Hello. Sorry I haven't updated as soon as my other posts but a little thing called two pieces of coursework to be given in for the next week, given to me on the same day interfered. glares at maths and physics teachers from the safety ofmy room.

I wasn't intending to split this chapter in two but it was incredibly difficult to write and i thought I had better post at some point soon otherwise you would think I had deserted it. The other half of this chapter will be up as soon as I write it which shouldn't be toolong. especcially if people start to poke at me

I moving the rating from R to PG-13 as it doesn't appear to be what I thought. If I am wrong please tell me. Anyway on with the story.

It had been two days ago that Estel had first woken up but it was only now that he was able to stay awake for a while that the other occupants of Imladris could find out what happened. Elrond was on one side of the room when he heard Elladan ask Estel how he managed to be caught by the orcs and thought that he had better stay. He didn't really want to try to have to ask and get him to tell it all again. He sat down a little way away and started to listen.

'I was going fine until I reached just this side of the Misty Mountains. I couldn't really carry on, It was nightfall and my horse was tired but I didn't particularly want to stop either. I hadn't seen any orcs but that didn't mean they weren't there.

Looking across the flat plain of what used to be Hollin, Aragorn could see nowhere else better to stop than at the base of the tiny hill-type thing he was on (It was too small to be a hill). It was now fully night and he was far enough away from the Misty Mountains, just, and he hadn't seen any indications of orcs in the area and so decided to chance it. He wouldn't light a fire, that was one risk too many, and besides there was too little wood around. He settled in for the night, with all senses alert for the first sign of danger.

It was about 3 hours later when he woke with the knowledge that something was not right. It only took him an instant to realise what. Orcs were downwind of him, the reason why he had not realised they were there before, the wind, also meant they were well aware of him. He had his sword out only seconds before they appeared. The fight was short, there were nearly 30 of them and they pushed him back and surrounded him. When the flat of an orcs weapon hit the back of his head he was not really surprised. They had not really been attacking him that hard and he had killed 5 or 6 with ease.

When he next woke up he found himself slung over the shoulders of one orc who instantly dumped him on the ground and yelled to its leader.

'The man is awake.'

The line stopped and Aragorn found his legs quickly untied but his hands were left tied behind him. The ropes were so tight that he could not feel his hands, which was why he had not realised that they were tied before, that and that he had a concussion and had only been awake for a few seconds. He was forced to run in between a group of 5 orcs, one who had a whip, which was used to keep him from slowing down often. At least he thought, as he stumbled and felt another line of pain appear across his back, we're hearing in the right direction, towards Rivendell.

It was nearly dawn when they stopped. Aragorn had no idea how long he had been running for or how long he had been unconscious for but fortunately the nights were relatively short at the moment so he guessed they hadn't travelled too far. When he was forced to his feet again he realised that the orcs had started disappearing but was then led to an opening in the ground and guessed that was where they had gone. He was beginning to think that Legolas' fear of caves was not unfounded. Bad things invariably happened in them and from the way one orc shouted to another inside

'Now we can have some fun'

he guessed that this time would be no different.

The cave was fairly big but nowhere near huge. It would comfortable house maybe 45 humans so there was plenty of room for the orcs. It was definitely natural and as his eyes adjusted Aragorn saw that the floor was mainly rock as well, apart from by the entrance, which appeared to have fallen in at some point recently. This accounted for him not knowing about it unfortunately.

Just as the orcs started to advance on him Aragorn heard the leader shout at them

'Don't hurt him to bad. He needs to be able to run, and to answer us in a bit.'

However this only slowed them down a bit. At first they all crowded around him punching and kicking. Aragorn curled into a ball on the floor as the orc that had held him up let go to punch him and this protected him from a bit of the beating, but by the time they got bored and decided to try something new he ached and hurt all over and his breathing had started to become painful from bruised and cracked ribs.

One of the orcs looked at him considering to options and then suddenly cackled at the others 'I got an idea.' It turned to the majority of its companions and talked to them in the black speech. Aragorn thought wryly that one day it might be an idea to learn the orcs language to find out what they were saying. Then he re-considered, it would just mean he knew what they would do to him before they did it and he usually found that out the hard way anyhow. The orc turned back again and he noticed they all had cruel looking, long, daggers that unfortunately were very dirty. It cut the ropes around his wrists and let him go.

Aragorn instantly knew it was up to.

'It's not as much fun when they can't fight back' it said to him and Aragorn carried on looking around for an escape route but could find none. The only way out was the way he had come in and there were nearly all the orcs between him and it. The orcs started advancing on him again and he backed up. There were no weapons near that he could get his hands on. The orc that had spoken to him lunged forward and Aragorn ducked it only to find he was coming up into another blade, which he twisted trying to avoid. It cut a line of fire along his arm, fortunately it was not a deep cut but it hurt. Another knife caught his side, along his already bruised ribs and as he tried to move away from all the blades he could see more kept on catching him.

Suddenly he was hit from the side and stumbled onto a dagger, sending it into his shoulder. It was wrenched out as he collapsed was a small cry of pain. The orcs seemed to become even more vicious with the show of pain and it wasn't long before he was bleeding from dozens of shallow and deep cuts.

The voice of the leader came across the cave. 'Leave him alone now. He's got to last until we get to the masters and that's nearly a fortnight away. We wouldn't want him damaged too badly too early on.'

The orcs left him alone then, moving across to the other side of the cave, kicking him and tying him up securely as they left. Until this point Aragorn hadn't really been aware of the pain, it had just been there on the edge of his being. Now he didn't have to occupy himself with attempting to get away from the blows he became aware of it. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to send him into unconsciousness.

The leader walked slowly across to where he lay, and crouched down smiling.

'I feel in the mood for a little chat. Do you want to talk now or do you want a little more persuasion?' it said stroking the whip it was holding.

I can't remember getting any reviews but if I did then thank-you.

the other half of this chapter will be up soon.