There were already bushes growing here again. Things grew pretty fast in the Hurt. They could grow pretty big too. You only had to look around at the trees to know that. The plant life had not grown enough to erase the marks in the ground though and, also, that was even if most of the chopper was gone. It had probably been picked over by the gnomes more thoroughly than a vulture would skin a carcass. The only difference was that the vultures would actually leave more behind. They left the marks though. Nothing had touched them except the solitary flower growing at the center of the biggest skid. She reached down and picked it.

She stood back up with the flower in her hand. Then she pulled down the purplish scarf, that rapped around her face, just far enough to uncover her nose. With the pedals touching the end of her nose, she deeply inhaled, memorizing every invigorating scent. Then she knelt back down and carefully laid the flower to rest before continuing to the next spot. She was thankful that there was no trace of this particular spot. Just beyond it though, in the notch formed by the conjunction of a couple of thick tree roots, was an entirely different matter. She actually put her back to the tree, and then slid down to the ground. She sat there for a few minutes and dreamed. This place, no matter how horrific it had been, was special for other reasons.

There were reminders though. The left sleeve, of her black tunic, kept wanting to ride it’s way up her arm. Every time it did that, she caught a glimpse and then fought to pull the damn thing back down. She hated seeing it. It reminded her of not so pleasant times. At least she could be comfortable here for a few minutes. This place had been not so wonderful, not all that long ago but, it marked a turning point. It was one that she could believe she had gone past. This place here, it was the end of innocence. Being here almost made her feel as if she could go back.

Just like those long gone days, her time here was not to last. She heard the rustling before she ever saw anything. She recognized the unique sound and knew exactly what it was. She decided to wait though. It was almost amusing to sit in the shadows and watch the gnome as he came waddling out of the bushes. Sure enough, he went right for the spot where the helicopter had come down. It started kicking through the soil, like it might actually find a sliver of metal or glass. How did they do that? They didn’t wear shoes! They had thick and hairy feet, big heads, huge hands compared to their bodies, and really tough skin. Still, she didn’t see how they could kick up a sharp piece of metal, even sometimes cut themselves, and never even feel it.

What did bug them was sound. Despite the fact that the elves actually had bigger ears, the gnomes acted like they were the ones with super hearing. That seemed rather odd when you considered that your average gnome had a super sized honker on him yet, for whatever reason, they couldn’t smell any better than humans. All the while, the elf females could track with the best dogs even though they were the ones with the biggest ears! It was an upside down fact about an upside down place. It was also a place that she now called home.

It was almost like thinking of one made one appear. That was apparently a local scary superstition around here that was on the level of Friday the 13^th movies. It was, she noted, always kind of disturbing when it happened. This time though, it was friend, not foe, and even though the elf snuck right up on her from behind, the elf still did not manage to surprise. They both wound up pointing their weapons at each other. Then they lowered them with a laugh.

When Camiceau slung her weapon she practically ignored her human companion as she walked past and snapped at the gnome, “Leggolt! We didn’t come here to go shopping!” The gnome did not appear to be particularly happy. He was muttering under his breath as he walked off, like it mattered. Cami understood some gnome but, not enough to get them when they talked real fast which, was most of the time. Her friend understood almost none at all.

What Cami did not truly understand was, “I don’t get it. Every time we’re out this way you always manage to find this spot.” Cami then decided it was also good enough for a rest. She pulled the turban like scarves off her head and let her blond pigtails fall out from underneath. It made her human companion laugh at her. The pig tails tended to hit her ears when she shook the dirt off. It made the human laugh even more. Cami demanded, “what? Why do you always do that?”

The human girl un-rapped her head and went for her canteen as she sat back down on the root, “I’m not poking fun at you or anything. Them dreads you got, they make you look like a cheerleader, that’s all.”

Cami became confused again, “a what?” Cami went for her own water sack and after a drink she said, “you know what Angie, sometimes you’re really weird.” Cami just looked around their spot and said, “what is this place anyway? I think Hoop calls it the great wall or something stupid like that.” Cami pointed to a fallen tree not far away.

