[Arry]

‘Oy! My feet hurt already!’

Snikdul shifted the pack on his back, wincing at each step over the pebbles and sharp little twigs that covered the forest floor. The pace set by the captains was a quick one, affording no chance of watching where one stepped. Gromwakh snorted at his companion’s complaint, reminding him he’d had the chance to grab a pair of the men’s boots last night while they were sleeping.

‘Stick my pretties in some stinkin’ sandworm’s boot?! Who knows what sort of nasty bugs’re hiding in there! I’d just as soon have . . .’

Snik’s ongoing commentary was cut short as Gromwakh pulled him out of the moving column, deeper into the shadows beneath the trees. One by one the others of their little band joined them. Quiet as snails, but quicker, they gathered in a thicket, huddling beneath the shady canopy of the trees. ‘Now listen up, lads,’ said Gromwakh in a rasping whisper. ‘I managed to listen in a bit last night to One Eye and his fancy pants group of Uruks.’ Grom rubbed his backside, recalling how his eavesdropping had been cut short by swift kick to it from one of the Uruks - one who’d gone out to answer a call of nature and unfortunately returned to find the hapless Orc squatting behind a small rocky outcropping listening in. He shook free the unpleasant memory and continued on. ‘Apparently, we’re not all going to that Elf forest together. One Eye and one of the darkling men captains are attacking a different way.’

There were murmurs and grunts as the Orcs considered what Gromwakh had heard. One of them spoke up, the others nodding their misshapen heads at his observation. ‘You know what that means, dontcha? That group’s gonna be in the thick of the fighting. Right up against those nasty Elves and their sharp, biting blades and arrows.’ ‘Well what’ll we do, then?’ another asked.

‘Anyone see where One Eye and his followers were when we started off?’ asked Gromwakh. ‘Well. Let’s see . . .,’ said one of the Orcs, standing up and facing in the direction the army had been traveling. ‘I was on the outside and . . .’ He scratched his head, then raised his left hand and pointed slightly to the side and before him. ‘I saw that Urkrásh running along. So One Eye musta been somewhere near.’

‘Right then,’ said Gromwakh decisively, standing up and motioning for the others to do so, too. ‘Then we head back the other way and stay as far as we can from them.’

‘There’s a couple of Orc squads back there moving the supply wagons along,’ offered Snikdul as they shouldered their packs and slipped out of the cover of the thicket. ‘Maybe we can offer to guard the one with the hams . . . I heard they were brought in for the captains’ tables . . .’

‘Now how’d you hear that?’ asked Gromwakh, regretting immediately he’d asked the question. It was a query that Snikdul took up happily, outlining his sources and branching off onto other avenues of information that strayed far from the subject of hams.