.

While this went on, the scientist had a look of horror on his face. The last thing he ever saw was the smiling, contorted, evil face of Lieutenant Brewster.

Lisa felt like she was being pushed as fast as she ever thought was possible. She was never really one who could stand dizziness. She felt like throwing up. This was terrible, really. She closed her eyes shut. She felt her body get slightly colder. Why was this? She wondered. She risked an eye open and took a look around her. She could see that the eggshell-like thing had fallen off her body. Good riddance. It was getting hot in that thing anyway. Wait a second. That meant she was falling...falling fast into the ground probably with no covering whatsoever. She was gonna die, she was sure of it. She'd never get to see her parents, she'd never get to see her friends. No more training, no more nothing, no more-

"Oof!"

She slammed into the ground on her side.

"Oh. Ah, that hurts. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Shit, that's gonna leave a mark. Dude, that hurts like hell." She tried to get up. "Oh, that's painful, that's painful." She tried to get up on her other side, groaning and cursing in pain as she did so. She got up at last but felt dizzy. She saw something approaching her. Or was it? Maybe she was just seeing things. She wasn't sure. Before she could think any more, she slammed into the ground. Again. Hard. She went unconscious and barely felt her gun digging into her back. She didn't feel anything, really. She did, however feel some warm blood filling up inside her suit before she went unconscious. Oh, that blood sure was warm.

Lisa woke up feeling lightheaded. She saw someone look up at her. "Where am I?" she asked. It was the first and last thing she did before slamming her head hard right back into her pillow and drifting quickly back into unconsciousness.

She woke up again. This time, she felt normal. There were a few spots that hurt. Her side, where her gun had poked her and by the looks of it, she had gotten a broken arm. At least she wasn't dead. She looked around to find the others. When she couldn't find them, she panicked. To calm herself down, she tried to think sensibly. "Maybe I slept in and they're all just having dinner or breakfast or lunch or something. I probably missed it, and they're all just in the next room, eating." Right when she came to this conclusion, someone walked in the room. Automatically, she reacted. "Evan! Evan Hall, I was so worried about you!" But it wasn't him.

It was a another man. He had long hair. Not as long as hers, which a few centimeters below her shoulders, but it was still long. Huh. That wasn't Evan. Nope, not at all. So, it looked like the US was going to be taking a bunch of long-haired men to form an alliance and all that epic stuff.

"So you have come to at last. Lord Denethor wishes to speak with you."

Denethor? Maybe she had died and gone to Lord of the Rings heaven. That had been her idea of heaven when she was younger and had more time to be a proper Lord of the Rings geek. Back to business.

"Oh, and who are you?" she asked. "I'm Lisa. Lisa Scott. Lieutenant Scott, to be more formal. I have been an LotR fan for, I don't know...a while. Pleased to meet you. Even though it took me a whole lifetime for me to go to LotR heaven. Well, not a lifetime, more like a quarter of a lifetime. Good enough. Being dead isn't so bad... Although she had hoped for someone other than Denethor, but could she complain? No, not really. This was not what she thought it would be.

The man, who was now a bit puzzled, having no idea what she was talking about, looked at her with a look of slight horror in his eyes. "I believe you are alive. I know not what you speak of, not in the slightest, but I still believe Lord Denethor would like to have a word with you."

"So I'm not dead?"

"No, you are not."

"So I'm alive?"

"Yes."

"So, I'm in..."

"Gondor." the man supplied for her.

"Gondor as in Minas Tirith?"

"Yes, Minas Tirith, the White City," the man said with a note of pride in his voice.

Looks like I'm not in Kansas anymore...

The door opened at that moment. It was...it was...it was, no, it couldn't be him! Especially if she was still alive. Boromir?! Seriously, this couldn't be...She remembered that she had had a crush on Boromir for as ling as she had been a fan of LotR, which was funny, actually, now that she thought about it.

They told her she'd be going to another world. They never said it was Middle-earth. There was a slight difference between just world and Middle-earth. I mean, seriously...this was just, what was the word...this was...awesome!

"Welcome..." Boromir (Oh my God, Boromir?!) paused and gave her a questioning look.

Lisa, in a state of shock, said, "Lisa, my name's Lisa. Lisa Scott."

"Welcome, Lisa Scott. Welcome to Gondor."

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	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2.

A/N: Hey, so if you're confused about anything, please let me know. Oh, and review please! I don't mind if it's negative or positive; they'll both help me. Not a great chapter but I promise, this one I wrote at 3 in the morning. Oh, and I'm thinking about making my fic into a Tenth walker fic. I'll try to make it good. I apologize if I made any mistakes about the military or army or anything. I don't know much about the US army (I'm not American, either).

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings.

"Lord Boromir?" Lisa whispered. Boromir had always been one of her favorites, and he was a character from the best movies ever. So she couldn't complain. "I must say I'm quite honored to meet you, sir."

Boromir was dressed in a simple tunic and his thin brownish-reddish hair grazed his shoulders, just barely. He didn't look like he was forty, like Sean Bean was when he had been in the Lord of the Rings. He looked younger, but still pretty similar to Sean Bean. He looked to be in about his late twenties.

The man that she had first seen bowed respectfully to Boromir and left the room.

She looked down and realized that she had been dressed in a simple white gown, instead of her combat uniform and she was barefoot instead of in her combat boots.

Boromir looked at her and said, "I'm happy to meet you as well, Lady Lisa."

Lisa blushed a bit at the "Lady" and asked, "Where are my companions?"

At this, Boromir looked confused. "I did not see any others when I found you. It was only you."

Lisa groaned. "So the machine failed or what?" How were they faring? Where were they? For all she knew, they could be in Rohan or Rivendell or Lothlorien or maybe even Mirkwood. Or maybe...maybe even Isengard. Or worse, Mordor. Oh, no. They could be in danger.

Seeing Lisa's distressed face, Boromir asked, "Is something troubling you, Milady?"

Lisa said to herself, "This mission was supposed to go right! How are we all gonna find each other now? This wasn't even supposed to be a problem!" She got up and wobbled a bit. Boromir went to steady her.

"Milady, if you would tell me what's wrong, I could help you out of your distress."

Lisa said, "Oh, I don't know how to tell you."

Boromir said, "Tell me. I'll try to be understanding."

Lisa was panicking. She said, "Okay, you're not supposed to even exist. You're-"

Boromir looked at her like she had gone mad. He asked her, "I am not supposed to exist?"

Lisa said, "No, that's not what I meant. I mean, you're just fictional!" She stopped talking and attempted to calm down. She started again. She assumed Boromir wouldn't make any bad choices if she told him stuff. "So, I am not from here. I am from another world. And in said world, you guys, you guys as in you, you dad, your brother, Gondor, Rohan, heck, all of Middle-earth don't exist except in a book. And a movie. But the point is, you guys are just characters from a very famous book! Did any of that make sense?"

Boromir said, "You do sound rather...odd at the moment... Could you, perhaps, prove it?"

Lisa said, "Sure, if you can help me find my stuff. Then I can prove it."

Boromir called for a man to get her bag. When thy arrived, she said, "Where's my gun? I swear I had it with me. The blasted thing dug a hole through my side..."

Boromir said, "If you are talking about that heavy black piece of metal, I'm afraid I have...I had to destroy it." He said this rather sheepishly.

"Sorry? Could you say that again? Destroy it? And I never even got to shoot it in a real life situation..."

Boromir said defensively, "It was dangerous. It looked too menacing so I had it destroyed. And it was not an easy task."

Lisa groaned and said, "Damn. That thing was mighty fine...I woulda loved to have shot it, at least one more time..."

She reminded herself to get back on track. She knew Boromir was probably really confused here. She'd get him to pay later for breaking her gun. Oh, her precious M22... Anyway, she pulled out her iPod, iPad, earphones, and her clothes, showing them to him. She had packed a lot of clothes. She had even packed her civilian clothing. Her favorite knee length boots were there as well. She had made sure to bring those. After all, she only had two pairs of combats. No one would want to wear the same thing every day. Not to mention the amount of sweat they'd make..." She was going off on tangents here. She got back to reality.

She turned on her iPod, unlocked it and showed him the screen. He hesitantly pressed the "App Store" button. It didn't have Internet, so it didn't load. But he seemed awestruck all the same. "Fancy, huh?" Boromir looked up at her and said, "This is what you have in your world?" Lisa sighed in relief, "Yes. So you do believe me about coming from another world? Because I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. It's all I can say."

Still looking skeptical, Boromir said, "I do not know, but you should meet my father and speak to him about this tomorrow. For now, I will go and give you time to think."

Denethor. Oh, right. Him. Yay. "Okay bye," Lisa replied.

She watched Boromir walk away. She was in Middle-earth. In Middle. Earth. What? This had been her dream in high school. She had still wanted it after high school; she just didn't get the time to think about it at all and it was unrealistic. So, technically, it was still her dream. Now she was living the dream. She had met Boromir! Aaand she had a huge mission to do. And with that, an avalanche of troubling thoughts came crashing down on her.

Now, how was she even to go about completing this task? It seemed to get more impossible by the second. Really, these people had problems of their own to deal with. They had a war to fight too. They had Sauron to deal with. And how was she supposed to convince them? Say, "Hey, my world needs help fighting a war. Can you come help us and ignore your own world?" That wasn't reasonable. They'd never agree to it. But if she refused to do it, she'd never get that promotion. Maybe she would eventually, but she wanted to excel, not be the same as everyone else. Her only hopes and dreams in life were to excel in what she did and be someone everyone wanted to be. To her, pride had always come first. Always. There were some other things on the side that she valued a lot too. Honor. Maybe a sprinkle of fame too. That was all she really wanted in life. Her friends had always teased her about how she was "over-ambitious" and honor hungry. Oh, and of course they'd never stop teasing her about being stubborn and reckless. Oh, she did hate that.

But how was she even supposed to go about achieving her goals in life when she loved LotR too much to let Middle-earth crumble? She didn't want to let Middle-earth die on her account, but she also needed to do her part as a US Army Officer. The whole Middle-earth thing seemed like a childish dream but it wasn't. Not now. They were real.

While she thought about this, she shuffled through her bag to remember what she had brought with her. She found her earpiece that she had arrived with. Quickly, she put it on and pressed the ON button. She said, "This is Delta 2. Delta 2 to Alpha 1." She waited for Colonel Long to respond. She worried for a second that they had lost their connection. But her fears were put aside when she heard the colonel's voice. "Alpha 1 to Delta 2, acknowledged." Lisa said, "Sir, can you please tell me where the others are. I'm not with them. I've reached the White City, but the others haven't. And did you know, this is Middle-earth! Tolkien's Middle-earth! It's real! Crazy, isn't it, sir?"

There was silence for a moment. Then the colonel spoke, "I'm afraid, I'm afraid... I'll get right to the point with you. I am afraid that you cannot come back."

His words were like a slap in the face. "Sorry?"

"I apologize, I am sorry I have to say this. But Lieutenant Brewster broke the machine while you were getting sent. He did it during the process, Scott."

"H-how?"

He used a tranquilizer dart to get me out of the way and he murdered our scientist and broke the machines and changed the coordinates while he was at it. Scott, no one else knows how to fix the machine. It's completely broken. With our scientist gone...At least Brewster's in prison now..." There was a pause for a few seconds. Then he yelled, "I was such a fool! I shouldn't have trusted him! It's a miracle this earpiece even works. I'm sorry, I've failed you all. I have tried to get through to everyone else. I spoke to Hall and Calvert, but Foster...I don't know what happened to him. I have failed you all. I'm asking you to abort the mission." Not like she had much choice. He went on about how he had failed them all.

Lisa stopped listening. She couldn't go home. She would never achieve her goals. Her hopes and dreams meant nothing anymore. She would never see her friends again. She would never see the proud looks on her parents' faces when she would say that she had helped end the Somalian war. Damn it all. Damn it, damn everything! Lisa went hysterical then. She threw her earpiece down to the floor and threw herself onto the bed. Why did she even have to fight someone else's war in the first place?! Somalia should deal with their own problems! Leave America out of it! If they didn't have this problem, they never would have had to come here! Why was she robbed of everything she had ever cared about?! She was only 22. Life had turned from brilliant to crap. Utter crap. She thought about how she had been one of the most popular officers in the whole intake. She had been popular everywhere and she lived off of it. Without that, what was she going to do here? No point in working on the mission. It's not like there'd be much point. That's why she was so excited to be a higher ranking officer. Then, she'd be too valuable to use on missions such as this.

She thought angrily about this and let the horrible truth sink in. Then she remembered what the Colonel had said. Brewster had done this. Stupid Brewster! Stupid mission! It had taken everything away from her! She'd never complete the mission. Hell, she'd be lucky to even get home.

She punched her pillow for about 10 minutes and let out a scream. A few times, a maid would come in and ask what was wrong, then scurry away. She paid no attention to them. She was too angry and shaken to care.

When evening came, she changed out of her gown and into her civilian clothing. She was now clad in her favorite gray knee length boots, jeans, a black leather jacket, a simple purple V-neck top, and she put a belt on. She brushed her straight red hair and looked in the mirror. Good. She looked more...Earth-like. Her belongings were her last reminders of home. She had packed more clothes, and the thought comforted her. She liked the idea of having more reminders. (And she would have to use those combats a lot later as well). She didn't know what to think about this whole Lord of the Rings business and she didn't feel ready to think about that yet. But enough of this self-pity, she decided.

Lisa left the room and went for a walk, after she'd calmed down. She didn't know her way but she wasn't going to go far. She made her way over to the Tree. The White Tree of Gondor. It looked just as it had in the movie. Dead, quiet, and sad. Soon this place was going to be at war as well.

She walked over to the edge of the tier. The cold night air touched her and she welcomed it. It felt good. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I see I'm not the only one who comes out here to think."

She whipped her eyes open and turned around to face Boromir. "Hello there."

"Hello, Lady Lisa," he said politely. "What troubles you?"

"I don't want to put my troubles on you." Lisa said. This would be too embarrassing. Whining about her life and issues to her favorite character from her favorite movie was a big no-no. Definitely a no-no.

Boromir asked, "What is so troubling that you feel the need to hide away your troubles?"

Lisa said, "You shouldn't press the matter."

Boromir replied, "Press too hard and the problem will burst. Press too little or not at all an the it will grow and later on, burst. Press just the right amount and it will fade away in time."

She smiled at Boromir. "You are not too bad with words, My Lord."

Boromir gave a small smile. "Oh, you jest, My Lady. That was but a small excuse of a speech. It is naught but a drop in the ocean compared to what my brother would say."

That reminded her. "Where is Faramir?"

"How do you know my brother's name?" Boromir said, suddenly wary.

"I told you, where I'm from, there's books written about you guys. So I know who you are and your brother."

"Do you know of what will happen in the future then?" he asked.

Lisa remembered Boromir's future. Every time she had watched it in the movies, she had wanted to go back in time and change his fate. She carefully replied to him, "Yeah, but nothing's set in stone."

Boromir asked warily, "How do you know of the future?"

Lisa said, "Well, I read the books and watched the movie about Middle-earth and that left me with all this knowledge."

Boromir, not quite believing her, challenged, "Then how is it that you, someone who hails from another world, were just miraculously dropped here?"

Lisa said, "Well, a machine brought me here."

"Machine..." Boromir tried out the word on his tongue. Then he said, "And why did you ask this...machine...to bring you here?"

Lisa inwardly groaned. This was going to be tough to explain. "Well, to put in simply, long story short, I'm in the military back home, in my world. And my colonel has asked me to come here, with three others, to recruit people from here because we need to fight a battle that's going pretty badly. Yeah. But the machine's broken, so I can't get back. So I was told to abort the mission. So, I'm just a lost little traveler now. Yup." She waited for his reply.

"And what makes you think we will agree to simply go with you to another world? Not to mention that this world has never been known to us and no one here in Middle-earth has any connections to it."

Lisa said, "That's where you might not believe me. We came because we were desperate."

Boromir looked confused for a second. Then he hid away his confusion, replacing it with suspicion. "How do I know you are not just a spy from Sauron with a false story to cover up your identity? Or are you a spy of Saruman's? In these strange times, no one can be too wary."

Lisa said, "I swear, I'm not. What I said was all true. I can't make you believe me if you really can't believe what I'm saying, as this is a far-fetched tale, but I assure you, I am telling the truth."

Boromir thought for moment. "I cannot leave you here. I cannot leave you here in Gondor. Not until I can trust you."

"What do I have to do to earn some trust? I showed you all my stuff from Earth. Other than that, I don't have any more proof that I can give you."

"My father will speak to you when he comes back and put down a decision."

If she had been here under different circumstances, she might have been able to have made a better first impression on Boromir. Well, better start preparing a speech for Denethor.

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	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3.

A/N: Hey! I hope you're liking the story so far! To those of you who reviewed, I'm glad you are liking it, and thank you so much for reviewing! It means a lot. Enjoy! Oh, and comments, suggestions, and anything else pretty much are appreciated.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings.

Lisa's next few hours were spent making a suitable speech for Denethor. She didn't want to get on Denethor's bad side. That could mean death or severe punishment. Or maybe she was just being overdramatic. She focused on making her speech. She had always been okay with making speeches, having been in military college and all.

Something that kept entering her mind was this: what was she going to do now? She had to abort the mission now that there was no way back. She worried about the Somalia situation. What would they do? She couldn't do anything about it, but she couldn't help but worry. And she worried about her companions. Especially Evan.

While she was trying to get over the shock and sadness of not being able to return home, she also tried to plan out what she would do here, in Middle-earth. She had come up with a few options. 1) Find the others and then build a nice home somewhere in Gondor and live there until the end of her life. Or 2) Go to Rivendell and try to join the Fellowship and try to prevent Boromir's death. She loved Boromir, at least as a character, so she didn't want to watch him die if she could stop it. The latter sounded a bit Mary Sue-like, but she did want to save Boromir's life. She wanted to do it the more she thought about it. Not as much as she wanted to go home, but...still.

She decided that the best thing for her to do now was to go along with Option 2). She thought to herself, "Funny how even when I'm in a different world, I'm involved in a war." As much as she hated to admit it, being in another world, to be precise, Middle-earth, wasn't as terrible as she had thought earlier. Not preferable, but not terrible. Well, it was Middle-earth, and Lisa had always loved The Lord of the Rings. And she had met Boromir. So, she decided that since her purpose in life was not so clear anymore, she would make it her new goal to save Boromir's life and help defeat Sauron and end the War of the Ring.

As the hours passed, Lisa grew more and more nervous to talk to Denethor. He was an intimidating guy. Just as she was thinking this, a maid came to her hospital bed and told her, "Lord Denethor wishes to speak to you now."

Taking a deep breath, Lisa got up and followed the maid to Lord Denethor's meeting room. But apparently the meaning of "Denethor wishes to speak to you now" was something more like, "Denethor wishes to speak to you after he is finished talking to his youngest son." So now she had to wait outside his meeting room. Waiting was just going to make her more nervous. While she waited, she sat down and just out of habit (nervous habit) tapped her fingers on her legs quickly. It was a nervous habit that she had yet to get rid of. She rehearsed her speech over and over in her head. While she was doing this, Boromir had arrived as well. Only she didn't see him standing there.

When he noticed her sitting there, he was about to call to her, but wasn't sure if he should. She looked rather nervous and like she was about to burst. Despite his suspicions about her, he smiled, cleared his throat, stepped forward and said to her, "I see my father is good at making people feel nervous."

