HS&S:WT Short

[sabremeister]

Orcish Commitment

The two Orcs and the Human sat in awkward silence. Awkwardness was not a natural state of being for Orcs, making the situation ever more uncomfortable. The human, a woman named Gisele, had put the baby to sleep a few minutes earlier, right after they had arrived back at Megnil's, the male Orc's, den. It had been Megnil's suggestion, and he'd made it to try and reduce the number of reminders about his foolish past. The child, product of a union between him and Gisele, now slept peacefully on a pallet in the rear section of the den. Megnil's new marriage-bound, the other Orc, was from another tribe, and the two had met each other long after Gisele had left the area to move to Port Retter. The people in the Human capital of Yalkat were not sympathetic to a Human woman who had had a child by an Orc, and had forced her out.

"Why come here?" asked the female Orc, sharply.

"Pella, please," Megnil said quietly.

"It's alright," Gisele said. She had been crying a lot recently, and her eyes were still red-rimmed. "I had nowhere else to go."

"Why not? Where did you live before?"

"I lived in - in an old woodcutter's hut outside Venega. It was ... my parents' house."

"They're dead, Pella," Megnil told her. "The shack was sold when Gisele moved away."

"So who has it now? The tribe could take it back from them, and you could move back in."

"Pella, we are not declaring war over a single shack!"

"Tribes have declared war for less, Sergeant!"

"Tribes have been wiped out for less, Warrior!"

"Please!" Gisele snapped. "Please don't fight."

The two Orcs settled back down, the female seething. After a moment, Megnil quietly asked Gisele, "you did sell the shack, didn't you?"

"Yes. The burgomeister bought it. He said he'd turn it into a hunting lodge."

"Human hunting! Pah!" Pella's disgust could not be more palpable. "Wasteful, extravagant, groups blundering around scaring away half the game before they can catch it. We'd be doing them a favour by burning it to the ground."

"I've never seen anyone using it," Megnil told them. "It's been repaired and so on, but I don't think anyone's used it ever since the gardener saw an Orc hanging around nearby." He tried to grin, but neither of the women shared the humour.

"So it is empty?"

"Locked up tight and shuttered. It's not so far from the road that people wouldn't notice that it was being lived in, especially with the trees cleared. It wouldn't be long before the burgomeister got wind of his squatters."

They lapsed into silence again.

"So why come here?" asked Pella again.

"Even if I had anywhere to live in the Human settlements nearby, they would drive me out because of my child. Megnil was one of the few people who showed me any kindness before I left for Port Retter, and ... and I thought he'd be able to accommodate me. At least for a while," she added quickly.

"I'm sure something can be arranged," Megnil said. At a glare from his new marriage-bound, he added, "and quickly." He got up and went to the den's entrance. He stuck his head round the wolfskin curtain and hollered for one of the nearby youths to ask the Captain to join them. He returned to his seat. "I thought you had been blessed to be barren during the Festival of Kos?"

"I was!" Gisele protested. "The blessing should have lasted until midnight!"

"But it didn't."

Gisele shook her head. "I can only guess, but it must have expired when I finished my duties at the Temple for the last time."

Again, there was silence.

"What did you see in her?" asked Pella, in a considerably more friendly tone than she had been using previously.

Megnil took heart from the improvement. "I have always liked thin females," he shrugged.

"Thin? She's a stick!"

"I could lift both of you at the same time," Megnil reminded her, "one under each arm."

"Oh," Gisele murmured, then looked away, blushing.

"What?" asked Pella.

"It's just that ... well, he seems to be saying that we're both thin, but I thought ... I thought you were of average build for an Orc woman, and then I remembered..." She tailed off.

"Remembered what?"

"He said ... he told me that I was so thin maybe only one in twenty Orcs would find me attractive - and that he would be the twentieth - so I guess you must be quite slim compared to other Orc women."

Pella didn't exactly squirm, because that was something else Orcs aren't really familiar with. "I still have more covering than you."

"I can tell," Gisele said. "That shirt leaves little to the imagination." She turned to Megnil. "Is she as much of a catch as you are?"

"'Catch'?" asked Pella.

"A Human term for a valuable marriage-bond," Megnil explained. "I told her that due to my hunting and battle prowess I would be a catch for someone in another tribe. I did not really believe it until a few months ago."

"Is your question borne of jealousy or pride?" Pella asked Gisele.

"Neither - just curiosity! Honest!"

Pella glared at her, then hmmphed and sat back.

"I think Pella has her doubts about her status," Megnil explained. "I am a catch - a successful warrior, a new Sergeant, probably the next Captain here, a good hunter. It's ... unusual, for someone of my talents to - I'm sure others would say 'settle' - for what many would say is a runt."

"Runt!" Pella snapped, not quite under her breath.

"It would be expected for me to become marriage-bound to another Sergeant, or a Captain's daughter - another successful warrior with good prospects of their own." He put his arm around Pella's shoulders and leaned in. "But, really, the female Sergeants of the Sharp Fang tribe are hideous, especially compared to Pella." He kissed her cheek.

"And the Sharp Fang's Captain doesn't have a daughter," his marriage-bound added.

"Yes. And an apprentice Healer is, in her own way, a catch."

"I was rubbish at it," Pella muttered.

"Instantly lowering the value of her marriage-bond," Megnil smirked, "and so by her own words, is not a catch." He kissed her again. "I don't care what others say of our match, I have not 'settled'. And my marriage-bound and future mate is not a runt - she is beautiful."

"Future mate?" Gisele was puzzled. "You're marriage-bound but not ... Oh! Oh, I'm truly sorry Megnil, and Pella, I really am sorry! I really shouldn't have interrupted your honeymoon. I ... I didn't have anywhere else to go."

