Several times Stone Tongue and his company saw signs of the humans coming towards the temple but when they saw the flame at the top of the tower was gone, none of them came closer. For months they kept watch to the south, over time they saw less and less of the humans. Not that it mattered to Stone Tongue; he knew they would go to find them at some point. He was a patient Orc; this would be a difficult but rewarding hunt in his mind. He would spend days thinking of nothing but killing the pathetic humans. Soon he saw them as nothing more than animals who he would slaughter. When Argon next came from the tower he told Stone Tongue to summon a second company of Orcs from the north, it was time to take the first human settlement to the south. "Every Orc is to carry a shield, the Melkor are skilled archers, anyone without the protection of a shield will die." Stone Tongue nodded to his master and sent a runner north to summon a second company. A little more than a week later, the two companies headed south of the tower to the first Melkor village.
Stone Tongue wanted to attack the farming village at night. Tal'Cha, the leader of the second company argued that Stone Tongue was a coward, pushed to attack in the middle of the day. This was the last time Stone Tongue let anyone push him into doing something he didn't want to do. The attack was a total disaster. Tal'Cha was supposed to take his men around to the west flank, while Stone Tongue and his company hit them from the north. Tal'Cha and his men were seen long before they were ready to attack. The people in town panicked and they all fled to the large building in the center of town. They could not get close to the building without facing a hail storm of arrows. Stone Tongue sent a runner to the tower to tell Argon of their failure. While the blame could be placed on Tal'Cha, Stone Tongue knew he would share in the shame of their failure.
Stone Tongue and the others thought for sure more troops would come but when the dark one appeared before them he began to fear for his own life. The two commanders were on their knees before the wizard. "Tal'Cha, you should have listened to your brother. He told you to attack at night yet you called him a coward to force his hand. Leave my sight now, report to high commander Trall. Your men will stay behind and learn from Stone Tongue, he will command both companies now." Stone Tongue was shocked as he could not believe what he had just heard. "Now Stone Tongue, follow me. Tell your men to get in formation. We are marching on the town." Argon led the Orc to a spot just north of town on the main road towards the tower. Stone Tongue could see the farm from where they were standing.
"After the town is destroyed, the humans that live will be kept as slaves. You will build a holding area for the slaves like the ones in the north. Those slaves will work the farm for us until we no longer need them. You will build it there." The wizard pointed to a spot just off to the side of the fields. Stone Tongue committed the area to memory and waited for further instructions, instructions that never came. The dark one started to walk down the road towards the town. "Stone Tongue my son. Work swift, work hard and try not to let many escape. When my spells are completed, not many of them will be able to run but some will try. Now, I have one last thing to tell you. I am expecting two visitors. The first will be here soon. An elf woman in white, she will not be alone, while I do not care what happens to the ones she travels with, she must not be harmed. She is to be brought to the temple. The second is my son, the general. You will know him when you see him. You will feel the same love for him as you do me. Yet, he is still farther away. It will be many more months, many."
Stone Tongue watched as the dark one began to cast his spells. Dark clouds rolled over the village, blocking out the sun. "Do not fear my children, you are in no danger." Bolts of lightning started to rain down from the sky, striking the buildings. For close to a half hour the assault continued on the little village, soon there was not a single building left standing. Even the old temple where the Melkor people hid was nothing more than a pile of rubble. When the clouds dissipated Stone Tongue gave the order to attack. They were able to capture and shackle close to a hundred people, the rest were dead or close to it. Before the end of the day, the slave pen was built and every human they found was forced inside. With the camp completed, the Orcs high commander came to inspect the work of Stone Tongue and his men. He was pleased that the failure of Tal'Cha had not been a complete one.
As things became more routine the companies began to rotate at the camp as they did at the ship yard. Stone Tongue and his men rotated between the north slave camp and the farm. Twice a month they made the trip from the north camp to the farm with the wagons to haul away the food. It was during the second month of this that the humans were found trying to get around the camp. The Orcs were able to capture them all but not without taking losses of their own. The six humans and the elf woman were able to kill ten of Stone Tongues Orcs before they were captured. Remembering the dark ones orders, Stone Tongue bound and gagged the elf to transport her to the tower. He then ordered the rest of the men killed. They were nothing more than meat to fill the pots to him. Yet something about them bothered him, they were all in the same uniform. Those men were soldiers, all from the same nation. His anger over the loss of his fellow Orcs did not go away for a long time, not even once he delivered the elf woman to the tower did his anger go away. Argon could see the anger in Stone Tongues eyes when he greeted the Orc.
"Tell me son, what is it that bothers you?"
“Those men were trained soldiers. They killed ten of my brothers, even more hurt. All of them were dressed the same." Stone Tongue spit on the ground near the elf.
"They were from the nation of Arcadia. Do not worry about it, they are nothing compared to you. It was expected. If mistakes were made, learn from them do not dwell on it. That will only cause you to doubt yourself later. This will make you and your brothers stronger. Now, return to your men." Stone Tongue thought of his words the entire trip back to the camp. While at first it gave him some comfort, something about it bothered him. Something he could not put his finger on at first. Later that night while trying to get some sleep, it hit him like a tree falling in the forest. Argon knew there were skilled warriors coming with the elf and yet did not tell anyone. While it was true that he told Stone Tongue to expect an escort, he didn't say anything about trained fighters. For the next week, Stone Tongue thought of nothing else besides that one revelation.
