"Come on keep up," The human said looking at the young red skinned elf.
How the hell did I get talked into letting this runt in my force. I watched as the young elf struggled to keep up. I can't believe I was going to have to babysit this asshole while we went to talk with the Orcs.
Though I guess he had to concede that they did need more men after all he just lost most of his guild to the Orc surprise. Not only that but they headed out immediately after the attack while he wasn't complaining it didn't sit right that he couldn't stay behind to see his men buried. I suppose that would just be left up to the civilians.
Sighing, the Captain kept marching with the remaining group of his guild. They had been marching down a dirt road for almost an hour now. Besides the single good road that connected the Humans to their allies in the South the Elves all of the roads were shit. Most were made solely because enough people trampled the grass in one area, others were made from old bricks that had obviously broken down, and some were literally ancient as the roads were built by the Schiricans which had literally been eaten by monsters hundreds of years ago. Still if there was something the Schiricans were famous for even now it was their masonry work shit was built to last centuries, literally.
They probably could have met up with all the tribes in the local area were it not for the rookie here, but besides that they were headed to the Ulock Tribe. Never did remember all the names of the Tribes. There was no point after all Tribes changed family heads almost every generation or two. So instead the Elves in their infinite wisdom had made an interchanging magic map that displayed the names of the family heads, 'course that meant there had been permanently assigned elvish bureaucrats to keep up constantly with the political situation in the Orc's world.
They were headed in the right direction but it would most likely be thirty or so minutes to finally get to the village. In the meantime it seemed that they just had to keep on marching. Settling down the Captain kept his eyes forwards and kept marching just as the Gergulans had taught him.
His quiet march was cut short as a certain elf made himself known. "Umm-"
"Shut up, we're in enemy territory." Smith couldn't help but growl out not bothering to look behind him.
"Oh! Sor-"
"Quiet." Shit calling him green, or red in this case, was a fucking under statement this mother fucker was a god damn militia. Tsk this was gonna be a long day, and I didn't pack any alcohol.
Sighing to myself I continued to march on in disgruntled silence.
As the march continued into the afternoon the sun set on the canopy of the forest. I'd be a lot more worried if it weren't for the fact we had the Flaming General himself with us. Don't think I've ever slept so soundly near the blood forest.
000
The wind blew against my skin in the cold of the night. The night was calm... eerily calm it never was good to lower your guard around this nightmare of a forest.
From high up I swayed my leg back and forth as the branch I sat on gave a slight sway. As I looked around I saw the adventurer party that I had arrived in time to rescue. They slept around the fire, giving light to our camp. Surrounding the camp was a row of wood stakes which would be our only defense against any roaming creature... that and me.
Just as these thoughts left me suddenly I could hear rustling all around my eyes sharpen trying to make out the magic signatures of anything nearby. It was something all blood elves were born with the ability to see magic like no other living being. We could see magic as the flowing of energy in the winds, the culmination of it in the bodies of all users. And yet I saw nothing out in the darkness.
I looked towards the camp and saw the culprit. Below me the young elf recruit of the adventurer's guild stumbled out of his tent before sitting near the fire. Looking back into the darkness I saw nothing and decided to go talk to him.
I jumped from the branch and before I impacted to the ground I canceled the force of gravity with my own wind magic as I lightly touched the ground without making a sound. It seems that the young elf didn't notice me and I took a seat on the same log across from him.
"Can't sleep?" I asked, breaking the crackling of the flames.
Suddenly he turned to me seemingly on edge as he met my eyes and he relaxed instantly. It was a subtle thing but compared to how I perceived time I could read his as though he was an open book. "Umm no Sir. I just had... a bad dream."
"About her?" The General asked, cutting the silence.
For a moment the silence returned before the young elf mustered up his courage. "Yeah... it was about her."
The General didn't speak, instead allowing the elf to collect his thoughts.
"I wasn't there for her. When those Orcs came I wasn't there." He said nothing more seemingly that was the only thing on his mind.
"The mind is a deadly weapon, you should take care not to aim it at yourself. That guilt will swallow you whole if you let it. So I ask you now what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm... I'm going to kill them all. I'm going to make them pay."
"That is strong conviction within you young one. But you should know something: not all these Orcs are your foe."
The young elf turned to me disgusted before opening his mouth, "They murdered an innocent girl, the love of my life, and for what!? They aren't even sentient creatures, they are no better than animals."
