The large group of elves broke through into the clearing, bubbling with energy Egosum had yet to see in anyone but himself.
It was almost contagious with how palpable it was in the air.
“The princess baby is just over there.” He nodded over to the bushes they had stashed her.
The group quickly uncovered the young girl, causing all the women present to swoon over the little creature. She broke out into tears as she gained all of the attention.
They quickly set up a large contingent of volunteers to quickly transport her back to safety in their fortress to then meet back up in the clearing to act as auxiliary forces.
“Thank you for this. It is already a miracle that we got one member of royalty back from an orc attack, especially with her being a girl.” The old elf expressed his gratuity to him and began looking over the sight of the conflict.
“Oh yeah, why is it a miracle that the girl survived? I noticed the fighters were women which is weird, but wouldn’t the men do most of the more dangerous fighting roles with their more powerful physiques?” His interest had peaked after all the strange interactions he had with the elven royalty and the problems that surrounded them.
“You see, that would be true if orc were not as common in these parts. With the influx of them, we have had no choice but to avoid active attackers being male in case they get the opportunity to increase their numbers.”
“I am lost. How does that make any sense.” The twisted logic threw him for a loop. Why would they protect the men from capture and not the women?
All of the orcs he had seen had been huge and aggressive beasts bred for war. It made more sense that they would need females of other races to keep their numbers up, not the men.
“I see where the confusion is. All of the orcs you have seen have been female. I have yet to hear about a male orc ever appearing in the borderlands of their kingdom. Maybe they exist inside or maybe there just are not that many or them. It's a modern mystery.”
Pieces started to fall into place as the explanation continued. The all-female guard finally made sense. The only reason men were coming to this battle was because it was an all or nothing conflict now.
It was do or die once again.
“Wait. Why was the prince headed out anyways? That seems like a huge security risk.” He ran through various scenarios, and nothing made sense to him.
There was no good reason to let such a valuable person leave the safety of the treetops without the maximum security possible. Ten to fifteen female warriors definitely did not count as such given the current crowd he found himself in.
“Well, that one is a little harder to explain. Um, how do I put this? Our prince is an absolutely disgusting piece of garbage that wants to be violated by female orcs, even if it means letting his entire people die to experience it.” The old elf looked saddened at having to admit it out loud.
“Wow. Wow wow wow. I don’t know what to say. I guess I am still confused why he was allowed out on purpose since you knew he was in the carriage.” He stopped to really think about it. Why were things still not fully adding up?
“He had a valid reason. He just fought to reduce the security down as much as possible, so his kidnapping was assured. Trust me when I say we are all furious with him. He will not be having a fun time when we get back.”
Egosum had had enough of the rampant stupidity. Perverts, royalty, and strange sexual fantasies really just seem to go hand in hand.
The group fanned out in the direction he saw the orcs travel to locate the exact direction they traveled to.
Slashed in bark from wanton destruction and deep footprints were all the clues the massive group needed. The camp was incredibly far away by small toad standards. It would have taken him days to reach it with a pace that Coyotl could maintain.
Massive plumes of black smoke were the first real sign the monsters were not much farther ahead. The next sign was just further confirmation. Discarded elven items in various states of disrepair.
Things that could not even survive the half-day journey back to their camp.
The sights enflamed the crowd more and more with each passing relic. Each one signified the lost life of another one of their family.
They eventually ran into a small scouting party that was quickly incapacitated and brutally tortured for fun. With active patrols nearby, it was now or never for them.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Egosum, we agreed on four crates of frogbit for your involvement here. The last thing you must do to earn it is scout out the camp to locate the prince.” The old elf approached the side of a massive wooden palisade and spoke in hushed whispers.
‘I really feel like I might have taken a shitty deal.’ He shook his head and leapt up to the side with relative ease.
The sights inside the encampment were strange a few lone orcs manned the walls and watched out for any groups of intruders not stealthy enough to evade their sight. Beyond them, there was a distinct lack of life around the area.
Had they gone raiding while they were reaching the camp? It might have just become the easiest of rescues he could imagine.
The actual camp was best defined by the word sprawling. Large, open tracks of was broken up by small bundles of a few tents. The walls went on for as far as his eyes could see.
