The Wrong One
By Nefhiriel
A/N: I'll admit it right from the start: I don't really like this chapter. I hope you do, but I'm afraid that I'm just not quite satisfied with the way it turned out. And it's so short... : b Anyhow, if I want to get this out in time, there's no way I'm going to have time to lengthen it or improve upon what's already there – so you'll just have to bear with me : ) Hmm, apparently it's back to the "apologetic notes" for poor Nefhiriel... (bangs wall half-heartedly with calloused forehead) Sorry if this is a lame and short chapter...yes, I apologize : b Happy now?
(dons over-exaggeratedly cheerful smile) OK, on with the chappy!
See first chapter for Disclaimer. Reviewer responses at end of chapter.
- Dedicated to Polly: a wonderful friend, loyal reviewer, and an incredible artist and writer! (sorry Polly, I'm not dedicating the worst chapter in the story to you on purpose, it just happened : ) -
Chapter 7: Lost Without Light
The worst part was not being able to see his tormentors; not being able to predict when or where the next blow would come from. Another blow to his face. The dizziness was overpowering, but he tried to struggle against it. Finally giving up, he fell to his knees. He could feel blood running down the side of his face.
Breaking through the group of men, Acharndil put his hand Dagron's upraised arm, restraining him.
"Wait." he commanded, "That's enough for now."
"But boss, we were only havin' a little fun with 'im. What's the good a draggin' 'im all this way if we can't 'ave some fun?"
"You will have your 'fun'." Dagron's expression brightened, but then turned dismal at his next words. "Later." Acharndil made a circuit around Aragorn. "I know what you are thinking, and you would be right. If he were anything less than the brother of the 'Lords' Elladan and Elrohir," he spoke the words mockingly, bitterly. "his life would be expendable – easily expendable. It would be if were nothing but a young ranger, but he is not just a young ranger." he paused mid-stride and looked at Dagron. "With him under our control the possibilities are limitless. He must, however, still be alive in order for any of those possibilities to become realities!" he lowered his voice back to it's normal, resonant monotone. "Now, take Magog and bring him to the cave. You can take turns with the other men guarding him. I have yet to figure out how we are to use him to out best advantage."
Dagron nodded respectfully, albeit grudgingly. He grabbed Aragorn's right arm and motioned for another man to take his left.
Aragorn listened as they debated over what his fate would be. It looked like for the moment he was spared. He lay still, wanting to attract as little attention as possible. If this had been only a foretaste, he would do well to avoid goading them on to anymore "fun". The men pulled him up. His head was still ringing, but he made it to his feet as they moved forwards.
"Oh, and Dagron." Acharndil watched as they jerked him towards the cave. "Please don't damage him beyond repair?"
Dagron mumbled his assent.
From the way their voices and footsteps resounded Aragorn guessed that the cave was relatively small. Dagron and Magog dropped him to the floor, then walked over to the other side of the cave and settled in.
Determined to use all the senses that were left to him to gather all the information he could, Aragorn focused on the sounds of their footsteps. Their gaits were very similar, but there was a slight difference by which he could tell them apart. Dagron and Magog were both loud, but Dagron's footsteps dragged a bit more, he tended to shuffle his feet.
He let his head fall back against the side of the cave, satisfied that he would be able to tell at least two of his captors apart. True, there were probably many more to learn... But at least it was a start.
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The last remnants of yesterday's deluge dripped off the slanted roofs. The clouds had rolled away and the sun was out, shedding its golden rays across a company of elves as they rode out from Rivendell.
Elladan and Elrohir rode in front, with Legolas and Dolenil behind them. All of them had voted for leaving hours ago, when the rain had stopped. The only opposition to their midnight ride had been Elrond and Glorfindel. As always the older elves' opinions carried much more weight than any of the others'.
The tracks had been completely obliterated, but they retraced as well as they could their steps of the previous night.
Everything looked different in the daylight without any rain or wind. They were frighteningly aware that they couldn't even be completely sure they were going in the right direction. Now there was nothing more to follow. Not a single clue to continue on with. The forest before them was vast. The prospect of trying to find Estel in it was overwhelming.
"Let's split up into parties. We can meet back here tonight." Elladan suggested.
"You and Elrohir cover the right," Legolas turned his horse. "Dolenil and I will go to the left."
Without any further ado they split up and began to search. The urgency of their quest drove them on, and they covered a lot more ground than they had expected to. Nevertheless, at the end of the day both parties returned empty handed.
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Aragorn woke with a start. At first he wasn't able to pinpoint what exactly it was that had woken him up.
"Thought you would catch a few winks, eh?"
Dagron.
So that's what had woken him up.
