Prince Tedus and the Lion Headed Orc
Circa the 25th day of Summer year 955 since the foundation of the Empire.
In some summer evening, long ago, the kids of Kenton were sitting on the mud. All, even the "long-sticks", wished their pain away, and nothing else but food and rest, for it had been a long day. But that very day, a new slave kid had joined them. Nobody knew his name, but called Opty as he was always cheerful, and had many ways to makes us all smile.
One of those was about to share an absolutely reliable tale of Tedus, the prince.
Opty stood his eleven years of boyhood up, saw that everyone was sad, and made up his mind to make everyone happy. He had no clothes but mud, no shoes but bloodsucker bites. His bones were as grumpy as an old dwarf. He was the new kid in one of the most gruesome jobs for slave kids in the Western Marshes. He knew nobody here. And don't get me started on how mistress, one year ago, separated him from his mom, sold him to the slavers, and these to the trasgrins. He ignored all that and more for the sacred duty of making everyone happy. And, as I said, standing up his eleven years of boyhood...
HI! YOU LOOK SAD. NOT GOOD, THAT'S BAD!!! So I'm telling y'all a story of the famous Prince Tedus.
"He's a count, you human!" Said a trasgrin who we'll call Troll-lol, for reasons.
"Stop your noise, Tedus will always be a Prince." That was Walrsters, one of the long-sticks, a teenaged hwblin (a half-human) who had to rule the younger slaves, or suffer the consequences.
Well, this tale begins when the Green Fangs were raiding up north, where the terrible Zrabrags...
Troll-lol again. “You say Zxzragabxu, human. It’s an orc word, takes an 'u' when it's more than one thing, not an 's'.”
“And it means boring.” That came from Nerd-doh, a trasgrin kid with any stain of human blood, but as a low slave as everybody else on the mud.
Oppy, didn't give up, just adding some, imaginative remarks to his story
Orkish is an awful language... and Zrabragu means Kings of the Whips... Well, as I was saying, the Green Fangs were raiding up north, where the terrible Zzr... Zrabagus rule. It was raining a lot, as it always does in autumn, and the wind was terrible. And freezing cold! Prince Tedus, riding on his wolf, was searching the grasslands for the orc army’s tracks.”
“But it’s easy to find them orcs!” (Yeah, Troll-lol, glad you asked).
“They’re messy and smell like dead fish” (Our lovely Nerd-do boy).
“You don’t know any-nothing,” protested Opty, struggling with the trasgrin language. “Do you think that if orcs were that dumb, they’d ever win a war? Well, sometimes they do, especially against fools who believe jokes as if they were true. And you shut up, you shut up even more, and you shut your teeth bag too.”
All fell silent. It surely helped that everyone was exhausted from working in the river all day, too tired to argue. It helped a big bit more than Walrsters didn't look too amused.
As I was saying, Prince Tedus was following the orc trail when he found a winged cat. Don’t laugh! The orcs have a demon-god who is a huge winged cat, a monster! And no, Tedus didn’t find the real thing, but a golden figurine. Got it?”
“It’s not a big cat, it’s Plains Lion”
“Well, that’s still a big cat...”
“Alright... let the boy finish his tale, or else” It wasn't any of the long-sticks who spoke, but Shabaz, and one of those hwblins you don't mess with, but ever.
“Thank you, but it’s not a tale. It’s an adventure that really happened. Let's go on..."
The cat thing didn't give a clue, but... buuuut, since it was so valuable, the orcs would definitely want it back. Many orcs think anything in gold grants magical powers. So Tedus told the Green Fangs: let’s prepare an ambush!”
But they didn’t set up a normal ambush, because Tedus didn’t know how many orcs there were. They had to be very, very careful and act with great care and careful preparation. So what Prince Tedus placed the Green Fangs in different, secret hiding spots, and then went ahead to scout with Ledis.
“And who’s Ledis?”
One of the Green Fangs, you don’t know him. Anyway, they went together, riding their wolves, and discovered the orcs. Too bad, only four of them! Tedus wanted a great victory to prove to the orcs they had to leave us alone. But four? Even if they killed them, the orcs would call them heroes and all that. So he thought of returning to his men and letting the orcs come closer. It wouldn’t be a great victory, but hey, you still have to beat the orcs, right? But... but... buuuuuuuuut...
It turned out that one of the orcs was sick, and the other three mistreated him very badly, beating him and so on. Why? Tedus didn’t know. So, leaving his wolf with Ledis, he crept closer through the reeds and listened. The sick orc had hidden a treasure. Throughout his life he had owned many slaves who had given him lots of wealth, and he had hidden part of it. But where? No one knew. But these orcs knew something, because they were his sons! Seeing their father ill, they decided it was the right moment to rob and kill him. They wanted the gold, but their father refused to tell them, so they beat him until he cried out: “Don’t hit me anymore, I’ll take you to the treasure.
When Tedus heard all this, he thought: “The father orc is leading them into a trap.” And then he remembered the winged cat... Could the monster still exist? No, of course not, if it had never existed. But there was a tribe of lion-headed orcs, the first orcs ever to live on this world. They’re like orcs, but their heads are those of giant cats, with lots of hair on their heads! Some orcs believe they’re gods. That’s where the father was leading them, to the last of them.
“You’re making all this up.”
“So what if he is?”
It’s true, I already told y'all. Anyway, Tedus thought about what would happen. If he did nothing, all four would die. A lion-head is the most dangerous kind of orc: the strongest, the fastest, the most treacherous. It would surprise them, throw them to the ground, breaking their bones. Then, little by little, it would eat them, starting with hands and feet so they would live longer. A terrible death. So Tedus went back with Ledis to fetch his wolf. He explained what had happened, and after thinking about what to do, they decided to approach.
As soon as the orcs spotted them, Tedus stood tall on his wolf and shouted:
“Father orc, if I free you from your evil sons, will you give me your treasure?”
The father orc, the sick one, said yes. That way he could take revenge on his wicked sons. Better that Prince Tedus should have it, even if he was an enemy.
The other orcs charged into battle, but they were fools. Prince Tedus and Ledis pulled back with their wolves and shot arrows, whizz, whizz, until they killed them. No one can outrun a wolf!
And then, what do you think? Did the wicked orc keep his word? Of course not. He kept asking Tedus to follow him, that he couldn’t explain with words, that Tedus just had to follow him. But Tedus wasn’t fooled. He thought of killing the old fart, but felt pity. The orc was very sick and had suffered enough, so he left him and keep on with the adventure..
Not long after, he heard a desperate, painful howl. Do you know what it was?
“The lion-head!”
“You’re very clever. That’s exactly what Tedus thought. The sick orc too had found what he deserved, after a lifetime of cruelty and evil. But Tedus didn’t rejoice, thinking of the old orc’s pain and the horrible fate awaiting him, he carried on with his mission and...”
“That’s enough. Time to head back to the huts and sleep. Tomorrow there’s even more work. So, no