Startled, Lisa looked up. "Oh, hello, Lord Boromir. I was just waiting for your father to finish talking to your brother. The maid called me in a bit early, I guess."

Boromir sat down next to her and said, "You are quite nervous, and for good reason. But if you do not anger my father, you will be fine." Lisa thought about this.

She said, "Promise me one thing, Boromir." She paused for dramatic effect. "Promise me that if I take your advice, I will come out of that room alive and well." At this, Boromir laughed. He had a nice laugh. A deep chuckle came from his throat. Lisa laughed along with him.

That was when the heavy doors opened, quietly and fluidly. Another maid stepped out and said to the two, "Lord Denethor would like to see you both now." So they stepped into the big room. A grand looking chair was put in the middle of the white room, and on it sat Denethor, the steward of Gondor. On the side was seated another man. A younger man, who looked a lot like David Wenham. Faramir looked just like he had in the movies. She caught his eye and he gave her a small smile, she thought, of encouragement.

Lisa tried to be as confident as possible, which wasn't as hard as she had thought it would be. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Boromir, who had been beside her, made his way to the chair next to his father's and took a seat. As he sat down, he gave Lisa a reassuring glance and mouthed something that looked like, "I promise." This made Lisa feel a lot better.

"Come forth." Denethor's voice rang through the hall.

Lisa boldly made her way to the steward's chair and when she got there, she bowed. "Sir," she said respectfully, as she had seen characters do in various movies.

"And who might you be?"

Lisa cleared her throat and replied, "My name is Lisa Scott and I hail from a different world." When in doubt, just be honest. It had worked okay with Boromir.

"And why would you expect me to believe that? Another world? Please elaborate."

This was time to explain everything. And hope for the best. "Yes, I do understand that it is hard to believe. I come from a place known as America. I am in the American military and I was transported to this world for military purposes. A machine brought me here. Now, I know this makes no sense to you, but I assure you, it is the truth. I was sent here because one of the countries back in my world is in a state of war. As part of a group called the United Nations, America, my country, is obligated to help. I was sent here with three others to gather warriors and bring them back to my world. However, I learned earlier today that the machine that brought me here has broken down, meaning I have no way to go back to my own world. So I have aborted the mission." She finished her explanation with a little nod.

Denethor just sat there in his chair, silent. He was pondering the matter, not known what to make of it. His face betrayed no emotion. This made Lisa nervous, although she knew better than to show it. She waited for the steward of Gondor to come to a decision. Heck, she was waiting for him to say anything. At last, he spoke.

"Prove it."

Boromir stepped into the conversation, "Father, earlier today-"

"Prove that you are from another world," Denethor interrupted.

"Of course," Lisa answered. She brought out her bag of her belongings, that she had remembered to bring with her. She pulled out her iPad, iPod, and her charger. And she was wearing her civilian clothing already, so she was, in her opinion, a piece of solid evidence that she was from another world. "Here are my belongings. From my world." She held them up for Denethor to see. Denethor studied them closely. While be was doing so, Lisa noticed Faramir gazing at them intently with interest.

Denethor said, finally, "Lisa Scott, I feel that I have no choice but to believe you, what with all your things and clothing. But you say you are in the military? What woman in their right mind asks to join the military? No, what man in their right mind would allow such a thing?"

Lisa explained to him that in her world, women were allowed to take up jobs that men took up. Denethor scoffed lightly at this.

Faramir asked with a twinkle of curiosity in his eyes, "And what are these items you have brought with you?"

"Hush, Faramir. We have more important things to worry about at this moment. Can you not put aside your foolish fantasies and childish interests aside for just a moment? How can I let you protect Osgiliath when all you can think about are toys and strange objects that have nothing to do with us? We have bigger issues to worry about here."

Boromir tensed. But Faramir merely nodded and said, "I apologize, Father. Forgive me."

Lisa, every time she had seen Denethor treat Faramir like dirt in the movies, had always wished she could be teleported to the scene that was playing, just to tell Denethor what she thought of his treatment to his son. Give him a piece of her mind. She quietly said, "You should not treat your son so."

Denethor switched his attention from Faramir to Lisa. "And who are you to tell me how to treat my own son?"

Lisa said, not being able to stop her anger and annoyance now, "One who knows how much hurt he has felt over the years."

Boromir tensed again. He tried to catch her eye and give her a warning look, but her eyes were on Denethor.

Denethor said, voice rising, "And how would you know how he feels? You, who have only been here a day or less. What do you know? I ask you, what is this?"

Lisa thought carefully, not wanting to anger him any more. "I know this because," she paused and inwardly took a deep breath. Here goes. "I know this because from where I come from, Middle-earth is merely a very well-known tale. I have read the books that were written. That is how I know how your son feels and about how horribly you have been treating your son ever since he was born." Oh, crap. She hadn't meant to make it sound too negative.

"What else do you know? Could it be that you know the future of Middle-earth? What else has that book taught you of this world?" He said, standing up slowly.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Boromir give her a warning look. She decided that just being honest would be the best idea, since he already knew that she had read the book; she would just have to be careful to not provoke the steward.

"I know many things," she started slowly. "You could say that I do know the future of Middle-earth." She waited for Denethor to say something. Anything. It took forever. It seemed like the others in the room were holding their breaths, as Lisa was holding hers. Her life might depend on what the steward would say next.

When he finally spoke, Lisa knew she had made a mistake somewhere along her explanation. This could lead up to something that she would rather not get into.

Denethor sat up straighter in his chair with a little smile on his face. "What can you tell me of my future? Or those of my sons? The future of Gondor? What of Middle-earth?"

"I can't tell you much. If I do, I might change history, and we don't want that," she replied.

"And you would keep the truth from everyone just to keep your valuable storyline from being disrupted?" Denethor countered, his smile fading and leaving a look of disgust in his face.

"Yes, I would. I have no choice."

Denethor said, "If you are afraid to tell me the future of Middle-earth, then at least tell me about my future and those of my sons. It would give me great comfort."

That would be too much. And if he knew of his death...well, that would cause more trouble than she needed. "I already told you before, I can't tell you or I might be changing history. I'm trying to avoid that."

Denethor asked, "Then what use is this power of yours? What is the point of knowing everything that is to unfold if you have none to tell it to? Tell me of my future, I command you, as the lord of Gondor!"

Lisa, getting impatient (and more nervous), said, "I apologize for not being able to tell you anything, but you must understand, the knowledge of the fate of this world cannot be revealed to anyone of importance to the war, not for any reason. Not even for your own comfort, steward." She knew she'd have to pay for talking to him like that, but she didn't regret what she said.

The steward bristled. Then he barked, "You would disobey me, the rightful lord of Gondor, just for that blasted story?! What right have you to do that? You would keep the truth like that?"

"From you, absolutely." Hmmm, that sounded like a line from Braveheart.

The situation was already bad enough; the steward was already provoked, Lisa thought. It wouldn't do any damage to tell him what was on her mind.

Then she strode out of the room, blotting out the steward's cries of anger. Denethor was probably quite angry at her, but she couldn't take anything back now. What right did he have to talk like that to anyone? Great. Now Denethor was mad at her. She would just have to deal with it. What did Mary-Sues do to escape the wrath of Denethor?

She was thinking such thoughts when she heard footsteps approaching. Maybe Boromir was going to share his father's thoughts of anger towards her. She turned around and saw the steward's favored son.

They stood there for a while, just letting silence engulf them. Then Boromir spoke.

"I did not expect you to say such harsh words to my father."

Lisa said, "I had to. He was practically asking for it."

Boromir stiffened a bit, then calmed down. He started slowly, "I know my father is not a noble man."

Lisa looked up at him quickly. Really? Did he actually think that?

He continued, "His treatment of Faramir has told me this. I'm afraid he is making his slow way towards madness." He looked down for a second. "But you should not have spoken that way towards him. But what I came out here for was this: I thought I should tell you that my father is considerably angry at you."

"Yeah, I kinda thought so." Lisa scoffed.

"No, this is not funny." Boromir told her. "Knowing my father, he will want you to leave the city as soon as possible. Staying will have serious consequences. The best place for you to go to may be Rivendell, with the elves. But I do not think letting you go there on your own is a good idea. These are dangerous times, Lisa. No one should travel alone these days, with the enemy's spies all over the land. I depart for Rivendell in two days with a few of my soldiers. I would have you go with me to Rivendell, for safety's sake. However, my father should not know that you are traveling with me." He thought about this for a moment. Not being able to come up with anything, he sighed.

Lisa thought too, and said, "Dress me up as a soldier."

Boromir looked up and asked, "What?"

Lisa repeated, "You could suit me up as one of your soldiers, if it wouldn't be too much trouble. That way he won't suspect."

Boromir thought about this. "Then that is what we shall do. For tonight, the best place for you to stay in is my office. It isn't very comfortable, but it is better than nothing. The day before we leave, I will meet you in my office, where you will have to stay for the next while. Pack your bags for travel. We will be at the gate with my soldiers, ready to depart after we get your armor sorted out. It will be a long journey, and not an easy one. It will take at least 100 days. Many leagues are between Rivendell and Minas Tirith. Get a good rest before we start. I do not want to send you on this journey, but it is the only choice I have. Hopefully, I will tell my father that I have sent you off, and he will not suspect a thing." He stopped talking, and he said, "In truth, I know not why I am helping you, after you spoke out of turn to my father. But I feel as though I will not regret it. Do not let my assumption be wrong. I must go back to my father now." Then he made to leave.

Lisa said to him, "Thank you so much, Boromir."

She wasn't sure if he heard or not, because he didn't turn around to answer or anything. But she knew there would be plenty of time to thank him later.

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	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4.

A/N: To those who reviewed, thanks for reviewing! It means a lot! :) Comments, questions, suggestions would be great. Enjoy! Oh, and this chapter's kind of all travel and stuff. The fun stuff isn't here yet, I'm afraid. I really wanna get to the fun stuff! I have so much planned. Oh, and I suck at writing one-on-one travel scenes, so bear with me. The story will get better, I promise.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings or Apple products or Tom Cruise...unfortunately.

Lisa packed her bags in a Gondorian style bag that she had found in Boromir's office room. She hoped that he wouldn't mind her taking his bag. She packed everything she brought with her from Earth, which was a handful.

The next few hours after her meeting with Denethor were awful. Sleep was hard to come by. She woke up at every noise, thinking that Denethor had sent people to kill her. She tossed and turned in her sleep, thinking about many things.

Never before had she been in a seriously life threatening situation. This was not the same as hardcore training with some war hardened general yelling at her to run faster, fight harder, or to climb higher. This was different. After all, she had never gotten actual warlike experience, where she had to fight for her life. Someone could be out to kill her right now. Then she decided to push the thought away. If that's what was going to happen, she would face it head on.

She must have fallen asleep sometime, because she found herself waking up, facing a stony white wall. She got up and felt quite optimistic. Only one more day of this, then she could be on her way. On the road with Boromir, her favorite character. Only he wasn't a character, he was real.

She spent the whole day in that room. It was boring, but she did have her iPod and iPad. She watched a bunch of movies. She wondered if Boromir would like it if she showed him Braveheart. It was a great movie so maybe she would show him sometime.

Three times during that day, a woman (a maid, Lisa guessed) would come to her room with a tray of food. It was good food, and Lisa regretted not being able to stay in Minas Tirith and enjoy it more. She still hadn't seen the city from the outside. She was getting restless as the hours passed. She wanted to get out and do something. She was eager to get moving. Once she reached Rivendell, she could start making her plans in detail. She already had a faint idea of what to do. So she'd try to find her friends and also save Boromir in a way that wouldn't change the storyline too much. She didn't want to let him die, especially now that he was doing all this for her now. He was so much better in person, she thought. Meeting him was like a dream come true, in a way. Being stuck in Middle-earth sucked big time, mostly, but it wasn't that bad, really. Adapting would be a bugger, though. How come Mary-Sues got to have fun while in Middle-earth while she was having a pretty bad time? She thought to herself.

When night came, she was relieved. One more night until she could get out of this city, on to safer places. She fell asleep after a few hours of lying on her mattresses, thinking about the trip ahead.

The feeling she got when she got up the next morning was the best feeling she had felt since she had gotten put in Middle-earth. This was the day she would leave! She tidied up the room and packed everything tidily in her bag, waiting for Boromir to arrive. A couple hours passed. A soft knock on the door jolted her out of her thoughts. She unlocked the door and opened the door quietly. Middle-earth should have more peepholes, she thought to herself. Boromir was standing outside the door with all of his supplies ready, war horn and all. Man, he looked good.

"Are you prepared?" He whispered.

She nodded. He gave her a cloak. She put it on. "Follow me, and do not make a sound," he ordered. By the looks of it, it was about 6 in the afternoon.

She did exactly that, and he led her to an armory. She saw a bunch of weapons and armor all over the room. Boromir went up to one side of the room and picked up a bunch of armor, chain mail and all. He must have prepared this beforehand, she thought. She put on her armor with a bit of help from Boromir. He worked quickly and efficiently. In just a few moments, their work was finished. The armor was not the most stretchy or comfortable thing to wear, but the weight of it wasn't too crushing. It was not so different from her military suit, guns and all.

At last, Boromir gave her a helmet and she put it on. It was uncomfortable, but it covered her face, which was what it was really for, anyway. She smiled at Boromir through the helmet and whispered, "Okay, let's get this show on the road." He gave her a confused look and said, "What? I do not..."

She said, "Oh, it's a saying from my world, meaning, let's get started."

Boromir smiled slightly and said, "I think you will be a strange traveling companion. Strange. But interesting."

She smiled, until she realized he couldn't see her smiling through her helmet. Breaking the silence, she said, "Right then. Let's go."

They made their way to the gate. Two soldiers were waiting for them. There were also four horses saddled and ready for the trip. Lisa felt awkward and a bit insecure around other Gondorians. After all, Denethor might have asked his soldiers to keep a lookout for her. Boromir whispered to her, "Don't worry. I already told them of my plan. I trust them with my life."

When everyone was saddled on their horses, someone came out of the shadows. Denethor. Lisa tried to look as normal and confident as possible.

Denethor walked up to his son with his broad smile and embraced him. The soldiers beside her, as if on some unspoken understanding, moved away from Boromir and his father, Lisa guessed, to give them some privacy for their farewells. But Lisa couldn't help but overhear some of their conversation.

"Go to Imladris and fulfill your task. Bring back the weapon that Gondor needs."

Right. The weapon. Lisa had to remind herself that Boromir's job was to bring the ring back to Minas Tirith.

Boromir said, "I won't disappoint you, Father."

Denethor said, "And that girl is gone for good, as you told me before?"

Lisa's face burned. She felt as though the steward was watching her. But he, of course, wasn't.

Boromir answered, "Yes, she left the city. I gave her a horse, so I know not where she is right now. She will have traveled a bit by now."

Denethor nodded and said, satisfied, "Good. I hope you do not come across her again. If you see her in Gondor again, I would not be too kind if I were you."

Boromir was about to reply, when Faramir appeared. Denethor left then, giving his son one final embrace and a few words. "Have a safe journey, my son." Then Faramir came up to talk to Boromir.

While they talked, Lisa took the time to look at the White City. In the dim evening light, the city looked cold and stone-like. It looked strong and stable too. The gate was pitch black and Lisa could make out some engravings on it. The movie didn't do the White City enough justice. It truly was beautiful. She understood why Boromir loved it so much, other than the fact that he was born here. She wished she could have seen it for the first time in better times. Then she decided that she would make a promise to herself that she would see it again after the War of the Ring. She found herself loving Middle-earth more and more every passing second.

She stopped thinking and brought herself back to her senses. Boromir and Faramir were early finished talking. She thought she heard Boromir say to his brother, "Remember today, little brother, life is good."

They embraced, and Faramir said, "Have a safe trip, brother." And in a more light tone, "Come back in one piece." Boromir smiled and said, "Tell me, when have I not done so?" Then Faramir smiled a last time and stepped back. "Go now, brother."

Lisa caught herself watching and looked away. She felt like she was being a bit intruding on their privacy. But she couldn't help thinking, "They have the best bromance. It's better than in the movie."

Then Boromir said, "Faramir, the men shall be back here in 10 days. They are needed back here." Faramir nodded his acknowledgement and Boromir started his horse on a canter. Lisa followed, the other two men following closely behind.

So the journey was begun.

A few days into the journey, Lisa realized that she didn't like horseback riding as much as she used to. Her legs were sore and she her muscles felt stretched. But once they were out of Gondor, she was able to take off her helmet and let her head breathe.

Her travel buds were cool people. Well, no, scratch that. One of them wasn't so cool, but Boromir and one of the soldiers were really chill. The guy's name was Falmond and he was about her age, give or take two or three years. Whenever they were resting, they would talk about whatever came to mind. The other soldier was more serious. He was older, too. Maybe in his forties or so. His name was Valtanion. He didn't seem to completely trust her, but Falmond, on the other hand, was quite trusting. He merely said, "These are strange days. One cannot be too surprised by such things in these times." Which Lisa was grateful for.

The journey was not as bad as she had feared it would be. It was rather enjoyable, with Falmond and Boromir around. She had told them about her world, which seemed to have earned her more trust from everyone. And Boromir had told her all about Gondor, with some participation from Valtanion and Falmond.

It was the sixth day into their journey when it occurred to Lisa that she could get her travel buds to listen to music. Modern music. As in, music not just composed of lutes and flutes and stuff. Not that that was bad or anything like that.

When the company stopped to rest for the day, Lisa said, "Hey guys, wanna listen to music from my world?"

Boromir perked up. "Oh, do play it."

Boromir had been a lot less suspicious of her once they had started traveling and he saw that she seemed normal enough. They hadn't really gotten to talk alone yet, but they had had conversation with the other soldiers around. He found her company rather interesting and amusing. Really, she was a fine travel companion, in his mind.

Lisa turned on her music from her iPod. When LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem blared through the little speakers, the three Gondorians jumped in their seats.

"Turn off that blasted machine!" Valtanion exclaimed.

Lisa turned the sound off and said, "Oh, come on! It's not bad. I thought battle hardened warriors would be able to take some party music."

Falmond said, "If that is what you listen to in your world, then I wonder how you have been living this long!"

Lisa said, "Okay, okay, I guess you guys don't like funky party music. How about this?" And she put on Avril Lavigne's Keep Holding On. Great song. They should at least think it's decent.

Falmond said, "I find the melody appealing, but what in the world is she saying? How do you make out the words?"

Lisa laughed at him and said, "It's not that hard, bud. How about this?" Then she turned on Enya's May It Be.

Valtanion said, "This isn't so bad. This is what music should sound like."

Just for fun, Lisa abruptly switched the song from May It Be, to Payphone by Maroon 5. This earned cries of disgust and a look of horror on Valtanion.

"Was his mother a warg, and his father an Orc?" asked Falmond, who loved to hurl friendly insults.

Lisa's jaw dropped open in mock anger, "You don't know what you're talking about! Take that back! His voice is amazing!"

Falmond snorted and replied, "Amazing, no. Terrible, yes." Which earned applause and laughter from Boromir and Valtanion.

That left Lisa muttering, "It's good, why don't they see that?"

Boromir looked at Lisa with a mischeivous glint in his eyes and said, a smile in his voice, "Do you sing, Miss Lisa?"

Lisa sat up straight in her chair and looked horrified. "No, no, I don't, and I don't plan on it. I'm too busy listening to good musicians, like Adam Levine."

"Oh, surely you can sing a bit?" Falmond, eager to tease her, asked.

