There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world. - J. R. R. Tolkien


Chapter 2


The north of Eostia was mainly considered to be a no man's land by those living in the south. While it was common knowledge that it was mainly inhabited by the monsters invading the Alliance's territory under the dark queen's banner and that the Dark Fortress's dark magic caused the land around it to become uninhabitable, next to nothing was known about the regions further up north or beyond the blighted land. In fact, it was a fertile land and vibrant with life like the regions around the dark elf queen's current place of residence used to be, before it had appeared a millennium ago and transformed it into an uninhabitable wasteland.

Not far from the northern border of those badlands, a small group of pheasants roamed around a forest's ground, looking for food as they pecked at the ground and moved forward. This part of forest around them was far enough away to not be affected by the Dark Fortress' magic, allowing plantlife to be healthy and wildlife to flourish, whereas its southern edges were already becoming affected by it and making animals stay away from there. While looking for anything edible among the fallen leaves of the last fall covering the ground, roots and moss, the wild chickens also reared their heads up every now and then to look for any potential predators. Not being the best fliers among birds, they could only travel a relatively short distance via flying and that was by no means a guarantee to make it out alive. Again and again, the birds were looking around the dark forest floor as most of the light was blocked by the canopies of the trees, which meant that only little vegetation could take root between these trees, as they climbed over tree roots and fallen branches.

Suddenly, a rustling sound nearby caught their attention, making all the landfowls' heads snap up and turn around to look for the source of the noise. As the noise had disappeared, the birds simply kept looking for a moment, uneasily shifting on their legs. But when it didn't come back, the birds carried on as usual. That was until something pounced on one of the pheasants from above, causing the rest of the flock to run away in a panic, while the unfortunate one was killed by its assailant in a matter of seconds.

It looked like a hideous hybrid of a spider and a crab roughly the size of a medium-sized dog. Six, multijointed legs held the body above the ground while a pair of thin pincers sat on two long arms held the now dead bird down with one arm and in the other the decapitated head of the pheasant. Its abdomen was relatively large and bulbous compared to the body and head like that of a spider. The head itself, though, was nothing like either a spider's or a crab's as it was round, almost like that of a humanoid.

Though the shape was the only thing it had in common with those. While it had a pair of jaws instead of chelicerae, it was filled with sharp needle-like teeth. Meanwhile it had four dark, unmoving eyes with a large pair facing forward and a small pair at the sides. Sensitive hair covered its legs and abdomen, while most of its body was simply covered in dark brown skin, blending in with the dark environment of the forest and the trees.

It then put the pheasant's head into its mouth, crunching down on the skull as a mixture of blood, brain matter and spinal fluid dripped from its maw alongside loose feathers. Pulling the still twitching body towards itself, it lowered its head to take another bite of its prey.

It was then when a wooden spear pierced the creature's abdomen from above. The monstrous arachnid screeched in pain as it stumbled backwards and thrashed around, trying to shake the spear out of its body, but it was embedded deeply and lodged in place, causing slimy clear body fluid to ooze out of the wound and stain its body and the ground. Frantically, the spider looked around hissing as it tried to find its assailant, but found nothing. Only a rustle of leaves alerted the being as something jumped off the tree behind it and embedded another spear right through the back of its heads and out of its maw. The monstrous spider let out a last screech of pain and reared up its body, before lifelessly falling down onto the forest ground.

Tearing out the spear from the head, a short humanoid figure jumped off the creature's back and sneered at the sight of the dead monster.

"I get why the boys in Mordor used to hate spiders so much. Can't say I needed to know." Gimûb said to himself as he kicked the corpse for good measure, before grabbing something tucked in his loincloth and moved to the back of the carcass.

The reborn orc had not changed a lot ever since he had crawled out of the cesspool about a month ago. At first, the passage of time was hard to tell as well as directions as he had spent some time in the dead forests of the wasteland he had found himself, eating whatever little worms and insects he could find to stave off the hunger. But after heading further away from the crimson glowing skies, the land became greener with plant life forming a meadow, clear bodies of water replaced the murky ponds and the skies changed to normal. Not long after, he arrived at this forest and began living there.

While it was certainly easier to survive there than the place he had come from or Mordor, Gimûb knew that it wasn't going to be an easy task to survive in this place. He had neither a weapon to defend himself nor armour in a land he knew nothing about. For all he knew, the place could have been crawling with wargs, graugs and worse. Not to mention his new body size could make him easy fall prey to anything larger than himself. Meaning, he had to be crafty if he wanted to last longer than a couple of days.

And so, he had done that for the first few days, scouting around the forest to get a better understanding of its layout and find different places to orientate himself as well as avoiding direct confrontations with most creatures in that place. Surprisingly, his rather small body was very nimble when it came to climbing the trees, which became rather helpful over time. In the meantime, he did his best to craft himself some form of weapon to defend himself with. Though the best he could do were sharpened rocks and sticks to use as makeshift spears and knives. A far cry from the metal cleaver he had wielded in the war of the ring, but still better than his sharp nails.

Once he had somewhat of an understanding of the place, Gimûb began to devise strategies on what to do when encountering the creatures that lived in the forest. For example, these monster spiders could see rather well with a wide field of vision. However, the position of their eyes prevented them from seeing things above them, meaning the most effective way to attack them was to ambush them from behind and/or a place of greater elevation. That made it rather easy to deal with them.

However, Gimûb was not fooling himself with some thought of physical superiority and making light of those things. A previous encounter with these monsters had gone poorer than this one when the creature had managed to shake him off and sink its fangs into his shoulder. The only reason he didn't end up as spider food was because he stabbed the creature repeatedly in the head while it tried to chew through his shoulder and earned him a few scars where the spider had slashed at him with its legs. In the end he survived and learned from the experience. Plus, the loincloth he wore was made from that spider's skin as he still had a sense of shame and didn't want to run through the undergrowth with his bits dangling around for the whole world to see.

