Returning (private, no mod needed, just coming back)

[Urck]

Summer of Era II of the Celestine Mandate
Era XI Post Fractum in the Age of the Darkening
The Mageocracy of Julos the Mad.
Paradigm Shift: Schism in the Church of the Faith!
In the Age of the Darkening

The rising sun shone it's rays on the city of Riparia as it had and always would, filling each crack, each hole it could reach with a rich yellow light filled with warmth and the promise of a new day. The rays swam through the air, reflecting off the waterfalls in an inspirational display, lighting the dirty rooftops of the many building in Riparia, beckoning the shop keeps to begin their morning routine. There was one place, however, where the brightness of the sun was not welcome and it would find that place quick enough. It's light crept up the side of a small apartment building and through the glass of each window on it's way to the top floor where it slipped through the many cracks of a boarded window.

The orcs eyelids snapped open instantly as the sunlight pierced his sensitive eyes, making the green lids that protected them blink rapidly before realizing they could not defend his the night-accustomed eyes from this unstoppable force. A gauntlet encased hand slid up the orcs unusually thin thigh until it reached the hilt of the delicate blade that hung at his waist. The pair of bare feet slid across the wooden floor until they were underneath the orcs body, slowly rising it off the hard floor until it stood at it's full height, 5'6, a height rarely respected by any orc. His head leaned back as he began the same routine he had done for the past two seasons, beginning with a long stretch.

But today would be the last day of his solitude. Today would mark the second season since he had walked in the room and had realized something that few orcs would ever be smart enough to know. Those many nights ago, he had walked in and looked down at the amazing kris that hung at his waist and then to the sai on his opposite side. He was still just an orc. A simple fighting tool. He had thought that he had changed that when he had began leading the Brotherhood of the Wolf, surviving by outthinking. But all of his thoughts had been going to one place, fighting. How to avoid a fight, how to set up a fight, how to improve his chance to win a fight. Sure all of that had worked so far, he had grown in power, reputation, wealth, and had yet to lose a fight even when the odds were stacked against him (of course he did not count a retreat as a loss). But was that who he really wanted to be? An instrument of death? No, he wanted to live his life. He wanted to learn how to enjoy things and actually live. Sure he was strong physically, though that strength compared not to what it should be as an orc, but mentally he was nothing. A shell. A weapon no better then those that hung from his waist.

On that day in the cold winter, he had told his two bodyguards and the rest of his 50 men to lay low and protect themselves before returning to his apartment in the passing of two seasons. That did not matter though, for he had some thinking to do so he established a routine. And from that day on he had done nothing that he hadn't done the day before. 2 hours of practice with his weapons to maintain his skill, 9 hours of sleep, and the rest of the time with his back propped against the door sitting down and facing the window, thinking about anything that came to mind (with short breaks for eating and bathroom uses of course). He thought of his home, his past, his future, any little thing he thought of. If a fly flew by, he would think of it, pondering what it did for it's day of existence, how it did manage to fly, how it got in. Anything.

And so on that summer morning, he awoke with a deeper understanding of the world that few orcs could ever hope or want to achieve. He was no longer the mindless machine his race had made him. He was Urck. And the opening of his eyes that day marked the beginning of a new life. The strong fingers of his right hand crossed over his body and gripped the handle of his fine blade and with a single motion slid it quickly from his sheath. The hand that held that sword was one that had been through little training, but as far as the orc was concerned his whole life had been training. There had to be something good about being born an orc and if his natural skill with anything deadly wasn't it, then he did not know what was. And though that blade was indeed very sharp, it was not by that he hoped to defeat his foes, it was by his newly sharpened mind. The long, waving blade of the kris cut through the air in three quick slashes and a stab. Nothing more complex then he could handle. Then out came 'breaker' the sai. The short sword breaker watched the movements that his kris did in the opposite hand. Whenever the waving sword left a hole in the orcs defences, the sai was there to block the imaginary attacks, even offering a counter or two.

He was not long until the sound of three sharp raps on a door, a pause; followed by two more filled the empty apartment room. He quickly slid his sai and kriss back into their own scabbards and turned to face the door, knowing that his men had returned. The cold steel of his gauntlet gripped the equally cold doorknob and pulled open the wooden door, revealing not fifty men, but three. He greeted those three men without surprise of the absence of the rest, instead just beckoning them to come in the room.


After exchanging greetings and Verkan, Wallace, and Edmund each told Urck what they had done in the past two seasons the orc quickly walked to the end of the room where a small pile of fur laid. "Men" Urck began, one of the many words he had spoken in he past while, "we leave Riparia at noon, nothing here is worth anything anymore. From what you tell me of the guards, the time for us is over." he said, putting his finely made cloak on and walking out the door, all three of his men following, knowing from experience that their leader would most likely lead them well, as he had before his feelings of emptiness had settled in. That now over, there was nothing to do but start fresh again.