Twisted Fate (Orc Destiny Volume I) (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (7 page)

Stretching, Gnak sat up upon his grass bed. With a shiver
running down his spine he cursed the cold of the human lands, before realizing
that he felt ill. He could recall the strange dreams he had the day previous,
and grinning at the fanciful thoughts he laughed a deep throaty sound, at the
absurdity. Laughing made his head spin as pain enveloped the side of his face.
With sweat beading on his forehead, he reached up to feel his wound and found
it still swollen and overly warm. He had become afflicted. Without the
treatment of their shaman, such wounds often were lethal. Gnak doubted the
wound would kill him. He was stronger than most. But he did realize that before
long he would lose his strength and endurance, with a lack of proper food and
an affliction in his wound. He needed to hurry while he still could.

Looking up to the stars he located those that would take him
home, and turning, he again strode off towards the north. It was not until near
midnight he found something he had not expected among the hills. Cresting the
millionth rise of the night he noticed that he now moved parallel to a wide
trail. It was dirt, but was obviously frequently used. Two hours later the dirt
turned to stone, as the road became more than a trail. An hour after that, Gnak
could see the top of the castle in the distance. Fires upon the top of its
massive walls stood in stark contrast to the night surrounding him.

Then it struck him. Where there was fire on the wall, there
were humans. If he could see them, could they not see him? Were they watching
him right now? Thinking about his predicament, he realized that it would be
more suspicious if he continued on through the grass, and hoping that they paid
him scant attention he set off upon the road. Nearer and nearer the city grew,
and taller and taller it soared. Even against the backdrop of the sky, the
great black castle seemed to suck the light out of the stars, it stood too dark
against its surroundings. It was just as he had envisioned it at the Catunga
ceremony.

Closer still he came, as the grass fields around him turned
to planted rows of crops. Everywhere there were signs of humans. Wagons lay
abandoned all about in the fields. Crops stood in high piles in preparation for
hauling. Footprints and scents abounded. But out here in the dark, not a single
soul dwelt. Sure, during the day the humans likely came out of their walled
city, but here in the dark, where he could take one unaware, nothing. He would
either have to wait until day, or enter the city somehow. But he didn’t want
just any human. No. That would not please a god. He wanted a special human. Perhaps
a chief, or a captain. Nodding as he watched the dark walls ahead, he smiled to
himself.

Walking off of the road, he decided that he was close enough
for now. He would find a place and hide through the day, watching what the
humans did. Perhaps he could find what he sought in this manner. Locating one
of the great stacks of what appeared to be grass and weeds, he dove into the
thing, burrowing further and further into it before turning around and poking
his head back out the hole he had entered. Moving the dry grass about, he
covered as best he could any sign of his tampering, and laid in wait of the day
to come.

The sun rose into a clear blue sky, and with it came the
humans. They were tiny wretched things, hardly bigger than goblins as they
began to come into the fields surrounding the black castle. They were thin,
dirty creatures, scraping and churning up the soil, cutting down plants and
making piles. Their every effort seemed a waste of time.
Did they eat plants
like rabbits did?
It was not until an hour or more later that Gnak saw what
he thought could serve as his sacrifice. Thundering down the road a pair of armored
warriors upon great white beasts passed him, leaving the castle headed south,
the way he had come the previous night. If he could capture one of those, it
would make a god happy. Two hours later he could hear them returning, but more
slowly. Also, it sounded as if more had joined them. Wriggling about inside his
stack of weeds, he turned and made himself another hole upon the opposite side.
There the armored men came, dismounted from their beasts, following his own
tracks across the field. Now there were four of them.

Gnak pondered his situation a moment. Eyeing his opponents,
it was obvious that they were better armed and armored, but they were smaller
and slower than he. Closer and closer the humans came, and knowing he may not
get a better chance, he waited until they were on top of him before he sprang.

