[Firefoot]

Ulwakh didn’t think that Grimkul had slept at all before the camp was called to assemble for the attack. Grimkul climbed to his feet resentfully, moving off towards their pre-assigned area. Ulwakh followed along, taking delight in the darkness. They’d catch the Elven city by surprise, they would! Elves. The word carried every single bit of contempt that Ulwakh could associate with a word. He didn’t like Kharn, but Grimkul had been acting like a fool and an idiot and deserved at least some of the grief he had been given. But Elves.

Grimkul had all but forgotten about the Elves and the whole purpose of this campaign. He settled into his assigned position mechanically, giving Kharn a look of undisguised hatred as he passed, inspecting the ranks. And if Grimkul wasn’t smart enough to catch the subtleties, Ulwakh still noticed the evident aura of fear about Kharn.

All around them torches were being lit, displaying in all its perverted magnificence the awesome size of the army. Ulwakh didn’t care how big or fine the Elves thought their city was; it would be swallowed by the black horde.

The city soon drew into sight, temporarily distracting Grimkul from his absorption in how much he hated Kharn and reminding him how much he hated Elves. It gave him tremors of delight to think that they would destroy the Elvish city, kill its inhabitants, make them suffer.

Then there was a lull, quite a long one to Ulwakh’s mind, as the siege engines were assembled. Grimkul, thus aroused by the sight of the untouched Elvish city, took the opportunity to launch into a long tirade about how they’d all die, and when that failed he switched to grumbling about the long wait, his hunger (Ulwakh recalled that he had not eaten since lunchtime the previous day), and anything else that caught his attention.

When the siege finally was ready to begin, the pair found themselves stationed near one of the monstrous catapults, and for a while, Grimkul gleefully aided in loading the missiles and launching them, watching the flaming projectiles crash into the city. But after a while, he caught sight of Kharn overseeing the proceedings, and a plan began to form in Grimkul’s mind, a plan for Kharn’s destruction. After all, lots of Orcs died in battle…