'Better be fast.' He thought to himself as he pulled out a stone knife from his loincloth and began cutting the abdomen open. More of the creature's body fluids oozed out as he worked on getting what he wanted from the dead animal. Cutting pieces of meat off to eat for himself, he quickly found what he was looking for. A large stinger located at the rear end of the creature. Curved and serrated, the chitinous object was roughly the size of a human's hand. For him that would be a bit large for a dagger, but still better than a stone, that became blunt very quickly.

After a few encounters with the spiders, Gimûb began to systematically dissect the corpses to find anything useful other than their meat. The chitinous exoskeleton at the limbs made for good makeshift armour, even if a little brittle after some time. The fangs were thin and brittle as well, making them unusable for any sort of weaponry or tool. Their skin could be made into primitive clothing. And then there was the stinger, a venomous weapon meant to paralyze and kill its prey or attackers or at least inflict enough pain to give the creature time to run away. Gimûb had seen what this weapon could do to even larger prey like deer and boars when these things swarmed the unfortunate souls and tore them apart. Needless to say, it was something he definitely needed if he wanted to survive.

Cutting his price from the carcass, he wrapped the weapon in more spider leather for safe transportation lest he cuts himself on it and cut off more meat before quickly climbing up a tree and leaving the vicinity of the corpse. Jumping from tree to tree, Gimûb stopped after roughly 20 meters and stayed quiet and motionless hidden in the canopies as he listened. Another lesson he had learned in this place was that these monster spiders, despite the threat they could pose in larger numbers, were by no means the largest and most dangerous creatures lurking these woods.

And soon he heard it. Steady and heavy footsteps crushing fallen leaves and branches beneath them with no hesitation. A sound of sniffing the air in large whiffs and snorting. A snarl unlike anything he knew from Middle-earth filled the air for a second as if to inflict fear into anything around them and cause them to flee. And then the sound of flesh being torn apart and blood splattering onto the ground. This continued for a short while until the creature seemed to draw closer to Gimûb's position. He felt his heart hammering in his chest and his skin beginning to sweat. He knew what those noises belonged to and he really would like to avoid it. However, running would only give away his position as a previous encounter was only avoided from something else running away from the sounds it made, which alerted the creature and made it give chase. And these things were fast.

Then there was silence for a moment before the footsteps began to grow quieter and finally disappeared. For a moment or so, he stayed as if rooted to the branch he was sitting on, unsure whether it was actually gone. When he didn't hear anything else for a while, he finally began to move again and left the place as fast as he could.

About half an hour later, Gimûb arrived at his destination as he climbed down from the tree. Clouds started to gather and the temperature began to notably decline, indicating a coming rainfall. Once down, he jumped off the trunk, landed on the forest ground and quickly headed into the bushes nearby. While there was no clearing, the trees stood far enough away from one another to allow some light to reach the ground and bushes and weeds to grow in this rather rare illuminated sport on the otherwise dark forest ground. But his goal weren't the bushes, but what was beneath them. Pushing his small body through the brachens and twigs, he arrived at a hole in the ground covered by the roots of another tree. Slipping inside, he fell a short distance onto a cushion of leaves and moss as dim light shone down from above into the place.

One glance was enough to tell that this place was artificial in nature as the walls were made of cobblestone. In patches the stone flooring was also visible in holes where the loose sand and dirt didn't cover the ground. Roots of trees and plants had broken through the walls and ceiling at various places, but the structure was still stable. Gimûb had found this place by chance and he had been lucky to find such a place to live. Having been part of the armies of Mordor he knew how to build a tent, but in this forest that was not only rather difficult with the ground being full of roots and rocks, but also rather stupid as the predators of this place would find it easily and tear through it with no problems. When he first made it to this place, he had chased a squirrel that had tried to escape into the hole that he just came through place. After some digging and making the hole large enough for himself, he managed slip inside as well, but his prey was gone. While he had lost a dinner, he had found a home.

From the looks of it, it seemed to have once been the cellar of a larger house, which had been completely destroyed on the surface as there was nothing indicating there having been such a thing in that forest, safe for a few overgrown bricks he had stumbled upon and hit his toes on at more than one occasion. Gimûb didn't really question this turn of events and explored the place. Other than rotten wood from what could have been furniture at some point, nothing was in there except dust, earth, cobwebs and moss and mushrooms growing in isolated patches with enough moisture.

As it was clearly a better place to live in than the tree branches he had slept on before and almost fallen off in his sleep, he decided to settle there. The place granted him protection from wind and weather as well as any other creatures that might come to hunt him down. Since then, he had slowly begun to make the place more livable for himself. In one corner he staked up leaves and moss for a makeshift bed, in another he piled up the remains of his meals in the form of bones and branches for later usage. The space beneath the hole that served as both entrance and exit, he also put moss down to cushion the fall. Unfortunately, that was all he had at the moment in terms of tools and furniture.

Since the forest seemed to be uninhabited by anything sentient due to its monster population, there weren't any things he could scavenge to use for himself like this cellar or how he used to back in his previous life as an orc marauder raiding human villages. The majority of animals in that forest was actually rather normal like the pheasants from earlier or that squirrel he had chansed down there. Woodland critters like deer, bunnies, boars and others made up the foundation of the forest's ecosystem, though right above them stood not just ordinary predators like racoons or foxes, but also monstrous beings like the spider, that Gimûb had just killed earlier, and the creature he hid from afterwards. His small size certainly helped him navigate through the forest and hide in case danger arose, but it also forced him to be rather cunning to make up for his lack in physical prowess as a direct confrontation with such beings would likely end with him being eaten alive.

