Kidas's Ride

[HobbitGirl]

“Kidas! Are you mad?! What are you doing?!”

“Get me a horse.”

“What? Kidas, what are you talking about? Get back here!”

“Get me a horse, Licha. I’m going after him.”

“Kidas, wait!”

Despite Licha’s shouting, Kidas would not wait. She would not wait for anything. They had taken her love, and Kidas would not sit at home and wait for them to take him to their caverns. Licha, the innkeeper’s wife, was chasing after Kidas into the inn.

“Kidas, have you lost your mind? You’ll never catch them. If there’s going to be any catching it’s they who will catch you, and then you’ll suffer the same fate as…as Parg,” Licha said, choking back a small sob when she mentioned the name of her late husband.

“Yes, and have him bring my things around to the stables. I’m leaving immediately,” Kidas was saying to the man at the counter. She paid no heed to Licha until the man had walked away. “Licha,” Kidas said, finally turning to the distressed woman, “That’s why I’m going after Kadium. If there’s any chance that I can bring him back alive, then I’m willing to take it.”

In a few minutes Kidas’s belongings and a store of food had been brought out of her room and loaded into the saddlebags on a grey and white stallion. Licha was still following Kidas, trying to persuade her not to go. “The orcs will be eight days away from here by now. You’ll never catch up with them.”

“Yes, Licha, you’ve already said that,” said Kidas impatiently. “But has it slipped your mind that while they are on foot I am on horseback?” She paused, swinging herself into the saddle. “Licha, if you don’t mind, I’ll be borrowing Greymane here,” Kidas said, patting the stallion’s neck.

“No, I don’t mind about the blasted horse,” said Licha. “What I care about is you. Kadium is gone, Kidas. Accept it. People have been disappearing for months now, my husband included. All of us, we who loved those that are gone, have accepted it. You cannot save them. Remember what happened last time that was tried?”

“I will not fail, Licha.”

With that, Kidas rode out of the gates of Bree.

[HobbitGirl]

As she sped down the Greenway on Greymane Kidas tried to recall all that she knew of these orcs that had taken her fiancé. They had come from somewhere in the Misty Mountains, near the sources of the river Glanduin. They had been capturing people from Breeland for about six months. At first, no one knew where the people had disappeared to, but eventually it was found out that the folk of Bree and the surrounding areas had indeed been captured by orcs. No one yet knew why these orcs had been snatching people from their homes, and nobody had ever been seen again after they were taken.

One man by the name of Aran had gone after the orcs when they were returning from a raid. He tried to surprise them after night fell, but the orcs discovered him. He was found dead on the northern bank of the Greyflood three weeks after he had left his home. Kidas shivered when she recalled the rumors about the state his corpse was in after he was found. I will not let that happen to me, Kidas thought.

Kidas had been riding for hours, and the sun had almost set, when she decided to make camp for a few hours. She dismounted Greymane and led him a little ways off the road. She came to a level place and decided it was as good as any, so she began to set camp. When she went to make a fire, however, Kidas saw the remains of a fresh campfire about sixty feet away from where her bedroll was laid and many prints in the grass beyond it. It looked as if about fourty people had spent a night there, but the markings were not those of Men. Kidas had found the trail of her quarry. "Orcs!" she cried into the twilight. "And the signs are only a few days old. We're catching up to them, Greymane," she said to her horse. With that she packed up her things once more, mounted the stallion, and rode off into the dusk.

[HobbitGirl]

"What does the boss want it for, Grakka?"

"You thick-headded baffoon! Don't you pay attention? The boss wants to eat it! What do you think we've been raiding villages for all this time?"

"Why can't we eat it?"

"Cause it's for the boss, you rockhead! What the boss says, the boss gets, and if we eat his man-flesh, he'll feed us to his fellows!"

"Garn! I don't get why the boss has such a fancy for man-flesh."

"Did I order you to think, Narmp? NO! I ordered you to run, so run, you maggot!"

