Lthrok invited us to his hut. Unlike the Ghyurl’s tribe, Lthrok’s tribe lived in smaller huts in which not much effort was put during construction. Surely, they were more hunters than settlers. That beings said, Ghyurl’s tribe was not exactly builders. I am making a comparison out of low caliber architects here.

“The Caller, I apologize for my words earlier. We have waited for your appearance for hundreds of years now and we lost our faith in the process. Now that you are here, let me offer our tribe to you. You are our rightful Chief.”

“Thank you Lthrok, but you do not need to be too formal. As you can see, I can bring orcs and goblins into this world by opening gates which connect this world with another. However, the ones you saw me bring today were only the ones I brought today. I woke up in this forest about two weeks ago, and through these two weeks I have brought more than 800 goblins and orcs to this world. The camp we came from already has a thousand people. I came here not to ask to overtake your camp, but to ask you to join us there. It is up to you, but even in the case you refuse this proposal, we would like to establish a good relationship.”

Lthrok was once again hit by the gravity of my words. A thousand monsters in the other camp would surely make it hard to call a camp anymore. Yet, I could still not read his thoughts from his face – would he accept my offer?

He glanced at Ghyurl as if he wanted to express his surprise to an old friend. “A human”, I imagined his eyes talk: “Look at this – a human leading monsters. What a time to be alive.”

“I accept your proposal, Chief. But what I have been thinking is how we can carry our belongings to that camp. It takes around a day to reach the other camp from here and we have around 200 orcs here. Even with the wargs, it is impossible for us to carry everything at once.”

So, I think to myself, those huge wolves are called wargs.

“You do not need to worry about it. I will leave the 100 orcs and goblins I called here to help you with carrying your belongings to the other camp. You can organize your people to come in groups throughout this week, you do not need to come in one batch. Make sure you take everything you need and want with you, but do not rush. In the meanwhile, we will finish constructing houses for all of you.”

“I see, then we can use the wargs to pull carts. The forest path is a little difficult to navigate for wagons, so it might take us a little longer than a day to carry the belongings and equipment, but this should minimize the work.”

“Sounds great. If you do not mind me asking – how many wargs do you have?”

“26. But 18 of them are still cubs.”

“And how many wagons do you have?”

“We have 6, but they are old. They were probably not used for centuries.”

“I see, in the meantime, I bet you can build more wagons.”

“We will, Chief.”

I wonder if the warg cubs are cute, though I should probably not be thinking about this.

“What are these wargs by the way? I have not seen time since I woke up.”

“They are mounts often used by orcs and some other monsters, Chief. They live in forests in groups and are extremely hard to catch. The wild ones are extremely feral, but once they are domesticated they are very loyal and docile. That, of course, does not mean that they can bite off the throats of the enemies… They are very strong and agile.”

I bet they are. I had a chance to look at one of them while we were entering the hut, and it looked exactly like a wolf – only much bigger, stronger, and faster. A real predator, I thought to myself.

“They really look like big wolves.”

“Elves call them dire wolves, Chief, but us monsters call them wargs.” Ghyurl spoke.

“Elves?”

“What about them, Chief?” asked Lthrok.

“Are they not monsters?”

Lthrok looked puzzled. To his luck, Ghyurl spoke:

“Lthrok, Chief Murder is not really knowledgeable about this world as he has no memory of it. I was puzzled at first too since he can speak our language.” Then he turned to me to answer my question:

“They are a humanoid race. There are different elven peoples and each of them is different. However, none of them usually gets out of their way to interact with other races although, just like other humanoids, they all hate monsters. They also ride wargs like we do, but they call them dire wolves.”

“I see. Have you ever seen an elf?”

“No, Chief. There is not a single humanoid within this forest and both of our tribes have been isolated here for centuries. But…”

Lthrok completed his sentence:

“There is an elven village behind the northern mountains which can be seen from the top of the mountain. But nobody has been there for decades.”

I guess we can only contact the outside world after developing well enough here in this forest anyway. So, thinking about elves or how we can contact them is not an issue of immediate concern. At this point, we need to make sure to secure a sustainable food production method as hunting for animals will not help feed a population of thousands of orcs and goblins. I am starting to think we need agriculture more and more with each day. However, one thing I know would be useful is:

“Do you know how we can find and domesticate more wargs?”

“Yes, Chief. Normally, taming them is difficult as they are fast and strong. But with more men, it should not be a problem. Do you want wargs?”

“I think they will be essential for transportation.”

“I understand. I will start working on it with our tamers after our arrival at your camp.”

“Amazing. Then we will be taking our leave. Try to come within a week’s time as we discussed.”

“You do not need to worry Chief.”