7 Reentering the other world (2/2)

'It's nothing like those short orcs from the movies.'

Surely, it was different from any orc character he was used to. He wasn't even certain if it really was called an orc, but he just decided to call it that for sake of naming it.

The orc also had fitting arms and legs for its size. They were thick.

When it shook its club, two more came out from the bushes. Not letting down its guard, Joonbum felt unknown pressure from its presence.

'It's horrifying. Are they… smelling?'

Still defensive, the orcs started looking around while trying to sniff out something. Joonbum glanced at the bottom of the tree and found out what it was looking for. It was the truck that was filled with various smells that did not originate from this forest.

'Smell of oil and equipment…'

Some of the smell might even aggravate it because it would smell weird.

'I did some cover-ups but…'

When he was done pulling everything up, he brought tree parts over and covered the truck. He finished it with the barbed wire he also bought from old man Kim. But it wasn't enough.

'It won't last against them.'

The orcs did not have any clothes or armor, but they had weapons. That signified at least a little bit of intelligence.

'Did it notice it?'

Joonbum carefully watched with his forehead all wrinkled up - a habit if his whenever he faced trouble. The grey orc let out a snort and took large steps toward the truck's cover. Then the traps were triggered.

”Oaaaarg!”

The orc screamed, startled by traps. The two behind it quickly followed at the disturbance, causing more traps to go off.

'It… did not work at all.'

It did cause some disturbance, but that was about it. It had no effect whatsoever on those orcs. It didn't even leave a single scratch to their ankles. The traps angered the orc - it forcefully opened the trap hanging on its foot and pulled it out of the ground like it was nothing. The stake Joonbum hammered was easily taken out.

'It's a toy.'

It was like a toy against it. Even if it was designed to catch a thousand pound wild boar, it was nothing to these orcs. But it did draw its attention away from the truck.

The orcs let out angry shouts and then started to fish out every trap in the ground by smell.

'Savages.'

The word automatically came to Joonbum's mind. Just a snatch, a bunch of traps, and iron stakes were pulled from the ground.

'They don't seem to be talking?'

As he watched, he grew curious. Orcs in the movies knew how to talk. As his curiosity grew, he became so focused that he did not expect what came next.

”What the-!”

He was startled by the sudden roar of beasts jumping out from the shadows of the trees, ambushing orcs. One orc was taken down to the ground by a wolf while another orc smashed its club at another wolf. However, the wolves outnumbered them.

A total of four wolves closed in on the orcs. The grey orc was heavily bleeding from its arm and leg, and the one that was ambushed first was giving out its last breath as it was being choked by a wolf. Pretty soon, it gave in - there was the terrible sound of its neck breaking and blood splashed out from the open wound. Its arm that had been holding on to the wolf fell to the ground.

'It's them!'

Joonbum's eyes flashed.

A wolf lunged at the grey orc thrown to the ground, howling in pain. It was trying to stand up again but one of its hind legs was helplessly dangling, broken. It cried in pain.

But one less wolf did not mean much to the orcs. It was still outnumbered and the two that were still alive were covered with wounds. Surely, in a short battle, the orcs were defeated.

Joonbum watched the whole process carefully. Wolves gathered around the wounded wolf for a while, but they soon picked up the orc corpses and walked off into the forest.

Joonbum let out a sigh. He realized he was tense, drenched with sweat, and his hands were shaking. He thought he had overcome his fear, but facing the true wild made him realize what he feared was only a small fraction of the bigger picture.

He looked down and saw a wounded wolf laying down under a tree. It was abandoned by its pack because it was wounded and dying. A wild animal that cannot hunt was hopeless.

'Damn.'

He felt bitter at that truth.

With a sigh, he laid down facing the sky and started to relax. His heart that kept pounding while ago had now slowed down. The forest had also found its usual livelihood. As the sweat dried off, Joonbum felt tired and fell asleep.

He suddenly woke up to the sound of a growling animal.

'Was I sleeping?'

It was starting to grow dark. He looked at the sky and found the sun hiding behind a mountain very far away. The forest was soon filled with complete darkness and Joonbum took some time to adjust to the dark to see.

'Hm. I was just… camera! Ah, darn it, it's out.'

He checked the camera which had turned itself off.

'Night sure comes early in the forest.'

He thought about that widely known fact and started to move again. He pulled out his night vision goggles and put them on. With the sound of it powering up, it showed him the world in green. He was now able to look at all parts of the world around him that were shrouded by the darkness.

'He moved a little… but I guess that's it,' Joonbum thought as he eyed the wolf. It settled into its place at the deep trench made between the bottom of the large tree trunks.

'Dying place…'

It just came to his mind as he watched the wolf in silence. Then suddenly wolf growled, this time as a sign of warning and aggression. With the growl, the wolf glared at Joonbum as if it knew that he existed from the beginning.

'That's so terrifying.'

It really was terrifying, but not like before. He knew it was ironic to feel this way, but he felt sympathetic.

”Folks, I'm being sympathetic, not-”

He stopped in the middle of talking, realizing that the camera had turned off.He shook his head and looked around him with his night vision goggles.

Soon, he was able to hear a new sound from the forest around him.

'It's awake.'

Words just came to his mind. Humans slept at night, but it was time to wake up for the beings of the forest. The forest became busy with all the faint moans and cries signaling life and death. A night in the forest was not calm or serene. It was a brutal dog-eat-dog world. All these sounds pierced Joonbum's ears as the night began.

Chapter end.