Marr And Lug

[Catarrh 720]

   From among the tents of Kodar’goi, the blowing of a ram’s horn can be heard. Those orcs who follow the sound would see Malog standing by the bonfire. After enough orcs gather, he looks around the crowd, motioning for them all to come close, “Zit. Zit. Ez tik fur a ztureh, bruddahz.” He takes a seat, with his loyal mate, Durah, on one side and his youngest son, Somm, on the other. Once everyone is seated, he begins telling the story of Marr and Lug.

  

   ((Written in plain English for readability.))

  

   There were once two worthless brothers, Marr and Lug, who failed in all to which they applied their hands. Marr, though good-hearted, was stupid, and his poor judgement always led to failure. Lug, though crafty, was lazy beyond measure, and never had the will to accomplish even simple tasks. The other orcs eventually grew weary of the burden they placed on everyone around them, and brought their complaint before the Rex. Some demanded they be pugged. Some called for total banishment from the Uzg. Some even shouted loudly for execution. The Rex, frustrated by the near constant stream of bad reports concerning the two, finally called them to his hall.

  

   He decided to give them one chance to redeem themselves, and prove their worth to the Uzg. He told them of a string of islands far off the coast, of which the farseers had reported multiple visions. He instructed the pair to take a simple rowboat, and make their way to these islands. Once there, they were to scout the lands for any ruins, resources or even indigenous people to subjugate. If there was anything on these islands that could benefit the War Nation in any way, Marr and Lug were to find it, and report back to the Rex. They were given just enough bread and water to survive the trip, but, upon arrival, they were expected to provide for themselves. So, amid mockery, nay-saying and general disdain from their fellow orcs, the brothers shoved off, and began their voyage.

  

   Naturally, Lug did none of the rowing along the way, assuring Marr that he would do all the rowing on the way home. Marr, being the fool he was, believed him. After nearly a full day of rowing, the islands were in sight, but Lug’s laziness and Marr’s stupidity hadn’t gone unnoticed. Ankruz, spirit of the sea, was insulted that the two would drag their shameful behavior across her waters, and conjured up a furious tempest. They clung desperately to their boat, until Ankruz spat forth a brutal wave, and dashed their tiny vessel upon the rocks of the nearest island. They survived, but their means of returning home was lost.

  

   When the sun began to set, it was decided that they should hunt for food. Lug, however, simply lay back on the beach, promising to build a fire while Marr found food. Marr agreed, and made his way into the jungle, where he crafted a simple wooden spear. Many hours later into the night, he returned with a bloodied spear and a pair of local apes slung over his shoulder. When he saw that no fire had been made in all that time, he roused Lug from a nap. Lug complained that he was too exhausted from their ordeal at sea, and needed his rest. So, Marr built the fire, skinned the apes and cooked dinner for himself and his brother.

  

   The following morning, the pair discussed building a raft for their eventual return. Lug agreed to do this to make up for the previous night’s failure. Meanwhile, Marr was to hunt breakfast for the both of them, and so he did. After hours of hunting, he found a freshwater spring, and filled two waterskins for himself and his brother. He found his way back to the beach with his heavy burden of bulging waterskins and meat from some jungle tortoises to see that Lug had not even begun construction of a raft. Lug simply told Marr that there was no real hurry to build a raft, and that he didn’t want to cause himself any unneeded strain by rushing himself. After all, they were trying to survive on a remote island. Sadly, Marr was as stupid as Lug’s excuses were pitiful, so he believed him. Marr also ended up having to build a new fire, since Lug allowed their first one to go out, and refused to eat raw tortoise meat.

  

   Things continued in this way for days and days. Lug would make empty promises and stupid excuses, and Marr, in his unspeakable foolishness, would believe him. Marr did all the hunting and gathering, which took twice as long as it otherwise could have. Consequently, he got very little sleep, as hunting for their evening meals took him late into the night while Lug napped on the beach, only to wake up when Marr returned with food. He built a new fire whenever Lug would let a previous fire go out, which is to say every time. He built a simple lean-to to shelter them from rain. He even took up construction of a raft in what little spare time he had, as he accepted the fact that Lug wasn’t going to do it. The longer it went on, the more exhausted he got, and the harder it became to provide for the two of them. He started bringing back less and less food, always letting Lug have most of it, kind-spirited orc that Marr was.

  

   Eventually, Marr couldn’t carry on like that anymore. His body had grown weak from hunger and exhaustion. He collapsed on a hot afternoon in the humid jungle, where he passed out, and was easy prey for the forest’s predators. That evening, Lug was awoken from another of his naps by the rumbling of his stomach. He saw that it was starting to rain and that Marr hadn’t returned from his hunt, but assumed that he’d simply lost his way in the foliage or had gotten distracted by some colorful plants. Either way, he couldn’t be bothered to look for him, and simply assumed he’d return eventually. Throughout the night, the weather grew worse, until the rain whipped itself up into a storm that blew Lug’s shelter off into the water.

  

   Lug made it through the night, but his fire was out, his shelter was gone, his brother hadn’t returned with food and he even seemed to have caught something from staying out in the rain all night. Sick and hungry, Lug called out for Marr, but got no reply. He feared to enter the forest, for he knew he’d developed no real survival skills in his whole lazy life. So, he waited on the beach, coughing, sniffling and assuring himself that Marr would make it back. He eventually managed to soothe himself back to sleep only to be awoken several hours later by the brutal heat of the midday sun. He reached for his waterskin, and saw that it was gone. Marr had taken both of their waterskins to refill at the spring. He knew that the spring was deep in the jungle he feared so much, and still couldn’t convince himself to venture off in search of his brother. So, the coward simply waited.

  

   The following morning, his sickness had gotten worse, and he still had no food or water. He looked to the raft Marr had started on, but, in his constant toiling to provide for the both of them, Marr had barely even managed to chop down two narrow logs for it. The crude stone axe Marr had fashioned to chop them was also with him in the jungle. He always kept it with him, since he was the one who chopped all the wood, most of which went into starting new fires. So, Lug was stranded, sick, thirsty and hungry. As time went on, he got sicker, hungrier and weaker. Eventually, his fear of the jungle didn’t matter anymore. He’d gotten too weak to get up even if he wasn’t scared.

 

   Lug starved to death there on that island. Back in the War Nation, no one cared enough to come looking for them. It had been long assumed that Marr’s foolishness and Lug’s laziness would be the death of them both, and so it was. Remember, my brothers and sisters. Feeding the lazy is like planting the wind. It accomplishes nothing.   

[KoTo 610]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.