Chapter Text
The night was dark and stormy. Your windows were illuminated with the bright shine of lightning, and the claps of thunder made you cower under your blankets. Storms were regular here, but this one was different.
The wind was howling far too loud for a normal storm. It felt like the storm was inside your room. Then it happened. The brightest flash of lightning of the storm so far-and then silence. Darkness.
You felt the wind rushing around you and the sensation of falling took over your body. You opened your eyes. It was still dark and you didn’t know where you were. A dream? Had you fallen asleep?
Your body twisted. You opened your eyes again. The ground was coming up quickly. The ground? Why were you falling??
You closed your eyes and braced for impact.
THUD.
Your body hit the ground with a sickening crunch. You squeezed your eyes shut and you felt your mouth open involuntarily; nothing but a wheeze came out.
“Lass, are you alright?” You heard a voice say, but it was distant. You ignored it and concentrated on breathing. Your lungs were on fire and your ribcage seared in pain with every movement. Something was broken.
“Lass, can you hear me?” The same voice asked. “Maybe she’s deaf?” A second voice offered. “No, she isn’t. She just hit the ground hard enough to make it shake! Of course she isn’t saying anything!” The first voice retorted.
You finally opened your eyes to find a hazy view of two men hovering over you. They looked...funny. Was it because you were dead? Was this purgatory?
“Get Oin, he can tell us what to do.” The first voice said. The voice belonged to the man hovering on the left. He looked like a grandpa, and had a very long, white beard. It was curled at the end. How strange, you thought.
The second man was still hovering over you. He looked younger. He had long, dark hair and a slight stubble. He kept getting darker and darker and you knew your vision was failing you. You saw his mouth move but you heard no words.
The world went black.
***
You came to with a gasp of air. Your lungs screamed at the motion, but it felt like you hadn’t taken a breath in ages. The first thing you noticed was how much pain you were in. Even taking the breath you had sent your body into a wave of pain. The second thing you noticed was that your whole rib cage was bound with some sort of cloth, and that the shirt you were wearing was not your own. You still had your pajama shorts on...and no shoes, considering you had been in bed.
You had been in bed. Why were you not in bed now? Before you even had time to think about any of that, a man with gray hair and a trumpet looking thing in his ear approached you. “Oh, good! You’re awake! How are you, lass?” He said, louder than you’d usually approach someone. You realized the trumpet thing was probably to help him hear. You opened my mouth but nothing came out. You had no idea what to say.
“You’ll need to speak up, lass, I’m hard of hearing!” He said, sticking his trumpet closer to your mouth. “I’m in pain.” You managed to breathe out. Apparently it was loud enough for the man to hear, as he nodded and began to pull things out of his large coat.
As the man was preparing some type of potion, you looked around at your surroundings. You looked to be in some sort of clearing. You could hear voices on the other side of the small hill in front of you, but sitting down, you could see nothing but the very tops of some heads. You realized that the man before you was also short. Short for a man.
You were probably no taller than him, but for a man... it was odd to be that short. As your brain power began to return, you started to panic. Why were you out in the middle of the woods, with a strange, short man making you a potion? Was this the Middle Ages??
“Here, lass, give this a drink. Should stop the pain for a bit.” The man said, thrusting a glass vial full of slightly blue liquid towards you. You looked at it hesitantly, and then back at the man. “It’s perfectly safe. You’ll have to trust me.” He gave you a small smile.
You nodded, and chugged the liquid down. Anything to make your body stop hurting. The liquid was surprisingly tasteless. As you gave the vial back to the man, another man came over the hill. This one, however, was extremely tall, dressed in gray robes with a...wizard’s hat? He had a wooden staff and appeared to be quite elderly. He sat on the ground before you. He gave off a calming aura.
He gave you a grandfatherly smile, “You are not from here, are you, my dear?” You shook your head quickly, making yourself a bit dizzy, “No. How did you know? And where is here?” “I have my ways. We are in Middle Earth, my dear.” He gave a cheeky grin, “However, I sense no ill intentions about you. I’d like you to meet the leader of this company.” You looked at him with a blank stare, “Well-I, you’re right that I have no ill intentions, I have no clue where I am. But, what company?”