Angie giggled, “he would.”

That made Cami look carefully and say, “what do you see in that guy? You don’t act like you see much of anything.”

Angie shrugged, “I don’t know. He’s sweet. He.. you know.”

Cami rolled her eyes and took another sip of water, “I don’t think my sister ever said that much about him.” When Cami saw the reaction, that she got, she tried to erase her comment by changing the subject, “I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Hoop is, um, complicated?”

Angie really laughed at that, “he’s the exact opposite of complicated, believe me.”

Cami toned it down and said, “he’s also going back one day Anj. Don’t forget that.”

Angie deflated and shrugged. She looked back down at her left sleeve and quietly replied, “I know.” She pulled herself back to her feet and said, “doesn’t matter anyway. None of us are going to live that long.” Angie looked around the forest and did not see anything particularly disturbing. She then said, “we better get back before they steal the forest. Did the scouts come back?”

Cami joined her friend on the root top and then hesitantly said, “yeah, and that’s the funny thing.” Angie gave her a strange look so Cami explained, “the Americans aren’t out here.”

“What?” Angie did not believe that, “bullshit. They’ve been getting in our way for the last nine months and suddenly, they’re not here?”

“Horshen,” Cami sighed, “he says there’s activity over by that big tree they use but, they can’t find any tracks that are newer than ten or fifteen cycles.” Cami then gestured to the forest and added, “at least not this far out.”

Angie gestured around, “well we are over the red line here.”

“Yeah Angie,” Cami commented, “but you know they always come out here, even if they’re not supposed to. How many times have we seen them do it?”

“More than I can count,” Angie replied with no small amount of frustration. She was very curious, “what about the Orcs?”

“Oh we got them a plenty,” Cami started pointing. “Seems like as soon as the Americans pulled back, those sap suckers rolled right back in.” Cami started really pointing, “there, there, and…”

Angie reached up and grabbed the elf’s arm, “what do you mean down there?”

Cami grunted in frustration, “honey, we’re already two days over due. The guys are probably already back. John’s supposed to be there and you know he’ll get pissed if he finds out we stayed as long as we have. Let’s just go back.”

“Cami,” Angie said her name like she couldn’t believe it was real, “they haven’t been down there, in that valley, in over a year. Not since they destroyed the ranger base at Nottakay. Why would they go down there now?”

“What part,” Cami said with conviction, “of we are overdue, do you not understand?” When Angie started to walk off, Cami squeaked out a very nasty sounding yelp and then took off, nipping at Angie’s heals all the way back to camp, “what about that construction crew Angie? Remember that?”

“So?”

This led to yet another yelp. Cami knew humans could be stubborn but, this was ridiculous, “you don’t think John might want to know about that?”

“And princess,” Angie only ever used that word when she wanted to get Cami fired up, “we’re going to tell him when we get back. Along with what the Orc’s are doing while migrating south.”

“A patrol,” Cami said just as they entered the area where they had set up their hunting camp, “does not equal a migration, Angie.”

Angie put her fingers in her mouth and gave a whistle. She actually looked cheerful when she told the still fuming Cami, “ever notice they come like dogs? I just want to pat ‘em on the head sometimes!” Cami sneered, crossed her arms, patted her foot, and didn’t feel like replying too that.

A few seconds later, Horshen came sliding down the thick vein of a tree, kicking up bark as he did. He then did his little running thing down the root he landed on. Angie was amazed at how they did that and, it looked so wrong. For all practical purposes, it looked as if gnomes didn’t have a shin or, at least, to Angie it didn‘t. Their little legs never seemed to bend at their non-existent knees. Yet somehow, they could skitter around faster than roaches taking cover from a kitchen light.

