Twisted Fate (Orc Destiny Volume I) (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (2 page)

Without fear he altered course and began climbing once again
through the darkness, away from the trail and into the ever thickening forest
upon the mountain slopes. Here were mostly pines and ferns, interlaced with
various vines and a smattering of mushrooms. The beast’s trail blazing through
the undergrowth was easy enough to follow, and as such Gnak felt he was making
good time.

Sniffing the air as he climbed, it was only an hour later when
he picked up the distinct scent of the beast. Even by its smell it was
monstrous, its odor reeking of decaying flesh, urine, and feces. Looking up
through the canopy he located the stars he needed to mark his location, before
his attention was broken from his calculations of his distance from camp. His
head snapping down as he heard a branch crack with a snick, he slowed to a stop
to listen as the sound was followed then by a rustling. Ahead, not far, was
movement. It was slow and deliberate. Another branch snapped. Gnak sprang into
action.

Ducking off the trail of prints and stench he followed, he quietly
crept through the undergrowth, carefully selecting every footfall. Creeping, he
sought to flank the creature and land a killing blow with one quick strike
between the ribs. Following the ever moving sound he climbed slowly up and
around his target, following it into a dense copse of firs. Ducking from shadow
to shadow beneath the moons he crept on, growing nearer and nearer to the
sounds ahead. It was not until he broke free of the dense trees into the
clearing beyond that he realized his mistake.

His movements had been anticipated. His foe awaited him. And
now there was nothing to do but act and react. Springing into action, Gnak
ducked the thrown spear and sprang forward into a roll. As he came to his feet,
another spear lanced out of the shadows, slashing through his bicep, the impact
turning him and shoving his balance off center. Still he did not retaliate. Instead
he bent his knees, lowering his center of gravity, and turned to watch them
close the distance, assuring himself there were not more lurking in the
shadows. Cowards.

Flexing his muscles taut, it was finally time to fight. Swinging
his spear overhead in a great arc as if it were a sword or club, he relaxed his
grip and let the handle slide through his grasp until he held the butt end. Then
tightening his grip, he swung yet another arc, lashing out with his arm at the
last moment as if brandishing a whip. With perfect accuracy he slashed the
forehead and scalp of the nearest foe, sending the charging Orc down upon his
back, blood pouring down its face. Without hesitation, Gnak sprang upon his
clansman and as he landed he drove the spear down through his opponent’s
throat, watching the blood spurt and pool around the wound as it widened. Pinning
the thrashing and gurgling attacker to the ground, he sprang away from the
flailing limbs, leaving his spear behind. There remained yet another attacker
and Gnak was prepared for him. But by all apparent sounds the secondary threat had
decided to flee rather than fight. Gnak could not allow a coward to live among
his clan, and as such he gave chase to the sounds of his enemy’s retreat.

It was only a mile further up the mountain when he knew he
neared the other who had sought to remove him from the Catunga ceremony. He
could smell the scent of her sweat, though found himself surprised that his
second attacker had been a female. All Orcs were soldiers, and all Orcs were
trained to fight from birth, but females rarely openly fought males, as males
were bigger and stronger. Instead, females gained station by those she bred. Gnak
assumed that this particular female had bred, or intended to breed the Orc he
had just killed. The thought made him grin, as he broke through a line of trees
to realize that the sounds ahead had stopped abruptly. So too did he stop.

A great roar sounded from just paces ahead, as a humongous
beast reared back on its hind legs, caught by surprise. So close was his female
attacker to the ancient bear that froth from the corners of the beast’s mouth
rained down on her as the roar continued. She stood frozen for an instant, and
Gnak knew that it was all the time she had before the beast even attacked. But
when it did, he had not expected what he saw.

As if she were little more than a hare, the great bear,
standing all of twenty feet on its hind legs, swatted the Orc female, now
recognizable as Kagi, with one giant paw. So ferocious was the blow, and so
great the claws upon its paw, that bits of her entrails and blood sprayed
across his face as her broken carcass was flung more than forty feet from where
she had stood. No scream. Nothing.