He hopped down to the ground and got to work. He traveled over to the first bundle of tents to take a look at what was inside.
The view was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination. The hide tents were filled with the spoils of war. Human skins, elven scalps, a weird leather hat made from a dwarven beard. It was purely detestable.
Whoever owned the tent was nowhere to be found. He moved on from it and searched for any signs of life beyond the walls. It took him a few minutes of high-powered hops when he finally found something of interest.
Shouts carried across the created grasslands. The rowdiness he had come to expect from the barbaric monsters reared its ugly head. Metal weapons slaming together and loud roars filled the air. The tents he saw in the distance were brightly lit, even in the day.
The smell of meat was obvious from hundreds of hops away. He hopped closer and closer to the orc tents to hear what was going on to no avail.
He made his way to the source of the ruckus to view what was going on by climbing the leather tents nearby. It was a strange sight no matter how you stretched it.
Large groups of orcs stood around fist-fighting and brawling with hunks of meat stuffed in their mouths. The legs of various animals including humans were very prevalent on the menu.
Massive bones sat around the ground with some of the larger orcs using them as weight-training devices, younger orcs watched the festivities from the sidelines, learning from the older members of the tribe that survived the horrible trials of orc-hood.
He kept scanning in hopes of finding where the prisons were or any sign of the perverted prince. Very few places in the camp felt as full as this place did. It gave him a tingling sensation that he was at the right place.
He hopped from tent to tent, looking for something different. Dead orc younglings lay about the ground, bleeding wounds and emaciated corpses prevalent amongst them.
He almost felt bad for the little things until he looked back at what they would eventually become. Even the youngest of the orcs nibbled on cooked human thighs while playing with a bone rattle for fun.
‘This is just fucked. I might despise humans, but I will look forward to destroying all of these things once I rule the planet. They will be my number one priority.’
He finally stumbled upon something that stood out from the rest. A single tent that was heavily guarded on all sides stood relatively alone from the rest of the twisted entertainment.
He watched it from a distance for any changes to occur. Every once and a while, a large orc would leave the tent, only for another massive beast to take its place.
‘If I get a different angle, I should be able to get a peek at what's going on.’
He traveled around the tops of the tents to get a better vantage when an orc said a few words he recognized.
His linguistic gift did very little to help since he entered the camp. Despite his mastery of Urkai, the stupid things rarely spoke beyond the most basic of words. This one was different though.
“New toy is weird. Seeks pleasure in our teasing. Freak wind walker it must be. Does not fear an end to its waking.” A particularly gruff voice spoke to another for the first time without a hint of violence or anger creeping in
“Must try the new meat. Many new ones shall come from him. Going for seeding now.” The other voice started to retreat from where he sat on the roof.
The orc moved for the tent that sat guarded by the many others. It lifted the large leather flap that protected the outside from the horrendous view of what it housed, showing Egosum in its full glory.
Sure enough, it housed the missing prince. He was tied to a large, bleached bone in the center of the tent with a ball gag stopping him from speaking. The leather flap closed before he deduced more, much to his glee.
‘The less of that freaky fuck I get to see, the happier I will be.’
He proceeded to power-leap his way back to the wall and fling himself over to the waiting hoard of homicidal elves.
“So, did you locate him?” The old elf walked up to greet him and waited for the good news.
“Yeah, I did, It's a weird layout. You will want to clear the walls first and then converge on this large congregation of tenets towards the center. It's pretty massive once you are inside. Looks like they had plans to expand soon or something. He is in the most heavily guarded tent.”
“Thank you.” He rounded up the other elves and directed them to the jobs before pulling his massive bow from his back.” I have one more thing to ask of you. You are the only one who knows exactly where the prince is. We would be willing to double the amount of frogbit if you could utilize the chaos to free him.”
The thought of double the precious substance tempted him greatly. The amount of qi it would provide would last him for many weeks if he could get his hands on it.
“Deal. I will travel to the place where he is located, and you can follow the direction I go to start fighting them. Just so you know, there are probably upwards of a hundred of them there if you include the smaller ones.”
With the agreement done, the army of elves grappled up the wall to begin the orc and elf war.
Their faces were a mixture of hard emotionless masks and violent sneers ready for combat.