Chapter 10: Names are the base of an Individual
Author`s note: Sorry I was a bit late to remember this but I must attribute the idea of the Fang to Erynnar and her story Soulmates. In it the main character leads a group of specially skilled and trained spies, thieves and assassins. That made me come up with the idea for an elite vanguard of hurlock warriors who serve as Skorge`s personal unit. Sorry this chapter is a bit short on details but had to write it in a hurry:( In this chapter I`m going to bring in a few more specific darkspawn characters to expand the story a little beyond Skorge`s mind.
The darkspawn had little real intelligence and their creativity was nonexistent, they were effective none the less however and had followed Skorge`s commands to the letter. After the ones he had sent into the forest after the fleeing humans returned with two dozen human females in tattered armor, which were now herded into a pen of long sharpened sticks, they had assembled and prepared to move onward past the gorge and further to the north and the human land. He had noted that a few of his surviving warriors did not return from the hunt but shrugged it off, assuming that they had simply wandered too far and lost their way, which was the nature of his narrow minded brethren. He was a bit satisfied to see that none of his Fang had deserted at least. The roughly twenty or so elite hurlocks who had survived the brutal battle stood close by, awaiting his next order.
He had none for the moment. Skorge had resorted to prowl the battlefield in silent contemplation.
The grass and pebble covered ground should be crunching under his heavy boots, instead it gave away sucking noises as his feet sank into the soil, so wet with blood it had almost become mud. His gaze focused on body after body as he passed them. Here was a human female with half her face cut away, there was a Hurlock with an arrow between his eyes. The silent was total, not counting the gory sounds of a few darkspawn further away as they crawled on all fours from body to body, trying in vain to fill their endless void of a hunger. A few bird made their presence know just then, letting out their cries of sorrow over the loss of live from a high tree branch. The scent was the worst. Skorge found his nostrils assaulted by the heavy metal fumes of smells which came rising from the blood pools. Normally he might savor the aroma but not today, for reasons he did not understand. Why did he avert his eyes from a shriek who was busy stuffing his mouth full of human flesh? Why did he not want to hear his warriors roar in victory? Why did he not want to smell the blood…?
He realized that his feet had carried him back to the fortress, right below the bridge. Here he found the gold-armored human`s body, still mangled from Fist`s tight grip. The body lay with the front in the mud so he placed a boot on his flank and gave it a shove so he rolled over on his back. The empty eyes glowered up at him. He growled, not at the human, but this sudden weakness which seemed to have overcome him. He pointed to a pair of genlocks.
"You two, bring the body up there." He said and pointed to the bridge above. At least he could get some outlet for his anger at himself. The two shorter darkspawn responded immediately and dragged the body between them by the arms. He had left the warden where he lay and allowed no desecration of it, probably another result of his own weak mind. He then followed the pair in through the hole he had sent his second attack force through, the one which he had meant to take the bridge during the battle. He had later learned that the force had instead gone into the massive tower, against his command, which rose high above the fortress itself and taken up garrison within, slaying the humans inside. He had later found that the entire force had been decimated and from a lone survivor he had learned that they had been killed by none other than the female warden, her knight companion, her furry beast and a few other humans. That had made him grit his teeth in anger, once he was done gawking in surprise. An entire force of darkspawn, almost fifty warriors plus an ogre, dead; one more offence for which she would pay once he got his second chance at killing her.
Skorge had followed up on this was when things became less clear. A group of his warriors had seen the bodies outside and rushed in to reinforce the garrison inside, only to find endless hallways of bloody darkspawn corpses until they reached the very top of the building where the humans stood over the body of the ogre and a blazing fireplace in the wall. They had immediately sent arrows at the wardens and look as if they were victorious as the humans fell.
Skorge had been understandably shocked when one of the archers claimed that as they moved to grab the bodies a giant eagle flew it through a large hole in the roof. The hurlock had claimed that the animals had been twice the size of an ogre and that it swooped down, blew the first ranks of darkspawn away with a gush of wind from a massive flap of its wings and plucked the two wardens from the floor in its talons, taking pains even to pick the beast up in its beak before flying off again.
The darkspawn had mentioned a human emissary in the little group and at first he had suspected that a spell had been put over the warriors to see something like that but once one of the said that judging from his wounds, crushed torso and all. It was apparent that the mage had fallen during the battle with the ogre. Long before this flying giant appeared.
