Chp.10: Deceive the chieftains

By evening, many of the ogre patrols had already returned to the army camp. The ogres weren't a nocturnal race and had difficulty seeing in the dark, therefore as soon as darkness fell they ran to take refuge together with their fellows to feel safer. After all, the Karbraland Great Forest wasn't a safe place during the day, let alone during the night; if they add that they were at that moment at war with the fairies, the danger was too great to stay out at night.

However, there were always some latecomer who appeared from the thick of the forest when it was already dark and the camp fires were roaring. And that night was no different: while the soldiers were enjoying their dinner, they noticed something moving in the trees and coming towards them; initially they grabbed their weapons, fearing it was some wild animal, but then they recognized the shadow.

"Look who's back! Sarpa, we thought you were lost in the woods!" one of the soldiers exclaimed, making many of the others laugh. "What happened to you? Did you fall asleep or..."

Both the soldier's words and the laughter of the other ogres stopped istantly as Sarpa came into the light. As soon as they saw their companion, an expression of sheer amazement and confusion came over the faces of the soldiers.

Sarpa had several cuts all over his body and a wound on his right side that seemed to hurt quite a bit; other than that, though, he didn't seem too bad. He was covered in blood, but it was clearly not his blood. What caught the attention of the ogres was rather what he carried on his shoulders: the unmistakable dead body of a fairy, whose head looked as if it had literally been shattered.

Sarpa completely ignored the confused looks of his companions; he advanced rapidly until he reached one of the fires, and then hebexclaimed: "Where is the chieftain?"

"He... well... he's conferring with the..." one of the soldiers tried to stammer.

But Sarpa didn't leave him time to finish: "Call the chieftain, NOW!"

The soldiers gulped. Sarpa wasn't the strongest among them, nor did he hold any position of power, but at the moment the tone of his voice was so authoritative that no one even felt the urge to resist him. The ogres rose and scattered across the field, looking for their chieftain.

Sarpa remained by the fire, knowing that whoever found the chieftain first would have directed him there. He didn't have to wait long: after a few minutes, Dharon's shadow appeared in his field of vision. When his chieftain reached him, he too had a worried expression on his face. "Sarpa, what happened?" he asked.

"Chieftain, I must speak to the council immediately" Sarpa replied, then he pointed to the faery's dead body on his shoulders. "I have important news that everyone needs to know"

Dharon was silent for a moment, his eyes darting from the fairy's corpse to Sarpa's serious and resolute expression. Then he nodded to him: "I understand. Come, I'll take you to the council right now"

The two ogres ran across the military camp, attracting the attention of many soldiers, but neither of them paid any attention. In a few minutes they reached a huge tent almost in the center of the camp. This was the 'meeting tent', the place where the chieftains gathered to discuss. Luckily at that time of the evening the chiefs always met to catch up on each other's activities during the day, so there was no need to send for them: all of them were already inside the tent.

Dharon entered first, and Sarpa followed. The inside of the tent was very spartan: there was no furniture or trinkets, only a few torches that gave light, a large cut log that served as a table and several chairs that surrounded it, each of them with a chieftain seated on them. Sarpa paid no attention to their confused expressions: as soon as he was inside, he threw the fairy's dead body on the trunk, making it clearly visible to all.

Such an action would normally have been seen as disrespectful, but at the moment the chieftains had other things on their minds. "But... this is a ninja!" Hoortar exclaimed recognizing the uniform.

"One of those fairies that can become invisible?" Volgor murmured in astonishment, then he looked up at Sarpa. "How could you have killed her?"

The ogres knew the ninjas well, since they were a real pain in the ass for them. While they weren't invincible, their ability to turn invisible made them very annoying and difficult to catch. Therefore it was surprising that a mere ex-hunter like Sarpa had been able to kill one by himself.

