I want to preface this story with a bit of backstory on myself, because I am trying to put myself in the story, not just some OC I came up with and thought would be fun.

I've played cello since I was three and a half years old.

I've hiked with my family down Havasupai (The grand canyon) every year Since I was seven years old (Though, not so much in the recent 2-3 years). In sandals when I was eight, because of an unfortunate mix up where my sister's' shoes and mine were exactly the same, just a size apart, I grabbed hers, and she didn't grab any, so she got to wear the boots and I had to hike in sandals. Wooo. Growing experience.

I have a bit of a thing for survival facts, and just love the idea that if something were to happen, I could survive on my knowledge alone out in the wilderness.

I'm part of an sca group, am moderately sufficient at archery (Been doing that on and off for a few years), currently getting into Rapier, belly dancing, and club juggling (I got balls down, thought it would be fun to step it up.)

I have moderate horse riding experience, have an overabundance of love for pretty much all animals, including snakes, most bugs, fish, and all those splendid creatures.

I'm an avid seamstress.

I talk to myself a lot.

This story is going to start off pretty slow. We probably won't see any known LOTR characters for a few chapters. For the purpose of ease, I am going to pretend Westron is basically old english, cause I kind of always dislike when there's that huge language barrier. Makes things really difficult to enjoy for me.

I'm going to try not to get too graphic on here, though I will likely write some graphic stuff and edit it out, posting it somewhere else. If I do that, I will give links.

Now that you know all that, I hope you enjoy the story, believe me when I say I am not trying to make her Mary Sue, especially in the beginning.

Questions, comments, criticism (can has constructive, not mean?) are all welcome.

I'm writing this for my enjoyment, but I do hope others get enjoyment from it as well, and I would be happy to have input on where I should go with it.

I intend for this to be a trilogy. Falling Apart, Rebuilt, and The Last Goodbye.

Westron - "Words"

Sindarin - "Words"

Thoughts - 'Words'

On to the story. I present to you, Falling Apart.

The first thing I realized upon rejoining the world of consciousness was that I was really cold, kind of sore, and decidedly not in my warm bed that I remembered falling asleep in.

I blinked my eyes open slowly, searching for my blankets. For a moment, it was dark enough, and I was still waking up, so my surroundings didn't really register in my mind.

Then my eyes focused, and I yelped, sitting up quickly.

"What the hell?!"

My voice came out a pitch higher than normal, and I was so startled that I warranted the use of a swear word.

Usually I preferred not to swear, I liked to think that I was eloquent enough and had a large enough vocabulary that I could bring my point across without the use of swear words.

This was not one of those moments.

I was in a forest.

A very dark, creepy forest.

Now don't get me wrong, I love forests. One of my favorite places in the world is the coastal redwood forest, because it makes me feel like I'm in a fantasy movie. Like a unicorn could just come walking around a tree at any moment.

I would put this forest in the same category as the coastal redwoods, just...darker.

Older.

The trees were huge, towering above me and making me feel rather small at my relatively average stature of five feet four inches.

They felt sad, and somehow angry at the same time.

Moss hung from any surface it could, causing everything to seem warped and heavy, branches seeming to lack the energy to reach up and catch the sun.

They were densely planted, too, and they looked incredibly old. Not much light made it through, and what light did manage looked gray, like there was heavy cloud cover.

I sat for a moment more, shivering. Was this some sort of sick prank?

A tv special thing?

Throw a girl in a forest and see how long it takes for her to die of starvation and dehydration?

That slightly morbid thought helped me to steel my nerves and focus my mind from the slight panic that was attempting to take hold.

They picked the wrong fucking girl.

I took a deep breath, calming myself and gritting my teeth slightly against the whole body soreness that had developed from laying on the cold ground of the forest for who knows how long. It was covered in small rocks, moss, and leafy debris, so all in all not the worst ground one could sleep on, but definitely not the best, either.

Rising up with a stifled groan at my cold muscles, I spun in a slow circle. The trees told me nothing of what direction I should go, there were no footprints of whoever had left me...How had they gotten me here? Was I drugged..?

Glancing down, I realized one of the reasons why I was so cold.

