El-Vador's Travels (3 page)

Gurgash
nodded his approval at the insubordination. 'They're clever enough to
stay hidden from our best scouts, I'll give them that.' he said.
'They're liable to find some stealthy way to take out this fort.'

'Guess who's going to be in the fort when that happens?' the Goblin
replied, pausing in his work. 'If trusting to that lug head to
out-think the Elves that have outsmarted him at every turn isn't a
fool's errand I don't know what is.'

The
spear came whistling out of nowhere, embedding itself in the slight
Goblin and pinning him against the tree he had been chopping. A
startled look passed over his face and the light left his eyes. The
commanding officer calmly walked up and freed the spear with a tug,
kicking the body away in disgust. After cleaning the blood off the
serrated edge, he finally rounded on Gurgash and Harg. 'One more
word, you hear me? You're just lucky I don't like Goblins. Move.'

They
rushed off to somewhere the Commander wasn't. Gurgash silently swore
mutiny under his breath. 'Can't say anything here.' he muttered.

'Plenty
of time for that when we're all dead.' Harg replied cheerfully.

As
darkness began to fall a deep note blown out of a large horn recalled
the Orcish soldiers to the camp. Pots bubbled over cook fires,
containing some kind of sludge that they were apparently expected to
eat.

'What is that slime?' asked Gurgash, wincing at the smell.

'Stew,' snapped a Goblin who was dishing out servings. He didn't
seem too pleased about it either, they hadn't had a good meal in
weeks and this was even worse than before. The foragers had come up
empty and had lost a good number of men to stray arrows from unknown
sources.

The
Goblin spooned stew into Gurgash's cup. Holding his breath, he downed
the burning mixture in the hopes that it would stay there and not
cause his stomach to protest. Had Gurgash got a supper like this at
home he would have gutted someone. With the scarcity of food on this
campaign, he wasn't going to pass it up. For all its vile flavour
this goop was still better than starving to death. Not that it was
going to take long for death to come anyway.

Cusband
looked fearsome when arrayed in the armour of his people. A
long-handled axe with a bronze curved blade and a towering shield.
There was no bow for this soldier, nor would there be any skulking in
the shadows when the time to fight came.

El-Vador
was growing impatient at not being handed a weapon. 'When will I be
getting equipped?' he asked. 'We are travelling together, are we
not?'

'No,' growled Cusband. But the one word that would usually have
silenced his son had no effect here.

'I
am travelling with someone else then?' El-Vador asked, beginning to
see where this was headed. 'I can fight father, you know that I can!
You said we needed everyone we can to hold the line against these
Orcs!'

'No,' said Cusband once more, deeper and more menacingly than
before. Again, El-Vador shook his head, realising now for certain
that he wasn't being allowed to accompany his father against the
invading Orcs.

Reluctantly,
Cusband spoke further. 'You are not yet fully matured, you would not
fare well against an Orc.'

'I
have fared well against you before!' El-Vador replied, failing to see
how dangerous the territory his words strayed into was. 'I'd make the
Orcs pay for all they have done to us.'

What
he said did have an element of truth whether Cusband knew it or not.
But he felt that no untried boy would last long against a foul Orc
with a practised and bloody blade.

'You're
too young. You'll stay here and take care of your mother.'

El-Vador
wasn't listening. 'I won't!' he said shrilly, 'as soon as you leave,
I'll run off and join one of the other settlements to fight.'

The
fist came out of nowhere, his head spun and the world rang painfully
in his ears as he tried to stand once more.

His
father stood over him, breathing heavily more out of anger than
effort. 'You will do no such thing,' he said menacingly.

El-Vador
sprang up and grabbed for his father's axe. It was a mistake.

Cusband's
larger hand swept forward and slapped him back down onto the earth.

'You would have me show you why you are not fit for battle?' roared
Cusband. 'Defend yourself then, I will fight as they do and we shall
see if you can match me.'

