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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 503013" data-attributes="member: 5137">Mountain Thunder: Rich Orc CultureDeep In The WoodsAthan finally awoke, hog tied and hanging from a tree branch. His memory of facing down three orcs was clear, but all else was dimmed by pain."Eh, Egmah vohk. Krugahn, helkehm egmah."Crude laughter. Cold water. Sudden, sharp wakefulness.And that's when he figured out what had happened. He'd been captured. Not killed in battle. No heroic last stand, or courageous victory - capture, taken alive by the enemy. Athan felt sick inside.He was in a small camp, with about two dozen orcs scattered around a pair of mostly coal fires. Human prisoners, dwarfed by the orcs, stood in two lines of twenty, tied at the neck to a common rope between pairs of trees. Athan was the only one in his particular predicament, however, and while the others were barely watched, six of the orcs were right next to him, standing in a lazy approximation of watchfulness.The orc who had thrown the icy water on him stepped in to look him in the eyes. Despite the black pit in his stomach, Athan's gaze did not quaver. He held the orc's gaze, looked angry.The orc laughed, "Egmah ufgah, eh!" and grinned pridefully at the other orcs.Athan was the great hero of Eastpass. Over the last week he had felled more orcs than there were in this camp. And the leader of this small warband was rightly pleased to have captured such a prestigious trophy.Greppa's situation was different. He'd yielded, when the spear was at his throat. He'd given in to an enemy, however hopeless. Athan's clenching gut would have quailed before the fury of Greppa's internalized humiliation.His and Merideth's hands and fingers bound carefully, their mouths gagged, and then they were tied and roped into a string of other captured soldiers. A few yards from them, a muscular orc sat on a rock, a wide, flat drum of hide cradled between arm and chest. He was beating it with what looked like a thigh bone, generating a near-deafening bass sound. The orc grinned at them continuously as he beat on the drum.Merideth, on the other hand, felt no shame. Thera had been a great hero, and had risen from origins as an orc slave. Merideth would, too. Carefully, she cultivated a firm gaze and a firm chin.And hoped both would last.Eh, Egmah vohk. Krugahn, helkehm egmah.Egmah means 'my that'. They'll be hearing this a lot.Vohk is a verb for 'dawning'; the orc is apparently a poet.Krugahn is a personal name, and does not translate well, but roughly corresponds to 'great cat' in old orcish.Helkehm means to greet or host someone. It is used here in an ironic sense.Egmah ufgah, eh!Ufgah is used here to mean 'has courage', but translated literally means 'does not bend'.</blockquote>

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