Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters or storylines, it is all J.R.R. Tolkien´s!
Chapter 1: Darkness
Aragorn woke up in darkness; for a moment, he tried to remember where he was, but to no avail; his mind was foggy to a certain extent, and he had to concentrate hard to hold even one thought. The air was damp and stale, and he felt terribly cold; his body ached from half lying, half sitting against a stone wall, but when he wanted to get up he found that he was heavily chained. Further investigations confirmed this: not only his wrists and ankles were manacled, but heavy chains wound around his chest, waist and knees as well. Aragorn groaned when he realized that he was not able to move at all, and apart from that, his contorted position together with the chains did not make breathing easy.
The man tried to suppress his rising panic; whatever had happened, he was in serious trouble now, and as long as he was bound like this, he could not even try to defend himself against whoever was holding him captive.
Miserably, Aragorn closed his eyes, leaning his face against the cold stone: he would have to wait. He did try to sleep, though, as his head ached fiercely, and he felt slightly dizzy.
--
Elrond, the lord of Imladris, was having tea with his twin sons, who had come to visit, when suddenly he felt a sensation of great sadness overcome him. He deeply drew in his breath, and Elladan, who had noticed that his father´s look had become slightly unfocused, paused: "Ada? Is something wrong?" "I do not know", Elrond replied slowly and absently, then he suddenly looked up: "I am sorry. It may be nothing, I just..." here he trailed off again, causing Elladan and Elrohir to exchange a glance. Just a second later Elrond asked to be excused, got up and walked away hastily.
"Now that was peculiar", Elladan stated, somewhat at a loss. Elrohir grinned wickedly: "Maybe he just could not endure your neverending stories any longer." "Excuse me?", Elladan said in mock disbelief.
Elrohir shrugged: "Well, either that or something IS wrong indeed."
--
Aragorn had lost sense of time completely; it was always dark, and he could not manage to stay awake for long, as his body had quickly been worn out by the ordeal the chains were putting it through. Pain ruled every part of him; his arms and legs felt numb due to the cold, he was thirsty beyond any description, his stomach ached with the lack of food even though he did not feel hungry, and he still could not remember what had happened.
Even worse than that was the feeling of having been forgotten; although he dreaded to finally meet his captor, he wondered why no one had shown up so far.
He drifted in and out an uneasy sleep, sometimes seeing pictures of people, but not knowing if they were dreams or memories.
TBC