"Well answer me elf lover!" Aragorn turned his face and closed his eyes. "Hey, I'm talkin' to you!" he kicked Aragorn in the ribs. "Why should you get to sleep while we sit watch? The least you could do is give us a little company." he chuckled as if some brilliant idea had just come to him. "Yeah, why should you get to sleep when we have to keep watch?"
Aragorn groaned inwardly. He was physically, as well as mentally, exhausted and had received less than an hour of sleep, but every time he drifted off one, or both, of the men would wake him. By their coarse jests and raucous laughter he could tell they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Two more pairs of footsteps approached. One was extremely trudging and heavy, the other was light, at least in comparison, and also less frequent—obviously a taller man.
"Well, looks like our watch is up Magog."
Dagron and Magog stood up and greeted the newcomers. Aragorn couldn't see any of their gestures, but he listened intently for any new information.
"Why are we keepin' da prisoner in here?" one of the new men said, his voice sounded unusually thick.
"Because it's the most secure place we 'ave right now." Dagron answered authoritatively, "It's a small cave, but it's a good makeshift prison for now. Best of all, there's no back entrance. If anyone trys to rescue 'im," he made a motion with his thumb towards Aragorn. "they got to go through our whole camp first."
"What 'bout that crack back there?" the man with the thick voice asked.
"A mouse couldn't fit through that crack you idiot! Much less an entire army of elves!"
"You sure 'bout that?" the heavy footsteps walked forward a little ways. "I bet I could almost fit through here, if I just..."
"I wouldn't stick try sticking myself in there if I were you." the other newcomer's voice warned. "You could get-"
"'elp me, I'm stuck!"
Aragorn would have laughed if his situation had been less dire. As it was, he didn't wish to promote anymore abuse than necessary. Still, he had to work hard to smother his laughter as he listened to the three men grunt and finally succeed in pulling out the other man.
"See? I told you so." Dagron had clearly had enough of this idiot for one night. "A mouse couldn't fit through there you block 'ead! It's less than a foot wide! Enough of this. Magog and I are tired and it's your turn. Watch 'im well, it'll be your 'ead if 'e escapes."
"One last thing before you take over." in a undertone Magog whispered something unintelligible. Aragorn couldn't make the words out, but he didn't like the sound of the laughter that followed.
Aragorn realized with relief that he could finally get some sleep now. He closed his eyes, grateful for a means to bring this nightmare to a temporary close. Before he had a chance to drift off, he felt rough hands shaking him. With agonizing weariness he swiftly understood that this new pair of guards had been let in on the latest form of entertainment.
Another two hours passed and the watches were switched: different guards, same treatment.
Aragorn felt the lingering rays of the dying sun rest upon his face, no doubt it was coming through the crack in the wall. It was nerve-wracking to have to sit here with nothing but his thoughts and these pitiless men for company. His thoughts swayed back and forth, first desperately wanting his brothers to find him, and then, remembering Acharndil's plans, he frantically wished them anywhere else but near him. It was all too much for his rapidly tiring brain to focus on.
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Acharndil stood with his back against a tree, Dagron and Magog sat nearby, talking and eating. Dagron was self-importantly explaining to the men gathered around the fire his ingenious idea of never letting Aragorn rest. They all found it highly amusing, and were now anticipating their own turns at guarding him.
Acharndil shrugged and lifted his pipe to his mouth, inhaling deeply. What was the harm? The ranger was strong. He couldn't let this go on for too long, but for now... Plans were formulating in his mind. Any way he chose included, or at least didn't exclude, hurting the ranger. The most important part of his plan was, after all, to hurt them, and this was the best way to do it. He would hurt them at any cost. Getting away with his life would be a bonus, not a necessity.
He had already decided on the first step he would take towards his revenge. He looked down at the knife he had been toying with. It was an elvish dagger that had been taken from the ranger when he was captured. A message would be sent to Rivendell, a message, and one other thing...
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To Be Continued...
Ahh, the eternal cliffhanger... (grins evilly) What will Acharndil send to Rivendell? You'll have to wait till Friday to find out -or Saturday if I don't get more energy (mopes) We've been so busy lately that I've hardly had the brain-power to do anything, and now being so depressed over this chapter has gotten me in a childishly bad mood. Ack! Anyways, your reviews do a lot to keep me posting (not to mention the fact that they provide excellent motivation to get out of bed in the mornings : ) Three cheers for my wonderful reviewers!!! The next chapter will be called "Never Give Up".
