Isolda

Isolda slunk into the shadows away from the light of the fire and into her tent. She had grown tired of hearing the lizards tales of monsters that creep in the night. His voice grumbled as his tale was weaved by the fire and caught the ears of the two female orcs now enthralled with his stories.

Orcs of the owl clan were a curious sort, they couldn't help but listen to stories and tales which is probably why they had so many. Isolda had begun to take this habit as her own as most lessons were given in lecture form with no paper or quill to write down. You could read along if you had a scroll about the subject handy and could read orcish. Isolda could not read nor speak the orcish tongue since most of the orcs who tended to her spoke the common tongue. As hard as she tried she couldn't ignore the lizards ramblings even inside her tent( which had been enchanted to have much more room on the inside) so she surrendered and half heartedly slumped into her small feather bed and listened.

" The world used to be crawling with elves, various clans and kingdoms all vying for control of a different piece of the world. There used to be three great elvish kingdoms here on this continent before the great war. There were the ones who built the city that kings live in, the ones who built the tower to the far north, and the kingdom that controlled the titan tree road. The high elves occupied the kings city and had been allies with all the orc clans for as long as orcs could remember. The elves to the north we called Night elves, they read the stars and practiced great magic and are the ones responsible for planting the great pixie tree that grows and gives the mage city its power. The elves who control the titan tree road are known as wood elves. They had a fire opal mine directly below the castle and had the ability to control its magic to cast glimmers over people and things. The ancients came to them first, tempting their king with power and riches. He was strong of mind but his heir was as arrogant as the fall is long. They killed the king through poison, sending an assassin into his midst and killing him during a feast to celebrate the princes birth day. When the boy was coronated the ancients sent a horde of plague goblins to infest the forest where the titan tree road resided. The elves did not know it was the ancients who had sent the devils on them, and as wave after wave assaulted the fortress and elf after elf had fallen the lord of the castle called upon the ancients. He begged for their help against the endless hordes of goblins pledging his loyalty to the ancients. It is known that whatever the ancients touched became corrupted by their power, warping and twisting their souls and bodies. Just as many races before them the wood elves were the first of the noble races to join. They were not spared from the corruption that followed. " He took a large gulp of spirits from a flagon he had tucked in his rucksack and tried to offer the other two a pull from it. " ah Jani'dae its good drink, made it myself from honey and apple-pears. Fine suit yar'self." He took another good swig, " Where was I?" He grumbled, Yoka( who had been quiet during most of the trip) was quite invested in his tale " the corruption that fallowed?" She said in a small elegant voice, curiosity had drawn her in and she wanted to hear more.

" right, right, the corruption that followed," he clears his throat and belched loudly causing Isolda make a face as if she smelled the worst pile of poop she'd ever smelled in her life. " male orcs are disgusting." She thought until she heard a second large belch coming from Jani'dae's direction. " i guess all orcs are disgusting." She said to herself in a sigh.

"Their corruption changed their beautiful noble bodies into twisted bald abominations who needed the flesh of living intelligent beings with souls to sustain their lives. The sun grew to burn their bodies so they could no longer move in the day. They're magic grew stronger and they began to use the power of their opals and the illusionary arts to work against the other three houses. Creating more of them in the wake of the battle, fallen elves would come back changed in both alliance and the literal. Their eyes blazing green like emeralds as they brought their attack to the high elves and their city overseeing the savage lands. While they slept in their beds the dark ones moved on the city killing guards and gaining new members of their clan. By first light La'Velle had become a city crawling with these dark elves." Twigs snapped in the distance cause Jani'dae to grab yoka and pull her into the hut with her. The lizard grabbed his weapon and prepared to fight should anything come of the noise.

Isolda heard the twig snap, it didn't sound like an animal, it was too deliberate a movement and it was too close. Most animals were afraid of fire, only iron bears would dare to venture so close to a fire. But they had also enchanted the area so it would be very hard to find them if you were looking for wanderers camping. Isolda rolled to the side of her bed and into the shadows, she then used shadow peek to search the area from which she heard the snapping of the twig. From shadow to shadow she peeked finding nothing, after fifteen or twenty minutes she popped back into her tent and shrugged it off as some animal rummaging through the forest. Until she he heard it again only it was closer still, she felt as though whatever it was was zeroing in on her little tent. She popped into the shadow once again only this time she began porting into the surrounding shadows looking for whatever was coming her way.

She had forgotten about the orcs until she heard Jani'dae casting enchantment on the otherside of the camp, then she heard what she believed to be the screams of yoka and the sound of a large thug hitting the forest floor. Isolda furiously jumped into the shadow of a small tree and ported to the sounds. There lying gravely still covered in blood was Lizard. His mask had been sliced through to his face cleaving a large section from skull, he layed there with only one eye peering out blankly.

Yoka was also on the ground but was not harmed, whatever blow she had taken merely knocked her out, then she saw it, Jani'dae struggling in the long boney grasp of a bramble beast. Looking like death itself, covered in thick thorny vines(which made it look like a tree like creature) long powerful arms which could be used as various weapons, and wood plating so thick even a titan steel sword mould have a hard time hacking through even the weakest parts of its body. " isolda run!" Jani'dae screamed but it was too late, the creature had seen isolda and it had decided to kill her next. Its red eyes focused on isolda with intent to kill slinging the orc across the clearing and into a tree. She slumped motionless on the ground dripping blood from the cracks in her mask.

Isolda felt fear creep its way up her back, this enemy was no orc scout or spider squirrel, this was a bramble beast, a creature of great dark power and blood lust. It was obviously immune to the charms laid on the campsite which also meant it may be immune to other magics. " great one save me!" Isolda cried out, she was not a match for this creature and she knew it. Her dark tendrils would not even scratch the beast let alone help her, " my vassal help you do what?" The voice answered back as the beast charged towards Isolda who was now frozen in fear. " defeat this monster before it kills me!" She yelled back.

Jani'dae laid in a state of unconscious consciousness, she could hear Isoldas screams in the distance unable to understand what she was saying. All of her arms were broken as well as a couple of her ribs. She took shallow painful breaths and prayed to the lunar goddess Isolda could get away. She soon realized her legs were no longer working and she was unable to stand so she laid there bleeding her vision blurred.