One-Shot Stories

The Raider

Historically, your village was prone to orc raids. Through the forest to the east, there had been a major orc settlement, and they would periodically invade the village in the past. However, there hadn't been one for quite a few years; since before you had come to live there. At this point, it felt more like stories or legends than any actual threat of a raid happening.

The elders told of orcs who were unusually... non-violent. They would march into town, take what they wanted, and leave, all without actually causing major damage or injury. Sure, they'd bloody up anybody who really got in their way, but even then, they wouldn't kill them. It was a sort of blessing, even if half the harvest was lost and a few villagers were taken.

The disappearance of the orc raids was a sort of village mystery: the elders didn't talk about it, and though there were sometimes hushed discussions about it, but there was no real clue anywhere as to what had happened. And as far as you knew, it wasn't normal for orc clans to leave areas they'd settled. You found yourself strangely fascinated by it, and would often find yourself idly wondering on the subject. A few times, you'd even tried to go to the forest to see if you could discover what had happened to them, but the elders would stop you, advising against it.

The village elders advised you not to get too involved with such thoughts, but you couldn't keep the idea of orcs from your head. As your adoptive guardians, the elders had tried to keep you from obsessing on them in an effort to help you fit in, but you would steal their books and read them at night, returning them in the morning before they woke. It only seemed to push you further from the villagers, and most of them distrusted you because they didn't understand.

As such, you ended up spending more and more time alone, to the protests of the elders. After a time, they seemed to give up and just leave you be; after all, you weren't hurting anybody. You'd spend a lot of your free time staring at the scar on your hand, trying to remember what it was that had caused it when you were younger. You never could figure it out.

It was a bright, cool day in the early fall and the harvest had been finally gathered when a sound echoed through the forest: the sound of heavy, marching footsteps. The villagers were somewhat confused until the elders called for everyone to go into their homes. The cry was raised: Orc raid!

You ignored the warnings of the elders and hid out of sight under a pile of hay bales, intent on seeing these orcs firsthand. You were nervous, but your curiosity outweighed the risks in your mind. You peeked out from your hiding place as the first of the raiders broke through the tree line and gasped.

The shortest of the orcs stood at least two heads taller than you, but all of them were heavily muscled and varying shades of brown and green. They had enormous sharp tusks extending upward from their bottom lip, and heavy, brutish features. They wore roughly made clothes, and heavy harnesses to support weapons. You blinked. They didn't have any weapons; not a single one. You scooted deeper into the hay pile as they got closer; you weren't exactly sure this had been the best idea after all...

As the last of the orcs emerged from the forest, one in particular caught your eye. He was significantly taller than even the largest of the orcs, and his coloration was more of a blackish-red tone. His hair wasn't the flat black of the others, either; it was a shining silver white. You found yourself watching him as he strode across the field; there was something about him that drew your attention. He stopped just outside the village, and stood there, scanning the cottages. His brow furrowed for a moment, and he suddenly turned to stare directly at your hiding place. You duck out of sight, but there's no way he could have known you were there...right?

The orc raiders swept through the town, ignoring the villagers peeking from their shuttered windows, picking specific things from the shops and fields. They clearly had a manifest they were going by, and they didn't stray from it. As they filled their arms with items, they left. There were less and less of them in the village, all while the black-red orc watched from outside the village.