Orcish Customs Ch. 01

*

As the days rolled past, Ash settled into the new routine. Toruq would wake her in the morning, they would eat a small portion, and begin walking. In the late afternoon, they would make camp, giving Toruq time to catch some animal while Ash built a fire to cook it over. They would eat their dinner and go to sleep, Ash in the blanket and Toruq on the ground. Toruq would wake her the next morning, and the cycle would begin again.

The scenery slowly changed as they progressed, the air becoming crisper as they went further and further into the foothills of the mountains. They talked of trivial things, and Toruq began to make Ash laugh more and more, allowing her to almost feel at ease in a way she had not felt since right before the bandits came. When there was silence between them, it was no longer quite as awkward as at first. Ash had almost entirely grown used to Toruq's permanent nudity. As they camped by a clear, rapid stream one evening, she reflected that this way of living was almost idyllic.

Just as she thought this, Toruq stood up from the large flat rock he was using as a seat. He took a single step, and his leg gave way beneath him, dropping him suddenly to the ground. He caught himself on one hand and one knee, and stayed in that pose with a dumbstruck look.

Ash jumped up to help him. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I don't know," said the orc. "My legs feel... weak, suddenly."

"Weak? Are they sore, as well?" She rapped her knuckles on his other knee, and he let out a short bark of surprise.

"Yes! Yes, sore, and a pain in my head as well."

Ash took his shoulder and guided him back to sit on the rock, although she wasn't strong enough to really move him unless he was moving anyway. As he sat back, she noticed sweat on his forehead, something she'd never seen before.

Weak legs, soreness, headache, sweating... those symptoms could have any number of causes, but one stood out in her mind. Hoping she was wrong, she searched her memories for the other cross-species symptoms. The Books of Karela included notes on the treatment of orcs, but of course all her practical experience back home had been with humans. Yellow tongue, she thought. That should be common to both species.

"Stick out your tongue," she instructed, dropping into the firm tone of a healer.

Toruq did as she said. It was green, of course. She had no idea what particular shade of green it was supposed to be.

"Um, what color are orc tongues usually?" she asked.

"Uhh.." Toruq was clearly still shaken from his fall. "This color." He spread his legs, and brought both hands down between them. With the finger and thumb of one hand he lifted up his cock, while with the other, he pulled back his foreskin, revealing his head to Ash for the first time.

Ash gulped, then reminded herself that she was a healer. A healer needed to have detachment when considering the body of her patient. She crouched down to get a better look, and made careful note of the color of the skin. It was so close to her face... detachment. She stood and looked at his tongue again. Yes, it was definitely yellower.

"Toruq," she said, "have you ever had the 48-hour fever?"

He shook his head.

"Then it looks like that's what you have now. But where could you have gotten it out here without me also getting it?" She thought for a moment. "The rabbits you caught! We each ate a different one. Yours must have been sick."

"How bad is this fever?" Toruq asked.

"Well, you're a strong man. You'll need to rest for the next two days - you should lie down - and keep drinking water. But you should recover."

Should, she thought. Strong men had died from the 48-hour fever. Not many, but it had happened. And even those who lived, if it was a bad case, could lose the sight in one or both of their eyes. Out here, miles from the proper treatment, Ash didn't see how it could be anything less than a bad case.

Unless - "Toruq," she asked. "We're near your home, right? You know the land here?"

"Yes," he said. He'd taken her advice and was refilling his waterskin from the river. He closed it and went to lie on the ground close to the banks. He'd only just started showing symptoms and already he was avoiding walking far. Ash shuddered to think of how bad the fever could get in the later stages.

"Is there a plant that grows here, waist height - my waist, that is - with bunches of little red flowers, the size of my little fingernail?"

Toruq frowned. "Yes, I think I've seen that."

"Then wait here," Ash said, and ran into the woods.

Searching desperately for the right plant, she couldn't help but think of what would happen if she didn't find it. What if Toruq died of the fever? She'd be stranded far from the nearest human city, with her only option to find a group of orcs she didn't know, with nobody to vouch for her. And not only that. In the short time she'd known him, Toruq had made an impression on her, with his constant kindness and sharp wit. Somewhere along the way, she'd come to consider him a friend, and now she feared for his life.