Like an explosion of dust and weeds he rocketed out of the
stack of drying grass, landing on the nearest human, driving it to the ground. Stabbing
his sword up under the edge of its helmet, he drew it back covered in red blood
with a replied gurgle and spasm. He was on the next human before they knew what
hit them. Stabbing this one beneath the arm, he watched as copious amounts of
blood spewed from the small man as he staggered backwards, reaching for the
wound. Then, finally it was a fight.

The remaining two armored humans charged simultaneously,
each bearing a large two-handed sword longer even than his own. He parried the
first swing and dove aside to avoid the other. Coming to his feet just in time,
he deflected yet another blow, before striking out at the attacker. The other
human vanished from his peripheral vision, but Gnak was no fool.

Charging the human in front of him, he smashed the smaller
man’s blade aside with his own before grabbing the man by his breastplate and
lifting him up and off his feet. Twisting, he spun upon one heel, raising the
human overhead before he threw him at the now charging second assailant. The
human in his hands managed a minor jab that barely pierced his shoulder as he
was flung away. That would have been it. Kill one, claim the other and flee
back to his clan. Except just when the end he needed was in sight, a horn was
sounded from atop the wall of the vast black city, and the thunderous sound of
mounted warriors erupted in the distance. Dozens more came for him, maybe more.
Against his warrior spirit, there was only one thing for him to do. Gnak ran.

Turning back the way he had come, he ran as fast as his legs
would carry him. He thought he could at least match the pace of the beasts the
humans rode, but he doubted he could outrun them.

Screams arose from the road before him as he took to the
smoothest trail possible in hopes of stretching his lead. Women, children, and
men alike dashed away at his approach, but then he had an idea. Ripping the
sack from his belt he tore the strings upon it open, and reaching in he drew
out a handful of the metal disks, stones, and jewelry the goblins had carried. Tossing
it into the air, he listened as it fell to the paved road behind him in a
symphony of tinkling sounds. The dirty, field-working humans’ reaction was
perfect.

One instant they fled him, the next they rushed back to the
road, dropping to their knees to collect the trinkets. With thunderous hooves
still behind him, he tossed more and more trinkets into the air to either side
of the road as well as straight upon it. Let the armored warriors crest a rise
only to trample their own kind beneath their beasts. Let their beasts stumble
beneath them, throwing them to the ground. And they did.

Listening as he ran, human screams sounded as the beasts
carrying the humans also screamed and the thunderous warriors ceased
momentarily in their pursuit. Glancing back he was surprised to see that even
some of the warriors had dismounted to claim that which he had discarded.

Following the road to prevent leaving tracks, on and on Gnak
ran, sprawling more trinkets here and there even after there were no more
humans. He hoped they would stop time and again to collect them before pursuing
him. For more than three hours he could hear them following in a broken
pattern, each hour their sound growing more faint.

It was after midday that he found an intersection in the
road. He could continue straight, back the way he had come, but he knew that no
humans were in that direction. But with a road before him that turned eastward,
towards the mountains that stood upon the horizon, he could not but help
believe that it must lead to another human camp.

Turning down the road, he was surprised to find that this
road quickly became less and less a road, turning into no more than two
parallel tracks within the distance of a mile. Here, instead of sticking to one
of the clear dirt tracks, he ran along the grassy center of the trail,
stretching out his stride to the max. Two more hours passed, the afternoon
slipping into evening as Gnak topped a rise in the road and immediately froze.
Sliding to a stop, he backed up slowly before he turned and trotted back down
the trail a short way. Ahead were more fields with more dirty humans. He could
not risk a repeat performance.

Instead he dove off the trail, and dropping to all fours he
slowly and carefully circled the crop fields and humans working within them. It
was dusk when he neared one of the humans’ buildings. It was a large thing in
comparison to the other nearby shacks. It had a wide door upon one side, and a
small door as well. Creeping stealthily inside, he found nothing but tools the
humans used in the fields and stacks of bundled, dried, grasses, all tied up
with cords.
Silly humans. storing weeds
. Gnak shook his head.

