Becoming Part of the Tribe

The city you grew up in lies near the outer edge of the kingdom. It is a common hub for passing merchants, and has attracted a sizable population due to this despite its remote location.

You are the child of a tradesman who settled here. Now in your early 20’s, you are at a premium age for marrying off, in whatever way that suits your family best. There are a few prospects that your father would appreciate a familial merger with, and those folks aren’t too hard on the eyes either.

You have heard stories of the raids in the night. The lithe, shadowy brutes that come in to town attempting to secret away young maidens. A generation ago, several maidens vanished, and were never heard from again. It was assumed that the missing women were taken and eaten by monsters living outside of the protection of the kingdom, as there was never anything seen or heard from them after. No escapees to tell the tale of some imprisonment, no word of humans sold into the service of other nations, or creatures. The stories became the cautionary tales told to young women to keep them inside so they don’t get, “snatched up in the night.”

In recent months, there has been rumors of the city guards seeing movement in the shadows during their night watches. Nobody has been able to confirm what they are actually seeing, and so information has been suppressed to keep the townsfolk from being bothered.

You have seen them. The shadows streaking by your window at night. The piercing green eyes, almost glowing in the darkness, pausing only briefly to watch you, and then vanish. When you brought this information to your family, they laughed, assuring you that even if the rumors were true, no creature would be able to infiltrate the city that deep without raising an alarm.

You couldn’t shake your feeling of concern, and took your story directly to the town watch. A young man you were friends with growing up, now a town guard, listened to your story with a look of grim concern. He told you to wait while he talked with his captain, and left the room. He returned with a middle aged man who seemed more annoyed at the situation than concerned. As you recounted your tale to him, you could tell he already dismissed everything you were saying before you even finished. He offered you empty placation, and telling you that you clearly imagined the bulk of the situation.

You are no better off now than before, and now you know the town guard isn’t taking the threat seriously.

The evening started like any other. You changed into your sleepwear and bedded down. A candle flickered as you read a story to unwind your mind. As the timed snuffer extinguished the candle, you closed your eyes to sleep.

Still dark, you know not how much time had passed, but you were awakened by a reverberating crash as the window to your bedroom was savagely smashed open. The sound of breaking glass echoed in the distance… wait… was there… more glass breaking? Suddenly, the shadowy form with the glowing green eyes came through your window. You had hoped to see a glint of some features in the moonlight… but alas, tonight was the new moon! This… attack, ****, whatever it was, was planned for tonight, the darkest night of the cycle! This is the tale of being stolen away in the night! But not as some careless woman staying out too late… but being stolen from your very bed!

A growling voice came from the shadow, “Will you come willingly?”

Was that… an orc? But orcs were huge, hulking beasts… this would be a runt of an orc, even at their current imposing size. Unless this was… a female orc? The voice was not as deep, and while the size was around that of a large human, a female orc would have the size and speed to infiltrate the city in the shadows.

A bell rings in the distance. The alarm has finally sounded. You’re helpless in your bed, and a hulking creature towers over you… and NOW the alarm rings out.

The shadow moves with a blur. “Time’s up.” You feel a heavy blow strike your skull as the world suddenly goes completely black.

…

You are jostled awake. Your wrists and knees are tightly bound around a thick wooden pole. You are being carried away by… an orc! As you look around, there is no sign of civilization around you. Several other compact yet muscular orcs, each with a bound human attached to a pole slung over their shoulder, trudge along through a forest path.

Eventually, deep in the forest, there are dancing lights ahead. Flames burning from torches and bonfires in a… full orc settlement? You learned that orcs are nomads, living out of tents and moving to raid and pillage city after city. But this… this is well defined. While looking like tents at first glance, these are huts… with solid walls and roofing!

After hundreds of years of encounters with these hulking green beasts, why does the information we have about them not add up?

A large building near the edge of the settlement appears to be your destination. As you are carried in, the torches flicker, giving you a dim view of the area. Half of the area inside the building is sectioned off with thick bars. A prison of sorts. Still disoriented from the blow to your head, you are swung nauseatingly to the ground, and the pole is removed, leaving you bound at the wrists and at the knees on your side trying not to vomit on the dirt floor. As you turn and look up, your vision finally stabilizing, you can confirm that the one carrying you to this place was in fact a female orc. With light green skin, small tusks, long hair, and very muscular, she looks down at you intimidatingly.

“This is your new home, human. What is your name?” The She-Orc asks this critically important question of you.