Chapter 5: Orc Hunt
You’re probably expecting me to wax poetic about fate or journeys or maybe even get philosophical about the nature of monsters or Orcs.
Not this time. There is nothing even remotely poetic about the Malkin.
We usually divide the intelligent races of the world into three types. The first is the mortal races such as Elves, Dwarves and Humans. The second is the magical races, mostly Angels, Demons, Fey and the greater Nocturnals. The third one is the Malkin. The name “Malkin” refers to the numerous savage races such as Orcs, Goblins, Ogres, Trolls, Gnolls and their kin. They have one thing in common, and that is their hatred for anything that is not a Malkin. When one of them looks at one of the mortal races it sees one of three things. Something to be made into a corpse, something to be made into a meal, or something to be made into a toy. Most of the time it is all three, the order is unimportant to them.
The biggest Malkin threat in the southlands is the Ash Peak Orcs. They are holed up inside the Ash Peak, an active volcano near the border of Reolve and Rhaetia, and a short distance from the silver woods of the high elves. There are hundreds of caves dotting the mountain, some of them too hot for humans to survive, others are filled with choking smoke and steam or toxic gasses. These caves can be lethal to the mortal races, but the larger and tougher Orcs, can thrive in such an environment.
To make matters worse, some of the caves are quite large and expansive, and the natural defenses of the mountain have made it nearly impossible for anyone to clear the orcs out. The kingdoms have all but given up on clearing the mountain and instead can only react to the raiding parties that come down. After some time, more than orcs began to flock to this mountain, turning the residents of the Ash Peak into a true Malkin horde.
The worst problem, however, is when the mountain “erupts”.
Every generation, the Malkin horde gathers and sends an army instead of raiding parties. The army sweeps down a random direction and loots, pillages, and destroys everything in its path until the army becomes too weakened or bored to continue. Then the survivors bring whatever loot and slaves they can back to their home. It was later found out that this was not only a way to bring resources back to the mountain, but it was also used as a way to cull their own population so they don’t begin to turn on each other from overcrowding.
The last eruption was the most damaging in history, a rousing success for the orcs that nearly became the end of the Silver Wood. This was around 17 years ago. The new generation should be mature now.
With the success and gains from the last eruption, this next one should be the largest in history.
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2 Days After the Test
30 km South East of the Stone Fox Fortress
Thane
Thane brushed his hand against the trunk of a tree and looked around. He found the markings easily enough so the third game trail should be around here somewhere. He heard that this one was abandoned when the dire beast took up residence in the area and might be harder to find than the previous two. The others had spread out and were helping him look.
He took a moment to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. Even though it was autumn he wasn’t used to tracking and traveling while wearing armor. His father’s armor that had been in storage for so long was now finally getting used for the first time in years. The twins wore lighter leather armors, with Mahs having a few metal rivets and plates for extra protection, but Sara had no visible metal to reduce the amount of noise and glare to help her keep out of sight. There was at least one metal plate under the armor to cover the chest that Thane knew about, and possibly more. Kisha was armored similar to Thane with a solid breastplate and a few metal plates at points over the rest of her body.
Thane checked a second tree, there was another marking but still no sign of the trail.
“Seriously!?” he heard Mahs shout from a short distance away. When Thane ran over to him he found him leaning against a tree using a stick to scrape a large amount of feces off of his boots.
“Oh, you managed to find the game trail before me. Good job.”
“Yeah thanks.” Mahs replied irritated.
Thane called the others over and he looked down at the trail. “Hm, you stepped in something fresh.”
“I noticed.”
“That means that the animals are starting to come back to this area. The trail is still overgrown, but it’s beginning to get flattened out again. So keep the river to our right and we should come to the place where Gryssel hunted the dire boar.”
The four began to walk towards the site they were directed to. Kisha dashed ahead several meters and Sarah began to make idle chatter as they walked, “So the boar scared all the animals away and since they are coming back this area should be safe again right?”
“Safer than it was anyway. Remember we’re looking for signs of Orcs, so don’t be thinking there's nothing dangerous here.”
“Of course, unlike my brother I tend to stay alert.”
Mahs gave her a quick glare as he kicked his boots on the grass and dirt trying to clean them off as they walked.
“So what exactly are we looking for, Thane?”
“He said we would know it when we saw it.”
“Agram’s breath,” they heard Kisha exclaim from ahead of them, “That is an understatement.”
They all ran up to Kisha to see what she was talking about and saw that she was right. This was supposed to be the area where Gryssel had killed the dire boar, and as soon as they saw the battlefield, it became apparent why dire animals were called walking disasters. What used to be a wooded area now had only a handful of trees left standing. There were dozens of trees that had been completely uprooted and knocked over, some of them broken off like twigs a meter or two above the roots. There were even a few massive boulders that had been torn out of the ground and rolled over.
