One Ring to troll them all

A Dream within a Dream

You know that moment when you're dreaming after falling asleep and yet you know that what you're seeing is, in fact, not real at all?

Those are called Lucid Dreams. It basically means that you know you're dreaming while you're asleep. I, myself, usually have them, but I always tend to forget them when I wake up. But that's not what happened to me one day. At least, I don't think so. It was just so...so surreal.

Even now, I can hardly believe it.

You see, I had just decided to go to sleep after rewatching the three Lord of the Rings extended version movies and I was beat. I mean, I had been watching TV all day, not to mention my admittedly unhealthy consumption of fast-food and cupcakes that probably left my cholesterol and sugar levels crying in despair.

So when I went to sleep, I crashed so hard that I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow. I don't know exactly how much time it took for me to start dreaming, but as soon as I did, the first thing that I saw was a freaking - broken? - sword swinging towards me and so my first instinct, as any living being's would be in the face of danger, was to get the fuck away from the pointy end of the weapon.

I was standing over the man with the sword, so just as it was about to slice me into tiny pieces, I jumped away, and just in time! I would have liked to say that I then valiantly started fighting my attacker like a brave knight from King Arthur's Round Table, but I'm ashamed to admit that instead of that I ended up tripping with my own feet and sprawled on the floor like a pitiful puppet.

It wasn't my fault! My body just felt super weird, like...like an overgrown toddler!

And not just a normal toddler, an armored one, if the metal plates covering me were anything to go by. And let me tell you now, wearing armor is freaking heavy. Erza Scarlet had my eternal respect.

I also seemed to be wearing some sort of helmet, but oddly enough, I couldn't feel my face, as if there was actually nothing within the helmet, but that was impossible...was it? Then again, this was a dream...and not the weirdest I had ever had.

A yell took my attention away from my introspection and I saw the man from before jumping from his place on the floor and running towards me, the same broken sword - and didn't it seem familiar? - in his hand poised to strike me. I freaked out again and dodged the blow by an inch of my hair - wait, did it count if I was wearing a helmet...? Meh. - smashing my right leg against his chest while I was at it.

The man cried out in pain and fell to the floor, and I used that short moment of respite to figure out where the hell I was. I looked around, swaying just a little this time, and promptly blanched.

I was in the middle of a freaking battlefield, and I literally towered over everyone else - was I a giant of some sort? Had I grown to extreme measures?

Well, that or this wasn't my body at all, but I had never had a dream where I was someone else, let alone one as detailed as this.

Keeping an eye on the man still groaning in pain on the floor, I looked down at myself and my brain promptly black-screened.

I was covered in black armor that looked downright intimidating, but that wasn't what shocked me.

It was the hand. Because there, on the index finger of my right hand, was a very, very familiar golden ring with markings on it. A ring that I knew didn't belong anywhere but in a fantasy book.

I wildly looked at the man lying before me, and a hysterical laugh almost left my lips.

Isildur himself was giving me a death glare from his place on the floor, although I could see that the man was clearly terrified of me. And who wouldn't?? I was freaking Sauron!!