There. Standing tall, with red flowers just as she'd described it. Feverbreak. She pulled the whole plant out of the ground by its roots, then looked around her until she saw a second nearby, and did the same to it. With the two plants clutched in one fist, she ran back to the camp.

Toruq was still lying by the river, holding his head and frowning like a man with a bad hangover. That could be good - the fever could come on hard and fast, and if Toruq was only in mild pain by now, perhaps this was as bad as it would get. Or perhaps he was just taking it too stoically for her to tell. Moving quickly past him, she opened his pack and dug out a small cooking pot and a knife. She cast about for a place to do her work. The same flat rock where Toruq had been sitting seemed to be the best option. Setting one plant aside, she pulled the roots from the other, laid them on her makeshift work surface and began to slice them finely. When that was done, she slid them into the pot, filled it with water from the stream, and hung it from the spit that Toruq used to cook over the campfire. Then she sat, and waited anxiously.

When the water had turned a light brown, she took the pot back off the fire by its handle and set it on the ground, where she waited for more agonizing minutes for the pot to become cool enough to hold. She was being silly, she knew. The 48-hour fever wouldn't kill Toruq before the tea had a chance to cool. It was just that before, any time she'd dealt with an illness this severe, her master had been there to back her up. Now she was all alone, miles from help, and the life of a man she cared for was entirely in her hands.

The tea was cool, and she carried it over to Toruq, who sat up and sipped it directly from the pot. He grimaced. Ash knew from experience that feverbreak tea was sweet, but with an... idiosyncratic aftertaste. She encouraged him to finish the pot, and then lie back down. Now they just had to wait for two days.

*

Ash and Toruq both slept fitfully that night - Toruq from discomfort, and Ash from worry. That worry only got worse when it occurred to her that she might get the fever as well. Even if they were both sick at the same time, it should be possible for one of them to brew the tea they needed, although finding more feverbreak would be an inconvenience while weakened. Still, even with the tea, you certainly didn't want to get sick.

Toruq was worse the next day, of course. He was sweating harder, and occasionally he would shift restlessly and let out a quiet grunt of pain. Ash spent most of the day with nothing to do but monitor his condition. Around dusk, she brewed the second batch of tea and gave it to him.

The second night and day passed much the same. The fever should run its course by the end of the second day, and she watched carefully for signs of improvement. Indeed, Toruq sounded like he was in less pain, and he was sweating less. As the day grew dark, Ash crouched by his side and put the back of her hand to his forehead. The fever was gone. She could almost cry. She held her hand there for a long moment, feeling the warmth - no longer heat, but gentle warmth - of her healthy patient. Of her friend.

She took her hand away gently. "How do you feel?"

"Better!" He smiled broadly - his joy came through clearly, although the action involved baring the full length of his tusks - and hoisted himself to his feet. "I feel stronger again, I can stand! By tomorrow I think I will be as healthy as ever." He put his hands on Ash's shoulders, with all their weight resting on her, and looked straight in her eyes. "You saved my life, Ash."

She looked away. "You probably would have made it anyway... I just knew how to lessen the symptoms a bit."

"Nonsense! I hate to think what I would have been through If I had caught this fever traveling on my own. I won't forget this." He pulled her into a bear hug.

After a moment of surprise, she hugged him in return, arms reaching as far around him as they could and squeezing him almost as tight as he was squeezing her. She truly was happy to see Toruq well. She almost didn't notice that her face was nestled in his bare chest, and that his soft cock was pressed against her body.

He let go, and Ash did the same. "We should rest now," Toruq said. "Now that I am well enough to travel, we should make it to my home soon. Oh, I can't wait to show it to you!" He smiled again, and Ash couldn't help but do the same.

*

Ash woke the next morning to the sound of birds. She lay listening with her eyes closed, the pleasant sound combining with the lingering happiness of seeing Toruq cured to put her in a wonderful mood. Then something struck her as odd. She had never been woken by birdsong before on this journey. Toruq always rose first, and woke her up early.

