Talgratha scanned the horizon. Searching the seemingly endless grasslands that stretched before her. A human trading caravan had failed to pay the long established protection fees owed to her clan, so she led a punitive force to track them down. These weak humans could not be allowed to insult the Ashborn.
She tried to imagine the path the offending caravan would take to reach better defended human lands. Grobosh and his insufferable insect companion made that largely impossible, however.
"Come Kral, come and get it!" The 2m tall orc held out a fruit the size of a child's skull to the giant insect. Grobosh's arm was promptly engulfed up to the elbow in the creature's mouth, mandibles seemingly working furiously to devour the orc's limb.
"That's a good boy! How energetic you are today." Grobosh pulled his arm free with no injury visible on his tough hide. For all his eccentricities he was still one of the most accomplished warriors in the entire clan, well known for his toughness. Talgratha had seen arrows literally bounce off his bare skin, so she suspected he had some unusual skills.
The giant stag beetle started to nuzzle against his owner, although casual observers would probably describe it as a futile attempt to bite off the orc's head. At a few moments, Grobosh pulled his head from the creature's jaws, covered in a sticky mucus and bits of fruit.
"Aw, you're being awfully friendly today."
Not for the first time, Talgratha regretted taking him on this trip. Grobosh himself was a valuable asset, but his irrational love for that beast was a headache. The insect was fearsome to look at, but was largely useless in combat, the massive pincers more for show than anything else. It also stank horrendously. Even the most hygienically challenged of the tribe tended to give it a wide berth.
"Grobosh! Stop fussing with that beast and gather the rest. If we move quickly we can reach the high road before dark."
"As you wish, my chieftain."
Once again, Talgratha was struck by the strange devotion the older orc displayed. She still didn't know why such a powerful warrior had chosen to follow a scrawny half-breed all those years ago, but his loyalty had helped her earn her current position as War Chieftain. Her subsequent accomplishments in the border skirmishes with the neighboring Blood Tongue Clan had established her as a rising star in her generation.
She dismissed her thoughts and tried to concentrate on the task at hand, as she led her band deeper into human territory.
While not explicitly a violation of the treaties established between the Kingdom of Almir and the Ashborn, this venture was close to an act of war. She had to make sure that she caught the transgressors before they could reach a major human settlement. Luckily, this region of the Kingdom was sparsely populated.
After a cold night spent sleeping without a campfire, Talgratha had a third of her warriors remain at the campsite to protect their supplies. She would take Grobosh and the rest to the lay in ambush along the only real road in the region. If her hunch was right, the caravan should be passing through their area in the next couple of days.
The first day passed quietly. The only notable incident was the large bison that one of her scouts had managed to bring down. It had taken three orcs to drag the beast back to the ambush point. The whole band had eaten well that night, which had almost made up for the fact that the trio had created a large, bloody path directly to their ambush point.
Talgratha established a new location some distance up the road.
The caravan arrived during the second day. According to Talgratha's plans, the orcs were to wait until the lead wagon had passed before launching their attack. Unfortunately one of the unruly mob of 'warriors' she led in this case got overly excited and rushed the caravan guards far too early. The rest of the orcs, with the exception of Talgratha and Grobosh followed suit. This gave the humans a chance to partially circle their wagons and force the ambushing orcs to attack a solid shield wall formed by the caravan guards.
Talgratha cursed the foolishness of her kind again. It had caused her numerous headaches in the past. She motioned Grobosh to follow and moved out onto the road. Hopefully she could salvage the situation before too many of her warriors had died.
She couldn't help but sigh as she watched the orcs fling themselves haphazardly against the human shield wall.
Grobosh's eager voice broke through her resigned thoughts. "Looks like we have some company."
Talgratha looked over as saw a pair of humans on horseback swiftly approaching. The seemingly older one launched a quick series of commands to the other before directing his horse in their direction.
She noticed that this young man was missing a large portion of his left arm, but still handled his mount and sword like a veteran.
"Take care of the cripple, I'll make sure the other one doesn't cause too much damage."
Grobosh only nodded eagerly before jumping down from his insect mount. He preferred to fight on the ground because, in his own words, he didn't want to risk Kral getting hurt. As if the carriage-sized, armored beetle was in danger of injury.
Talgratha paused to watch the resulting clash, and couldn't help but admire the skill of the one-armed man. Despite his impairment, he was still able to hold his own against a warrior as accomplished as Grobosh.
A series of horrible screams brought her attention back to the main conflict. She whipped around just in time to see the second of the mounted humans launching a stream of fiery projectiles into her warriors.
[A fire mage!] She thought in alarm. Judging from the strength of his attacks, he was probably only of the lower half of the first tier. Nevertheless, a mounted fire mage could devastate her warriors with impunity. She needed to eliminate this threat as soon as possible.
Talgratha darted forward hoping to deliver a sneak attack against the mage while a group of her warriors, who had broken off from the general melee, charged him.
All thoughts of strategy left her as the young mage stretched forth his hand an unleashed a blast of stingily bright yellow fire. It engulfed the leading orcs, leaving behind only charred husks.
It had been a long time since she had seen the handiwork of fire magic up close. She had forgotten how utterly terrifying it could be. She could only numbly attempt a simple thrust at the young man who had already succeeded in burying his sword in an orc's head.
The mage almost preternaturally jerked to the side to avoid her blow, before whipping around to face her. They locked gaze, and for a moment Talgratha was distracted by the mage's piercing golden eyes. Something about the eyes seemed almost mesmerizing, and she felt a strange possessive instinct surge within her. Rather than kill this young, upstart mage, she was going to claim him for herself.
She was surprised once again when the man spoke to her in Orcish.
"Wait! If continue to attack me, you'll regret it!"
He spoke fluently, as if he had been raised among the Ashborn. This was practically impossible for a young human.
"You know our language? How? It is not something for you humans to know."
"Never mind that. You should know by my earlier demonstration that I'm a powerful spell caster. I'm trying to control myself around my fellow humans, but if I feel my life is threatened I won't hesitate to reduce this whole area to ash. If you leave right now, I will spare your lives."
An obvious bluff, but not one that she could idly dismiss. If she lost any more of her warriors in this conflict it would harm her reputation among her clansmen, perhaps irreparably. That said, it also created an opportunity.
She knew that her band would probably prove victorious should the fight continue. It wouldn't take much longer for Grobosh to finish with the one-armed man, and he could easily break the shield wall. Assuming the mage wasn't capable of more than he let on, she would win a costly victory.
She could use the inevitability of the human's defeat as a means to pressure the young man, and she felt confident in her ability to defeat him in one-on-one combat so long as magic wasn't involved. If she could convince him to participate in a Kal'thelk, she could honorably claim him as a personal slave while sparing further casualties amongst her warriors.
Bringing a promising young fire mage back, even a human one, would go a long way towards erasing the shame of so many losses in the first place.
She issued her challenge and couldn't help but smile as the young man reluctantly accepted. Now she only had to defeat him.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Talgratha was on her knees, still dazed from the blow to her head a second ago. She had barely even seen the young mage's attack before it smashed the helmet from her head. She could only stare dumbly down at the broken halves of her spear. The spear that she had received when she became a War Chieftain.
She looked up into the strange, golden eyes of the man who had bested her. A confusing mix of emotions left her all but speechless. After of few moments of near-perfect silence, she gathered enough wits to numbly announce her defeat and ask the question that was burning inside her.
"It seems you have won. What are you called, human?"