Hello everyone! Well, this is the first story/fanfic I have ever written, so please don't go too hard on the criticism! I am not a professional, not even close, but I have found this to be so much fun and that is what I love about fanfiction! I am following the plot of the book/movies, particularly in the first few chapters, and even though I have gathered inspiration from other fanfics, I have a few fresh ideas for this story that I haven't seen before. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

Note: I'll just say this the once (in case it isn't obvious)- I don't own any of the story or characters besides my OC's, they obviously all belong to Tolkien.

I ran as fast as my feet would carry me. Leaves and twigs crunched below my sneakers, and the bright greens of the forest rushed past my vision in a blur. Only when my feet felt as though they would spontaneously combust, and my chest as though it would explode did I stop. I walked from the path and sat down, leaning against a tree. My stomach heaved against the physical exertion but I felt better emotionally.

As a young adult with two decades of limited world experiences under my belt, I had moved out of home at the beginning of the year to study at university interstate. I had never travelled anywhere else. Ever. The furthest I had adventured was a two-star youth recreation facility for a school camp when I was fourteen. It was as much fun as a pubescent teen could have for four days surrounded by teachers at their wits end, and teenagers who complained about the lack of phone reception.

That was the only trip that I was able to go on, seeing as the school had decided to pay for it. For friendship building and bond-strengthening, our teachers had said.

Right.

Because of my lack of experience, moving out of home was a big deal. It was one transition that I hadn't quite enjoyed as much as I was expecting, despite the various motivations I had for making my own way in the big, bad world.

Motivations that would soon become apparent.

It was the start of Summer when I decided to visit my 'family' home in the outer suburbs of our home city. My father and step-mother lived there, but it was my brother that I was really visiting.

I was at their house this afternoon when the argument started. As it always had, my father was the initiator of it.

"Amelia, Joshua, come and do the dishes now." Dad yelled out.

I was fine with finishing them off, and was already on my way over to helping him. However, my brother had gone to his room after lunch to complete an assignment that was due in two days' time. Josh is seventeen years old and looks very much like me despite the noticeable height difference; we shared the same mossy green eyes and chocolate brown hair.

My step-mother was at work, therefore I knew it would be a better idea to help without backchat, to avoid any form of conflict that my father's partner could deter if she were here. After a few minutes of silence, he asked where Josh was. I noted the slight edge to the tone of his voice, and glanced sideways at him. To anyone that wouldn't know him, he looked mostly calm and composed; however, I had the bad luck to know him better. I glanced quickly at his eyes to see a storm brewing behind the dark brown, almost black pupils.

"He has to finish an important assignment that is due on Tuesday", I simply said, carefully treading on what little thin ice I knew there was left.

Suddenly, he dropped the porcelain plate he was holding back into the sink with such a loud 'clang!' that I jumped. I turned to face him just in time to catch sight of his back as he stormed away. Before he completely disappeared, I heard enough of what he was muttering to know what would come next.

"Ungrateful fucking children. I cook them lunch and they can't even help out around the fucking house…" I sighed exasperatedly, biting my tongue to stay the retort that almost fell from my lips about his overstated ability to microwave frozen pies, and pulled my dark eyebrows into a tight frown. Ever since our mother had passed away, when I was eight and Josh was five, our father had changed and not for the better.

It had been few days before Christmas when she had died. Jessica was out buying presents for Josh and I, and I remember the last moment I saw her as clear as day.

"But mum!" I had whined. "Please can I come with you!" My mum had simply smiled and knelt in front of me.

"Darling, I have to do some special shopping for Joshua, which means that you have to be a big girl and look after him for me while your father is doing house work!"

I had folded my arms in front of my chest and pouted, but I knew I had to look after my little brother. "Okay, I will," I had said.

She pulled me into her and gave me a great hug as she kissed the side of my head. "I love you, my little sweet pea. Look after Joshua."

She had stood and walked towards the front door, but as she was shutting it closed, she smiled at me with such love and happiness that it lit up the room.

And that was the last that I ever saw her.

After her car accident, my father spiralled. I was so little at the time, but I knew what was happening to him wasn't right. He drank and smoked every night, his addictions spiralling into the next harder hit to keep the pain at bay.

I was so young, but I was left to look after Josh. He barely paid attention to us and I was the one who would get Josh and myself ready for school every day and walk around the corner to the primary school we were enrolled.

It got slightly better when our father met his current partner when I was twelve, but we still weren't cared for as we had been when our mum was alive.

I was brought back to the present when I heard a tremendous yell from down the corridor. Dropping the plate that was sitting idly in my hands, I ran quickly to my brothers' room. I heard what was happening before I saw it.

"You ungrateful piece of shit! You do nothing in this house and expect me to provide for you! Well not anymore!" I heard before I turned the corner.

My father was towering over Josh, and Josh looked terrified. Even though he was taller than our father, I assumed the storm within our father's eyes was the cause of my brother's withdrawal. He was standing against a wall with a look on his face that screamed "get me out of here now!"

Without another moment's hesitation, I ran to stand in front of my brother. I knew I was a hell of a lot shorter than the both of them, but I had stood up to my dad before and I would be damned if I would let him lay a hand on Josh.

