Surprise! You get an early chapter. I will be on vacation for the next two weeks and wanted to make sure all of my wonderful readers got an update before I skipped town. Thank you again to fairylover2004, Cruden, dauntlessofthesea, and Siri for the great reviews. Kazuko99 as well, I just got yours before I uploaded this, thank you. I love reading your reviews after each chapter. You guys really make it worth it! Fairylover2004 I promised you smut and smut you shall receive - soon. In the meantime be warned this chapter is a little bloody, a little brutal, and strangely attractive. Enjoy!
It took her half an hour to break him. A half an hour of pressure points, flogging, and one well-aimed blow to his now mangled testicles before he gave in. He'd pissed himself within the first twenty minutes and lost whatever he'd consumed for dinner only five minutes later.
He hadn't stood a chance against her.
"Three thousand." He gargled through his throat, raw and hoarse from yelling. His skull throbbed so powerfully he couldn't see straight. His ears rang loudly; the wetness dripping down his neck was just as likely to be blood as sweat.
She patted his cheek. The simple contact sent his head rolling on his shoulders and a flare of pain spiking through his brain. Nat had to keep her methods basic, Uruks were too stupid for manipulation, bribery, and other advanced forms of interrogation. Physical pain was the only route to the answers they needed.
Haldir had been silent the entire time. Watching, learning, and admiring the nearly bloodless job she'd done...it was more horrifying in its clean efficiency. Haldir stepped off the tree he'd been leaning against and into the role of inquisitor.
"What creatures make up your numbers?"
The Uruk spit blood and mangled flesh from his mouth from biting his own tongue. "Uruk….Orc." He drew in a taxing breath of oxygen, "spiders….." The Uruk shuttered as if he too thought the spiders were hideous beasts.
"What were your orders?" Nat pressed, keeping her stance ready to strike again if his answer disappointed her. Haldir's belt rolled smoothly from one hand to the other.
"Kill, burn...destroy."
"You can do better than that," Haldir added for her. She'd done more than enough to procure this result. "When? Where?"
To Haldir's surprise, she stepped back from her target and to the side as he approached but kept her eyes true and focused. She watched her victim sharply, gauging if his words were truth or lie. Observing the signs of his body, the dilation of his eyes, his breathing patterns, the trembling and quaking that told her how much further she could push him.
"No filthy elves...no magic." The Uruk's bit out deeply. "We attack today...and then burn it."
"Where?" Haldir barked impatiently.
"South of the river….day after tomorrow." His breathing stuttered. "That's all...all I know."
Haldir sent Natasha a long hard look but she wasn't watching him. She was watching the Uruk intently.
"I told you not to lie to me." The Uruk's body froze. His trembling stopped and a smirk lifted her lip as she blew out a small disappointed huff of air. "I told you there'd be consequences if you did."
She took a step closer and pulled her long knife from its sheath at her thigh. Nat rotated the weighted blade in her hand, measuring her options.
"No." He sputtered as her knife skimmed over his flesh. "No. It's...truth!" The Uruk barked. The sharp point of her blade tipped into his navel and drew a fine black line of blood down to his groin.
She met his wide eyes with her own fearsome stare. "We talked about this. We agreed."
He'd tried to be clever; thought that perhaps he would get a small reprieve and maybe, just maybe, she'd believe his desperate claims as truth.
"Let me help you remember more accurately." She hissed quietly. Her blade dipped lower and bit painfully into his pelvis.
"The brand on your arm. Your comrades have similar markings. I'm sure you morons thought it was a clever numbering technique. Slave bands aren't as unique as you'd think, yours reads five, eight, nine, three. Even if your foul inbred cousins died in droves at Helms Deep I'd venture to guess there's more than three thousand of your kind in Dol Guldur."
She drove the blade down to the hilt into the fleshy base above his cock.
The air left his lungs in a long growl of agony. He choked on the sound of his own anguish.
"Try again."
"Four...four thousand."
She twisted the blade brutally, blood streamed over her hands in black steaming waves.
"Five…" he bit out. "Five." She withdrew the blade swiftly and cleaned his genital blood off on his chest as it expanded desperately to draw breath.
