Season of the Orc

Twelve

Calla

Weeks turned to months and those months turned to years in that little house that Brunk built us. When I'd asked him about it, he'd simply said that it was for us, that we both needed a place to call home.

It had taken him almost a month to fully recover, but during that month we fucked so much it was good we couldn't go anywhere because most days my legs didn't work. On the days when I could pull myself from our blankets, I went hunting.

Brunk had chosen a good spot for our home. I never came back empty handed, the water was sweet and clear and there were ample berry bushes for sweet treats.

It hadn't taken us long to settle into a quiet life, especially after he finished the house just in time for winter. Thanks to the woods, we had ample food to last us through the winter months and when we couldn't make it outside to get firewood, Brunk kept me warm.

When spring finally came, we talked about going back out into the world, back out to hunt the monsters of nightmares, but we eventually decided not to.

We didn't need to.

We had everything we needed in that small home. Everything except what Brunk desperately wanted, even though he'd never ask. And if I was being honest, something that I'd grown to want as well.

So finally, two years after we stopped traveling, we set out once more to find the witch to undo the spell I had paid a kings ransom for.

It took us nearly a year to find her and over a year to get back to our home.

We would have made it back sooner if not for the fact that I was heavily pregnant and couldn't travel very far each day. But when we finally got home, it was like no time had passed for our little house. Everything was still as we had left it, except covered in a thick layer of dust.

Brunk and I spent that week cleaning, preparing for our child's arrival. We had no idea how long the pregnancy would be, humans and orcs had different gestation periods, and we'd never met any who were like us to ask.

Two months after arriving home, our daughter emerged into the work, screaming her lungs out and waving her pale green hands in the air. And while she was the size of a human baby, she was all Brunk. From the color of her skin, to her tiny little tusks and her thick black hair.

And she was perfect.

Two years later we welcomed our son into the world. While his sister was loud, he rarely cried. He watched the world with a keen interest, his big eyes taking everything in.

And now, as I sit with my son in my arms and watch Brunk play with our daughter, it amazes me that I hadn't given in to him years ago. But maybe I did it when I was supposed to.

Only the fates know.

But what I know, despite all the monsters we've killed, all the adventures we've been on, this was the greatest adventure of our lives.

                                           •The End•