AN: Hello again, I have another chapter for you all. Please review and critique, its one of the ways I can improve my writing. Note I make some small references to The Answer to a question in this chapter, so if you have not read that one first, I greatly advise it before continuing.
Derethor was horrified, his parents had just left and he had been left alone facing the glares of his uncle and aunt, and the unknowable expression on their daughter's face. Clearing his throat Derethor said "will you not have your daughter remove her hood? or does she have no manners when she addresses men?" Derethor was surprised, when instead of ordering his daughter to lower her hood, his uncle banged his closed fist down on the table.
"You will not speak of my daughter this way, do you hear me?" his uncle bellowed. "If you continue in your hair brained ideas that you are superior to either my wife or my daughter, I will leave you to the wolves. Do you understand me boy!" Derethor was horrified at being reprimanded so publicly. Appearing to calm, as his aunt laid her hand on his arm his uncle continued in a more conversationalist voice, "you will sleep in the spare room boy, take your horse into the stable, care for it, and then get your belongings into the house. Then get back in here, I have something to explain to you."
….
Urzoth smiled in the shadow of her hood as Derethor scurried outside to escape her father's threatened wrath. Urzoth gratefully threw back her hood to get some cool air on her face, she turned to her father and said "so, how do you want me to play this?" Aethor smiled at her.
"Don't do anything fancy, just pull your hood off and I can handle it from there, your mother is ready to drop the latch on the door, so we should be able to stop him running. Just be yourself, although for the first few days, I want you to keep an eye on him, you ok with doing that?"
Urzoth smiled at her father and nodded affirmative, hearing the sounds of Derethor returning, she raised her hood and stood silently glaring at the door.
….
Derethor struggled, he had no idea his uncle would make him carry his own trunks into the house, he had assumed that he would at least get some help with it, or maybe he would order his daughter to help him with the manoeuvring it through the narrow doors. Managing to wedge his foot in the door, he looked in and saw the girl just pulling her hood back into place; her shoulders started shaking as she watched him. Dropping his trunk he was about to give the girl a piece of his mind, and berate her about how it was not a woman's place to laugh at her betters.
…
Seeing Derethor pause, Urzoth noticed that the fool was stood in the doorway, once again letting all the warm air out of the room. Sighing she decided to show up the young fool, she strode forward, checking once again that every part of her body was covered or in shadow at the least. Derethor said "what are you doing you foolish girl, standing there watching me, go and fetch your father to help me with this trunk." the tone of his voice was so whiny that Urzoth just wanted him to shut up. Urzoth roughly elbowed him out the way.
Grasping the trunk by the handles, she picked it up. After working on a farm for three years Urzoth was quite capable of picking up the trunk. She carried it through the house and dumped it in the spare guest room without ceremony.
….
Derethor watched in amazement, as the trunk he had struggled to carry over a short distance was quite casually hoisted into the arms of this silent girl. He was left standing in the kitchen feeling lost. He turned around at the sound of thumping footsteps, Derethor saw his uncle stump back into the room, in his hands he carried a thick stave and a finely made sword. Laying both stave and sword on the table, his uncle said "I see my daughter got fed up with you letting all the hot air out the room."
Derethor was stunned and began to say "but..how.."
His uncle waved him to silence "well the kitchen is normally the warmest room in the house, but at the moment its barely warmer than the yard, it also helps that I talked to my daughter on the way in, and she told me, so I will tell you this now boy. Learn fast, or I may have to beat some lessons into you." His uncle gestured at the stave laying on the table whilst Derethor blanched at the idea of being hit with the thick wooden stave.
It was at this moment his aunt and their daughter swept into the room, his uncle then said "now, boy. If you are living here over the winter, I will not have my daughter have to hide from you at all times, so I will tell you this now, Urzoth is not my real daughter, I and Efene adopted her three years ago, and she has been a good and loyal daughter ever since."
Derethor did not really pay attention to his aunt as she moved behind him and quietly closed the door and bolted it. His uncle gestured towards his daughter and she cast her cloak off, allowing it to crumple to the floor. Derethor sat stunned, standing in the kitchen next to his uncle was an orc, the orc was…strange. It was not as ugly as the stories he had always been told. He had expected bulging eyes, and warts sprouting from every patch of skin, bright yellow or green skin and rough with facial hair. Instead what he saw was a very human like face, apart from the blunter nose and the heavier brow, and of course the black skin, she looked like any other woman of Rohan.
But it was still an orc.
…..
Finally given permission to cast her cloak off, Urzoth did so with relish, she closely watched Derethor's face as blood drained from his face, then a flash of surprise went across his face and his brow creased. Then he ran.