Sarpa crossed his arms around his chest. "I was lucky. The great Baat smiled at me" he replied. "I found her by accident while I was patrolling the south side of the forest. She was facing a ya-te-veo"

The chieftains grumbled softly. The ya-te-veo was an extremely dangerous plant of the Karbraland Great Forest: it resembled a simple tree, but its trunk could open and split into several extremely strong tentacles that grabbed and crushed anything that came within their range. Despite being just a plant, it was one of the most feared predators in the whole forest and ate everything, even the infamous bersekir bears. Furthermore, since it had no eyes, it orientated itself by the vibrations of the air; therefore, against it, a ninja's invisibility was useless.

However, it wasn't the instinctive terror that the ya-te-veo struck in the hearts of those who heard its mention that made the chieftains jump, but rather the position in which Sarpa claimed to have found the fairy. "South, did you say?" Ostar murmured.

The ogre camp was located in the western part of the forest, while the fairy camp was in the east. Up until this point, all fairy activity had been concentrated in the east. If Sarpa had found one of the fairies to the south, then it might mean… "Go on" Volgor ordered apprehensively.

"There's not much to say. The fairy and the ya-te-veo fought strenuously and I watched from behind a tree. In the end, the fairy prevailed, but only after a huge effort and after having used almost all of her magical items" Sarpa explained, pointing to the dead body of the ninja who, in fact, was wearing almost no weapons except a few daggers. "As soon as I was certain that the ya-te-veo was indeed dead, I came out of my hiding place and attacked her. She was now too weak to pose any threat to me. We fought and within minutes I had the upper hand and I smashed her head with a stick"

The chieftains grunted and looked at each other: the story seemed true, and after all there was no reason for Sarpa to lie. As Sarpa had anticipated, in the end they bought his story. Because, of course, all of that was just a lie.

The fairy's body was actually one of the victims of Haku and his siblings, who had 'given' it to Sarpa so that he could start that recitation. The wounds had been inflicted on him by Haku himself to make everything more truthful and the blood on him came from the two still alive fairies that the dragons had almost bled to death. The fairy didn't have many magical items or weapons because obviously Haku wouldn't have gave away much of his loot, and the story of the skull smashed with a stick served to make the story more believable since Sarpa's axe was currently at the blacksmith to be repaired; it was unlikely that the chieftains would have investigated so thoroughly, but it was always better to be sure.

"So basically you won because you waited like a coward and faced a weakened opponent" one of the chieftains said, and a couple more nodded. This wasn't surprising: the ogres were a race that valued strength highly, so it was an outrage that a mere soldier could have managed to kill a fairy ninja, an act in which many chieftains had failed. So it was normal that they tried to mitigate their humiliation by mocking him.

But Sarpa paid no attention to them. "I didn't come here to brag about what I've done. I came because I believe the fairies are preparing something dangerous" he said, whereupon he grabbed the corpse and pulled something from his pockets, then he tossed it onto the table.

The chieftains leaned forward to look. It was clearly a map, written and drawn in fairy characters. The ogres couldn't read the language, but they could recognize that it was a representation of their military camp. Quite an accurate representation, indeed. But there was something strange: the map described not only the ogre camp, but also the stretch of forest that passed further south. A pair of dashed lines drew a path through that stretch, carefully avoiding all ogre patrols.

The chieftains frowned as their earlier fears seemed to come true. "Are the fairies looking for a way to attack us from behind?" Hoortar murmured.

"It could be. But I don't think that's the case" Ostar said looking at the map. "Look at the path indicated: it is designed to avoid our patrols. If they wanted to attack us from the rear, then they would not avoid them, but they would kill them directly; after all, to be able to attack us from the rear, it would take at least a tenth of their army. But this path it seems designed to let only a battalion or so through, which would be quite incapable of doing any serious damage to our army"

"What if instead they plan to move their army piece by piece, without us noticing?" Volgor suddenly proposed. "Let's assume that they have found a refuge hidden from our sight, inside our territory. In that case, they could decide to move one battalion at a time, avoiding the risk of alerting us, and only when they have enough strength will they attack us"

Ostar gritted his teeth at that thought. "Improbable, but... not impossible" he admitted. "If that was true, then we would be in big trouble. We have to find these fairies' refuge and destroy it before it gets too strong. Otherwise, we will find ourselves fighting a war on two fronts"

The other chieftains nodded. That seemed like an absolutely logical and sensible strategy. After all, no one of them wanted to fight a war on two sides.

