The Orcish Wars
By
Justin Asselstine aka Gawyn Trakand

The character Gawyn Trakand is copyright of Robert Jordan, creator of The Wheel of Time. Places used in this belong to Verant Interactive.

Gawyn climbed up onto his horse, Menlynus and looked around him. Seated beside him on their own horses were five of Gawyn's best friends. The wizards Rarananla and Ozerin, the ranger Phawn, the powerful enchanter Xarion ta'Lux and Gawyn's sister, the druid Elayne.
The night before a band of orcs had attacked a caravan leaving the city of Freeport. Gawyn's friend, mentor and guild leader Myrik Jucitiar had asked Gawyn to choose six people to accompany him on an attack on the orcish band. Now the group of adventurers were traveling through the Eastern Commonlands following the group of orcs.
Phawn swung down her horse and checked the ground.
"They passed through here. About 30 to 40 orcs. These tracks are fresh. We should catch up with them by nightfall, Phawn said as she climbed back onto her horse.
"Ok, let's go," Gawyn ordered, and the group continued on.
It was a couple hours into night when the adventurers first caught sight of fires and tents. They hopped off their horses and let the horses run loose. The horses were well trained and they would stay near in case a quick escape was needed.
"Xarion, make me invisible so I can go check out the camp," Gawyn said.
Xarion closed his eyes and began to speak. Suddenly Gawyn disappeared.
"I'll be right back," Gawyn whispered as he began to sneak forward.
Gawyn slowly made his way towards the camp. When he was about 20 feet away he began to hear voices. He stopped and looked around. Walking together just outside the camp were two orcs.
"Must be sentries," Gawyn thought to himself as he quietly made his way back to his group.
When he got back to the group he began to concentrate. After a couple of seconds he reappeared. He then told his friends what he had seen. Without saying anything Xarion began to walk towards the camp.
"What are you doing," Elayne whispered as he walked away.
"Follow me and watch," Xarion replied without stopping.
Xarion walked straight out into the opening. The orcs turned towards him. They stood and stared at the high elf. With the wave of a hand and a mumbled word Xarion cast a powerful spell. The orcs dropped to their knees grabbing at their throats. They tried to cry out a warning, but they couldn't make a sound. Eventually the orcs stopped moving. Gawyn and Ozerin dragged the corpses into the bushes and covered them with leaves.
The group of adventurers snuck around the perimeter of the camp killing sentries with magic or with precise shots from the bows of Phawn and Gawyn. Finally with the path clear they began to move into the camp. Hiding in the shadows they made their way into the camp. As they moved Gawyn began to formulate a plan.
"If we can kill the leader these orcs will be disorganized and they won't know what to do. Then we can pick them off one at a time," Gawyn thought to himself.
Gawyn pulled his group back into an empty tent and told them his plan. They agreed that it was the best way to proceed. They decided that Xarion would cast an illusion over himself so that he appeared as an orc and he would proceed to kill the leader in his tent. Xarion was about to leave the tent when an orc came walking into the tent. Before anyone could silence him he screamed out an alarm. That was the last sound he made as a bolt of frost flew from Ozerin hand and froze the orc into a solid block of ice.
Realizing that they would have to fight there way out Gawyn and his friends pulled out their weapons and charged out of the tent. Light flashed as the orc shamans cast spells at Gawyn and his group.
"Oz, Rara, Xarion take out the shamans. Phawn,Elayne and I can take the normal troops," Gawyn shouted hoping his friends could still hear him.
Gawyn ducked under a blade and brought his sword up straight into the stomach of an orc. He looked to his right and saw that Phawn and his sister were fighting a losing battle against five orc centurians. Calling on the powers given to him by Mithaniel Marr and Rodcet Nife, Gawyn called a globe of darkness down on the nearest centurians head and charged into the fray. Swinging his sword, Gawyn decapitated one of the orcs just as Phawn stabbed her sword into another. Elayne cast a spell setting one of the remaining orcs on fire. Standing back to back with Phawn, Gawyn swung his sword again, this time severing an orcs hand at the wrist. Suddenly Phawn wasn't behind him anymore. Gawyn spun around just in time to see something plunge it's sword into Phawn.
"No!!!!," Gawyn screamed as he ran towards the creature.
The creature was bigger than an orc, but looked much like one. Except for one thing. It had the ears and skin of a drow.
Gawyn swung at the thing, but it deflected his blow and grabbed him by the neck. It easily hoisted Gawyn in the air.
"Stop!," it shouted. "Or I will kill this human."
Gawyn's friends lowered their weapons and stopped casting spells. Except for Xarion who waved his hand and muttered something.
"Your pitiful spells can't hurt me elf. My name is Darken Stormbringer and now you are my prisoners.
"Not if we can help it," said a voice behind Gawyn.
Suddenly 20 arrows thudded into the orcs guarding Gawyn's friends. Gawyn took advantage of Darken's momentary distraction by smashing his elbow into Darken's nose. Blood gushed down Darken's face and he dropped Gawyn as he spun around to meet the unseen challenge.
There in front of him stood Myrik and the rest of the Lordknights. Kanyen, Kaylar, Woodcox, Dzax and others stood beside Myrik ready to fight.
Darken was so absorbed in the new arrivals that he forgot about Gawyn and that was his big mistake. Grabbing his sword off the ground Gawyn stabbed into the back of Darken. The orc walked forward a few steps before falling to the ground dead.
Gawyn suddenly remembered Phawn. Gawyn ran over to her body and felt her neck. There was a small pulse.
"Rodcet Nife give me the power to heal this fallen body," Gawyn said as he called on his holy power.
Blue flame appeared over Gawyn's hands as he touched them to Phawn's chest. The fire grew until it enveloped Phawn's whole body. Then the flame disappeared. Gawyn fell to the ground exhausted. Then Phawn sat up.
"What happened," she asked.
Seeing Phawn safe, Gawyn let the dark take over as he slipped into unconsciousness. Gawyn woke up an hour later feeling better. He walked over to Myrik.
"Thanks for coming to the rescue Lord Myrik," he said as he took a seat beside him.
"Gawyn you knew me before I created the Lordknights. It's just Myrik to you."
Gawyn and Myrik talked for a while and then Phawn came over. She walked over to Gawyn and kissed him on the lips. Gawyn blushed.
"That's for saving me," she said and then she walked away.
Gawyn looked over at Myrik who was smiling
"Shut up Myrik," Gawyn said although he too was beginning to smile.
"Get the troops together. I need to talk them," Myrik said.
Ten minutes later the Lordknights and Gawyn's friends stood in front of Myrik.
"Men, we won this battle, but we have many left to go. This is far from over."
As Myrik looked out towards the far off orcish capital of Crushbone, Gawyn heard Myrik mutter "Far from over."