Gnak watched it, as if in slow motion, as the bear, graying
from age, moved with such power it belied reality. Opening its great maw once
more it roared in victory, twisting its head this way and that, as it came
crashing down to the earth upon all four of its massive limbs. It was fall on
the mountain and the bears were packing on as much weight as was possible, and
this one was immense. The ground shook slightly at its massive weight crashing
down, and with the movement Gnak met the eyes of the beast and knew the beast
had the upper hand.

Having left his spear further down the mountain, he stood
before the giant of a bear with naught but a torn bicep and a short sword. The
bear charged.

Though it was not fear that drove him, the only viable
option he could see was the one he took. Leaping aside, Gnak began to sprint
down the mountainside with the great bear hot on his heels. Picking his path
carefully, he dodged between trees too close together for the bear to pass, yet
it kept coming, smashing trees aside as it growled and roared behind him in
hatred and anger. The ground shook beneath them. Leaping through tangles of
vines and brambles, he dove headfirst between two stout trees, rolling back to
his feet before he turned.

Knowing the bear would be forced to squeeze between the
thick trunks, he watched as it reared and jumped to find more space between the
trees the higher they grew. Without a plan for retreat, Gnak sprang towards the
great beast instead of away. Landing beneath the creature as it came barreling
down to the soft loam beneath them, Gnak pulled his blade from his belt and
thrust it straight up into the falling behemoth. Blade, hilt, hand, and arm all
penetrated up into the steaming heat that was the bear’s chest cavity. Gnak
felt as he severed muscle, blood vessels, and finally organs as blood rained
down in a torrent upon him. The bear half roared, half screamed in pain as it
batted at him, its weight crashing down upon him. He tried to extract himself,
releasing the sword in an attempt to dive aside, but to no avail.

Down the beast came, trapping him beneath its great weight,
a full half of his body becoming pinned beneath the creature. Fortunately for
Gnak, the beast was a great deal fur and soft tissue surrounding the majority
of its bulk. For even though he awaited the sounds and sensations of his bones
shattering beneath the creature, he was relieved when only one snap sounded,
just a finger that he had broken dozens of times before.

The bear scratched and trashed but seemed unable,
momentarily, to regain its feet. Whether the beast’s inability to rise was from
the damage he had done, or its own immense weight, he could not be certain, but
Gnak knew he would not survive if the beast recovered.

Growling much like the bear atop him, Gnak struggled to
shift himself further beneath the creature instead of free from it. Twisting
and shoving, he thrust his hand into the wound his sword had made and found the
weapon in absence. With no other option available to him, he reached further
still into the wound and there he felt that which he sought.

Feeling through the hot and sticky blood, he brushed the
pulsing of the great beast’s heart and, finding it too big for even his hand,
he grasped at the huge vessels that entered the organ and tore with all his
might. An unnatural moan broke free from the ancient bear’s throat as blood
poured from the chest cavity, coating them both in its gore. Thrashing wildly,
the bear clawed and snapped but could not reach him. Tearing more and more of
the vessels in his grasp, with a final yank the bear ceased its screams. Gnak
relished in the silence.

Now all he needed to do was figure out how to get free from
the massive creature, and get it down from the mountain without one of his kin
trying to claim it for their own.

Thanks to the copious amounts of blood and other internal
fluids, the act of extracting himself from the beast turned out fairly easy
with the added lubrication. Rounding the corpse of the bear he found his crude
blade, and smiled at the giant tongue lolling out the side of the bear’s mouth.
Sticking his own tongue back at the creature momentarily, he pulled it back in
and snapped his thick, jutting jaw shut. It was odd how all dead things stuck
out their tongues. Pondering it a moment, he decided he liked dead things. He
could eat them, skin them and wear them, make things from their bones. They
really were quite handy, and this one provided him with all sorts of
possibilities.

