Another late chapter here. Sorry. I know you just want to find out what the
hell happens to Aragorn and Jack, so here you go.
----------------------
"Aragorn... Aragorn..."
The gentle female voice softly whispered in his head to him. She was calling him. Aragorn knew he had to reach her.
"Aragorn..." the voice whispered again.
"Arwen..." he murmured.
"Open your eyes, Aragorn."
He then felt the soft touch of her lips against his as she kissed him, and embraced her. When she pulled away, he slowly lifted the lids of his eyes open to look at her. They were in an Elven chamber in Rivendell. Sun poured in through a few open windows in beams of soft golden light. Birds sung their songs outside, unaware that anything was taking place inside.
Arwen was paler than usual. She smiled when she saw him, but Aragorn knew something was wrong. A single tear rolled down her right cheek.
"What is it?" he asked. "What is wrong?"
Arwen motioned behind her with her hand. Aragorn looked past her to a bed which stood at the wall opposite him. There was a small, solitary figure lying under the milk-white sheets which shrouded him on the bed.
The Elven queen approached this figure and put her hand on his.
"Look," she said gently. "Look who's here..."
The child feebly turned its head to look at Aragorn. Though it was hollowed by sickness, Aragorn could see Arwen's features in the child's face, and his own long, shaggy hair clinging to the sides of its head and falling down across the bridge of its nose.
"Eldarion," Aragorn gasped and made to get up, but Arwen hurried over to him and stilled him.
"Aragorn, wake up," she whispered distantly.
"No, I don't want to leave you," he said.
"Wake up," she repeated. "Come back quickly. Now you must wake."
"Arwen, I don't – "Aragorn began, but his queen stopped him with a hand to his lips and kissed him once more.
"Wake up, Aragorn," she said, her voice becoming fainter and fainter. "Wake up...wake up..."
* * *
"Wake up!" said a voice, a man's. "Aragorn, wake up!"
A pair of rough hands took him by the shoulders and shook him violently. Aragorn's eyes flickered open and as they adjusted to the darkness that filled the prison, he could make out Jack Sparrow's face staring at him, full of concern.
"Finally," he said, snapping back into his usual manner. "Come on, we've got to get out of here."
Aragorn was still thunderously tired, and found it very difficult to wake up fully. That was until a copious amount of icy water splashed onto the nape of his neck, jerking him awake unpleasantly. He leapt to his feet (smashing his head on the stone ceiling) and proceeded to rage at Jack.
"Finished?" Jack said, after a rant that lasted minutes. "Good. Let's get moving."
It was only then that Aragorn realized where they were. They were standing inside a cell, one of those in the prison. The floor was covered in straw.
"How can they ever fit both of us in here?" said Aragorn, massaging the angry bump on the top of his head where he hit it on the ceiling.
"Three of us, I think you'll find, mate," said Jack, beckoning to the back of the cell. Leaning against the far wall was a hideous skeleton, completely bare save for a few placed where rotting meat clung to it. It gave Aragorn quite a fright to see it. He had witnessed such atrocities before, but this was quite unexpected.
Aragorn observed that several of the bones were missing.
"Where are the rest of the bones?" he asked.
"I've been trying to get that mange-ridden fleabag over there, over here," he said. "But to no avail," he added with a definite tone of irritance in his voice.
Aragorn looked beyond the rusting bars of the cell door into the corridor, where the same grey dog he and Will had seen before sat. It was scratching a flea on his ear with his right back leg.
"I see," said Aragorn, noting the missing bones on the corridor floor. "Fairly sacrilegious, isn't it?'
"Well, I'm a pirate," said Jack. "Can't get much worse than that, can I?"
"Well, the real question is, is it working?" asked Aragorn.
"Let's see," said Jack, mock-thinking. "Yes, it is. That's why the dog's still sitting on his arse over there, and we don't have the bloody keys. For a king, you're surprisingly dull-witted, you know that, don't you?"
Aragorn constrained another rage towards the insolent pirate.
"Now, we'll just sit tight and think of another idea," said Jack, sitting down beside the skeleton.
The king moved over to the barred, square window and looked out of it. The sun was just disappearing on the horizon, behind the smooth sea.
"You've been out a long time," said Jack, examining different twigs of straw.
