They had been tormenting each other with obscure legal trivia for the past ninety minutes. The tall blonde girl was Denise Reynolds, twenty-three, optimistic and vivacious, yet with an odd mystic streak. Her roommate and best friend was the twenty-two year old Katie Sarkissian. Small, dark and pretty, she wore her coal-black hair cut short.

Both were in the fall of their second year at Cornell Law School. Denise was the more traditional, graduating with honors from Ohio State, then heading right over to Ithaca. Katie, on the other hand, already had some real work experience. She had graduated a year and a half early from Georgetown and pinned on the gold bars of an Air Force second lieutenant just before she turned twenty.

After training, followed by a year in Afghanistan as a public relations officer, she was accepted at Cornell Law, and was allowed to pursue this course to join the Judge Advocate General. She was making good money, but was relieved to have a roommate.

Both girls made Law Review after the arduous First Year Of Law School. Mostly what they did now was just checking citations. It was necessary work, and virtually guaranteed Denise a huge salary upon graduation. Katie of course would be paid at the standard rate of an Air Force captain.

And in the Air Force, you're a captain forever, it seems. "I shoulda joined the Navy," she had thought to herself. But, truth be told, she never cared all that much for salt spray.

"Let's take a break, eh Denise?"

Denise didn't need to be asked twice. She smiled, then got up and went to her book bag and withdrew an extremely weathered leather volume. "I just picked this up yesterday, Kat. Wanna do some spell casting?"

Katie snorted, laughing. "What?"

"Yeah, that's what I said. But anyway, I picked up this little beauty over in Autumn Leaves occult section. It's just for fun." Her face went suddenly somber. "Now tell me Kathryn…would you rather be a vampire or a werewolf?"

"Hmmm." Katie peered at the ceiling as if in deep contemplation. "Hmmm, now being a vampire does have its advantages, doesn't it? Super strength, an epic level of coolness." She looked outside and saw the round moon just rising above the elm trees. "But practically speaking, the Air Force would never put up with me sleeping during the day. I think I would go lycanthrope – if I had to make a choice." She raised a heavy eyebrow. "And why ever would you ask?"

Denise adopted a pouty expression. "Cuz I wanna try one of these!"

"Oh, course you do. And let's start right off with turning ourselves into monsters. Come on, I'm sure you could think of something a little less ambitious."

"Hmphh!" But the point was taken. Denise snuggled up to their friend to find something they could try that would be easy and simple. And optimally instantaneous."

"Oh, here's one. World Shifter – For the sliding between Realatys."

"'Real-attys? When was is published?"

"…Ooh, no copyright date, must be olde, with an e."

"Keep going…"

The two girls skimmed through the book, slowing down to read through some of the more intricate spells.

"Oh, how about this one Denise? Hair Growth." Katie fingered her short locks.

"That would be good, but it needs to be performed on a new moon. Looks pretty full to me."

Katie grinned. "All right, let's both try the werewolf spell. Just to show that it's bogus."

Denise immediately thumbed back to the "Fulle Metamorphasis" section. "Oooooh…they call it a curse!"

Katie shrugged. "I'm game if you are, what do we do?"

The spell was a bit extravagant, all things considered, requiring a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up some flowers with white petals and a few candles. They then drove to a somewhat private wooded area.

Denise formed a six-foot pentagram with the flowers and put red and white candles at each of the points.

"You know, Katie, we have to be in the nude for this. I'll go first if you want."

"Nah, that's fine. You know the words for it better than I do." She took off her shirt and sweatpants.

"Oh my god! Katie, you're changing already!"

She rolled her eyes at that, it hurt. "Oh ha ha, but aren't we amusing," she shot back. Stupid Armenian genes.

Katie lay down in the circle as requested. Denise sat beside her and placing her hand over Katie's heart, she firmly intoned: "Luna, Luna, Leige of the wolf, I beseech thee - take the curse of the werewolf and bestow it upon Kathryn Sarkissian. At the lunar heights, she shall take the form of the beast forever more. I implore of you Luna, eternally deny Kathryn Sarkissian her humanity, howling slave of the full moon she surely ever shall be!"

Just a little bit melodramatic, Katie thought. And then she waited.

After at least a minute with only a bit of nervousness, Katie began to wonder if she wasn't the victim of an elaborate bet that Denise had made. "Fifty bucks says I can get Katie flat on her back and naked in the woods." She looked and saw that Denise's eyes were closed; her hand was still on her chest. Katie cleared her throat.

