Chapter 44: Orcs

We make our way to the doctor’s and knock on the door. After a minute or so of waiting, it opens and the doctor peers out at us, nodding when he recognises me. “Here for your check up? Good, come in.”

The building is much less packed with patients than the last time I was here, thankfully, and we don’t have to pick our way around improvised beds. The room he takes us to is completely empty of patients, in fact.

“It looks like things are slowly starting to return to normal.” I observe.

“Slowly, yes.” The doctor nods. “Repairs are still in progress on some buildings, but the wounds are starting to heal, and people are easing back into their normal lives. Still, it’s going to be a long time before people start to rest easy again.”

“But enough of that. Your arm?” He holds out his hand, and I rest my arm, still in its cast, on his palm. He looks it over carefully, asking several questions as he does so. Once he is satisfied, he lets go of my arm. “Well, it seems to be healing as expected, so long as you keep taking care of it as you have.”

I nod. “That’s good. How’s Dex going? I was hoping to check in on him if he’s well enough for it.”

“He’s… Healing. Slowly.” The doctor says gently. “He had lacerations all over his body, lost a lot of blood. Broken bones, too, some ribs, an arm, and none of them as straightforward as yours. He’s awake and talking, but I keep him on painkillers most of the time, so he’s not always entirely coherent. I’m trying to keep visitors away for the most part, but…”

He sighs. “He has been wanting to talk to you. Just try and keep it short, and don’t get him too excited.”

The doctor leads me to another room, where I see Dex laying on a bed, almost every visible part of his body swathed in bandages and casts. A nurse, sitting by the bed, looks up as we enter and nods to the doctor.

“He’s mostly been sleeping since you last checked on him.” He says. “But I think he’s awake right now.”

Dex’s eyes crack open. “What’s up, Doc?” He croaks, trying without success to get a view of the doorway just by moving his eyes.

“You have a visitor, Dex.” The doctor says softly as we move around to the side of the bed.

“Aaron?” Dex gasps, wincing as his fingers scrabble weakly to push himself up into a seated position. Two pairs of hands quickly and carefully stop him as the doctor and nurse prevent him from hurting himself.

“Woah, calm down.” I say. “We can just talk like this. Probably best not to move too much in your condition.”

The nurse nods in vigorous agreement.

“Okay. I… Your arm?” Dex asks slowly, clearly noticing it for the first time. “Nobody told me you got hurt.”

“What, this?” I gesture to the cast limb with my other hand. “I took a hit, it did some damage. It happens.” I shrug.

“I’m more concerned about you.” I say. “How are you holding up, Dex?”

“I…” He trails off, blinking slowly as his eyes shift down to look at himself. “The pain is better. The medicine helps. But when I move, it shoots up all over my body. Like I’m on fire.” He rasps.

“Doesn’t surprise me.” I nod softly. You took a lot of damage, and it’s going to take a while to heal completely. But it will get better.”

“I know.” He blinks. “But I wish I could move.”

I nod and smile wryly. Him and me both. I don’t say as such, of course. He’s got it much worse than me. “Hey, Dex. You’ve probably heard it a dozen times by now, but I wanted to thank you for coming to find us that day.”

“What? No, I should be thanking you.” He slurs. “You saved everyone.”

“But it’s only because of you that we knew something was wrong in the first place.” I say, shaking my head. “If you hadn’t come, we might not have come back here for a while, and things could’ve been much worse.”

“Yeah, but… You did all the fighting... and stuff.” He replies, blinking repeatedly as his eyelids droop continuously down.

“And you ran through places infested with monsters without any armour, weapons, training, allies or idea where you were going. Even I would be quite hesitant to do something like that.” I admit.

“I guess… So…” Dex says slowly, not even finishing his sentence before he falls asleep.

“Don’t worry, it’s just the medicine.” The nurse reassures me. “It’s better if he’s sleeping most of the time, both for healing and relief from the pain, so we have him on sedatives. You’ll have to come back another time if you want to talk to him again.”

“No problem.” I nod. “Thanks for letting me see him, and for all your work.”

“You’re welcome.”

And with that, we head out for Ren’s place. When we arrive, it’s much quieter than usual, with no explosions sounding out. Even the normally lingering acrid smell has diminished.

Upon knocking, Ren opens the door and ushers us in, smiling. “Aaron, Xil, good to see you. Come on through, the others are just out the back.”

I nod in greeting. “And you, Ren. How are you doing?”