"Don't you dare touch him," I growled out beneath a clenched jaw.

His actions were without hesitation. The storm raged within his eyes and I caught the smell of alcohol too late, as his hand rose to hit.

I couldn't even get a word out before he slapped me in the face with such force that I was slammed sideways against the wall, my head connecting with the brickwork. My vision was blurred with the injury and the tears that spilled from my eyes, but I gathered myself enough to run with everything left within me. I scrambled from the bedroom and down the hallway, out of the front door and into the forest that surrounded our neighbourhood. My feet lead me away from the yells that drifted out behind me, until I could no longer hear them.

My breathing had slowed down as I lay against the tree, but everything hurt. My head throbbed, my feet were numb with just how long I had run, and I felt utterly sick.

My own father had just hit me. I knew that he wasn't the best dad, and I knew that he had neglected us for the most part of our lives; that was something that I had already accepted a long time ago. But he had hit me. How could I accept that? How could I justify his actions?

I couldn't.

Tears brimmed my eyes. Even though I knew it made no sense, I felt rejected. It was a feeling that I should have felt all these years, but it was as though it had been bottled up in the darkest corner of my mind, and I was only just experiencing the full brunt of it now.

How could I get through this mess? What could I do? I let the tears fall down my cheeks as my head fell backwards against the trunk of the tree.

My eyes were closed, but I heard footsteps moving closer through the underbrush in enough time to jump from where I was and start running again. It wasn't until I heard the shouts from my brother that I stopped dead in my tracks and jolted to face him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't put the foot on the brakes in time.

Josh toppled into me with enough force that it knocked us both to our asses.

"Ouch, what the hell Amelia!" Josh sat upright and held his side as he stood to his feet. I lay for moments longer, my head spinning and my stomach feeling as though it were going to eject itself through my throat. Josh took me gently by my hands and helped me to my feet as I tried to steady my breathing and my body.

"Your training must be going well, I didn't realise how damn quick you were!"

I smiled at his compliment, though our current situation meant it probably looked more akin to a grimace.

"Not well enough." I started to limp away, tears welling in my eyes. I had been training in jiu jitsu while at university to help protect myself in case anything happened to me while in a big city by myself. Little did I know the real need for it lie with defence against my own family.

Even then it didn't protect me.

"Amelia…" Josh stood in front of me and put a hand gently on the side of my face that had been slapped by that monster as he looked over the side of my head that connected with the wall. He grimaced, and I noticed that my temple felt wet.

I looked away from him to the ground and blinked furiously, trying to will away the onslaught of tears that threatened. I tried to continue walking, however Josh had other ideas. He clutched my hand and stopped me in my tracks, my back still faced away from him.

"Amelia... I-You… You shouldn't have stood up to him back there... I-I know that you are my older sister and you feel like you need to look after me... But not if you are going to get hurt..."

When Josh said those words, my mothers' voice drifted back through my head. "I love you, my little sweet pea. Look after Joshua." Then the dam of tears that were threatening to flood over did exactly that. God damn it. I sighed and turned around to my brother, closing the distance and hugging him as tightly as I could.

"I promised mum I would look after you Josh, and that is exactly what I will keep doing." I smiled despite myself, and added "even if you are two heads taller than me and ten times tougher than me." He chuckled at that, and it was a while before he unwrapped himself from our hug.

"I think we should be getting back to civilisation, though neither of us is going back there." His entire body language had changed, and it was as though he were cowering back against that wall. I could see the fear in his eyes.

"Are you going to go back to university?" He asked nervously. I shrugged a little, casting my eyes towards the forest.

"I don't know what I want to do anymore… I'm sure as hell not leaving you here though Josh, you do know that, right? You're going to come and live with me." I tilted my head to the sky above me, eyebrows knitting in confusion.

Josh smiled brightly and opened his mouth to reply, but the words died in his throat and his expression dropped as he followed the direction of my eyes trained on the waning sun.

"It's too dark" I murmured. "We've only been gone for an hour at most... Now it's twilight, what the fuck is going on?" Josh looked at me with a worried expression on his face.

"We should go, I have a weird feeling about this."

We turned towards the direction we had run and started walking in silence. After about fifteen minutes, the trees began to clear. We sighed in unison, a resigned version of relief in coming back to the suburb.

We couldn't have been more wrong.

As we stepped out into the clearing, we saw rolling green hills spreading out as far as the eye could see. There was a pond spreading out below and in between the hills, which reflected the beautiful oranges and reds of the setting sun. Hell, it was incredible, but it wasn't real.

It couldn't be.

I looked above me, and saw the stars coming out in the purple light. But they weren't the stars I recognised.

"Josh, what the hell is going on?" I said slowly. I was starting to panic, and if it wasn't for the voice that called out before us I probably would have.

"Good evening!" The voice called out. Both Josh and I jumped and turned to face the voice to see who the offender was. A very tall man, even taller than Josh- seriously? Why do I have to be so short! - was walking over towards us. He wore a large grey hat that reminded me vaguely of something from Harry Potter, and a light grey cloak that reached the ground. He was an older man with a curious expression on his face, but everything about this situation made me alert and on guard.