"I can see that," Aragorn said irritably. "I wonder if Will's got us a ship yet?"
"I shouldn't think so," said Jack. "Will wasn't asked to get us a ship. Why would he do it?"
"Some people do things for others without instruction," snapped Aragorn, looking at Jack.
"I wouldn't," said Jack coolly. "Don't see anything in it for me. Unless of course they said they'd pay me," he added as an afterthought.
"Only interested in your profit," muttered Aragorn hotly.
"If you get an idea, tell me," he said. "I'm going to sleep."
And with that he sat down on the softest mound of straw he could find and leaned up against the wall. He closed his eyes and began to drift into an easy sleep. He was about to do so when there was a splash and a dog yelped, and there was a clatter of metal on the ground. Aragorn jerked awake, and walked over to the barred door.
The guard-hound was nowhere to be seen, but the bronze keyring lay on the ground, beside another cell door
"Excellent," Jack remarked, placing the wooden bucket on the ground. "Now we just need to get it."
"Oh, God no," he said suddenly. Aragorn turned to get a closer look, and saw a knobbly hand reach out of the cell beside theirs and grasp the keyring, and pull it into the cell. Then it reappeared and pushed several different keys into the lock, until it finally found the right one, and the door swung open with a creak. A very ugly man emerged from the doorway, took the keyring and began to walk past Aragorn's and Jack's cell.
"Oi! Oi, mate!" said Jack. The ugly man stopped and looked at them. His nose was smashed in, and he had very little hair left. He looked to have been a stout man, hollowed by years of prison.
"Here, let us out of here," Jack said. "Give us the keys."
"Hmm...and why would I want to do that?" the man teased, grinning to reveal a set of rotting teeth. The front two were missing.
"Because I take it you wish to see another dawn," Jack said pleasantly. The man gave a harsh, stupid laugh.
"What are you thuppothed to do?" he said, mispronouncing due to his lack of front teeth. "You're behind barth."
"Bars can be broken," said Jack, and heaved himself against the cell door. It shook, but very little. Jack grasped his left shoulder in pain, but made no sound. He tried twice more, the man laughing in mirth, before Aragorn tried to stop him.
"Sparrow!" he said angrily. "Stop!" But Jack plowed valiantly on, until his shoulder was in so much pain that he stopped and sat down.
The man was now trapped in a raucous peal of laughter. "My God, this is good," he remarked and began laughing again. Jack smirked and laughed quietly and sarcastically. Then comprehension seemed to dawn on his face, though the man did not seem to notice.
"Funny, isn't it?" said Jack happily, standing up and approaching the cell door.
"Very much tho," chuckled the man.
"Easily amused, aren't you?" said Jack. "This funny?"
With that, he gripped a horizontal bar with both hands and strained to push upwards, but nothing happened. This seemed to entertain the prisoner even more.
"Aragorn," Jack said through gritted teeth, "give – me – hand!"
Aragorn walked over to the door and gripped another horizontal bar.
"Lift – and – push!" Jack grunted, and Aragorn did as he was told. Slowly, the door began to lift off its hinges, but the prisoner did not notice. Finally, the door was lifted high enough that when they pushed, it fell clean off and landed on the prisoner's foot. He silently howled in pain as Jack and Aragorn stepped out of the cell and approached a set of clothes hooks on the walls, where hung Aragorn's knife and Jack's pistol, hat, and sword.
They retrieved their belongings quickly and quietly, so as not to attract attention. When Jack had inserted his cutlass back into his scabbard, donned his hat and put his pistol in his belt, he motioned towards the door at the end of the corridor. It was one Aragorn recognized – dark iron with a small, barred window near the top, locked tightly. Inside rested Andúril, Flame of the West. It seemed to Aragorn that his chances of getting it back were greater than ever.
"Come on, let's go," said Jack quietly. "Leave that filthy cur over there by himself. Let him think about his deeds a bit."
They quickly edged over to the door. Aragorn peered through the window. He could slightly see the hilt of his great sword, behind another layer of confiscated items. His blood boiled with rage. It seemed that a metronome was ticking inside his head, angering him in the greatest.
