Arial

A Living Nightmare

Chapter Seven

by Bethuviel

Disclaimer: The estate of J.R.R. Tolkien owns all recognizable characters from the works of literature encompassing The Lord of The Rings. I have received no compensation for any work I have written and/or published on this site.

Author's note: All reviews, whether critical or applauding are appreciated.

oOo

Arial slept in the tree, snoring loudly. Her dreams were filled with images of home. She did not hear the orc scouts surrounding the base of the tree. They whispered in their own guttural language, discussing the best way to capture their newest victim.

Arial slumped even further, straining the belt and socks. Her head and chest gently rolled up and down matching her breathing. Her eyes darted under her lids, her mind existing in its own world.

A sudden jarring woke her with a start. "Wha?" She gasped. She rubbed her eyes and looked down. She could hear strange voices and could see dark forms moving about on the forest floor. She clamped her mouth shut, wiggled around and grabbed onto the trunk. She heard a thunk and felt the entire tree shudder, almost jarring her loose.

"Oh my god," she thought. "It's those cursed orcs again. They found me. Gawl almighty, what'm I going to do?" She looked at the closest tree to her and wondered if she could somehow get over to it and away.

She moved around on the branch and tried to stand up. The orcs saw her moving and chopped into the tree again with an axe blade. The reverberation traveled up to Arial and she lost her balance. She slipped from the branch and hung in the air, clinging to the belt with her hands. She could hear what sounded like rough laughter below her. She twisted in the air, her feet flailing about trying to stand on something solid. "God help me!" she screamed.

Below, the orcs paused and looked up into the sky, waiting to see if anything would appear. After a few minutes they shrugged their shoulders and resumed chopping the tree trunk base. Arial swung herself around to a branch and managed to get a purchase with her feet. The orcs chopped at the tree again and she lost her foothold. She cursed loudly as the tree tipped and fell to the ground, crashing into other trees on its way down. She fell and rolled away.

The orcs saw her fall and rushed to surround her. They shouted, their glee lost in the dark speech of their native land. Arial screamed as their hard and calloused hands grabbed and groped her. She fought back, throwing fruitless punches and wild kicks. She was slapped down and dragged by the hair of her head over the forest ground. She held onto her hair, trying to stop the pain and wrench herself free. Suddenly she was thrown forward and she landed on her face. She pushed herself up and looked at the face of a very tall and ugly orc.

Her heart raced and pumped so hard her chest hurt. She panted wild with fear and tears ran down her face and streaked her cheeks. "What do you want?"

The orc smiled and replied, "You. Tie her up." She was grabbed again and dragged in between two trees. She twisted and fought to no avail. A rope was produced and her hands were pulled away from her sides and her wrists were stretched out from her body. Her legs were pulled apart and held firm. Arial watched helplessly as she was tied spread eagle. She wiggled but the rope only grew tighter around her wrists and ankles.

"Let me go, you bastards!" She screamed out at them. She was rewarded with a stinging slap to her face. A few minutes later the large orc stood in front of her again.

"What a pretty little bird, so far away from home, eh? Tell me," he walked up to her and stood within inches of her face, "what are you doing out here, all by yourself, sleeping in trees?" The orc watched her facial expressions.

Arial felt like she might gag. The stench was overpowering and smelled like three hundred years of rotting blood and corpses. Arial swallowed and replied, "Sleeping in a tree, till you came along and chopped it down."

The orc laughed at her, "Well, you won't be so curt in your answers in a moment. Tell me, what do you know about Rivendell. You've been there; I can smell those elves on you."

Arial hid her surprise. So that was what they wanted, information about the elves. "Nothing really. They're a bunch of stingy snobs."

The orc stepped back and eyed her, not sure of what to make of her answer. He growled out something in his language that Arial did not understand. A few seconds later another orc appeared at his side with a whip. Arial gasped, knowing the instrument was going to be used on her.

"One last chance, what's going on in Rivendell that all these different races have met there?"

