The seven ogres were walking calmly through the forest. Despite their considerable size, they managed to be extraordinarily silent, a very important quality for a hunter, since making a noise meant alerting the prey and risking making it run away... or worse, alerting something more ferocious than themselves and attracting it towards them. "So what did you find, boy?" suddenly one of them asked.
In the front row, an ogre boy had bent down to survey the terrain. Hearing that he was called, he hastened to reply: "Traces, but they are too small to be from a deer. Maybe a boar"
The ogre boy was carefully observing the mud on which hoof prints were visible. The animal that had left them must have been there recently. The boy began to evaluate the direction of the footprints and their position, to correctly establish which animal they were dealing with, how far it was and what was the best strategy to hunt it. During all this time, the other ogres didn't say a word and just waited patiently behind him. When the boy finally stood up and said: "This way!", they all followed without any remonstrance.
One of them punched another on the shoulder. "Ah! You raised your son well, Sarpa. He can track the prey perfectly. I hope when I get one too, he will be exactly like yours..."
"Tlalok, with that little cock you have, it's a wonder you'll ever have one" the ogre named Sarpa told him. In response Tlalok elbowed him on the stomach, feigning offense despite his amused smile still present on his lips.
Sarpa didn't care about it. He was too focused on his son to worry about his friend's thoughts. As he watched him track like a seasoned hunter, he couldn't help but feel extremely proud.
In a patriarchal society like that of the ogres, sons played a key role. Since they would have been the ones to continue their father's work, and carry on his lineage, for a male ogre raising his children well meant having fulfilled his role as a parent properly. For Sarpa to see that his son was already so good at hunting despite his young age was a source of great joy.
"Maybe one day he could be even better than me..." he thought with a smile on his face, even if he also felt a little bit of envy.
His son was named Sinar. He was fifteen years old and he will soon face the test to become a full-fledged adult. He was strong, agile, intelligent and shrewd. Sarpa had no doubts that one day he wouldn't have just been a hunter like himself, but a true warrior of the tribe, and would thus have became one of those who decided the fate of their people. This made Sarpa a little envious, since he too would have liked to have such an honor, but such envy was quickly suppressed by the love he felt for his son and the pride he felt whenever he saw how extraordinary he was.
If his son had become a warrior, Sarpa would have confirmed that he had done an excellent job, and he could have lived out the rest of his days watching the family grow larger and his son climb the hierarchy, and finally he could have died peacefully and gone to the afterlife head-on...
As he was thinking about these, a rustling was suddenly heard. The bushes in front of Sinar moved for an instant and then stopped again. The young ogre immediately raised his weapon, a kind of spiked club, and held it close ready to fight in case of attack. The ogres behind him did the same, immediately cutting off any speech or jokes.
They waited for almost a minute, then seeing that nothing came out of the bush Sinar took courage and started to approach; however his father stopped him right away. "Wait, boy. Remember the first and foremost rule of hunting. Never attack a prey unless you are absolutely sure it is prey"
Despite the fact that they were strong and intelligent (at least when compared to animals), ogres were no invincible at all. Many beasts of the Karbraland Great Forest may be a serious danger to them. Also, the hunters didn't exactly have a very high strength level. It wasn't uncommon for them to be the ones who ended up being hunted. Therefore it was advisable to proceed with caution, to avoid annoying the wrong animal.
Sinar heeded his father's warning and stopped advancing; on the contrary, he carefully observed the bush. The part that was moving was the lowest part of it; consequently, the animal hiding under it could not have been taller than a foot. Even so, however, it could be dangerous: it could be a venomous snake or something like that. Sinar shuddered: being bitten by a snake or other venomous animals was a mortal risk to hunters, since nearly all venomous beasts in the Karbraland Great Forest had venoms that shocked the victim within minutes and killed him in less than a quarter of an hour.
But Sinar was confident in his abilities. If the animal was that small, he could kill it with one sharp blow before it could react. He just had to be quick and accurate. And even if he missed, he could have retreated immediately: the space behind him was clear and guarded by the other ogres, so he was safe in stepping back. That way he would surely have avoided the fatal bite of a venomous snake.
He followed the movement of the bush and then, when he was sure he couldn't miss the target, he lowered his club with all the strength he had. The fronds of the bush broke and the weapon grazed by a millimeter a strange silver creature similar to a snake, which however managed to dodge at the last second. Sinar was finally able to see it now that the leaves from the bush had been swept away. But there was something strange... more than a snake, that silvery creature looked like a... "Tail?"
A moment later the ogre boy was pinned: Sinar barely having time to feel the surrounding vegetation crack before he saw a silvery blur leap at him. In the next instant he was on the ground, and a huge clawed paw was resting on his head. Whatever was on top of him was very heavy and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move it even an inch. Sinar could hear the animal's deadly breath and low growl as drops of its saliva fell onto his hair.
