It was a grim day when one of the goats gave birth. Personally, Erik oversaw the delivery.
A litter of six young were safely delivered, but the mother was bleeding profusely.
"My lord. What shall we do?" The orc looked up at him, believing his lord to have an answer. His hands were stained red, and the mother goat was panting heavily.
A moment of silence passed before Erik responded. "There is no saving it. It is bleeding internally, the burden of birthing six kids was too much. We could save it had we the, tools, required, but we do not. All we can do now is put it out of its misery, make use of its meat, bone, and skin, and take care of the newborns."
It was as he was leaving the pastures that Marasia, who was looking for him, approached with parchment in hand.
"My lord!" She called out with a large grin on her face.
"Marasia."
"My lord. I have finished the map as you instructed." She held out the rolled-up parchment which a map of the entire territory had been mapped out on.
Erik looked over it, finding her ability to draw in detail to not be lacking in skill.
"Good."
"Yes, my lord. The entirety of the territory is enclosed by mountains and ocean. The only entrance is to the east, aside from a small opening to the west."
"Perfectly enclosed on almost all sides, but at the same time, it traps us. What is this?" He pointed at the edge of the map. "A cavern?"
"Yes, my lord. I believe it to be the burrow of sorts. I had not explored it, but from the echo, it would be rather deep. It is also quite large. I belie-"
"Something lived there." He interrupted.
"Yes, my lord."
"Something did. Not anymore."
"Huh...? How do you know, my lord?"
"Because I killed it."
It was to the massive creature he'd slayed that they made the journey to, with a group of his men carrying crates. The creature had for the most part, remained untouched, but had begun to decompose after a few days.
"My lord... You downed such a beast?" Marasia's jaw hung in awe. "How fantastic! Shall I write about this in the records?"
"Hm. Yes. History should be recorded as truthfully as possible." He approached the corpse, streaking his fingertips across one of the plates, then tapping it with his knuckle. It was like leather or wood, hard and yet smooth. "The creature's exoskeleton would be perfect for armor. Even after days sitting here, it hasn't turned brittle." He turned to his men waiting behind him. "We will be harvesting its corpse, making armor out of its exoskeleton, and whatever else we can make use of. No blade but my own will be able to cut through it with ease. Prepare to separate everything into the crates and set them aside."
They all covered their mouths and noses with masks before beginning.
Like a skilled surgeon, he broke down the monster's corpse, tearing off its exoskeleton, peeling off its skin, and slicing out its organs straight down to the bone. It was an insectoid creature in appearance, yet it had dense bones and thick muscles. It was upon striking the bone that he came to realize his presumptions of the creature were not what he thought.
"Strange. I had believed it to be a bug, but it is certainly not."
"What do you think it is, my lord?" Marasia asked.
Erik pondered the question for a moment before responding. "...I have no idea. No monster I know of resembles this creature. It resembles a basilisk, a serpent, and... Perhaps a centipede. I find centipede dragon to be rather fitting."
"Yes, my lord. A fitting name indeed." Marasia agreed with a nod of her head.
He continued to butcher the creature, with hours having passed. Every inch of it was harvested, from the outer layer of flesh and hide, to the tissue and marrow.
He'd even discovered the creature was of the female sex, pulling out an egg from the depths of its guts in surprise. "Interesting."
Over the next few days, they began to make proper armor and tools from the creature's corpse: weapons, such as blades were carved from bone, as were tools, such as axes and pickaxes, while armor and shields were made from its dense hide.
Now with somewhat proper tools, he gathered a group of men to venture into the forest with him, making their way past those chopping down trees for lumber.
They came to the creature's den which burrowed into the very mountain.
The men ignited their torches and ventured into the cavern just behind Erik.
They wandered around, inspecting the cavern wall with their blazing torches held ahead and above their brows. He did so slowly and patiently, scanning the rough and bumpy stone wall for any bit of glimmer that stood out. Eventually, he came across something that made him stop in his tracks. He placed his fingertips against the rock, before pulling away and grabbing the pickaxe on his hip.
He tossed it in his hand once, before swinging hard against the wall. The noise echoed, startling the men around him.
A piece came undone, falling to the floor at which he then picked it up.
"My lord. Did you find what you were looking for?" One of his men asked from behind.
"Perhaps..." Erik rubbed the piece between his fingers toyingly, before a blue fire, an azure flame, beautiful and alluring to the eye, ignited in his fingertips, coating the piece of stone. His men were mesmerized by the unholy flame, as if it were a priceless gem tempting their gazes from afar. Sparks then flickered, and in that instant, he snuffed out the fire and stood up straight. "Iron." He said, walking in the direction they'd come from. "It's iron. This whole cavern, it's an iron mine."
He rushed to set up the mine as fast as possible, dividing his men even more in order to put them to work mining ores. Support beams were constructed, and torches were lined up along the way to provide light. Pickaxes were handed out and the men began mining. Stone and ores would be carried out in crates to the village, where the simplest of forges were made from mud and clay.
He chose to begin construction near the west, just before the villages, and near the forest, where a small stream was. The forest was torn down, paving a path to the mountain, and homes were being constructed on the plains.
Progress was slowly paced, yet the leaps being made were by eras, and the orcs were not so foolish to have not realized the greatness of their lord.
By winter, hundreds of insulated homes were constructed, made of stone bricks and planks of wood. They were small, simple, yet strong, made of stone bricks and planks of wood.
Even in the snow and cold, the children could play and the men could work without worry of frostbite, due to the warm homes and fur clothes.
The winters here were far colder than in Highland though, but progress could not be impeded. The men worked hard, working the fields and pastures, or smelting at the forge in training. There were those who continued to build, even putting together wagons and carriages, and those tasked with mapping out the terrain, with one such orc, diligently exploring the mountain hills to the northwest.
He climbed down from the frosted hills carefully, the frozen ground cracking as he dropped down. He had made it to the other side, taking out a parchment and dotting his current location, before rolling it back up and putting it in his bag.
Ahead of him, there were no trees, just plains and hills. A sort of excitement welled up on his face, a fog of white at the precipice of his lips. He continued on, trekking over the hills and the horizon.
He stopped when he reached a scarce forest of odd trees, trees with leaves of purple, and gray trunks that twisted and swerved.
He ended up striking the bark of one of the trees with a dagger, chipping off a piece. He looked at it in his hand, examining it before placing it in his bag. An arrow then went through his head and he hit the ground as a corpse. His blood froze as it spilled out of his skull, slowly dripping from the wound the arrow was poking out of.
A figure then slowly approached, cautiously inspecting the body. They pulled out their arrow, whipping off the blood as best they could before walking away.