Author's Note/Disclaimer: Due to the nature of Time Travel, this story is both a prequel and a sequel to my other DW/Silmarillion crossover, Wanderers (depending on the perspective). In addition, it takes place between season 6 and 7 of Doctor Who. Obviously, I own neither Doctor Who nor Middle-earth. I'm just in it for the fun.

Prologue: Wild Nights

The familiar sound of the TARDIS materializing in her cell woke River from a light doze. She sat up, diary falling from her chest to the floor with a dull thump, as the Doctor poked his head out of the door. "Good evening!" he said. "How long's it been?"

"About a week," River replied as she picked up the diary and slipped it into her belt before grabbing her coat. "Where are we off to tonight?"

"Earth, and the past!" The Doctor spun back into the TARDIS. He leapt up the stairs to the console as River followed him. "But the specifics are a surprise."

"Oh, Sweetie, you know me so well." River joined him, shaking out her curls and considering a quick run to the wardrobe as she craned her neck in a futile attempt to catch a glimpse of their destination on one of the screens. But the Doctor nudged it out of her line of sight.

"You can guess if you like," said the Doctor. His tone said he was certain she wouldn't get it right. It was a game they liked to play sometimes when he came to fetch her away from her cell in the Stormcage.

"Let's see…" River leaned back against the railing and tapped her finger against her chin. "New York in the 1920s?"

"Nope!" The Doctor spun from one control to another, pulling on this lever, pushing in another button.

"Paris – at any time?"

"Guess again!"

"Hmmm. Oh! Are we going to watch them build the Great Wall of China?"

She went through half a dozen other guesses. Rio, the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the Italian Renaissance, the English Renaissance (the Doctor replied with a rather emphatic no to that one), until she gave up. "All right, I suppose it really will be a sur – " River was cut off when something collided with the TARDIS. Something big.

"What? Oh, no, no, no, that was not supposed to happen…what could possibly have hit us?" The Doctor scrambled to regain some stability as River was nearly thrown over the railing as the TARDIS tipped and spun, sparks flying from the console. The Doctor dragged a screen over and squinted at it incredulously. "That's – that's a bat. Look at it! A bat! That is a giant bat."

"A giant bat?" River lurched forward and peered at the screen. It certainly resembled a giant bat, with great dark wings and red eyes; it screeched and hissed as it attacked the TARDIS, though whether it was trying to get in, or simply knock it off course it was impossible to tell. "What is that?"

"I'm not quite sure, but I have a theory. River, I need you to run to the library."

"The library? You want a book? Now?"

"A very specific book!" The Doctor yanked on a lever, and the bat outside screeched in rage. "The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien."

"Tolkien? Isn't he the man who wrote The Lord of the Rings?" River had read that long ago, at Amy's insistence (back when River had been Melody and Amy had still insisted on being called Amelia, because her Raggedy Doctor said it was a fairy tale name). It was fantasy. "What do you need a book of his for?"

"Because I was reading it earlier and I need to look something up!" The Doctor huffed, and staggered past River. "Fine. I'll get it. You fly the TARDIS." And he disappeared through a doorway. River took control, happy that for once the Doctor remembered she was perfectly capable of flying the TARDIS, and even managed to shake off the giant bat, or whatever it was. And then she landed, nowhere near their original destination, but there was no way River was going to attempt to get back there with large winged creatures flying around in places they shouldn't, attacking unsuspecting phone boxes.

The Doctor returned, flipping through the back of a vaguely tattered copy of The Silmarillion. Probably the index. "What has that got to do with whatever that creature was?" River asked.

"It's got everything to do with it. I think it was a vampire."

"A vampire? You mean like the ones you encountered in Venice? Oh but those were fish. Do you mean, like Dracula?"

"Well, I say vampire…I think Tolkien really just means very large bats when he says vampire. Servants of Morgoth…if it was a Maia in the shape of a giant bat that might very well explain how it got to the TARDIS while we were moving through the vortex…"

River rolled her eyes. "You can't be serious. Sweetie, those are just stories. Fairy tales."

The Doctor smirked as he turned a page. "Oh, River. Aren't we all?"