Mermaids are Menacing (Book 2) Complete

54.) Cowards

"Bait may have many things to carry back." Ortha said.

"Gorza will carry them!" She agreed with gusto. Flexing the muscles in her arms that were coated with mud.

"Good to have babes in house." Ortha grinned clapping her hands together. "Bait can stay in this place!" She said pointing to the room on the right side of the living area. "Gorza, Thrack and Ortha will stay in the big one." She said gesturing to the living area we were standing in. "Can store food in that place." She said pointing to the room on the left.

"No beams for baby hammock." Gorza said inspecting the living room before setting her eyes on the table. She walked up to it and flipped it over where all the legs were pointing up in the air.

"Gorza will make it stronger the we can tie hammock to table! Table not useless now!" She said patting the leg roughly.

They were already planning on bringing the babies home with them today.

"There is one more thing..." I began. They both stopped what they were doing and looked at me.

"In my hut, there is a human child with them as well." I explained.

Without hesitating.s ortha spoke up.
"Human child cannot stay with pod."

Gorza looked down her eyebrows scrunched in thought.

"I know the tribe doesn't want to accept humans but I can't abandon her." I told Ortha.

"Gorza kills child, then Bait lives with pod." Gorza offered her idea with a nod to the ground before looking at me. There was hated there. Anger living in her eyes. She meant it.

I had seen Gorza fight. Seen her kill and get me into dangerous situations. She never had hatred in her eyes. Determination, confidence, but not hatred.

"Pale is a good child." I shook my head to disagree.

"Child of cowards." Gorza said angrily.

The mood in the house shifted. Gone was the levity of bringing a baby into the house. The joy of starting over in a new place with all the plans that go with it. Infront of me the twos demeanor began to match with the condotion of their clothes.

Ortha elbowed Gorza as she brushed passed her and came to me. She also seemed haggard from fighting and traveling. I looked at her confused, not understanding the animosity I had seen in Gorzas eyes. Ortha took my hands gently in hers and began telling me a story.

"Tribe found good place, not far from this place. In the cold ice, tribe built lodge for all to stay in. When warm season comes next, tribe planned to build huts for pods." Ortha said quietly. "But it was not good place. Humans waited till dark and burned hut with tribe sleeping inside. Many Orcs died while sleeping, bringing great shame to warrior to die sleeping."

"Warriors were not all that were lost! Crones and ..younglings taken by fires smoke. Cowards call Orc monster but Orc did not spill blood first." Gorza said spitefully.

She bared her short fangs, lost in a memory that was still to fresh. The tension in the air was thick and heavy. Gorza wasn't injured but she was in pain. Orcs dont cry infront of others, to show weakness is unacceptable and for one so high up in the hierarchy, showing weakness was impossible.

"Im happy you both are safe. I missed you." I said slumping my shoulders. "Those people were bad and I dont blame you for what you did to them... but they hurt that child to. I've seen the bruises on that little girls body. Old ones overlapping with new. I should have kept her when they tried to give her to me or when I saw she was treated poorly but I couldnt be bothered. Now I have already clothed her and given her a place by my fire. Just as you kept me, I will keep her."

A light wetness glazed over Gorzas eyes and she turned her back to me.

"Bait..." Ortha sighed.

Seeing that Gorza needed to be alone i gave her the same curtisy she had once given me. I walked to the door way, sunlight illuminated my face. I pursed my lips and knocked on the door twice, feeling a small amount of helplessness overwhelmed me. We were reunited after so long but the circumstances were different. We could not live together as we once had.

"I must be getting back to my girls... I love you both. I'll let you settle in tonight and come back in the morning." I said sadly before leaving.

When I returned to my hut in the hills everything was just as I had left it. The girls slept in the bed and Pale sat by the fire her knees drawn up to her chest.

"Your back!" She said with relief.

"Did you vanquish the monsters?!" She asked getting to her feet.

"There were no mosters to fight." I told her.

"Then they left the town?" She asked.

"No." I said bending down. "The Orcs have decided to live there." I disagreed putting both hands on her shoulders and rubbing her arms. "And you cannot go back there ever again." I told her seriously.

"I dont understand." She cried. "You were supposed to protect us."

"I am not a God Pale." I said looking in her eyes. Searching for some sort of sign to know that she understood me. "But I will do my best to protect you just as I will protect those two."

I gestured with my lips towards Aelia and Idelia. She sniffled loudly.

"Come here." I said picking her up. "I'll cook for you."