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Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Orc
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Kenai hurt. His head hurt from all the cheap ale. His back hurt from fatigue and work. His asshole hurt from the rough pounding the dancer Janus, his swain, had given him in the alley. His hands and knees hurt from the trips and stumbles over roots and onto stones that had marked his drunken path into the woods. Now, his gut and throat hurt after vomiting up a gout of bile into the dirt. The orc’s solid frame swayed with uncertainty on hands and knees in the dark. Scant moonlight shifted between leaves, not nearly enough for such a big man to regain his senses. The intoxication still dulled his mind and made his body reel with each heave. He felt like he’d been run over by a carriage.
“Gt...gitup...wher…”
Get up. Where am I?
Kenai was only able to stand with hand braced against a tree trunk. The other roughly wiped the puke off his chin. It was then the realization hit him that he’d probably blacked out at some point, not remembering hitting the ground to vomit, and that meant he didn’t know where he was or how much time had passed. The tree trunk was slick, slimy and Kenai’s hand slipped from it, chest thumping against the damp bark. He coughed and rolled his back to the surface. He knew this would happen again. He’d known it for months. Head hung over his chest, he cursed his foolish decisions. The drinking, the fucking, and the general assholery of the last six months had left him feeling like shit, waking up in alleys, and pissing away any money he brought in.
And the panic attacks were still ripping into him at night. The booze wasn’t keeping them away now.
The forest around him was a patchwork of contrasting shadows and confusing angles with sparse patches of moonlight peeking through the canopy above. Pools of silver lit fog swirled where moonlight poked thru the leaves, like wisps dancing from one beam to the next. Where could he be? The lake was the only real landmark he knew in the forest. His eyes darted around, trying to make sense of his surroundings, his brain playing keep up the whole time. It had to be past witching hour. The forest was quiet save for the tap of twigs, the crunch of dead leaves, a small chorus of crickets, and a barely there breeze that chilled the cool sweat over Kenai’s torso. It had been stupid to rip his shirt off for the attractive dancer. It took a moment for the gears to turn, but the chill made him realize that he’d probably have to find somewhere safe to sleep and figure his way home by daylight. The prospect of nodding off again wasn’t pleasant. The woods weren’t outrageously dangerous, but things happen. Bears. Cougars. Not to mention satyrs, as he’d become aware of recently. The thought warmed Kenai’s cheeks for a moment.
But just a moment. Now he remembered and felt the fear take him again, every muscle on him started to quake. He had to move. He had to go.
Steps came surer now, with panic snapping at his heels. Moving faster than he probably should have in his state, Kenai staggered where he thought he would find sure footing in the dirt. Only hazy outlines of trees and branches could be made out as he moved forward, unsure of where he was going, but sure to keep moving. No more blood. “...n-no more blood…”. The breeze picked up, chilling the sweat on Kenai’s back and making the towering branches around him creak. A putrid smell came with it. Rot. The kind that sticks to a body, thick enough to make you feel unclean. It didn’t feel like a breeze in the forest anymore. It felt like breathing. Behind him.
Kenai ran then, foolishly. His own clumsy momentum carrying him around trees, dead branches, and tangles of vines that nicked at his skin. It felt like there was a behemoth at his back, ready to run him down. All it took was an exposed root. No malice, no supernatural energy. Just a tree root, and Kenai sprawled across the ground, into the dirt and grime covering the forest floor. “HUNHH!!” the wind left the big orc’s lungs, replaced with flecks of dirt in his mouth and the inescapable fear that he was caught.
The stench rolled over him as he tried to get up, making him retch and his eyes tear up. Kenai rolled onto his back, bracing himself on his hands. The feeling behind him, the blood that flowed from the alley, the shadow that had stalked him since the battle was on him now. It was going to have his blood. The big orc’s eyes darted around the gloom, fearful, waiting.
Nothing.
There was nothing there. Even in the barely discernible light, the forest was just the forest. There was no presence behind him. Just the chirp of insects and a fresh, damp breeze.