I was wearing nothing but underwear and a tank top. The underwear had little bits of lace around the top, and were a light mint green with white polkadots. The tank top was a solid deep blue.

It was no more revealing than a swimsuit, but the open air of the forest certainly made me feel very vulnerable.

I wasn't a terribly fit person.

Average height, weighing around 135 pounds, most of it in my hips and thighs, a bit in my stomach, and a decent amount in my bust.

I wasn't in the habit of being self conscious, I had long ago decided that the only opinion that mattered was my own, and that I quite liked myself.

That changes when you appear in strange forests wearing practically nothing, apparently.

Another yelp, this one far more horrified than the last, tore it's way out of me at my discovered state of undress, and the forest once again heard an echoing "What the hell?!".

"What kind of person abandons another person in a dark, creepy forest, with nothing but...but...Underwear?!" I angrily asked a nearby tree, kicking angrily at the ground, and promptly regretting it as my bare foot hit a tree root and I hopped around for a moment, holding the hurting foot.

"Fuck. Not a good idea."

I set my foot down again, a bit gingerly, painful consequences causing the anger to dissipate rather quickly.

Spinning around slowly in another circle, I tried to see if there was anything I could try to cover myself up with, then promptly decided to fuck that idea.

I was in a mysterious forest, if there were people in here, they could ignore their sensitivities, because they probably put me here in the first place.

I was already cold, the smart thing to do, my mind supplied, would be to do some form of exercise to warm up.

"Pick a direction..and start walking…" I instructed myself quietly, the eery silence of the forest driving me to my long time habit of talking to myself, though my voice came out soft, not wanting to disturb the eery silence.

I searched the ground for a few moments, finding some rocks to stack together into a cairn to mark that this was where I'd began.

I tried to feel if my mental compass was still in working order, then gave that up.

There was no sun or any other indicator to show if I was right, so why bother?

I promptly decided to just pick what I thought was south and head in that direction.

Walking was slightly painful, having stupidly kicked a tree root, though having no shoes certainly didn't make it any easier.

For the first couple minutes of limping along, I grumbled to myself.

"Practically fucking naked in a creepy fucking forest, in the middle of who fucking knows where. There aren't any forests like this in Arizona."

That was a startling thought. I was clearly not anywhere near home.

Quickly, though, my muttered venting gave out to an uneasy silence as I decided it would be easier to save my breath.

The walk was slow going, tree branches seemed to materialize in front of my feet, so I had to stare hard at the ground to make sure I didn't trip too often. Even after my eyes adjusted to the dim light, or lack thereof, it didn't get any easier.

I was careful to glance back every now and then until I could just barely see my last cairn, then search around and build another one, marking my path in case anyone tried to find me.

Though the thought briefly crossed my mind that perhaps, if there was anyone in this forest, I might not want them to find me.

I shivered, this time from a spark of anxiety as my eyes darted around the dimly lit forest, now feeling as if I was being watched. My steps quickened slightly and the cairns I left after that were considerably smaller, and could pass off as potentially natural piles of rocks.

To say I was uncomfortable would be severely downplaying things.

Having no form of pants or fabric between my thighs caused them to rub uncomfortably against each other, and I knew it was going to develop a rash if it continued for more than a few hours.

I couldn't tell how much time passed, or how far I'd traveled, and I quickly fell into a bit of a miserable daze, staring without much comprehension at the ground, only seeing enough to avoid obstacles.

The little light there was in the forest started fading a few hours after I started out. I created one last cairn as the light faded even faster, then started searching for somewhere to hunker down for the night.

The universe had other ideas in store for me, though.

As the already dim light faded and my vision was even more limited, I started to hear howls and growls off in the distance.

My eyes widened, though it did nothing for my sight. I quickly lowered myself to my knees, tripping and injuring myself would be bad, I needed my ankles in working order. I tried to contain a groan at how sore I felt, and started crawling around as fast as I could, fear at the idea of being eaten by wild animals being a powerful reason to not care when my knees banged against rocks and pointy sticks. I felt around as quickly, and quietly as possible, though to my ears it sounded like I was making a terrible racket, until finally I found what felt like a very large tree. I stood, feeling around for some sort of foothold or branch to use to pull myself up, wincing every time I heard anything, even sounds I made. It seemed like it took forever, but it must have only been a few minutes of careful feeling and testing before I was sure I was reasonably high up in the tree. Hopefully, too high for any people eating wild animals.