"No, I don't sing, period. Why don't you sing, Lord Boromir?" She smirked. At this, he simply stated, "I do not sing."

"Oh, come on, Boromir, sing a song."

Boromir said, "My voice is like that of a crow's. If I sing for anyone, it is because it is someone's last wish on their deathbed. That is how bad my voice is."

Falmond said, "I know I will never get a chance to ask this of you again, My Lord. So will you please sing?"

Boromir said, "I think I will retire for the day. Good night." Then he made his escape to his tent.

That was how the first few days of travel went. No trouble, no Orcs, nothing, much to everyone's relief. Life was quite good. But the ten days came to an end, and the two soldiers had to head back to Minas Tirith. Lisa felt a bit disappointed to have to say goodbye to them, especially Falmond. They had become friends, during the short time they had known each other. And Valtanion, she had gotten to know better over their short time together. She knew she would miss them.

After they said their farewells on the tenth day, Boromir and Lisa continued on their long journey. It was still quite enjoyable, but the hours of endless horseback riding was now getting to her muscles.

"Can we please stop, Boromir?" asked Lisa one day, after a few hours of riding. "Oh, I mean, Lord Boromir." She corrected herself.

Boromir said, "Miss Lisa, I am curious as to why you insist on using my title all the time. You never seem to remember to use it; why not just discard it for now? We are traveling, after all, and are away from society."

Lisa said, "That's great! It's just that I'm used to hearing you being called just Boromir instead of Lord Boromir. The movies made that happen. But thanks, if you don't mind, I'd actually love to call you just Boromir. Oh, and just call me Lisa."

Boromir smiled and said, "All right then. I shall just be Boromir to you and you shall be Lisa."

"Sounds great." Lisa cracked a smile, which he returned.

Weeks passed, and they were through the mountains and they were now going through tough roads and occasionally deserted towns. While the time passed, Lisa had gotten to know her travel companion quite well, and vice versa. He was a lot like her in many ways. They were both determined to please their parents, they were brave, and very loyal. Plus they loved fighting for their country. But Boromir didn't think that Tom Cruise was hot. That's where they differed.

He had asked, "Lisa, what do you do for entertainment in your world?"

"Lots of things. Like watching movies, you know, like the ones I showed you, read books, play sports, go to parties, meet up with friends, you know, whatever you like to do."

"And what do you like to do?"

"Hmmm, I like playing sports. Basketball and fencing being one of my favorites. Oh, and movies are awesome. I love them. I love hanging out with my friends too. In high school, in our teenager years, I'd talk to friends about movie stars a lot."

"Movie stars? Like Mel Gibson from the Braveheart movie you showed me? He is a good one. Quite memorable."

"Well, I wasn't a Mel Gibson fan, not really, even though I loved Braveheart. But Tom Cruise, on the other hand, I would probably marry..."

Boromir slowed his horse as Lisa trailed off, a dreamy look in her eyes. When she snapped out of her daze, he asked, "Who is this Tom Cruise? A friend of yours?"

Lisa said, "Oh, no. I wish. He's an actor, and I've never met him, but I've watched a bunch of movies with him in it. Girls back home think he's pretty damn attractive. Well, because he is."

Boromir, who hated being bested by anyone, said, "I need to see a picture. Do you have any on your devices?"

Lisa said, "Oh, of course. Here." She pulled out her iPod Touch and went to the photos and picked the best picture she could find. She gave the iPod over to him and asked, "What do you think?"

Boromir looked at it and scoffed. "He looks like your average...what was it called...that creature you showed me earlier..."

"A mouse?"

"Yes, a mouse. He looks like one."

"No, he does not! Take that back! You need to get your eyes checked, bud." Lisa shouted in mock anger.

"My eyes are fine, thank you."

"Obviously not."

Boromir just said, "How about you tell me more about your world? Not about movie stars and rather useless facts but more about what you like about it."

Lisa thought about it, and came up with a few points. "Well, there's a lot of things I love about Earth." Then she told him all about where she was born and where she grew up. Boromir listened to all this very intently. He liked hearing about the tall buildings and all the different mountain ranges. She showed him a few pictures of Scotland, where she was born, on her iPod. He seemed to love the photos of the thistles to no end.

"What do you miss most from your world?" Boromir asked.

Lisa said, "I miss my friends, my old life, my home, and really, it doesn't end." Lisa stopped talking and said, "Yeah, I think that's enough about me. Let's talk more about you." She felt like this might become a sob story and she didn't like telling sob stories. Boromir looked at her and when she smiled a pretty convincing smile, he decided that he wouldn't prod her.

"You already know much about Middle-earth, because of the books you have read..."

Lisa said, "Tell me about your family and Minas Tirith. Not the boring facts, but I mean what you love about them. You know what I mean?"

Boromir got lost in thought. He answered with, "My father, as you know, is a good man, but he was not always such a bad person. Before the war reached us, and before...before Mother passed away, he was much happier. His smiles would always reach his eyes and he would even spend some time teaching Faramir and I about the kings of old. Sometimes, I find myself missing my old father. I know that I cannot bring him completely back. So Faramir and I do our best to please him."

Hearing this, she felt bad for him. Usually it was just Faramir she felt bad for. Boromir didn't have an easy life, she knew, but it wasn't until this moment that she felt truly sorry for Boromir. Pleasing one's parents was not always easy in any way. She herself had always been pressured by her own parents to excel in everything she did. "I'm sorry to hear that, Boromir."

"That is why I must bring back the ring to him." Boromir said quietly.

"Boromir, the Ring isn't going to bring any good to Gondor. It's bad, you know."

Boromir seemed to want to get onto another topic. He said, "Tell me of your friends and of your old life."

Lisa really wanted to get off the topic of the Ring as well, so she said, "Oh, sure. I have lots of friends back at home, but my very best friend is actually here in Middle-earth. I just don't know where he is. His name's Evan Hall, and he's been my best friend since high school. He's in the military as well. We've gone through lots together."

Boromir said, "What made you want to join the army? It is not common at all in our world."

Lisa said, "I always liked the idea of serving my country. So I joined the army. And the idea of getting lots of battle glory has always appealed to me. I want honor and all those soldiery needs. Simple as that." Even after watching a countless number of depressing war movies, she still somehow believed that serving in the military would earn her all those "soldiery needs" and it wouldn't be too complicated.

Boromir said, "That is something I can agree with. Although there is more to it than just honor and glory. I can easily say that I live just to come home after a battle to see my people happy, and welcoming the returning soldiers with silver trumpets..." Lisa listened to Boromir talk about Gondor. It was actually really endearing, hearing him talk about his country with so much love and passion. When he stopped, he realized that he had been going off for nearly half an hour and he was tired. No doubt his travel companion was tired too. He announced, "Let's stop here for tonight."

They made camp and Boromir offered to take the first watch. "Good night, Lisa."

"Good night, Boromir."

The next day, they traveled for a few minutes before reaching the next stage in their journey.

The River Greyflood.

Review!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5.

A/N: I hope this river scene turned out fine. Please tell me what you think of this chapter. I kind of had a small case of writer's block. If there's anything I should work on to improve Lisa and Boromir's friendship, please let me know. Btw, it's a little short

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings.

The River Greyflood stood in front of her and Boromir. Crossing it would be difficult, no doubt. Boromir said grimly, "This is the part of the journey I was dreading."

"I second that," Lisa replied.

Boromir said, "I should go in first. It is no doubt very dangerous, and I don't want you to drown or anything."

Lisa said, "You know I'm not entirely unable to deal with dangerous situations. I'm in the army, you know..."

Boromir said, "I realize that. However, this river is by no means safe." Then he led his horse to the bridge and began to cross it.

Lisa said, "Hey, don't use the bridge. I think it might be unstable. It might collapse."

Boromir said, "It looks fine to me." Then he continued on.

"Don't! It may be safer to cross without the bridge. Just wade a bit. The bridge might collapse under you."

"This bridge was probably made by experienced men. I would put more faith in them if I were you." Then he continued.

Lisa yelled, "Don't say I didn't warn you! Listen,, I read the books and know lots about what will happen. So take my advice!"

"Perhaps that author was wrong."

"It's not safe, Boromir."

Boromir said with annoyance, "Alright. I will be fine, but I will take caution just for you."

Lisa scoffed. "Okay. Well, I wanna see your face when you come out of the river soaked. Oh, with a "Sorry, you were right," on your lips."

"Oh, your excitement to see me like this is so unnecessary. You cannot get me to admit something like this, especially when the bridge is safe."

"Oh, I'll wait."

"You do not have the patience and long lives of the Elves, if I am not mistaken?" Boromir said, flashing a grin.

And he took a couple steps on the bridge.

"See, the bridge is fine."

Lisa was tense, still not able to trust the bridge's stability.

"I kept on telling you that it was safe, but would you listen? No, I-"

He was cut off as the bridge collapsed under him, bringing down him down, horse and all.

"Boromir!" Lisa ran to where he had fallen. His head bobbed up over the surface for a second, then went back under. She briefly caught a glimpse of the horse thrashing wildly and attempting to grab onto something, struggling against the water. Knowing that she'd have to save Boromir first, she turned her attention back to him quickly.

She thought of diving in after him, but thought better of it. The current would just be too strong for her to get out while saving Boromir in the process. She saw his hand grabbing onto a branch, preventing him from being pulled away by the fierce current. His grip would not hold for long. Worry coursed through her body. She rushed to grab his hand and pull him back to safety. She ran to where his hand was and gripped it tightly. Getting into a firm stance, she used her arms to pull the warrior of Gondor back up.

He was not a light man, so Lisa had to use all of her strength to keep him from falling, and to keep herself from tumbling in after him. It was working. She watched as his head came out, sputtering. The rest of his body came up gradually as well. All was going well, until Boromir's leg slipped on a slippery, wet rock and he went tumbling back into the river. This time dragging Lisa down with him too.

Lisa gasped as she was pulled down rapidly by Boromir as his foot scraped the rock. Luckily, she hadn't been as unlucky as she thought she would be. She caught herself before she completely fell. She tried to lift him up again, panic starting to rise in her. The obstacle courses she had dons had helped her for these kind of situations, but this was harder than any training or obstacle courses had pushed her to do. Boromir's wild thrashing and his kicking was not very helpful either. "Boromir, stop thrashing!" She yelled, not that he could really hear. She changed from holding his hands to his upper arms and with one huge breath, she pulled with all her strength. Her back yelled in protest. She yelled, and leaned back while trying to get him out of the water. His head came up again, sputtering. Then his shoulders, then his chest, and the rest of his body soon followed.

When Boromir was finally out of the water, Lisa collapsed onto her back, feeling blood rush to the rest of her body. Boromir collapsed onto his back as well, breathing deeply.

When Lisa had caught her breath, a few minutes later, she asked, "Are you alright?"

Boromir answered her, "I shall be fine. Just cold. But I will recover quickly." He paused for a second and said, "Thank you, Lisa."

Lisa said, "I told you it was dangerous."

Boromir sighed. "It was worth a try, although I do admit, it was not a smart decision."

Lisa said, "You should have listened. Then you wouldn't have gotten into this mess. At least you're safe now." And she meant it.

"Thank you, Lisa. I do not know how long I would have lasted in there, had you not helped me."

"Helped? I all out rescued you."

"I tried to get out of the water, and you helped me."

Lisa snorted. "More like you were helping me get you out. Occasionally." She stopped and decided to not get into an argument with him. Although she felt like she had to say a few last words. "But be more careful next time. If I hadn't been there...who knows what would've happened? And you owe me one."

Boromir, a very slight grin on his face, asked, "Are you always this cocky? Or did coming into another world do this to you?"

"I'm not cocky."

"Oh, I think you are."

"Oh, I think I'm not."

"If you say so. But, despite your arrogance, I must tell you that I am truly grateful to you for rescuing me. I am in your debt."

Lisa answered, while giving Boromir a blanket to warm himself with, "You are welcome."

The two then resumed traveling, after Boromir had gotten a chance to dry off a bit. The two spent a few minutes in a comfortable silence, their horses going at a fast trot.

After a few minutes d this, Boromir said, "Lisa, may I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Why did you want to come to Middle-earth? Why did you not decline the offer?"

Lisa didn't need to think about that one. The answer was obvious to her. "If I declined, I would have had no chance of being recognized. If I succeeded in my mission, I'd have fame and recognition and perhaps an award from my colonel."

Boromir replied, "You seem to be bent on getting recognition and glory."

"Well, that's just how I am, I guess. It's one of the things that I care about most in my life. You know, other than my loved ones and stuff."

"And who are your loved ones?"

Lisa had many loved ones at home, like her family and her friends. She hadn't been in the popular crowd at school, but she had considered herself well known and fairly popular among her classmates.

"My most loved ones, I'd say, are my parents, my sister, my best friend Evan, and my other friend Megan. What about you?"

Boromir's face lit up in a smile when Lisa asked who his loved ones were, undoubtedly thinking of Faramir and his father. With a hint of clear pride in his voice, he said, "My father, of course. I know you did not like him but he was not always like this. And there's Faramir as well, of course. He is not interested in sword fighting and warfare, as I am, but he is more interested in lore and is actually quite studious..."

He went on and on and on about Faramir, and Lisa listened, thinking it was really cool to be able to listen to her favorite Lord of the Rings character talk about his brother.

They rode on like this for several days, which turned into weeks, which eventually turned into months. Their long journey proved to have been successful when they saw a bridge, which Lisa recognized as the one called the Last Bridge. Hastily, the two crossed the bridge, excited to see the elves. Personally, Lisa was excited beyond imagination to see the elves and she wondered if they were really as perfect as Tolkien and the movies had made them seem. And she wanted to see her favorite elves of all time: Elrond, Legolas, Arwen, and Elrohir and Elladan.

Boromir and Lisa crossed the bridge and they saw the city of Imladris. It was simply breathtaking. All the different colors of the trees were so beautiful, in their multitude. The buildings looked old but beautiful, and they had the most creative and intricate little details. Rivendell was truly a place of peace. It had a homely feeling. Hmm, maybe that's why Elrond's place was known as The Last Homely House.

While Lisa was busy gazing at the beautiful scenery before her, trying to take it in all at once, an elf's musical voice called to her and her traveling partner. "Lord Boromir, you have come." Noticing Lisa, he added, "With a companion. I will lead you to your rooms. This way."

Elves were so polite. The elf that had spoken to them started leading Boromir away, and Boromir gave Lisa a shrug and let himself be carried away by the elf. Lisa waited for a while, which wasn't long, until a female elf came striding down the hall. She smiled kindly at Lisa and greeted, "Greetings, Lady Lisa. A room is ready for you. Follow me." She led her to a room. Her eyes opened wide when she saw it. "Oh wow," she whispered. It was a beautiful room with a balcony, curtains of the softest fabric, and furniture made of the best materials. And on the side of the room, there was a door. She opened it and inside, there was a pearly white bathtub filled with steaming water and bubbles. The female elf said, "You are expected at Lord Elrond's study tomorrow morning. Welcome to Rivendell." Then she glided away, graceful, like all elves.

Well, Lisa knew for sure that she was in no hurry to leave this place now that she'd seen it and admired its beauty. She suddenly had an urge, a drive to see more of it, and learn the history behind everything that happened in Middle-earth. She had always liked History.

The place also almost got rid of her homesickness and worries away. She had been very worried about her friends and the mission and its completion, but for now, she felt as though she could just let them float away for the time being, and she could just relax and lose herself in the beautiful Elf city of Imladris.

Oh, and seeing Elrond would be quite the opposite of meeting Denethor. She was going to see Elrond! Tomorrow morning! As of this moment, life was good. Life was just fine and dandy.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6.

A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've been busy with school, lost my motivation to write, had to find it again, etc. Now that exams are done, I have a bit of time to write again. Also, I can't figure out how to do page breaks, so I'm using #'s, so bear with me for now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings.

Lisa woke up the next morning, feeling the morning sun shining on her face. She got out of bed eagerly and got dressed, thinking of taking a walk or go for a ride on the trails. It had been weeks since she and Boromir had arrived at Rivendell, and this had become a daily ritual for her. Her free time also consisted of training with Boromir and the elves. She was not such a good swordfighter, but archery was a strong point for her. She guessed, maybe, having been a marksman, archery came naturally.

Another thing Lisa liked doing was talking to Boromir after dinner. They'd go for a ride and go to their favourite garden and talk, letting the conversation flow wherever.

While she was doing so, there was something bugging her at the back of her mind. Something she just couldn't remember. What was it? It was something important...Well, either way, it didn't matter. She'd remember sooner or later. With that, she exited the room. Not looking where she was going, she bumped into Boromir.

"Hey, big guy! Hey, why are you dressed all fancy? I thought we were training with Elrohir and Elladan?"

Boromir gave her an amused look. "If you have memory issues, I believe I am inclined to remind you that today is the day the council is being held. The big council that Lord Elrond has been planning for over a few months now."

Lisa smacked herself on the head. "Oh! Okay, that's what I was trying to-"

Seeing a smile creep onto Boromir's face, she changed her statement mid-sentence.

"What I was trying to test you on. I was afraid you might have forgotten." Lisa grinned awkwardly.

"I wasn't aware that people from your world suffered from memory loss," Boromir teased.

Lisa countered, "Hey, that's not everyone."

"Oh, just you then? That makes sense too."

Groaning, Lisa said, "You're never gonna let me live this down, are you?"

"That I can promise you."

#

"Strangers from distant lands, friends of old..."

Lisa had thought that the council would have been much more interesting but there was really a lot more talking involved than she had expected. Too much talking. And her legs felt stiff from sitting for so long. From sitting on the cold, hard, ground. Oh, scratch that. Not the ground, the flower pot. Or whatever it was. She was just not having a great time. Pippin and Merry had told her to hide in the flower pot thing when she said she really had to go to the council, one way or another. This was their first meeting, and they hadn't gotten to talk much, which disappointed Lisa a bit, as she had always loved the hobbits. But anyway, the flower pot, it was a good hiding spot, no matter how painfully uncomfortable it was.

Minutes passed. Maybe hours. Lisa's legs became more stiff. The flower-pot-whatever-it-was thing was getting hot. This was too much. And on top of all that, she had to go. She was also falling asleep a little. Then when she woke up from her daze later on, Sam, Merry, Pippin were dashing off to the council to join the fellowship.

Deeming it the right time, and not being able to deal with it anymore, Lisa jumped out of the pot. Or tried to. What ended up happening was, her head bumped onto the pot somehow, her legs got tangled with each other, and she fell out of the pot. The pot didn't break, but it made a clattering sound, disrupting the meeting. On instinct, Lisa moved her body away from the pot, in case it had broken. The clamour sure attracted the attention of everyone around the table. When she got up she was faced with shocked and incredulous looks.

"Don't mind me, I'm sorry. I'll be off now." Lisa made to walk away, then, she was reminded of her self-appointed task. She had to make sure it worked. "Oh, I actually have a question for you, Lord Elrond. I would like to go with the ringbearer and the company."

Elrond raised his eyebrow. Lisa almost cracked up at the familiarity of it. "And why?"

"I have my reasons. I'd like to talk to you later, if you would." She sent Elrond a look telling him that it was important.

Elrond sighed a little, and said, "So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring."

#

Later, in Elrond's study, Lisa tried to convince Elrond to let her go with the Fellowship.

"Sir, I feel like I need to go with the fellowship. It's just that I know things...you know my complicated story. And I'd just like to prevent certain events...make sure everything goes the way it should go...I assure you, I can do this."

