Chapter 331: Chapter 315 – Peace was but an Ephemeral Dream

“Not saying that the idea had no merit, honestly, but the concept of an everlasting peace? That’s little more than a pipe dream at best, or a wish that could never be realized at worst. People are people, and even if they were at peace for a while, just give them time, and there’s bound to be new conflicts for them to fight over once more.” - Anceladia Vau Nostveg, philosopher from Ur-Teros, circa 308 VA.

“It’s as you said yourself, really. They’re just people. They have their own conflicts and disagreements, and good weapons are never a bad thing to have either way,” explained Aideen when Celia asked her about what she had witnessed later in the day. “Besides, some of the bigger things they hunt would’ve been impossible to take down without better weapons anyway.”

 

“Right… the great lizards,” muttered Celia as she recalled the hunt for a horned lizard that she witnessed. The beast had such thick and sturdy skin that most of the hunters only managed to slow it down at best before Orica herself joined and helped kill the thing. That massive carcass alone easily fed the whole clan for several days after that.

 

Many of the weapons used by the orcs looked rather primitive to someone from the Empire like her. Their tools were mostly made of sharpened stones, often smoothened into proper shape by a shaman or their apprentice with earth affinity, and reinforced to be sturdier, but still stone. Their arrowheads and spearheads were mostly the same as well, as metal and metalworkers were a rarity, and not many clans even had any.

 

The metal weapons traded by the blackshields mostly took on the shape of axe or spearheads, to be grafted into a shaft for use by their customers as needed. Such weapons were usually saved up for wars rather than be used for hunting, as a hunt carried the risk of losing the precious metal if a beast ran off with them still embedded within.

 

What the orcs considered most precious of the weapons were large, cleaver-like single-sided blades, crafted entirely out of metal, from the handle to the tip. Those blades were rare, and generally reserved only for the best warriors, like the Warchief herself and those that had otherwise proven their mettle. Despite their seemingly crude construction, Celia had witnessed just how brutally effective those blades were in the hands of an experienced warrior, as Warchief Orica had cleaved through half the thick neck of a horned lizard in one strike with hers.

 

As for the other orcs, other than stone-bladed axes, another popular implement they used took the shape of a short-handled wooden paddle, which had sharpened shards of obsidian embedded on its two narrow sides to form a wicked saw-like edge. While brittle - even reinforced by the best shamans, they barely manage to maintain a durability better than most regular stones - and fragile, obsidian held an edge like no other material, with only mithril able to match the keen edge they produced.

 

On days where they were not occupied with hunting or other duties, many of the orcs could be found as they sparred with each other or otherwise trained themselves. Martial might was clearly something the orcs greatly respected, and it was through a display of might that Aideen managed to fit in with the Clan even better, as she frequently joined them when they trained or sparred.

 

Even that day more than a few of the orcs nearby looked at Aideen with some awe as she practiced with her staff. The way her staff seemed to flow around her body as it was kept in constant motion by her practiced, long-ingrained movements belied the surprising heft and force behind those swings. Celia knew all too well that given the weight of Aideen’s staff and the speed it moved at, a casual strike from her would have easily shattered bones.

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The orcs had also learned that when during one hunt she had saved a young orc from a charging auroch, her staff breaking the sturdy skull of the beast in a single, vicious strike that garnered the surprise and awe of the orcs present that day. Before that time, many of them had dismissed the humans, seeing them as smaller and weaker, but after that day, nobody ever uttered such words anymore.

 

Aideen had also sparred with - and handily defeated - many of the younger orcs, partly by virtue of her far deeper experience. She seemed to know how they would act and just counter that in an almost preternatural way, with results that often deposited her opponent unceremoniously on the ground with some embarrassment on their part but no lasting harm.

 

Celia herself had tried to join the sparring at times, but her own lacking skill meant that it was almost like bullying for even the younger orcs - who were physically stronger and sturdier than her by a good bit just from their racial advantage - to spar with her. Orcs taught more by doing, and as such, it was commonplace for their lessons to result in many bruises and other painful experiences for the one they taught.

 

What did garner her some nods of respect from the orcs was instead her perseverance. With Aideen around to fix her should she need it, Celia just kept trying regardless of failure, and the orcs respected that attitude of hers. Some also gave longing looks that bordered on envy when she practiced with her weapon, as a metal weapon of that size was a fortune for the metal-scarce clans.

 

Despite the early nervousness and suspicion they faced, Aideen’s continued treatment of the old shaman - something that likely gave him at least a few more years to live - and the other members of the clan, as well as Celia’s constant efforts to improve, both with her language skills and her physical skills, soon met with acceptance by the nomadic orcs.

 

The acceptance remained even after the old shaman passed away - of old age, with a smile on his lips, several years later - and one of his apprentices took over as the Senior Shaman, as by then the two human women had been accepted as friends to the clan, guests of honor that were welcome to stay as long as they wished for.

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