Page 100 of The Orc Outcast's Miracle

“Hey,” Estoc said sharp, “Govek, you didn’t say your count.”

Govek grinned.

Miranda said, “Maybe we should wait two or three days and leave them on Ergoth’s...”

The scent caught Govek too late, like drenched fur and oozing pus. Thick, rotting.

Blighted.

Panic seared his spine, shook his limbs, and he barreled out of the water, toward the bank, toward the women who were not yet on their feet in alarm. They didn’t know what was coming, but they couldn’t sense it.

But they did see him. Aralie instantly bounded to her feet and rushed away from him in panic. Roenia and Savili stood too, backing away. The males roared, demanding to know what he was doing.

And Miranda stood alone, her eyes wide with shock. Unprotected.

He’d only just made it to the bank when the boar burst out of the forest, heading right toward them.

Chapter

Twenty-Six

MIRANDA

The squealing roar punctured through the air and rattled in Miranda’s skull. Her mind went blank, breathing stopped. Her muscles bunched with panic.

The screaming beast twice Govek’s height charged toward them. A massive, disgusting pig with black fur and a humped back. Foaming mouth. Beady red eyes. The stench of rot burned her nose. Its hide was covered in swollen, oozing welts.

“Miranda!”

The terrified screams brought her back to her senses, and she plunged to the left, bolting for cover with Roenia’s babe still in her arms.

“Oh Fades! Miranda!”

She whirled toward the voice and found Roenia and Savili scrambling toward her with terror-stricken faces. Roenia got to Miranda first and snatched her baby back.

“Here!” Aralie yelled from behind an oak trunk. The other women bolted for it, but Miranda turned, stupidly, helplessly.

Where was Govek?

The beast was right there. So big, Miranda couldn’t comprehend it. Its head towered over her. Its mouth was gaped, drooling, with jagged yellow teeth.

Govek made it to the beach first and scrambled toward Miranda. Eyes wild.

The pig turned away from her and charged for him.

Miranda’s throat burst with a scream as Govek caught the creatures’ tusks in his hands. They were longer than his whole torso and sharp enough to skewer him. Water sprayed in arches around the pig’s sides as it pushed Govek deeper into the spring.

Govek roared. Somehow, he leveraged himself against a boulder and hurtled the beast onto its side. Water splashed so high she lost sight of him. Her heart exploded in panic.

The beast snarled and flailed its legs in the air. Spraying water. She couldn’t see Govek. Was his head under? Was the pig on top of him? Was he going to drown? She couldn’t see?—

There he was! He was trying to leap around the creature, to get behind its head. But then the pig got back onto its feet. Its head plunged forward, yellow tusks skewering the air toward Govek. He barely managed to dodge.

There were black spikes near the base of the tusks, thick cords of rope had them tied on securely.

Just like the one that had skewered Govek the day they met.

Her stomach dropped.

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