Chapter 3: Gatherings

"What?" Alena said, her head turning as she did. "Why didn't you say so?" She ignored the obvious reply, already darting out of view from the outside.

"Is it orcs?" Brey asked, ducking down as 'Icebolt' came to mind.

Cristo remained calm as he stood still. "No," the bodyguard replied, "there's nothing evil there. I only saw something moving outside just now."

Alena stealthily skipped over to her companions. "All the same," she whispered to Brey, "I'd rather not take chances. The moment you see it, cast 'Sap'. I'll take it down while it's distracted."

"Agreed," the old tutor nodded and they waited for the moment to strike.

Less than a minute later, Cristo pointed left, saying, "There it is again." It was nothing more than a dark silhouette in one of the cracks of the barn's walls but it was enough of a target for Brey to cast his spell on.

The travelers expected a panicked shriek next, an understandable reaction when 'Sap' was cast on something; the effect of one's skin turning to wrinkles tended to leave an un-nerving impression. However, the disgruntled voice of a young man saying, "What the hell?" came instead, leaving them momentarily stunned.

Brey looked at Alena for a second, mumbling, "Well, at least we know it's human."

The princess nodded but decided to take whoever was outside down anyway. She sprinted forward and plunged shoulder first into the wall. As she expected, the wet moldy wood easily gave way to her momentum and she crashed through, slamming into her target. They fell over in a heap, rolling in wet grass until the princess pinned the man face down.

Before Alena could ask anything, he instantly barked at her. "Ooww! Watch it, you idiot! Don't you know I could get seriously injured having 'Sap' cast on me?"

"Then you shouldn't have been sneaking up on us," she retorted, containing her surprise that he even knew of the spell.

"Well, how was I to know you weren't orcs?"

"How were we to know the same?"

"Ow! Stop that! That hurts! You'll break my arm!"

"Then quit squirming and tell me who you are…"

"Alena!" Brey's voice came as he and Cristo joined her. "Did you get it?"

The man suddenly stopped fidgeting and tried to look up. "Brey? Is that you?"

The old tutor stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide with shock. "W-what?"

"It is you!" the cloaked man said, his voice more jubilant. "I'd recognize your goofy voice even today!"

Brey's eyes widened further, this time out of annoyance. "G-goofy? Alena, break his arm."

"No, no, I was kidding, Brey!"

Alena released her grip and let him stand up. "Just who are you?" she asked, finding some slight difficulty hiding a tiny smile at the remark of Brey's "goofy" voice.

He removed his hood, finally giving her a good look at him. He was definitely young, easily younger than her. It seemed a growth spurt had hit him much earlier than the rest of his body was ready for though, so he appeared quite tall and lanky, even without the effects of Brey's spell sucking his frame in. His youth was also quite apparent by the unusually high amount of acne covering his thin face.

"Brey knows me," he replied, brushing wet grass off his cloak.

The old tutor stared at him for a long time. "Do I?" he said with suspicion.

The youth groaned as he shook his head. "I guess it has been a few years. It's me, Neddi."

Brey stared for a moment longer. "Volucci's boy?" he finally said.

"Yes! Yes! I see age hasn't made a mess of your memory yet!"

"Watch your tongue, boy," the old tutor coldly snapped. "Just because I know your father doesn't mean I have to like you." The youth instantly backed off, a stifling fear silencing him for the moment.

"So, you know him?" Alena asked Brey.

"I know his father," Brey corrected. "Volucci is a historian within the library of Endor who's done some research for me in the past. I haven't seen him for a number of years now, but I do remember he had a son named Neddi. I don't recall meeting him, though."

"That's because we never did meet," the youth said. "You and Father were always busy with your work he never had the chance to introduce me. I was around."

Brey pondered for a moment. "Yes, I think I remember now. You were that little kid hanging around the library?"

"Yes, that's right!"

The old tutor's eyes brightened. "Well, by the Master, you have grown since then, haven't you?"

"Excuse me for interrupting your reunion, Brey," Alena chimed in, "but Cristo and I are going back inside. I'm soaked as it is."

"Oh, yes, of course," the old tutor shook his head, hardly giving her a glance as his attention seemed to be mostly directed on Neddi.

The princess smiled. "It's nice to see him cheerful for a change, isn't it," she said to Cristo.

"Yes, it is," the bodyguard replied.


Over a cozy fire within the barn, Neddi explained to the travelers that he was currently serving as a scribe for Endor. The country's intelligence had learned of peculiar gatherings of orcs within the Wild Lands and so he was sent to investigate. Thus far, he hadn't been able to find out much.

