first writing dusted off and reworked

My first piece of writing carried out sometime over twenty years ago

The lone figure moved swiftly through the tall grass, running with the effortless grace that was his heritage. He had been pushing hard for two days across the rolling hills of the plains lands, passing by the small farm houses to sleep under the stars for the sake of speed.

From over the hill to his left came a familiar sound, he unslung his longbow nocked an arrow and changed direction. Staying low he cautiously moved up the side of the hill, his eyes narrowed as he heard the guttural growl of orcs’ voices raised in battle frenzy.

Torelin looked on and momentarily stunned at what he saw before him in the clearing, all thoughts of action flew from his mind as he stood there looking down at what he thought was his good friend Kram, two other dwarves who he did not recognise, and a huge barbarian, confronted on three sides by orcs. This puzzled Torelin because he had left Kram two days behind him. It was at this point that he realized there were differences between Kram and this dwarf before him, the tattoo was there and it was the same but it was on the opposite arm, and this dwarf used shield and axe, not just a double handed axe like Kram.

The elf smiled and a sly grin spread across his face as a notion slipped into his mind, he decided to watch and see if there was any confirmation to his idea.

Kallan stared moodily into the fire for a few seconds cursing his luck for drawing third stint at guard duty, meaning that his sleep would be split and he would be sandy eyed all the following day. He glanced over at Quarran who lay to his left, his eyes slowly re-adjusting to see in the dark again, it was at this point that he realised that Quarran wasn’t in his blankets but standing just to the side of them, not only that but he was standing with his shield on and brandishing his large double headed axe menacingly.

Kallan jumped to his feet axe held high staring around the clearing as he rose.

‘Glad you could join us, we have company as you can see’ Quarran said sarcastically to him. Kallan winced he knew that if they survived the encounter with the eight orcs that confronted them he would eventually wish he hadn’t Quarran’s tone promised painful lessons to be learned for his failure to guard the camp properly, he felt rather foolish and shameful yet excited at the same time. This was to be his first skirmish with anyone yet alone orcs and Kallan being who he was eagerly looked forward to the testing of his new training that Quarran and Milant had shown him over the past couple of days he felt ready for anything then, everything went black a sharp pain filling his head with torment and his ears to ringing and then nothing but darkness.

The orc who had struck down Kallan was preparing to kill him with his huge club as the lightening bolt took him screaming in the chest knocking him several feet backwards into the tree behind him a smoking hole where his chest used to be.

Raillan satisfied that his spell had worked turned his attention to the orc closest to him who, still startled by what had happened to his companion was standing staring at the charred remains that lay across the clearing from him, seeing this Raillan decided magic was not necessary in dealing with this orc so in true dwarven style his hand reaches back for his war hammer while at the same time he starts spinning around to his right judging the distance perfectly he covers the ground between himself and the orc just as his hammer comes level with the creatures face, the combined momentum of his spin coupled with the strength and weight of arms and hammer lead to a very powerful blow to the side of its jaw that leaves the orc with no bottom to his face. The mighty blow completely rips the orcs’ jaw from its face in a shower of blood and teeth. Raillan quickly recovers from his spin and finishes the job at hand with a quick powerful blow to the top of the head; he turns from his second victim to see if anyone needs his help, on turning he is stunned by the sheer ferocity of Quarran and Milant in battle together.

Hearing the sound of the club striking Kallan, Quarran and Milant explode into action. Quarran spins to the left his shield leading knocking aside the crude sword of the orc and following in high with his axe to place it squarely in the junction between shoulder and neck, the orc fell dead before it hit the floor as Quarran spun back on himself catching the orc on the way down severing its head from its body. Blood splashing up his arms and over his shield as he moved forward to face the two orcs in front of him, as he started in he saw a flash of light and heard a bump behind him, ‘The mage’ he thought as he took a blow aimed for his head on his shield, the sword of the orc slid across Quarrans shield and off the side throwing the orc off balance and causing him to take a step forward, which was exactly what he had planned, the double headed axe whistled across the front of Quarran to sever the orcs leg just below the knee, which caused the creature to fall in front of his companion just as he made a clumsy stab for the dwarves’ neck with a short spear. The spear entered the first orcs’ body just below the shoulder blade only to come exploding out of its’ chest in a shower of green skin and blood which splashed Quarrans, face.

The second orc bent to try and yank the spear free but as he leaned forward his head came into range of Quarrans’ axe, which soon made light work of the simple helmet the orc wore and the head beneath it. The orc went down dragging the axe with it, the blade firmly embedded into its’ skull pulling the mighty weapon from Quarrans’ hand, it was at this point that he saw Milant pull his short sword out of the stomach of his last victim, he also saw another orc at the edge of the trees aiming a small bow at Milant. Quarran panicked he could not reach Milant in time, he started to shout but was cut off as something buzzed over his shoulder, he watched as the orc with the bow drew back to fire but who suddenly pitched backward with an arrow sprouting from its’ eye.

Quarran hurried forward to collect his axe which came free with a sucking slurping sound, he then glanced about for more enemies, it was at this point he saw the elf in the trees behind them at the edge of the camp.

Milant had moved as soon as he sensed Quarran move going directly for the two orcs in-front and slightly to the right of him, he moved forward his short swords moving constantly before him with the hypnotic effect of a snake, the two orcs eyes drawn to the matched blades spinning and curving before them. Then there’s a flash of light behind him momentarily breaking the effect his swords were having upon the orcs.

The first orc swung at milant with its’ huge club which Milant easily side stepped and flicked his sword into the orcs’ side taking a small portion of skin but not doing any real damage, he knew however from past experiences with the Phynia of his homeland although the club would not break his swords, it would however jar them from his hands and leave him weapon less. He sought to kill the club wielder first and then deal with his companion.

Milant immediately went after his foe before he could recover enough to launch a combined attack with his companion. Milant rushed in both blades hitting orc flesh, the first blade catching the orc behind the knee cutting his tendons, the next just below the ear, the blade sliding across the orcs’ neck cutting his jugular vein and wind pipe. Milant spun away just as the second orc came in on him, the Druthanian parrying the thrust of the orc up and over the tip of the orcs; sword just catching his shoulder giving him a small nick, he jumped back just as the orc recovering from the parry started to bring his blade down in a vicious arc toward Milant. Milant dropped to one knee and lunged forward with both blades straight into the orcs’ stomach, both blades erupting from the back of the unfortunate orc, hot stomach gasses and blood washed over Milant’s hands and lower arms, He pushed the orc backward and yanked both swords free, he then turned to survey what had happened to his friends.

Quarran was looking around after just retrieving his axe from the head of the corpse it was wedged in. Milant caught his look and turned to see the downed orc bowman, he walked over to check he was dead.

Quarran watched Milant walk over to the orc archer’s body and then flicked his gaze back to the elf at the edge of the trees. Quarran raised his axe in salute and thanks to the elf, the elf smiled he was sure his suspicions were right, he returned the dwarves salute. Just as Milant walked over to Quarran rolling the strange elf’s arrow between his fingers, at this the lone elf turned his back on the clearing and the carnage and continued on his way across the plain.

Quarran looked questioningly at Milant who said only one word
‘elven’
Quarran nodded looked back to the trees to see if the elf had gone.
‘ I will go and see if our unconscious friend will be alright, and how long it will be before he decides to wake up, and if he intends to ever listen to our instructions.’
As he walked away Milant shouted to him ‘ remind him that we will be having a long discussion about what happened here this morning and discussing a suitable penance for his blunder’+