Page 57 of Agor

I glanced around for a solution.

Agor sprang to his feet. I should’ve known he wouldn’t sit still. I should’ve chained him again. His hands clenched into fists. With his shoulders squared, he looked ready to rip the alligator into shreds. Yet to my relief, he didn’t move from his spot.

Ever since we met, we’d been a team. We did everything together. We’d fought and hunted side by side. But today, I had to be on my own. I had to do it by myself, and I would rather die than accept his help.

Covered in sweat, my heart thundering with terror, I crab-walked away from the approaching monster. My back hit an old fallen log. There was no retreating any further.

With my eyes firmly on the alligator, I slammed an elbow into the rotten bark. The log broke. I reached inside it and pulled a fat, glowing toad out by its leg.

“Hey! Want a snack?” I yelled at the alligator and jumped to my feet.

Shoving the knife into the holster strapped to my arm, I grabbed the coil of rope. Holding the rope in one hand and the toad in the other, I climbed on a flat but dry knoll of moss nearby.

The alligator followed me, moving quickly on his six legs. I allowed it to come closer, so close that the water splashing from under his wide feet splattered over my pants.

The giant jaws opened. Panic zapped through me, urging me to run, but I forced it down, staying where I was.

“Here you go!” I tossed the toad up as high as I could.

Catching the toad, the alligator closed its mouth. The moment his jaws snapped together, I threw the rope around his snout and yanked, tightening the noose.

The rope flexed. Caught between the knobs and bumps around the monster’s mouth, it didn’t slide off. The alligator jerked his massive head. He was so strong, the gesture swept me off my feet. My arms felt as if being wrenched out of their sockets, but I held on to the rope.

Dragged through mud, the rope gave slack as the beast turned his head in the other direction. I quickly wrapped the rope around a tree trunk.

No rope and no tree in the world would anchor this monster for long. I might have less than a second before he’d get free.

I leaped as high as I could, then climbed the rope to the monster’s face. Enraged by the noose, he jerked his head again and thrashed his tail, whipping the lake water into a high wave.

I dangled on the rope, holding on for my dear life. He jerked to the left, with my body slamming into his jaw and my feet hitting under his throat. With my left hand, I grabbed the rope over his mouth, then drew my knife from the holster with my right hand and slammed it into the alligator’s eye, sinking it all the way to the handle.

“The brain of the purple crested alligator is between his eyes,”Agor had told me.“An eye is the best way to get to it, provided you can reach it.”

Well, I reached it. I twisted the knife once before the alligator jerked to the right, shaking me off.

I fell and rolled along the muddy bank into the pond. Dark water closed over me. I pushed away from the soft, mucky bottom.

The alligator thrashed, rolling through the mud in agony. Gathering my hands and feet under me, I scrambled away from him as fast as I could. The giant body collapsed next to me, sending a swell of mud, water, and duckweed over me.

My knife’s handle stuck out of the creature’s eye. I killed the monster. I was the winner. As long as he didn’t crush me under him while dying.

Crawling on my hands and knees, I made it out of water and mud.

Agor stood on the edge of the bank. His eyes were still open wide in horror, but his mouth was already relaxing into a smile of relief as I reached the dry ground. He waited until I climbed to my feet on my own. Then he gave me time to raise my arms into the air as the crowd cheered, screaming my name.

Only when I made a step toward him and my knees buckled from strain and exhaustion had he stretched his arm for me to lean on.

The moment I grabbed his hand, he pulled me into a hug.

“Congratulations, my general. You did it.” He kissed me, just the way I was, all covered in mud and blood.

“You looked a bit worried there for a moment,” I teased when he let me up for air again.

“I nearly fucking died,” he confessed. “No matter how much I believe in you or how many times I’ve seen you succeed and survive, I worry about you. Every single time. But I’m so fucking proud of you, my bride.” He pressed his forehead to mine, looking giddy with happiness.

Love for this man spread through my soul, filling every part of my being.

“About that,” I said quickly as both humans and orcs were already rushing to us to congratulate me. “I think I’ve been your bride long enough.”

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