Orcish Lessons for Children

Based on a Syrian folktale my mother would tell me when I was little. Come to think of it now, it's probably not the best philosophy to teach a child.

Once many years ago, a young orc girl was cleaning for her mother when she swept up a lone septim from under the carpet. She went to her wisewoman and bought some honey, which she hid inside a niche above her bedroom door. Then she continued her chores for some time, before she became hungry enough to eat some of the honey. It immediately revitalised her and filled her with joy.

But then a crow came, and snatched the honey out from the niche above her door, and flew it deep into the woods. When the girl had finished her chores, she found her honey missing and realized what happened. Like the hot bed of coals her mother worked the forge over, her anger sizzled at the crow. She ran after the crow, into the woods, and lay somewhere hidden where she could pounce on him in secret. When he passed, she caught him and threw him to the ground, and cut off his tail before he could scurry away. When the crow looked back and saw she had cut off his tail, he became very angry and attacked her, pecking out her eyes, leaving her totally confused.

The girl ran away crying and upset because the crow had bested her, and in her frustration went to tell her chief what had passed.

She said, “Sir I am only a little girl.”

The chief answered, “That is the way Mauloch made you. You cannot complain about his will.”

The girl continued, “I was happily sweeping as my mother has asked.”

The chief answered, “Cleaning is not an act of charity. You cleaned for your own sake; cleaning is an act of faith.”

The girl said, “I found a septim.”

The chief answered her, “You were lucky, and rewarded for your work.”

The girl said, “I then bought some honey.”

And the chief replied, “You surely enjoyed eating it.”

The girl said to him, “It revitalised me and made me energetic.”

The chief said to her, “You were pleased and did not suffer.”

The girl went on, “A crow came, and snatched up the rest for himself.”

The chief said, “He was hungry. When he saw your honey, and no obstacle preventing him, he took up your honey and ate it himself. If he hadn’t eaten it, he would have died.”

The girl went on, “When I finished my chores and saw what happened, I became sizzling angry like the hot coals my mother works at the forge. I followed him and cut off his tail, but he pecked out my eyes, leaving me confused, upset, and unable to see anymore.”

Infuriated, the chief stood up and said, “There is no excuse for so many arguments. You are even, and in this evenness there is justice.”