3rd July 2016: Border of the Green zone, Aphganistan – 1200 noon

The hot Aphgani sun shone bright and high in the sky, beating relentlessly upon the backs of the villagers and the animals, domestic and livestock alike, giving more warmth than what was comfortable. The villagers ignored us, doing the everyday things, such as the purchase of the necessary food, clothe and livestock. We did our best to stay out of the way of the villagers running to and fro. Though most of the adults moved out of the way when they saw our military uniforms, M4 Carbine assault rifles and 17mm Glock hand guns strapped to our thighs. We weren't here to cause trouble; we were merely passing through on our way to Kabul, from one of the smaller bases, to the southwest of the village that we were now in. Heavy packs rested upon our muscular shoulders, filled with clothes, food, water, ammo for our guns. Oddly enough, a long bow and four dozen arrows were mine.

I turned my head to glance at my sister as a little boy offered her a poppy. Sam smiled sweetly and gladly excepted the flower and thanked the boy before we continued on our way. Turning off the main road, we walked along a smaller road, past fields of poppies just about ready to be harvested. That's probable where the boy got the flower from to give to Sam.

"Hey, Emily. How high do you think someone could get on this much?" Sam smirked at me, her long raven black plat flapping about her head like a flag in the wind as she skipped ahead a little. Obviously thinking that I didn't know what she was referring to, Sam gestured to the poppy flied to our left, "Like seriously. That's a lot of poppies."

"I don't know." I laughed, checking that my long jet black plat was still in its loss coil at the nape of my neck. "Pft. I don't know. It would probably last them a good week or something. I may be a medic, sis, but that doesn't make me a pharmacist. Hey, look at that shop!" I exclaimed, pointing to a shop on Sam's left, opposite the poppy field.

"Which shop? Girl, there is literally three shops." Sam pointed out.

"Which one do you think? The one in the middle, selling antiques." I joked, heading towards said shop.

"So you read Pashto and Dari now?" Sam joked, giving my shoulder a light punch. "That would have been helpful to know last week."

"I don't. There's an English translation under the sign." I pointed out.

"Oh." A light blush dusted Sam's cheeks. I loved to outsmart her in any way I could. Shaking my head, I opened the door to the shop, a bell alerting my entry. Holding the door open for my sister, I glanced down one of the isles, trying to see if the owner of the shop was in.

"Well, now we know where to come for presents." Sam remarked, picking up a diamond crested sword, turning this way and that, clearly checking for authenticity. "Do you think Izzy will let me give this to her three-year-old?"

"Uhh, no. She'd kill you with the very blade you sent." Laughing, I strolled down the aisle towards the counter.

"What about this?" Sam asked, pretending to ward off invisible foes with what appears to be a small dagger. Frowning, I approached me sister and disarmed her in one swift movement.

"No. She'd skin you with the blunt end." Shaking my head, I put the blade back with its matching bigger companion. "Since when have you been this childish and me this serious? This place is messing with our personalities."

"Silence! I kill you!" Sam shouted in a fake German accent.

"Now, you're just doing what Mum does." I snorted, amused.

"True."

"This place is pretty cool, though it has a weird vibe to it." I remarked.

"You can say that again."

"Okay, it has a weird vibe to it." I restated, smirking as I looked at a stature of some type of god like figure.

"I didn't mean literally." Sam huffed.

"Okay, just make sure to specify that you are being sarcastic."

"You're so funny." Sam remarked dismissively. Smiling and enjoying taking the micky out of Sam, I walked further into the store.

"Remind me to come here for Christmas shopping. A lot of this stuff looks like it needs some loving." I explained looking at the amount of dust that was collecting on a large number of trinkets.

"How about this guy for Mum?" Sam asked, approaching me with a stuffed screaming monkey in her hands.

"If you want to give her a heart attack, sure go right ahead." Though Sam seemed a little annoyed, the monkey just continued to stare at me. "Go put the little guy back, he must be missing the shelf where you found him and all the dust bunnies that you knocked out of his fur."

