18 Chapter 17 - Caspian Forest.

The slicing and stabbing of wooden flesh with the screams of dying wood nymphs was loud and unforgiving, Rodahn and Major racing with their friend towards the castle through the thick shrubs and plant life, encountering multiple wooden monsters that spit thorns and pores from their resilient bodies.

"Cover your mouths, that stuff will knock you out!" Tabby yells out, her hair all frazzled from the running, but staying out of harms way behind Major and his holy sword, while Ro tanked the majority of nymphs with his wide swings.

The war axe chopping the stationary nymphs in half as the others break from their roots and stumps, stepping out and giving chase to the brave warriors.

"Got any plans?!" Major says as Rodahn takes brief enjoyment in cutting down the creatures of evil, bringing his axe in a downward swing, chopping it into two halves.

"Kill anything green and moving" Rodahn shouts, clasping as hand over his mouth and nose to prevent breathing in any clouds of spores, his other knuckles clenched tightly around the base of his axe, beheading a screeching creature as the leafs on their head fly everywhere.

"I could never kill my best friend~" Major teases as the orc finishes the last of the attackers with a defeated sigh.

"Hardy har, your jokes are racist you know?"

Majors eyes widen in panic as he approaches the brooding figure with a nervous finger tapping on the hilt of his sword as his nervous eyes peer up at his taller friend with Tabby at his heels

"Oh...I er...I'm-"

Hes cut off by the low courteous chuckle by the orc, sending relief thundering down his body, a small and relaxed smile spreads on his face.

"It's fun messing with you, easy too~" Rodahn's eyes flow down to his friends face with a gratuitous smile, swinging his axe onto his shoulder as Tabby remained at the side of Major, her eyes poised onto him as if the Orc didn't exist next to him, even though he stood above them by at least 4 feet.

Ro's mind slowly begins to swirl with suspicion as he observes the girl, her gaze almost not there but deep inside her eyes were a secret goal, but it was unknown to the Orc...so he shakes them off and continues on towards the grand doors of the castle looking upon the surface to see that the were more vines wrapped around the gold.

All their eyes stare up and down at the golden door with dread. With them in the way there's no way to open this door.

"How do we cut such thick vines?" Tabby asks the men with uncertainty, but the two loo at each other with a knowing smirk, Rodahn getting into a position with his back to the door, holding both his hands cupped just above his knees.

"What are you doing?" Tabby asks them, curious as Major starts walking backwards for a run up, looking at the girl, his white teeth shining in the sunlight with a handsome smile.

"Working as a team"

And with that he takes off running at Rodahn, the Orc was steady and calm as he awaits the impact, the knight reaches him then jumps into the orcs cupped hands as hes propelled into the air upwards. Majors slightly longer hair rustled in the wind with his jump, grabbing a hold of the vines at the top of the grand doors.

Looking down upon the two at the bottom with a cheeky mischievous grin.

"Hey RO! you actually look tiny from up here!" he shouts down at the two, Rodahn scoffs at his remark, covering his eyes from the sunlight,

"Funny, you look just as tiny as you normally do from down here!"

The two laugh, their friendship filling the sadness that swelled in the cores of their minds, Major taking his sword and jamming it into the crack of the door sliding down the door cutting the vines above him, his hollering of joy echoed through the kingdom when his joy came to a close. Enjoying his freedom for those few exhilarating moments.

Stepping away  when he reaches the bottom as the wall of vines slip away from the golden door with a resounding rustle and creak. Rodahn gripping at the inside and pulling apart the two doors, the grand staircase leading up into the nest was coated in greenery along with the rest of the inside.

"My gods, how has it spread so quickly?" Tabby asks as they all set foot inside, the gaping doorway shone light into the darker parts. Revealing more stationary nymphs attached to the ground, walls and ceilings...asleep. But to their disadvantage, Tabby trips over a low hanging branch causing her to make a large crashing sound when she hits the ground.