The following night was tense, and sleepless as I huddled, shivering from the cold, against the trunk of the tree, having found a thick enough branch to sit on.

Walking had warmed me up a bit, but now that I'd stopped, the combination of slight humidity, sweat, and lack of clothes were making the chilly air feel even colder than it probably was.

It felt like every noise was a monster coming to get me, and a few times I was certain I heard growls and sniffling noises directly under my tree. During those times, I held my breath, hugging the tree harder, as if they might be able to pull me down if I wasn't secure.

Eventually though, after what felt like hours, the noises seemed to fade, the animals apparently growing tired of growling at my tree.

I remained stuck to my tree of safety for a long while still, until the light had returned, dim and murky, the same as yesterday.

It had been a completely sleepless night, without even the opportunity to stop being alert.

I was exhausted.

Not that that was a new concept for me. I had a habit of suffering from completely random wake ups throughout the night, and sometimes there were strings of nights without sleep at all. I had debated whether it was some sort of insomnia, but eventually decided that I didn't particularly care, as having a name for whatever plagued my sleep likely wouldn't really help all that much.

Either way, I was tired, physically and mentally.

Every now and then, the trees would move and groan, the one I was on in particular, and I got the weird feeling that they were doing it on purpose, unhappy with my intrusion of their forest. I was glad they hadn't done that the night before, as it would have made it that much more nerve wracking.

Once it was light enough to see decently with my dark adjusted eyes, I slowly, painstakingly climbed down from my tree, surprised with how high I had actually managed to get in the dark. My eyes stung and were blurry from lack of sleep, and I tried not to groan at the aches and pains that were making themselves known.

Despite my discomfort, I couldn't help but feel incredibly grateful that I'd been able to find the tree, and made sure to turn and softly thank the tree once I made it to the ground again.

I felt a little ridiculous doing it, but there was something about this forest that made it seem like the trees weren't just alive...they seemed..aware.

The swaying and groaning seemed to fade a bit from the entire forest at my sincere words of thanks, and despite the oddness of the situation, I felt like it was because of my words, and resolved to be only polite and courteous to the trees, not wanting them to be angry should I need another tree to hide in the next night.

My stomach growled, making its emptiness abundantly clear, and I resolved to look around for some sort of food or water source while I walked.

I stumbled away from the tree, returning to the cairn I'd made last night. Even that few feet I walked felt torturous on my stiff, sore, cold muscles. I devoted the next couple minutes to painfully stretching, doing a few easier yoga moves in an attempt to warm up my body a tiny bit before I started walking. It did seem to help, though not as much as I would have liked. That done, I took up the same slow, trudging pace from the day before, walking more on the balls of my feet as I carefully picked my way through the forest.

I resumed my cairn building whenever I could barely see the last one, using it now more to keep myself in a semi straight line, rather than marking my progress for anyone else.

Walking seemed to take forever, and I could hardly tell I had made any progress at all any time I made the effort to glance back at my path, though being able to pick out my little jumble of rocks helped to give me a visual idea of how far I had actually traveled. It was relatively easy to tell where I'd walked, footprints and smushed leaves trailing behind me, as well as the occasional cairn. At least I was going in a moderately straight path, and wasn't walking in circles.

I distracted myself for the next few hours trying to lessen the visibility of my footprints, but eventually stopped, as it felt like it took an excessive amount of energy.

I had a hard time focusing through the haze of exhaustion, soreness, hunger, and thirst, which made looking for food difficult.

There was an overabundance of moss, fallen leaves, and small bushes, but none of them looked familiar enough that I really felt safe eating them. I carefully nibbled on pieces of moss, evaluating the taste on my tongue before swallowing, and waiting a while before nibbling more to see if it made me feel unwell.

