The beats of hooves drew near. A few fleeting moments is all that stood for us.

“We can draw them into the bogs. we will have the upper hand there,” suggested Arlene with renewed vigour. She was certain that her plan would work.

“We should engage them here. Should prevent them from making contact with the main force.” I declined her idea.

The ranger raised her eyebrow in question, demanding me to explain further.

“If they make contact with the main force, they would change tactic and go after Rodo and his group. We should prevent that for the safety of our allies.” I explained to her as I urged my dire boar mount to change direction.

A column of riders appeared through the thick vegetation. Even at the distance, it was clear that their armour and surcoat were different.

“What do you make out of it?” asked my curious companion.

“Too hard to say. Let us get closer.”

The closer we approached, the faster the mounted riders urged their mounts. It was unclear till we closed the distance between us that the riders ignored us and rode past, charging towards our pursuers.

“We have come to retrieve you,” called out the familiar voice of Theodore.

“Sir Theodore, I am glad for your timely arrival.” I cried out.

Soon Theodore trotted his warhorse close to us. He was dressed in a simple leather riders outfit with only a decent breastplate for moderate protection. A riders sabre and a small round shield were all that he carried. While the rest of his men carried a lance, he opted to stick with sword and shield.

“As I am glad to see that you are well, in spite of these dire circumstances,” replied Theodore.

“You have a much bigger force with you, right?” My words were filled with expectation.

“Sadly, when we heard the news, this is all that we could immediately muster. Twenty-five fine young knights from our Lady’s very own house and fifty men forming phalanx and crossbowmen from the town guards.” He wasted no time in providing the information that I needed.

“So you were not following us?”

“We were unaware of your involvement till we met the orcs. We heard reports of a huge band burning through the outlying villages and settlements. So Lady Jessbeth did what any sensible Lord would do in her position. Deployed us.”

“Your reports might have been a little less precise. We are dealing with thousands here and they are not a band of brigands. They have an organised army in the core.” His expression widened as he realised the full extent of the ordeal.

“Jorrel, Jorrel,” he shouted immediately, “Send word to Captain Jorrel. He needs to hear this.”

Soon another rider broke away from the column and approached us.

“Captain Jorrel, he leads this campaign. I am just involved as an advisor and this is Lady Rylonvirah of The Aberrant Irregulars. She has our Lady’s support in regards to certain issues, Captain Jorrel.” introduced Theodore. He did not bother explaining to the newcomer what those “certain issues” meant.

I glanced at Arlene, the only remaining person who is not yet formally introduced.

“And this is my Lieutenant Arlene,” I extended my hand in the direction of my companion. She seemed a bit taken back by the role I assigned to her. If she had any reservations, she did not bother talking back.

“Greetings Lady Rylonvirah. What is the situation here?” asked Jorrel directly and ignored exchanging pleasantries with Arlene. Perhaps her rank, a bit too low for him to acknowledge.

“We are facing around three thousand armed men. Around eight hundred of them are trained soldiers and well equipped. The rest are bandits, outlaws and some mercenaries. The civilians are holed up inside the bog. No trained fighting force with them. It is me. my lieutenant and my mercenaries, around twenty goblins.”

“Only twenty goblins?” A mixed look of disappointment and disbelief flashed across Jorrel’s face.

“They are not good in an open fight but in the bog, they are highly mobile, unimpeded and deadly as any knight.”

Jorrel still maintained a stoic expression, clearly indicating that he still was not convinced.

“And some thirty werewolves with us.”

“Werewolves? Are we fighting by their side now? To protect werewolves?” asked Jorrel in disgust. The question was addressed equally to Theodore and me.

“See it this way, you are protecting civilians and so do the werewolves. Aligned by a common goal. To protect the weak. Will that convince you, Captain?”

“I guess, it is not up to me to question your motives. Since it is clear that you have Lady Jessbeth’s support.” He gave up. With that statement, he also made it evident that his forces are there for me to command.