Kenai leaned back on the earth with a flump. After brushing the dirt from his still shaking hands, he rubbed his throbbing temples. “Git the fuk up you stupid, slagging piece of shit…”. After a few more breaths and a moment to find which direction gravity pulled, the orc reached up to rub the fatigue and grime from his face.
A massive, disembodied eye with a weeping gash across the pupil hovered low over Kenai’s face as he opened his eyelids. In the space of a moment that the scream rose from his breast to his throat, he saw his own reflection in the orb: rotted, eyeless, dead.
Kenai screamed so hard he thought his skin would burst from the pressure inside.
Twisting his body to get away and flailing his arms at the hideous thing only served to sprawl him prone again a few feet away and the moment his own eyes were off it, it was an inch from his nose again, staring through the tear in it’s watery skin, staring straight into him. Torn tendons and nerves dangled from it, swaying like bloody willows. The sapphire blue hue ruined by the sickening gash across it’s surface. The same blue.
Varkoh.
Kenai swiped his arms through the hideous eye over and over, only to feel them chill up to the shoulder, passing through the apparition like thick mist. With that, the shaking of his hands spread to his whole body, and he screamed again. The eye was edging closer and Kenai could only scramble backwards on half numb hands. The back of his head bounced off the trunk of a gnarled tree, it’s bark scratching across the flesh of his exposed back.
“NO! NO! GET AWAY!” The crumbling orc tried to shield his face, but Varkoh had him now. The slimy tendrils of nerve tissue slid across his skin and lanced like darts into the bark of the tree. A great shudder went up the old oak and between screams, Kenai felt claws at his back. The tree was opened wide, a vertical maw of splinters and blood rot, yawning to swallow him down. More shredded tendons and nerves sprang forth, biding around his torso and snaking up his arms. They stung like hot iron as they pulled tighter and tighter.
The eye stayed locked on Kenai’s face as it possessed the tree, reeling the struggling orc in, feeding on his terror and pain and channeling it into the tree, mangling it’s physical form. It needed a vessel to consume. Blood seeped down from the gash in it’s surface, just over Kenai’s face as one more disgusting tendril painfully pulled open his mouth. Kenai screamed like an animal caught in a trap and he knew it would be the last sound to leave his mouth.
Two green embers ignited in the gloom at a distance, small and nearly imperceptible from fireflies. They looked straight at Kenai. Panic. Enough to freeze the blood. A tendril pulled tight around his neck and Kenai couldn’t breathe.
A furious howl of wind ripped through the forest, forceful on the skin and painful in the ears. The forest canopy tore itself away like flocks of black birds taking flight to the sky, letting moonlight flood the glade. A ragged shadow with a barely humanoid form and two twisting, upright horns stood in the distance among a small clearing of branches, silent. The insects quieted their hums.
The ground shuddered twice, and in the space of a breath, the horned shadow had closed distance in the blink of an eye, as if the space hadn’t even been there. It split the fog that swam over the ground with unnatural speed. It appeared massive over Kenai, straddling his struggling legs. The creature’s form, ragged and dark as pitch, covered in vines and moss, the two glowing green embers’ light was piercing up close. The rest of the massive creature’s features were hidden in unnatural shadow.
Except for it’s maw. The giant horned creature’s mouth shot open, longer and wider than any natural creature could and the shriek that came forth hit Kenai and the hideous apparition like a crashing wave. Tears streaked down Kenai’s face as the last of his air left his lungs. The horned creature raised it’s lanky arm, and long splintered claws cut a silhouette against the moon. Death was here.
The clawed hand slammed into the disembodied eye possessing the tree with a sickening, wet thud. The horned creature’s scream dipped into a snarl that rattled branches as it’s claws dug into the eyeball, ripping it’s congealed form from the tree. The apparition shrieked and it’s tendrils lashed at the arm of the horned form, spattering blood across the ground. It’s fury stoked, the horned form slashed the glossy orb in turn, splattering Kenai with drops of ephemeral ectoplasm. With this, the eye was torn asunder and the disgusting binds of tissue around Kenai’s body turned to ash. He tumbled forward free of the devouring horror, face in the dirt, his body no longer listening to the commands to run, frozen in fear and awe of the horned form.
