Hello dear readers, I am so excited to publish this chapter, as its has been a long time and also happens to be the LAST one of this story! :) It's the first of my stories I have concluded and it is a happy but also a bit nostalgic moment! I do think it's a very fitting ending! Let me know what do you think! So happy you stuck with me through all! *hugs*
Chapter Eleven
'Within'
'That's my Heart' by Lindemann
The orbs that glowed violet focused... He simply stared studying her features. The layered furs cushioned her body as she lay there motionless, overcome with exhaustion that far surpassed anything he had ever experienced in his long life... She appeared so frail... The eyes narrowed, he watched her twitch and sit up, the first thing she did was to cradled her stomach with both of her thin arms, hugging it protectively. The woman darted her stare around and realizing she was alone once more hung her head...
The she stood deliberately, painfully as if weighed down by more then just a large mound of her midsection... The world... It's as if the weight of it made home on her shoulders.
The creature stepped away from the altar. His slender form as if floated across the space. He glanced over his shoulder making sure he was unaccompanied. As if emotions changed the shade his eyes grew darker in color...
She still loved...
The feeling stood... Through the void, the unimaginable hurt she was hauled through, both emotional and physical she still wanted the little creature that grew inside her, fathered by the one who caused her pain...
That tiny being was what made her happy through the grey days of her existence.
The most surprising was that by the forces unknown even to him she appeared in his world... He'll never forget the moment he discovered it...
The male's fingers clenched and straightened as he paced yet even that nervous gesture was elegant coming from the being of his stature. As he mused it hit him unexpectedly putting an abrupt halt to his steps. The gesture they first saw as simply animalistic wasn't only to signify claim... It was a symbol of what was there to begin with, it was there wrapped in love that so relentlessly occupied her heart, his heart... Even though he did not recall her... The bite is a symbol the blood is the bond... There is no one else like her... Two worlds were brought closer together by the power of what they experienced towards each other... And his experiment had started it all... A cruel thing that brought so much hurt in the end of it... They could feel after all, the barbaric creatures, the descendants of the dark lord's foul doing... They had minds and hearts of their own... And he thought the Orc would simply kill her... Suddenly he swayed forth, the rough scabrous stone met his palms as they began to quiver, what if the existence of her gave birth to the seed of this idea he had to test if anyone could love that brute Orc... What if that was because of her? Her, and the strength of whatever that bond was... Was that really supposed to happen? If to believe there is a mate for each soul then was hers placed in that foreign world as a blunder? This musing unsettled the spirit, a shudder down his back was quickly suppressed. Simply a human...
A small, new and much more pleasant thought brought an exhale, he wanted to meet the child. What they did to the procreator was irreversible. He was supposed to perish... They did not place an ounce of care... He didn't then...
His eyes returned to the altar and now something else brought the corners of his lips to twitch up... Was there hope after all?
x x x
Alina sat up compressing her palm to the lower back, her arms immediately landed to cradle the stomach... He was still there, the exhale hitched. They did not take him away. Yet the gnawing feeling in her chest still lived. She gazed to the empty side of the bed, the eyes dropped to the twisted fingers. He always left before she woke...
That day was like a dream... She regained the consciousness abruptly and was washed over by that throbbing ache that brought the waves of warmth to take her body. The claim stood, he asserted it... Now his in this world. No one would dare touch her yet he still was different, as if something hindered him... Did he not believe still..? The woman hung her head...
...When the golden disk peaked from beyond the snowy crags the Pale Orc was already awake watching the fiery beams creep up the stone tiles. They landed onto her tresses, always so scattered as she slept uneasily. What went on inside that pathetic organ in his chest... Everything, the heart, the mind plunged into the euphoric trance when that blood touched his tongue... As if he did not need convincing. But he did... The rational side stood behind like a dark shadow. He did not recall a speck of what she had retold...
His teeth fit so perfectly onto the wound already on her shoulder...
