Departure and Arrival

It was finally time to for me to expand my worldview. It's hard to encapsulate yourself in a small environment like the BloodMoon tribe after having something like the internet at your disposal.

However, I was finally going to see another type of people besides the orcs. I wonder what the elves are like? From what I had heard they always seemed a tad xenophobic or at least they never seemed interested in meeting others.

I wondered if they would have some sort of superiority complex.

As I head back to my family's tent I hear my grandmothers voice behind me.

"Mar, wait a second, I wish to speak with you" Jurza softly called to me. I turn and once again have to remind myself that this woman is my grandmother, because no matter how I look at it I am confronted with the sight of an incredibly beautiful woman at the peak of her life.

"Yes Grandmother?" I ask.

"You are different, Since the moment I saw you as a baby I could see that you were not like the rest of the tribe." She started to say, my heart fluttered for a second wondering if she somehow knew my circumstances.

"You are far more like me in my youth.

My curiosity of the outside world pushed me to abandon the tribe and search explore far afield of our normal hunting grounds.

I am probably the only one here who has knows and has seen the world beyond our borders.

It is because of this that I achieved my high orc evolution path, rather than the brave path that most of the tribe follows.

I can feel in my bones that you are not like the rest of the tribe. You will not be confined here, your story is much bigger than this.

The elves are the first step and I forsee that events are set in motion that we cannot control.

Whatever happens, you must remember your roots, family above all else, no matter what,"

Jurza imparted this wisdom and I was once again reminded of the power of certain ideals. No matter my origins outside of this world I had been born into certain powerful bonds that I had never imagined. My mother, father, grandmother, the chieftain, and every member of the tribe, I truly felt the love and power of the bond we had.

I grabbed my grandmother's hand and clenched it tight. "Grandmother, my family is my life. No matter what I will never forsake you" I gave her a solemn vow,

Little did I know at the time how important that vow would be.

"That's all I wanted to hear from you, also a small side note. Be careful when you are among the elves, the adults are fairly level headed but the young elves have a hard time controlling certain... urges.." Jurza warned as vaguely as possible.

"Yes, grandma" I said while silently wondering what on earth she could possibly mean by urges.

If it's what I hoped then things could be fairly interesting.

I went back and prepared for the trip ahead of me, I did not have many physical possessions but my pack soon filled with certain items that would be helpful in any number of pinches.

The few days between me and my trip passed by quickly, I spent them being involved in the day to day affairs of the tribe but word soon spread of the mission my family had been selected for and the tribe started acting like we were going to be gone for a long time despite the fact that it was supposed to be a few days.

Guess people will always overreact to stuff.

Anyway the day of our departure arrives and we all gather, both the departing group and the entire tribe to see us off.

We hoisted our packs and took off with the chieftain and the tribe looking on.

Since our tribe was backed up against the Greenoak forest we were immediately met with the sight of an endless forest of trees that stretched on for miles, not that our gazes could pierce that far.

The trees stretched on endlessly but our passage was fairly easy because of the established foot path that took us deeper into the forest.

After a while of traveling I turned to look at Lukshu, of all the orcs traveling with me I was the least familiar with him.

"Lukshu, what made you so interested with the elves that you became our ambassador?" I asked

Lukshu turned toward me but when he heard my question his eyes glazed over for a moment and I could tell he was experiencing some very powerful memories.

"Well, to be honest I had always been slightly interested in what other species looked like, then I finally encountered them on a patrol once, and I saw her....." Lukshu trailed off clearly enjoying the reminiscing session.

My dad snorted a little before speaking "Son, don't end up like our Lukshu here, he fell in love with a young elf lass, you don't know this but all elves are extremely promiscuous in their youth, unfortunaltely they have always tended to themselves and so no orc and elf have intermingled since our tribe settled her. Lukshu could have been the first if he had the spine to take what he wanted. He was too nervous and let her slip through his fingers though. Probably for the better though, elves are too skinny and ugly. They don't hold a candle to our strong orc women.

Still, you need to always take what you desire. Like a true orc."

Balraav advised me strongly and Lukshu seemed embarrassed and with chagrin he replied. "I was still young and don't talk about her that way! She was.. is the very vision of beauty!" Lukshu responded angrily.

"So beautiful you couldn't bear to push her down and ravish her until she could only moan your name?" Balraav was relentless in his teasing.

Lukshu was getting red in the face from anger but before he could respond another voice entered the discussion.

"Oh? is that what you did? Took what you wanted without a care in the world and forced me to moan your name for hours?" My mom suddenly asked Balraav with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Cough!" Balraav suddenly coughed clearly caught off guard by the question. "Well one of us did those things.... and I'm just letting Mar know how an orc should behave."