Elrond argued, "I understand that you know what will happen, or what is supposed to happen in this world? You say you know the fate of this world. What makes you think that you have the ability to let everything go right? What if you do prevent what you want to prevent but end up changing the fate, which you refuse to tell me about, this world is meant to have?"

Lisa countered, "What if me even being here is changing everything? Then everything could already be screwed up and I'd just have to try my best to fix everything. I'm sorry, I really have to go."

Elrond thought for a long moment. "If I do let you go...you must know that your future is something that I cannot ensure. If you end up not returning...then so be it."

Lisa nodded. She had expected as much. "I get it. Thank you, Elrond! I knew you were my favourite elf! Well, one of them anyway."

With a lighter heart, Lisa walked out of the study to find Boromir outside. "Hi."

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked, although she thought she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"So, you asked Elrond to let you go on this journey? Do you understand what this means? This could mean death."

"I know," she said bluntly. "You do too, right?"

He sighed and said, "Of course I do. But it is my duty. You should know that."

"And I do. This is my duty too. You should know that," Lisa said to him.

"Does this look like a joke to you? It seems to me like you don't know how dangerous this could be. And what duty?"

Lisa thought for a second and said, "I have a duty. It's...best if only I know about it. Elrond knows I have a duty but he won't probe, because he knows it's supposed to be confidential."

Boromir, getting frustrated, said, "What I meant to say to you was, you should think twice before volunteering yourself for such a journey. You may end up giving your life away to this...quest."

"Hey, I knew I could die when I went for the mission that brought me here. I'm in the army back at home. That means that I have the mental capacity to make decisions like this. And seriously, what else am I going to do here? I am stuck here until I can figure out how to go back home. It's just really complicated, but we can work it out day by day, aight? Also, Elrond said I could go. I get that it's dangerous, all right? I swear. I'm going and that's settled."

"But listen, if you do get...if you do die, I'd feel like it was my fault. I mean, I did bring you this far. If you just died, I'd feel unbearably guilty. And, on top of that, needless deaths are not something I like to see happen. And I know that you are in your country's army, but for me, the idea of you, as a woman, doing such things makes me feel uneasy."

Lisa took this all in and retorted, "Okay, first of all, you should know that I made the decision to come here in the first place and I knew I could die. Oh, and I'm not a liability. If I die, it's my fault, if it's anyone's fault. And I will try to stay alive, so really, don't worry so much."

Boromir sighed loudly. "As uneasy as I feel about this, there is nothing I can do about it. I hope you're satisfied."

Lisa, wanting to comfort him, said, "Hey, I won't die. Well, I can't ensure that, but I can try to stay alive. I'm trained for this stuff. It'll be okay. Don't even worry. Good night."

A/N: Hey, I know it's a lot of just talking, but I had to get back into the swing of writing, and I have a good idea of what I'm gonna write, but the good parts haven't come yet. Bear with me! It gets really good later. Trust me.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.

A/N: Hey, thanks for sticking around, those of you who have. It gets me more motivated. But ugh, I just wanna get to the good parts! Keep reading and reviewing!

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings.

The days after the council were spent training and packing. When the packing was done, Lisa had spent most of her time training or convincing Boromir that her going on the trip was really okay. Or just spending time with him. Most of her time was spent with him, doing whatever the two felt like doing. Other times, she got to know the rest of the fellowship better. Pippin and Merry were extremely likable, and she liked them a lot already. Aragorn was likable as well. He'd be a good friend and leader. They hadn't talked much, but she already thought they would get along well. Frodo was a little distant, and she never really talked to him. Then there was Sam. He was a deep guy, easy to talk to. Note to self: talk to Sam when she needed someone to talk to. Then there were Gimli and Legolas. So far, they'd only had awkward conversations. She'd have to fix that; she liked the two. Gandalf, the few times she had talked to him, he had been kind. He was great. This quest might not be too bad; great people made the experience greater.

Now Boromir seemed okay with her going after a few days of convincing. And, she wasn't really a part of the fellowship, not really. Elrond had actually told her that she could leave whenever she had to/wanted to, so she wasn't officially a member of the fellowship.

With the quest starting in only a few days, the fellowship was getting nervous. Lisa thought, "This is it. These are the last few days of safety and happiness, at least for a long time." It was hard to think that, but it was true. And other than to find her friends, her one goal in Middle-earth was to save Boromir now. And then to keep everything the same after saving him. That brought a worry to her mind. How would she prevent his death? If it was meant to happen, how-"

A shadow fell down her way. She looked up and smiled up at the figures that looked down at her. "Boromir!"

"Hello. May I join you?" he asked.

"Do you even need to ask anymore? Come on, just sit."

He sat down on the grass next to her. "What were you thinking?"

After a pause, she said, "I miss fast food." This earned her an inquiring look from Boromir. "It's really unhealthy food that tastes really good. It takes, what, two minutes to cook. I miss it."

Boromir was silent for a while. Then, "What do you miss most about your home?"

"Just home. Just the familiarity of it. I miss how I can't just go and call up my friends, my parents. I miss everything. Hey, I think that's enough emotion for one sitting. Sorry, I don't wanna go and spill my emotions out."

Boromir looked at her and said quietly, "Everything will turn out fine."

"I don't even know what fine is right now," Lisa said. "I mean, I wanna go home, but I don't want to leave at the same time."

"And why would that be?" Something in his voice made her look up at him. Once she did, it was hard to look away. His gaze was deep, and penetrating in a way, but soft. The answer to his question came rushing to her head. Then she pushed it away, thinking it couldn't be true, shouldn't be true. No major ties here. That'd be dangerous. But his eyes were so deep, compelling... It was hard to look away. Slowly, Boromir leaned in towards her... Quickly, she pulled away and broke the short exchange.

"I like it here," she blurted out awkwardly. "I like this place. Great scenery, all that. Great people." Realizing that this could turn awkward again, she said, "I like the fellowship. You know, I should be off now." Then she got up, which left him wondering what was really going through her head.

***

"Hey, Sam, what have you got there?" Lisa asked Sam. He was toying with a small machine-like object.

"Just a lil object I found lying around here."

It looked strangely familiar. With a gasp, Lisa realized what it was. "It's my machine! Hey, give it here for a second, that's important. Did you fix it?" Sam shrugged and said, "All I did was play with it a bit, nothin' really."

Lisa pressed the button on the machine, holding her breath as she did so. Nothing happened. "I guess I'm really not going home," Lisa stated. Sam said, "You might. Maybe one day you'll get this thing fixed and you'll get to go home. Work on fixing it, day by day. Keep your hope alive, all right? I expect it's better than just being a darn pessimist."

Sam's words gave Lisa a smile, and she patted Sam's curly head. "You're right, Sam. Thanks. But honestly, here isn't so bad really. I mean, there's good people, good places..." she trailed off.

"And there's Lord Boromir," Sam said, with a small smile on his face.

Caught off guard, Lisa said, "Hey, what is that supposed to mean?"

Chuckling, Sam said, "Oh, nothing, nothing. Take it however you want to take it."

"And what is that supposed to mean, Sam?" Lisa asked him.

"Oh, you're blushin'. It's okay, I meant nothin' by it." Then he got up and left, chuckling. Lisa groaned inwardly. She could not have feelings for Boromir. She'd have to leave here, she had people waiting at home, and duties to fulfill. Feelings would complicate everything. She didn't like Boromir. As she was thinking this, a voice crept into the back of her mind. But why try so hard to save him if you don't have any feelings for him? What would be the point? Frustrated, Lisa got up and groaned, went back to her room, and slept it away. For a while, at least.

***

The next day, Lisa thought of finding Boromir to go on another trip to the trails, then she remembered their conversation from yesterday. Maybe he forgot, she told herself, while highly doubting it.

When she got out of the safety of her room, she was confronted by the man she had been dreading. Keep it cool, maybe it was nothing, she thought. "Yo."

Boromir looked confused. "Lisa, I just wanted to say, about-"

Luckily, he was interrupted. "You two, we're leaving Rivendell this week. Make sure you're packed." It was Legolas. "Boromir, Aragorn and Gandalf would like you to join their meeting. He passed Lisa a knowing smile before walking away. She nodded in thanks.

Why was everyone being knowing and sly and ugh. This was not good. There was nothing there. She felt nothing towards Boromir. Or at least, that's what she told herself.

Later that day, Lisa found Legolas and pulled him away from his...whatever he was doing.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, but what I do not understand is why you would use your one question to ask a question so simple, such as, "May I ask you something."

"Oh, Legolas, you are a little jokester. I thought you were actually boring. But, anyway, back to the point. See, I'm having a little difficulty. I think you know who it's about... Seeing how you've been around for quite a while, and you still have an amazing figure, for someone so old... But anyway, I thought you could help me. If you don't mind."

Legolas, looking at her with his piercing blue eyes, said, "May I ask what your issue is specifically. I do think I know exactly what is bothering you, but I'd like to hear it."

"Oh, well, first I miss home, and I wanna go home. Nothing we can do about that, but then we have this Boromir issue. See, I think I have been...developing feelings for Boromir. Which you seem to know all about. What I'm really afraid of is that I might not know what to do when I eventually do have the chance to get home. I don't know what I really want right now. I want to go home, but I feel that if I do, I'll regret it forever. I'll go crazy!" Her little spiel made her a little breathless. "Sorry, Legolas, I didn't mean to put all my problems on you. I mean, I haven't done that in a long while, letting my emotions out that much, I mean. I guess it's just been long overdue. Hey, I actually really needed that."

Legolas gave her a sympathetic smile and said, "Which is exactly why I wanted you to say it. In life, there are many hard decisions you will have to make. But just take them as they come. Life is too valuable to worry about decisions you will have to make later on in your life. Just take them as they come, Lisa." He patted her shoulder.

"Legolas, you are like my therapist. Or my counsellor. Thanks."

"I was thinking friend, instead of counsellor. But if that is what you think of me, I shall be off now. Surely you do not need to talk to me more now, as I am just your counsellor." With a look of mock hurt on his face, Legolas pretended to stand up and leave.

"Hey, don't go, friend! I want you here, friend. Let's talk. What's new in your life?" So they talked about Legolas' life and many random things that friends talk about.

***

Days passed, and Lisa and Boromir never spoke of that incident again. They had re-developed their easy friendship, and all was good. Although sometimes, it seemed as though Boromir wanted to bring it up again, but for the time being, Lisa decided that it was best not to bring it up. Ignoring her feelings could work, eventually. Of course, somewhere deep inside, Lisa knew that that never worked out in the end. But for now, she'd ignore what she felt for him, if that even existed for sure, and she'd see how things went.

Soon enough, it was time to leave Rivendell. Finally, Lisa thought, we're doing something. She had been getting quite restless, waiting for the wait to be over and for the journey to begin.

Goodbyes were said, and tears were shed. Probably. Maybe not. The rhyme just sounded good, but it was probably true. Take Aragorn and Arwen, for example. The two shared a heartfelt goodbye, just with their eyes. Even that made Lisa sad. They, unlike Lisa, didn't know if he would come back or not.

Taking a good look around the place, Lisa gave Rivendell a fond farewell. "Goodbye, Rivendell."

Elrond came to say his goodbyes formally. "May your quest be filled with luck, and your road be safe."

And he went on and on and on. When he was done, Lisa just felt like leaving. She had always hated long good-byes. She had actually not wanted to leave Rivendell, because it had been the closest to a home she had gotten ever since she had left her world. Now she would be getting out of her sanctuary and going into the harsh world out there.

As the fellowship turned to leave, Elrond came gliding up to Lisa. "Remember, you are granted the ability to leave when you wish. You have no obligations to accompany the ring-bearer if that is not your wish."

"Got it, Elrond. Thank you," she said earnestly.

Then she turned to leave with the rest of the group. She heard Frodo ask Gandalf, "Which way is Mordor, left or right?" Oh, Frodo...