Azog leaned forth above the female. Her breathing still deep and rhythmic... And his heavy one blew a few strands off her cheeks. The right palm cupped the bottom of her stomach, he held it there a while...
x x x
Her simple dark leather shoes stepped across the scuffed parquet very slowly. Hylda entered the apartment. Everything just like the girl left it... The air onerous and stale she struggled with the pre-war frame to finally fling it ajar. The woman settled onto the windowsill taking a longer look around the small space. The scattered clothing, the disturbed bed sheets, a pillow that still had the impression of the head... Her exhale hitched a tad. She couldn't bring herself to touch any of the items even when so long had passed... Couldn't let herself to get rid of it all... Alia's things still held her scent...
"Bolvagazlat!" She hissed under her breath staring into space but as if at someone. "Bolvagazlat..."
Somehow speaking those words had suddenly made her feel as if the floor did not exist beneath her feet... The landlady felt incredibly dizzy...
x x x
She had fallen asleep yet again. Her current size prevented her from venturing out with Djor too often or helping with things. This time someone's presence got her six sense poking at the sensors in her brain. She felt a pang in her chest, the shortness of breath... Then it came, the sickening feeling in her stomach that caused the cold sweat to begin to drip the back of her neck. Alia sat up abruptly yet that speed of the movement obscured her vision letting the dizziness ascend.
She felt the movement of air... The woman shook her head briefly.
"No!" A sudden and almost involuntary sound left her lips. "No!" She reiterated louder, a violent tremble took over her limbs, she tried, so hard to halt the tears...
"You will not... You will not take him..." Alia steeled her expression.
The semi-transparent creature remained motionless then more of it's features became visible gradually. It stared as the female straightened painfully. She looked so thin despite the protrusion in her abdomen - that child... The mix-blood creation that peaked his curiosity...
His lips parted but all he managed to begin with was to simply shake his head to perhaps ease her unrest.
"I..." Somehow her sickening hate filled glower robbed him of the gift of speech. She was no one... Only a human... Yet...
"I simply want to ask... A favor..." The gaze dropped and Alina stood dumbfounded.
"A favor..." She blinked hard and gave her head a shake as if making sure she had heard him right. "You dare..."
He watched her palms become fists.
"To have a chance to meet him when he comes..." The creature let out warmly.
She was taken aback... Yet somehow she couldn't shake the cold creeping up her back, vertebrae by vertebrae...
He could have simply showed up and taken him yet here that fucker is asking nicely... The inner self nudged perplexed.
She measured the now fully visible figure with a glare as stern as she could make it yet the tweak in the abdomen forced her to double, a muffled gasp left her lips, Alia exhaled and straightened painfully.
Something odd was in those strange eyes...
Creepy isn't he..? The voice shuddered.
"What's in it for me?" She crossed her arms. "Are you going to give him his memory back for a chance to meet... Our child?" She huffed.
The next look in his eyes unsettled her even more. He really spoke with those otherworldly orbs as if the thoughts floated upwards, slowly poking at her frontal lobe.
Where is Azog and his temper when we need him..?
Fruitless to reason or bargain for that matter with the creature from this strange realm... Tell that to her, the human from another world with the determination to move mountains...
Alia ground her jaws, he couldn't give her what she wanted yet perhaps there was something she could ask for...
x x x
The spacious chamber was illuminated by a few torches as the lights outside had almost faded completely. A female rested on a pile of fur throws, two children sat before her entranced yet again by the story they've heard so many times. The boy and the girl were Orclings, siblings as well, their features spoke of it unmistakably. The woman clothed in a leather tunic and the fur decorated capelet had her legs crossed and tucked beneath her, it only when she leaned back to get a strain off her back you could see that she was with child.
"Wait!" A voice called out from the hallway. "I want to hear it too..." Another child burst into the chamber. Turning the corner he tripped on a pelt and tumbled straight into his mother's lap. The four year old frowned slightly disoriented but the chuckles of his two siblings brought a smile to his features.