"The ones that hurt this woman you held so close will pay do not misconstrue what I am saying. But there is something you should take to heart. The path of vengeance is one that will burn away everything you are. It will consume you and spit you back out a broken man."
"What does it even matter, she is gone. What's the point of living alone?" The young elf bitterly spat out into the echoing darkness of the night.
"Do you still have family? People you care about?"
"Umm yes."
"Then know when you die they will weep for you. Despite what you think of yourself and what atrocity you will inflict upon yourself they will weep for you as the man they remembered you. You can not change what has happened, regret it all you want it will remain as it always will; a tragedy. But you can still live for something. There are still people in this world that want to see you live a happy life and heal from the horrors of yesterday."
"So what? You want me to just give up and go home?"
"No. We're gonna find out what happened and we're gonna bring some justice. But what I am saying is that this is the reality we all live in."
"I see, do you think someone like me is useful for this line of work? I mean I heard what you said to the Adventurer Captain but do you really believe I can be an adventurer or even a soldier?"
"I do your conviction is strong and as long as you use it properly you will make a fine soldier."
"You know sir I always wanted to ask you something."
Raising an eyebrow the General spoke, "Well?"
"How did you get so powerful?"
"I...," for a moment the General paused in his sentence. His face was unreadable to the young elf as if in conflict or remembering something.
"I was born with magic affinity. Just got lucky. But if you want to know why I used that magic affinity it would be because I lost someone too."
"Oh I didn't know I'm sorry-"
"No, don't be you had no hand in the matter. This forest I truly hate it." The General muttered before speaking again, "When I was young at the age of 6 full years I lost my mother. He left our home for some reason and animals from the forest ripped her to pieces in our own town center. It is my belief that this forest is a disease to us all. The Elves, Humans, and the Orcs all of us suffer from living here. Those creatures are a particular amount of danger. Enough to be dangerous to the average person, but not dangerous enough for our governments to interfere against them."
Pausing as if to collect his thoughts Yika continued, "Everywhere else people live in abundance. Our magic techniques have made farming and food production better than ever. Almost no one starves and poverty as we know it is almost eradicated. Even the poorest peasant can count on hard work to get him warm food. Except here, and all because of the blood forest."
"Those animals, they are super charged by the magic in this forest. They evolve and change to unrecognizable forms from just one generation. They are so innumerable and vaste that to try and eradicate them is to try and drain the oceans with your bare hands, so instead we live in fear. And that fear has made it so we remain the last place that suffers from archaic medieval impoverished life."
"If only the forest would be burned to the ground never to return because if it was then perhaps all sentients could live in these lands in utopia. The Orcs of the east have been made to see reason and peace even if they tried to reject it, but the Orcs in the west, in these lands, cannot because to not pillage and steal is to starve and die. It is this disease that keeps us all locked in eternal conflict."
"With all that being said, Uzu, I promise you one day this forest will be tamed and when it is there will never be a loss like you suffered inflicted again. And as long as it remains I will too to make sure that villages like yours always have someone to rely upon."
"With all that great thinker talk aside though, I think you should get some rest because vengeance isn't an act best done half asleep." Yika quipped before leaping back into the canopy and landing upon a branch high up.
Uzu looked up into the darkness of the trees before turning back to his tent. He looked at his hand seemingly lost in thought before clenching his hands and walking back into his tent and closing the flap behind him.
In silence the General sat upon the branch in the darkness watching for any sign of danger but none would come for the entire night.
000
When the morning came Uzu awoke his back hurt but he got up and began packing all of his things to prepare to continue marching out. He managed to get things together in what his Captain said was acceptable time so perhaps he was getting better.
As they marched in silence towards their destination the young elf couldn't help but ponder what he had been told the night before.
He didn't think he could forgive the Orcs for what happened, but Uzu had always been told to listen to his elders his entire life. There was weight and wisdom in the words Yika had parted with and yet his mind stayed unwavering and filled with rage.
Eventually they arrived at the village and entered into the center itself. Uzu looked around glaring at Orcs around him who shared his vision. Their buildings were crudely made from uncut stone and logs which had been cobbled together. Around the village there was a giant wall made of sharpened logs.
Ahead the elf could see the rest of his fellow adventurers march in step into the long hall of the Orcs. Following inside the young elf looks around seeing a giant table laid out with old Orcs sitting across from them. He watches as the general takes a seat across from them.