"Left," came the answer. That was something she had never understood. How could one tell if Mordor was left or right all the way from Rivendell? Didn't matter, she supposed. They were on the way there. At last.

~~~~~~~~~~

Much of the first part of the journey was spent bickering when they weren't walking (seemingly) endlessly. And sightseeing. Or if you weren't Gimli or Legolas, it was spent listening to the bickering. Lisa liked to socialize as well with the other fellowship members, but for now, listening to the arguments were enough to keep her occupied.

"You know, if a dwarf was to fight an army of Orcs, he would have them all at his feet, dead as doorknobs!" Gimli exclaimed.

"Yes, I cannot deny that," said Legolas. An immediate grin broke onto Gimli's face. But, Legolas continued, "An elf would simply have them all at his feet, begging for mercy. An elf does know the quality of mercy." He finished his sentence with a satisfied, sly smile.

"Mercy! My friend, mercy will get you nowhere! Nowhere, I say! Not during wartime, at least. Mercy..." and he went on ranting.

And this is how the fellowship spent their time, when they were resting. Having the two around was calming, in a way. Their bickering always brought a smile to her face. She thought, this is what I'll remember, when things get hard. The joys of companionship.

Everything was going fine so far. Boromir also had stopped trying to talk about the whole unspoken-but-there-

relationship-feeling thing, much to Lisa's relief. Maybe it was the great outdoors and the beautiful scenery that had him happy, without needing to speak of that incident. It sure made her feel good.

She then turned away to watch Boromir and Aragorn training the hobbits. They were both so good with them. Like it came naturally. The two of them training the Hobbits made her smile. Catching her smile, Boromir got distracted for a split second and returned the smile. Unfortunately, that caused him to lose his little fight as the hobbits rammed into him and knocked him off his feet. Caught off guard, and he looked rather startled when Merry and Pippin piled onto him, stirring up dust, which made Boromir cough. That, mixed in with his laughter, was not a good mix. Soon he became a dusty, laughing and coughing mess. The sight made everyone laugh, even Frodo, who had seemed slightly depressed since they had left Rivendell.

"Don't let anyone distract you during a battle, laddie!" Gimli yelled at Boromir cheerfully.

"You'd think that Boromir would know that by now, being the experienced warrior he is," Sam said, which lead to more laughs.

Lisa shot Boromir an apologetic smile. Right when he was about to respond, he looked up and noticed the storm of black crows flying towards them.

"What's that?" Sam asked to no one in particular.

"Nothing, just a wisp of cloud," Gimli said gruffly.

"It's moving fast, and against the wind," Boromir put in.

"Crebain from Dunland!" Legolas yelled frantically, and everyone made to hide before the crows could spot them. They put out the fires, hid the pots and pans, and did all that, but seriously, Lisa thought, how did they even expect to get all that cleaned up in time? Lisa knew what would happen, but she hid quickly anyway and helped everyone out.

She jumped into a crevice quickly and lay there. The crows' cawing grew louder, and their wings beat louder as well. It was just a bunch of crows, she knew it was, and they wouldn't do anything other than tell Saruman where they were, but it felt like something much worse. It just felt...evil. Dark.

When the crows finally reached where the fellowship was hiding, Lisa felt a bit sick to her stomach, she felt like cringing. It was a bit like when a really loud motorcycle whizzes by, and you feel like ducking and cringing, even though you know it won't touch you. It was like that feeling. When they finally left, she was relieved. She clambered up out of her hidey hole and waited for Gandalf to say his lines.

"Spies of Saruman. The passage south is being watched. We must take the pass of Caradhras."

Lisa groaned inwardly. She could tell already that this was going to be a long, terrible, cold, wet, miserable trip. But looking on the bright side, she had experience with snow and the cold. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all. But there was just an ominous feeling about the mountain.

"Oh, we're in for a looong trek," Lisa muttered to Boromir, who looked kind of pumped, actually. Oh, he didn't know what he was in for.

A/N: Review! Am I skimming everything too fast? Is it cheesy? Tell me what you think!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

A/N: Hey! If y'all bear with me for the whole story, there's lots of good plot waiting for you! I'm sorry, if it's cheesy, keep in mind that not all of it is cheesy, and there's a few really really truly cute romance parts in this tale.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings.

Contrary to Lisa's predictions, Caradhras wasn't too bad. At least not at the moment. She did predict a possible cold though. She got sick a lot, so it was pretty possible. But other than that, she was having a fine time. It was cold and all, but so far, no storms yet. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. She knew it would get worse, but so far, it was fine. Maybe she could be an optimist for now. Of course, there was still the part when Boromir would start to get affected by the Ring...that part hadn't come yet. And Lisa was dreading it already. But for now she could have fun. That particular event was not something she felt she could prevent anyway. She had always tried her best to make every single winter expedition fun, to a reasonable point, when she was training back in her world.

The process of walking on the mountain was a long, grueling one. So, Lisa took the time to get to know the rest of the group. Aragorn was her first choice. They spent time talking about Lisa's home and Aragorn would sometimes talk about what he used to do when he was younger. The happy stuff.

"I wasn't always so solemn. I used to be quite the prankster actually, if you can believe me. When I was much younger. Much younger than you are now.

"Do tell."

"Sometimes, boredom would overtake me and I would try to sneak treats from the kitchens. However, with Elrond there, getting caught was not always filled with the most enjoyable consequences." He chuckled. "I used to be quite carefree. I should not think of the past."

"Hey, Aragorn, you know it's okay to think about the past. I mean, the past is a spring of joy. I mean, for you, it is. So why not go back sometimes and collect some of that happiness to fuel you for your future?" Lisa advised. Damn, she wasn't so bad at this, she thought to herself.

Aragorn looked up at her and offered a smile. "You do have some words of wisdom in you." He got up and left, patting her shoulder as he did so. She smiled, liking the feeling of friendship. She had always loved it.

When they stopped briefly to rest because the hobbits were cold and exhausted, Lisa built a makeshift snow house and stayed there while the rest of the fellowship smoked and did their usual business. It took a while, but in an hour or so, she had made a small underground house-like structure. Kind of. It had no roof. It had a small bench and table made of snow. It was slightly amateur, as she was no architect, but hey, it was slightly warmer In there; a nice break from the cold.

Outside, she heard Gandalf say out loud, "Where has Lisa gone off to?"

She heard Boromir get up and walk around. Being slightly underground, she was hidden all right from the rest of the group.

"I hope she has not wandered off from us, as that would be rather unfortunate, especially in a place such as this," she heard Aragorn say. He sounded genuinely worried. Oh, Aragorn, always being a good leader.

"We don't leave for another half hour, let her stay where she is. She'll come here soon enough." Lisa could almost see Gimli as he said this, waving his hand away while saying so.

"I will go and look for her," Boromir told them.

Lisa made herself comfortable in her house, snuggling with her canteen of water (regrettably, there was no hot chocolate or coffee) and folding her right leg on top of her left, and leaning back, looking casual.

It was only a matter of time before Boromir came crashing down to the floor of Lisa's snow house. "ARGH!"

"Hey, what's an important rule of the field? Heck, important rule for anyone who doesn't want bruises? Watch where you're going." Lisa chuckled at the sight of poor Boromir, with his cold, wet face on the snow.

Lisa walked over to help Boromir up. He refused to take her hand and got up on his own. "I was blinded by the snow. Even if I had been looking, it would have all looked the same to me," he retorted.

"Sorry, Boromir. Really, I'm sorry, okay?" Lisa held her hand out so he would shake it and she could apologize.

Boromir reluctantly shook her hand and said, "Let's get out of this hole. I've had quite enough of it."

"Aight."

They made their way over to the stairs to go up the stairs and leave the house. Boromir gestured for her to go first. She was about to go up the steps when a snowball whizzed by her head. She immediately looked back. Boromir was smiling mischievously.

"Hey! What the hell happened to your gentlemanliness? Come on!" Lisa made a snowball as quickly as possible and threw it at Boromir. He dodged, and laughed his cute but manly laugh as he did so.

"At least I did not aim for your head!" Laughing hard now, he made a new snowball and aimed at Lisa, who already had her own snowball made. It hit him squarely in the chest.

"Oh, you cannot think you can get away with throwing a snowball at the son of the steward of Gondor like that," Boromir said, and ran towards Lisa with another snowball. Without really thinking, just acting on impulse, Lisa ran forward, at him, and tackled him to the ground. She sent him falling to the ground, but, not according to plan, Lisa fell too. Right on top of him.

Their faces were only inches away from each others'. Lisa knew that she had gotten herself into another awkward situation. What was this, a movie? Then, she looked into Boromir's eyes. Mistake. Again, she found she couldn't just look away. There was just so much...so much...emotion in them. And the way he looked at her...

She broke the contact this time, abruptly. "Sorry. We should be getting back to the others."

Boromir looked like he wanted to say something badly. "Listen-" he began, but was interrupted, to Lisa's relief, with a snowball almost the size of his head. She looked up and saw Pippin grinning broadly. "Hey, Pip! You're on my team!" Pippin nodded excitedly and clambered down into the house. Merry followed seconds later. Boromir looked slightly impatient for a split second, but he made the look leave his face.

Aragorn popped his head over the pit of a house and accused, "Now are you harassing the son of Gondor? Well, I cannot let this go by." Then he threw himself into the 'fray', on Boromir's team.

"Aragorn, you're actually having fun!" Pippin exclaimed. Excitedly, he threw a big snowball he had made at the usually-solemn ranger, which he dodged skillfully. Seeing this, Gimli and Legolas picked sides (Gimli on Boromir's and Legolas on Lisa's) and pelted each other with snowballs intensely.

Soon, the entire fellowship was engaged in the snowball fight. Not Gandalf, but majority. Even Frodo and Sam had joined in. It was all going great until Gandalf put on his serious face on and said, "We must go on. We have rested long enough."

So they were off again. On and on they went. Lisa was getting tired and felt like falling asleep on her feet when Frodo lost his balance and stumbled, which led to him rolling in the snow downhill. It went exactly the way it had in the movie. Aragorn caught him, Frodo felt around his neck for the thing that occupied his mind half the time, and looked up frantically when he couldn't find it there. Then, Boromir was holding the ring up to the light of the sun, examining the pretty but ugly thing.

"It is so strange that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing."

Lisa saw it in his eyes. The look of want, greed. Not wanting to watch anymore, Lisa marched up to him and said, "Hey, you're wanted at the front. Give it to Frodo and get up there."

It took a moment for Boromir to realize that she was talking to him and to comprehend what she was saying. Jerking out of his trance, grudgingly, it seemed, he gave the ring to Frodo and said, as Lisa knew he would, "As you wish. I care not." Ignoring Lisa, he trudged to the front of the line. Aragorn removed his hand from his sword hilt warily. Oh why did he have to lust after the ring? It was in this moment that Lisa gained a much stronger hate for the ring than had existed before. It needed to be destroyed as soon as possible. It was the worst thing possible, and it had to go away.

The storm was deafening, and it made Lisa's whole body aching and numb. It was the coldest storm he had ever been through. The hobbits were worse off. Purple lips, shaking hands...they were a wreck. Boromir, Aragorn, and Lisa took turns carrying them when they got too exhausted to keep going on their own. For some reason, Lisa felt like she had to do something that made her seem...responsible...or more leader-like.

Legolas gracefully walked up to the front of the line. "There is a fell voice in the air." It took a few seconds till everyone else could hear it. It was a low, deep, menacing voice.

Over the unrelenting winds, Gandalf yelled, "It's Saruman!"

Then the snow toppled on the fellowship. They all jumped to the side of the mountain to try to avoid the snow chunks.

"He's trying to bring down the mountain! We must turn back!" Aragorn yelled over the wind, his voice carrying not so far.

"No!" Gandalf insisted. Then he chanted his incantations, having a fight with Saruman. Seriously, how did he expect to get through this? Lisa now fully understood why Frodo had chosen to go through the mines. She would've made the same choice.

It was too cold. The wind seemed to make little cuts on her face as it carried ice particles. Trying to cover up any bit of skin didn't work. An attempt to do so resulted in her losing her balance and falling on the snow. Getting back up was no easy task. Boromir would always try to help her up but it was not easy, as he would fall over as well, and Lisa would try to help him up in return. Then both would fall over and they'd have to get up separately if they wanted to get up at all. It would have been comedic if the situation had been less serious. Oh, and Lisa thought maybe she'd come down with pneumonia or something like that, she was so cold.

The incantations continued. Then, a huge chunk of snow fell on them. Unable to get out of the way, the fellowship was pelted, then completely buried, in snow.

It was cold. So cold. Lisa, in a way, didn't want to get up. But that was decided for her when a strong arm pulled her up out of the snow. Legolas. She nodded in thanks and started pulling out the hobbits. They were all turning purple and blue.

Lisa shouted, "We need to get off this mountain! It'll be the death of the hobbits!" She wasn't sure if anyone heard her.

"We could take the Gap of Rohan and take the west road to my city!" Boromir shouted over the wind.

"The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard!" Aragorn argued.

"If we cannot go over a mountain, then let us go under it!" Gimli put in.

Lisa just really wanted to get off this damn mountain. "I'm with Gimli!"

"Let the ring-bearer decide!" Gandalf thundered.

Frodo's expression became horrified, as he had to decide which way they would go. Lisa wanted to yell, "Just choose, Frodo!" But she remained quiet.

"We will go through the mines!"

Finally! They were getting off this mountain!

Everything was so much better once they had gotten off the mountain. The group, especially the hobbits looked more alive and colour was returning to their faces again.

Once they had had a proper chance to dry off, morale was slightly boosted, even though everyone was tired out and more than a little grumpy.

Lisa had been walking with the hobbits, who seemed a bit down. Everyone was feeling down, but they seemed like the most...depressed? Not depressed, but they looked like they needed comforting, more than anyone else, at least right now. So she had been trying to make them feel better. Currently, she had been talking to them about food and what she used to eat back on Earth. Food was always something that depressed people resorted to...talking about it would suffice for now, they had decided mutually, without really speaking it.

"So...what's your favorite food from your home?" Merry inquired with slightly brighter eyes, after he had said that his favorite was fish. He was a fish lover for sure. If he ever went to Earth, she'd have to take him to the Boathouse back where she liked to go to.

"Burritos. Definitely burritos," Lisa said confidently. Then, with a slightly unsure tone, she added, "Or pasta...there's that too. It's hard to choose a favorite food, I find. There's so many out there! What about you, Pippin, what's your favorite?"

Pippin declared, "Pie! I mean, there is a wide variety of food to choose from, but one should always have time to enjoy a slice of pie. Merry and I always used to bake pies, but none of them were ever as good as the ones at the Green Dragon. Now, the Green Dragon serves everything." He was quiet for a second. "I wonder if getting back is still a possibility..." he trailed off. After a few moments of wistful silence, Merry said, "You said that you go traveling a lot for your job?"

Lisa nodded, "Lots of traveling."

Pippin asked, "Is it like this?"

Lisa sighed. "Not really."

They both looked down and Merry let out a deep sigh. "How is it different?"

Lisa, not wanting to make their morale plummet, answered carefully, "It's different in the way that...I seem to have less responsibility and I'm taking the time to make friends." Hoping that was enough, she stopped talking. Seemingly satisfied with that for now, the two hobbits got up and left.

Lisa was left with a pang of homesickness from their conversation. Or perhaps it had just been the fact that they had been talking about food from Earth. And she missed it dearly. She wanted to go back. Homesickness hadn't really been a huge issue with her, but that was when she was on Earth. Where she knew she would be going back home someday for sure. And her iPod was becoming old...it was dying too soon. Thank god she had a solar powered charger. Without it, she would've had no iPod or iPad and she would've gone mad. It was all about the little things...But one thought spiraled to another. She thought of the big things...her family, friends. That led her to think of Evan, her best friend.

They had gone through everything together. God, she loved the guy. Then that terrible thought crossed her mind: what if he didn't make it? Now that she thought of it, it was likely. She had been lucky to be alive. What if he wasn't so lucky and had been dropped somewhere in Mordor? Finding him dead, knowing he was dead, would probably drive her mad. It'd kill her.

She turned her attention to Gandalf and the door. Thinking too much of things like this would overwhelm her. Ugh, or she could talk it out.

"Ithildin. It mirrors only starlight and moonlight. It reads, "The doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak 'friend' and enter," Gandalf read.

"What do you suppose that means?" Merry asked.

"It's quite simple. If you are a friend you speak the password and the doors will open..."

If I get home, she corrected, in her head, returning to the conversation she had had. She sorely missed home. Really, not a day went by when she didn't think about her home. She didn't always let it show, but some days, she just felt like going home so badly, she felt overwhelmed. She walked off for a second, away from the others to whatever secluded place she could find. It wasn't for a few hours the doors would open anyway. She knew Boromir would try to talk to her if he knew where she was, and much as she liked his company, she didn't want him there at the moment. So she left when she knew he wasn't looking.

A hand squeezed her shoulder. Aragorn. "How are things?" So her plan hadn't really worked. Oh well.

She smiled up at him and said, "Not bad. How's you?"

Aragorn sat down next to her and said, "Well, thank for you asking, I feel fine. But, I must correct you. One with a troubled expression on one's face does not usually mean they are doing especially well. What is worrying you?"

Lisa shrugged. "You probably know." After a few seconds of silence, she continued, "I just considered the possibility that-that-that my best friend, the one that came with me, you know, he just... He could be dead." Her voice broke as she finished the last word. Aragorn's brow furrowed and he sat closer to Lisa. "I just don't think anything will work out fine. Nothing. What if he dies or is dead already? I-I-I can't stand it if that happens! I mean, I love the guy, we've been through everything together! It's just so...so possible." She felt the tears coming. She wiped them away quickly but continued crying. With a concerned look in his face, Aragorn gave her a hug. A somewhat awkward hug, but a hug nonetheless. Lisa cried into his shoulder for a good few minutes. Aragorn, being a good friend, continued comforting her.

"Thanks," Lisa said to him when she was done. She wiped her tears away and laughed, "Gotta love this place."

Aragorn nodded sympathetically. "I believe that your path will lead to happiness someday. And remember, nothing happens without a reason. If there is no reason for your friend to be dead..." he seemed to be thinking of something to say. "...then he should be fine."

Then he got up and left, giving her another reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. Probably already had lots on his mind. Poor guy.

Giving herself time to recover from her meltdown, she waited for a while for her sobs to leave. When she felt better, she came back and sat on the rocks, just twiddling her thumbs. Then, she felt as though someone was watching her. She looked up, and was caught off guard to see Boromir's soft gaze resting on her. She, on instinct, looked away quickly. Then, not knowing why, but on some strange instinct, she guessed, she looked back at him. Her heart started beating quicker than normal, and her face felt hot, and she didn't know why. Maybe she did...

No. This couldn't be happening, she'd make sure of it.

She looked away from him and focused on the rocks by her feet, trying to slow down her quickening heartbeat. She felt his eyes boring into her. Then she pictured them. His eyes. They were always so welcoming, deep, and warm. Their shade of grey was a beautiful colour, and when she looked at them, she always found it was hard to break the contact. Her one question was, Why? Why did it have to be like this? She would have to go home... There was so much left for her there...at home... And maybe she would be able to rescue all the others who had come with her. She would earn something big for that, for sure... But if she didn't go home... The thoughts kept on coming, and it was overwhelming. She tried not to think about it for now. So she came back to the world around her.

Frodo had just had his little realization and burst, "It's a riddle. Speak 'friend' and enter. What's the Elvish word for friend?"

Lisa went and patted Frodo on the head.l, grinning. "Good job, buddy."

He smiled back, the half-hearted kind he seemed to be giving these days.

"Mellon."

As soon as the word was said, the doors opened.

Onward then. Into darkness.

A/N: How was that? Review!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10.

It was a sunny, happy day. At least it was sunny and happy weather-wise. The situation wasn't so happy.

The colonel looked up from his papers after studying them for a few minutes. He reached up to the back of his head, where the now-healing coffee burn had been. He sighed.

Thinking back to the day of the completely unexpected betrayal, he sighed deeply. Mark Brewster had been found and captured but he had refused to say anything. Why he had done it, the colonel would never know. The doctors he had called had all said he was probably crazy and he didn't know the consequences of his actions. Many of his lower-ranked officers had advised him to keep Brewster locked up. Personally, he thought that incarcerating him was the only way. So there he stayed, locked up in his cell.

Again, Colonel Long sighed and scratched his head. The machine still hadn't been fixed. When the families of the ones who had left for the mission had eventually heard about the mechanical failure and possible deaths of the mission's participants, they were distraught, and he couldn't blame them.

He had spent hours thinking about the choice he had made. Why had he gone through with this? He had, before this, thought himself a reasonably wise man. Now he found himself not knowing what to do. Of course, this problem had to be fixed. He had called many different experienced scientists to repair the machine, but they were not successful.

His captain walked in his room and gave him a salute.

"What have I done?" the colonel asked his captain.

"It was all you could do. You did say that desperate times called for desperate measures."

"But our current situation isn't much better, is it?" With a sigh, he leaned back into his chair. "I've failed. I'm just another officer, who's failed in his role to defend another nation. And his people."

The captain said, "Our current situation is better, sir. It is improving, and you made sure of that. We do have extended support from Canada and that's helping."

The colonel did look slightly comforted by this, but turned back to bashing himself. "I've failed."

The captain, trying to make his colonel feel better, said, "If you're grieving this much over this, sir, I hope that you will learn lots from it. And you should be glad that you made the choice to send...less...experienced and needed men." Then he exited the room, leaving the colonel to brood and despair over everything.

~~~

He remembered the day he had heard the news. The man sighed again. Sighing was something he had started doing a lot these days. But what else would one do when he had found out his daughter had been lost to a military operation? Poor Michael Scott sighed again. He still get grief over his daughter's absence, possible death.

The last time they had spoken was when she had called him and her mother the day She had graduated from college. Then the next he heard of her was that his daughter was probably dead, because she was selected for a special-top-secret mission that no one was supposed to know about. He still didn't even know what was going on! They hadn't really told him where she was, just that she had been chosen for a mission, and she was 'missing' in an unfamiliar place.

But there was somewhere in his mind, where he believed that Lisa was alive and would come back home someday, somehow.

He frequently wondered where Lisa was now. Was she dead? Or was she somewhere in that other place, lost? Or she could be just fine, but what were the chances of that?

When he thought about this, the range of emotions he felt was rather large. Pain, loss, sadness were there by default. Sometimes anger would accompany those feelings. How could a colonel, no matter how inexperienced he was, make a mistake like that? That was what they had told him. That the colonel had not had enough experience, and that he had made a mistake that he deeply regretted. But for him, the loss was still too near and strong for him to begin to understand.

