Roderick and Gorlana Pt. 03

He sighed and leaned back, trying to decide how much the room might spin if he stood up. Only one way to find out. At least he had a walking staff.

He leaned on the ornate stick and as he took his first few steps, tried to be optimistic and call himself half-sober. He worked his way through the crowd with hobbling determination towards the tables with the ale casks, though he wasn't sure whether he would refill his mug or deposit it with the used ones and leave.

As he waited he turned away from the large broad green shoulders in front of him, and looked off towards the end of the room. He recognized the furs that Darganya had invited him to, and he saw her, lounging half on her side. Her long thickly sinuous body moved in a slow writhing wave, and her mouth opened in a half-smile as she reached down and ran her claws through the hair of another orc, who's face was between her legs. Roderick couldn't help but stare at the sight, open and public. He watched her long muscular leg bend up to run her toenails through the orc's hair as well. He wondered for a moment whether it was male or female, he couldn't tell from behind. His eyes drifted up to her wide bosom as it rose and fell with a satisfied breath, up to her wet lips under her white shining fangs and her even more shining eyes, that watched him with a beautiful intensity as she smiled.

Watched him. He suddenly darted his eyes away as he realized she had been staring at him staring at her. He let them slowly drift back to see a mischievous knowing half-smirk paint her face before she winked at him, closed her eyes and then leaned back to relax against the furs as the other orc continued diligently between her thighs.

He took a step forward, realizing he was stepping towards her and out of the line for the ale. His foot moved forwards, feeling like he wanted to sink his sore drunken body between her thighs more than anything, and teetered on the edge of giving in and walking to the big beautiful green orc.

He stopped. Suddenly doubtful of something, or scared, though he wasn't sure of exactly what. He turned away, and decided he had drunk enough for one night.

He deposited the mug with the others and turned around to head out and get some rest and recovery.

He had made it a little less than halfway to the front of the building again, when Korboq suddenly had his thick arm around him squeezing his shoulders. Roderick winced at the pain of his bending ribs and his orcish friend immediately apologized.

"I'm sorry Lightbrew, you look so WELL it's easy to forget. You smell like you are healing excellently too."

Roderick scoffed at Korboq who seemed only slightly more solid on his feet than him, a mug of the strong thick ale in his hand as well.

"You can't smell THAT," Roderick retorted with a grin.

"As if YOU would know," Korboq said with a wink, then leaned in with a glassy mischievous stare, "Some of the women here think you smell... well enough."

Roderick shook his head and tried to keep walking towards the door with Korb's heavy arm around him.

The orc continued, "I think you might have a good chance with one called Faurleng. She kept asking about you. She's not to my taste, though her feet are nice enough. But you'd like..." he mimed with his hands, "Big soft chest. Gets in the way of armour and weapons in... gulp my opinion, but I can sometimes see how you like them. Hers are good I think."

Roderick opened his mouth to speak but Korboq continued, interrupting him.

"Oh! I forgot why I found you," he pointed a thick green finger into Roderick's chest, not caring now when he winced again, "You need to go easier on Nardill. Yes he made a mistake but you did not need to insult his honour, and you SHOULD let him work to restore it."

"I TOLD him there was nothing he needed to do. That it was fine."

Korboq squinted at him with an intense doubt, "But it isn't. Not to him. What exactly did you say. Which words?"

"I told him he had not lost any honour,"

Korboq spat. "So you thought so little of him before this, that you EXPECTED that he would get captured and you had no surprise that he failed in his duty?"

"No!" Roderick retorted, "I..." he stared off and started to clue in, and his shoulders slumped. "Okay fine well what should I offer for him to do then? I'm not a good chief Korb I keep telling y-"

"Shut up. Yes you are," Korb interrupted with a shove. "You will think of something. Some way to use his talents that truly benefits you, and the clan, and... everything."

Roderick shrugged and decided to let it go for now.

"On that note, Lightbrew, "Korboq said with a coy smirk, "I have caught a smell and a kind word from one or two of the orc maidens here. I was hoping you could tell me if it was okay... I think it might improve our good standing if you allowed me, and perhaps some others to..."