She circled around behind and studied the scared and lashed skin of his back. He'd known suffering and pain and yet he chose to protect the very hands he'd suffered beneath. He'd been born and bred for darkness, it was evident in the blackness of his blood. It would take more to get out of him what she needed, what they needed, to save Lothlorien from destruction and the world from being plunged into obscurity.
"Any other amendments you'd like to make?" She rotated the blade, the long sharp edge catching the bright light of the moon.
"Fuck….you." He heaved bitterly.
She didn't break eye contact with the Uruk as she ordered Haldir quietly, "Start a small fire." She pointed near the Uruk's feet. Nat would need better lighting for the next act of their soon-to-be gruesome play.
"Have you ever skinned a deer?" She ignored his horrendous stench and whispered in his ear from over his shoulder. "Have you watched someone separate the skin from the muscle? It takes time and careful precision. It's more difficult with humanoid shapes. The skin and fat are thinner and more tightly knit to the muscle underneath, evolutionary progress, prey to predator, you understand? I wonder how well your layers will separate." She watched in silent satisfaction as goose flesh pebbled over its skin.
"I like to start on the back." She ran the flat end of her blade up along its spine. "Fewer bleeders to navigate around and very little chance of you bleeding out before I'm done. The muscular structure of your back is well defined...I'm going to take each of them out. One by one, piece by piece disassemble you. You'll be surprised by what your body will tolerate and what I can do to keep you awake and aware. There won't be any passing out or escaping into unconsciousness."
Nat circling back around into his line of vision as Haldir sparked to life a small fire at the Uruks back. Light flared and the flame reflected in her gaze, deep and cruel. She was prepared to do exactly as she'd said. She would give herself over to the darkness that lurked inside her. Unleash the monster for a little while; let her unfurl and flex and use herself up until she was needed next. This would keep her quiet and satisfied for a long while.
She touched his snarling face and brought the throbbing nerve endings back to life with one well-placed dig of her nail. Satisfaction took root deep in her belly when his eyes shook back and forth in their sockets from the pain.
Her predatory gate carried her around to his back where she leaned close to his reeking flesh that was now tinged with the sweet perfume of his fear. The beast inside her howled in satisfaction. She could feel it pacing and thumping inside her, ready to spring, ready to strike.
"Try to remember." She ran her hand over his flesh, palpating the precise area she would start. "I can make it stop at any time."
She drew the blade down the length of his spine, splitting skin and muscle and digging straight down to where rib and spine intersected. With steady and practiced hands she peeled open an envelope of flesh and quickly examined the dermis, fat, and muscles. She slipped her knife just below the thin layer of fat beneath his skin and filleted it from the meat of his back. Working carefully she cut the width from the spine to the shoulder and then began to peel down the length of his back. He screamed now, more animal than human as inch by inch she carefully skinned him. The black ink of his blood-stained the pale flesh of her hands.
The slab of flesh flopped to the ground in a heavy wet heap. She picked it up with both hands and unfurled it before him. Laying it carefully at his feet she made sure he could see every inch of his own severed skin. With bloodied hands, she grabbed his snarling face. In desperation, he snapped his foul teeth at her and was rewarded with a stinging slap to the face. His jaw cracked beneath her deadly hands as she focused him on her face.
"Remember anything yet?"
His reply was a blind snarl. Not ready yet then.
"Have it your way." She whispered as she got back to work and began separating muscle tissue from bone and sinew. It was easy to ignore his screaming by concentrating on the work. The firelight was enough for her to see in fine detail the muscle fibers and superficial layers that connected and held his body together but it was still difficult and detailed work if one was endeavoring to do it cleanly.
"Serratus posterior superior." She declared and tossed the first sectioned muscle on the skin tarp at his feet.
"Trapezius."
"Infraspinatus Fascia."
"Rhomboideus Major."
Sweat dripped into her eyes from the effort and concentration. Her hands worked at a steady pace, flexing and accommodating for the convulsions that rocked his frame.
"Teres Minor and Teres Major."
"Erector Spinea." With a wet slap, she tossed it to join the others. She had a long way to go yet and even if the Uruk had a death wish he would never endure the prolonged pain she could push through his body. Nat had plenty of options. If she held to course she could continue like this for a full day but that was time they didn't have to waste. He would break completely, sooner or later he would break, but she needed it now.