However, the problems weren't over. "We have something else to worry about" Hoortar said. "If this refuge really exists, then right now there may already be several battalions of fairies in our territory. With most of our forces gathered here, the fairies may decide to aim their arrows at our villages or even our cities"

The chieftains looked at each other with concern. Indeed, that was a possibility. Even if the fairies had never done such a thing in past wars, there was no guarantee they wouldn't decide to do it now. And if that had happened... it could have been a tragedy.

"Based on this map and the geographical location of this route, it is logical to assume that the refuge of the fairies is located near the Bolvek tribe" Ostar said pointing to the map. Indeed, the Bolvek tribe (which was one of the most populous tribes, to the point that the cluster of houses it formed could be defined as one of the few ogre cities) was located particularly to the south, so they would have been the primary target of a possible raid of the fairies.

Volgor immediately rose to his feet; as chieftain of the Bolvek tribe, he was clearly furious. "I'll leave immediately with my soldiers and sweep my tribe's territory inch by inch! If the fairies are there, we'll track them down!" he exclaimed.

But Hoortar shook his head. "You and your soldiers serve here. We can't throw away a large chunk of our army, not now that we're in a stalemate and any sign of weakness could be fatal" he said.

"Hoortar is right. And by the way, I doubt the Bolvek tribe is in any danger right now" Ostar said. "Now that we know which path the fairies use, all we need to do is intensify the patrols to the south to prevent them from crossing it. And since this map has clearly been drawn recently, even assuming that some fairies have already arrived in our territory they cannot be several. The guards you left behind will be enough to protect your tribe, Volgor"

Volgor clenched his fists in fury, but rationality got the better of his anger. He knew that both Hoortar's and Ostar's words made sense. "Okay, but I will at least send a messenger to warn them of the danger and tell them to step up their guard duty and training"

"I will go"

The chieftains turned to Sarpa. The ogre stood impassive in their gaze. "I volunteer. My legs are strong and I can run very fast. I will go and warn the Bolvek tribe"

Volgor was surprised. "Why would you do this? You aren't from my tribe"

"No, but I know what it's like to lose a child and live without even knowing if he's still alive". Sarpa's tone immediately turned sour. "It is an experience that I don't wish for anyone, no matter what tribe they are from. Therefore, I volunteer to go and warn the Bolvek tribe. If this warning can save even one innocent life, I will be satisfied". He turned to Dharon and made a half bow: "Chieftain Dharon, I humbly ask you to let me leave. And you, chieftain Volgor, I ask you to allow me to be your messenger"

Dharon sighed. He well remembered that Sarpa had been lucky enough to escape from the fairies during their initial retaliation, but that his son hadn't been the same. He had been captured and now no one knew what had happened to him. A father's despair could lead to madness, but Sarpa had been able not to give in to pain and it showed his incredible fortitude. It was only natural that now he wanted to help prevent such a tragedy from befalling other soldiers as well. "All right. You have my permission" he said. "Volgor, I can assure you that you can trust Sarpa. He has never failed a mission since the beginning of this war"

Volgor looked indecisive for a moment, then he nodded. "Okay. Leave immediately and run as fast as you can"

"Yes, chieftain. I won't disappoint you" Sarpa replied, and after a quick bow he walked out of the tent. As he walked away and prepared to leave for the Bolvek tribe, a small smile was present on his face. Everything had gone as planned.

"I have to admit it" he thought. "That dragon may be a bastard, an asshole and a true demon... but he's a real manipulative genius"