Chapter Four: Batuuk, the Son of Gorb

Twenty-Five Years Earlier.

There was an orc son born during winter. His name was Batuuk. 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. They could easily overpower the tribal-combat orc armies. The orcs had fled to the far south of Arcadia’s lands.

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 Batuuk 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 Batuuk 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.

Batuuk 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 Batuuk to drink for the day.

Batuuk 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.” Batuuk said.

They soon arrived at the river, and Batuuk 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 Batuuk by the water’s edge.

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

“Hey,” said the boy.

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

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

He waited inside the house for hours. There was no Gorb. The whole night Batuuk 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.

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

Batuuk 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.

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

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

Batuuk ignored the stupid, inferior child.

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

Batuuk couldn’t resist.

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

“What are you?” asked the boy.

“I’m an Orc.” Batuuk 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.” Batuuk replied with a disgusted look on his face. “We’re like really strong. Are you a human?” He asked.

“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.

Batuuk looked at the boy trying to lift the rock and laughed. “Oh yeah? I can lift that rock.” Batuuk 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. Batuuk shrugged.

“I’m William.” The kid said.

“I’m Batuuk.”

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

“What’s that?” Batuuk 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.” Batuuk said, puffing his chest.

“Ok then lets play. I’ll be the guard and you can be the robber. Ok, Go!” William tapped Batuuk on the shoulder. Batuuk 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 version of Guards and Robbers, I play it a different way.” Batuuk lied.

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

Batuuk 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 Batuuk he had to go home for lunch. Batuuk 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 Batuuk saw William again. Batuuk was drinking with his father at the river. William came out of the bushes and Batuuk 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. Batuuk 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?” Batuuk 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?”

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“Yep,” Batuuk 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.” Batuuk 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.” Batuuk 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 Batuuk lightly.

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

Batuuk 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.

Batuuk screamed and jumped in the water. Batuuk 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. Batuuk pulled the alligator from the water and it started trying to roll and flail about.

Batuuk was so angry. He punched once right through the alligator’s ribcage and smashed it’s heart and lungs to mush. It instantly died and let go of william. Batuuk’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. Batuuk left the fishing equipment and picked up William in a piggyback.

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

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

Batuuk 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. Batuuk 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. Batuuk 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 Batuuk 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 Batuuk, 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.

“Batuuk. We are leaving.” Gorb said.

Gorb started packing everything into large leather satchels

Almost everything in the hut was packed into bags and then Batuuk 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, and 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. Batuuk was so unhappy and longed for another riverside fishing trip, but his father said no.

One dark night, Gorb was fast asleep, but Batuuk was awake, he was playing with the campfire. He threw in a handful of wet leaves and watched them pop and fizz in the hot coals, producing lots of white smoke.

This soothed him, and made him feel better. He heard some twigs snapping in the distance, then saw a glow from a torch.

He swore and ran inside and woke his father.

“Gorb! Strangers coming!” Batuuk said as he jostled his father awake. “Lights.”

Gorb got up quickly and grabbed his war axe. He ran outside and doused the fire by covering it with wet leather hides. It was too late. They had been found.

Gorb ran back inside the cabin and he watched through the cracks in the planks as the cabin was slowly surrounded by the amber fiery glow of torchlight.

“I think the monsters are in here.” Said a man quietly.

Gorb smashed his whole body through the weak wall and swung his axe at a man. He cut his arm clean off, and the man’s arm fell into the swampy water with a splash.

A crossbow bolt flew at him and stabbed his back. He turned around and ran towards the attacker. The human pulled out a dagger as he needed to reload, and Gorb simply grabbed the man by the skull with one hand and threw him like a football ten metres away, where he landed in a bush.

Gorb roared like a lion, and bared his rows of chipped and jagged teeth.

He ran towards another hunter, who shot him in the chest during the charge. The hunter fell shortly after as Gorb slashed his chest open. Two more arrows hit Gorb, one in his shoulder, which stunned him, and knocked him back and one arrow pierced through the side of his neck.

Gorb lunged with his axe at the attackers and his axe got stuck in a hunter’s wooden shield.

Gorb simply used the axe-shield as a club and splintered the shield as he smacked the next attacker.

A hunter hidden in the trees a little further back notched an arrow into his bow. He saw Gorb raise his axe to chop down and he shot his arrow.

A clean kill. Straight into the forehead.

Gorb exhaled his last sigh and fell face first into the muddy water. Everyone was silent.

Then the men started cheering. They tied Gorb’s body to a large, thin pole, and four of the men hoisted him over their shoulders.

The hunters picked up Gorb’s axe and were surprised by its heaviness.

Some of the hunters carried the wounded or dead hunters back the way they came.

Batuuk was inside the cabin, hidden under some leathers.

Some hunters went inside the cabin, but Batuuk was hidden. They did not see him under the furs. The men soon after went away but Batuuk did not move. A few hours later the sun rose, and started peeking through the boards of the shack. Batuuk waited until the sun was fully up before stepping outside.

The grass around the cabin was trampled. Blood stained the grass and mud in sections. There was a human arm half-stuck in the stinky mud. Batuuk cried.

He didn't know what to do without his father, all he wanted to do was go fishing back at his old cabin. So Batuuk cried for a few hours, then grabbed a spear, the fishing rod and big leather poncho and left.

He tried to remember what direction they had travelled and he walked. After a while he came to the road. He remembered this part, all he had to do was follow the road back to the river.

Batuuk walked all day, luckily the road was quiet. He spent the whole day alone, except for seeing birds, insects and a few deer.

Eventually the sun went down and Batuuk was in the forest all alone. He leaned against a tree and tried to hide from the cold under his poncho. Batuuk kept his eyes open for as long as he could, shivering in the cold. He heard owls calling and strange noises from the forest animals that were waking up for a night of hunting.

Eventually Batuuk fell asleep. His eyes closed and he had a dream about his father catching fish by the lake.

Present Day

Batuuk stood on a cliffside, overlooking the lands below. He could see the town of Buttermilk far below him. His army was tending to fires around the camp, or counting gold and putting the riches into piles.

They lived inside a vast collection of treehouses. Giant leather yurts littered the forest floor. Racks of drying meat and piles of bones were next to stone coal pits. Bandits of all races, Elf, Human, Lion-men, centaur and dwarf. They lived in chaos, fighting over stolen goods, each one of them responsible for their own loot, and required to meet a quota to avoid public punishment.

Batuuk’s cabin was in a tall tree, he had a decorative wall display made of bones. A wall of weaponry from golden swords, to war maces. His bed was a large mound of furs and he had a table full of delicious smoked hams, fresh fruits, wine, beer, breads and cheeses.

He looked down at his army of three hundred men, women and magical beings, he smiled. Batuuk the King of Thieves was always smiling.

He had come a long way, and he was waiting for the perfect time to demonstrate his power.

Soon, when the village of Buttermilk held their festival, he would bring his armies down from the hills to ambush everyone, and take some royals hostage, so he could bargain for more lands, and more horses, and more weapons.

Only a few more weeks until the festival began.