The Hunted Princess

Chapter 5

Vera woke gradually as sunlight warmed her body and pierced her eyelids. She heard birds chirping around her in shrill tones and spent a moment enjoying the melody they provided. She knew in a few moments she’d hear children’s voices scaring the creatures away, and she’d be yelled at eventually for being lazy and just lying there, but for just a moment, she wanted to feel peace.

She pulled her blanket higher on her shoulders and snuggled her face a little deeper into the floor, noting that it felt softer today. Normally she couldn’t move more than an inch before she’d feel at least one splinter dig into her skin. Now the wood seemed to almost be tickling her, and much higher on her face than any wood normally would…

She sat up with a start, realizing that she wasn’t lying on wood at all. She was on grass! She had a new blanket, now lying low on her body, but she sat in a patch of grass nestled between the slightly upraised roots of a tree that stood nearby. The tree was thicker than the ones that surrounded her village, and she noted that there were many just like it surrounding her.

She stood, wiping her hands on her skirt, while looking in every direction. As far as she could see, there was only her, her blanket, and trees. They towered over her, looking down on her current distress with apathetic shakes of their leaves and groans from their trunks when a slight wind whispered through them. Vera turned in circles, looking for any clue to where she was, but could only notice that she seemed to be on a slight slope, so she could tell which way was downhill, at least.

Vera stood perfectly still while weighing her options. She didn’t want to shout and attract any predators…she didn’t want to stay and starve waiting for someone to happen by…and she didn’t want to go downhill, since the only place she could possibly be near to was her home village where either Marge, Lord Aberon, or both, were waiting to sell, beat, or kill her.

The only place to go was uphill, but that’s where Orcs and Goblins tended to be. Vera paused. The sight of a shadowy orc appeared in front of her, but she quickly shook it away. She didn’t remember how she’d gotten into the hills, but she’d never seen an Orc before, so she was probably remembering a nightmare.

While she was thinking that she should get out of the hills and just find a path that led to a different village instead, she heard thumping footsteps coming from the trees. She whirled around and saw a large man coming into her small area carrying two rabbits in his hand.

Her eyes trailed from the rabbits, and the first thing she was forced to notice was the dark green tint of his skin. She could see veins popping out everywhere, wrapping themselves around thick muscles that bulged and bounced with his every step as he lumbered closer to her. Nothing covered his chest except the strap where he slung his bow and quiver, while a belt held two axes at his slim waist.

Without a word to her, he dropped his kill at her feet and began gathering sticks from all around their little clearing. In no time at all he’d gathered enough to form a small fire-pit and began twisting one stick into the pit of another in what Vera recognized as a way to start fire without flint. She watched in fascination that he was able to get smoke to appear very quickly, where she sometimes struggled even with fresh flint shavings. Not wanting to interrupt him, since he was very studiously ignoring her, Vera looked back at the rabbits beside her with a grimace.

Each had a clean arrow wound in the neck, and was obviously fresh, but Vera couldn’t stomach the thought that he was about to cook these cute creatures. After all, she never looked at the meat the butcher gave her before he butchered it. She still liked to think that it just miraculously appeared, without thinking about the lives that were sacrificed to feed her. Even as she thought of cooked meat, though, her stomach growled in warning. It had been so long since her last meal…at this point could she really be picky if this orc had decided this was their breakfast?

Turning her attention back to him, she was amazed that he already had a small fire going that needed no more tending to, and was now standing and staring her down. Now he was closer, she could see he was just barely smaller than Lord Aberon, and wondered if he might be half-giant as well. Orcs and giants weren’t known to copulate, but surely stranger things had happened. Such as her being out in the woods with one. Or that one had saved her.

“Mph,” he grunted, making her look into his face for the first time. She had to strain back a bit to see into it directly, but she did her best to hide the harsh trembling that had been building up since she woke up. Right now she felt cold and terrified, with a dread sitting upon her heart. Orcs were never referred to as kind creatures. If anything, she’d heard stories that they would do anything to prove they were the best warriors, including killing their own and painting their green skin with blood.

Even so, she tried to meet his bright green eyes directly, so she wouldn’t get distracted by the small tusks jutting up from either side of his mouth. His eyes were buried under a prominent brow, with thick eyebrows throwing them into shadow, but she could make out the barest flicker as he watched her intently and grunted again. This time he nodded his head to the rabbits at her feet.