At a distance, the first charge of the riders met the pursuers. There were screams and then there were more screams.

“Captain, please call a retreat. The pursuers are huge in number. We should get behind the woods before the archers arrive.” I made my suggestion. I wanted to protect my newfound allies.

Jorrel issued the order to retreat.

The column of riders disengaged from fighting and quickly retreated to our location.

We rode further and only slowed down after we passed through the relative safety of the first row of trees.

“Are their riders engaged with your werewolves?” enquired Theodore once we slowed down.

“No, we took care of them,” said a proud Arlene.

“What about the rest of their riders?” interrogated Jorrel further.

“We took care of all of them.” reiterated Arlene off-handedly.

“Surely you must be exaggerating.” countered an unbelieving Jorrel.

“They gain nothing by lying. If they claim they took care of the riders, then so it must be,” interjected Theodore. He was keen on moving past the argument.

“So what is your strategy? Counting all of us, they still outnumber us.” Jorrel was still concerned.

“I might be able to procure some additional fighting force. Now, where exactly did you meet the orcs?” I asked with a grimace.

*****

Much to Arlene’s chagrin, she was left behind with Jorrel to block our pursuers from following. Once they saw a cavalry charge most of the soldiers who pursued me retreated. While the few others who still tried their luck at winning the thousand grand Lira would not live to see the sunrise.

I let Theodore lead the way while I silently followed.

“May I talk with the one who leads you?” I immediately asked the question once we were within earshot of the orcs. No greetings or pleasantries were exchanged. They were not one for formality.

“If you want to talk, I am the one you want to talk to now. I lead the raid party.” answered a female orc as she pushed her way through her subordinates.

The piercing glare from her amber eyes alternated between me and Theodore. Her dark hair was cut short to deter her opponents from grabbing it in a battle. Her arms and legs were covered with gauntlets and vambraces made out of leather from some unknown animal. A simple but sturdy breastplate covered her upper body and a simple rustic skirt of thick fur, hung below. She carried no visible weapons apart from the few throwing daggers in her belt.

“Are you the one who commands these orcs?” I persisted in my question.

“The Stormlord commands us. I only lead them for now. Why do you follow us?”

“Will you fight for us? Name your price?”

Negotiation with the orcs was always simple.

“You have nothing to offer us. Nothing worth throwing our lives away” refused the orc raid leader.

“I could lead you to victory against a thousand.” I choose to appeal to their nature of seeking glory.

Her look darted from me to the dire boar and then back to me.

“You tamed a thundertusk. Not a bred one. A wild one, you tamed. The stonecleavers will acknowledge your prowess. But we are not fools to follow false promises.” refused the orc stubbornly.

“You think, I will not survive. Want to make a wager?” I challenged her.

“No wager. You live or you die. We do not care.”

The raid leader ignored my taunt again.

“How about a hefty reward? Don’t take my word for it. This here is Sir Theodore of House Wysteria,” I spoke pointing to Theodore, “Your clan will have the alliance of a Lord.”

“Humans fight against humans. we orcs are not new to fighting our own race. Except, humans, enemies today and friends tomorrow. Human friendship is fragile and weak. Your friendship will stay for one day and evaporate the next. Stonecleavers do not need such alliance.” She was stubborn with her refusal to every offer.

Theodore moved in his saddle uncomfortably and his knuckles paled as he tightly gripped the reins of his horse. It was evident that he will not have the orc disrespect his liege any further.

“But you ignored us the last time. You even withdrew from the battle. Something must have triggered for that to happen?”

“We, the stonecleavers, value honour in fights. There is no honour in fighting a dark elf. There is no honour in fighting with a dark elf.” She spat the word dark elf as if it were poison.

“Yet, there is honour is butchering innocent villagers? Burn their farms. Hunt them down while they flee for their lives.” At last, Theodore broke his silence and his anger guided his words.