He then sat down in a corner of his humble abode and lit some wood on fire for a makeshift campfire. Of course it was only a small one or the place would be covered in smoke and he'd suffocate (almost happened once), but a small one to just dry the meat of the spider he took earlier, while he chewed on some raw pieces of it. The bitter taste in his mouth was unpleasant, but as long as it kept him fed, it was fine. Having survived on hard and moldy bread for most of his first lifetime, eating bitter spider meat was more of an improvement.

While this sort of lifestyle seemed fine at first glance, Gimûb certainly disliked the fact that he couldn't roam the land as freely as he wanted to die to his current situation... whatever it was called what he currently was. As if on cue, his pointy ears picked up a sound from outside. The rustling of fallen leaves beneath feet, the sniffling of something picking up a scent and the scratching of claws on stone and wood. The reborn orc quickly extinguished the fire with dirt, grabbed a sharpened stick as an improvised spear and then looked at the entry and exit of his home, not moving but also not looking away as the sounds of shuffling feet turned into digging and the familiar growls of a wolf.

'Shrakh.' He thought as his grip on the stick he had in his hands tightened. Gimûb was sure he could fend off most smaller predators like foxes and badgers without much of a hassle, but a wolf was a different story, let alone a pack of them judging by the sounds. His heart hammered in his chest as he saw the shadows dancing near the entrance of the animals shuffling around there. 'At least I'm not going to go down without giving these mutts a proper beating.' Gimûb sarcastically thought to himself, not exactly convinced by his own thoughts.

All of the sudden there was silence. No, not silence. The digging stopped and the wolves moved away from the entrance of Gimûb's home suddenly. They were still there as he heard them bark, growl and whimper. They were on edge because of something.

And then he heard it. That same terrible noise he heard earlier. Heavy footsteps could be heard as dirt and dust rained from the ceiling down on the hollow he was in. His eyes were glued to the ceiling now, watching as something walked overhead this place and towards the entrance. The wolves now let out frightened barks and growls, trying to intimidate whatever had come from the forest as the footsteps stopped. For an agonising moment that seemed to stretch on forever, he looked up to the entrance in fright, not daring to move or make a sound as the wolves kept trying to intimidate whatever it was.

The silence was broken with another terrible screech, this time clearly agitated, and the sound of the creature rushing forward with killing intent as suddenly whimpers and yelps of pain and panic replaced the growls and barks of the wolves from before. He heard that thing stomping around the area, screeching and roaring at the wolves as it pursued them as they ran away, trying to dodge its deadly weapons. After a while only the sounds of one whimpering wolf remained before that creature drew close once more. The whimpers grew more desperate as it took deliberately slow steps as if relishing in the fear or not feeling urgent to kill its prey immediately. A last yelp was cut short with a splattering sound and then it fell silent.

Meanwhile, the reborn orc simply listened to the sounds outside as they conveyed perfectly what was transpiring there. He could hear the predator as it gorged itself on its fresh kill, the noises of blood splattering onto the forest ground, skin and flesh tearing and bones cracking. Gimûb knew it wouldn't take long for it to finish the carcass even if a wolf was larger than the spiders or pheasants in this forest. He had heard one of these beasts tear into a moose and after a short while when he could no longer hear it feeding on the carcass, the reborn orc found that it had dragged the entire body away, leaving only a trail of blood and track marks on thr ground to indicate which direction it had gone. Of course, he had bolted into the opposite direction. He wasn't even sure if he could take such a creature face to face if he was to his original size and strength. And he wasn't. Instead he was some small and weak being that had to forage for food in order to get by as it was.

Suddenly, Gimûb noticed that the sounds of the creature feeding had stopped. He didn't know exactly how long it would take, but it felt wrong. It was too early for it to finish the body of a wolf. Doing his best to not tremble too much, he approached the opening in the ceiling cautiously. Using shallow holes he had dug into the wall like steps on a ladder and grabbing onto the roots hanging down from above, Gimûb just climbed high enough to peer outside without leaving his lair. While the entrance was obstructed by shrubs on the outside, one could still make out some thing between them without the entrance being exposed.

And there it was. The carcass of a wolf, but it looked so wrong. There was no doubt that it was a wolf, but the state the body was in felt off. It wasn't simply a carcass left behind by a predator for scavengers to pick off the remaining scraps. It was butchered in a violent fashion. The body laid on its side, but both limbs to that side were torn off. The stomach and flank were ripped open and almost hollowed out as the organs had spilled from it. The head of the wolf laid on the ground and sported a large gaping wound, but its lower jaw laid a but further away from the body as if it had been ripped off and thrown aside. It was as if a small group of orcs had butchered the animal after killing it by swinging a pickaxe into its skull.

For a moment, Gimûb didn't know what to make of this, but then he heard it. The rumbling growl and hissing of the creature filled the air. That was when Gimûb realized it. It had set a trap and the carcass was bait. This could mean two things in his mind. One, it was trying to catch more prey by attracting it with the scent of fresh blood. Or two, it was well aware of his presence and was trying to lure him out. As quietly as he could he climbed back down, his eyes looking over the ceiling as the beast outside roamed around the area. Once down he backed away from the entrance, careful not to make a sound as the stomping footsteps got louder, drawing closer to his refuge. Gimûb didn't know if these creatures could actually dig, but given how easily they seemed to rip and tear through even large game, he could certainly imagine it trying to violently enlargen the entry to try and get inside. Then he really had no chance of making it out alive.

But then the steps grew distant again as something large was dragged away over the forest ground, crushing leaves and twigs beneath it as it retreated deeper into the forest until the sounds completely vanished. Relief washed over Gimûb as he released a breath he didn't knew he held back.

'Bloody hell, I'm alive!' He internally thought to himself in a mixture of jubilation and disbelief. Then he collapsed onto the ground and looked to his fire place, his uncooked food still impaled on wooden sticks. With a sigh, he moved over to it and started eating it before it got bad from not smoking. After what had just happened, he was not going to light up another fire, lest that thing came back or another curious predator found his place. The bitter taste of the spider meat almost made him recoil, but it at least assured him that he was still alive. 'This was way too close. They never got to this place before. Those stupid mutts must have attracted it.'

