Fated To The Orc King

Chapter 3

▪️I Z A R A▪️

The day passed faster than I would have liked and before I knew it, the sun was setting.

It would only be a matter of time before the Orc King appeared within our courtyard. I had already heard their horns in the distance, signalling their approach from up the long carriageway.

Of course, I should be scurrying down the stairs to make myself present, but there was something way more captivating than King Baldur's imminent arrival. There was an Amphitere with its Orc rider landing in our back yard and I had lost myself admiring the creature from my bedroom window.

I had never seen an Amphitere up close before.

Those feathered serpents had a large and impressive wingspan. I often heard the swish of their wings while they swooped around in the sky above. Sometimes, I would run outside, hoping to see them fly by, but by the time I looked up, they would already be gone.

No one really knew where these creatures came from, all we knew was that they had arrived with the Orcs and that they were said to be a distant relative of the long-extinct dragons.

Amphiteres were massive, multi-coloured reptiles with a long neck and the head of a serpent with a large mouth full of terrifying teeth. From what we were told, they were incapable of spewing fire, but that did not make them any less deadly.

I had always wanted to ride one, but I knew that would not have been possible.

Not just because I was human, but if the rumours were to be believed, only special Orcs were given the privilege, making the thought of riding an Amphitere even more extraordinary.

Pressing my palm against the cold window, I admired the creature's long tail which had a fan of colourful feathers at the end.

When the Amphitere shook its head, the plumage along its neck fluttered in such a mesmerising way that I wished the sun was out so that I could get a better look at all the vibrant colours. Thankfully, the light from the various garden torches allowed me a preview of what those feathery wings would look like during the day; they seemed to have a blue-green shimmer to them.

It was then that my mind drifted to the Orc King.

Before his coronation, Baldur had been proclaimed as one of the best Amphitere riders to have ever roamed the skies.

When the news of how he had killed his brothers reached the numerous villages, the people's fear of the Orcs increased. The mere existence of such a terrifying magic, one that had once belonged to the fae, made everyone on the isle uneasy.

Baldur the Butcher, they called him.

A name that he had earned way before his new ability had appeared. The Orc King was known to be cunning and ruthless, especially in the way he kept the fae under control.

Though, from what I had overheard, he did not seem to rely on his new magic much, preferring to continue using his blade to make a statement instead.

After the end of the war, the remaining fae survivors had dispersed, living within the vast isolated forests and the Isle of Wrobel, creating communes among themselves. Every so often, humans would go and bound themselves into servitude, proclaiming Alaric as the real king of the isle.

Though given the history, I could not really understand why some humans would want Alaric and his kind to regain power. Especially when the fae would sometimes sneak into nearby villages in the attempt to kidnap young children, something that King Baldur had done his best to put a stop to. Though not completely eradicated, the number of kidnappings had drastically decreased within recent months.