It was true, elves can be just as cruel as orcs. That thrashing Snaga had received was just as severe as any that he had ever gotten from Zurgug. By the fifth lash he had been yelping and by the last one he had tears in his eyes. The back of his legs stung for days.
Snaga felt more hopeless than ever and the conditions of his cell were becoming unbearable. He was constantly in a state of discomfort on the hard, stone floor and the boredom was a kind of torture in-and-of itself. His prison cell had one small slit for a window so he could at least tell what time of day it was and determine how many days he had been sitting in this cell.
He got up a few times a day to pace mindlessly around his small quarters. He stood up for the dual purpose of finding relief from the uncomfortable floor (there was no way to sit or lie down that didn't hurt) and to stave off the boredom. It didn't take very many days before Snaga felt that he was going to go mad. He thought about kicking over his mess bucket but he was afraid of coming under Elaenar's wrath. The boredom was a source of constant agitation, like an itch, making him want to do absurd things like talk to himself, scream, or bang and kick on the door. Snaga has always been reclusive, staunchly antisocial. He had never been keen to chat with others (he hardly even spoke to Grishnak). Snaga had always been content to be alone, but this was too much. He was sure that he was going to go insane.
The constant question that was on his mind was "why are they keeping me alive?". He couldn't make sense of it; what were they waiting for? What was the purpose of holding him prisoner? He was too shy and afraid to ask; every time that his door was opened and Elaenar brought the orc's daily food he couldn't muster up the courage to say anything. In his lonely solitude, Snaga's mind swirled with thoughts and worries. He remembered what Zurgug had said about elves eating orcs. Snaga always thought that was nonsense; why would elves do that? But now, in his paranoid state, slinking further into boredom-induced madness, it didn't seem so unbelievable a thing.
Nightmarish images flashed through his mind of his body being chopped up, gutted, butchered and consumed. The rational part of him found it difficult to imagine that elves eat orcs; it didn't make any sense. But the rational part of him was growing smaller and smaller every day.