"It's really strange," he grumbled more to himself. "It's as if whole clans of the monsters have just up and disappeared. Some of the areas they are known to live are completely barren." The youth turned to Brey. "What do you think? I'm sure you know more about orcs than me."

The old tutor stroked his beard as he contemplated the issue. "Well, orcs are nomadic by nature," he surmised.

"That's what we all thought as well," Neddi said, "but even nomadic clans have territories they stay within, lest they war with other clans. What I'm saying is these territories are completely empty. Nothing. Not a trace of any camps or settling. Man, woman, and child have flat out disappeared."

"And the territories beside these ones?" Brey asked.

"Same thing," he replied. "There isn't an orc anywhere south of here."

"Well, that's good news, isn't it?" Alena asked. "I mean, if the orcs are disappearing, they shouldn't be a hindrance to travelers anymore."

"I don't know," Brey muttered to himself. "Nothing just vanishes into thin air. No magic in the world has the ability to do that." He turned back to Neddi. "You were saying there were reports of gatherings?"

The youth nodded. "In small pockets, but yes. It seemed some clans were able to put aside their differences and join forces. They weren't in large numbers but it was enough of a concern for my country to investigate. In fact, I'm surprised your own country didn't send out people to investigate, considering it is in Santeem's territory."

"For the most part, Santeem doesn't concern itself with the Wild Lands anymore," Brey explained. "The Mid-Range makes it difficult to cross between here and our major cities. In general, it's deemed too remote to be of consequence.

"But getting back to the matter at hand, could it be possible all the clans south of here have gathered somewhere?"

Neddi blinked for a moment. "What are you saying?"

"It's unlikely," Brey stated, "but the only possibility I can think of is all the disappeared clans have gathered into one spot."

"Not only is it unlikely, it's impossible!" Neddi said. "You of all people should know orcs are too stupid to organize into a group that big."

"You asked for my opinion," the old tutor shrugged. "It's the only thing I can think of with the facts I've been given."

"Hhmph," the youth grumbled. "Sounds like age really has made you stupid, too." Neddi yelping followed a sharp thwack to his head. Rubbing the back of his head, the youth glared at Brey who was tapping his walking staff in his palm.

"And you need to learn to respect your elders, boy," the old tutor simply stated.

Groaning, Neddi glanced up at Alena. "And what's your story?"

The princess stammered a moment from the sudden attention. "Who? Me?"

"Well, I don't see any other runaway princesses around here," the youth said.

"Do you want another smack there, boy?" Brey threatened, raising his staff.

"No! No!" Neddi was quick to reply. "I'm sorry for being rude, Princess Alena. Really I am."

"It's all right," she assured. "I'm used to it. I guess my appearance lately can make people forget about my roots."

"Then, if you don't mind my asking, why did you run away? I may not have much information about the orcs but if I return to Endor with an actual interview with you, I'm sure it would more than make up for it."

"You make it sound like she's a celebrity," Brey said.

"Oh, she is!" Neddi said.

"I am?" Alena asked, her eyes wide with shock.

"Oh, yes," Neddi explained. "There isn't a soul west of Branca who doesn't know about what you did. Of course, most of the hierarchies frown on it but regular townsfolk think it's great."

"They do?" Alena and Brey said at the same time. Brey added, "Why is that?"

"Well, given Endor's present situation…" Neddi started but his voice trailed off.

"What situation?" Alena asked.

"No, it's nothing," Neddi mumbled.

"It's something if you brought it up," Brey said.

"I didn't bring it up so it's nothing, okay?" the youth sternly stated, focusing his attention on the fire again.

Alena looked at Brey and the old tutor nodded to her. She nodded back and moved over to sit beside Neddi.

"Neddi," the princess smiled, her voice sweet and innocent, "please tell us. We're not the type to gossip." She put her arm around his shoulder and snuggled up to him. "You can trust us."

The youth instantly froze at her touch, swallowing nervously. "U-uh, uh," he stammered, his voice quivering. "I-it's not my place to spread my country's gossip."

Alena ran a finger up and down his chest. "But, Neddi. Everyone knows our country's gossip."

"I… I… know… b-but there's n-nothing I can d-do about that."

"Pu-leeeze?"

Neddi looked to Brey for help but the tutor seemed absorbed in his spell book for the moment. "I… I'm sorry, Princess Alena."

She slightly retreated. "Oh well," she simply said, shrugging.

Neddi was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he suddenly found his head caught in the vice-like grip of Alena's arms. "W-what are you doing?" he cried out.

"Still won't tell me?" she sweetly asked.

"I… told… you! I… can't!"

Sighing, the princess shook her head. "I'm sorry it's come to this, then. This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you."

