***** Author's Note *****

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Be advised: This chapter contains content that may be distressing for some. Read at your own discretion with the tags/rating of this story in mind. If you do not want to read such content, a summary of important plot details is available at the end of the chapter.

46

Night slowly crept closer across the wilds, threatening to plunge the cliff and cave into darkness. As time wore on, Alaesia's gut began to ache. She might have been grateful that it wasn't the same type of feeling that preceded the episodic bleeding, but rather it was hunger. She thought hard to distract herself, counting how long it had been since she had last eaten. She knew if she let her mind wander, she would be brought back to the memories of being consumed from the inside out.

The first day after escaping Ar-Tashk, I lost my supplies when the orcs caught me. It was hard to not glower at the orc laying on the cave floor.

Then that other group of slavers showed up right afterwards. The thought of Barbaurak's and Zathra's attempt to enslave her being thwarted was almost comical enough to make her snort. Almost.

Then that uruk with the warg rode through the night to get back to the ship by sunset. That makes two days. I guess there was that orc... That forced me to drink...

But she shook herself before the thoughts could evoke her more vicious memories. That was two days... Then... Ah, right, we escaped into the river in the middle of the night, so when I woke up at dawn... Was that only the third day? She couldn't help but wonder, the calculations turning fuzzy in her mind. How long it had taken Zathra to drag her and Barbaurak to safety from the riverside and to when she had finally woken up, it could have been a whole day til the next dawn for all she knew. That makes three or four days since I escaped.

She paused, mind briefly flickering to her then-fellow captives. In brief few days, she had been with Zathra and Barbaurak, neither of them had so much as a morsel of food nor drop to drink either. Though she didn't want to acknowledge it, the thought dawned upon her that perhaps the reason orcs were so willing to rip and tear into anything that moved was because of the harsh lives in which they lived; after all, if one wasn't guaranteed their next meal, they'd take whatever they could whenever they could. She knew all too well how starvation could drive one to do mad things, like... Seeking an olog's mercy to survive.

"What's wrong with yer face?" A rasping voice cut across the cave, interrupting Alaesia's thoughts. Barbaurak had regained consciousness and was leering at her through the growing shadows of sunset. Even seriously injured, he was a formidable, frightening figure, made more terrifying by the fact that she knew he could see her easily through the dimming light when she struggled to make out finer details.

"M-my face...?" Alaesia lifted a hand to her cheek as a bead of liquid rolled to her fingertips.

"Yeah, stupid sharlob, yer tears stink. Quit weeping' all over the place," he growled, low and menacing.

She glared back, "I-I should have l-let the wargs h-have you."

"I-I-I," he hissed mockingly, hiding a grimace between his teeth as he tried to shift his weight. His limbs were heavy as lead, making it impossible to punish the snaga for her insubordination. "Yeah, you should have... Or were you planning ta eat me when I was bled out?"

The woman's eyes widened in disgust, "No! I s-saved your l-life, y-you ingrate!"

"I can hear your gut snarlin' from here. A smart tark would realize orc meat is better than starvin' death." He watched with amusement as the sharlob tried to work that one out in her stupid head. "B'sides, I'm sure Snake-tongue just has you doing his dirty work, lazy pugh... He could at least stop the bleeding so I wouldn't have ta lose my leg."

"Z-Zathra's not h-here," she uttered as she too realized that her only advocate was missing. That realization gripped her heart like ice. If Barbaurak regained any of his capacity to move, she would be powerless against his brute strength. If Alaesia had been able to see better in the dark, she might have seen the ever so slight shift in Barbaurak's expression that hinted at alarm.

"Not here?!" the orc's voice shifted to that of an angered commanding officer, "Snake-Tongue the deserter, that coward... I'll rip out his entrails." It didn't take long for Barbaurak to sink back to the floor, his head starting to spin. The threats hung tense in the air, but the orc fell silent. He looked over his leg with a critical eye. The whole thing was flayed by long gouges from the back of his thigh to his heel, but at least the scent of his own blood wasn't fresh. The makeshift tourniquet cinched at his pressure point was rather well constructed, even if it was horribly painful. In all honesty, it surprised him that the tark had done it at all. No doubt Zathra's mind games were influencing her to defend her captors, even against her will. He was useful for that at least.

