The girl hugged her arms tight around herself in a futile attempt to ward off the chill deep within her. She wished she could blame the weather for the numbing sensation, but the night air was warm and humid. Every night since the dwarfs she had been wakened early by nightmares of guilt and death and tonight was no different. This time, after butchering Yenix she had turned her blade on Kentin, mechanically plunging her weapon into his chest over and over as he begged and pleaded with her to stop. She left the small campsite in a hurry, hoping that she would at least not throw up this time.
Though the sun had not risen yet, evidence of its imminence painted the horizon and gave Misty enough to walk by. She headed upwards, picking her way through sickly thin trees and brown shrubbery, towards the cliff side. The orc had brought them to the cliffs yesterday and they had spent the full day navigating the circumference of the gigantic site, though keeping a safe distance away from the edge. Roaji had only allowed her a brief glimpse of the marvels that lay beyond the precipice and what she had seen was beyond her imagination. Only exhaustion prevented her from sprinting up the slope to hopefully see it again.
She was out of breath regardless upon arrival at the crest, however it was worth it. Beneath her stretched a city the size of which she would have thought impossible. It was half sunken, abandoned as far as she could tell and its spiral spires tilted as if collapsing in slow motion, yet it was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen. The decaying architecture was possessed of smooth concave shapes where almost all roofs were shallow basins and remaining elevated walkways connected the large cream stone buildings. In the distance, beyond the city, Misty could just make a vast stretch of water that must have been the ocean.
A light haze hung over the metropolis; from the scant few words Roaji had said to her, mostly warnings, the girl assumed that that was the malaise that rendered the city uninhabitable. She noticed now that there was not even plant life down there even though seemingly the place had been empty for decades or maybe even centuries and by rights should be overgrown. There were no streets, only waterways; it was a dead orc city and was probably the most beautiful and sad thing Misty had ever seen.
She wished Kentin were here to see it, he would likely cum in his pants. Misty dearly wished that he would come to terms with the fact that he had been left behind. There was no way he could survive living amongst orcs, he was soft, sensitive and frankly cowardly. She had given him the slip by having Roaji growl at him, thus making him faint. He deserved better; he had been the one to sew up the orc's wounds and organize provisions. Daily she would have a moment of regret, however the savage swamp lands were no place for a learned man. They were no place for wayward wenches either, but she was set on a path now, chosen or not, and she would not disgrace herself by faltering.
The sun crested the horizon, slicing through the morning mists like an uncompromising giant. The girl absently wondered that if orcs were water, dwarfs were earth and elves were air, was the sun some sort of ultimate fire deity? The sharp light stung her tired eyes and she had to look away back down the slope, towards Roaji.
When they had set off together she had not known what to expect. Before the dwarfs, their primary communication form had been smooshing their genitals together and their spoken language barrier was definitely a problem. Misty did not speak a word of orcish and the orc's kingish was rudimentary at best. For the first two days of travel it did not matter as she was still in shock from taking Yenix's life and as far as she could recall the orc had let her be. On the third morn, the dam burst and she had sobbed hysterically for what felt like hours. Roaji had gone to her in an instant and had held her to his chest through it all.
They had spent the rest of the day in awkward but earnest conversation and Misty had started feeling like herself again and that maybe, just maybe her life might not be over. She had put the moves on the orc that night and everything seemed to be fine until, mid kiss, he had pushed her away. It was the first time she had ever seen him look frightened and he offered only one word in explanation, 'poison'.
The following day he had barely looked her in the eyes, instead rattling through a stream of instructions and warnings. He had grown increasingly frustrated with his poor kingish and when Misty had reached out to comfort him he had flinched away as if burned. From what she could gather from him, she learned that he had a lot of secrets he wished hidden from his people. 'Don't tell them that we killed the dwarfs', 'Don't tell them we fucked', 'Don't tell them I can use magic'. The girl's shaky optimism was quickly quashed by the understanding that where they were going, she would have to lie to protect Roaji.
