*advisory* all the people in sexual situations are 18 or older.
Chapter 11- Ambush
The road through the Valley of Kings was a quiet one. As we drove southward the temperature climbed by the league. Eventually, coats and cloaks were stored away as it got hotter, and more often than not, we opted to not don our armor. Forgoing the extra protection for clothing that was more breathable. Eventually, we came to the Stonewrought Pass. Another large building that seemed to grow right out of the mountain with a large arched portal leading to a tunnel through the mountain range. We entered and the paved road immediately started sloping downward.
It has been a hundred and thirteen days, a little over three and three-quarters months since we started our journey when we emerged from the dark tunnel of Stonewrought Pass. Once again I stepped into the Searing Gorge.
The heat of the burned-out and scarred land hit us like a blacksmith's hammer. The ground was black with soot. Scorched bear from years of wildfires set by the always frenzied fire elementals. Also, we didn't see them, but we knew that there were lava spiders too, twisted arachnids come from the elemental plane of fire. The scenery included trees, wretchedly burned and blackened husks. Skeletal things that had long ago given up trying to live in such an inhospitable land. After so many weeks of living and traveling the beautiful lands of Dun Morogh and Loch Modan, the stark landscape of the Searing Gorge was so severe it was a punch straight to the gut.
Fearing an attack by bandits, or by the elemental wildlife, we stopped and camped just a mile or so from the southern exit from the tunnel. We hadn't set up a firepit instead choosing to eat cheese, bread, and smoked venison. Also, we hobbled the rams and tied on feed bags, but left them in their harnesses so that we could run if attacked or set out early. Once everything was done we went to sleep, or, at the least, tried to sleep.
Now, as we rumbled down the road, Shaelah drove the wagon and Pinkerpie rode shotgun. Inside the wagon, it was stifling from the heat, so Mandalay and I were walking. Avalanche was ranging out to the west taking out her frustrations with the uncomfortable heat on the lava spiders. Cyduna was walking a few feet away from the wagon with Fennic, Ealura, and Mandalay while I was at the rear, trailing the line of rams being pulled along on their leads.
The first attack came as three bolases were thrown at Mandalay, Pinkerpie, and Shaelah.
"Hruthgar!" Cyduna gasped in her mental sending to me, and then she was silent.
I looked up in time to see Mandalay crumple to the ground. Fennic and Ealura were at her side growling as they looked for their attackers while Cyduna was caught in a frost trap.
I was running as fast as I ever had while a war party of orcs charged out from behind the rocks on Mandalay's side of the wagon. There was a rifle shot and an orc dropped to the ground dead.
"Yes!" I hissed in congratulations to Pinkerpie on her shot, but when I looked up it was Shaelah who held the rifle.
She cocked it and shot again. Another orc fell dead. Then arrows started pelting the side of the wagon near Shaelah and Pinkerpie.
"Run!" I screamed!
Shaelah looked back at me startled, and so I screamed again as I pulled a Wildfire Bomb and threw it at the nearest pack of orcs, "RUN!"
Shaelah nodded. She sat down with the rifle in her lap, snatched up the reins, and started whipping the rams with the reins excitedly while shouting, "Get! GET! Ye flea-ridden sheep's guts! Get ye tired carcasses movin'!"
A group of orcs raised crude muskets and bows and aimed at Shaelah. The Wildfire Bomb I lobbed earlier exploded sending shrapnel and fire into the orcs as the explosion blew two apart and sent the rest flying in every direction. One orc, not caught in the blast, let his arrow fly but it was just wide and low enough to 'thunk' into the wagon. The next orc had a musket.
Pulling my pistol I fired as I ran. I hid the orc with the musket first. Three shot center mass, and then I shot his companion wielding the bow.
Shaelah barreled through a group of orcs blocking the road. She even managed to run one over, and then she and Pinkerpie were free. The orcs gave chase. They even managed to cut a pair of the rams away, but soon Shaelah had far outpaced them.
Looking around, it looked like this was an orcish raiding party consisting of about thirty male and female orcs. Shaelah had killed two, and I killed five. That was seven down out of thirty. Only twenty-three more to go!
Cyduna was finally free and she responded by Moonfiring the orc closest to her, a heavily muscled female with a wicked two-handed battleaxe. Cyduna tried to stand guard over Mandalay and the pups, but a group of ten hunters sent in their pets to harry her and she was steadily pushed away.
I quickly snatched and threw another Wildfire Bomb at the hunters, and then I threw out a Steel Trap and then a Frost Trap. Anything to buy time. Two warriors closed on me with swords and axes raised high. I Disengaged, using magic to enhance my leap backward. The Wildfire Bomb exploded to the accompaniment of screams from several orc females. I raised my pistol and fired once, twice, and a third time. Two orcs fell to the ground dead.
I turned to run just in time to see a huge green fist coming at my head. I tried to dodge but failed. I was hit just above my ear and the whole world went black!
----(!)----
When I awoke I was laying on the ground facing Mandalay. Her eyes were closed. Her face was pale and there was blood matted in her curly fiery-red hair, but I could also see that her large breasts were rising and falling in an even rhythm.
Off to the side, two female orc hunters fed scraps of meat to Fennic and Ealura. The two females were much smaller than the male orcs, and one seemed particularly small compared to her other female companions. She suddenly looked up from smiling at feeding the pups and saw that I was awake. She yelled in her harsh and guttural orcish tongue, and suddenly I was glad that I had asked Birdette to teach me to speak orcish as well as her native Dark Iron dwarvish.
"Skargh!" The female shouted, "Skargh, the male is finally awake. Now, I wish to make a trade with you."
I couldn't see Skargh, but I heard his approach. Heavy footfalls bespeaking a very large male. Skargh laughed and then a huge hand grabbed the back of my shirt and hoisted me up to a sitting position.
"Do you hear that human," Skargh growled in my ear, "Chyna and Runtla want to trade? Do you know how Runtla got her name? It is because she is a runt! The weakest of all of us!"
