Page 103 of The Orc Outcast's Miracle

He huffed out a sound she couldn’t place. Something like a laugh or maybe a whimper. His weight curled around her, settling heavily on her head and around her back. She felt his palms on her shoulders and against the back of her head.

“Fingers too, Govek,” she demanded, harshly. “Claws and all.” He hesitated but did. Very lightly. “I’m never going to forgive you for this. When we’re old and gray and on our deathbed, I’m still going to remind you of how bad you scared me just now.”

“Yes, my love,” he whispered into the top of her head. His weight crushed her a little and she relished it. “I will not fish in the afterlife either, if it will appease you.”

“Damn straight you won’t,” she said, uncertain if she was laughing or crying. “Why’d I have to fall in love with a fucking orc! Why couldn’t you just use guns like normal people!”

“I don’t know what a gun is, Miranda.” His voice warbled with humor.

“Bows and arrows then. Keep yourself at a nice safe distance and shoot things from really, really far away.” She moved back a little, rubbing the tears from her eyes. “Goddamn it, Govek.”

“Is everyone all right?”

Miranda was jarred out of her haze.

Dang, she was surrounded by people right now. Most of them were only twenty or so feet away. They came out from behind a huge tree. The adults had their full attention on their families as the boar tainted the water red. The children were mostly distracted too. Either crying in their mothers’ skirts or looking to their fathers for support.

Estoc’s eldest, however, burst in excitedly, “Father, I want to touch it! Let me touch it!”

“For the will of Fades, Vaiteg, if you ask to touch it one more time.”

“Look, father!” the boy pleaded. His exuberance got a few of the younger kids to look up, releasing a little fear. “It’s amazing. And did you see Govek? He was like—rawh!” The boy exuberantly acted out Govek ripping out the boar’s throat, tiny fangs and all.

Miranda smiled. She couldn’t help it.

“I wanna do that when I come of age! I want to hunt a boar.”

Estoc glowered at Govek as he said to his son, “No.”

“Aw, father, please!”

“Are you all right, Miranda?” Savili approached, her hands trembled around her whimpering babe. “You aren’t hurt?”

“I can’t believe you ran in there, Miranda!” Roenia said. “That was so foolish.”

“Yes.”

Govek’s single word spiked a torrent of shivers down Miranda’s spine. Oh shit, he was big mad. She would have to make this up to him majorly.

“I’m sorry,” she said, mostly to the women because saying sorry would not put much of a dent in Govek. “I just... got caught up.”

“I’d do the same for Iytier,” Savili said.

“The fuck you would!” Iytier raged from where he stood in the water next to the boar as he examined its tusks. “If I ever catch you running after a boar, you’ll have the Fades to answer to.”

Savili ignored him. “I have an extra dress, Miranda. Come on.”

“This is the same as you saw, right, Govek?” Karthoc pointed to the spikes tied to the animal’s tusks. “When you were in the outer woods?”

“Yes.” Govek let Miranda go and waded back into the water to examine the boar. Savili pulled her behind a nearby rock and helped pull her gown off. Roenia brought the new one.

Fuck, it was cold. So damn fricking icy cold!

“Look at this. It’s like the rope is fused to the tusks,” Iytier said.

“It smells odd,” Karthoc muttered. “What is that? It’s not blight.”

“It’s... familiar,” Govek said quietly. “The last had it too. This odd stench. Is it goblin poison?”

---