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They start running in that direction.
“Soldiers, hold down this station. Don’t leave. I am taking you and you. Let’s go.” I order before I take the two. On our way there I notice a lot of teams running in their entirety back to the horn. Just as we are almost there, I hear a large splash before I round the corner and see the river. Dusk is on the horizon, and I only catch a black tail disappearing in the water on the bank next to the main camp.
“They took them!” Someone shouts.
Without thinking, I jump in the river. Unspeakable rage boils my insides. These filthy creatures. Taking one of ours on our watch. I dip under and I see legs paddling. I swim faster and just before they get through a petite opening that is all but dark, I grab their legs and yank back.
They scream underneath, only evident by the bubbles and they fight. They try. We fight underwater. They kick me back, but I grab their hand. Something else pulls them from behind. I see red eyes behind this creature before there is more force. I hold on harder and when they are yanked from me, I am left holding something. They are gone and I contemplate following them.
But my lungs burn, deciding for me, and I swim up. There will be another day. I find many standing at the bank. They look worried. I fist the item in my hand. I don’t even know what I found. Then I am face to face with a furious Hettar.
“Imp, you shouldn’t have risked your life. The soro they took was already still.” Hatter says.
“Do you hear yourself?” I roar as my feet touch the hard ground on dry land.
“They were gone. No reason to lose you as you attempt being a hero.” He reprimands.
“A young orc just got taken, and you are telling me to do nothing! Are you all cowards? Am I in the camp with cowards? A few decades and you bow to them? No wonder they keep coming back. You keep giving them everything they come for.”
“I will not take that tone with you, Imp.” Hatter shoves me.
I shove him harder, and he falls on his ass. “Those filthy creatures will keep taking one by one until they finish all of you. Your defenses are weak, your plans are flawed, and none of you have the heart for this. No wonder you are losing. You never stop until the enemy is vanquished. All of you have forgotten who we are. We are orcs and the battlefield is our home. We don’t fight, we annihilate. We don’t run, we are the terror. And those orcs know all of you fear them. You won’t even swim to save one of your own? None of you are worthy.” I spit on the ground as I seethe before I walk away.
I don’t go back to camp; I go back to check on my team. I cannot help feeling guilty for the Bono orc they just took. It could have been one of mine. I may have a son or two in the near future and if this isn’t solved when they are grown, they will be here, and it could be them.
Something needs to change and if I have to fight the leaders of the high table to fix this mess then I will.
Chapter seventeen
Let Me Have You
Aria
Iplatethetraywith fruit slices and fresh fruit juice on the table. Kaba finally finished making the table for us. Another piece of furniture for me and Igor’s very spacious new home.
It has been a little nightmare going around everyday asking the many orcs here to find time to make me the furniture after the others finished helping me clean it. That took a week on its own, but everything is clean, and our home is cobweb free.
After they got us the new bed and a few cupboards, most retreated to other jobs. And I have been making nice, using Mulan and Hani to help me get orcs to build our furniture. It didn’t help that I wanted specific things.
While most orcs care nothing for home decoration, I care. I want Igor and our children to have a beautiful home, one they yearn to come back to every time.
In this vast sitting and guest area, I have two sofas. One a two-seater and another a three-seater, the new table and all the plants I have been trying to grow. I took some from Hani and some from Owa.
I miss Igor every day. But throwing everything I have in this project has been a good distraction. My days are packed full; breakfast with Jani and Owa and the rest of the day is cooking and decorating my house with Hani and Mulan. Some days we spend at Mulan’s and some at Hani’s.
In all this I’ve learned there is animosity in this tribe for Hani, and in as much as she is the third wife of Gremlo and has been for well over 30 years, she is treated like a stepchild. She doesn’t cook for Gremlo. And Gremlo only summons her if he wants to bed her. I know all this because Hani isn’t exactly private.
I have heard more than I hoped I would about Gremlo and his ‘skills’ in the mating bed.
Owa and I have only gotten closer. Although she still asks me strange questions about random details about my life, particularly my mother and Luna. She is a darling who dotes on me like a mother-in-law.
And my mother-in-law is just her. She’s Masa. She’s neither friendly nor cold. She asks me about the babies every few days when we run into each other but otherwise she keeps to her affairs.
I don’t know if I wished we had more because she intimidates me, but it feels like I should have more. But it’s no love lost. It isn’t my first experience with a mother-in-law. Even though Masa is eons better than that demon of Shepherd’s mother.
“You are going to say yes, right?” Hani looks Mulan in the eye with much anticipation, so do I when I remember the conversation we were in the middle of.
She sighs. “I don’t know.” Her voice is small and unsure.
