Chapter 439 – Orc Caravan
Chapter 439 – Orc Caravan
The thirty people who returned south by land were crossing a meadow when snow suddenly fell from the sky. Very fortunately, one of the team members found a deep hole half-buried in the ground on a certain dirt slope.
After going inside, they realized that there was something else inside, the cave was very wide, there were stone pillars or something like that holding up the top, and there were obviously traces of artificial carvings. Then they found something that looked like a mural.
“It’s a dungeon, or rather – a tomb, but it’s obviously been patronized and touched by grave robbers.”
A knowledgeable team member pointed this out.
There were animal bones and burn marks near the entrance, for good measure, and Stanford surmised that someone had already used this place as a makeshift resting camp, more often than not.
To escape the wind and snow, they burrowed into this cave, covering the exit with animal skins, and built a fire, which soon warmed the inside of the cave, much more comfortably than pitching a tent outside.
The long trip had exhausted the crew, and they sat or lay down, many napping and others eating.
Stanford stayed by the fire in a daze for a while when a peeing urge woke him up and he stepped out to take a leak.
Time to pull back to the present.
Stamford belts up and reminisces about the time in the snow, and he plans to get some fresh air before returning to the cave.
His eyes traveled through the flurry of snow to the blurry distance.
“Hmm?” Something seemed to be moving in the sky.
Immediately alerted, Stanford rubbed his eyes and looked into the distance once more.
Indeed, although it was hidden because of the snowflakes, he did see something.
Stanford immediately turned around and returned to the cave.
“All wake up! On guard.”
He shouted as soon as he lifted the animal skin covering the cave entrance.
“What’s happening, chief?”
Olcott, who acted as co-captain of the group, asked in surprise. He was from the Navy and had previously served as a gunnery officer on the flagship, and had joined the exploratory team in order to manage the use of firearms on behalf of the military.
“Someone is approaching here, probably a native of the neighborhood, in any case be careful.”
Hearing the commander say that, everyone in the cave tensed up and pulled out the weapons assigned to them.
Their group carried 20 iron swords, 10 iron axes, 10 crossbows, and 6 fire rope guns equipped with socketed bayonets.
“We can’t stay in the cave.”
Matthew was carrying a fire-rope gun, his palms sweating. He was actually a fairly young lad.
Stanford patted him on the shoulder, “Look, you guys stay quiet for a while, I’ll go back out and check the situation, those guys are still some distance away, if the other side is just passing by that’s great, if the other side is aiming at this place, we’ll go back out and deploy our defenses.”
After saying that Stanford drilled out of the cave again, the rest of the group waited quietly for his message, ready to rush out at any time.
“It’s coming towards this cave!”
Stamford s heart became more and more gloomy, and the other side is quite a lot of people, about 100 people, riding a lot of …… seemingly livestock, is it the cavalry of the orcs.
The other party may have been attracted by the reindeer tied near the cave entrance.
He no longer hesitated, immediately greeted the people in the cave out, and the people took advantage of the terrain of the earth slope, and ministered a defensive formation on top of it, and the bows and crossbows and muskets were all pointed at the team that was getting closer and closer.
The other side soon discovered the movement of the slope, the team slowed down, but a guy on horseback approached quickly to check the situation.
This rider stopped a few hundred meters away, and after observing for a long time, he ran back to the group.
Soon another person – not necessarily a human – came running over on horseback.
“Do not shoot! The other man is not necessarily malicious.” Stanford cautioned his men.
Their own numbers were at an absolute disadvantage, and the consequences would be unimaginable if they angered the other side.
To his great relief, the man strangled his mount in the distance, rolled down, and then slowly walked over with his arms wide open left and right.
This should mean friendly.
“I’ll come over.”
Stanford dug up a handful of snow from the ground and wiped his face, the cold stimulus clearing his mind immensely. Originally on one knee, he stood up, ready to walk over and interact with the visitor.
“Chief, why don’t I go.”
Olcott looked at him worriedly.
“No, I’ll do it, that’s an order.”
Stanford straightened the boater hat he carried on his head.
He had learned a few phrases in the native language when he was tinkering with the tribes, such as “hello” and “friend”, but he wondered if he could use them here, after all, the two places were a long way from each other.
His own men, who were determined to return to the Northwest Bay, were not so diligent, in case of accidental conflict.
So Stanford put down the one-handed sword that he had been holding tightly in his hand, and also followed the other party’s example of opening his arms, and slowly walked over.
Gradually, he saw the other party’s appearance, and it was indeed an orc.
Of course, although it is said to see clearly the appearance, but in fact, in the eyes of the current Stamford, the orcs all look the same.
Orcs are tall, muscular, covered with varying shades of downy hair (some so thin as to be similar to some hairy humans), their upper ears are more pointed than those of humans, and their jaw canines are thick and long, so that they look very conspicuous when they open their mouths to speak, and the jaw canines of some of the males even stick out of their mouths when they close them.
The male orc in front of me is such a standard image of an orc.
Just as Stanford was wondering if he should say “hello” or something in the native language, the alien on the other side of the room spoke first and startled him.
“A human from the south?”
Stamford froze, this guy across the street could speak Aldo.
He didn’t react until the other man waved his hand.
He recalled what this orc had just said, and it seemed to be an accent from the northeastern part of Aldo.
“Uh …… hello. I didn’t realize you spoke Aldorian.”
He said with some caution.
“Hahaha!” The orc grinned widely.
“A merchant running around the world can’t afford to not know a few languages!”
Stanford froze again, “A merchant?”
“What? ” The orc said with some derision, “Is it that in the impression of ‘higher races’ like you, we ‘barbarians’ only ride on horses and wave whips and shout at the sheep, or slash around with great swords? or slashing around with a big sword for fun? “
Stanford put a smile on his face and tried his best to be sincere, “I’m sorry if my attitude gave you the wrong idea ……”
“Forget it, human!” The other waved a hand, “As a merchant running around, my heart doesn’t ripple at all anymore for such misunderstandings, oh maybe a few years earlier it would have.”
He continued, “So, let’s get to the issue at hand. As I said earlier, we are a caravan, we mean you no harm, we just wanted to get into that cave to get out of the wind and snow, and by the looks of it you’ve already found it there. Hey, how many of you are there, hopefully it’s big enough to hold both of us.”
Stanford looked behind him, it did look like a caravan, there were a dozen or so large carts full of stuff, there were also dozens of tall horse-like animals, these guys are even taller than ordinary horses, with yellow fur and high backs, they might be the so-called “beasts of burden” bred by orcs in the legends.
Well, it’s not like we haven’t encountered orcs that can communicate before when we were in the north, although we haven’t encountered any that can speak Aldorian …….
“That …… gentleman ……”
“Finn, please call me Finn.”
“Yes, Mr. Finn, you may call me Stanford. I think that cave should be able to hold both of us.”
“Ha, that’s great!” The orc named Finn was beaming with joy.
“Please allow me to go back and have my brothers make some preparations.”
“Hehe, be my guest. It is a virtue to be vigilant in this prairie.”
The orc smiled and turned to return to his caravan.
(End of chapter)