We're back with Tauriel now!
Tauriel woke, sweat mingling with blood, deep in the former castle of the Witch-King. Something felt different. Empty. A presence was absent that had always been there before. She tried to pinpoint what it was. She didn't recall missing anything. Her bow and arrows lay hidden in the catacombs, she knew. But there was still something missing. Slowly she sat up.
She was alone. For once, there was no guards or anything around her. The whip lashes stung her back. She saw that she was wearing a semi-white colored shirt. It was splattered with blood. Mostly the back was damaged. Tauriel could feel the eighteen harsh lines when she moved. She was robbed of the free-flowing elven grace that she had once carried herself with. Every time she moved, the lashes would open, weeping tears of red. The knife wound seemed to bear deeply into the small of her back. Tauriel stripped the white shirt off and twisted to fully examine her wounds.
It was so much worse than she thought. It looked like she had been used as a cutting board. The lashes had cut almost perfectly straight lines into her once flawless back. Tauriel knew she would never bear her back to anyone again. Not that she had, except to her mother and father, who were long dead. The knife wound was clean and dark. It seemed to have healed well. She knew little of healing, only how to draw poison from a wound using Athelas. Tauriel pulled the shirt back over her head and walked around the room, examining her surroundings. There were no windows. If she were to die, she would die without ever seeing the sun again. She shuddered at the thought. Elves loved nature, but the castle of Angmar was quite the opposite of what Tauriel had grown to love. It was the lush forest that she longed for, and Legolas's comforting touch and words.
The door slammed open. Tauriel whipped around.
"She-elf!" One-eye growled. "We have questions for you." Tauriel lifted her chin defiantly and raised her eyebrows. One-eye was flanked by Scar-face, her previous tormentors. Tauriel had seen them three times. The first time she was left with a knife wound. The second, whipped to prove their control over her. This was the third. Tauriel knew it was nearly impossible to escape injury when the two orcs arrived in her chamber. Scar-face drew a knife and shoved Tauriel against a pillar, holding it closely to her throat.
"Why were you carrying Frodo Baggins to Rivendell?" he demanded. Tauriel struggled against him, trying to give herself room. She was repulsed by the orc's nasty breath and smothering odor. He pinned her even tighter to the pillar.
"I wasn't." she choked out.
"You lie! We have our sources, she-elf, and we know who you were traveling with. The Ring-bearer." One-eye snarled. Scar-face pressed the knife against the white hollow of Tauriel's throat. "The master says that you were carrying him to the land of Elrond. Why?"
"We were carrying a message." Tauriel lied. Her clear blue eyes were dark and Scar-face searched them for lies. She swallowed. She knew she could not keep up the pretense for too long.
"What was the blond elf doing, then? Simply waiting for you to deliver this message?" One-eye interrupted. Tauriel realized her mistake at once. The Nazgul must have reported to their master as well, because she knew that the orcs would know nothing of the events that occurred at Rivendell.
"He was simply waiting to relieve my horse of her burden." Tauriel responded. "We had a long journey." Scar-face growled. He was sure that the elf was lying. She seemed to sure of herself, and the answers did not match up with the Nine's report.
"We know you're lying, she-elf. Perhaps you need a little incentive to tell us the names of where you came from and who you're working with." One-eye snarled. Tauriel closed her eyes. She knew it was going to happen, whether she gave them the answers or not. They would always find a way.
"You need a taste of your own medicine, elf." One-eye continued. Tauriel was too focused on Scar-face's menacing glare to notice One-eye slinging a bow off his shoulder and knocking it. Tauriel had been concentrating too hard on lying and not enough on defending herself.
One-eye took aim and fired. The arrow embedded itself in Tauriel's right wrist. She gasped. Scar-face grinned and let the elf slide to the floor. He left with One-eye, leaving Tauriel slumped on the ground, unaware that her horse had just suffered a wound in the same manner by her best friend.
I didn't know what wound to give her... is a wound in the wrist enough to effect her shooting? R&R and remember to vote on a happy or sad ending!