Dog Days

Ch 2

Everything burned. Your fingers still throbbed, a clear indication you were still alive. At least, you thought so. You thought being dead was supposed to be painless. If you were really dead, then why the heck did everything still feel like you were being crushed by a truck?

Your chest clenched, and you felt your lungs flare as you took in a sharp breath. You couldn't control the watery cough that dribbled past your lips. Already choking again, and you still had yet to open your eyes. They felt as though they were cemented shut, and you struggled to even lift them the length of an eyelash.

Something shifted beside you, causing high alert to course through your limbs. Someone was here with you. Had they pulled you out of the chest? You didn't feel the cold damp wood anymore, so maybe. But how?

Last you checked you sank to the bottom of the bay.

You heard voices, far away at first, then eventually your ears adjusted. Male, the speaker was a male due to the deep, gruffness in the voice. "We will not keep her," it said.

Huh? Keep you? Automatically you decided you weren't in a hospital. Deciding you were finished with laying on your back, you forced your eyes open with extreme difficulty and shot up. Where the strength to do so came from? You weren't sure.

Your head reeled dangerously, but other than that you were fine. Your eyes adjusted to natural, pale orange light around you. A sunset? You were still outside then. More movement caught your eye, and you whirled around to face... a man. Quite the odd looking one too.

You'd seen a lot of short men in your life, but this guy took the cake. What was he like, four feet tall? Had a cuteish face, curly hair that would put even the purest breed of poodle to shame. But oh, his feet. His huge ass feet. They were at least twice your size, and so very hairy. You wondered if he ever got cold at night.

Finding it impolite to stare, you blinked and turned your head away from his feet ever so slightly. "Hello." You spoke, clearing your throat. Damn, it felt rough just to even breathe. Your voice was hoarse, probably because you were screaming when before you drowned. God dammit Sweet. You bitch. Your old friend's betrayal was still fresh on your mind.

The little man waved back, giving you a small smile. "Hello there, are you feeling alright now?" He handed a small cup of hot liquid smelling strongly of herbs into your hands, then turned away to grab what seemed like a blanket of furs.

You felt it was impolite to refuse, but you couldn't bring yourself to drink. It was far too soon. The last thing you wanted was to put more water in your body after having too much of it only a short while ago. Speaking of such, how long were you out?

Had your mother been called? Didn't seem like so. Not like she would answer. Not after what you two had last said to each other. "Where am I?" You asked, placing the cup onto the soft, dirt floor. It wasn't hard to assume that you had been moved far away from the harbor, the scent of water had long since stopped flowing through the breeze.

"Just outside of Bree." The man answered you softly. "Do you know how you got here?" Bree? Where the hell was that? Didn't sound like anywhere in (Y/H). "Bree?" You parroted back, unsure of how else to relay your confusion. "Is that near (Y/H)?"

"I have never heard of (Y/H). I don't usually travel much." The man seemed a bit disgruntled, a bit confused himself. Just who the hell saved you? "I'm (Name)." You stood up, wobbly at first and extended your hand for the little man to shake.

He immediately went beet faced, and took your hand into his much smaller ones. "My apologies miss! So nice to meet you, but how rude of me! My name is Bilbo Baggins, I am a hobbit of The Shire, good to make your acquaintance."

You smiled back. "Good to meet you too," you responded genuinely. But what the hell is a Hobbit? And The Shire? What? A voice broke into your conversation. "It is good to see you awake and well my dear, you have given us all quite the fright."

You cursed yourself for jumping, startled a bit. An elderly man wearing a blueish grey robe and a pointy hat sat a few feet away from you and your new 'hobbit' friend, a kind smile gracing his face. "I am Gandalf the Grey, a wizard."

A wizard? You blinked, and resisted the urge to roll your eyes. Wizards didn't exist. That's fairy tale material, along with witches and dragons. "Is there something wrong my dear?" Gandalf asked you. May as well come out with it. You were kind of getting sick of pretending you weren't freaked out.

"Is this a prank?" You blurted out. "Like, seriously? Why would you do that?" Gandalf and Bilbo exchanged confused looks. "I can assure you, no one here is joking." Your jaw twitched a bit as your teeth grinded together irritably. "Riiiight, so can you just point me to the nearest town? I'll use a phone from here."

Another odd exchange of puzzled glances. You let out a sigh of frustration through your nose. Maybe they were telling the truth. Maybe these guys actually weren't human. Maybe you had somehow fallen into an alternate world where mythical creatures existed. It made a bit of sense. Who the hell has ever heard of a Hobbit? Things were starting to scarier and scarier.

You had just drowned, and now you're alive again. Gandalf's getup was pretty convincing to... And Bilbo had some of the craziest feet you'd ever seen. Were his ears pointed to? You began to panic. Oh hell, what if there are no working toilets?! Please god, don't actually tell me I'm trapped somewhere without a phone or anything modern. Please, please-

"May I ask what exactly a 'phone' is?"

Dammit. Now what do I do?