11
"Boss what we gonna do 'bout the elf? I don't think we can keep him anymore, someone will see him eventually, and I don't wanna meet his father sir." Jared stammered with a petrified look frozen on his face. A look that only served to make Kole smiled. He loved the fact that this man feared him.
Though the question the younger man posed was no smiling matter. In fact this was something that kole had been debating already. As much as he hated that elf and wanted nothing more than to see him snap and submit to him, the elfs speech had rattled him too.
"I know Jared, believe me I know. We can't keep him forever, but I ain't getting rid of him till he's a broken pitiful excuse of his former self." It was clear to see on the man's face that he was looking forward to torturing the elf further. It was the wicked gleam in his eye that gave him away. The sort of gleam that only someone who enjoyed causing extreme pain to another living being could possibly have.
This gleam is what encouraged Jared to bow his head in agreement before trying to respectfully walk away. He wanted out of this conversation and quickly.
"Wait!" Koles voice boomed when he realised the other mans intent to leave. "Where do you think your going?"
"Ah n...no where s..sir I was just..."
"Stop your stammering boy I no longer care. I want you back here in an hour. Oh and bring a bucket of water. I think our elfs going to need a wake up call after the way we left him."
"And Jared one last thing. I want you to invite everyone else. They should be there when I break this elf."
"Y..yes sir." And with that said the young man high tailed it towards anywhere that this homicidal man wasn't.
Splash. "Ah good morning Elfie, did ya have a good sleep? I'm afraid we couldn't let you sleep anymore, we made plans yesterday remember? We wouldn't want you to feel neglected after all."
Legolas had been in and out of consciousness all night and was currently exhausted. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to sleep, because he very much wanted too, but everytime he'd fallen asleep he would be awoken by the most horrific pain he had ever felt.
Any movement he would make in his sleep would cause his shredded back to reopen and bleed as if he had received another whipping. Before long It began to feel like he was being burned alive over and over again, so after awhile the prince became to afraid to fall asleep and instead he did everything in his power to keep his eyes open.
Though he must have given into sleep sometime this morning because he was rudely awoken by an icy bucket of water being dumped on his head.
Spluttering the young prince tried to clear his vision, but was only successful to a certain degree. He was currently looking at what he guessed to be 8 blobs towering over him. 'Thats odd.' The princes addled brain supplied. 'Ive never been woken up by blobs before. I don't think I like it.'
It wasn't until the closest blob began to speak that Legolas brain began to fill in the blanks.
'Oh this isn't good.' he thought to himself with a with a wiry grin on his face. 'I've begun to state the obvious.'
'Huh? I'm so very insightful today.' The prince concluded, which just made him smile more. 'well Ive officially lost my mind, what's Ada going to say.'
Unfortunately he didn't have the opportunity to ponder his Ada's possible reactions to finding out his only son and heir and lost his mind though. Before he even knew what was happening a fist connected with his midsection. Legolas could only guess that the man who had done this was intending to push his insides out through his back.
"I..I'm s..sorry did y..you say someth..thing?" Legolas asked in his most innocent voice.
"Aye elf I did, but don't you worry about that we have things to do."
It took a while for Legolas deprived brain to recall what the man had said yesterday, but when he did remember all of his previous humour faded.
"Ahh I see you remember our conversation from yesterday, that's good my little elf, are ya ready for round two?" Kole asked in a conversational tone.
Legolas let out a rather descriptive elvish curse that involve Kole being burned alive in mount doom before being eaten alive by a balrog.
Kole may not have understood what the elf had said but he did understand the general tone, and he would not tolerate such open dissobediance especially in front of all his men. So growling Kole pulled out his knife and sliced through the rope that bound the prince to the wall.
Legolas had been relying on that rope to stay upright and without it he collapsed forward onto the cold dirty ground. Although this wasn't ideal he found himself thanking the Valar that he hadn't fallen on to his back. If that had happened he wouldn't have just developed an infection but he would probably have passed out again.
As he lay their bare chested and weak he hear a collective gasp. It took him a while to figure out that it was probably his back that they were Gasping at. If it looked even half as bad as it felt then it was probably pretty ugly.
"What are ya looking at, pick him up and tie him to that pole." Kole growled at his men, though he wasn't nearly as angry as he was pretending to be. Infact he would have been more angry if his men hadn't been amazed by his handy work. His anger did begin to rise though when he noticed none of his men had moved yet, despite his order.
"Pick him up now or you'll be joining him on that pole." This turned out to be the perfect incentive, for the men were snapped out of their shocked states almost immediately.