The ghostly eye’s form was reduced to swirling bits of black mist, like swarms of gnats, but this was not enough for the strange horned creature. It swathed it’s branch like arms over it’s head once, the shadows making out it’s form stretching up to the sky to let loose an animalistic howl. Jagged, splintered digits clutched the remnants of the hideous eye’s ectoplasm, slamming it to the ground. A resonant voice, low and growling came from the horned shadow. The tongue was unfamiliar.
“Αν επιστρέψεις ποτέ στο δάσος μου, θα σε σφραγίσω σε ένα βάζο κάτω από τον ήλιο και θα χορέψω στις κραυγές σου για χίλια χρόνια.…”
The last pathetic shreds of the ghost melted away into nothingness between the blades of grass and dead leaves. It didn’t make a sound.
Kenai was leagues past his mortal limit. All he could do was sit stark frozen on the ground wracked with full body tremors. Panic gripped his whole body, only barely able to breathe more than when he was bound. His eyes stung from tears but he couldn’t manage to pull his gaze away from the horned form. It’s burning green eyes snapped to the orc’s. Again, in the blink of an eye, it was upon him, towering over him like a tree in it’s own right. It blocked out the moon, casting a silvery glow at the edges of it’s tattered shadow. Slowly it leaned down, level with Kenai’s face. Again, Kenai felt ice in his veins and panic grip his mind. The creature breathed deeply, an old raspy sound that seem to come from underneath them both. Even through his shaking, Kenai could feel the ground pulse against his fingertips and backside. The glowing embers solidified into two emerald green irises suspended in darkness. They looked into Kenai's own grey eyes, unblinking.
“We need to talk.”
Kenai didn’t have time to make sense of the common words coming from this being. The horned creature breathed a cloud of thick, sour smelling smoke from roughly where a mouth should have been right into Kenai’s face. The big orc’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he slumped into the grass unconscious.
Happy Halloween and a spooky Orctober everyone.
This story will be three parts. Kenai is an adoptable created by
kupoklein and purchased by a friend. I asked him if he'd like any art or stories with the character, and off I went on creating something fun for Orctober.
Stay tuned for Chapter 3.
“Gt...gitup...wher…”
Get up. Where am I?
Kenai was only able to stand with hand braced against a tree trunk. The other roughly wiped the puke off his chin. It was then the realization hit him that he’d probably blacked out at some point, not remembering hitting the ground to vomit, and that meant he didn’t know where he was or how much time had passed. The tree trunk was slick, slimy and Kenai’s hand slipped from it, chest thumping against the damp bark. He coughed and rolled his back to the surface. He knew this would happen again. He’d known it for months. Head hung over his chest, he cursed his foolish decisions. The drinking, the fucking, and the general assholery of the last six months had left him feeling like shit, waking up in alleys, and pissing away any money he brought in.
And the panic attacks were still ripping into him at night. The booze wasn’t keeping them away now.
The forest around him was a patchwork of contrasting shadows and confusing angles with sparse patches of moonlight peeking through the canopy above. Pools of silver lit fog swirled where moonlight poked thru the leaves, like wisps dancing from one beam to the next. Where could he be? The lake was the only real landmark he knew in the forest. His eyes darted around, trying to make sense of his surroundings, his brain playing keep up the whole time. It had to be past witching hour. The forest was quiet save for the tap of twigs, the crunch of dead leaves, a small chorus of crickets, and a barely there breeze that chilled the cool sweat over Kenai’s torso. It had been stupid to rip his shirt off for the attractive dancer. It took a moment for the gears to turn, but the chill made him realize that he’d probably have to find somewhere safe to sleep and figure his way home by daylight. The prospect of nodding off again wasn’t pleasant. The woods weren’t outrageously dangerous, but things happen. Bears. Cougars. Not to mention satyrs, as he’d become aware of recently. The thought warmed Kenai’s cheeks for a moment.
