Orc And The Lastborn [Progression, Gunpowder Sword & Sorcery]

He walked down to the harbor as he had done so many times before. The gray everything slid by and by. He watched out for all of the places he'd known the cat to prowl. Atop the pile of discarded shellfish. Within a ribcage of the bygone genocide. Out of the harbormaster's wreck. She was in none of these places nor in any of the others.

The skiff was half beached up on the stony shore and staked on a line from the prow as if the tides might return. A greenskin sat on the shore with his eyes closed, back against the hull, knees bent up to his chest. Aboard two figures worked as if in a morning fog. A man and a tusker with a broken tooth. They looked up at his approach. The man nodded. The tusker jumped out of the boat and walked up to Orc. Orc held out his hand and the tusker pulled him in a firm embrace.

They separated. "Ogaz," he said.

"Orc. Saand saying Orc goes away but Ogaz knows better. Before and after Saand says, but here stands Orc, not before or after but now."

"Yeah I'm not going anywhere."

Ogaz reached out his hand and felt Orc's arm. "Getting skinny, Orc. Coming aboard now, eating something now. Nizam must being strong before being anything other."

Orc touched Ogaz's wrist. "Yeah I'm going to eat something now, and so are you. All of you."

For the first time the greenskin opened his eyes.

Orc walked over to him and held out his hand up. "We've opened the tower larder. Come on. It's time to eat."

The greenskin looked up at his outheld hand then at his eyes as if in disbelief. "Orcsies has food?"

"Yeah."

"More than mush?"

He smiled. "Yeah Jazza."

The greenskin reached for the outheld hand and Orc stood him up.

"Up at the tower. I'll be right behind you."

The greenskin scampered off. He stood beside the tusker and watched him go. "Go on ahead if you want," said Orc.

"Ogaz can wait."

"Alright."

Orc turned back to the skiff and the bosun standing in the deck. "There's plenty for everyone," he said.

The bosun nodded and then bent at the hip to his work. "I'll be up once I finish this."

"Finish it later."

The man didn't look up. "Ain't doing. There won't be no time later."

Orc said the man's name.

The bosun looked up at him now. Red faced from shifting crates. The wind blowing his hair across his brow. "Go on and eat." He began to turn away. "You look like a rhino hide stretched over a bonebag."

Orc shook his head. "Come up when you're done."

The bosun waved a hand without turning.

Orc began to walk up the shore. Ogaz beside him.

"Ogaz remembering first time Orc walks faraway shores."

"Yeah. I remember."

"Glad Nizam giving big speeches. Orcs and tuskers and longhorns and greenskins everywhere. New land for us. All brothers. Even sisters now brothers."

"Yeah."

"Not so good here last year, Orc. Plantings not growing. Fishes not catching. Not so good."

"I know."

"Ogaz thinking is better leaving Madlands to Saand. Orcs and tuskers and longhorns and greenskins eating everything up. Is no good."

"Yeah."

"Better going to manlands with Orc."

"I wish you had come with me too."

"Does Orc find magic manstone?"

"Yeah. We found it alright."

"Maybe it helps bring back Madlands."

"Maybe."

The tuskers mouth spread in one of his irresistible grins. "Maybe."

"The plots didn't take then?"

"Some do some don't. All gone now. All washed away. Not mattering. No orcs left to feed."

"Nobody's left?"

Ogaz shrugged. Fingered the tip of his tusk. Shook his head slightly.

"Tell me what happened."

"Ogaz does best he can. Does as he thinks Orc would want."

"I'm sure you did."

He put his three fingered hand upon the back of his neck. "Ogaz watching moons colliding. Watching the one eating the other. Seer watching too, saying both now falling to earth. But what is falling to earth. Everything is falling to earth. Orc and Ogaz falling, someday everything. Ogaz tells all what must be done. Tilling. Planting. Watering. Maybe harvesting if lucky. These things Ogaz does with others in good land at burn. Good soil there Orc says. Saand says so too. So orcs working there. Stars falling, orcs still working. Moon growing, orcs still working. But only little bit growing. Birds coming at night and pecking up seeds. Moles stealing seedlings. Ogaz thinking maybe Madlands better. Saand hating to go but there is no food. So all go. All go but seer. Orc knows seer?"

