True to his word, Rick answered questions from any and all Goblins who approached him throughout the journey. This coupled with many breaks, and a few fights with beasts either by going out to hunt them for food, or a couple foolish ones attacking the large group, made up the entire journey this far.

  And it was in that manner that over three weeks had passed, and they were nearly at the midway point on the journey to the Goblin Village. There was nothing amiss, no danger, nothing out of the ordinary, just nothing.

  Though something was happening, nonetheless.

  At the location where Jala’s tribe once stood was now a full-fledged war camp. There are hundreds of Orcs strolling about all over the area constantly. All of them seemingly waiting for something or someone. The other races in the Plains weren’t oblivious to the change and the impromptu war camp that was stood up over the last month or so, but no one was brave enough to investigate.

  Although some of the ‘superior’ races could walk through the plains with their heads held high, there wasn’t any doubt who the uncontested rulers of the Iris River Plains were. And once they were seen building and occupying a war camp, alarm bells would always trigger in the minds of the other races living in the Plains.

  The Orcs rarely stood up war camps directly in the plains, and those in the know would be aware that the Orcs have been kept busy by something else entirely for quite some time now. So, the fact they were sparing the resources to stand a war camp up on the edge of the Nameless Forest spoke volumes. The Orcs were serious about this.

  So, it was no surprise to the members of the camp who had been waiting all this time, to see a horse approaching them from deeper in the Plains.

  What was surprising was the fact it was just one horse.

  The War Chief never rode alone.

  POV Orkush

  ‘Thats just one rider…is the War Chief not coming anymore?’

  “That’s not the War Chief.”

  “Of course it’s not the War Chief you blasted idiot. But who the hell is it.”

  “Both of you shut up.”

  Eventually silence descended on the camp as everyone watched the lone Orc rider approach on his horse and after a few minutes he reached the camp where he was greeted by all the Tier 5 Orcs in the camp.

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  “Where is the War Chief?”

  “I was sent to let you know the War Chief will can’t come at the moment because he is being held up at the border.”

  “So why are we here still? We need to go support the War Chief. Who cares about Goblins. We can come back and crush them later.”

  “You are to stay here and wait.”

  “For Goblins? They aren’t even worth this much effort.”

  “Should I tell the War Chief you’re questioning him?”

  …

  “No? Good. The War Chief is still coming after the border is taken care of. He says the Goblins must be put in their place so that is exactly what will happen. Just wait.”

  The Tier 5 Goblins, along with the rest of the camp, who were all watching, remained quiet as the Orc rider who never even dismounted his horse began riding away from the direction he came.

  It was only after he was fully out of earshot did the camp finally gain some life again.

  “So. Are we going to stay here? And let all those Goblins run away from us?”

  “Someone has to stay here. What if the War Chief comes before we come back? I don’t want to be in the pits.”

  “But what if when he show’s up, instead of finding us doing nothing, we welcome him with the heads of Goblins?”

  ‘They both make a good point…what should we do. I’m tired of just sitting here doing nothing, when our prey is escaping from us. It’s just a bunch of filthy Goblins. It shouldn’t take long for us to kill them and come back. Plus based on what the messenger said, the War Chief is not going to be coming back for a while. It could be months before he shows up.

  ‘We have already been waiting for weeks…but all of us really can’t go…”

  “Alright. Some of us will go. 100 Captains, and 100 Squad Orcs. Plus…one of us. I know both of you want to go, but only one of us can go. But if the War Chief comes back before you return, you will likely be punished. So, who wants to go?”

  The three Tier 5 Orcs proceeded to argue about who should for quite some time until they finally reached a conclusion.

  Which was basically Orkush threatening to kill the other two. All three of them were of the same Tier, but they both knew they weren’t a match for him. So, with plenty of resignation and regret the other two Orcs eventually allowed Orkush to be the one to leave. After that It didn’t take him very long to gather 200 Orc strong contingent and depart from the camp.

  200 Orcs. Half of them were Tier 4, while the other half were Tier 3.

  That is the force of Orcs were now descending into the Nameless Forest in search of Goblins. Of course Rick and the others were over three weeks of travel away by this point, but Rick and others were going to stop moving forward once they reached the village, and due to the size of the group, they left many traces of their journey on the forest, so if someone knew were to look, it wouldn’t take them very long to find the path of Rick and the others, and follow them all the way to the Village.

  Of course, things could never be that simple.

  A few moments after the entire group of Orcs disappeared into the forest, something stirred in its sleep.

  Over two months of travel away from the Orcs, was a giant lake. One that Rick has learned to stay away from and even warned others from approaching it.

  Deep, very deep at the bottom of the lake, a truly massive beast who had been slumbering without movement began to move.

  Slowly but surely different parts of its massive body began to twitch here and there as it began to wake up.

  Eventually in the darkness on the bottom of the lake…one of it’s eyes slowly began to open.