There is a common saying amongst humans: "Truth hurts". I didn't understand how that would be true in anyway before,
"How could a lie cause less damage, emotional damage than the truth?"
Is what I would have asked myself in my childish innocence. But I have seen it be fulfilled before, that darn saying. A fulfillment that resulted in my sudden maturity, a quick transition from girl to woman. It was fulfilled in the case of my father, when he found out the truth... about me, about my mother, about everything. Yet, it did not hurt him, less make him angry, no, the truth hurt my mother, my wonderful mother his first wife: Glogak. She was a kind, and beautiful woman, faithful to her beloved despite an Orc male's obsession with multiple wives. She cared for him and treated the children of his other wives as her own. Not only that but, she fought with him in battle with the strength of ten ogres as my brothers would say. She was the sweetest of his wives, but also the bravest and strongest willed. That is why she was known as the Glogak the Rose. For all her beauty and kindness, she also had her thorns, reasons to fear and respect her despite her gender. She was no object, no tool to be used by her man. She gave herself only when she wished to and Urzuk learned to respect that, he even admired her for it.
"You should be called the Unbreakable!" He would joke.
"Because no matter how hard I try, you never submit!"
Urzuk Thunder-Hammer was the Cheiftain of the Zugogk Clan and father of Thirty Children, of which, I was the youngest. My father had seven wives, one under the limit for Chieftains. They treated each other like sisters and Urzuk loved them all. But all of his love, all of his memories with them, and children could not stop him from fulfilling that horrible saying. For my father, the truth hurt the most when whispers around the camp began to circulate about my conception. That was fifteen years ago. But the day replays in my mind as if I were to live it in this very second. But to understand what happened and how, I would have to explain my father's name.
My father didn't earn the name Thunder-Hammer out of his personal want for a nickname. Urzuk Thunder-Hammer became known as the Thunder-Hammer for his heavy fist and the noise it made when it hit the flesh of its victims. A loud crash followed by a crackling so resonant that it stopped any further victims in their tracks. It was a sort of warcry that warned anyone wishing to come close, to stay away or they will be put down with the strength of a hammer. The hammer, that was his fist rained down onto my mother on a night fifteen years ago when my father earned confirmation from my mother that I, his only daughter was not his. But rather I was a bastard conceived in a moment of weakness and excitement. My mother told him this with tears in her eyes and a great fear for her life. Her punishment worsened when he screamed to know who the adulterous act was committed with and she would not tell him.
In that moment, I had remembered all the wonderful moments they had spent together and with me, loving each other and living care free. And yet, there I was, afraid in my room as my father yelled and screames at mother while she ran away from him, hysterical, fearing for her life, his unbroken finally breaking. I went toward the door to my bed room and opened the door just enough to see what was going on outside, all while shaking, barely able to touch the door.
When she refused to tell him the identity of the father, in a blind rage he grabbed her by the throat and raised her off the ground to begin bashing her on her abdomen, and lower body.
Immediately she shot blood from her mouth and it rained across the room, onto the table, the jars, the food left out, the furs and a bit even hit me in the eye to which I held my mouth to force myself not to release my dinner. It was then that my brothers and Urzuk's wives exited their rooms, finally awakened by Glogak's wailing and coughing. They tried to take him off of her until Kroteg, the eldest, managed to get my mother to the other side of the room.
Urzuk then screamed to his son, "Move aside son, I do not wish to punish you as well!"
Despite his father's threat, Kroteg and my twenty eight other brothers stood proud in front of Glogek, as a wall, protecting their half-mother in name. While the other wives slipped into my room to protect me, fearful that he would kill me for not being of his blood. Their wall did little to stop him though as he ran toward them and plowed his way through to Glogek. I'm not sure what he did next but I could hear her body being hit against the wall, over and over and over until she was silenced and a loud thud came afterwards. It was then that he gave a grave warning the the women inside my room.
"Free the child and I shall spare you wives! Think! If the strongest of you is but a mere object to me, what chance do YOU have?"
However, they did not heed his warning and instead supplied me with enough means to survive the night and the next few days until I was able to reach a destination they had said would be my safe haven: Vendril, a human city. Then, each kissed me on the forehead, seven kisses in the seven seconds that passed after the warning. They each told me a variation of "You have to be strong Shurza, stronger than your mother, you must be unbreakable, because you will be on your own. We won't be able to help you and you will be in a hostile city full of humans that will see you as lesser than them. But do not let that stray you from your course. Be strong and grow to be the proud woman your mother wanted you to be. Be free from this, escape the predestined fate given to us women and live on your own. Be free Shurza! Be free!"
They open the window of my room and I threw my bag out and then put my body through and waves them goodbye, with tears in my eyes. Then they mouthed "be strong" and ran as fast as I could, toward the camp gate. I began to cry so profusely that I could barely see the land before me and I was temporarily blinded. But I had to make sure I stayed quiet or he would know I was outside. So, I held my mouth and continued to run, without looking back. By the time I had reached the camp gate, I heard the other wives scream from the long house. I stopped for a second as I grabbed the gate, and felt myself shudder.
"Shurza!" Urzuk cried. "Where have you gone my dear Shurza!?"
I began to cry even harder then as he cried my name and with all of my force, I opened the gate and left the camp, praying he wouldn't find me.
