The Girl and the Orc - (A Middle Earth Story)

Cold Hearts

     Once the storm was over, and Rain's stitches were finally pulled tight, Rain got up and began to look through some of the old books. Most of the books were in Elvish. Bogwater stood next to his friend as she flipped through the pages. Havish had went back out to the deck of the ship to bark orders out at the elves.
      "What are you doing?" Bogwater asked the girl.
     She shook her head and slammed the book she was holding onto the table, "I'm trying to find any sort of information on how to even run a ship. But it's all in Elvish!" Rain was frustrated. How could she captain a ship when she didn't even know how to? The Elves already refused to listen to the Orc, it wasn't likely that they would listen to a clumsy human girl.
    "Elrond should have taught me how to do this," Rain ran a hand through her hair, "I can't tell a bunch of elves what to do."
"I want to help you Rain, but I don't know how," Bogwater sighed. "The elves won't listen to me."
Rain glanced up at her friend, "They probably wouldn't listen to me either."
Bogwater frowned, why couldn't Elrond have come with them? He could tell that Rain was having second thoughts about this whole thing. This was most likely the first time Rain had been put in any kind of situation like this. Bogwater gave the girl a comforting smile, "You can do it. I know you can. I'll try to help you as best as I can."
Rain smiled back, a slight blush formed on her cheeks. At least someone trusted in her abilities. In Rain's old village no one thought she could do anything. She was always getting into trouble or getting hurt. Bogwater was the first who truthfully thought she was capable of leading a crew. Rain became determined to show Bogwater that he was right, that she could do it. "Thank you, Bog."
Bogwater felt better as Rain's face lit up once again. He hated seeing her sad or stressed. The Orc was glad she was happy again.
Lorsan came back into the room, throwing the door open once again. The Orc's face fell. Great. The Elf came up to Rain, taking her face in his hands. "Are you okay?" he asked as he studied the stitched up cut on her forehead.
"She's fine," snapped Bogwater. He didn't like the Elf gushing over Rain like that. Lorsan glared at the Orc.
Rain nodded, "Yeah, I'm okay." She noticed the angry glare the Elf and the Orc exchanged. It made her nervous. Were they fighting? What was going on between them?
Lorsan gave the girl a soft smile before pulling his hands back into his pockets. "Good," he said.
"What are you doing here?" Bogwater questioned with a sharp tone of voice.
Lorsan rolled his eyes, "I came to see if you two were hungry."
"I could eat," Rain gave a small shrug.
Lorsan led the two down into the hull of a ship, where a long table was set with all sorts of Elvish delicacies. All of the Elves were eating and talking amongst themselves happily. They didn't even notice when the three walked in. Havish sat at the far end of the table, stuffing his face with some sort of bread-like food. Rain and Bogwater went to sit next to their friend. Rain sat on one side of the old man, and Bogwater took a seat on the other side of Rain. The Elf he had just happened to sit next to scooted as far away as he could.
Rain noticed this and frowned. Why were the elves being so rude to Bogwater? He wasn't bad, he was nice and caring towards her. Surely the elves could see that, couldn't they? There had to be a way to get them to understand he was nothing like the other Orcs.
Havish shook his head at the two friends, "They just don't understand. They don't know what we know. Just give them time." He had also noticed that the Elves were full of hate towards the Orc. He had heard some mentioning how they could 'get rid' of Bogwater. The old man didn't want to worry Rain and Bogwater about that though. He thought that in time they would become more understanding. In a few days they would see how crucial having Bogwater come along on this journey was.
Rain only picked at her food. Lorsan was busy conversing with the elves on the other side of the table. She felt like an outcast. The girl knew that elves hated the Orcs for what they've done, and what they were doing. She just wished that they could see Bogwater wasn't like the others. Maybe then Lorsan and Bogwater would get along.
She didn't understand, however, why the two weren't getting along. While Rain thought it was just common hatred against species, Bogwater and Lorsan knew the truth. Bogwater was jealous of the elf. The Orc had been with the girl the longest, and the Elf had only known her for a few days. It made the Uruk furious. Lorsan was trying to take the girl from him. The way the Elf had took Rain's face in his hands made Bogwater want to turn the ship around and go back to Rivendell. He knew that Lorsan was trying to take Rain from him. He knew he didn't have a chance. Why wouldn't Rain leave him for a pretty Elf? Bogwater didn't stand a chance.
    After the awkward dinner, Rain went to explore the rest of the ship. Bogwater had went back to the Captain's room. She figured that Bogwater felt uncomfortable around the Elves. The girl didn't blame him though, she thought they were being mean.
     Rain walked all around the hull of the ship. The hull was lined with hammocks for the Elves to sleep in. There were barrels of food and ale all along the side of the hull. Rain had never seen that much food in one place in her life.
      A huge rat came scurrying across the floor. Rain didn't notice it at first and ended up tripping over it. The girl kicked the rat away, causing it to fly across the hull.
     "Gross!" Rain shivered in disgust. It was the biggest rat Rain had ever seen.
    Lorsan appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and helped the girl up to her feet. "Are you hurt?"
     Rain shook her head, "No, thanks though."
      The handsome elf smiled down at the girl, his green eyes twinkled with mischief, "Where are your friends?"
       She shrugged, "No idea. Why?"
       Lorsan pulled the girl into a deep, rough kiss. Her blue eyes grew wide with shock as he kissed her. What was going on? What was he kissing her for? What was she going to do?
       What they didn't know was that Bogwater had begun to worry about the girl when she never came back to her room. The Orc went to go look for her and ended up walking back down into the hull of the ship.
       He had seen the whole thing.
      When the elf finally pulled back Rain could only stare at him with wide eyes.
      "Wh-wh...what?" she felt her face grow red.
       Lorsan laughed at the girl, he head tilting to the side, "I've been wanting to do that for a while now."
       Rain felt the color leave her face. There was Bogwater, standing in the entrance to the hull of the ship. Had he seen it all? The Orc sneered at her and turned around, stomping back up to the deck.
     "What's wrong?" Lorsan had seen the deep blush drain from her face.
     Rain shook her head, not wanting to hurt the elf's feelings, "I just... I'm just a little shocked is all."
     Lorsan grinned and looked down at the floor, "I should probably get back to work."
      "Yeah."  Please, please, please just go away, Rain begged in her head. She had to talk to Bogwater.
     Lorsan smiled at her before turning to leave, "Bye, Rain."
      "Bye."

