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I am exhausted, my shack is dirty, and I am covered in blood from stitching up Kira’s birth canal.
“How did we get here?” I ask Safira. She turns and looks out of the front door.
“Yes, I can’t believe I brought him back, either,” I murmur as I start to scrub the floors.
The orc has healed magnificently, but he still hasn’t woken up.
I have heard, from other humans at Shannon’s settlement, that orcs have amazing healing abilities.
But this is my first time coming close to one of them.
“I just hope it’s not my last,” I say to myself as I clean out the hearth and then remove my bloody clothes. I go into the small room that I sometimes use to bathe when I’m not using the lake. After I clean myself up, I burn the clothes.
I watch as Safira paces up and down in the room close to the orc. She has been on high alert for the last two days. I did tell her and the rest of the pack to keep guard.
I knew right away that the orc was in trouble from the beating he had taken.
I don’t need anyone to come looking for him.
But she is more anxious than usual, and her anxiety is infectious.
I growl at her, telling her to calm down, as I stoke the hearth and start chopping up some vegetables for soup.
She growls right back and refuses to listen.
“You haven’t even taken an interest in Kira’s pups,” I tell her pointedly. She growls again.
More of the pack stops throughout the day as I cook the soup slowly over the fire.
Unlike Safira, none of them come in. I make enough soup, with some meat and bones in it, to feed the pack, too.
They prefer raw meat, but they don’t mind eating what I cook for myself.
“At least we’re safe here,” I tell myself as I think about the orc’s wounds. Someone clearly has it in for him.
“But we’re so deep in the forest that no one will ever find us here. The humans don’t come into the woods because of all the wild animals. And the orcs won’t come this close to the water because they hate the lakes.”
I am outside in the little shed where I keep my preserves, and I count how much of everything I have left.
A hunting trip is definitely necessary,I think to myself with slight dismay. If the orc hadn’t come along, I wouldn’t have had to trade my meats and fish, and I would have had enough of everything left before winter comes.
I sing to myself as I walk back to the shack, but I stop abruptly when I hear the thud.
I break into a run before I am even conscious of what I am doing and run into the shack to find the orc rolling around on the floor.
I am again struck by how quickly and nicely he has healed.
His eyes do not focus on me at first. Instead, he looks around dazedly before his eyes finally land on me.
He opens his mouth as if to speak but hesitates.
The confusion on his face is obvious.
“Who are you?” he finally asks me. “And.” He pauses. “Who am I?”
5
KIAN