Sighing, she turned and walked out the room to get ready to go and dig out the run off ditch, she smirked as she remembered the first time she had done it, soon after arriving at the farm, back when she and her father did not really know what to make of each other, she had cut her foot open and had to rest up for several days. In that time she and her father had gotten to know each other.
….
Derethor was scrabbling at the door, his movements so hurried he could not even lift the bar. Hearing a loud crash of wood hitting wood behind him, he glanced fearfully over his shoulder,but he saw no sign of the orc, his uncle was standing with a face like thunder. "Calm down you little idiot, Urzoth ain't going to hurt you unless you give her good cause, and you better hope you don't because if you do , I will let her at you. And she has a particular hatred of men of Gondor."
Derethor turned and practically screamed at his uncle "of course it hates men of Gondor, it hates you too, it's an orc. I don't know how you can even sleep at night with it in the house, let alone how you call it your daughter." A fist crashed into the side of Derethor's face, but it had not come from his uncle. His aunt stood over him with her chest heaving, holding her knuckles. His aunts eyes flashed "If you call my daughter an it, one more time Derethor, I swear I will beat you to within an inch of your life, now calm down and listen to what Aethor has to say."
Derethor gingerly stood up and with one hand rubbing his cheek where he had been hit, he said "you let a mere woman hit a man, I see discipline has become lax in this backwater.." Even as he said the words, he knew he had gone too far, feeling a hand grasp the back of his hair his head was violently slammed into the hardwood table.
As if from a great distance he heard his aunt say "does that boy really never learn, soon as he has recovered send him out to the run-off ditch, he can help Urzoth dig it out. It's an easy enough introduction to what will be expected of him this winter." His consciousness was slowly returning to his body, so he noticed how gentle his uncle was as he leaned down and kissed his aunt. "I am glad you're here my love, I would not know how to deal with the idiot by myself."
Hearing the footsteps of his aunt leaving the room, a dark shape interposed itself between his eyes and the fire, feeling rough hands grab him, he found his uncle hauling him into a chair. Dumping him down, full consciousness finally returned to Derethor and he indignantly said "she hit me." His uncle looked at him coldly.
"Aye lad, she did hit you, and then slammed your head on the table, you were lucky that was all she did, Efene is a healer, the things she can make the body do are..frightening." He saw his uncle shiver in pleasure and decided to that he did not want to know any more.
Trying to get the conversation back to areas he felt comfortable with Derethor said "so what are my duties whilst I am here, do you want me to supervise the workers? Or perhaps educate your wife in how to read and write?" deliberately not mentioning the orc, Derethore hoped that he would be able to keep away from the beast.
His uncle began to chuckle, soon the chuckle became a laugh, and very soon after that the laugh became a roar of mirth. "Listen lad, we don't have workers to supervise, we do everything we need to do ourselves, and for your information Efene can read and write better than I can." His uncle paused and looked thoughtfully at him. "Although, Efene has never had the time to teach Urzoth how to read and write, hmm, yes. You shall spend the evenings teaching my daughter how to read and write."
Derethor was horrified "but..it..she is an orc, is she, even capable of learning." Derethor once again reeled back as his uncles fist slammed on the table, the lines of mirth disappeared and his face once again showed annoyance.
"I will have you know my daughter is far more intelligent than many men I know, she is also a fast learner and will suck up new knowledge like a sponge, now you at least appear to be lucid enough to make offensive comments, so you can go and help Urzoth dig out the run off trench."
…
Urzoth looked down into the trench, if any chore was to be called the unpleasent, digging out the run-off trench in winter would be it. Dropping the bundle of tools she had carried with her from the barn, Urzoth quickly set about building a fire.
By the time she saw her father frog-marching a reluctant Derethor across the field towards her, she was just adding the largest piece of wood to the fire, it would stay burning for most of the morning now. Urzoth stood and picking up a hefty stave with a heavy iron butt, she stood at the edge of the trench and jabbed the stave down, breaking the ice that had formed over the water in the trench, drawing the stave back up she jabbed again and broke another hole in the ice.
Turning she saw her father shoving a stave like hers into Derethor's hands and pointing at him to go over and begin helping Urzoth. She heard her father saying as he walked away "He is going to be your shadow today, my dearest daughter. Show him how to do what you are doing, he has a week to learn, so be a hard taskmaster."
….
Derethor's face paled as he heard the words, he glanced over at the orc and saw her grinning as she sweetly called out "Yes father, he will learn fast, I am sure." Derethor could barely stand to stand near the orc, he had expected to be beset by a foul smell, but oddly enough the orc smelled no worse than he did, just sweat for the most part. Derethor looked over at the orc as she raised her stave and brought it crashing down on the thick ice in the trench. He raised his own stave and brought it down, causing a crack in the ice, but not breaking all the way through. Hearing a snort next to him the orc said "You need to drive it down, you can't just let it drop, we don't have time for your whining either, so save it. My name is Urzoth and I expect you to call me by my name, you will not call me derogatory names and you will not try to find out about my past, that shit's all behind me and I ain't going back there."
