Ogres

It was supposed to be a simple formal procession. The King of the Winter Elves rode his tall, imposing steed through the crevices of snow, straight and tall on the saber-snow leopard’s back. It was a trip to the wood elves, nothing more, nothing less. In line with him were about five of his royal guard, plus a few nobles. Their silver and gold regalia twinkled in the daylight, illuminating pale, ethereal faces and sharp eyes. They stood out like angels as their steeds crept into the fresh woodlands, cooling the dew in the air as they traversed from snow to moss. It was a simple trip, one he had completely many times before. Until it wasn’t. Ara reeled first, fur bristling and fangs bared. Then the trees thundered and splintered with bristling cracks. “DEFEND!!” Sorus bellowed as the snow leopard beneath him reared on her hind legs, the other steeds gathering around the two. The putrid, recognizable rank of ogre filth filled the air seconds before their blobbering bodies did. For as large and thick as they were, they moved like lightning, and Sorus could scarcely whip around before one of his men was caught screaming, lifted into the air by giant hands and crunched in between their meaty fingers like a toothpick. They were stuffed into its drooling maw like a meatball as the rest watched in horror. Sorus immediately created sheets of solid ice that sprang up and knocked the beasts away, determined to get his group out of harm’s way, but he did not plan on the massive fist that came hurtling through the wall of ice, shattering splinters of cold everywhere before he was seized and rattled like a toy in the mouth of a dog. He could barely tell up from down, let alone use his magic, but all the while his ears were filled with the flooding screams of his fellow nobles and the bloody cascade that followed of chomping teeth and raucous laughter. When the shaking finally stopped, he was immediately induced to vomit all over the fingers holding him.

He could do nothing except groan, his vision spinning and his head feeling like it would split in half. The shrieking and crunching of bone had stopped, but the awful nauseous smell remained. He felt like he was swaying on a tree branch, back and forth, which did nothing to help his sickness either. He could only be grateful it was no longer the concussion-producing clattering he’d experienced at first, if he at all could muster that kind of gratefulness. “Was’ that in yer ‘and there?” He could barely make out the slurring, trollish words as he tried to make sense of the whirling colors in his vision. “S’ one ‘o dem elfs, saved one fo’ latah.” Came the voice above him, and he nearly retched again at the foul breath that wafted in his face. His head was still filled with a bombshell of a headache, but through his hazy, half-lidded eyes, his sight was starting to make sense. Two, no…four stomping bodies waddled around him, as he was clutched in the hand of one. He then realized the disgusting grimy slick he was wallowing in, and he made a weak groan in an attempt to move, but to his dismay, his limbs were still tingling and numb, and the grip he was held in made sure he couldn’t even breathe in all the way. “Ey’, Oim still ‘ungry!” He tried to turn his eyes upward, but he stopped short, fear trickling down his throat like drops of ice when he realized a pair of beady black eyes were hooked on him hungrily. Again, he tried to use his magic…and again, nothing. “Are you all schewpid?” A gruffer, deeper voice interrupted the two, and Sorus gave a weak, pained gasp when he was wrenched out of one hand, feeling like his spine had just been pulled in a way it shouldn’t be as he was grasped in a bigger, rougher pair of hands. “’Eyyy! I was gonna eat ‘at one!” He slumped over again weakly at the previous ogre’s whine, breathing heavily, until he felt two fingers, each bigger than his head, pinch his skull and turn it upwards. He shivered, starting to pant in fear as the greedy, malicious dark eyes stared at his neck and his face. “No—this one has *royal* elfish blood, idjit… *this* one, we’re gonna keep.”