As time went by, Stone Tongue forgot about the humans from over the sea. He was more worried about escaping slaves and wondering why none of his men were selected to go out on the hunt for the humans who were still free. When he and his men were not at the farm, they trained and trained hard. Stone Tongue pushed his men to be the best, wanting nothing more than another chance to prove his self. He was starting to fear that he was never going to get that chance. He watched as patrols were assigned to head south, to continue the hunt for the humans who seemed to have all disappeared. Argon, their leader in all of this had not been seen by Stone Tongue since the elf was delivered to him. Months had passed and Stone Tongue had started to wonder if they were ever going to leave the island. The store house near the ship yards was filled with food from the farms. They had well over a hundred ships ready between the ones they had built and the ones they had captured on the open sea. On the final night of his life, he slammed his fist down on his pallet and screamed "What are we waiting for?"
While Stone Tongue was a strong Orc, he was ashamed that his stomach often betrayed him. While he did not mind the taste of human flesh, he had in fact started to like it but it did not always agree with him. He also did not care for the rations they were given. He was an Orc, he wanted bloody meat, eating fruit and other things grown in the earth did not settle well with him. Feeling his dinner betray his body once again with a rumble in his gut, Stone Tongue went in search of one of the human out houses. On his way out of the tent he saw one of his men, having his way with one of the slave women. Groak was a good Orc but when Stone Tongue saw the woman he was with; it started to anger him. He had seen Groak with this woman before, many times. He would tie her down and have
his way. Which was just fine with Stone Tongue, yet why the same woman every time? Every Orc was oblivious to the screams of the human as it was almost a nightly ritual now. The longer he saw Groak with that woman, the more irritated he became.
"Groak!" he roared, "Put that whore away, we leave at first light." Groak looked up at his commander, bared his teeth and growled at Stone Tongue like a dog with a bone.
"Woman, mine. You go." Stone Tongue felt calmness come over him, one that he did not understand. His enraged bowels would wait for this. Stone Tongue took three steps towards Groak and his human play thing. After the first step, his massive arm reached up and removed the sword from his back. With the second step, he turned just slightly to the side, letting the weapon hang low, its point towards the ground. With the third step, every Orc in the tent could hear the weapon cutting a path up through the air. Stone Tongue was silent as his blade passed through the neck of Groak. The slave woman who had stared on in silent horror of the advancing Orc with a weapon in its hand had started to scream again. By the time Groak's head rolled off the human woman and on to the floor, Stone Tongue had returned his weapon to its place.
"This!" Stone Tongue roared at the rest of the men in the massive tent. "This is why we are never chosen for anything anymore. You are all weak, you are not worthy of the glory that comes to those who hunt. This is why we are stuck on this farm. You are soft and good for nothing more than watching these human dogs tend to the garden. You use your human play things and drink your human wine. This ends now! I will break you all or you will remember that we are Orcs. We are not worthy of the glory the master shares with others. Pray that you die before the sun comes up because if you do not, I may kill you all myself." Stone Tongue stood and waited for the challenge to come. Wanted someone to challenge him, wanted someone to prove him wrong. When one did not come he roared for someone to clean up the mess he had just made and stormed out of the tent. This ritual was repeated twice more in the other tents where his men were sleeping. Each time, Stone Tongue was angered even more that a challenge did not come.
On his way to the outhouse, Stone Tongue stopped at the slave pens and looked at the guards on the towers. None of them dared say a word to their commander as they could hear everything that was shouted from the tents. "If one more Orc comes to fetch himself a slave for the night, you shoot at him until your quiver is empty, do you understand me!" The only answer he got was a rough grunt. The Orcs under the command of Stone Tongue had seen him act like this before. They knew that they were in for a long day the next day. They watched as he stomped off, wondering if they could get away with filling his back with arrows and not draw the wrath of the dark one. Had they watched him longer, they might have seen their own doom approaching under the cover of darkness. Instead they just turned away, watching the slaves sleep off the previous day’s labor.
Stone Tongue hated using the human’s waste houses. They were all too small for his massive frame to fit into with any comfort. The pain in Stone Tongues gut was slow to ease and when he thought he saw something pass in front of the outhouse he froze. Holding his breath he closed his eyes and listened. He thought for sure he could hear a small human laughing. Stone Tongue shook his head and started to listen again. Thinking it must have been his imagination, he went back to trying to ease his discomfort. It was a long time coming. Putting his hands out and over his head, pressing on the walls Stone Tongue thought about having his men building a new waste house, one an Orc could take pride in. As he started to stand he thought that if they were back at the farm the following week, he would make the men do just that. It wasn't until Stone Tongue tried to open the door to the small waste house that he started to think something was very wrong. It would not open.
