Tales from “The Grimoire of the Orcs" [TFTG]

Ok so here is my first try at a writing contest on ATS

On the mountainside a storm was brewing…

Inside a cave removed from the rest of the orc clan, Haga was deep into her summoning spell now, she could hear the thunder and see the lightning flash outside but it was the wind, the air itself that interested her. Even as she summoned the element of air she thought of her loneliness. Alone, she lived in the cave outside the village; alone she would always be…

An adept of the clan Stormchaser since she was a youngling Haga was an outcast in a race of outcasts. Orcs were shunned by the kingdoms of men, elves and dwarves. She shunned by her own kind. Alone, she kept the stories and worked the minor healing taught her by the High Adept Jatal.

She could never have a mate according to custom. However, she longed for an orc cub of her own. She had searched the stories and the laws and while a mate was forbidden she found no bar to a young one of her own if only she keep to the codices. She could not lie with a warrior or captive of the clan for that also was forbidden but a mate from another place or another dimension was not.

While the clan had not known an adept of her skill in more than 100 years, and with Jatal’s passing last winter there was no one to teach her the ceremony and spells required to summon an embodiment of the wind she searched in the many tomes of spells and notes in the chain of adepts. She prayed to the gods for favor and concocted the potions needed to ensure the conception of a male.

This night, in a tempest summoned by her own hand would the wind himself take form and make with her a cub worthy of the mantle of chieftain - a warrior born of the element of air and her womb.

The air came, in his form and while he was bound to her will by the circle required a boon to be convinced to use his power to change form for the mating to take place. Haga, agreed to give him her life but only after her son had reached an age to care for himself. In blood she agreed to 15 years after the wind could take her essence for himself.

The deed done and Haga alone with her fate awaited the birth. She struggled alone to bring him into the world – the half/air elemental orc who would be chieftain of the Stormchaser Clan. Screaming he came into the world, with skin the color of a mountain sky – blue like a sunlit cloudy day. His hair, was ever windblown and white like the snowcapped mountains of his birth.
The cub still wet in her arms she struggled down the side of the mountain to the villiage so the clan could behold her miracle.

To the Chieftain she was led -

In the chamber Zog looked on the blue cub wrinkling his porcine snout. “This cub is a curse not a boon Haga – drown it, drown it in the stream!” In the clan of the Stormchaser Zog’s word is law...

Without hesitation, snatching the cub from Haga’s breast Urk the War leader led the procession to the stream. Haga begged for the life of her cub but the clan’s rage was great.

Urk dunked and held the cub under the cold mountain water for what seemed long enough but when he withdrew the cub from the water, while wailing and cold – it still lived.

Haga rose from the ground and stood and while Urk, confused by the cubs vitiality stood jaw agape grabbed the cub held him high and shouted.

“This is my son Wind Wolf he who is breathless, born of the wind itself he was to lead you…”

“Now, now instead he shall have his revenge – curse you all!”

With the canting of a spell and a movement of her much practiced hand she vanished from their sight and sped off into the night under a spell of invisibility and silence…

Will she and her cub live in the mountains alone long enough to get her revenge?

reply to post by Golf66


Very good writing for never having entered a contest before. You need a bit of formatting help, but are very good with descriptions. Mind if I borrow a few snippets to peruse in the Writing Tutorial?

SnF. The orcish perspective makes them seem less ugly.

ETA: You forgot to add [TFTG] to your title. PM masqua or tothetenthpower to fix that, if you are outside of your edit time. Gotta have that for every contest entry.

Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by Golf66

 

Very good writing for never having entered a contest before. You need a bit of formatting help, but are very good with descriptions. Mind if I borrow a few snippets to peruse in the Writing Tutorial?

SnF. The orcish perspective makes them seem less ugly.

ETA: You forgot to add [TFTG] to your title. PM masqua or tothetenthpower to fix that, if you are outside of your edit time. Gotta have that for every contest entry.

edit on 5/13/12 by Druid42 because: added ETA.

Use whatever you want for the tutorial - is there one? I (sort of obvious) haven't looked at it. I have a thick skin so any help would be cool. I spent less than an hour on it so not all that attached. Just an old remembrance of a character from a game session.

I guess I was confused with the title I guess I thought using the words in the title were enough. I'll get it fixed.

Great first story !!

S&F!

Looks like the Clan will have to reckon with this young Orc someday................

Very well written !

reply to post by Golf66
A great first start!

I look forward to reading more!

S&F

Thanks for the support everyone - this is what I can remember from the back-story I wrote for a character for a D&D game from many years ago. We were allowed to start with some character levels so instead I took some stuff from the monster manual and made a half-elemental instead.

As I recall he had some minor spell abilities and he was "breathless", meaning he didn't breathe air to live. I only think it came in handy once when I grabbed some foe and let myself sink to the bottom of a body of water in heavy armor He was wearing.

As it turned out actual character levels would have been better than the extra hit points and the minor abilities - but it was fun just to play. I miss it sometimes. The outlet for creativity.

I think I finished as a Spell Sword - which is a combo fighter/magic user who can cast spell in heavy armor. I concentrated on air spells.