Rock tried to start his truck, but it just wouldn’t catch. The electricity was still out at in the buildings and Rock’s cellphone wouldn’t work either. Jes stood for a moment, at a complete loss. What in the hell were they supposed to do now?

“Did you just say shitshow?” Rock asked, stepping out of his car.

Jes nodded, her eyes on the barn. “Yeah. Yeah, I did. This whole year has been a shitshow and it doesn’t show any signs of getting better. What the hell is next? Aliens? Civil war?” She kicked one of Rock’s tires and stalked toward the barn. “Come on. I want to get a closer look at whatever’s going on in that hayfield.”

Hadrian perked up from his place on the stairs. “I will join you. Perhaps I can be of assistance in combatting the enemy.”

“Perhaps.” Rock agreed as he too followed Jes down to the barn for tack.

Most of the horses were still acting strangely, but Punkin, Hadrian’s mount and one of the horsemen seemed stable enough. The trio saddled up the horses and Rock led the way back toward the highway. Even as they started riding out, a blaze of blue-white light began to gather on the horizon.

“Is that coming from the hayfield?” Rock asked as he shifted in the saddle. It had been too long since the last time he climbed onto a horse.

“Looks like it. What the hell did they do?” Jes seemed more at home in the saddle.

Hadrian, on the other hand, looked like he was born on it. “I can only assume the Azmaelan Empire continues to tamper with the very fabric of reality.”

“The fabric of reality?” Rock ventured.

“Yes, the Weave of Magic. It is how our spirits interact with nature.” Hadrian shook his head sharply. “No, that’s not a good explanation. I apologize, someone with the aptitude for the Weave could explain it much better. I never had that aptitude. It’s part of the reason I became a soldier.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Are your people frequently at war?” Jes asked.

“Not really.” Hadrian hedged. “There are some wars that we have neither won or lost, but we don’t always continue to fight.” He followed Rock onto the shoulder of the county road. “Like the war with the Azmaelans. It has lasted longer than the longest memories of our people. The elves have always wanted to exterminate the orckin and they destroyed the last of the true orcs generations ago.”

As Rock grew more comfortable in the saddle he urged them to a quicker pace, no point in plodding along. “What are orckin?”

“You have none here then?”

“Only humans.” Jes said riding up to share the wide gravel shoulder with Hadrian. Rock, riding in front, kept glancing back at the conversation behind him.

“Ahh, that explains much.” Hadrian was silent for a moment, glancing up at the bright cloud that seemed to be growing ever larger on the horizon. “To answer your question, orckin can trace our ancestry back to the original orcs, but our blood no longer runs pure, as the elves would say.”

“Pure blood?”

“There are many kinds of kin, some have an appearance more like one ancestor or another, but many, such as myself, take on a similar appearance to others of our kind. The orckin of Ograkill are one of the more…” He trailed off as though searching for a word that he couldn’t pluck from his mind. “Stable,” He said at last, though his tone said he still wasn’t happy with the word. “All orckin look similar now, even when one of their parents isn’t orckin. Some other types of kin will have vastly different appearances, even among siblings.”

“Forgive us if we are asking inappropriate questions.” Rock said from the front of the group.

“I cannot blame you for being curious. In truth, you would be amazed at the variety among the kin. Perhaps one day you may come to my world and I can introduce you to a few people worth knowing.”

“I’ll settle for at least getting you back to your home world before this is all over.” Jes said. She had been watching the strange blue-white cloud the entire time they were riding. Finally, she called out, “Should we really be getting closer to that? Do you hear the thunder?”

“I don’t see any lightning in that direction.” Rock protested.

“Did you not see that?” She asked, pointing. Rock followed the gesture but saw nothing.

“I’ve never seen anything like those clouds.” Hadrian mused as he watched them growing ever larger. He reined in his horse. “Perhaps we should go no closer for now. Let us watch for a while and see what comes of it.”

The others stopped next to him and this time all three of them saw the bolt of black lightning shoot from one cloud to the other.