…
Raising her stave Urzoth brought the heavy butt down and broke apart the final big block of ice in this part of the trench. Tapping Derethor on the shoulder caused him to start, "come on boy, the ice is broken, now we need to get in that trench and loosen the earth. Urzoth walked over to the fire where the two sets of tools were stacked. Taking off her cloak, she then removed her dress. Hearing a gasp from behind her she turned to face Derethor in just her loincloth and chest wrappings. "What are you scared of boy, I am sure you have bedded a whore or two before." Shaking her head she picked up a pickaxe and leapt down into the freezing slurry of mud and water. Raising her pick high in the air she brought it down hard into the half-frozen mud.
…
Derethor stood aghast as the barely dressed orc jumped down into the flooded ditch with a splash. How could this woman, even an orc woman be so casual about being mostly unclothed in front of a man. Urzoth stuck her head over the lip of the ditch and shouted "come on you bastard, get your ass in here and help me." Derethor was shocked out of his thoughts and stooped to pick up the pickaxe he had brought with him from the shed. Derethor was quick to remove his boots and jump into the ditch. He let out a cry as the icy water soaked into his trousers and heard Urzoth sniggering. The orc looked at him with her bright yellow eyes, "better start digging soon boy, we need to get half the trench dug out before lunch." They dug in silence for most of the morning, the sun was reaching the top of its arc when Urzoth said, "can you feel your feet?" Derethor shook his head and Urzoth stood to her full height, "ok, time for a fire break then." Urzoth quickly hopped out of the trench and stretched her feet out towards the fire. Derethor hopped out after her and huddled close to the fire. Derethor was sat gazing into the fire, wiggling his toes to try to get some feeling back into them, when he heard a throat clear. Looking up he saw Urzoth leaning forward, she said "so Derethor, tell me about Gondor." Derethor felt a slight anger cloud his mind and retorted in a sharp voice "I know of nothing of the current defences of Gondor, or the movements of the army, so you might as well not ask orc." Derethor was pleased with the hurt expression on the orcs face, he sat back feeling content that he had silenced the beast for a time. Closing his eyes he did not see the Urzoth approach until he felt her clawed hand grasp the front of his expensive spun tunic. He was shocked at the strength she showed as she yanked him to his feet and yelled in his face "I am not going to go and pass on whatever you tell me to any orc friends, I have no friends among my own race, all I have are enemies."
Urzoth dumped him down on the grass and turned away. "I have known only pain and humiliation at the hands of orcs." Derethor sat up from where he had been dropped on the ground and looked at the orc.
In a quiet voice Derethor asked "you were raped?"
Turning towards him, all Urzoth could do was nod
Derethor smirked "raped? A likely story, I bet you enjoyed every second of it"
Barely were the words out of his mouth then Urzoth was flying at him, grasping his hair she slammed his head once, twice, thrice into the ground all the while keening a long howl of rage.
….
Urzoth felt only Rage! Pure undiluted rage, that this boy, who had lived a highly sheltered life in the safety of Gondor, would dare say she enjoyed being raped! She was going to kill him, she realized if she kept this up. She wanted to let go, but she was too angry to even think about the consequences of her actions. Suddenly Urzoth heard a clatter of dishes and heard a shout. Releasing the hair of the boy, she looked over her shoulder to see her parents coming towards her. The clatter of dishes had come from the plates of food her mother had been bringing out for the two of them, which she had dropped so she could lift her skirts and run. Her father had no such limitations and he reached Urzoth before her mother did.
Urzoth stood and with head bowed, waited for her mother to arrive, as soon as she did arrive, she flung herself forward and began to sob into her shoulder, gripping her tightly as if she never meant to let go. Urzoth allowed herself to be led back to the house, she felt shaky and weak after the feelings that had coursed through her ebbed. And the sheer disdain in the voice of the Gondor boy's voice, had brought back memories of that day three years ago.
…..
Derethor was dazed, he had not expected such a violent reaction from the orc. He was dimly aware of the sound of sobbing getting quieter, and to his surprise felt a twinge of guilt, that he had caused any woman obvious pain.
Pushing the guilt to one side he reasoned that Urzoth was just an orc after all. She must have enjoyed the supposed rape, she was an orc! Derethore was jerked out of his own thoughts when the shape of his uncle appeared at the edge of his vision.
AN: Well another chapter out the way, and on to writing the next one, I hope to have the newest chapter out by tomorrow