“Well. Better than well, actually. I’m doing great.” He says, smiling - I think the first time I’ve seen him do so. “I obsessed over my parent’s legacy for far too long. So many experiments, so many resources, so little progress and nothing at all to show for it.”

He shakes his head with a sigh. “It’s only now that I’ve put it behind me that I realise how much of a waste it was. There are so many other things - constructive, useful things - that I could have been doing. I could have learned so much from my experiments, but no, any result that wasn’t a snap, crackle or bang wasn’t a result at all.” He says sarcastically.

“Well, it’s good to hear that you’ve been able to put that behind you.” I say. “What are you working on now?”

“I’m not sure quite yet. I feel like there’s so much of alchemy I neglected, and I’ll need to re-learn and research some things. But once I’m done that…” He muses, “I’m thinking maybe I’ll try and develop a new fertiliser. The amount of magic herbs we harvest is always only just enough. If I could increase the amount we can grow or how fast, it could go a long way.”

“And it wouldn’t go astray on regular crops, either.” He adds as an afterthought.

“Those are the ones grown for the monster-repelling powder, right?” I say. “Would always be good if there was more of that.”

“Just so.” Ren agrees. “Right now, it’s being used exclusively to protect the town simply because we don’t have enough of it to be used for anything else - and it’s the same for the other couple towns in the valley. But if we had an excess it could be used for other purposes, such as to protect those who venture out looking for herbs, or those travelling between towns.”

We reach the door to the back garden, and Ren holds it open for us. “I have things to get back to, and from what I hear, so do you. I know I haven’t been the best host, but for what it’s worth, I wanted to express my thanks for everything you’ve done, both for the town and myself.”

I nod in acknowledgement, stepping through the open doorway. “You’re welcome. I’m very glad we found this place, too, despite all the hiccups along the way.”

With a quiet sound of assent from Ren, the door closes behind us.

“Well? How’d it go?” Jakin calls out to us.

I shrug. “Well enough, I think. Hard to get much detail on something so long ago, and even less with how they used to be so hostile to outsiders, but we managed to piece together a few things. Turns out this town was a major target for the orc tribes back in the day.”

“Makes sense.” Jakin nods, thinking. “The gnomes have got lots of resources, but not much defending them. Could hardly ask for a better target – for a raider, that is.”

“At least until they made an alliance with Binod and were reinforced by beastman troops.” Xiltroth notes.

“That… Would put a damper on any attacks, yes.” Jakin agrees, raising his eyebrows. “Interesting little history lesson and all, but how does that lead to them becoming peaceful?”

“Because there was nowhere else for them to raid.” I say. “It’s just a guess, but we had a look at maps from around the same time and the only civilisations near them were significantly stronger, military wise. To survive, they must’ve become self-sufficient, maybe farming, maybe hunting, maybe domesticating animals, maybe even fishing for all I know.”

“Couldn’t pick any fights without losing, so they stopped picking fights.” Jakin nods, summing it up nicely. “Good enough for me. We’re heading off in the morning, then?”

“I’d say so, yes.” I confirm. “Not enough time to go anywhere tonight.”

In the morning, we collect our things, say our farewells and make our way through the tunnel in the mountains. After we are out of the mountains, we start heading east and a bit south, where we estimate the orc city should be. We have plenty of time along the way, so we discuss what we should try to hunt as a peace offering.

“One of those bloody bison would be about right.” Jakin suggests. “Strong, good taste, and I’d wager even a group of orcs would have trouble eating it all in one sitting.”

“Too big.” Boaz shakes his head. “We’d be needing a cart or somesuch to lug it around, or we’d tire ourselves trying to carry it such a way.”

“True enough.” Jakin shrugs.

“Then, how about a lion? There should be some around here.” Heather offers hesitantly.

“Eh, they’re tough alright.” Jakin grimaces. “The meat too. Then again, maybe orcs would like that?”

“Best not risk it.” I say. “Then again, not like we want to turn up with a rabbit or something. And it’s not like there’s a huge population of edible monsters around here. I don’t think we could even kill one of those boomer bats without it detonating, let alone cook it.”

“Is bat even edible?” Xiltroth wonders.

“Who knows.” I shrug. “I don’t plan to find out the hard way if it’s not.”

“How about a gazelle, then?” Xiltroth suggests.

Silence falls for a few moments as we consider it.

“That’s… They’re certainly tough to hunt, I guess.” Jakin raises an eyebrow.