"Once again she escapes by her luck alone." Skorge growled. It seemed the very laws of nature were against him finding the female warden now.
He would have to muster his forces soon and head on. Only by expanding further could he make up for the failed battles so far to the Master and show his worth once again. Gathering his Fang and Alphas he sent them out to reassemble their warriors and prepare for the march. Meanwhile, he had an appointment to keep with one certain genlock in the camp.
He walked at a fast pace through the tents and weapon racks as he headed to a smaller area away from the others where the necromancer had settled down. As far as Skorge knew his talents for raising the dead was most unique to him. None of the other emissaries had that kind of powers and for that he was shunned by his fellows, which was made all the easier due to his race as well. As he passed a row of head tipped spears which had been jammed into the ground he saw a small genlock with intricate leathers and a massive headdress sit on his haunches by a small pile of human bodies. He just stared at the corpses intently even as Skorge came up beside him. The Hurlock noted that the genlock`s skin was a light blue-grey color as opposed to the usual dark green.
"Necromancer" Skorge said, but got no answer as the diminutive creature instead stood up and raised his hands to the sky and then back to the bodies in what Skorge took as a mystical gesture. He repeated this and hummed lowly.
"Necromancer!" Skorge barked more forcefully and yet was met with nothing. He was about to lose his temper when the thing`s hands erupted in black and blue flames which proceeded tp gush over the three bodies. Once the flames slithered away and flickered out of existence nothing more happened, nothing made a sound. The dull eyes of the necromancer slowly became more intense, more focused and then flew wide open as he let out a long humming chant and the bodies began to move. The one at the top of the pile moved its hands as if feeling for purchase and found it on one of the other corpse`s legs and pushed itself up. The man, for now Skorge saw that that was what he was, turned his face up at them. The once plump human features were now distorted but that was likely the results from the darkspawn club Skorge saw close by, rather than then spell that had just been put on him. The other two followed suit and soon stood in a stumbling line. During this process Skorge had grown more and more intrigued and turned to the necromancer who finally faced him.
"Yes, my lord." The genlock said in a surprisingly deep voice.
"I will need you, necromancer, and your…creations to stay behind here as I move the army further north. I cannot afford that a second human force comes around and retake this place. That would cut of our one secure way of retreat." Skorge said grimly and glanced about the battlefield. "I think you have enough…available manpower here to gather a sufficient defense force."
"Indeed." The necromancer hissed with a hint of amusement in his tone. Skorge watched him for a second before nodding and leaving. To be truthful, he was rather glad to have that one out of his force. Not many gunlocks dared stare a hurlock in the eye like he did and he was smarter than most. It struck him now that besides himself the necromancer was the only one in the horde with his own identity. This had allowed him to reason with him on a deeper level than the others. An idea was forming itself in his head and it kept him busy as he passed back the way he had come
Three hours later they had the horde once again assembled and ready to go. It was considerably smaller now but he knew it would be enough until the Master returned with his additional forces.
"We`re moving out." He barked to thr alphas and began to marched away onto the dirt road on which the humans had first arrived. Now they filled it in a long column, like a snake carrying a dark essence of doom to the human lands ahead. Glancing back Skorge already saw the walking corpses of the necromancer, plus the few warriors he had left with him, patrol the walls of the fortress.
Skorge was as usual at the head of the horde along with his Fang. He gave them a backward glance, watching their stern, expressionless faces and once again wished there was some way to make them like him. He could try to discuss the matter with the Master but he doubted the dragon would want to many darkspawn thinking for themselves, especially since the darkspawn in question served such a vital role as the commander`s bodyguard. Dominant hurlocks fought their way to the top and he would have been surrounded by more competition than protection if they had been more intelligent. And yet he longed for some sort of connection with someone that was not the Master, a rotting ghoul or someone like the necromancer. This had been the cause of the idea before. He was thinking of creating some kind of individuality among his Fang. And what defined an individual? A name!
