Nightclans (4 page)

Wollfen mulled this information a bit but still wasn’t getting it,

“I am not sure I am following, what is it you are driving at? Surely a change in tactics is all that is needed to compensate for this change?” Ironside shook his head,

“No no, it's not about tactics or a change in methodology or anything, let me try to explain a bit better.” Again he paused, thinking before going on, “As you know the women in any clan outnumber the men by many because as soon as the boys grow old enough to wield a sword with confidence they are deemed men and become Rangers patrolling the outskirts of the encampments and also do guard duty too. This of course means the men are at the front line whenever there is a clash between marauders or orcs and they are the first to fall in any fight. Our numbers are kept in check by this and by normal mortality amongst the rest. Older women become rangers too once they can no longer bear children and so there is no one 'spare' so to speak. Everyone is important to the health and well being of the clan, no one is expendable.” Wollfen understood this and agreed so far with what he was hearing. He bade Ironside go on,

“Okay as you also know to keep the numbers up of the clans the men have to keep as many of the young women pregnant as possible, without that the clans would shrink and die, there simply is no other way. Originally it was out of choice, we chose this life in the mountains. But now we are outcasts in the eyes of the people to the west and can no longer move into those lands if we decided to leave the mountains. We can't move further east into the larger mountain range for there is even greater numbers of orcs there than there are here. We live the life as we do because we have no other choice. Personally I wouldn’t have it any other way but there is a change coming and I fear for the future of the Nightclans.”

Ironside stopped again, he reached over and took a swig from a mug on the table. Wollfen looked to Raven and wondered if what he was hearing had played a part in Ravens decision about her future? Ironside spoke once more,

“Here is the cold hard truth, we can't change the way we send out individual patrols or sentries to watch out for orcs because we don’t have the extra numbers, there are no more people to spare. Everyone right now fills an important role. Do you see what I am driving at?”

It was finally starting to dawn on Wollfen what he meant and he nodded at the question,

“What you mean also is this, because there is no one extra to go out with those individuals when patrolling it means they face greater danger  because the orcs are organizing into groups and hunting more effectively.”

“Exactly and because there is greater danger it also follows that our losses in fights when defending the clan will go up. We can't afford to lose more people than we already are. If we do then the clans will shrink over time and will finally die out.”

Wollfen shook his head as he realized the seriousness of it all, the Nightclans could be lost totally.

“Do you think you can call upon anyone to help? Maybe if the clans banded together into greater numbers that might fix the problem?” Ironside shook his head,

“No the clan leaders all agreed this would not solve the problem, we still couldn’t put greater numbers of people out to patrol in relation to who stays behind. Mind you it isn’t an issue yet, this new development wont start having an affect for a couple of years but we recognize it is coming and we will have to do something about it. A lot of serious thinking and heavy decisions are going to have to be made.”

Wollfen sat there staring off into space as he contemplated the situation. What could they do? Was there anywhere the clans could go? He couldn’t think of anything right . Finally he turned to Ironside,

“I will give this serious thought and see if I can come up with something, we can't just sit around and wait for this to happen can we?” Ironside shook his head,

“No and I will be grateful for any assistance you can come up with.”

Wollfen and Raven left the man to continue eating and they went back to the guest tent. Sitting back down on his cot he sighed in contemplation. Raven sat beside him believing he now understood some of what she had been feeling. Finally he looked up at Raven and spoke,

“You know I always liked being out here amongst the clans because I saw it as an idyllic lifestyle where you had freedom and self determination. But that’s not so is it? Everyone works for the common good just to survive, there is no choice to do your own thing.” Raven silently nodded in agreement.

Wollfen finally stood up and asked Raven what she would be doing for the day, she was expected to go out on patrol starting at midday.

“Would you like some company on your ride today?” Raven smiled at the thought, patrol was almost always done on your own,

“I would love that thanks, let's get you another horse, you need to pick one you like and we will clean up your saddle too .”

Wollfen nodded, his horse wouldn’t be easy to replace, he had it for a couple of years and was used to its personality, now he would have to start all over again. They left the tent and walked over to the corral, there were quite a few horses here and they were well taken care of. A number of them were the personal mounts of the more important members of the clans but the rest were simply part of a pool from which people could pick and choose from day to day.

As they stood at the gate to the corral Raven pointed out some likely prospects,

“I think the brown one there is a good horse, calm temperament and steady in battle but has no aggression at all.” Wollfen nodded listening, “That one over there, the mottled brown and white mare is a bit harder to deal with. She can be a bit temperamental but she is fast and has good stamina.”

“I like the sound of that one, are there any others to pick from?” Raven shook her head,

“There are a few horses here but these are definitely the best two.” Wollfen respected her advice, she was a very good rider and had been around horses since before she could walk. He was leaning towards the mottled horse for his own ride.

“If that horse works out do you think Ironside would mind me making it my own personal ride?” Raven didn’t think that would be a problem, even though it was a good horse many of the riders picked other horses first because of the mottled one's temperamental ways.

“Good let's go grab my saddle and try her out, I would like some time with her first before we go on patrol.”

They sauntered over to Ravens tent where his saddle had been left the day before and looked it over, other than some scuff marks from when his horse had taken a tumble it appeared no worse for wear. Raven went inside to change and within minutes she reappeared outside with her boots in hand. Wollfen looked her up and down, she was wearing tight fitting riding clothes in all black and she cut a striking figure. He nodded his approval at her and she smiled,

“You like eh? We will look good riding along  both wearing black don’t you think?” He chuckled,

“Yes it's important to make a fashion statement.” He got a light slap on the shoulder for that.