But he kept hope alive. One day, she would come back.

~~~

Alana Scott lay in her bed, tears streaked down her cheeks. She had said she was going to sleep so her husband wouldn't try to talk to her. She felt she was at that stage where talking to anyone would make it worse no matter what.

Her daughter had gone missing. That's why she had never truly wanted her daughter to join the army. Where was her daughter? Lisa was her only child, one of her two rays of sunshine in her world.

Her husband had told her that she had to keep hoping for Lisa to come back by some miracle. How was she to keep hope alive? Why not give up while it was still safe to do so?

Some days, she didn't even get out of bed. She just lay there, thinking, and then trying not to think, because thinking hurt too much. So she had taken to using sleeping pills. Her life was a mess now.

She didn't know that she was hurting her husband more than he was already hurting. He was concerned that she was losing her mind, slipping into insanity or depression.

A/N: Kind of a filler, but also to let you know what's going on in Earth. Review and let me know what you think so far! Suggestions, comments, etc. they are great!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10.

When the doors of Moria opened, everyone seemed quite eager to get in. At least the hobbits did. The rest of the group seemed more wary. Then there was Gimli, more than thrilled to be there. Why would someone even want to live in a place like this? Lisa wondered. That she would probably never understand. And she was definitely dreading the part when they would have to go through the dark, dreadful mines. Lisa didn't like the look of them already. Seriously, the movies didn't make them seem half as bad as they did now.

Boromir, next to Lisa, took out his sword warily. Apparently Boromir was feeling uneasy too; he seemed to be emanating waves of discomfort or something. Lisa took out her bow and arrow. Wow, this was tue first real life situation she'd be using them.

The group, somewhat eagerly, marched into the mines. Then Gimli, bursting with pride, started his speech about the greatness of his dear people.

"Soon Master Elf, you will experience the fabled hospitality of the dwarves. Roaring fires, malt beer, rrripe meat off the bone!"

Okay, Gimli was the only one not wary. Lisa felt a cold sweat go down her forehead. She could tell that's how everyone else felt too. Not that they all showed it. Legolas didn't change his expression much, but that was to be expected. He just looked...intense all the time, that was his thing. And Aragorn just always looked brave and tough. And Gandalf was looking cautious and dangerous.

"...And they call it a mine. A mine!" Gimli went on.

But Gimli seemed to be the only one enjoying the place. Boromir stiffened and said, "This is no mine. It's a tomb."

This statement caused everyone to look down suddenly. When Lisa looked down, she resisted the urge to cringe, trying to keep up a strong front.

But, no matter how strong Gimli was, he couldn't keep his feelings in when he saw the dead bodies of his friends, family, and kin. He gasped, then when the realization seeped in, he leapt from dead body to dead body, his cries becoming louder as he went on. It was terrible. "No. Noooo!" Gimli's howls echoed through the walls of the tomb.

Legolas ran up to one of the bodies and examined the arrow. "Goblins," he remarked disgustedly.

"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here! Now all of you get out. Get out!" Boromir yelled.

Any second now.

The fellowship backed out of the caves, almost tripping on their own feet while doing so.

Any second.

The great slimy tentacle chose that moment to grab a hold of Frodo's little leg. Panicking, Sam and the other hobbits grabbed their own swords and started hacking away at the creature's legs.

As quickly as possible, Lisa pulled out an arrow and nocked it, then aimed it at the beast's tentacle. One of them anyway. Then she let it fly.

Aragorn and Gandalf yelled their battle cries as they leapt into the fight, cutting the huge monster's legs, trying desperately to get Frodo back to safety.

Boromir cut off another tentacle. Then before anyone could comprehend what was happening, at least a dozen or more other tentacles emerged from the lake. Feeling a major adrenaline rush course through her body, Lisa let out her battle cry and nocked arrows, aimed, then let loose a bunch of arrows.

Then the beast's head rose up out of the water with an open mouth. It was quite terrifying, to see it in real life. And to see it about to eat Frodo. Frodo struggled to get free of its grasp and somehow get to safety. The fear was evident in his face.

Legolas quickly flew an arrow at its head, and it hit its mark successfully. Meanwhile, everyone else was trying their best to hinder the huge lake beast, cutting legs off and whatnot.

Legolas's hit seemed to have an instant effect. Frodo was set free, whom Boromir caught, and there was a moment for the fellowship to escape.

It was crazy. Everyone was trying to get into the mines as quickly as possible and to escape the monster's tentacles. It was just chaotic and crazy. Everything happened in a blur, it happened so fast. The fellowship made it into the mines as the Watcher attempted to catch one of them. Then the doors were being crumbled, and then they crashed to the ground. Light was blocked out bit by bit. The last visible sight was the Watcher's tentacles groping at them...then darkness. Pure darkness. For a second no one made a sound. Lisa almost expected someone to start screaming, as if this were a horror movie. Then Gandalf lit his lamp.

"We now have but one choice. We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world. Quietly now. It's a four day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed."

At the mention of a four day journey in order to get out of this hell, on top of everything else (the terrifying possibility of Orcs/goblins, and the 'older-and-fouler-things-than-

Orcs' that probably existed here, the darkness), morale just seemed to plummet, down the drain.

Boromir stepped closer to Lisa at this moment and offered her a comforting hand. She gladly took it and held onto it tightly. Then, she wondered in her head, "Does holding his hand for comfort make me look weak, like I need support?"

Lisa, for some reason that was still not 100% clear to her, had been working to build up a leader/toughie stoic impression. Said impression was meant to be demonstrated in cases like this. Knowing how depressed the group felt, Lisa tried to be like Aragorn and Gandalf: the ultimate badasses who didn't seem to be phased by anything. She'd try to be like them, although it would probably not work out all that perfectly. But, something in her told her to step up and be one of the strong ones here.

She let go of Boromir's hand and said, "I'm fine. I'm gonna see if the guys are all right." She felt slightly rude and inconsiderate for doing so, but he wave it away. It wasn't a big deal.

She walked up to the Hobbits, who were with Legolas, and asked them, "Has everyone here had their meals yet? Everyone needs to keep eating. It'll boost morale, keep you distracted, it'll make everything better. Ration your food, because we may not find any more for the rest of the four days. And don't worry guys, we will get out before you know it. So stay positive, alright?" Then she walked over to a spot on a rock and sat down and made it look like she was busy. She was hoping that it would make her look more confident and like she really knew what she was doing. Plus, it would keep her distracted from the depressing darkness that surrounded her. She thought of going to talk to Aragorn and Gandalf and ask them what the plans were, but decided against it when she saw them talking together in soft voices. Maybe this wasn't the best time. Or maybe it was. She did want to be a leader, didn't she?

So she marched over to the two and waited for them to finish their conversation. When they did, she chipped in. "Hi, I was wondering what the plans were for the next few hours. I'm here to help you out, I thought I should let you two know." Gandalf gave her a slightly annoyed look, which she didn't catch (too dark) and told her, "For now, we're fine. Go rest with the others." Feeling a little rejected, Lisa went to join the others. She just wanted to be a leader. She just wanted to do more than what the others were doing. Hell, she didn't even know for sure what she really wanted for sure and why she wanted this so much. Didn't matter, she decided for now. For now, just because she was bored as hell already and because she hadn't done this for a while, and being the cinematic she was, she thought she'd plug herself into her iPad and watch a few movies. So that's how she spent her time for a while, watching movies.

Review!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11.

Walking through the mines was not so bad for the first half day or so of it. It was just hard to shake the feeling of being watched. And it was just gloomy. And it was hard for anyone to see where they were going. And after the first half day, it was really no fun. No. Fun. At. All.

Lisa, with her newly obtained toughie leader impression, stayed at the back of the group, to make sure they were doing fine. Usually it'd be Aragorn's role, but she thought he shouldn't be stuck at the back all the time. It was rather lonely back there. Sometimes Boromir would fall back and walk with her. A few times, she'd step on a slippery dead body and trip or almost trip. Boromir would catch her and steady her. She did appreciate it, but she thought it might make her look too much like a liability or someone who couldn't take care of herself. So after the first few times, she said, "Hey, Boromir, I'm fine. But I'm sure the hobbits could use some help." She gave him an encouraging smile and said, "Come on, look at them, they're tripping about everywhere." Reluctantly, Boromir left. It almost seemed grudgingly, maybe a bit annoyed as well. Well, couldn't think about that too much now. She pushed the thought away and continued walking in solitude. Well, solitude because she was at the back with less company. It got lonely... But hey, she couldn't really blame anyone but herself since she had asked Boromir to go and help the Hobbits.

She watched him help the Hobbits. Pippin tripped on a body (probably a body, what else), Boromir would quickly move to prevent his fall. He seemed so genuinely kind and caring. He probably would have gone to help the Hobbits even if Lisa had not encouraged him to do so. He was just a good person. While she was thinking this, she felt an incredible amount of warmth towards the man she was watching. Then, she remembered, she could only limit her feelings towards him to friendliness. But she still kept watching him help the Hobbits. Steadying Sam when he slid, comforting Frodo when he looked faint and queasy, and simple things like, ruffling Merry's head when he sighed and looked like he wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. A warm smile crept onto her face.

At that moment, Boromir looked back at her. She jolted her head away from him, her cheeks flaming, just on some ridiculous instinct. She thanked the Valar for giving them no light for just this one second. Then she looked back at Boromir and offered him a smile as, she didn't really know, an apology for being a little awkward and rude. Boromir gave her one back, then turned back to the hobbits.

With his light in hand, Gandalf seemed quite all right with the darkness. Something seemed to catch his eye. He lifted his arm, which caused the light to shine on a bunch of bright metal clustered onto the stones.

"Mithril. Gold and silver were not the riches contained in Moria, but rather mithril." Gandalf paused, maybe for dramatic effect. It worked. "Bilbo had a mithril shirt given to him by Thorin. I never told him, but its value is greater than the wealth of the Shire." Ohh snap.

Other than that, there wasn't much talking while walking. When they stopped to rest, however, there was much hushed talking.

When they stopped, Lisa told the Hobbits to lay out their bedrolls and sleep for a bit, or just rest, if they wanted to. The warriors (Gimli, Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn) Then she sat down and just...sat there. Ohhh God, this was only the first day out of four.

Gandalf slumped down next to her. "Hi, Gandalf."

"Lisa," Gandalf nodded to her in greeting. Then he said, "Get some rest. We have been walking all day, and I can only assume that it is probably nighttime by now."

Lisa shook her head. "I'm fine actually. I'm actually not that tired."

Gandalf chuckled and said, "And what do you hope to achieve out of this?"

"Out of not getting sleep?"

"No, out of trying to be a leader when it is not your time."

Lisa didn't know how to respond to that. So Gandalf kept talking. "I have noticed your attempts to lead the group and to do more than you were doing before. I should like you to know that eventually you will know what you want and why you want them, and when and how you should act upon your wants. You will know what your values are." Gandalf gave her a smile, his eyes holding that familiar twinkle.

Lisa said, "I don't know what you mean. I know what I want."

Getting up, Gandalf said, "Think about it, Lisa." He left after giving her a thoughtful pat on her back.

What did he mean? She knew what she wanted. Sure it was jumbled up in her mind at the moment but at the end of the day, she knew what she wanted. Didn't she? She wanted to go home, she wanted to be a leader, she wanted to save Boromir. There. And why? Because she missed home, obviously. The other ones were a bit harder. Well, for the second one, she wasn't really sure why. Maybe it was because she felt the need to be less of a burden and more of an asset. There, that was it. But something in the back of her mind told her that that was not it. Not quite. Then what could it be? And the last one...she knew, she just couldn't bring herself to even think it. She then regretted not dating more in high school. If she had, she would have had more experience so she would know what to do now. But no, she had turned down almost every guy that did ask her out and she had been a schoolaholic. She had been a bit of a tryhard, so she could be the best army member she could be. Which resulted in her not having any guy experience.

Argh, why did wizards always feel the need to complicate everything?

While she was deep in thought, brooding, she felt another presence nearby. It was the object of her thoughts. "Hey."

Boromir knelt down next to her and said, "Out on watch? I can take over if you like." Then he smiled at her. That smile. Cheesy as it was, it made her insides feel like jelly and made her want to just stare at him for as long as she could.

"Or do you really want to keep watch right now?" he asked seemingly amused when she went for staring at him rather than answering him. Realizing that she was still staring at him, she said quickly, "Oh, I'm actually not on watch duty, Gandalf is. I just couldn't sleep." But she did want to be around somebody after being somewhat isolated for the day. Boromir would be nice to be around. "You can join me if you want to," and smiled a welcoming smile at him. Settling in on the rock beside her, Boromir asked, "Tell me this, I have always wondered this. When traveling, what does one do to keep oneself entertained? I have my own tactics but I should very much like to know your world's. Besides, my tactics are sometimes get old and I frankly find that I am getting bored easily in this place. So, what do people in your world do when they get bored while traveling? Preferably in dark, dank, smelly, old mines?"

"See, we don't go traveling in dark, dank, smelly, old mines, so I think your question may be a little...not applicable," she grinned.

Lisa thought about the things she usually did with her friends and family while traveling.

"Ummm, not much that we can do now. I mean, nowadays when people go camping, they go fishing, read books, whatnot. I don't think we can read much in this light though. It'll be bad for your eyesight. We also play cards but I don't have cards."

Boromir looked slightly ticked off. Bored.

"Oh! I know! God, why didn't I think of this earlier? I've been doing this all frickin' day!" Lisa smacked herself on the forehead mentally. Lisa's huge outburst brought Boromir's head snapping up and saying, "What?"

"My iPad!" Lisa exclaimed. She dug it out of her knapsack and pressed the button on top. "Feast your eyes, Boromir. This is probably one of the best things your eyes will ever see." She flipped through her apps. "Videos... Movies... What kind of movies do you like, Boromir?" she asked.

He looked quite confused and said, "What are movies?"

"ARGH!" Lisa was reminded of how behind this world was. "It's... It's a play but recorded on tape. Ahhh, you don't know what tape is, oh god. It's like...it's... It's a movie, okay? Just sit back, relax, and watch the movie. It's complicated, like my iPod and iPad and stuff. Kay, whatever, you'll see what it is."

Boromir chuckled and said, "Has anyone ever complimented you on how talented you are at explaining?"

"Okay, you know what, Boromir? Just shut up, all right?" Lisa said, with mock anger.

Mock hurt was displayed on Boromir's face. He said nothing.

As she flipped through her iPad's movies, she asked him, "Okay, what kind of stories do you like? Action, drama, comedy, romance, family, you know, what do you like?" She looked up when he didn't answer. "Boromir?"

Taking out a piece of paper from his sack, he looked around for something.

"You okay there, bro?" Should she be worried?

Finally finding what he wanted (a quill) he got his paper and started writing. Finally getting what he was doing, she started laughing. "Okay, okay, I get it. I'm sorry, I take that back. I take that 'shut up' comment back. I'm sorry." When he didn't react and kept writing intently, Lisa said, "Buddy, it's okay. You can talk, yo."

Boromir, now finished writing, innocently handed the paper to Lisa. "Hey, I said I'm sorry, and I didn't mean it." He took the paper back and wrote something else on it and gave it back. When Lisa opened her mouth to say she wasn't going to read it, he gave her an innocent look, an almost puppy-dog-like look. Sighing extra heavily, Lisa said, "Okay, then. I'll read it. I'll read it. Happy now? Yeah, you better be."

It read, "You said I couldn't talk, therefore I had to write this down. As for your question, I am a fan of anything that is portrayed well. I quite like stories that tell the lives of famous historical figures, but of course, there is always drama and love in those stories." Then the space below it read, "I am just teasing, Lisa." She looked up and said, "Okay, Boromir. Did you really have to write all of this down? I'm sorry I told you to shut up, but hey, I do it in my world all the time. It's a common thing to say when one gets a little...ticked off. Don't worry, best friends say it all the time to each other."

Boromir laughed, finally making a sound. "I just wanted to crack my boredom, so I wrote it down. So how about movies? Do you have any good ones you want to share?"

"You know what, Boromir?"

"Yes?"

"You're a goof."

"I shall take that as a compliment."

Next thing the rest of the Fellowship saw when they woke up was Boromir and Lisa watching movies intensely. It was a funny sight, their eyes were intensely attached to the iPad, and they were laid out on their bedrolls so they wouldn't have to be sitting up the whole time.

First movie they watched was Braveheart. She knew he'd like that one. It was a great movie, and it was about a historical figure with romance and drama. At the end when Wallace died, he seemed just as frustrated as Lisa had been when she had watched it for the first time.

"Blasted man! Why did he do it? Wallace was invincible! Why did he do it? His son should have been less kind to him. If I were him, I would have...I would have...I can't say what I would do." Oh, what a gentleman.

The second movie was Saving Private Ryan. He liked that one as well. He was quite taken by the part at the end when the whole flashback ended and the old man (Ryan) spoke to the gravestones. Lisa could swear there had been a tear in his eye.

Then for the third movie, Lisa showed him Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. He seemed too confused by the gadgets and technology Lisa couldn't show him the whole thing because Boromir was worrying his poor head, trying to get his mind about the strange concept of super advanced technology.

Lisa had debated on showing him The Hobbit, but decided against it. It might just lead to him wanting to see the whole Lord of the Rings series, and she didn't want to let him know that she even had them on her iPad. So she settled for Les Miserables. French history, maybe he'd like that. He seemed quite enchanted by the singing actually. He was really taken by Anne Hathaway's 'I Dreamed A Dream' scene. Really, the whole movie just blew his mind. He especially loved the 'A Little Fall of Rain', 'Suddenly, 'One Day More', and 'Javert's Death'. At some points, it even seemed like he might just burst into song along with the cast.

By the time the movie was over, he was getting quite emotional. Well, it made sense, being the great movie it was.

"That was a great movie. I did not know that there were so many talented people in your world. I am truly in awe right now. I must think about this and all the other movies I have seen today." Then he went and sat by himself, seemingly deep in thought.

Okay, usually after watching a movie she liked to obsess about it, but she guessed maybe it wasn't that way for not old-fashioned people.

A/N: Review and let me know what you think! This chapter was more of a filler but keep letting me know what you think! It gets me more motivated to keep writing.

Oh, and if you find yourself with spare time, you should all check out those movies, guys! They're great!


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13.

A/N: I'm proud of this chapter! So much progress! Read and review!

The day after Lisa and Boromir's big movie marathon was a day full of walking and climbing stairs. They climbed and climbed the stairs and by the time it was lunchtime (probably) they had climbed so much, Lisa was aching all over. The climbing was just hard on everyone's backs. And there was that one time Pippin almost fell.

"Pippin!" Merry softly exclaimed when he slipped on the slippery rock.

They came to the end of the set of stairs they had been climbing. Gandalf's face turned stone-like when he started looking around the room. It was full of dead bodies, like all the other rooms here, and everything was disheveled.

"I have no memory of this place." His voice was hard and sent a chill down Lisa's spine.

And then there was more climbing! And more climbing, and even more climbing. Half the day was spent climbing. But Gandalf insisted that if they got all their climbing done in one day, they would be happy and that all of the climbing would be over for the whole Moria venture. If that was all true, then yay. Lisa knew she would be speaking/thinking for the whole fellowship when she thought they were done with walking for maybe half a lifetime.

Gandalf was quite the tough old little adventurer today. He insisted on continuing when let's be honest here, his back was probably ready to break after all the hard work. The work was actually not that bad for Lisa, she had no problem there. Her problem was her fatigue. She had just made the stupid decision the day before to stay up and watch movies with Boromir. So, in the end, she was just as badly off as the others were.

"Smart choice we made, staying up late last night," Lisa remarked to Boromir, who was on the steps just a bit below her.

Boromir now had a good grip on sarcasm, so he smiled and answered, "It was still worth it. I like movies." Lisa looked back up to the stairs above her and smiled.

After a few minutes, Lisa saw a beautiful sight. It was the end of the stairs! No more climbing! Oh, Lisa was happy. And there was some time for her to sleep! Because Gandalf had to make them wait for a long time while he had to 'figure out which way to go'.

Lisa laid out her bedroll and before she could think much, she fell asleep.

She woke up an hour or so later. She wasn't sure what woke her up, but she knew it wasn't just because she had gotten enough sleep, or because it was time for her to be up. But she was slightly refreshed from her nap, though. And apparently so was Boromir, who had also taken a nap.

The rest of the fellowship seemed to be occupied somewhat. And bored. They had been there for a while, after all. Legolas and Aragorn were talking to each other, Gimli was brooding, Boromir was deep in thought, Gandalf was waiting for Frodo to come ad talk to him but pretending he was thinking of a way out, and Merry, Pippin, Frodo, and Sam were just looking bored out of their minds and trying to keep themselves occupied, not that there was much to do.