It was only an hour or two until dark, and as such he
climbed up over the top of one of the giant stacks of weeds and dropped down
behind it to wait. Just in time too. No sooner had he landed and turned to face
the door he had entered, than a small male child of the humans came rushing
inside.

The child cupped his face with both hands, sobbing as blood
dripped from between his clutched fingers.

“I hate you!” he tried to scream back the way he had come,
his voice muffled by his own hands.

“You do not,” a small girl replied as she followed him into
the building.

Gnak’s whole world spun for a moment, his mouth falling open.
Not only could humans speak, but they spoke the same tongue as his own people. The
thought was absurd. None thought humans smart enough to do anything but stack
stones into buildings and make weapons and armor. Yet here were two of their
young, holding a conversation. Gnak listened in.

“Yes I do, Jen. I hate you more than I hate peas,” the boy
continued.

“No you don’t, Jonny, you’re just mad cause I beat you up
again. You know I need the practice,” Jenny replied.

Then Gnak saw it. Yes the humans could talk, but they used
way more words than they needed.
Stupid humans.

“Go and practice on Nick or Patty, why it’s gotta be me all
the time?”

“Cause you are my little brother and I love you the most,”
Jen grinned at her sibling. “Now come here, and let me see it.”

The boy approached the small girl, and Gnak watched as he
lowered his hands. Across his face was a wicked gash where he had been struck
by something hard. Not only did the gash bleed, but so too did his nose, which
twisted to the side oddly. Gnak watched as the girl calmly approached the boy
and raised her hands to his face. She did something odd then that Gnak knew he
would never forget. Leaning her head back she spoke soft words into the air,
her eyes closed towards the heavens. Within seconds her fingertips began to
glow, and he watched as the boy’s face mended within moments. It was difficult,
but Gnak managed to fight the urge to jump up and down laughing, pee himself,
and leap upon the girl right where she stood and haul her off. This is what the
gods wanted him to bring them. The girl was a healer, but not like a shaman. He
had heard of such things but never believed in it. The girl had magic!

“Now don’t you go tellin’ Ma and Pa again, or I’ll whack you
harder than I did today, you understand?” Jen asked Jonny, to a replied
reluctant nod. “Good. Let’s go home then,” she added.

Gnak watched the tiny humans leave, closing the door behind
them as they departed into the darkness. He would be smarter this time, wiser. He
knew he could not just snatch the girl and make a run for it. No. She would
need food and supplies if he was to keep her alive. She would be difficult to
carry, especially through the pass guarded by the giants in the mountains. He
needed to plan and would have to make preparations. The journey home would be
slowed dramatically with her as his prisoner. Now that it was nearing dark, he
needed a better lay of the land.

Creeping out from his hiding spot, he pushed the door to the
building open slowly and froze, having only opened it a few inches. Outside,
the familiar thrumming of the warriors upon their mounts grew louder and louder
by the moment. Had they managed to track him?

Not wanting to find himself cornered within the building, he
opened the door barely wide enough for himself to slip through before pushing
it closed once more. Slipping around the building, opposite the approaching
warriors, he waited and watched as things unfolded.

It was only minutes when the first of the mounted warriors
appeared, leading the others by a good margin. A man from the human camp that
Gnak hid within the outskirts of, came out from his home brandishing a torch to
fend off the darkness. The man waited as the warriors neared and came to a
halt.

“Sir Geraldo, is that you?” the torch holding man asked.

“Aye, Tanis, is all well in your town?” the warrior replied.

“Aye, Sir Geraldo, we’ve had no trouble here. Should be we
expecting some?”

“I doubt it, Tanis, just tell the folks to bar their doors. An
Orc was sighted near Raven’s Keep but escaped to the south. We are uncertain of
its whereabouts.”

“I’ll keep my eyes peeled, Sir Geraldo, don’t you worry ‘bout
that. If we see it I’ll send one th’boys to come and fetch your men.”