This is my entry into Finish The Story Contest hosted by @bananafish
Shog, called the Bonecrusher by his people, knew they’d lost when human horns roared across the battlefield. The Imperiate had come after all, to aid their elven allies of the Alish’tae Republic. Shog’s people, orcs of the Galak Tribe, so named after the mountain upon which they’d once lived, fought hard and well. But they fought alone.
Orcs no allies. Not even their Gods, the Old Ones, cared anymore.
As the morning sun crept above the clouds, illuminating the blood soaked fields, the Imperiate horsemen charged out from the forest. Muk’nola, matriarch of the Galaks, sounded her war horn, signalling the retreat. But it would be too late, Shog knew. Those horsemen would slaughter them as they fled. Their children, next.
An elf, empowered by the sense of looming victory, stormed forward from their line, straight towards Shog. He parried the elf’s longsword then heaved his mighty hammer, Breaker of Worlds, in a perfect arc. It smashed upon the elf’s helmeted skull, and he proved his namesake for the countless time. The elf’s head exploded in bone and carnage.
“Back!” he heard. “Fall back!” In disarray, the others around him fled towards Bloodneck Valley, where they’d encamped. Their position fell. Shog screamed to maintain the line but knew the day was lost. His people fled. He had no choice but to follow.
He reached the camp, already nearly moving again, fleeing up the valley to the highlands. Shog, exhausted, reached Zee-zee, his daughter, and Gheelah, his love. Gheelah had already packed their yurt and few remaining possessions. “Flee!” he shouted to her.
“And you?” Gheelah asked.
“I stay to hold them back.”
In typical orcish fashion, their utter devotion, love and mutual respect expressed itself only in their shared gaze, never in public, spoken word. He gripped her hand. He told Zee-zee to be strong. Gheelah nodded. Then the doy galloped away with the rest of the fleeing, broken host.
Muk-nola, matriarch, rallied the remaining Galak warriors. They reformed to a single line. Bloodneck Valley was narrow. Rocky. Layered with crimson colored clay. The land elevated as it led to the Highlands, their only advantage.
Maybe at the height of the tribe’s strength, before the humans had come with their purges and stolen their land, before the elves had arrived to ‘cleanse the world of evil’, maybe they would have been strong enough. But Shog saw they had a few hundred left. A few hundred to hold a line against an entire battalion of Imperiate horsemen and Alish’tae swordsmen, the latter no doubt already being reinforced.
The ‘Fair Folk’ would aim to eradicate the Galak now, as they fled.
Shog marched up to Muk-nola. She hailed him. “Yog-Sothoth burns in us,” she said.
“Yog-Sothoth hasn’t given a shit about us since Galak Mountain ceased its fire,” Shog replied.
Imperiate horns loomed. The sun flared, blinding Shog for a moment. Another disadvantage. The ground rumbled with the cavalry charge.
“Either way. I’ll crush his soul in hell. Right after I’m done with these Fair Folk.”
Muk'nola: "We have all the humans we need for a sacrifice."
For a moment, time came to a crashing halt for Shog as the word sunk into his brain - sacrifice. His eyes locked on hers.
She pointed to the humans on horseback who raced ahead of the elven swordsmen. He followed her pointed finger. His attention fell on the charging horses. The lust the humans had for a claimed victory over the orcs made them arrogant, losing site of the plan to stick together as one with the elven republic.
If he could devise a plan in a matter of seconds that would blind most of the men on horseback, he would have enough sacrifices needed to elicit help from Yog-Sothoth before his Galak tribe was wiped out.
The rays of the sun again blinded Shog for a moment. Then the idea struck him. "Sound the retreat horn again, Muk'nola. If the rumbling of the horses is strong enough, soil liquefaction may buy us time. We need our forces at the mouth of the exit to create a bottleneck situation and pray reverberation will take care of the walls."
She blew the horn. The orcs followed her, hustling over rocks that led up through the narrow passageway.
The orcs who were injured and not quick enough were stampeded on, their bodies crushed by hooves under the weight of the horses. The crushed bones echoed off the walls and into the ears of the fleeing orcs. A canopy of birds flew overhead, giving the appears of darkness setting in.
