"Whatever, good people shouldn't have to die," pouted Takagi.
(Day 297) "You had to kick the bucket too, old man," Takagi whispered under his breath.
"Hey, are you sure we're headed the right way?" Hanz asked.
Takagi and Hanz were packed up and headed down a path Takagi had never traversed before. They had already been traveling for a couple of hours in search of the town called Grunthree.
"I may not have been through these areas before, but I sure know how to get around an unfamiliar stretch of the forest."
"Takagi, do you think we'll get there soon?"
"No, traveling through these unknown areas, we have to be very careful and take it slow. Maybe a day or two. Look over there, that's quicksand," Takagi pointed in the direction ahead of them.
"What is quicksand?" Hanz asked.
"Trust me, you don't want to know. Let's just say you sink down without any way of getting out."
---
(Day 299) "It's already been 2 days!" Hanz screamed.
"So what?" Takagi replied.
"Don't you think we should've reached the town by now?"
"Good point, but be quiet; I'm the one holding the map here," Takagi said with frustration.
"It smells a bit weird, don't you think? Actually, that smell is sickening! What was that?" Hanz said as he squeezed his nose.
"Bones? That's not a good sign," Takagi said.
"Hey, why are you all the way over there!" Hanz shouted at Takagi, who was farther ahead.
Takagi was squatting down, inspecting bones on the floor. He couldn't help but wonder if they were close to the exit of the forest. Hanz called Takagi over; he had also found another set of bones. Orc bones were easily distinguishable due to their larger bone density and their few pointy teeth. The bones made Hanz quiver; he got a very chilling feeling down his spine.
"What could have killed them? Are we close to the exit?" Takagi asked himself.
They both turned their heads at that instant after hearing something move from the distance. Takagi got in a fight-ready stance and pointed his spear towards the direction of the sounds. Hanz stayed behind Takagi in slight fear. Takagi couldn't help but hear something whistle in the air; through sheer reflex, he tackled Hanz out of the way. An arrow headed towards the two, pierced the ground. They successfully dodged but were more alert than before. Takagi directed Hanz up, and they took cover behind a rather larger tree nearby. Takagi prepared to throw his spear; he only needed a direction and a target.
"Another whistle," thought Takagi as he heard the same sound once again.
He responded to the whistle accordingly and told Hanz to duck. Once again, an arrow aimed towards their direction pierced the tree.
"From both directions? We could be surrounded," Takagi told Hanz.
Hanz couldn't help but be more alert than scared. But his shaking legs said otherwise.
"Two… no three… Move now!" Takagi told Hanz.
A volley of arrows struck the tree. Takagi heard a rustle in the direction of one of the arrows and, without seeing a target, he threw his spear, hoping to hit one of the archers. The spear made contact with a distant tree far from Takagi and Hanz's location. "Ahh" a person screamed in that direction, followed by several rustlings and finally a thump. The spear seemed to have missed but struck very close to the archer, scaring him.
"Bingo, let's go, Hanz, follow me close, and when I say duck or move, you listen!"
They both ran towards the direction of the thump. Takagi ran faster than Hanz could keep up with. Hanz wasn't fast or even close to as fast as Takagi. This made Hanz surprised; a regular elf would never beat an average orc in physical capabilities. Dodging arrows was a difficult task, but listening to Takagi's orders, Hanz was successful. They crossed the forest very cleverly, or rather Takagi did. Hanz just followed. Takagi was an expert in running through a forest; no arrow would ever catch up with him or predict his peculiar way of maneuvering through the trees. Close to the area, Hanz and Takagi got lucky that they had to go down a small hill to reach the bottom of the tree the archer fell from. Fewer arrows made their way towards them. From what Takagi could tell, there were 7 or 8 archers in total.
"Ouch! Ow ow ow," hissed a person in the distance.
"That idiot nearly killed me. He managed to graze my shoulder," a female orc said while in pain.
She took out a small knife and held it out with her left hand. The other was applying pressure to her left shoulder. Although she wasn't badly injured, the pain was still there, and blood was minimal. She sat on the ground and rested her back on the tree she fell from.
"Ow ow ow, it really hurts…" she said before being interrupted mid-sentence.
A knife had been put to her throat from behind the tree.
"Who are you? Why are you attacking us?" Takagi shouted.
The female orc's face went blue in fear.
"No no no, you got it all wrong… I … I."
"Why!" Takagi raised his voice.
He wasn't mad; rather, he feared that if his life was taken, he wouldn't be able to die a happy man not seeing Ameria once more.
