From this point on I will try and release two chapters of this per week, one Wednesday and one Friday, don't forget to vote, comment, and follow me if you enjoyed my work. It means a lot to me.
The Orcish Way
Sasha now burned with a newfound passion and curiosity after the deliciousness of that evening, and she longed for more. She had wondered just when Gorthan would try and go further with her? It was frustrating and cruel this waiting. He had constantly told her to be patient, but she kept pushing his boundaries with her youthful enthusiasm.
Last evening she had looked at him like a hungry puppy when he did not provide, and all he said to her was. "I have seen much war, I have seen the fate of many a human, female captive at an impatient orc's hands. I would not have that happen to you my dearest Sasha. You must wait, you must give your body time. Orcs and humans were never made to so easily love one another. The only human women that are somewhat easy for us to take are prostitutes, or those that have borne many children."
"But what about Garona! She is half human half orc? So they exist!" Sasha countered his argument, desperately trying to plead her case. She so wanted more of him, all of him, even if that 'all' of him was very intimidating.
Gorthan nodded, "they exist, though they are not accepted by either race. Most though like Garona were born to Orc women who had coupled with human men."
His argument had again blunted her own. Sasha had much to dwell on. With the war on their doorstep she no longer thought to escape, if in time she was to be 'rescued' and returned to her old life it would happen. However she was content here, and as the days passed she found that she didn't wish to leave, and she had pushed the idea of escape right off the table.
Her guardian had also sensed this in her she could tell. Orcs seemed very perceptive, more so than their human counterparts. These orcs were nothing like she had been taught, the human teachings were quite simply wrong.
She looked across at him, taking in all of his savage dark handsomeness, and she at once tried to compare him with the most handsome human men she could remember or dream up. None of them could compare to this behemoth male beside her. They were weak, prejudiced, and insipid, and she found she no longer desired them or even wished to return to their world.
Perhaps the war would wait? King Wrynn had not yet moved his host east. His forces had by all intelligence accounts just fortified Lakeshire and encamped there. She hoped that was the case.
The summer in Redridge was warm, Gorthan was often up early to tend his beloved worg Gashnaka. He fussed over her as her time neared, Sasha could tell he was excited to welcome into the world Gasnaka's and Fellstrike's pups.
After their usual night of delicious oral intimacies, Sasha woke and stretched out languorously beneath the covers. She was dreaming about Gorthan's enormous and skilled tongue, and then trying to imagine someone like Graham Trias attempting to do the same thing to her, it was an icky and rather laughable thought. She could never be the same woman again.
Sasha woke alone most mornings, it seemed she needed far more sleep than orcs did. At least those on the warpath. She smiled at the sweet memories of the night before, war may be all around her, but at this moment her life was good.
The tent flap opened suddenly admitting her large warrior, she was not startled, as it seemed his fellow orcs respected his privacy and never came into his tent uninvited.
"Come Sasha you must see."
She could hear the excitement in his voice, so she hurriedly pulled on her clothes and followed him across the sprawling camp. She already had a fair idea where he was headed, and her stomach tightened with excitement. Gashnaka's pups must have arrived!
He led her into the dark lean-to that was attached to Gashnaka's pen, she could already hear the small sounds of puppies searching for a teat on their mother's belly. Gorthan knelt beside his war hound and scratched at her shaggy head, she leant into his caress, her ice blue eyes half closed. She was watching though with all the wary protectiveness of a new mother. If anything came for her pups she would become a wall of rending fury.
"How many?" Sasha whispered.
"We are about to find out," Gorthan said, as he parted the worg's heavy fur that was obscuring the newborn pups.
She could see his lips subtly move as he silently counted. Then she saw the flash of snow.
"There a white one!" she exclaimed.
Gorthan carefully stroked the pups, trying to see them clearer. Gashnaka's sharp toothed muzzle hovering protectively close to his inspecting hand, however she let him look, even as she bared her teeth.
"There are seven healthy ones, but it would appear this one is weak and will not live."
"But he's trying to eat, see."
"It is not the way to keep the weak Sasha."
He was pulling the tiny pup away from its litter mates, Gashnaka made no move to defend it. It was very small, and they discovered it was a female.
"I am glad at least it was not a male, not as much of a loss. The men all want male battle worgs." Gorthan's statement was without pity or sorrow, he lived in a hard world.
"No!" Sasha implored, "she is still alive, let me raise her, care for her, and at least if she does not live she will know she was loved."
"It is not orc way."
"Please, let me, what can it hurt?"
Gorthan cocked his great head, he was thinking, his gold eyes narrowed.
"Very well."
The white bundle of tiny life was so small against his hands, as he surrendered it into hers. Sasha cradled the tiny pup into the warmth of her breast beneath her shirt. She felt her snuggle against her and begin searching for milk.
"I must get back, I need to try and feed her."
Gorthan nodded and they headed back to camp.
*****
In the following days the small pup grew stronger. Sasha did not choose for her a name though, she didn't wish to jinx the young pups progress. She would if she lived earn a name. She patiently fed her milk with a perforated cow horn, to begin with the little worg refused to suckle and Sasha feared she would die, but finally she accepted the new method of feeding and began to grow. She would Sasha thought always be small, but at least she would survive.
One day in between feeding her charge Gorthan called to her, she bedded the pup down securely in her basket and went to him.
"I have something for you," he said, "come."
He guided her toward the center of the camp, it was a very busy place. There were many orcs here that made weapons. Some were very crude, little more than stone axes and spiked clubs. Other more substantial weapons were refined and made of steel. The forges on this warm day made her sweat as she wove her way through the press of warriors, hand in hand.
As they meandered their way through the vendors tents, Gorthan's forward progress was halted by a very evil looking Blackrock orc. His head was entirely shaven bald, and he wore a shrunken head as a pendant in an ogre tooth necklace. He was bigger than Gorthan, and covered in numerous battle scars, one of his long tusks was broken. The other had been set with a large gold band about its base.
He said something in Orcish that Sasha sensed was challenging or rude, though the words were still foreign to her she had picked up on Gorthan's body language completely. Gorthan growled a deep, throaty challenge to the insolent orc. The orc said something else and finally stepped out of his way. His evil red eyes bored into Sasha's as she passed, and she felt fear. She did not know what to make of the exchange, but was glad it had ended non violently.
He stopped before a tent, it was that of a weapons vendor. The proprietor was a very scarred, old orc, with wispy white hair, and broken yellow teeth.
"Here it is," he said as he reached for something behind him. "Just as you asked for, the short seasoned wood was hard to find."
The old orc handed him a tiny bow, and some well made iron tipped shafts, but to Sasha's reasoning the weapon was the perfect size. Gorthan passed the vendor some gold and turned to her.
"This is for you." He pressed the bow into her hands, it was finely made and the wood felt so smooth beneath her palms. An item made with care and love.
She snuggled into his broad chest. "Thank you so much Gorthan it's, well, it's just beautiful! I don't know what to say."
"Then say nothing, let us go and shoot." He said with enthusiasm.
They practiced together at the edges of the camp, the bow fit Sasha perfectly, it was a far superior weapon to the one she had played with in Elwynn forest before her capture. She found under Gorthan's patient tutelage, her stance and style improved, but she felt frustration that she could not shoot anywhere near the distance that he could.
"Do not worry Sasha," he said. "I use this bow many times to take out the Lakeshire archers. They cannot reach me."