Reviewer responses:
jacquelinestel: I've reached 11.437 – WOW! Yes, their are more "wonderful" things to come... Poor Aragorn... Estel is singing Spice Girls?!!!! "Oh goodness" is right! I can understand why you'd feel the strong urge to leave rather quickly : ) Thanks so much for the review – you're very encouraging!
sielge: I'm glad you liked the chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
HarryEstel: "Pure unadulterated evil" am I? Wow, such strong adjectives... Anyhow, I know exactly what you mean about everyone leaving their stories on cliffies. I was, after all, a reader before I was a writer, and have quite a few stories right now that I'm yelling at the authors to update soon. And since I am not feeling to happy about where my favorite stories are being left, it's kind of fun to have a chance to be an "evil author" myself! (cackles evilly) But I at least try to update soon...I'm so nice : ) Thank you so much for the review!
viggomaniac: Oh, you do have a prescription! That's quite a relief! Now I can, with clear conscience, keep right on supplying for your addiction...um...er...that is your prescription : ) Well, I never really expected anyone to suspect Dolenil, but I had to have someone for the characters to suspect other than Eglaer or Celboril : ) Ooo, I'm glad that I was almost evil enough for you, LOL. Well, you should be feeling sorry for Estel! (grins) Poor guy, in my story it's inevitable that things just keep on going down hill for him... I love to leave "promising" little hints like that... And I'm glad you liked my choice of words! I've been known to read dictionaries and thesauruses (what is the plural of that word anyway?) for "fun" "light" reading, so I try to incorporate some of my favorite words into my writings. Rain...Lovely rain...It can cover such a multitude of difficulties and dilemmas...I love rain : ) I'm glad that it didn't seem that it just "happened" by "chance" to conveniently start raining just when the author needed these amazing elven trackers to lose a trail : b Of course, I could always just blame it on their incredible luck... : ) I was taking a look at your C2 community, and you appear to have an error... It seems that in with all these phenomenal authors like: Cassia, Sio, Nili, Linuvial, and Chloe, somehow some obscure, inexperienced author got stuck in there. Lets see, what was the name... Oh, that's right – Nefhiriel. Hmm, sounds like an interesting story, though. Angst...Action...Lots of Estel and Legolas...Hmm...I might have to read this. Oh. Right. I wrote that, didn't I... Nuts, now I know all the spoilers : b As you can see, I still haven't gotten over that weird feeling that comes when you see your own story on the internet : ) New authors... Thank you so much for the review – it really brightened up my day!
polingly: Yes indeed – poor everybody! Except, of course, Acharndil and Dagron...They deserve anything they get...Grrr. Boy, I've created monsters, and you don't know the half of it yet. (evil grin) To tell you the truth, at this point in the story I didn't have any better ideas than the character did about how they were supposed to find the...um...creeps (nice strong adjective, Leeanne : ) without any trail, LOL. Ah well, Imbecamiel helped me figure stuff out in the end. BTW, she says thanks for the group hug, she needed one today : ) Is that a veiled threat I hear? Hmm, I certainly will be watching my back... (grins) I'm looking forward to see what you come up with for a drawing! I'm sure it'll be great! Thank you soooo much gwathel-nin!
Drylith: Unfinished Tales...Let me know if you think it's interesting. I own it, but haven't yet found the time to read it. I should really do that one of these days...Anyhow, thank you for consistently encouraging me with your reviews!
elvingirl3737: Whew, I'm only "fairly disturbing", not actually crazy – there's a comforting thought! Glad you liked the angst! Oh, and there's going to be plenty of...um..."Ranger whomping" in store for Aragorn in the near future. I seem to be collecting different ways of saying "hurt Aragorn". There's "Aragorn angst", "Ranger danger", and now, "Ranger Whomping". But most people just call it "Poor Estel" : ) Hmm, what...creative reviewers I have, LOL. Don't worry, you're not the only one deriving pleasure from Estel's rather bleak prospects for the future! In fact, he seems to be one of the few not looking forward to it. Not that I exactly blame him for that... : ) Anyways, thanks for the review!
Mornflower: Ha! My favorite Mornflower quote for today: "remember this time...no talking to strange trees...you don't know all of them...its the same concept with humans...don't talk to strangers..." That made me laugh so hard! Hmm, Legolas is pretty well versed in code 392. How often does that happen? Yes...Aragorn has been kidnapped by "freaky freaks without girlfriends"...you might say that : ) I'm sure the poor ranger appreciates you and Legolas coming to his rescue – the pillow should be very effective...um..."Lego". Let me know how you get along, tracking him without any trail to follow, LOL. Thanks so much for the review – it really brightened my day up!
Naesse: Oh, I'm so happy, happy, happy that you think this not only good – but actually getting better! (does a little dance) That is VERY encouraging to hear! I just hope this chapter didn't destroy any good impressions my previous chapters have created : b Thank you SO MUCH for the review!!!
A special thanks to isilme222 for adding me to your author authors alerts!
- Nefhiriel
Vice President and Co-founder of the SNWCG, and member of the F.F.F.F.F