Popok's First Narrow Escape — Bonus Update 2730
(Bonus chapter for "Little Lager Who Doesn't Eat Fish," 2/5)
Lord Popok, the Black-Eye Clan's warlord in charge of scouting for the Black Calamity army, was in a foul mood.
Don't worry about the strange name. It didn't sound at all like a gnoll's name—in fact, it sounded a little like Halfling.
The story went that when Popok was born, his clan had just captured an unlucky Halfling adventurer. The adventurer had fawned on the clan chieftain—Popok's father—to stay alive, and even named the infant gnoll. He'd successfully managed to survive with that trick.
Although the adventurer was eventually stabbed to death by Popok himself after a few years of living in the wilderness, look on the bright side: Popok had a name that made him "stand out from the crowd" among gnolls, and that night he'd eaten some very fresh "wisdom meat."
Aside from being a little old, it had no downsides.
In any case, Popok Black-Eye was a formidable hunter of "noble" birth. His Black-Eye Clan wasn't one of the five most powerful clans in the Dark Mountains, but it was still a large tribe of middling strength.
That was why the young warlord had been sent out to carry out an important duty during this Black Calamity.
He was supposed to lead the Black-Eye Clan's elite troops all the way to the vicinity of Blackflame Pass, thoroughly scout that tough position, and send back intelligence to the great warlord who had already emerged from Mossy Valley. But now, Lord Popok was extremely irritated.
He'd received two pieces of infuriating news about failures in a row.
"What do you mean, 'no news'?"
Popok's roar echoed through his tent in the Black-Eye Clan's temporary camp.
The young warlord bellowed at the