It had been raining for days now. Me and my friends had been travelling for weeks, and we should have reached our destination by now if Edmund hadn't lost the map.
My name is Thomas and I'm a merchant. I travel between cities with my companions, Edmund, Richard and Nils, selling wares and sharing the gold we earn. Not a very exciting job, and the journeys were often tiring, but it was well-paid work. We were mainly selling linen and other goods that were hard to get by these days, and it was all thanks to Richard. Somehow he had known that there would soon be a high demand for those wares, and we had all taken back the protests we threw at him when he spent all our money on them.
But now we were lost in a forest. Edmund claimed that this forest was close to the city we were travelling to, but I still doubted him. We had been walking through mud, leaves and branches for two days and we were all soaking wet. Even worse, our food supply was running out.
"We're on the right track, I know it!" Edmund assured us from the front of our little caravan.
"We better be," Nils muttered. "If not we'll have to put down Maggie and eat her."
He patted the brown horse dragging our wares across the forest's uneven terrain.
Night was falling. I knew we would have to set up a camp soon, but with the rain pouring down that wasn't a tempting thought. Last night we had found a large, hollow tree to hide inside, leaving poor Maggie out in the rain.
"Look!" Edmund suddenly exclaimed. "Over there! Light!"
I looked in the same direction as him and saw a warm, yellow light. Was it a cottage? Who would want to live out here?
We walked towards the light, and on a closer distance we saw that it was the entrance to a mine. A mountain wall stood before us, and the light was coming from the torch-lit tunnel.
Two men were standing on either side of the tunnel, and the armor they wore made it clear that they were city guards. They could probably show us the way to the city.
"Excuse me," Edmund said to the guards. "Me and my friends are tired, cold and hungry, any chance we can take shelter in here?"
The guards looked at him through their helmets which covered their faces. Their heads then turned to Maggie and her cargo.
"You're merchants?" one of them asked. We all nodded in response.
The guard turned to the other one. "Boss might want to see them. What do you think?"
"I don't know..." the other guard mumbled. "We only have orders to bring in workers..."
"We can work if you let us stay for the night," Nils said. "I've chopped a lot of wood in my days, can't be too different from mining."
The guards exchanged glances, and then one said:
"Alright then. We'll take you to the boss and let her decide. Not sure she'll like it, but you never know. Come on."
We followed the guards into the mine, relieved to get out of the rain.
"What should we do with the horse?" Richard asked. "She can't come inside."
One of the guards told the other to see to it, and after a short protest he obeyed.
We walked deeper into the mine. It was getting cold, but I could hear fire up ahead.
Soon we came into a large cave where a group of men dressed in rags and furs were sitting by two long tables, drinking and laughing. Food was cooking on campfires, the smoke emitting from them disappearing through holes in the cave's ceiling.
The guard clapped his hand two times to silence the others.
"We got four new prisoners, boys. But these aren't of the ordinary type. They're bypassers. So if you please, help me bring 'em to boss before they try to run away," he said.
What? This couldn't be a real guard! They were probably bandits! And we had stepped right into their trap!
Before we could escape we had a dozen bandits around us, and we were forced to follow them to the end of the cave where we met their leader. And she wasn't quite what I had expected.
Sitting in a throne cut out from the rock wall behind it, a large orc woman was sitting. Why in the world would an orc be the leader of a group of humans? Orcs and humans had been enemies for centuries. Heck, they shouldn't even be in human territory. Still, this orc woman was quite a sight.
She was tall, certainly taller than me, and she had muscles big enough to make a bodybuilder envious. She didn't seem to have any excess skin at all. Her lips were thick and behind them were large, pointy teeth. Her wide mouth had a significant underbite.
She was dressed in nothing but jewelry and a loincloth of animal skin, and thus her large breasts were exposed to the world. Both of the big nipples were pierced with golden rings, and in each pointy ear she had several rings as well. Finally, her head was completely shaved aside from a single long, dark braid at the top of her head.
This intimidating woman was looking at us with a critic's eyes, as if we were food and she was judging which one to eat first. But that was silly. Orcs didn't eat humans. At least that's what I had been told.
"Boss, we brought these merchants for you," the bandit dressed as a guard said. "Thought maybe you wanted some more workers. We've taken their goods, too."
The orc rose from her throne to take a closer look. Walking past us and frowning at each of my companions, she suddenly stopped in front of me. I felt so tiny before this woman. She was at least one head taller than me, and her shoulders were almost twice as wide as mine. Her breath smelled like mead.
She leaned closer and grabbed my chin, inspecting my face and apparently also the inside of my mouth. She was very strong, but that was to be expected from someone looking like her.
"This one is coming with me to my chambers," the orc woman announced with a dark, powerful voice. "Take the others to the mineshaft."
The bandits nodded and walked away, leading my friends in front of them.
The orc woman grabbed my wrist and pulled me with her in a different direction. We walked through a tunnel before emerging in a smaller cave. There were sacks, chests and barrels by the walls, a fireplace with a cooking pot, a desk and a bed with sheets made from animal furs. It was quite hot in here, and it smelled like burned wood and cooked meat.
The orc woman threw me into the room, and while I landed on the floor moaning in pain she closed the door that was attached to the rock of the tunnel opening, locking it with a key on the desk. Then she looked at me as I stood up.
"Firm body... Nice lips... This could work..." she mumbled to herself. "My name is Bologal, human. You will be serving me for tonight, so make sure to remember it."
I was getting worried about what she was going to do to me, so I decided to try prolonging my fate by talking.
"How come a group of human bandits are obeying an orc?" I asked, trying not to sound nervous.
Bologal walked closer, her breasts jiggling slightly as she did. "They owe me their freedom, that's why."
"Freedom?" I repeated.
"Yes. This used to be a place where prisoners were sent to mine silver for your king. I came here a few years ago, and I gained the other prisoners' respect by crushing a few skulls. They admire strength, all of them. And I have lots of that."
To illustrate her point she flexed her arm muscles. I didn't doubt that she would be able to kill me without trying.
"I encouraged them to rise up against the guards keeping us prisoners, and we killed them all and took control of this mine. Now I'm in charge here. I get all the silver, and those who behave get a share as well."
"Hasn't anyone noticed what has happened here?" I asked, desperate to make this conversation last longer.
"No. This mine is far away from any settlements, and no roads lead here. The only time people come here, except for you and your friends, is when they bring more prisoners and deliver all silver we've dug up to the king. I make sure to have some men posing as guards to deal with them. Of course, they always say we haven't found any more silver, but we keep the prisoners. They get to mine, unaware that they are really working for me."
"I see," I said, pretending to be impressed since she seemed proud of her scheme. "So my companions are digging for silver now?"
Bologal nodded.
