“Whew!” I said to Galadriel, Elf Queen of the land of Lorién, keeper of one of the Elven rings of power. “It’s hot in here! I think I’ll go out and get some fresh air.”

“You do that!” she said. “I’ll dance some more. Thank you for the dance, mister Aragorn!”

I laughed and waved at her, but she had already turned and was heading towards Saruman, of all people, to dance with him. My smile faded as I turned away and went outside, into the cool night air. Alone. Again.

Not that I'd really expected Galadriel to join me. Or Evelyn, which was her real name. She was fun and energetic and cute, and I didn't think she'd ever thought of me as anything other than just another member of the society. I'd had more hopes with a few others, particularly Leya. In my opinion, we had some chemistry going on.

That was part of the reason I'd made a whole new Aragorn outfit this year. I knew Leya liked outfit design, and I'd hoped my complete redesign would catch her eye. I was pretty happy with it, and had memorized several interesting features so I could point them out to her even if I got nervous. And then it turned out she wasn't even here, due to some unspecified last-minute event. Typical.

Sure, several people who were here tonight, including Evelyn-Galadriel had complimented the outfit, but they hadn’t shown any more interest than before. Why should they, I thought as I headed down the grassy slope towards the lake. They know me, and know I’m the same boring, fumbling Peter anyway, with or without Aragorn outfit.

I came to a stop on a rock by the water. One of the elves had teased me, warning me to be careful if I went down to the lake, since they were out there dancing tonight.

So they were. The sky was clear and a full moon shone brightly from across the lake, laying a white path over the still surface of the lake. Further out, mist rose from the water in gray-white wisps, drifting and swirling even though I couldn’t feel any wind. The elves were dancing, in the old folklore, and mortals needed to be careful.

I shook my head. Just old tales. I spent too much time on tales, as my mother and others never failed to inform me. I was just about to turn and go back up to the party when I happened to glance into the water.

It looked like something was moving, in the depths. A fish… no, not a fish. It was several somethings, white and pale, shining with a faint, ghostly light. One of the things looked like a horse. Not a sea-horse, a real horse. A real, miniature horse in the water. The horse had a rider, who was swinging a sword. They charged through the dark water, and other shapes – trolls or ogres – materialized as I watched. Other shapes appeared, and joined in the melee.

I stared open-mouthed. I’d never seen anything like this. It wasn’t just milky seas, it was something else. I saw a larger rock next to the one I was standing one, with a thick branch leaning out across the water, and I climbed up on it to try to see better. I held the branch for safety. I didn’t dare climbing out on it, but I could hold it, and lean out myself…

I peered into the darkness where the little shapes were still fighting each other. They looked like they were actually made of moonlight, as if the light from the moon path across the lake reflected down into the water, and onto the shapes.

And now something else appeared…. A dragon! A real, actual, if very small, dragon, flapping its tiny wings and throwing white, pale fire! I couldn’t believe it. I tried leaning out further, putting my elbow on the branch – and slipped. My right foot slid out and I lost balance. I tried to grab the branch but only caught a small twig which snapped, and I fell flat into the water.

I had time to wonder how cold it was, and how deep it was – would I smash my face into underwater rocks?

It was deeper than I thought, and really cold. I sank like a rock, right down towards the little shapes. Weirdly, they seemed to get bigger, as if I was actually falling down towards them, from a very large distance.

I closed my eyes, in case there were branches or something lying on the bottom. Then I hit the bottom, landing face down on something hard and flat.

I had to get out of the water, obviously. I couldn’t hold my breath much longer, and the water was icy. When I opened my eyes and pushed myself up, back towards the surface, I noticed two things. One, I didn’t seem to be on the lake floor, and two, I was heavier than I expected.

I crumpled back onto the hard - cobblestones? I sat up. I certainly wasn’t down in the lake. I was sitting on a cobbled courtyard, surrounded by buildings. It was open to the sky, where the full moon and a lot of stars shone down on me.

There was a wall behind my back and I leaned back to calm down and try to understand what had happened. I knew had fallen into the lake - I remembered the cold water closing over my head and the darkness. And now I was... here. Wherever here was.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I glanced up, at the big white disk of the moon hanging above the opposite wall. It had been shining on the lake too. Which couldn’t have anything to do with it. In the old tales it could; I had certainly read about magical moon paths - but that was all just legends. There was no way falling into moonlight shining on a lake could transport you anywhere. I must have hit my head on a rock and this was just a dream.

That made a lot of sense, I decided. I had been at the Herkenburg Tolkien Society’s autumn party, dressed up like Aragorn, so those books were close to my mind. This place looked a bit like that inn, the Prancing Pony something, in Bree. Where the hobbits first met Aragorn, in fact.

I chuckled to myself as I got up. It felt very real, down to the cool night breeze. I didn’t seem to be hurt and I didn’t find any wounds or blood when I felt around. I did find my sword, my imitation Andúril, hanging on my left side. It seemed I’d landed on it, because there was a dull ache coming from there. Good thing that I had a sword at least. Just what you needed when falling into a lake.

