• Throne of Demensia Part 2
    by Nightkat 89

    -Current Time-

    "Has it been two or three weeks?" I thought desperately to myself. "After getting out of that god forsaken canyon I have had nothing but bad luck! "This shouldn't of happened!" As the scathed up man looks down at his ankle, held in a splint made of two worn branches and torn hide.

    -Flash Back-
    (The man and his horse, Yira, have just gotten out of the Canyon depths and have taken in the wonders and lands that lay before him)

    "The Sight is a wonderous one don't ya think?" he states talking to Yira. The Horse neighs in appreciation of some long sought after grass peeking up through the snow-covered ground. "I guess we can take a little bit of a breather since you have been doing most of the work" he sarcastically says with a smile upon his rugged face. As the man sits down in a small snow bank he watches his horse feast upon what grass there was.

    Eventually time to rest was over, and the Sun was over the midpoint of the day and slowly beginning its descent. "Time to go girl" he says as he pats her haunches. The man slowly gets up onto his horse and begins a trot in the direction of the snow capped mountains.

    The man and his horse traveled well into the night as the storm passed and stars filled the sky. As morning drew near the worn down man noticed what seemed to be a small village in the distance. "The outpost" he grumbled to himself, yet filled with joy of sleeping on something softer than frozen ground.

    Riding up to the outpost, he noticed the gates were not guarded and what seemed to be blood stains had been partially hidden by yesterdays storm. The man threw himself off of his horse and checked the tracks leading into town. After closely examining the tracks he noticed that they were broader and deeper than normal horse tracks. "Orcs" he hisses under his own breath.

    This man is no ordinary man, he was trained for battle, and for leadership. He goes by the name Orik, the only heir to the Throne of Demensia, his land, his home.

    He was prepared for battle...

    Staking his horse a decent ways out of the entrance of the outpost Orik proceeded to stay low and peek around the corner of the front gate. What he saw was a small band of orcs bickering between who should get what from their raid of this outpost. They rode in on their typical heavy mountain-bred horses.

    The band contained maybe five orcs from what he could see. Also there seemed to be a leader, or a chieftain. "This, is going to take a little longer than expected" Orik thought to himself. He sheathed his sword and pulled out a worn in maple bow that was strapped to his back.

    Knocking an arrow he climbed up a side wall of the fortification built around the outpost and took a position on top of a small cabin not to far from the gate. Down below he saw three of the orcs head inside what looked to be a small general store. If he were to strike, now had to be the moment..

    He steadied his bow, followed the shaft and aimed straight for the orcs head... One breath... two... hold in.. and fire!

    The arrow hit its mark, precisely where he intended. The other orc had no clue what had happened, one moment he was holding conversation, the next his partner lay on the ground in a puddle of blood. Before the other orc could react, Orik knocked another arrow and let it fly. "Another direct hit!" he thought in joy to himself. "These bandits will get their due respect for what they caused to this outpost!"

    The three orcs that went inside came out after hearing a grunt from the last orc to drop. The Chieftain, however, did not. Orik quickly repositioned himself ontop of the small general store, the orcs were almost directly underneath him. "Now is the time, now is the time for vengeance" he thought to himself. He put his bow away and drew his sword. He leaped off of the roof onto one of the orcs, knocking him prone with a kick to his head. Once his feet met the ground he did a leg sweep to knock one of the others prone as well. Finally he gave his sword a mighty thrust and caught the last unaware orc right in the gut. The orc let out a bloodcurdling howl and dropped to the ground. "For these people you took the lives of!" Orik announced as he made the final blow to the two knocked on the ground.

    He Turned his attention to his foot, it seemed as though while he was enraged he neglected to notice one of the orcs had twisted his ankle and snapped it. Now the realization of pain came to him, like a sudden tidal wave of feeling. He grimaced and took a step onto the foot, testing what damage has been done. He could hear the bones grind with each other, and the jolt of pain running up his right leg. He proceeded inside to the general store through determination alone. Inside he found the body of a slain man, wearing a white apron and basic furs behind the counter. He heard shuffling from the storage room in the back and the muffled cries of what sounded like a woman. Orik slowly peeked around the corner of the doorway and inside he saw a woman, bound and gagged by oily hides and the chieftain in the corner sitting on a chair devouring what looked like a raw rabbit torn to bits. "Quiet human, you be lunch if you keep that up" the chieftain growled as he was chewing his partial rabbit with fervor. The woman's eyes looked out the doorway to see Orik and she immediatly began making more noise and thrashing about. "What do you see puny human?!" The chieftain got up and walked toward the area the woman was looking at. Orik could hear how tremendous his weight was as the wooden floorboards groaned underneath his weight.

    The Chieftain learned forward and peeked around the corner of the doorway only to be met by a boot to the face. "Arrrgh!" he moaned in pain grabbing his face. Orik made his move in with his sword drawn and a readied stance. "Foul beast, you have lead these people to their demise, and the jury has spoken, I sentence you to death!" as Orik leaped into the air and made a vertical slash downwards and caught the chieftains right shoulder. Orik took advantage of this small break and grabbed the woman and set her outside of the room. When he returned the Orc had grabbed his oversized club from the corner and greeted Orik with a smash to his head. Orik rolled out of the way and countered with a thrust at the Chieftains left thigh. The sword struck true. When he pierced the thigh of the chieftain he flourished his sword around the circumference of the leg, making it useless. The Orc dropped down to one knee. "You think you won human! The game has begun!" The Orc spat in Oriks face, blinding him temporairly and pulled out a horn carved of Ram horn and blew with tremendous force. A Bellowing call rang through out the Outpost, through out the land. A Flock of birds took off in the distance. Orik made one final thrust and decapitated the chieftain.

    His focus now was survival, for him, this woman he found, and of course Yira. He Grabbed the woman that seemingly exhausted herself to the point of unconsciousness and carried her out of the outpost and to Yira at the pace of a jog. Safely Tying her to Yira, he mounted up and they took off at quicker pace than intended...

    Toward the mountains.

    (continued in Part 3)