The Path of an Orc

[Norv]

Norviskrall looks at the orcs gathered around the fire and starts his story.

It is said this happened long time ago, when the old Clan Redblade was still around, in Nagrand.

It was a stormy night, when an orc child was born in the clan.
The shamans of the village gathered around him, along with the child's father, and performed a ritual to see what the path of the child will be. You see, they believed that the Path of an orc is one, and should be known from the beginning, for the orc to walk on it properly.
They summon... I mean, they called a spirit. The spirit came, but they could barely see him in the dark night and couldn't hear him because of the storm raging around. Then it dissapeared.
The shamans sighed, knowing that there was no way to restart the ritual that night, they had to wait for another day.
But the child's father yelled, claimed that he had understood what the spirit said, that it was not just the storm, but that the spirit said himself that the child's going to be a hunter!
Like he was himself. His pup should follow the same Path.
The shamans were not convinced but the father didn't want to hear about another ritual. And was going to train his child on the path of the hunter.

Years passed...The child became an young orc. Always struggling hard, too hard, with the bow, and having a difficult time taming any animal, except wolves...
His father decided it was time to send him alone in the woods, to track a big boar that was lurking around the village. So the young orc went away. But to his big shame, he lost track of the boar. He even could not find the trace of his own steps, to get back home. He got lost.
Days and weeks passed, he survived somehow in the wilderness, but still could not find his way back. Even more, he began to experience strange dreams at night, or even during the day.

Norviskrall stops from his story and turns to the orcs.

I suppose you know what a spirit walker is?
A spirit walker destiny is to live all the time between the mortal world and the spirits' world. Unlike normal shamans, who only step into the spirits' world from time to time, they are destined to always walk half on it and half on this world. They have memories of countless spirits filling their minds and are inhabited by one or the other without their control... This is very confusing, and only hard shamanistic training and help from their clan can stop them from going mad.
...And, tipically, a spirit walker's experiences begin with strange dreams.
...Like our young orc had began to experience.
Except there was no one there to guide him.

Try to imagine how it must have been.
He was having more and more dreams that felt like real life, only not his own, but others, countless lives, countless memories, replacing each other, completing each other, leading him to wonder which were his in the first place and unable to answer anymore. Try to imagine how confusing and scary, yes, scary, it must have been.
I can't really imagine it all, to be honest. I only know one thing though: that only an unbelievable discipline of spirit can help one go through it, without losing his mind. A discipline that hard to train, and only can be trained by the best shamans. But shamans, as you can easily see, were of course not around.

Norviskrall stares into the fire in silence for a few moments.

...In a stormy night, most like the one of the child's birth, the father, now an old orc, was walking the last steps to his home. Suddenly something, a figure, appeared in front of him. It was a savage orc's face, with scars and bruises all over, with overgrown beard, and the eyes... the eyes of a madman!
Those eyes looked at him and he froze in terror, as he recognized them though: his son, a madman! But no sign of recognition, or lucidity, was in them in return. Only, as the wind was hurling, he saw the lips of the creature moving, and the wind carried to him words like

"an orc has only one path...that he will walk on sooner or later..."
"the Path cannot be cheated.. it can fail, oh it can fail!"
"but cannot be cheated"

The old orc fell on his knees and whispered "I'm sorry! sorry!", but the scary figure disappeared in the night.
...They found the body next morning, near the village, hacked by panthers. Nobody recognized him. Only the old orc knew it was his son.

Norviskrall looks out into the night.

...It is said that even now, in stormy nights, a restless spirit wanders around, looking for fathers and whispering them
"the Path of an Orc is one... it cannot be cheated...never be cheated".

[Kozgugore]

(( Nice yarn! Reckon we could use a little more inspirational orc stories out there. ))

[Claws]

Spooky.

Nice Yarn Norvis

[Oznack]

((yay superior ))