I understood their confusion. Normally, I’d be the one egging them on to go sparring, then would party all night. And here I was, listlessly nursing a mug of ale right after breakfast.
“Um…” Agor scratched his beard, clearly looking for something to say but finding nothing.
“Market day is today,” Becca announced brightly. “You should go, Grat. See if you find something nice there. You like pretty things, don’t you?” She gestured at the rows of golden hoops with chains in my ears.
I did like “pretty things.” I had the best silk shirts in the keep. Except that right now, I preferred the tunic that my “wild thing” slept in to any fine clothing out there.
I chugged the ale down in two huge gulps.
“You know what? I’m going back hunting,” I said. “I got really, really lucky at the cabin this year, and I’m not going to waste this chance.”
Shoving the barstool back, I got up, but Agor stopped me with a hand on my arm.
“Listen, Grat, I’d rather you stay in the keep now. It’s not safe out there. I’ve got some reports of humans being sighted in the Wetlands.”
“Since when do humans make our woods unsafe?” I smirked, brushing him off. “Even the wild boars are safe with them around, since most humans are shitty hunters.”
We had the whole settlement of humans at the edge of the woods. They were a nuisance sometimes, and a lot of fun other times, but mostly harmless.
“Hey,” Becca, who was a human from that settlement, bristled. “We’re hunting just fine now that you actually let us hunt in the Wetlands.”
Agor placed an arm around his wife, then spoke to me, lowering his voice, “I meantotherhumans, not from the settlement. My men from the keep found their tracks while hunting a few days ago.”
“Are you sure those were human tracks? Maybe the wild things have returned?” There was always that possibility, regardless whether Khala turned out to be a wild thing or not.
“Only if the wild things have learned how to speak, ride horses, handle weapons, and dress themselves in clothing with gold and jewels,” Agor argued, then shook his head. “There’s lots of them, Grat. All are armed, but not for hunting.”
Worry now tightened my chest too.
“Did you see them?” I asked. “The humans? Do you know where they came from?”
“No. But my men traced their tracks all the way to their camps. They say it’s a rich caravan, with wagons upon wagons filled with trunks. It’d be nice to ambush them and raid their caravan. All that loot, can you imagine?”
“It doesn’t hurt to be careful,” Becca added somberly. “Humans may be small when compared to orcs, but they can be just as vicious and even more conniving. There’s a whole armyguarding the caravan. It won’t just be an ambush, but a real war if we attack. We’ll need to find out who they are and what they came here for first.”
Agor scratched his beard in thought. “The problem with humans is that no matter how many you kill, there are always more coming. This caravan seems important. But if so, how many more might come looking for it if we loot it?”
I had no reply to that. Historically, humans had been staying away from our Wetlands. The land that bog orcs loved and called home held little value to anyone born and raised elsewhere in Helfallow.
Becca’s caravan came here two years ago out of desperation, not in hope for a better life, but running away from a worse one. Chased out of their homeland, they had no choice.
Maybe these new humans had no choice, either? Or maybe they just got lost on their way elsewhere? Once they figure out their bearings, they’d be gone.
“I’d rather you stay put now, Grat. Forget about the bet,” Agor said. “Wait until these strangers leave the Wetlands or until we decide what to do about them being here.”
Meanwhile, Khala would be alone in the cabin, in the middle of the Wetlands, likely facing danger.
“I can’t stay.” I shook my head resolutely. “In fact, I’ll be going back today, right now, actually, after I briefly stop at the market to get some pretty things.”
I left later that morning, way before lunch. With no meat to carry, I’d loaded my shoulder basket with the things I got at the market, pretty and useful things that I hoped Khala would like.
The thoughts of her added a spring to my step. I’d been walking for hours through the difficult paths of the Wetlands, yet despite the exhaustion, my feet seemed to be moving faster the closer to the cabin I got.
Soon, I’d see her smiling face again, and my mind would finally calm again. With Khala by my side, I’d stop worrying about her.
A scream pierced the late evening air. And I knew exactly whose scream it was.
Blood froze in my veins. I ran, crashing through the underbrush. I didn’t stop to even drop my shoulder basket, frantically grabbing for weapons.