Shog looked back over his shoulder and saw the Imperiates slowed their pace as they cut deeper into the narrow valley. Their line shank from ten across down to three, the advantage they needed.
Reaching the end of the valley where the highlands began, the orcs filtered out and were given orders to keep all Imperiates from exiting. "Your very lives depend on it!" Shog yells out.
Muk'nola instructs the archers to aim at the mouth of the valley's exit.
Shog stands at the mouth along with fifty of his best. As the Imperiate horns stampeded out of the exit, the Breaker of Worlds caught the three lead horsemen with three well-placed swings, crushing their chests, sending them flying back, which took others down with them as their lances clothes-lined the horsemen behind them. The horses were stabbed by Shog's men, starting a pile-up.
Horsemen coming from the rear where blinded by the refracted light off of the snow as their horses jumped over the dead and dying bodies. Archers caught them in midair with a hail of arrows.
Blood had begun to fill the dry river bed. The ground absorbed the blood like an orc quenching its thirst after long days without water.
The shouting of the Alish'tae Republic along with the horse's hooves violently striking the rocks on the ground echoed down the walls to the fresh stockpile and reflected back the gruesome sounds, creating reverberation.
Shog climbed and stood on top of the stockpile and watched as the base of the walls liquified into a crimson river flow of clay. The Fair Folk were silenced and carried away.
The Galak tribe lived to see another day and prepare for the next battle.
| Previous Finish the Story Contest Entries | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Town That Changed | Even the Clouds Smile | The Border | Horro Vacui |
| Black Star | Quitting Life | LER | It Awakens |
| Apocalypse and Pretzels | Metallic Kisses |
If you are enjoying my work, please -
Upvote my posts through steem auto and add the other people and groups you would like to support.
Support me and others through steembasicincome shares. (This also helps you because you will also get a share for sponsoring somebody.)
Click here --> Steemmonsters. This is an offical affiliate link. So, not only will you get awesome cards, but you will also be helping me out.
Send steem directly to me! because you want to. 8-)
- Coming to you from arcange, a friendly warning to all who want to be successful on the steemit platform:
A bit of paranoia is the basis of security.
There are a few simple rules to follow in order to avoid having your account hacked:
Rule 1: NEVER, I repeat, NEVER use or give your owner key or password!
Rule 2: Use your posting key to login, post and vote on trusted websites like steemit.com or busy.org.
Rule 3: NEVER give your active key as this key allows to control your funds! Only use your active key for special operation like money transfer or account update on trusted websites like steemit.com.
Rule 4: Anywhere else, if you are requested to provide any of the above key: RUN AWAY!!!
Tools:
- The Most Dangerous Writing App - This program keeps me from getting to bogged down with what I think is the perfect way. It forces me to keep writing no matter what comes to mind.
- Grammarly - I use this app all the time to catch my mistakes. If I didn't have a spell checker, you would be lost in my world. haha!
- Hemmingway App: Another useful tool to help you make your writing more clear, comprehensive, and easier to understand.
- Steem World: After the @ symbol, enter your name or anyone elses name to see a host of information regarding what is going on with an account.
- Pixabay: Photo that you can use freely in your blog posts.
twenty-four hour short story - You gotta be quick to get this one posted in time. He posts the contest on Sunday (usually) and ends it about 48 hours later. This contest has a 2000 word limit.
Finish the Story Contest - The contest begins on Wednesday (usually) and end 5 days later. This contest will test your write skills with something a little different each week. Pletty of time to write something around the 500 word mark.
Random Games - Yes, random. She will put this contest out on Thursdays (usually) and end it after post pay out (usually). This is challenging because you don't know what you are going to get.
Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Story Contest! - Coming out roughly every week. If you enjoy card games like Magic, Yugio, and others like it, you might like this game. Write a fictional tale about the card they present in the contest and your entry just might be the one they choose to showcase.
Tell A Story To Me, And Win 5 SBD! Writing Contest - Kind of random when it comes out but don't worry. You will have two weeks to complete your work of art from the given prompt. Have fun!
Haiku - These are coming out every couple days or so. If you stuggle with rhymes, no worries. Haikus don't have to rhyme. All you need to make a haiku is five syllable on the first, seven syllables in the second line, and again back to five syllable for the last line. So easy it makes me think I'm being super product. LOL