Disclaimer: I wish LOTR belonged to me...but it doesn't.

Author's Notes: Okay, just a few simple words before you start. This is my first fanfic, so feel free to comment and give constructive criticism. I really enjoy reviews, favorites, ad follows, so don't restrain yourselves, just click the button! Flames are NOT appreciated, so flamers, just...please don't flame. Anyway, on to the story, and I hope you enjoy! :)

From a New World to a Nightmare

Imagine that you have stumbled(or transported) into a new world that you have always dreamed of living in. Everything there is exactly what you have wanted it to be. From the living trees of the magical forests to the gleaming gold beneath the mountains, everything is just as good as you have read in those fantasy books. Sounds nice, right?

Wrong.

When an adventurous 12-year-old somehow gets transported to the fantasy land of Middle-Earth that was thought to be just a fiction story, she finds herself in the middle of all sorts of dangers and evils. Now she must not only concentrate on getting home, but also preventing these various new evils from taking over Middle-Earth. Will she be able to survive?

Chapter 1: How to Not Live a Normal Life

A pair of footsteps trailed silently on the ground. Several leaves fluttered down from the browning trees, landing lightly on the sidewalk. The hooded figure paused to take in the scenery around her, careful not to make a single sound.

School had just ended several minutes ago. Students were walking along the sidewalks, and cars were trekking along the roads, some filled with chattering students, some nearly empty. The teachers and staff were standing in the middle of the road, directing the heavy traffic that overflowed the parking lot every day. It was a wonder that nobody was hurt despite all the noise and chaos.

The figure continued walking soundlessly, shaking her head. Just another ordinary school day, she thought. Being a seventh-grader of Hillington Middle School, she went through this every day. And it was just another ordinary school day.

Looking up ahead, she spotted three very familiar-looking figures, one carelessly dragging a roller backpack behind her. The figure narrowed her eyes and smirked mischievously. Maybe I won't be bored after all. She looked at the throng of students on either side of her and noticed a narrow gap in the middle. The gap would be closing soon, she knew. But she didn't have to worry. She had done this before, and she could do it again.

Adjusting her backpack into a more comfortable position, she started a silent sprint. Her running shoes made no sound as her feet pushed off the ground at a quick pace. Like a bolt of lightning, she sped through the gap, barely taking time to glance at the throng of students. Her gaze was focused on the three students not a long way in front of her.

Opening her mouth, she suddenly gave a holler as she collided with the three students. "Incomiiiiiing!"

To her satisfaction, they all gave gasps and cries of shock as she burst through the barrier, the girl with the roller backpack being the loudest. "Kelsie, you nearly scared me!" she cried.

Kelsie took one look at their faces and burst into hysterical laughter. Several people turned to stare weird at her, but she didn't care. The looks on the faces of her three friends were just too priceless to miss. She coughed several times in a poor attempt to cease her laughing.

"You - You've g-got to see the looks on your faces!" she stuttered, unable to cover her laughter. Usually it would have offended people, but her friends were quite used to it. Besides, they sometimes did the same to her.

The girl with the roller backpack glared at her, then rolled her eyes, flipping her brown ponytail back in place. "You couldn't even scare a fly," she muttered.

"Just admit, Julie," chuckled Kelsie. "I did scare you quite well. Right, Sunny?"

The girl called Sunny merely stared at her crossly, her long, golden hair disheveled from the 'incoming' attack. She brushed a strand of hair out of her face and continued to stare. Next to her, a stout-looking girl with short, jet-black hair had her hands curled into fists, as though she was ready to punch the next person who dared to prank her like that. Neither of them were amused by Kelsie's prank.

Kelsie finally gave up. She didn't understand - why couldn't they just accept the fact that she just wanted a laugh? When she first pulled a prank on them, they had doubled over laughing their heads off. But now, they were just standing there, staring at her crossly. Alice even looked like she was about to give her a black eye. Seeing that it was no use trying anymore, she decided to switch the subject.

"So where are we going?" she asked, hoping to lighten up the mood.

Sunny took out her phone, without glance at anyone. "That's what we were talking about before you came in."