So it was with some level of satisfaction that Skorge brought eight of his most experienced Fang members, darkspawn who had been among the first to join him down in the deep roads, to the side of the road and lined them up. He had spent a good hout thinking up names and the collection he now had he liked. He did not know, could not know, that the names that had almost popped into his mind like magic were actually due to the Master`s spell on him. No darkspawn alive now knew the truth about the old gods, how they were once Tevinter gods of power and magic but had been sealed away below ground. Maybe this part of the Master`s being, the tevinter part, had somehow transferred over to Skorge when he shared his intelligence and reasoning with him through the spell. For whatever reason, the names he was about to give his warriors were actually tevinter in origin, which he was understandably unaware of. He now walked along the line slowly, putting his armored fist against each hurlock`s wide chest plate as he called out their individual names as he did so.
"Maccabeus, Tartarus, Vorenus, Grattius, Licinus, Strab, Druss and Ritul." He barked. The eight warriors followed him with their dull eyes but said nothing. Skorge expected no reaction but that they now owned names, identities, pleased him.
"You are now my seconds in commands. You will carry out my will in this army on this our most hallowed quest. You will be my harbingers of command, my messengers of whims." He called, no respons.
"Now return to your places in the ranks, I will be there soon." Skorge urged and they did as told. He watched them go, feeling a mixed sensation of accomplishment…and disgust. He now had his "individuals", at least in name. Had he been among humans they would have likened him to a child playing with dolls, not that they would have survived to tell others of the insult but still. Skorge felt a sudden rush of enthusiasm however. Maybe they could be formed into personalities? Maybe he could find equals among them with time?
If nothing else, he had at least created a chain of command. He gave each of the named ones command over a unit of equal size and let them lead ahead. Leadership and dominance, these things they understood well.
As they marched on Skorge began to notice details among the named ones that might help him distinguish them more clearly. Tartarus, his new second in command, for example had a long scar stretching from the top right side of his forehead all the way across his face down to his left jaw. Vorenus was actually a bit taller and more muscular than Skorge himself and Grattius was missing his right hand, forcing him to use a one handed axe. To be fair he used the weapon with great skill.
"Tartarus, take your scout of to the north ahead of us, Maccabeus, you and your warriors follow, keep yourselves between us and the scouting party at all time." Skorge barked and the pair immediately complied, running ahead to assemble their troops. He smirked, pleased, as he watched them go.
The forest around the long, dark column was eerily quiet. Everything seemed to reject their presence here. No surface animals roamed around them and no sign of any more humans around. The only thing that sounded was the booming of the darkspawn marching along with their horns and drums giving of their loud calls,
They marched on for the rest of the day and towards the darkening of the sky they set camp. Around the same time as they stopped Tartarus returned, bringing startling news to Skorge.
The supreme commander had listened intently as Tartarus described how he and his scouting group had followed a small dirt road at the edge of the large forest which they had spent the last months on now, talking of a wide open countryside beyond. This gave Skorge satisfaction, since it indicated that they would soon no doubt find the lands the humans seemed so eager to protect. What Tartarus said next however, formed Skorge`s lips into a half smirk half snarl. Tartarus was tell of the reason as to why only he had returned to camp, bloodied as well.
"Describe this group of humans again." Skorge demanded as he stood over the other hurlock.
"Yes my lord. The first we noted was male, wearing heavy armor and fine weapons. He matches the description of the man who accompanied the warden." Tartarus said in his raspy voice." The second was a female. A dark haired, golden-eyes woman who looked very little like her companions, judging from her attire. She seemed to be an emissary, wielding magic as she did. And the last…" Tartarus seemed to be getting a bit more hesitant but excited as well." Was the female warden, whom you have already encountered, with her beast. She is close."
Skorge did not move. Could it be so? Could this warden be just within his grasp out here, protected by a mere group of two other humans and an animal?
"Give the order for a forced march immediately. I want all the alphas to rally their warriors and moved after them at once." Skorge barked as he stormed past Tartarus who turned to walk with him.
"Lord, I should also report that we saw a lot of activity further down the road, along with ruins and pillars of smoke. It is possible that a human settlement is nearby." His tone sounded positively cheerful.
"Good, I will slay the wardens and take the first piece of human land in one blow." Skorge almost gloated. Soon the entire army thundered forwards at a fast pace, most of them running. A few unfortunate genlocks were trampled under the stampede. Now the forest did make sounds. The noises of swaying trees with bark whining againt the unusual movment and panicked bird fleeing before the oncoming sea of blackness. Soon the first waves of it would splash against the human shores.