adomania [ONE-SHOTS]

of monsters and men

Round 5: Blue Belt. 1200 words. Action & Fantasy Mashup

This is a Lord of the Rings one-shot.

For some reason, I always had a list of top 5 things that would never happen to me. It used to be stuff like: love my big brother, lose my teddy-bear or play with Macie Brooks.

At the proud age of 20 years, my list looked like this:

1. Be a billionaire

2. Marry

3. Go to a frat party ever again

4. See Josh Horton ever again

5. Wake up in a fantasy world.

The last thing I had added a few years ago, and only kept on the list because I spent two of my teenage years hoping I'd wake up in Hogwarts and marry Luna Lovegood. After two years of being disappointed and angry (a normal state for a teenager to be fair), I decided to move on. Also, I had just discovered my love for Teen Wolf, so it was easier to stop thinking of Harry Potter.

I did not, however, expect 3 of the 5 things to happen within 24 hours. But somehow (thanks to my best friends Marie and Jules) I ended up at a frat party shortly before midnight, run into Josh Horton and then pass out drunk in the backyard of a neighbor. When I woke up the next day though, the worst part wasn't a splitting hangover or regrets over talking to Josh again, but the fact that I woke up laying on a hard stone floor, looking up to a bearded old man and massive columns that reached the curved ceiling, hundreds of feet above me.

My focus wandered back to the bearded old man, whose bright blue eyes glared at me with so much wisdom and knowledge that I automatically scattered back. My head hit against one of the many columns and I barely held back a scream. Where was I? What happened?

I mustered him again, trying to find out what was going on. The man was holding a large stick in his left hand, made of dark wood, it looked like an ancient walking stick. He was wearing dirty, grey ropes, which covered nearly every part of his body, leaving only his hands and his head out for sight. Most of his face was covered in white and grey hair, his beard and hair falling over his ropes in an uncombed mess. Even though the man looked old, the aura around him felt powerful. For some reason, I knew that running away from him, wouldn't help me anything.

"Speak, what are you doing in the halls of Moria?"

"Moria?" I repeated, my eyebrows raised. "Is this here? Did you kidnap me?"

The man frowned. "Kidnap?"

"Did you bring me here?" I asked again, my eyes taking sight of other people for the first time, waiting several feet away from us as if they had to fear me.

"I did not," the man frowned, "what's your name, child?"

It was my time to frown at him. "I'm not a child. But my name is Raina. What's- "

Before I could finish my question, a loud thundering noise made the entire room shake. I pressed my whole body against the column I was leaning against. I couldn't tell why, but a part of my brain knew, there was an immediate danger around me and that I had to run, as fast and far as possible. It didn't come from the man in front of me. Even though he had scared me at first, I somehow knew he wouldn't hurt me.

"We need to make haste for the bridge," the old man shouted towards the group of people that were waiting for him.

The old man pulled me up with quite some strength. "Come, child, run as fast as you can!"

I wanted to tell him, that my name was Raina and that I was 20 years old, so definitely no child. But the halls were again shaking with a thundering noise in the background. Fear ran could through my blood as my feet began to run on their own, following the old man's grey ropes. We caught up with the other group quickly. Three large, broad-shouldered men and four – no five children were running through that same massive hall that I woke up in, avoiding columns on their way. What was odd though, was that all of them were carrying weapons – bows, swords, spears, one of the children was even carrying an ax.

I should have been scared, running away from them, but my instincts told me, that they weren't what I should be afraid of. There was something, way, way scarier going on.

The seemingly endless halls opened to a big cave, which was lit by a few torches on the walls. Our group run along the side of something along a gorge, where I couldn't even see the bottom of it. I definitely didn't want to fall down there. I followed them until we came to a bridge, which crossed the gorge. The bridge was made of stone but seemed very, very old. It looked like it would fall apart as soon as someone set foot on it. The others didn't seem to mind. Without hesitation, they ran across it, leaving me no choice but to follow them. I crossed as fast as I could. Somewhere behind us, I could hear footsteps, lots of them, approaching fast. Screeching sounds echoed through the large and wide caves, getting closer and closer.

My heart was beating painfully fast, breathing hurt more and more with every step I took. But I couldn't stop.

A whooshing sound appeared and one of the men in the group, a tall blond guy, grabbed my elbow just in time to pull me to the side, where I nearly crashed into him. Where my head at been just moments before, a black-feathered arrow stuck in-between two stones of the cave wall. Adrenaline pumped through my blood; it was probably the only thing that kept me going at this point. Luckily, the shock of the whole situation hadn't gotten to me yet.

More arrows flew past us, but at one point they stopped, and I nearly allowed myself to relax, thinking we had gotten past the worst point. Oh, how wrong I was.

The cave opened again to a different view, and my heart skipped a beat. Orange flames let the bottomless cave glow, shadows danced along the walls and the small pathways next to them. Ice-cold sweat ran down my back, and even while running, my hands started to shake. Never in my life had I felt this scared. When the monster appeared from the bottomless pit, I felt like I had entered hell and was facing the devil itself. There was no evil greater than this.

"Run!" the old man shouted at the rest of the group as he lifted his walking stick towards the monster.

The blond grabbed my hand and pulled me with the rest of them. But he couldn't stop what happened next. There was fire and water, powers greater than anything imaginable.

"Fly you fools," he whispered. Then he and the monster were gone. And the rest of us ran. 

when I say this is last minute... well it's 11:08pm lol. I didn't plan to do this... but here we go. I love lord of the rings, in case you can't tell.