"We thought you guys came for us! Please don't hurt me," she shouted in desperation.
Takagi removed the knife from her neck and turned to Hanz.
"You believe her?" whispered Takagi to Hanz.
He replied with a nod.
"Tell them to stop," Takagi ordered.
"Hey, it's okay!" The female orc screamed.
The orcs made their way to the post of the female orc. They were in a rush to see what had happened. Once they arrived, they saw Hanz treating the wound of the female orc.
"Hey! you! let her go!" one orc shouted.
The orcs retracted their bows to threaten Takagi and Hanz. Takagi got up and looked over to them.
"You almost killed me… I mean us! What are you idiots, blind!" Takagi screamed.
The orcs put down their bows and looked at each other confused.
"It's okay; they're not with them," the female orc shouted.
"We apologize for earlier. You see, we thought you guys were… someone else," an orc spoke.
"Don't worry about it, no big deal," Takagi replied while scarfing down a big piece of meat.
"Why are you guys in the forest? I thought it was dangerous to come into this place, but you guys have an entire small village," said Hanz.
"Well, we had no choice. Only a few hundred of us chose to come into the forest. We've only been here for a month and are barely getting the hang of this place. I might ask you two the same question: why are two people coming from the deeper side of the forest?"
"We…" Takagi struggled to structure a lie.
"We're adventurers; we decided to take a shortcut through the forest," Hanz finished Takagi's words.
"Oh? You guys must be strong, then?" The orc asked.
"I'm just tagging along," Hanz laughed while scratching his head.
"Are you an elf, or … ? I'm just curious because I've never seen anyone with those," the orc asked Takagi, pointing at his horns.
"Um… these are just fake horns," Takagi said while grabbing his horns.
"I've never seen an elf with a tail or even a beard; you're very odd. Everyone here is a little on edge over you."
"…anyways, who are you?" Takagi asked before taking a large bite of the chunk of meat he had in his hand.
"My name is Org Frey; I guess everyone here calls me the chief, so you could also call me that if you like. I've been meaning to ask, why are your clothes so torn up, and why are you not wearing mostly any?" he mostly asked Takagi, who was nearly naked.
"Um…" Takagi said, once again struggling to make up a lie.
"We… we just finished a battle with a gigantic beast!"
"Woah, you'll have to tell me more about it!" The orc said in excitement.
"Chief Org! They are back!" An orc shouted from a distance.
The chief got up from the wooden table with a serious face. "Please eat up; I will be right back," he said. Takagi appeared to not care much, as he was enjoying his mini-feast. For the first time in a long time, Takagi got the privilege to eat food with salt or drink anything but river water. The small town they were in wasn't big or very populated. It appeared to be new; in fact, a few houses were being built. Every person there seemed to be really poor and with little belongings.
"Takagi, maybe you should slow down; don't eat the whole table."
"Why?"
"Just look around; this town isn't here because it wants to be. Everyone here isn't happy. Their things are scattered about, and their houses are really small. What if they came to live in the forest because it was their only choice? What if they ran away from their home just like me?" Hanz said.
"Yeah, you have a point, Hanz," Takagi replied.
"These people must have it terrible trying to survive here," Hanz added.
"Let's go help them; they seem to be having some trouble," Takagi told Hanz.
"How could they be back? I thought we finished them off last night. These animals have gotten more riled up in the past few days," the chief said while running towards the direction of the raid.
The animals he referred to are an unknown creature that no orc had ever documented, Forest Imps. These animals, or beasts as some orcs called them, had been raiding their small village for the past few days. The night before, many of the men who fought the beasts died in battle. They didn't realize that the beasts grew stronger at night, a fact they wish they knew.
The chief, Org Fray, picked up his pace and took out his small blade. The small blade was shiny and sharp, a curved sword with a small green handle. He ran with it till he made contact with one of the beasts. The beast swung its long and sharp black tail. Org rolled to dodge and blocked, with his sword, a second strike from another beast. He took advantage of the opening to grab the first beast's neck and squeezed it to death. He picked up one from the neck and threw him towards the second. He advanced and ran up to another and dug his sword into the next beast's chest. The beast he threw a corpse to was handled by the warrior behind him. The beasts were relatively weak in comparison to the average orc, but their numbers were always massive. Struggling to pull his sword out, the chief was ambushed from the back by a beast. The beast clawed his sharp teeth into the chief. To the beast's demise, he is shot in the head by an arrow launched by one of the orcs atop a tree. The chief pulled his sword out and gazed across the looming horde.