Chapter 351: Chapter 335 – By the Ocean Front

“Despite the obvious dangers of the deep oceans, people lived and thrived in the shallow waters. The bounties of the sea provided them with food aplenty, as well as salt, precious to life and usually only found from within the soil. Clever people had even devised ways to make potable water out of the seawater, further increasing the value of the sea to the people around it.

 

As such, it was no real surprise that many settlements sprouted up near the seashores, where the slopes were gentle and the beaches were of a sandy sort that gently lowered itself into the waters. Even amongst tribes that were typically nomadic, permanent settlements had been built by the seaside.” - From a Sociology lecture by Leigh Wainwrought, assistant professor of Sociology at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, circa 699 FP.

“Here we are. The ocean!” declared Orica when the Clan passed the crest of a small hill, from where they saw a clear view of the land beyond. Past the hill were flatlands that sloped slightly downwards into sandy beaches, and past that was the seemingly endless waters of the ocean north of Alcidea. The sight itself made some people who had never seen such a sight - like Celia and Andromarche as well as some young orcs - hold their breath in awe.

 

It had taken the Clan’s entire caravan nearly half a year to travel that far to the north, from the Greentusk territory near the center of the prairie all the way to the northern shores of the continent. As for the reason the Clan undertook such a long trip, the reasons were threefold. For one there was the tradition to visit their oldest allies from the days when the Bloodfangs themselves were still a tiny tribe started by their ancestors long in the past.

 

The other reasons were more pragmatic. One of them was for sharing of information, as the Greyscale clan, the old ally of the Bloodfangs, were rather reclusive and rarely ventured far from their territory, not unlike the Greentusks. Their settlements ranged along the shoreline in small clumps, some more permanent mud huts and hovels interspersed with the usual tents used by most orcs.

 

Yet the most immediate reason for the visit was for a simple reason. Namely to refill the Clan’s stock of salt. Some orcish clans had rocksalt deposits in their territory, and relied on those for their needs, often trading to other clans which lacked such bounties. The Bloodfangs on the other hand preferred to make a long trip once every decade to stock up on massive quantities of sea salt from the Greyscales, who naturally have an abundance of it due to their location by the seas.

 

Even from afar, Aideen noticed the presence of some figures that most definitely were not orcs amongst those she saw in the settlements. The figures were notably more slender, their bodies more streamlined. Most notable however was the hue of their skin, which ranged from a light blue to a deep gray shade, unlike the orcs which leaned mostly in the greenish and brownish hues.

 

She even noticed some figures that had skin colors that looked more like a mix of the different shades, so clearly the orcs of Clan Greyscale also mingled with other races like the Greentusks had.

 

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When the caravan approached the largest of the settlements with Orica in the lead, they found themselves welcomed by an unusual figure, who was tall and bulky, to the point that he dwarfed many of his fellows as well as the orcs of Clan Bloodfang. The male orc had mottled skin, with patches of gray here and there amongst his mostly brownish skin, and rather than hair, he had a large, fin-like crest that stood tall and proud at the top of his bare scalp.

 

Orica leapt down from her mount and almost immediately tackled down the huge brute as they tussled in what Aideen easily identified as a good-natured brawl between friends, to the raucous cheering of the rest of their respective clans. After the tussle finished - with a good smattering of bruises on both - the two chiefs hugged each other in a friendly greeting, and Orica gestured for her people to set up their camps.

 

In a display of efficiency, the entire Bloodfang Clan had set up their tents - at a clearing a short distance away from the largest Greyscale settlement - within a couple hours. Many of the older members of the clan went to the Greyscales to greet old friends, old lovers in some cases, and in a few rare cases, even couples who saw each other for the first time in a decade.

 

Such a thing might be unthinkable for humans, but couples who belonged to different clans and only met each other after long periods of separation were not unheard of amongst the orcs. They were not common either, but present enough that nobody thought of them as strange. It was merely a choice they had made, to each remain with their respective Clans rather than be together in one of the Clans.

 

Much like the Greentusks, the Greyscales had many non-orcs as part of their Clan. Where the Greentusks were mixed with elves, the Greyscales had many merfolk living amongst them, and even their current chieftain was a half-orc half-merfolk hybrid. It was not something that surprised Aideen much, as the Merfolk were generally found inhabiting the shallow waters by the shores, as well as larger lakes and rivers.

 

She was not too familiar with them, as the Merfolk who lived in Ur-Teros tended to be a bit isolated in nature, preferring only to make contact with the land dwellers for trade purposes and little else. Even so, she had seen some smaller groups who had integrated themselves in Elmaiya and other groups that worked together with other races for survival in the harsh lands of the jarldoms to the east.

 

Those who lived near Ptolodecca were less communicative though, as they apparently saw the Bone Lord as some sort of god, a treatment the Bone Lord had not really cared for, and as such the people of the Lichdom rarely made contact with their oceanic neighbors other than for trade.

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