Chapter One:
"Impossible. How can an Orc have a child?" said a low, angry voice. "Rahhazo, I know this is not so."
"Look at her! She is a child! She is an orc! It is not impossible!"
A pair of orcs were arguing. One was female, the other male. To a human, there would be no difference. To most orcs, it made no difference. All orcs rose from the ground, from dark magic. None were born.
A small shape was lying on a rough bed, faintly moving. The female pointed at the shape. "She is an orc. She exists. Is that enough proof for you?"
The male shook his head. "Ra-nuk will not be happy. He will almost certaintly turn her over to Solomon or even Sauron. This thing will most likely perish. It makes no difference to me. But I am curious. Are you her mother?"
"Does it make any difference if she is?" Rahhazo replied.
"The goth will want to know." the male said, referring to their leader.
"I will not answer." Rahhazo said, turning her back on the male. "But I will take her somewhere safe. She will be of no use to the army as a child. I will raise her, and then return with a full grown warrior. Please, Lursk, let me go."
"You act as if I care... you act as if you care for the thing. Orcs do not feel, Rahhazo. We act. If we feel, we become as weak as the humans."
"This is not emotion, Lursk. It is strategy." said Rahhazo.
"I will go to the goth in one strike. You shall leave, and I shall tell him what I know. But be warned, Rahhazo. If you betray us, you shall die."
"I know, Lursk." said Rahhazo. "I will be going now."
Lursk left, and Rahhazo let out a breath. She felt strange. Whenever Rahhazo looked at the child, she felt a strange tightening in her chest, and the urge to protect.
She was the mother of the orc-child. She had succumbed to the human desires. She was weak.
But looking at the orc-child, she felt differently. She felt stronger than she had ever felt in battle, even stronger than at her birth, when she sprang fully formed from the earth, like all orcs before her. Like all orcs, except for the one she had mothered in the normal way.
Rahhazo dressed in a coat, and slung her bag onto her shoulder. She then lifted the orc-child, and ran out the door, her heart beating impossibly fast.