Isolda

The two went to bed shortly after they are their dinner, neither had the strength mentally or physically to sit by the fire light and tell stories as they had. Yoka snored deeply as Isolda sat up and looked at the ceiling of the brush hut. counting the leaves on the vines. She still felt her mothers death and the sores on her legs still burned making sleep nearly impossible.

Isolda sat up with her back against the vine walls of the woven brush structure, she reached into her bag and pulled a small top like item. it had four sides and an animal carved on each side with a small peg at the top to spin it. She found a flat piece of ground of impacted clay and tried to spin it. luckily the clay hadn't seen water in a few days and was as solid as stone allowing the top the spin freely.

Isola watched as the marking glowed as it spun and a light exited the topside of it projecting the animals on the ceiling doing all sorts of wonderful things. There was a tiger from the jungles of the goblin isles chasing an Eastern Thre'a Jaq'Hare rather unsuccessfully as a group of sea-gulls stood on the back of a giant Blue whale of the northern waters. A gift from Jani'dae her first night at the owl city in the trees.

"Something vexes you and i sense it's the loss of the female orc. Forget her, for what we do next will take an Icey heart. War is brewing in these lands and you will soon see things you will have to forget or you will be eaten by them when we need you whole the most." the words soured in Isoldas mind, she wasn't sure she wanted to follow this master any longer, she wanted him to leave her alone, she wanted to go back to the owl city and sleep in her old room.

Of all the things she wanted most she wanted Jani'dae back with them, she cursed the Bramble beast first for what it did to her, then she cursed the Bird, and finally she cursed at herself.

"Did she have to die? couldn't we have just waited to go to the krakens keep, who cares if it would have taken us an extra few weeks." Isolda felt her ears go hot and her stomach tighten, she was now cursing her master, something she knew even in her mind he would know. She didn't care, whatever he did to punish her wasn't nearly as painful as what she was feeling now.

"You must not question my plan. Every move we make we make for a reason. There is a red moon about to rise in just a few weeks, when it does we will need to be at the krakens keep where their sept ." Its tone was dark and every word had a sense of importance as he spoke.

"will the red moon bring you back to us?" Isolda secretly hoped that wasn't the case, in her dreams he was massive, twice the size of a Kraken with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and a gape large enough to swallow a black fire phoenix whole. She was frightened for the world if that were to happen. "The red moon is powerful but it is not powerful enough to make an opening in the realm i am currently imprisoned in. It will give me a hole large enough to send something to Thre'a that can help you further."

"What if I do not want to go any further." Isolda had forgotten herself, she had begun to sob as soon as she realized what she had just done, "You will do what you are told or you will be left to rot for the flies to eat. You belong to me to do with as I please. You will obey or I will kill you where you stand, where was this grief when you tore apart the orc scout? You chose power over love and family, something you need to remember."

"Isolda, are you ok?" Yoka had heard her sobbing and woke up from her sleep, it was still very late at night even the birds had stopped singing and left the bard owls to their follies. " I could have sworn i heard you talking to yourself."

Isolda rolled over to face Yoka her eyes blood shot and puffy, " you were right Yoka we should have just killed that stupid Bird." More tears ran down her face as she rolled back towards the wall sobbing until she fell asleep. Yoka sang as Isolda slept, her voice beautiful like the singers who would peddle for coin in the markets and squares of La'velle, she sang to the sounds of the woods a tune in old orcish.

"Rakashai akanshai so't at'em,, bra'ush zabrux Rakashai Akashai" She sang low and with the drums of the Bard owl in the distance still reluctant to end the song even when the others had long since went to sleep. "vel la oof se Rakashai akanshai".

The forest seems to sing along as the rustling of leaves and the babble of the stream seemed to coincide and create a music that seemed to always be there. Isolda could hear the music while she slept and it drifted into her dreams.

Yoka sang until the sun began to creep above the trees and the cool night air began to taste warm and the dew began to form on the leaves. The creatures of the forest began to stir as they began the hunt for food, the spider-squirrels moves through the trees hopping from limb to limb in the trees above as the booming echoes of the iron bears moved about somewhere in the distance.

The birds had begun to wake as well, the bass swallows first singing a deep melodic tune as they peck at pine cones for their seeds and waiting for the bard owls to begin playing their songs. The travelers rested their weary bones well passed their normal wake up time, Isolda ha dmade up her mine to shadow port to Krakens keep and leave Yoka behind so she could figure out why she hadn't seen a single Kraken since the first day of the trip.

Isolda had decided a lot of things while she laid in the dark listening to Yoka's song; she was going to be queen, and she was going to find a way to get back Jani'dae from the long sleep.

The two rose a little after mid-day and broke their fast with some figs and berries Isolda had packed away. They disenchanted their little campsite in silence again and headed south again through the thick dark forest. "Yoka i'm gonna scout ahead in the shadows, i'm afraid my sores are still tender and it is much easier on me if I do. I can see if there's any danger up ahead at least."

Yoka was reluctant at first but Isolda insisted and Yoka wasn't really able to stop her so she surrendered the argument. " I don't know why you don't let me use magic, shadow hopping is a natural gift of the autumn witch."