Then Horshen, literally, tucked his head into his belly and turned himself into a ball. He rolled right down the root and came out on the ground, back on his feet, and running like he had never stopped. Angie wanted to laugh every time she saw them do that trick. Also, she never figured how they managed because, just like Horshen now, they all had those little crossbows, extra ammo, various bladed weapons, and more than a few carried guns of various types along with other gear that was given to them by human and elf alike. Most of it, they kept strapped to their body in one way or another. It made them all look like little junk yards when they turned into balls yet, none of it ever slowed any of them in the least.

In fact, that was something else that Angie had noticed about them. It did not take long for her to discover that they were all little thieving bastards. Initially, she also thought they were all little fat balls of dough. Angie had not given it a second thought because, to her eyes, having been brought up on fantasy movies, their general appearance just kind of figured.

Then Angie saw her first gnome body. Hoop had made her watch this little procession where all the other gnomes circled around this body. They were very picky about where everyone stood. Angie figured they were going to have a funeral. What they did do was rush the body when one of them whistled. They proceeded to strip it right down to the bare skin. She was stunned to see how much junk they pulled off that poor bastard. Then she was amazed to see that the body did not have an ounce of fat on it. It looked almost like a miniature body builder!

When Horshen arrived at Angie’s feet he started chattering away in the gnome language. Angie thought it sounded kind of German, if Germans were in the habit of clicking and whistling nearly every other word. Angie had liked listening to it. It was almost musical, kind of poetic in a way, and then it got to be seriously annoying which is why she snapped at the gnome war leader, “in English please!”

As Angie understood it, from what Hoop had told her, the gnomes were physically capable of speaking any primate language they chose. Apparently, they had the right jaws, tongue, and vocal cords to make a wider range of sounds than any of the other species. This wasn’t limited to elf or human languages either. The gnomes could also mimic a Yangani if they so chose and, apparently, with ease. They would have been the perfect natural interpreter between the primates but, like every other species here, they disliked and distrusted all the rest. That’s why they simply chose not to speak other languages.

Horshen was a rare exception. He was one of a few who had bothered to learn some of the other languages. He was also one of the few who chose to help the special forces units that had been coming into this area for some time. That was another shock for Angie and, as it turned out, it was actually two jolts.

Angie had never had any kind of idea about how long human warriors had really been coming up here. Until she found herself in Nordhalt, just like most people from home, she had simply assumed that earth had only known about Feyland for a couple of years or, at least in modern times. If what Horshen had told her was right then that couldn’t be true. He had been working with the SAS since it was first formed. How long ago had that been? Angie was not sure but, she did know it was more than a couple of years.

That led to her trying to pry that information out of Horshen. The problem with that was not so much him being reluctant to tell her. The largest issue was them trying to convert gnome time to human. Not only was there the usual cultural problems but, when you lived in on a planet that didn’t rotate like earth, and used dream catchers as clocks, it made the task difficult. Horshen had some experience at making those kinds of conversions and, eventually, he told Angie his age. That was the second shock because, if he was right, the little guy was over four hundred years old! Angie was still thinking the gnome made a mistake.

What Angie did hope was that he understood her clearly enough now. She did not worry about it though because, as Angie had come to notice, while half the time they acted stupid when you were trying to tell them something, when it came to important things, they never got it wrong and acted quickly. It stood to reinforce Angie’s opinion that most of them only played dumb or ignorant. She wasn’t offended though, because, it was equally clear that they did it to each other as much as they did to humans.

Angie pointed down to the valley, coughed, clicked her teeth, and Horshen nodded in the gnome way, which was more like a bow, and then he waddled off circling his hand in the air, one digit higher than the rest. Gnomes only had three fingers and a thumb. It was sometimes maddening because you could never figure out if they were shooting you a bird or not.

That was not the case with Cami. When Angie looked back at the elf girl, she was not actually extending her middle finger in a salute but, judging by the look on her face, she might as well have been. Angie shrugged at the look in a questioning way. Cami huffed in return, “what is it with you?”

