Chapter 3: Just Orks or the lot?

I don't own Icewind Dale or Buffy the vampire slayer in anyway, shape or form, kinda wished that I did though.

As Nathan and his new traveling companions headed down the trail that should bring them on track with the caravan, while they walked, Nathan was knee-deep in thought. His life had definitely gotten more interesting then he would have generally liked since the arrival of Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles, also having Hrothgar asking them to join in an expedition to fight unknown evil was just icing on the cake. Not that he was complaining mind you, strange people from other dimensions and impending doom tends to keep him from having to think about some of the problems that he had to deal with. Speaking of strange people… As they had started traveling to find the caravan, Buffy, Xander and Giles had been quite content to just talk to each other, which Nathan was quite happy with as he barely knew them to begin with, but unfortunately for him, Willow had decided to take it upon herself to get to know their new companion better.

"So, where are you from?" Willow asked him

"Suldanessellar" Nathan answered, deciding to humor her.

"Is that an Elven city, if so what's it like? Compared to human cities I mean?" Willow asked

"It's… very green and rather high up due to our preference of building in tree tops." Nathan told her after a brief pause.

"You sound like you don't like it very much." Willow noted

"What? No, I'm just not much of a heights person." Nathan admitted. "So where are you from then?"

"Sunnydale, it looks rather different from that village we were at before, but while it's not built in trees, it is built over a Hell mouth." She answered.

"A hell mouth?" Nathan asked curiously

"It's basically some sort of a gateway to hell, and we fight the creatures that come from it." Willow told him.

"It's a gate way to hell? And you actually live on top of it." Nathan asked in stunned amazement.

"Yea, well, the town is famous for its high death rates, but it's not so bad with Buffy helping to protect it." Willow told him.

"I take it that Buffy is not exactly normal?" Nathan asked, thinking back to when he saw Buffy lift a goblin of its feet with one punch.

"I really shouldn't say anymore, but Buffy herself, or even Giles could tell you more about that." Willow told him before looking ahead. "Hey, is that cart tracks?"

"Yea… and its rearing to the left of the path." Nathan said, while following the tracks with his gaze.

As Willow headed back to tell the others what she saw, Nathan couldn't help but wonder just what had caused the caravan to leave the safety of the path…

As the group followed the tracks through a bend in the cliff face, Willow was still trying to make sense of everything that had happened. She had gotten used to the fact that magic and monsters were commonplace ever since Buffy had come to Sunnydale, but now it seems like the world has taken a Lord of the Rings twist, with Elves, Orks, and even Hobbits which she had seen in the village.

Just then, Willow noticed Buffy stiffen.

"Something's coming" Buffy told the group quietly

The group waited, squinting into the snow, with weapons drawn, while Willow had a rock ready.

Willow couldn't help but wish that she had a spell that was a bit more powerful then throwing rocks at people, but she had only just started learning magic, and didn't even have a proper teacher since she had to learn out of books. She could have asked Giles to teach her, but she figured that he would be against her learning magic, which was confirmed for her when Giles chewed her out after she had used magic by throwing a rock at one of the goblins they had met before.

"Do any of you hear that?" Nathan asked

As he mentioned it, Willow could hear something, almost like… a dog in the snow.

As soon as she thought this, it came into view or more accurately they.

Two large, white, wolves ran at the group at full speed, with just enough time for them to ready themselves, the wolves charged straight into Buffy and Xander.

Xander managed to block the wolf that leapt at him with his axe, before both him and Nathan converged on the wolf.

Buffy was readying herself to block the other wolf, but the wolf was hit by a rock that was levitated by Willow, knocking it to the ground, which was then finished off by Giles with his crossbow.

"They were some really nasty dogs." Xander said.

"They must be running low on food sources around here if they are willing to attack us…, or they were scared off." Nathan said, more to himself then to the rest of the group.

"This means, if the caravan happened to be attacked by something roaming the area, it's probably close to this location." Nathan continued.

"Alright, then we should keep following the tracks, that should lead us right to it." Giles told them.

They followed the tracks around a bend in the cliff face.

"Over there!" Xander told them, pointing to a cave. "Did you guys see that?"

