~~ I apologize for the delay, school and work got in the way of me writing more, hopefully the Warchief Hunt is a satisfying chapter. That being said, Talion will be going for the quickest and surest way to kill his targets, this will last until he acquired enough followers to take on more foes at once. ~~

The tower on the western side of the pass was called Narchost and the tower on the eastern side of the pass was called Carchost. — in remembrance of the Towers of the Teeth

Talion followed the orcs to the crossroads, knowing that he would have to intervene in order to make Ratbag have victory. The rough plan they had cobbled together last night came to his mind. "The captain is a well known executioner, called the Twin. He is the bodyguard of his brother, Mogg the Other Twin. The two of them started training great warrior orcs or uruk-hai in every plausible way of combat. They call them berserkers, due to their speed and rage in the battlefield. I'd bet some are captains already." Ratbag said, "Now, seeing how this is where Brogg is to administer executions, and no one attacks the executioner unless they know they can kill him, he won't have his berserkers with him."

Talion frowned, "Can we not then prevent more from being trained?"

"Oh no, it's way too late for that. They've sent hundreds all across Mordor to take over training operations to pump out elite troops instead of fodder for the fields. They won't replace all of Sauron's orc forces, there isn't enough time for that, and he still needs orcs that are just for softening up his enemies defences. The most we can do is mess up the twins' aspirations of power in the new age of Mordor's ascendancy. As well as turn as much of Mordor against itself as possible. Cause it will be obvious that you have a spy or two once some of the higher ups start vanishing."

~0~0~0~0~

To call what Ratbag accomplished in the crossroads a duel would be a blatant insult to every duel that had ever troubled this unhappy world. Two minutes was all it took for all twenty orcs of Ratbag's attack force to be separated from their swords and tied up in a neat line. Talion was glad to see that there were no archers in the area. Brogg the Twin walked out from among his gang of orc followers and yelled, "RATBAG THE SNIVELING COWARD, FOR FAILING TO EVEN PUT UP A FIGHT, YOU AND YOUR FOLLOWERS ARE SENTENCED TO DEATH! There will be no changing allegiances, you will all be put to the sword in a swift and merciful decapitation!"

Nineteen orcs recoiled at the fate they knew they would face, but Ratbag smirked, "Oh the horrors, Brogg. I've already assured my survival, and that of my troops." Brogg snarled, "don't give the dullards hope where there is none for them. I will wipe your legacy away, and even the ground you shrak on won't remember you."

Talion walked up towards the orc, "Their hope is not false, nay, rather yours is." With that he unsheathed his sword and launched a flurry of blows quickly upon Brogg, and the orc kept up with him for a respectable amount of time, but like all warriors, Brogg slowed down, and took a major blow to his sword arm. Talion looked at the wretched orc, and felt pity toward the foul creature. But he could not spare him. Urfiel swung horizontally, and removed the head from the orc's shoulders. He tried to shrug off his regrets about killing Brogg. Ratbag yelled, "Through trial by combat, Talion the Gravewalker is victorious over Brogg the Twin. All here are forfeit to his mercy. This is the right he has claimed by the ancient ways of OUR people. 'Obey the victor, lest he slay you in righteous anger.' this is the way our fathers swore to abide by."

"What is your will, Lord Gravewalker?" one of the orcs asked. Talion froze, 'Lord Gravewalker,' what had he become? "Release the captives, they will serve also." he said simply.

Ratbag came toward Talion and asked, "Well, time to hunt some warchiefs, huh?" Talion shook his head, "I will hunt the warchiefs, you will hunt information from Sauron's army." Ratbag nodded, "Oh, good plan, I was just about to suggest that myself." Talion sighed, once again he was surrounded by fools

~0~0~0~0~

It was early morning when the warchief's of the Isenmouthe made their fatal mistake; Thrak and Pushkrimp had gone to comfort Mogg while he mourned his twin.

Thrak the Indomitable hailed from the Warmonger tribe, and killed anyone who challenged him and his allies. He was loyal only to the orcs of Udun and was well known to violently avenging them. He had a bitter rivalry with Pushkrimp and only his friendship with Mogg allowed the wrinkly idiot from Angmar to live. Pushkrimp has only two qualities that an orc can respect; he is good at killing and is a good commander.

Today however, the orcs would find their warchiefs dead, and have no clue as to three warchiefs were sitting around a barrel of grog and were drinking deeply. Orcs used grog for everything. Fuel, strong drink, medicine, bait, bombs… Talion coughed as he thought about the last one there. He grabbed the bow of the archer he killed to get this lookout spot and prepped a fire arrow. Then, with military precision, he shot the grog barrel. A large fireball erupted from said barrel. The warchiefs were consumed and the wooden structure next to them collapsed on top of the trio. If the fire didn't kill them, the wooden structure definitely did.

Talion chose that moment to disappear.

~0~0~0~0~

Talion found Ratbag at the crossroads, and the orc began to speak solemnly, "Well, you killed three of the warchiefs. And now it is time to venture into Durthang and face the worst and most terrible orc in Middle-Earth. They call him Kruk the Ever-Wounded. And he kills everything, nothing has ever survived Kruk's wrath. Sometimes the victims are found barely hanging onto life after he attacks, and they die soon after being found. I have no idea how you will kill him though…

~0~0~0~0~

The absence of all life was a dampening thing to have around you when exploring a lonely place. Nothing to break the monotony of the search. Just the stone walls and bones of the dead. Throughout the lonely expanse of time as hours became days and days in their turn became weeks, Talion's mind explored memories that he often ignored. One such memory was ten years prior, when Gondor abandoned Durthang and the garrison left to return to Gondor. Iloreth had watched in stony silence as men she had long admired left their post to return to their families. The Great Plague ruined both that garrison and that of the Towers of the Teeth. Dirhiel had walked up to his parents and asked where the men were going. Then Talion said, "To Gondor, to a land southwest of here, it is where your mother and I grew up in and where you will go to seek your fortune when you are old enough."

"Can Mother and you come as well, Father?" Dirhiel queried. And to this Talion sighed, saying, "Your mother is allowed to go, but I am not. Still forty years remain until I can return without shame to the land of my birth. And when I return I will have to beg the King to forgive me, as well as pay the father of the man I killed the sum he is due for the loss of his heir."

"But Mother would never go anywhere without you Father. Then I would have to figure out on my own how to interact with our own people and make a fool of myself as well as shame the way you raised me." Dirhiel protested. "I know son, I know. Your Mother stays because if she went she would cause many single young men shame when they foolishly ask for her hand." Talion said simply.

~0~0~0~0~

Talion's food was short, so after the twenty-second day he made his way back toward the Udun Vale. He passed though the last archway of Durthang when the iron-like scent of blood assaulted him. In front of him, though a way across the path, was a dead caragor floating in a small lake of blood red water.

A voice rang out from behind him, "GRAVEWALKER! Turn and face me — turn and face death!"