Such was the orc-talk that Kadium woke up to. His wrists and feet were bound, and he was being carried between two particlularly large and smelly orcs. His head was throbbing in pain, and the first thing he thought when he regained conciousness was, I hope Kidas is all right.

"Alright, boys! We're stoppin' here!" the orc called Grakka, who was obviously the leader, shouted.

The group of orcs halted, and the ones who were carrying Kadium threw him roughly on the ground. Narmp, the orc who had been arguing with Grakka, loped up to the man and threw a peice of stale bread at his side. "The boss wants you to be nice and healthy before he eats you," the orc said with a malicious grin. "It's a shame we can't eat you, but you'll be tasty for the boss anyways." The vile creature cackled wickedly and went to eat and banter with the rest of his foul folk.

As he left, another orc walked over to stand guard over Kadium. Only one tonight? Kadium thought. It's not like them to be letting thier guard down this much. He looked in the direction of the fire and counted the orcs seated there. The rest of them are all there. It doesn't seem like they're going to be pulling any trickery on me. This may be my chance!

"You better eat your supper. You wouldn't want the boss to get a second-rate meal out of you, now would you?" Kadium's orc-guard said with an evil grin, fingering his knife. Kadium was starved, so he rolled over and picked up the bread with his bound hands. It was harder than a rock, but he stomached it anyway, as he knew that he wouldn't be getting anything else.

After he was done, Kadium looked around, trying to find any way that he could escape. He was surrounded on three sides by large, white boulders that he couldn't climb over without attracting attention, and on his fourth side was the orc's camp. How am I to get out of here without that flea-ridden monstrosity noticing? Kadium thought. After a few more minutes of scanning the area in the dark, Kadium spied a gap between two of the boulders. It was extremely hard to see, as it was tucked away in a little corner, and there was a smaller boulder halfway in front of it. Kadium figured that his guard couldn't see the gap, because if he had looked in the right direction from his postion he only would have seen the small boulder. Now how will I get rid of him? Kadium asked himself.

[HobbitGirl]

Kidas had been riding almost nonstop for fourty-eight hours, stopping only now and then to eat or pick up her quarry's trail. She had been travling off the road for some hours when she came in sight of a cluster of white boulders. She decided to rest for a while behind the wall of boulders, for the sky was already dark and stars could be seen peeking out of the blackness. She had just started on a brief meal when she heard a harsh voice from the other side of the rocks. It was too muffled for Kidas to figure out just what it was saying, but she recongnized what race it belonged to: orc. She had found her quarry.

[HobbitGirl]

Kadium's prayers were answered quickly. Two orcs in the main part of the camp began fighting each other for whatever reason. The rest of the orcs were cheering them on, or rather, shouting, roaring, and grunting. Kadium's guard's attention was now directed towards the camp instead of towards Kadium. The man waited, holding perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe, and hoping beyond hope that the guard would forget he was lying there. The fight continued, and each minute was as long as a decade for Kadium. Every so often the orc-guard would let out a hoarse cheer and inch a little closer to the circle of firelight. After a few minutes the guard was over ten feet away from Kadium. As quickly and quietly as he could, the man crawled closer to the gap in the boulders, and closer to freedom.

[HobbitGirl]

Almost immediatly after Kidas realized that her love was close, the stallion Greymane collaped into the dirt, for he had been running and trotting for two days straight. Kidas went to him. "Greymane, my friend, I am sorry for what I have put you through. You deserve to rest now," the woman said, stroking the horse's neck. She took her belongings and provisions from Greymane's back and hid them in some bushes nearby. Out of her packs she pulled her beloved bow, quiver, and knife. She slung the quiver over her shoulder and strung her bow before putting her knife into her boot. She also removed her fiance's sword and belted it around her waist. "You orcs will pay for what you have done to my love," Kidas muttered to the night.