"I suggested going to the park," Julie chimed in. "Remember that dreadful social studies project? I have to collect pinecones for Alice to take home, since she barely did any work."

Alice immediately snapped up. "Hey! I did more than three-fourths the work in class! I thought you were going to take the project home! After all, it is in your backpack, probably half squished by now."

Kelsie decided not to waste too much time listening to their daily arguing. She easily took the lead, and headed towards the park with Sunny in tow and Julie and Alice still bickering. Although it was a bit amusing to listen to their argument this time, since she and Sunny had finished their project long ago.

As they walked for another minute, the sidewalk started to get less crowded. Most of the people had left by now and the few who lingered probably didn't even care. The noise had also died down with it, making the two of them the loudest in that area. Funny how it's so crowded one moment and so empty the next.

Just then, Kelsie had an idea. She turned to Sunny with a grin. "Do you want to race to the park?"

Sunny's eyes snapped up from her phone once she heard the idea. A challenging grin spread over her face slowly to maximize the tension. Despite all her glamor, Sunny was actually the only one who ever beat Kelsie at running, even if Kelsie had to slack a little.

In a second, they were both sprinting down the sidewalk at lightning speed.

Kelsie skidded to a halt on the grass, barely managing not to fall over. Perhaps it was the excitement of speed that motivated her. Or maybe it was the freedom of running. She always ran fast, just as long as it was her own free will. It was the reason why she never ran fast when the coach commanded her to.

Not long after, Sunny also burst into the park, barely managing not to collide into a tree. She sat down on a particularly green spot on the grass and started to watch her favorite Anime on her phone. It was not unusual for her, since she was a big fan of Anime, and couldn't seem to stop watching it.

Sighing, Kelsie reached into her backpack for her schedule, which included all her homework. It was barely the end of the first quarter, and more than half of the pages were already used up now. She had a very busy schedule - it included piano and flute lessons, band practices, art classes, and martial arts. With tournaments, competitions, and performances always looming ominously, it was a wonder she could get anything done. Not to mention the raging amount of homework she got each day.

She pulled out another notebook, this one filled with art. Containing a variety of sketches, it was one of the only things that kept her from sinking into the pit of unpopularity. When she drew in class, students would stop to admire her artwork. Sometimes, if she was doing particularly well that day, she might even be able to squeeze a compliment out of one of those mean, popular kids.

Meanwhile, Julie and Alice had caught up with them and were still arguing nonstop about who would take home their social studies project. Again, it was perfectly normal for them to argue, since they did that everyday. It was like some kind of daily worship. Sometimes, Alice even went by the nickname, 'Goddess of Arguments', while Julie was sometimes called 'Princess Bickermouth'.

So, like always, Kelsie was the first and only to get her homework done.

Rummaging through her unrecognizably messy backpack, she found the book that she had been reading for the past several days: The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. She had found the story deeply engaging and had spent any free time she had in class reading it. Sometimes, she even got in slight trouble for reading and not paying attention.

Though Kelsie knew the story was fiction, she would often wonder what it would be like to live in Middle-Earth. To experience magic, to fight battles and become a hero. She would usually compare Middle-Earth to the world she was currently in, noting similarities and differences(there were more differences than similarities).

"I wish I lived in Middle-Earth," she mumbled to nobody in particular, as she sat down underneath a large tree to read her book.

Suddenly, a pinecone struck her head hard. Rubbing her head, she groaned and looked up to see Alice and Julie with armfuls of pinecones, standing on either side of her.

"Sorry, Kelsie, I was trying to get Alice, but you know how bad my aim is," confessed Julie.

Kelsie raised an eyebrow. "Can't you guys find something better to do than...throw pinecones at each other?"

"It's a contest where the loser has to take the social studies project home," explained Alice. "First to get hit loses."

"In that case, it would be me, but sadly, I'm not involved in this contest, so too bad." Kelsie picked up the pinecone that hit her and randomly threw it back to Julie. "You're welcome!"

Now Kelsie had not intended to hit Julie, she just wanted to toss the pinecone back to her, but a thump and a yelp followed by roaring laughter made her look up. The pinecone had hit Julie on the head before she could react, and Alice took that as an out.

