Part 3
At the ages of 10 through 14, the litter becomes well known in the community. The eight boys of the pack leader are referred to by most. The young don’t think to challenge you, the old think twice before denying any request or the eight. Only those in your age group ever offer any resistance. Your father makes every effort to reign in all of your attitudes, as you become skilled and big-headed. Through these years, several events shape what comes next.
Several times your father is called away to protect the community or work for the warlord. He is never away more than a week, and he usually returns with a story and a prize. As these years go on, his trips become less frequent. You all think little of it. When he returns, what you do notice is that he is angrier with every trip that passes and his anger is focused on the eight of you. Beatings become more frequent and more severe. Punishment is quick, and reports of your behavior while he is gone become more frequent. To you, jealousy fuels those tales.
What actually happens during those trips goes on and gets worse during these years. The eight of you take advantage of your position. You never fight one another, and you always have your brothers’ backs in any confrontation. Whether it’s corroborating the lie of a brother or ganging up on an older gnoll in a fight; you are there for your brothers. While your father is gone, you take food as you please. He always returns home with good food, so should you. While your father is gone, you order things to e done for you. He always has others acting on his behalf, so should you. Stories of your actions are sometimes overdone, but always have some truth. You have the females wash your feet. You take the best baked bread from the batch. You pick the teams (always the eight of you together) for any competition. You decide what gets taught when the young gnolls are gathered for a lesson.
When your father is around, which is still most of the time, there seems to you to be no need for these actions. Your father commands what gets done, and you and the others do it. You don’t have the slightest inclination or desire to contradict what he commands in the community while he is home. For that matter, you never think to do anything he explicitly forbids before he leaves. On several occasions, you get in trouble because you made an assumption that he did not, but that’s just the trials of getting older and more experienced.
Life is good in these years, although different than before because not everyone seems to share the same level of happiness as you. It is also in these years when each brother begins to come into his own. Each develops talents and skills that some don’t have. It becomes clear which will be the largest and which the smallest. Some are more adept at hunting, others more devout, and others with odder talents.
There is a large gnoll, bigger than any of all of you and older by two years. His name was Garpat. He, for at least a year, was the only gnoll that stood toe to toe with all of you as you rushed him. After fighting to a standstill, and while your father was away, you decided to outsmart him. Leading him into the woods, away from any other gnoll, you planned to get him lost. Your plan was working when one brother stopped you all and had a vision. A vision of a hidden pit where Garpat would fall into and be trapped until you all rescued him and looked the heroes. Sure enough, within minutes, that very thing happened. But as it did, the brother with the idea collapsed. Terrified, you all rushed him back to the community and in a fit of nervousness, revealed what had happened. Garpat was found, with several broken bones. Your brother recovered, but not before your father came home and the strap was not spared.
Another time, the group of you were angered when the big farmer of the community refused to give a fat pig for you to feast on for a holiday. Plotting how to make the farmer see you were correct, you devised a plan to poison the pig and make the farmer see what happens when you are crossed. Taking herbs you learned would do the task, you made your way to the farm. You poisoned the troughs and snuck away, one brother commenting that he wouldn’t be unhappy if all the pigs died from it, wouldn’t that be a lesson. The next day, the pigs were dead, and the brother that had mentioned it felt as if he would be. Again, when your father returned, he figured out what had happened. He did not reveal it to the community, but he made sure the farmer was taken care of, and the payment came out of your hides.
Luckily for you, as time went on one brother became very good at predicting what actions would go very poorly, the first time was when one of you suggested one of the females should be taught a lesson in servitude. The brother leaped in front of the rest and demanded you to stop, collapsing as he did. You took the message and retreated to home.
During these times, your blind brother only participated if some of your antics, becoming less and less involved in them. However, the rest of you never thought ill of him. After all, he is your brother. That attitude did not translate over to your half brother. Nearing your fifteenth birthday, you discovered that he, who went by the name of Skupt, was using your names to get the things that only you deserved. You confronted him about it one night while your father was away. He demanded that it’s his right to have what you had and in a near fatal mistake on his part compared his mother to yours. The beating he took was severe and made worse as one brother’s anger erupted in flame that burned most of his body. As that brother collapsed, another, realizing that Skupt’s death would be a line too far, dove on him and exhausting himself somehow saved Skupt. When your father returned, Skupt and the two brothers were not yet recovered.
“This is a sad day.†Your father said to all of you in a voice you had rarely heard. “I must now split you up.â€