Arial wracked her brain. She could not remember overhearing anything or seeing anyone other than the elves and that one human. She stuttered, "I don't know what you're talking about. I was only there a day and they threw me out."

The orc stepped in back of her and growled his dissatisfaction. "You don't lie very well, little bird." He pulled his arm back and with a flick of his trained wrist let the tip of the whip cut through the air and into Arial's back.

She screamed in horror and agony. The tip of the whip had sliced across her ribs and over her spine. Her legs went rigid and she pulled against the rope holding her in place. She screamed again as the pain shot through her body exploding in her brain. "Please, please, I don't know anything. Please, not again."

The orc laughed at her pleas and hit her again. She pulled against the ropes, screaming in pain. The orc watched her dance around, trying to flee from the pain of his manipulations. He smirked. She wasn't so sassy now, this human woman.

He walked around in front of her, grabbed her face and pulled up her chin looking squarely in her eyes. "What of Rivendell."

Arial did not know anything so she decided to make up a lie she hoped would appease the beast. "An army. A big one." She closed her eyes and slumped down, her full weight pulled painfully on her wrists. The orc slapped her face again.

"An army? What about it?" He questioned her. When she did not answer he sidestepped her, grabbed her hand and held it. He used his other hand to hold out her pinky finger. He put it into his mouth and bit the tip off to her first knuckle. Arial woke up screaming. She twisted her head and saw blood pumping out of her little finger on her right hand. She screamed again when she saw the orc holding the tip of her finger in his teeth, grinning at her. She tried to pull away and caused more blood to pump out of her hand. She kept screaming wildly as she watched the orc chew up her fingertip. Then to her horror, he put his mouth onto her wounded finger and sucked the blood out of her, swallowing greedily.

She jumped wildly, pulling at the ropes trying to free herself. The orc broke away from her hand and jumped in front of her face. She could see her own blood smeared around his mouth. "You taste sweet…" She tried to back away and only managed an inch or two. In absolute shock, she stopped screaming and stared at her living nightmare.

"Now tell me about the army, or I'll take another bite, then another, and another, until there's nothing left of you."

Arial remembered the lie she had just told. "An army. A massive one, ten thousand strong. But I don't know where or why. Only that Elrond has one. I swear it's the truth. I don't know anything else."

The orc stepped back. Ten thousand strong. Were there that many elves in Rivendell? His master would want to know of this immediately. He dropped his head and walked a few steps away from Arial. He knew he would have to move his scouting party quickly and this woman would slow them down if he took her captive. He knew if he fed her to his scouts, they would be fattened and would not want to run quickly. And this tidbit of information was too important to delay telling Sauron. If he killed her, they would still eat her. Perhaps he could help engineer her escape. He could wait until the others fell asleep. He looked back at the woman. She had already passed out from the pain. She would need a horse to get away. And he had to stop that bleeding. The others could smell her blood and had started to grumble about being hungry. He yelled aloud and his scout leader brought him a small wooden box. The leader walked over to the bleeding appendage, opened the box, and smeared a dark brown greasy gel over the end of her finger. He ripped a piece of her shirt loose and tied the material over the finger. The bleeding stopped and he snorted, satisfied.

The orc looked over the others of his scout party and saw that they paid him no attention and were setting up an encampment. They had unpacked their one unruly horse of their supplies and had left the horse tied up about ten feet from where he stood. He removed one of his daggers from its sheath and discreetly sliced into the rope binding the woman. When only a few strands where left of the rope, he sheathed his dagger and walked away, passing out orders to the other orcs that the woman was not to be molested as he walked through the hasty camp. He hoped the woman still had enough sense about her to make good her escape when she woke up. He ordered one of the least intelligent of his crew to take the watch, as he lay down and pretended to sleep. He would watch her escape from this position. He had done all he could do to aide her without actually setting her free. And with her gone, he had the ability to get this dire information to Sauron as quickly as he possibly could.

oOo

Authors note: I know it was pretty gruesome…but orcs are nasty beasts. Leave a review and let me know how you like or dislike the story so far.