An Orc's Journey

6. Bear Queen Of The Forest

The ground felt soft when Dehaka landed on it. Squishy. Also kinda furry.
He then realised he was on Dits.

Dehaka's senses became overloaded as he adapted to the new environment. Black blood shot out of his nose. And his arm glowed with dark energy. He'd wrapped his arm up, just to be safe, in a part of his original cloak.

Dits gurgled and lifted his front up off the ground. "Dehaka, what time is it?"

Dehaka grabbed his head and roared as he was flooded by the noise of wildlife surrounding him. Which caused some of these creatures to flee.

"I guess you haven't travelled off realm before?" Dits dusted off some of the dirt on his clothing. He withdrew a small leaf and forced it into the Orc's mouth.
"Just wait it'll kick in. But I'm the meantime, STOP FUCKING YELLING!!" Dits raised his staff and brought it down on Dehaka's head. Which it bounced off of. After 3 attempts Dehaka slumped over.

When Dehaka woke Dits had made a fire and crude shelter in the trees. He rose. Turned. And climbed the tree slowly.
"ARE YOU NOT HUNGRY?!?" Dits called out to Dehaka
"I'm not eating anything you caught." Dehaka spoke as he continued his slow ascent.

And with reaching the top of the tree Dehaka went to sleep.

Once again. The floor felt different in the forest. No longer was it rough and leafy. Now it was just more fur. But shorter than Dits. Also. It appeared to be moving.

Dehaka took his time in sitting up on the moving ground. Looking at his surroundings nothing seemed out of the ordinary apart from the slow moving ass of a creature he was sat on. Large. Albino. And female by the smell.

Not knowing what to do. Dehaka waited until the bear stopped and then got off. The creature turned to look at Dehaka. Her eyes showed a mixture of pain and fear.
It was at that moment that Dehaka understood the creature. He wasn't food for her. He was there to aid her.

He withdrew a blade and nodded at the bear. Who then waddled towards the cave.

Something seemed off in the cave. It was similar to the troll's cave. But slimy and cold. Now this could have meant one of two things. Either the cave was filled with slimes which was an easy fix. Otherwise it meant goblins. And Dehaka was betting it was goblins. Because slimes don't hoard gold at the top of the cave like a goblin can. The only thing for certain.

He was going to need his other sword. He removed the bandages on his arm and let its influence taint the blade. He forgot to bring a light and looked at the bear. "I don't suppose you have a light do you?" Dehaka touched the bear's head as he asked. "I don't even know how intelligent you are. I'm talking to a fucking bear."
The bear glanced up at Dehaka and opened its mouth. Flame seemed to be suckled towards the bear as a large fireball formed.
"Huh. I guess that makes sense. Can all albinos do that?"
The bear shrugged and kept moving to the deeper areas of the cave.

Scratch
Scritch
Scratch
Shuffle

The noises grew louder by each step towards the darkness in front of Dehaka. He reached out into the world of the dead and saw the remnants of different races of people malnourished in the cave. One thing he also saw was a lot of goblin baby corpses.

He peered back into the real world. And saw what might be known as a swarm.

With that. The room went dark as the bear shot out the fireball.
Dehaka let his arm glow black and pass its energy into the sword. Dehaka thought back to what he had inscribed on the blade. Any who shall be struck by this blade shall empower it until it is broken or its master is brought down. And the last thought to pass through Dehaka's mind was simple. Today is not that day.

Dehaka lept into the horde of goblins. Landing on 3 of them he spins with both blades cutting goblins apart and discarding the bodies by throwing them at more goblins. He threw his untainted blade into the crowd and saw it slice through a line of goblins. He withdrew he axe and swung wildly. Hitting anything that lept at him. Moving slowly forward. Until he noticed a large amount of fire in the distance. Dehaka sheathed the axe and ran for his blade embedded in a goblins face. He slowly carved his way through the horde slicing, severing and decapitating all goblins in his path. He then ran to the source of the flames. The bear fighting a fat goblin with a big stick. She'd burnt it's arm off. Didn't matter what one. Because the other quickly burnt away as well. The goblins tried to swarm the 2 by throwing themselves at them. Which Dehaka turned into a skewering contest whilst the bear burnt them all.

The fat goblin turned to Dehaka and tried to communicate. "He-e-el-pp" followed by the sound of bone shattering with Dehaka's arm inside the goblin. He the punched it's face causing it to fall backwards with Dehaka holding his spine in the same place.

"Why did you bring me here bear?" Dehaka walked to the bear which was sat in the corner of the room.
Telekinesis bear moved it's paw to show 5 small cubs all rolling around in the mess of corpses. "Ah. Well. Happy to help" Dehaka turned and stepped away from the bear. Who shot a fireball past him.
"What now?"
The bear gestured her head towards the litter. Pointing at the smallest of the group. Then at Dehaka.
"Nononono. I couldn't take your cub. That's not my place. You should look after him."

The bear pushed the cub away from her and towards Dehaka. Who it pawed at and making a low growling noise. "You're not giving me much choice here." The bear pushed the cub closer to Dehaka.

"I guess you're with me now little one." He picked up the bear cub. The bear nodded and returned to her other cubs.

Leaving the cave. Dehaka wrapped the cub in his arm wrap. "What should we call you then?" The cub made a whimpering sound.

"Grug?"
A shrug from the cub.
"Dehaka Jr?"
A shake of the head.
"Jeremy?"
Another shake.
"What about. Fred..."

When Dehaka returned to Dits. He explained what had happened.
"Oh. I saw you on the bear. Didn't think to question it."
"Of course not Dits"
"You got a name for him yet?"
"Um. I think we agreed on Rodney."
The cub nodded. Then moved itself back into the wrapping.
"Alright then. At least it's intelligent. Someone in this group should be."
"Are we setting off?" Dehaka ignored Dits.
"Yup come on then."
"Where are we going again?"
"We need to move to Moscow so we can find a ride."
"Alright. Let's get going then."