The Exile's Path Ch. 01

Author's note: This is a tale set in 'The Clan Wars' world that I'm writing while I plan out the next book. Thanks for all the great feedback for the original story. I hope this one will be interesting enough to tide you over until I write the next book. As usual, kind comments and nice ratings are encouraging and keep me writing, and constructive criticism helps me improve!

*****

Chapter 01 - Life Lost, Life Gained

She had seen many seasons, her black hair was silvered with age, wrinkles creasing the corners of her nose, mouth and eyes, but an orc did not reach Tula's age, especially in the wildness of the eastern reaches, by being stupid. She was still formidable - her numerous scars spoke to many a struggle survived while her pronounced musculature told any threat that she could survive many more. Naked, but for the wooden spear she had crafted, tip blackened by fire, Tula stalked through the rainforest, pushing her way south towards the shores of the Darksea and away from her former tribe's lands.

Tula - the name was a title too. Exile. The result of a mistake that had cost her the leadership of her tribe and all the accoutrements of that life. She had once been Trabba of the Redtooth, but now she was clanless, having banished herself from the lands of which she was once master. She looked down at her chest, at the bone piercing she bore through the nipple of her left breast; the only memento of her past life the tribe had left her with. The tip of an ancestor's tusk, the piercing served as a reminder of the clan she had let down. The plain ornament was a far cry from the golden rings she had once borne upon her ample bosom - it was no mark of honour or high stature, but a symbol of her disgrace.

The exile had stopped only briefly on her journey south to hunt and rest and now, five days after her banishment, she could smell the Darksea through the trees ahead of her. She could also smell smoke, carrying with it the hint of cooking fish. Her stomach rumbled. She was hungry.

Reld turned the spitted fish fillet over and watched as the flames of his campfire licked its untouched side. It was midday and he had paused his fishing to make land and sate his hunger. Not many fishermen out of Bal's Post had the nerve to cast their nets on the far side of the lake; the threat of running into the wild orcs that inhabited the woods was too great, to say nothing of the other, even more bestial denizens of the eastern reaches. The best spots closer to the town had been claimed, however, and Reld was too young to vie for one of the premium locations against the older, more experienced fishermen. His father had been one of them, but, upon his death, he could only leave his boat, nets and house to his son - fishing territory could not be inherited and his had been quickly snapped up by those more senior to his son.

Still, Reld had his longknife and trusted his youthful ears. The rest of his catch was still in the boat, only a few yards away, and the lad reckoned he could make the dash to his craft before any trouble could reach him. He was caught completely unawares when Tula spoke from behind him.

"I request passage on your boat, fisherman."

Reld started forward, knocked his spit from the rock it rested upon with his leg. His lunch fell into the fire. He jumped from the log he was sitting on, turning and scrambling backwards while fumbling for his knife.

"I mean you no harm, human," said Tula, watching the panicked boy calmly. "I simply seek passage across the water."

Reld stared wide-eyed at the orc before him, taking in her scarred, bare skin, her long, silver hair, her toned muscles and the fact that she wasn't stabbing him with the spear she was leaning on.

"Uh, what?" he stuttered.

"I have no gold to pay for passage, but I can service you as recompense," explained Tula.

"Y-you wa-want to be m-my s-servant?"

Tula sighed. She wondered if she should have announced her presence before getting so close to the lad, but then she would have run the risk of him fleeing to his boat. "No, boy, you may mount me."

"Wha-what?"

"I shall let you mate with me if you give me passage across the lake," said the orc, rolling her eyes.

The young fisherman ran his gaze over Tula's body. She was certainly appealing - her toned form, her large breasts, her shapely waist and legs and her noble, attractive visage (despite her grim expression) all combined to create a flutter of arousal in his loins, but the lad knew he had more fishing to do that day. He could not cut his work short to act as a ferryman, tempting older orc woman or not. Besides, the older greenskin was clearly down on her luck, with nothing but a primitive wooden spear to her name, and his father had not raised him to take advantage of those experiencing hard times.

"I can't," said Reld, gathering his wits as his instincts grasped the concept that he wasn't about to be spitted like his burning lunch. "I have more fishing to do today. I won't be returning until this evening."

"I can wait," stated Tula. "I do not mind."