There was nothing for it aggravatingly. Only another orc with magical talents could draw the toxin from Roaji. Kentin had explained it to her; it was a slow acting poison of the mind that would drive the orc into an unquenchable rage. It would not kill him directly, however it would remove his sense of self preservation and orcs affected had been known to die of thirst or starvation. Even in her post-kill addled state Misty had resolved to get her orc back to his people. He had saved her life and it was only fair that she should return the favor.
Over the last few days he had been growing visibly worse. His once graceful movements had become sluggish and forced. He refused to look her in the eyes anymore and he infrequently growled to himself in orcish. His once lush brown and green skin grew more ashen by the day and he seemed to have as much trouble sleeping as she did. Just thinking about it made Misty want to go back and check on him. She took one last lingering look at the desolate cityscape as the light caught its water and it began to gleam.
****
Misty found the orc awake and fumbling with a length of rope, seemingly attempting and failing to tie himself up. She had foreseen such a precaution, but it still irked her that he had not asked her for help when it was clearly a task he could not perform himself. Alarmingly, his complexion seemed to have blanched even more overnight, though she hoped it was just a trick of the lack of light.
The orc's massive pack beast watched the girl approach with her usual lack of interest. After the fight with the dwarfs, seeing the huge snot spewing lizard waiting for them at Roaji's appropriated dwarf hole had been the shock that brought her back to her senses. Even now, the sight of the beast unnerved her, how could it not? She was an almost twenty foot long collection of scales and spines, and her mouth was large enough to swallow a person whole. The fact that she seemed more docile than a cow and her fore and hind legs were spread flat behind her in the most unthreatening manner possible did not assuage Misty's mild terror at the sight of Snotty. Roaji had told Misty the monster's real name, but she could not pronounce it and Snotty seemed more apt due to her mucus dispensing tendencies. The girl had hoped that giving the lizard a pet name might help with her unease, however she still jumped whenever Snotty opened her maw to suck in a cloud of bugs or an unwary bird.
Misty did her best to ignore the monster, going straight to the orc. She made no attempt to sneak, but Roaji still jumped in surprise when she entered his view. For a fleeting moment their gaze met, however the orc quickly looked away.
Perhaps it was the image of the hopeless dead city burned into her mind or general fatigue that spurred her into no bullshit mode, but either way she angrily said, "No," and moved in to put her arms around his expansive chest.
The orc tensed and then squirmed in her grip, nevertheless she held on tight. She was not going to let Roaji push her away, physically or metaphorically, they had come too far now.
Ultimately though, the orc was stronger and wrested her away, deigning to meet her eyes and growled, "Misty. Poison."
"But you're still fighting it! You're still you."
"No. Too strong," he looked at her feet, "Want to hurt. Hurt you."
"I trust you," it was a half-truth; she felt he needed her to trust him.
His deep voice rolled in hurt, "Misty."
"I trust you."
The orc considered her for several long heart beats before profering the rope to her, "Help."
She had been trying to avoid the idea that Roaji would lose himself and leave her out in the wilderness alone; that they would make it to help before it came to that. The rope represented the end of her faint hope to be spared from the frightening responsibility of keeping them both alive. Yet it had to be done. She was mostly certain that her orc would not asked to be restrained to shirk a burden. So she nodded.
It was not easy. Roaji shifted around to indicate he wanted his wrists tied behind his back. Misty had little experience with knotting and it took numerous attempts to satisfy him, but she managed to twist the rope into what looked complicated and messy enough to need a knife to cut him free. She gave him a brave smile and then pressed her cheek to his smooth chest.
She whispered, "You're still you."
She nestled closer against him as he mumbled at her in his native tongue. His body maintained its usual abnormal heat despite his loss of color. He was covered in a light gleam of sweat though it had lost its acidic properties, she could only assume that that was a bad sign.