Gazelles aren’t particularly strong or tough, but one thing they certainly are is fast, and quick to spook. Putting Xiltroth and Heather aside, the twins and I, with our big, clunky, loud armour? We wouldn’t stand a chance of actually catching one. Stealth and an accurate shot are the only chance anyone could have, outside of trapping – and that isn’t exactly our forte.

But besides that, they aren’t dangerous, and they’re small enough that I could comfortably carry it.

“I think a gazelle would work.” I say, thoughtfully. “You think you’ll be able to hunt one down? They’d probably run before we’re able to get within a hundred meters.” I gesture to myself and the twins for clarification.

Xiltroth nods. “I think so. Might take an hour or two depending on my luck, but I should be able to manage it.”

“Alright.” I nod. “Just make sure keep an eye and an ear on your surroundings. We’ll set up camp here for a bit, maybe cook something up for an early lunch. Look for the smoke of the fire to make your way back.”

Xiltroth nods in understanding and jogs away.

In the meantime, we clear an area, collect sticks and fallen branches to fuel a fire and stones to line it. We have tools like flints and steel to help start a fire the mundane way, but a little bit of fire magic really makes the process simple.

Then we need to find something to eat. Most smaller animals and monsters have ways of avoiding predators or hunters such as ourselves. Rabbits or hares are incredibly agile, very difficult to catch in such an open space without traps, for instance. Others can hide underground, or take to the skies, or camouflage themselves. Others still are poisonous, or just taste plain terrible.

So most of the time, to keep things simple, we just go for something that’s confidant (or stupid) enough to fight us. That means bloody bison, often enough. They’ll charge anything that comes within range. Still, we might be able to manage one or two, but a whole herd stampeding at us is much too much. We have to get one alone.

They are pack animals, though, so you rarely find them alone. The best method we have found, therefore, is to find a small herd and try to attract the attention of a single member of the herd, usually whichever is the most separate from the others, or that the others aren’t paying attention to. Once it charges after us, we can lead it a distance away and deal with it.

We’re not always successful at separating one, but they aren’t the smartest of beasts. Oftentimes just ducking behind or climbing a tree, if necessary, is enough to confuse them, and they go charging past.

Still, we have a safer option now that we have access to some ranged weaponry. We can just shoot one before they notice us, lead off and lose the rest of the herd, and that’s that. It’s not exactly the easiest thing in the world, or without its own dangers, but we can handle it.

Takes us about half an hour to find a small herd – they’re dotted all across the place – and drag the bison we fell back to the fire. We don’t have much in the way of cooking utensils with us at the moment, and we’re still a ways away from the river, so we make do with roasting portions of meat over the fire.

Xiltroth reappears about an hour later, a gazelle carried over his shoulder. It has a single small hole in the back of its head.

After a short rest and Xiltroth eating a bit, we continue on our way. The rest of the bison we have to leave behind for the vultures. The gazelle is small and light in comparison, and is carried easily enough.

Another hour and a half passes, and I’m starting to consider where to camp if we don’t manage to find the city when we spot some buildings in the distance. We climb a slope, more a grassy knoll than a proper hill, to get a bit of a view.

“Looks like a village to me.” Xiltroth says, shielding his eyes from the sun with a hand as he peers into the distance. “The buildings are small, it’s mostly fields and pens.”

“That makes sense, I think. Most cities need nearby villages to support them. This must be one of them. I think I can make out some figures, but they’re just a bit too far away to tell any details.” I nod, narrowing my eyes as I try to make out what I’m seeing.

“It’s the orcs, I’m sure of it.” Heather says. “The buildings are in much the same style as I remember, very rough and irregular.”

Jakin squints in the direction we’re looking, before shaking his head in disgust. “Nope, can’t see a damn thing. How in the blazes can you people see that far!?” Boaz shrugs in resigned agreement.

Well, since my eyes were healed, I guess I have twenty-twenty vision again. “The mining probably has something to do with it, I think.”

“Mining?” Jakin raises an eyebrow. “We’ve not done much of that for a while.”

I shake my head. “I didn’t mean you in particular. Dwarves are famous for their constructions and craftsmanship. On the flip side, that means that historically, a much larger portion of their population needed to mine for the resources needed for those constructions in comparison to the other kingdoms, right?”

“Guess that sounds about right.” Jakin agrees.

