Page 5 of The Orc Outcast's Miracle

And she’d gotten out of those agonizing memories on her own. It was stupid and irrational, but that little sliver of power gave her hope.

The seer had been right. She could heal.

The cracking of branches sounded, hard thuds hitting mud. Growing louder.

Someone was coming!

She let out a hard exhale that took some of her tension with it. Govek had heard her. She managed to get to her hands and knees. The effort was so enormous that she trembled from it.

“Are you alright?”

Her lungs seized. It wasn’t Govek.

“What are you doing out here?”

She recognized this voice. It was the same one that had just been here.

They’d come back and were pretending like they hadn’t known she was here? Why? It didn’t make sense.

“Here, let me carry you back?—”

“Don’t touch me,” Miranda snarled, ready to rip this male’s eyes out if he came within striking distance. She looked up to his face, trying to force her blurry vision to return to normal.

“I only want to get you to the hall,” the male said.

“If you touch me, I’ll scream bloody murder and everyone in the clan will hear it,” she snapped. She blinked rapidly, shook her head. Squinted. “Wolvc.”

“Uh... yes. Yes, I am. You can trust me.”

“I’m not going to trust the guy who did this to me,” Miranda snarled, and Wolvc scampered away from her. She would have grinned if she hadn’t been about to puke. “What the fuck is wrong with you? How dare you? Govek is going to slaughter you when he finds out.”

“Miranda!”

That voice registered as clearly as one of the Rove Tree’s crystalline leaves.

Maythra.

The older woman came to the edges of Miranda’s vision, blurry but distinct. “Miranda, you’ve been attacked. You’re confused.”

“Attacked by you.”

“No, of course not. Let us help you.”

“You must think I’m a complete idiot. I heard you. All of you.” She hadn’t. The voices had been garbled and male, but Maythra had shown up far too quickly for her not to be involved in this.

“I-I don’t know what you mean, Miranda,” Maythra managed, though the trembling in her voice betrayed her. “We found you here. Come, let my son carry you back to the hall.”

“Your son?”

“Rogeth,” Maythra replied. “Wolvc is here too, but since you aren’t comfortable with him?—”

“I’m not comfortable with either of them. Or you.” Miranda’s stomach churned, and she pressed her forehead back into the dirt, gasping. Using the clean, fresh scent of the fallen leaves to help clear her nausea. The cold prickled at her hands and knees as the damp soaked into her gown.

“Rogeth,” Maythra whispered. “Get her. Wolvc, go in front to intercept him.”

“How bad do you think my hearing... Intercept who?”

“Dear, you’re delusional. Please, just let us help.”

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