"Magic has a price, even those blessed with it in their bloodlines have to pay that price. You are too young to understand what that could mean." Yoka was trying to argue about the price of magic as she floated off the ground cross legged. "Orcs as a race paid that price, the Rakashai, we bled the darkness from our hearts."

" I'm not afraid to pay the price for my magic." A cold wind that smelled of salt water crept on them, sending goose pimples up their spines and on the back of their necks. The flies and gnats that had clouded them and swarmed them when they stopped moving had disappeared.

"I suppose the shadows are safer with us this close to the sea. These southern waters are cold and it is said they get snow here, one of the only places in the whole world to get it since we lost the Frej." Isolda had no interest in asking about the frej, she had enough of stories and legends for the time being. Follies to believe in orc tales, she would be Queen when everything was done and she would write her own legends.

She decided to enter a shadow cast by a large pine tree the shadow plane was like an endless ocean, there was no sound and so far other human or otherwise. Isolda sort of levitated when she moved through the plane, above her there were odd shaped windows where small amounts of light would shimmer down for a ways but never able to truly pernitrate into the belly of the darkness.

Those windows littered the sky like a million stars, one for every shadow in the world, they would flicker and disappear, for every window that closed many more would seem to open. Time seemed to work differently there as well, years in the shadows only amounted a few seconds in the light. Isolda floated up and began peering into the many windows to check the path and make sure they were not about to enter any ambushes, or at least that Yoka wouldn't. She was safe in the Shadow sea, it was highly unlikely there would be any other Autumn witches in the area to bump into and orcs were powerless to do anything to the sea itself.

Isolda searched the shadow sea for anyone hiding in the vast wood, which had begun to become colder and while the oaks and pine began to turn into moreand more fur trees and white birch, there were less vegetation that was non toxic and even less seeds and nuts they could eat. Thea streams that cut through the forest began to run more rapid and violent as they dumped off the edges of the black cliffs into the sea.

Krakens keep was an orc stronghold built into a rock ledge that protruded hundreds of feet into the sky between two of the twenty black rock waterfalls. It looked like a giant tower built of obsidian with long rope ladders and stairs cut deep into the sides. Crude but effective as most of the warring clans technologies were. She saw what seemed to her to be normal life around the kraken clans little version of a city, there were orc women with their masks suckling small mask-less babies with large flat noses, big rounds eyes and skin with an almost bluish hew.

Owl clan orcs had a greenish hue in splotches across their skin, but Isolda wasn't really sure about the babies as the owls kept their babies in a community nursery hidden deep in the city where no one but the wet nurses could go.

The Krakens were much different than the owls, their women walked chests bare, their bosoms' exposed and their bottom halves covered with battle skirts made of a mix of soft boiled leather and hard hide cut in strips with spikes that looked as sharp as razors. There were some male orcs skinning fish and small sharks, blood and guts littered the space they were using, the animals hung hollow from a straw roof waiting to be cooked.

There was multiple firepits dug into the ground for those who were not permitted into the actual keep, many crude looking huts made from drift wood and roofed with large scaley roofs that looked to be stuffed with moss and topped with large slabs of fish skin. Some of the roofs were newer in patches and they would reflect shining rainbows in flashes as the sun hit them.

Isolda peered into the keep as well, the walls reflected lights from the torches that were lit throughout the halls and created long great shadows to which she looked. She saw a few guards here and there until she peered through a shadow cast off a body hanging upside down, hands bound behind and writhing as they hung there. They had been gagged but the captive tried to scream anyway, the sound was female but the light was too dim for Isolda to see if she was mage or Orc.

Isolda decided to try some of the other shadows cast to try and get a better look, only to find the fire the mystery person was hanging over was too bright making isolda have to take a less desirable spot where she still didn't have a plan view. She watched watched what she knew to be an orc, and what's more a Kraken Orc, his leather war skirt tattered and his mask held long dreadlock like tentacles casting a wicked shadow again the wall.

"You are weak! Raqsh you dishonor your clan! You should have slain that witch and been done with it." The voice sounded like gravel grinding as it berated the hanging wretch. "We cull our weak as the krakens and great beasts of the sea to keep weak blood from our midsts. After I've done with you i will cull your blood back three lines to make sure its truly gone." It was an orc he had hanging above the fire and stuffed its mouth so it couldn't speak. It was the scout she sent home pissing down its legs. "He's to kill him and his family!"

The realization that not only were the krakens not afraid of her or her master, but they hated weakness to a point they will kill a coward and his children as well as his brothers and sisters and then the parents, a testament to how vicious they truly were. The Orc pulled a sword that had a shadow that looked like a meat cleaver with a tip that took a sharp angle at the end.

The bound orc writhed harder as the sword grew closed to him, "Death to the weak blood." The Orc said as he swung his sword from above his head slicing into the bound orcs stomach, the shadows showed his innards dangling above the fire as the sound of water hitting the floor took over the sound of the orc gagging on his own blood and the gag shoved in its mouth,

Isolda wanted to look away but couldn't, the orc laughed as the life blood of the bound one dipped onto the fire causing a ghastly black smoke to rise to the ceiling. He swung his sword again removing the limbs leaving just the head and torso to hang there. The orc had stuck the limbs on long metal skewers and set them over the fire. The torso was lowered over the fire to roast and blacken, other orcs had started to enter the room, males carrying spears and scythe like curved swords and even some carrying swords that looked like the one that had just been used to execute the weak blood.

