"Strength? What strength...?" Phillip said as he turned his vision to look through the bars seeing that the landscape started to become rockier and more desolate looking.

"Phillip, as much as I know money is power... So is physical strength! He who has the bigger fist makes the rules!" Old Jukzuk sprayed saliva.

Phillip wanted to shake his head but wasn't so he just spoke, "Then you get mobbed by others and then beaten. Strength comes from money, and with money comes numbers."

"Not if you're strong enough to take them all down... Phillip, as much as you think that humans are about money, they are more like Orcs than you believe."

Phillip wondered, and finally asked, "Where are we, and why are we caged?"

"Asking this only now?" Jukzuk laughed, "We are captives of the Speartooth Clan. They are taking us to the one place that I'm the most hated.

"Where?"

"My home." Old Jukzuk looked longingly into the air before looking back over to Phillip.

"You don't know much about Orcs. Do you boy?"

Phillip grunted.

"Let me tell you, that my last name Blacktongue should have told you everything you need to know. The Blacktongue Clan was the largest Orc Clan in all of the Shattered lands! Alas... Now with my grandfather's death, and my brother's fall... It's little more than a puppet for another Clan."

"What clan?"

"The Cavekiller Clan... Sneaky Orcs... Orcs and the words sneaky and deceitful should never be in the same sentence." Jukzuk spat in the cage in disgust.

"But what can I do... I'm known as the Trader." Jukzuk followed up.

"What's wrong with being a trader?"

"Phillip, in the Orcish Language the word Trader and Traitor are the same word. Orc Merchant bands are known as merchants because they sell wares but to other Orcs... If you are like me, then you buy and sell between Orcs and Humans. That's why they call me Trader or Traitor because I'm a traitor for selling or buying from humans."

"I... See..."

"To answer your question, the Speartooth Clan roams the countryside rampaging on humans and orcs alike, and for their spoils, they sell them to whichever Orc clan wants them at the time. It seems the Blacktongues have need for slaves to fight in their slave pits."

Phillip listened, but as he listened her head a few Orcs riding along on the backs of reptile-like creatures. They were talking to each other and gestured to him.

Phillip furrowed his brows and wondered what that was about.

"Can you teach me Orcish?"

"Oh? Not that I don't mind, but why?"

"Those Orcs are talking about me." Phillip made comment.

"Yeah, I was listening. Pretty impressive."

Phillip gave a questioning grunt.

"They said that you're the one that broke an Orc's leg with your bare hands. That's the strength I was talking about. They also mentioned that the Speartooth Chief should be getting five large gold coins for you."

"I don't like they can talk about me, and I don't know what they are saying..."

"I don't mind, and it's not like we don't have time. It's going to be another two months before we make it to the Blacktongue Mountains."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

*******

The slave caravan rolled on slowly into the wastelands, known as the Shattered lands. The lands to the west of the Human settlements. Phillip learned Orcish quickly and was soon able to speak with Jukzuk in the Orcish tongue without many problems, in the course of six weeks.

*******

Phillip grabbed another bar of nut bread called Hard Mash by the Orcs, and stuffed it into the slits of his mask, as he ate. It seemed that him breaking that Orc's leg gained him some respect by the Speartooth clan, and they provided him with more Hard Mash than the others. He would share this Hard Mash with Jukzuk, while Jukzuk would teach him.

"You know something I've never understood about you humans," Jukzuk said as he took a large bite of Hard Mash in the Orcish language.

Phillip grunted as became his custom.

"Your women... Why do you not have women fight? Do they not make up half of your population?"

"They do, but women are weaker than men. They are taught to be smart, but not to fight."

"Smart?"

"Yeah, smart. They run businesses, districts, cities... But they do not fight, as they are weaker than men... Isn't that so with Orcish women?"

Jukzuk laughed, and then coughed on his Hard Marsh. It seemed a lot of laughter erupted in the area, as the other Orc that was listening too began to laugh.

"No, stupid! Orc women are strong! They are as strong and as savage as Orc men. In most cases..." Jukzuk looked around and seen no women, he spoke again, "Are more cruel than Orc men."

