The Orc Chronicles Urim

Chapter 4

          Plum stayed high and kept her aim steady. She had no delusions of killing steedsaaker, the orcs were having a hard enough time without her getting in the way. The steedsaaker stomped through the orcs swinging his trunk and charging headlong with his tusks.

Brandyl always made the battles sound heroic, when in reality it was a bunch of orcs getting tossed around. But Urim, Plum couldn't keep her eye off him, he was fearless.

He charge the steedsaaker and smashed his war ax into the steedsaaker face breaking off one of its tusks. The steepsaaker reeled in pain and violently thrashed around. Wildly swinging its trunk and blindly charging with its tusks, the steedsaaker impelling two orcs, their deaths were quick.

Gneth wasn't fast enough to get out of the way of the angry stampeding beast and was pierced in the leg by the steedsaaker's razor-sharp tusk.

He had been trying to impress Urim but only managed to get in the way.

"My leg, my leg!" He yelled nervously patting at the wound. "Somebody help me!"

The orcs charged in to distract the steepsaaker, while Agronsk ran to his son.

"My leg! Help me, father!" Gneth yelled.

"Quiet boy! Before you bring that beast down on us both." Agronsk ordered clenching his teeth.

"My leg, it hurts so bad." Gneth cried.

"I know son," Agronsk said. "But right now I need you to calm down so I can stop the bleeding."

Agronsk tried to tie a tourniquet on the wound but Gneth would not stop squirming and Agronsk was having trouble keeping pressure on the wound and making a tourniquet.

     Plum seemed to glide through the air and landed next to Gneth. She sat her bow next to her and applied pressure to Gneth's wound.

"Thank You," Agronsk said.

Plum simply nodded.

But the steepsaaker had drawn blood, and it wasn't finished. It turned its gaze back to Gneth and charged pummeling any orc in its way.

"Change of plans!" Agronsk said, pulling Gneth to his feet.

"Ow, ow, ow, careful," Gneth said.

Orcs are heavy, Plum thought. Even though Agronsk shoulder most of the weight it seemed like Gneth put all his weight on Plum.

"Faster! You gotta go faster!" Agronsk yelled looking back.

The steedsaaker was gaining, they weren't going to make it.

      Plum felt a hand on her back then a violent push that put her directly in the path of the charging beast. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Agronsk and Gneth disappear from view. But Plum had no time to react.

Urim dropped his ax and ran as fast as he could towards Plum. He pushed her out the way, protecting her head as they rolled and tumbled out the way of the stampeding beast.

But beast circled around and barreled towards Plum and Urim. Urim felt for his ax but remember he dropped it to save Plum.

Plum took a deep breath lined up her shot and held it.

Calm and confident, wait for it to get closer. Everything around her disappeared and all that was left was the sound of her breath.

"There," she whispered, releasing the arrow.

The steedsaaker reeled in pain, the arrow puncturing its right eye, causing it to veer away from Plum and Urim.

The steedsaaker threw its head left and right, the pain making it crazy and blind with rage. It lost its balance letting out an ear-piercing squeal as it violently crushed, down a slippery slope.

     Plum sighed in great relief, then blushed when she saw Urim laying under her. He had protected her from the charging steepsaaker and she in turn straddled him to take her shot.

Embarrassed, she jumped off him and looked away hiding her blushing face. She was sure he was smirking with that smug look he'd given her before. But, she couldn't help watch him with a sense of satisfaction as he ran towards where the steepsaaker had fallen.

Plum followed Urim, down the slope, there was an eerie silence among as the orcs gather around the dying steedsaaker.  When the steepsaaker tumbled down the slope it was pierced with a sharp tree branch. Plum's arrow had caused the steedsaaker to fall. She had taken it down with nothing more than a bow. The kill was hers.

Gneth charge in with his ax, he wasn't as hurt as his scream led him out to be. He would slay the beast first and take the kill.

Urim swung his ax full speed, full power, and Gneth abruptly stopped, Urim's ax was at his throat. Had he not stopped, Urim would have surely decapitated him.

Gneth swallowed hard as sweat poured from the sides of his head. "She's an outsider, you would let her have the kill."

Chieftain Urim's grip tighten on his ax as he glared at Gneth. A low growl rumbled deep in his throat. "You know our laws are absolute. Plum's arrow downed the beast, the kill is hers."  Urim snarled.

    Gneth knew not to question Urim, but he refused to allow an elf with a bow to have the kill.

"You don't want to challenge me," Urim said, leaning forward. He recognized that look in Gneth's eyes.

The horde growled and grunted, they stood with Chieftain Urim.

"The kill is hers, the horde agrees," Urim said.

The horde surround Gneth grunting and snarling, they would tear him apart. For now, Gneth concede the lose, the kill was Plum's.

    The beast lay there dying, his breath slow and shallow. Every orc watched as Plum gripped the tree branch tight and with all her strength plunged it deep into the heart of the steepsaaker. The beast let out a blood-curdling last scream. But Plum didn't back away she stood over the massive beast and watched until the end as it drew its last breath, making Plum the champion of the hunt.