Chapter 11

Cragnorr

A fter the fight, I was thrown into my cage with careless abandon, the guards infuriated at me for ruining their fun. At least tonight I won’t have to sleep with the metal collar around my neck, because they forgot to clip me down before stomping away.

That night, I’m given some bones that have already been mostly picked over and little else. “Fucker,” Bino growls at me when he’s also given nothing but a few pieces of rotted food, in exchange for losing—and surviving it. “I’m going to kill you next time we fight. Hell, maybe before then.”

I don’t answer, of course. We are all victims, and I refuse to participate in the King’s games. Especially not with Mia watching.

“You can try,” says Fex with a snort. “But we all got a good look at the fight, and you were slow and sloppy. The ogre had you on the ropes.”

Bino glares daggers at Fex, but doesn’t speak more as he tries to pick out the good parts of his food .

“Trying to impress your woman?” the trolless next to me asks in Trollkin. She’s been watching me for some time, like she’s sizing me up. “With that show out there?”

I cock my head. She knows about Mia?

“It was obvious to everyone. You care about the woman that detestable leader of theirs has his claws in.” She examines her nails. “You can speak the human language, so it makes sense.”

When I don’t answer, she sighs and leans back against the bars of her cage. “I’m Pa’zi, by the way.”

I nod.

“Not going to tell me yours, huh, big guy?”

She doesn’t need to know my name. No one needs to know anything about me before I can get out of here.

“Are you fucking her?” the orc asks, stepping to the front of his cage to get in on the conversation. “The little human?”

I don’t know what this fucking means. I give him a blank look.

“You know,” the orc says, rolling his eyes. He holds up a circle with one hand, and mimes sticking another finger through it. “Putting your cock in her.”

I glance down at my groin, trying to imagine what he means by this. Is the circle meant to represent her mouth? I did consider such a thing after I feasted on Mia between the legs. If her hands felt that good around me, I wondered what her mouth would feel like. Is that what he means?

At my quizzical look, the orc shakes his head. “No way,” he says to Pa’zi. “I don’t think our ogre here knows what his cock is for.”

She snorts. “Is that right?” Hands wrapped around the bars, she presses her face through it, grinning mischievously at me. “Do you know what a cunt is, big guy?”

Again, I’m at a loss. Her smile only widens. She reaches down between her legs and drags a hand through them. I stare as she touches it again. She must have one of those soft, wet holes there, too. Then she holds up a circle, like the orc did .

“A cunt,” she explains, winking at me. “Have you ever seen one?”

So that is what she means. I nod. I’ve seen the most beautiful cunt in the entire world. I licked it and sucked on it and put my fingers inside it to make Mia cry out with her pleasure.

“Ah.” Pa’zi hums. “So he’s seen a cunt, but never put his cock in one.”

I blink. Cocks go inside... cunts?

A sudden, powerful heat takes over my body when I imagine my cock fitting into that hot channel at the crux of Mia’s thighs. The damn thing immediately answers, rising under my trousers. How would it even fit?

But oh, if it did, I would be the luckiest ogre in all of history.

“I bet you saw that human’s cunt, didn’t you?” says Pa’zi, smirking.

“Ha!” The orc pats his belly as he chuckles. “So she let you see it, but wouldn’t let you fuck it?”

The question didn’t even come up. I wonder if Mia knows about this cocks-inside-cunts business. I know it would feel marvelous for me—would it do the same for her? Would she moan like she did when I pumped my finger inside her?

“What a tease,” says Pa’zi. “You didn’t even get to fuck a cunt before you died? Tragic.”

“He was probably too big for her.” The orc snorts. “No way that pole of a cock could fit.”

“Guess we’ll never know.”

They’re wrong, though. I won’t die here. I won’t die as long as Mia is in the King’s captivity. I will get her out of here, if it’s the last thing I do. And it might very well be.

Then I would die knowing I lived my purpose.

Mia

I follow along behind the woman with the big, swinging braid as she leads me away from the tent, off to another part of the camp that’s not nearly as well-lit. We stop at a water pump surrounded by buckets.

“Get filling,” she says, kicking a bucket towards me. I’ve seen this woman in action before, so I don’t hesitate to comply, putting the bucket under the faucet and pumping the handle to bring up water. When it’s filled, she waves a hand at me to follow her. I carry the huge, heavy bucket along behind her to a rather large wooden tub, where she instructs me to pour it in.

Then I fill another bucket, and another, until the tub is halfway full.

“Now get in,” she tells me. A bath? It might be frigid cold, but don’t mind if I do.

I strip off my clothes, glancing around once to see who’s watching, but we’re alone. Then I climb into the tub full of frigid water. The evening is cool but not chilly, and soon I adjust to the temperature of the water.

“Wash up good,” the woman says, taking her hair out of her braids to brush it while I bathe. “Don’t want any of that ogre stink when the King makes his decision about what to do with you.”

My stomach does a flip, and I feel sick. Right. She’s “purifying” me.

The camp is significantly quieter here, with no homes in the immediate area, just crates of storage and piles of junk. This place must be reserved for bathing, an activity which people here don’t seem too keen on.

I take it all in, wondering if this might be the way out of here. It doesn’t even look like there are guards on the nearby pike wall.

