Prologue

In a clearing, deep in a national park, a woman had just finished setting up camp ready for the oncoming night. She was fairly short for an adult, only 5'2", and generously curvy, while not seeming fat. A cry of triumph emerged as she found her iPhone in her backpack.

"Ha! Bag zero, Bec 1! Now, for some music while I get the fire started..."

Bec trailed off into muttering as her attention focused on her device, and she noticed the battery reading was below 50%. She pulled out her solar charger to get the portable batteries full before the sun started setting. Then she started going through the songs on her phone, before giving up and going to her playlists. Selecting the one labelled 'Awesomeness', she connected the speakers and pressed play. A burst of drums and fast paced guitar signalled that Green Day's 'St Jimmy' was the first song on shuffle. Bec started shaking her hips and dancing a bit while organising her wood pile, and making sure it was far enough away from her little circle of stones.

After building a little teepee of twigs outside the paper and bark, she reached for her flint fire starter, and proceeded to get little sparks everywhere except the kindling.

"Oh, you little sunuvabitch! Just go where I want you to!" The spark nearly landed on her tent.

"Why is this so hard?" This one at least went in the right direction, but fell far short.

"I'm starting to regret not bringing matches..." Her phone was nearly scorched, and in response started to play 'I See Fire', although an acapella version. Bec dropped everything to start singing along, albeit nowhere near as well as the artist.

While belting out the song, Bec was reminded of the final Hobbit movie. Even knowing how foolish it was, she still held out hope that the Durins would be saved at the last minute by a fangirl (or guy) writer or producer. Since that didn't happen, she was content to ignore it, and dream up ways the battle could have gone differently, and the futures they could have had. Sometimes, when she got really sad about it, she would imagine what she would do, if Middle Earth was real. Admittedly, she didn't have any fighting skills, but she had her dirt bike, basic karate training, survival knowledge, a modern first aid kit, and some herbal and nursing skills. Surely that would have made some difference? Anyway, she liked to pretend she could have saved them. The song finished, and high on her successful song, she tried to start the fire again.

"Yes! Take that mum! I can to use this stupid thing. And she said trying to learn things off YouTube would never workout."

The sun had finally set, so she packed up everything into her backpack and saddlebags and put them in her tent, next to her iPad and laptop. She knew it was probably overkill bringing both of them for a three day trip, especially with no internet reception, but they were like her security blanket. With her hard drive, she had all of her favourite shows, movies and music, and her solar charger meant that the batteries would never run out either.

As the fire started crackling, Bec turned to the esky by her side, and grabbed the steak she'd bought at Coles. Her sister hated meat from anywhere but her preferred butcher, but Bec was nowhere near as picky in her eating habits. She did know her food though, and had a potato wrapped in foil to go in the coals, and pre-made damper mix to attempt in a tiny lightweight camp oven. Not big enough to do meat or anything like her family used to do, but she also didn't have a caravan or giant 4WD put everything in.

As she crawled into her tent, ready for bed, Bec smiled. It was so peaceful out here, and although chilly, the lack of snakes and clear view of the stars more than made up for it. Settling into her sleeping bag, Bec pulled up 'An Unexpected Journey' to fall asleep to. Just as Bilbo was opening the door to Dwalin, she drifted off.

While she slept, two voices conversed in a glade in another plane.

"Are you sure, my love? There are many other ways to fix this problem. This does not guarantee the ending you want." A small woman with furry feet danced into view, flowers, grass and trees popping up wherever her feet landed.

"I am as sure as I can be. My children must still have free will, and not only is she the right height and build to fit in, but she has the heart and soul of a dwarf as well. She may not be as prepared as I would like, but we can help a little before dropping her in there, and warn my sons she is coming. I think I'll give her a grand entrance anyway...worthy of a champion of the Valar!" A well-built man smirked as he finished speaking, mischief dancing in his eyes.

He clicked his fingers, and Bec, and all of her belongings appeared in front of them, Bec twitching and rolling over as she arrived. As she showed no sign of waking, the man got more and more agitated, until he bent down and started poking her insistently.

"Wake up, Rebecca. Wake up NOW!" As the last word wasn't spoken as much as it was roared, Bec shot up in surprise and shock, and head butted the man. While he jumped around in pain she examined her new surroundings, holding her head. A warm hand lifted her chin and she stared into kind brown eyes.

"I am Yavanna, and that idiot is my husband Aule, or Mahal if you listen to him, but I don't. We need your help."