Chapter 6

In a nearby forest, a scantily clad orc with a rusted iron cuirass and a corroded sword on his hip watched excitedly as the sun set, Anar the source of Middle-earth's daylight, the terror of all Morgoth's creatures.

"Madar, the next great orc, at the head of some stupid cave goblins" Said the orc, even though his minions heard him.

The goblins were quite different from the Orcs of Moria, having skin of a pale hue contrary to the sallow skin of the orcs. Short and plagued with various skin diseases and deformities, such as cleft lip, mismatched or crooked eyes, and crooked fingernails.

 "Get ready scum, I want the most useful ones alive, and don't let anyone escape, the lord needs manpower for his tower" in the midst of his words he could observe little more than a dozen men approaching his position, but this day luck was smiling on him in his opinion because the light of Anar was waning in the east, providing the last seconds of protection over those wretches.

With those last glimmers of light and the proximity of less than 70 meters, they could see the body of their army, fleeing back to their dens.

"Tear them to pieces" Madar said with an amused smile.

After those words, hundreds of goblins came out of the forest, with their explosive speed and eagerness to cause misfortune, the glorious beginning of their future.

Shortly the poor wretches lasted in front of a hundred goblins, excited at last to be able to kill something and waiting for hours for this moment, forgetting even the order to capture the poor wretches.

"Tolfo, make sure they don't kill anyone again, if I see any more useful slaves killed, the one who will pay for it will be your hide, understood?" he said to a goblin next to him, the most flattering and therefore the smartest of his subordinates.

Madar himself went after the mob, on top of the only warg of his group, by right in a duel to the death with a stupid one-armed man, his mount eager for destruction took him quickly towards the village, arriving first, with the same eagerness to destroy as the others.

They burned houses, plundered and captured humans, in their sight simple creatures full of terror before their greatness, useful slaves for their supreme lord. Madar longed for greatness, so he planned to please his master with as many slaves as possible.

But his plans were beginning to be endangered, for no more than 200 humans were at his feet.

"Where are the others, by the number of houses in this village there must be at least 600 humans" Madar said, with contained rage 'where are they'.

They were not a group that was unprepared to face their armies and not sick or old enough to have been abandoned.

"We don't know my lord, we haven't killed anyone" Toldo answered him, with a look of fear.

"You, what about the others" Madar spoke towards the humans, but this time in the common tongue. Something that had secured his position.

It did not take many threats to find out what had happened a person had noticed his presence alerting everyone but these fools had not followed the advice, something that did not comfort him, he would be a laughing stock if he let them reach the mountains or worse, he would be killed.

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We advanced quickly along the road closest to the next village, with a large group of people following behind us, some returned because they had not found any sign of threat and claimed that it had been stupid to pay attention to us, this kept happening until only a third of the initial group continued to advance. Not that they continued because of trust in our words, but because of the fire that was visible in the direction of the village, we were crossing the last hill that was in their path and the clear night allowed us to see the beginning of the violence.

"We must continue, we can't stay here, we are exposed on this hill, let's hurry the pace, we must reach Ostiriht by tonight" with a strong voice spoke the grandma´s conviction in her words as she listened to the others act like lambs in a Flock obeying their shepherd.

"Boy I want you to check who is left behind, help them with the load if you can, and check that they only carry what is necessary" she ordered with a low tone while observing the mass that followed us with a critical eye.

She has been in a high position, perhaps in the army because of his habit of ordering the person she considers more trustworthy, he always knew that grandma was not a normal woman and could belong to high society, so I am not surprised to discover a little of his past, it's almost funny how I ended up in the hands of a general both in this life and the other.

My reflexes made me follow the order without hesitation. I understood what the grandmother meant, although she had been clear in only carrying what was necessary, some would be stubborn in carrying things of value (some iron and silver scrap), but the best way to convince them was to let them feel fear, it was better to lose a stupid object or their life.

It wasn't long before a group fell behind, one of their bags hadn't held the weight of their load, exposing its interior.

"We won't wait for those who fall behind for this kind of reason."

"Come on, you're the only ones with a cart, you should take all your valuables there, for sure." Said the merchant with a voice full of hatred and envy.

"We won't carry any useless valueless belongings, but we can carry any weaker old men or children, if anyone is unhappy about it, we'll move on quickly and leave this group behind" I said to the others in the group while ignoring the insults.

I continued to move towards the wagon without looking towards the crowd, if diplomacy was no good and The fear of dying was less than their discomfort towards us, our responsibility was over.

"Sorry Grandma for making decisions without you" I apologize as I sat down next to Grandma.

"You did right Darhiel, I was the one who was wrong to think I could dialogue with them" She consoles me as she looks seriously ahead, apparently her patience had also run out because the car was going faster.

A short time later we arrived at the next town, some had understood that the money was not worth it but others stayed behind, dozens of people from the town came out with curiosity a visit in the middle of the night of dozens of people would be something more than strange for the inhabitants, it didn't take long for the question to be asked.

"You're from Hordern, aren't you, what's wrong because you came in the middle of the night?" spoke an old, thin, haggard-looking man took the floor.

The heads peering out of the windows bowed, confused, and looked at other people inside their houses. On their faces confusion and annoyance. They were seeing dozens of people arriving in the middle of the night and not knowing where it came from. No doubt few would listen to the warnings.

"Our village was attacked, by an army of orcs for what we believe, you too must evacuate, it won't be long before they reach these lands" replied the grandmother, as she continued trying to move forward in the middle of the crowd.

"It's impossible, the orcs don't reach this far south."

"We saw the village burn behind us, we will continue on our way hoping to see this one in the same way" Responded the grandmother with a biting tone, not seeming to want to waste any more time, the grandmother urged the horse. Finally, she said, "It will be a long time before the sun rises again, I invite any of you to follow our path".