"When will he fall asleep?" Flynn asked Ratbag.

"Patience is needed." Ratbag answered. "Graugs like to sleep whenever the time is right. They don't like noises. They will either get used to those noises or they will kill those who make those noises and eat them for dinner." Ratbag said that in a manner that someone would say that the sky is blue. "Graugs have a very...specific taste."

"Really." Robin said. "What else do they eat...besides anything that can walk and come in their hands."

"Well, they like to eat honey when they get to it and also the leaves of the trees. Yes, I know it's strange that eater-of-every-walking-meat actually likes to eat some plants as well, but...you know what they say, the strangest things are the strange things. Uh, that...that didn't sound good. I could have formed it better."

Anna chuckled at this. She met this Orc who sometimes made clever jokes, sometimes accidental jokes and sometimes...bad jokes. Like this one. But it didn't matter much. This orc was very likable. When Anna was small, she would hear evil stories about Orc crimes. They would slaughter villages and cities, that their axes and swords were always red of blood, that their very speech was evil and poisonous, like that they were snakes, and that their faces were the ugliest sight on the face of the earth.

This last one was true. Ratbag really was the ugliest person or anything that Anna ever saw in her life. However, Ratbag didn't look evil. His ratty face looked funny and friendly, even with all it's scars and piercings. Ratbag moved funny, like with a limp, although it was obvious both of his legs were healthy. Ratbag liked to move his hands when he was talking, raising them, pointing with them and imitating things he is talking about sometimes. This green orc started to remind Anna of Olaf-although a little more brighter version of Olaf. Uglier (though not looking like him) but brighter.

"What will we do when he falls asleep?" Abel asked. He was always silent for some reason, unknown to Anna.

"We will walk out of this cave as quietly as we can. I don't want to wake him up." Robin answered. Anna liked how he acted like a leader of this company, even though half of the people in it were older than he.

"Why don't we simply kill him?" Vilgar asked. Anna couldn't believe he is even thinking of that. His sword was the first weapon that broke when they tried to pierce the graug.

"Are you mad?" Flynn said.

"I know I am not." others commented.

"There is the tiniest chance that we can kill that graug, and although there is, I don't want to try that." Robin said.

"The tiniest chance?" Ratbag said and then started laughing, his hand on his stomach. His scratchy voice also made his laughter funny and likeable. Anna smiled at it too. "Tiniest chance. No, my human fellows, it is impossible to kill the graug with those weapons of yours. You would have to climb all the way to the head, and none of you is tall enough or has a sword long enough to reach his head. It is the only way to kill a graug-cut off his head and he is never going to trouble you again. It will do the job every time. Aaand it will also save you many other troubles." Anna raised her eyebrow at this.

"Other troubles?" Andal Dorris asked.

"Yeah, a graug might not be what you humans call sentient, but he does have a brain and eyes, and when he sees someone jump into his lair, he is never, ever gonna forget it. He will just want to smash the head of that ugly, filthy piece of meat that entered his lair-his thoughts, not mine, I actually like all of you-and he will want to have pleasure of killing that shrakh that entered his lair. That is actually the closest thing to revenge that a dumb animal like a Graug can desire."

"And...what if it lost an eye?" Robin asked. Anna knew that he pierced one eye of that graug that attacked them. He must have now felt very bad if this graug is going to remember him forever. Ratbag used his fingers again.

"Oh, cutting of a part of his body is a really bad idea, if it is not his head. A graug is always gonna despise the master of the weapon that cut his body part, but especially if it is an eye. You see, graugs don't have a very good sight, but if they lose one eye, the sight is gonna really improve in the other eye, and the graug will now remember even how much hair the person that cut his eye had. Unless he didn't saw his face, of course, it cannot remember something it didn't see, but the point is..." he raised his hand to stop himself from talking unimportant things. Even that was funny. "He is gonna remember, and he is gonna remember very, very well. In other words,..."