That thought made him stop in the middle of putting another strap of bitter tasting meat into his mouth as he turned towards the entryway. That thing had utterly mutilated the wolf's corpse, tearing into shreds. Perhaps there was still something up there that he could use. The thought made him space out for a moment as the meat between his fingers slipped out of his grip and landed on the ground. Cursing at this, he grabbed a sharpened stick and slowly climbed out to make sure that the thing had left the place. For a moment he hung there on the wall and spying outside, seeing and hearing no one around. When he was sure the coast was clear, he slipped out, crawling out from beneath the tree roots and into the open. As expected, the carcass of the wolf was gone, dragged away by the predator that had killed it. However, it had not bothered to take the legs and jaw it had ripped off with it as well as some smaller bones. For an orc, they would have been useless except as trophies or decorations of their ramshackle armour. But to him, these materials were rather valuable as his smaller size made the likes of the claws and bones into useful tools.

Gimûb quickly collected the remains of the carcass and brought them back into his lair, his hand holding his stick tightly and his head always looking around between the trees in case something was approaching. After he found nothing else, he quietly slipped back into his lair to see what he could use these raw materials for and hopefully get some rest after all these events.

For the rest of the day, he worked in his small confined space on these things until some time after the sun had set. The small underground space was pitchblack with no lighting, but he could still see just fine. One of the many things orcs were surperior in compared to humans was the fact that they could see rather well in the dark as they usually housed in caves and ruins. It didn't strike Gimûb as odd first, but he had a nagging feeling that it was never this good before in his past life as orcs usually still needed some light. He chalked it up as part of his reincarnation. Regardless of how good he could see in the dark, he was not going outside his lair after the sun had set as other creatures roamed these woods during the night and making too much noise during nighttime was not exactly a good idea unless one wanted to attract these beings.

For that reason, he moved to his improvised bed and laid down to get some rest. Before long, he was fast asleep.


He felt like he was floating in a river in complete darkness. Except he felt no water at all. It wasn't wet or dry nor did he feel cold nor warm. In fact, he did not even feel the always present sensation of gravity pulling him to the ground, making up and down nonexistent as well. It was the complete absence of any sensation other than his mind. He was conscious, yet he found himself unable to open his eyes or move or even feel his body. And yet, despite the clearly unsettling nature of his current situation, he did not feel afraid or disturbed. It was as if he knew that whatever this was, it would be alright.

"I grant your plea for vengeance by sending you to another realm, but only if you prove to me that you are worthy of such a second lease on life. What do you say? Certainly a better deal than to die here and become food for crows, dogs and worms, isn't it?" The words of the bargain that shadow entity offered him rang through his head all of the sudden. The bargain he agreed to. It was not a sound that came from around him, but an echo in his mind. Gimûb had little time to ponder about it and this situation as the echo returned.

"...but only if you prove to me that you are worthy of such a second lease..."

"...only if you prove to me that you are worthy of..."

"...prove to me that you are worthy..."

The echo grew shorter and quieter with each repetition until it finally disappeared, leaving him alone in the void once more for a moment. Until the voice returned, but this time it was not in his mind.

"So show me your worth." The entity spoke in a voice that seemed to come from all directions at once. Above him, beneath him, left, right, far and close. It was not spoken in malice, but it still caused a feeling of dread to rise up in Gimûb.

Then there was a series of images playing before his mind's eye, that he could not make any sense of.

An unfamiliar forest.

A shoreline he had never seen before.

A grassland not unlike that of Rohan, yet it felt different.

A mountain pass he had never set foot upon.

A desolate village, not unlike the ones he and his warband used to raid.

A desert stretching from one end of the horizon to the other, a place he truly ever only had heard in stories about.

The images kept flashing before him rapidly, changing ever so slightly like the pages of a flip book. Sometimes multiple pictures of one scenery would seamlessly follow one another before being interrupted by seemingly random pictures of the others. It was impossible to concentrate as the speed with which the images came seemed to only increase with each frame, unnerving him. He struggled, trying to move at all or to avert his gaze, despite the images being in his mind.

Finally, the images stopped abruptly and he was back in the void. A feeling of exhaustion suddenly spread inside him.

"You did well. Better than expected." The voice of the entity suddenly rang in his mind once more. For a moment, he thought he heard the tiniest hint of disappointment in the emotionless voice... as if it had hoped for him to fail.

"But a deal is a deal. You have earned your reward." At this, he felt as if something had entered his body. It was not like a blade or an arrow that pierced his skin and caused burning pain to spread inside of him nor a satiating feeling of swallowing a bite of food or a gulp of a drink and feel it settle in one's stomach. It was more like a sensation of something pressing against one's skin and then phasing through, seemingly disappearing inside oneself and yet still feeling its presence. He had no chance to ask what it was.

"Now off you go." With that all he remembered was blacking out once more. And then the sensation of drowning hit him. Desperately he felt himself swimming through something viscous as he tried to reach the surface.


"GAH!" Gimûb gasped for air as he sat upright, woken up from his dream. For a moment, he sat there disoriented and taking several deep breaths of air. His mind was still all over the place. So much so, that he barely could make out the morning light shining inside his humble abode. After a moment of regaining his composure and breathing, he realized that he was covered in cold sweat. With a deep sigh he ran his hand over his face, holding his head as he tried to make sense of what he had witnessed in his sleep.

'What the hell was that? It didn't feel like a dream at all. Even worse than a nightmare.' He thought to himself. The dream was just too... lucid to have been a product of his imagination. There was a certain familiarity in those scenes, yet he did not remember any of these things. They clearly could not have been from his time on Middle-Earth and it seemed to have been from that time between when he died and was reborn. That massive gaping hole in his memories. 'Where those part of my missing memories? But even so, where was that supposed to be? Just what the hell was that?'