"Whatever." Sam pulled a face at me, but procced to put the stuffed monkey back where it came from. I procced down my stall, not really paying much attention to anything in particular. But something small and square court my eye. It was half hidden behind a large stature of Budda and partly covered in cloth. Gently moving Budda and apologising to him, I pulled the square thing from where it hid. The cloth stuck to the back of the case, as that was what it was, and refused to come off. Probably had been glued on by accident or something like that. Placing the case carefully of its end, I moved Budda back into his original position, thanking him for allowing me to grab the case. Sam always found it weird that I talk to and apologised to statures and painting when I touch or move them. It's just I thing I did out of respect.

Picking the case back up, I turned it over to see its face. It held a map within its wooden frame, protected by a pan of glass. Something compelled me to open the case and hold the map, but I stopped myself. I'd have to buy it before I attempted anything like that. Looking around, my eyes hunted for the counter or register, but I didn't recognise this part of the shop. In fact, the shop appeared to have grown in size and held even more trinkets and odd ends than before.

"Sam? You there?" I asked, nerves for some reason.

"Yeah. What's up?" Sam asked, strolling over to me from behind an old suit of armour that looked like it had been worn by a child or a child sized adult.

"Is it just me or does the shop seem to have grown in the last few minutes that we have been here?" Sam glanced around her, then looked at me confused.

"It appears to have, yes," Sam remarked. She spotted the case in my hands and pointed to it. "What's in it?"

"Just an old map. I actually want to take it out, but we are going to have to buy it first." I remarked, handing it over to Sam when she held out her hand to have a look at it. She looked at it before throwing it at the ground, breaking it.

"There. Your map," Sam handed the map to me. "Break it, you buy it."

"But 'I' didn't break it. 'You' did." I pointed out, jabbing a finger in her direction and emphasizing 'I' and 'you'.

"I'm not the one who wanted to open the case to pull out an old map." She had a point. Glaring at her, I looked down at the map in my hands. It didn't feel cold, like paper normally would. It felt warm. It felt alive. I could have sworn it even had a heartbeat. Shacking my head in frustration, I mentally hit myself for thinking such a thing. Paper doesn't have life. It doesn't have a heartbeat or even a history. But why do I feel that it has something to tell me.

"You're being ridicules Emily." I mumbled angrily under my breath. I was being such a child. Sure I use to go on fake treasure hunts with Sam out at our parent's property when we were young, but I'm a grown adult. I'm a solider. I can't go off chasing fairy tales any more.

"Give it here grumpy, before you break it." Sam snorted, taking the map from my hands and with it the heartbeat and warmth. I looked up at Sam and was shocked to see her face contorted in confusion and childish glee.

"What?"

"You were right to have picked this up. It's got something special. I can feel a heartbeat." So I wasn't imagining things. Go figure.

"I see you found the map." A husky voice rasped behind us. We both turned around in shock to find an elderly man standing before us. A European elderly man to be exact. He reminded me of the Father Time for some reason. The man's bread was stork white and reached well below his waist. In fact, it just brushed the ground. His hair was much the same, but the man was bald on the top of his head and his hair was very thin compare too his thick beard. His outfit was a pastel blue, more like a rob than an actually tunic like what the locals wear. The hunch in his back was slight and would appear to have been caused from bending over to do manual labour as a younger man. He also had a walking stick, though it stood taller than him and was carved at the top to resemble something like a waterfall, washing down its length.

"Who are you? Do you own this store?" I asked, approaching the old man. I felt as though the slightest breeze would send the old man to an early grave. I mentally cursed myself for thinking that. It's rude to judge people by their appearance.

"I own this establishment, yes, but not any longer." The man replied, pulled a heavy looking wooden stool carved in the shape of a turtle out from under a rolled up carpet. The man took a seat and waved his hand for us to do the same. I looked around me and found two carved marble stools standing side by side next to me. Grabbing the stool carved to look like a tiger, I put it behind my sister and grabbed the fox for myself to sit on. After taking a seat and removing our packs, we waited patiently for the old to speak, but when he didn't, I took charge.

"What do you mean by you not owning the store anymore? Is your son or grandson taking over?" I asked. The old man chuckled, causing his whole body to shack.

"No, my dears. I have no family," I felt bad for asking and I knew Sam would be sad for the old man. "You two, are the new owners of this store."

"Wait, what?!" Sam exclaimed loudly. The old man didn't seem fazed by Sam's outburst. In fact, he seemed amused by it. By us.