He
had been hit often by his father, he was used to his violent ways.
Never had he been given such a beating as he was receiving now, it
was nothing like their previous sparring. He tried in vain to defend
himself for as long as he could but his father kept railing on him
until he had no more fight left.

'Life is hard.' Cusband said bleakly, grinding his teeth and trying
to compose himself, he didn't look pleased with what he had done.
'You are not enough to withstand everything that is to come.'

El-Vador
lay in the dirt, his feverish desire to go forth to battle completely
extinguished. His father was right.

He
stayed there for some time, blood weeping from a dozen cuts as his
father strode off into battle. Nobody said a word as they passed him
by, not a single neighbour offered to help him up for fear of
provoking his father's future wrath. Feebly he stirred and dragged
himself back into his home and his bed, away from both the war and
his father's judgement.

All youth is foolish, we are but the seeds that are sown from our
forebears, lacking cognitive functions that we become either loathed
or loved for later in life. As you can see I was no different than
any other boy my age, headstrong and foolish and always assuming that
I knew best. The older I became, the less I realised I truly knew
about anything.

G
urgash
looked out toward the woods beyond the fort they had built the
previous evening. A dirt track led further north but the Orcish army
had not yet taken it. Instead, Chief Sarvacts seemed content to
linger here and invite the Elven forces to attack if they would.

Whatever
Gurgash hoped to see escaped his eyes, he fervently wished he could
slink out of the fort and back into the caves he called home. He had
seen enough trees to last him a lifetime.

Harg
also looked out toward the woods. He realized all too well that even
though there had been no further sightings of Elven forces they may
well be lying there in wait for them.

'It's
just like I thought.' He grunted to himself more than Gurgash. 'We
have a stand-off against an invisible Elven army, they'll just wait
until we get impatient.'

Gurgash
cast another worried glance in the direction of the forest, he wasn't
so sure. His visions of arrows swarming through the clouds toward
them hadn't been dimmed by the lack of activity coming from the
woods.

A
strange sound came from out of the forest he had just been thinking
of and shattered the pensive silence. Gurgash resisted the temptation
to draw his weapon and instead turned to Harg. 'What was that?' he
asked.

'What was what? I didn't hear anything.' replied Harg, clearly
amused at how jumpy his cousin was getting.

'I
heard a noise from the woods.' Gurgash replied. 'I've never heard
anything like it.'

Harg
shrugged. 'So long as it doesn't attack us we have little to worry
over but more waiting.'

'I
don't trust it. What if it's the Elves?' asked Gurgash. Harg waved
impatiently, clearly thinking that Gurgash was hearing things.

That
angered Gurgash, who somehow kept his composure. 'I'm telling you, I
heard something. I feel like the forest is staring back at me.'

Harg
looked back toward the camp. Sarvacts' pavilion towered over the
other officers' shelters, which in turn dwarfed the canvas tents in
which ordinary soldiers slept. 'Chief Sarvacts wouldn't be impressed
if you had told him you had heard a noise.' said Harg.

Before
answering, Gurgash looked around for anyone of rank, he had grown
accustomed to doing so since the Goblin's death while cutting lumber.
'And if that noise is the beginning of an Elven invasion force? What
then?' Harg didn't look convinced. Before either of them could say
anything more, the same sound came from the woods.

Gurgash
frantically pointed out at the direction the noise had come from.
'You see? Didn't you hear it that time? Can you tell me what that
noise is?'

'I
think you're being overly paranoid.' Harg said, his eyes told another
story.

Gurgash
didn't miss it. 'I think we should at least tell the Commander.'

Harg
nodded, staring out at the forest with worry creasing his brow.
'Yeah... Maybe we should.'

Cusband
silently ghosted between the trees at speed, the call had been made
and their first night assault was primed. He was not the only Elven
hunter gliding toward the invaders' encampment. The Orcs guarding the
palisade seemed unaware the woods around them swarmed with warriors.
Good.

From
the base of a large oak, Cusband let out another bird call to let his
allies know his location. A returning call greeted him from afar, the
final plans had been arranged then.