His demeanor softened, “Their leader will explain all. But I want him to be aware that you are not a danger. You have no home here. Your aura is pure and strong. I’d like you to remain safe.”
Still thoroughly confused, and slightly concerned, you only nodded. The robed man stood up, assumingly to go get this so-called company’s leader. “Wait!” You called. The man turned. “What is your name?” The old man chuckled, “Oh! Where are my manners? I am Gandalf. Gandalf the Grey.” You nodded numbly, “Are you...are you a wizard?” He grabbed at his pointed hat playfully, “How’d you know?” He gave a playful wink and walked off over the small hill.
You were alone again.
You sighed, shifting against the tree you were leaning against. You closed your eyes for a brief moment until you heard footsteps. More than one pair. You opened your eyes to see Gandalf and a much shorter man, close in height to the man who gave you the potion approaching you.
The shorter man had long black hair with stubble, and appeared to have some sort of beads or jewels braided into his hair. His hair was interspersed with gray pieces. He was adorned in much fancier robes than the potion man.
Gandalf and the man sat in front of you. “What is your name?” The man stated rather gruffly. His face appeared to be carved out of stone. It was emotionless. “Sapphire.” You said quietly. The man’s expression was making you nervous. Gandalf interjected before the man could say anything else, “My dear Sapphire means no harm to you and your company. I sense no ill intentions from her, and her aura is pure.” The dark-haired man scoffed, clearly not in tune with the senses of wizards. Gandalf ignored this and continued, “However, she is not from our world. She has no home.”
“If you are implying that we take her with us, the answer is no. We cannot be protecting a defenseless woman the entire journey. We already have Bilbo to contend with,” The man stated, crossing his arms. Who the hell was Bilbo? You looked down at the ground, his words stinging. It’s not like you asked to be thrust into this situation!
The man’s words clearly irritated Gandalf, “Thorin, we cannot leave this poor girl here to die! And Bilbo is no burden, I assure you that.” So that was the man’s name-Thorin. What an odd name. So many odd names had been presented to you thus far: Thorin, Bilbo, Gandalf. And what was the name you heard before when you had fallen? Oin?
Thorin said nothing for what felt like hours before deeply sighing, “Fine. She may come.” He directed his attention towards you, “Try not to cause any problems.” He got up and walked in the direction he had come, leaving you alone with Gandalf.
You looked at him sheepishly. “He will come around, my dear. Can you move? I will introduce you to the others.” Gandalf said, standing and reaching a hand out to you. “I can try.” You muttered, placing your hand in his. He gave you a gentle pull upwards and as you stood on your legs, pain erupted in your sides.
You stumbled against the old wizard but didn’t fall. Gandalf wrapped an arm around your shoulders to steady you. You could now see over the small hill and were met with the stares of thirteen men, not counting Thorin, who was looking at what looked like a piece of paper.
You wanted to disappear. You hated being the center of attention and now you were definitely it, in the company of all men, in a place you didn’t know. Gandalf guided you to a free spot between two younger looking men. One had dark hair and stubble...wait, this was the one who was hovering over you when you first fell! Finally, a familiar face! The other one was blonde, and had a mustache that was braided at the ends. How unusual.
The two men grabbed your arms and side gently to guide you down to sit between them. Luckily, they were up against a group of trees, so you could lean back. The dark-haired one had a huge smile on his face and opened his mouth to speak, but Gandalf cut him off before he could begin, “This young lady is Sapphire. She will be joining us.”
Murmurs of you being a ‘defenseless woman’ and ‘how interesting!’ were tossed around the group before Gandalf spoke again, “She has arrived here in Middle Earth under odd circumstances but she is safe and pure. She has no home.”
The murmurs died down and Gandalf walked back over the small hill from where you were, probably to grab the blanket you’d been sitting on. “Your name is Sapphire?” The dark-haired man asked excitedly. He didn’t look very old. I nodded, “Yes.”
“My name is Kili, and behind you is my brother Fili!” He said, pointing to the blonde-haired man. You smiled at both of them, “It is nice to meet you both.” “So you aren’t from here?” Kili asked, still smiling. You could already tell he would be absolutely exhausting.