"Robin." Robin said his name to remind him.

"Robin, yes. In other words Robin, if you have a twin and the twin is standing right beside you and you are both standing before a graug, the graug is gonna know that you stabbed his eyes and he will hunt you, and not your twin, he will not be tricked. Well, later on he will also want to kill the twin because he likes to kill everything, but you get it."

Ratbag talked so fast with so much information that Anna had to take a minute to memorize everything that he said, and it seemed the others also needed a minute or two. Until Robin finally spoke.

"Is the graug going to leave his cave just to find me and avenge his eye?" Ratbag scratched his chin.

"Uh...yes, he will." Ratbag said easily. "But, no worries, right now you just have to run away from him and you could deal with him later in the life. You know, when you bring some friends of yours and they can help you kill the graug." Robin nodded at this.

"How many men is it needed to kill a graug?"

"Uh, at least thirty." Ratbag said, counting with his hand. "Maybe twenty could manage to kill a graug, but I wouldn't recommend it. They would probably all die. It's actually pure luck that you all got out of his way alive without any injuries."

Without any injuries? Robin almost lost his back and it still hurts him a little. Anna was still sitting beside Robin, wanting to be there if something hurts him. He would still flinch and make the sound of pain. He even had bruises on his back. She was angry whenever he would say it's nothing.

Ratbag's story as to how he ended up here was similar to their own actually. He was from an Orc tribe called the Feral tribe, that was in bad relations with another Orc tribe called the Outlaw tribe. He had an Orc friend named Horza and Ratbag once got abducted by the Orcs from the Outlaw tribe. Horza followed them with a company of his own and wanted to save Ratbag. When they arrived at the camp, they set Ratbag free, but the Outlaw Orcs started to fight and Horza got killed during the fight. When he saw Horza died, Ratbag just run away as far as he could and he ended up in here. There were even more details in the story, but these were the most important ones that Anna memorized.

"And how will we run away from this graug when he falls asleep?" someone asked, though Anna couldn't recognize the voice. "Run or will we walk on our tip-toes?" it was Flynn and he chuckled a little at that.

"We will walk quietly not to wake him up." Robin got up, even though Anna wouldn't allow him. He was touching his back in pain. "When we are far away enough from him, we will run." Anna was happy she could run now. She got rid of that dress that she was wearing for more than a week and they gave her some of their clothing to wear. As far as she is concerned, the graug can keep the dress if he wants to. If he will be able to reach it through the small hole, of course. She also fixed her hair and put it in a braid, to be easier to run with it.

"And what if the Red Snake's sons are right behind us? How will we run from both them and the graug?" Flynn asked. Abel shook his head.

"We are here for already three days." Or four. Anna's counting didn't match Abel's. And what counting would? There is no sun here. "They must think that we ran away from them. Our horse left us, so maybe they found them and they think that we are dead. By now, they must have given up looking for us an are going back to their father."

"I bet the Young Snakes will not have a good time explaining their bastard of a father what happened here. Oh! Forgive me, Kenan and Robin, it slipped out of my mouth, I am really sorry!" Andal Dorris said. It seemed Kenan was also some noble's illegitimate child. Anna didn't knew that. Andal Dorris also remembered her. "Forgive me, princess, a common folk man I am, sometimes I forget the words that I can say and that I can't."

"Princess?" Ratbag said. Anna remembered. They didn't tell him everything about themselves. "A...daughter of a king among humans, is that it? You are a princess?" Ratbag looked at her with his green, widened eyes "Oh shrakh. This is the biggest clutter I was ever in! You are a daughter of a king?! I will never get out of this clutter, oh shrakh! I am a glob! Oh, Horza, you glob, why did you had to die and leave me with humans!"

Anna wanted to light the situation. "Please, please Ratbag! I am a princess, but I won't hurt you. I give my word."

