Chapter Text
Throughout the lands of Mordor, few dare travel far. Beasts of all shapes and sizes stalk from behind trees and rocks at every turn. Camps filled with orcs waiting to tear anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path to bloody bits. Despite all this, our story involves one such traveler. An enfield in a somewhat humanoid form was walking down a dirt path in the region of Núrnen. It’s lush forests making it home to many creatures such as caragors and the occasional graug. This enfield is known as AErchivist, or AE for short.
AE sat down on a log near the path to rest his legs, which grew tired from the journey here. “Almost there. Not far now,” AE said to encourage themselves to keep going. His goal was not far now. The barrows of the elven king Celebrimbor. According to his research, the tomb can only be opened by reciting a poem. After months of searching AE had finally managed to piece together this ancient poem and was ready to get his talons on whatever laid buried in that ancient place.
While AE’s mind was distracted thinking about the possibilities within the barrows, a faint rustling sound managed to snap him back to reality just in time to feel the poke of a crossbow bolt to the back of his neck. “Don’t move,” the voice of AE’s ambusher was deep and gruff. “Who dares enters the domain of the Bright Lord?” Bright Lord? AE hadn’t heard of any Bright Lord. He was well aware of the Dark Lord and his history, but not whoever this Bright Lord was. His ambusher raised his voice again. “On your feet. No sudden movements.” AE complied for now, trying to figure out a way to possibly escape whoever this was. “Turn around,” his captor barked out impatiently. AE turned around to find an orc staring back at him. An elderly, wrinkly orc with a gray goatee, throwing knives strapped to his chest, and a burn mark on his face in the shape of a hand. While that burn mark did yield questions, what was most pressing on AE’s mind was the fact that this orc wasn’t just outright trying to kill him. Maybe he wanted to torture him first? Either way AE knew it couldn’t be anything good.
“State your business here, outsider,” the orc demanded. AE was hesitant about answering. While his experience with orcs was limited, he had heard enough from first hand experiences that orcs weren’t typically the type to ask questions first. Normally it’s more kill ask questions later. Steadying his nerves he answered, “I’m here looking for the barrows of Celebrimbor.” The orc seemed surprised, before returning to his glare of suspicion. “Who gave you that order?” “I’m here on my own, nobody sent me.” The orc snarled angrily, “that’s a load of shrak! Did the Dark Lord sent you?!” The Dark Lord? Didn’t the orcs serve Sauron? Why is he treating the Dark Lord like an enemy? “Nobody sent me!” AE reiterated, a bit frustrated with this old orc’s insistence.
After a few seconds of back and forth glaring, the orc finally let out a sigh of resignation. “Fine. I’ll believe you for now, but you’re still an intruder in the Bright Lord’s territory.” AE grumbled angrily. He didn’t feel like answering to whatever high and mighty orc boss made the rules around here. “Follow me,” the old orc ordered, lowering his weapon. AE was a bit confused by the lack of aggression or restraints, “you ain’t gonna tie me up or something?” The orc turned around to face him, “do you WANT to be tied up?” AE sighed and got up to follow this orc to whatever camp he calls home. This should be at least interesting.
After walking for a bit, AE’s eyes fell upon a large fortress on a cliffside. As they approached the gates, it slowly opened, revealing several more orcs, doing their own things and occasionally looking over at AE before returning to their tasks. “Come on,” the old orc said, grabbing AE’s attention. The two walked through the fortress, before arriving at a large keep within the inner walls. The doors slowly creaked open as they entered some sort of throne room. Three figures could be seen standing within this room. One orc with white milky eyes, and more concerning, a metal muzzle over his mouth. The second was also an orc, but much smaller, skinnier, and wearing armor that appeared to be made of bones. From the angle he was looking AE could see a large scar running down the side of the scrawny orcs head. Lastly was the only non orc. A human. The old orc took a deep breath before announcing their presence, “Bright Lord! Found this intruder walking about.”
The human turned to face AE and the orc. What AE saw made him flinch ever so slightly. The human was clearly some form of undead. His skin pale, with blackened veins being seen around his face, black irises and pupils glowing a faint orange. The human glared at AE for a second before asking one simple question. “Who are you?”