"Why? What are you-"

The grinding of Alena's knuckle into his skull suddenly interrupted him. "Tell me!" the princess squealed in delight.

"Ow! Ow! Quit it! Brey! Make her quit it!" The old tutor ignored him, however, pretending to be absorbed in his spell book.

"Are you going to tell us?" Alena demanded again, her grinding relentless.

"Ow! Please, stop! I'll-"

"Everyone, quiet!" Cristo suddenly interrupted, the seriousness of his tone piercing an otherwise jovial mood.

The princess dropped Neddi as she and Brey attentively stood up. "What is it?" she asked.

"There's orcs coming from the east," he replied, turning his head in that direction. "A lot of orcs."

"How many?" Brey asked. "A couple groups of raiders or a clan?"

"I… don't know," the bodyguard replied. "There are a lot of them, though. More than I can individually sense, that much I do know."

"How far away are they?"

"Not far. They could be here any moment."

"Damn it…" Brey muttered into his beard. "Quick! Put the fire out. We'll have to run for it."

Neddi stood up, calmly wiping the dirt from his cloak. "No, we don't," he said matter-of-factly.

Brey threw him a harsh glare. "Look, boy, I don't know what fanciful tales you may have heard about orcs in Endor but we have dealt with them first hand, many times very nearly killed by them. If Cristo says there's a bunch of them heading our way, I'm not going to wait around to give them gifts."

"But these may be the orcs I've been trying to find," Neddi countered.

"Then you can stick around and conduct your little interview with them," Brey returned. "We're taking off."

"You'll never escape them with their tracking abilities," Neddi pointed out. "They'll see the remnants of your fire and send out their scouts to find you."

"We can't very well hide here, boy," the old tutor gruffly stated.

"With this, we can," the scribe smiled. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a blue, glass vile containing a clear liquid.

"What is that?" Alena asked as she and Cristo packed their supplies.

"Fairy water," Neddi replied. He turned to Brey and snidely asked, "Surely you've heard of it?"

Brey frowned. "Yes, I have. But do you have enough for all four of us?"

The scribe's confident eyes turned dumbfounded. "I… don't know…"

Alena snatched the vial from Neddi's hands. "We're going to find out whether we like it or not," she stated. Turning to Brey, she asked, "How do you use it?"

"Just dab it on you like a perfume," he explained. "It should mask your scent from monsters so use about a quarter of its contents."

"Hey! That's my last bottle!" Neddi exclaimed. He moved to take it back but Alena shot him such a fearsome glare, he instantly recoiled.

"This isn't some sort of grand adventure," she harshly stated. "These monsters will not only kill us if they find us, they'll probably torture us just for their own amusement. So you'd better wake up to reality if you want to live to see tomorrow."

Noticing the stark fear in Neddi's eyes as she finished, she could not help but turn away from him with a light smile. There was a bit of her in the scribe. At least, a bit of the old Alena.

They removed their supplies from the brahmird and set it free. It was a shame to waste a beast of burden, especially considering they paid quite the amount for it; however, the alternative of leaving it to be slaughtered by orcs did not sit well with any of them. It would probably have a better chance of survival in the wild anyway.

Once everything was cleared and the last of the fairy water used, Cristo, being the heaviest of the four, climbed up an old ladder to a higher ledge in the barn, making sure it wasn't so old and moldy it would collapse. As soon as he gave the go ahead, the rest of them climbed up and waited.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. Growing impatient, Alena turned to Cristo and asked, "Are you certain you sensed them?" After her bodyguard nodded, the princess sighed and slowly crawled to the eastern side of the barn to peek out of one of the many cracks in the wall.

The rain-soaked hills surrounding the barn remained motionless for several more minutes but, just when Alena began to doubt her bodyguard, several moving figures emerged from the surrounding forest. "Brey! Cristo!"

Both men crawled over, as did Neddi. What they saw left their jaws slack.

A row of orcs several yards long came marching through, followed by another, then another, and many more after them. The thumping of their rhythmic marching grew increasingly louder and, by the time a twentieth row passed, the noise of some sort of song sung in a crude dialect could be heard. The foreboding sight kept the travelers silently in awe, the scale of the gathering shaking the foundations of the rotting barn around them.

Brey eventually broke their silence with a thoughtful, morbid musing. "This isn't right. Orcs have never assembled into an army. No monster in all of Santeem's history has."

"An army?" Neddi asked, looking at the old tutor. "Then they could be planning an invasion, couldn't they?"

"It would seem so," Brey shrugged, "but I have no idea where they could be headed."

"It's pretty obvious they would head for Endor, since it's the closest," Neddi instantly responded.

