The nights were dark in the bristle pine forest. Only those who knew the paths knew where moonlight would touch the campfire. For only there, guided by moon and stars one would truly find rest. So the old stories told. It did not mean that every night was one where the moon, the lost egg, could bless its children but whenever orcs of the south made camp they hoped that it would be a night where their fire would warm the egg in the sky.

Three of those who knew the paths through the thickets sat around a fire that was blessed by the egg that very night. They had made camp in a clearing not far from the coast for their prey always lurked near the mists of the eastern shores. They did not plan to take their prey that night, but neither of them knew that another was soon to arrive. It was a holy hunt, a hunt to honour a father and a teacher. A hunt that if the old rites spoke true, would reveal a new path.

“And then I punched him ahahaha!!” one of the three bellowed out. In his hand he held a horn full of liquor made from berries, harsh herbs and honey. His skin was green and full of scars and red paint, while his face carried bigger tusks than most other orcs as they almost reached the place where his nose once had been. No trace of a scar was around those holes that must have been his nose at one point but it was clear it had been cut off a long long time ago. He wore nothing but a long brown pelt that hung above half his legs like a robe while on his head wide and proud black dreadlocks bellowed with him in the warm night breeze. Making the bones that were adorning them pinch and click together in applause to his story.

It took a good while of him laughing at his own words and holding his rather thick green belly before another hunter spoke.

“Of course you did” said a smiling light green orc woman who sat opposite of the fire. “As much as I loved him..his face was always pretty punchable.”

She was clad in straps of leather and adorned with pieces of a grey wolf. Its paws were strapped around her hands. Its head and pelt rested on her head and back.

Next to her rested the third hunter, a giant brown wolf, big enough that she could ride on it and that shared her eyes. It was laying down and gnawing on the remains of a big bone while she held a drinking horn in one hand and rested her other on her big bone and stone made sword next to her. “He tried to start a fight with me when I was still a pup.” She said and drank from her horn before an answer bellowed back across the flames. “Ha! Train them early is what we say in the Rots!” His eyes carried an amber glow and yet were still far closer to what Humans would see similar to their own.

“Never let a Stag try to train a wolf is what I say!” she yelled back across the bristling campfire and drank from her horn. A wide grin was born on the noseless face across the fire before he spoke “He did quite a good job I say..”. His eyes grinned with him as they pierced above the fire to her. She couldn’t help but echo his smile but turned to pet her wolf before he continued “I mean him of course!” he pointed at the wolf next to her and laughed again now together with her. Their laughter echoed through the night and into the pines.

“You should have seen him when his daughter suddenly punched back!” she said with a wide toothy grin. He suddenly stopped drinking and spilled some of it before he answered “What do you mean?! I was there!”

Her drunk head tried to remember for but a moment, only for her to shake her head “I thought you came to us later…” She shrugged her shoulders and drank again.

“By the oak” he said with an overplayed face of melancholy “your tongue cuts deeper than your sword sometimes..”

She smiled at him again “I only remember you when you had already grown to be fat and ugly” “Now that's more what I like to hear hahaha!!” Again they both laughed while the wolf happily gnawed on his bone..

As the laughter faded she stared into the flame for a moment longer before her eyes moved back to him “Do you regret it sometimes?”

As her question reached his mind he slowly lost his smile and got another big gulp from his horn “Ahhh…sometimes..” he said as he looked up at the moon “Life was easier when he showed me how..” The wolf woman nodded and looked up herself. “He was strong.” The noseless man said and looked back over the flames to her. As she looked back down and their eyes met, she answered “I know his heir is too.” A proud deep giggle escaped him before he gulped down the last bit of his horn. They drank quite a lot that night and he knew that the last horn would be the one too much. It was always the last. Still it could never be wrong to drink under the moon. To warm the egg with fire and tales. Their day had been long but their night would be longer for not only the stars were watching them.

The wolf woman was about to take a last gulp herself as she realised that her wolf had stopped gnawing on his bone. He stood up while the hairs on his neck were rising. She made a small whistle sound that got the attention of the noseless man. Once he saw the wolf his amber eyes widened. Quickly he stood up and grabbed his big bone made axe. He struggled to keep standing for but a moment, as the insides of his drinking horn showed their effect.

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The wolf woman however stood up slowly and readied her sword. She stood straight, but needed to blink a few times to look through the dizzy fog of liquor. Her big brown wolf slowly started walking to the edge of the clearing. Both orcs followed him with their big drawn weapons.

“Do you smell that?..” the noseless man asked after the holes on his face flared a few times. She sniffed the air before she nodded. “Fear..”

