Rise of the Horde

After capturing the lone goblin Grogus, Xiao Chen and his companions continued on exploring the Lag'ranna Mountains. Xiao Chen's main objective was to scout the rear of the tribe whether there are paths for enemies to make utilize in attacking them.

So far, Xiao Chen was satisfied with his findings. The location that he had picked was blessed with many natural barriers, the Burning Sands to the south and the southern tail of the Lag'ranna Mountains that stretch far beyond the horizon even reaching up until the land of the pointed ears to the north covering their west.

Probably around sixty kilometers to the north was also the Teka'rr Mountains connected with the southern tail of the Lag'ranna Mountains, curving southeast as it stretches westward and even extends inside the Burning Sands.

The southern part of the Lag'ranna Mountains was divided by a long, wide, steep and deep ravine carved out by a river that basically prevents any enemy army coming from the east.

Marching northward Xiao Chen, Aro'shanna, Rakh'ash'tha and the bounded by the vine's goblin Grogus who was being closely watched by Aro'shanna arrived at a swampland.

Scattered all around the swampland were bones and rotting corpses, filling the air with a pungent smell of rotten meat. Knitting his brows and trying to expand his vision further, Xiao Chen was very wary of what was in front of them.

After spending some time in observing the swampland, Xiao Chen witnessed the rotting corpses snatched by creatures hiding within the swamps. The creatures had long armored body with thick scales, sharp bony spikes jutting out along their spine, they had a long, rounded snout and within those snout were a set of razor-sharp teeth, an enormous length a size maybe twice or thrice that of the alligators that Xiao Chen had seen.

They closely resemble the look of alligators but they had two horns on the crown of their heads and a tail that ended with a spiked club.

Xiao Chen wouldn't want to march his army in a place filled with these aggressive and scary-looking creatures and any rational enemy commander of an army wouldn't also.

The swampland covered the entirety of the southern part of the Lag'ranna Mountains on the north side of the Yohan Tribe till the ravine to the east.

"What are we doing here?, chief, this place reeks of death and decay"

Rakh'ash'tha came forward with a frown on his face and covering his nose with his free hand. The stench was so overwhelming that even a few paces away from the swampland, they can still sniff the unfavorable smell.

"We are exploring and finding paths that enemies can make use of in attacking the tribe, and luckily the tribe is safe from any surprise attack coming from here"

Xiao Chen replied and fanned the front of his nose trying to ward off the rotting stench. He quickly turned around and retraced their steps back to where they found Grogus.

*****

"I hope you'll try to escape, so that I can have an excuse to cleave you into pieces"

Aro'shanna snorted towards Grogus who Xiao Chen was freeing from the vines that bounded him.

"Grogus...no try...escape...Grogus behave...and cook"

Grogus replied, his eyes trembling after looking at the angry stare of the still angry Aro'shanna. Retracting his gaze at the displeased female orc, Grogus focus his sight on the freshly killed boar that was unfortunate enough to be spotted by Aro'shanna.

Staring at the wounds inflicted on the boar by the hot-tempered female orc. Grogus can't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva in fear, Aro'shanna almost cleaved the poor boar into two by its supposed to be waist if it stands on its hind legs.

"Don't do anything that you'll surely regret later"

Rakh'ash'tha warned Grogus as he kept a close eye on the goblin who was going to cook their meal and giving back the remaining pots of spices.

"Grogus... cook...Grogus...make good food"

The goblin reassured the wary Rakh'ash'tha while patting his chest, he was eager to prove his usefulness to the chief or else the smirking female orc who is staring at him will surely tear him apart with her huge axe that she was sharpening with a rough piece of stone that she found lying around making audible chinking sounds.

Gutting and cutting the boar into pieces with a small sharp blade, Grogus' actions were refined and skillful proving that he had done these many times already. He was treated as an outcast in his tribe because of his ambition of being a great cook which the goblins see as meaningless.

Much just like the orcs, strength and power is all that matters among goblins, the strong prey upon the weak and the weak treated so badly that they die an untimely death.

Grogus was often bullied in his tribe and it came to the point where he can't take it no more, armed with his knowledge earned from closely watching how humans cook, he left his tribe from the far north beyond the swampland where they had just been at.

He was lucky to have been ignored by the creatures that hid within the swamp and made it out of it alive.

After waiting for some time, a mouth-watering aroma permeated the air, a soup made of vegetables that Grogus foraged around while being tailed by Aro'shanna and the boar meat. The scent of the boar meat being roasted also had a very flavorsome smell that tempted Aro'shanna to take a bite already.

Serving his work to the three hungry orcs who had their stomachs growling for quite a while now. Aro'shanna almost started to devour Grogus' cooking when she was suddenly stopped by her chieftain.

"You take a bite first"

Xiao Chen motioned Grogus to eat first the meal that he had cooked. Grogus stared at Xiao Chen with confused eyes, wondering what the orc was up to, even Aro'shanna stared at Xiao Chen wanting to know the reason why the chief stopped her.

"Just to make sure, you didn't add anything else"

Xiao Chen explained as he was still wary of the goblin, being killed by poisoned food, he had no desire to experience it.

"Ki...Grogus...eat"

Grogus nodded his head in understanding and quickly took a bite of the roasted boar meat and drank the broth from the soup, a satisfied smile was on his face as he was content with the taste of his work.

"Grogus...food... safe and tasty...no... poison"

The goblin proudly declared as he continued eating, filling his mouth with a huge piece of boar meat and happily munching it with enjoyment.

"Chief, can we eat now?"

Aro'shanna stared at Xiao Chen with a pleading look as her stomach continued growling after watching the goblin Grogus happily enjoying his meal.

"Alright, it's safe. Just wanted to make sure that he didn't add poison to the food"

Xiao Chen softly muttered and quickly Aro'shanna started to greedily devour the roasted boar meat with large bites and swallowing them quickly with the help of the broth from the soup.

"Ah! Delicious!"

Aro'shanna commented on Grogus' cooking and continued to voraciously consume the food. Shaking his head with Aro'shanna's eating style, Xiao Chen picked a piece of roasted boar meat and brought it to his nose, sniffing the delicious scent then took a bite.

Munching slowly and tasting the meat, Xiao Chen was surprised on how well and skillful was Grogus in cooking, slurping the broth that was also as appetizing as the roasted meat.

Xiao Chen decided in his mind that Grogus will take care in cooking his meals from now on but must be closely monitored so that the goblin won't do anything sneaky and add something extra on his meals.