Loving an Orc (A new beginning series)

Chapter Two

            Elis trudged along the dirt road, dragging the bucket along with her, most of the water had spilled but she took no notice as she battled the tears that sprung to her eyes. She was going to meet her betrothed today. The Orc who paid a dowry and would be expecting a bride in return, a willing and enthusiastic bride. One who would cook and clean and have his children and...

            "Gods," Elis sank to her knees as the tears defeated her "Let him be kind please, I won't care that he is not human or that he's ugly but please let him be good to me".

             She had wanted to run away so many times, she would walk to the end of the foot path between her home and the forest and think of all the places she wanted to go, all the things she would see. If only her heart did not threaten to fail her when people spoke to her, if only she did not freeze at the mere thought of looking people in the eye, if only Sara and Matthew were safe. If only she wasn't such a coward, then maybe.

            "Please." another strangled sob escaped her.
            
             "Elis," Sara's voice reached her and she scrambled to right herself. Her dear sister had done her best. She complained to the village chief arguing that accepting a dowry without the knowledge of said bride should be enough to make it null and void. Old Tom had said that if they could make back the dowry before the Orc returned, then there was a chance her case would work. Orcs were not known to be kind to those who broke promises but this could be an exception but it would take them much longer than a month to make ten gold coins; the amount her father was given. Elis opted to take work at the village inn, in the kitchens where she would have the least interaction and Sara took a second Job but two weeks later when they were both worked to the bone and had barely made a third of the money, Elis knew they were grasping at straws and one night as she watched Sara put together dinner, her back to her, chatting about her day, smiling even though she was utterly exhausted. Elis became painfully aware of how she had seen this before with her mother. Two women she loved working too hard to make up for the mistakes of a man who would disappear on them at times like this. Mistakes they were not responsible for, but she was not going to let this end the same way.

            "I'm going to marry him," she said quietly. "The Orc, I'll marry him Sara"

             "What are you saying?" Sara turned from the stove, shocked. She moved to Elis, her arms circling her shoulders and bringing her in for a hug.

             "You won't have to, I'll pay it back. I'll take more work..."

              "No, it's fine. I can't have you do that, I mean it's impossible."

              "It isn't. I..." Sara began before Elis cut her off.

               "I'll give it a try, it might work. I'll make it work"

                "Give what a try?" Sara moved back to peer into her sister's face. "Marriage? To an Orc? Let's forget he's an Orc for a moment Elis, How do you intend to make marriage with a stranger work? You can barely talk to the milkman and you've known him all your life and you think you can make this work?"

              Sara scoffed moving back to continue making dinner. "Of all the absurdities,"  she mumbled to herself then continued loudly "You'd simply have a heart attack so don't think about that, I'll take care of it. I already spoke to the baker, there's a job delivering bread to the next town, I took it and..."

            "No". Elis muttered.

             "What?" Sara turned.

            "I said no," Elis jumped to her feet, her voice louder with each word "and you'll listen to me. I will not have you work yourself to death like mother did and for my sake even less. I'm going to marry this Orc, I'm going to make this work, and if he's unkind to me I'll run. I'll run so far but I'm going to be happy if it's the last thing I do."

             The room was silent, only the bubbling of the stew interjected by Matthew assaulting his only toy broke it. Sara was stunned, her sister had never spoken to her like that or anyone. This was Elis, quiet little Elis, who hated loud places and alot of people. Most of the townspeople thought she was mute till she was ten and only because their mother made her say two words for the towns annual play, and now she wanted to marry an Orc and move away with him and she wanted to make it work. She had always pushed for Elis to do more, go out more, speak to more people but this was not the challenge she wanted her sister to take on. This was far too difficult.

            "Orcs are said to be cruel," Sara sighed, bringing her palm to her forehead. "Especially to humans."

             "It might not be true, people say all sorts of things. I have hope."

              Sara scoffed, amused. "Strange situation for that hope of yours," Then she was serious. "If you do this and anything happens, you should come right back, we'll leave together if we have to. Anything at all..."

              "It's okay," Elis moved to her sister's side enveloping her in another hug "I know, I'll come home first"

               They stayed in each other's embrace and Matthew came over waving his hands to be carried Sara picked him up hugging him and Elis knew this was her home, the both of them and that was enough. And now two weeks later she was wiping the dirt off her dress and scooping water from the bucket to splash on her face. If Sara suspected she was crying she wouldn't let her leave.

              "Elis," Sara called as she came around the bend, she looked like she'd been running and she looked anxious. That was not a good sign.

              "What's wrong?" Elis asked, worry churning her insides.

              "It's nothing...just, they've come" Sara had carried Matthew and the little angel was looking jostled, snot running down his nose as his face scowled up likely about to protest how displeasing his ride here was. Elis reached for him cooing to stop the onslaught.

              "Who?" She asked even though she already knew. "And 'they'? How many? They weren't supposed to come until later tonight."

             She had a lot of questions and needed  a lot of answers but Sara didn't give them instead she took the bucket from her and promptly dumped out the water.

              "Come, hurry. Father and his unsavory bunch are with them and I don't like that."

              "He came home?" Elis asked, surprised that her father had the decency to show up. "Did something happen?"

              "Not yet, but something's fishy. They were acting off".

               They hurried along the path, fear of the unknown gripping Elis's heart. Thoughts of the Orc pushed that of her father aside. 'What was he like? Would he really be cruel like people said?' She remembered stories she heard growing up about towns being ransacked and plundered by Orcs, about men being killed and women raped and a shiver ran down her spine. It cannot be all of them, like men there would be good and bad orcs.

               Please let him be one of the good ones.

               Raised voices broke her train of thought as Sara sped up a curse leaving her lips. Elis ran faster and the sight in front of her caused her to stumble. An Orc had her father by the throat as he flailed around, a cleaver in his hand. What in the world was happening and where in the heavens did her father get a butcher's knife? Elis thought but that question was answered when she spotted the village butcher and two other men she barely recognized from visits to her home all carrying knives of varying sizes pointed at three Orcs. They were taunting the Orcs and cursing them and Elis wondered briefly if they were drunk and out of their minds because the Orcs were quite literally the largest beings she'd ever seen. They were much taller than any man, green and were a wall of muscles. What did they hope to gain? What were they even doing?

              "What is the meaning of this?" Sara voiced the question in her head and they all turned to her and Elis remembered one of the men, he had been the one to make a comment about needing a bedwarmer and when he saw her, his face twisted horribly.

               "You whore" he screamed and then he was running at her, his knife raised and amidst the chaos that descended, Sara screaming for her to run with Matthew and throwing herself in front of them. It was the Orc she saw running to her, his face a picture of rage and something akin to fear, the blood, then the darkness.