CH 1
#1 of Kalyla Oakgrove
Kalyla Oakgrove of Tsaritsyn has been tracking this band of orcs for the last 5 days. She hardly slept while doing so. The band was particularly nastier than all of the others she had seen before. Even though this band has not done anything directly to her, Kalyla had sworn revenge on all orcs after the massacre of her elven family 30 years previously.
It was deep in the forest when Kalyla finally caught up with them. There was ten orcs around the camp fire. One of them, larger then all of the rest by half again, was obviously the leader. 'He must have ogre ancestry in him,' she thinks, 'and the worst to fight if things become melee.' She decides to ambush them by taking him out first.
Kalyla pulls he bow off of her back and grabs a handful of arrows from the quiver at her hip, sticking each arrow in the ground so she can easily grab them after shooting the previous. She grabs her special arrow "the mincer" that she got from the flechers'. Kalyla occasionally used these, but only against the more serious creatures. One time use arrows, once it enters the body, it never comes back out and the head of the arrow explodes in the body and sends shrapnel a good distance inside.
Grabbing her necklace and asking the Goddess for victory, she takes careful aim at the leader, and a moment later releases the arrow. The moment she had let it fly, Kalyla grabbed another arrow that was in front of her and aims at the second orc. Just as the mincer was almost to the leader, he leans to the side to reach for something. The arrow zips by his ear and slams into the chest of an orc on the other side of the fire, causing him to fly back a good 6 feet, killing him instantly.
Cursing under her breath Kalyla starts releasing a volley of arrows in to the orcs. The orcs were staring at their fallen comrade wondering what had happened until a second orc clutches his neck and stumbles in the fire dead. The leader was coming to this conclusion that they were under attack and the second dead orc had confirmed it for him. Roaring to find the attacker, the rest scattered to do his bidding.
She had killed another five by the time they had disappeared from her sight. 'Being typical orcs, they probably ran' Kalyla thought. Sighing, Kalyla heads back to her camp sight she set up a few miles back. She was no more then 100 feet from where her ambush was, when she heard a rustling from behind her. Knowing that Kalyla had no time to bring up her bow and nock an arrow, she drops the bow and grabs her 2 short swords off her back and rolls off to the side just as the mace descends in an overhead chop where she was. The confused orc was still staring at the spot she was at when he feels a sting across his neck. Bringing his hand to his neck in time to catch his decapitated head as he falls to the ground dead.
Sighing, the elf was wondering if she had overestimated this group. She spins around hearing a very cruel laugh behind her. "Hehehehehe, very good elf, but not good enough." the ogre growls.
The Elf was not sure which surprised her more: the fact that the ogre was speaking in perfect Basic or the fact that he was able to sneak up on her. Sighing for the third time that night, she then notices the other 2 orcs to her left and right and one behind of her. 'Shit, you know...I really should stop sighing...I just into deeper trouble every time' she says to herself. That was the last free moment she had for a while after for the 2 orcs to her flanks comes in at her, swords swinging where she was a moment before. Doing a perfect back flip, she land in front of the orc that was behind her a moment ago and ducking under the swing of the orc's sword and Kalyla guts him with her own. She dives to the left of mortally wounded orc to put some sort of an obstacle in front of rest of the orcs.
At this time the leader had enough. He was down to his two lieutenants and the rest were dead. He cursed the elf that so easily dispatched the group that he worked so hard to create. Taking his double-sided battle axe out, he rushes in to assist his last of his band.
Kalyla barely was able to get back on her feet after the orc she killed before the leader came in swinging his axe. Her obstacle was cut in half as he went by it, spraying blood everywhere. Cursing, Kalyla back peddles trying to get a little room so she set up a proper defense against his axe. Seeing a tree that was as wide as her shoulders were, she quickly dives behind it. With her back to the tree and the tree in front of the ogre, she barely had a moment to catch her breathe when she notices the axe coming at neck level in front of her. Dropping to the ground Kalyla looks up when she heard the expected "thunk" of the axe being embedded into the tree. Looking up to expect the axe buried in the tree, her eyes open wide as she sees something she did not expect. Diving out of the way, the tree from her head height up came crashing down where Kalyla was.
Getting back to her feet, Kalyla turns to face one of the lieutenants. Parrying each of his attacks, she struggles to find an opening. While this was going on the other lieutenant was slowly approaching from her back ready to strike at the right moment, holding his sword over his head getting ready for an over the head chop to finish off the elf.
The elf, doing all she can to keep from being sliced by the orc's blade, keeps backing up unaware of the dangers behind her. Just as the orc begins his downward strike, Kalyla trips on a rock an fall to the side. The orc realizes his mistake as he cleaves his fellow orc from the head to the middle of his chest.
Thanking the Goddess of the Forest for her good luck, the elf kicks the feet of the orc still struggling to remove his sword from the orc he just killed. He lands hard, arms stretched out to his sides. The elf quickly rolling over the orc and buries one of her swords deep into his chest.
Yanking her sword out, Kalyla gets up and faces the leader. She comes to the realization that as tried as she is, there is no way she can defeat this behemoth. She turns and starts running to where she might have a chance to win this battle. Kalyla looks over her shoulder to see if he is following, he is and he is gaining, crashing through trees and bushes that Kalyla needs to avoid. Hearing what she is looking for off to her left, she turns toward it.
Still running to the upcoming waterfall, Kalyla glances over her shoulder to check on the ogre. He is closer then before and barely out of his monstrous reach. Kalyla turns her head back to the front and runs for all she is worth. Then she spies what she was looking for. Running full tilt toward it, praying to the Goddess of the Forest and jumps off the cliff, catching the rope that she had tied to an overhanging tree branch years before. Swinging in a wide arc out over the cliff Kalyla watches as the ogre falls over the cliff and falls 300 feet down to the bottom.
Climbing up to the branch and then down the tree to solid ground, Kalyla lets out a sigh of relief that it is over and thanks the goddess. Kalyla starts back to the camp that the orcs had made to retrieve the bow she had discard during the fight, taking the time to check the orcs if they had anything valuable on them and putting out their fire. She turns away from the remains of the orc's fire and heads back to her camping area. Had Kalyla looked over her shoulder, she would have noticed a pair of blood red eyes watching her.