Exiled from all orc territories means he’s been alone these pastfew months or living among one of the other species. Neither situation is ideal for an orc warrior. We can survive the worst battles and conditions, but we do not like being alone. It is our fellow warriors, our families, and our people who give us purpose.
I do not know if he’s here to take Tansey or to kill me. Maybe both.
When Baloq steps aside, letting Tansey and Ethan escape, I have my answer. He’s here to kill me. It is the smart choice, the one I would choose in his position. Once he kills me, he’ll go after her, and there will be no one to stop him from mating her.
I cannot let him take her. Not because she is mine, but because it is my duty, my privilege, to protect her from the vints, the humans, Baloq, and any other being who would force her to submit to his will.
My muscles strain as I swing again and again, trying to push my way through the wall of vints to reach Baloq. I’m outnumbered and will not likely survive this battle, but I will see to it that Baloq dies before me. I will protect my female from him with my last breath.
In my haste to reach Baloq, I miss a vint in my blind spot. His arm thrusts, the knife targeting my throat. This one move will end my life. I know this, and yet I have no room to deflect the knife.
Baloq’s sword comes down toward me at the same time…and severs the vint’s arm. The vint and his knife fall to the floor.
My entire world changes in that moment as I realize Baloq is not my enemy, but a fellow orc who has not let his mistakes, or mine, come between the bond which binds us as orcs and as warriors. We would gladly die for one another, so that the other will remain to protect our people.
Without words, I adopt a defensive stance as Baloq and I stand back-to-back. Training and instinct take over as we fight as brothers against the enemy, killing the vints one by one. My wounds no longer register, only the glory of battle.
Blood soaks us, the floor, ceiling, and walls as we destroy the enemy. I’m thankful Tansey and Ethan are not here to witness the carnage.
“A good fight, Neld,” Baloq says, breathing heavily when the last body falls at our feet.
“A very good fight. But I am no longer neld.”
“Then it’s true, the rumors I’ve heard in Totha.”
Totha, another orc mountain settlement, lies deeper in our territory. “You settled there against our grak’s orders?”
“No. I found an injured female and brought her there to heal. Then I left, Neld.”
He persists in calling me neld. A sign of respect I don’t deserve.
Despite the pain of moving my left arm, I slam my knife against my chest. “You honor me with your skills, Baloq.” I’ve never shown him such respect like this before, but he’s earned it. Not for saving my life, but for abiding by his oath as a warrior and coming to my aid when he could have easily left me here to die.
He lifts his head, bares his tusks, and in turn slams a knife against his chest.
“Did you come here for shelter?” I ask, even as I listen to the rain pelting against the roof.
“I came to Pen’Kesh to trade skins with the bantarans for light discs and spotted the human female walking with Sojek earlier.”
Tansey. My spine stiffens, wondering if he still intends to take her. “I plan to claim her in risha,” I say, warning him. Though he helped me defeat the vints, nothing has changed regarding Tansey. She’s mine.
“I will not touch your female, Neld. But she is the reason I am here.”
“What do you want with her?”
“Only to speak with her.”
“This, I will allow,” I say, as we leave the shelter. When we pass the vints’ sector, I will inform the first vint I see about whereto find their people, so they remove the bodies and know what happens when they vekk with orcs or those under our protection.
Though the rain persists, the lightning strikes appear to have ceased. I see no sign of Tansey or Ethan. Baloq and I make our way past fallen trees as well as tables and supplies tossed by the storm. The market is a mess and empty of people.
“Tansey? Ethan?” I call out as we navigate the rain and debris. Neither answers. Several times, I call out their names, my body tensing with the fear that I will not find them. Twenty minutes into our search, the rain abates and Sojek jogs up to us, as soaked as we are.
“I could not leave the gorjas, Warrior,” he explains his absence. “The moxxels had tumek in the cave. By the time I placed blinders on the gorjas, to keep them from killing the moxxels and their animals, the lightning had intensified too much to risk making my way back here.”
I don’t acknowledge his actions, either with the purpose of correcting or praising him. That can wait until later. “Have you seen my female or her youngling?”
He shakes his head.