Gimûb finally shook his head slightly, trying to shake the thought off as he got up. Judging by the light shining in from outside, it was already later than when he'd usually leave this place. Muttering a curse under his breath, he quickly grabbed his things and headed cautiously outside in case anything had been attracted from the ruckus caused yesterday. After making sure the coast was clear, he crawled out. The air was cool and the ground wet from the rain he had slept through.

'Shrakh. Could have collected some water. Well, I can worry later about all that. First, I need to get something to eat in this bloody forest.' He told himself internally as he climbed up a tree and into the foliage above. The bark of the tree was somewhat slippery and the leaves were wet, but he'd have to endure this as moving on the ground was not an option. From up there he looked down at the area surrounding his hideout. Little indicated the struggle that took place yesterday. The rain had washed away the blood, though its faint scent still lingered somewhat in the air. Regardless of that, he could still tell which direction the half-eaten carcass of that wolf had been dragged into. So, he went in the opposite direction to avoid that thing.

Moving from tree to tree was not as easy as it was the day before due to how slippery the branches were and how his movements caused drops of water on the leaves to rain down to the ground and himself, sending cold shivers up his spine. While he had endured worse, his body was not what it used to be. Still, he kept going, nearly slipping off the branch he stood on more than once and moving down a route he knew was safe most of the time. Using his hideout as a center point, Gimûb had kept venturing out in all directions to get a sense of orientation in this forest, to map the place out and figure where he needed to go to get something.

For example, right at this moment he headed further west as he reached his destination with a tree with various nuts hanging high above the ground. While inaccessible for most creatures on the ground, things that could climb up the trees certainly had an advantage. He did not bother to look for a rock to break the hard exterior as he grabbed a stone knige from his loincloth and slammed its handle into the nut, using the tree itself as an anvil. Having sustained himself on this tree's fruits for a while now, he knew how hard he had to strike it to crack them, meaning he didn't need to break his knife as often.

Once his hunger was satiated for the moment, Gimûb thought about either heading further into the North or East as he had not yet seen what was there. Judging by the sun and assuming that it still rose in the East and set in the West, the place he had crawled out of was to the South. Seeing as there had been nothing but a wasteland there, he certainly didn't want to return there if it could be helped unless it was necessary. So far he had mostly mapped out the area to the West from his hideout. However, in the case Gimûb could no longer access the resources in that direction for one reason or another, he needed alternatives. Therefore, he decided to head eastwards next. Discarding the remains of his frugal breakfast, he ventured into the direction the sun had risen from.

For the first hour or so, nothing had really happened as he navigated through the trees. Luckily, he had not encountered any more of the spider-like creatures in the trees. But then the density of the trees slowly began to decrease, making it nearly impossible for to leap from tree to tree. As such he had to drift further into the south as the forest became more and more dominated by bushes and ferns towards the East. While the lower vegetation might still be able to provide him with cover, it certainly was not a welcome change of scenery. For a while he kept heading further towards the Southeast, when a sudden noise got his attention. Fallen branches and twigs snapped underfoot of something and for a moment Gimûb thought he had heard talking. Up until this point he had not seen any traces of anything sentient since his rebirth aside from the ruined and abandoned remains of structures and tools. And while the voices did not sound like any pinkskin, he had no clue whether these people would be friend or foe. For that reason alone, Gimûb decided to play it save and carefully creep forward through the canopies to see what all the noise was about.

Careful not to slip off the wet wood, he began advancing a bit further until he nearly reached the edge of the canopy of the tree he was upon, before stopping in his tracks. If he now jumped to the next tree, it would make too much noise and blow his cover. Instead he kept himself hidden in the branches as the footsteps grew louder. He could not see them yet, but it was clearly more than one individual unless said individual had quite a lot of legs to move simultaneously and unevenly. Looking down from the branch he was perched on for a while, Gimûb finally caught a good look at one of the people that were closing in on his position. It was a large humanoid creature, that looked rather similar to an orc on first glance, though there were some clear differences between what Gimûb had been in his past life and it.

First of all, there was its size as it easily stood taller than any orc or pinkskin he knew. It was closer in size to an olog, perhaps a bit shorter, but definitely not the size of a troll or a giant. Its skin was light brown, while its eyes had red irises. It was completely hairless and a pair of two short and stubby horns sat on top of its head. Behind its closed lips, the lower canines peeked out. Not quite like tusks, but certainly larger than the rest. There was no armour of any kind. Instead, a dirty and ragged piece of cloth was wrapped around its hips as a primitive loincloth. In one of its meaty hands was holding a large wooden club as a makeshift mace. Speaking of the arms, they were very thick with muscles as were their legs, while it also appeared obese with a round belly protruding over the loincloth.

'They kinda look like ogres. If ogres had horns and sharp teeth... Well, ogres it is then.' Gimûb thought to himself. After the first passed by beneath his hiding spot, two others followed behind it with one also holding a club and the other being unarmed. Though judging by the size and muscles of them, Gimûb had no doubt that a punch of these things certainly hurt a ton. The only notable difference he could make out between the three was, that one of them was half-bald with the scalp being hairless and short black hair around the temples and the back of the head.

'Well at least it isn't pinkskins. Could be worse. Elves or, even worse, dwarves.' Gimûb thought, though he doubted that these three ogres were going to be his allies. He could tell natural killers like himself just by looking at them and they looked like they were trying to find something or someone to beat into a pulp. It had been common enough among the orcs to kill one another for the smallest of reasons. After all, they were made to be cruel and merciless soldiers to kill Sauron's enemies. He had known to stay away from such individuals and he still knew.

But as Gimûb was about to retreat deeper into the canopy again and wait for these ogres to go away, he almost slipped on the wet wood. Just in time, he managed to regain his balance and prevent himself from falling down, but the movement caused the branch to shake violently, causing the leaves on it to rustle loudly. The ogres immediately turned around towards the tree and took a few steps towards it.

