A quick recap, for the long pause in between. Bellos sent a missive to Thelanna about his concerns for Greppa's wavering loyalty to Allas (and in the process taught the Allas priesthood Greppa's idea for using lantern archons for mail); Greppa sent a missive to Captain Agina explaining his misgivings about Allas, given the facts; and everyone left Tuoma for the east, to find the Buhkenahk tribe that (according to Belial) was driving the whole "invading orcs" thing.
The following is a variety of impressions of the travel, and tidbits, so I can get caught up. I will add more impressions as I go, but here's two that I wanted to get out so I could continue.
Travelling East
Culture
Greppa and Merideth, the only ones who had spent much time enslaved to the Bunahken, rapidly revised their opinion of orcs... yet again. Accustomed to thinking of the tribes as crude brutes, the level of sophistication surprised them both (it surprised Bellos, too, but he hadn't thought himself an expert). As they passed from tribe to tribe, sometimes fighting, sometimes visiting, they slowly uncovered the richness of orc culture.
Slavery, for example, was vastly different than they had inferred from the backwater Bunahken. When tribesfolk of an opposing tribe were captured, they were treated as prizes, and while a great hero may be given a vaguely degrading job, it was in some ways more akin to inter-fraternity rivalry with an opportunity to make fun. And every month or two a pair of tribes would hold Slave Days, where they would meet, swap or ransom captured foes, trade, and feast.
In many cases, a member of a tribe who had difficulty fitting in, or did not think well for himself or herself, would volunteer to be traded for a great hero. The capturing tribe gained a less restive slave, the opposed tribe regained their hero, and the volunteer gained a life that was no harder than the nomadic tribal life... and required little to no decision making. Nor was slavery seen as permanent - many slaves who were not traded for would eventually join their "host" tribe, when they had proven themselves sufficiently, taking the rite of adulthood and becoming a full member of the tribe.
Stories were another place that showed the orc culture well. Each night, around the various fires, orcs would take turns recounting stories of their ancestors, or of the world before civilization. Sometimes a new tale would be added to the mix, when an orc had achieved something particularly great... and it was evident that these smaller tales were the source of the ancestral tales, generations later. Bellos, Greppa and Merideth all (at the prompting of Chatham) shared some of their own stories, and were rewarded with good cheer and orc laughter.
More intriguing to Merideth was the methods of trade among orcs. Within one's tribe, no actual trading occurred - one gave gifts to one's fellows, and then they owed one. Trading, it was said, was for unehkashun (those who dwell in one place) such as Theralis... and it implied that one had no friends to give you what you needed. She rapidly acquired a vast and weighty interest in gift giving, and by the time they neared the Buhkenahk tribe, had healed hundreds of orcs as gifts to their tribes.
Greppa, at the height of unehkashun pride, traded earth's skin and earth's strength to hunters in return for safe passage, meat from their hunts, and guides in areas unfamiliar to Chatham.
Bellos continued to observe, and remained quiet.
Hydra March
Hydras became thick and overpopulated as they travelled east. Most were on the move west, and while the group easily avoided them, it was difficult to go more than a few days without seeing one. Most seemed to be starving - their hunting grounds emptied by orc bellies, they moved west to find new hunting grounds.
The youths, no friend to hydras, found some bitter sympathy for them anyway, particularly when they passed a waterhole where a hydra lay on its side by a water hole, one head lolled into the water and its ribs still and cold.
<hopes she doesn't get pummeled> but, hank, don't you agree?)
