The cold wind which entrenched the sea side town of Cove was it's usual self, the new addition to the Covian harbour however was not. The gate had stood still for days, yet what came out of it had been much of debate as Covians sat drinking ales and gambling there salaries.
"I bet is some kind of device made by 'em Vesperians, fight us like, sir"The recruit watched his superior, a sign of hopefully belonging entering his eyes after the remark was spoken, however the regular guardsman's reply was short and to the point.
"Is Panda's"
"Panda's?!"The recruit looked at his superior as if the man had lost his mind.. the guardsman replying once more in a gruff retort.
"Is why yer' never see 'em panda's anymore, they been planning this all along... panda wytchery, sons of wytches... bleeding panda's"
Over the last week speculations had come around to what the gate represented, however as another day approached, the gate in question secured a man came unexpectedly to the Covian mainland bearing the sash of the Queens guard. They called him Avery.
"Doooooooooooown!"The launch of wytchcraft and arrows from the orcish lines landed squarely in the Covian formation, the grenadiers raising there shield as the barrage hit squarely on the hardened platemail of the baron's elite, voice raised, the shout was heard from Torrak, Sergeant of the elite unit.
"Grenadiers, aim.... FIRE!"The expression on the orcs could only be described as utter terror as the hailstorm of bombs and sulphuric concoctions landed in there midsts, what followed was chaos...
"Fire in the hole!"Shouts were taken up by the Covian army as the sword wielding front launched an attack on the startled orcs, limbs of all kinds cut to ribbons as the orcs fled for cover. Within the chaos the voice of Avery could be heard, followed by Torrak as hopeful order was restored in the Covian ranks.
"Orcs, always bloody orcs.."The usual mumblings of Olchafa was quite expected, the murmur of agreements of the general army even more so.
Slowly the formation went forward, arcanists covering the rear with the civilians in toe, Malibaum seating herself comfortably on a chair to raise the hopeful morale of the troops, but this was only the first onslaught...
Minutes if not hours later as the Covians reached the first note, puzzlement began to spread mostly among the scouts and scouts to be, attempting to decipher the poorly written Britanian was not as easy as expected, hastily written notes were joted down if not accurate as the men set forth once more to fight the green menance. More and more notes however appeared as they climbed over the wall of dead greenskins, puzzlement turning to bewilderment as the Covians saw a harboured ship at the orc fort, a note with the undesirable writting of the orcs.. Shrugging they did what any force would do and boarded the ship.
"Anyone get a copy of the map?"Vaughn Goodwill asked in a general query, ears if nothing else to describe it, positively vibrating. General murmurs from the scouts was heard as one of them took out a map to Ruby Whalebiter, ship commander and generally slightly insane..
"To sea my boys!"
Some might say the hastily drawn maps were unacurate, general grumbles from folk such as Gregor Eason claimed that Ruby might have been slightly off course, but this as with all Covian failures is left out of the story told today.
"AMBUSH!!!"
A call cried out by Avery set the guardsmen of the front ranks into the usual motion, hack, slash, ask questions later, hack slash... Thus they went back to the ship, sailing once more in search of the hastily if perhaps ill drawn destination. The grumbles of the men was heard as the ship seemed to dislike the weight of twenty or so fully armoured guardsmen carrying supplies and ill tempers, the noise of vomit and the smell staining the cool breeze.
"Land ahoy!"So they disembarked, then the worst thing occured in Covian history however, the man known as Avery asked the dreadful question..
"Anyone know how to translate this or speak orcish...?"Jassi exlaimed, racistly.
"me"
A good eighty nine days passed if you ask the guardsmen before a conclussion was drawn and the men started to chop at stones, some unlike others choosing to use other tools then pickaxes, but names Gregor Eason exclaimed was not to be mentioned, ever.
Thus the victorious if slightly older guardsmen set back to Cove, eight stones heavier and perhaps a missing recruit or two.
"Set them in a circle..."
"An arcanist circle?"
"No like, a uh.. real circle?"
"Like a real arcanist circle?"Another three days passed before the circle was complete... Cove had finally gotten it's own gate, to what end and what desire no one knows of yet, that history is still to be written, if hopefully better then this one..