"By the elements...! When was the last time he shaved?!?" Hellie asked looking at the bearded figured after the helmet was removed.

Jukzuk furrowed his brows... No tusks.

"...Uncle..." Demze called from behind Jukzuk, as he grunted to acknowledge.

"Open his mouth. We need to see his bottom teeth." Demze instructed.

Jukzuk grunted and searched the matted, food crusted, and bile-filled facial hair for Phillip's mouth until he found it. He pulled his bottom lip and found that Phillip was missing his two bottom canines... More specifically, his tusks!

"As I thought." Demze put on a proud face, as she nodded, while Jukzuk's brows unfurrowed.

"What's going on? What did you think? Why is he missing teeth?" Hellie asked confused.

"Sister... Do you know which teeth he is missing?"

"I don't know much about human teeth, so I don't know..."

Demze shook her head, "If they were Orc teeth?"

"His tusks."

Demze nodded, while Hellie still seemed confused.

"Haaa~!" Demze sighed, while Jukzuk spoke up, "He's an Orc, Hellie."

"WHAT?!?"Hellie covered her mouth after her outburst.

Jukzuk smiled, as he knew it was time to clean up Phillip. He leaned Phillip up, as he was about to tote him to the bathroom to wash him up and come back to give him a good shave.

As Jukzuk leaned Phillip up Demze asked in a strange voice, "What's... What's wrong with this back!??!" Her high voice laced with shock was unusual for the calm Demze that both Hellie and Jukzuk looked as well.

Jukzuk's brows slammed together, as Hellie proceeded to cover her mouth again...

Demze slightly dazed at the two's reaction then asked, "...Can someone tell me if he's diseased..."

Hellie's eyes reddened, as she looked over Phillip's back, "That's no disease, sister... Those are scars."

Demze turned her gaze back to Phillip's back to see the gnarled flesh. Rows of long raised scars that pitched like lightning on his back showed years of whipping. At the end of each of these scars showed indents into the flesh. It appeared to Demze to appear a macabre display of shooting stars and spiderwebs made of flesh.

Jukzuk spoke slowly under his breath, "I've seen scarring like this before... This is the work of the cat of nine tails... A whip with nine lashes and a cat's claw at the end of each. It whips and then at the end of the lash pulls a chunk of flesh or cuts it... It's the cruelest punishment by the humans..."

"...I see..." Demze's eyes remained on Phillip's back, as he was hefted by Jukzuk and taken to his bathroom.

Hellie looked to be deep in thought, which shocked Demze when she took another look at her sister. She couldn't help herself, as she called out to Hellie, "Sister... Just what are you thinking about?!?"

"He said he was human... So, I don't understand..."

Demze shook her head again, "I'm sure it's to be as cruel as they could be. I'm not sure why, but he said he couldn't cultivate. I have a feeling they told him at a young age he was human and showed him how to cultivate as a human... Orcs can't cultivate as Humans, and vice versa... He never could and used this as a means to keep him beat down. This has been done before in history. I never thought I'd meet a thrall."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Thrall?"

"Unlike regular Orc Slaves, Thralls have their tusks removed, and are raised from childhood until adulthood that they are human. They are exploited for labor and are never used as fighters. They have... Bad lives from what I've read, but... I never thought..." Demze left her words trailing at the end, remembering the back she saw.

Hellie then heaved a sigh of relief.

Demze tilted her head, "What are you happy about?"

"He's an Orc! Do you know what that means?"

Demze giggled, "Yes. I know what that means, but that wasn't going to stop you, to begin with... Was it?"

"...I don't like talking to you sometimes... You know that...?" Hellie stood up to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"Mama needs to collect our mead money!"

"Come straight back after you collect the money!"

"Pfft, no! This mama is getting mead to celebrate a new Orc to the clan!" Hellie laughed loudly as she left quickly out.

"DAMN IT HELLIE! LISTEN TO ME!" Demze screamed as she heard faint laughter in the distance.

