Fated To The Orc King

Chapter 11

▪️I Z A R A▪️

It took me a moment to realise that I was hugging the Orc King.

Upon grasping what I was doing, it took me a bit longer to comprehend that he was hugging me back. I could not help but notice that his hold on me was rather strong for someone who was half alive with most of his lower body crushed under a rock.

"I'm sorry, I must be hurting you!" I gulped, trying to release Baldur, only to find myself being held tighter by him.

The feel of his muscular arms brought a warmth with them that I had not realised I needed. As I leaned into him, I silently hoped that he could not feel how fast my heart was beating. However, considering that I could feel his own pulse palpitating wildly against me, I relaxed slightly, allowing myself to enjoy the moment.

After some time, with unhurried movements, he began to let me go.

Baldur's eyes trailed over my body, seeming to take in my appearance for the first time, and a slight scowl formed on his face. His glower deepened while he focused on my torn clothes before his gaze settled on my arms.

In a raspy tone, Baldur observed, "You're hurt..."

I brushed it off with a nervous laugh while looking down at the wounds on my hands.

There were cuts along some of my fingers where the tips of my nails had torn off. Unfortunately, there was no hiding the various scratches along the back of my hands and the other injuries on my forearms. Now that I had a moment to really look at myself, it was only then that I realised I had chunks of skin missing from my palms but thankfully, the pain in my body was nothing more than a dull throb.

Shrugging lightly, I said, "I'm fine–"

"You're not! Why didn't you return to the castle with Gnarg?" Baldur asked.

Though his voice was soft, there was a hard edge to it and his right hand shook as he reached out to touch the torn material at the knees of my pants.

The feel of his fingers tracing the blood stains on my clothes was almost hypnotic. But the moment he reached inside the tears to gently touch my bare skin, an unexpected tremble began to vibrate through me.

Doing my best to ignore his touch, I turned my attention back to my rucksack while answering, "And leave you here? How could I?"

"To save yourself?"

There was no malice in his words, but they hurt nonetheless.

"Seriously? If you weren't already injured, I'd hit you on the head with that rock over there! How could you think that I would leave you out here all alone?" I huffed in annoyance.

The edges of his lips curled in a slow smile.

"I'm not laughing!" I reacted and took out a bottle of salve.

With a frown on my face, I began to wash the open wounds on his chest. Taking a deep breath, I did my best to be as gentle as I possibly could, but then I decided to punish him for his earlier statement and applied more pressure.

Baldur grunted while I not so gently cleaned his injuries and his right hand moved away from my knee when I started applying the healing ointment on his skin.

My lips pressed into a thin line as I worked in silence.

To be honest, I had not expected his words to irritate me as much as they did. But I supposed it really was foolish of me to think that he was slowly beginning to see me for who I really was and I scoffed at myself.