"Oh, of course you won't." Ratbag said. "Your father of a king will do it before he gives you pleasure. Oh, I still remember the stories of that human king Fund-Ran. He is a man who killed a giant warrior, and then he and his sons killed every orc they could lay their hands on. Oh, he and his armies slaughtered us. He wanted to gather a huge army to destroy us all. The Ashi-Ash was on our side then, and he punished Fund-Ran with a huge pestilence on his land in which all his soldiers died. After that, he touched us no longer, but dead Orcs wouldn't rise from the dead."

Fund-Ran, man who killed a giant warrior? Ashi-Ash punished him with pestilence? David! David killed a giant, and the Lord punished him with a great pestilence! But Anna never knew for what reason, until now.

"You are his kin." Ratbag said. Anna didn't know what to say. Ratbag guessed coincidentally, but he did guess. David is my forefather. "I knew it! I cannot trust you! I cannot trust a descendant of Fund-Ran!" then he looked at Robin. "And you? You called her sister! You are a prince! You are also a descendant of Fund-Ran, both of you!" Well, since David lived thousands of years ago, Anna wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the cave was his descendant, except Ratbag, of course.

"Ratbag, please! Trust us! We will not hurt you, I promise! I am princess Anna of Arendelle and this is my brother Robin. Our oldest sister is the queen of Arendelle, the kingdom in which we are now. I know her and I now that she won't hurt you. She wouldn't hurt someone who helped me! Who helped us. That much I can promise you."

"How do you think you will get out of here without us?" Abel said. "We cannot get out of here without you nor can you without us, isn't that right?" Ratbag wasn't very happy about that.

"Well, yes, it is."

"Then you have to trust us." Anna said. "Please Ratbag."

Ratbag looked around in thinking and then sighed. "Ah, I've been here with you for four days, I suppose I can trust you." he smiled and Anna smiled back...and then she noticed something.

"Wait!" she raised her finger, to silent everyone. "Do you all hear that?" Anna carefully listened. The sound she heard was akin to breathing, but more like, snoring. Not a human one, but a loud one and very deep and unpleasant. Everyone listened as well.

"He fell asleep." Robin said.

"Yes he did." Anna answered. "We can go now. Now!"

"But remember!" Robin said quietly. "Everyone, walk quietly. And Ratbag, please make sure you are quiet as well."

"Don't worry, prince. When I want to, I can be quiet as the corpse of a wolf." he said and they started to sneak through that hole.

Anna was walking on her tip toes instead of walking quietly like Robin said. Never too much caution, she believed in those words. She thought so, as she was trying to pass by the graug's stretched out hand. She carefully walked over his hand, as if he was a baby sleeping, and not a monster that is going to eat her. But, something wasn't on her side.

"I CAN SEE YOU, ANNA." a voice terrified Anna and she fell on the graug's arm. The monster then roared, but before it could catch her, Robin helped her to get up as fast as he could. He touched his back in pain, but still ran. As fast as they could, they run from the monster. The graug roared again and started chasing them. They were running, but Anna was not thinking just about the monster...if about it all. Who said that? Whose voice was that?

At the end of the way, Anna saw a light of the day going through a hole and they run into that hole as fast as they could. Robin was behind her, behind everyone. "Robin!" she screamed before he jumped through the hole as well. Lord, thank You, thank You!

Anna helped Robin to get up. His back still hurt him. He was really in a bad situation. "What happened Anna? How could you fall like that?!" Robin was angry. The worst thing is that Anna didn't know what to say.

"I...I heard a..." in that moment the graug broke the cave and roared again at them, ready to hunt them while the sun was in the sky.

"Oh, no." Robin said and took out his sword.

"We won't be able to escape him, won't we Ratbag?" Robin asked the orc.

"No, not at all. He will hunt us until he catches us." Robin sighed at that.

"Then we will have to kill him." the graug was staring at Robin with his only good eye. "It's me you want, isn't it?" the graug roared at that. "Come and get me then! His head! We must cut off his head!"