Once Lisa woke up, she found herself not being able to go back to sleep. So she amused herself by listening to the Hobbits talk. Well, it wasn't really amusing, but it was all she could do.

"Are we lost?" asked Pippin quietly, making sure Gandalf was out of earshot.

"No," replied Merry.

"I think we are." Pippin argued.

"Hey, try to be optimistic, Pip," Lisa told him. "It almost sounds like you wanna be lost!"

"Merry?" Pippin called.

"Hm?" came the reply.

"I'm hungry."

Lisa let out a chuckle, and then she got up and went to deal with more pressing, serious matters.

"Gimli?" Lisa called his name cautiously.

He didn't answer. A few seconds later, he turned his head around and saw her, then he turned back. Lisa waited for another reaction. Still, he did nothing. Poor guy. And he hadn't even seen Balin yet...

"Would you mind if I sat next to you, Gimli?"

There was no reaction. Not quite sure what that meant, Lisa sat down next to her friend and said, "Gimli, I know you must be feeling distraught..."

He humpfed in reply. She took that as an okay sign and kept going.

"But I know that you're a strong guy, Gimli. I know that when you lose someone, you feel like you can't go on and that there's no point. But there is a point. You can choose to move on with your life. I know you may want to avenge the deaths of your kin, and that's fine. But...make sure you don't just look for revenge." Ugh, this was supposed to be a feel-better talk. How had she turned it into a do's-and-don'ts-of-dealing-with-the-deaths-of-your-kin talk? Ugh. Good going, Lisa. Well, better finish it up.

"I'm sorry about this. Keep up your strength and hope though." She got up and left him to grieve on his own, the way he seemed to want it.

She walked over to Boromir and sat down.

"I tried to help Gimli with his problem. Poor guy."

Boromir nodded absentmindedly. They sat in silence for a while. Then he asked, "Do you really know what will happen next?"

Oh, this wasn't good.

"Yeah," was her simple reply.

"Then why have you done nothing about it?"

Lisa didn't know what to tell him. "What do you mean?" She settled for.

"We would not have had to go through the mountain pass if you had only just spoken up," he said with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "And Gimli would not yet be grieved with the burden he now carries."

"Well, what could I even do? I'm trying not to change the script, it has to go right."

"If you truly knew, you would have prevented all that you could have. Or do you just not care for the Company? Why are you not warning us of what is to come?"

"Hey, if I tell you, the whole turn of events will be different and victory might not be possible. I want you guys to have victory. And you know I care about the fellowship."

Boromir huffed and went back to his brooding. Lisa felt frustrated; why did he think that Lisa didn't want to help the group? And why did he even suggest that she didn't care about the Company? She loved them, and she had gotten to bond with them. So she had decided to commit her services to the fellowship. They were, after all, her friends. And when she made friends, she never treated them as anything other than friends. Fuming, Lisa stalked a few paces away from Boromir, turned back, and said, "Okay, calm down, do what you need to do."

Lisa gave him time to think, or whatever it was he needed.

Since everyone was now so involved in their brooding, grieving, talking, thinking, and whatnot, Lisa decided to listen to the script for now, maybe even predict what they'd say before they said it. Weird, but it made sense to one who was bored and didn't want to talk to her best friend (here).

"There's something down there!" Frodo exclaimed with a panicked expression as he went up to Gandalf's side.

"It's Gollum," Gandalf replied.

"Gollum?" he inquired.

"He's been following us for three days," he said, kind of casually.

"He escaped the dungeons of Barad-dur!"

Gandalf gave a slight nod. "Escaped...Or was set loose." Frodo looked disbelievingly at the wizard. He continued.

"He hates and loves the Ring as he hates and loves himself. He will never be rid of his need for it."

"It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance," Frodo said strongly.

"Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and many that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."

"I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."

Lisa felt a twinge of sorrow for the poor hobbit. He held the biggest burden here. And he didn't ask for this to happen. For some reason, Lisa hadn't liked Frodo particularly in the movies, but in real life, she felt so much sympathy for him, because he simply didn't deserve anything he got and what would get.

"So do all who come to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

That quote had always stuck in Lisa's head.

"There are other forces in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also 'meant' to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."

Lisa felt like tearing up almost. Just from what was happening and from the similarity and familiarity from watching the movies. She felt a small wave of emotion just from listening to the conversation she wasn't really meant to hear. And she felt a small wave of deeper admiration for the old wizard.

"Oh, it's that way!" Gandalf said, suddenly raising his voice so that everyone could hear him.

"He's remembered!" Merry said excitedly.

"No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose," Gandalf said, with a hint of humor in his voice.

"You know, people in my world usually go with, 'Follow your heart', but I guess what Gandalf just said works too," she whispered to Boromir beside her who said nothing in response. Was he angry?

"Let me risk a little more light," Gandalf said. With more light came a great sight. "Behold the great realm of the Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf."

"There's an eye-opener and no mistake," Sam whispered in awe.

He was right. The stone structures held a silent, mighty kind of power. The halls just screamed majestic at you.

"I bet your old Gaffer would want to see this," Lisa whispered to Sam.

Sam, who seemed to have lost his breath, didn't reply, just held an awed expression on his face.

After the initial awe and wonder they had felt from looking at the awesome dwarf city wore off, things got boring. There wasn't much else to see, other than the immense stone structures. Plus, the lack of sunlight and other living things was kind of driving Lisa crazy. And she just remembered Gimli was about to see Balin's tomb... When was that exactly?

Apparently it was a long time after Gandalf introduced the dwarf city. A few minutes of walking with nothing really happening. Unlike the movie, where it happened pretty much straight away. So there was just more walking. Really, there was no fun to be found in this, no matter how impressive the place was. Also, it wasn't like one could just stare at the monumental city all day while walking anyway. Lisa had done that, by accident. It resulted in her tripping a lot more and bumping into other things.

Lisa actually took the time to think about what was going to happen in the near future. First, Gimli would learn that his cousin was dead, then Pippin would drop the skeleton into the well and all the Orcs would come running (with their cave troll), they would lose Gandalf... All of this just sent a rush of fear through Lisa. Real fear. For her life. Before now, she hadn't felt real fear before. Maybe she had felt scared before going to take her Basic Training course, and she had been nervous when she was first sent to Middle-earth. But this...her first encounter with orcs could be her death. She realized fully that she could, in fact, really die here. There was no guarantee that she would get out of this. And then they'd lose Gandalf... This was overwhelming. Which made her lose her focus and she bumped into another post.

"If this is how you are like in combat, I must say, your army back at home must be quite formidable," Boromir teased. Was he being friendly or sarcastic?

"Okay, guess what? The walls AND the huge structures are both grey. AND it's dark," Lisa countered.

Just when Boromir was about to come up with a counter rebuttal to that, Gimli made a shout and started running. Crap...here it was.

"Gimli!" Gandalf shouted to stop the dwarf, but Gimli didn't stop and kept on running towards the room with the light.

When the fellowship had caught up with Gimli, he was looking at Balin's tomb. "No," Gimli mourned brokenly. Poor Gimli. This part had never really touched Lisa in the movies, but now, she genuinely felt really bad for her friend and wanted to do something to comfort him.

"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria," Gandalf read from the gravestone. Hearing this only made Gimli more distraught and didn't help. "Oh! No," Gimli's sobs kept coming. "He is dead then. It is as I feared."

For a second, Lisa got angry and wanted to yell at Gandalf for making him feel even worse, then she realized that it wasn't his fault at all and that Gandalf had been friends with Balin as well. Then she felt bad for him too. Gimli muttered something, probably a prayer or part of some grieving ritual.

"We must move on. We cannot linger," Legolas muttered to Aragorn.

No one really seemed to hear him. No one moved. They all watched as Gandalf picked up the old, tattered, dusty book. He read, "They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming." A bead of sweat rolled down Lisa's cheek. They were coming.

CRACK!

Everyone's heads snapped up to look at the source of the too-loud noise. Pippin stood by the well, a guilty look on his face. After the skull had fallen, the whole skeleton followed. Even though Lisa knew what happened almost photographically, by heart, she wanted desperately to stop the noise. She desperately didn't want to hear the sound the bucket made as it fell. The bucket that was unfortunately attached to the body. Lisa winced as she heard the terrible noise. Her whole body was racked with sweat. The others seemed to be holding their breaths. Lisa was getting more and more sweaty as the seconds passed. Any minute now. Amy minute they would come ad she might die. Any minute they would-

"Fool of a Took!" Gandalf hissed angrily. Pippin winced. He couldn't look at Gandalf. "Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!"

Any minute now.

Everyone else seemed to be relaxing slowly when nothing was happening. But Lisa was getting more and more tense and frightened second by second. Every sound they made seemed too loud.

Boom! The first beat sounded.

The drum beat gave Lisa another rush of fear. This could be it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

More and more drum beats sounded. Lisa's fear intensified with each beat.

"Frodo!" Sam yelled at Frodo. Everyone looked at him, and they noticed quickly that his sword was glowing blue.

Soon howls could be heard outside the room. Lisa gulped. Her breathing became heavy and she found herself wanting to flee.

"Orcs!" Legolas yelled. Everyone seemed to get moving after that.

"Get back! Stay close to Gandalf!" Aragorn ordered the Hobbits as the howls grew louder and therefore, increasingly frightening. Lisa, without thinking, let out a small gasp.

In a brief moment, Legolas glanced at her and mouthed, "Bravery. Be brave." Then he went back to find weapons to bar the gate with. Lisa nodded and tried to find some of that bravery. She was in the army, for God's sake! But fear kept gripping her.

Boromir ran ahead to the door. He poked his head out the door, only to bring it back in abruptly, narrowly missing getting shot by an arrow.

"Get back!" Lisa yelled.

"They have a cave troll," Boromir announced.

With this news, and the fact that there was an army of Orcs coming to slaughter them all, the warriors and Lisa ran to bar the gate as quickly as possible. Legolas tossed everyone swords, and they rushed to put them in place. Then, they stepped back and waited.

When the gate began to move, Aragorn and Legolas each fired shots through the small cracks in the door. Shrieks indicated that they had both hit their targets.

"Well, there is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath! Let them come!" Gimli yelled.

Everything that happened in the next few minutes was a blur. There wasn't enough time to comprehend everything.

The door burst open. Lisa's feet were planted firmly in place for a second. She wanted to run away for a second. Then, she replayed Legolas' words in her head. Bravery, be brave, she told herself. But still, it didn't change the fact that she was the most scared than she had ever been in her entire life. Bravery, be brave, she repeated again and again.

The room was flooded with Orcs. Soon, it was overwhelming. Lisa fired her loaded bow at the first Orc. It was more disgusting and foul than she could have ever imagined. And the smell was overwhelmingly strong and pungent. Lisa kept on firing arrows without thinking. She went into an almost autopilot-like mode, and kept firing arrows at every Orc she saw. She didn't think, she just shot. Adrenaline coursed through her body.

Soon enough, everyone was fighting. The hobbits were fighting as well. Sam bashed an Orc with a pot.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this!" he gasped, a look of satisfaction lingering on his face.

Pippin and Merry were doing all they could to keep themselves alive. Frodo, well, Frodo was trying. He scrambled away from the Orcs, turned around and sliced one's head cleanly off its neck.

Gandalf was swinging his staff and sword around, and he deftly killed all Orcs who went near him. He was a truly dangerous opponent. Aragorn was as well. He was moving swiftly, his sword killing everything it touched. Legolas shot his opponents perfectly, never missing one Orc. Gimli was attacking and axing his enemies down angrily. Boromir was fighting hard too. He swung his sword, and he was also proving to be a dangerous foe. Lisa was faring well too, actually. The battle was looking up.

Then things really got confusing and everything went by super fast and difficult to take in all at once.

A shadowy, hooded, dark-clothed figure sprung out of nowhere, it seemed. He pulled out a gadget, which Lisa recognized as a machine gun! And he began firing shots from it. Orcs were taken down rapidly by it. The sound caught everyone's attention. When the fellowship realized that it was on their side, they kept fighting.

The figure kept on shooting at the Orcs. They really fell 'like wheat before the wheat cutter', or however the saying went.

He pulled his trigger again. Nothing came out. Apparently he had run out of rounds. But the battle was really looking up now. Could this person be-

An Orc came at Lisa. She picked up a random sword and stabbed it through the Orc's stomach and watched it die. It was terrifying.

Lisa's thoughts flicked back to the figure that had walked in before. It could be Evan! Machine gun and all. Excitement, hope, and happiness all rushed in at once.

Then the cave troll walked in. It was huge. Ad ugly. Lisa quickly nocked another arrow and prepared to fire it at the troll. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins. She was on a roll.

Everyone seemed to freeze momentarily when it walked in. Then Legolas shot an arrow at its head. It seemed to take a minute for the troll to react. It slowly took out the arrow from its head and looked at it. Then, its expression turned from indifference to anger. It clicked into action. It started attacking the closest thing it saw. Sam. He realized this in time and ducked, then ran under the troll's legs. Gross, but a much better alternative than what might have happened had he stayed where he was.

The troll had another big spaz and was about to use his club to smash Gimli. But Gimli jumped off the tomb and saved himself. Another spaz. This time, he almost got Lisa. A tug on the troll's chain from Aragorn and Boromir saved her in time. The troll turned around and looked at them. Aragorn's eyes widened and he let go of the rope. Boromir's reflexes were a second too slow though. The troll swung the chain, and sent Boromir flying throughout the air. He landed on the rocks, with a groan.

Lisa ran over to him when she saw this, killing Orcs on the way. When she made it to Boromir, he had gotten up and was already recovering. The troll's attention was on someone else, for now. Instead, Orcs surrounded them, bent on killing them.

"You take your side, I'll take mine!" Lisa yelled.

"I got your back!" Boromir yelled back.

Their backs against each others', they fought off the Orcs, and they were doing quite well. A happy thrill, one of the warmth of companionship coursed through her, along with another adrenaline rush. Hey, this was like a movie! Lisa thought for a brief second. They kept fighting hard until Lisa heard a yell. "Aragorn!" It was desperate and frantic, and sounded all too familiar to Lisa. She whizzed around. Everyone else was looking that way as well.

The source of the attention was Frodo. Frodo's eyes were glazed and pained, and there was a huge blade sticking out of his chest. He gasped. The whole room seemed to be holding their breaths collectively. Merry and Pippin gasped, horrified. The hooded figure beneath the hood, let out a gasp.

After a few tense seconds, Frodo crumpled onto the ground.

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	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14.

A/N: Now to address my readers! Thank you to all who have kept reading this far; I really appreciate your interest and support in this story! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You all know who you are! crvenashkorpija, will zona, Scylla's Revenge, Guest, to name a few! Thanks y'all. :) Oh, and it would be super amazing if my shadow readers would review occasionally; I do like to know what you think and what you wanna see happen in this story :).

And with Nurseratchet, I completely understand where you are coming from! Yes, Apple products need to have longer battery lives. I think longer battery lives are something that they should have made by 2016. Plus, she has a solar powered charger.

Everyone in the room paused for a second, not wanting to believe it, and some not yet having comprehended what had just occurred. Frodo, for all they knew, was dead.

Lisa knew what was going to happen, but seeing Frodo stabbed like this in real life was far more disturbing to look at. Frodo didn't deserve any of this! He would have a hard time without all of this shit. That thought gave her sudden adrenaline, ferocity, and anger that she didn't know she had in her. With these newly discovered emotions, Lisa fought alongside Boromir madly, after their momentary shocked pause.

The Company, after their temporary freeze, leapt right back into action when they had regained their senses. They fought harder than ever, this time fueled by anger and want for revenge.

In desperate anger, Merry and Pippin bravely jumped onto the troll's back and tried to stab its thick skin. That only angered it more, and it shook itself, therefore causing the little hobbits to stagger off its back. Sam angrily charged at it and tried stabbing it, but to no avail. The rest of the group fought Orcs relentlessly.

Hacking away at Orcs, the fellowship slaughtered every single Orc in sight until there were none left to slaughter. Then Legolas made his way to the top of a stone ledge and fiercely, gracefully, leapt lightly and perfectly onto the troll's back, aimed his arrow right at the back of the troll's head. It hit its mark successfully. The troll stopped moving. It lost its dumb expression, and started to stagger. Lisa smiled grimly, satisfied. Legolas' shot had done the job. Before the troll was about to fall down for the last time, Legolas jumped off it.

The entire fellowship watched as the troll signified its end with a loud boom, as it hit the ground. All the Orcs had been slain and they were safe for now.

Lisa felt like saying something, like, maybe a triumphant, humorous remark, but this didn't feel like the right time. Plus, her voice was all but gone. For some odd reason, she felt for the first time that maybe, just maybe, there was the possibility that Frodo had forgotten to wear his mithril shirt. Sure, he had done that in the movies, but some irrational part in her that seemed really rational at the moment told her that things could turn out differently. She was here, after all, why wouldn't other things be different?

Everyone rushed over to the hobbit who lay suffering. "Frodo," Pippin whispered. Lisa knew he was fine under the mithril shirt, but she still felt uneasy for some reason. He just looked so...lifeless and weak.

"It can't be," Aragorn breathed in disbelief and sorrow. He flipped Frodo over gently.

Lisa watched as the fellowship, as a whole, lost the bright shine in their eyes, as they lost hope. Looking at Frodo's broken looking body seemed to be too much for most of the group. It didn't take this long for him to get up in the movie... Lisa kept thinking that maybe things were different from the movie. What if he died, they lost Gandalf, Sam got depressed, Boromir died, Aragorn couldn't hold the group together, Merry and Pippin missed home too much, Legolas thought there was no future left for elves and left for the Havens, Gimli saw no point in continuing without hope, and Lisa just simply didn't know what to do, and as a result, the fellowship failed? These thoughts whizzed inside Lisa's mind quickly. It was possible. It would be her fault! Well, not all of it, but what if her being here was just messing things up? This was looking bad indeed.

Wasn't it time yet for Frodo to be waking up? This was taking too long.

Long, tense, sufferable moments that felt like minutes, passed.

Then the 'magic' happened. Frodo's chest heaved and he opened his eyes. He struggled to get up for a few seconds. Aragorn's strong arms helped him up. Not everyone seemed to believe that he was still indeed, alive.

"You should be dead," Aragorn whispered incredulously. "That spear would have skewered a wild boar."

Everyone let out their breaths they had been holding unconsciously. He was alive! Even Lisa had been holding her breath, she realized, as she let it go. Well, all that worrying was for nothing. Phew.

"It's all right. I'm not hurt," Frodo assured everyone, as he got up in a sitting position.

"I think there's more to this Hobbit than meets the eye," Gandalf gave a chuckle and winked at Frodo knowingly. And of course, with obvious relief shining brightly in his eyes.

Frodo looked down at his shirt then, in that oh-so-familiar way (familiar to Lisa). Parting his shirt, he revealed the beautiful chain mail suit made of mithril.

"You are full of surprises, Master Baggins," Gimli said gruffly, with an undertone of relief, and a slight gasp.

Frodo gave a small smile to everyone, and was met with smiles of wonder. His smile was so endearing, it made her feel so bad for what he was going through and what he would go through.

Then another thought sprung into her mind. Apparently it had come to Boromir's mind as well.

"Who are you and why are you here? Explain yourself!" Boromir whizzed around and asked with a note of high authority in his voice.

"Friend or foe?" Sam added boldly.

The hooded figure finally lowered his hood, revealing his face.

Lisa gasped.

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	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15.

Everyone in the room except for Lisa held on tight to their weapons. Lisa was just not able to talk at the moment. A surge of happiness and relief overtook her. She hadn't realized how much she had missed him.

Before she found her voice, Boromir spoke. "You look familiar."

"So do you," the person replied, with a hint of a cocky smile forming.

Boromir said, "We have never met."

"No, I don't believe we have," came the reply.

Boromir, getting a bit annoyed with this game, said, "What is your name?"

The man opened his mouth to say his name, but Lisa beat him to it.

"EVAN!"

"Lisa!" Evan looked in her direction and smiled broadly and wholeheartedly. Then he opened his arms for a hug, which Lisa tackled herself into. The fellowship watched as the two people from Earth had their reunion.

A look of recognition filled Boromir's face. He had seen pictures of him on Lisa's iPad. And she had told him a lot about her best friend.

"Oh! Now I remember! That's Lieutenant Hall! From the pictures," Pippin announced to everyone. Most of the fellowship had heard Lisa talk endlessly about her best friend countless times. Now they watched fondly as the two reunited. Well, most of them. Some were too busy being wary and uneasy.

After they had had their reunion hug, Lisa asked, "Evan, I am so glad to see you!" Seriously, she couldn't even begin to comprehend what had just happened. She felt relieved, and probably the happiest she had felt in months. Finding a lost friend can really make one happy, you know.

