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“Woo me?” She laughed. “That’ll be refreshing. I’ve been chasing your tail this whole time, it’ll be good to be on the other end for once.”
She led him into one of the vacant ‘booths’, a heated tub surrounded by a few stools and wicker baskets, the dividers helping to give some semblance of privacy. The tubs on either side were occupied, Roderick greeting the one they passed with a friendly grin and nod.
“I saw the other humies were celbratin’ their homecomin’,” Mazkha said, turning to lounge on the bench. “How long did you say it was since you’ve been in the Empire?”
“Almost half a year by now,” Roderick answered, daring to sit beside the she-orc. She blinked down at him in surprise, but did not react otherwise. “But it feels somehow longer, and so much has happened since I was last here. I’ve crossed the breadth of Tilea, sailed to the deserts of Araby, met Skyseeker…”
“Bet that last one’s stuck with ya the most,” Mazkha chuckled.
“I’ve also met some decent folk. And some not so decent,” he added, bitterly remembering his last interaction with the Captain. Different times and different circumstances, had been Von Kesse’s excuse. Indeed they were.
“I’ll assume I’m part of the former,” Mazkha said.
“Ever since we had to abandon ship in Brettonia, you’re the only one who’s really taken the time to get to know me,” Roderick said. “Sure, I’ve come to know some of the men, they make decent sailors and soldiers both, but you’re the only one who wants to spend time with me.”
“Well, I wouldn’t’ say only,” Makzha replied. “How about little Eddy? You two seem to be gettin’ along?”
“Edouart’s a decent lad,” Roderick admitted. “There’s a little too much naivety in him, it was clear as day he’s never been part of a real battle until his father sent him to assist us. I feared he would break after Cassel, but he’s done well to pull himself together.”
“I’ve met bigger and stronger knights than him who’ve crumbled under the pressure,” Mazkha said. “I underestimated him too, but he’s not squishy like most Brettonians. Not unlike someone else I could mention.”
“That may be so, he’s a decent man and is a fine soldier, but with you, it’s different. You offer companionship, and you’ve gone out of your way to offer solace, even if I’ve never asked for it, and I feel all the better because of it.”
“My wily charms do have that effect on people,” she laughed. “That’s very sweet of you to say, little knight, and I feel the same way, but what’re ya gettin’ at?”
“Something I should have done a long time ago,” he said, his heart beating faster as he craned his neck to look her in the eye. “We’ve been though much together, Mazkha, and I’ve come to appreciate your company. At first I thought all these things you’ve been saying to me, all the jokes and the teases, I thought those were all just words, but if there’s something deeper behind them...”
“Roderick,” Mazkha chuckled. “Of course I wasn’t just stringing you along. I really, really like you, little knight. But I was under the impression you didn’t feel the same way?” she asked. “You brushed off all my hints and queues, I was startin’ to think you only had a thing for girls with tails.”
“I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “You changed my mind, lass. And now, I want to make up for all the times I spurned you.”
He reached up to grab her hand into his, Mazkha watching his arm with a pair off wide eyes, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, her eyes locked to his, Roderick summoning the courage to ease her closer. She was a fierce creature weighing four times as much as he did, with muscles bigger than his head, but if he knew anything about orcs, it was that they appreciated a little assertiveness.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve fantasised about bringing you into my tent,” Mazkha said, her warm breath caressing his face as the two leaned in. “How I’d put you in my cot, and take you in every way. That’d be one way I’d change your mind, but the question was how to get you to come to me.”
“I’m here now,” he replied, pulling her a little closer. Each breath he took was of hers, Roderick parting his lips in anticipation of the tantalising closeness. Her gaze swapped from his eyes to his mouth then back again, Mazkha looking as indecisive as he’d ever seen her.
When he moved forward to graze his lips with hers, he did not make contact.
Instead of mirroring him, Mazkha had pulled away, Roderick heart hammering not out of anticipation, but fear.
“No,” Mazkha said, as much to herself as to him. “No, not like this. We can’t.”
“W-What?” Roderick stammered in surprise. “Mazkha, what’s wrong?”
She put her hands to his shoulders, easing him away. He’d never seen her not grinning or smirking, but now her expression was distant, neutral, and she turned to stare at something on the ground between her feet.
“Did I do something wrong?” Roderick asked her.
“No, but I almost did.”
“But, I thought… I thought you wanted this?”
“I do,” Mazkha insisted. “But somethin’ about this ain’t right. You’ve been pushin’ me away all this time, and now you come to me, reeking of booze and offerin’ yourself up like a slice of meat. It doesn’t add up.”
“Does it matter?” he asked, feeling a pang of irritation at her sudden change of attitude. He’d thought she’d jump at the bit to lay with him, what he done to offend her?
“Absolutely,” she said, her face as straight as an arrow. “Where is all this coming from, Roderick? What’s caused this change of heart?”
“I…” He trailed off, staring at the wisps of steam rising form the bathtub beside them for a while. That irritation was turning to guilt, yet he couldn’t’ bring himself to lie to her face. “I guess I’ve not been honest with you. The Captain, he’s… decided to form a new plan. He’s not taking his men to Marienburg, he’s going to take the first boat he sees and turn tail. He’d rather leave the city to its fate than risk his life to help them.”
“Damn, that’s just plain dirty that is. I’m guessin’ he didn’t tell you about this little rug-pull?”
