Page 5 of Lost to the Orcs

Fuck! I just keep running.

I continue even as my lungs burn. As my arms and legs ache. The sweat trickles down my body. Soaking into my clothes.

I run until I trip. I was looking over my shoulder when I tripped on a raised stump. The air leaves my lungs and pain lances through me. I curl into a ball. Ow. Fucking Ow. I gasp for air and try not towhimper too loud in case the men are still following me. I notice that the tree is standing on its roots. I could hide under them. I shudder. I feel like a little gremlin lives under there. Or a really big spider.

I hear footsteps. Oh no.

I try to not make a sound as I scuttle beneath the tree. Hoping and praying that there are no spiders underneath this thing. Please please please.

A soft whimper escapes me before I can choke it down. The footsteps pause. Oh, god. I cover my mouth with my hand, ducking further beneath. The boots scuff towards me.

They stop before the tree. I am shaking with so much fear I’m surprised the tree isn’t doing so with me. They pause here, tapping as if they’ve got a rock in their shoes. Or some kind of nervous tick. A sniff of the air and then they move onward after huffing.

I wait. Several minutes before trying to scoot out of beneath the tree. I hiss in pain as my bandaged side rubs against an upraised rock. “Fuck.” I moan.

I’m pretty sure I look wild. My eyes wide and terrified. Dirt, grime, leaves and twigs stuck in different places of my hair and clothes. I’m trembling and I’m pretty sure I’ve reopened my wound. I mean, it’s not like the man even stitched me up and therefore it’s been kind of open anyways. But at least it had been scabbed up?

I stand up and listen. I don’t hear any footsteps or voices. I guess I’d lost them. I breathe a sigh of relief. But then looking around me, I realize a fatal flaw.

I’m lost.

Fuck.

CHAPTER SIX: OF TRIBE JAEDASON

It’s getting dark. Really dark. I shiver. I didn’t know the forest was colder than the open air. Or that it got darker than it normally would. I can see sunlight filtering in in tiny patches but the dark has creeped its way into the world around me.

I am bleeding but it has slowed immensely… and my bandage has glued itself to my skin as it dried. This is going to be hell.

Alrightie. Forest. Predators in forests? Wolves. Right? I don’t think they can climb trees. I should climb one just in case. Damn. When was the last time I climbed a tree?

I look up at the tree before me. The closest branch is about 15-ish inches from the tips of my fingers on my tip toes. I try to jump and barely graze the branch. Trying one or two more times, yields nothing.

I huff and feel my sweat sting my now seriously opened wound. I lean against the tree in a huff. I hate pain. I slide to my feet, the bark biting into my back. I hate the dirt. I hate carriages. I hate men. I hate that I’m here.

For the first time since arriving, my tummy growling, my lips chapped, my body trembling, I cry. Soft wrenching sobs fill the air around me and the tears flow like a waterfall. “I want to go home.” I cry.

Eventually, I fall asleep. After some time, I feel warm. Extremely so. Like I’m cocooned in the most snug, warmest blanket I’ve ever had. It smells of the earth and pine. My ears pick up the thumping ofsomething against my head. No, it’s probably in my head. I’ll likely have a headache when I wake up. I snuggle into my imaginary blanket and fall back into sleep. I’ll need this illusion. Because in the morning, it’ll be one more nightmare. I feel myself drift away; rocked gently until I’m swallowed entirely by darkness.

~~~~~

When I blink my eyes open. It’s bright, brilliant green all around me. I’m lying in the middle of a clearing, wrapped in the cloak and a leaf of food next to me. What? I thought—

I remember the yellow eyes, surrounded by green and darkness. Oh god. It hadn’t been the men who were feeding me. Nor the ones giving me the cloak.

I realize for the first time that the cloak is large enough for two of me.Two of me. I swallow and look tentatively around me. I feel like I’m being watched. But I don’t see anyone. God. I quake beneath the cloak.

“Hello?” My call flies through the clearing. But nothing responds. I’m surrounded by forest, so they could be anywhere within.

I’m about to remove the cloak but then realize I am completely bare from the waist up. The wrap that had covered my bandages as well as the shirt I had been wearing are gone. Hell, even my bandages are gone. In its place is a slimy green sludge. Ick!

I sniff the goo on my fingers. It smells absolutely putrid. “Yuck!” I start wiping the goop onto the grass around me when I hear a loud growl that freezes my hand mid-wipe. I look up to find a large green grey shirtless hulking beast withmusclesstomping their angry way to me.

I try to scrabble backwards, but I’m stuck within the cape. When he is standing before me, he’s so tall. Like way too tall. With my half crouched half laying position I barely come to the bottom of his knee! “What are you doing, lass?” He growls at me.

Oh. Why did that send tingles down my back? I stare at him wide eyed. My mouth agape.

“Donnae go quiet now, eh? You curse like an Orc on his worst day.”

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