"Yeah, me too! I woulda missed me too if I had been you." He narrowly missed a playful punch from Lisa. "Yeah, I missed you too. I have so much to tell you. Oh god. We need to talk. How are you, by the way?" Onslaught of questions.

"How long have you been here since-"

A high-pitched shriek echoed through the halls, bringing everyone back to the situation they were still in.

"To the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm!" Gandalf ordered.

In a second, the fellowship plus Evan Hall, was off sprinting down the halls of Moria.

As they were running, Evan went to Lisa's side and said, "Quick something. Bridge of Khazad-Dûm. If this is all 100% real, you know that means Gandalf is gonna fall soon, but the bigger part is, the Balrog might even get us too. We're not even supposed to be interfering with the plot, are we?"

Lisa replied between breaths for air. "I know. I got your back, bud. I'm not losing you a second time."

"It's good to be with you again, Lisa," Evan said, then they resumed running for their lives again.

Adrenaline was coursing through Lisa's body, and for some reason, she felt good. Good considering the fact that a big, fire-breathing creature was going to take the leader of their company-and possibly her and her friend. She actually felt kinda giddy. This day was actually pretty good. Well, no, it wasn't really, but hey, she found her friend who she thought was dead, maybe.

The Company stopped when the goblins crawled down the walls, approaching them, and soon, surrounding them rapidly. Their shrieks and howls were shrill and almost deafening in a way.

"Oh, guy over there thinks it's tough guy Tuesday already. Well, it's not," Evan said with his usual sarcastic, humorous personality about him.

The Goblins started closing in on the fellowship, slowly. Lisa felt a rush of fear run over her, even though she knew they'd do nothing. It was just more...real than she had ever imagined. And it was her first 'real life' situation as well.

When the cries started to get overly annoying and shrill, and harder to tolerate, the terrible yellow light started advancing.

The goblins let out their terrified screams, and fled back up the walls. Gimli laughed triumphantly. Didn't he know that they were still in danger? Anyone would know that the goblins retreating was not a good sign.

The yellow-orange light steadily advanced towards the group.

"What is this new devilry?" Boromir said with a sneer.

A faint drumming accompanied the Balrog's light and accentuated Gandalf's words.

"A Balrog. A demon of the ancient world. This foe is beyond any of you. Run!" Well, that was no comfort.

If the fellowship had been running like mad before, now they were flying like mad.

This day was so full of action, and definitely not in the good way. So much action, adrenaline, different emotions, and everything.

Beside Lisa, Evan looked back. He brought his head back to face his front, then told Lisa, "Don't look back, that thing is worse in real life than it was in the movies."

The dry crackle of the fire whip was heard. Crack! The hobbits all made the mistake of looking back and they cringed and ran even faster at the sight of the Balrog.

"Run!" Gandalf's command came again. "Fly!" he said.

The whole fellowship kept on running while Gandalf stopped to confront the Balrog. Lisa, when she tried to see if Gandalf would he all right, caught a glimpse of the fiery creature. It was huge.

Keep running hard, she told herself. Lisa ran until her throat was dry and her sides felt like bursting. Wow, fighting medieval style, then running for one's life took more energy than it seemed like it did.

Then the bridge was visible. The awfully thin bridge...

"Lead them on, Aragorn," Gandalf panted. Lisa could imagine Aragorn's concerned expression. "Do as I say! Swords are no more use here!" With a push from Gandalf, Aragorn sheathed his sword and was off. He signaled for everyone to head to the bridge.

Aragorn, after more running, led them to the broken stairs. Legolas nimbly jumped to the other side. "Gandalf!" he encouraged him to jump. Gandalf made the jump, a little heavily. But he made it. Boromir tossed Merry, Lisa tossed Pippin over, and Aragorn tossed Sam over. Then Gimli said his famous lines when Aragorn tried to toss him. "Nobody tosses a Dwarf."

Lisa wanted to say, "Gimli, we don't have time for this!" But said nothing.

Everything went as it should. The Orcs came and shot arrows at them, Legolas fired a few back perfectly. Aragorn and Lisa helped as well.

Also, Gimli cleared the jump, or so it seemed, then he teetered off the edge, Legolas grabbed him, and Gimli yelled, "Not the beard!" And he was pulled (by his beard) to safety.

Boromir looked towards Lisa for a second, judging whether she should be tossed or not. Lisa decided to make the jump. It was just another obstacle in the obstacle course. "I got this," she said, then she leapt off the block, safely making it to the other side, Legolas giving her a steadying arm. Evan and Boromir did the same right after Lisa. Unfortunately, Boromir, being too built and heavy, caused a big piece of the block to fall off, leaving a wider gap between the two stairs. And the stairs were teetering now. Even while knowing they would be okay, they being Aragorn and Frodo, Lisa kept worrying. What if they don't make it for some odd reason?

"Lean!" Aragorn told Frodo as the huge block of a stair tumbled towards the other side. Legolas hurriedly moved the others so that space could be made for the two.

The two blocks collided, and Aragorn and Frodo were brought to safety for now. Lisa let out a small breath of relief.

The running continued. Onto the bridge they went. The bridge was so thin that Lisa worried that she or someone else would fall off if their footing was...unfortunate. "Watch your feet!" She yelled to everyone, as the first people stepped onto the bridge, just to make sure they were all going to be fine.

When it was her turn, she just ran and ran, looking at her feet once in a while to make sure she would stay on the thin strip of stones, to keep alive. Sweat coursed down her face, but soon enough, she was there, at the end of the bridge. Evan and Boromir were right behind her. Lisa did a head count. 10. Gandalf remained standing on the bridge.

Oh, no.

"You cannot pass!"

"Gandalf!" Frodo yelled desperately. Double oh, no. How would he cope without him?

"I am a servant of the secret flame, wielder of the Flame of Arnor. The dark power will not avail you, Flame of Udûn!"

The Balrog, in all its fiery 'glory', cracked its huge fire whip. (Jeez, it did that a lot). Then it brought its blade down on Gandalf. Lisa cringed instinctively. But the wizard was unharmed due to the blue sphere of protection he had created just moments ago.

For some reason, that blue ball gave Lisa some hope. Maybe if he could do something like that again...maybe if he did some magic again, he could live and come with them. An Frodo wouldn't have to face the hardship, he wouldn't have to think that Gandalf was dead the whole journey. Lisa found herself wishing more and more that Gandalf would survive. He was like, her superior officer, but kinder and gentler. He was like an uncle. And a leader. She didn't realize before then how much loss she'd feel when losing him.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Gandalf roared when the Balrog put a foot onto the bridge. His staff made a crack in the bridge right in front of where the Balrog stood.

Yes, yes, this could work.

Evan, who knew her well, knew what she was thinking. "Lisa, you know what happens. You know perfectly well. Don't get your hopes up."

Lisa yelled, almost desperately, "He can live! He'll survive!" Evan shook his head sadly, which Lisa didn't see.

The bridge cracked where the Balrog stood. The Balrog, seemingly shocked, lost its footing and plummeted into the chasm.

Yes! So far so good.

"Lisa, no," she heard her friend say.

"No, I can feel it. Maybe he'll live." Lisa kept her eyes fixed on the wizard.

Gandalf, groaning as he straightened his back up, slowly (too slowly) moved away from the edge. He turned around and started walking away.

Frodo started running towards him. Boromir restrained the little hobbit.

Then the whip enclosed around Gandalf's leg.

"No!" Lisa let out.

Hanging from his hands, his words to them were, "Fly, you fools!" He let go.

"GANDALF!" Frodo's face was entirely crushed. "NOOOO!" Boromir let go of him as he had stopped struggling. Everything seemed to go in slow motion after that.

Lisa's own shock took over. She wanted to sit down, let her mind just calculate everything. But she couldn't.

All around, the fellowship was grieved and in a state of shock. Even Evan, who had not been with them long. Well, he had known the character quite well.

Arrows started firing again. Aragorn, in too much of a daze and shock, just barely dodged the arrows, when he cared to notice they were even there. Legolas showed less emotion, but his eyes held pain and some shock. Gimli's eyes were wide with shock. Pain would come later.

"Aragorn!" Boromir yelled, which Lisa heard only distantly. Aragorn started coming to his senses quicker than everyone else and started running a dazed run out of the mines after the others who had already gone out.

When Lisa exited the dreaded mines, she let herself break down a bit. She stumbled over to Evan and let herself slide into his arms.

"He's gone," she sobbed. "I didn't know how bad it would be. He's gone, he's actually gone. He fell-" Silent sobs overtook her.

Evan whispered, "He'll come back. You know he will. It's okay. It's okay."

Around them, Boromir and Gimli were embracing each other in a brotherly, rugged way, each comforting each other and grieving at the same time. Sam broke down and cried. Pippin and Merry comforted each other and cried for the loss. Legolas looked around, dazed and seemingly unable to put into his head what had just happened before his eyes. Frodo had wandered off.

Lisa's many, crowded feelings then took over. Feelings of sadness, pain, anger, loss threatened to blow over. Then she remembered the feeling of happiness, relief, fondness, and love she had also felt that day. So many emotions. Not knowing what to do with them, she got up and made her way to Aragorn, who was being strong, but sad. She had to be strong for the group as well.

He snapped his head up and said, "Get them up," almost halfheartedly.

"Give them a moment for pity's sake!" Boromir retorted. Even the most seasoned, strong warriors were affected deeply by this.

"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with Orcs! We must reach the woods of Lothlórien. Come on. Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, Lisa! Get them up." The way he was being so strong made her heart break. He was feeling so much loss too, hurting so much, probably much more than she was.

"On your feet, Sam," Aragorn said gently to the brave young Hobbit. Even that broke her heart. Everything seemed to be 'breaking her heart' at that moment.

Lisa went to Pippin and said, "Come on, Pippin. Be strong." She pulled him up and rested a reassuring, comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her sadly. "He's gone," was all that came out of his mouth.

"Keep your hope alive," was all that she said in response.

"Frodo!" Lisa heard Aragorn call. The hobbit had already wandered off a fair bit. He turned around, a tear glistening on his fair cheek. How would he deal with this? The look on Frodo's face killed her. It was just so heartbreaking, all of this. So many burdens, so much loss, so much grief.

Lisa wanted to sink to the ground and cry again, but there was no time for that now. She had to be strong. She had to be strong for herself and the fellowship.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16.

Over the next few hours, Lisa forced herself to act as more of a leader and encouraged the hobbits to keep walking, and she told them that everything would turn out all right in the end.

They kept going, and there it was. The woods. Maybe due to the numbness of the pain, it seemed to Lisa as though it had only taken them a few minutes to get there. All she knew was that she felt nothing but raw pain at the moment. Watching a friend die...not even a really close friend, at least not a friend she had known for very long, but...someone she looked up to, someone who would give her advice, someone who acted as kind of like a father figure.

As soon as the woods were in sight, the group started jogging towards the Golden Wood. The hobbits talked a bit amongst themselves.

Lisa had trouble listening and keeping herself to focus. She was tired, angry, sad, she didn't even know what she was anymore.

Evan's company had been helpful though. She hadn't really realized how much she'd missed him when he was gone. Having an old friend here was more than she could ask for here.

Since Boromir was either giving her the cold shoulder or just plain sad, Lisa couldn't talk to Boromir. She wanted to reach out to him and make him feel better, but she was a) too weighed down with at least 101028 different emotions, b) she was 50% sure he was giving her the silent treatment, and c) she was feeling unsociable.

Gimli went off about the strange talk of the 'witch' and how all who fall under her spell are doomed. Lisa wasn't listening for most of it, but she did get a bit of a 'wake up call' when the arrows came at her face.

"...I have the ears of a fox and the eyes of a hawk!" Gimli finished.

Then he walked straight into the arrows.

"I guess foxes here aren't so great at hearing," Evan remarked.

"The Dwarf breathes so loud we could have shot him in the dark," Haldir said.

"Aragorn! We should go back! These woods are perilous!" Gimli said, panicked.

"You have entered the realm of the Lady of the Wood. You cannot go back." Haldir came floating out of the crowd. These elves were just beautiful, much like Legolas.

"Haldir o Lórien," Aragorn strode up to the beautiful elf. The two started speaking in Elvish about how they were seeking safety, blah blah blah. Honestly Lisa couldn't care less about what they were talking about. She now just wanted to sleep. Rest, sleep, grieve in peace. Or with friends. Either one. As long as her sleep would be uninterrupted.

Lisa tried to tune in to Haldir and Aragorn's argument. If memory served, they were talking about the Ring and how it was dangerous, which was why the elves were reluctant about letting the fellowship into their realm. Then she zoned out for a bit. Then she heard them coming back. Haldir was with a bunch of blindfolds. Ah, this part.

Lisa let herself be blindfolded, stayed at the back of the group with Evan, and they began their trudge up to the heart of Lórien, where the Lady of Lórien would be waiting. Wow, so many events in one day. Meeting The Lady Galadriel, Gandalf's fall, finding Evan, running for her life, and a bunch of walking. It was overwhelming. She talked to Evan about it.

"Did you think it would be like this?"

"All I can say is...it's the military life, I suppose," Evan told her. Lisa thought about this and said, "You know, I didn't know Special Forces was gonna be so- so-like this. This is just different from anything else we've been trained to do."

Evan said, "I know. You know, I lived alone in those mines for quite a while. Ever since I got here. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to get out safely, so I stayed there, stayed unnoticed more or less, until you all came. Isolation is really the worst."

Lisa looked in shock at her friend. "You've been in those mines for that long? How did you do it?"

"I don't know how I survived, but now I know that isolation, if it was pressed any further, would have been the end of me. Okay, what I'm trying to say is, I'm glad as hell I'm out of there. I'm done with that place, and I really missed having my best friend with me."

Lisa smiled a bit. "I guess that's how it is when we've known each other for this long."

Evan nodded. "We need to catch up when we get to Lothlórien." Then he said, "So, I know that you really fancy some of these characters from LotR...you always said that Sean Bean and Orlando Bloom were quite fine." Lisa pictured the sly smile that was probably on her friend's face.

"I know."

"So?" Evan pressed.

"So they're attractive. So what?"

"I mean, have you done anything yet? Just so you know, I'm winking. But you can't see it. Thought you should know."

Lisa blushed and said, "Like you said, we really need to catch up and talk when we get there."

"You know I'm not gonna let this question go just cause you're not answering right now. Sooner or later, I'll ask you again," Evan said, and Lisa could picture a smile painted on his face.

"Evan?"

"Yeah?"

"I really missed you."

"I missed you too, Lisa."

The fellowship walked on and on. How long until they got there? Lisa wondered. Her feet and patience couldn't take it much longer.

"Be right back," Evan said from beside her.

"Aight, come back soon."

She heard Evan leave to go up front. So she focused on the sounds of nature. It was supposed to be calming, and most of the time, it was. So she listened to the sounds nature had. Birds chirping, leaves rustling, and a stream running somewhere. It was actually quite calming.

She did this for a while, then thought about Boromir. Was he mad at her? She'd talk to him and ask him when their blindfolds were off and when they had time. She didn't want to lose his friendship. One of the things she hated the most was losing her friends.

Lost in her thoughts, Lisa didn't notice when Evan came back. "Hey, Lisa, you there?"

"Yeah, over here," Lisa told him.

Evan made his way to her side and said, "So, I made friends with Haldir, I think. I'm pretty personable so, yeah, I think we'll be good friends." Lisa grinned.

"You've always been such a Haldir fan. Glad to see this work out for you."

"There's an up side to everything," was his reply. They walked the rest of the walk in silence. They were too fatigued to talk anymore. They did have quite a lot to talk about though, just once they got more privacy and time. And rest.

"Caras Galadhon," Haldir announced with a strong note of pride in his voice. "The heart of Lothlórien." Lisa took off the blindfold.

It was beautiful. The tree was well decorated, but there weren't many decorations used. The woods were also not eerie at all, at least not yet. It was still light out. The lightness of the woods made it look exactly like a safe haven. Lisa instantly felt much better here than she had anyplace other than Rivendell.

"That's a beauty. It's a real shame I lost my iPad," Evan muttered.

"I'll use mine," Lisa said. "Haldir, can I take a picture of this place?" She didn't want to explain the whole photo taking process, but the place was just so damn beautiful, she had to take a picture. Now that she thought of it, she didn't have nearly enough pictures. Even though this wasn't a casual trip to Middle-earth, she wished she had taken more pictures when she had had the chance to. Moria even would have been nice. It was really quite a gem.

"So, can I...capture the moment?" Lisa asked. When Haldir just looked confused, Lisa said, "Never mind, then." And took pictures anyway. No harm done. She tucked her iPad away and viewed the scenery. It was calm and serene and warm, and alive.

After a lot more walking, they were at their destination. And wow, it was beautiful. Not that the rest of it wasn't, but here, at that moment, the lights and the colors mixed together perfectly to make an eerie but breathtakingly beautiful scene.

"Wow..." Lisa said, her voice almost a whisper. It wasn't as beautiful as Rivendell, but this place seemed like a different kind of heaven.

"Yeah, wow," Evan said. But he was looking elsewhere.

From the stairs, the Lady Galadriel herself was descending, towards the fellowship. The movies didn't do her justice, if that was even possible. Yeah, even with The Hobbit, where she looked like a complete goddess. Anyway. She was just breathtaking. Powerful, wise, old, but young, and beautiful. Lisa was about to make a joke about Evan ogling the elf lady, but couldn't, when she herself looked at the lady.

And the elf man beside her was quite a sight too. He looked powerful as well. He spoke, in his powerful voice, that demanded respect in a calm way.

"The fellowship that set out from Rivendell initially held nine, plus one. Now there are nine, plus one, yet these are not the same ones that departed from Rivendell. Tell me, where is Gandalf, for I much desire to speak with him."

"He has fallen into shadow," the Lady spoke.

"He was taken by a Balrog of Morgoth, for we wandered needlessly into the net of Moria," Legolas said with a strong hint of bitterness in his tone. Poor guy. But that was a little harsh. Gimli's head bowed, when he too, felt the fresh grief of losing their leader.

"Needless were none of the acts of Gandalf the Grey," Galadriel said, making a good point, and also consoling Gimli at the same time.

Then she continued, "Go now and rest, for you are weary with much toil. Tonight you will sleep, with no worries on your minds, and-"

"Lisa Scott, the one from a different dimension..." Yeah, she had expected her to know her. This was Galadriel after all.

"...You will rest tonight and prepare for what is to come, for you will have many choices to make, and none of them will be easy..."

***

Before Galadriel's words had time to sink in fully to Lisa's ears, Evan found her.

"Lisa."

"Hey, there, Ev."

"What did she say to you?" he asked.

For a second, Lisa thought she shouldn't tell him, but remembered that it was nothing greatly secretive and said, "She told me to brace myself for what's about to happen. I have to make choices, and they're not gonna be easy."

"What does she mean by that?" Evan asked, seemingly confused.

"Oh, I think she meant I have to brace myself for..." Lisa paused, the words and the terrible truth that came with it finally sinking in.

"For what?"

"...Amon Hen."

She hadn't really thought of Amon Hen seriously before this moment. Lisa then realized that she had been looking for just adventure for too long. Now that she thought about it, all it was she had been doing this whole time was looking for adventure.

"You okay, Lisa?" Evan came around to Lisa's side and knelt down beside her.

"This isn't a game anymore," Lisa said.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, a worried expression on his tanned face.

"I mean, I've been treating this journey, this mission- hell, I've been treating life like a big game, like a big adventure. I mean, ever since I got picked for that mission, I've been acting like a darn teenage fangirl." Lisa just felt quite frustrated at herself at the moment.

"It took Gandalf's death, well, 'death'"- she used finger quotations for that last word, "...and your reminder to pull me out of my little fantasy world." She said all of this rather calmly, but frankly, Lisa felt like throwing things for having been so stupid for so long.

Evan sighed and said, "Hey, we're all like that. At first, even the best of soldiers are like us. Everyone has to realize sooner or later that life isn't a joke, Lisa. And you're starting to realize that now. Of course, we haven't seen it all."

"Oh, joy, wait for Helms Deep. If we even survive that long," Lisa huffed.

Evan chuckled. Then continued, "See, everything seems fun at first, when you don't realize you're not seeing the big picture. But when you start to see it, I think that's when you truly start growing up. Everyone has to grow up, and you're not too late, you know. Everyone starts off as little kids, thinking they know the world, but, hey, life kicks in and says, 'Hey, life ain't that easy. This is what a taste of it is.' Remember when we left for the mission? Yeah, that was us. Don't beat yourself up for not realizing that, Lisa, okay?" Evan's face then took on a more comical look. "Of course, I did reach that milestone before you did. But hey, no one's surprised."

Lisa gave Evan a light punch on the shoulder and then made up for it with a hug. "When did you get so wise, boy?"

"When I was in Moria, I had too much time on my hands. That, and lots of life-or-death situations. Those two combined is the formula for your average wise, oh, and handsome badass." Then he sprawled backwards onto the grass. Lisa followed suit.

"Oh Evan, you're not average for anything, just so you know."

They lay down on the grass, saying nothing for a while, then Evan started up another conversation. "So, what ARE you going to do about Amon Hen?"

Silence.

"I'm not sure. I don't know if it's even possible to stop it... I haven't thought about it nearly enough."

More silence.

"Well...I suppose he is a good man, and I guess I don't want to see that happen," Evan said.

"See what happen?" Another voice added itself to the conversation.

Boromir.

Oh...

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Lord of the Rings, Adventure, Romance