Just as Kidas was beggining to make her way around the boulders, she heard a scuffling sound. Quick as a flash she nocked an arrow on the string and pointed it at the scource of the sound. The scuffling grew louder, and soon a head and shoulders appeared out of a tiny gap in the bottom of the wall of rock. It was Kadium.

Kidas returned her arrow to her quiver, dropped her bow, and ran to her husband-to-be. "Kadium!" she whispered, grasping him from under the arms and pulling him free of the rocks. "Oh my love, I cannot describe how overjoyed I am to see you, except that I have only been this happy in my life once, and that was when you asked me to marry you! How did you manage to escape?" she said in a flurry, cutting his bonds.

"With difficulty," he repiled, sitting up and taking his bride-to-be in his arms. "I can see that you have had a worse time than me. Oh, how I wish I had my sword on me. Then I could make those evil spawns of filth pay with blood for what they have done to us!"

"But I do have your sword, my love," Kidas replied, standing up and unbucking the sword-belt. "And here it is." She handed the broadsword to her fiance, and he stood and drew it out of it's sheath. He held it level with his head, and a stream of moonlight coming through the trees caught the blade's edge and made it seem to glow with a blue-white flame.

[HobbitGirl]

"Get 'em, Narmp!"

"Slice his belly open, Grakka!"

"Make 'im pay for what he said, Narmp!"

"Kill the mutinous maggot, Grakka!"

The orcs' scuffle continued. The fight was causing so much noise and commotion from the spectators that none of the orcs, not even the guard (who had joined the group by the firelight) noticed two armed figures crawl out of the shadows.

Suddenly a twang was heard, followed by a squeal and a thump. Kidas had loosed an arrow into the back of an orc, and he fell dead. Before the orcs knew what had happened, another arrow made it's journey into Kadium's guard's neck. By the time the troop noticed thier dead companions and armed themselves, the two figures had once agian disappeared into the shadows.

"The man! He's escaped!" shouted an orc after the attackers were nowhere to be found.

"YOU FOOLS!" bellowed Grakka from inside the ring of orcs. "Where's that good-for-nothing Snigget!? He was supposed to watch that cursed man! His filthy head will roll for this!"

"Snigget's dead!" shouted another orc on the outside of the ring. "He's shot!"

"Grakka, can we eat him? Please?" said Narmp, forgetting about the fight so that he might get flesh without further trouble.

Grakka began giving out orders. "Garn! Don't just stand there! You, you, and all of you, go and find where those arrows came from! And kill whatever you find! You and you bunch! Get the things ready to leave! As for the rest of you, clean up those dead fools!" There was a throaty cheer at the mention of the dead orcs, and the foul beings tore into thier fallen companions.

[HobbitGirl]

What should I do next with this story? What do you think of it? I'm thinking about changing the title, but I don't know what to change it to. Any suggestions?

[HobbitGirl]

Hello? Will someone please give me some feedback? C'mon people, I wanna know what you think!

[Kailita]

Wells...the way I see it...:D

You either have Kidas and Kadium manage to elude their orc pursuers through many clever antics...or you have a full on massacre (orc-slaughterfest 2003...heh...:D). OR you could mix the two together and have them escape, but pick off orcs on the way...

[sauronbill]

Yeah, Kailita is right. But i am curious about what's going to happen after the part of the orcs. Are they just going to go back to the village happily or what?

[HobbitGirl]

Thanks for the input, Kai and Bill, but....what I was really looking for is something....different. Something the reader doesn't expect. A plot twist. The first plot-twisty thing that comes to mind when involving two lovers is a Romeo and Juliet-type situation where both of them die, but I don't like depressing endings. Just endings that you don't expect. I'm sorry if I sound picky, and I'm totally grateful for your feedback, but....I just don't have any good ideas. Help?

[Kailita]

Plot twisty, eh? Ack. :rolleyes:

Eep, no Romeo and Juliet, please. :( That would be depressing. And it wouldn't really fit with the feel of the story so far. Umm...let's see...plot twists, plot twists...*forces her brain to think*...well, I'll try to get back to you on that. Anybody else have ideas?