Then one of the two club-bearing ogres reared his weapon back. Gimûb only had second to realize what was going on as he quickly rushed down the branch and leapt off as the ogre threw his club at the spot where he had previously been perched on. The heavy weapon sailed through the air with enough force and speed that it essentially reduced the spots it hit on the branches into splinters, causing splintered wood to shoot through the air before crashing down onto the ground alongside the severed branches.

In the panic, Gimûb had failed to jump far enough to reach the tree next to the one he had been on, causing him to crash unceremoniously onto the forest ground face first. Pain shot through the entirety of his front as splintered wood rained down like debris from a wall after being hit by catapult. He tried to push himself up on his hands despite the pain shooting through his arms, but the heavy footsteps of the closest ogre caused the ground to shake under him rather strong. The tremors shot into his sore body, causing him more pain, before a large hand closed around his entire torso tightly and lifted him into the air.

Gimûb grit his teeth in pain, biting back a scream as he struggled in the ogre's grip, but to no avail. While he was sure he could at least made the fingers budge a bit if he had been an orc like he used to, for his current size and strength the ogre's fingers were essentially as immovable as a mountain.

'Curse this piece of shrakh body?!' He cursed in him mind as he struggled. The ogre holding him laughed alongside his comrades, seemingly amused by his futile attempts to break free.

"Well, look at this lads. Some green imp in the middle of the woods all by himself." The ogre said with a malicious glint in his eyes. "Ain't that something?"

"Maybe those dark elf whores sent it after us to make sure we do our job. Would be a shame if didn't come back to its bitch of an owner, right?" Another ogre asked sarcastically. His eyes also having that sadistic glint in them, seemingly agreeing to something with the one holding Gimûb in his grasp.

"Aye. But we don't have to bring him back alive, now do we?" The first ogre asked as he turned his eyes to Gimûb. "Or in one piece for that matter." He squeezed his hand tighter as Gimûb felt his bones groan under the stress. It felt like his skeleton was on the very verge of caving in and breaking. He barely got any air as he trashed around harder in the ogre's grip, managing to get one of his arms out between his meaty fingers.

"Oi lads." The third ogre said, causing the other two to turn to him and the one holding Gimûb to slightly loosen it, but not enough to break free. "There is no way that imp is one of ours. Either he's with some wizard or warlock as a familiar or he's all alone." He pointed out. "You know what that means." Gimûb took a good look at the third ogre. He was the one with the half-bald head and still carried a wooden club. "Hand him over, I'm starving. Maybe he'll spill where his owner is after he loses an arm or the legs." He added.

The first ogre smiled wickedly, revealing sharp white teeth behind his lips. "Let's hope it's one of those dark elves harlots. It's been a while since we had one of them screaming and begging for more!" He laughed and was soon joined by the other two.

Meanwhile, Gimûb was still struggling, though not as hard. It only had to look like he was still desperately trying to escape, while in truth he conserved his strength for the moment his captor would hand him over to the one with the club. The moment that happened he'd need to somehow incapacitate him for at least a moment to try and escape? But how, he couldn't put any dry leaves and sand in their eyes as he was holstered up in the air like that. Perhaps if he spat right into their eyes, though he lacked accuracy for that.

Still Gimûb pondered just what these ogres were talking about? For starters 'What the bloody hell is a dark elf?' was one of the many questions racing through his head. Deciding he could get the answers to his questions later, he kept up the act of gradually becoming weaker as he pushed less and less forcefully against the ogre holding him to bolt out of there and avoid getting eaten alive.

As he tried his best to appear as distressed as possible and as desperate as one could be when told that they'd eat him, Gimûb heard it. He heard it over their taunts and laughter as his face fell. That dreadful growling sound. The ogres stopped as well, taking note of the noise from not far away and looking around to find the source of it. The sound grew louder and closer, bushes rustled ominously as it came closer.

Finally, it peeked its head out of the bottom of a bush, staring right at the ogres. It was a bird or rather a bird's head that peeked through the bushes, attached to a long neck. Its head alone was larger than Gimûb's entire body and closer in size to the ogres' own heads, though it was even larger. Most of it was taken up by its large, curved beak. It made a curious sound, cocking its head sideways a bit as if trying to figure out what it was staring at with its yellow eyes. It almost looked comical, but only to those who didn't know what it was.

"Oi lads. Now we also got ourselves some poultry as well." The second ogre laughed out loud and the others soon joined in.

"Now all that's missing is a barrel of ale. Haha!" The ogre holding Gimûb gave a deep belly laugh. Under other circumstances it perhaps could have appeared friendly, if its owner wasn't a vile monster that was notoriously known in the southern lands to kill, pillage and rape. For a moment the ogres shared a hearty laugh at the idea of killing and eating both the imp they caught and this bird. Gimûb just noticed that the grip on him loosened a bit more. Not enough to break through though, but he knew he had to get out of there as soon as he could. Especially with that thing around.

And then the bird's head rose. And rose. And it rose even higher as the creature stood up from behind the foliage to reveal itself in all its terrible glory. The laughter died quickly and smiles on the ogres' faces fell as the animal now towered over them as it rose to its full height. Its head sat on a long neck, while its body sat on two long and powerful legs, terminating in feet with three sharp talons. The feathers covering the body were in various dark brown tones, providing it with a form of camouflage in the dark forest. If it was to sit down in a dark corner and tug its head and beak under its wings like a sleeping swan, it might even appear like a small bush.
Most notably to Gimûb were two things, that clearly set it apart from any ordinary birds he knew. First, its body ended in a long tail. Not simply long tail feathers like those of a male pheasant, but a sturdy tail closer to that of a lizard to balance out the body. It was also covered in the same feathers covering the rest of its body. And then, there was the fact that it had no wings. Instead of them, its arms ended in clawed hands with three digits, each tipped with a curved claw to grab and sliced through flesh.