Peering
out from under the scrub and brush, he noticed that most of the Orcs
were not in a state of alert. A handful of the enemy had looked up at
the sounds, but it seemed as if they had discounted it as foreign
wildlife rather than an approaching attack force.

It
wouldn't be long before the first arrow was unleashed, then Cusband
would determine where the Orcs were running to and cut them off
should they get too close to the archers in the woods.

They
had dispatched of the scouts and foragers that the Orcs had sent
ahead to warn of an encroaching Elven presence. Unless the men on the
palisade raised an alarm at the birdsong they would be entirely
unprepared for an attack.

A
final call went out through the forest, that was the signal that the
hidden archers had been waiting for from their vantage point. Now the
arrows would shoot up from the clearings and strike deep into the
heart of the Orcish encampment. Then it would be Cusband's time to go
to work.

The
arrows burst out of the forest almost soundlessly, arcing their way
toward the fort in a steady stream that bypassed the palisade walls
entirely.

Cusband
peered out of the trees, something was wrong. There were few cries
from the Orcish horde, he had expected the wave of arrows to have
caused far more casualties than that.

Then
he saw them, a line of Orcs yielding axes and charging directly
toward the growth he had hidden himself in. Somehow they had known
the attack had been coming.

As
much as Cusband despised these green-skinned enemies, he still had to
respect them as warriors on the field of battle. The scrawny Goblins
might have cried out in alarm initially, but they began shooting well
before the few cries that were emitted had ceased. The Orcish front
line had been prepared and lurking out of sight, now they hurried
forward in the hopes of catching the Elven archers and butchering
them. A horn sounded from the fort, spurring on their efforts.

What
they hadn't been banking on was the likes of Cusband.

Before
the Goblins and Orcs outside the encampment reached their target of
the Elven archers, Cusband and his fellow foot soldiers swept out to
meet them. A large Orc thrust at Cusband in surprise. He parried the
spearhead aside with his shield and thrust the point of his axe up
into his opponent's jaw. Blood sprayed and spurted, splashing Cusband
in the face. Roaring in triumph, the forester pressed on.

He
might have been hewing firewood in the forest rather than Orcs on the
battlefield. One after another, they fell before him like so many
twigs and branches. Certainly they were better armoured than the
trees he faced daily, yet even the strongest armour could not help
but be breached by the wide swathes of his axe.

Forward
then, ever forward. Cusband waded into the press of green flesh. An
arrow ricocheted off the head of his axe, harmlessly bouncing off his
leg and impeding him not. Another volley from the forest silenced the
Orcish archers for a while longer.

He
tore through the chaos toward one of the gateways in the palisade. If
they could trap the remaining Orcs inside as they fell back in
disorder, they could end this attempted occupation here and now.

'To
the gate!' he roared at the men who stayed with him. 'Secure the
gateway!'

On
they came, smiting and shouting, goal clearly in sight now.

The
resistance they faced continued to give ground. A few Goblins were
routed, fleeing the battlefield in the vain hope that they could
escape. To the enemy's credit, the majority of their soldiers fought
until their dying breath.

In
the red rage of battle, Cusband cared nothing for the seemingly
endless supply of foes pouring out of the gateways. The more enemies
he had to face him the more he could dispatch with his axe and the
more his thirst for vengeance would be sated. He chopped down another
foe with ease, clearly the Orcs had sent the bulk of their best force
against them already. The gate, was very close now and in spite of
the influx of numbers they were not overwhelmed. He blazed onward,
fuelled by his rage, not willing to cease until every Goblin and Orc
lay dead at his feet.

'By the blue hells!' exclaimed Gurgash, ducking under the palisade
as the arrows came flying in.

'Mother preserve us.' Harg replied in agreement, weapon already in
hand. 'You were right, they were out there this whole time.'

'Protect the gateway!' bellowed their commanding officer, walking
out of the tent and somehow evading the rain of arrows. 'Protect the
gateway, and fight for your lives. If they break into the fort, we're
history. Stand fast and stand with me.'