Fleas - Songs of the Gnolls I

WORLDS COLLIDE 8.6

According to those who knew human warfare, a siege could last for months. However, Fizkwik had a feeling that all chaos would soon be unleashed on the land. Maybe it was the null attempts of the humans to even shoot arrows at them, as if they didn't care that they were blocking one of the two bridges, or the way the orcs were behaving. They had always been strange, but now they seemed unpredictable. They scratched their heads a lot, as if their minds were being stung by a thousand spiders, they had sudden outbursts of anger and sadness, and they seemed constantly agitated. Fizkwik missed the relative peace of the savannah, where fighting was sporadic, danger natural, and the nights starry.

The riders returned from the main gate and dismounted. Urkk sounded his horn, for he must have news of Scourge's party. They gathered around him.

"We go to main gate. Soon it opens and we attack. Scourge and the others need us now."

They quickly broke camp and began marching. Fizkwik looked up and saw a shadow on the wall. They were being watched. Why didn't they do anything? Maybe her instinct was wrong, but if not....

She crept up on Éwik and pushed him aside. Kkelea and Zeppel gave her a sideways glance, but didn't stop. Fizkwik dropped to her knees and looked tenderly at her son.

"You fill my heart with pride, Éwik. Tell me, do you want to continue with this, even though you will see much suffering, or would you rather we seek other lands and live in peace?

"But that would be running away?"

"Yes. It takes courage to die with honor... but it takes even more courage to live. I will think no less of you if we leave now. You have fulfilled your role as emperor to perfection, but in the battle ahead, others will do better. For your heart is too pure, and the war too cruel," she held out her hand. "Let us be happy, together."

Éwik hesitated. He looked at the army marching towards war, towards death. This was not his world, and deep down he knew it.

"I want to say goodbye..."

"You can't. If you tell anyone, they won't leave us. Come on."

She dragged him into some bushes and told him to wait. When Kkelea approached to ask where he was, Fizkwik replied:

"He is suffering from his stomach. He probably ate some plant the orcs gave him. Go, Scourge needs you. We'll catch up with you soon."

Kkelea raised an eyebrow, nodded and ran to Zeppel. For a moment, Fizkwik wanted to tell her to run away too, that the lands were bountiful, that the three of them could live in peace. But she couldn't, she couldn't risk it. She had lost too much already.

She returned with Éwik and they slowly walked away in the opposite direction. Behind them was the huge gate they had watched so closely.

"Where shall we go, mother?"

"Wherever we want. We can go back to the savannah. There are no humans there, and we could find another, older tribe, one that is not part of the war."

"Oh, really? I didn't know there were others."

"Of course there are, but they are farther south, beyond the spring."

The flight of the birds alerted her to something. She turned to see the drawbridge lowering. They moved away from the road and hid in the undergrowth. A group of ten or twelve humans on horseback rode off to the northwest at full gallop. When they had passed, Fizkwik stood up. She saw that the bridge had risen again.

"Now I understand. They were silently waiting for the moment to call for reinforcements. They probably knew that the army was gathering."

"But," Ewik thought, "if they went to call for reinforcements, then they knew we would attack them through the other gate. I thought the Wind Paws had infiltrated."

Fizkwik clenched her fists and sighed.

"Let's go, son, this is no longer our concern."

She grabbed his hand, but he stood up and jerked free.

"No, I am the emperor and it is my duty to warn them. I cannot abandon them!" He looked down at his hands. "I know I am not very strong or wise. I know I shouldn't be emperor. This is my only chance to do something useful, to be more than a little cub."

Éwik ran, ready to regain the honor his mother had almost taken from him. And she, could she really have let everyone die to save herself and her son? Once she felt like a coward for not defending Dizky, and now she felt like a coward for not defending the rest of the tribe. She turned around, lifted Éwik onto her back, and began to run with all her might toward Kkelea and Zeppel. Perhaps the god Earth had instilled fear in her so that she could witness this, and the goddess Storm had given her the power to change the terrible fate of her tribe. No, it had been Éwik, the bravest of the emperors.