Page 6 of Mountain Orc Daddy

These humans immediately surprise me. As I approach, they do not seem afraid. They don’t even take a step back. They watch me come towards them with what seems like excitement.

“Humans,” I roar at them. “State your intentions here, or leave immediately.”

“Oh wow,” the older woman of the group steps forward. “Hello, it is so nice to meet you. You have to understand, we don’t get many orcs where we’re from.”

There humans really aren’t afraid of us. This is wrong. I don’t understand. I ball my fists and tighten my stance. Humans who aren’t afraid of us might be even more dangerous.

“What are you doing here?” I ask again.

Now, the older man steps forward. "We mean you and your people no harm. I promise. We are just on a family camping trip. We’re actually set up just a little bit that way.” He points behind them.

I don’t change my stance. They could be lying. Why should I trust them? They are still a danger to my tribe.

“You know what,” the older woman says. “Want to join us?”

“Join you?”

“Join us!” The older woman is definitely excited now. “I can sense you don’t trust us and worry about the safety of your tribe. Join us at our camp for the night, then you’d see you have nothing to fear.”

I could join them, they all look very frail, I could easily over power them if it comes to it. But humans may be smarter than I’ve ever given them credit for. This could be a trap. An elaborate plan to separate me from my tribe.

“How about, I introduce you to myself and my family,” the older woman says. “I’m Mara Morgan, this here is my husband Phineas, that is our oldest child Remus, next to him is our oldest daughter Jade, and behind her-”

Mara gestures to the back of their group and I finally notice her, a fifth member of this family. A beautiful young woman stands shyly, with straight brown hair that falls down to her chest and bright green eyes drawing me in. She’s the smallest of their group, which explains why I missed her at first, but now I can’t seem to look away.

“That’s my youngest daughter, Blair,” Mara continues. I’m snapped out of my trance. I almost forgot what I was doing. My concerns for my tribe return. Mara told me their names but not who they are.

“But who are you,” I say, tired of all of this. “Why are you humans not afraid of us? Who are you?”

The beautiful one, Blair, steps forward. Her family all seem shocked by doing this. “We aren’t normal humans. We are a family of witches-”

“Witches?”

“Yes, witches,” she continues. “We control magic. We know about orcs. Everyone does.”

“Everyone knows about us?” How is that possible? The Broken Maws Tribe’s encampment is supposed to be a secret. I shake my head. “I need to move my tribe now, before–”

“No, not you and your tribe specifically,” Blair says, and I calm down momentarily. “I don’t think anyone knows your tribe is here, we found you by accident. I just mean everyone knows about orcs, witches, everything, after the Veil fell years ago.”

These witches confuse me, what the hell is ‘the Veil?’ And how did it fall? What is the ‘everything’ she mentioned? What else is there? My father never told us much besides not to trust humans.

None of that is important right now. I still don’t know if I can trust them. Although, hearing all of this come from the mouth of Blair makes me want to believe it more, for some reason.

The rest of the Morgan family have all been looking at Blair. She notices all the eyes on her and she seems to sink away from the group, returning to the back. The rest of the family return their eyes to me.

“You all use magic?” I might as well use this opportunity to learn as much about them as I can. I may need to use something against them if this turns bad.

“Well, most of us,” Remus, the younger male, says with a chuckle. Jade laughs with him. Blair looks away with a flash of hurt on her face.

“I can sense you are conflicted-”

“I am not-”

“Perk of having magic, dear.”

I definitely don’t like that. Having my emotions and feelings so easily discovered is not what I want. They are gathering just as much information about me as I am about them. I thought I’d have the upper hand.

“Again,” Phineas chimes in. "We mean you and your tribe no harm. We were just hoping to share knowledge and experience. I am sure there is a lot we have to learn from you and your people and vice versa.”

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