Eventually the hungry gnawing in my stomach subsided, having not been offered much of anything, and through my tired haze, I thought I heard the quiet sound of trickling water. I slowed, and stilled, listening hard. The forest was still unnaturally quiet. Almost muffled, as if I was wearing a pair of headphones or earplugs.

Then, ahead, I heard it again. The bubbling sound of water.

I started towards it as quickly as I was able, feeling slightly hopeful for the first time since waking up in this strange old forest. Water was good. Water meant survival.

It only took a few minutes, and the sound grew slightly, finally proving to be a small stream.

It trickled cheerfully, seeming slightly out of place in such a foreboding forest.

I wasted no time in rushing to it, lowering myself to my knees, and cupping my hands to drink.

The water was ice cold, probably run off from snow, or a spring somewhere, and had there been anyone to talk to, I would have told them it was the best water I'd ever drank in my life. Having no such person, I addressed a nearby tree.

"This is divine! I think it's the best water I've ever tasted!"

The trees groaned in response.

After drinking my fill for the moment, I sat back on my knees, thinking about what the next course of action should be.

"Well, I've found water, mister tree...Or missus, I suppose. I can't stay here, though...Do I go upstream? Do I go downstream…? Do I put my left foot out, and shake it all about..?"

Neither tree nor water offered any responses, clearly not appreciating my attempt at humor. I laughed though, feeling a little ridiculous for laughing at my own joke. It felt nice after the oppressive darkness and quiet.

Slowly, I stood, muscles already cooling and feeling stiff from my short rest. "Either way, I should stay near the water..And I need to figure out what direction I'm walking, see if there are any buildings around…"

A nearby tree creaked, and I looked at it consideringly.

Perhaps I could find a tree to climb that would go high enough to see over the canopy.

It wouldn't do to walk up or downstream and then find myself stuck by huge unclimbable mountains, or to find that the little stream dried up further down.

A bit further up the stream I spotted what looked to be a reasonably tall looking tree with large enough branches to support my weight, so I set off towards it.

I felt quite re-invigorated by the drink of water, and a bit more confident knowing the stream was right there, should I want more.

Climbing the tree proved to be a bit more difficult than I originally thought it would.
Having not started out with a great amount of upper body strength to begin with, the general soreness made clambering up a very slow and difficult process.
Eventually I managed though, and once I made it a bit further up the tree, the climb became easier, the branches growing a bit closer together.

Despite not really being afraid of heights, I made sure not to look down, not feeling entirely steady so high up off the ground.

A treacherous voice in my head supplied the thought, 'If I fell from this height, I'd likely break a leg, or possibly more than that. Then I'd really be doomed.'

I nervously tried to shove that particular thought away, and focused on climbing until I reached the top.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, I felt the warmth of the sun on my face.

It was glorious.

The light was almost blinding after spending so long in the dark, and despite that logically, I knew it had only been a day, my eyes teared up a little at the warm sunlight.

For a long moment, I simply stayed there, clinging to the tree branches and basking in the light.

Then I remembered why I'd spent so much energy climbing up this particular tree, and proceeded to look around.

The sun was high in the sky, doing very little to help me orient myself, and telling me that it was roughly around noonish. Ahead of me was a long expanse of forest, and I wasn't quite high enough up to see where it ended, just that the tops of the trees continued on for a long while. To my right was even more trees, then what looked like some flat, desert plains, and the occasional mountain here and there. To my left was some more trees, and then some huge, mountains, hidden slightly in mist, despite how close I was to them.

As my eyes continued to the left, a shape managed to catch my eye. Tall and dark. Some sort of building. The top was almost..spikey? It looked familiar...Where did I know that building from?

I couldn't make out much of what it was made of, and I didn't see any people around it. Was it some sort of church? This was a weird place for a church.

Maybe it was part of an old abandoned castle or something.

It looked like it could be part of a castle.

Of course, that started the line of thought, where was I that there were ruined castles laying around?

Whatever it was, first and foremost it was a building. Even if there weren't any people and wasn't any food, it would still be a shelter from the cold. Though, it looked rather far away, it was hard to make out any details about it except that it was a black tower. Right now, it was my best bet. I carefully noted what direction it was in, hoping I wouldn't go astray while I tried to get out of the forest.

More walking. Yay.