Destiny of Clans

Zurka woke up from the morning cold and the squeaks of hungry cubs. She stood up, stretching from her old faded wolfskin and opening her eyes, saw her dirty brown-greenish clawed paws. There was so much to do yesterday that she had not even dried herself with snow. Bathing was out of the question - there was nowhere. She was hungry. But there was nothing to eat, most of the supplies had been eaten three days ago.

Only the innate orcish fortitude saved her and her clan from the pre-winter cold of the Mariland foothills. They knew how to withstand heat and frost without clothes. But even they had a hard time in the mountains on the coldest winter days, and especially the nights.

Their situation was dire. The days of orcish power and prosperity were long gone. The Great Summoner had not lied when he promised them dominion in a new world. In this world. They conquered new lands for themselves, much more fertile than those from which they were called... But the orcs could not hold on to what they had conquered for long. People gradually recovered from the shock of fear and horror before the formidable aliens, they learned to fight the orcs and destroy them. The former slaves from the people of Mariland, once defeated by the orcs, immediately rebelled, as soon as a united army of people came to them - from the entire continent, from Radna and Marigard to Seiran. This was the only time when these eternally warring communities of people united at least for a while. And with this effort, the orcs were destroyed, trampled, wiped off the face of the earth, and the last few thousand surviving greenskins were driven into the cold, almost uninhabitable mountains in the northernmost part of Mariland. From here, in a straight line, if you ignore the impassable mountain ranges, you can get to the south of Radna, the west of Seyran, and if you go down from the mountains, you can easily get to Mariland, where the Gerts now live. Now they call themselves that. By a strange twist of fate, these people did not return to civilization but completely adopted the orcish way of life and now roam in their place across the endless southern steppes, surrounded by the forgotten ruins of their great ancestors. Not so far to the north, if you mentally jump over the highest mountains of the continent, is the Valley of Fire with its volcanoes and ash storms, the clouds from which sometimes fall here. The orcs now drag out a miserable existence at the foot of these deadly peaks.

Zurka was born the weakest in the family and she always lacked food, which was already scarce. Usually, undersized ones like her cannot stand it and quickly die. But she managed to survive. She was already fourteen years old, she was ready to start her own family, but not a single orc male looked with interest at the pathetic slob, who was three heads shorter than her sisters of the same age and twice as light in weight. She understood what motivated them. They wanted their beloved females to give birth to healthy cubs that would grow up big and strong, and this was definitely not about Zurka. And she had to take care of the cubs of her sisters, tall, graceful and strong riders.

It so happened that now it was the female riders who became the only reliable source of food for the clan. They ride terrible dinosaurs, or simply horosaurs, these two-legged warm-blooded lizards are very fast, having raided people or their hunting grounds, the riders manage to hide in time - the patrolling human riders cannot catch up with them. Male orcs are very strong, they are at least twice as heavy as female orcs, but the light, fast horosaurs cannot lift them. Males can enter combat either on foot or riding on grassosaurs - large and strong, but not very fast herbivorous beast-lizards. They are usually peaceful and calm, chew grass, and if angered, they become more dangerous than horosaurs. But in recent years, humans have always caught up with male orcs in battles and, having an advantage in numbers, quality of weapons and tactics, killed them. Their clan in one generation lost more than half of the male orcs and up to a quarter of the females. And now the only useful thing the males could do was to protect the clan camp from all sorts of dangers that these mountains easily presented. Predatory beasts, other clans of orcs, not all of whom are friendly now, sometimes human patrols wander here, and when there is no need to flee and the force is on their side, the males kill the enemy with one powerful blow.

Zurka was brought out of her reverie by the kids - three dozen little orcs from one to five years old squealed:

- Sister, go hunting! We're hungry! Go! And we'll pick apples, nuts and dig up roots! And you'll cook soup! Go-go!..

Well... She was already old enough to be considered the mother of half the younger ones, but they call her sister. Is she really such a little thing?

Zurka waved her hand wearily:

- You tore off all the trees a few days ago. And the ground is frozen, you can't dig. Hunting... There aren't any animals in these mountains. These aren't the forests and steppes of the plains. I can run all day and not meet anyone. We need to wait for my sisters to return. They're going on a hike now. Or... I'll go with them too.

- Zurka, they won't take you!

- They say that you are still small!

- And that you will not grow up and should be with us!

Zurka: - I know!!! Don't remind me about it!!! Never!!!

The orchatas frightenedly pressed their short pointed ears and closed their eyes and squeaked:

- Okay, we won't.

Zurka: - I'll try again. I've already brought home goats. And they are not easy to get. Can't I handle a spear and reins?

With a confident step, she headed towards the exit of the camp. Several male guards were standing near the fire. They were resting after the patrol. Seeing Zurka, they bowed their heads and raised their massive paws, without saying a word. This meant that they did not consider her a close friend, but in general they treated her with a certain amount of respect. Of course! After all, part of the prey that she brings back from hunting from time to time goes to them. Whether you like it or not, you will respect even such a trifle if it feeds you. And in general, it was noticeable that the male orcs in the camp were sullen, depressed and had lost a lot of weight. In the summer and fall, it was easier to get food, and they were noticeably more cheerful. They realized with hopelessness that their mighty strength now did not solve much and now it had become more of an enemy than a friend. After all, this was accompanied by enormous weight and gluttony. In this regard, it was easier for the females.