Ch.22

It was now the first month of the fall season. A handful of other villages had been raided, bolstering their resources and numbers, which now neared three hundred.

Farmland covered the majority of the area, and crops had already begun to sprout. Food was neither an issue anymore as they now had large nets able to catch mass amounts of fish in the ocean. The pens of animals had also grown in size, and houses of wood were being constructed.

Men were also being trained by Erik personally, taught to fight, and forced to undergo rigorous training to build muscle. He deemed them knights.

"My lord." Marasia approached him from behind.

"Marasia."

"I have returned from doing as you ordered and have learned the orcs have been pushed further to the west and have begun to rally under one, large clan. Their numbers are hundreds, but it would seem their warriors only number portion."

"I see. Their weapons?"

"They wielded spears and axes, wooden handles and blades carved from bone."

"Did it seem like they were going to attack us?"

"I... Can not say for certain, my lord. They were preparing for battle, I am certain."

He pondered his next course of actions, carefully considering all possibilities and outcomes he could think of, including the benefits and losses he'd incur.

"My lord, what will you have me do?"

"...Starve them."

"My lord?"

"They will attack, since now that they have taken on so many more mouths, food will become scarce. They will have no choice, and if we were to fight them head-on, their numbers would overwhelm ours. Instead, we will starve them. Their women gather fruits and vegetables, while their men hunt. In that regard, it would be facile to starve them. Our current advantage is that they do not know our exact location, I doubt they even have so much as a map drawn on paper, or written in their mind. They will send scouts, capture them, let none report back."

"Yes, my lord."

"A handful of hunters will go with you. Rob them of their food, set traps, and have them brought back here. Be discrete, if you are discovered, I will be disappointed in you, Marasia." His eyes were unnerving,

A shiver ran down her spine, and though she was partially afraid, the rest of her felt excitement, and she smiled so. "Yes, my lord. I will not fail you."

"Good. Take the runes and set a path as well, hidden through the forest."

"Yes, my lord."

Under his order, a group of his most experienced and trained hunters went out in following Marasia.

Two short days of travel, setting up runestones along the way. The runestones were stones marked with mana, carved into and left against the flattest of surfaces they would, walls, like a boulder or cliff in the forest, since the trees were much too small for a person to pass through.

They were intruding in enemy territory and unknown land at the same time, which forced them to hide deep in the forest and away from the clan's villages.

The forest was sprawled with animals, the skittish boars, venomous insects, and savage wolves. They took everything they could, sneaking them through the pathways connected by the runes they'd left behind, doorways that cut the travel of hours on end, down to a second.

Like thieves in the night, they roped livestock and brought them to the village where awaiting men handled the rest.

They took large insects, mushrooms, wild fruit, flowers, vegetables, and every animal they came across, ignoring the bear which was much too large for them to handle. Slowly, they backed away from the great beast.

Eventually, they encountered enemy hunters armed with spears.

They kept their distance since the enemies knew the layout of the land far better, but even they could not expect or see the traps, hidden in soil.

One of them had triggered the rope trap, being yanked off their legs and pulled up and over a strong branch. With haste, the knights that were hidden rushed to subdue the orc. They took his weapon and covered his mouth with a rag. Eventually, they subdued him, knocking him unconscious and dragging him away, leaving the others to be none the wiser.

By the time sunset was near, the orcs had come to realize the hunters had yet to return. They sent out their men, blaring bright torches in their grasp, but it would be fruitless their search, as the hunters they'd sent out were now captives, being hung by their ankles into the depths of one of the pits they'd dug out.

The one they hung from was not enclosed on all sides, instead having a slope that Erik walked down from.

Fifteen orc men hung before him, silently staring at him having never seen a bipedal creature like him before. His pale skin and those deep blue eyes that seemed to glow brighter by the moonlight's reflection made the hair on their skin crawl.

With them not knowing a lick of common, he of course spoke their own orcish tongue. ("How many of you are there?") The men looked at each other, wondering which of them would answer his question. He pushed them to make that decision, turning to one of them at random. ("You, answer")

("What are you? You are not berog.")

("Berog? No, I am human. I am the lord of this land, of the berog people who joined me. I am a god, as to my name and, what I am the god of, I am yet to decide. Now, I ask you, how many of you are there?")

("You, a god?") One of them laughed suddenly. ("Our god is vicious, a being who consumes and lies dormant within the great mountain. You are as small as us, how can you consider yourself a god?")

("In the mountain...? You worship your own god?")

("Yes! Our god is the greatest of the gods! The God of the Depths! Devourer of Stone! If you do not release us, his apostle, the great zeman, will call upon him.")

("Zeman...") He paused. "A witch." He placed his hand on his blade, sheathed at his hip. He drew it, piercing it through the orc's arm. The orc cried out in pain as blood quickly spilled out. ("You are bleeding out, so unless you begin to answer my questions, you will die and I will move on to the next. So I ask you, ask you all. How many must suffer and perish, before I'm told what I want.")

Within minutes, he was told what he wanted. He walked back up, whipping the blood off his blade before sheathing it, and wiping his hand with his handkerchief.

"Cut them down." He told Marasia, who'd been waiting. "Give them food and water, then begin their education. Be especially forceful with them. If they refuse to fall in line, execute them. In two days time, we will negotiate with the berog clans."

"Yes, my lord."