Ulam grunted and then lovingly slammed a big, ugly Orcish fist into his foster-brother’s shoulder.
“By the Gods,” Amantius muttered as he rubbed his shoulder, “I’m going to have to buy armor just to keep you from breaking my damn arm.”
Reconciled, Ulam and Amantius joined Nilawen, and after a brief exchange of apologies and explanations, they found shelter from the sun under a great elm tree. They began planning their next move, unsure as to where to go next.
“The commander, Donnello, lent me this map before I searched a nearby Sanctuary,” Ulam said as he spread the edges of the canvas across the green grass beneath them. “It may be of some use for deciding where to go next.”
“You went to another Sanctuary?” Amantius asked. “Did you find anyone, or was it like the others?”
Ulam shook his head. “No. No one there. Saw the usual buildings: a great hall, houses, forge, a temple. All were in disrepair; they probably have not been used in decades.”
“That’s a shame,” Nilawen said with a sad smile, “you’ll find another Orc someday; you might just be searching in the wrong areas. You can’t be the last one in the world, there’s just no way.”
Ulam grunted. What if I am?
“Well, we can’t return to Thornsgrave,” Amantius stated, drawing everyone’s attention back to the map. “Our sudden disappearance probably hasn’t been received too well by virtually anyone.”
“I don’t really see north as an option, either,” Nilawen pointed out. “That’s bandit country from what I’ve gathered from some of the locals here. One of the women told me there is a pact between the fort and the various bandit gangs, one of those ‘stay out of my business and I’ll stay out of yours’ kind of deals.”
“Then we go south?” Amantius suggested. “It looks like there are some cities down there. Edgelight, Dawnmouth, Tradewall. There are probably some job opportunities for us there.”
“Are you trying to kill us, Amantius?” Nilawen said with a firm shake of her head. “I’m never going down there again. The southern part of the Empire is both incredibly isolationist and xenophobic. They probably wouldn’t like three non-citizens of the Empire in their cities, especially considering two of us aren’t Human. I’d much rather take my chances with the bandits, at least I could probably talk the bandits into letting us join them. In those southern cities, especially in Dawnmouth, we might as well put a noose around our own necks and spare them the effort.”
“Alright, alright, we get the point.” Amantius leaned back on the grass, letting out a sigh of exasperation. “Where can we possibly go then? It’s not like we can stay here forever.”
“There’s only one other option that I can see,” Nilawen said. “We travel west, through the mountains, and into the Ashlands of the Alakuum.”
“That Ashlands of the Alakuum?” Amantius repeated. “It doesn’t sound too appealing. What is it?”
“It is what is on the other side of those mountains,” Donnello motioned as he approached. The old commander kneeled in the swaying grass, fanning out his wispy white hair in a passing breeze. “It is where some of the Beast Races fled after they were defeated by our ancestors Master Amantius, way back when our forefathers laid down the foundations of what would be someday known as the Emberi Empire. To answer your question more accurately, it is nothing more than a desert, but unlike any desert you have ever seen. The sand is a grayish-brown and flakes like ash, and the smallest gusts of wind can create a storm which blankets even the sun.”
“Does anyone live there? You mentioned something about ‘Beast Races?’” Amantius asked, a flicker of excitement in his eyes. “Like Orcs? Is that where there might be more?”
Donnello chuckled, like a teacher relishing the innocence of a pupil. “Some would categorize Orcs as a ‘Beast Race,’ but only because the term is, admittedly, quite vague. We Humans have lazily assigned the term ‘Beast Race’ to virtually anyone who inhabited this continent before us, although in this part of the Empire we use the term to identify the two groups living in the Ashlands of the Alakuum. As for Master Ulam and his people, I personally do not consider the Orcs a ‘Beast Race.’ In fact, most educated members of society do not either. No, we instead believe Orcs and Elves share the same lineage, although we have no proof to validate our position.”
So some believe my people and Nilawen’s were descended from the same proto-race? Ulam thought, unsure how he felt about the concept. Seems a tad outlandish to me, but perhaps we are no different than the different breeds of horses, dogs, or any other domesticated animal. It is an interesting hypothesis, at the very least.
“As for the answer to your second question,” Donnello continued, “there may be Orcs in the Alakuum. It is so large, so vast, that it is certainly possible some live among the Ashes.”
Ulam grunted; he had heard all he needed to convince him to travel into the Ashlands of the Alakuum. If there are any other Orcs left in this world, then they must be there.
“Although, traveling the Alakuum will not be easy,” Donnello went on, the tone in his voice filled with doubt. “I have done so only once, and I am lucky to have escaped with my life. The land is
