Here it is, part two will be up sometimes later, I hope you enjoy ;)


The Orc That Taught Me

I ate peaceably, the table was outside today and full of many fruits, there was a special small basket full of peaches just for me I was told. My favorite, I ate in contented silence.

"Hey look what the wife gave me." I jumped at the booming unfamiliar voice from behind me but before I could calm my heart-rate or even take my bearings, a loud 'clack' sounded as the person seemingly deliberately whacked a belt across the table seemingly mere inches from me then left it there. I was out of the chair in a panic before even my ears could stop ringing from the intrusion.

He was closer than I thought. He grabbed my arm as I fell in a scramble and I launched myself at him and bit with all my might. He yelped and it was a combined effort of his shove and my leap away from him that sent me crashing into another guy from behind, the person grabbed my shoulders and I attacked without looking, making both a fist to his nose and scraping my boot against his shin. I was spun around to face the second attacker, only to face grandfather. My hand went straight to my lips, I saw blood, he was bleeding, I'd probably broken his nose or something.

"Im sorry!" I turned and ran away, no one tried to stop me, as all wanted to aid the bleeding lord of the house.
"She bit me!" Came a whine.

I ran and ran and ran, then I hid in a dark and small space in the back of a closet. I was never coming out I decided.
I was going to stay in here forever and ever, even if that meant starving to death.

An hour later I was hungry, I had barely even touched my breakfast before the incident. My stomach rumbled loudly and I wondered if perhaps it might be night time yet so I would sneak to the kitchen, then Id run away, yes a much better plan than starving, I told herself.

I crawled out of the closet as best I could in the skirts I wore. All was quiet, it was about dinner hour so no one was in site. My stomach rumbled loudly and I had to use the girlies room -badly.

I raced down the hall and around the corner, only to scramble back the way I'd come. Uncle and Grandfather, and their Party Crowd of guards were standing in what could have been a crowded hall if you didn't know that every one of them -excluding my grandfather and Uncle were actually personal guards. I looked wildly around then dove into the closest room, praying it was free. I scanned the room but didn't see anybody, still my heart sank, it was the boardroom, which they were definitely making their way to right now.

"My you look just like her." I jumped and if not for a slithery icy hand over my mouth I would have given away my position. I turned to the stranger. Being pre-adult I didn't naturally think people were 'hot' or 'sexy' but this man was pleasent to look at. He was as tall as my uncle and had the same stark, chiseled look with the high cheek-bones and pointed girly-chin but his hair was midnight black and his eyes, not that pleasant blue but instead a vibrant yellow that reminded me of the saying 'bird of prey'. His complexion was porcalen and his lips, more of a slash than anything.

"Like who?" I asked, still mindful that I was avoiding the people about to enter this very room. His eyes looked behind me then back to mine, I turned and saw a portrait of my grandmother in her youth. I'd never met her, no one spoke of her but certainly she seemed at home in her white gown of lace, non clumsy and self-assured. The polar opposite of myself.

"She was a lady through and through, such a sad fate." I turned back to him, his face was unchanged, so much so I wondered how exactly he had spoken.
"How do you know of her? No one speaks of her, no one ever mentions her."
"I was there." I wondered what he was there for, when she died? I took in that he was an elf from his very presence, her birth perhaps? Wait wasn't she an elf to? The portrait was hard to tell.
"There for what?" I asked.
"Everything." He said. I tired of his riddles right then, and the urge to find that private room was getting more and more urgent.
"Why are you here?" I asked grudgingly, he was likely waiting for grandfather and uncle I knew but I was hoping he'd tell me to mind it and shoo me out of the room.
Instead he looked piercingly at me. "Why are you here?"
"I ticked off the lord of the house, her husband." I jerked a finger behind me at the portrait. "Now he wants to kill me for attacking him but it was an accident! He might even send me away for good." I mumbled the last part though he caught it just the same I was sure.
"Im here to speak to her husband and son's actually. So you won't have to worry about his beatings." He said calmly.
"He would never beat me, he's never even struck me before." I clarified.
"He seems a good man, I suspected he was, I did him a terrible wrong but Im going to make it right." He said
"He's not the forgiving type, I mean he forgives, but he also makes you feel so bad about what you've done." She said.

