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

Out of Time

      It had almost been a week.
      They were running out of food.

       Rain had done her best to keep everyone on the rations, but some had been sneaking extra food for themselves. This was causing the food to run out even faster. Rain was nervous. What would they do if they ran out of food? Would they have a mutiny on their hands? With these pirates, anything could happen.
      Havish and Bogwater were also worried about the lack of food and supplies. They couldn't keep this up for long with the amount of people on their ship. There was no way they could make it to Rivendell with food to spare.
      Havish, was even more worried about it. He was always hungry anyway, and now he was even more hungry. This whole thing would end up killing him. He would starve to death.

      On the plus side though, Rain and Bogwater were both back in the Captian's Room with Havish. This meant they could keep a close eye on each other, and the old man. Especially the old man. Something made them wonder if he had anything to do with the missing rations of food.
       Which, to Rain, didn't seem that far-fetched.
      Speaking of far-fetched, Rain was trying to untie a knot in some rope. Havish had made the knot, and now Rain needed it out so she could use the rope to help old up the sails that were growing weak. The salty wind did some damage to the already frail, thin squares of cloth, and were now trying to fall off of the mast. However, this knot Havish had made was extremely strong. Rain was struggling to get it loose. She was about to give up when a hand reached down and took the rope from her. The girl looked up to see her friend, Bogwater.
      "I could have done it," Rain protested as he began to unravel the knot.
      "Probably, but you would have spent another hour doing it."
       Rain rolled her eyes at the Orc, "Whatever."
       He rolled his eyes back at her, "Whatever."
       Rain stood up, trying to figure out what to say next. Bogwater didn't always make her feel so flustered, but now the littlest things made her heart flutter.
       "Can I ask you something?" Rain questioned.
       Bogwater looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah."
       "When did you decide you had feelings for me?" This seemed like a stupid thing to ask, but she wanted to know.
       The Orc gave a shrug, "I think a little while after we met I started having feelings for you. But I don't think I fully realized them until the creature tricked me and made us separate. Why?"
       Rain shrugged back, "Just wondering."
He grinned as he finished unraveling the knot, setting the rope down on the floor of the deck.
"How come you could do it and I couldn't?" Rain demanded.
Bogwater stood up straight, "I think you were just trying too hard."
"I didn't know there was such a thing as trying too hard."
"You always try too hard," Bogwater stated, "It's one of your many faults."
"Excuse me?"
He laughed and pulled the girl into a hug, "But your faults are what make me love you."
Rain blushed deeply. Why did he always have to go and make her blush like that?
"Don't ever change," her friend kissed the top of her head.
Rain gave a happy sigh as she burrowed her face in Bogwater's cloak. He had to stop being so darn sweet.
"Stop being so darn sweet," she said against the Uruk's chest, her voice slightly muffled.
"Never," he smiled down at her.
She looked up and stuck her tongue out at him. Bogwater laughed and stuck his tongue out back at her.

Havish stuck his head out from behind a barrel, "Awww!"
The couple jumped, turning to the old man.
"Have you been there this whole time?" Rain stared at the old man with wide eyes.
He nodded.
"Why?" questioned Bogwater, a funny look on his face.
He shrugged.
Rain rubbed her face with her hands, Havish was going to make her loose her ever-loving mind.
"By the way," Havish piped up, "We're headed straight for a snow storm."
Rain looked up, "You're kidding."
The old man pointed to the far-distant sky. Sure enough, they were barreling right towards a raging flurry of snow and ice.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Bogwater cried.
"You were having a moment."
"That doesn't matter!" Rain flapped her arms up and down in exasperation, "We can have a moment some other time. What do we do about the snow storm?!"
"All you can do is pray to whatever god you worship," Havish said as if it were the end of times.
Rain gave a deep frown as snow began to fall. This was bad. This was very bad. A shiver ran through her body.

She would be shivering for days.

Already it had been four straight days of non-stop snow. The food was completely gone. The Elves and pirates were starting to starve. The combination of hunger and freezing temperatures caused many of them to become weak. A sickness was starting to spread.
Rain sat in a corner of the captain's room. She was curled up in a thin blanket. The Elves and pirates were all in the hull, trying to keep themselves warm and nurse the sick. The only time they came out on deck was when they had to check coordinates and make sure they were going in the right direction. Rain wasn't any help with this, but Havish took that job over. Bogwater was one of the first to get sick. He was laid up in the bottom bunk of the bed with a fever. He refused to be anywhere near Rain, for fear of getting her sick too.
Rain sniffled while shivering once more.
This was very bad. What if they never made it back to Rivendell?
Bogwater moaned in his sleep. His fever and aching body was causing him to have nightmares. He flinched as he saw flashbacks of the burning house and Rain dying in his arms.
Rain noticed Bogwater's obvious discomfort. She got up from her corner and made her way over to her friend. The girl shook the Orc awake, "Bog."
The Orc coughed, his eyes fluttering open. "Ra-ain?"
"Are you okay? What's wrong?"
He pushed her away from him frantically, "Stay back! I'll make you sick!"
Rain frowned, scurrying back to his side, "But I want to help you!"
He winced in pain as the fever got stronger. It felt like someone was stabbing his brain.
Rain crawled into the bed next to Bogwater, wrapping the blanket around him and cuddled up next to her friend. She rested her head on his chest. Bogwater shivered. His head hurt so bad. Rain took her hand and wiped the sweat off of Bogwater's forehead. The Orc relaxed at her touch. He didn't want her sick, but he was too weak to push her away so he let her lay her head back down on his chest.
Rain tried to distract Bogwater from his pain by telling him a story. It was a dumb story, but anything was better than doing nothing, right?
"Once upon a time," Rain started, "there lived a cat and a bear. The cat was silly and clumsy and the bear was strong and witty. They were best friends and everyday they went off on new adventures. One day they went off into the woods to look for berries. They met an old goat along the way and the goat told them about a magical kingdom far away. So the three went off to go to the kingdom..."

All while Rain was telling this story he had his eyes closed, but Rain knew by the way his breathing had calmed it was helping. She would sometimes stop talking when she thought he had fallen asleep. When she stopped, however, the Orc would start acting feverish again. So she kept going for who knows how long.
At the end of her tale, Rain spoke of something that had not come about yet.
"After the bear, goat, and cat all made it back to the magical kingdom they decided to stay there for the rest of their lives. The cat and bear promised to never leave each other, and the goat adopted them as his own children. They were a family now and lived happily ever after."

Bogwater's eyes opened at the end of her story. He looked down at her, "Was that about us?"
"No. It was about a cat and a bear and a goat."
"I'm pretty sure that was about us," he insisted.
"This is a work of fiction. Characters, places, events and/or incidents are products of the author's imagination and are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental."