Free Fallen Crown (Orc Destiny Volume II) (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) by Jeremy Laszlo Page A

from the south. With light breaking the horizon, the sky
transitioned from black to purple and then finally blue as the sun rose,
streaking beams of yellow and white light through the clouds. After another
hour, war drums could be heard, beating in rhythm with the song. Climbing the
nearest dune, Gnak and Bota both looked out across the desert and watched the
goblins come.
    Though he had received the count of how many Orcs he
commanded sometime in the middle of the night and found it impressive, the
force that marched with the goblin leader dwarfed his by more than ten times.
Gnak’s nearly five hundred seemed quite small by comparison. Even so, his many
hunters were still returning with whatever animals they could gather to feed
the goblin horde. The feast would range from everything from bear to wild boar,
and even several dozen of the small foxes they had hunted days before.
    Over the dunes the procession came, near four thousand foot
troops accompanied by almost another thousand goblins mounted on domesticated
boars. Louder and louder they grew, until at last Gnak could make words out of
their dark and foreboding song, and listening he began to piece it all
together, only to find himself astonished.
     
    Once was an Orc, a mighty Orc.
    who traveled across the sand.
    Defying the desert and his race,
    he came with gold in hand.
     
    To the goblin king he came,
    with plans to lead his kind,
    Capture a giant from the sand,
    was what he had in mind.
     
    With the goblin king his friend,
    together a giant they bound.
    The Orc Gnak, with message to send,
    rode the king of giants, once crowned.
     
    Return to his home, the Orc did go,
    and slay the giant by right,
    Sworn to a god Orcs did not know,
    he was blessed by the goddess that night.
     
    A mighty Orc, could raise the dead,
    some say it was beyond belief,
    But again he returned, and removing his head,
    he slayed his father the chief.
     
    Now called to war, the new chief strode,
    with his clan to go and fight.
    And to his side a goblin king rode,
    to join together their might.
     
    Gnak it seemed, the mightiest chief,
    would claim the Orkin throne,
    In him the goblin king had belief,
    having had a vision of his own.
     
    So on the goblin forces marched,
    to join with the Orkin clan.
    To drink some blood, their throats quite parched,
    and help Chief Gnak with his plan.
     
    On and on the goblins repeated the tune, growing louder and
louder by the minute. Gnak listened time and again, his head not believing his
ears. He watched as the mounted contingent broke away from the rest of the
goblin horde and split into two, the mounted goblins circled out in both
directions, both east and west, vanishing among the dunes as the main force
stayed true.
    Gnak was filled with so many questions he found it hard to
focus, and instinctively reached within himself to find Jen. With her presence
soothing him, he stood atop the dune until the goblins finally arrived. When
they did, he was again surprised.
    Marching to within feet of him the goblin army halted, both
their song and drumming ceasing. To the fore of the goblins came a man he
recognized, carried across the sand in a two-wheeled cart pulled by a pair of
the trained boars. Standing tall, Gnak watched the goblin king come. He was a
small man with the same ruddy green skin of his kind, striped through with
browns and blacks. He was not overly large, not even for a goblin, yet he was impressive.
    With a golden crown upon his head and golden barbs through
his ears, he was covered in baubles that many races found to have value. He
wore odd armor, that resembled the layered feathers of birds, only each feather
was gold and silver. In one hand he held a goblin blade, though his was a fine
creation encrusted with sparkling stones in various hues. In the other he held
a scepter similarly encrusted. But the display of goblin wealth meant little to
Gnak. It was the goblin’s eyes that made him impressive. The intelligence and
cunning that