Beneath the Sickle's Swing by Clodia  

Those Unhappy Ones

Written for tolkien_weekly's Hairdressing Challenge.

Those Unhappy Ones
Comb

Orcs:

Long ago, the world ended.

It ended in ice and stillness. There had been light: it was put out. There had been fire: it was extinguished. There had been screaming: it was silenced. There had been anguish: it lessened. There had been unending torment: it ended. There had been slavery: the chains were broken. There had been slave-drivers: they fell flaming. There had been an uncountable host: its remnants fled to hiding-places, scattered and afraid.

There had been prisons. Now there were ruins. The survivors combed through the wreckage and told dark tales of the world before its end.