Haldir saddled up beside her. She could feel the disgust rolling off him in waves.
"Sweet Eru." He whispered. Grim-faced he closely examined her handiwork. Clean precision. Every cut was exacting. No unnecessary nicks, no accidental punctures. There was blood, plenty of it, but it was controlled and slow. She'd known exactly where and how to sever every muscle fiber.
He met her eyes, hot and dangerous. This was a side of her he hadn't seen before but one he had known lurked inside her. This was the dark corner her mind had created to house the cruelest parts of her. The parts that had been trained and tormented into her very being, the parts she worked hard to leash when she put them to work. He could feel her struggle with the violence and the sickening satisfaction with each result she produced. She was well into her task and determined to complete it.
Haldir held out his water skin. Her blood-soaked hands would likely stain its hard leather surface. He held his other, palm up and open for the knife.
A long pause hung between them.
She hesitated but he was completely genuine and deliberate in his intention.
"Roll up your sleeves at least." She insisted and made the trade.
Blood soaked to the elbows, Haldir and Natasha stood side by side before the Uruk. It struggled violently for breath. Its mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water but he wouldn't catch his breath, not in his current position. The Uruk was breathing, barely, but he was indeed breathing. His body's instincts to survive were strong, it kept fighting for air, fighting to expand the lung that would never work properly again and was simply now a vehicle for pain.
Natasha had severed the rib bones along his spine, split the bone clean through with the Uruk's own small hatchet, and with medieval inspiration twisted his lung out and propped it over their victim's shoulder. A blood eagle or it would have been if the other side was complete, but there was no need to take this further. The Uruk had just given them everything they'd wanted to know and more.
They had eight days to prepare. Eight days to shore up their defenses in the north. Eight days to evacuate the vulnerable elves that remained. Their enemy had mage fire, abundantly and strong enough to burn even the greenest wood. They'd both seen its power at Helm's Deep. It was highly volatile and explosive. Small war parties were due to arrive along the northern borders and set the woodland ablaze; the main army would follow two days later and attack Lothlorien with its full power. But now they had a way into Dol Guldur. No one had dared to go near the haunted dark fortress for decades. Their enemy's patrols were at bare minimum as they'd wanted their numbers, hidden far underground in the burrowing tunnels they'd hewn in the earth, to remain secret. There were few ways in and out of the elaborate cave system but there were ways, back ways that were used infrequently and watched even less. Their enemy was neither careful nor clever. They were as brutish in body as they were in mind.
She circled the Uruk and with little consideration handled the failing organ and tucked it back inside its chest cavity.
They had enough. Nearly.
"Where do they keep it, the mage fire?" She drew her gun from its holster and powered it to full. The Uruk's eyes lit with sweet relief. He had watched her use it before; soon his suffering would be over.
"Tower." He heaved with the last bit of oxygen he had mustered.
She nodded, that made sense. It was where she would put it too. Centrally located, dry, and above ground for easy transport. What better protection than several thousand hidden soldiers. It made her wish for air support and transport. It would be nothing to finish this if she were fully equipped.
Nat met Haldir's troubled eyes. He'd frozen her out again and blocked the pathway that would have given her the insight she craved as to what he was thinking. What they'd just done together was a process that she'd only ever gone through alone. She hadn't been fearful of his reaction when she'd started, but now, seeing the look on his face, the blood-streaked clothing and soaked hands...perhaps it had been too much for him.
He'd seen her, really seen her for all that she was, all that she was capable of being and he hadn't left her to go it alone because he had also seen her genuinely smile and heard her real laugh. He'd seen her overwhelming kindness to children and he'd watched her in the heat of battle. He'd seen the gleam in her eyes that screamed determination, loyalty, and selflessness. And now, well he'd seen the worst side of her as well. The part of herself she held at bay where the darkness lurked. She had bared herself to him without fear. He'd stayed and accepted the cruel reality of the brutal assassin that lurked under her skin. The ugly truth of the darkness that lived in her, a tool to be harnessed when necessary, and today it had been a necessity.
