It had been seven years since my birth as an Ogre and my name had changed from Reuben to Frey. It was rather odd having my human mother be completely absent from raising me past my birth. It seems like this is normal in what I'd call this tribe of Ogres. At least my Father Throkir had explained that some Ogres in the past had been raised like that and would struggle to do the deed making them seem impotent due to Ogres being a unisexual race. Father of course hadn't explained it directly, though I managed to connect the dots.
It was around this time when I finally managed to convince Father the chief of this tribe to obtain a map for me. He stood by me as I unfurled the parchment and he explained where we were. Oddly enough despite this world being rather similar to Earth technology was only around the Bronze age yet in what would have been the old world, we knew about the new world and it was even present on this map.
*This part of France? Wouldn't this be something referred to as Brittany at times? So, we share Brittany for the most part with some exiled Werewolves from Germany and some Harpies from Spain that had made a trip over the coast.*
Father had explained the relations between our three groups how we would often abduct women from them and nearby smaller human settlements. Despite being the youngest of five kids, Father had always taken the time to explain these types of things when he figured I seemed interested.
It wasn't without reason as when I was five, that is two years ago the conflict with the Harpies had intensified after one of my Brothers caught a Harpy Princess or that is a child of the Chieftess with her fate of baring his kids being set in stone. During that I noticed how they would use the treetops as cover and points to ambush us, I thought about nets and kept an eye on the trees the Harpies seemed to avoid more often.
My observations had led to figure out that a bug that resembled a stink-bug which liked to consume a certain blue flower called Saintre which grew near the trees with more foilage. I dug around those trees finding more animal excrement and reporting that to my Father he had first strung up several nets surrounding those trees we chose to expirement with. It only took a few weeks and we managed to stop over half of their ambushes and forced the Harpies to retreat back to their territory. There had been a few weeks of glaring and small skirmishes that followed before we saw Saintre's grow around the trees we chose.
That knowledge confirmed Father had ordered a massive push where while we lost 25 of our 250 fighters we invested, we managed to plant the piles of excrement and retreat from various harpy outposts. Another few weeks and we had been just about to siege the final harpy outpost of around 2,000 with 2,500 trained troops and 1,500 conscripts when the Werewolves attacked our home with 5,000 troops which were rather poorly trained. I had been left home with two of my siblings and around 1,250 troops, 500 of them had been up to me to train.
The assistance of Father's second in command had allowed me to give the Ogres under my command a somewhat modern training. At first I had them run laps, do push-ups, sit-ups and even stretches to build a foundation. I had them rotate in two groups of 250 while one exercised the other would hunt using game, various berries, and other wild plants as incentives. That had lasted for around three months when I was four, the last nine months before the Harpy fight and Werewolf raid had my exercises toned down with sparring and discipline being the focus. Sufficient lumber had afforded us enough material for arrows and I even had managed to make a rather primitive crossbow that sadly would break after around 10 shots each for my 500 troops. We didn't have walls, so we put up wooden barricades and dug small trenches.
The first round of fire had either killed or put a stop to around 500 of the Werewolves while they were out of charging distance. As they got closer our second round claimed 750 Werewolves. 1,250 to 3,750 and when they charged out came the soldiers of my Brothers who had trained with spears, axes and swords initiating a brutal meele with the occasional crossbow support. After three hours of fighting the Werewolves retreated taking another round of fire as they broke ranks. Most all of the crossbows were wasted at that point and my personal troops fell to 450 from counter fire by sling shots and their small amount of bows. We lost 500 from the troops of my Brothers' bringing us down to just 700 in the homegrounds though having thinned the Werewolves down to around 1,000 troops we felt it was well worth the trade. I had vomited when it came to the meele seeing heads fly, Blood and guts hitting the ground.
The next day my Father managed to return with having forced the Harpies to abandon their main settlement scattering into small villages which would fight to the death when prodded. 200 of the trained troops had perished against the Harpies and 500 of the consripts who had been mainly throwing nets and nets boomerangs that had nets on them functioning like half bolas. The Harpies had apparently lost around 1,000 or more before they had split up.
Over those two years to the present day we had left the Harpies and Werewolves untouched as we recovered our strength. Since then our crossbows had improved quite a bit and those interested in crafts had seen a rise in standing due to my Father having acknowledged their achievements.
It was during this time of looking at the map and analyzing our surroundings that a messenger had burst into the tent we were in.
"Chief! The Nestros Region has been unified! Some human calling himself William the Reborn is leading what he has named Normandy! He is also said to have two black bat like wings!"
The Nestros Region which had been mostly ruled by the very same Nestros family. They had ruled over the land for generations in walled settlements only for the winged William to fly over the walls reportedly causing the defenders to go insane stabbing their own comrades, while Father and the messenger had tried to hide the meaning of the next part it became obvious to me what the other aspect was.
"It is also reported that in the month prior to the fall of many of their settlements the Nestros family had issues with the unions of their men and women."
*Hm so we probably have something Wrath or Envy and then Lust of the Karmic Path? Each wing would represent a sin and I doubt angels would have black wings.*
"Both of those sound like trouble ... As much of a threat they are I doubt even getting the Werewolves and together would help us resist them." I was sweating bullets as I listened to Father realizing there was a chosen and transmigrator at that on our doorstep, I didn't want to fight someone like this while I didn't have any way to match.
"Father? Do we have to fight them? No, can we afford to fight them?" I was being rather careful with my words trying to guide him to look for a peaceful resolution if at all possible.
"I hate to admit it, but that sorcery which made comrades stab each other is brutal enough as is. We should be fine with the other aspect though. What do you suggest little Frey?"
I took a deep breath and stared into my Father's eyes deciding to not hold back what I thought would be the ideal case for us. I got up to the map first pointing at the Brittany region that wasn't under us. "We should first take all of this area and declare it part of our tribe. We need to do this fast regardless of the casualties and then we ... we offer to surrender our territory to this William the Reborn along with our loyalty."
My Father had stared at me with such intensity that I almost passed out a few times. "Hm, we make ourselves worth more and then use it to negotiate? I can't say I'm fab, but we can't fight such sorcery." The pressure disappeared as Father smiled at me and ruffled my hair only to call for a messenger. "Send a message to Lord William the Reborn. We of the Sigmund Tribe wish to swear fealty after we claim the Bauxia region as our own. You may do what you wish with the land, but please allow our people to avoid being slaves." Nodding to the messenger that the message was done he set out as Father began barking our orders one after the other wasting no time in rallying the troops. It was time to clean our borders and earn the right to be spared of a potentially brutal conquest.