Chapter 9: Battuk, the Son of Gorb

Twenty-Five Years Earlier.

There was an orc son born during winter. His name was Battuk. His father was a warrior in a large clan, his mother was a warrior also. The orcs were infamous among society for violent, savage attacks. They were bloodthirsty and cold. They were being hunted by Paladins and Knights. The orcs had very few magic users, and the human armies had plenty of wizards. The orc army he belonged to was large when he was born. His mother was killed shortly after his birth, by an army of paladins. The clan was massacred in a raid one dark night.

His father, Gorb, escaped with Battuk wrapped in a blanket under his arm. They disappeared into the woods.

A few days passed and Gorb came across a cabin glowing in the forest at night. He crept up to the window and peered inside. Gorb went inside and dealt with the couple sleeping, then moved himself and his son inside.

Gorb raised Battuk at the house, hiding from the Law. He taught his son how to speak. And punished his son greatly for laziness or failures. Large kicks. Hefty stones thrown at his son.

Battuk was beaten, punished and bruised. As all Orcs are when they are growing. Gorb is a traditional parent. He even held back his punches. Gorb loved his son. He could have easily killed him. Gorb is a good dad.

Five years passed. Gorb had grown fat, built a smoker extension for the house, and decorated his garden with neatly organised bones. Arm bones in one section, Rib cages in one section, leg bones in another, and skulls decorated the trees. All of the bones were animals that had failed to outrun Gorb’s boulder tossing. Gorb hunted. Kicked his son. Listened to birds and tried to kill the birds. Then he went to the river with Battuk to drink for the day.

Battuk and Gorb were walking, Gorb’s ears were listening to the birds. He saw a yellow bird in a tree singing and threw a pebble at it like it was a bullet. He hit a nearby branch. The bird flew away in fright.

“Bunkus!” Gorb shouted. “Bird flew up.”

“Birds taste yum.” Battuk said.

They soon arrived at the river, and Battuk started drinking with his hands. His father stood watch.

A deer appeared and Gorb wanted to hunt, so he kneeled down to pick up a rock. The deer walked away and Gorb silently walked after it. Leaving Battuk by the water’s edge.

Battuk watched his father go and kept drinking. He felt a pair of eyes watching him. Across the river, on the other side, stood a 10 year old boy. He was dressed in peasant clothes.

“Hey,” said the boy.

Battuk didn’t know what to do, so he ran back to the house.

“You don’t have to be scared, okay.” The boy said. Battuk could hear the kid say it as he ran away.

He waited inside the house for hours. There was no Gorb. The whole night Battuk was alone in the cabin. He woke up and saw his father enter the house with a big smile on his face. Three deers were slung over his shoulder. He held their legs in one hand.

“Clean these for me, boy.” Said Gorb. Then Gorb discarded the deer onto the floor of the cabin and he fell asleep.

Battuk removed the leather from the deer, peeled back the hide and went outside to hang the leathers over a fence. He went back inside and pulled the guts from the beast. He put these into a wooden bucket and put it by the door. He would put these in the river later.

He returned to the beasts. He de-hooved and removed the heads. He was left with fresh venison on the carcass. He picked up a wooden spear from his father’s wooden spear collection and slid the wood through the carcass from the neck to the rear. He did that for the other two carcasses and went into the smoker. He hung the carcasses on a rack, where the spears were designed to fit. There were smoked river fish hanging on twine and a few smoked ducks on spears. He added some wood from a pile to the smoker’s burning coals.

Then he looked at his sleeping father. Battuk was covered in blood. He looked at the bucket of fish bait and over at his sleeping father. He would be asleep for another 10 hours at least. He decided to grab his father’s fishing gear.

Battuk wandered down to the river and left the fishing rod and bucket of guts on the shore. He looked down at the calm water and saw fish in the clear water. He jumped in and washed the blood from his face, hands and clothes. Then he sat on the shore with his feet in the water and grabbed the guts and put a small piece of intestine on his line. He threw it in the water and waited for a bite. He sat there for a few hours fishing. He caught a massive Red-belly Catfish and a few Riverstang Muppets. He heard a commotion as he waited for his fourth catch. A rustling in the bushes on the other side of the stream. It was the young boy from before. They both looked at each other.

Battuk stood his ground. This was HIS river, after all. He just ignored the young boy.

“Did you catch anything today?” The young boy asked.

Battuk ignored the stupid, inferior child.

“I like fishin’ too. I caught a couple of sharks. Like Twenty.” The young boy shouted.

Battuk couldn’t resist.

“I’ve caught like fifty sharks.” Battuk said. “Big ones. Way bigger than yours.” He was lying.

“What are you?” asked the boy.

“I’m an Orc.” Battuk said. “What a stupid question. What, you’ve never seen an orc before?”

“Whats a Nork?” The boy shouted.

“Um, we’re like the strongest.” Battuk replied with a disgusted look on his face. “We’re like really strong. Are you a human?” He asked.

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“Well duh, obviously. I’m really strong too.” He said. He picked up a pretty big rock with a lot of struggle and tried to throw it in the water. It dropped in the water and splashed. The boy jumped out of the way. He then tried a bigger rock but couldn’t lift it at all. He kept trying though.

Battuk looked at the boy trying to lift the rock and laughed. “Oh yeah? I can lift that rock.” Battuk jumped in the water and swam across. He picked up the rock with a lot of effort and tried to throw it into the water, but only managed to drop it at the shoreline, similar to the other boy’s throw. Battuk shrugged.

“I’m William.” The kid said.

“I’m Battuk.”

“Do you want to play Guards and Robbers?” The kid asked.