Haldir had been forced to close the pathway between them again to keep himself in check. He'd opened the door between them, just a crack, and somehow the more he'd worked the wider the doorway had opened between them. When he had first taken the blade from her hand he'd fed off her energy. Her anger and his had grown into one potent reaction. He'd felt his barriers start to crumble and he'd let them because he'd seen every side of her and this strength, this brutal cruelty she was showing him now was a terrifyingly genuine part of her that once exposed to him could never be undone. He'd noticed himself spiraling into it, down into the bitter rage. He'd compounded her feelings into his own, only his centuries of intense mental fortitude had given him the strength to draw himself out and rebuild the mental barriers he'd previously had between them.
She was a fearsomely small thing, and he wasn't afraid nor put off by her intensely calculated violent side. Her anger was reserved for their enemy and their enemy alone. All that she'd done, every horrifying part of it, had been to save his people...his home. What did worry him was that for a time he hadn't been able to separate himself from her, for a short time they had been one and the same.
She was so much more than he'd imagined and it terrified him that he trusted her against his better judgment; that he wanted her even now, bloodsoaked and merciless. She made his pulse jump and his heart race with excitement. She made him feel wholly recognized as if she saw him for exactly what and who he was.
"Let us be done with it." Haldir said roughly. They had done enough.
She looked down at the gun in her hand. Such an easy ticket into death. One blast to the brain and the Uruk would be gone before he could blink. Blood coated her hands; they could finish what they had started. Carve out the other half of him, section piece by piece each muscle grouping until more of him was on the forest floor than attached to his body. They could detach the other side of the rib bones, access the lung, flop both of them over its shoulders and watch as he slowly, torturously, suffocated to death. He would take his last breaths as the morning sun peeked through the trees.
All it took was one long look into Haldir's eyes for her to level her weapon with the Uruks temple and pulled the trigger.
The blast went clean through and smoldered into the tree that kept their victim restrained.
He held her gaze and watched as she settled back into herself. A shudder, a ripple, beneath her skin as the controlled collar slipped around the neck of the beast and leashed it tightly in place.
A job well done for now.
Haldir called out to his Lieutenant sharply, knowing he was near and had stayed close for the better part of an hour.
In a moment the summoned elf was at his side a water skin and towel in hand. He poured the water over Haldir's outstretched hands. Black blood leaked like ink into his sleeves as he rubbed his hands together vigorously.
"Take it down and burn what's left. Send word to all ranking officers. We meet in Caras Galadhon at midday. Call all reserve troops from the city to the fences, double the numbers north of the river." He would send word by evening with further instructions but this was all he could do for now.
He took the water skin from his hands, "Sir, yes sir." His Lieutenant knew better than to wait or lag with questions and so immediately made way and summoned others to take down the Uruk.
She saw the wince of disgust as the elves she'd just fought beside cut down her latest work and gathered the pieces, using the skin from his back as a tarp of sorts.
Haldir tossed Nat the towel and poured the same water over her hands. If she was tired, she didn't show it. After two days of travel, battle, and conducting an interrogation her eyes were bright and aware. She was thinking and thinking hard about what came next, just as he was.
"How far is it to Dul Guldur?"
"Alone and on horseback, one long day of hard riding. An army, depending on travel conditions and size...it could be three or more days."
She nodded. They needed to move and move fast if they were going to head them off. Already she was planning to her strong suits. They could not afford to let mage fire breach the woodland realm.
He could see her thoughts turning, funny how she had just noticed the same trait in him.
"We will make for Caras Galadhon on foot." It would only take them a few short hours in the dark. The sun would be making an appearance near the time they would venture it to the heart of Lothlorien. Time enough to clean up, eat, for her to rest and then meet with Lady Galadriel before the war council convened.
They had some time, a precious and rare commodity.
Empty of water he tossed the skin to a soldier walking by. He issued a few other short commands that were obeyed and conducted immediately. It was beyond clear that he ran a very tight ship. He was well respected, and beyond that, they seemed to genuinely like him.
"I've sent for your things and will have them brought to the city. Accommodations have already been made for you."
He'd known she'd been coming just as well as she'd known he'd been waiting for her. Haldir had seen to having her needs met. The little bit of her life he'd witnessed told him that while she could make due in nearly any situation he preferred she have more comfort than a cot on the fences would provide.
