'Hey, big man. Wake up.'

My father's voice woke me up.

I opened my eyes, staring at the familiar ceiling for a moment.

Was it always that close to the ground? I have to put up a support beam before it crushes me alive.

I walked through the entrance, lowering my head to avoid smashing it against the wall. It happened before. While it did an amazing job in waking me up, it was not a particularly enjoyable experience.

Eating everything I could and working out daily was starting to pay off, as I was now almost as tall as my father. I was really lucky to have grown up in the era of peace as well, as for the last couple of years there has been a food shortage due to the goblins limiting our hunting grounds.

'Here, I got you a little something. Since you're eight now, I thought I should get you a real weapon.' My father said, before handing me a spear.

It was long, quite a bit taller than me, made out of soft wood. The spearhead was made out of a sharpened ribba bone, tied to the shaft with sinew. An impressive weapon to say the least.

'Thank you, dad. But are you sure you should be giving this to me now? I mean, we could exchange this for quite a bit of food, you know.'

'Look at you, being so responsible! But don't worry, food won't be a problem from now on.'

I must have looked really confused, because he started laughing and took of a bracelet before throwing it at me.

I caught it, still confused, and looked at it. A single blue pearl was hanged on it, symbolizing-

'No way, you got promoted?'

'Hell yes! Leader of the second hunting team. Thokk gave me the position the moment he became leader!'

I congratulated him and gave him a tight hug. I planned on thanking Thokk in person later, too.

After getting shot 5 years ago, he quickly changed from the quiet and reserved orc everyone knew him as, to a more confident and aggressive man.

He was the first orc to kill a goblin since they openly started attacking us, and he didn't stop there. By now, he has killed eight or nine of them already, and clearly harboures great hate towards them.

And so, after the previous leader Ghor retired, he advanced to the leadership position with great support from nearly every hunter.

'I got you a job as well. Come with me, I'm sure you will like it.'

I immediately knew where he was taking me. After all, there weren't many places in the village where a kid like me could work.

We walked around the edge of the village, and quickly arrived in front of the butcher's house. A couple of animal carcasses were already in front of it, being drained of blood. This used to be quite gross to me when I was younger, but I got used to it with time.

You could tell the house was important by how beaten the dirt path in front of it was. Meat was being taken to and fro the house every day, and fed most of the village. Consequently, the butcher was a man of both great importance and influence.

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'Raknar! What are you doing here?'

I instantly recognised the owner of that voice. It seemed like yesterday when I found her 'talent' at being a shaman.

The shaman apprentice, Zharra, was clearly happy to see me, a wide smile adorning her face as she started running towards us.

Wasn't she supposed to be with the shaman right now?

Her smile then dissapeared as fast as it came as she noticed something, and she quickly bolted away, hiding behind the neighbour's house.

The butcher stepped out of the house, covered head to toe animal blood. Coupled with his signature mean look and the long knife resting in his hand, he was quite a scary sight. I assumed she was skipping practice and almost got caught.

The butcher gave my father a friendly hug, before he left to go on his hunt. It was his first day since being promoted after all, so he had to be a bit early.

Being left alone with the butcher wasn't too uncomfortable, as I have had known the man for years. He was an older man, born in the same generation as the chief and Ghor. As a young man, I heard he fought in battle with the goblins many times. He sported a long scar on his forearm, which reminded himself and others of his violent past.

He did not cover it though, in fact, I'm quite sure he loved to show it off. After all, the orcs are a race of warriors, so strong fighters are deeply respected within their culture.

The goblins had a different leader when he got his scar, a chief hellbent on eradicating the orcs which led to many small skrimishes in the forest.

'Listen, kid. Your job will be very simple here, so I better not catch you fuckin' shit up.' He gave me a mean glare to further drive his point home.

'Won't do any of that sir.' I reassured him.

'You will do simple tasks, like throwing away unusable parts of animals, cleaning everything and bringing the meat to the cook if I tell you so, alright?'

I nodded.

'Everything butchering related will be handled by me and my son. You can ask him any questions you have, got it? And I better not catch you stealin' shit again.'

Damn, I really hoped he didn't remember those sausages I stole as a kid.

I used to sneak around here with Mok and take some meat when he wasn't watching. It all went well until he saw us one time, by accident, eating those sausages behind the chief's house. Needless to say he wasn't too happy.

'I just have one question, then. I wondered if you could teach me to fight with a spear.'

'Hmm. Well, a bit of sparring is fun, but I'm too busy at the moment, so I think I'll pass.'

He turned around and started walking back to the house, signaling for me to follow. Yet I still had one more trick up my sleeve.

'I'll play with Zharra so she doesn't bother you. And I will make sure she doesn't skip lessons.'

That was the first time I ever saw him smile.

'When do we start?

----------------------------------------

My new routine consisted of waking up early, working until lunch time, and then keeping Zharra out of the butcher's house. All my efforts were rewarded with free food and a bit of sparring before dinner.

I sparred either with the butcher, or if his back hurt, with his son Gruk. Both of them were a lot better at this than me, but they were great instructors, so I improved quickly.

They taught me the basics of keeping distance, striking the opponents weak points and disarming them of weapons. Additionally, he even gave me some advice on improving my bowmanship. The butcher also personally taught me some battle tactics which were specific to goblins.

He also gave me a lot of general pointers, like how to use a spear in a forest, where trees constantly interfere with the fight, or when to switch to a dagger to suprise the opponent.

I slowly got used to my new way of life, and quickly learned to enjoy it. And yet, it all came tumbling down on one fateful day.

I was just taking some unusable meat out of the house, when I noticed Thokk heading towards me.

I instantly noticed something was amiss.

Though his posture was confident as always, with his shoulders brought back to accentuate his chest, his gaze was fixed to the floor and I could see veins bulging on his forehead.

Something is wrong.

He walked up to me, looking me in the eyes for a quick moment before averting his gaze.

'Give me a hug, kid. Come on.'

I did as he told.

Something is wrong.

'Haaa… I suppose there is no easy way to go around this.' He said.

He cleared his throat, clasped his hands and finally fixated his gaze on my eyes. Time seemed to freeze for a moment, before he finally spoke.

'Your father died.'