Uzu does the same as the general as the entire adventurer party finds themselves seated across from the Orcs.
The two parties stare each other down. The Orcs had white hairs and eyes that spoke of years of experience. They wore dark robes that were pinned together by bones of animals. The young elf could smell something burning as the Orcs burned some sort of scented candle. He watched as the smoke danced into the sky.
"So what brings the Elves down to my village?" The Old Orc asks, sitting between the rest of the old Orcs.
"Yesterday an Elf Village was attacked by Orcs. We were wondering if you knew anything about that?"
The Old Orc sighed before picking up something that was curved but ended in a bowl like structure. He seemed to breathe from the tip of it he put in his mouth before blowing out smoke when he stopped.
"So desperation has really driven them..."
The general raised an eyebrow and shifted in his seat before responding. "And what do you mean by that?"
"There are things to the West... Creatures we do not speak of. To utter their name is to give them power! They roam like a swarm of bugs devouring all in their path!" As he said this line the Old Orc rose to his feet with Orcs all around him roaring and chanting in their Orcish tongues. "A blight has arrived to these shores through the GATE, and with it demons! The western menace has arrived as foretold in the Great Demise!"
"The western menace?" Uzu asked the adventurer sitting next to him that he recognized as the comms officer, Yitka.
"An Orc belief. They believe that one day all races will fight to death against a force unconquerable. It is most commonly believed to be a force of demons."
As Yitka finished her explanation the Old Orc's voice kicked up, "Just as Ulbrock the Father we will jump down the throats of the demons! They will choke on their quarry before they dare touch our children!"
The general's voice cut through the roars and growls of Orcs, "Are you sure this really is the Western Menace perhaps-"
"ELF OUR WORLD IS DOOMED! The time for talk is over, the Devil has arrived! If you have any love for your family then we must fight against these beasts!"
"I have heard of the Great Demise Old One but you must understand I have heard many times that the Western Menace has arrived." To this groans and roars of disapproval were hurled at the Elf General.
"Then elf would you care to join us?" The old orc gave his hand to the elf.
"If this is the Western Menace, but otherwise I'm afraid I will not." The General took the Old Orcs hand in his own to the agreeable roars from the crowds.
"Let's go see this Western Menace of yours Orc." The General said, shaking the Orc's hand.
Chanting echoed through the hall and it all hit Uzu's ear. These Orcs spoke of a menace but he had yet to get justice for what had happened! Who cares what this menace was? They'd killed good people!
The young elf shot up from his seat and walked up to the general whispering to him, "What about justice for my village?"
The general turned back to the young elf, "These Orcs didn't have a hand in the attack."
"But what about the Orcs that did?" He shot back.
"Justice isn't always quick. We will investigate this Menace but we will get justice. Have patience, young one."
Patience... it was easy to say when it wasn't your loved ones who were dead. Grumbling, the young elf took back his seat before someone grabbed his shoulder.
"What did you just say?" Yitka asked the young elf.
"I wanted to know where the Orcs that attacked my village were." He bit back at the elf woman.
"Oh really because of the way it looked like it. You just walked up to the most powerful man in our region and insulted him."
"Then check your eyes, because I did and would not do any such thing."
"You would do well to remember that Yika is a General and if he wanted to kill you there would be nothing anyone could do to stop it. Laws don't apply to Generals."
"Yeah but he wouldn't."
"Grr, I'm just looking out for you idiot! Gosh I've seen so many of you stupid recruits get themselves killed."
"Well thanks." Uzu spat out he wasn't in the mood for this and the two elves instead just looked away and pretended like the conversation never happened.
Instead they just watched as the Orcs settled down and the General talked about caution. But all of it didn't matter to Uzu; he instead just tuned the conversation out and waited for the time when his vengeance would finally come.
The talks had come to an end with the General agreeing to personally seek out what this Menace was with the help of the Orcs. The adventurer party however would continue to march on to the next village and ask around there.
But for the night the adventurers were in the graces and hospitality of the Orcs. Uzu tented away from the home he was offered. He didn't want to sleep with Orcs. Not because he was wary but because they slept very close together which was something that came as a culture shock to him.
As Uzu packed up his things for the second time. He headed out hopeful he would reconcile his thoughts but for now he resolved to continue to march. Justice would come, he believed in Yika's words but he found himself growing impatient.