Angie acted confused, “what? I’m doing what we’re out here for.”

“No you’re not,” Cami replied. “Angie, you know damn well, if there are any Orcs down there, they’re not going to have anything that interests us.”

“You don’t know that Cami,” Angie replied glumly as she began checking her gear and arranging it for yet another romp through the woods. She mumbled to herself, “why is it, with all this shit on, I feel like Little Red Riding Rambo.”

“Gee,” Cami replied with a definitive edge in her voice, “I would have thought it was more like the big bad wolf.”

Angie stopped for a second, thought about it and then curiously asked, “you know that story? You know, Little Red Riding Hood?”

Cami was confused, “why wouldn’t I know it? It’s an elf story.”

Angie snapped, “no it’s not!”

Now Cami got in her face but, was not trying to challenge her friend. Cami had enough experience with humans to understand how to come off sympathetic and she really felt that way, “Angie, you take all this too personally. This war has been going on for a very long time. Now I understand, that even for humans, you Americans are somewhat emotionally handicapped but…”

“Wait a minute Cami,” Angie snorted, “we are not!” Then Angie had to think about it, “are you insulting me or… I can’t tell sometimes.”

“I’m just worried about you,” Cami told her. “Angie, you don’t just act like you take all this personally. You act like you even enjoy it.”

Angie leaned forward and got in the elf’s face, even though, she was not sounding particularly aggressive, “I’m doing what I was trained to do, the way I was trained to do it. If you’re worried that I like killing Orcs, you’re wrong.” Angie started walking off and finished by staying, “they’re not the ones I want to enjoy killing.” Angie then clicked her teeth, whistled, and then said, “let’s go!”

The patrol moved down the slopes towards the valley and looked for tell tale signs of recent activity. They picked up a trail of Orcs and, right from the start, they all knew something was wrong. Usually Orcs traveled in either small bands of around thirty or, in huge war parties. This group appeared to be neither. It was somewhere in between.

They tracked it further south and it led them right across the old Ranger firebase. Angie found it somewhat curious to see the ruins of the now deserted post. She was supposed to have been stationed here initially but, her first raid went wrong and she never actually made it. Until now, they had never come down this far, so, this was the first time she had actually seen the place. Angie was less than impressed and mumbled to herself, “thank god I didn’t have to stay in this dump.” She also noted the location with an eye that had almost a years worth of experience in the Hurt. She stopped on top of the big tree that had fallen right across the camp, cutting it in half, and Angie noted the terrain, “no wonder they got their asses kicked. Who the hell picked this place?”

Horshen whistled for Angie and then pointed to a nearby hill. This one was rocky and, so, the trees didn’t grow so large. Angie whistled twice and pointed in that direction. They started to climb the hill and, not far up, they started finding places that appeared to have been recently excavated. Angie examined a few of the mounds of loose dirt and it is was not even wet yet. That meant the holes were not only fresh but, very fresh. It was obvious the Orcs had only just been here.

Angie examined the inside of a hole and realized that the digging had only gone down less than a meter. The cavern beneath it had been hollowed out some time before. It must have been filled with something but, now, it was almost bare. Angie shined her flash light around and caught sight of the light reflecting off something metal. She was not going to go in and get it but, she didn’t have too. She easily recognized the shape of an Orc mortar round that was half buried in the dirt and rock.

That was not all they found. Cami and Leggolt came back down from higher up, where they had found several more holes. Leggolt was holding something, tightly, in his hands and Cami had to almost wrestle it from him. He squealed like a little baby when he had to let go because Cami pinched his huge nose until he did. She then tossed the object to Angie and said, “found this near one of the holes up there.”

Angie did not even have to examine it closely. She tossed it back to Leggolt who quickly guarded it, like it was his child, and then ran off angry. The object in question was a shell, almost twenty-millimeters in diameter, and you loaded it in the butt plate of an Orc staff. Angie stood up and began brushing herself off as she said, “this entire hill was one giant ammo dump. No wonder the Orcs were so insistent that the Rangers leave. They landed on an Orc supply depot.”