"Boy!" Sarpa's breath caught as he saw the creature appear. For a moment he feared the worst, but luckily the animal hadn't cut his son's head right away, instead ha had just thrown him to the ground. If instead it would have attacked him seriously, surely it would have ended very badly for Sinar: Sarpa didn't know what kind of creature it was, it looked like a large silver horned lizard, but from the size of its jaws and teeth it was evident that it could shatter the skull of his son with just one bite. "Let go of my son, you ugly..."
Blood hit his face; he turned around and saw that two of his companions had just lost their heads. Their bodies fell to the ground lifeless and their heads rolled several meters as if they were balloons. Large pools of blood begin to form on the ground. And behind the corpses of those who had been his companions, Sarpa saw two more giant lizards whose tails were covered in blood.
Sarpa and the other three remaining ogres raised their weapons and tried to defend themselves, but more giant lizards leapt from all sides and attacked them simultaneously. The poor ogres didn't have time to focus on one of them that immediately they were bitten from behind by two others. The giant lizards tore off their arms, legs, and heads, and the ogres failed to even hit one of them. Those monsters kept their distance, using not bites and claws, but their tails as a weapon to hurt them, preventing the ogres from reacting.
Within seconds, only Sarpa was left alone standing, while all of his other companions lay dead above a pool of blood that grew larger with each passing second. The giant lizards had mysteriously ignored him. The ogre didn't mind, however; he raised the axe he was holding and channeled all the mana at his disposal into it, and then swung it with all the strength that he had.
As his mana began to flow into the weapon, the axe turned golden, and when he brought it down it moved with tenfold power. The giant lizards ducked just in time: the blow was so strong that the surrounding trees snapped from the sheer force of wind. The monsters backed away, clearly scared.
Seeing that the animals feared him, Sarpa knew he had the advantage; he was about to strike again, when suddenly a voice stopped him: "Drop your weapon!"
The ogre turned, but he saw no one. He began to fear that his mind was playing tricks on him, when the voice returned. "I said drop the weapon!" it shouted, and this time Sarpa managed to identify its source. It was one of the giant lizards who spoke; more specifically, it had been the one who had attacked first, and who was now holding his son in its claws and glaring at him malevolently.
Sarpa couldn't believe it. "You... can speak?" he asked, not understanding how an animal could speak ogre language.
The lizard let out an annoyed snort. "I am a dragon. I can speak any language, including yours"
Sarpa's heart skipped a beat. A dragon! He'd never seen one in his life, but he'd heard stories. Now he understood what the strange appearance of those giant lizards reminded him... he had heard them described in the stories and tales of the tribe, where even baby dragons appeared from time to time! Beasts who, despite being very young, were extremely dangerous, even if they were in no way equal to the monsters they would have became when they were adults.
The dragon evidently didn't like his silence, and with a jerk it lifted Sinar with one paw and held him suspended before it in full view. "This is the last chance. Drop your weapon now, or he will come to a bad end"
Sarpa immediately recovered from his surprise and anger took possession of him again, making him grit his teeth: "Let him go! It's the only warning!" he growled.
"Warning for what? You are on your own now. You could try to hit me with your weapon, but your blow will have to go through your child first. And if you tried to make a sudden movement it would be enough for me to clench my claws slightly tighter to turn his skull into a pulp" the dragon scolded him, not intimidated at all by his fury. "You'd better give up. I need you two alive, but if you try to resist too much, I can always find other more cooperative ogres"
Sarpa tightened his grip on his axe, fuming for the anger, but he knew the dragon was right. He was in front of a dead end road. He had no way to save his son: anything he could do would have been too slow. The dragon would have killed Sinar far before he could even reach him. Even if Sarpa eventually managed to slay all the dragons, his son would still have died.
In the end he made the only choice possible: he threw down his axe, his only defense against the dragons, and he knelt with his hands up. All he could do now was rely on the mercy of his enemy.
The dragon looked satisfied and let out what sounded like laughter. "Mh. You're really lucky, boy. Your father seems to care a lot for you. You don't know how much I envy you. My father tried to kill me, and so I killed him. Thank goodness you have such a loving father" he said into the ears of Sinar, and then he nodded to the other dragons. "Make sure he doesn't have any other weapon"
The other dragons rushed at Sarpa and ripped everything off him, even his clothes. Very quickly the ogre stood naked in the midst of the group of dragons. Despite the humiliation, however, he didn't dare react in any way and remained motionless, letting them do as they wanted.
"Hold him" the dragon that had captured his son, who was probably the one in charge, throwing Sinar at another dragon, then he approached Sarpa. The ogre saw the beast's terrifying snout coming dangerously towards him, but he didn't falter. He stared into the creature's eyes the entire time.
The dragon seemed to notice it. "You're brave. It's a quality that I appreciate" he said in an amused tone, then he became serious: "Now you work for me"