They went back to the corral and got the saddle mounted on the mottled mare. Wollfen lifted himself up into position, he started pulling on the reins a little and squeezing his heels feeling for the horses reactions. The horse reacted well to both styles of commands and he let the reins go. Wollfen pressed his heels in unison and the horse moved forward, he then pressed his left heel and the horse moved to that side, he started liking her straight away. Turning the horse to face Raven he watched her shoving her boots into her side pack.

“Aren’t you going to put them on?” She shook her head as she pulled herself up into her saddle,

“No I have blisters on both heels, the boots are new and ill fitting, I won't put them on unless necessary.”

“You must have tough feet to handle moving through the brush.” She laughed,

“When have you ever known me to wear boots normally anyway? They are tougher than an orc's skin.” She poked her tongue as she moved out of the corral, Wollfen following.

They rode around the perimeter of the encampment for awhile so Wollfen could get used to the horse's personality and he was immediately finding that they worked well together, the real test though would come when they faced a combat situation.

“Shall we move off to your patrol area hon?” She nodded in agreement and they left.

About ten minutes into the ride Raven tensed and looked around, Wollfen too was on alert,

“No noises, it's too quiet.”

She looked around at the immediate area sniffing the air, if there were orcs nearby they may smell them, orcs usually reeked. Wollfen got a whiff of something but he couldn’t be sure. He squeezed Raven's thigh and pointed, she understood and moved off away from him a bit and they started searching the area. They were getting close to the patrol zone and they should be coming up on the current ranger soon. They were about fifty yards apart  covering a wider area and moving much slower. Each of them scanning the underbrush as far as they could see and hear. There was still nothing and Wollfen figured they wouldn’t find anything before coming across the ranger.

Then he heard a whistle like a bird, it was Raven catching his attention and when he looked he saw her waving him over. He moved across and pulled up beside the still seated woman. She pointed over to the other side into the underbrush and whispered,

“That’s Bradan's horse laying there.”

He saw the body of it partially covered with branches and dismounted then moved over to it, Raven followed suit. They pulled some of the branches away and saw some arrows sticking out of the carcass, they were orc arrows. Wollfen looked to Raven and he could see she had a worried look on her face, he looked the animal over more carefully and saw a splash of blood on top of the saddle. He whispered to her,

“He is at least injured we need to fan out and look for him.”

Without any further words they both started their search looking far more carefully through the brush all the while listening for sounds and sniffing the air. They kept looking for about thirty minutes when Wollfen spotted boots sticking out from behind a large tree, his heart sank as he approached carefully still looking about. Then as he came around the tree he saw the body, his shoulders slumped. Wollfen whistled a little loudly knowing Raven would come and he bent down to inspect him. He was face down and as he turned Bradan over Wollfen was shocked. Raven came up beside him and he commented,

“He is just a boy?”

“Yes, all of sixteen years old he only started his ranger duties a few weeks ago and he was loving it. So sad.”

Wollfen looked up at her studying her face, she didn’t seem too upset by it all. He knew why, this sort of thing was a regular occurrence for the clans. He stood up sniffing the air, he still couldn’t tell for sure what he was smelling and gave Raven a questioning look. She in turn looked around and sniffed the air too, she started whispering again,

“I don’t hear anything but I keep getting a tiny whiff of something.” Wollfen nodded,

“Lets mount up and be ready.”

They got on their horses and slowly moved off scanning the surroundings, after a minute Raven whispered once more,

“It's getting stronger, we are moving in the right direction, how many do you think there are?” Wollfen couldn’t say, they knew they were smelling orcs but how many? There was no sign of any yet. He leaned close to hear ear,

“We should charge and run into them at the gallop, it will not give them time to react with any sort of reasonable defense.” Raven agreed and they geed their horses on.

Galloping along it wasn’t long before they came across three orcs out in the open and with a shout the two of them fell upon the orcs, swords swinging. Raven swung low and wide as she passed one on her right flank, it screamed as it was cut down trying to raise its crossbow but to no avail. Wollfen was swinging and parrying with another orc which had its sword raised but he was faster and managed to smack away the orc's driving sword before plunging his own into its chest. The third orc seeing the demise of his two companions took off and Raven gave pursuit, Wollfen chose to follow but just then another four orcs broke from the underbrush and charged him. He tried to gee the horse to escape but it didn’t respond at all to his commands, it turned and faced the orcs.

“Dammit!”

Wollfen thought the horse had froze as he pulled on the reins trying to turn her around to no effect. Then all of a sudden without encouragement the horse charged the orcs as they approached and he could do no more than accept the situation swinging his sword. As soon as they came together the horse stopped and turned, the two outer orcs moving around the front and back. Wollfen was swinging and clashing with the two middle orcs by his side.

All of a sudden the horse kicked out to the rear and the orc behind flew through the air, its head dashed against a tree the creature falling limp to the ground. Now the mare reared on its hind legs and was biting at the orc in front, the second orc didn’t stand a chance as the horse stomped it into the ground all the while snorting and neighing. Wollfen for his part had cut into the arm of one of the orcs beside him which backed off and he managed to finish by running the last orc through. Then the mare turned to the wounded orc that was trying to flee and she stomped this one into the ground from behind. It place went silent again, the mare giving a final snort and shake of her head. He turned the horse around to look for Raven and saw her approach.