"Yeah go screw them to your hearts delight Korb I don't care," Roderick said, an unfamiliar type of jealousy almost sneaking into his mind through his tired depressed feelings..

Korboq hesitated.

"I'm saying I don't care if you mate with them. Go for it," he clarified.

Korboq gave him a wide smile, and another half hug, making Roderick wince again and swear. "You truly are one of the greatest chiefs I have known!" the orc exclaimed and gave one more painful slap on Roderick's back before heading back into the crowd.

Roderick continued to hobble away, trying to keep thoughts of Darganya's enticing body on the furs out of his mind. By the time he found his bed, the thought of her in his mind had morphed into another orc-girl. Through the drunken fog he realized his hesitation and fear had been not of Darganya herself, but of what being with her might do to his memory of Gorlana. He fell asleep wondering whether his life would be better or worse if she had been part of the clan that had found them.

...

The next day Roderick awoke with a headache, with too many things to potentially blame it on, to be certain of the culprit. He was hungrier though, and after a bland, but hearty breakfast he felt more optimistic despite the dreary overcast weather.

He had not been assigned any tasks besides recovering, but he made his rounds through the settlement regardless, at least on the excuse of checking in on his soldiers. He occasionally helped out where he could with whatever tasks they had, which he had to agree were all reasonable. Cleaning, fixing, and sharpening the tools and weapons. Hunting, preparing or preserving food. All things any good army, let alone any prepared-village would need to focus on. He encouraged them to talk openly about what was different about their methods so long as it didn't come across as griping, though the Valiroud orcs seemed not to care either way. A few conversations and debates were started and he hoped it would result in both sides learning a thing or two.

His cautious optimism and Valessa's bitter pessimism about their situation seemed to be reflected throughout the men to varying degrees, but he thought more tended towards his outlook. Deep down he did have serious doubts and fears but there was too much for which they were objectively fortunate for him not to latch on to that if he could.

Finally he found Nardill and took him aside from his leather-work he had been focusing on. The orc had trouble meeting his eyes but spoke first.

"I am sorry for my behaviour last night Chieftain. I was partly drunk and I should respect that your decisions are your own."

Roderick shook his head, "So am I....and so was I. Look, Nardill, I think what I was saying last night came across wrong. Your honour was great in my view before all of this, and it continues to be, BUT..." he continued as the orcs face grew troubled, "If it helps you to move past it, then perhaps you could do something for me."

His wide green face split in a relieved grin, "Whatever you command, Lightbrew."

Roderick nodded, "Okay. Well... you might have to help me to make sure I'm not risking your honour among the other orcs with this, because I don't want to, but, I want you to start talking more openly with me, about things orcs don't usually talk about."

The orc cocked his head in confusion.

"You were pretty good at that anyway before all this, but if you could do it deliberately... I want to know what the word is around here. Who is thinking what, and why? Who is feeling this way or that. You're better at reading people and being in the know about all of the damn things you orcs will never open your bloody mouths about," Roderick took a breath, "I'm not asking you to spy outright. Don't go sneaking around where you're not supposed to. Just keep your ears, and your nose, at the ready, and have a chat with me at the end of each day."

The orc still had a somewhat troubled look but nodded, looking to the side, "Are you sure you don't want me to just finish off Baulck for you?"

Roderick's eyes went wide, "No! Just... can you do this? I won't ask it if it goes against the honour codes. Only talk to me about things that I might not have heard. Even things that seem obvious to you, things someone who had no... sense might not understand or know," he said with a chuckle at himself.

Nardill finally shrugged, "Okay. If you will value that. I will do it for you."

"Thanks. I need to understand this clan and their chief, and find a way to get them to let us leave on good terms. Then, hopefully before long you'll be scouting us back to southern Orthalia again."

Nardill gave him a wide smile finally and they left with a friendly, if painful, slap on the shoulder.

He continued on, and eventually found Korboq who wasn't angry per se, but had a troubled mood about him, though he was trying to hide it poorly. When Roderick called him out on it he would not say why, and trying to ask about his luck with the orc-women last night only made him close off even more. He grumbled something about Roderick only finding his nose when it was least convenient. Roderick left him to his wood-splitting and continued on.