Kashna snorted a little "I don't mind one bit who my son takes as his own, he can press down as many skinny elves as he wants but what is important right now is that we improve our relationship with them, which means this conversation should probably change before we enter their territory." My mom reprimanded sharply.

The orc men blushed from embarrassment but stopped talking.

"How close are we by the way?" I asked curiously, we had already been walking for 4 hours and the landscape had not changed at all.

"We are nearing the border of our territories soon and after that it it just depends on when we encounter a patrol. If we don't then we will approach the Lakeborn elf village which is another 3 hours by foot." Jurza informed me.

I re-shouldered my pack and continued the journey.

Eventually we reached a point in our journey where the older orcs informed me that we had reached the border. I noticed a few markings but other than that I didn't see any noticeable difference between our lands and theirs.

"Welcome Elf-friends" A voice like fine music suddenly rang out from seemingly nowhere. Apparently I had a long way to go before I notice anything at all...

Kashna and Jurza were the only two who were unsurprised while Balraav readied his weapon.

Only a second after I heard the voice a figure appeared from behind one of the many trees in the area. It was a male elf. His appearance was pretty much exactly what I had imagined from my previous life. His features were fair and graceful. He was handsome in a way that wasn't overly masculine, especially his frame which was lithe and skinny compared to the densely muscular orcs I had become accustomed to seeing.

Well nice to know this new world I was born into was still pretty stereotypical fantasy.

"Tunidril!" Lukshu exclaimed "Have you been waiting here long?"

"I was instructed to by the elders to see you safely to the village, and so here I am." Tunidril replied. His direct aloofness was kind of refreshing after spending so much time with the brutally honest orcs.

"Please follow me dear friends." Tunidril motioned with his arms and turned toward the area we were already heading. We followed him as he flitted through the trees, no longer worried about maintaining conversation. As we traveled deeper the the conversation grew increasingly solemn and I began to notice the almost dreamy energy that was shrouding the canopy around us.

The natural colors of the forest began to become hazy and the leaves became almost silver in nature. This change became more prominent until finally we entered a clearing. I was met with the sight of a giant lake that stretched on for quite a while without ever leaving the ring of trees.

A small ways away from where we stood, I could just make out structures that blended with the trees. I assumed it was the Elven village.

"Welcome to Loch Anduin, the ancestral home of the Lakeborn." Tunidril announced solemnly. Before making his way along the shore towards the village.

The whole process was very solemn and magnificent and if I was still in my previous life this would have been the moment that cool soundtrack music would begin playing.

Unfortunately for Tunidril, the solemnity of the moment was suddenly ruined when in the distance between us and the village a group of figures rushed from the treeline toward the beachfront of the lake.

My gaze was drawn to them and I suddenly realized that the figures were group of elves who were wearing skimpy bathing suits!

In my mind I had imagined all clothing to be primitive like the orcs fur clothing but now I was faced with the awesome reaity that I waas wrong.

A group of beautiful elf women were rushing toward the water at this moment in sexy bikinis. None of them were overly busty but quite a few of them were endowed enough that their sprint was an awe inspiring sight that made me fixated at the sight.

Lukshu was right there with me on the impolite staring but we hadn't drawn their attention yet so it was okay.

"My apologies..... I can assure you that the Lakeborn are a serious group. Elves when they are young experience an intense burst of excitement and emotion in their lives before they reach maturity and become reverent. However this is the summer season and our youth are often focused on their revelry at this time... Please ignore them" Tunidril apologized but did not deviate from his route that would take us right next to the merry group.

Our party made our way closer and Lukshu slowly lost his composure until he looked like a pervert drooling from his mouth. Hopefully these elves didn't know what a normal orc looked like and they would assume he was savage,

As we drew nearer the group of frivolous elves finally noticed us and they couldn't help but stare. We walked along the shore and they were already in the water or near the water line but that didn't stop them from gawking as we passed.

I wished I could gawk as well. There were so many ridiculously beautiful women around dressed in scanty clothing that barely hid their private areas and did an amazing job of promoting their assets and hot figures.

Unfortunately I represented my tribe and so I couldn't be overly lusty in my gaze and immediately anger the elves.

As we passedI couldn't help but notice that many of the elf females were staring at me with burning gazes. I think they honed in on the youngest and also coincidentally shirtless orc in the group/ I already knew that my muscular and proportionate frame was enticing for others but this was the first time that I felt like I was a god among ordinary people. Compared to the elf men I was thicker, more muscular, and just gave off a far more masculine vibe.

I saw some women whhispering amongst themselves as we drew closer to the village and left the young elves behind.

"Welcome to Te' Induil, Home of the Lakeborn" Tunidril solemnly announced as we entered the village.