He laughed. "All the same, a forgiver or not, Im going to have to be killing him when he enters." The assassin (as I now began to understand him as) said. I blinked at him, why on Earth would he tell me that? It hit me quicker then my reflexes could hide it, he meant to kill me anyway.

He seemed to read my thoughts as he put both hands in front of him, in plain view to show they were empty. "Now girl you stay quiet and I won't have to, just get under the table." I dove under the table so fast I skinned my knees and scraped my back on the bottom of the tabletop. I squeezed my eyes against the painful burning but once I opened them, I wished I hadn't. A dead gaurd lay on his back, eyes wide open and dried out, it wasn't clear exactly how he was dead but he looked it. I saw the back room door open and the elf was on it in a single prance, there was a soft 'thud' and that was it, I ran out the front door, right into a gaurd so hard I fell back against the door, just managing to slam it shut.

"There you are! About this morning-" Said grandfather coming forward.
"Lets play a game!" I said cutting him off. "Lets tell a story where..." I faltered slightly, I swore I could hear the orcs breathing behind the door. "Lets say there is an orcish assassin in the room ready to kill you when you enter and for unknown reasons he seems to know your wife intimately well."

He paled, they all did, then he came forward and struck me across the face. Not hard by any means but for reasons unknown it hurt worse than anything I had ever had to endure before. Tears welled up in my eyes and without thinking I ran back through the door and right into the assassin. For a moment all was still, I could not stop myself from sobbing into the assassins' robes and he seemed stalk still. Aside from the sobs that refused to stop escaping me, my thoughts raced.

I thought of the assassin, why had he not struck me down yet? To the disappointed faces all around him, I told myself quickly that I did not care about the strike, and it was true I did not, what really hurt was that I had tried so hard not to disappoint anybody, I had really tried, or had I? I had been such a nuisance, I had tried -yes- but I could tell it was not enough.

I still couldn't sleep in my own bed, I was constantly jumpy and always beside grandfather, it was the only place I felt safe but what excuse is that? I vowed to redouble my efforts, triple them if necessary, do anything to lesson my strain. If it wasn't to late that is, my thoughts were interrupted by someone opening the door. Immediately soft robes turned into strong arms that spun me around and held me in place, facing the intrusion. It was Uncle, his mouth fell apart for barely an instant before a few words had guards rushing into the room.

I quickly wiped my face off with a handkerchief, it did not help hide that I had been crying though, I knew my eyes were probably red and whenever I cry my skin gets sensitive so my nose was probably even redder and the hand-print, probably very prominent, I wished I could melt into the floor and never return. I closed my eyes and pretended to be doing just that, why not, everyone else had something they were great at, why couldn't my ability be to melt into the earth and stay there?

"One step closer and the kid'll get it." The assassin said. He pressed a blade at my throat, he had probably been holding it to my throat all along, my eyes opened. It was then that I realized I was probably not going to have a chance at tripling my efforts, that I was probably going to be dead soon. Without thinking I tried to step forward but found I was held in place, I panicked, I didn't care if he did manage to cut me, the healers around here were better then any I'd ever seen, I just wanted to get to my grandfather, no matter what it cost. "Girl do you have a death wish?"

"Hold still!" My grandfather shouted, I hadn't even seen him enter but I obeyed without question, I took it as the first of my rejuvenated efforts. My every muscle screamed to struggle to kick chins -anything, just to get out and away but instead I held still.

"Now." Said the assassin. "Assuming you want the kid to live, you are going to do exactly what I say. First off, everyone but the lord of the house and his two sons out of the room, and I want both sons not just the one."