"But... I haven't seen any Orc women on this trip." Phillip said in wonderment.

"I don't know. Perhaps the Speartooth are fighting somewhere. One second... Hey!"

Jukzuk called to one of the riders nearby that had been a long-time listener to them.

The rider on the lizard came closer to the cages on the wagons, and asked, "Wot?"

"Where are the Orc Women? This youngling wants to see one."

"Owie... I wish... Touch times for the Speartooth, old traitor." The Orc rider was friendly enough, though this was the first time he had heard him speak to Jukzuk.

"What? You guys have a war going?"

"No..." The Orc rider shook his head, "We get our women from a few small tribes in our area..." The Orc rider shook his head again, "The Batslammer Clan descended last year. You should know what that means." The Orc rider no longer spoke, and then back to his place.

"Ah..." The old Orc Jukzuk shook his head as well.

"What's the Batslammer Clan?" Phillip thought it was a funny name.

"A bunch of deranged Orcs that ride on dire bats from the high mountains of the Dark Spires to the North of the Shatter Lands. They only come out for three things... Women, food, and battle. It seems that they descended on the tribes under the Speartooth clan. They lost many of their women."

"But aren't the Orc Women strong?"

"Youngling, if the Batslammer clan descended on us right now, then you would be taken away by them as well. Even with your strength, what are you to a bat rider of the Batslammers???" Jukzuk sneered in a rare event.

"Why all the hate?" Phillip asked.

"You mean 'Why am I showing disgust?'" Jukzuk corrected.

"Yes. Why are you showing me disgust?"

"I know you humans cultivate, but do you know that Orcs cultivate as well?" Jukzuk spoke this in Common.

"..." To date, there was never a morning on this trip that Phillip didn't try to sense the heavens and cultivate... This was a topic he knew well, even with his lack of being able to...

"Yes... I know." Jukzuk replied in Common.

"In Orcish, it's called, Strengthen, not Cultivate." Jukzuk continued in common, and then returned to Orcish.

"To Strengthen means to build up the body. To gain physical power, unlike you humans where you draw power from the skies and heavenly bodies, We, Orcs, draw it from the ground and the mountains, the fires, and lava, from the ice and tundra, from the winds and rain."

"You draw it from the earth?"

"Yes. We use this to Strengthen. You, humans, have the squire, Knight, ArchKnight, and so on ranks?"

"We Orcs have that too, but We call them, Fighter, Warrior, Champion, Lord, Warlord, and at so on... At the very top... We have the legendary Calamity." Jukzuk whispered these last words in orcish, as he slid to his side of the cage nearest to Phillip.

Phillip mimicked Jukzuk, and asked, "What is... Calamity?"

Jukzuk looked around him, as if he was speaking a secret, "I like you, so I will tell you. You must never speak this to another human, though I'm sure some humans know..."

"You have my word on my honor," Phillip spoke the orc phrase for swearing.

The old Orc nodded in praise of Phillip's usage and then began telling him.

"Calamity is called that because he is the Calamity of all his enemies! These lands didn't use to be shattered. It was the Orc Calamity that shattered them all those eons ago. It's said that the Orc Calamity can, with a single swing of his axe, cleave the lands in two. With a stomp of his feet raise mountains, and with a punch of his fist create lakes and oceans. The current ancestor to all Orc is the last Calamity. It is said that he fought with the Human God, and in the last battle killed each other in the last blow. The world is shaped from that battle. These lands shattered, and the island nations separated from each other."

Phillip drew in a breath of cold air. Such power! A fist for oceans? A stomp for mountains?!

"All Orcs are descendants from the Calamity... We will rise again when the next Calamity rises and will take our place as the rightful ruler of this world." Jukzuk said with a bit of worship in his eyes.

Jukzuk did not doubt that to be true, even though he was human. He also wanted to see how the Orc Calamity would be like... He had heard of the Human God, but he performed magic... Phillip liked the physical displays of power said in the words of Jukzuk.