Chapter 2 – A stab in the dark.
The retreat has begun, we have suffered a great loss, including my son, Bolg, but I had my revenge on Oakenshield, I cannot decide if it was worth it.
What bothers me more is that I couldn't kill that she-elf, even when confronted by one of my captains, I still spared her, stabbing the ice next to her, thankfully she had the sense to stay down, probably more from grief than from self-preservation.
"Sir?"
"Sir?"
I'm too preoccupied with my own thought to register the commander requesting my attention, the thought of that she-elf…
"SIR!"
The shout snaps me back to my senses, multiple orcs have turned to face me, curious as to the source of shouting.
"WHAT IS IT SCUM?!" I shout back, he flinches away from me.
"Sir, we've been marching for days, where are we headed?" The captain inquires, a slight look of fear in his eyes.
"We're headed south, back to Dol Guldur." I reply, it probably isn't the best idea, but it's the only idea I have, heading back to Mount Gundabad wouldn't be smart, the Goth will want to see me and avoiding him will only make things more painful.
The orcs around me look worried, they know the price of failure, and though Oakenshield is dead, the battle was still lost, though most of these maggots will avoid punishment.
The march south is a long one, Mirkwood is a dangerous place, even for orcs, the spiders may have the same master as us, but their hunger outweighs their loyalty.
All the time we're marching, my mind keeps slipping back to the she-elf, her name is unknown to me, but her face won't leave my mind, there is something about her that I can't describe, there are no words in my language to explain her.
When we arrive in Dol Guldur, the place was empty, our master was gone, which would explain the hostility of the spiders, filthy creatures.
"What do we do now?" Shouts one of the orcs.
"Yeah! Why did we even bother coming here?" Shouts another.
"Let's leave! Go find some nice land to pillage!" Yells another voice from the mob.
I climb up onto a rock, putting myself above the crowd.
"SILENCE SCUM! WE'RE STAYING HERE!" I bellow, silencing the crowd.
After some muttering a voice shouts out "AND WHY SHOULD WE DO WHAT YOU SAY? 'DEFILER' "
The mocking tone of his voice is obvious, and many orcs realise instantly that this was a challenge.
"SHOW YOURSELF MAGGOT!" I scream out "SHOW YOURSELF SO I CAN REMOVE YOUR TOUNGE FROM YOUR HEAD!"
A huge orc steps forward, towering above many others, he is almost as tall as me, he must be close to 9ft tall, taller than Bolg.
Bolg, my son, the thought of my son takes me aback, his death never really dawned on me until now.
The orc continues his advance through the crowd "I say we head back to Gundabad, instead of staying in this dump!"
Many orcs rally in agreement, he is right, but I can't back down to him, that would be a show of weakness, and would end up with me dead.
"WE'RE STAYING HERE! I'M IN CHARGE HERE!"
The orc laughs loudly, "Prove it!"
I jump down from the rock.
"Bring me my arm!" I bellow.
A small orc runs up, carrying my blade arm, he pulls out my riding hand, the pain is immense, but I do not flinch, he then inserts my blade arm.
I raise my blade arm, inspecting it, twirling it around slightly, as I run my finger along the blade, I hear the large orc draw his blade.
"What's your name scum? So we know the name of our meal tonight!"
The orcs around us jeer loudly, the large orc is unfazed though.
"Shozrigh" He replies.
The orcs begin to form a large circle around the two of us.
We begin to circle each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move.
When we reach the opposite side of the circle, Shozrigh looks over my shoulder and nods.
A trap, before I can react, a blade is stuck into my back, I stagger forward, into Shozrigh's blade.
The orcs around us roar, Shozrigh pulls his blade from my stomach and kicks me to the floor.
"I'M IN CHARGE NOW YOU SCUM! WE'RE HEADING FOR GUNDABAD!" Shozrigh yells.
The orcs shout out in support, and quickly begin to leave the courtyard.
Shozrigh stands above me.
"I'm not going to kill you 'defiler'. I'm going to leave you here to die, slowly."
He chuckles, and turns away, but he changes his mind and turns back to face me.
"One last thing before I leave."
He kneels down next to me, and yanks my arm blade out, the pain is horrific.
Shozrigh stands up and looks at the blade, he laughs mockingly and slowly inserts it into my stomach.
The pain is immense, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction of hearing my pain.
He leaves me in the courtyard, he is the last to leave, and I can hear the rabble slowly moving father and father away.
After a few minutes, I'm left with nothing but the silence of Dol Guldur, it's maddening, made worse by the fact that I know I'll die here.
A few hours pass, or maybe a few days, I have no idea, time doesn't seem to exist in this place, I have blackouts frequently, making time even more difficult to judge.
After one of my blackouts, I wake up to find myself being dragged across the courtyard.
I raise my head to see what is pulling me, expecting to see a spider, but it isn't, it's the elf, the one I didn't kill at the battle.
She looks back and notices my eyes open, I open my mouth to speak but she interrupts me.
"Be silent orc, I'm saving your life."
She drags me around a corner into a small room and props me up against a wall and kneels next to me.
"Do not say a word, do not make a sound, wait until I return."
She looks at me, expecting some sort of acknowledgement, I nod.
She stands up and walks out the room, I don't hear her footsteps as she leaves, but I can hear the sound of elves talking in the distance.
"Is there anything here?"
"Not that I can see, looks like they've left this place."
The world starts to go black as I pass out again.