"You must be mistaken, sir. We have never meet before, so it would be near impossible for us to be the new owners of this place." I exclaimed, Sam nodded beside me. The old man sighed and help his hand out for the map.

"Did you feel anything?" He asked after we handed him the map.

"Y-yes." I felt stupid for admitting it, but lying gets you no way. Sam blushed and nodded. Mumbling her yes. The old man smiled and handed the map back to me, which I took unwillingly. I felt uncomfortable under the old man's gaze.

"Both of you hold the map," We did as he said without question. "Hope you two make it back safely."

"What?!" Sam and I exclaimed together, before the world stretched and blurred into a flash of blinding light. I grabbed for my pack, which was surprisingly, still with me. Sam did the same before the map pulled viciously at our arms. That's the moment I think I blacked out.

__

My head felt like it had been hit with a heavy hammer. Or Thor's hammer. It throbbed and pierced right behind my eyeballs. I didn't dare more. I didn't want to make the pain worse. Not that it could get any worse.

"Emily!" Wincing at the horribly sharp pain that shot through my head. I turned my head to face the direction Sam had whisper-shouted.

"What?" I growled softly. I heard the sound of thick, lush grass being crunched underfoot as Sam obviously moved closer to me. Sam's arm snaked itself under my neck, lifting my head and chest off the ground slightly. I groaned in pain as the pleasantly warm sunlight, that had been warming my body, traveled up my neck and struck my closed eyes.

"Hey, drink this. It'll help with the headache," Sam whispered, placing a cool metal cup against my lips and tipping it back. I drunk the medicine infused water happily. Hoping the painkillers would kick in quickly. "I don't recognize this place. We are in some type of field. There are people, but they are very short and don't look like any type of people I know." Sam mused.

"Show me." I commanded, pilling my eyes open slowly. The sun was bight and glared down on me, forcing me to shut my eyes and lean forward, allowing my slight fringe to protect my eyes. I got up slowly, and looked around at the hillside that we were on. Vibrant, lush greenery surrounded us and stretched as far as the eye could see. Sparrows, Willy Wagtails and many another colorful birds chirped and flow peacefully overhead. The tree that I had been laying under, was tall, lushes and had a thick trunk. A gently breeze blow in from behind us. Bring with it the smell of cooking food, freshly cut grass, wood burning and the sounds of life. Mostly children playing peacefully and parents and neighbors calling to each other over gardens and fences.

Quickly glancing around me, I located my pack. Heaving it onto my shoulders, I walked to the other side of the tree and there stretched out before me, was what appeared to be a village. The people calling to each other and strolling through the small village wouldn't probably reach my hip. Their feet were also peculiar. Bigger than any normal person's, thick tuffs of hair covered the tops of their feet and they strolled around without shoes. Weirder still, they all had pointed ears. Rubbing my eyes, I did a retake and looked closer at all the people, their homes, what they wore, basically the whole landscape before me.

"Am I actually seeing this right now?" I mumbled.

"Yep. I thought the same thing when I first found them. They seem very peaceful and friendly, but I didn't want to go down their without you," Sam explained, standing beside me. "I woke up on the other side of the village. I searched all on that side and couldn't find you. That's when I spotted the map. Flapping about on the tree you were under and knew you must be close. Had to spend a good half hour hidden in some bushes when I was about half way across the field. Some kids were playing close to my hiding spot, but thankfully, their mothers called them in for lunch."

"Sounds like you had fun," I chuckled. Sam pulled a face at me. "Let's have something to eat before we greet the locals." I remarked, walking back to where Sam had found me. Taking off my bag, I sat down, pulled my helmet and parts of my gear off (including my camo shirt) and rolled my shoulders, glad the headache was gone. Sam joined me in the shade and took off her gear. Pulled out our ration packs and started to eat our granola bars.

After finishing our makeshift lunch and downing several mouthfuls of water, Sam and I packed up and set out to observe the locals that Sam had encountered earlier today. Coming to a tree on a hill that over looked the village, we silently agreed that we would approach one of the locals around noon, just so we would seem to be lost travelers.  

 __

"Emily!" Sam hissed in my ear, making me jolt awake. I realized with great distaste that our afternoon nap had turned into more of sleep until dinner nap. Crap. We had over slept, meaning that there wasn't going to be any locals out. Unless we were to go to the pub Sam had pointed out to me at least 15 minutes before we decided to have a nap.