“Straining your eyes in the mines by the light of a torch or lantern, that’s going to damage your eyesight. And often enough, traits like poor eyesight can be inherited - just like a child will often bear a striking resemblance to their parents.” I explain. “That happens to enough people over enough generations, the average eyesight is going to fall, although of course there are still going to be people with good or even great eyesight here and there.”

“Huh.” Jakin rubs at his beard. “Never thought about it that way. That makes some sense.”

He shakes his head. “Anyway, enough about that. We should head down to this village.”

“Yep, let’s.” I nod.

We head down the knoll and towards the village. As we approach, I can start to make out more details. The main area of the village is surrounded by a low stone wall, maybe waist height, that looks to be constructed of just piled stones. The fences around the animal pens appear to be draped with branches, or perhaps itself constructed of closely grown greenery. The buildings aren’t much more than rectangular cabins constructed from logs – I can even spot one that still has a few branches attached. It seems immediately clear that while the orcs had changed their warmongering ways, they hadn’t magically become architects, carpenters or masons in the last few hundred years.

As for the orcs themselves, they are much like the stories portray them. Tall, with broad shoulders and rippling muscles clear underneath their green skin. Smallish eyes peer from within slightly sunken sockets, and a pair of small tusks or overgrown teeth pull the corners of their mouths into what could be perceived as an eternal grimace. Their hair, if they have any at all, is a tangled, oily mess roughly cut short not to hang below the shoulders. Covering their bodies are simple yet well-made hide and fur clothes.

One of them, likely a guard by his weapons, notices us approaching the entrance to the village and calls out to us loudly in a gravelly voice. “Outsiders? Why have you come!?”

We stop approaching. I take a quick breath and restrain the urge to reach for a weapon. “We come in peace!” I call back. “We are adventurers from across the river, and we heard word of an orc city nearby. We thought to visit it and start good relations with the people there. We bring a gift of goodwill!”

The guard holds up a hand. “You wait there.”

But he doesn’t go anywhere, he just stands there, his face screwed up in concentration. We stand there awkwardly for a minute. Eventually, he nods slowly. “Outsiders want to be friends with orcs? Bring gift?”

“Yes!” I call back.

I flinch slightly as his face splits into what I, after a moment, optimistically decide is a smile, instead of a snarl. “Good! Come with me! I bring you to village chief!”

I nod, and start following him. “Well,” I say quietly to the others, “They seem friendly enough.”

Eyes stare at us with curiosity as we pass through the village, but at least without overt hostility. Orc children point and stare at our armour and weapons as we pass by where they play on the dirt streets. An orc women, who looks not one whit weaker than the men, barks at a kid who was about to run up to us, the kid turning around immediately with a chastised expression.

It doesn’t take long for us to reach a slightly larger building near the middle of the village. The guard leading us bangs on the door. “Chief!” He calls out to whoever is inside.

“What is it?” A voice calls irritably back from inside.

“Outsiders!” The guard replies through the doors.

“Outsiders?” Footsteps start thumping towards the door. “The good or bad kind?”

“The good kind… Probably?” The guard replies, scratching his bald head uncertainly as the door opens.

The village chief, large even for an orc, stares down at us for a moment.

“…Hello?” I proffer.

“Hm.” He grunts, narrowing his eyes. He looks back to the guard. “What did they say? Did you think three times, like big chief said?”

“I did!” the guard nods emphatically. “I remembered this time, I thought three times! The outsiders said… Hm, said they are adventurers… From across the river… They heard of orc city… Came to be friends with orc people… And brought gift.”

“Gift?” The village chief looks at us. “What is this gift?”

I gesture to the gazelle slung over Xiltroth’s shoulder. “This gazelle Xiltroth hunted.”

“Hmph.” The village chief snorts. “Good gift.”

He looks back to the guard. “I think you are right. Did good job. Outsiders… I can’t decide. Big chief will want to see them. He will decide. You go with outsiders to Ra’tlub, explain to big chief like you explain to me.”

“Me?” The guard blinks.

The chief rolls his eyes. “Yes. You.”

The guard nods. “Yes chief. I will take outsiders to big chief. Tell him what I told you. Won’t mess up this time.”

“Good.” The village chief nods. “Go, reach there before night falls. Return tomorrow, tell me what big chief decides.”

“Yes chief.” The guard nods again and turns to us. “Come. I will take you to Ra’tlub, orc city. I think you are good, but I am not clever. Big chief is clever. Big chief will know what to do.”

I nod, and he leads us out of the village, further east.

Well then. To Ra’tlub we go.