Chapter 12: The Trouble with Orcs!
-----With the moods somewhat lightened by the tales told by the Dread Pirate, the party starts off through the woods traveling toward the southeast. The sun climbs to its mid-morning position warming the air among the trees.
-----As the party rides on, the Dread Pirate states, "Aye, blessed are the cheese makers, for they shall be the followers of the Holy Shoe."
-----The riders traverse a flat area of forest with a small hill inclining up to their left. Carefully they make their way around the sloping landform occasionally glancing up among the trees there looking for any sign of trouble. The birds continue to fly about and make noise.
-----Soon, the party sees to the south of their position a large field dominated by rough patches of briars and thickets. Between the edge of the field and the bottom of the hill, they ride and find another area where the forest smoothes out and large strong trees are rooted in the level ground.
-----As they begin to ride here, the forest seems to fall silent with the animal activity seemingly in the distance. Up ahead, through the trunks of the imposing trees, dark forms can be seen a few yards in front of the party. The forms appear to be humanoid in shape and appear to scatter as if urgently taking cover. Suddenly, everyone stops and a low growl is heard from Raven’s wolf as the animal stares ahead among the trees.
-----Seth smiles at the direction of the humanoid shapes then turns his head to make sure he has at least three big buff hitters in front of him and his escape route the way they come in is still clear. When reassured he carefully extracts some pork fat from his condiments pouch and lays his sling over his saddle in readiness for a nasty reception.
-----Upon seeing the dark forms moving through the underbrush, Gimplefwick states, "Arrr, I guess we'll have to hold off on the creation story of the humans fer the time being. Hmmm, I guess they've already spotted us, since they be scatterin. We'll let’s just ride straight at 'em and see what happens."
-----Sol barks a command to his stallion and urges the beast generally towards the dark forms. Aware of ambush possibilities and the rather short distance between the two groups, he draws his longsword and starts trying to locate the enemy properly.
-----Sarah is suddenly struck by the mental image of Dread charging into battle and yelling "Cheese!" She finds this hilarious and starts laughing as she rides. She laughs for a few seconds before finally regaining her composure. "Sorry." She says, wiping her eyes.
-----Immediately she senses something wrong as she sees Sol’s drawn sword. Looking around she doesn't see any immediate sign of trouble but coaxes Marlexana closer to Thunder as she usually does when trouble's brewing.
-----Raven stops his horse and says in a low tone, "Ain't that cute. They want to play hide and seek." Raven gets off his horse in one smooth movement and then readies his bow. Raven motions for the wolf to follow, "Let's see how well they play this game." Raven disappears into brush and seems to be trying to flank the dark forms.
-----Seth, as an after thought, mentions, "You know they may be friendly."
-----Raven says to Seth, "Not likely, but feel free to ask them."
-----"Take care, my hunter," Rinda says as she watches Raven and the wolf take to the brush. Sol then takes the lead and begins heading off to the right side slightly, intending to not ride directly through the center of the hiding forms.
-----Carefully the riders move forward with their steeds somehow sensing something afoul may be occurring. The quiet in the tree tops overhead becomes a bit unnerving and some of the horses frequently jerk their heads and pause to stamp at the ground.
-----Then in different spots among the trees ahead, rustlings and an occasional twig are heard snapping. Just as Sol brings everyone to a stop to scan the area around them, humanoids suddenly jump up from the concealing brush and from behind trees a few feet away to retreat to better cover. The party quickly counts about a half-dozen humanoids in the quick movement. Everyone can see the humanoids are the size of humans and have greenish-gray skin. With the dirty appearance of their leather and hide armor they wear and the coarse dark hair they have, there can be no doubt. The humanoids are orcs!
-----Within a few seconds, the orcs find more vegetation to hide behind and everything becomes silent as if waiting a reaction.
-----Wrinkling his nose in distaste, the Dread Pirate looks at the vile orcs, "Arrrr, they be stinkin orcs. But what are they up to? It must be some sort o' trap they're tryin to lead us into. Or maybe it’s somethin else. It's surprisin that they haven't tried to attack us. Let’s wait a minute and see what they do if we just sit here. But be ready fer anythin."
-----The Dread Pirate draws his cutlass and lays it across his lap as he carefully watches the surrounding vegetation.
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