XXVIII. So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light/Cause oh it gave me such a fright/But I will hold as long as you like/Just promise me we'll be alright

A moment. Only a short, spare moment did Azog take before swinging his mace and killing the orc who'd stabbed him. And that was the action that set forth all that happened next. All of the orcs Lug had gathered over the Mountain swarmed toward Azog, their weapons raised high as they prepared to kill him only for the pale orc to hold out his mace and take them all out in one fell spin - and yet more came. As large as Azog was, as strong, as fueled by the rage of Calla being hurt as he was, the numbers were too great for him alone. If not for Yazneg, who had seen not only Azog leaving the tent but Lug leaving it before, whose quick action of leaping to his leader's side, Azog would have fallen. But Yazneg's charge had all of Azog's orc rallying to him - even those who had left Azog years before - and together they tore Lug's orcs apart.

All sadness, all shame and self loathing was gone from Calla as the noise of battle grew; shrieks and squeals, screams and groans, the clear sound of Azog roaring. The blonde woman cowered in the corner, flinching with every sound, looking up at Calla with large terrified eyes. Calla felt nothing for the woman, no hatred, no pity - and that was the worst kind of feeling for if Azog had given her a sword and told her to kill the slave she would have and not even her heart would have flinched. No, Calla felt nothing as she looked at the woman, it was the sound of Azog so loud over all the others that made her heart beat as she stepped toward the tent flap. It was a massacre; orcs lay dead all around the ground and others fell to join them. But her eyes found what she was looking for, the large pale shape in the center of it all, and the shorter dark scarred orc still hiding behind his numbers.

Azog could barely feel any pain, the crude sword still in his back, but his crazed eyes were trained on Lug who was waiting for Azog to come or be killed - and like the coward Azog had started to realize he was, Lug stayed behind his wall of orcs. That did not deter Azog, if anything it filled him with a brighter rage. It was not until Azog came closer, flinging orcs aside with his mace, his scorching eyes piercing him, did Lug move; and he launched himself threw his dwindling number of orcs and at Azog, his own sword raised high. No fair chance did Lug have against Azog, but Lug did not fight fair - again Azog was struck from behind, a roar tearing from his throat at the burning pain of a sword slicing along his back. He turned and slammed his mace on the head of the orc before turning back to Lug, and he roared again when he felt the sword in his side pulled out. In a blinding rage he turned prepared to kill again but stopped in utter shock at the sight of Calla, as all the other orcs were. There was only a small few of Lug's orcs left breathing, and they stood still with Azog's orcs aiming their weapons at them; they knew they were beat, and so they turned to their leader to find him staring at the woman.

In Calla's small hands she held the sword that had pierced Azog, she stared up at him determinedly and he smiled at her - a wide cruel grin before he lunged at Lug surprising him, and holding his arms behind his back. Lug struggled against Azog's hold, trying to pull his arms out of his grasp to no avail; Azog wouldn't have let him go for anything in the world, not when Calla stood before them holding a sword and a dark desire in her beautiful eyes. Lug sneered at Calla, knowing she was too human to kill him - as did the other orcs, even Yazneg for he knew her goodness. But Azog knew, having held her and felt the pain Lug had caused in each wracking sob - Lug had destroyed all ounce of kindness she may have felt toward him, all mercy. And so she stood before Lug with nothing but hatred on her lovely face, and a bloody sword in her hand.

"Did Azog tell you I killed a man for him?" she asked him, her soft quiet voice audible in the now still silence as they strained to hear her. Lug may have smiled at being right in her able to understand their tongue if not for her words. "He offered me freedom and I drove a sword through his heart," she told him with a small smile as though it pleased her, it did not but the small flash of fear in his eyes did. "I suppose Azog has not told you of our son?" she asked pleasantly, shocking Lug - for there it was for all the world to see, their love; it's proof being in not only an heir, but her still at Azog's side. "A pity he is still a child, he would hurt you more than I could. I suppose I will just have to do my best."

There were no conflicting morals, no battling between right and wrong, no humanity. Every orc's eye was on her as she pierced Lug with the sword, drawing it slowly in his chest so that he cried out in pain as she pushed it slowly into his jerking body, before it finally struck his heart and he was given peace in death.

Azog released his hold on Lug and let him fall in a heap to the ground, his eyes were on Calla's face as she stared up at him - a week before there would have been nothing but lust between them, a desire that burned so hot Calla would have pushed him to the ground and rode Azog in front of them all - something she had done before only once, much to the pleasure of the orcs as they watched her breasts jump from every thrust, at seeing the pleasure on her face, at hearing the pleasure in his growls and moans as she made him as weak as only she was able to. But on this day, staring into each other's eyes, they were tired; they missed laying together, not him taking her but laying wrapped in each other's arms as they slept, or even simply to be able to look at each other with warm eyes as they had been unable for weeks. And in all truth, Azog missed all this most.

He stepped to her, and holding her eyes he got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around her back as he laid his head over the swell of her warm breasts; his eyes closing when he felt her hands come around his head as she held him in return, breathing in tune with the rise and fall of her chest beneath his cheek. This was a baffling sight to all of Lug's orcs, to see an orc on his knees before a human - to see such caring between two such vastly different beings, and when one of them was a cruel pale giant that struck fear in their hearts. But Azog's orcs, the ones who had known Calla from the day Azog had found her, looked on with nothing more than morbid curiosity as they always did; seeing her unclothed was most uncommon, for she normally would not let Azog strip her when they laid beneath the stars, and seeing such tender caring was even more uncommon. But all of the orcs saw it for what it was, some realizing it then for the first time - a king only ever bowed before his queen.