“What’s that?” Battuk had never heard of guards and robbers.

“Oh, you never heard of Guards and Robbers, what are you stupid?” William said.

“Nah, I know how to play. I play it all the time with my dad. I always win. I’m really good.” Battuk said, puffing his chest.

“Ok then lets play. I’ll be the guard and you can be the robber. Ok, Go!” William tapped Battuk on the shoulder. Battuk didn’t know what to do.

“Wow you’re really bad at this game.” William said. “I’m suppose’ to chase you, you need to run.”

“Oh you mean THAT Guards and Robbers, I play it a different way.” Battuk lied.

“Ok well now it’s your turn to chase me.” William said. He ran into the forest and started laughing.

Battuk looked back at his cabin and decided to play. He chased after the other boy and for the first time in his life, he laughed.

After twenty minutes of playing, William told Battuk he had to go home for lunch. Battuk went back to the river and started fishing with his feet in the water.

He caught a few more Riverstang Muppets and then brought all of the fish inside. His father was still sleeping.

A few weeks passed before Battuk saw William again. Battuk was drinking with his father at the river. William came out of the bushes and Battuk threw a rock at him, silently mouthing for the boy to leave. Gorb was looking the other way. William left.

A few days after that, William returned and knocked on the cabin door. He was a bit scared of all the bones. Battuk answered the door and came outside.

“My dad is gone. He went hunting.”

“I know I watched him leave and I waited for a while.”

“Are you watching me?” Battuk asked.

“Only when I come over this way to play.” William said. “I stay away from that grumpy big guy. Is your dad a Nork too?”

“Yep,” Battuk said.

“Do you want to go fishing at this river I found with my dad?” William said.

“Okay. but really quickly. I don’t know when he is coming back.” Battuk said.

The two of them left the cabin and wandered for about half an hour to a new spot, on a different, much wider river. They arrived at a shoreline where a deer was drinking. William shooed the deer and they both started casting lines.

They didn’t see the alligator lurking in the reeds very, very close by.

“Why come I don’t see Norks in my class at school?” Will asked.

“There aren't many Orcs left. I only met my dad. He talks about other Orcs that used to be alive. Like my mom.” Battuk said.

“My father said that Orcs are deadly. He says you’re scary. But you’re not scary.” William said. “You’re stupid though.” He laughed and punched Battuk lightly.

“No I’m not stupid, I’m smart. I’m really, really smart.” Battuk said. “I have a magic brain. It’s super smart.”

Battuk was interrupted by the alligator at the shore lunging forward. It grabbed William and started flailing. It retreated into the water with William in it’s jaw.

Battuk screamed and jumped in the water. Battuk gripped the alligator in both arms and slipped on the rocks further into the water. He found some grip on a water weed and started moving towards the shore. William was punching the alligator’s head now. It had grabbed him by the pelvic bone. Battuk pulled the alligator from the water and it started trying to roll and flail about.

Battuk was so angry. He punched right through the alligator’s ribcage and smashed it’s heart and lungs to mush. It instantly died and let go of william. Battuk’s arm was scarred and cut from the tough hide like sandpaper on his lightning punch. The bones of the ribcage shattered and splinters remained in his arm.

William fell out of the gator’s mouth and started bleeding everywhere. Battuk left the fishing equipment and picked up William in a piggyback.

“Take me, up the river. Home.” William said faintly.

“Ok Friend.” Battuk said. “Ok William, friend.”

Battuk went into the place his father forbade, the village. Townspeople were shocked to see a five foot tall muscular green boy carrying William. A few men arrived and stopped the pair. Battuk explained what happened.

“We were fishing, an Alligator attacked him, but I saved him. He needs medicine, or a healer.”

“Who are you? Some sort of goblin? What did you do? Did you attack William?”

“No he’s my friend-...”

“He attacked William!” Another villager shouted. Battuk dropped Will on the dirt road, knowing he’d be safe and started sprinting home.

The villagers did not follow him, most of them were in shock.

When Battuk arrived home, Gorb was still gone. He decided to grab his fishing gear to hide his tracks from his father. He left the house and went to the river to collect his fishing gear. He arrived at the riverbank and found some birds attacking the alligator corpse. He picked up the bucket and rod and went home. He left William’s rod there, leaning against a tree.

He considered picking up the alligator but it would be too heavy to bring home.

A few days later, Gorb and his son were cooking some stew when a knock was heard.

Gorb grabbed an axe from his weapon pile and waited behind the door. The figure at the door called out.

“Hey Battuk, I just wanted to say thank you for saving William’s life. Sorry about the townspeople. I’m his dad. I know you must be scared, son. I know you’re an Orc. But I won’t tell anyone. I just came to say thank you, and I’ve brought you some chickens and some clothes. I’ll be leaving now.”

A few minutes passed and Gorb opened the door. A few chickens in a wicker cage were at the door next to a pile of kid-sized clothes.

“Battuk. We are leaving.” Gorb said.

Gorb started packing everything into large leather satchels

Almost everything in the hut was packed into bags and then Battuk and Gorb left carrying everything. They wandered following the river, away from the town. They walked for a week before arriving at a road. They followed the road for a while and then wandered into a swampland. The new location was miserable. They found a rotting shack with a collapsed roof and Gorb decided this would be their new spot.

A few weeks passed, the hut was renovated very poorly. The roof was rebuilt out of leather hides and thin tree trunks, The hut was originally built from flat beams and planks so it was a very obvious repair job. The bone piles had started to grow, and the mood of Gorb was worse than ever.

The flies, snakes and mosquitos were constant. Battuk was so unhappy and longed for another riverside fishing trip, his father simply told him no.