"Uh, okay," said Reld, getting to his feet and brushing the sand off his tunic and shorts. He bent over to retrieve his burnt fish and scraped it off the stick. "I'm going to cook up another fish. Would you, uh, like some...?"

"No," said Tula. She had journeyed to other settlements before and knew how trading worked. If she offered to service him now, in exchange for food, then he may not be in the mood later on in exchange for passage across the water.

"You sure?" said Reld, retrieving another fish from his boat. He flopped it down on a rock and deftly gutted and filleted it.

Tula sat down a short distance from the fire and watched the youth skewer his new lunch. The smell of cooking meat wafted into her nose. Her stomach rumbled hungrily, but she said nothing, even once the boy's meal was ready and he tore a piece of flesh off and took a bite.

"Come on," said Reld, holding the skewer out towards his audience. He felt awkward eating his meal while the attractive orc sat watching.

"I cannot pay," said Tula. The fish smelled delicious.

"You don't have to," laughed Reld. "I'm sharing my lunch with you, is all. You don't have to 'pay' me to take you across the lake, either. I'll be heading that way anyway and an extra passenger is no trouble, if you're willing to wait for me to finish checking my nets."

She couldn't resist the boy's offer. Tula took the skewer from Reld's hand and tore a chunk of meat from it. "Thank you."

"My name is Reld," said the youth, seeking to make small talk as they ate. "What's yours?"

"You may call me Tula."

"Where are you heading?" asked Reld.

"Away from the forest," replied Tula.

"That's not really a destination," chuckled the fisherman. "Where are you going?"

The orc grunted gruffly and chewed her mouthful. The boy's question had brought back the memory of her dishonour and of her current, depressing situation. "I do not wish to talk about it."

"Okay," said Reld placatingly. The pair finished their lunch in quiet.

Once their meal was complete, Reld stood and kicked sand over his small fire. As he turned to head down to the boat, he found Tula standing in his way. The orc calmly looked him in the eye and reached down to grab his crotch, cupping his package through the cloth of his shorts.

"Woah!" exclaimed the startled fisherman. "No need for that! I don't mind helping you out!"

Tula looked at the youth appraisingly. "If you will not accept it in trade, then consider it a gift. I do not like having to accept charity. If you would permit me to service you, my dignity would remain intact."

Reld's brow furrowed as he tried to wrangle an understanding of the orc's sense of honour. Despite his befuddlement, he could not deny that the older woman's gentle massage of his nethers and her curvy, ripe, naked body was having a pronounced effect on his cock.

"Uh, now, look here..." he began, his words trailing off as Tula kneeled before him and undid the drawstring of his canvas pants.

"I understand," said Tula, pausing with her hands on the waistband of the youth's shorts. "I am too old. You do not find my body appealing."

"Thuh- No- That's not what I meant!" babbled the young man. He looked down to see Tula looking up at him, an eyebrow raised and a faint smirk playing around the corner of her lips.

"Do you not want to mount me?" said Tula, sliding the man's shorts down. His cocked bobbed upwards, swollen and stiff with arousal.

"I... I'm trying to be polite hereahhh..." sighed Reld. Tula had unceremoniously taken his shaft into her mouth even as he spoke. "Oh! You -ah!- don't mmmneed to -haa!- do this!"

The mature woman paused her deft slurping and pulled the fisherman's spit-slick member from her mouth. "I, too, am being polite," she explained, casually tugging on Reld's phallus as she spoke. "Let us agree that you have fulfilled the demands of your human politeness. Now let me do mine."

She released his dick and turned around, presenting her pussy to the lad. "Besides, the orc way is not without benefit for the one who is being polite. Fuck me."

Reld could see a sheen of moist arousal glazing Tula's cunt-lips. With a hapless shrug, he pulled his shorts off and knelt behind Tula's offered cunny. "Well... if this is cultural..." he murmured, brushing her drooling cock-hole with his engorged glans. "I guess it would be rude to refuse..."

"It would," growled Tula, pushing back against the hard breeding-pole probing her cunt. Reld was far from under-endowed, but Tula's fuck-hole was accustomed to her former clan warriors' girthy organs and easily devoured the youth's shaft. She clenched the powerful muscles of her haunches on the human's tumescent fuck-meat. Behind her, his hands clenching her muscled asscheeks firmly, Reld grunted in delight at the orc's flexing twat.