He would have been content to stay that way for a long while more, but there were matters to take care of and so he reluctantly released her and got to his feet. All eyes were on him, his orcs watching him expectantly, and Lug's in anticipatory fear. There were but seven left of the orcs Azog did not know, and it was them he did not want. But instead of giving the order he looked down at Calla.

She stared up at him seeing he was waiting, and a small smile curled on her lips. "Kill them," she ordered, never taking her eyes from his as she was obeyed. Azog's orcs had moved without hesitation and killed the orcs from over the Mountains; leaving Azog's former orcs amazed, for now it was even more apparent that Calla was no mere human among them.

It was proven all the more when Azog smiled down at her touching her cheek before looking out to them all, seeing his numbers were now larger - though he did not trust them all. "Should any of you not wish to stay leave now," Azog said deeply. "There will be no more fighting. Any and all who do will be killed immediately." He breathed as he waited, feeling the sharp pain in his side from the sword, and pride swelled in him when no orc even hestitated in consideration; they were his. He looked over his shoulder to see Calla still behind him as she waited for him, and he turned back to the orcs to see a spare few eyeing her. "Is there any who wish to lie with her?" he asked suddenly, surprising almost all of them. Azog reached behind him and pulled her in front of him so they could see her, her soft bare body warm and enticing in the sunlight. He looked down to see her gazing up at him wonderingly, but not in fear, and he smiled slightly. "None of you?" Azog asked, his tone sounding offended. "Do not be shy, I will share her with you gladly. As a token for returning to my side," he told them pleasantly, his hand coming up and stroking one of her breasts as he waited to be answered.

Not many of Azog's former orcs trusted it, not only because they had known him but also because they had seen how he had held the woman on his knees - as though she were the very air he breathed. And so though they did wish to lay with her, they did not dare. But there were a few, a small few with dark greedy hearts who stepped forward hungrily. Azog smiled at them, what should have been their first warning, before he grabbed a sword and impaled an orc making him shriek as Azog flung him away from him. "Would you like to?" he asked, his voice gentler only slightly as he looked down at Calla.

She smiled before rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "I do not wish to get my hands dirty," she told him making him chuckle.

And so Azog held his hand out to Yazneg and took his dagger before cutting the cocks off the last three orcs leaving them moaning softly unable to make sounds beneath the weight of their pain as they bled out. "Know it now," Azog roared. "She is mine, and you all will obey her." His eyes were fierce and his face hard and terrifying, and the former orcs knew then to never touch her. Azog looked down at the dying orcs, seeing them curled up as they tried to cradle their blood and keep it from leaving them, and a thought came to him - one that had been plaguing him for days. "Bring me the slave."

Calla looked upon the blonde woman who was now crying again, on her knees as Azog stood over her. "What shall we do with her?" he asked looking to Calla. "Would you like to kill her?"

"Death would be a mercy for her," Calla said staring at her, not a single ounce of humanity or goodness in her as she looked upon the woman who had been the cause of her pain.

Azog smirked pleased she thought so, for he wanted the woman to suffer - knowing it was she who had told Lug of his caring for Calla, knowing it was she who allowed Lug to hurt her. In all honesty he wanted to tear her apart, slowly, agonizingly. "We could skin her?" Azog offered making the woman whimper at the thought, for she would spend several long minutes, possibly hours, in a horrible pain that would never seem to end.

"No," Calla said and Azog looked to her waiting for what she wanted - planning to give her anything so long it was not showing the woman kindness. But the wheels were turning in Calla's head, thoughts that sprung from Azog's darkness and the years she had spent witnessing it. The corners of her mouth curled when she came to the answer, of what would hurt the woman most. "Every woman in this camp is to be released," Calla told them all, knowing Azog was letting her decide. "Your only source of pleasure will be from this slave."

Azog smiled as he moved to stand behind Calla, his hands on her waist as she continued, never loving her more than in that moment.

"And you may all have her," she said to the delight of the orcs and the horror of the woman. "But," she said loudly silencing their chittering, "you must bring her to a release before you take her, each and every one of you." Had Calla been an orc she would have smiled cruelly at the woman, but Calla was not an orc and so she hardly paid her any mind. "Yazneg," she said gentler, looking upon her friend with kind eyes and a warm smile, "would you like to show them?"

Yazneg nearly grinned happily as he voraciously agreed, pushing the woman roughly on her back and moving his mouth between her legs - doing what he had seen Azog do to Calla a number of times. And what the woman learned, having seen Lug holding Calla as he brought her to a release, was that not wanting to be aroused meant nothing when her body recognized that it was a wondrous feeling; one she had never felt before. And with tears pouring out of her eyes she came moaning, a strange sound in her tongueless mouth, her legs twitching as her hips bucked. And then when Yazneg took her she came again, much to her shame and humiliation - feeling exactly what Calla had felt, only when Yazneg moved another orc took his place and forced her to another release.

But Calla had looked up at Azog, her eyes softer and not so dark, her warmth and gentleness returned and he led her back to the tent. "Would you like me to,"

"No,"she said immediately, cutting him off; and in all honesty his desire for her was small in that moment, and he wondered what would happen to hers now, if it would fade away or slowly return to her as her wounds healed.

He looked down at her, seeing her watching him and knowing she was looking for any sign he wanted to lay with her - knowing she would lay with him should he want to. "What do you want?" he asked, leaving it up to her once more.

She sighed, relief flooding through her eyes as her feelings began to swirl around her no longer pushed aside. Her answer was simple, and in all truth it was all he wanted as well. "I want you to hold me." And so he did.

song is Ghosts That We Knew by Mumford and Sons

PS: it was a pretty mean cliff hanger. But I guess you know now what happened with Lug and his orcs.