[sauronbill]

Well, I have some. But don't make a Romeo and Juliet thing please. If there is one thing i love about fantasy is that is never so tragic....Like for example, the theme of the capture of Kadium is that the boss wants to eat it right? Well, the boss could be an orc, or a big troll or ogre (yeah, because we know that ogres prefer the human meat more than everything.)...... So with that in mind, we could say that Kidas and Kadium scape the encampment of orcs, then Kadium reunite many men and knights to finish with this band of orcs once and for all, but he don't let Kida go..... So we could say that Kida follow the company of men, and gets in the big fight. Kadium fight the boss(be orc or ogre), and he starts loosing, and then Kida help him. Together they finish the boss of the band, and they were aclaimed heroes of all the village, blah,blah, blah......Specially Kida because of her breavery. I mean she is only a woman and she fought like a knight or better......Also you could make a stronger theme. Don't just stick to the idea that the boss of the orcs wants to eat Kadium, you could say that Kadium's father killed the boss son and now the boss is taking revenge on all the villages........Anyway if you want go with these ideas, or work with them and create something better........

[HobbitGirl]

Thank you, Bill! Superly cool ideas. Muchas gracias. <bows>

[sauronbill]

No problem, if you need more help, just pm me........

[HobbitGirl]

"Men! Men, men, men, men! Everything's about them these days! What about respectable creatures, like us orcs? Those dirty, bloody, confounded men take all the credit and attention for everything! They're as bad as the elves; no, worse, cause all the elves have gone away!" Shagmazh the Strangler chuckled, delighting in the thought of no more elves. "But the men have to go away too! And that's what I'm doing! We'll start with those bloody Bree-men; too many of them Rangers go through that blasted place. Slowly but surely, we'll wage our war on the men, and we'll win! We'll wipe them all out! Ha!" Shagmazh laughed, a gross, gutteral laugh, and bit into a roasted cow leg.

His so-called-advisor, who was more like his weasly messenger, cowered by his high and crudly-constructed chair, which Shagmazh liked to call a "throne". The advisor, called Gushnuk, piped up, brown-nosing to his master. "That's right, sir! Every one of them nasty humans is gonna get eaten!"

"Shutup, Gushnuk, I didn't ask you," said Shagmazh gleefully. He was in a particularly good mood, and when he was in a good mood he liked to put down Gushnuk, as well as when he was in a bad mood.

Gushnuk risked speaking up again. He had forgotten the reason why he had come into Shagmazh's throne room. "Sir, one of your messangers has reported that they have successfully captured that one man that you hate. Kadium was his name, I think?"

"Kadium!" Shagmazh roared, standing up suddenly. He paced around the underground chamber, waving his cow leg about. "That confounded, cursed human! Curse him and all his kin! That scoundrel! He killed a whole dozen of my best fellows single-handedly! My son included with them! He will pay; he will pay!"

An orc messanger burst into the throne room, interrupting Shagmazh's ranting. "My lord!" the orc cried, then kneeled to deliver his message without waiting for Shagmazh to take a breath. "My lord, Kadium has escaped. He was rescued by a woman. We have forces out looking for them now. The last reports came from just outside our North Gate, sir. We have forces tracking them now."

"How many?" Shagmazh roared.

"T-t-ten, sir."

"Only ten of our fellows after Kadium?! I will not hear of it! Send out ten dozen! Don't just sit there and blabber, DO IT! Or I'll feed you to my Wargs!"

Trembling, the messenger left the room.

[HobbitGirl]

Kailita and SB:

I plan to turn this story into an rp, then move it to MERPG, not necesarily in that order. :D After it's there, you can join if you want. :D

-Thanks,
HG

[Kailita]

Ooh, how fun!! :D:D Let me know how your progress is going...