Early after the Orcs had started using the slaves to work the farm they sometimes had to deal with disobedient humans. Stone Tongue figured if they killed all the humans that caused them problems, there wouldn't be any left to work the fields. He had braces put on the front of the outhouses so he could bar a human inside should they cause problems that did not warrant a quick death. He found that between the toxic smell and the heat during the day, once a human went in there, it wasn't something they had to do again. Looking through the small spaces between the wood in the door told him that he was now barred inside. Looking past the hard wood plank now keeping him inside he looked out to see if he could tell who had done such a thing. Pressing his face all the way against the door he looked out, as he felt his jagged teeth scraping against the door, his frustration continued to mount. It was clear in his mind that one of his men had done this to him. It was clear to him as he started to pound on the door that whoever had done it was going to die.
"Let me out of here coward!!" he shouted at the door as he continued to pound on it. The space was so confined that he could not even get a good swing at the door to break it open. As dust and other matter filtered down from the roof above his head, he became even more enraged. When Stone Tongue looked up, he thought he might have a better way. Reaching up, he pushed on the planks that were overhead. As he felt it give way, a grim smile broke out on his face. Until the Orcs came along, the out houses were not built to keep people inside. With a pair of quick strikes, the wooden plank over his head broke in half. The sound of snapping wood did more than give him a chance at freedom. It also prolonged the life of his archers around the slave pen. The sound of breaking wood filled the air as Stone Tongue continued to rip apart the roof. When most of the cover was gone, he pulled himself out of the waste house and jumped down to the ground below. Pulling his sword from his back, the orc had murder on his mind. His first stop was the guard towers at the slave pens.
"You up there!" he shouted from the ground below while starting to make his way up the ladder. When Stone Tongue saw the face look down at him he asked "Who did that to me, who dare lock me in?"
"I, I don't know sir." the scared Orc stammered at his commander.
"LIES!" he shouted. As he pulled himself up level with the guard on the tower he asked again. "Who was it, tell me now." The guard on the tower continued to stutter and stammer. "You are worthless!" It was then that Stone Tongue killed the second of his men that night. Ramming the tip of his two handed sword into the gut of the clueless Orc. "Your loyalty to a coward cost you your worthless life." As Stone Tongue ripped the blade from the body it went tumbling down on the platform. Orc blood began to run down in waves, falling between the spaces in the wood. Raining down on a very, very disgusted halfling. The very same one who, not long before, could not control his laughing.
"Sir! I see a light coming from the north road!" shouted one of the other guards who was very grateful that Stone Tongue did not climb his tower first. Stone Tongue whipped his head around to see what the guard was talking about. A single beam of pure white light was moving down the road towards the camp at a quick pace. By that single light, Stone Tongue saw flashes of white and what could have only been reflections off of armor.
"We are being attacked! You cowards stay here with the slaves. Make sure none of them escape, kill them all if you have to." Stone Tongue jumped from the tower and hit the ground running. By the time Stone Tongue entered the first of his companies’ tents, the remaining three guards around the slave pen were dead. "Get up you worthless dogs! We are being attacked!" Stone Tongue was in a rage. The patrol guards who were on watch should have sent up a signal before now. He knew they were dead, of this he was sure. If not he would kill them himself when this was all over he thought. By the time Stone Tongue got to his tent, the Orcs inside were already moving. He had to get his horn of command from his gear, nothing else mattered to him. If he could not sound the horn, his men would be lost. He spared a moment to look at the slave woman still under Groak's body. Her entire face was covered in black blood. He was for one small moment captured by the look in her eye. While her screams had stopped, there was still terror there. It was only the sounds of battle that made him look away from her.
With his signal hor
n in hand, Stone Tongue raced from his tent; only pausing inside long enough to stab the slave woman under Groak’s body on the way out. She would have been worthless after that as it was. As Stone Tongue looked out at his men, it was much as he expected. His troops were scattered, in a panic and more than half were drunk. He rushed forward, sounding his horn, shouting for them to get into formation. "Half diamond! Half diamond! On me!" he shouted between sounding the horn. Stone Tongue was pleased to see that his months of hard training had some effect on them. The ones who were already fighting ran from their human enemy, some paid for it with their lives but there was still a good twenty Orcs left as they started to form wedge shaped ranks around him. "Shields ready!" Stone Tongue started to think they might have a chance as in one movement the remaining Orcs all lifted their shields together, forming a solid wall down each side of the formation.
Before sounding the order to charge, Stone Tongue looked ahead of him towards the humans who had attacked him. It was then that he remembered the encounter from months before. Once again he saw the same men, in the same uniforms. Only two of them were different, one held a gleaming claymore and white robes. The other only wore plate armor and a blood red cloak. Stone Tongue ran up to the point of his formation, pointing to the two humans. "There, those are the leaders, divide them, do you understand." He had no response from his troops, he did not expect any other than for them to follow his orders. As he sounded the horn for the final time, he told them to advance. "Divide, then attack, push them apart!" Stone Tongue trotted forward with the last of his company, sure that they would taste victory. As they approached the human formation, a blinding light washed over the ranks. Stone Tongue tried to shield his eyes but it did no good. He was blinded even if only for a moment. He could hear the crash of shields on shields but never expected to see what he did when he could see again.
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