"You've heard it the most my Gadhâl!" She trapped him in an embrace and after a few escape attempts the boy gave in to snuggle incursion. The mother took off his overcoat and dusted off the crusted snow and ice, the other little ones shivered and squealed.
When her oldest settled next to his siblings she narrowed her eyes examining his new haircut. The chestnut brown locks were shaved at and above his temples the rest braided and gathered at the back. She nodded in approval to see the boy's eyes shine. He was growing up so fast...
"Start from the beginning Ma..." He nudged gently, patting her growing stomach.
"It was a very dark night, not a single star visible... But in that place they rarely come out..." She commenced and the little ones' eyes rounded, for they couldn't imagine a place where the sky isn't dotted in numerous constellations every single night, where the air isn't fresh, the environment free... "...And that's when I heard it..." The mother was interrupted by the heavy footsteps resounding the antechamber. The oldest smiled, the youngest ones darted forth and the woman's eyes came to light as she gazed up at the father of her children. He lifted her onto his lap as if she was nothing but a tiny child herself, removed her hood burying his face into her tresses, the right arm cradled her stomach. Her body heat began to spread through his, warding off the chills of the outside, not that he was ever affected by the weather of his homeland.
"The sto-wy... Ma..!" Her little daughter was pouting in her adorable impatience. And the mother extended her arms forward rounding her lips as if to blow a kiss. The girl jumped into her lap immediately snuggling against the rounded belly.
"...I've heard a thunder in the darkness... And I ventured there for my life to be changed forever..."
The light grey lips tickled her neck, she leaned into her mate's chest.
x x x
'Feel like falling' by Digital Daggers
The visit of the creature unsettled her yet it also served as a premonition... The coldest evening winds whistled against the windows in his chamber, she stood to gather a pelt that slid off only for her legs to falter, the debilitating pain drove through her abdomen crippling her like a lightning would a dying tree. She clenched her teeth biting back the tears, the screams flew far down the halls...
"Mistress..." Even Lûr's grey skin now was as pale as a sheet... The caretaker stood dumbfounded for a moment then took off down the steps. Djor flew in a few minutes later accompanied by another female. She pulled up Alia's tunic pressing her ear to the belly, the darkness in her eyes had vanished yet... She gazed up the human's thighs...
"It's time..." The Orcess breathed out.
She barely registered the outlines of the boulders in the hallways, the sentries in the torch illuminated darkness... The body floated through the thick air aided by the healer and her comrade... The lips parted, fingers clutched hard at Djor's shirt...
"A..." Why did she feel so weak..? "Azog..?"
Djor bit her lip nodding silently to the Snaga.
And then the faintness has passed and the agony had made its return to swallow her whole. Everything was happening so fast her mind had hard time keeping up with the pace.
The slow and painful trudge ended at a spacious but darkened chamber, she was laid down and a much older Orcess spread her legs apart sans any invitations.
The numbness disguised as goosebumps spread up her thighs. Worst pain in her life... A thousand fold... A thousand fold worse than getting slashed by the Elven sword... She wanted to scream but the voice wouldn't comply. The eyes returned to Djor asking, pleading... But the Orcess dropped her stare. Lûr pealed the news all over the stronghold yet he was nowhere to be found...
Is he even here? The inner self let out through the clenched teeth. Went off riding again like a fool he is! It hissed in agony.
Why can't he just come... The voice switched a tune sniffling as the shuddering pain numbed making her feel more and more as in out of body experience.
She'll take the pain - it's not hers... The disappointment, the heartbreak... Not hers... She can manage, can live through it all...
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!' Alia collapsed onto the furs writhing in torment.
Why can't he just come... The tears have won escaping the defeated eyes, the raven-haired Orcess squeezed her hand. And to aid herself the mind floated into another place, he came, knew her, he loved her... Stayed...
