Page 18 of Orc's Pride

“Sir?”

I look up to where a few from my troop are standing, apprehension written all over their faces.

Gesturing for them to follow me, I lead them away from the tent. I don’t want Dana overhearing us. Even if I’m almost convinced that she isn’t here for nefarious purposes, I’m not taking the chances of her blinding me with her sweet words and that burning fire behind her eyes.

The chances of her putting a knife to my throat are slim, but they aren’t finite either.

“What did you extract from her?” Gor asks the moment I stop walking.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I regard them all carefully. They’re understandably anxious about this situation. What I’d told Dana had been true, the closest human settlement is at least a day’s walk from here and all of us know it.

So her being so far out, wandering in the woods as she had been, it doesn’t look good. Even if I could spin this to the regular brigades about her being lost and looking for safe haven, my troop wouldn’t believe me. I’d chosen them for a reason—they were smart and justifiably suspicious of most things that were considered ‘other’.

It’s what’s kept our base safe so far.

Them accepting something like this that is completely out of the norm of possibilities would have me questioning their senses if it were any other being we’d stumbled upon.

Instead of answering them, though, I tell them, “She’ll be under my watch.”

All of them straighten up at that. With little room to argue with me over the contents of what had been said between Dana and I, I can see their imaginations running wild to fill in the blanks that I wasn’t.

Typically, I never have to explain myself to anyone, but I do so out of principle. If I expect the entire base to run under my authority, I better have the information to back it up.

Though, with this, I really have nothing else to stand on other than Dana’s word and my gut feeling. Both of which are flimsy excuses and would never hold up if pressed with questioning from any of them.

“Sir…” One of them rubs the back of his head, all of them exchanging looks with each other.

I fix them all with a look, daring them to question me. It isn’t often that I have to pull rank, but in this case I will. Notnecessarily to protect Dana, but because causing a ruckus when we’re all already so on edge will only result in a bloodbath.

Not to mention us needing to focus our energies on the dark elves versus a random human woman.

Gor, however, isn’t swayed by my words or my stern looks. “You can’t expect us to let her wander around base with you. She’s obviously a spy. She could be working for the dark elves. You saw what those messages Old Malik decoded said.”

I sigh at him. Usually, him checking me would be nothing new, but in this case, it’s frustrating.

Bringing up something like that isn’t unfounded and he has a point. For a while now, there’s been word of Old Malik sending in spies to the dark elf camps and gathering intel on how their operations run. Working them from the inside in order to take them down once and for all.

Over the recent months, there has been news that’s been quickly gaining traction—letters being decoded and with talks of a massive uprising that doesn’t seem promising for us at all.

Whether the rumors are true or not, it’s made all of us wary.

Dark elves, in any organized capacity, are dangerous. While we win against them every time in brute strength, the more numbers they have on their side as magic users, the more deadly they are. While their reserves have been cut off since coming to Earth, that hasn’t made them completely despondent.

We’d all be fools to underestimate them, even in their handicapped state.

“Humans can’t be trusted, Pitha.” Gor frowns. “You know what.”

“I understand your concerns, Gor. As I said, she’ll be under my watch. Whatever happens, will be my responsibility.”

This is obviously not the response he wants because his frown deepens into a scowl. “You can’t be serious…”

“Deadly.”

The others shift awkwardly on their feet. It’s very rare that Gor and I don’t see eye to eye, even when he does check me. While we quite frequently have differing opinions, it isn’t often that we disagree so outrightly or heavily.

The thing is though, I can’t exactly tell him that my gut feeling is the cause for my sudden change in tune when it comes to humans.

While he’s right about not being trustful of Dana, I can’t help but want to. She’s obviously hiding something, but whether it’s personal or otherwise, I can’t seem to force myself into drawing it out of her through methods of torture.

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