Fleas - Songs of the Gnolls I

WHEN FLEAS BITE THE DOG 7.8

"Hello, comrades!"

"Silence! No more orc friend you," Urkk replied sharply. His lebrillope looked uncomfortable in the presence of the hyaenid.

Huauau smiled and raised his arms in submission.

"Why? Didn't my idea to seek reinforcements first bring us victory?"

-Yes, but the Scourge did not like. Should have said was your idea."

"Come on, I thought he'd understand why. Besides, don't forget he put me in charge of keeping us together. And boy, have I done my job. The hyaenids are practically a single tribe now. Once you integrate with them, you should have no fear of a next war."

Urkk clenched the poisoned spear and bared his teeth. His emotionless face grew angrier every day. Then his anger disappeared, as if it had been expelled from his body or chained deep inside him.

"Next idea will be ours, no yours. Bris-Dá always brings light. And you, you speak for Mash-Ra, you are the deception. Don't know what intend you, but you not succeed."

"I am sorry you feel that way, but I can respect that," he said, untying a large sack he was carrying from his back. "Take your share of the reserves."

Urkk looked sideways at him and snorted.

"No me, I'm captain. Go the females."

"Right, right, I forgot. Ah, if you want to hear my ideas for the siege, I'm willing to share them."

There were only a few female warrior orcs, the majority were carrying supplies in the middle of the caravan. Something similar to what the male hyaenids did. Huauau found it fascinating how the roles of most species were reversed to his own. While the males were the hunters, warriors and leaders, the females were smaller, weaker and relegated to menial tasks. He didn't know whether to feel sympathy for the females or envy for the males.

The female orcs already knew him, when they saw him they stopped their march, left on the ground two big heavy trunks and opened one with food, poisons, spices and other solid objects. In the other they carried water, though it was not so scarce in those lands. Perhaps custom was stronger than reason. Huauau put the sack down, untied it, and began to take out fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and other foods they had found in the surrounding villages.

"Luckily, you eat everything. We hyaenids have to hunt. Oh, dear," he complained as a wedge of cheese slipped from his hands and rolled away.

Two orcs ran after it while Huauau hurriedly emptied the rest of the sack into the chest. He waited for them to return before he took one last item from it.

"Here it is, the last bird egg. Too bad they're gone, at least with them we had two or three a day. And look at the size."

The orc, still shaken from the run, practically ripped it out of its claws.

"Go away!" ordered another as she closed the trunk and slung it over her shoulder.

"Right, I must hurry. Goodbye, have a nice day."

Huauau ran back to where the hyaenid males were. The sack was not empty. When the march stopped, he crept away and pulled out some roots he had stolen from the trunk. He looked at them, they were gnarled and drier than the last ones he had stolen. He picked up a rock and hid them under it. He shook the dirt off the pads and smiled.

"This will be interesting."