But just a moment. Now he remembered and felt the fear take him again, every muscle on him started to quake. He had to move. He had to go.
Steps came surer now, with panic snapping at his heels. Moving faster than he probably should have in his state, Kenai staggered where he thought he would find sure footing in the dirt. Only hazy outlines of trees and branches could be made out as he moved forward, unsure of where he was going, but sure to keep moving. No more blood. “...n-no more blood…”. The breeze picked up, chilling the sweat on Kenai’s back and making the towering branches around him creak. A putrid smell came with it. Rot. The kind that sticks to a body, thick enough to make you feel unclean. It didn’t feel like a breeze in the forest anymore. It felt like breathing. Behind him.
Kenai ran then, foolishly. His own clumsy momentum carrying him around trees, dead branches, and tangles of vines that nicked at his skin. It felt like there was a behemoth at his back, ready to run him down. All it took was an exposed root. No malice, no supernatural energy. Just a tree root, and Kenai sprawled across the ground, into the dirt and grime covering the forest floor. “HUNHH!!” the wind left the big orc’s lungs, replaced with flecks of dirt in his mouth and the inescapable fear that he was caught.
The stench rolled over him as he tried to get up, making him retch and his eyes tear up. Kenai rolled onto his back, bracing himself on his hands. The feeling behind him, the blood that flowed from the alley, the shadow that had stalked him since the battle was on him now. It was going to have his blood. The big orc’s eyes darted around the gloom, fearful, waiting.
Nothing.
There was nothing there. Even in the barely discernible light, the forest was just the forest. There was no presence behind him. Just the chirp of insects and a fresh, damp breeze.
Kenai leaned back on the earth with a flump. After brushing the dirt from his still shaking hands, he rubbed his throbbing temples. “Git the fuk up you stupid, slagging piece of shit…”. After a few more breaths and a moment to find which direction gravity pulled, the orc reached up to rub the fatigue and grime from his face.
A massive, disembodied eye with a weeping gash across the pupil hovered low over Kenai’s face as he opened his eyelids. In the space of a moment that the scream rose from his breast to his throat, he saw his own reflection in the orb: rotted, eyeless, dead.
Kenai screamed so hard he thought his skin would burst from the pressure inside.
Twisting his body to get away and flailing his arms at the hideous thing only served to sprawl him prone again a few feet away and the moment his own eyes were off it, it was an inch from his nose again, staring through the tear in it’s watery skin, staring straight into him. Torn tendons and nerves dangled from it, swaying like bloody willows. The sapphire blue hue ruined by the sickening gash across it’s surface. The same blue.
Varkoh.
Kenai swiped his arms through the hideous eye over and over, only to feel them chill up to the shoulder, passing through the apparition like thick mist. With that, the shaking of his hands spread to his whole body, and he screamed again. The eye was edging closer and Kenai could only scramble backwards on half numb hands. The back of his head bounced off the trunk of a gnarled tree, it’s bark scratching across the flesh of his exposed back.
“NO! NO! GET AWAY!” The crumbling orc tried to shield his face, but Varkoh had him now. The slimy tendrils of nerve tissue slid across his skin and lanced like darts into the bark of the tree. A great shudder went up the old oak and between screams, Kenai felt claws at his back. The tree was opened wide, a vertical maw of splinters and blood rot, yawning to swallow him down. More shredded tendons and nerves sprang forth, biding around his torso and snaking up his arms. They stung like hot iron as they pulled tighter and tighter.
The eye stayed locked on Kenai’s face as it possessed the tree, reeling the struggling orc in, feeding on his terror and pain and channeling it into the tree, mangling it’s physical form. It needed a vessel to consume. Blood seeped down from the gash in it’s surface, just over Kenai’s face as one more disgusting tendril painfully pulled open his mouth. Kenai screamed like an animal caught in a trap and he knew it would be the last sound to leave his mouth.