"No, what are you talking about?" Buffy told him, the others also showing looks of confusion.

"Something was walking inside; it was large, and green." Xander told them.

"Great, well that can range from fat goblins to Ogres." Nathan complained.

"That must be the caravan." Willow told them, pointing to several empty carts along the side of the cliff face.

The group headed inside the cave, Xander couldn't help but cough as the smell hit them. As they entered further into the cave, Xander also felt "something", he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it felt like something evil was about.

"I don't know why, but it feels like there is something, well… evil around here." Xander told the others.

The rest of the Scooby gang continued to scrutinize their surroundings, while Nathan was giving Xander a thoughtful look.

Just then, several Orks walked into their part of the tunnel, saw them, gave grunting snarls, and charged with weapons raised.

"Watch out!" Buffy warned the others, before running at the first Ork.

Xander ran at the second one, ready to give an almighty hit with his axe, only to duck, narrowly avoiding having his head taken off. Thinking fast, he smacked the Ork in the stomach with the top of the axe, knocking it back several paces, before leaping at it to deliver the killing blow.

Once Xander had managed to dislodge his Axe from its new resting place, the fight had finished, and several new Ork corpses decorated the cave entrance.

"That was easier then I thought." Nathan commented as he stuck his sword back into his scabbard without looking, and since his scabbard hung loosely from his back, it was quite a feat that he didn't stab himself.

"Yes, these Orks seem quite inclined for the bull rush approach." Giles replied.

"Hey Xander, catch!" Buffy called out, Xander looked around just in time to catch the shirt of chainmail that she had thrown at him. "Thought you might need it." She told him

"Thanks Buff." Xander replied before putting on the shirt

"No problem Xan." Buffy replied with a small smile.

They continued deeper into the cave, finding empty boxes of what Xander assumed were the supplies from the caravan. As they finally made their way to the deepest part of the cave, the group suddenly found themselves surrounded by 12 Orks, 12 ugly, smelly, irritated Orks, and one that Xander guessed was their leader, since it was head and shoulders taller then the rest, and held what looked like a human two handed sword in one hand.

"Poa! You stink!" Buffy exclaimed, while holding her nose. "I mean, I've smelt some really bad things, but you guys take the cake, seriously! Do you not know what a bath is or something?"

"Uh, Buffy?" Willow interrupted tentatively "It might be better not to annoy the 8 foot tall giant with a massive sword."

Unfortunately, by this point, the very large Ork had finally snapped out of its shocked state.

"WWWAAARRRRGGGG!" It roared, before the entire group converged on them.

Xander quickly struck out at one of the several Orks that charged at him, managing to gain a lucky blow, and knocked it off its feet, but that still left 11 to go. Xander quickly fell to avoid the second ones attack, and kicked out at a third one, knocking it over. He quickly got up, and managed to intercept the second Orks attack, before punching it with his free hand.

"OW!" he yelled, as his hand smacked into its bony chin. While his hand felt like it had punched a brick wall, the Ork he had hit stumbled back in surprise, giving himself enough time to finish it off. Just then, he felt a sharp pain in his back, before finding himself falling to the ground. As he was slipping into unconsciousness, he heard someone yell his name, before a sound of a rock hitting flesh reached him, and everything went black…

Buffy had just finished off her second Ork before she heard a yell, looking up she saw Xander falling to the ground, with an Ork following him due to a rock in the face.

Before she could do anything, she felt something large and solid hit her, sending her into the cave wall. She looked up to see the 8 foot tall monstrosity charging towards Nathan, who was preoccupied with two Orks himself.

"Nathan! Behind you!" She yelled as she got two her feet.

As she ran towards it, she saw Nathan look up in time to see the monstrosity about to hit him with its massive sword. Nathan raised his hand, as if to ward off the blow, but just as its blade hit him, a pale shield of energy encircled him, which reacted violently as the blade hit it, but not breaking. The monstrosities arm snapped backwards as it unexpectedly hit something solid, giving Nathan enough time to dodge another Ork attack before Buffy leapt at the huge Ork, plunging her stake into its back, it went down with an odd "urk" sound, before she turned her attentions to the remaining Orks. Or would have, if Giles and Willow hadn't finished them off.

