Loving an Orc (A new beginning series)

Chapter one

           Elis sat on the raised rock by the river, this was her favorite spot when she was happy, when she was not. When she did not know what she was feeling, like today, like she had felt every day for a month since her father had broken the news of her engagement. It had happened during one of their quiet dinners only punctuated by her nephew’s crying and her sister chiding him to be quiet and eat his food or the occasional request to pass the salt. They did not speak when they ate with their father, he seemed to suck the life out of everything.

           It had not always been like this, they were happy once, They laughed once but now all that was like a dream that only came when she laid down at night and like every dream, it ended when dawn came. Her mother had passed of a bad fever before the winter ended and when the last frost disappeared with their mother’s life, she’d taken what happiness and joy existed in her family. Elis had not realized how much effort went into keeping a small family like theirs running. There was always dinner and a wonderful bubbly woman who she could always talk to, who asked her about her day, who made her feel loved and cared for like she did for every one them, for her widowed sister and her son, for her father. And now with her gone, so was their happiness. Her father had grown bitter with each day that passed and her sister angrier. Sara had tried to step up, to pick up the pieces of her family but their father had been a thorn in her side. He had blamed her for his wife’s death, said she and her 'bastard' son had made life hard for her.

           “Well, maybe if she didn’t spend her whole life cleaning up after her inept, gambling addict drunk of a husband, she would still be alive” Sara, ever the firecracker did not hold back.

           Their father had heaved the vase at her head, her mother’s favorite vase and when Elis picked her nephew up to go outside, she remembered that sometimes when their father came home, drunk with a rather nasty temper, her sister used to take her hand and lead her out for a walk about the village. They would come home to a mess, their father snoring in the next room and that wonderful bubbly woman choking back sobs. Maybe they had not been very happy, maybe she had made it all up and when she went back in the house that day to her sister sobbing and the house a mess. Waves of memories and pain brought her to her knees and for the first time in the months following her mother’s death, Elis truly mourned her. They had not been as happy as she thought, it had just been her mother constantly fixing broken pieces of their family and if she was not always stuck in the clouds, she would have seen it. She had held her sister close and all of it came out, feelings and emotions crashing against each other and she felt better after. Life had continued on until her father had broken it with startling news in an unusually calm and collected manner.

           She was engaged.

           A warning buzz went off in Elis’s head as she did a run down of everyone her father could have sold her off to. She was not an outdoorsy type and preferred to go about her chores out in village when she was sure most people would be working. A trait that only got worse with her mother’s passing. She had kept to herself and taken over care of her young nephew while he sister worked, their father barely any help. The only males she came in contact with of recent were her father’s friends and when one of them made a comment about needing someone to warm his bed, she had kept clear of them until Sara put her foot down about her father having their rendezvous else where. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, He wouldn’t really do that to her would he? Sell her off to one of his friends, who would most probably be like him. Dread filled her, would the man be cruel to her?, or beat her or worse… A sharp bang on the table snapped her back to reality. Sara was glaring at their father and for once Matt was not fussing.

           “Answer me old man, what did you just say?”. Ouch. Straight to the gut. The old man bristled but said nothing.

           “Father…” Elis began.

            “Someone came asking for her hand, paid a hefty dowry and so I gave it-” Elis’s heart sank “…like any good father would”.

Sara scoffed.

           “You’re the farthest thing from a father, you haven’t been one for the longest time and you have no right to collect a dowry on Elis”

          “You’re going to give it back", Sara snapped at him.

             "I cannot do that.” the man sniffed.

             “Why?” Sara’s patience was running low and she never had much of it to begin with.

              “Well for one, it was a lot of money and I had some debt…”

                “You fool”. Sara hissed and Elis felt like the contents of her merger dinner was going to come up. If it truly was a lot of money then they might never be able to pay back and if she didn’t marry whoever this was, her family was going to be arrested. She didn’t care for her father but her sister and nephew didn’t deserve this.

              “And he won’t take it back anyway”. He continued.

              “Who is this, I’ll have a talk with them?” Sara was moving to get dressed if they were going to get it done, they were going to get done tonight. Their father was quiet and that incessant buzzing intensified.

             “Father who was it?” Elis prodded, dread pooling in her stomach.

              The silence stretched before he dropped the second bomb that night.

              “An Orc”.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello to all my readers, if you like this then please vote, comment and follow me. I'm determined to finish this, which is why it's going to be a short story. As short as I can get it anyway, I have a tendency for over imagination then things get jumbled up and give up but that won't happen this time.

So I implore all my beautiful, avid readers to engage. For the sake of my confidence 😊