It didn’t look much different from his father’s normal fearsome expression. The camp’s stitcher had grudgingly left his loom and taken the few orcs and halflings injured by the huldira to the bathing springs to clean their wounds, and pack freshly pounded herbs into their bandages. Bianca had gone with them, to keep her troupe comfortable with their newly made acquaintances.
“A Halfling,” Dhane grumbled after what must have been an hour of contemplation.
Tanis closed his eyes instead of rolling them. So it was settling in, then.
“Never in all history has our kind taken a Halfling as a mate.”
Tanis chewed the inside of his cheek a moment. He didn’t think that even Dhane knew all of history, much less every orc that had ever taken an unusual mate. But he did not contest his father’s thinking out loud. It might interrupt an epiphany forming.
“Then again, a fierce halfling.”
Tanis could have smiled with pride at that, but he kept it to himself. His mate was terrifically brave, putting herself on the line for people she cared about with barely a second thought.
He watched his father’s expression from the corner of his eye, as Dhane’s face became contemplative. “How would that work? It wouldn’t. They’re too small.”
“Do not concern yourself,” Tanis tried to answer dismissively, and that was his mistake.
Dhane wheeled around, turned his scrutiny fully upon Tanis. “What do you know?”
“Nothing. I… believe that it would not happen if it… wasn’t possible,” Tanis replied, truly reaching for one word at a time as he built an excuse out of thin air.
“You don’t seem overly annoyed by this development.”
“Well. It’s like you always say. Can’t get upset at what you can’t change.”
Dhane grumbled and returned to his silent glowering.
The problem with having a predecessor known for unwise decisions tended to overshadow any choice Dhane made. It did not often aid the quality of those decisions, Tanis had noticed. Rarely did Dhane ever change his mind from his initial course of action.
“But… who says a halfling has to accept our ways?”
There it was. The seed of doubt growing in the pit of his stomach. Tanis remained quiet.
“If she does not stay, the bond will fade,” his father continued, sounding very much as if the was the outcome he wished to see. “I spoke with their leader about sending a scout to lead them out of the forest in exchange for food and supplies. We send them off tomorrow.”
The Halflings had felt oddly gratuitous towards the orcs for taking down the huldira, and Dhane seemed to be embracing that narrative.
Tanis pushed off the wall, taking a few steps away. He nodded dutifully, though he wished for nothing more but to snarl back that his father had no business in what happened withhis bond, and the Blood Fever’s decision of who was his mate was beyond reproach. Such a retort would not be well received. Dhane had grown too accustomed to deference from others to allow it.
He stopped a few steps away, and looked back at Dhane.
“Her name is Bianca, kin to mushrooms,” he said pointedly, toeing the line of disrespect. He held Dhane’s stare to emphasize his meaning:Do not call my mate ‘halfling’ again.
With that, he turned on his heel and headed away.
The stitcher had returned, and all of the orcs that had been wounded were already retelling their fight with the huldira with dramatic embellishment to everyone who had already witnessed it anyway, about a dozen Halflings listening intently. But Bianca was not with them.
She likely had stayed behind with her troupe, he reasoned. He wasn't sure how many Halflings there were in her troupe.
Tanis set off, passing the returning orcs, not paying mind to any of the looks they gave him. They likely thought the same as Dhane, but he didn’t care. He had to be near her. It wasn’t just the dawning effects of the Blood Fever, that his skin felt warmer just thinking of her. He wanted to make sure she was ok, to remind himself that she hadn’t been hurt in the commotion.
And to make sure she wasn’t about to get lost in the woods again.
The heat of the springs beat back winter from its banks only a few feet or so, melting the snow. It pooled lazily near the edge of the cliff, where fallen logs dammed part of the river before it joined again with a much colder stream.
Tanis paused for a moment, boots crunching the snow as he looked around. He spotted Horse first, tethered to a tree branch, happily munching on grass. He patted Horse’s neck as he passed him. How strange, he thought, that she’d never bothered to name this creature.
He spotted Bianca’s cloak hanging just off the ground on a tree branch. And then her tunic crumpled up on the side of the bank, and Bianca treading water a little ways beyond it.