However, he soon realized the ticking was not inside his head, but coming from Jack. He had bent down and inserted Aragorn's knife in the keyhole of the lock, and was attempting to pick it.
"What are you doing?" Aragorn snarled, as loudly as he dared.
"Oh, sorry, do you mind," said Jack calmly. It was not a question.
Aragorn waited impatiently while his companion twisted and forced his Elf knife in the lock, until finally there was a satisfying click! and the padlock opened.
"Ta very much," said Jack, handing Aragorn's knife back to him and pulling the padlock off. "Quick, get your sword and let's get out of here."
The king heaved the door open and hurried into a small dingy room. There were shelves around the walls, covered with confiscated rapiers, pistols, muskets, cigarillo cases, crates of booze, and all manners of things. Aragorn quickly spotted his magnificent sword amongst the pathetic rapiers of the age, and took it.
It felt marvelous to be holding it again. Just the feel of the twisted blue handle on the hilt brought back sudden memories of battle, and he felt a fire rise within him. He clipped the blade (still in its scabbard) to his belt and tiptoed out of the room.
"Got it," he said to Jack.
"Good," the pirate replied, pushing the door to. He pocked the padlock, however. "Let's get out of this place."
They walked down to the criminal with his foot underneath the cell door, having not been able to free himself yet.
"You," said Jack, pointing at him. "Give us those keys. Please?"
The man handed over the keyring with a scowl. Aragorn then made his way to each of the cells in the block, unlocking each one and speaking to the prisoners inside, who followed him afterwards.
"This," said Jack to Aragorn, after returning, "is our crew. Hopefully we can leave in the night, when we won't be noticed." He then turned to the prisoner whose foot he had crushed. "Would you be interested in joining a pirate crew?" he asked him politely.
The criminal nodded his head vigorously and angrily, and Aragorn pushed the door off of his foot.
"Right, you lot," said Jack commandingly, "let's go."
No one moved. They were not used to being ordered.
"Out the door, let's go," said Jack. Still no one moved.
He sighed, and took his pistol from his belt. He cocked it and fired a shot into the roof, showering them with tiny pieces of rock. This got the prisoners on their toes, as they moved silently and swiftly towards the door.
* * *
Finally up. Thanks for reviewing, Zammy.
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"Aragorn... Aragorn..."
The gentle female voice softly whispered in his head to him. She was calling him. Aragorn knew he had to reach her.
"Aragorn..." the voice whispered again.
"Arwen..." he murmured.
"Open your eyes, Aragorn."
He then felt the soft touch of her lips against his as she kissed him, and embraced her. When she pulled away, he slowly lifted the lids of his eyes open to look at her. They were in an Elven chamber in Rivendell. Sun poured in through a few open windows in beams of soft golden light. Birds sung their songs outside, unaware that anything was taking place inside.
Arwen was paler than usual. She smiled when she saw him, but Aragorn knew something was wrong. A single tear rolled down her right cheek.
"What is it?" he asked. "What is wrong?"
Arwen motioned behind her with her hand. Aragorn looked past her to a bed which stood at the wall opposite him. There was a small, solitary figure lying under the milk-white sheets which shrouded him on the bed.
The Elven queen approached this figure and put her hand on his.
"Look," she said gently. "Look who's here..."
The child feebly turned its head to look at Aragorn. Though it was hollowed by sickness, Aragorn could see Arwen's features in the child's face, and his own long, shaggy hair clinging to the sides of its head and falling down across the bridge of its nose.
"Eldarion," Aragorn gasped and made to get up, but Arwen hurried over to him and stilled him.
"Aragorn, wake up," she whispered distantly.
"No, I don't want to leave you," he said.
"Wake up," she repeated. "Come back quickly. Now you must wake."
"Arwen, I don't – "Aragorn began, but his queen stopped him with a hand to his lips and kissed him once more.
"Wake up, Aragorn," she said, her voice becoming fainter and fainter. "Wake up...wake up..."
* * *
"Wake up!" said a voice, a man's. "Aragorn, wake up!"
A pair of rough hands took him by the shoulders and shook him violently. Aragorn's eyes flickered open and as they adjusted to the darkness that filled the prison, he could make out Jack Sparrow's face staring at him, full of concern.
"Finally," he said, snapping back into his usual manner. "Come on, we've got to get out of here."
