The hazy image of a dim brown wall came into sight, the sounds of rumbling came from the other side as a clear, unforgettable scent drifted into the man's nose. Rain. Roof... Wait rain? The fuck is going on? He tried moving his head, but found that it was paralyzed. Have I been drugged? I don't feel drugged. A pair of giant burly hands came into his vision, carefully lifting him up. Oh fuck... Oh fuck no! I'm dead aren't I? Or rather died... How!? This was not the first time he had been reincarnated, the first life he remembered had been on earth where he died in his second year of college. He had been out with his friends at a fair, listening to their bright chatter about the movie they had just watched, when a car jerked off the road and plowed into the crowd. His second life was in a space faring society, where he had expected to live in excessive comfort, enjoying the beauty and entertainment of technological advances. His last memory had been as a four year old entering cryogenic storage for the first time on his family's vacation to an uninhabited planet.

The giant hands raised him up and he suddenly felt a stinging pain across his back. “Waaaaahh!” A tiny wail shot out of his mouth as he heard what sounded like gibberish and a deep laugh come from the giant holding him.

“Honey, this boy is going to be a tough one! Listen to those lungs! Haha!”

Motherfucker! I would have cleared my lungs myself in a couple seconds! He finally saw the black haired, well trimmed, bearded face of the giant who was now his father give a wide smile as he knelt down to wash the newborn in a tub.

“Hahaha! Ariadne, he has your eyes! It's your turn to name, your turn.” The child felt warmth permeate his body as the water in the basin gently washed over him. He was snugly wrapped in a towel before being handed over to his new mother. Nooooo, I don't want to be a baby again! It's fucking boring! I can't do shit! But as soon as he looked into the auburn eyes of the beautiful woman holding him, her gentle smile filled with a mother's love, he couldn't help but soften up. Well, the very least I can do for this one is not die early. Again.

“Aegis Hyades Rastine. For the good fortune the gods granted us in this battle and the respite they granted us from the drought, no doubt they wish for the circumstances of Aegis' birth to be a grand one.”

“No doubt.” Roston echoed, a big stupid grin still on his face as he knelt down beside the bed. He began to hum a tune as Ariadne sung the words to the song. Why does this sound familiar? I've never heard... Aegis stretched his mouth into a yawn before being being rocked to sleep under the lullaby.

---

*BOOM* Ugrit jumped awake at the sound of thunder crashing nearby only to start choking. Tight coarse rope wrapped around his neck, wrists and ankles, tying him to some posts in the town square. Panicking in the dark, he struggled against the bindings, only to feel the sharp coil around his neck tighten. Calm down! Ug'rit's mind took back control of his body, suppressing the raw instinct that drove him. How? Memories of the battle flooded into his mind, the last being the feeling of weightlessness as the shelves of the storehouse collapsed. We had partial success. Im'rit and the others escaped with food. The others? “Brothers?” Only the rush of the rain greeted him in the pitch black. Asleep, separated, or dead. The painful dryness of his throat reminded Ug'rit of the drought as thirst took over his body and raised his head to catch the water, greedily swallowing it down like a mad beast. His body welcomed the cold as the torrent grew stronger, as if trying to cleanse away the burns that resided in his soul.

Im'rit lead a group of about sixty orcs through the forest back to the tribe. Eighty had been killed in the town and

another sixty during the exchange of arrows in the forest. He and his brothers could only feel bitter tastea in their mouths and holes in their guts whenever they thought about the trade off. They had carried as much food and water that the twenty orcs could handle, only to have the water become irrelevant before they had even made it back to the forest. 140 dead for a few dozen sacks of food. Pathetic. Just thinking about it made Im'rit angry, he remembered looking back at the battle Ug'rit was leading, only to see his brethren being killed like livestock. “Fuck!” He shouted. They would arrive back at the tribe by dawn, not bothering to take a roundabout route in case the humans tried following the next day. The rain would wash away any evidence of their passing.

---

At dawn, Ug'rit was woken up by a kick to the ribs. The drumming of the rain against his skull reminded him of where he was; he didn't even remember falling asleep. He had been too busy drinking the rain. “Get up ya fuckin' pig.” A cloaked man had untied Ug'rit from the post, but kept his limbs bound together. The noose tightened around his neck forcing him to a stand. When the knot shifted around to the base of his skull, the man gave him a violent shove, nearly causing Ug'rit to lose his balance and die by hanging.

“We're gon' be put'n you in a niiice, dry place. How 'bout dat?” The man smiled as Ug'rit felt a couple wet slaps on his cheek. “Can't have you shiverin' to death b'fore the Marquis' men come; they can get allll sorts of information out'a you and we can get a purdy little bounty on your sorry hides.” Ug'rit was suddenly choking as the man slammed his elbow into Ug'rit's back, using the leverage to tighten the rope around his neck as they walked. Just as he was about to pass out, the man loosened his grip, leaning into Ug'rit's ear and hissed: “Too bad dat money won' be nearly enough to 'elp all dem widows you slimy fuckers made las' night.”

