Durbok glared at the back of Dethmuttera’s head as they stood silently among a thick copse in the depths of the Furyoth Dell. He’d been sleeping well and dreaming of krumping when a whack in the head from the shaman’s staff had woken him. “Boss’s orders”, the lanky robed Orruk had said, before telling Durbok to gather some boys for a “speshul mishun”.
He didn’t really mind the way he was woken, as hitting is basically normal communication for Orruks. He did the same when he gathered a small crew of ardboyz and other Orruks for the mission. He didn’t even bat an eye when he was told they would have to smear themselves in dung from that giant bat creature they’d tamed “for protekshun”, as he reckoned it didn’t make them smell much worse than normal.
What did annoy Durbok was spending all hours of the night mucking about in the Dell, sneaking around everything interesting and stopping repeatedly at the shaman’s orders for, as far he could tell, no good reason. He didn’t know if it was a sign of Dethmuttera’s confidence in him that he was chosen rather than Snagruk, or if the latter sensed an unpleasant task and had made himself scarce. That Kruleboy was a little too kunnin’ sometimes. Either way these constant stops were driving him batty, no pun intended.
Durbok heard a rustling in the undergrowth ahead and some big, scaly thing scuttled into view. It had an oversized head full of nasty fangs and some weird fin on its back. It looked like a nasty fight but probably wouldn’t eat more than one or two Orruks before they bested it. Durbok looked at Dethmuttera and raised an eyebrow, pointing his choppa at the creature. The shaman shook his head. Whatever they had stopped to wait for, this wasn’t it.
The scaly thing slowed down, moving furtively through the copse as if something had spooked it. Durbok briefly wondered if it smelled them but dismissed the thought. No, that thing wouldn’t be afraid of some Orruks. As it creeped through the middle of the stand of trees there was a sudden flash of movement. Branches from several of the nearby trees lashed out and wrapped around the thing, lifting it in the air. It squirmed violently but it was held tight. There was a sickening suction sound for about 30 seconds before the thing dropped to the ground, desiccated as if it had been entirely drained of fluids. Durbok couldn’t be sure but some of the trees looked a little…fatter than they had moments ago.
“Well, think we’ll be going around. I like all me blood on the inside, how about you.” The shaman opined as he chuckled softly to himself.
Durbok was too shocked to reply, only nodding briefly.
The Orruk band continued into the Dell, pausing whenever the Shaman sensed something off. They lost a couple Orruks after failing to notice a diregator, but continued to make steady progress. Eventually they reached a thicker section of forest, with trees larger than a megagargant all but blocking the sun. Here and there they ran into large corpses stripped of all meat, but no sign of any predators. Suddenly Dethmuttera raised his hand for the crew to stop again.
Since the tree incident Durbok had stopped second guessing the shaman, but he had no clue what they were waiting for, or why the robed Orruk was scratching glyphs in the dirt with his staff. Finally unable to contain his curiosity he walked up to the Shaman.
“Oi, Dethmuttera, what are we waiting for?”
Dethmuttera chuckled to himself.
“Waiting? No, we’re already where we need ta go”.
Durbok inwardly cursed shamans and all oddboyz.
“What do you mean? What’s dis mishun ‘bout and what’s so speshul here?”
The shaman paused from his drawing in the dirt and pointed his staff straight up.
“Look for yourself”.
Durbok craned his head to look above. As he saw what had been above their heads he would have yelled out if the Shaman hadn’t moved quick as lightning to put his hand over Durbok’s mouth>
“Careful now, the dung hides our smell but we don’t want to spook them”.
Durbok shoved the Shaman away but heeded his warning and spoke softly.
“Are those…bat things like Flappy”?
The Shaman nodded.
Durbok gave Dethmuttera a shocked look.
“There must be ‘undreds of ‘em”.
The lanky Orruk grinned broadly at the Ardboy.
“More, I think. Dose things are our ticket to get up to that giant beasty the Fae are ‘iding up on. We’z still got some of that Amber Blood left from the temple and from our last few fights. I draw the symbols in the ground, and your boyz mark dem out with the Blood. I can’t control dem for long, but dey’ll get us on top of that big Fae monster so we can krump em good.”
Durbok took a few moments to take it all in. A way to krump dose Fae gits good and not just fight the dregs here on the ground. A fight proper enough for an Orruk Waaagh. There was only one thing he wasn’t sure about. He looked questioningly at Dethmuttera.
“How about da Boss? I can see some of ‘em carrying something that big in their claws but I assume he’ll want a more…bossly way to get up der”.
If anything Dethmuttera’s grin grew even broader.
“Oh, don’t worry ‘bout da Boss. We got ‘im covered.”
