Disclaimer: This is not the final version as it will be available from the usual e-book sellers and eventually, bookstores. Rather, it should be seen as an (almost) final draft. If you are interested in becoming a beta reader, or you have any comments, suggestions or thoughts that you feel I should consider before publishing please drop me a line using the contact form.
Brabak
The years with Togut had brought Brabak great prosperity. He now understood that his job was to be a bodyguard for Togut. Not that the older orck couldn’t take care of himself – oh how he could, it was just that he didn’t have eyes in the back of his head and had to sleep. Togut, being smarter than many orcks had decided a band of more or less loyal warriors was the best way to stay dominant among the Headcutters. He had his eyes set on the position of Chieftain, Brabak was sure. Brabak accompanied Togut on raids. Togut invariably led these raids, and Brabak had killed his share of farmers, militiamen and other orcks by the time he was full grown. He had even killed some human soldiers and even a dwarf once. He also had decent weapons and armour and generally a full belly. These things meant standing among the orcks. The she-orcks liked him too, even if it was only because he was a smidge less violent that many others and being in his good graces offered a measure of protection as well as a guarantee of sustenance.
His life was good by orck standards. He had a big two handed hammer that Togut said he had taken off a dwarf he had killed. His armour was made of plates and mail, much better than what most of the other orcks had. The fact that he had figured out how to repair it put him miles ahead of the others too. He also practised often with a captured bow and could make his own passable arrows, if not the bow itself. He still plundered what arrows he could as he couldn’t quite match the straightness of the shafts that the humans achieved. His bow was and nice and hefty, he had plundered it from a burly human soldier. He could fire four times as fast as an orck with a crossbow. Even his huts were better than those of most of the other orcks.
He didn’t much care for the behaviour that was necessary to excel in an orckish community, but he accepted the necessity of it. It was the only way he knew though he sometimes thought about whether there was a different way to make sure you bred hard and strong warriors. The other orcks seemed to revel in the random brutality, especially Togut. Brabak never understood that. It seemed inefficient to him. He had no qualms about achieving goals through force, but he didn’t see the point of random violence.
He had been around a lot of the Orck Mountains, regularly raiding other Orcks and sometimes humans that lived to the North or East of the mountains. Once, he had even been to a strange land of enormous trees to the south where there was a strange mist-like effect. Togut had insisted that a shaman give him a special charm before they went that way, and that Brabak not take it off, under any circumstances. They had hunted the plentiful game there, there didn’t seem to be anyone who actually lived there. It was a strange place that gave Brabak the creeps. Togut too it seemed, they had only stayed two days despite the abundance of animals. Brabak thought the pickings were best to the East of the mountains. There was rich farmland there and quite a lot of humans to raid and plunder. They had raided there a lot with a large band before a lot of orcks were killed by highly organised human fighters on horses. They had fled back into the mountains in a running battle.
Togut hadn’t seem surprised when the humans had arrived, as if he’d seen it all before. Brabak, Togut and the others in the band had only barely escaped. Brabak had paid careful attention to the human fighters and how they fought. Though smaller and not as strong as an orck, they were much more effective than he thought they should be, giving each other support, even protecting their wounded when they could, so he paid very close attention to how they went about their business. Sometimes he even went off on his own just to observe them. Togut thought that was strange behaviour. If an orck saw some of these humans, he should probably try and kill them, was the consensus among the orcks. Getting yourself killed against overwhelming odds wasn’t seen as a good idea or anything, but the general principle of killing people who had something you could use was widely approved of. Going out to look at a group you couldn’t defeat was considered strange behaviour. Brabak kept his own council as he watched and learned. He was sure his opportunity would come eventually.
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