It finally dawned on her what she was seeing, these orcs were passing the cooked flesh of the killed Kraken orc and eating it. The Krakens were cannibals, the stories about orcs being cannibals who ate the flesh of anything they killed weren't all based in lies. The other orcs made merry as they ravaged the cooked corpse of the weak blood, the executioner taking a whole leg for himself.

"Cull this weak blood back three lines. bring me his children alive so i can remove them myself, his parents should feed our warriors for the night while his male siblings be salted and stored. Any wife he has that is with child is to be culled and any not to be claimed by whatever orc takes her. Weak blood muddies the water and weakens us all." The orc spoke with authority, like a highborn would to his subordinates. " He's the WarCheif"

He had no fear of Isolda and her dark master, he did not know this master she dared to threaten him with, and seeing how he had not sense of real justice he found it suitable to kill and eat the messenger. "These orcs are savage, no wonder most of the other clans keep them out with enchantments and why civilized Thre'a has painted them as monsters. These Orcs are." Isolda thought to herself as she witnessed the horrors of the clan as they served the dead orc to their younglings and soldiers alike.

Large skins filled with some sort of primitive spirit was passed around, none used cups or goblets, Isolda didn't even see bowls just the four grubby hands filled with either flesh or skin canteen grunting or laughing as they stuffed their faces.

Isolda had seen enough, she felt heat prickling her neck and her heart race, SHE had told them to send a garrison for them, to escort them and they killed the messenger and ate him and made a mockery of her instead. She would feed the flesh of that orc to his own children and then she would give his wives to the lowest orc she commanded. The privy scrubber would lay with his wives and daughters before she culled his bloodline buy three lines.

Isolda decided to follow Yoka knowing that the leader had not sent any scouts to follow them even, perhaps he was afraid of her, or perhaps he hopes she'll just die before she ever makes it to them. Isolda noticed the suns setting from the windows and realized she had been in the shadow sea for many hours, and probably needed to help Yoka set up camp for the night. She had seen a perfect spot that was hidden through the thickets on the outskirts of the krakens keeps territory.

Isolda shot out of the shadows in front of Yoka, who had looked warn from her solitary trek through the forests' paths with a cold wind biting her face and flesh, she seemed to be in good spirits and did not jump or seemed startled. "I was wondering when i'd see you again, i suppose you didn't find any traps set for us today. Alls calm in the lands tonight, it seems as though they're waiting on us to show."

"Oh they are, but what they will receive is my ire" isolda thought to herself or perhaps to her master, what she saw in the shadow sea reinvigorated her trust in her master. They were savage creatures who needed someone to guide them or they may eat themselves along with those around them. Isolda would be their Queen along with the commonfolk and the mages. She would rule them all and only bend to the Great Maw himself, and maybe not even him. The took a dinner of un cooked mushrooms and a paste made of different kinds of woodnuts they smashed together in their pumices and smeared on some wild celery Yoka had found along her hiking path.

The wind was extremely strong making it hard for them to make a large fire and control it, a night like this starting a fire was as much dangerous as it was difficult lest an ember danced through the wind and land on a patch of dry devils grass and the wood go up in flame. They kept a small fire where the embers were kept red but the flames low and they laid together under their largest skins to keep the wind off them. They created another shelter from the thickets but the bushes were scraggly and the brush was thin and raspy making their shelters walls has spaces and gaps that the cruel winter winds would barrage them through.

"I hate the cold." Isolda admitted to Yoka as she laid there in the dark shivering, her breath hanging in the air as white clouds. "It only seems cold because its night and at night the wind off the water makes it seem like it may snow, its really only as cold as an early autumn day. "

" I hate the cold" Isolda repeated before she sighed a deep sigh and wiggled herself deep into Yokas large warm body. " but i think i hate the sweltering heat more." remembering the long summer months back in the city, long months of drought that seemed to span years before finally breaking and giving them a few years of a cool beautiful autumn and heavy harvests that would have the realm feasting and celebrating for months further. then spring would come and everything would reset and prepare for the heat again. never had snow fallen during the age of men.

"Isolda, i fear we are being watched." Yoka spoke low, the shadows had begun to crawl through the bush as eyes shone through the blackness, "No, we've been surrounded." Isolda smiled to herself, finally the Krakens had decided to meet them, their intent vibrated through the area and it was not of peace. Isolda had scared their Orc king into sending his whole host to meet them. "Yoka I have to apologize for what I may do but I feel the moment may be no better than now. My master will not have us take the long sleep when he needs these foul creatures."

Isolda's green eyes glowed green and shone like lanterns, smoke swirled creating tendrals that flailed and writhed behind her like many tentacles as they tore through the little shelter of twigs they had taken shelter in. "come out of the shadows! I had not known the warriors of the Kraken clan to be so craven!"