"Ach, don't fret," Pella waved a hand to brush it off. "My parents are stuck-up traditionalists - no mating unless you're at the man's den. I had the worst time trying to satisfy my urges when I was younger."

At that moment, a gruff voice called Megnil's name from just outside the den.

"Come in, Captain," Megnil replied, standing up. Pella did likewise, and Gisele followed suit.

"What was so urgent you couldn't wait to have one night with your marriage-bound?" the Orc Captain asked as he pushed the curtain aside and came in.

"Captain Talyn, I present my marriage-bound Pella, and a former mate of mine, Gisele."

The older Orc swept Pella into a huge but brief hug, then let her down and turned to repeat the action with Gisele, who was wide-eyed in her nervousness at the prospect of being hugged like that. But Talyn stopped. "She's Human," he said.

"Yes, Captain, she is," Megnil said. "And her son by me, who is asleep in the other chamber, is not."

"Son?" Talyn rolled his eyes, then turned on Megnil and did a very credible attempt at looming over the younger, taller, Orc. "It wasn't rape, was it?" he growled.

"Of course not!"

"Explain then!"

Megnil remained calm and looked his Captain in the eyes as he did so. "I found her on the road in a storm eighteen months ago, passed out. I carried her home, she asked me to stay because she was lonely, and I had shown her more kindness than anyone else in four years."

Talyn stepped back and rolled his eyes again. "Bloody young idiots, leching over anything with tits. Don't blame you, I was like that at your age." He reached up to lift one of his leather shoulder pads. "See this? Zalax did that to me when she found out I had felt up her cousin, while we were in N'hushtlok."

"Promised to be marriage-bound," Megnil explained to Gisele. He turned back to his Captain. "I take it it was mutual, otherwise her cousin would have killed you. And I can barely see that scar, so Zalax couldn't have taken it too badly."

Talyn grinned and put the pad back. "Alright, fair point. Now, why am I here? Need something doing about your former mate, I take it?"

"Yes. Would she and our son be able to stay with you tonight, and I'll make arrangements for something more permanent tomorrow?"

Talyn looked Gisele over. "Shouldn't be a problem. You want some alone time tonight, I'm guessing. Alright, girl, grab the child and follow me."

Gisele bobbed a curtsey and and turned towards the sleeping part of the den, but Pella stopped her. "Wait, that's it? Aren't you even going to make sure she can earn her keep?"

Talyn shrugged. "She'll think of something, or starve in a few days. I assume you had a trade among the Humans?" he asked Gisele.

"I was a seamstress and dressmaker. I can make clothes, cloaks, hoods, coverings for boots - anything with cloth or a good piece of fur."

"Could be useful," Talyn nodded. "Megnil will make sure you don't starve and have something to work with for the first week or so. After that, you stand on your own feet."

"Thank you, Captain," she said.

"I'm not your Captain, you're not an Orc," Talyn told her. "You may be living here, but you're not one of us until you come of age. Zalax can train you in the ceremony if you want, but until then, unless invited otherwise, everything that moves in here is 'sir' or 'miss' to you."

"Yes sir, understood. I could probably be useful to the Tribe in other ways, too," she added.

"How?"

"I'm Human. I daresay I can get a better price for anything you want to trade with the locals - the nearby Humans - than anyone else you have here."

"Okay. But that won't get you coming of age any sooner, just so you know."

"I know."

Talyn nodded. "Alright. Grab the kid and come with me. Megnil and Pella ought to be screwing each others' brains out now, and we're in the way."

"Yes sir!" She went into the back and gently picked up the sleeping infant. She carried it back into the main part of the den, then hesitated, and turned to Pella. "Once again, I'm really sorry for delaying your honeymoon, and I'm very sorry for the problems I've caused. Please, once your honeymoon is over, come and see me, and I'll make you something nice, just as you want it, anything you want." She smiled quickly, and Pella's furrowed brows un-furrowed somewhat. Gisele turned to the Captain. "I'm ready, sir."

The Orc Captain grunted and pushed his way through the wolfskin curtain. Gisele took a deep breath and hurried after him. Inside, there was a few moments of silence.

"I hope he keeps his temper in check," Megnil said, "the Captain's not exactly fond of Humans."

"Killed too many of them?" Pella asked, beginning to relax for the first time since her marriage-bound had come out of the guardroom carrying a baby and followed by a Human female.

"I think at this point, he thinks of them as rather large and especially prolific ferrets or some other nasty variety of pest that's hard to kill and gets everywhere."

"Hmp. Why was he so angry when he thought you might have raped her?"

"Rape is one of the things that makes Humans try and take revenge for. As a Tribe, we're a bit small to take on the full force of the local Humans; raping one of them could see us wiped out."

"Oh. Makes sense."

There was another moment of silence. "Am I forgiven?" Megnil asked quietly.

Pella looked up at him under freshly-furrowed brows. "She was before you even knew me, not my business what you did then. Bit of a fucking shock though."

"When I first met her, she told me stories that confirmed that Humans are, on the whole, arseholes. And what I told her about Orcs made her decide that we, on the whole, are not."

"Clever." Pella said no more, but opened her arms, and the two embraced. Her head rested against his chest, and he stroked her hair. "What's a honeymoon?" she asked. "I mean, I think I can guess from context, but you're the expert?"

"I think it's the month after Humans get married. That's when they're supposed to be the happiest with each other, and spend all the time screwing."

"Right." More silence. Then Pella released Megnil and stood back. "Alright, you're forgiven for springing that on me. Don't do it again."

"It won't," he promised.

"Right. She's alright. I don't exactly like her, but she's a friend of yours, and she'll need all the friends she can get in the next few years. Just don't expect me to babysit the sprog."