Now what, though. It was the most realistic dream I’d ever had, but still a dream. I tried pinching myself and jumped in surprise when it hurt. Okay, that wasn’t supposed to happen. On the other hand, the thing about pinching yourself - I think I only had that from some cartoons or other. I’d never heard that it was actually true.

There was another thing that had to be true, I realized as I looked around. If I was dreaming, that meant I was still alive. Unconscious maybe, and hopefully not down on the bottom of the lake, but not dead.

That was - good, but unsettling. So if I was still in the lake, did that mean the dream would fade away if I drowned, or what? It should happen pretty soon even in that cold water. I stood still and waited, hardly daring to breathe. Which couldn’t possibly matter to my physical body.

How long had I been dreaming in the first place? Let’s see, did I have my phone? I felt in my pockets, but no phone. No watch either. Great. My phone had been in my pocket when I went down to the lake, I was sure of that. Too bad it didn’t tag along into the dream.

Wait, if this was a dream, maybe I could make it appear? I didn’t know much about dreams, but I had read somewhere about something called lucid dreaming. That was when you realized you were dreaming and could do stuff in the dream, instead of stuff just happening to you. That definitely seemed to match this dream. So if I just imagined I had my phone, really hard... Nothing happened. I tried imagining that it appeared in my hand, or that it had been in my pocket all along. No luck. Perhaps it didn’t work like that.

It must have been several minutes, anyway. If I was drowning it should have happened already. Or be happening right now. I shuddered, and decided to distract myself by looking around a little.

The courtyard was surrounded by the wall behind me, a long, three-story building right in front and lower buildings stretching out along the side walls. One of them looked like a stable.

Yellow light spilled out from windows in the building up in front and the arch in the center, leading out. There was singing and shouting coming from inside. I wanted to go up and look but decided to check out the other buildings instead.

There wasn’t much to see there. There was the stable, with six or seven horses, and the other low building, which seemed to be lodgings of some kind. In the rest of the courtyard there were just various tools and small wagons.

The dream should have ended by now. Unless - time didn’t pass the same way in the dream. I had definitely had dreams like that before. That was a horrible thought! It meant I couldn’t know at all. The dream could go on for weeks, and then just end as I died on the bottom of the lake.

I nearly panicked when I realized that. I had to wake up! How did you wake up from a dream? Pinching myself hadn’t worked. Maybe more pain would work. I drew the sword - had it always been this heavy? I had to struggle to lift it over my left arm, and made a slightly deeper cut than I’d intended.

Damn, that hurt! I bit back a cry of pain as blood oozed out of the wound. I fumbled awkwardly, trying to not drop the sword, and found a tissue in one pocket. I cleaned the wound as best I could, and wiped away the blood from the blade. The edge cut right through the tissue and almost into my hand. I stared at the sword. It had never been very sharp. Or polished, but now it gleamed in the starlight.

I got it back in the sheath and disposed of the tissue among some other trash lying by the wall. The whole business had almost made me forget what I was doing, and had calmed me down a bit. I still had to wake up, I thought. But how?

I walked in a large circle around the courtyard and tried to think. Pain hadn’t helped. I had nothing on me that could help, unless killing myself with the sword would do the trick. Somehow that felt like the wrong approach. I didn’t want to die in the dream and maybe in reality too. How did dreams work? Why was I even here?

I stopped beside the main building and looked up at the sky. The moon was on the other side of the building. I had ended up in this dream when I fell into moonlight shining on a lake. Maybe I could get out the same way?

Right. I just needed to find a lake. But first - one more try with pain. There was one thing I hadn’t done.

I took a deep breath and slapped myself in the face, as hard as I could. It hurt more than I thought and I yelped with pain. I was still in the courtyard. One last try, then I would go look for a lake. I slapped myself again, even harder.

“Um, excuse me? Are you alright?” somebody said, right in front of me, making me jump.

When my vision cleared I saw five people had just come out from the building and were standing a few meters away, staring at me with variously concerned and suspicious expressions.

“Ugh,” I said. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Y-yes,” I said. “I’m, I’m fine. Really. I was just trying to, to...” I trailed off. What the heck was I going to say? “I was really just on my way.” I gave them a false smile and started to move around them.

“No, wait!” one of them said, a slender woman with long, blonde hair, green eyes and - pointy ears. Her voice had a strange, musical quality, and an undercurrent of laughter. She was beautiful, in a strange way. “You must be our hero! You must be Varagorn, son of Varathorn!”

I stared at her and shook my head nervously. “No, I’m, um, I’m Peter. Sorry.”

She took a couple of very quick steps, and took my arm. “No no,” she said, her eyes shining. “I’m sure! I danced with the Moon Goddess by the lake tonight and asked her to send us our hero. And here you are.”