Aragorn was still thunderously tired, and found it very difficult to wake up fully. That was until a copious amount of icy water splashed onto the nape of his neck, jerking him awake unpleasantly. He leapt to his feet (smashing his head on the stone ceiling) and proceeded to rage at Jack.
"Finished?" Jack said, after a rant that lasted minutes. "Good. Let's get moving."
It was only then that Aragorn realized where they were. They were standing inside a cell, one of those in the prison. The floor was covered in straw.
"How can they ever fit both of us in here?" said Aragorn, massaging the angry bump on the top of his head where he hit it on the ceiling.
"Three of us, I think you'll find, mate," said Jack, beckoning to the back of the cell. Leaning against the far wall was a hideous skeleton, completely bare save for a few placed where rotting meat clung to it. It gave Aragorn quite a fright to see it. He had witnessed such atrocities before, but this was quite unexpected.
Aragorn observed that several of the bones were missing.
"Where are the rest of the bones?" he asked.
"I've been trying to get that mange-ridden fleabag over there, over here," he said. "But to no avail," he added with a definite tone of irritance in his voice.
Aragorn looked beyond the rusting bars of the cell door into the corridor, where the same grey dog he and Will had seen before sat. It was scratching a flea on his ear with his right back leg.
"I see," said Aragorn, noting the missing bones on the corridor floor. "Fairly sacrilegious, isn't it?'
"Well, I'm a pirate," said Jack. "Can't get much worse than that, can I?"
"Well, the real question is, is it working?" asked Aragorn.
"Let's see," said Jack, mock-thinking. "Yes, it is. That's why the dog's still sitting on his arse over there, and we don't have the bloody keys. For a king, you're surprisingly dull-witted, you know that, don't you?"
Aragorn constrained another rage towards the insolent pirate.
"Now, we'll just sit tight and think of another idea," said Jack, sitting down beside the skeleton.
The king moved over to the barred, square window and looked out of it. The sun was just disappearing on the horizon, behind the smooth sea.
"You've been out a long time," said Jack, examining different twigs of straw.
"I can see that," Aragorn said irritably. "I wonder if Will's got us a ship yet?"
"I shouldn't think so," said Jack. "Will wasn't asked to get us a ship. Why would he do it?"
"Some people do things for others without instruction," snapped Aragorn, looking at Jack.
"I wouldn't," said Jack coolly. "Don't see anything in it for me. Unless of course they said they'd pay me," he added as an afterthought.
"Only interested in your profit," muttered Aragorn hotly.
"If you get an idea, tell me," he said. "I'm going to sleep."
And with that he sat down on the softest mound of straw he could find and leaned up against the wall. He closed his eyes and began to drift into an easy sleep. He was about to do so when there was a splash and a dog yelped, and there was a clatter of metal on the ground. Aragorn jerked awake, and walked over to the barred door.
The guard-hound was nowhere to be seen, but the bronze keyring lay on the ground, beside another cell door
"Excellent," Jack remarked, placing the wooden bucket on the ground. "Now we just need to get it."
"Oh, God no," he said suddenly. Aragorn turned to get a closer look, and saw a knobbly hand reach out of the cell beside theirs and grasp the keyring, and pull it into the cell. Then it reappeared and pushed several different keys into the lock, until it finally found the right one, and the door swung open with a creak. A very ugly man emerged from the doorway, took the keyring and began to walk past Aragorn's and Jack's cell.
"Oi! Oi, mate!" said Jack. The ugly man stopped and looked at them. His nose was smashed in, and he had very little hair left. He looked to have been a stout man, hollowed by years of prison.
"Here, let us out of here," Jack said. "Give us the keys."
"Hmm...and why would I want to do that?" the man teased, grinning to reveal a set of rotting teeth. The front two were missing.
"Because I take it you wish to see another dawn," Jack said pleasantly. The man gave a harsh, stupid laugh.
"What are you thuppothed to do?" he said, mispronouncing due to his lack of front teeth. "You're behind barth."
"Bars can be broken," said Jack, and heaved himself against the cell door. It shook, but very little. Jack grasped his left shoulder in pain, but made no sound. He tried twice more, the man laughing in mirth, before Aragorn tried to stop him.