       As soon as he left, Rain ran up the stairs to the deck. She scurried to her room, where she knew the Orc would be. He was, sitting on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed with his face in his hands.
     "Bog?" she panted from her run, "Look, I didn't know he would do that, I swear. If I had known I wouldn't have let him do it. Please don't be mad with me. It all happened so fast- I... I didn't know what to do."
      "Did you like it?"
      Rain felt herself blush again. It wasn't like the elf was bad at kissing or anything... "No?"
      "You don't sound too sure of that," Bogwater looked up at the girl with sad eyes.
     "I didn't want him to do it!"
      "You didn't pull away either."
      Rain began to pace frantically, "I-I... I didn't know what to do!"
       She pulled nervously at her hair as Bogwater stood up and approached her, "If I had become human, do you think you would have loved me?"
      Rain furrowed her brows, "What are you talking about? I do love you!"
       Bogwater took a step back, eyes wide, "What?"
       Rain flapped her arms about her like a chicken with its head cut off. She didn't mean to say it like that. She wanted it to be under more romantic circumstances, not like this. "Oh! Forget I said that!" she began to run back out of the room with embarrassment.
      Bogwater was too fast for her though, he pulled her back to him by the neck of her shirt, "Wait!"
      The Orc forced the girl to turn to face him, "Do you mean it?"
      Rain blushed and looked down at her feet with a sigh, "Yeah..."
      "You know I love you too. Right?"
       "Yeah..." she bit the bottom of her lip.
          Bogwater pulled the girl into a hug, "If I ever catch that punk kissing you again, I'll throw him overboard."
       Rain laughed, "Bog!"
       "What?"
      Havish threw the door open, slamming it behind him. Rain jumped.
     "Why do people keep doing that?" she frowned in frustration.
      "Bad day, Havish?" laughed the Orc as the old man plopped down on the bottom bunk.
      "One of the Elves said they don't take orders from grumpy old men!"
      "How come Elrond sent with us the most annoying elves?" Rain questioned.
      "I don't know!" fumed the old man, "I swear that stinking old elf is always trying to cause trouble for me!"
      Rain yawned, laying her head on Bogwater's shoulder, "I think he's still upset that you brought an orc to Rivendell."
     "Probably," Havish frowned.
      "I think it's time for Rain to go to bed," Bogwater laughed as her eyes began to close.
      Havish shot up, "I call top bunk!"
     "Hey! That's not fair!" Rain cried as the old man began to climb up to the top bunk.
      "It's better for you to be on the bottom bunk anyway," Havish retorted, resting his head on the feather pillow, "You'll just fall off and break your neck."
     "Hey!"
     "No, he's right," Bogwater nodded in agreement.
     "Now wait just a minute-" Rain started to argue, only to be cut off by Bogwater throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her to the bottom bunk.
     "Wait a minute!"
     The Orc rolled his eyes at her as laid her gently on the bed, "Oh, be quiet."
      "I just think it's funny how-"
      Bogwater cut her off again, this time with a firm kiss on the lips. "I said to be quiet."
      Rain blushed a deep cherry red, "I-I-"
      Havish piped up suddenly, "Wait, did you just kiss her?"
     "You shut up too, old man!" Bogwater scolded as he laid on the bed, next to Rain.
     "Hey! Don't talk to your elders like that! Kids these days have no respect for anyone! Why, when I was a boy I..."

   Rain and Bogwater were both fast asleep before Havish finished his rant.