An Orcward interval

[chrispenycate]

No, just a bit of fun - I haven't done any research, my last copy of LoTR I lent out in '68 (I'm not expecting it back) and, when the idea struck I just wrote it down.

Little Grynksnitz would never grow up big and strong; there wasn't enough food, and what the stinking foreigners did allow them was slop, vegetables, not the meat required by growing youngsters. Ghahksnitz, his acredited father, leant into the rope; moving rocks, and building. Work for slaves, not warriors - not even defeated, unemployed warriors. Still. the overseers were not as enthusiastic with the whip as their predecessors, and, in order to eat, you had to do something. At least clearing the debris left by the final battles (and the earthquakes associated with the eruptions) was better than planting trees in the wikderness, with elvish overseers
Other than the food queston, life in occupied Mordor was not much worse than before, during the war. Despite the destruction, there was plentiful housing, clothing and cosumer durables A few massacres, normally by dwaves or men whose families had been wiped out in the previous hostilities: but even they lost enthusiasm after a few score slaughtered, and frequently broke down and cried. Wimps.
And when he'd tried to augment their food supply by stealing the baby daughter of a low rank neighbour: a daughter, not even a son! - the stinking elves had made him give her back, as if she was ever going to be any use for anything.
The off-square block slid off the rollers at last, leaving another length of carrageway clear, wide enough for two carts to pass. and foot soldiers to each side- to bring in food, acccording to the conquerors. Ropes are carefully coiled down for the next effort, and the food packages, their pay, handed out.
His relationship with his mate, Haachtè is atypical- she's there at the door waiting, rather than cowering behind furniture. Most orcs, on gaining their officers scars, would have looked for a younger female, better tusks, more adipose tissue, but they suited each other. He hardly ever beat her, and very few of his abundant scars were from her claws. They couldn't expect a brother for Grynksnitz- strong minded as Haachtè was for a female, the instinct to eat the newborn with the afterbirth if she was not fully fed ran deep, that instinct that revolted all other sapient species (not true, that. Ents aproved of anything that removed another orc from the world, while trolls and dragons had no opinion on the matter; it was only the trinity of elves, dwarves and men who were shocked). In the lead up to the war, the unblinking one had arranged training exercises before the females pupped, guaranteeing enough meat that reflexes were appeased, in order to breed enough warriors.
The next doors (in the name of everything unholy he didn't even know their names: once he had known every orc in the regiment), the neighbours were screaming at each other again- bad that, the new masters hadn't the same habits as the old, and if they came to break up the fight, anyone around might suffer. A final scream, and the sound of boots departing fast, then camp silence, only sounds from the distance. A rapid investigation showed that the female was indeed dead, so he rapidly wrapped up the corpse, and carried it home, before attention fell on their quarter. Quickly butchering the remains, he made up packs for the two of them, with space for the baby as well as the food, and such weapons as he'd been allowed to keep. The last of their salt went into preserving a little- they wouldn't be coming back. Loaded like slaves, as darkness fell they set out towards the wilderness, to live from their cunning and their muscles, as true orcs should.

[direghost]

Haha, I love these alternate perspective stories. Would love to see more.

[Paradox 99]

Aaaaaah.
I've gone all warm and fuzzy! I shall never think of an orc the same way again. Now I'll have to direct all my hatred towards goblin-kind instead!

[Marky Lazer]

This is weird! It's both funny and alarming, even for Orcs. I'm not too sure this is going to be an official Tolkien sequel