After a somewhat long period of absence, here you go, the next episode of the half-orc!
Here’s the prelude and episode 1:
Prelude
Episode 1
##Episode 2: An Ent-eresting Ent-ity ##
We left at the crack of dawn. It was suprisingly foggy for a summer morning. My Mom and I packed what little we could carry with nothing but backpacks. Fortunately, she was a skilled hunter, so we should have had food most of the time. We left through the gate in silence. I don’t think either of us were in the mood to talk. We hadn’t gone much more than a mile from Riverside when I heard a familiar voice speak. "So, where we off to?"
It was Colon. I was shocked to find him here, that he even knew we left. I began to ask him questions.
"How’d you know it was us leaving?"
Colon’s house was pretty close to the gate, so I didn’t need to ask him how he saw us. Colon smiled, and prepared to reply, but mom intervened.
"Never mind that, that’s not important. Colon, you need to leave. Now."
It was obvious he did not want to leave. Colon replied.
"No. Besides, I brought…"
I sighed, since I knew exactly what he was going to say. Colon continued to speak.
"Some BuckBucks!"
My mother sighed as well. She decided to use logic to get rid of Colon.
"And exactly, how are you going to feed them?"
Colon lifted a bag of feed in his hand. He began to explain how and why he was here.
“I saw you two leaving through the main gate. I saw the handle of the sword you had, and I’d recognize that sapphire from anywhere, seeing as it’s part of the most famous weapon in town.”
“Why did you come exactly?” I asked.
Colon smiled, and said in an exaggerated voice;
"The adventure!"
I always thought his place was in the coops. My mom began to shove him away. He did not take kindly to this.
"Hey! Stop it! Eggs are a good source of-"
We were interrupted by a rustling in a bush aside a road. My mom grabbed her hunting spear. I grabbed the handle of my sword, and Colon was sticking a buckbuck out like a weapon. The rustling stopped. A small, stump like creature popped out. Colon decided to walk up to it. I shouted at him;
"Wait, don’t-"
Colon interrupted me.
"It’s just a little stump. What harm could it-"
At that very moment the little-stump creature snared Colon with it’s surprisingly flexible branches. Colon began to shout, but was muffled by the foliage of the forest he was being dragged into by the stump.
Both I and my mom stared into the forest. She began to speak.
"Guess that takes care of that problem."
I began to run into the forest after Colon. She watched as I ran, then she began to run as well. We eventually reached a small clearing in the forest. A tree stood in the center. It wasn’t too tall, no taller than a small-ish sapling, but still, something about it was very imposing. Both of us sat down, exhausted from running.
I began to study the tree closer. I realized how closely it resembled a man. Two branches shaped like arms, and what all too closely resembled a face was where the head would be. I assured myself it was merely a coincidence, and sat down at base. My mom stood up, ready to scold me for running off all the sudden, but the tree would have it’s word first. It’s eye sockets lit up, and it stood, lifting it’s feet out of the ground. Both of us were shocked of this. The tree began to speak.
"I am no mere tree! I am Kaoen, one of the many Ents of the Forest Griffindwell!"
My mom began to introduce us to the Ent.
"I am Sharvik, the orc. She is Sarah, the half-orc."
Kaoen continued to speak.
"I would kill you if I could. But that is not important. Follow me."
I looked at mom. Kaoen added to his statement.
"And if you don’t follow me, I will kill you!"
We decided to follow him, without asking questions. Kaoen definitely seemed like he wasn’t the kind of person you asked questions to.
He eventually brought us to a place deep in the forest, where the sunlight could not be seen under the canopy of trees. Looks like Kaoen was not alone. Many other Ents as well as some stumps similar to the one we came across earlier lived here. They all stared at us as we walked towards a great oak in the center. I don’t know which unnerved me more. The Ents, or the tree. Suddenly, the oak came to life just as Kaoen did earlier. All the Ents bowed. Kaoen looked very alarmed when me and mom didn’t, and forced us to do so as well. The tree did not uproot himself and walk. Instead, he began to speak.
"So Kaoen, this is the best you and Pumts could do?"
Colon was thrown before us by the little stump we saw earlier. His BuckBucks pecked at the feed that landed around him.
"Two orcs and a BuckBuck keeper?"
I was not going to correct the great oak.
Many of the other Ents began to chuckle softly, but it died out quickly.
Kaoen began to explain.
"They were the only group small enough for us to grab. You know we are much weaker outside the forest-"
The great oak interrupted.
"Never mind that. If it’s the best we can get our hand on, it will have to do."
I asked a question, although I thought I was probably going to regret doing so.
"Have to do for… What, exactly?"
The Oak frowned. "Undead. Tons of them."
My mom began to laugh. "That should be easy for you!"
The Great Oak began to tremble as it spoke. "You don’t understand. They wield a technology, long forgotten and lost to the ages. Do you have an idea how many-"
The Oak was interrupted by an Ent.
"Another attack party!"
Everyone was alarmed by this. Kaoen began to ask a few questions.
"How many? And what weapons were they using?"
The Watch-Ent replied, but fear was very obvious in his tone.
"2 pulsars and an automaton!"
All the sudden, an electric pulse shot out of the trees to the left of us. A skeleton that was quite clearly not a human one came out from behind said trees. The Ents began to attack it. It’s bones were beginning to break, but it quickly fended off said Ents with another pulse. Lightning began to spurt everywhere. Trees crashed down as the automaton and another pulsar came to the first skeleton’s aid. My mom decided it was time to grab her weapon. I drew the Ice blade out of my scabbard. The following battle was not pretty. Ents fell as more and more pulses were fired. What the Ice blade did was, to say the least, interesting. Every single blow it did, every single thing it touched, it froze everything around it. By the time we were done, the skeletons were solid ice, but so were 2 Ents and a good-sized patch of grass. Everyone, including myself, gazed at it in horror.
“It’s never done that…” mom whispered.
The oak screamed at me.
"Put that damned thing away! Before you freeze us all!"
I did. We decided it be best to stay quiet for the rest of the day.
The Ents let us stay for the evening, but they remained solemn and silent. The only thing the Great Oak said to us the next morning is this:
"Head East towards the caves. In case things get a bit troublesome, I will be sending Kaoen and Pumts with you as escort. We left in a deeper silence than that of which we left home in. Mom even stopped trying to stop Colon from coming along. The journey east was going to be long, as Kaoen told us it would take us at least a week. We would’ve looked strange, walking there. An orc,a half-orc, a BuckBuck keeper, and 2 Ents. But that was that, and our quest had begun…
Welp, folks, that’s all for now, but prepare for Episode 3…