“He left most of his men in the dark about it too, from what I’ve gathered. Bastard was probably planning it all the way from Cassel, maybe sooner, Gods knows.”
“And that’s why you’ve taken to drinkin’,” Mazha mused.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he snapped, throwing up his arms. “Nothing I said could persuade him from this course. You, the Brettonians,, he plans to discard everyone once he’s reached the safety of the next port. He would put all of our efforts for naught, and damn all the costs we’ve paid along the way. Wilfred and Skyseeker are dead because of this damnable quest! And this accursed relic,” he snarled, rubbing his temple as his frustrations got the better of him. “It’s burrowed into my head, I can think about nothing else. Even when I put it down, I can still feel its weight in my hand, like it’s calling back to me. So yes,” he said, frowning up at her. “I’ve taken solace in alcohol, can you really blame me for that?”
There was a moment of silence between them, and in it he felt al ittle shamed for raising his voice at her, but his seemingly endless struggled had been bottled up for too long, and he needed an outlet.
“No,” she finally admitted. “know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but we’re not gonna fuck just because you need to burn some stress away. I’m not a piece of meat.”
Her words stung him, and shame cooled his temper. “I-I didn’t mean it like that,” he stammered. “I-”
“Never did tell you much about my father, did I? Might be high time I told ya. You see, our dear old last warboss was a right bastard. Brettonian settlements, goblin tribes and beastmen, he’d bring the Warrgh to any of them and spare no one. But there was nobody he liked more than fightin’ another Warrrgh banner.”
“My dear old man never took prisoners, savin’ for other orcs, know why? It’s not because orcs are the biggest and strongest, but because he had a cravin’ for orc-wives. He had his way with dozens of em’, but he’d never keep them, he’d rotate them out daily, sometimes sooner. But my mother stayed with him the longest. She wasn’t from our tribe originally, our Warrgh beat theirs into submission many years ago, but she fought like a daemon, some say, and she was just as cruel as he was accordin’ to some of the old timers. Maybe that’s why she lasted so long.”
Roderick glanced away. “What happened to her?”
“I did. She’d never been with child, and she was pushing sixty, but I guess dad’s seed was special,” she said, emphasising the word with contempt. “He was all for having me around, but the stupid bastard didn’t notice I hadn’t had a cock between my legs until I was old enough to talk. He wanted a son, and he flew into a rage, and mom got caught in the middle of it, like she had a hand in it. That night was the first time I heard her sob.”
“It got better when Morgoroth came next. Got any siblings?”
“No,” he answered.
“Don’t know if humies pick favourites, but orcs do, and guess which one I was? My dear old father had eyes only for his son, but it wasn’t like I was forgotten. As I grew, his eyes started to linger, and a couple times he’d grab my nipples and squeeze till I…” Her expression soured, her lip barely trembling.
“Did your mother not stop him?” he asked.
“Oh, she tried. Caught him touching me between the legs once, and she threw something at him. I think it was one of his cudgels. It hit him in the cheek and made a scratch, and he left little spots of blood as he took her into his hut. I felt the thumps through the ground, and the shouting, it… it went all night. And at dawn, he came out, the cudgel in one hand, his cock the other. Both were covered in…”
“I’m so sorry,” he said, placing his hand on her own. This time she squeezed back, and she meant it. “Was she…?”
“There was barely anything left to bury,” she said. “But Morgoroth and I did the best we could. That’s when I knew I’d end up the same if I didn’t start movin’, and fast. My dad was grooming Morgoroth to be his successor, but I was movin’ on him too, a little whisper here, a little talk there, and fortunately my little brother didn’t take much after his old man. Turns out killing someone’s mother makes them hate you, who woulda figured? When Morgoroth was all grown and ready, all it took was to give him a little push, and the rest fell into place.”
“Sounds like your father got what was coming to him,” Roderick said.
“My biggest regret is not putting the knife in myself,” she grumbled. “Could have done it too, our dear warboss always got tired out after he took his fill of wives that night. It would have been so easy. But the Warrgh needed a warboss, and we settle things through fightin’, not murderin’.”
She gave him a sad look, bringing up their joined hands so he could see.
“I can’t be like him, little knight. I can’t take advantage of you, and I can’t mate with you just because I’ve eroded your patience and you just want to vent your worries. I’m not after your body, Roderick, I’m after you.”
“Forgive me, lass,” Roderick said, the sincerity of her words pushing through his drunken haze, making him feel all the more a fool. “It was never my intention to make you feel that way.”
“I know,” she said. She reached out to cup his cheek, Roderick blinking as she bent over to give him a peck on his forehead, her soft lips caressing his skin. “Just toss it around in your head for a while, sleep on it. Maybe when things have calmed down a bit in camp, we’ll find the time to make something of this.”
“Very well,” he conceded. Now that he reflected on it, fooling around in a bathhouse while drunk was not exactly a flattering prospect, and he felt ashamed to have given her that impression. “It is getting late besides,” he added, rising to his feet. “I should go.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Mazkha said, also standing. “Don’t want any of the orc-wives gettin’ any ideas.”
They crossed the camp in the glow of the pale moon. They didn’t say very much, but Roderick didn’t mind. Just being in her presence was comforting enough. When he retired to his tent, it may have been the alcohol, or it may have been their joined confessions in the bathouse, but he felt fatigue take him easier that night, and for once he could block out the incessant morbid call of the relic.