Cami nodded, “I agree. Some of those holes up there look like they been here a while. Some of them were shored up with pieces of tree and that timber had been in there long enough to turn hard.” Cami stepped closer to Angie and said, “can we go back now? I don’t mind telling you, this whole thing scares the hell out of me. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Horshen hasn’t ether.”

Angie just stood there on the hill side, looking out on the surrounding terrain, “they can’t be far.”

“You aren’t serious,” Cami snarled, “listen to yourself Angie. We are deep in the American zone here. It’s one thing to fuck with them when they stray on our turf but…” Cami stomped around then said, “I know you think it’s funny but, what if they catch you? Did you ever think of that?”

What Angie did think of was, “where the hell are they? The Hundred and First I mean. They‘re not that stupid. You can‘t tell me they didn‘t detect a party of this size, this far in their zone.”

Suddenly Cami realized the same thing and she got a shiver, “um, I don’t know.” Then she thought about it some more and added, “you don’t think the Orc’s are headed for their base, do you?”

“No,” Angie said as she looked in that direction and said, “their tree is northeast of here. Those Orcs are headed…” Angie felt a shiver, “oh my god. They’re headed for Uea-Au.”

Cami did not go for that, “no, they’d never go anywhere near a city that big. Even if they wanted to, they’d have to deal with all of our patrol bases between here and there.”

Angie understood that by saying ‘our,’ Cami meant the elf outposts in the Hurt. The girl did have a point but, the Orcs should have had to deal with the American patrols too, and where the hell were they at right now? That made Angie wonder, “what if those bases aren’t there right now?”

“Why wouldn’t they be?” Cami was confused, “they’ve always been there.”

“Yeah, except,” Angie replied with a slight air of alarm, “that’s before you guys killed off half your officer corps last year.” Now Angie was becoming very alarmed, “Cami, even the hundred and first isn’t patrolling right now. What if nobody is? Something’s happened, that has to be it.”

“Yeah, fine,” Cami got back in the girls face, “all the more reason to go back.”

“I got a better idea,” Angie told her, “let’s go ask the Orcs.”

As Angie gathered her forces, Cami complained, “you’re going to get us into trouble Angie! Again!”

Was she serious? Angie ignored the elf and almost wanted to laugh. They were about to go jump on a numerically superior force of thick hided, oversized, heavily armed, evolved dinosaur like, monsters and she was worried about John getting mad at them? There had to be some irony in that somewhere. If Angie was bothered by anything it was Cami’s sudden reluctance and even hesitation. The girl was usually a lot more adventurous than she was right now. It kind of made Angie wonder what had spooked her.

It took longer than Angie expected to catch up with the Orcs. She had never seen a party, particularly a burdened one, moving this fast. They also left a trail behind that a child could follow. The Orcs were not trying to cover their scent with dung. They definitely didn’t care how much vegetation they beat down. They were even dropping items, like ammunition, in their wake. None of them seemed particularly concerned about picking it back up. That also made Angie want to laugh. They might be inhuman monsters but, as soldiers went, they were no different than their human enemies. Angie had seen plenty of human soldiers dropping extra weight on a long march, and the thought of Orcs doing it was almost comical.

Catching up was not good enough though. Once they had sight of the enemy, they had to follow them and, also, use the terrain ahead to guess where the Orc’s were going. To add to that, it all had to be done without being seen. Normally that was not so hard because they were moving slow but, this time, it was not so hard because they were moving so straight. It became trivial, for Angie, to figure out the route and pick a narrow choke point.

As Angie clicked and whistled out orders, she took one last look at the Orcs. She had thought something looked funny about them ever since they first spotted the creatures. She studied them and could never quite figure out that something was. It was rather sudden like when she realized what the problem had been and why she could not figure it out. She realized that it was not what the Orcs had, it was what they did not. There were no mortar tubes. Why where they carrying that much ammo and nothing to shoot it with?