The old tutor shook his head. "It would make more sense for them to gather further south than this far north if they were going to attack Endor. Besides, they'd have to cross Caran Strait. It's difficult enough for our ships to sail those waters and I doubt orcs have the intelligence to navigate the sea."

"Neddi also thought they lacked the intelligence to gather into an army," Alena pointed out.

"Perhaps," Brey mused, "but the fact remains they've gathered north, not south."

"Maybe they're heading for Frenor, then?" Alena suggested.

Again, Brey shook his head. "Too far north, and it's in such a protected valley, any army would have a difficult time trying to sack it.

"No, an army this size must have its sights set on something in this region. What that is, I haven't a clue. The Wild Lands have been unpopulated by humans for centuries."

As the army of orcs passed the outer edges of the old village, Neddi pulled out a parchment of paper and a stylus. "What are you doing?" Brey asked in a hushed voice, unsure if the orcs' sharp ears could pick his voice up from this distance.

"I told you, I'm a scribe," he replied, his voice just as quiet as Brey's. "I have to write down everything I see here and report back to Endor. The orcs may not be invading my country but my King should at least be aware of this large of a gathering."

"Yes, of course," Brey thoughtfully muttered to himself. "Ours too, I'd imagine."

The travelers soon noticed a few smaller orcs rummaging around the buildings, most likely the scouts of the army. As soon as one turned around to report back to the main horde, another took up its place, searching the next burnt shell.

Two scouts entered the barn, each probing and sniffing its remains. Despite their presence, Neddi continued his scribbling before Brey gave him a light tap on the head, afraid the orcs might even hear the sound of pointed graphite on paper. The scribe threw a glare at the old tutor in protest but knew not to make a sound lest they be discovered.

Through the cracks in the wood planks they were lying on, Alena and Brey kept an eye on the scouts' activities. They appeared only interested in the moldy hay piles that remained inside but eventually found the remnants of the tiny fire. There wasn't much left but a few scattered ashes that were still warm gave away the fact a fire had been used in that spot recently.

One of the scouts said something to the other and the second scout dashed off, leaving the first to continue its search of the barn.

Alena looked at Brey and clenched her fist suggestively. The old tutor shook his head and Alena nodded back. No, it wouldn't be a good idea to take the scout down below out. The orcs still had no proof they were here, just a smoldering fire pit. If they killed the scout, there'd be little doubt of their presence. At least the orcs might conclude whoever made the fire fled instead.

Still, if the scout decided to climb the ladder, there would be no choice.

As if to confirm their worst fear, the scout glanced up the ladder. Slowly walking closer, a look of curiosity came over its red eyes.

Alena shifted her gaze to Brey, whom she noticed was already murmuring a spell. A quick glimpse in her bodyguard's direction revealed his sword in hand and was preparing a spell as well, probably 'Surround'. With their imminent discovery only ten feet away, her companions seemed unusually calm.

She supposed she should be, too, since fighting orcs had become quite routine these past couple of weeks. However, those skirmishes had been against small groups, something they could handle. What could they do against an entire army?

The princess closed her eyes and took a deep, quiet breath. Maybe they wouldn't be able to do much at all but the least they could do was give them a good fight.

The scout grabbed the ladder and put its foot on the first step. The moment it pulled itself up, though, the old wood collapsed underneath its feet and the orc fell forward, crashing through the bottom half of the ladder.

As it screeched what were probably orc curses, the scout gathered itself up and pulled the rest of the ladder down, kicking and stomping it into useless planks of moldy wood. Having eventually sated whatever anger it had over the ladder, the orc stormed off.

The travelers let out a muted sigh of relief as the scout left the barn.

"That was too close," Alena whispered.

"We may have only been granted a respite," Brey reminded her. The old tutor turned to Cristo and asked, "What do you see out there?"

From his lookout position, the bodyguard studied the surroundings for a moment. "It's still just scouts at the moment," he eventually told them. "Most of the main body seems to be heading in a more northwest direction and avoiding this place."

"Probably nothing of interest for them here," Neddi remarked. "An army heading for a battle doesn't have time to waste on burnt-out buildings."

Satisfied the danger was subsiding, Brey sat up and faced the young scribe. "What makes you think they're heading for a battle?" he asked.

"Their, um, singing," Neddi replied. "When an army heads for a battle, they usually sing a war song to boost morale. Our soldiers in Endor do it every time they're sent out on a scrimmage against Bonmalmo's forces." The young scribe sat up as well, looking disdainfully in the general direction of the orc song. "I may not be a music critic but I'm definitely going to mention how awful of a song that is in my report."

"Their pitch does seem to be off, doesn't it," Brey agreed with a somber smile.