"I'll get you back for this, Kelsie!" she managed to yell, before she ran after Alice, pelting her with pinecones.

Kelsie watched them and snickered. Those two were always random and crazy. Yet, they could not be compared to her, when she was in one of her crazy moods. Somehow, she just happened to be calm today. Perhaps it was because she was thinking too much about her musical performances, art contests, and martial arts tournament.

Remembering her performances and competitions made her realize that she should be getting home to practice, instead of waiting out here where pinecones were a big threat. But I already practiced a lot. I'm sure I'll do well. Besides, worrying will only make things worse. I just need to relax and take a break.

Having a voice in her really did the trick.

Kelsie sat back down(she had jumped up when she remembered), and opened her book to the bookmarked page. Just as she was about to read...

"Kelsie! Want to watch Anime with me?"

Kelsie silently gritted her teeth. "Sorry, Sunny, I'm kinda busy trying to read right now."

"Okay, but you have to promise that you will watch Anime with me after you're done reading."

Kelsie tried hard not to facepalm. "Fine, I promise." If she didn't agree, then Sunny would keep bugging her until she had to run away.

Finally, her attention went back to the book and she started reading.

It had been more than an hour and thirty minutes when Julie and Alice had finished their homework. Sunny had decided to do hers at home, since she had used up her Anime watching time in the park.

Alice glanced at Kelsie, who was still reading silently, then tapped Julie. "I think it's time we surprised her."

"How?"asked Julie. "You know that if we do anything to annoy her, we'll have to run fast."

"Exactly. So we need to think of a prank that will surprise her so much that she won't be able to catch us," said Alice, grinning mischieviously.

And with that, Julie started talking about her plan a little too loudly, receiving a slap from Alice whenever she got too loud(which was once every five seconds).

Since her face was hidden behind the book, nobody could see Kelsie's expression. Kelsie had heard almost every word Julie said, and was trying to keep herself from overdoing her evil smirk, which she did when she know something that no one else knew.

In a situation like this, she would normally think of a counter-prank to prevent herself from getting fooled and at the same time, reverse the prank on her friends. However, this time, she decided that she would let Julie and Alice get away with it, just to be nice. All she had to do was pretend to be surprised. She turned another page of the book.

Her expression immediately turned to shock.

The next page was blank.

No! The story can't possibly end here! There's got to be a mistake.

But there was no mistake. The nest page was also blank, so was the page after that, and so on. Kelsie flipped through the rest of the book quickly. Each page was blank. There was not a single word on any of them.

Until the last page.

Narrowing her eyes, Kelsie saw tiny words at the bottom-right corner of the page. She brought the book closer and narrowed her eyes even more. Reading them closely, word by word, she could make out a poem:

To join the adventure, you must do

Though not all your wishes will come true

Do what you must, if you're to survive

For there's no promise that you'll come back alive

Huh? What did that mean? Join what adventure? Kelsie stared at the tiny words, reading them over again. Usually, she would have been able to figure out the poem immediately, but this time, her mind couldn't function that well. It was the last part that frightened her. Did this mean that she was going to die?

Suddenly, the book started to glow. Kelsie jerked her hand away from it. Okay. This is going way beyond normal. She didn't dare shout out loud or make any big movements for the fear that things might get worse. She did try to scoot away from the glowing book, but it was limited by the tree behind her.

Many emotions raced through her mind. On top was a fresh new layer of suspicion, that made her wonder about the meaning behind the poem and glowing book. This was rare - it had never been heard of before. And it could get very dangerous if she wasn't careful.

Concealed in mystery, beneath the layer of suspicion, was curiosity. It made her want to see what would happen if she touched the book. Even if it meant something not so pleasant. It was a strong curiosity, and she was only curious about few things.

Curiosity soon overtook fear. Kelsie glanced quickly at her friends. Julie and Alice were still working on their plan, and Sunny wasn't done watching Anime. Sure that nobody was watching her, she quietly and slowly edged back to the book.

She took a deep breath and touched the glowing book with her right hand.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed that! This is actually the improved version of the chapter, since I didn't really think the first one was good enough. I remade this in hopes that more people would want to continue reading the story. Now, I shall wait for reviews...