For a moment she worried that something had happened to him, that perhaps the illness had returned. She quickly opened her eyes and rolled to the side. As they had grown more comfortable with each other over their journey, they had abandoned the practice of separating to opposite sides of the campfire every night, and now they slept wherever was most convenient. Last night they had gone to sleep parallel to each other, a little less than two yards apart, and Ash was relieved to see that Toruq was still there. He was sleeping deeply, with peaceful, even breaths. Ash realized how exhausted the fever must have left him, and decided to let him sleep.

As he slept, her eyes moved inexorably down his body. Although it had been weeks since she met him, Toruq's nakedness still held a fascination for her, in the moments when she became aware of it again. Now, with him lying there completely unaware of her and uncovered by any blanket, was such a time.

Her eyes drifted down his chest, his stomach... and she gasped, then covered her mouth. Toruq was sleeping on his side, facing her, and his morning hardness was on full display. The foreskin was pulled fully back, exposing the swollen head. She could see the veins running down the length of his shaft - almost as long as her forearm, she thought hysterically. And of course, it was pointed directly at her.

She rolled over quickly, putting her back to him and trying to dispel the image. Then, thinking of what their respective positions now looked like, she let out another small sound of panic, and rolled onto her back. Facing upwards, she screwed her eyes shut, though the image of that long, thick cock stayed with her. She lay there determined not to move, and hoping that when Toruq woke he would not notice the tent she was making in her blanket.

Her wish must have been granted, because soon enough she heard him moving about the campsite. She risked peeking one eye open, and Toruq -now soft again, and crouched by his pack - noticed.

"You're awake. Eat and do your business quickly, if you have to. I slept late, and I want to get as far as we can today." He didn't seem to have noticed anything odd.

Ash ate her breakfast halfheartedly, then headed into the woods. After doing her business, she regarded her own cock. It was smaller than the orc's, of course, but it was still hard and throbbing, and showed no signs of going down. She glanced back in the direction of the camp. There was no reason to. She was well out of sight of the camp, even more so than usual, and of course Toruq would never follow her. But still, the thought she was contemplating made the tangled forest seem as public as the village green.

She considered pulling her trousers back up and returning to camp, trusting that her erection would go down by itself. But then she remembered Toruq's stiff cock pointing at her... Ash leaned her back against a tree, trousers around her ankles, and began stroking herself.

She started slow at first, picturing that cock in front of her face. She imagined what it would be like if she were stroking Toruq's cock instead of her own. Her hand would barely be able to wrap around it. What would it be like to lick it, to trace that tattoo all the way down its length with her tongue? She began to pump faster. Kneeling between his spread legs... each thigh thicker than her entire head... taking his length into her mouth as far as it would go... She was breathing hard now. She could almost taste it, could almost feel the warm hardness of it against her lips and tongue. She imagined Toruq's strong hands around her waist, holding her there, guiding her as she moved back and forth. No, as they both moved back and forth, him thrusting slowly but firmly into her mouth while she bobbed her head up and down and bucked her hips against his grip, desperate for those hands to reach around and take hold of her cock...

That was the tipping point, and she came hard, stifling a cry that she was sure would have been heard back at the campsite. One, two, three ropes of come shot from her cock, spattering to the forest floor, painting the leaves white several feet away from where she stood.

She breathed heavily for a moment, allowing herself to come back to reality, then tucked her softening cock back into her trousers and quickly fastened them. She'd just passed a turning point, she knew. Since the first moment she saw Toruq naked in front of her, there had been no question that she was attracted to him. She'd been able to put it to the back of her mind, but now that she'd admitted it to herself, she wasn't sure she'd be able to control herself anymore. She'd be distracted all the time if she let her imagination wonder like that every time she got a glimpse of him. And surely he'd notice something was different if she began to run off to masturbate like that every time they stopped.

Well, there was nothing for it now. The longer she stayed out here agonizing, the more likely he would be to remark on her absence. The only thing to do was return to the campsite, try and act normally, and begin the last leg of the journey towards the land of the orcs.