Waylaid Part I : Thieves in the night.

Chapter VI

If Lorr and Gort had thought that Leela had been complaining to much on Monday, then Tuesday was something never before heard of. It was almost noon when Lorr had finally had enough.
"Shut up! Shut up! Do you hear me Lee? In the name of all things found in the blackest Hells, shut up!" Leela looked shocked at Lorr's outburst. "By the Gods, do you have an off switch for that noise maker you call a mouth?"
"No. No I don't. What else do you want from me Lorr? I already said I was sorry for getting you involved with this whole train wreck."
"What I want is to walk in sweet blissful silence. That's what I want. That means, shut up Lee!"
Lorr and Leela had been arguing off and on from the start of the trek on Monday morning, and it had done nothing to keep them moving at a good pace.
"I just don't see the point of this little walk back to town." Leela started over again. "We should be walking by the side of the road. So that some good Samaritan can feel sorry for us, and give us a lift back into town. But this... This nature walk is a load of crap, Lorr!" She was yelling by the the end of her statement.
Lorr had no problem yelling back at her. "We've been over this before, Lee! It's best that no one sees us entering town. Once we get there, we'll get a room somewhere so that we can get cleaned up and go over our next move."
"I still think we should go to my place once we reach town." She said a little more calmly.
"You know we can't do that, Lee." Gort put in. "There's a good chance that they're watching both of our apartments."
"How? I don't even think they know who any of us are."
Gort grunted. "They found us once, Lee. What's stopping them from doing it again?"
Leela clamped her mouth shut.
Now Lorr spoke in a more calm voice. "So now, for the sake of all things peaceful, can we please walk in silence?"
Leela nodded.
"Good." Lorr wiped some sweat off his forehead. "Now that we are agreed to keep quiet, we need to keep our eyes peeled for any signs of Orks."
"Orks?" Leela just barely kept herself from yelling again. "Face it, Lorr. The radio was wrong. We've not seen anything out here that even remotely looks like Orks have been out here."
"Well maybe if you spent less time complaining and more time paying attention to the area we're walking in, you might spot something the rest of us have missed."
Gort prepared himself for another argument between the two.
"Oh... I have been paying attention, Lorr. I've been paying enough attention to realize that there are no Orks out here."
As if on cue, something large leaped out from behind a tree and pointed a nasty looking spear at them. It was a burly man with grayish tan skin, and dark unkempt hair. He wore dirty rags for clothes and was in definite need of a shower.
"Fall back! It's an Ork!" Lorr yelled, and pulled his gun.
But as they fell back Gort called out, "Too late! I got three more back here, Lorr!"
As Gort spoke, the Ork in front was joined by three more Orks. Lorr lowered his gun and slapped a hand to his forehead, while a string of profanities came out of his mouth.
"What was that about paying attention, Lorr?" Leela asked the Dwarf.
"Shut up, Lee!" The Dwarf seethed.
"No persons move." The lead Ork spoke up in a broken form of common tongue. "Who are you? Why do you be here?"
"Who we are and what we're doing here is none of your business. Just as who you are, and what you are doing here is yours. So we'll just all go our own ways and be done with it." Lorr answered while putting his gun away.
The lead Ork started arguing with one of the other Orks in their own tounge. "What are they saying, Gorty?" Leela asked.
Gort grunted. He had a pretty good grasp of the Ork language, but didn't like the fact that it was something else to tie him to his Ork background. "They are trying to decide what to do with us." Was all he said.
The lead Ork barked something at the others, and they relaxed and pointed their weapons away from the group. Then he spoke in his broken use of the common tongue once more. "We all make camp early. You come with us, and our chief will speak with the Piss-Blooded."
Leela looked at Gort a little confused. "Hey Gorty... what's a Piss-Blooded?"
Gort looked at the lead Ork coldly. "Me." Was all he said.
"I really don't like the idea of camping with Orks." Lorr put in.
"I don't think they're giving us a choice here Lorr."
"No harm to you." The lead Ork tried to project calm to them. "Please. My name Dushk." He said tapping his chest.
"Well, lead the way then... Dushk." Lorr said.
Dushk eyed Lorr for a moment then looked to Gort, who nodded at him. So without another word he led them to the rest of his people.
There were two hundred Orks or so all together. Some looked at the new comers with interest, but most just looked at them with scorn.
Dushk led them to a group of important looking Orks. Two men and a woman. The woman was not like the other Orkish women they had seen as they walked through the Orks. She was not only dressed differently, but she looked just as muscular, if not more so, than the Orkish men. Orkish women were usually nothing more than chunky baby making machines that tended to everyday chores. This woman was definitely not one of those.
The younger man was rather lean for an Ork, but still looked quite the muscular brute. He gave Gort and his friends a cold hate filled look. While the older Ork looked a bit overweight, but even more powerful than the younger.
The older Ork was clearly the chief of this Ork tribe.
Gort grabbed Leela by the arm and whispered in her ear. "Don't do anything stupid, Lee. If we piss either of these guys off, we'll be dead before we know what happened."
