Page 19 of The Dark Elf's Surprise Baby

I want this war to finish as soon as possible so I can get back and be with her. I miss her so badly that I’m miserable, an emptiness inside me aching to be filled with her presence.

It seems as though I won’t get my wish though, because the orcs are launching powerful counter attacks against us. Those blasted bastards are pure evil, driving our forces back every time we make an inch of progress.

With a stretch, I stand up and head towards the camp mess hall, situated just south of the lookout station where I’ve been holed up for the last six hours. Nothing has so much as shaken the trees and I’m in dire need of dinner.

The squad is small—just ten of us here manning this camp. I sit down next to one of my fellow squadmates and he chucks a hardtack roll at my head. I barely manage to catch it and keep it from hitting me.

Those hardtack rolls are tough as rocks and would hurt if they hit you in the head but it’s just how we do it in the camp. No sentimentality here. No courtesy or gentle manners.

So I take the roll and dip it in my canteen of kaffo and take a bite, softening it up so it’s edible. We have boiled burgona, hardtack rolls and some tough thison that’s been dried and spiced.

It’s nothing like the comfortable, fancy meals I get from my chef at the manor. Everything here is in stark contrast to the comfortable life I was living.

This really puts the whole situation into perspective for me. I’m grateful for every day I get with Harper because the alternative is spending endless days fighting orcs in skirmish after skirmish and eating dried thison and hard bread.

“See anything?” Sunzas asks, leaning over to attempt to spear a burgona from my plate. I bat his hand away, tempted to stab him with a fork for daring to try.

“No,” I tell him. “Only a pillas pissing in the wind.” Sunzas rolls his eyes but chuckles at the joke anyway.

“Good,” Rharodo says. He offers me another roll which I accept. “We don’t need those filthy orcs mucking around.”

He’s just finished saying that when someone at the far end of the table screams for us to look up.

When my head whips in their direction I see Rhilgess pointing at the food storage tent, eyes wide with a look of terror on his pale face.

Following his finger, I see that our food storage tent is on fire. Shit! My fellow men scramble around, panicking as the fire consumes the supplies. I look around, trying to locate the source of the fire. What’s going on? Is it an attack or did something happen?

“What happened to the tent?” Sunzas yells at Rhilgess. “Why is it on fire?”

“No one knows what happened!” Rharodo snaps at Sunzas. “We were all here when it went down.”

“I’m not blaming anyone!” Sunzas yells back.

We can’t afford to let the fire progress. It’s already decimated the food supplies. Our squad is small, the backups for the other fighters. We were bringing these rations to the northern encampment.

I’m still scanning the outlying brush, trying to figure out if we’re in danger. Nothing happens for a long moment but then…

“Ambush!” I scream as orcs pour out of the woods, one after another. We’re surrounded on all sides. We were vulnerable in this spot, I knew we were vulnerable but Sunzas insisted we would be protected by the hill on our north.

The table is overturned in the ensuing chaos and I leap up, trying to get away before my legs get crushed under it.

Orcs surround us. There’s only ten of us and at least fifty of them. We’re damned doomed here if we don’t get ourselves together. We’re all holding steady as the fifty orcs start approaching, banded tightly together to protect each other.

“Attack!” Sunzas shouts. I wince and the orcs rush at us with huge weapons—clubs and axes and battle scythes. The men draw our own weapons and we prepare to fight.

The first orc launches himself at us and Sunzas easily slaughters him where he stands, stabbing him through with his sharp blade.

But it’s not so easy after that. They outnumber us five to one and we’re not the main fighting regiment of the army. Still, we manage to hold our own for a while.

I’m battling two orcs at once when I realize the danger that I’m in. If I don’t survive this, I’ll never be able to get back to Harper. She’ll be left all alone, wondering what happened to me.

And she’ll have to mourn my death. I can’t do that to her. I fight harder, trying to push off my attackers with a blow to one’sskull and bashing the other in the knees with one well-placed kick. It works and they’re both forced to fall back.

Oh gods above, I pray.Please let me survive and get back to my one true love. I will never leave her again if only I can survive. I’m pleading with the Thirteen to bring me home safe and sound when I hear a sharp intake of breath and a scream, followed by a gurgle.

My eyes travel to the sound and I widen them in shock when I realize Rhilgess has been run through with a battle scythe.

We’re down to nine men and the orcs aren’t dropping quickly enough. It’s no use trying to continue to fight. If we fight, we’re only going to all be killed.

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