In the dim light, Alaesia couldn't tell if Barbaurak had passed out again or not. His breathing was long and labored as if perhaps he was unconscious once more. She gingerly clambered to her own, sore feet, chains shifting and clattering. The noise seemed to spur the wargs below who had gotten bored enough to take a nap, and they started chattering once more. If the orc was finally getting to his death rattle, she figured she might as well confirm it. But as she made her way across the cave, his rasping voice uttered a low warning, like a wounded animal.

"Shouldn'ta let me live, sharlob," she saw the flash of his eyes as the faint moonlight was creeping through the clouds on the distant horizon. "You had yer chance. Not gonna let you off me now."

Alaesia had frozen in place, not just for fear of the orc, but also contemplating if she had been considering exacting judgement upon him. Her voice was small when she did finally respond, "I-if I were going t-to kill you, I w-wouldn't have saved y-you in the f-first place."

"Spare me the pity of simpering mannish females," he scowled, every inch of him bristling, waiting for her to get within reach.

Through his curt, ill-mannered threats, Alaesia was starting to see the bravado was an act. In reality, Barbaurak was within an inch of death, stuck in a cave with death waiting below, completely at her mercy, and he barely had the strength to speak. He was just a wounded, albeit foul-tempered, beast trying to fool her into thinking he was a bigger threat than he actually was. The idea of holding such power over another was enough to make her sick. She hesitantly moved forward, trying to resolve herself that his barking was only that. His behavior reminded her of exactly how Ar-Tashk had been defensive of his own injured arm.

She kept her voice soft, hoping to not trigger him into lashing out, "I... I j-just want to ch-check the tie on y-your leg."

"I'll give Snake-Tongue this, 'e sure knows how to make you idiots forget yer survival instincts," he muttered, contemplating if he should let her get close; his whole body resisted the idea, but he didn't have the strength to stop her, even if he wanted to. Rather than reveal how weak he truly was, it'd be easier just to let her, so he maintained control of the situation. He spat his answer at her with as much venom as he could muster, "Fine."

As she knelt beside him, he snatched her wrist, drawing her close, "Pull anything funny, tark, an' I'll throw you off this cliff without a second thought!" He reveled in her fright as she tried to pull her back from his grasp.

"I-I won't!" Alaesia's heart pounded, feeling his claws threatening to puncture her skin, and her head swam with vertigo looking out of the cavemouth at the dark void below.

He threw her wrist aside, finally allowing her to check the tourniquet. The sun had dropped below the horizon opposite the moon; its waning light wouldn't last for long, and she was already struggling to see. But perhaps working in half-blindness was better. Adrenaline had made it simple to initially tie the tourniquet in place, but now, she realized just how invasively intimate the life-saving measure was.

Barbaurak watched the woman, bemused as she averted her eyes, even in the evening darkness, as she tried to verify the fabric was still tight enough on his flesh with just her fingertips. "Ah, quit being squeamish. Not like you haven't seen it all before, bein' a breeder."

The woman tensed, a sure sign Barbaurak had found a sensitive topic. He continued with cruel disregard for her discomfort, "Snake-Tongue says yer last master was an olog. I hear they're like a spike, all pointy at the tip an' long as a serpent. Bet yer glad you escaped. He coulda split you in half an' worn yer entrails like a codpiece! Huh... Now that I think abou' it, I guess that's prolly why they don't let ologs in the pits. If I were a masochist I might ask ya how I match up, but I don't need that blow ta my ego."

He let out a cold humorless chuckle as she stayed silent, whether out of fear or subservience, he couldn't exactly tell, "So 'ow many of my kind have had their fun with ya anyways? That orc's blood brother, an' the olog, who else? Gotta be at least a dozen others? A legion? Must be a good lay ta be that scarred up. What would ya say at givin' me a ride ta show me what ya've go- BLEEDING SONUVA SHRAKH-EATING GRAUG!"

Baurbaurak's voice shot to the next octave as Alaesia bore her weight down upon the rod in the tourniquet, pinching the sensitive area even tighter before swiftly lashing it in place once more and retreating from the orc's reach before he regained his senses. She could hear him cursing behind her, still too weak to come after her for the affront, though she still thought he should be grateful she was treating him at all. He was disgusting, his words had made her skin crawl and she tried desperately to not think of the answers to his questions. She curled into the back of the cave, as far from Barbaurak as she could get, trying to get lost in better memories; but no such memories were to be called.