“Oh…I’ve never skinned them before,” She muttered, not wanting to even look at the dead creatures beside her. She looked back up as a sneer made the orcs lips curl. He grabbed the rabbits roughly, his movements jerky and sharp enough to make her flinch and stomped back to his fire. Vera studiously looked away from the sight of him preparing the meat, and did her best to ignore the disturbing sound of ripping. It took him a bit longer to prepare the rabbits, but eventually he grunted again, and handed her a chunk of meat that vaguely resembled the animal it used to be. Vera took a hesitant nibble. Other than being a bit bland, he’d made it edible, and she eventually blocked the part of her mind telling her this was weird and finished her share.

Looking over, her Orc was watching her carefully. He’d finished his meal quickly and already smothered and cleaned up the fire so there was almost no trace that there’d ever been one. Once she was done, he stood and started walking up the hill without a word. For a moment, Vera wondered what to do. She was in the same position she was in when she woke up. She couldn’t be alone, she couldn’t go home…but her only companion was heading in the opposite direction from where she thought the nearest village might be.

Vera hesitated another moment, but then remembered the last words she’d heard last night. She owed him her life.

With a sigh, she realized she had no choice but to follow him. Since he’d only grunted, she could tell he wouldn’t take kindly to questions of his intentions. What were the chances if she asked what was going on he would answer her?

It didn’t take long of Vera stumbling over fallen trees and around bushes that she lost sight of the green figure she’d been following. She’d really tried to keep up, but he stepped over things she had to jump or climb to get past. That and it seemed every twig seemed to jump under her feet with every step, threatening to twist her ankles. It couldn’t have been more than half an hour of scrambling after him that she was sweating, sore, and repressing a rapidly growing headache. Even with all the chores she’d done, she’d never had to work as hard as she was now, just to keep up with him!

What was worse was that no matter how much she yelled for him to slow down, or help, he never turned back, and never stopped moving away. After falling in a heap after climbing over a particularly large tree trunk, Vera decided it wasn’t worth having someone else with her if she would likely kill herself trying to keep him in sight. Every part of her ached with the effort she’d been putting in, and when she looked up she’d finally lost the last sign of him moving away from her. She’d been able to see glimpses of him before, but as she looked around now, there was nothing.

Feeling lonelier than ever, she leaned back against the tree to catch her breath. There was no telling how far she’d just gone, and now she’d have to retrace her steps if she wanted to go back to her original plan, making her groan at the thought. Her orc obviously didn’t care about her, or he wouldn’t have left her behind so easily, so him saving her was ridiculous, but she still couldn’t just sit there and wait to die. Just as she thought she had the strength to stand again, she saw his lumbering form coming back through the trees. If she thought his steps were thundering before, they were nothing compared to now, when he was basically stomping his legs on the ground, surely leaving his trail over an inch in the dirt. He stopped just before her and crossed his large arms over his chest, glaring down at her. His displeasure was clear from just how deep his frown went, and how tight his arms were while he didn’t move and they stared each other down.

“You are weak.” He finally grumbled.

“I am tired.” Vera answered, doing her best to put the same bite into hers, but she was still raspy and winded.

“And weak.” He insisted with a sneer. He still didn’t move, and she still didn’t stand, but he was far enough away she could see his face clearly showing the same disdain she’d seen in Marge and Alber before him. It made her instantly angry with him. What did he expect? That a small girl with no meat on her, who’d always lived in a village, would be able to keep up with a half-giant Orc who basically ran on two tree trunks and mountains of muscles!? Grown human warriors would probably have trouble keeping up with him!

“Then leave me. Why did you help me anyway? What do you want? I have nothing to give you!”

The orc scoffed and finally looked away from her to the sky. “We will get nowhere at your pace.” He muttered with a growl, looking back at her. “Weak human.” He scoffed again, but seemed to come to a decision. Reaching down, he grabbed one of her arms and one leg and hauled her up, over his head, and across his shoulders. Vera let out a yelp of surprise, but she could do nothing against the firm hands that swung her around as easily as a doll.

She was very uncomfortable being wrapped around him like this, but he didn’t let her move at all before he took off as quickly as he was going before, not even seeming to notice the extra weight. No matter how she protested, he didn’t say a word again, even as she pleaded to let her go her own way. The longer she stayed with him, she felt, the more uncomfortable things would get, and they were already off to a bad start.