As we walked he pointed out more things; white sprays of flowers we put straight into our mouths, small green berries I would have missed, a gray moss you could pull open to nibble on small green nubs. This was a good distraction from aching limbs, and my racing mind. Other things the old orc showed me before throwing them away or tucking them in a pouch. He held out a mushroom, "Only with fire," he said. "Only cooked." He kept it.
"What is your name?" I asked.
"Gnarlak," he said.
"Gnarlak," I repeated. "Thank you."
"And you are Rowena." His eyes went to the front of the group, and I followed them. Khal glanced back at us, made himself busy with one of the others again, tightening loose straps on someone's bag.
"He watches you." The old one had said it. I looked up quickly. He chuckled.
"He feels responsible for me," I said.
"That boy feels responsible for all of us." Gnarlak muttered. "He does not watch me that way."
My stomach clenched. I did not want to consider what Khal…what my husband thought of when he looked at me. It would be neither of our problem for long, if I could only orient myself to find the city, only be strong enough to go.
"You're good for him," Gnarlak said.
"Hmm?" I wished I could redirect him back to the poisonous mushrooms and sour berries.
"You are better than the one Drazha had set for him.”
I lost my footing, grabbed a branch so I wouldn't fall. "Khal was set to marry someone else? An orc?"
Gnarlak grunted assent. "Aye. That's why we're headed into a hornet’s nest."
"What was she like?" I don't know why I didn't stop myself from asking.
"Everything Drazha was looking for, and precious little Khal was. She'd have eaten him alive." He saw my face and sighed. "A joke. We do not eat people."
I set to climbing over a fallen log, trying to quiet my spinning thoughts.
"You have one thing on her that Drazha can't deny, though."
"What is that?"
The grizzled orc followed me with a casual leap, landed and stretched. "She's never killed anything with fire before."
That night,around the campfire, Khal came to me. "Will you walk with me?"
I didn't protest, got up on my aching legs.
"Hey, Khal, are you sure you should go alone?" A few of them laughed. "What if you meet another Pthralhirgar? You want me to come with you?"
Khal's shoulders tensed. I could feel my face heat.
"I think if something attacks me, I just invited the person who did the most damage today."
There was laughter and hooting behind us. Khal pushed farther into the dark, and I straggled after him, trying to calm my pulse. I was following him away from the camp like an animal to slaughter.
I tried to calm my breathing, focus on the leaves that brushed my fingers, the roughness of bark. Maybe it would be faster this time; maybe the dress didn't have to come all the wayoff. It was already getting so tattered that I tried not to think about it. It was short now, it would be pretty easy to-
I bumped into him with a yipe. He'd stopped moving and I hadn't noticed.
"Are you okay?" He caught my arms. The waxing moon just illuminated the curve of his jaw.
"F-fine." I grimaced at my stuttering. "I'm fine." He dropped his hands, stepped back.