"Sparrow!" he said angrily. "Stop!" But Jack plowed valiantly on, until his shoulder was in so much pain that he stopped and sat down.
The man was now trapped in a raucous peal of laughter. "My God, this is good," he remarked and began laughing again. Jack smirked and laughed quietly and sarcastically. Then comprehension seemed to dawn on his face, though the man did not seem to notice.
"Funny, isn't it?" said Jack happily, standing up and approaching the cell door.
"Very much tho," chuckled the man.
"Easily amused, aren't you?" said Jack. "This funny?"
With that, he gripped a horizontal bar with both hands and strained to push upwards, but nothing happened. This seemed to entertain the prisoner even more.
"Aragorn," Jack said through gritted teeth, "give – me – hand!"
Aragorn walked over to the door and gripped another horizontal bar.
"Lift – and – push!" Jack grunted, and Aragorn did as he was told. Slowly, the door began to lift off its hinges, but the prisoner did not notice. Finally, the door was lifted high enough that when they pushed, it fell clean off and landed on the prisoner's foot. He silently howled in pain as Jack and Aragorn stepped out of the cell and approached a set of clothes hooks on the walls, where hung Aragorn's knife and Jack's pistol, hat, and sword.
They retrieved their belongings quickly and quietly, so as not to attract attention. When Jack had inserted his cutlass back into his scabbard, donned his hat and put his pistol in his belt, he motioned towards the door at the end of the corridor. It was one Aragorn recognized – dark iron with a small, barred window near the top, locked tightly. Inside rested Andúril, Flame of the West. It seemed to Aragorn that his chances of getting it back were greater than ever.
"Come on, let's go," said Jack quietly. "Leave that filthy cur over there by himself. Let him think about his deeds a bit."
They quickly edged over to the door. Aragorn peered through the window. He could slightly see the hilt of his great sword, behind another layer of confiscated items. His blood boiled with rage. It seemed that a metronome was ticking inside his head, angering him in the greatest.
However, he soon realized the ticking was not inside his head, but coming from Jack. He had bent down and inserted Aragorn's knife in the keyhole of the lock, and was attempting to pick it.
"What are you doing?" Aragorn snarled, as loudly as he dared.
"Oh, sorry, do you mind," said Jack calmly. It was not a question.
Aragorn waited impatiently while his companion twisted and forced his Elf knife in the lock, until finally there was a satisfying click! and the padlock opened.
"Ta very much," said Jack, handing Aragorn's knife back to him and pulling the padlock off. "Quick, get your sword and let's get out of here."
The king heaved the door open and hurried into a small dingy room. There were shelves around the walls, covered with confiscated rapiers, pistols, muskets, cigarillo cases, crates of booze, and all manners of things. Aragorn quickly spotted his magnificent sword amongst the pathetic rapiers of the age, and took it.
It felt marvelous to be holding it again. Just the feel of the twisted blue handle on the hilt brought back sudden memories of battle, and he felt a fire rise within him. He clipped the blade (still in its scabbard) to his belt and tiptoed out of the room.
"Got it," he said to Jack.
"Good," the pirate replied, pushing the door to. He pocked the padlock, however. "Let's get out of this place."
They walked down to the criminal with his foot underneath the cell door, having not been able to free himself yet.
"You," said Jack, pointing at him. "Give us those keys. Please?"
The man handed over the keyring with a scowl. Aragorn then made his way to each of the cells in the block, unlocking each one and speaking to the prisoners inside, who followed him afterwards.
"This," said Jack to Aragorn, after returning, "is our crew. Hopefully we can leave in the night, when we won't be noticed." He then turned to the prisoner whose foot he had crushed. "Would you be interested in joining a pirate crew?" he asked him politely.
The criminal nodded his head vigorously and angrily, and Aragorn pushed the door off of his foot.
"Right, you lot," said Jack commandingly, "let's go."
No one moved. They were not used to being ordered.
"Out the door, let's go," said Jack. Still no one moved.
He sighed, and took his pistol from his belt. He cocked it and fired a shot into the roof, showering them with tiny pieces of rock. This got the prisoners on their toes, as they moved silently and swiftly towards the door.
* * *
Finally up. Thanks for reviewing, Zammy.