Held her... Yet another gut wrenching shriek iterated the passageways.
"The head's nearly out!" The birther grinned.
Alina pulled herself onto the elbows, her chest heaving up and down she focused her vision. She wanted to see him when he comes, the boy Djor promised...
The eyes glew in the dark, only disappearing when their owner blinked. There were many males that boasted the height yet the color was unmistakable. Her insides went cold yet the heart reacted before mind could forcing her arms to stretch forth towards him. A sharp twinge had interrupted bringing the shrieks and gasps to tear her chest.
He moved closer and closer as her scent but also not hers, something different began to fill his nostrils. That tiny thing that just fell into the birther's hands and now lay on the chest of the human female...
His female...
It squirmed and writhed and finally with the breast in his grasp settled quietly. Sharlob's long hair had stuck to her forehead and cheeks, the torch lights set them afire... How she looked at that child... Azog blinked hard. His eyes fell onto the newborn.
His to be sure...
He inched closer...
Almost startled she looked up to see him so near, the salty water pervaded her eyes yet she smiled extending the baby upwards.
He complied...
Parted with the source of food the eyes alike his own stared back almost to reach his soul. Azog rested down next to the human... His gaze returned to her almost puzzled... She smiled at the baby leaning forward and he closed his eyes with an inhale catching a waft of air. The little life in his arms a gift from her, the one who's been here all this time...
Been here all along...
Why did his head feel so heavy... He shifted and she looked up, he met those eyes in such a long time... He saw uncertainty, a pang of fear but also love, if that feeling could become light it radiated off her irises, it was directed at him disregarding how he treated her for so long.
A shiver ascended his back. As if out of nowhere the features he thought to come have known at the frozen falls went further into the existence. He saw her crying, sleeping in his arms... Smiling and blushing... Then writhing underneath him in pleasure as he marked her for the first time on that sandy shore... He lost her that day without knowing it...
Had her all this time...
The arm placed the baby back into her embrace the large male squinted feeling the salty drops sting on approach...
How he treated her...
What he did...
The arm wrapped around her frame to clutch the small body tighter, his own now besieged by a shiver. The fingers trembled attempting to draw the hair off her face...
Was her mind still attempting to aid her... Conjuring the pleasant illusions in order to shove this pain further into her chest until it gets locked in the most remote corner of that useless blood-pumping organ? This pain that reigned over her chest like a despot, squeezing her dry...The sob tremors forced Alia to shiver violently. She couldn't look up, couldn't produce even a whimper ... The fingers numbened clutching the leather dress.
The midwife had suddenly gasped, her body thumped the ground with the dull, muffled sound. A throaty growl was heard coming from Djor's chest... The grasp of Azog's arm had tightened around his female he joined in the Orcess baring his teeth in a threatening snarl.
There were two creatures this time... Again as that ominous day.
It's when you're happiest they show up to bring clouds as if ruining your day is their sole responsibility...
Her heart was flooded with love yet that also brought the feral strength to her instincts. Alina stood up clutching Azog's forearm. Her eyes, as calm as she could make them, directed at the creature whose features she knew a bit more.
They stayed silent... Watching... Until the Orc male stepped forward shielding his mate and the newborn behind his massive frame. As if that gesture could stop the floating beings from taking her back to her world...
They were speechless... Even the one who loathed the sole word 'an Orc', the one who was ready to disintegrate into the ground at the mere thought of the creatures being able to procreate... They witnessed something before them... Another side to this tale caused yet again by their experiment...
But nevertheless... Should they now leave them be, should they forget anything had transpired and allow the human to remain. Returning her to her own world would be wise... Smart...
...Just?
But then what about the child... This child... This fused creation who to him was just as out of this world as she once was...
She felt a pull to her body as if a rush of air had suddenly pushed her forth. Alia steadied herself on her feet feeling as if she was now nothing but a feather lifted off the ground by the almighty winds.