"Was it good for you?"

Denise snorted, and Katie joined in at laughing at the absurdity of it. They then switched places and repeated the ritual just for the hell of it, and were not exactly surprised or disappointed that they were just as human as when they started.

"I'm not gonna say a thing about this if you won't."

"No, way!"

"Could you imagine if it had worked?"

"Well if it had, we would probably both be screwed if we were lucky and dead if we weren't."

"I guess there's a reason why the conventional wisdom is not to go dicking around with this kind of thing."

They drove in silence for several minutes.

"Wanna try the alternate realities one?"

Katie thought a bit, she just loved the unabashed silliness Denise could bring to any situation. "Well not tonight…but since we're in full-blown silly mode anyway this week, how about tomorrow when we're done at Taylor?"

"Deal. Where to?"

"Ummmm. Star Wars?"

"Star Trek?"

"Too military."

"I resemble that remark. Pearl Harbor?"

"No, we might change the timeline and wind up nuking Australia. How about Blade Runner?"

"Oh, I never saw it. What about The Paper Chase?"

"No, I am not doing 1L again, Sarkissian! Try again."

"The Hobbit."

"OK, make it Lord of the Rings and we're good."

"Middle Earth then?"

"Middle Earth it is!"

The great thing about making law review is that it allowed the student to miss most of their second and third year classes while still making it probable that they would get top marks in all of them.

The bad thing about making law review is that it condemned the student to at least one year of some of the driest and most meticulous drudgery in academia. For most of Monday, Denise and Katie poured over three articles submitted by law professors and checked every single citation and minute detail for accuracy and that it was, in fact, based on actual research.

It's what every ambitious first year law student aspires to.

At last, the eighteenth hour of the day came to pass, and the two friends bolted off towards the apartment.

"Who's got dinner tonight?"

"After a day like today," asked Katie, "definitely Burger King. A massive hunk of burned beef with lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and large French fries on the side. And a diet Coke. I have to watch my weight."

As they ate in the apartment, while stealing each other's French fries, Katie asked what the upcoming spell would involve.

"It's not as involved as what we tried to do last night…well, let's just do it now." Denise got up and brought out some fat chunks of chalk.

"We just draw a chalk circle…it doesn't matter how big it is, just large enough for the two of us to fit in…" Denise drew a circle about five feet wide, then brought the spell book out. "Go and bring one of the white candles we bought last night, and the lighter." Katie did as she was asked.

"All right, we have everything we need. The tricky part here is getting the image of where we want in our mind. Where do we want to go in Middle Earth and when do we want to go there?"

Katie thought a moment. "If I was going to Middle Earth, I would think I would want to go somewhere that is at least reasonably safe. For the time being anyway – I wouldn't be adverse to seeing a little bit of action, but I would want to get my bearings sorted out."

"Good thinking," answered Denise. "Safe now but with impending peril?"

"Right."

"Ok, let's go to the Shire. We're going to imagine the Shire, let's say Bywater, just before Frodo and Sam leave."

"Is this one of those deals where we have to both perfectly picture the place we're going simultaneously?"

Denise shook her head. "As long as we know the name, the spell 'knows' what we're referring to."

Katie smirked, knowing all to well what happens when people don't ask the question. "And just so we aren't stranded, how do we get back?"

"Good question. We just need to be in the same place that we were twenty-four hours after we arrive. And it resets every day, so if we miss one, we can just try again a day later." Denise showed Katie the relevant text. It was as she said. Katie was perfectly aware that it was not going to work, but there was nothing wrong with a bit of roleplay, especially considering the nine hours of utter tedium up with which she had to put.

"Cool. Let's do it then."

Katie turned out all the lights as Denise lit the candles, then joined her in the circle.

Denise took Katie's hand and held up the candle in the other. "Pardon me if it sounds a bit windy, but I'd been going over it in my mind. You ready?" Katie nodded.

"Take us from our Ithaca, in the noble Empire State.

Bring us forth to Tolkien's land, so we may see it's fate.

To Middle-Earth, the living Shire, to Bywater-Hobbiton.

In heaven's name, please usher forth, Denise Reynolds and Kathryn Sarkissian…"

Denise extinguished the candle and the room went dark.

…."Hmmm. Not a bad bit of prose there, Denise." Katie stretched out and set her hands on the soft grass behind her.

Soft grass?

"Oh shit."