The nymphs awake slowly around them, their eyes casting hungry and devilish scowls as more screeches leave their sharped wooden teeth. Some even begin filling the room with spores to gas the heroes out to eat them while they sleep.

"That's why!" Major yells, grabbing the girl and sprinting away from the crowded entrance area with Rodahn as they dodge more perched wood creatures, their roars for food cry out in the halls as the trio climb the spiral staircase upwards and into the kitchen.

Their heavy breathing was the only thing louder than the creatures pursuing them, Rodahn swinging the kitchen door shut and blocking it with his back, looking to the other two friends with pleading expressions.

"Find something to block the door, hurry!"

"On it!"

Tabby and Major skim around the room looking for something big and heavy, the only things matching the description was the table or whatever was underneath the cloth across the room, The Orc feeling the banging from the other side of the door, breaking a sweat, exhausted from fighting and running most of the day.

"Major! Table!" Rodahn sputters out, the numbers of nymphs on the other side were gaining in number, the door pushing inwards slightly as the Orcs foot slips momentarily before gaining his balance, closing the door on one of the nymphs hands severing it off. Major rushes at the end of the large table in the kitchen with Tabby's help.

Dragging it across the floor and pulling and pushing it towards the door, Major taking over the door while the Orc barricades them inside. Taking a brief glance at their handiwork before relaxing a little, the nymphs losing focus and wandering around the castle more to root back down.

A staggered mood erupts from the room as the group look at each other with a visible concern, not expecting the castle to be infested as bad as it was, trapped inside for the time being until they can come up with a plan.

"Whee are the staff...you said there were survivors in here?" Major asks Tabby as she looks around promptly, but she just looks lost and uncertain...after all the trauma they wouldn't blame her for not being all there.

But out of nowhere, the wall in the kitchens corner opens up, swinging open into the room as an identical man and woman holding bright torches emerge from the dark stairway they came from. They look confused for a moment before spotting their own as Tabby runs over to them. Embracing them in a tight an loving hug.

"Oh thank the gods you're both still alive! I was so scared out there!" she squeals with excitement as the two twins hug her back with relieved smiles on each face, but the loud declarations alerted the nymphs again tot heir position, the banging on the door becoming viscous and violent.

"We need to move, come on its safe down here" the man says walking with his little sister in tow, the woman eyes the Orc and knight with caution before stepping to the side, letting them into their secret chamber.

As they all go lower down the dark stairs, the woman closes the hidden door before catching up to the rest of the group, walking in complete silence, with the quiet chitter chatter between Tabby and her brother in the front of the formation. Before Major opens his big mouth.

"Hey so...uh...what happened to all the gardeners?"

Rodahn's elbow digs deeply into the Knights ribs, a wheezing sigh of pain leaves him, but other than that he held it in and chose to keep quiet. The Orc taking over the conversation quickly with a charming and polite grin, his under bite prominent with his small teeth protruding from his bottom lip.

"Apologies for my friend, however we still know so little, some idea how the grounds were taken over so quickly?"

There was a brief silence but the woman at the back spoke up for him.

"We don't know for sure...but it wasn't by chance"

"What do you mean?" Major cuts in with a question, the brother pulling away from his conversation to join the current of the new one.

"Someone brought them here on purpose...they soon had nests all over the city divided...then as days went on after that crazy prince left, they grew in number and the whole place filled with green overnight." he says to the strangers, Major and Rodahn's interest even more peaked at the circumstances now.

Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs and into a cellar like area, but there were tunnels upon tunnels under the castle, with racks and racks upon wine and alcohol. with the occasional basket of fruit and veg, slightly moldy, but better than nothing.

If memory served Major well, he used to remember when the king was in rule, he'd have so many balls and gatherings of fun...while killing his people softly with bills and taxes.

The wine was a fine age and the parties were some of the most talked about things in the realm...but now the kingdom is nothing but a husk of what it used to be, the gold coated in green and the trees cover the windows from the outside as if to block the light from getting in.

