Page 23 of Mountain Orc Daddy

“Oh.” Her face turns that deep shade of red again. "Sorry.” She starts to slow down her eating.

“No, no please keep going,” I say. “It reminds me of home.”

Blair laughs and almost spits her mouthful of food everywhere. I join her in laughing. As much as I care for my tribe, I’ve never laughed this much in my life.

“Here, watch me,” I say, seeing that Blair still looks embarrassed. I look down at my untouched lunch. I scoop it up and shove it all in my mouth with one bite. “Now,” I continue with my mouth still full. "You can still say you eat slower than an orc.” We both laugh.

With both of our lunches gone, we lay down on the picnic blanket. This time we lay cuddled closer together. Blair rests her head on my chest and I wrap my arm around her small frame to hold her close.

Now, instead of the sky, we turn our eyes to the other people in the park. Watching them as they walk past. Blair says it’s called ‘people watching.’ A witch uses magic to perform tricks while looking for tips. A group of dragon shifters toss around a ‘frisbee.’ A normal human drops a sandwich on the ground before picking it up and taking a bite.

“Oh gross,” Blair says with a gagging noise.

“What? The guy with the sandwich?”

“Yeah, so gross.”

I have to make a note to warn the members of my tribe about that. None of us would think twice about eating something that fell on the ground. I don’t know why it’s so taboo to Blair, but best to not let anyone make that mistake around her.

“Oh yeah, very gross,” I lie.

I kiss the top of her head and she scoots herself closer into my body. We are completely wrapped up in each other on this blanket. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

Laying here with her has been the absolute highlight of my trip to the city. The more time I spend with her, the less I ever want to leave her side. I could be happy laying here forever, feeling her chest move against my body as she breathes.

Alas, we can’t stay here forever. After an hour or two more of laying in the park, it’s time to move on. Blair throws away the trash from our lunch as I fold up the blanket.

“So, I have to go to the grocery store. You can tag along if you want, but you’ve seen this place already. If you want to just hang back at my townhouse, you can.”

“Oh, I don’t mind-” My focus shifts away from Blair and our conversation. All my training as a fighter is kicking in. I just can’t tell why. I scan the park around us, we’re surrounded by people but as far as I can tell, no one is paying us any attention.

“What is it? Uzul? Are you okay?”

“Sorry,” I snap out of it. “I don’t know what that was. All my instincts were telling me we were in danger, but I don’t see anything.”

“You know what, why don’t I take you back to the town house?” Blair’s words are full of concern as she rubs my back. “You can rest up while I shop.”

“Okay, yeah that sounds good.”

The two of us start walking out of the park and it happens again. It’s like alarms going off in my head. I can feel someone watching us. But when I turn to look, there is no one there. What is happening?

The entire walk home, I can’t help but feel that we are in danger but the danger never presents itself. My instincts have never been wrong before. I just wish I could tell what it’s warning me about.

15

BLAIR

“Iwon’t be gone too long, Uzul. Just try to relax and maybe watch some TV.” I close the door with a sigh of relief.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get him back in my townhouse. Or get him to calm down enough for me to leave. Ever since we left the park, Uzul has been on edge. I’ve never seen him like this. He has always been so calm and collected.

But something is wrong. He seemed almost scared, checking over his shoulder every few feet as we walked home. It was such a quick shift from how pleasant the morning was.

Unfortunately, I expected this to happen. I’m just surprised that it took this long. Uzul went from living in an isolated tribe in the woods to the middle of a big city full of new people. Of course, it’d be an adjustment.

Uzul is just feeling a little overwhelmed. He’s been introduced to a lot of new things in the past few days. His whole world has expanded. It’s not only okay for him to react this way, it’s expected.

Yes, I’ve been around to ease him into it all. That must be why it took so long to affect him. But it really was just a matter of time.

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