"Give me a sword, Robin!" Anna said getting his surprised look.

"What?"

"A sword or anything, give it to me!" she was keeping her hand open, while graug roared behind them. "Robin, there is no time!" Robin took out a longer knife and gave it to her.

"I hope you know how to..."

"Don't worry, I am good enough. Not like you, but good." others attacked the graug, trying to confuse him and make him fall. Anna knew what would be the easiest way to confuse him.

"His eyes! We must hit him in the his eye!" Robin nodded.

"How didn't I remembered that." he smiled. "His eye! If anyone has arrows, shot him in his eye! Adal, Will, shot him!"

Adal and Will took out their bows and started aiming and shooting in the graug's eye. The graug used his hands to protect his eye. It seems his skin wasn't resistant to the arrows, since the arrows stayed inside his hands. Everyone around graug didn't use their swords to pierce him, just to confuse him and make him fall. But with one good eye and Adal and Will's failure to hit him, the graug was not confused and he was defeating them.

Anna was also trying to confuse him, running around him and making him notice her.

"We ran out of arrows!" was the last thing she heard before the graug pushed her with his foot to the ground. Anna's dagger fell away from her and she couldn't find it. And now, with his naked, giant foot, graug was preparing to crush his skull.

"Hold still!" she heard a voice and someone jumped right before her and stabbed the graug's foot. The graug rumbled in pain, touching his hurt, bleeding foot and going backwards, leaving Anna safe.

"Are you fine?" a young voice said and gave her a hand. Anna was surprised. It was a stranger to her, a handsome boy, not more than sixteen years of age, with a very small beard and black hair and dark blue-grey eyes. He was almost one inch taller than her. In face, he looked like Robin so much that he could be his cousin, but five years younger than him.

"I am." Anna said.

Then, in that moment, Will and Adal somehow had arrows again and they were hitting a graug. Besides them was standing another older boy, also no older than sixteen.

"I hit him!" Will said, and the graug roared in pain again, touching both of his eyes. "I hit him!" Will said. Then the graug finally fell and his fall caused the earth to tremble. Robin then showed up and looked at the boy standing beside Anna.

"Take your sword boy and cut that creature's head without any question!" Robin run at the graug, who was still alive, but touching his eyes instead of protecting himself. He was caught unaware when more than ten swords started piercing his neck. There was so much blood that just at the first sight, Anna's stomach turned and she looked away, not able to watch that creature's head being cut off. She placed a hand on her face to hide her sight from what was happening. I am a fool! They can die!

Anna then took enough courage and stomach to resist the fear of blood and turned around to see if everyone was alright. She breathed in relief when she saw they were. Robin was standing above the ugly creature's head, his face all bloody. He again winced in pain, touched his back and sat on the ground. Anna didn't care about the blood and she ran to hug him.

"Thank you, for giving us arrows boy." Will said to the slimmer of the two boys. "We ran out of them."

"No need to thank me." the slim boy said.

"Yes, there is. To both of you." Robin said and gave his hand to both of them. Anna was looking at Robin and the other boy, being even confused by how similar they look. But that wasn't as important as the fact his back still hurt him.

"I am Robin Frost." Robin told them. Anna decided to give them her true name.

"I am princess Anna, of Arendelle." she said, giving her hand. Two boys were now surprised, but the one who saved her got back to senses quicker.

"You gave us your true names, and we will give you our names." the boy said. "I am Minardil Gondor, son of lord Aramir of Gondor." he looked at his companion. "And this is my cousin Benjen, son of Ondoher Gondor, my father's younger brother." Benjen seemed displeased that someone presented him, and not he himself, but he just sighed. "Before you ask, I will explain: two captives ran from Minas Hír and I and Benjen decided to follow them. We followed them for few days, until we lost them. But while we were following them, they said that the Red Snake abducted princess of Arendelle and we decided to go to save her." Anna smiled at this.