The word "Terror Bird" immediately came to Gimûb's mind as if it was desperately trying to put a name on this creature, because it was what he felt whenever he was unfortunate enough to cross paths with it. For from what he had seen in this month since his rebirth, these massive avians were the apex predators of this place. Whether it was a deer, a wolf, a moose or a bear or one of the other monstrous creatures that lurked through these woods, it did not matter. Whatever else crossed their paths was little more than prey to these birds. Even compared to the monsters in Sauron's army like the wargs and caragors, Gimûb had not seen such ferocity in any living being aside from perhaps some fellow orcs. This thing certainly knew how to inflict fear into its prey.

It was abundantly clear that this animal was a predator. It had not curiously looked at the ogres, because it never had seen their kind, but instead it had seized them up as intruders and prey. They had stepped into its territory and it was not going to let this go unpunished. It slightly lowered its body as if getting ready to pounce as it hissed and its feathers bristled, slightly standing up as if to appear even bigger. Its clawed fingers flexed slightly as if it was impatiently just waiting to sink them into their flesh, slice through skin and muscles and spill blood.
The ogres stood dumbfounded before this creature, apparently choosing to ignore the threat it posed. A fatal mistake.

By the way the animal before them shifted, Gimûb could tell that it was going to attack the one that was the closest to it any second now, which happened to be the one now loosely holding him in his large hand. Quickly the imp, freed his arm from between the ogre's loosened fingers and dragged his sharp nails across the ogre's hand as hard and deep as he could, leaving thin, bloody cuts on it. This made the ogre cry out in pain and drop him onto the floor, while nursing his hand. Despite Gimûb's body aching from the rough grip it had been subjected to, the adrenaline in his blood allowed him to rush forward to the closest tree and climb upward in hurried leaps. The ogre moved after him, trying to reach out and grab him again with hatred in his eyes that promised a slow and painful death.

"Why you shitty little-?!" He didn't manage to say more as monstrous bird lunged forward towards him and rammed straight into him, not giving him a chance to try and brace himself. Despite the ogre's heavy physique, he was thrown onto the ground from the collision as if he had been child hit by a carriage. The bird didn't stop though as it stomped onto his chest, digging its sharp talons into his skin and flesh as even Gimûb, now high up in the trees, could hear his ribcage breaking from the stomp alone, which was quickly drowned out by the painful screams of the ogre, thrashing around desperately to try and free himself from the avian pinning him down like an eagle would a rabbit. These efforts were only short-lived as the beast simply pressed its foots down harder, visibly sinking deeper into his chest as more bones caved in and broke loudly under it, causing the ogre on the ground to scream louder. It seemed to realize though that the ogre flaying around blindly was a problem, so it instead delivered the killing blow quickly. Raising its head up high on its long neck before using its beak like a pickaxe, it struck the ogre straight into the face. The ogre immediately went silent and still as the monster ripped its beak out of the skull. His face was completely ruined as the bird had smashed through it and impaled most of the brain behind it.

It lifted its head slightly with its beak now drenched in crimson blood and bits of gore as it released another threatening hiss and opening and closing its beak with a loud clicking sound, staring at the other two ogres who were so caught up in how fast it all happened that they only now managed to snap out of their petrified state.

"What the fuck are you waiting for?! Kill it already!" The unarmed ogre shouted at the one with the club, who was about to shout back, but couldn't as the avian monstrosity before them moved towards him next with speed unbefitting a creature its size.

"Dammit! Die already!" He shouted as he swung his club at the creature, hitting it in the side. It gave a short yelp of pain, but it was not thrown onto the ground. It instead merely sidestepped to catch itself from falling and then glared with actual malice at the ogre that wounded it, hissing and feather bristling like a snake. Seeing that his attack had apparently only made it angrier, the ogre tried to go for an overhead strike to crush its skull with a single blow.

The bird did learn though. It now recognised the weapon in the ogre's hand as a threat. It dodged the swing by taking a quick step back and tearing its head backwards like a snake ready to strike. The club missed its target and crashed into the forest ground, kicking up leaves and dirt. The ogre tried to pull the weapon out, but a foot planted onto the club kept it on the ground. Looking up in sheer terror, the monster swiped its claws at it, leaving deep bloody gashes in the neck, belly and chest. The ogre's throat was slit, but the creature was vengeful, relentlessly shredding its opponent as it gurgled on its own blood unable to scream out in agony.

When it was done, the ogre's face was so mutilated that it was unrecognisable. Turning its attention now to the last ogre, it was caught off guard when the burly humanoid, barrelled towards it from the side. He had used the distraction of the avian's frenzy to sneak up on it. The ogre crashed into it, causing it to fall to the ground, struggling to get back up, but the ogre didn't let it. He punched and kicked at the flaying creature as it shrieked in pain. Its wild swings with its claws and head did little as the ogre stood so that he faced its back which he kept attacking.

Gimûb watched on from his hiding spot. While he certainly wasn't routing for one to win that openly agreed to eating him alive, he certainly found the knowledge he got from this fight rather useful for future encounters with these beings. Even if he right now didn't have the materials to set up a trap for them, any weakness he knew about them would give him an edge in surviving in this place. From the corner of his eye he noticed something though. Turning his head away from the fight, he saw movement from the other bushes around the area coming closer.

Meanwhile, the struggling avian's head snapped forward, biting down on the ogre's fist as it came for another punch. He screamed in pain as the sharp beak cut into his hand and fingers, jerking it around with its muscular neck. The ogre managed to throw a punch at the neck, causing it to release him, before delivering another devasting blow to the head. It certainly made his hand sting, hitting something as tough as that beak it used like a pick, but the whimpering sound of the wounded creature as its head fell to the ground made it all worth it. Drawing ragged breaths, the ogre turned around and saw the club his comrade had dropped, before he was shredded into ribbons moments prior. Gritting his teeth both in anger and pain, he walked up to it and picked it up, before raising it slightly over the fallen creature as he was about to deliver the killing blow even if it had to be with only one hand.

