Chapter Text
I... died?
Not exactly the plans i had had for my average tuesday but somehow it seemed too ridiculus to matter. In fact, I can't even seem to recall how, only that it was actually a tuesday and that the weather had been unusually hot considering we had barely passed feburary. I didn't know what i was expecting. God? A down-spiralling staircase? The underworld, perhaps? certainly not dark nothingness. God what i would give to just go to hell or something , anything that could help me alleviate my boredom. It felt as if two eternities passed by, altough it might have been closer to two hours, before something finally happened. A light. distant, but nonetheless a most wlecome sight. I did not have a body as i used to, not that i was suddenly a mutant, just that it simply wasn't there. However it didn't seem to matter, moving around wasn't a problem. It was the distance between the light and me. I think at least five more eternities passed before i reached it, but once i did, i felt the light draw me in, call to me, so i reached out my hand and grabbed it. I was now falling, or, correction it felt like i was, in reality i couldn't really tell. the space beneath me grew lighter, then nuances appeared and before long i was plunging towards the ground. Did i scream? Maybe. Okay definetly, but in my defence dying twice is something to scream about. The ground got dangerously close and just as i was about to splatter out on the dry grass beneath me. I stopped falling, hovering in the air, just above ground, like i was Harry fucking Potter in the Order of the Phoenix. I could barely breath a sigh of relief before the magical force let go of me and i faceplanted a bunch of grass. It took me awhile to overcome the embarassment, but i finally rolled over and lay on my back. The sky was clear blue with a limited assortment of clouds and a fresh breeze. I sat up looking at myself, not a scratch, wearing my everyday oversized cargopants and hoodie. I didn't feel dead, and the area around me certainly didn't look it either, altough it did strike me as somewhat odly familiar. I stood up dusting of the grass bits i could see only to realize that i wasn't alone. A growl, that would have sent any reasonable person - me included - running, sounded from the trees in the distance. I ran in the opposite direction. It was only now i looked beyond me imidiate area of operration to confirm that the dry grass i had been sitting on was just the beginning of a huge plain stretching far into the horizon. I heard the growl again only louder which means... it was getting closer. daring - despite knowing it was a bad idea - to look behind me a shadow emerged from the edge of the trees. It was chasing me, and gaining ground fast. The air was cold in my lungs and my legs were starting to burn. I dared another look. The creature was taking shape it looked too big to be a wolf and too athletic to be a bear. It looked like... a... Warg?? Turning my head foward i was starting to really hope that this was just a bad dream. That i would wake up in my cozy bed right before it sank its giant teeth into me. I was not entirely convinced. Just as i thought my day couldn't get any worse i got a stitch. Panting, legs burning, it felt as if someone was twisting a dagger in between my ribs as i pressed on. One foot in front of the other. left, right, left, right, left, oh god, i could hear its footsteps now. Looking back once more it was way too close but even worse it wasn't just a Warg like creature. It had a rider. An orc rider. "Shit". My head had barely turned forward when something huge and heavy hit me on my back and i crashed into the ground. My heartbeat imposibly faster. Buckets of adrenalin pumping through me as i managed to roll over. Now face to face with what was definitly a live version of the Wargs from the hobbit. it snarled. i panicked. It moved its head upwards to begin its inevitable feast when i cought a glimps of the orc atop. It looked like... Bolg? I didn't really think before blurting out "wait, don't kill me, I -I could help you.. i mean your master. Sauron." i held my hands up in a miserable atempt to defend myself. the Warg halted and the orc, bolg? looked down on me, narrowing his eyes. A second passed, then another, my worries only grew, as i continued my staring contest with Bolg. Finally the Warg stepped away. I could breath again. My relief didn't last long. A thumph, heavy boots hitting the ground, and the largest metal weapon i had ever seen pointed straight at me, made me freeze right back up again. "you know my master". It wasn't a question, but judgeing by the lack of further commenting i took the liberty to assume that it was in fact a question. "yes, i know sauron has returned, Why you ask, well.. because... because i can see the future". ridiculous, i know, but i was out of options. I could not read his expression but seeing as i was not yet dead i kept going. "that's why you don't want to kill me, you want me alive, i can help". silence. I stared at him, desperate for any sign of understanding, agreement, anything really. Nothing. He stared right back. In an instant the weapon was out of my face, back in his belt, and i was picked up and placed over his shoulder like i was just your everyday bag of potatoes (boil 'em , mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew, i know!). He was once again astride his Warg now with me as deadwheight. I did not like this. In fact i was very very concerned about this. First of i'm pretty sure this isn't a dream, which means i somehow ended up in middle-earth. Awsome! but also why is this guy - mentally gesturing to Bolg - the first character i encounter. I mean it could have been anyone, but no, it had to be the 8 ft something, mucled packed, deadly orc, that would kill me in a heartbeat and be happy to do so. Luck really isn't on my side, what the hell did i do to piss off the goddess of luck!? Also my head being upside down was making it throp painfully. "excuse me". Silence. "would it be possible for me to sit astride your varg like you". Nothing. "all this blood rushing to my head is gonna give me headtrauma... which means i won't be as useful to your master". He continued to say nothing but in a matter of seconds i was down from his shoulder and now sitting in front of him. I had tried riding a horse before but i will admit a Warg was much different, i had to cling to its neck to not fall off.
Hours passed. Hours in silence. Hours spent desperately clinging to the stiff fur, muscles tense and sore. My fingers were so stiff i couldn't even strech them out anymore and my lower back was beginning to hurt. It took all i had to not fall off at this point and even that reserve was running a bit dry. A quick turn had me sliding down the side of the creature. Bracing for the painful collision i was about to have with the ground i squeezed my eyes shut, but the impact never came. Instead, someone, an orc, had grabbed me by the hood of my hoodie, and i was currently just hanging in the air. He glared - yes this was definetly a glare - at me before once again placing me infront of him. Only now he had secured me between his two arms, ensuring that i wouldn't easily fall off again. By now i had gotten, at least somewhat acostumed to the rhythm of the warg and so besides my pre-acquired exhaustion i could relax a bit more, and as time passed i felt myself slip away into darkness welcomming sleep when it knocked on my door.
I woke up confused. Where was i? And maybe more importantly, why was the ground moving beneath me?? It took me another drowsy second before the fact that i had died, and then almost died again when i somehow fell (literally) into middleearth dawned on me. And yet another moment to remember my heartfelt encounter with bolg. Of all the creatures in this world.. A change in scenery caught my attention. There in the distance a silloutte - small - but dreadfully recognizable; Dol Guldur.
As the ruin drew ever nearer my heart sank ever farther. I had not thought any of this through. Or i had a million times however the outcome was always the same: my immidiate and painfull death.
It wasn't like i hadn't died before, just that i had discovered the experience didn't seem any more pleasent the second time around. The foreseeable pain in my near future wasn't specifically encouraging either. before long the ruined fortress was towering over me it's looming shadow drenching the land in barren dread. Adrenalin once again rushed through my body as the Warg passed the gates.