"You didn't save me from Aron, but you did save my life from a monster. I owe you my life, Minardil."

"It was stupid for two boys like you to follow two dangerous captives, of course." Robin berated two boys he didn't even know. "But I am happy you chose to do that." he winced in pain again. Anna touched him immediately when she heard that.

"We are happy as well." Minardil said, before looking at Ratbag. Anna bit her lip at that.

"We will explain you later." she said, and Ratbag knew she was talking about him.

"Uh, no reason to do so." Ratbag said and again used his hands. "Well, I guess that's it then. You can go back to your sister and uh..." Ratbag looked at the graug's head for some reason, particularly his teeth. "Hello." he said, took out a knife and started cutting the tooth. Robin's sword was still in Robin's hands, and with pain, he got up (even though Anna protested) his other hand still on his back.

"We are not done here." Robin said, walked to Ratbag and placed a tip of his sword bellow Ratbag's neck. "We have to go back now."

"Oh, right, you have to go back." Ratbag said afraid. He pointed with his finger to the forest. "I think it's..." Robin raised his sword a little higher, scaring Ratbag. "or, I might lead you to go back."

"Robin, what are you doing?" Anna was angry. "We promised not to..."

"Hurt him. And we will not. But we are lost, Anna. But he knows the way back to Arendelle. How, I don't know, but he does know. And he will lead us there."

"And how will others react when they see an Orc?"

"We will not allow them to hurt him." Robin then looked at Ratbag. "I give my word. No one in Arendelle will hurt you. I will protect you myself Ratbag. That is my promise. But you will lead us to Arendelle."

"Maybe we should first ask our new companions whether they want to come to Arendelle?" Flynn said, looking at Minardil and Benjen. Anna forgot about them for few moments.

"Minas Hír is far from here, young lads." Abel said. "While Arendelle is not that far. And even if it was the opposite, you don't know how to go alone, don't you?"

"No, we don't." Minardil said. "I would want to join my father and my brother more than anything, but I don't know the way back. I and Benjen would just get lost. We will come with you to Arendelle and then see what we will do later."

He thinks wisely. Anna thought that for a boy who went to follow two bandits, this boy gave a wise decision.

"Although we are all probably going to be confused on the way." Flynn said, to everyone's surprise.

"Why?" Robin asked. Flynn wasn't sure how to say it.

"Well, you and young lord Minardil look very alike." Flynn answered and everyone looked at the two of them. Minardil and Robin also glanced at each other, confused.

"Robin." Anna called him. "Ratbag." she reminded him. Robin looked again in the orc bellow whose neck his blade was.

"You will lead us to Arendelle." Robin said. Ratbag gave a weak chuckle.

"Haha, ha...uh shrakh." he said and Robin removed his blade from his neck. Ratbag started rubbing his neck. Anna was angry at Robin and punched him in his shoulder.

"You don't know how to talk with Orcs, don't you?" she said, frowned. Robin was frowned as well. And then he winced in pain because of his back. Anna held him.

"And you do, do you?"

"Yes, I do." she looked at everyone behind them. "Like with everyone else." You are a good person Robin, but now I see some of your flaws. Or was it? This was an Orc after all, and Robin probably didn't know how to react to creatures who are always evil in stories. Anna, however, wanted to be kind to him.

"I'll walk beside you Ratbag, if you don't mind." she smiled.

"Oh, no, no, no, I don't." he said, still rubbing his neck.

"Good. Now can you tell me something-what does shrakh mean?"

"Oh, shrakh." Ratbag repeated. "It is animal feces." Anna stifled her laugh and so did everyone else.


Note:

*"Fund-ran" is formed from Black Speech words fund and ran, and it means "doom-king". Orcs call David like that because he almost destroyed them, i.e. he was their doom.

*"Ashi-Ash" is formed from Black Speech words ashi and ash, and it means "the Only One". This is how the Orcs call God.