Grabbing the elf, the men hauled him over to the pole and secured his hands above his head. Luckily his back wasn't against the pole. That is until he realised that these animals were probably planning on hurting his abused back.
"Good. Now let's start off where we finished yesterday shall we?"
Legolas couldn't help but compare this man's tone to that of a young elfling getting told they can have a second helping of blueberry pie.
He couldn't see what Kole was doing but Legolas could sense that he was holding that accursed whip again. He's probably caressing it like one does a loved one, the sarcastic part of Legolas brain supplied.
'whack.' Apparently Kole had decided to have an experiment test of the whip, and much to Legolas embarrassment he flinched rather violently.
"Ah, ah elf, don't be to hasty we haven't started yet." Koles voice could be heard teasing the elf.
Legolas couldn't help but shudder. He hated to admit it even to himself but he was terrified of this man. That by no means meant that he would submit though. He may be terrified but he would do everything in his power to make sure that this man never knew that.
"Ya ready elf? Ah well we need to start now anyway, I want to spend as much time with you today as possible." And with that said the first stroke hit the princes abused back.
It hurt so much. Legolas could feel the tears welling up in his eyes but he wouldn't let them drop not yet. 1..2..3..4..5? Legolas was beginning to lose count. 'There can't be any skin left on my back?' Legolas thought to himself. It certainly felt like there wasn't any.
After about the 15 stroke the young prince could feel himself losing control. It was becoming harder not to cry out and beg these men to stop, in fact he had already lost the battle with his tears. They had traitorously begun to fall by the 10th stroke but luckily his long blood encrusted hair was covering his face.
18..19..20. Stroke 20 was particularly nasty, either that or Legolas back had just reached a new level of shredded. That was it. He couldn't handle anymore pain so when stroke 21 fell the prince cried out.
"Good, so our little elf isn't mute after all. I was beginning to wonder." Kole was obviously over joyed that the prince had finally screamed. He was beginning to feel like his men were judging him.
"P..please stop." The logical part of the princes mind knew that this was unlikely to help matters, but the desperate part of his mind won out. By this point he was in to much pain to even care that he had just given these men what they wanted. He just wanted this torture to stop.
This made Kole pause, as if he was really contemplating the princes request. But this just turned out to be another cruel trick, he got the princes hopes up just so that he could smash them down again.
"I'm sorry Elfie but we're only half way. we still have your front to do." was his final answer.
Legolas could feel rough hands gripping his shoulders just before he was flipped around. The moment his back hit the post he cried out in his pain induced delerium, and unfortunately in this position he could see his torturers grinning face.
"Alright elf, I'm gonna give you 50 lashings to your front ok? but first I have one question. Who do you belong to? Keep in mind elf that if you give me an answer I don't like then the lashings will double.
Legolas thought about this question. He couldn't bow to this man. Could he? The pain of 100 lashings became forefront in his mind. 'I can't. I can't take another 100.'
He found himself almost hyperventilating at the idea of taking another 100 lashes, he was terrified.
"y..you." he stammered.
"What was that elf?"
"I be..belong to y..you."
"Good boy." Kole stepped forward until his face was a few mere inches from the princes. "I told you everyone has their limit." As he said this he reached towards the princes face and reveled in the way the elf flinched. "Ah, ah elf stay still." He then proceeded to wipe away one of the elfs tears with his thumb.
"It's time to start now my elf." He said while grinning. That crazed glint present in his eyes again.
As promised the torture continued, but the prince didn't hold back his reactions this time. He was broken. This monster had taken everything from him. It was somewhere near the 40th hit that the prince finally lost his battle with consciousness, and was aloud to escape into the blissful realm of unsconciousness.
The first thing the prince noticed when he woke up was that the abuse had stopped. His torso felt horrible still, but for some reason he was lying on something soft?
After some contemplation he decided that it must be grass. Why am I on grass? He wondered. Luckily for him some dissembodied voices were prepared to answer his questions.
"Boss are you sure we should do this?"
"You said yourself that we must get rid of him. Now man up and grab his legs."
Suddenly all the pieces fell into place these men were going to kill him. He began to struggle but soon realised that he couldn't move. All of the abuse his body had endured had left him incredibly weak, so weak that even his eyes refused to open.
Even though he knew it was coming he was still surprised when two sets of hands grabbed his arms and legs and hoisted him into the air.
'This isn't good.'
That was his last conscious thought before he was dropped into what felt like an icy abyss.
Hey, thanks everyone for Reading. As you probably already know I'm on lock down because of Corona. Yes even New Zealand, the home of the hobbits has been hit. I just want to say stay safe everyone