Leela looked at him as if she was insulted. "I'll keep that in mind, Gorty."
Gort just grunted.
Dushk walked up to the older Ork and slammed his right fist over his heart. "Great Chef Balza. I bring before you a Piss-Blooded and his companions." He spoke as loud as he could in the Orkish tongue.
The younger Ork's eyes seemed to become more cruel as Dushk spoke, until they finally came to rest on Leela. Then they became mixed with cruelty and something else that Gort could not quite place, and liked even less. Leela however, did not seem to notice the Ork staring at her.
Chief Balza smiled at Gort. A smile that was both as menacing as it was welcoming. He spoke loudly in Orkish as well. "So Piss-Blooded, have you come to us in order to return to your proper Orkish heritage?"
It was an effort on Gort's part not to groan at the Chief's question. So he answered just as loudly in Orkish, "No Great Chief. My companions and I are on our way back to the city. Our meeting with you is only by chance."
"That's too bad." But the Chief's voice carried no hint of sadness in it. "Then at least join us for a feast before you go on your way."
"You honor us Great Chief."
"Yes I do, Piss-Blooded." The condescending tone in the Chief's voice was not lost to Gort.
Just then Leela nudged Gort in the side. "I think you have an admirer." She whispered.
Gort looked to the spot she was staring at. The Female Ork was staring at him very intently.
"I see you've noticed my daughter Gruinda, Piss-Blooded. But you can just forget about her. She has beaten the snot out of every Ork that has tried to make her his wife."
Gort just nodded.
Leela on the other hand, could not understand what was being said, but by the look on Gort's face she could not stop herself from giggling and giving him sly looks.
Gort  leaned close to her and whispered, "Funny, Lee.  But I'm not the only one with a new admirer."
Leela followed Gort's gaze to the younger Ork.  The look that he fixed on her wiped the smile off her face.
When the younger Ork's eyes narrowed, Leela knew that something bad was about to happen.
The young Ork stepped forward and spoke in even worse common than Dushk had.  "I challenge Piss-Blooded for woman."  He pointed right at Leela.
"What?"  Leela exclaimed.  "I am nobody's wo..."
Gort put his hand over Leela's mouth and whispered to her.  "Don't say anything, Lee.  If they find out that you're not mine, that Ork will be free to do with you as he pleases.  Because to them, women have no rights."
"But that's just stupid."  Leela said after she had pushed Gort's hand away.  "She seems to have rights."  And nodded towards Gruinda.
"I'm still trying to figure that one out myself."
"Vensh has given you a challenge, Piss-Blooded."  The Chief's voice boomed loudly in the silence that had fallen over the Orks.  "Do you accept?"
"There's gotta be some way to get out of this, Gorty.  That Creep looks like he can mop the floor with you."
"There's no other way, Lee.  Unless you want to be the sad mother of a Half-Ork baby."  He didn't give her a chance to say anything else.  In Orkish he said.  "I accept."
Vensh gave Gort a wicked smile.  "You die now, Piss-Blooded!"
"You sure you want to do this Gorty?"  Lorr asked.
Gort grunted.  "Just be ready to get Lee out of here just incase this guy does kill me."  Then he turned his attention to  Vensh.  "I've seen Halflings tougher than this Asshole."
Vensh's smile grew wider as he lunged at Gort, swinging his fist as he did so.  Gort dodged the blow and landed an uppercut of his own to the Ork's mouth.
Vensh took a step back.  His smile momentarily forgotten.   Then he looked at Gort for a long moment, as blood ran from his split lip.  He licked at the blood and his smile returned.  "Come Piss-Blooded.  Show me what you got."
Gort lunged at Vensh, landing blow after blow to the Ork's face.  He worked himself up into a frenzy of violence with the thoughts of what this Ork would do to Leela if Gort didn't beat the shit out of him.  His barrage of blows came to an end however,  when Vensh landed a blow of his own to Gort's stomach  that knocked the wind out of him.  It was immediately followed up by a fist to Gort's face.
The blow to Gort's face was so great that Gort found himself laying on his back with darkness threatening to take him.  His head cleared a little, and he saw that he must have staggered backwards before he fell, because Vensh was now standing ten feet away from him fixing him with a wicked smile.
"I always wanted  Human  Bitch."  Vensh said to Gort.  "I will learn her what real Ork is all about."
Gort grunted, his head clearing up a little more.  "I doubt she would like a dickless wonder like you."  He said to try and get the Ork more focused on him and not Leela.
Vensh might not have had a good grasp on the common tongue, but Orks prided themselves on learning the swear words and other perversions of other languages.  So Gort saw Vensh's face contort with rage as what Gort said sunk in.
Vensh cocked his hands into fists and let out a roar of rage as he charged forward to kill Gort.
Gort readied himself as best he could, besides the fact that he had not even gotten to his feet yet, there was little he could do to stop the enraged Ork.  So when Vensh was about to fall on him for his attack, Gort threw up his foot to kick at Vensh with everything he could put behind the kick.  His foot landed on Vensh's groin  with a sickening pop-crunch sound.