"No..." The wiry arms squeezed the infant. Her mind fogged paralyzed by the realization what their intentions were once again...
Why..? The lips contorted...
The human jolted as a powerful grip of an arm snaked her midsection. He held on tight, pressing his face into her shoulder... As if the weight of his body could prevent her from being taken. Azog stared at his child and for that one moment it appeared to him as if he was fading from view... Never to have existed... And so was she...
No... Not again... Yet the comprehension clasped his heart it it's cold, sobering grasp... Two large drops leaked out of the sky-blue clearing the trails onto the relief of his skin...
"I will find you..." The scabrous palm cupped the wet cheek and the brown eyes gazed up with the realization of her own. He nodded with a heavy blink then watched her dissolve in his arms...
She cried... And he nothing but held her...
"Gadhâlaz..." The Orc pressed his forehead to hers. "I promise..."
Just this moment they had that was all...
The baby shifted sniffling quietly...
The violet eyes looked down to his brother who wished to rid this place of her existence just to clean up their act... The glare burned through his sibling telling his side of the story.
She belonged here... She did. He would do this for her even to go against his kin. The maia's lips parted watching the young mother rise, she clung to her mate for strength yet there were so much perseverance in her... He wished the eyes did not radiate the blood curdling hatred... Yet he knew nothing he can say would make her ever...
"I... Keep the promise." The being had finally let out with the small nod as the light in his eyes faded to silver. But that gesture was only to loose her glower.
"And I was just wishing I knew how to kill the likes of you." The cheekbones rolled under her skin. She looked the part, the woman of the ruler, even in that feeble state. Even if the moist cheeks spoke of the recent tears of heartbreak...
He looked up with his lips formed into something of a bitter smile. The luminous orbs gained warmth as they travelled to the little bundle against her chest. The fingers unclasped unsurely as he stretched forth...
"She is on the outskirts... Of the fortress..." He whispered quietly. "I do keep my promises..."
x x x
He was on his knees that dark night disregarding the presence of others. Even though the Orcesses had receded quietly into the shadows. The face pressed tightly against her shirt he held her body close in the embrace that was never to break. Alia's gaze fell onto the torch lights dancing on the marble-like skin. The palms inched slowly to brush the back of his neck, the cheek, to delineate the points of his ears. Carefully she knelt, still in the hold of those massive limbs she craned her neck to capture his gaze yet the Orc avoided looking at her.
"Azog..." Alina clasped his cheeks.
Before she witnessed the extent, the gut-wrenching guilt radiating the darkened orbs she tipped pressing her lips onto his neck, then closing her eyes the lips landed onto his. She felt a tiny quiver, a jolt alike an electric shock. This time he looked. Guilt, heartbreak, relief and hope... The bluest depths asked how can she still... How can she still love him? Why did she love him to begin with?
The thin fingers brushed the chestnut locks away then stroke gently over the pink scar incisions left by his teeth twice... This was much more than just a wound... A promise, an oath, the mark of perseverance no matter the circumstance... His exhale quivered as the small body once again drowned in his arms...
Alia spun brought out her thoughts, sensing the presence in their chamber, the tunic in her arms half way up her thighs. He stood there quietly, marveling. The woman dropped the cloth, standing fully unclothed as he trailed the setting sunbeams wrapping her body. The slender abdomen expanded forward, the body once again claimed by his child. A shy smile tugged at the human's lips as she stepped towards the Orc.
"They are with Hylda and Bolg..." She whispered before the words left his lips. "We are all alone..."
His darkening gaze gestured towards the bed.
x x x
"...I've heard a thunder in the darkness... And I ventured there for my life to be changed forever..."
The young mother continued as the light grey lips tickled her neck, she leaned into her mate's chest. Azog had unearthed a tiny wooden brush beginning to slide it through Alia's locks, he paused from time to time to inhale her scent.
Black Speech:
Bolvagazlat - I curse you
Gadhâl - A Promise
Gadhâlaz - I promise