Wildling

Chapter 1

Estelwen flinched as her shirt stuck to the dried blood covering her shoulder. She wetted a handkerchief before starting to clean the wound on her left shoulder.

She had been hit with an arrow while running yesterday and had yet to tend to the wound

She glanced up when one of the horses whinnied. "Hush you. It's not like I tried to get shot." The horse snorted before resuming grazing, and Estelwen rolled her eyes.

She cleaned and bound the wound and settled onto her bedroll before placing her spare shirt over her face.

She dozed off quickly and sank into a familiar nightmare

Estelwen had been taking a nap after dinner in a wide grassy field until the sun had started to set, and she decided to continue on her journey

She quickly rose and packed up her stuff before mounting one of the horses.

She nudged the horse into a trot, and the herd left. They headed west, and Estelwen lapsed into deep thought.

Estelwen was tugged out of her thoughts by a howl drifting on the wind. The horses immediately became uneasy. It seemed to come from the south. And she scanned the area. Another howl. This one closer and to the west. A third answering howl came from the north. The horses were properly spooked now. making jittery sidesteps and stamping while letting out little whinnies of fear.

Estelwen swept the open plains they were on with her gaze and distinguished a shape on the horizon. What it was she could not yet tell.

The horses began to panic as more howls surrounded them, sounding closer each time.

Estelwen drew her sword and tried to calm the horse she was sitting on. She knew for a fact that those were not wolf howls.

She gasped as the horse shot forward a couple paces before prancing backward. She reached and tried to settle the horse before it bolted completely. The horses all shot forward as one, leaving Estelwen to hang on the best she could.

The wargs either saw or heard the horses wild flight and took chase with a chorus of howls. With a surge of rage, she realized there were orc shouts carrying in the wind as well.

Estelwen began trying to turn the horse back towards the wargs. She could strike the orcs off their backs while galloping past. The horse protested with a toss of its head and a slight buck. She tried again to pull it in that direction, and this time, it bucked hard. The force put behind the buck coupled with Estelwens distraction caused the girl to go flying. She hit the ground hard on her back and shot to her feet.

She made a half-hearted effort at chasing the horses but gave up eventually after realizing they were too spooked. She slowly turned around to locate the charging wargs and contemplated if it was worth running.

As much as she wanted to slaughter the lot of them, she knew she stood no chance against a pack.

Finally making a decision, she turned and began to run. She stumbled over sticks and was tripped when the long grass repeatedly tangled around her feet.

After several minutes of stumbling through the dark field, the orcs on warg back finally caught up. They slowly surrounded her, and Estelwen spun in circles, trying to keep track of them all.

The orcs jeered at her, and the wargs let out a continuous stream of growls snarls and barks while the rest of the orc pack caught up. The orcs then set upon her while she tried to fend them off with her sword. Although she managed to kill multiple and maim many, there were far too many, and she was overwhelmed.

The orcs used axes, swords, and long daggers trying to kill her while she did her best to avoid or block the worst of the hits. Eventually, the hits stopped, and she was drug up from the ground by the back of her shirt.

A particularly ugly orc glared into her face before shouting something to the rest of the pac. The orcs laughed, and the one holding Estelwen slammed his fist into the side of her head.

Estelwen sat up quickly, the crumpled fabric tumbling of her face.

She sighed and rubbed her face tiredly. It was hard enough to get enough sleep without the constant nightmares haunting her mind every time her eyes shut.

Since she was awake, she began packing up. Once there was no sign she had been there, she would leave. She started by cramming her things back in the pack and the moved on to things like burying the ashes from the fire, fluffing up the foliage where she had been laying, sweeping the footsteps she had left in the dirt with a branch and then checking on the horse.

The horse was a small chestnut mare she had bought when passing through a small village.
She had been an overworked farm horse that the farmer felt he could no longer provide adequate care for.

Estelwen still held a fondness for horses and needed a faster mode of transportation than her feet could provide, so she offered to take the mare with her when she left the village the next morning. They settled on a fair price, and Estelwen and the mare left.

She still hadn't named the horse and was hesitant to do so as she wasn't planning on keeping it.

Tossing her thoughts aside, she shouldered her pack and mounted the horse. She gave a gentle cluck of encouragement and nudged the horse with her heels and was off.