The group then converged on Xander, who was still unconscious and breathing shallowly.

"Is there something we can do? Like a spell?" Willow was asking Giles frantically.

"Maybe, but I don't know any spells like that, perhaps…" Giles turned to Nathan, who was rummaging through his belongings. "You wouldn't happen to know anybody close by to help."

"Yes, but due to my ability to constantly walk into trouble; she gave me some stuff to help so I wouldn't have to constantly revisit her." He told them as he continued to search.

"AH HA! Found it." He exclaimed while pulling out an odd blue bottle.

"Quick, open his mouth." He told them,

Willow quickly propped Xander's mouth open, as Nathan poured the potion into his mouth.

Xander gave half way between a cough and a splutter as he came too, and as they watched, his wounds started to heal themselves before their very eyes.

"It's a potion of healing." Nathan explained "It's not a very potent one, but it does the job."

"Eah!" Xander groaned while sitting up "Did you get the number of the bus that hit me?" he asked.

"A bus?" Nathan asked "maybe there was something in that potion that I missed."

"He's joking." Willow told him with a relieved chuckle.

"Right, well come on you." Nathan said as he helped Xander up,"It'll be a bit sore for a while, but you'll be fine."

As Nathan and Willow helped Xander up, Buffy had taken the ex monsters sword, and was swinging it experimentally.

"Woa! Careful Buff, you could have someone's eye out with that." Xander said with a weak smile.

"Hey! I do have some experience in handling these things." She told him with a mock pout.

"That's what she said." Xander said with a chuckle.

Buffy looked at him threateningly "Your lucky your injured mister!" She told him before cracking a smile.

"You all might want to look at this." Giles interrupted them as they laughed.

Giles was standing over the dead body of, what Nathan identified as an Ogre, holding a scroll that he had pulled off its person.

"Looks like they did get the caravan on its way through." He told them "We better tell Hrothgar about this."

"Also, Nathan, could you tell me what these do?" Giles asked, showing the Elf several more scrolls.

"Their magic scrolls, you can use these to learn new spells, that one is a type of magic missile spell, and the other one is a horror spell." He told them.

"Here" he said, passing them to Willow "You're a mage right, you can use these if you don't already know them."

Willow opened the scroll of magic missile, and was studying it intensely as they left the cave; she was so absorbed in it, that she almost tripped over a rock sticking out of the ground, which while her other arm was helping to hold Xander, was not a good idea..

"Willow, I'll take the other one, since I should start brushing up on my magic again considering the circumstances." Giles told her before taking the other scroll, while she put her own away.

"Also." He continued "Nathan, why didn't you tell us that you could use magic?"

"He can use magic? Since when?" Buffy asked.

"He cast that shield spell when the Ogre attacked him, remember?" Giles told her before turning back to the Elf.

"You never asked." Nathan replied.

"Is there anything else about you that you should tell us about?" Giles asked.

"I like rainy days, small hamsters called Boo… uh, I can pick a lock, and deactivate traps, stuff like that too." Nathan answered.

"What are you, a thief?" Xander asked.

"Hey! I prefer the term adventurer!" Nathan told him slightly offended.

"Alright, alright." Xander told him, while trying to show a sign of peace, which was rather hard as both Willow and Nathan were helping hold him by the shoulders.

When they got back to Easthaven, the headed straight to Hrothgars house. Xander was sitting in a chair as they explained what happened to the caravan.

"Orks, strange, they usually don't venture this close to the village, I guess they must be stocking up for the winter." He mused to himself. "Anyway, it's good that you have arrived back, our expedition is just about ready to leave, gather any supplies you need from around the village and meet me by the town entrance."

The group quickly headed around town to stock up on anything they could need for the journey, Xander also bought himself a medium sized shield, as he figured it could do more damage then his fist in a fight, as well as protect his side.

Buffy had kept the two handed sword, while Giles had stocked up on bolts for his crossbow, as well as buying some Leather amour, which gave him basic protection, while not being chunky enough to interfere with any spell casting he needed to do.

It was midday as they headed off with Hrothgars expedition, and little did they know that, from the very first step they took out of the village, they were being watched…

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