Knowing that none could easily steal his kill, he rushed
back to the nearest of his fallen brethren. Rolling over her shattered corpse,
he was amazed to find her still breathing. Pulling his blade from his belt he
straddled her, taking her head by the hair. Wrenching her head back, he flipped
his blade over and smashed her face with the pommel of his sword. Over and over
he smashed her brutally, until he had thought the deed complete. Then, reaching
into her wrecked mouth he extracted the pair of large, tusk like, canine teeth
from her bottom jaw.

Dropping them into the pouch on his belt he rose, turning
and striding further still down the mountainside. Approaching the ring of fir
trees he cautiously ducked between them, spying his dead foe still pinned to
the ground. Looking around, making certain no further attackers lingered, he
decided it was safe and proceeded.

Stepping upon the chest of the fallen Orc he grasped the
shaft of his spear with both hands and ripped it free from soil and foe in a
single tug. Still requiring his prize, he used his foot to turn the dead Orc’s
staring face to the side. Then, pinning it there with his foot he slid the tip
of his spear into its mouth, wedging it behind the large pair of teeth he
sought. Then, prying against the back of the mouth, a series of cracking sounds
followed as the teeth’s roots tore free from the jaw.

Then, without hesitation, he collected the tusks and quickly
returned to his game. The great beast was exactly as he had left it, and even
now he could see no way of getting the mammoth back to camp. It was a massive
thing covered in matted bristling hair of brown, gold, and grey. Its large head
was the size of Gnak’s torso, and paws the size of his chest. He would need to
devise a way to transport the enormous corpse, and quickly.

A litter like those used for the injured was not even likely
to work, as the beast was simply too heavy to drag. What he really needed was a
cart of some sort, or some way to leverage the beast down the hill. He thought
of simply placing a sturdy branch beneath the creature and trying to roll it,
but such a thing was not likely to have good results. Then it struck him. He
needed to make the bear roll of its own accord.

It took hours, breaking the green branches from the pines,
sliding them beneath the bear and bending them into hoops before binding them
with vines scavenged from the forest floor. It too took hours more to then
twist the various hoops made of green limbs within one another and lash them
into place. But before the sun broke the horizon, marking a new day, Gnak
appraised his work with a grunt of satisfaction.

Before him stood an immense cage-like structure made of
intertwined vines and limbs, that for all basic description had formed a giant
ball. Within the ball, the corpse of the great bear laid, a mass of blood-soaked
and matted fur, claws, and great pink tongue. From either side of the great
wooden orb a log protruded, acting as a central shaft, and upon each opposite
end of the shaft a vine was looped. Gnak hoped that the two reins upon each
side of the contraption would be enough to allow him a controlled descent,
simply following behind the rolling ball, creating resistance upon one
direction or the other to guide the thing. He also hoped the ball would not
shoot down the mountainside like a bat out of the abyss, and drag him to his
death behind it. He would have to keep its momentum to a minimum, at least
until he neared the bottom. There was only one way to test his control,
however, and he cracked his knuckles, and grabbed the reins to begin his trek
down the slopes.

Approaching the makeshift ball, he gave it one great shove
and watched as it rocked forward. Preparing to dig in his heels, to prevent an
uncontrolled descent, he was summarily disappointed. For no further than a few
degrees did the contraption roll, before the weight of the bear within it
caused it to roll right back where it started. He would need to push harder.

Bending at his knees, he dug his toes into the soil and,
reaching down to grab as low as was possible, he thrust upwards with his legs,
back, shoulders, and arms as the great ball of limbs rolled nearly half way
over. Inside it, the great bear appeared to cling to the outer wall of the
device until it neared the apex, where it fell unceremoniously back to the
bottom, bringing it once again to an immediate stop. “Gaaack!” Gnak roared in
frustration.

Stomping around his contraption for a moment, his arms
thrown up in momentary defeat, he quickly devised a plan. Scrounging up more
lengths of vine, he laced it through and through the device, securing the great
beast in place. Satisfied with his quick decision-making and solution, he again
squatted down, this time with his back to the device. Reaching low behind him,
he found suitable handholds and thrust upwards with all his might, nearly
jumping as his muscles recoiled with such energy. Turning to watch the results,
he was pleased to see the contraption make a revolution.