Allright, here it is, the next chapter. Not too long, but I hope everything happening inside it will make up for that :)

As always, thank you Natalie for beta-ing this for me!

And lots of thanks for those who reviewed too: invisigoth3, Malou and leggy9591. You rule!

Now, on to the story.

000000000000 means there's a change in point-a-view. Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 24

Silence before the storm...

He would just follow them, to see where they were going. This group of orcs was not one to fight against on your own; the human had proven that much. This was no mindless bunch, at least their leader wasn't, and he had a fierceness to him that indicated that he wouldn't give up his captives just like that, making it too dangerous to get to them alone. This group could only be defeated when matched in number, or better yet overpowered, to lessen the losses on his side. But for that to happen he had to leave them, to get help, but not before he knew where to lead that help to.

He looked at the human once more, unconscious now, slung over the leaders back, and then back to the blond-haired Elf, pondering the odd combination for the umpteenth time, before his eyes went back to the human, to the blood dripping down the front of his body. It probably was his scream I heard, he thought. He was patrolling through Mirkwood Forest when he had heard that scream resounding through the trees; had heard the pain in that scream, and had quickly decided to find the one who had screamed like that, not at all expecting to find a human inside Mirkwood...

It hadn't been difficult to find out which way to go after he had traveled in the general direction of the scream for a while. First the sounds of someone running through the forest, not caring about stealth, and after that the sounds of someone falling down had caught his attention. He had hid in the bushes to wait and see what was causing such noise. Upon seeing the landing of the Elf, and the human, he had wanted to help them, but his instinct had told him to stay where he was, for danger was near. And once again his instinct hadn't failed him as seven orcs came down the hill too, defeated the human and dragged them both away.

And now he followed them, every movement of his feet carefully planned, moving as silently as the shadows that surrounded him. None of the orcs had noticed him yet, and he wasn't planning on making that happen any time soon. He looked at his surroundings, noticing the strange familiarity of the path the orcs took, feeling like he should know where they were heading.

And after a while he did...He stayed back a little more, rather sure of the destination now, ready to leave as soon as he saw his suspicions confirmed.

Rocks came in sight and between those an opening, where the orcs headed for, disappearing through it. It is time; he silently nodded, as he turned around, silently and swiftly moving westwards to gather his comrades for an attack...

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When Aragorn regained consciousness again, the first thing he heard was orc laughter. He quickly decided it would be in his best interest if the orcs didn't know he was awake yet. He carefully opened his eyes to slits and looked through his eyelashes at his surroundings. Very familiar surroundings that is, everything inside looked the same as when they had left it in a hurry that same morning; even the burned corpse of the orc hadn't been moved. The only difference was the larger group of orcs present now and the fact that he looked down on everything in the cave; hanging up from the ceiling by your hands gave one that advantage. He carefully turned his head to his right, inch by inch, afraid to alert the orcs of his awareness with his movement. He turned his head so far that he could see next to him out of the corners of his eyes, but all he saw were the rocks that formed the right wall of the cave. He slowly inched his head over to his left and finally his eyes caught sight of Legolas, or what was left of the once so proud Elf. He too hung from a pin in the ceiling, but he was doing far worse than the man did. The Elf's clothes were tattered and he was bleeding from numerous wounds. What was left of his shirt was soaked with blood, his face shone with a thick layer of sweat, causing his usually neatly braided golden hair to hang around in damp tresses. His head hung down limply, resting upon his chest and his eyes were closed.

Two orcs stood in front of the Elf, trying to get a reaction from him by slashing him with their swords and hitting him with their fists, but no reaction came, save from the continuous mumbling and the occasional tossing of the head from side to side.

The two orcs finally got bored with what they were doing. Off course, torturing one of those cursed Elves was always fun to be doing, but after nearly forty minutes of trying to get any reaction, a very long time for an orc to be focused on one thing, even Elftorture could get boring. "How 'bout we killed him?" One asked, "maybe that'll get a reaction from him!" The second orc didn't respond immediately, after all he was the one who insisted on taking along the Elf in the first place, even when Zkarsak wasn't down with it. Killing the Elf now would prove Zkarsak's right and, more importantly, his wrong, which wasn't a good thing if you didn't want to be the fool of the pack, a place Oglisch didn't want to be a candidate for. So he said: "No we'll give him some rest, maybe after that he'll be up to making more fun!"

He quickly cut the ropes that held the Elf's arms tied to the ceiling, but left the ones on the ankles, making sure the Elf wouldn't be able to run away. The Elf landed hard on the floor, not even making an effort to catch himself. He merely curled up into a ball and continued his mumbling.

During this, a shout echoed through the cave: He's awake! The human is awake! He moved!". Aragorn silently cursed himself, or to be more precise, his annoying human reactions. He had made a slight movement, unconsciously flinching when Legolas had hit the floor hard; his mind imaging the pain that must have caused. After that he had held perfectly still again, silently sending prayers to the Valar that nobody had noticed it. But off course, as usual, the Valar decided not to listen to his prayers, or just ignore them, and his slight flinch now was the reason the entire groups of orcs gathered close around him. All seemed to be waiting for the smaller orc Aragorn had noticed already by the slope-fight to do something.

The orc smiled a rather unpleasant smile at Aragorn, who felt chills going down his spine, which he managed to conceal with all his best efforts. "Finally awake human? The orc spat at Aragorn, who just stared back defiantly. "Not afraid of me, are you? Well, you will be before I'm done with you and then you'll wish your Elvish friend over there hadn't saved your life, and you just had died the first time we met!"

That's all for now. Oh dear, oh dear, things aren't looking that great for the two of them. What will happen to them?

Well, in order to find that out, you'll have to wait for the next chapter...LOL Evil me, I know...

Can't promise anything though, about when that chapter will be on, but I will do my best to make it as soon as possible. And in order to make that happen sooner, all of you push that purple button on the left and tell me if you liked it. I just love getting reviews:)

So go and push! ;)