Despite being somewhat smaller than an orc male's weighty cock, Tula's nose still wrinkled in a grimace of pleasure as Reld's tool filled her. Like the rest of her kind, she had a healthy appetite for a good rutting and the lad's penis was certainly up to the task. She let out a quiet, throaty growl as Reld began to buck his hips.

"Shit -ah- that feels -uh- fucking good!" grunted Reld, picking up speed until his hips and thighs were slamming against Tula's, causing her butt to jiggle and shake under the vigorous impacts.

It had been a long while since the youth's cock had last tasted cunt juice. There were few single women in the fishing village on the outskirts of Bal's Post - most of his generation had been levied into the Kingdom's soldiery and the meagre income his fishing granted him was not enough to spend on the whores in the city's taverns. Revelling in the sloppy, hot embrace of Tula's cunny, Reld was in heaven. He leaned over the orc's back, resting his chest against her, and reached under her to grab her wobbling tits.

Tula easily bore the boy's weight on her back and shivered with pleasure as she felt his hands seize her pendulous breasts. With his fingers teasing her hard nipples and toying with her piercing, she pushed back against his thrusts, purring in satisfaction as the pair coupled. The obscene sounds of their mating drifted along the beach - the meaty *fwup fwup fwup* of his swinging balls slapping against her, their primal moans, grunts and pants - an animalistic chorus not out of place in their wild setting.

"I'm gonna cum!" panted Reld. Tula's clenching cunt was too much. The feeling of her sweaty skin pressed against his chest, her cushiony buttocks bouncing against his pelvis, her heavy titties and erect nipples in his hands - it was a sensory overload.

Tula was mildly disappointed. She had been hoping to cum, herself, but, clearly, the lad needed some training if he were to satisfy her. Still, the boy's enthusiastic humping, however brief, had been enjoyable and she was returning a favour by letting him use her cunt rather than trying to sate her own needs. She clenched her pussy firmly around Reld's over-stimulated shaft.

"Do it, boy," she commanded. "Fill my cunt with your seed."

With a sigh of relief, Reld complied. Tula felt a warm surge of viscous fluid in her cunny and the male mounting her tensed, his hips pushing against her spasmodically as he inseminated her. She gently flexed her haunches and arched her back, milking the ejaculate from the boy's twitching organ.

"Oh, wow," groaned Reld, pulling his spent penis from Tula's grasping quim. A thin trickle of slimy, white sperm dripped from her cunt.

"I am happy to satisfy you," said Tula, getting to her feet while Reld wiped himself off with a rag he had tucked to his belt. "Shall we depart?"

Reld was taken aback by the orc's quick return to matters of business. "Was that okay for you?"

"You did not make me climax, if that is what you are asking," said Tula. "I shall help you push the boat out."

"I'm sorry," said Reld, feeling a little stung by the orc's casual response.

"It is not a problem," explained Tula, walking down to the beached boat while Reld followed, lacing up his shorts. "It was still enjoyable."

The pair pushed the craft into the water and climbed aboard. Tula did not seemed bothered by their perfunctory mating and sat facing the youth, unfazed by semen still dribbling from her pussy, as he manned the oars and rowed them out into the lake. Reld, however, felt embarrassed by his performance. His ears grew hot and he avoided the orc's gaze. An awkward silence hung in the air around him.

After they had reached the fisherman's first set of nets, Tula finally broke the quiet. "You are ashamed?"

"Well..." mumbled Reld, still blushing as he turned to pull in his net, "I don't like to be selfish."

"You have not been selfish," said Tula. "You have shared your food and given me passage across the lake."

"No, I mean... back there... when we..."

"When you mounted me?"

"Uh, yeah," mumbled Reld, still unaccustomed to the orc's forthright speech.

"Why? I am happy to return a favour by letting you use my cunt."

"But that's not usually how I do it," said Reld, sitting down once more and pulling the few fish the net had trapped from its tangles and tossing them into a large chest between him and the greenskin. After watching to see how the task was done, Tula joined in and pulled a few of the flopping creatures from the net.

"If you seek to improve, you must have more endurance," said Tula. "Your cock is not as big as an orc's, but if you take your time, you can still satisfy an orc woman."

Reld's face took on an even deeper shade of red at Tula's nonchalant appraisal of his manhood. He worried that his black hair was going to combust with embarrassment.

"You can also use your hand on my clit, or make sure I have enough time to do so," continued Tula.

