Chapter 5: Prisoner to Goblins
Laiken groaned as he slowly blinked once or twice, to see he was in an industrial-like area, in a cage, surrounded by goblin engineers and tinkers. His vision was still blurry from the damage to his head, inflicted by his kind kidnapper, Kraven, but as his vision refocused, he saw that he was, damn-near completely naked. He only had a shirt and shorts on, his gear, as well as Krug's, was elsewhere.
Krug was still out cold, and his breathing was dangerously slow, from what Laiken could tell. As Laiken checked on his apparent friend, a goblin walked up to the cage they were in, and rattled the bars, taunting them.
"Finally awake are you? Kraven will be here shortly", for some indiscernible reason, the goblin cackled at what he said.
Laiken sat down, going over how the goblins had knocked them out mentally, over and over again, before he broke his own concentration, with a simple statement.
"That wasn't funny", he said to himself, referring to what the goblin guard had cackled about.
"These guards are a bad bunch; you'll find out that they care little, shortly after they start feeding you", a voice said.
Laiken almost jumped up, startled, he looked over to where the voice had come from, and readied his fists, although he personally knew that the person, whoever he may be, had no intention of attacking him.
"Down boy!" the man, who was revealed to be human, said.
Laiken put his hands at his side, and bowed to the human, who was much, much taller than Laiken, but appeared older, and grittier. He was taller than Lucien, Laiken was sure, and his face was littered with scars. He sported a white beard, and long, flowing white hair that went lower than his shoulders. The man extended a hand, and smiled, revealing his teeth to be sharp.
"Name's George Furman… prisoner of these goblins, I guess", George said, his voice was unusually quiet.
Laiken looked at George up and down, briefly, wanting to get to know something about him, at least to the extent of superficially. Laiken saw that, like he, George was wearing little more than a shirt and underwear, however, it looked as though he had been there at least half a year.
"So… I guess I should break the ice… how'd you get here?" George said there were hints of anger in his voice now.
"I had just got off the port, in Ratchet, and this goblin named Kraven, and his friends attacked my friend and I… and I just woke up here, you probably saw more than me", Laiken slowly said, keeping his voice down as to make sure the goblins couldn't hear him.
"I did see you getting dragged in by two hobgoblins, but besides that, you were sleeping like a baby", George said.
Laiken sighed. Now he knew what those two huge creatures were that had accompanied those goblins. Laiken's thoughts were interrupted by George coming closer to him, and looking him up and down.
"Tell me something though. In all my years as a necromancer, I've never seen an orc as clean cut as you… tell, me, orc, what are you truly to look so clean and tamable?" George's voice was now demanding, as his eyes pierced through Laiken.
Laiken gulped, and contemplated yelling for a guard to come and help him get the crazy old man off of him. But, this thought was dashed when he realized that he wasn't their guest, but instead, their prisoner. He looked George directly in the eyes, and with pride shining in his voice, he spoke loud and clear.
"I'm not a full orc… Mr. Furman, I'm what you'd call a Half-Orc… my father was a human and my mother an orc", Laiken nervously spat.
George smiled, revealing his teeth once more, and he looked back at Laiken like he was plotting something horrible.
"Figures, you understand Common speak and Orcish… but which do you speak in more fluently?" George asked.
Laiken was tempted not to answer, as the thought of him becoming a demonic sacrifice for George to escape kept flashing through his mind.
"I was raised to speak both, not one", Laiken said, speaking in Orcish.
"See that I didn't understand, so repeat yourself", George ordered.
"I was raised to speak both, not one" Laiken repeated, now speaking in Common.
"Interesting, very interesting…" George said, before he looked over, and saw a goblin approaching their cage.
Laiken and George both sat back down, acting like they were not talking to each other at all.
"You both should know that goblins are smarter than that, so you'll have to forgive me if I call you two stupid", the guard said.
Laiken recognized it to be Kraven, who was now wearing goggles, and a suit fashioned of leather and an arclight spanner attached to his belt. George ceased to feign not talking to Laiken, and openly spoke to him in front of Kraven.
"Listen here… this can't be good", George loudly said as if to purposely attract the attention of Kraven.
"So the man finally speaks!" Kraven said, astounded.
George laughed as Kraven whistled sharply, and two hobgoblins appeared to drag George off as he looked at Laiken, insanity rampant in his old eyes. The hobgoblins grunted as they walked off into the distance with the human in tow. Laiken looked back at Kraven who was cracking the knuckles on his fingers, looking at him and Krug.
"We've got a very special project for you two…" Kraven said, laughing as four hobgoblins approached the cage.
Krug woke up from his apparent dream sleep, and looked around in the same fashion that Laiken did, looked once at the hobgoblins, then at Laiken, then back at the hobgoblins, at this point, he rubbed his head, and cracked his neck.
"Nice of you to wake up, Firebane" Kraven spat.
"Always… nothing like being fashionably late, is there, Laiken?" Krug said, as if he didn't sustain any head injuries to speak of.
Laiken, through a confused look, merely nodded at his accomplice. He then looked back at Kraven, whose image was replaced by that of two huge purple arms picking Laiken up by the chest. The hobgoblins carrying Laiken grunted.
"He not heavy… not real orc", the one said.
Kraven's goblin ears perked at this, and he rushed over to his slaves, and immediately was firing questions at Laiken faster than speeding bullets. The most prominent of which was the same question George had asked Laiken, before being carried off.
"So what are you?" Kraven asked.
Even though Kraven genuinely wanted to know that Laiken was a Half-Orc, his tone of voice hinted that he couldn't care less whether or not he was a human splattered with light green paint, or a teenage orc. Krug now spoke up in the stead of Laiken, being more forceful and blunt than Laiken could achieve.
"Leave him alone, let him contemplate the ways he'll deal with his upcoming death", Krug barked.
"What?" Laiken exclaimed as the duo were taken out of the industrial area, and into a large, meadow, on top of what appeared to be a mountain top.