An Age of Wrath - Chapter I

It was there the Red learned to kill with his bare hands, and kill he did till the day came he escaped the pits and fled the Salt Sands of the west.

As he spit on the remains of the Slaver, Ravendorn the Red smiled slightly.

Levi stepped forward trying not to gaze too much at the ghastly sight Ravendorn was fixated on. He said to the Red in a slightly shaken voice; "Sir, there are wagons further down this trail that belong to those red orcs."

"Aye," Ravendorn said gently; "but red orcs don’t ride wagons, lad. If what you say is true, then they were brought here by Slavers. They are the only ones savage enough to use orcs and other lesser demons."

"That much is true, Red." Bishop said; "But that still don’t explain what Slavers are doin’ outside the Salt Sands. In My’Dian of all places!"

As the men came across the wagons, the stench of orc flesh grew pungent. Kallus looked at the wagons carefully and noticed the bars over the windows. "They transported the orcs in here all right. By god they reek something awful!" cried Kallus.

Inside one of the wagons they heard a shuffling. Quickly all of the men surrounded the wagon. Ravendorn burst open the hatch door to find a small Slaver inside. The Slaver was one of the drivers who must have been left behind in the commotion as the others fled. It snarled and bore its tiny, razor edged teeth to the mercenaries as it huddled in a corner. Its long white hair hung limply across its face and it flared its small nostrils in heavy, fearful breaths.

"Where is your commander?" shouted the Red. "What are you filth doing here in My’Dian?"

The Slaver responded in nervous clicks and harsh sounding rolls of its tongue.

"Bah! You know I don’t understand that idiot, heathen tongue of yours!" Ravendorn roared. "This whelp will do nothing for us now except bleed. Kill it and save the head." Ravendorn then stepped away from the wagon with Kallus at his side. "Ravendorn, you don’t think that the Slavers are here for the same reason we are?" Ravendorn said nothing for a while as he continued to walk away towards the clearing of the brush. Finally he looked to Kallus and said; "There’s much that needs answering, my friend. Much that the Minister of My’Dian, mayhap even the King of My’Dian needs to answer for. We’ll bury our dead and burn these wagons, aye, and then we ride for the castle, Kallus. We’ll get to the bottom of this mess one way or another."

"What about these dead orcs?"

"Leav’em to rot!" barked the Red.

Behind them the painful cry of a dying Slaver rang through the night.