“And blood..” he continued and slowly followed the wolf towards the edge, where fire and moonlight lost against shadow and where they now heard the cracking of pine and branches.

The wolf woman started to growl as she stared at the shadow of noise and scent. Her wolf quickly followed her example. It raised one paw and stood still while its face pointed at the direction of the shadow.

“Stop hiding!” the noseless man grunted. No answer but silence was given as even the sound of branches stopped while the scent of fear only became stronger. The two hunters glared at each other for but a moment before the noseless man shook his head. “Enough of this!” he yelled and stomped forward to the shadow. Just before he could reach it a girl jumped out of the shadows. She carried the dark grey skin of the north and the dragons fire in her eyes. She was bulkier than most of her people and three big scars adorned her round face, only so slightly hidden by the black hair hanging before her eyes. While she tried to stand proud and tall it was clear that pain made it difficult. But even if she would have managed to stand she would have remained slightly smaller than the hunters because she was young. Almost a child but old enough to learn to battle.

“Don’t dare to come closer!” She screamed back and held two rune axes ready “Just hand me some…something against poison…herbs…and water…” It was clear she tried her best to be threatening but even clearer that she felt immense fear, even more so as her eyes caught the big brown growling wolf that showed its teeth and barked at every move.

The two hunters looked at each other for a small moment again, now both a question on their drunk faces. After the wolf woman shrugged her shoulder the noseless man snorted deep and angry before he yelled again “Is the north sending their young now?!” The girl remained silent “Must be because we have slain all their actual warriors hehahaaha!” He continued just for the girl to scream and swing her axe at him. He avoided a hit as he moved backwards and before either of the drunk hunters could react the wolf tackled the girl down. She tried to move and fight at first just for the wolf to bark and then growl with fletching teeths right above her face. Every trace of bravery she pretended to have was gone now and had made place for pure panic.

“Easy boy…” the approaching wolf woman whispered as she came closer to kneel down next to the girl “Now do not lie to us…are there more of you?” The darkling girl did not take her burning eyes from the wolf and remained in shock until the wolf woman pinched her ear “I asked you something and do not lie…Branak does not like lies…” she said while brustling her wolf's neck fur..

The dark girl fought with tears not because of her own doom but because those that would share her demise. She took the most bravery she still had and answered plain and honest “My…my aunt…she is dying..” a tear started to find its way outside of her eyes “We were attacked by a…Wyvern…I don’t know what kind but not one we have at home..!”

“That..that must be a trick!” the noseless man yelled “They send a child to trick us into a warband!”

“Look at her, Kazok!” the wolf woman replied with a mixture of anger and pleading in her voice. As Kazok the noseless man looked over the girl he saw her many scars. Few from battle and most from the wrong paths in the bristle pines. “By the ancestors…” he said, annoyed and lowered his axe and himself next to her. “Where is your aunt, girl?! I will at least see what trickery you think will work in our own pines!”

“Will you help or kill her?!” she yelled with renewed bravery just for big wolf Branak to bark at her face again. Kazok came closer to her and snorted deeply and angry from the holes that once carried his nose “We shall see…”

“Tell us girl..” the wolf woman cut him short, far more relaxed “If you are honest there is nothing to fear…” she ended with a small drunk hiccup.

The girl remained silent a moment too long as Kazok the noseless man yelled again “And you have no other choice!” He saw the fear and tears of the girl and almost regretted his harsh words before he forced himself to continue his hate “Darkspawn!!”. The wolf woman sighed but remained silent otherwise. She moved the girl's head to watch her instead of Branak and Kazok. “He is right…but so am I. If you tell the truth there is nothing to fear.”

The girl's face showed that she had given up before her words could. “I hid her next to a river that leads to the coast..” The hunters glared at each other again for a small second before the girl continued “We were travelling the coast…it seemed easier than the forest..safer…”

“That was a mistake..” Kazok almost whispered.

The girl nodded, “We were attacked by a Wyvern from the waves…I think it had fins…but it was dark and I’m not sure…”

The wolf woman looked back to Kazok “If anything that means a fresh trail…” No words but a slow nod where the noseless man’s reply before the girl yelled again “She is dying!”.

Ignoring the girl, the wolf woman continued to look at Kazok and whispered “Your choice druid…” His face spoke of many thoughts that circled through his drunk head “But make it quick…” she said a little louder to drag him out of his thoughts and into a choice.

He grunted and saw up to the great egg for but a moment before he nodded “Take the girl and ride with her. I will prepare an antidote…” “Can you heal her?!” the girl interrupted “If she deserves it girl!” he snorted “But we shall see..”