Title: Difficult homecoming

Author: marbienl

Summary: Pre-LOTR. Aragorn, coming down with illness, decides to come home after having been gone for a long time. He's not all too clear in his mind and orcs find him.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, just wish that I did… sigh. They belong to the wonderful professor named J.R.R Tolkien…

Rating: R - NC-17 for violence and torture. So don't read if this is not what you like.

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Chapter 1

Aragorn looked at the sky; he couldn't believe that it was almost winter again, he had set out in spring when the days were long and warm. Time seemed to pass by quickly as the weather had now changed to being dark, wet and cold. He coughed a couple of times; it was getting worse, it hurt more and more when he coughed and he feared that if he did not reach Rivendell in time, where he could take some rest, that it would blossom into full fledged pneumonia.

It was just so that his travels brought him to the southern borders of Mirkwood. He knew that there was trouble brewing there, but it was the shortest way back home, so he was trying to be alert as possible. Unfortunately, he had a fierce headache which made it difficult to concentrate and it took a lot of energy from him, energy that he seemed to be lacking recently.

A deafening roar filled his ears and he clamped his hands over his ears. He looked up at a burning tree only a couple of yards away. Lightening had struck unsuspecting and though he was glad that he himself was missed, he scowled at the burning tree- angry at the lightening for aggravating his headache.

All of a sudden, an arrow flew past him, narrowly missing him and embedding itself in the dying tree. Startled, Aragorn looked up and immediately, his hand went to the hilt of his sword, preparing to draw it as he saw a band of orcs coming towards him.

One in front, the leader presumably, yelled something to his fellow creatures in the foul tongue of Mordor and before Aragorn had a chance to run or even draw his sword, he was surrounded by the beasts. He held still as the orcs pointed their weapons at him. One orc divested him of his sword while the leader smirked. It spoke to Aragorn in the Common Tongue.

"Tis long since we had some fun with a human. Elves and dwarves are all right, but they won't scream so nicely as a human."

Aragorn clenched his fists and immediately, two orcs held his arms in a tight grip, causing him to wince as they were almost wrenched from their sockets. He glared at the leader.

"Not talking, are we? Perhaps you will like our ways of making prisoners talk, well, actually, scream!" The leader turned round and snarled something in his foul language. Immediately, two smaller orcs went away.

Aragorn looked at them suspiciously. This did not look good. After only a minute or so, the orcs returned with something in their hands. Aragorn frowned when he recognized what they were- bear traps.

The leader, Zuka, saw fear in the man's eyes and smirked, baring his sharp teeth. "Ahh, wondering what we will use them for, aren't you? You will find out soon enough." Again Zuka said something to the smaller orcs.

Aragorn tried to struggle when he saw them coming closer. The orcs holding him didn't appreciate it and one of them hit him hard on his temple, causing blood to flow down the side of his face. The ranger was momentarily stunned and stars appeared in his vision. The orcs holding him suddenly yanked his arms- hard. Aragorn stifled a cry as the pain was almost unbearable. He heard two eerie pops and knew they had just expertly dislocated his shoulders. The orcs then quickly grabbed a length of coarse rope and tied his arms behind his back, forcing his shoulders back at an unnatural angle and causing even more pain.

Aragorn breathed heavily and coughed, bringing even more pain to his tired and hurt body, but still he did not scream.

The two smaller orcs staked the traps to the ground and looked at their leader. Zuka smiled and spoke a command to the two still holding him up. Aragorn started struggling, not caring if he would be hit again, only wanting to get as far away from the traps as he could.

Zuka enjoyed seeing his captive's struggle and he stepped forward, holding Aragorn's chin with his claw and forcing the man to look him in the eyes.

"Struggle all you want. It doesn't matter; hurt you will. Die you shall- in the end. But we hope you will be some nice entertainment in between." Zuka now ripped Aragorn's cloak away and clawed his way through his upper clothing, leaving Aragorn naked from the waist up and shivering in the cold weather. He was bleeding in some of the places where Zuka's claws had dug into his skin. "Everyone of us will have some fun with you tonight."    

At this, some of the orcs produced some whips from their belts, others took out knives or found some other instrument of torture. But all of them showed malice in their eyes and pleasure with what they were about to do.

Zuka gave one more command and Aragorn was moved towards the traps. Two more orcs appeared and held his struggling legs. At a nod from the orc, Aragorn's left leg was thrust into the trap, causing it to snap shut, soon the same happened to his right one.

Aragorn closed his eyes to keep from screaming, concentrating only on breathing. So this was how he was going to die, he thought.

When he had somewhat regained his breath, Aragorn opened his eyes and looked at the orcs surrounding him. He saw Zuka walk towards the burning tree that had been struck by the lightening and hold something in it for awhile. Then he turned back and walked over to his helpless prisoner.

Aragorn's eyes grew wide and the fear he felt was clearly reflected in them.

Zuka studied the glowing iron, then looked at the human. "And so it begins…" He said.

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TBC