Page 29 of Orc's Mate

“As your mate, will they expect me to do the same?”

“I don’t know.”

“How was it with your mother?”

“She adored everyone.” My smile rose, though it was tinged with sadness. “And they adored her.”

“How about you?”

“I’m the person I always was.”

She said nothing as we passed over small dwellings.

A few of my people worked outside in their gardens. One lifted his arm to wave.

“We keep the gardens small. Unless it rains, we have no water. And if it doesn’t rain, the crops die.”Wedied. Or moved to the city.

“Do you have wells?”

“The ground’s too rocky to dig them.”

“And the sea? The islands project up from an enormous body of water.”

“It’s salty. It kills the plants.”

“I see.”

“We can’t drink it either,” I added. “Though it’s full of fish, so we never go hungry.” Not for meat, that is.

We approached my home that faced the vast ocean opposite the side facing the city, and Zarran swooped lower.

“I’m excited to see where you—we’ll—live.”

Would her excitement hold? I shouldn’t feel bad about the island where I grew up. “We live simply.”

“I’m fine with that. Zur and I shared a small . . . I guess you’d call it a shack when compared to the beautiful buildings in the city. Two tiny bedrooms so small you can barely walk around the sleeping surface. One open area where we cooked and sat in the evening. I guess someone else will claim it now. I hope they give Zur a good burial.”

Her arm lifted toward the open world beyond the island where the deep purple sea gleamed in the sunlight, broken only with whitecaps. “What’s in that direction? More islands?”

“This island chain is the last as far as I know. None of my people have flown far enough in that direction to find out what must be out there.”

“It must end eventually. There’s land behind us.”

“Maybe the sea doesn’t end until it reaches the other end of the land behind us.”

“Like your people, few humans have traveled far. It’s too dangerous with the shaydes and who knows what else, and why bother? Everything we need can be found inside the village or in the surrounding area.”

Except me. I hoped she’d someday see that, feel that. I couldn’t be found within her village.

Why had my clan chosen this remote, harsh place to live? If only I could offer her something better. We could move to the city, but I’d waste away there. My heart and feet were planted deeply in the island, and I couldn’t imagine uprooting them.

But it was all we could do to grow the food we needed. Water was more precious than coin. Yes, we could buy food in the city and bring it to the island, but there was a reason our population dropped instead of expanding. We lacked women, but our males still chose to leave. They fled to the city to find jobs, at first stating they’d be back. Later stating they’d return next year or the one after that.

Few felt a strong bond to the island.

The old remained, plus a few hardened warriors.

And me.

---