"What do we do?" I asked, swinging my pack onto my shoulders, as I had been using it as a pillow and rolled up my thin blanket and put my helmet back on, not bothering with the clips.

"I guess we'll just have to go door knocking." Sam remarked, looking through her night vision goggles at the area around us. Crawling forward, I looked down at the road or path that ran below me. Leaning forward a tad bit more, I realized that there was a door right underneath me.

"Sam!" I hissed, pulling back when I noticed a figure dressed in black, with a sword at his hip, strolling towards us or at least, towards the gate. Sam walked over to me, but soon dropped to the ground when she spotted the man walking our way.

"What do we do?" Sam whispered.

"How should I know?" I shrugged, judging the profile of the guy. Probably wouldn't be too hard to take down with in a fight with weapons, maybe not so much on the melee side, due to his short statue, he would be able to deliver some decent blows to my legs, which would make it hard to get away. How did I know this? Well, lets just say I once got in a fight with a guy who was fairly short and though I could keep him at an arms length, I underestimated his strength and he left me with a good number of bruises when his twin brother came around. Needless to say, I don't underestimate people by how tall or big they are.

"Lets go speak to him." Sam remarked, putting away her goggles and jumping down into the front yard of the person who clearly lives in the hill.

"Sam!" I growled, following her.

"Excuse me?" Sam asked, stepping out of the bushes, startling the guy, whom had drawn his sword.

"We aren't here to harm you," I stepped into the conversation. The guy looked a little jumpy and didn't focus on either of us in particular, holding a defensive stance, two hands on his sword, feet spread wide. Clearly he didn't trust easily. Don't blame him. I wouldn't either if some random people just appeared in front of me wear weird clothing. "We are just a little disorientated and lost. Could you help us please?"

"I'm sorry for startling you,  that was not my intention." Sam chimed in, apologizing. We stood in silence, hands out in the open, away from our guns, to show we meant no harm. After a while that guy lowed his sword, but didn't sheath it, taking a more relaxed pose, but was still on alert.

"Thank you. I am a little lost myself, so it would be fine for you to tag a long," The guy remarked, looking over us and our obviously odd appearance. "Where do you hail from?"

"Australia. Though, we were born in Gladstone, but moved to Rockhempton when we were 5. I am Sam and this is my twin sister, Emily. Emily and I are in the Australian Army. We are the second and third infantry women. Us plus the other chick, are the only females in the Australian Army that are in the infantry." Sam explained. "We are from a Scottish family line, which dates back to the seventeenth century where Highlanders were free people trying to protect their homeland of Scotland."

"I am Thorin. Are you of royal blood?" Thorin asked. I glanced at Sam and answered for us.

"We believe so, but haven't really had a chance to go back through the years of family history to fine out." Sam exclaimed.

"I take it that you are royal." I stated, giving him the best bow I could with all my gear and my belt digging into my skin. Thorin tilted his head back in return.

"I am yes. I am Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King under the Mountain," Thorin exclaimed, puffing out his chest. We are paused and turned to face the house that was in the hillside as we heard a large amount of noise traversing from that direction. "Looks like I'm in the right place. " Thorin mumbled. 

"Lets go let ourselves be known." I remarked walking over to the door, Sam following wordlessly. Thorin walked up, sheathing his sword and reaching up to knock. Swotting his hand away, I knocked for him. "Your a king, you shouldn't have to knock when there are able body people like myself who are capable of knocking." I explained.

"Thank you." Thorin exclaimed before an elderly man with a grey white beard, which brushed the floor as he looked at us bent over  in the small house, greeted us with a smile.

____

This is a joint story concept with @SSophios . We use our first names to make it easier to 1) Remember our characters names amongst all the other  colourful characters,  2) Because why not XD and 3) It's just easier that way.

Sam and I DO NOT own the Hobbit or any of the characters. All rights got to the original creator(s) of the books and films.

This fanfiction will cover all 3 movies and will contain lines from the movies and will follow the plot and story line closely, while remaining unique and following the perspective of both sisters.

Updates will be slow, so please bare with me. Sam isn't the best of  all writes to edit the work of XD
Love ya Sam! ;D

Thank you for reading.