Mermaids are Menacing (Book 2) Complete

53.) Monsters in Town

I told Pale to stay away from the girls in the bed and that I would be back soon. I needed to check the village with my own eyes. Leaving the girls behind I sprinted down the hillside barefoot. Dodging trees left and right. Snow and ice bursting up in a flurry of white as my feet made impact with the ground. My decent was noisy as I didn't even attempt to hide my approach. Branches that attempted to hinder me snapped loudly as I ran passed. I could see the roofs of town getting closer through the thinned trees.

Shadows swarmed out from around the houses in response to the noise I was making. Closer. The rest of the way down had been cleared long ago by villagers cutting trees to build houses. I slid down the hill uninterrupted by folliage. My slide came to a stop several house lengths away from the wall of large bodies, ready to kill. I scanned over the faces that were sizing me up.

"Bait?" I gruff voice called. Two green forms pushed their way to the front of the line of bodies. One larger the other smaller.

"Its me!" I yelled to them.

"Bait!" They yelled and rushed in my direction. I ran to them. Reaching them much faster than they anticipated, crashing into them on the icy mud.

"Bait lives!" Gorza shouted. "Gorzas girl lives!"

I felt Gorza and Ortha crushing me from both sides in a tight embrace. They smelled terrible. Blood and muck and half a dozen other odors permated their furs and leathers but it felt like love. A family, and right now despite the carnage they caused to my neighbores, I was happy to have them back.

"Ortha thought Bait was eaten." She said squeezing me tighter. Neither cried but instead shouted joyfully with all their might. Heavy foot steps approached and when I looked up I found Chief looking down at us.

"Bait lived." He said with a nod of approval. I untangled myself from Gorza and Ortha to stand infront of him.

He was once again covered in all of his warrior splender. Leather clothing, with braided details. Patterns were burned into his belt. Earrings and wrist cuffs glimmering. His hair braided and tied back tightly in a high pony tail braid. He was every bit the Chief i had remembered him to be before the Red Eye attack.

"Bait lived." I agreed with a nod

He turned back to the crowd and put his big green hand on my head.

"Bait has returned." He shouted to them. They shouted a reply, raising their arms and weapons up to the sky. The shout was full of intention but without words. After there yelling the began to seperate and return to the tasks that they were doing before i arrived.

"Bait!" Gorza said putting an arm around my shoulder. It felt wrong. I wasn't this height before. Gorza was shorter than Orc men but not by much, and now I fit squarly in the crook of her arm. I had grown again.

"Bait can live in same pod with us again!" Gorza shouted. Up close I saw how she had changed since I had last seen her. She had aged years in the span of a few months. Her ruddy brown hair that had been shoulder length was now longer and braided into a high pony tail. The same hair style was worn by most of the Orcs here, including her smaller bride Ortha. Around her eyes were slightly wringled, and dark spots under her eyes as if she hadn't slept in a long time.

Gorzas clothes were a bit worn, Orthas were in slighlty better shape and of course there was the smell. Looking out passed the line of warriors were elderly and children in ruff condition and from what I could see there were less Orcs than what I had remembered. They had obviously been traveling a long way, i had made it this far but part of it was in the water. Traveling by land definitely would be more difficult. Red eyes, people to feed, difficult terrain with elderly and small children. There were also many faces I didn't  recognize but by their hair and skin I knew they belong to the neighboring Orc tribe. It must have been difficult for them.

"I can't live in the same pod with you." I told her. Shaking my head.

"My babes are to." I explained. "They are to different to live in the tribe."

"Baits babe?" Ortha asked, without asking she poked and prodded my stomach. "Allready born?"

"Baits child is male?" Gorza asked frowning. To live in the tribe a male would need a male guardian but the Chief had already promised to help train any male child i had but there may be other problems with that arrangement.

"Two babes both female." I told her with a smile.

"No problem then!" She smacked my back. "Stay in pod."

Ortha nodded quickly. "Ortha help raise babes." She assured me.

I  didn't know how to explain it to them. Of course I wanted them in our lives, maybe I didn't want to live in the same house but that wasn't the only problem now. There was also Pale I couldn't abandon her and would she want to live among the Orcs after they just killed off her village. They were little more than friendly strangers to me but it was everyone shes ever known. The houses here were much sturdier and better to live in. I could always dig up grandpa and plant him down here or just plant a new seed since there were plenty. I would need to talk to Pale about what she wanted to do.

"Which house are you going to be living in?" I asked them.

"This way!" Gorza said happily.  She lead me into the village. The streets still smelled like blood but there were no bodies. I felt a small feeling of pity for the villagers. There were many familys living here. Moms, dads, and children. Now that they were gone i wouldn't be able to trade with them in the harvest months and the Orcs werent the type to keep fields.

Gorza led me to a long house with a wooden fence around it. This was not far from where the leaders house once was.

"Huts here have no under." Gorza said disapointed. "But is enough."

I looked around and the house was in good condition.

"Bait look!" Ortha said gesturing to a furnishment. "Table! She said knocking on it."

"Yes that is a table." I laughed thinking back to that conversation. Gorza shook the table and it wobbled a bit with her force.

"Weak. Gorza will use lap." She said looking at the table with a frown.

"Hut has many rooms, plenty of space for Bait and babes." Gorza nodded.

Would they say that if they saw the girls? I of all people know what kind of damage young dragons can cause. Orcs are stronger than humans but an accident could happen especially when there were two of them. I just kept picturing Vee on that womans corpse. There was no way I could let anything happen to Gorza and Ortha. I could only trust that they would understand after meeting the girls, they would be to dangerous around other people while growing up. Pale had no where els to go but it was different for them.

"Would you like to meet the girls?" I asked them.

...........
Merry Christmas everyone!
Leave me lots of ☆☆☆☆ and comments.

I enjoy reading them so much. Its also so much fun to read about how you react to the twists. I think the next few are going to be really entertaining, so dont hate me and jump off the bus early.

Keeping with the first book i intend to make this one 100 chapters. I actually went off plot a little because i needed to add foreshadow, Which means this story will end with three books total.