There Is Still Hope

The New Start

Hello you lot! Ummmm... so let's start with saying that I own nothing except for Zita. And get ready for a long ass chapter. Kay? Kay. Let the story continue! ;D

Zita's POV

"Please tell me this isn't freakin' Middle-Earth.", I groaned. The whole group staring at me as I wiped off the pieces of mashed potatoes and demonic broccoli off my legs and arms. The shortest of the group gave me a napkin, which I nodded a thank you to and used it to rub off the rest of the food. As I looked up, I was able to identify each of the dwarfs one by one. Or tried to. So the one that just gave me the napkin was Bilbo, due to the feet. Then Gandalf, Balin, Dwalin, Ori, Dori, Nori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, Gloin, and I'm guessing the two that are laughing their butts off right now behind the crowd are Fili and Kili. I swear I'm gonna...

"Oi! You two in the back! Shut up!", I yelled, trying to sound dangerous, but that just made it worse. Now the whole damn company is laughing at me. Perfect. My childhood heroes are laughing at me. Great! I felt my cheeks burn and I looked away. But, Gandalf saw this and cleared his throat, declaring, "I think you have pestered this woman enough! She has gone through more than you know before she came here. So give her the hospitality she deserves!". I nodded to Gandalf, thanking him for the lift and he smiled back at me. Almost like my uncle... before... wait a minute... where's my backpack?!

"Anyone see a black bag?! It's mine, and I have a lot of important stuff in there," I asked, panicking. I looked around the room before my eyes landed on the hobbit, holding up my bag. He looked at me with an apologetic expression on his face, "It still has food on it, but it could be cleaned off.". I sighed in relief and gently took the bag from his hands, "Thanks Bilbo.".

"Where are you from if I may ask?", Bilbo asked as he led me to a chair at the buffet table, everyone followed behind us and took their original seats. He grabbed a plate that wasn't touched and gave it to me. I smiled at him and said, "I'm from America. New York. You should go there sometime! If you get the chance.", I replied, murmuring the last part. Of course he won't be able to! Unless he's able to find a time traveling machine or live forever. Seeing New York was just a dream for them.

"America? Where's that?", Ori asked. I looked at him with a smile on my face and said, "It's in a different version of Earth. You wouldn't know. But there... every man, woman, and child has freedom, love, happiness, everything you can ask of a happy life! But...". I paused at the next part. They don't need to know that we have war 24/7 with other countries that want to bring us down. So instead I said, "Every once and a while... we have umm... complications you could say.". Ori nodded and sat down by who I believe is Dori. Geez, I bet it's like a mother-son relationship with those two. As I took a bite of the piece of beef on my plate, I felt their eyes on me even though they continued to talk as though nothing happened. This was getting on my nerves very quickly so I just decided to break the tension.

"Look, if you lot don't trust me then say it. I don't mind, since no one's trusted me in a long while.". Everyone looked at me with yet another look of surprise. Don't blame them. Fili cleared his throat and asked, "How long has it been since anyone trusted you?". I winced and said, "Since I lost my best friend.". With that, I stood up and walked to the door, opening it and taking a long walk into the night. It wasn't the answer to his question that hurt me, but it was the way that Fili asked that caused my heart to crumble away piece by piece as I began to silenty break down in the dark.

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Fili's POV

I didn't mean for it to sound harsh. Or to offend her in anyway. I have to go apologize to her! I was about to stand up and follow her but Dwalin held me back. He sighed and said, "No need to apologize to her laddy. She's probably just tired. She'll be fine.". I nodded, understanding that he is just trying to reassure me. But it's not working, so I still went outside to look for the girl. Shoot! We never even asked for her name! I guess that's another reason why I should go find her.