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"We met."

Ogaz nodded. "Very wise seer. She is staying and she is telling Orc what's coming. Very wise."

"Tell me about the Madlands."

Now Ogaz shook his head. "Very sick. Saand saying poison's in dirt. Poison of men. Poison of armiger. Little growing there. Stunted growing. Lots of water little to show. Is bad. Very bad. Saand thinking maybe water can cleanse poison. Going up to cave where Ogaz found beardling and beardling's empty box. Remember?"

"Yeah."

"Gobgob and Jazza coming too. Little date trees growing there. Little flowers and vines. Very good. Very green. Moon very big now. Saand saying soon to strike, but what can Ogaz do? Nothing. What can Saand do? Nothing. Saand says go on so we go on. Water tasting cold and pure. No poison here. Saand going deeper, Gobgob, Jazza, Ogaz following. Very narrow. Orc remembering."

"Yeah. I remember."

The tusker tented his fingers on his palm like little legs walking down into the depths of the world. "All going down. Down deeper than before. Shaking starts then and Ogaz falls and hits head."

He turned his skull so Orc could see where the lump still stood out.

"But you got out," said Orc.

He nodded. "Waking up and seeing roots everywhere, everywhere from nowhere. Thick and giant and bloodsucking, skewering Gobgob, collapsing rocky roofs. Everything dark now and Ogaz crawling back, crawling out. Jazza behind going crazy. Saand behind chanting. Orc knows how she does. Whole world shaking. Everything falling down. Roots growing and churning everything. Ogaz making cave mouth. Little date trees now burning up. Flowers wilting. Skyfire burning everything. Red sky then, gray sky now. All burning to nothing. Ogaz leading others down to river, seeing what's left. There Ogaz seeing boat overturned, big fin sticking up. Ogaz goes down and finds Orc's manfriend swimming underneath, beardling's womanfriend also. Saand saying they say Orc here somewhere, they going to find him, so we go with."

"What about the others?"

"Saand stays with Gobgob." Ogaz patted his gut. "Big hole here. Big enough for crawling into. But Saand mends, Saand mends."

"Is there no one else?"

Ogaz shook his head. "No. Sea came up Mad and flooding everything. All drowning, all burning in skyfire."

"They're all dead then."

Ogaz nodded. "Yes. It is way of orckin. Some dying so others living."

The tusker must have seen the pain on Orc's face for he laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Land drying now. Maybe poison washed away now."

"Yeah. Maybe."

They arrived at the tower. Inside Jazza was in the bunk room crunching through apples, discarded stems about his feet. No cores uneaten. In the kitchen Mym and Daraway had begun to cook up a meal in the kitchen. The smell of it a kind of ecstasy that drove all mournfulness from his mind.

"What is that?" said Orc.

"Sausage and biscuits," said Mym. "Cheesy eggs and fried potatoes and some of that orcish brew ye took te. Everythin ye could ask fer."

"Not everything."

She looked up from her panfry.

"There's no mush."

She threw back her head and laughed. The best he could do was smile.

***

By the time everything was set out and ready the bosun had come up and the cat was nosing about the door. They sat on the floor of the bunkhouse around a big stone washbasin filled to the brim with hot food. Each of them looked at the other and nobody touched the food. Orc looked at Mym. She looked like a dog dragged out of a well. He took a fork out of the basin and stabbed a length of brown sausage and held it out to her. She looked at it. Was any of it real? She took the fork and she bit into the sausage. Everyone watched. She closed her eyes and she chewed and swallowed. She let out a ragged breath and opened her eyes.

"Thank the stones fer the kingsmen," she said.