"May I ask who you two may be, then?" Josh and I were still in complete and utter shock, but I was the first to recover. Kind of.

"M-my name is Amelia Cosgrove, a-and this is my b-brother Joshua. And-uh, who the hell are you?" My fear got the better of me and I became a bit more defensive than I needed to be when I asked my question. I was completely aware that I had put myself in between Josh and this giant, to which the old man noticed. His lips turned upwards in a slight smile and there was a glint in his eyes that I couldn't quite pin an emotion to.

"My name is Gandalf the Grey, one of the five wizards of the Istari." He nodded his head slightly to introduce himself. When he looked towards us again, he must have seen our panicked expressions, because he added "I will not hurt you, do not fret young ones. Where are you from? Your attire displays something not of Middle Earth."

My jaw dropped. Middle Earth? Gandalf? They were a part of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, I was sure. I wracked my memory to try and remember the films that I had watched at school, but I couldn't recall anything of what I had watched over the years, besides Gandalf and Middle Earth. It was like there was a wall in my head that I couldn't quite get through, and the information wasn't coming to me.

Josh seemed to be having the same inner mental meltdown as I was. He looked up at Gandalf with wide eyes and his mouth opened and closed several times in something reminiscent of a goldfish.

"Gandalf…." He said. Before he could continue, I spoke up to answer the question that was put to us. "Uh, yeah, you would be right about that… We were walking in the forest near our house and then we ended up walking out into this place," I said, while I gestured my arm to encompass everything that was in front of us. "I don't know how to explain it. This isn't part of our suburb."

Gandalf just hummed and nodded his head slightly as though he was mulling something over in his mind.

"Well, no point standing around in this chill! I have an acquaintances house nearby that I was on my way to visit. We can talk in more detail about what has happened on the way there. There will be plenty of food, a warm hearth and-"he looked down towards my face pointedly, "-perhaps some ointments to heal your wounds, young lady."

I had almost forgotten about my face and the side of my head. I automatically put my hand to my cheek and regretted it instantly. I hissed slightly in pain; it was swollen and would be badly bruised. I let out a long sigh, and glanced back to Gandalf, who looked down at me understandingly.

This was all too much though. It had to be some sort of joke, some kind of... I don't know? But this didn't just happen. I wasn't even sure what this was. And this man, who claimed to be someone that we only knew from books and movies, was telling us that we should follow him to some other random person's house?

I don't think so.

"Yeah, right. Nice one. I don't know what you're playing at, but it isn't funny at all. You have no idea of the shit we have had to put up with today, and to go and do this to us is a sick joke." I glared at the man and grabbed Josh's arm to begin stepping backwards, towards the trees in which we had just emerged.

"Do you know your way back through the forest?" The man asked simply, looking at us which a slight frown on his face. His voice radiated concern more than anything, but it stopped me in my tracks. I looked around me, back into the forest where I thought we had come from.

I knew that it was the place that we had just walked out of, but the trees looked as though they were denser; the light was fading quickly and the darkness seemed to be rolling towards us from the depths of the forest. It honestly gave me the chills, and I knew that we wouldn't be able to find our way back through there.

But how the fuck did this happen in the first place? Surely I had been knocked unconscious, I realised. There was no other explanation. This couldn't be real, it couldn't be. But everything felt so vivid and genuine. It was unlike any other dream that I had before.

Even though I didn't want to go back to our fathers' house, I looked longingly into the forest. I hoped that something lingered there that was familiar instead of what I had just walked into, or seemingly walked into. I was still trying to understand how the impact of me getting hit against the wall could have caused such a ridiculous delusion, when the man spoke again.

"Please, come with me. I mean you no harm; I only wish to see you both safe and somewhere you are not alone. If you wish to try and find your way back in the morn, then you will be at the least well-rested and well-fed."

I looked at this man nervously. He looked so much like what I managed to recall from the movies, but even then, the memories were fading. I was finding it harder and harder to remember anything from them at all, besides the fact that they were movies.

What else could we do though? I had no idea if this was real or not, or where we were, or if this was some prank. My mind was swimming with confusion, and it was hard to stay afloat above it all. I was starting to feel dizzy, not only from my throbbing head but the whole situation at hand. It was Josh that answered him, after I failed to reply.

"Okay. We will come with you, but only because Amelia needs somewhere to rest." He had held tightly onto my forearm then, keeping me steady as I felt unbalanced on my feet.

I looked up at him to see a frown that was engraved into his features. He was looking at me with unease, and back at Gandalf with a deep glare. I realised then that Josh had positioned himself slightly in front of me, as I had done just minutes before.

Gandalf observed us for a few moments before he nodded slightly and motioned his arm towards the path in indication to begin walking. We were hesitant but followed after several moments.

We walked behind Gandalf along a pebbled pathway that appeared at the base of the slope of grass. We hadn't spoken another word, until the wizard encouraged us to do so.

"Tell me of what led you here, my friends. Start from the beginning."