“No, I am from a place called Earth. I guess this place is called Middle Earth?” You said hesitantly. “Aye, it is.” Fili chimed in from behind you. He placed a hand on your upper back, clearly an attempt to get some of your attention. “Are you some sort of witch?” Kili asked, making you turn back towards him. You shook your head, “No. Or at least I don’t think I am. I have no idea what happened. Back in my home-world, it was nighttime, and there was an awful storm going on. There was a really bright flash of lightning and then I was falling. And then I ended up here.”
Fili and Kili listened to your story intently; Kili even gasping when you talked about falling. It felt a little over dramatic but at least they weren’t giving you the stink eye like some of the others in the camp.
As you told your story, more men came closer or turned their heads to listen. Once you finished, the white-bearded man that you remembered from when you fell chimed in, “Well lass, you’ll be safe with us.” He gave you a warm smile. You smiled back, “Thank you, you don’t know how much I appreciate that.”
You had the attention of most of the men now. “What...what are all your names?” You questioned. Wrong thing to do. Kili hopped up and began to identify everyone, way too quickly for you to comprehend.
“This is Balin! And his brother Dwalin!” He started, pointing at the white-bearded man, and then to a bald-headed man with a long, black beard. He gave you a rough look. You mentally placed him on the ‘don’t mess with them’ list along with Thorin.
“This is Bombur!” Kili pointed to a rather round man with some sort of braided hair/beard thing. It was interesting, to say the least. “This is brother Bofur, and cousin Bifur!” Bofur had a funny hat and curled mustache and gave you a friendly smile, and Bifur had crazy looking black and white hair with... an ax sticking out of his head?? He smiled.
The list went on. Nori, Dori and Ori. Oin and Gloin. Kili reintroduced you to Thorin, who was apparently Fili and Kili’s uncle and also some sort of uncrowned king?? Finally, they introduced you to a man who was even shorter than the lot of them. He had curly brown hair and no facial hair...and also no shoes. And huge feet? His name was Bilbo. He gave you a shy ‘hello’. You thought you’d fit right in with him.
There was no way you’d remember all of their names immediately. You would barely remember Fili and Kili’s come the next day.
***
The light was fading and you were exhausted. You had eaten a bowl of stew that the round man had fixed...what was his name? Something with a B, you thought. Everyone was laying out what appeared to be sleeping bags, and you realized you had nothing but a blanket, and you were still in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. It was cold.
“Here, you can sleep in my bedroll. And I have extra pants to give you in the morning. Ori has extra boots that should fit you. He’s small like you.” Kili said, opening his ‘bedroll’ for you. “Are...are you sure?” You asked, crawling towards his sleeping bag. You couldn’t stand up unassisted. “Positive.” Kili said, giving you a smile. You handed him your blanket as you stretched out in Kili’s bedroll.
It felt good to give your body a stretch but it also hurt. You weren’t in as much pain as you thought you’d be, but you attributed that to the potion the trumpet-ear man had given you. God, what was his name??
You looked up at the stars while you thought. It was truly beautiful out here. You could see way more of the night sky than you could back home. A small cough caught your attention. You turned your head to see Kili smiling at you. You smiled back. “You’re rather small for a human woman.” He whispered suddenly. His comment took you aback. Was he not human?
“What do you mean? Are you all not humans?” You whispered back, bewildered. Kili covered his mouth with his hand to stifle a laugh. “No! We’re dwarves! Except Bilbo, he’s a hobbit.” You looked at him blankly, “I have no idea what a hobbit is.” “But you know what a dwarf is?” He shot back. “Dwarves don’t exist in my world unless it’s a medical condition, and they’re usually shorter than you!” You said, trying to keep your volume down. Wouldn’t want to wake the grumpy people.
Kili looked at you in awe, but before he could say anything you heard a thump, and Kili’s expression turned angry. “Go to sleep, Kee!” It was Fili, who was on the other side of Kili. He had kicked him. Kili rolled his eyes, and turned back to smile at you, “Goodnight, Sapphire.” “Goodnight, Kili.”