As the patrol set up in their positions, to wait, Angie wondered if, just maybe, they had not missed some Orcs. Maybe another group was out there somewhere? Maybe the tubes were with stragglers? If that were the case then they could quickly go from ambushing to being ambushed. As Angie checked her sight picture and studied the ground in front of her, one more time, she pushed those thoughts out of her mind. It was too late to worry about that.

It was also obvious that Cami, who was set up right beside Angie, was not thinking about tactics either. Out of the blue she said, “I don’t think he’s over her, you know, my sister?”

Angie grunted, “are you going to bring that up now? I know he’s not, so what.”

“So,” Cami replied, “who is the guy you’re not over?”

Angie looked away from her sights, “is that all you think about?”

Cami shrugged, “keeps me calm?” After a few more moments of silence Cami then said, “Taylya has a thing for humans. I tried, I just never could figure it out.”

It was not something Angie had ever thought about before but, now that damn Camiceau had put the thought in her head, she couldn’t quite stop thinking about it. She tried to picture herself with some male elf and, in the end, “I’m a bigot. Sorry I just can’t see it.”

“You act like there’s something wrong with that,” Cami replied.

Angie wanted to bite her head off. The girl would just not shut up, “I just don’t want to do the thing with an elf, ok? Nothing wrong with that. Not my type.”

“Not what I meant,” Cami replied. She acted like Angie was so stupid, “I mean you Americans, anytime you bring that subject up, you act like stating the obvious is evil. There’s nothing wrong with not being attracted to an elf, Angie. That’s what’s normal but, you act like you should feel guilty about it. What’s with that anyway?”

“Jesus girl,” Angie mumbled, “what’s with you? For that matter Cami, why are you even here? I know you don’t like to be called a princess but, near as I can tell, that’s what you are. Why would your dad let you come up here to fight a war. That’s what the, ‘what up’ is.”

It was clear Cami had no idea how to answer that. She seemed to take her role here as nothing more than a matter of fact kind of thing, “it’s what we do. My father’s place in the Noveus-Faeyu doesn’t change that. In fact, not all the women are born with our sense of smell. We’re duty bound to use it.”

Well, as near as Angie could figure, she had asked and got what she deserved, confusion. She did say, “I think it’s supposed to be that way back home too. Everybody is supposed to serve but, it doesn’t happen.”

That seemed to confuse the Elf. She tried to figure it out by asking, “then why did you come? Why are you here? You people don’t even seem to realize you’re at war. You act like that’s some abnormal thing and spend all your time debating if shooting somebody is a crime or not.”

“I wouldn’t know about any of that Cami,” Angie told her. “I know how I got stuck here. I was trying to get away from my mother. I think it worked, too good.”

Cami snorted a short laugh, “now you know my reason, only it’s my father.” After another lapse of silence, Cami continued, “is that your only family? I know you humans don’t really have a lot of relatives. I know you‘ve never talked about them, at least, not with me.”

“No,” Angie was not sure she wanted to talk about it now but, figured she might as well get it over with. “I have a sister too. She was always an annoying little shit. I guess you know how that is, with you an Taylya. You guys seemed pretty close.”

“I didn’t meet Taylya till I became of age,” Cami said. Then she added, “I don’t know how many of your years that is. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time together, even after that. She always tried to look out for me though.”

“Then you’re lucky Cami,” Angie replied. “The only thing my sister ever did was try steal everything I had. She was like a little human gnome, bout the same size too.”

Cami laughed at that, “really, why?”

“I don’t know,” Angie said in a depressed tone. “Jealous maybe? Take your pick, I don’t even think she needed a reason. I remember when I was seventeen, and she was barely twelve, she even came off flirting with my boyfriend.” Angie mused with a light chuckle, “only one I had in high school and I think she got further with him than I did.” Angie caught herself, “I don’t mean like, he was a perv, I mean like, I didn’t get anywhere with him. Turns out he only went out with me to make this other girl jealous. What a dirt bag.”