Those who understood laughed and the tusker and the greenskin laughed also for here was their salvation. Yet large as it was the basin was quickly cleared. The bosun took a turn at the kitchen and returned with pickled olives over salt cod. As they inhaled these they looked at each other for they now saw how quickly even a full larder might be emptied, but no one gave voice to that particular concern. The cod was gone, the olives gone, Jazza cracking the pits between his teeth and swallowing them up. Finally Mym got up again and returned with a bowl of oat mush and a quart of molasses rum under her arm. She presented the bowl to Orc and everyone laughed and then she and the bosun drank themselves silly while Daraway tried to keep up. Orc watched with a smile on his face. The cat slipped in to beg for scraps. But there were no scraps. Orc went to the larder and found there a stack of kingsman uniforms. He shouldered into a coat and pulled on a new pair of boots. They were too tight and the leather creaked as he stepped about in them. He reached up and took down the crate of salt cod. He tore off a fillet and went back into the bunk room. The cat slunk toward the door until it saw what he had. Its little pink nose working. He shared out the cod a morsel at a time until the cat was eating it out of his hand.

The sky had begun to darken. The cat licked its paws, licked its flank. Orc found he missed the elongating shadows at day's end. The grotesque shapes they made. They were all of them but shadows now.

They lay about the room like morning revelers, drunk on food and spirit. He reached over and tapped the sole of Mym's boot. She looked over at him.

"This trove won't last long with all of us partaking," he said.

"Aye."

"You shouldn't tarry."

She sat with that a moment. "Yer not comin with."

He shook his head. "I think the sea might've cleansed the Madlands. I'll take one of those potato sacks off of you. A hundred pounds now is four hundred pounds next season. Sixteen hundred the season after. I could feed us with that."

"Except there won't be a next season," said Daraway.

They turned to her.

"Or a season after. Nor is there any soil left to plant in because the sea took that too."

"I'd like to go see for myself."

"You're welcome to, but you're right. We can't tarry. The food won't last, especially if you mean to put a share of it into the ground."

"When're we leavin?" said Mym.

"First light tomorrow."

"Aye. I'll be ready." She turned to Orc. "Ye should come with us."

"No."

"Yer the farmer but I'm sure as nakshit ye can't grow anythin te eat without sun and soil."

"We'll see."

She closed her eyes and settled back against Daraway's stomach. "Don't let yer dreams catch ye out, grayback."

"It's not my dream."

"Ye had me fooled."

"It was Glad Nizam's."

"She ain't Nizam no more," said the bosun.

Mym nodded. "Aye. Time te let it go."

He looked from one of them to the other. They smelled of booze. He got up and walked out into the night.

***

First light saw the skiff loaded and running heavy in the shallow surf. The stake pulled and the line coiled in. He strode up to them as they were readying to cast off. Over his shoulder he carried the sack they'd left out for him. He heaved it aboard. The bosun bent to shift it.

"Give me a moment," said Orc.

"Sure," said the bosun.

He turned to Jazza and Ogaz. He unslung the handax from his musette and handed it to Jazza. Ogaz handed the greenskin a ruck overfilled with food then the tusker climbed over the gunwale and found a cask aft to sit upon. Jazza shouldered the ruck. It was bigger than he was and for a moment Orc thought he might teeter over.

"Tell your brother to heal up," he said.

"Don't yew worry about Gobgob. He'll be skewerin fishies and chasin sows while yew're still pukin seawater."

"Where's he going to find the sows?"

"Don't yew worry about that neither. Gobgob'll find some."

"Alright then."

Jazza suddenly one-armed Orc around the waist. "Yew take care brudder," he said.

"You too brother."

Jazza broke the hug. He shouldered the ruck and set off up the road. Orc watched him go, drifting into the haze as if he never was.

Orc turned and took in the skiff, the water. He stepped up to the prow with Ogaz beside him. Together they heaved against the bow and floated the boat off of its keel and hung onto the gunwales as it drifted out into the deeper water. They climbed aboard frigid and shivering in the light airs rising off of the sea. Ogaz plopped onto the thwart amidships and wrapped up in a blanket but Orc stayed standing and swept the water from his arms and his torso. He cared not to see the land again and so he waited until he adjudged it to have slipped out of view. He looked up still in sight of the shore. He saw the cat had trotted down and was watching them slip away. Big eyes watching, ears perked forward, tail looped around and curled up before its front paws. He nodded at it. Then it began to caterwaul.

"Of course you do," he said. He put his foot on the gunwale and dove back into the water.