It took a moment for the quartet to recover and Thane spok up first. “According to Gryssel, some orc scouts were drawn to the noise and attacked him as he was preparing the beast’s corpse for transport. I’ll look for signs of orcs, you two keep an eye out and see if there is anything around here, Kisha can...do that thing you do.”
“Talk to trees?” asked Sarah.
Kisha ignored the jab, “I will go commune and see if I can learn anything.”
She left for a quiet area in the middle of the destruction and sat down to meditate. Thane began to search for any signs or trails around the edge of the battlefield.
“Sister, you seem in a bit of a foul mood today.” said Mahs. “Could it be because your rival did a bit better than you in the tests? Or could it be because it has been harder to get some time alone with him instead of easier like you thought?”
Thane heard Sarah give an irritated “hmph” and wondered if Mahs was doing this on purpose. Enhancing his senses didn’t just affect his sight, and even from this distance he could hear the siblings perfectly fine. It didn’t take long for him to find where Gryssel had burned the bodies of the attacking orcs. He confirmed from the remains that there were four bodies. Three of them were orcs, and one much smaller twisted skeleton.
“The part that concerned me” Gryssel had told him, “Is that there was a goblin runner among them. I couldn’t tell if it was enslaved or working with them voluntarily, but it began to run as soon as the fight started, so I shot him first. I didn’t have time to investigate whether he was trying to escape, or deliver a message.”
The tracks were almost two weeks old now, as far as Thane could tell the Orcs came from the direction of the river. Between the autumn rains and the time that had passed, he doubted he could get any useful information by trying to follow the traces left behind by the Orcs.
“Thane, I found something over here, “ Sarah shouted. Thane quickly ran over to where she was and saw a rather gruesome scene. There was dried blood that had splashed on the rocks and the remains of a deer were tossed around the area. It looked like the deer was exploring the abandoned area and ran afoul of something. The torso was missing but the head and legs were spread out over the area. “So what happened?”
Thane walked from piece to piece, looking at eachone as well as a small bit of frayed rope before speaking. “Something killed the deer. It looks like they kept the torso for meat and cut off the rest to make it easier to tie up and carry. The head...” he pointed at the severed head, “had its horns broken off after it was killed. Not cut off, they were snapped by something fairly strong. This was definitely the Orc’s doing because...“ he pointed at one of the severed legs, “that one was cut a bit high, the others were cut at the knee, but this one was cut above the thigh, and the thigh meat was eaten right off the bone. It bit through the meat raw through the skin and fur. What else besides a Malkin would do that?”
It looked like the torso was picked up and carried away towards the river. The tracks were only a day old and would be fairly easy to follow. “Go grab Kisha, we have a trail.”
Kisha joined the others and had something to add. “I think they are upstream. The water has a taint in it. Something has been using the river as a refuse dump. It's nothing dangerous or noticeable yet. The river is large.”
She was right about the size of the river, Reolve had often been referred to as the River kingdom, and the river they were next to was one of the largest in the country. Mahs unrolled the map he was carrying with him and spread it out on one of the fallen trees. “Let’s see, there is the village we spent the night at, so we should be about here.” He pointed at a spot on the map next to the large river marked “Davian River”. He traced his finger along the river and then a few lines surrounding it, “These lines mark changes of elevation, this should be the start of the Davos Canyon.”
“Are they actually in the Canyon? Or just a bit upstream?”
“We’re about to find out.” Thane began to check his gear, if they were sending out scouts or hunters this far, that means he could run into an orc at any time. “Make sure you’re ready to fight, we don't want to be caught off guard.” He loosened the straps holding his weapons in place and made sure they could all be drawn easier. He had only a single longsword at his belt this time, but he carried a larger greatsword and bow on his back. Since there were goblins involved, there might be other types of Malkin as well. On the off chance he ran into something larger like an Ogre he wanted something a bit larger and heavier to attack with. For now, he completely freed his bow and carried it in his hand as he walked to the river.
Once they turned upstream, they didn’t have to walk far before they saw the first sign of the Orcs. Sarah noticed first and they all backed away from the river and hid behind a group of rocks and trees and watched them approach. Just like Gryssel had encountered, there was a group of four. Three large orcs and single goblin. The Orcs were a head taller than Liam and much more muscular. Their skin looked rough and green and their face was an ugly mix of something resembling a human and a wild boar. The noses weren’t exactly pig like, but they were turned upwards with the nostrils facing out, and two large tusks curled up from their lower jaw. They had never seen orcs before, but they had watched Castor take out a small group of stray goblins, so the short, gangly, green thing with pointed teeth didn’t come as a surprise to them. The Orcs, however, were much larger and tougher looking than expected.
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