But then the ogre heard it. That familiar hissing and growling sound of this creature. It didn't come from the bird laying wounded on the ground in front of him, though. It came from behind him from two different directions. Horror shot through his mind as he whipped his head around to confirm the grim turn of events. Two other birds like the one he had pummelled into the ground before him had entered the scene. Both of them were staring at him with claws bared, hunger in their gaze and exchanging short snarling barks with one another as they cut off any escape route.

He tried to flee, stumbling backwards in shock as the dreadful realization washed over his mind and face, but the first bird would not allow it. With the ogre having his back turned to it, the grounded monster delivered a powerful kick to his left leg. It hit the knee with a sickening crunch as it broke the ogre's limb, causing him to fall onto the ground to his left side, screaming in pain and dropping his weapon. Frantically he scrambled on the forest floor, trying to get away. He only managed to roll onto his back and crawl a bit backwards using his hands as the two other avian monsters now towered over him, hissing and beaks clicking due to opening and closing them in anticipation of ripping through warm and fresh meat.
After a moment of simply observing their fallen prey on the ground whimpering and babbling incoherently, they lunged forward with fierce screeches and the ogre could only screamed in terror and pain as they tore him apart. Arms and legs were held down as their beaks did most of the work, punching through skin and bone, ripping and tearing through flesh and organs as they ate him alive.

Gimûb simply watched from his hiding spot, refusing to move and hoping the first creature had forgotten about him. The grizzly feeding with which the other two tore into the still screaming and kicking ogre didn't bother him. Things like that happened even back in Sauron's army when rations were low and the orcs turned on one another to satisfy their hunger for flesh. Compared to most scenes he had witnessed in this forest of prey being ripped to shreds by a predator, the orcs cannibalising on one another was far worse. But what bothered him was the thought that he might be the next on the menu if those three ogres did not satisfy their bloodlust.

The dying screams of the ogre finally fell silent, while the two monsters eagerly kept feeding on his carcass. In the meantime, the first monster got back up. If it was hurt, it did not show it in its movements aside from a slight limp. It approached the others as if wanting to have a share of that one ogre as well, but they snarled and screeched at it in response, snapping their bloodstained beaks at it. It replied in kind, but it was clear that these two were not willing to share their kill. For a moment it looked as if they were going to turn on one another, but that didn't happen. Snorting, the first bird then moved to the carcass of the first ogre it had killed and began eating on its own, while the two others made quick work of body they fed upon. Occasionally they ended up snarling at one another or being caught up in a tug of war for a piece of meat they both had gotten a hold on simultaneously, but they did not attack each other. Despite the ogres being relatively large in size, two of the carcasses were eaten in seemingly no time. Once there was little left aside from bloodstained bones and heaps of meat they did not eat. The third corpse was dragged away by one of the newcomers, while the other two trailed behind it, looking around the area as if they were looking for another unsuspecting prey animal to show up. When nothing happened, they disappeared together into the forest, leaving behind Gimûb in the trees as he as usual waited a while after the sounds had vanished to leave his spot.

The effect of the adrenaline began to fade away, causing him to feel the aching of his body once more like being hit with a hammer. Biting back a yelp of pain, the reborn orc descended from the tree and looked at the gruesome carcasses before him.

'Why did they try to interrogate me?' He thought to himself, thinking about what they had said. 'They said that I was an "imp"... The hell is an imp? And a familiar of some wizard? Not to mention they said something about "dark elves"? Just what is going on in this place? What world did that thing drop me into?' He thought trying to figure something out, but obviously finding no answers in his head. Hissing in pain, he went back up the tree and headed back towards his hideout.

The way back took him much longer than usual. Partially due to his aching body preventing him to jump as easily from branch to branch and partially because he stopped by some rotten piece of wood. Some tree that must have been laying there for a while. Using a sharpened stick and a makeshift knife in form of a rock, he removed the rotten bark and revealed many scuttling insects and larvae inside. It certainly wasn't as good as red meat in terms of texture and taste, but he needed to eat something at least. After a short moment of him eating at this buffet of crawling critters (and being bitten by a centipede before eating it as well), he resumed his journey back to the place he called his home.

The sun began to set when he finally managed to go all the way back, slowly descending into the depths of the abandoned cellar rather than dropping himself into it as usual to avoid him breaking something. Luckily it had been without any further incident or else he had no idea if he would have made it in his current state. With a tired sigh he laid down on his makeshift bed, hoping that when he woke up the aching would be gone. Otherwise, he might have to start experimenting on which of the plants in this forest were poisonous and which weren't. He already had done that with the mushrooms and the result had been not pretty for him or his bowels to say the least.

Tiredness began to overcome him and his consciousness faded away with the world becoming dark around him. Too tired to really register it, a strange ringing sound echoed through his mind all of the sudden. It sounded similar to a bell, but different and unlike anything he had ever heard. In that moment, he couldn't have cared less as he slipped away into sleep, not hearing the voice that suddenly spoke up in his mind with a strange message.

[REQUIREMENTS MET. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE ACQUIRED ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM!]


Greetings dear readers. I have finally returned from my desk with a new chapter. This certainly took longer than expected.

Sorry that this chapter does not dwell deeper into the usual NFSW Kuroinu themes, which some of you might have expected, but I found it necessary to flesh out the setting a bit more to give a bit of insight on how Gimûb has been living since his rebirth on Eostia as well as showcasing how harsh survival in such a monster infested part of the world can be for someone without any special powers and lacking any real physical prowess.

As for the images Gimûb saw in his memories and the system at the end... Stay tuned for the next chapter where it will be explained!

Now have a good one and I'll see you next time.