Two green embers ignited in the gloom at a distance, small and nearly imperceptible from fireflies. They looked straight at Kenai. Panic. Enough to freeze the blood. A tendril pulled tight around his neck and Kenai couldn’t breathe.
A furious howl of wind ripped through the forest, forceful on the skin and painful in the ears. The forest canopy tore itself away like flocks of black birds taking flight to the sky, letting moonlight flood the glade. A ragged shadow with a barely humanoid form and two twisting, upright horns stood in the distance among a small clearing of branches, silent. The insects quieted their hums.
The ground shuddered twice, and in the space of a breath, the horned shadow had closed distance in the blink of an eye, as if the space hadn’t even been there. It split the fog that swam over the ground with unnatural speed. It appeared massive over Kenai, straddling his struggling legs. The creature’s form, ragged and dark as pitch, covered in vines and moss, the two glowing green embers’ light was piercing up close. The rest of the massive creature’s features were hidden in unnatural shadow.
Except for it’s maw. The giant horned creature’s mouth shot open, longer and wider than any natural creature could and the shriek that came forth hit Kenai and the hideous apparition like a crashing wave. Tears streaked down Kenai’s face as the last of his air left his lungs. The horned creature raised it’s lanky arm, and long splintered claws cut a silhouette against the moon. Death was here.
The clawed hand slammed into the disembodied eye possessing the tree with a sickening, wet thud. The horned creature’s scream dipped into a snarl that rattled branches as it’s claws dug into the eyeball, ripping it’s congealed form from the tree. The apparition shrieked and it’s tendrils lashed at the arm of the horned form, spattering blood across the ground. It’s fury stoked, the horned form slashed the glossy orb in turn, splattering Kenai with drops of ephemeral ectoplasm. With this, the eye was torn asunder and the disgusting binds of tissue around Kenai’s body turned to ash. He tumbled forward free of the devouring horror, face in the dirt, his body no longer listening to the commands to run, frozen in fear and awe of the horned form.
The ghostly eye’s form was reduced to swirling bits of black mist, like swarms of gnats, but this was not enough for the strange horned creature. It swathed it’s branch like arms over it’s head once, the shadows making out it’s form stretching up to the sky to let loose an animalistic howl. Jagged, splintered digits clutched the remnants of the hideous eye’s ectoplasm, slamming it to the ground. A resonant voice, low and growling came from the horned shadow. The tongue was unfamiliar.
“Αν επιστρέψεις ποτέ στο δάσος μου, θα σε σφραγίσω σε ένα βάζο κάτω από τον ήλιο και θα χορέψω στις κραυγές σου για χίλια χρόνια.…”
The last pathetic shreds of the ghost melted away into nothingness between the blades of grass and dead leaves. It didn’t make a sound.
Kenai was leagues past his mortal limit. All he could do was sit stark frozen on the ground wracked with full body tremors. Panic gripped his whole body, only barely able to breathe more than when he was bound. His eyes stung from tears but he couldn’t manage to pull his gaze away from the horned form. It’s burning green eyes snapped to the orc’s. Again, in the blink of an eye, it was upon him, towering over him like a tree in it’s own right. It blocked out the moon, casting a silvery glow at the edges of it’s tattered shadow. Slowly it leaned down, level with Kenai’s face. Again, Kenai felt ice in his veins and panic grip his mind. The creature breathed deeply, an old raspy sound that seem to come from underneath them both. Even through his shaking, Kenai could feel the ground pulse against his fingertips and backside. The glowing embers solidified into two emerald green irises suspended in darkness. They looked into Kenai's own grey eyes, unblinking.
“We need to talk.”
Kenai didn’t have time to make sense of the common words coming from this being. The horned creature breathed a cloud of thick, sour smelling smoke from roughly where a mouth should have been right into Kenai’s face. The big orc’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he slumped into the grass unconscious.
Happy Halloween and a spooky Orctober everyone.
This story will be three parts. Kenai is an adoptable created by
Stay tuned for Chapter 3.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Orc
Gender Male
Size 970 x 1280px
File Size 506.8 kB
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