The woman hands me a bar of soap, which I use to scrub myself all over, including my thick, long hair. She watches me as I dunk under the water and rinse it out.

“I’m Narria,” she tells me at last. “And you should be very grateful to me.”

I sit up in the tub. “Why’s that?” I ask. “Why should I be grateful to someone keeping me captive, who plans to hand me over like a piece of meat? Who’s keeping my friend and forcing him to fight?”

“Friend, huh?” She arches an eyebrow. “Been spinning a little lie, have you?”

Fuck. Me and my stupid mouth. Maybe I haven’t taken Cragnorr’s cock there , but I’ve done plenty of other things with him. Calling him a ‘friend’ doesn’t feel quite honest, but I’m not sure what other word to use.

My shoulders tense. “You do what you have to do,” I answer, hoping she won’t turn me in to Zake right away for my fib. “I’m just trying to survive.”

She doesn’t answer. No, Narria surveys me while I finish bathing, not speaking. When I’m done rinsing my hair, I get out of the tub and shiver in the cool night air as the water evaporates off of me. With a sigh, Narria grabs a span of fabric and hands it to me.

“Dry off,” she says, so I do obediently. When I reach for my nightgown and jacket, though, she stops me. She chucks them away into the pile of abandoned objects nearby, and I watch my filthy nightgown go with a smidgen of remorse. That was the last vestige of my old life.

Peering into a big basket of other clothing items, Narria picks through it until she finds what she’s looking for. She presents me with a long tunic and a pair of soft leggings, and insists I put them on.

“There. Fit for a King.” She laughs at her own joke. “Now come on. Better get you rested up for tomorrow. ”

“What’s tomorrow?” I ask as she reties the rope around my wrists.

“You’ll see.” She tugs on the ropes, and I follow her back to the main area of the camp. She opens the flap to a particularly big tent, and inside I find a platform bed, racks of weapons, and a few chairs assembled around a quaint fire pit.

“We’ll have to share tonight,” she tells me, closing the tent flap and tying it. Then she pats the blankets, and I sit down. Narria ties my rope around the leg of the bed so I can’t try to escape in the middle of the night, but makes sure to leave plenty of slack so I can still lie down comfortably.

She’s been surprisingly nice to me. I’m clean and dressed, and I’m going to sleep in a warm bed tonight, too. If I just pretend she doesn’t plan to hand me over to Zake tomorrow, I could almost enjoy it.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask as I lie down. Narria stoops by the fire pit to light it.

“Doing what?” After piling up dry pine needles under some logs, she clicks a fire starter and the twigs catch.

“Keeping me away from Zake tonight,” I say. She didn’t need to be kind to me. It’s almost like she was doing me a favor by delaying my fate another day.

Narria pauses, then turns around to face me. “I know what he wants with you.” She sets her jaw. “And I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I figure the least I can do is give you one last good night before he steals your innocence.”

I blink at her. How does she know I’m a virgin?

“It’s obvious,” she says, answering my question for me. “You wouldn’t have called the ogre your ‘friend’ if you weren’t.” She blows on the flames to urge them higher. “The King will get tired of you soon enough, though. You’ll be different afterwards, but at least he’ll let you go when he gets his hands on a new toy.”

I shudder all over. So he’ll use me until he finds someone else. I should be happy to learn this, that someday I’ll be free of him—but how long will it take for him to get bored of me? And what will I have to bear in the meantime?

Then it occurs to me why she’s telling me this, and why she’s helping me.

“Did you used to belong to him?” I ask. Narria’s shoulders tense up in front of the fire, and that’s all the answer I need.

After a few moments of silence, she stands up and walks over to the bed, climbing over me to get to the other side. She pulls the blankets up over us, and we both stare up at the roof of the tent where a hole lets the smoke escape.

“I lasted for about two months,” Narria finally says. “I was much more willing than you, though. I didn’t have anyone else, and being the center of Zake’s attention was like a drug. He has a lot of power, and I thought he would share that power with me. I thought he’d make me his Queen.”

I turn to face her, but Narria’s eyes are closed as she speaks.

“He had no intention of doing that, of course. We’re just playthings to him. He’s looking for someone to warm up his bed and that’s all.”

I shiver involuntarily. And I’m next on the docket.

“So enjoy your last night without some greasy asshole putting his cock in you.” She pats my arm, and then rolls over, indicating it’s time for bed now.

“What about Cragnorr?” I ask, and Narria shifts to glance over her shoulder at me. “What’s... what’s going to happen to him?”

“Well, the ogre’s going to die,” she says, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world. “You didn’t know that?”

I’ve been holding off the tears for some time now, but at this simple declaration, they finally spring free.

My ogre. My best friend.

I have to get him out of here before that happens. I’ll do anything .

Narria sighs in annoyance. “You care too much,” she says, turning away from me again. “But that’ll get ripped out of you soon enough.”

She falls asleep quickly, and is soon snoring next to me. But I lie awake for what feels like hours, picturing Cragnorr’s gruff face, with his long tusks and brutish brows. I can almost feel his big body against mine, holding me tight as we slept on the forest floor.

Tomorrow, I have one choice if I’m going to free him and make that future possible. It will break his heart, but it’s the only way he’ll survive.

When I manage to drift off, it’s by imagining that we’re together again.