Cami became whimsical when she asked, “what about mister special, the guy you keep pining over all the time.”

“I do not,” Angie snapped.

Cami went right on, “was he your first?
“What?” Angie became defensive, “of course not!” He was actually her second but, Angie was not about to tell that to little miss blabber mouth. It was bad enough that she had figured out that there was a someone to ask about in the first place.

“I knew it,” Cami said with a big smile, “that means there is a someone!”

“Oh shut…” Angie and Cami ceased all talk when they heard the whistles coming down the line. For some reason, the Orcs never heard them. Angie still could not figure out why. The things seemed to be almost as deaf as a post but, she was not complaining. She waited till the lead Orcs were past the line and almost out of the kill zone. Then she targeted one with her AK-47 and squeezed off one round.

It’s head exploded and that was quickly followed by a chorus of high pitched squealing that was soon drowned out by a chain detonation of claymore mines. As Angie went from target to target, always trying to aim between their chest armor and helmet, somewhere in the face, she realized something was wrong. It was not a bad kind of wrong but, then again, that was relatively speaking. In battle, anything not going to plan, good or bad, was usually worth a healthy dose of suspicion.

Angie did not have time to worry about it at the moment. All she knew was, if the Orcs were too stupid to shoot back, and that is exactly what most of them seemed to be, then it was their problem for the moment. She kept popping off rounds, changing magazines, and then emptying it in turn. The Orcs scattered, and many sought cover. There had been enough time to booby trap the obvious shelters and a good number of creatures met their end when they detonated blocks of C-4 via trip wire, or set off buried pressure mines just under the soil. Angie figured that would make Cami happy. They had used so many of their explosives on this ambush, they would have to go back now.

The patrol did not manage to get every hiding spot though. Several Orcs found a ravine that had adequate shelter from direct fire. They were also shooting back with their staff weapons, using an alternating volley system where one half would shoot while the other half reloaded. It was not an unmanageable threat but, Angie knew, if they let those guys catch their breath it would be harder to root them out, all the while others would slip off. Those might come back later and do something even more dangerous.

“Cover me!” Angie yelled at the line as she rolled out of her cover and slid down the ridge she was on. She was moving from to cover to cover and with Orcs shooting at you, it was always a challenge. Their weapons might be slow but, they could turn just about anything you sheltered behind into a great big hole, if you weren’t careful. That meant the best cover was shooting back at them and hope you kept their head down.

Once again, Angie found her luck holding. She got hit by splinters of wood, again! The wood in this forest could cut you like steel if you could actually splinter it in the first place. Orc staffs could do just that if it hit at the right angle. Still, splinters were better than turning into two separate bags of wet soup. She managed to get out of sight of the weapons and began working around behind them. As she jumped over one root after another. She found herself looking face to face with a living Orc.

The thing seemed to be sheltering in the notch and, Angie found herself eye to eye with it! She saw something she’d never seen in an Orc before, there was fear in those eyes. Angie smiled when she went for her machete. It tried to run and squeal but, Angie’s blade was coming from the very direction it was fleeing in. She made it’s mouth a lot wider and then broke off it’s jaw before getting her blade back. As Angie looked down on it, she realized that Cami was right after all. She did like killing those damn things.

It was not far to the bottom of the ravine where the Orcs had their hasty firing pit. Angie had a direct line of sight on every one but, she realized if she opened up with her weapon, she stood a chance of only pissing a few of them off instead of killing them. A seven six two round might penetrate most of the time but, it was far from perfect. That’s why Angie took the grenades off her belt. She had them taped together, under their spoons, and the pins tied off with a single string. She yanked on that string, released the pins, and sent both grenades up the ravine. She waited for the explosion and then sprayed down the entire ravine with what was left in her magazine.

Then Angie whistled up the hill, and silence returned.