Long before the Disney sequel, I wrote a spinoff of the 1988 Willow movie by Lucasfilm. I posted the story on Wattpad.

It has since climbed the charts, at one point landing at #12 in Lucasfilm stories and at #19 in Val Kilmer themed stories.

Excerpt:

Airc looked up at the thinly veiled stars many leagues above him. He'd never felt so close to them in his whole life. Without any trees or towers obstructing his view, and despite being far below ground level, he was now communing with the world above him a way he hadn't ever done.

It was nightfall at the beast warrior's camp. Airc had been trapped in the pit for an unknown number of days and nights now. He hadn't been firmly counting them because he would often be left blindfolded or chained in a nook of the pit so as he couldn't keep track of the rising and falling sun.

He would often hear their grumbling, angered voices, hooting far above him. When one descended, it would use the rope that dropped down to the pit. Then for hours or even days, the torture would ensue. Airc was strong. The torture seemed brutal, but not worse than he could endure. As compensation, he would scream so loudly, sure that his shouts of anguish and terror would echo off the far-away mountains, but he began to realize that the muddy pit, whose walls were covered in oozing tree-root water, muffled any cries of his. The only other consolation of his tortured screams were that they were feigned. He would scream louder to the warriors' delight, and they would release their grip or blade or rope sooner than he could have surely coped with.

When would the questions start? What did they want? Airc was a warrior himself, a sergeant in his father's army. He knew the battle ground rules but did not want to ask questions. He knew that he must have something they wanted but did not inquire as to what. He assumed that he would be rescued but did not think about when. As for why he was a prisoner, he would not speculate. Instead, at this moment, he turned his unbound eyes up towards the heavens and allowed for the serenity of the glowing stars to separate his thoughts from reason for at least one more moment.

Another day began. The stars were gone and instead, Airc stared up at the narrow peephole to the circle of glorious, unreachable blue sky. The daylight made the pit more claustrophobic and he grunted in frustration, also so as to provoke the warriors with the strength of his voice. His grunting was loud and determined. He wanted more. He wanted the attention of the warriors, to draw his own attention away from the maddening tunnel of the pit leading upwards. His sense of gravity, of inner balance, was distorted. He imagined floating down (up) to the blue circle and escaping. He continued to shout and moan and, as usual, his sounds worked and the frayed rope descended.

The link to the story is here. It is incomplete.