"Alae, grab a stick quickly!" Alaesia's mother, Anorae murmured with a strangely calm urgency, as if she was trying to not panic her young adult daughter. They had been at a small waterfall pool to wash up, when Anorae had made a fatal mistake. The rocks around the pool were generally smooth with moss and slick with algae, but a recent rockslide had split several boulders into great big shards, with edges like blades. The combination of slippery and sharp rocks was a hazard, but Anorae had underestimated one wrong move and lost her footing on a rock. It cut her leg, from ankle to knee in the blink of an eye, staining the flowing waters red.

Much of what happened next was a blur to Alaesia. She remembered doing precisely as her mother ordered, not entirely sure why, but Anorae had explained with a deceptively reassuring voice, "Now twist, as hard as you can, sweet. It's alright if I scream. It can't be even the slightest bit loose."

"I can't do this!" Alaesia held the stick between her hands, ready to turn and tighten the binding around her mother's leg, but she was frozen in horror as Anorae was beginning to turn pale before her eyes.

Anorae stroked her daughter's cheek, brushing away the tears from Alaesia's freckles, "Alae, you have to do this, there's no one else to help us now. Please!" Alaesia did as she was bid, choking back sobs as her mother stifled her own pain as the tourniquet was locked into the muscle of her leg. Finally, when her mother placed her whitened hands on Alaesia's, the younger woman stopped twisting. "That's enough, Alae sweet. You did well."

Alaesia grabbed her mother in an embrace, unable to stop her own weeping, "I'm sorry! This is all my fault! We wouldn't be on our own like this... if I hadn't... I never meant to pick a fight with him. I'm so, so sorry, mum."

Anorae held Alaesia at arm's length, meeting her reddened eyes, "Alaesia, you listen to me. Norien loved you. He would have sacrificed himself a hundred times over to keep you safe. It's not your fault. The ONLY ones to blame are the monsters that took him from us."

"You... you don't blame me?" Her daughter's face distorted in anguish and longing.

Realization of the source of Alaesia's pain, the guilt she held struck Anorae like a hammer to the chest. "Oh, no... Alae, I would never blame you. I promise. I love you just as much as your father did." Anorae seemed keenly aware of how much blood she had lost from her wound, and how all of it was flowing downstream. She took the time to comfort Alaesia, before lifting her chin to look at her with a soft smile, "You're a beautiful young lady now and I am so proud of you."

"I love you too, mum..." Alaesia squeaked, wiping at her cheeks and sniffling.

Anorae stroked Alaesia's hair, "You head home, start dinner. I need to take a minute to catch my breath." When her daughter looked at her incredulously, Anorae batted her shoulders lightly with the back of her hand, "Go on, I won't be too long." Her daughter protested, trying to get Anorae to follow, offering to help her walk back, but the older woman insisted. When Alaesia finally gave in to her stubborn mother's wishes, she hurried back to their cave, not knowing it was the last time she would see her.

***** Summary To Skip Abusive Sequence *****

While Zathra is away, Alaesia tends to Barbaurak's wounds as he is too hurt to do anything himself. Barbaurak concludes that she must be under Zathra's mind control. Upon some self reflection, Alaesia realizes she ISN'T under Zathra's influence, and that she is willingly choosing to help an orc. Barbaurak refuses to believe her and taunts her about her past, making lewd jokes, even soliciting her for himself. Alaesia shuts him up by using the tourniquet on his leg to pinch a sensitive area. She moves away, trying to reflect on her memories of learning to tie a tourniquet from her mother just before her mother's disappearance.

***** Author's Note *****

I kind of picture that orcs and the like have a tapetum lucidum, which enhances their night vision, whereas some even have a bioluminescent quality to them (probably due to a hint of magic in them). In combination, it can make for some pretty frightening looks. Vezhir was one who had both, whereas Barbaurak only has the tapetum lucidum, hence his only flashing when the moonlight reflected just right.

***** Translations *****

Sharlob - Human (female)

Snaga - Slave

Tark - Human

Shrahk - Shit