Two weeks ago, I started interviewing characters from A Warrior’s Legacy: Orestes to help get everyone caught up for the release of book two, A Warrior’s Legacy: Jamie. This week I spoke to Orestes himself about the events from chapters 5-7.
SPOILER ALERT: The following contains major spoilers for Orestes chapters 5-7. If you’re planning on reading the book and don’t want spoilers, you won’t want to read this!
Character Interview: Orestes (Orestes chapters 5-7)
Jennifer: Hi, Orestes. Thanks for joining me.
Orestes: No problem. So you’re just going to ask me questions?
Jennifer: Yes, and you answer however you want.
Orestes: And if I decide I don’t want to answer at all, I don’t have to?
Jennifer: Right. But let’s start with something easy. Tell me a little bit about your life—your parents, school, friends, that kind of thing.
Orestes: Okay. Well, my parents are Fallon and Glynis. They’re high-ranking officers in the Intelligence division of Warrior Peak. Fallon works with all the settlements in Serenity Valley.
Jennifer: Serenity Valley?
Orestes: Yeah, it’s a big country to the south of us. Almost entirely forest. A few decades ago, Warrior Peak started to send groups of people down there to colonize the place. They didn’t find any natives. There are twelve settlements now, but the country’s so big, it takes weeks to travel between them. So Fallon sends groups from Warrior Peak every so often to get reports on how things are going.
Jennifer: Interesting. Now back to you. What about school and friends?
Orestes: School is good. I’m in one of the top fighting classes. I used to be one of the smallest guys, but I’ve grown a lot this past year. A lot of it has to do with training with Ritter and Acules.
Jennifer: Who are they?
Orestes: Ritter is my best friend. He has been ever since I came to Warrior Peak. He’s older than me, but our dads have been friends since they were our age, so we’ve always spent a lot of time together. Acules is a foreigner from a place called Tyrclopia. He’s the best fighter I’ve ever met, and he’s been teaching me a lot. It didn’t do me a lot of good in this year’s end-of-year tournament though.
Jennifer: What’s that?
Orestes: The end-of-year tournament? Every year, the school has two single-elimination tournaments—one for girls and one for guys. It’s everyone from the five-year-olds to the nineteen-year-olds, and you get matched up randomly, so the younger kids never make it far. Anyway, I think I would have done well this year, but I got hurt a couple weeks ago, so I wasn’t able to participate.
Jennifer: How did you get hurt?
Orestes: Some weird things have been going on. I don’t really know what I’m allowed to tell you….
Jennifer: I heard about Aldis’s death. Is there more going on?
Orestes: Yeah. It started at the girls’ end-of-year tournament—
Jennifer: What were you doing there? Do you have a girlfriend?
Orestes: I—well, no, not exactly. I went there with Ritter because he always has a girlfriend. But there is one girl I like, named Levina. I actually met her at the girls’ end-of-year tournament.
Jennifer: And that’s when the weird things started.
Orestes: Right. So I met Levina at the tournament. She made me laugh because she was sitting there copying census records while the rest of us were watching the tournament. But after she left, I got bored and was making my way up to school when I ran into Todd, who’s one of my dad’s soldiers. Todd was in one of those groups that went around to the settlements in Serenity Valley. But as they were making their way home, they were attacked by Morroks.
Jennifer: Oh yes, Acules told me about the Morroks.
Orestes: Yeah, well, not many people in Warrior Peak actually know about them. They’re kind of a fairy tale or legend to them. But I know better. See, Fallon and Glynis are actually my adoptive parents; I grew up with the Morroks in Tyrclopia, and I have no idea who they kidnapped me from. But I didn’t think they were on this side of the mountain. No one did. To tell you the truth, it made me sick to find out that they attacked Todd.
Jennifer: I bet. Do you know the extent of Morrok activity around Warrior Peak and Serenity Valley?
Orestes: No, that’s the scary thing. After Todd told us everything he knew, I went with my dad, Acules, and some of my dad’s officers into the Gravel Lands to check things out. We found evidence of Morroks and trainees—Human children—in the desert just miles from Warrior Peak. We couldn’t believe it. They’ve been building an army right under our noses. We fought four of them. It was the first time I’d seen Morroks in years, and I panicked. One of them ended up slicing my shoulder, so that’s why I had to sit out of the boys’ end-of-year tournament this year. But I’m kind of glad I did because things have just gotten worse since then.
Jennifer: Really? How so?
Orestes: Levina and I went to the boys’ end-of-year tournament together, just to watch Ritter and our other friends. The tournament’s always held just outside Warrior Peak’s front gates, technically in the Gravel Lands. We were watching a match in one of the far rings, and when one of the guys lost, he walked off to sulk by himself in the desert. Just as Levina and I were about to head back toward the other rings, we saw the student get shot—with a Morrok-sized arrow.
Jennifer: That’s horrible.
Orestes: Tell me about it. And to add to it, the Morroks attached a message to the arrow. It said, “Son of Lernuc, you cannot hide.”
Jennifer: Who’s Lernuc?
Orestes: I have no idea. Levina said that the Morroks used to be called sons of Lernuc.
Jennifer: I thought you said most people at Warrior Peak don’t know about Morroks.
Orestes: They don’t. But Levina does. She does a lot of work for the Inventory division, so she’s read their old papers. She’s one of the few people who know they’re real and know they’re a threat. But the thing that freaks me out about the note is that I think it was directed at me. Like the Morroks purposely killed that kid because they knew I was nearby watching.
Jennifer: Hopefully that isn’t true.
Orestes: Yeah, I hope so too. But I can tell things are going to change soon. No one can deny the Morroks anymore. Fallon and the rest of us saw them with our own eyes, and now they’ve killed a Warrior Peak citizen. The General will have to declare war soon so we can keep things from getting worse than they already are.
Jennifer: Best of luck to you. I hope everything gets resolved soon.
Orestes: Thanks.