He passed Faurleng on his way to lunch and gave her a respectful smile, still unsure of what to think of her, but even more unsure when she gave him an avoidant nod of respect and made a point of mentioning that he looked to match his walking staff quite well, before turning away coldly. He looked back at her with a frown and continued on.

It was someone else's turn to clean and change his bandages near noon, and make him breathe through the bitter herb-infused rags for ten minutes. He was very quickly starting to tire of that regime but he admitted his chest and throat were improving quickly, and perhaps it was in part thanks to that.

Finally he was done and free to leave the tent. He knew he should be trying to find Valessa to have another discussion with her, and wasn't sure how relieved he was when that was waylaid by Darganya casually walking up to him as he stepped outside.

"Glad to see you up and about again," the tall green woman said with no surprise at all to her voice at finding him. "Care to walk with me?"

He shrugged and figured now was as good a time as any to start getting to know and understand her. "Sure. And talk?"

She flashed her teeth with a grin, "Of course."

She reached out to him, just barely caressing the edge of his neck with one of her short claws, then with a smirk at his walking staff, strode slowly away, looking over her shoulder for him to follow.

He let the tingling on his neck dissipate as he limped forwards, faster than the day before, but still feeling every movement of his torso as a dull nagging pain.

"I thank you again for your hospitality, chieftain, er Darganya," he began.

"Let us speak honestly Lightbrew, I know you are not satisfied with your situation, even though you are right in thinking it could be worse. You are well aware that I hold you captive. Do not patronize me with false praise. I want nothing that is not earned... nor should you."

He hesitated, "...and how might I earn something that might help us?"

"Us... as in all of us, or simply your own?"

"If it can be for both I would see no reason not to," he said.

She sniffed lightly and gave him an approving smile as they strolled slowly through the outer settlement, a few orcs and humans in sight but none close enough to hear them easily.

"I am not entirely satisfied with the situation either, you know."

Roderick couldn't help but scoff, "You have bolstered your forces, have dozens more workers to prepare resources, and a general and princess to boot as leverage. Any leader in any war would kill for such advantage."

"And who is at war, General?"

Roderick hesitated, "I know times are uncertain, but I'm not going to believe you don't see our captivity as an advantage. What more would you want out of us?"

She looked at him for a long time and responded, "I was honest with everything I said when we first met.

He was transfixed by her implicating eyebrow for a moment as he stared up at her.

She continued, "I always wished to meet you, Lightbrew, but under these circumstances... it put me in a bind, so to speak, with few options."

"Allowing us to pass freely was not one of them?"

"No," she said simply.

"Why?"

"Because I am a chieftain of honour."

Roderick gave her a silent frown.

"Want nothing that is not earned, Lightbrew. For me to allow you unhindered passage without some offer of understanding, with the Queen's peace dead along with her, it would not have been looked kindly upon, either by my own people, or the other clans. Yet you had nothing. Almost nothing."

"And now?"

"And now, what is done is done," she said, "...to a degree, but it does not have to remain this way."

"What will you do then?" Roderick said more firmly, making himself resist her sultry good humour and standing firm. "Starting with Valessa? I know you two already have little like for each other, but she is my princess. I can handle not knowing my own fate, but I want to know what you plan to do to her. I know orcish honour is not the same as us human's, but she has not done crimes against you and doesn't deserve-"

"She challenged my clan to Talbidagar!" Darganya interrupted, with sudden offence. "For it to come from her in the way that it did should have been crime enough. I should have refused, but that would have meant certain battle, and the mess of having killed t-..." she growled in frustration. "Then for her to attempt to break the oath near the end. I had no choice but to put a stop to it."

Roderick attempted a sardonic chuckle, "And here I thought maybe you just liked me enough not to want me killed."

Her red lips curved from a frown into a tight smile under her short tusks. "I am not disappointed you are still here. Besides, there was precedent in a way. We had not clarified the terms of battle, whether to be to the death or simply until disarmed. Also, if no one had stepped in, you and Baulck would both likely have died. You have both have more use now."