Vensh's face went from a look of rage, to a look of surprise.   His roar of rage turned into a sharp intake of air.  He doubled over and fell to the ground beside Gort holding himself.
Gort got to his feet.  The fight was over.  He raised his voice so that he could be heard over Vensh's sobbing, and in Orkish he proclaimed "I have beaten this Ork, and I will keep the girl."
After a long pause  the Chief  laughed.  "You fight like a woman, Piss-Blooded.   But you have indeed won, and given us much more the reason to have a feast in your honor."
"I am sorry Great Chief, but if it's all the same to you, we would really just like be on our way."
The Chief nodded.  "Then have a good journey, Piss-Blooded."
Nothing else was said as Gort and his friends went on their way.  But as they left, Gort saw the Chief's daughter staring at him in a strange way with her head tilted to one side.

It was early on Thursday morning when they got back to the city.  The first place they went was to a hotel to get cleaned up and sleep in a real bed.  They put the room in Leela's name and the clerk at the front desk gave them all a funny look when they only got one room together.
When they entered their room, Leela was the first to speak.  "I wish it was my own apartment that I was returning to.  Not some dumpy hotel."
Gort shook his head.  "You know we can't go home yet Lee.  Besides, this place has a bar, and I could use a drink right now."  He quickly looked to Lorr.  "Sorry."
Lorr sighed.  "It's okay, Gorty.  I could use a drink as well."
Leela ran a hand through her hair.  "Well, while you two go get drunk, I think I'm going to get a nice hot shower.  I just wish I had some clean clothes to put on afterwards."
"Well we can't have everything we want, now can we Lee?"  Lorr said as he and Gort left her to her shower.

The bar was rather small.  It was a little over half the size of what Lorr's Bar And Grill was.  Lorr stopped when they entered the place and looked around.  It was nothing like his bar was.
With a heavy sigh, Lorr and Gort went to sit at the bar.
The woman behind the bar watched them walk in, head for the bar, and sit down.  She continued to stare at them for a long moment before coming over to take their order.  It was clear that they didn't get many non-humans regularly.
She looked at Lorr and asked without a smile, "What will it be, Boys?"
"What do you have on tap?"  Lorr asked in return.
"Beer."  She said coldly.
"Yeah..."  Lorr ran a hand over his face.  "A mug of that."
She looked at Gort.
"The same."  Was all he said.
Gort waited for her to sit the drinks in front of them and walk away before asking Lorr, "What now?"  He followed the question with a drink.
Lorr took a drink as well and took a moment to clear his thoughts.  "Well first, we're all going to get cleaned up and get some sleep."
Gort took another drink.  "I already know that part.  What I want to know is, what do we do after that?"
"Well..."  Lorr stared at his beer as if it held all the answers. "Tomorrow we are going to go see Zara, and see if we can borrow her van."
Gort turned to to look at the Dwarf.  Lorr's eyes never left his drink, but it was clear that he really wasn't looking at it at all.
Zara was Lorr's ex-wife.  Gort didn't know why the two had broken up.  Come to think about it, Gort knew little about the Dwarfs ex-wife.  So little in fact, that he was not even sure if they really were divorced.  Lorr never talked about her, and always made it clear in the past that he had no desire to ever talk about her in any way.
Gort took a deep breath before he said anything.  "Look Lorr, we don't  need her help.  I'm sure we can find someone else with a car we can borrow."
Lorr took a drink and shook his head.  "No.  No, I have to face her at some point.  Besides, she must have heard what happened to my bar by now.  She must be going out of her mind right now."  He mumbled something else, but Gort didn't catch what he said.
"But why drag her into this?  You yourself shouldn't even be a part of this.  I know Zara is a touchy subject for you, so we can find another way.  One that doesn't involve her."
Lorr slammed the open palm of his hand down on the bar, with a loud slap.  Everyone in the bar looked at them, at first with shock on their faces that quickly turned to anger at the non-humans outburst.
"Two more beers!"  Lorr shouted at the bartender before swallowing down what was left in his first mug.
Gort waited until the his second mug showed up before finishing his first off.
"That's what we are going to do first Gorty.  The rest we'll figure out once we get some wheels."
"That's fine Lorr.  But all I am saying is..."
Lorr cut him off.  "Look.  If you shut up now and not try to talk to me about going to see Zara again, then the whole drinking tab here is on me."
Gort just grunted and returned his attention to his beer.
After a long silence and another mug, Lorr started to chuckle.
"What?"  Gort asked.
"You know what you need Gorty?"
Gort could almost see where this was going.  "Please tell me what I need, Lorr."
"You need good girlfriend."
Gort shook his head.  "What is it with you and Lee trying to run my social life?"
"Oh come on."  The Dwarf went on.  "Take that Chief's daughter for instance.  I saw the way she was looking at you."
"I really don't want to talk about this Lorr."
"Good."  Lorr said, we'll satisfied with how uncomfortable he had made his friend.  "Now we're even."
They spent the rest of their time in the bar drinking in silence.