The Shard Cast - Edo and Orcbait

See earlier posts for more characters.

I am posting these two together because they represent an unusual situation - Edo is the standard POV character (meaning, for any who don't know, that everything in his chapters is shown directly from his viewpoint), yet Orcbait is the true hero character of this particular storyline. The reason for this will be apparent if you read on.

Edo - a 53 year old ranger who works out of East Gate, the huge fortress that guards the only major pass through the Helisgaard mountains. He was left as a baby near East Gate, most likely by a barbarian woman who had been raped by one of the Greatlanders. So, Edo grew up cleaning stables and running errands at "the wall" (another of East Gate's many names). He eventually befriended an elderly ranger who helped him get into the corps.

Edo isn't a particularly good ranger. He can't hit anything with a bow, and he is merely passable with a sword. He has a decent heart, which is probably the best thing that can be said about him.

Orcbait - of unknown age, but certainly in his early 50's. No one knows Orcbait's real name. He was sent to East Gate from a tiny farming village located on the southern edge of the Black Woods. He is mute and hideously ugly. He owns few teeth, and those he still has are all blackened stumps.

He was picked on terribly when he arrived at the wall. He got his nickname from someone who said his mother would have done him a kindness to "leave him out in the woods as orc bait." A commander who didn't want Orcbait wrecking his unit's morale pushed him off onto the ranger corps, and since Edo's partner had recently died of old age, Edo inherited Orcbait. He was really upset about this and harassed Orcbait terribly, but it didn't take long for Orcbait to demonstrate real skill at ranging. Orcbait is the best natural tracker of the corps and a crack archer, too. Now the pair have worked so long together that there is an unspoken language that passes between them, and Edo can readily speak for Orcbait in most situations.

As my story opens, the two old rangers are guarding a merchant wagon on its way to the barbarian city of Dryn Hador. They are summoned before the king of the Alsean tribe, who asks them to rush a message back to their commander - a strange and deadly army is pouring out of the far east, destroying any tribe that gets in its way, heading relentlessly toward East Gate. The Alsean king wants refuge for his people.