Shane Porteous - The Battle of Ebulon - A Shared Anthology

Continusing, “You were lucky. The Imperator was free currently.” She looked at the blank look the captain gave her. “Strange. The Goddess gave us the ability to be understood, that word must not be in your language. Supreme War Leader? Does that make sense?”

The captain nodded. Still stunned, it was all he could do.

“He’s also our greatest warrior, as well as junior member of the Imperial Senate from our family,” she continued. “And Beloved of the Goddess for his services to her.”

A look over her shoulder at the pregnant woman with the incredible creature, now sitting at her feet. “We must rush. Kanerva is near her time. I am Pirjo, please tell us what needs doing.”

“So,” continued the woman in green, “Facing this gate is the Eagle Horde, made up of a number of tribes. Brrck is the leader because they couldn’t agree on anyone else, but he isn’t a warrior. The previous leader, Grg wasn’t a warrior either. The tribes wouldn’t name a warrior as Horde leader, for fear a popular warrior might gain too much power. The tribes don’t really agree on anything, though there are two general factions, and several smaller ones, correct?”

The captain very carefully looked her in the eye. When his gaze had wandered downwards towards the delightfully tanned breast earlier there had been a worrying growling noise from her husband, who she continued to refer to as ‘Beloved of the Goddess’ and nothing else.

“Yes. We can’t drive them away, we don’t have enough troops left, and if we don’t drive them away, they’ll come over the wall before long and masacare us. Or eat us. I’m not sure which would be worse.”

He paused. “How do you stand the cold?”

“The Goddess provides,” she replied simply.

Then she looked at her husband. Their husband. One man with three wives? Preposterous. But the two red heads stood beside him, while he massaged the pregnant wive’s bare feet, the beast curled beside him. He looked up at the one in green, made a sign with one hand, and nodded yes.

She nodded back, and said, “In that case, we need a place where we can make an announcement to the Orcs.”

The dark skinned man strode out onto the balcony like he owned it. No, like he owned the entire city. The Orcs didn’t notice. They continued their usual affairs, mending armor, tending wounded from the last attack, cooking, eating, readying scaling ladders.

The man took a place at the front of the balcony, the beast standing on its hind legs, muscled front legs on the balcony railing. It let out a most horrible sounding noise. It might have been a roar.

That got the Orcs attention. Everything stopped as they looked up at the balcony. The small dark man raised a well used, well kept long sword above his head, then lowered it towards them.

Pirjo, the priestess in green took a position to his right, Reeta the priestess in yellow took the other side. Kanerva, the very pregnant priestess in red stood where she could be seen for a minute, and then sat on a chair supplied by the sergeant with a ladylike grunt, the cat-beast curled up beside her.

Pirjo spoke, in what appeared to be a conversational tone to those on the balcony, but it was apparent that the Orcs heard her clearly. Apparently the Goddess had made sure the Orcs could understand her too.

“Orcs of the Eagle Horde, we are priestesses of the Goddess. Our husband, who is Beloved of the Goddess will fight your chosen representative in single combat for possession of this gate. Choose your representative.”

The ‘Beloved of the Goddess’ sheathed his sword, crossed his arms on his chest, and waited.

A buzz came from the assembled tribes. On the hilltop where the Eagle Horde leaders were standing a disagreement became evident. The one identified as Brrck shouted back at them, “This is no trick? We get the gate if our warrior wins?”

The ‘Beloved of the Goddess’ raised his sword again. Pirjo said, “Yes, you get the gate. But you will not win.”

That caused an even bigger stir. The evident confidence of the man on the balcony was an insult to all Orcs.

But not all Orcs were stupid. Brrck was holding forth at length and with great volume. He was convinced that this was a trap of some sort. Then a spear point tore through his back and out from his chest in a shower of gore. This upset the other Orc leaders, and the hilltop dissolved into a melee, as Orcish politics beget Orcish violence.

Pirjo breathed, “You were right husband.”

The ‘Beloved of the Goddess’ winked.

Several Orcs fled the fighting on the hilltop towards their tribes. The Cardinal Tribe, from which Brrck came, had been watching the hilltop. They were furious that one of theirs, even if he wasn’t a great warrior, had been killed. All of the tribe’s warriors, over three thousand strong, rushed the hilltop, weapons drawn.

Their traditional enemies, the Pelicans, were slow to react. By the time that the Pelicans realized what was happening, the Cardinals were slaughtering everyone on the hilltop. Fifteen hundred Pelicans rushed the Cardinals. The neighboring Panther and Turkey tribes, another three thousand warriors, reacted to the Pelican advance by following them into the fray.

The chief of the Badgers was jumping up and down, and screaming. Pirjo looked at him, and they could hear him attempting to keep his two thousand warriors in order.

One of his sub-chiefs decided enough was enough. He promoted himself in the time honored Orcish manner, by lopping off the chief’s head with a battle axe. While the Badger line was confused, by the sudden promotion, they were hit by two thousand Black Bear warriors from the side. It appeared to be an attempt to pay back a long ago slight forgotten to everyone else.

The captain looked at the battle below. “What an incredible slaughter. What an incredible slaughter.” He leaned back against the wall muttering.

Pirjo looked at her husband, and then spoke to the Orcs again. “The Beloved of the Goddess is still waiting. Should he go home, because the Orcs cannot decide who should face him?”

This galvanized the largest tribe, the Golden Bears into rushing the hilltop. Pelicans and Cardinals stopped fighting each other to defend against the greater threat, eight thousand screaming Golden Bear warriors. With the Golden Bears were packed against the base of the hill, the Bighorns, nominally Golden Bear allies, decided to backstab them, and three thousand Bighorns attacked the Golden Bears from behind.

The priestess in yellow spoke. “Sister, husband, I make it about half of the tribes engaged.”

The ‘Beloved of the Goddess’ inclined his head slightly to indicate ‘Yes’.

The priestess in red spoke for the first time, “We need to speed things up. The contractions are closer.”

Pirjo sighed. “I’ll try,” she whispered. In a louder voice, “Our husband is getting impatient. We thought that Orc warriors were honorable. Will you not supply a warrior to fight the Beloved of the Goddess?”

Chaos. Three thousand Squirrel and Raccoon warriors marched from their encampments (in one case after a quick change of command) to attack the Golden Bears from behind. Four thousand Deer and the Loon warriors attacked the Black Bears, wiping them out almost at once. Thousands of Mockingbird, Bison, and Elk warriors rampaged into the Badger encampment from the other side, ending up in a pitched battle with the Deer and Loon warriors when the last Badger warriors went down.