“Enemy drops the knife when they see me and will stick it in my back when I turn. There is no dishonour in killing such an enemy. No dishonour in killing a coward. Once an enemy always an enemy. That is an honour. A blood debt is always paid. That is an honour.” The raid leader bared her fangs. She did not enjoy being confronted.

It was difficult to follow the orcs nature of honour, for their concept of honour differed from my own. Theodore seemed equally baffled by the orc’s words.

“So your sense of honour prevents you from raising weapons against a former ally. I understand that” I directed my words at the raid leader, “and that is why you are reluctant to join us.”

The orc before me did not bother to respond and simply averted looking at me. At last, I have something to work with.

“They are not your allies. Do you not see, they do not have any other races apart from humans, No elves, no dwarves.” Arlene’s remark about there being no elves among the enemy forces was right on the mark.

“The pruning hands, do not like elves or dwarves. We do not like elves. Elves do not like other elves. “ said the orc sarcastically.

At least, I now know the name of the mysterious adversary. The pruning hands. I would have expected a vicious name for such a group but The Pruning Hands seems more like a gardening society than a bunch of mass-murdering xenophobics.

“If they hate elves and dwarves, what assures you that they would not hate orcs? Today it is elves. Tomorrow, it is orcs they hate.” I uttered my words slowly and carefully. “And when they grow more powerful, they will come after the orc.”

The raid leader’s expression was unreadable but her lack of immediate counter reply implied that my arguments had an effect on her.

“We are not asking you to raise your blade against your former allies. That would be me disregarding your code of honour. I would never ask that of you. For a price, when the battle rages intensely, the supplies will be unguarded. Just burn their supplies. No killing your former allies. No dishonour.”

“They will chase us and we have to fight. No. I cannot accept.” refused the stubborn orc.

“No, they will not chase you. Once the supplies are burned. Most will immediately desert the battle. The rest will be focussed on us.“ I gave a reassuring smile.

“For a price.” She agreed finally.

“I am Rylonvirah and this is Sir Theodore.” I gave our names to build trust with her.

“Urganza of the stonecleavers.” She provided her name finally. There was a hint of pride as she added her clan name.

*****

“Can we trust the orcs?” asked Theodore, after I explained my revised plan once we met with Jorrel and Arlene.

“Urganza gave her word. They will follow through.” I assured him.

“Then why do we wait?” asked an impatient Jorrel.

A thick air hung around Jorrel and Arlene. There was no synergy between him and Arlene and nor did they bother to cover the fact. Arlene was open in her distaste for working with humans from cities. I could only guess that Jorrel probably considered Arlene, in spite of her elven long life span, still as a child and subsequently did not feel comfortable treating her as an equal. These two will have to put aside their difference if we were to survive.

“Captain Jorrel, what do you think would happen when their supplies are burnt?” I answered his question with another question.

“They will not be able to prolong the battle and so they will retreat.” answered a lethargic Jorrel. He was uninterested in answering my question.

“That is when the real fight would begin,” Theodore corrected Jorrel, “the mercenaries employed would flee, but not their trained armies. Whoever is commanding them would issue the order to go all out. “

“That is suicidal. They will lose more of their trained units that way.” responded the captain, still trying to process what he heard.

“They are not fighting for coins, they are fighting for an idealogy. However misguided it is. They would rather return with news of a successful mission than report a failure. Lady Rylonvirah probably guessed it already.” spoke Theodore while he gave a smile in my direction.

Theodore knows more about the mysterious adversary. If we survive this, Theodore will have a lot to answer. As if reading my thoughts, Theodore added.

“My Lady Jessbeth will personally want to talk with you once all this is over.”

“When their trained units make the full-scale assault, I would need the shield wall of the town guards and the crossbowmen behind to break their assault. For that, we need to bring the town guards through the bog to where the civilians are. That is why we need to wait.”

“We just have to survive the last assault on tomorrow morning,” spoke Arlene finally with stern determination and she was accurate on that.