She fell back into Phillip's couch sinking deep into thought... Now that she knew for a fact that this new man was actually an Orc... She could put into action the plan she worked on a week ago...

[Adopting me was the worse decision of your life... My thrall is going to cleave you in two...] A cold smile etched across Demze's beautiful frail face.

*******

Water splashed across Phillip's face, as he came too...

"Hoy! Boy! You up?" Jukzuk called out to Phillip.

Groggy and sick on his stomach, Phillip rose to a seated position on the cold stone floor of his bathroom. He looked around and noticed that his helmet wasn't on.

He felt around his head and chest and heaved in relief!

Jukzuk grunted, "Yeah, I'm sure you feel better with that gone."

"Yeah."

"We need to clean you up, boy," Jukzuk called to him, as a boy. Phillip puzzled for a moment, as in the Orcish language boy meant young Orc.

"Boy, we need to clean the stink of vomit from you! Hellie and her sister are here! Do you want to keep looking bad in front of these two beauties?!"

With Phillip getting motivated, and with assistance from Jukzuk washed down, and cleaned up.

When Jukzuk got done washing Phillip's hair and face, he backed off to let Phillip handle the rest, as he stood to the side. He looked out and didn't see anyone, and felt there was no one that was close enough to hear them, as he began to speak, "Phillip..."

Phillip paused to look up at Jukzuk, as he grunted. He could now nod in the human way, without his helmet, but new habits were made, and grunting became his way.

"Do you think you're human?"

"...What kind of question is that, Jukzuk???" Phillip went back to washing.

"I couldn't help but see your bottom tusks are gone."

"...My what...?"

"Did you know your mother or father?"

"...No..."

Jukzuk shook his head, "You were a slave of humans, as an Orc, boy... I can only be thankful that the Elements and the Calamity returned your people."

"Jukzuk, you're not making sense." Phillip finally stopped his actions, and climbed out of the tub, as he wiped down.

Jukzuk threw him some clothes he prepared before he woke Phillip up. After getting dress, Jukzuk grabbed Phillip by the shoulders, "Boy! Did you never notice? You weren't like other humans!? Did you not notice you were lied too!? You can't cultivate?! YOU'RE A THRALL! YOU WERE AN ORC IN BONDAGE!"

Phillip dazed as Jukzuk shook him... He thought about it... He was different. He was already treated unfairly... Always hated... Always discriminated against... Always punished...

"I'm-I'm an Orc?"

"YES!"

Phillip's bushy face relaxed. It seemed like a large wash of relief came over him. He wasn't sure if he was an Orc or not, but the more he thought he wasn't human... The better he felt. Humans had tormented him his whole life, and to know he wasn't one of them... Release!

"Phillip... There is something we need to talk about."

Phillip smiled under his beard and bushy face; his eyes crinkled. It was good that Jukzuk could see this smile. Phillip hadn't smiled for just a little over ten years. It was a wretched but sincere smile.

"Two things... We need to take you to see the chief... And... I need to teach you quickly how to handle female Orcs."

"I... I get the Chief, but what about female Orcs?"

"You're an Orc... You don't call them female Orcs... Unless you want to piss one off... If you are human, that doesn't matter, but as an Orc, you call them Orcess. This is the name for female Orcs in Orcish!"

"...What's the difference...?" Phillip didn't understand why this was a point.

Jukzuk changed to common, as he spoke, "What happens when you call a Human woman, a female, or a bitch?"

"...It's disrespectful, and she gets angry..."

"That's the same thing with Orcs. 'Orcess' is the proper term for what humans call Ladies."

Phillip finally grunted in understanding.

Jukzuk changed back to Orcish, "Good. Now let's get you a shave. We need to see what your face looks like... Figure out what clan you came from... It's obviously either a cave clan or a swamp clan due to your skin tone... Maybe a mix."

Jukzuk grunted while thinking, as he dragged Phillip out of his bathroom, and back to the foyer.