As if by magic another elf appeared at his side and in his arms were two folded tunics. Without concern for propriety, Haldir stripped his blood-stained uniform over his head. The sleeves were stiff with drying blood. He was far from clean but a clean shirt went a long way in improving his mood. He refused to wear a garment covered in the stench of Uruks longer than he was forced to.
The fire that burned near gave Nat ample light to inappropriately admire the March Warden. Although the timing was poor and the situation less than ideal she let her gaze linger and wander over the planes and angles of his body. The fine hairless expanse of his chest, the strong line of his shoulders, the rippled plain of his abdomen. There should be laws against looking that good after what they'd just done.
She chuckled quietly to herself, but as an elf, he caught the sound of her breathy laugh.
"The other is for you." He said in a low tone as he fastened the ties of his fresh tunic.
She'd figured as much for herself and reached for the spare in the hands of the young elf who held it without complaint.
"Why is it that I always seem to be in a state of undress around you."
Haldir carried on straightening the line of his collar but the eyes of his soldier shot first to Natasha, then to his commanding officer. He seemed to suddenly remember himself and shifted his gaze to stare blankly ahead without comment. Refusing to rise to the bait was a difficult task but Haldir managed to suppress his grin and dismissed the young sentry with a soft command. When he'd gone out of earshot Haldir met the clever green eyes that never failed to surprise him.
She took unabashed pleasure in shocking others with her sharp tongue. Natasha was far from shy and unlike her human counterparts in this world, elves, especially ones as old as he, suffered from no such hesitancies. His young subordinate however most likely had yet to take a lover, which among his people was a long tedious process. Elven hearts were often slow and patient to grow in affection and attraction.
He buttoned the last of his own tunic as she stripped her's from her pale skin.
Another shirt ruined. She cursed as she looked the garment over. Soon she'd run out of good shirts to wear. Regrettably, she tossed it to the ground on top of the bits and pieces they'd filleted from the Uruk.
She slipped her arms into the new one, warm and light, the grey fabric was soft but much too long on her small frame. With no other choice, she rolled the sleeves until she'd created cuffs at her wrists. Then began to button it and found Haldir had moved impossibly close to her. His hands, clever and quick, were already doing the job of fastening her buttons.
"Allow me to remedy the problem." She caught the flare in his eyes, it surprised her as much as his closeness. He was efficient at his work and carefully avoided brushing her skin. Now was not the time and place for such flirtations but the small indulgence brought some balance back to their bond. It was a relief to know she hadn't unnerved or appalled him with her work, in fact, the opposite seemed to be true.
"Did you just make a joke? I was beginning to think elves didn't have a sense of humor." She flashed him a clever grin that had his own lips twitching in reserved amusement.
"You've just been made privy to our most carefully guarded secret." He warned in surprisingly good humor.
His hands stalled at her collar; meaning to smooth it as he had done his own, instead, he found his thumb had wandered to brush the lily-white flesh of her neck. Her pulse thumped hard with his own.
"Haldir?" The way she said it, low and breathy, had his eyes roaming to her beguiling green.
"I know." He replied, but he didn't know. In fact, in the moment he felt as if he knew nothing at all.
Footsteps hurried rapidly toward them. His hand dropped but the heated impression of his thumb remained.
"Sir, we are ready to depart for Caras Galadhon." It was incredible to watch him shift from one moment to the next so fluidly. The March Warden was back and in full persona.
He spoke in fluid elvish to him, nodded, and his warden departed in the same hurried fashion he'd arrived.
"Seldom do we allow strangers to pass through our borders and those that do, do so blindfolded and aided by our wardens." He let her absorb his meaning before continuing. "Given our circumstance...I will not require it of you."
She felt and heard the invisible weight of his words. He was personally vouching for her. It spoke volumes of his trust in her and conveyed the same message to his people. She was not to be treated as a stranger. Nat had fought beside many of them at Helm's Deep, their respect for her ran deep after she'd proven herself to be a clever and deadly advisory. Further, she had respected their dead and earned regard from their March Warden. It was clear to all that she was no ordinary human woman.
In the way of a warrior, she offered him her forearm. A mutual exchange of respect. He clasped it without hesitation. His grip was firm and hot through the sleeve of her borrowed shirt.
"Let's move."