Gyda Lionrock thinks her visit to Asclan Peak is for one reason and one reason alone-to procreate and finally welcome that child of her own. She could have never guessed she would also leave something behind inside the mountains, but it was her hear...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I grinned, standing in front of the library's decorated wooden door, feeling exuberant because of two reasons. The first was that my monthly bleeding hadn't announced itself while I was supposed to start two days ago! I was convinced I was with child.
The second reason was that I was going to see Orvar today. It had been over two weeks since I last saw him at Amira's place and I could hardly wait to meet him again. But this secret meeting didn't come without a price. For the first time in my life, I had lied to my family, telling them I would spend the entire day in the library. I wasn't proud of what I'd done, but I had no other choice—not if I wanted to be with Orvar again.
Amira had been the one to come up with this sly plan...
After Beatrice was done and let out her client, she gave the orcs what they came for. It was an ointment, which had to be rubbed on the orc babies' gums for some relief.
And then I had to watch him leave again...
I didn't know why, but it somehow felt harder to say goodbye this time, and it left me with the most awful feeling inside my stomach.
When it was also time for me to go home, Amira offered to escort me to the fallen tree.
"There's something going on that you haven't told me about," she said, hooking her arm through mine as we walked through the green woods. "Isn't there?"
To explain what I felt was difficult to put into words. "Uhm..."
"Do you like him? I mean, romantically? The kind of romance we only know from fairytales. Marriage. Love."
Amira referred to the union between a man and a woman. Something that was common in the past, but now only in the cards for a few women. Noblewomen, that is, not peasants like us. And of course, love and marriage weren't supposed to involve a seven-foot-tall gray creature with pointy ears and claws and massive teeth either...
As I pondered on my answer, the only sound was the leaves that crunched underneath our feet.
"I'm not sure how to call these feelings," I finally said. "But I think it's like that. I like him."
"But he's an orc," she said, stressing the word orc.
"I know..." I answered.
"You know I don't despise the orcs like the other women in town. I don't even care that the man you like is an orc. But you said yourself that your mother is a conservative type of woman. What if she finds out you're seeing him?"
"But I'm not seeing him. I didn't know I would see him here," I answered. "I thought we might never meet again. I hoped we would, but—"
"Really?" Amira asked, looking at me. "You had no idea he would come by? You just came unannounced and he happened to do the same?"