"Uh, I guess I have a lot to learn," mumbled the boy, taking up the oars once more.

"This is very true," agreed the orc, matter-of-factly. Reld's cheeks flushed so furiously he felt as if he could fry an egg on his face.

"So, uh, the next net's over this way..." said Reld, hurriedly changing the topic of conversation.

The sun had just sunk below the horizon by the time the fisherman had finished checking his nets. With steady strokes, he rowed the small boat towards the western shore of the Darksea and the distant lights of Bal's Post. Tula was impressed, despite the boy's somewhat lacking performance on the beach; he was strong, easily propelling the craft across the water for the duration of the afternoon and evening. He seemed tired by the time they pulled up to the wooden piers of the town's harbour, but not as much as she thought a human should have been.

The docks were bustling with other returning fisherman and various fishmongers. Located on the shore, just outside the yellow, sandstone walls of the city proper, the buildings of the harbour were mostly wooden, single-storey affairs, although a few two-storey sandstone buildings were scattered among them. Further away from the harbour stood the wooden shacks the fishermen called home. Looming above the city walls was the city's keep, adorned with the orange banners of Tennegin. As they pulled up to the pier, a heavy-set woman, attended by a man pulling a handcart and a guard in the orange and yellow tabard of the city guard walked over to them. The newcomers gave Tula a curious glance, but made no mention of the orc's presence.

"Productive day, Reld?" said the woman. She scrunched her nose as she peered into the chest in the middle of the young man's boat, counting his catch.

"Good enough," replied the youth.

"We'll take ten today," said the large woman.

"Ten?!" complained Reld. "But that's half my catch!"

"War effort," grunted the woman. "You know how it is - the Duke needs to feed his troops."

Reld sighed as the man pulling the cart handed him a bucket and he filled it before handing it back, repeating the action until he had handed over half of his day's labour. Once the trio had taken their share, Reld sold the rest, bar two, to the fishmonger who ran the dock he had moored at. Tula watched as the youth pocketed the pitiful few coins he received in exchange.

"That is not much reward for a day of labour."

"Nope," agreed Reld, picking up his bucket with its two fish. "Taxes. The King's trying to take back Sandrest and the Dirnese are trying to stop him. Or is it the other way around this time? I dunno - there's always some reason the duke is taking my fish."

"That does not seem fair," said Tula.

"Well, the duke's soldiers keep us safe," sighed Reld, his words lacking conviction. "Anyway, what are you going to do now?"

"I was going to keep heading west."

"You can't go like that," said Reld. "It's a warzone out there."

"I shall buy some armour and weaponry."

Reld shook his head. "With what money?"

"How much will it cost?" said Tula.

"I don't know - five or six pence for a sword or axe, I suppose. Probably at least a few shillings for an iron helmet and that again for a leather jack, or thereabouts."

"How many 'shillings' did you make today?"

"I didn't," shrugged Reld. "I made four pence. There's twelve pence to a shilling."

"Oh."

The orc hid it well, but Reld could tell the information he had just revealed had depressed her. "Look, why don't you stay at my house tonight? You can figure out what you're going to do in the morning."

With a downcast, vulnerable look in her eyes that Reld found strangely unsettling, Tula followed the boy through the darkening streets. A few fishermen gave the boy a wave or a nod as the pair passed them. Tula noticed all the inhabitants of the town seemed to be significantly older than her companion.

"Where are the other young people?" she queried.

"Off fighting," said Reld. "The duke's levied most everyone to go fight out west."

"Why are you not fighting?"

"Because I own a house and a boat. My pa' left them to me when he passed two years ago," explained the boy. "I guess that makes me lucky."

"This does not seem like a fortunate existence."

"Well, how does it work back where you're from?"

"Back in my tribe, we all worked for the good of the tribe," said Tula. "You did what you could and gave what you could for the benefit of the tribe. Then the chief would make sure everyone had their needs met."

"That seems all well and good, but what if you had a chief who was greedy or stupid?" asked Reld.

"Then a warrior would challenge them. The loser would be banished or killed."

"That seems harsh, but fair, I suppose. Why would you want to leave that to come to a place like this?"

"I did not choose to leave," said Tula.

There was a long silence. They reached the door of a small, single-room, wooden shack. Reld opened the door and turned to let Tula inside.