Roderick found himself smirking, "Glad to know that. I'm surprised you're not bitter at my crippling your best warrior."

She let out a quiet low chuckle, "Do not speak of it, but I took a gamble choosing Baulck. And, I won. He and his family rivalled my own in strength and influence in this clan. They were almost becoming a problem. Now they are less so. At least one good thing to come from your Princess' dishonour-tainted Talbidagar."

Roderick sighed, "Look, the princess was simply doing what she felt she needed to do, to save us. Still... will you ransom her then? Punish her? Kill-"

"No," Darganya said firmly. "At least not unless it is needed. I still need to decide where I stand within Orthalia's turmoil besides. I will keep the secret of her miraculous resurrection from the dead."

Roderick looked at her stoic, but harshly beautiful face for a moment and felt he could sense an honesty from her, whether from his nose or otherwise. "Thank you," he said simply.

"You really do care for her then," Darganya said, with thinly veiled interest.

"The same as any of your clan would care for you," he replied, trying to keep the uncertainty from his voice.

She gave him a look that didn't quite believe his words, but shrugged and said, "So she IS as a high chieftain to you then, that you must answer to."

Roderick paused. "Yes," he finally admitted, "You could put it that way."

"She has refused my last two attempts at a conversation. But I suppose she has the right."

Roderick made no reply, and they walked in a gradually less awkward silence for a minute until she smiled and said, "I like your staff. It suits you."

"I like to think I'm having less and less need for it," he said, leaning on it despite himself.

"That might be a shame," she said with a smirk he had trouble reading. "I will leave you to your soldiers. It is just about meal time anyway. I hope we can speak again tonight, perhaps about less serious things. Will you join the music and drinking in the main hall again?"

Roderick shrugged, "If it will help keep the good faith going, then I will,"

She smiled, "I think it will. I do hope that we can work something out between us, and that your Princess comes around. I'm not sure trying to turn humans into orcs for the rest of our days is a task I'm eager to set upon."

Roderick was almost about to respond again with a question of what could be worked out and how, but decided to simply leave on good terms and take things one step at a time. He took his eyes away from the lines of muscle of the back of her long thighs as her flexing legs strode away, and turned to his soldiers, striding with a bit more life in his bones, and hoping his heightened spirits could rub off on them.

...

Everyone's spirits were faring far better that evening at least. His soldiers had noticed him speaking with Darganya and implied they had faith in him working something out. It sounded like more faith than he had in himself but he was glad they were reassured anyway, though he wondered if they were partly trying to reassure him. He decided that as long as they weren't demanding a futile attempt at a bloody coup of their new clan then he should feel reassured enough.

He ran into Faurleng again and gave a polite smile, but again she avoided his gaze. She tightened her lips, looked askance towards the back of the hall and lifted her bosom with a large breath that seemed regretful as she walked away.

He shrugged and continued mingling, putting her confusing change of behaviour out of his mind. He finally found Nardill, who greeted him with an overly respectful nod. He quickly agreed to a semi-private conversation off to the side though Roderick could sense his nervousness well enough.

"Well, tell me what you know, friend," Roderick said, trying to keep things light-hearted.

Nardill looked almost mistrustful but then finally relieved at the open-ended question when he realized he would not be interrogated the way he seemed to expect to be.

"I am quite sure, Lightbrew, that if you wish to kill Baulck, he would not refuse your challenge. He still has one good arm that a wrist blade could strap to, and he could choose a pair of sharp pointed boots, but I believe you would prevail a-"

"No. Nardill. I... appreciate the info but I don't want to cause any more drama."

"It would not be viewed with dishonour general. The Valiroud would respect it. Though do not underestimate the boots, I saw a pair he might use and they are quite sharp."

"Y-yeah. Still. I'm not looking for another duel."

"So be it. In that case then, a show of peace to him would serve your honour."

Roderick left it at that, with a nod, deciding to ask more details of it later.

"Anything else?" Roderick asked.

"Directly concerning you? No. Though Korboq has found himself at odds with one of the head sword-sisters, or at least suffering her scorn."