They had arrived at a run down shack next to the animal pens and Ug'rit couldn't help but silently chuckle at the luxury. A damp pile of hay had been laid in one corner, while the opposite had a hole in the roof, delivering water to a bucket below; the new residence had been completed with a freshly installed post in the center of the small room where the man tied and forced Ug'rit to the floor. “You know, my niece was askin' last night why 'er daddy wasn't wakin' up...” Water continued to drip down the man's face despite being out of the rain. “I had to tell her... I had to fuckin' tell 'er dat you monsters killed her daddy! That you bastards killed my brother!” He gave a violent kick to Ug'rit's chest, which responded with the wet crack of a broken rib. “Oh I'm sorry, did that hurt? I apologize. You know what also hurts? Telling. Your. Fucking. Niece. Her. Dad's. Dead. You're fuckin' lucky we hafta keep you alive, otherwise I'd kill you right now. Oh! Guess what? You get bread! Yummy, tasty bread! I found a special loaf with delicious little maggots for you, mm-mm-mm. Not that a stupid little fuck like you would understand me anyways. Your lil' worm infested brains only know how to snort and grunt like a pig in heat; it's amazin' you guys can even understand each other.”

With that, a maggot infested loaf of bread plopped into the ground right in front of Ug'rit, splashing mud over his face; most of the bread had gone black as the maggots slithered in and out of the holes. *Thud* the door had been barred shut; as soon as Ug'rit could no longer hear the human muttering outside, he threw his face into the bread and swallowed every morsel he could, even the dirt mixed in with the crumbs. It was the largest piece of food he'd seen in weeks. He didn't mind the maggots; the tribe had started eating them when the crops failed for the third time. If they hadn't been so proud and started eating them sooner, maybe the younglings wouldn't have starved. The humans are quite merciful. A broken rib in exchange for food, water, a roof, and soft bedding? Ha! I would have given my tusks and limbs in exchange for such luxuries at the tribe. Ug'rit smirked. I wonder what that human was saying to me? It probably wasn't anything good, but I should use this opportunity they've given me to learn their language. What was that word he kept using to refer to me? “Fu-ck-er” Ug'rit grunted the syllables out. It must mean prisoner or something of the sort. So I am that human's 'fucker.'

---

Im'rit and the others stood in the entrance of the tribe, baffled. The idol of Selene was gone. The huts were empty; anything useful that could be carried had disappeared. His stomach sank as he looked at the scene. If there had at least been a body or some sign of a struggle there could be a touch of hope mixed in the dread he felt, but no, he felt only dread. The cold reality wrapped itself around Im'rit's mind and forced its way through his defenses, crushing walls of denial, spears of hope, and finally the castle of disbelief.

They sent us to die... His arms slackened, dropping the sacks of food he had risked his life for. They sent us to die... He recalled elder Lu'kai calling him to his hut, telling him to travel south to the human settlement and find out if they were well fed. Not get food, they expected us to... He recalled how the elders did not show any worry when the shaman didn't return, instead focusing the villages efforts on hunting. The shaman probably found a place... He recalled how willing some parents were to poison their own children, eager almost. There weren't enough resources; the tribe was too big... He recalled how those who weren't willing to poison their children were among the first adults to die. They dropped the dead weight, the younglings, then they killed potential resistance, and when that wasn't enough, they sent the unproven, the unblooded males... He recalled the scene of Ug'rit leading a desperate charge against the humans to give them time to escape. They planned for us to... He again recalled the scene of the slaughter. The dread was gone, only the cold remained.

“Those without sacks, empty out all the jars and bring them outside; collect the rain water. Store the food in the shrine, it's the driest location. Once you all have accomplished that, join me in the clearings, we'll see what crops can be saved and move them all to the first clearing.”

“Im'rit...” En'ki, the youngest of the group spoke up. “Maybe they-”

“They abandoned us En'ki. They sent us to die. If it hadn't been for Ug'rit's plan to simply steal the food, rather than fight the humans for the ceremony, I suspect that we would have returned in failure... No, I don't think we would have returned at all.” Im'rit turned his gaze towards the remaining orcs. “I give you my congratulations brothers, the food will last us several months, enough time to replant the crops. Though I believe Ug'rit was correct, the battle we fought was blasphemous to the ceremony, Selene would never accept our sacrifices. We are still unblooded, despite our efforts. We must gather our strength these next few months and prepare a great hunt. Our prey are strange beasts; when we meet with them, they may be even stronger than the humans, but we shall be as well. They may use strange chants to make us lower our guards, but we will be unaffected by their magic. They will look like us, but know that they are not one of us. They are the perfect prey, ones that Selene is eager for us to vanquish, ones that she demands to receive in order to enact her punishments upon them in the afterlife. They are the Tu'lu'min; the traitors.”