Chapter 1: Where do baby Orcs come from?

This chapter is the introduction to, who I at least consider, our main character, Calix Feyrdrith (Kal-Iks Fey-R-Dry-Th) and her friend Phelan Archib (Fay-Lan Are-Chi-bi)

The wind rustled through the leaves, swaying the branch she sat on. She had spent the last 3 days sitting up in this tree waiting for her pray to come. Not eating, not sleeping, and not moving for 3 days, even the birds had started to think she was nothing but another branch on the huge oak tree and one had even started using her hair as a nest. Just as she was thinking this a tiny bead in her ear gave the tell-tale buzz, feeling like a bee had buried itself in her ear she recognised that the moment she had been waiting for was about to come. The bead was enchanted so that, if put into the ear of someone, it would allow them to project their thoughts towards anyone else who had one made by the same artificer. The only problem was that it only worked up to a range of 10,000ft., but a small compromise had been made to her device which caused it to buzz whenever a sister bead came into or out of range. An expected voice sounded in her head as she slowly notched her bow, it sounded distant, dispassionate and had no hint towards the speakers nationality or gender to it.

“Around eight guards, two with me four on horse back and the other two are driving the carriage I'm in”

“And you?” she questioned, not moving her lips as she wandered about her partners situation.

“They put me in adamintine shackles so I should be able to escape easy enough.” replied the voice

“Any mages?” she pressed, recognising the venom in her thoughts at the simple idea of magic

“Only one possible, its hard to tell but I think he might be a Dragon Adept, he's sitting at the front of the carriage next to the driver” continued the unseen companion

“Anything else I should know?” asking her final question as she counted down the seconds before her target would be in position

“Yeah” teased the voice “I'm going to use my black gel”

She couldn't help but crack a smile at this “Just make sure you leave their gold intact”

“No promises” chuckled the emotionless voice as she fired off her first arrow

….

Dathon had only been working as a guard for 2 years now but over that time he had learnt two things, Never ask questions unless you wanna get roasted and leave the killing to your mage.

They'd left Varsh 19 days ago, all he'd been told was that they were transporting a dangerous criminal to Heimeyere so that he could be forcefully banished to one of the lower planes of existence. He looked over at their captive once again trying to measure up what he could have done to deserve being literally sent to hell. The man looked to be in his late fourties, but he'd be told that he was no more then 25, he was covered in barely healed burn markes that look like he'd had them for all his life, he had no hair on his head but a large chestnut colored moustache that looked more like a fat caterpillar had decided to sleep on his face, but what really interested Dathon was that mans race. He clearly wasnt human, the pointed ears, violet eyes and fair skin that had been tinged a sickly green had told him that much, what he couldnt figure out was whether he was an orc or not since he was half the size of any of the green skins he'd seen and had this air of intelligence that was rarely found in any of the goblinoid races.

Eventually curiosity got the best of him and he had to ask “What are you exactly?”

The man jumped a little in surprise since this had been the first time any of the guards had spoken to him over the whole trip. He waited a second clearly sizing up Dathon before shrugging and saying “My fathers were an orc and an elf”

Supremely confused by this statement Dathon continued questioning “How do you have to fathers? I'm not an authority on elf swordplay but aren't they hiding the same stuff as us humans?”

“Clearly you've never fought an orc” stated the man and Dathon couldn't help but shake his head

“Ok so goblins, orcs, trolls and such aren't actually creatures like humans or halflings, their actually a type of plant.” Dathon nodded to show that he sort of understood and signalled for the man to continue “To mate goblinoids constantly shed their pollen and if that touchs another plant then a week later a new one is born.”

“But wait, if thats how orcs are born then how can your other dad be an elf?” asked Dathon not even trying to hide his confusion now

“Well elves usually try and hide this but they aren't born the same as humans either” continued the man slightly lowering his voice “They've actually been unable to give birth for around 300 years now. So being the magic loving creatures they are they came up with an alternate way of breeding, what they do is take a single hair from a male and females head, use them as the thread for a loom and create a new elven child using their combined blood and a sprinkle of magic. Only problem was that when I was being spun some orc pollen got mixed in with my would be mothers hair so when the spell was complete the abomination that is me was born.” a friendly smile building across his face as he finished his little speech.

Suddenly a scream came from outside and the cartridge lurched to a stop waking up Dathon's sleeping partner.

“I like you guard” smiled the man as steam started rising up from underneath his shackles and an evil hiss started ringing from where his fingers were “So I'll kill you painlessly, you on the other hand” nodding towards the other guard “I'm going to have fun killing you”

Suddenly a black dot shot out of the shackles straight into the fellow guards knee forcing him to drop to the ground and scream in agony a second before another dot screamed forward, green this time, hitting Dathon straight in the head. Feeling his strength being sucked out of him Dathon tried feebly to draw his sword but his hands weren’t under his control anymore, they just sat at his sides refusing to move. A few seconds later his knees gave in and he feel to the ground with a resounding thud. The last thing Dathon ever saw was the man tossing away the shackles, which now looked like an army of rats had gnawed them off, and the screams of pain as the man fingers started hissing again, this time against his companions skin.

….

It took the woman a little over an hour and a half to retrieve the horses and arrive at the wreckage. When she arrived her half-orc partner was casually leaning against the beaten up cartridge slowly chewing on something she hoped was an apple.

“A month Calix” commented the half-bred “It took you over a month to come up with a way to break me out”

The two quickly stopped what they were doing and locked eyes. It felt like an age had passed before they simultaneously broke and started laughing.

"Nice shooting" commented the older man as he bit down on whatever he was eating "What was it? 700 or 800ft?"

"845" she smiled back, obviously proud of her achievement “Did they treat you well in the Varsh dungeons?” questioned Calix as she started picking through the dead

“They probably would have treated me better if I had simply killed the king, and not spent the night with the queen.” shrugged the man

“Phelan!” Calix cried back in mock horror before winking “You should have seen the princess, she may still be a little flower but she definitely knows how to use her tongue.”

Author's Note

Any constructive criticisim is encouraged and appreciated.
I know the whole thing with how orcs and elves reproduce goes on a little bit, but it was just one of those things i like to do, i really do enjoy world building