Page 8 of Valka

“I saw you prod at her until she had no choice. Go, Skala!” Raska insisted.

Angrily, Skala stomped away, snarling and spouting threats with each step.

Raska turned toward the woman. “You should stop provoking him. I am the only one who can control him, and I am not always beside him.”

“Any male who would strike a woman deserves no respect,” Delia said.

Raska shook his head. “You are not in the human world. In this world, you respect the males or you die wishing you had. Iwill not kill my brother over a captive female. Do not force my hand.”

Valka stood and looked down over the women once more. This was not a good thing to happen to the females, or to the tribe. Any available female was trouble, and there were seven among them now. If your tribe had unmated females, your tribe was a target. There were not nearly enough females to go around one tribe, must less all of them. And any who wanted females of their own would gladly attack those who had them. Even those mated to a female had problems those without never had to worry about. If you were mated to your own female, other males often tried to kill you so they could fuck your female. Basically, any female was trouble under any conditions, someone would try to kill you, and eventually they’d succeed. It was easier to have none!

But human females were even more trouble than Orc females. They were weak and they complained about everything. They couldn’t be trusted to survive on their own if you had to go out to raid another tribe. And they cried. He hated crying. Crying meant weakness and weakness was not to be tolerated for any reason! The others like him out there, they wouldn’t want weak, simpering females. At the very least, the humans should have been left on the ship to drown. All of them. He grinned thinking back to the loud one. Except the loud female. She was not weak. She amused him, and she made Skala angry which was especially amusing in itself.

Chapter 5

Valka remained in place, a silent spectator, as the loud human female walked over to a bucket that had been left amongst them so they could drink water at will. She picked up an earthenware bowl that had been tossed beside it and scooped some water out of the bucket, then left the other humans as she moved toward the end of the jagged cliff wall jutting up out of the sand they sat against.

Watching curiously, he didn’t understand what she was doing. Then suddenly, he saw it. A gray skaevin lay there in the shade of the rocks. This one was white bellied with a light gray back. Its head was white, with a large black beak, curved at its tip as most birds of prey had, and its legs were gray, leading to sharp black talons.

The loud female spoke softly, making clicking noises with her tongue as she very, very carefully approached the skaevin. “I don’t know what you are, but I know you’re hurt. I saw it when you brought me back here. Will you let me give you some water?”

The skaevin lifted its head and looked at her.

The female held her injured arm against her chest, reaching out with her good hand to place the bowl near its beak and backed away, waiting to see if it would drink.

The skaevin dipped its beak into the bowl, drinking down all the water.

Carefully, the human approached the bowl, taking it in hand and returning to the bucket to fill it again. She did this repeatedly, over and over again. Each time she’d place the bowl where the skaevin could drink from it, until finally it wanted no more. Then, she reached out her good hand to the creature.It watched her for a few seconds, then unconcerned with her presence, laid its head down rather than bite at her.

She moved closer to it, trying to better see its lower body.

Valka watched as she cautiously examined the torn flesh of its leg and thigh where it attached to its body.

“You’re a pretty creature, aren’t you? I’m not sure what you are called, but you’re beautiful. And you’re hurt.”

The skaevin kept an eye on her, but was satisfied to just lie there and let her remain near.

Valka couldn’t tell what exactly she was doing, other than tending to the injured skaevin. But his brows rose in surprise when after she’d examined the skaevin, she lifted the hem of her skirt to her mouth and used her teeth to tear it. She took the torn skirt out of her mouth and inspected the tear she’d put in the cloth, then returned it to her teeth, gripping it securely as she used her teeth to tear it in the opposite direction from her hand, tearing a strip off the bottom of her skirt. Kneeling before the skaevin, she very carefully applied the strip of fabric to its injured leg, using the forearm of her injured hand to gently hold the fabric in place as she wrapped it around the leg with her good hand before tucking in the end to hold it in place. She sat back on her haunches and inspected her work. “It’s the best I can do at the moment. But you’re going to be alright, I think. When they bring us food, I’ll share mine with you. Will you let me come back?”

The bird gave no indication that she’d even spoken to it, simply lying still, so she reached out and laid her hand on its chest, surprised when what she thought were feathers felt more like long singular strips of leather each growing from the creature’s body, with multiple smaller and finer strips extending from all around it, giving it the appearance of feathers. She smiled when the raptor trilled softly in its chest. It reminded her of a cat purring, only more high-pitched. “See? I won’t hurt you.And I’ll be back with more water and some food when I can,” she promised.

She stroked it a time or two before going back to join her friends.

When she reached them, she moved among those sitting on the ground in a tight group.

“Why are you taking care of that monster, Delia?” Louise asked her. “It’s the reason we’re here.”

“Delia,” Valka said on a whisper, testing the feel of her name as it rolled off his tongue. Now he knew her name.

“It’s not a monster. It’s a living being, and it’s injured. If I can let it see that I’m not a threat and that I’m trying to help it, perhaps it will help us one day,” Delia answered. “Besides it’s not responsible for us being here. The ship’s crew is.”

“It’s not going to help us. There’s no one to help us. We would have been better off on the ship. We’re surrounded by monsters. Men with fangs and green skin, who are monsters! Huge birds that eat people, and that kidnapped us and brought us here that are monsters! At least our destiny aboard the ship would have been human-based,” Patricia sobbed.

“If by human-based you mean that you’d have drowned and the fishes would be eating you by now, then yes, it would have been human-based,” Louise said, intentionally trying to upset Patricia.

“Actually, it’s not a bad idea,” Bettina said.

“Being eaten by the fishes?” Louise asked, confused.

---