His eyebrows creasing in thought, Rodahn returning with the group of siblings to a corner where more humans and staff remain safe and seated on their beds, and there was more than just a small group...a number of thirty or more were down here with minimal protection and no way out.

All panicked and worried, leaving Rodahn anxious also, scared his mission would be compromised if they stayed there any longer. But major didn't seem to give up so easily, seeing the large amount of humans down here as an inspiring message of hope...that one day all the mess in the outside world would cease.

But those are just one mans wishes, to save everyone down here from horrible fates. Standing and approaching his friend, placing a hand over his arm as Rodahn looks down at Major and his eyes softened at the desperate plead the knight was attempting, but he didn't want to budge this time.

"Don't even ask, we have a mission and we still have no idea where he is..clearly not in this green hellhole"

"Come on man, if we don't help these guys how can we be so sure they'd survive without us here?"

A few seem offended by that statement, but for most of the people in the secret hiding tunnels agreed they had no fighting experience. Making a plan even harder than before.

"Why do you care so much, the one person you cared about is gone...whats the point just to get hurt again?"

He shakes his head at the Orc, signifying disapproval at his attitude.

"You don't get it...its a human thing-"

"NO, its a you thing Major, you always play hero!"

"What?! So saving lives is a bad thing to you now? your revenge mission that more important than the rebuilding of a literal Realm?"

Rodahn chooses not to engage and walks away from his smaller friend in a huff, one at the end of the humans space, the other in the other end of the tunnels. Both surrounded by nice and interesting people, some people Major knew from memory, others he didn't.

However, Rodahn was unaccustomed to the environment, not many humans take time to talk to Orcs, the fear their throats might get ripped out for a single wrong word or doing, a stigma of all Orcs being violent beings of destruction.

Its exactly the reason he left his true land, his home Noreclya, and his family name was thrown to the dirt, and when his father was beheaded in the war...he sent unknowing allies into the maw of death...he was one of the few to survive that fight. But ever since he wasn't welcome in any clan.

Shunned from everything he grew up knowing.

But Major had always loved Caspia and its people, They weren't exciting or too loud and for the most part they were a tight knit people who loved their families...and he was devastated to hear what had happened to them. He knew Camus was strange and aloof at the time...but not insane to the point of killing all of his subjects.

Just thinking about it he feels a fire ignite in his heart, repressed rage that Rodahn helped keep calm on the journey but when they clashed it was always heated and intense.

Eventually after getting over their spat they find each other in the bunker, not apologizing verbally but being the stubborn men they were they move on with nothing more than nod, finding the twins with Tabby at a table preparing rations for the people. Their eyes peering onto the two with a hopeful plea.

"My lords, I-" The brother says as Rodahn lifts his hand.

"Don't call us that, do we look like lords?" he grumbles to himself, Major rubbing the back of his neck with an awkward smile 

"My apologies sir, but we need both your help to clear the castle or we'll be all stuck down here until we run out of food" he says to the two looking at their remaining food with wary and saddened eyes. Knowing they don't have long left.

but after some thought on the Orcs end had come around to Majors wishes, nodding his head.

"We'll get rid of the nymphs for you, but after that we leave" he directs to Major as his friend simply nods, grateful he changed his mind.

"But we cant do it alone, does anyone in this bunker know how to fight?" Major asks the twins, looking to each other before offering themselves to help.

"We can fight, but the others were not sure" The sister speaks up for them, Major and Rodahn's attention turning to the people who were taking shelter, some men and women were built well and could easily swing a regular sword or mace, but most were frail and on the weaker side. Living in the castle kitchen most of their lives and serving the royals.

But Major had ideas swimming around in his mind, reassuring the Orc and his concerned pout as he slowly explains what they need to do, checking everyone and they're skills before announcing their plan to everyone.

Worried, but prepared none the less. All they can worry about now is the citizens help in the coming fight, and whether it will be enough.

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