Day 12:

I was awake or at least I was waking up.

In between the limbo of being awake and asleep I felt the warmth that was on top of me disappear.

I wonder why?

I moved my hands and felt the space around my stomach area looking to return the warmth to myself.

I heard a slight whimper when I moved my hand.

I wonder what the sound belonged to.

Oh well doesn’t really matter.

I stretched out my hands and yawned before rubbing my eyes open.

I then realized what the missing warmth belonged to.

In front of the drowsy me, stood a little girl.

There stood Ayanna who appeared to be sizing me up with her entire fibre, trying to determine whether I would help her or harm her.

She should have realized I wouldn’t harm her when she woke up on my stomach but then again, if you were a little girl who woke up in a strange place, sleeping on a stranger’s stomach with your mother who was with you before you fell asleep missing. What would you do?

Nonetheless there she stood, her little frame sizing me up, her eyes darting back and forth as she surveyed her surroundings.

I simply waited for her until she decided to talk to me, which didn’t take long.

Ayanna: “Uh…. Um….” She began to stutter as she looked for the right question to ask me and then she found the question she was looking for as her face lit up “Where’s MaMa?” she asked.

She began to look around anxiously as if her mother would pop up out of the trees and come to her.

She began to get fidgety when I didn’t answer her and looked up to me.

Ayanna: “You know where MaMa is!” Her eyes had begun to form tears as she shouted at me “Why won’t you tell me where MaMa is!” and once she said this I had to turn away from her so I didn’t break into tears.

Her voice which was so adorable to the point I simply wanted to eat her (Not literally) coupled with her question made my insides churn with pain.

I turned back to her and looked her in the eyes before moving towards her.

She appeared slightly startled by my sudden movement towards her instead of answering her questions.

Once I had reached her, I knelt by her side and hugged her.

“Sorry” was all I could say in an almost silent whisper but Ayanna seemed to have heard me.

I stood like that holding back my tears as my shoulder was buried beneath a torrent of water.

Ayanna hugged me with her entire body, her tiny nails digging into my back.

I don’t know how long we stood like that for but she had apparently fallen asleep.

I pulled myself away from her and looked at her face.

It was dyed with tears and snot, the sight making my insides tinge with pain.

I ripped off some cloth from my trousers and wiped her face clean before I removed my wolf cloak and placed it on the ground.

I then placed the cleaned up Ayanna on the wolf cloak and covered her.

Once I put her down, she grabbed the wolf cloak and curled up into a little ball.

‘Poor girl’ was all I could think as I looked at the sleeping little angel.

I moved towards her and sat down, my back depositing itself on the tree next to Ayanna.

I then moved my hand towards her head and began to softly pat her hair hoping it would relax her stiff little body.

And it did, she relaxed and uncurled herself and I continued to soothe her for hours.

The sun which was sitting idly in the sky when I woke up was beginning to set, which meant that Kaiser would be returning soon.

Ayanna had somehow crawled the tiny distance between me and cloak and deposited her head on my lap while she hugged my arm.

Although she had done so when I was in an extremely uncomfortable position.

My back had begun to ache and my arm had pangs of pain begin to course through it.

Well anyone would when you sit in an uncomfortable position for hours.

But Ayanna looked so adorable then I didn’t have the heart to move her for my own comfort, so I sat there in perpetual discomfort.

I had also begun to become bored but I knew that if I fell asleep I would end up moving and waking Ayanna.

So in my discomfort I waited for Kaiser and imagined how I would torture Black Tooth to death for the pain he had caused Ayanna.

Kaiser then suddenly came out of shadows of the trees accompanied by a few dozen humans.

And what fine humans they were.

Kaiser had brought a total of 37 Humans with him.

12 of them Adults and 25 Children.

The children all looked like they were under fourteen, with 7 of them being male and the remainder female.

They were simply all adorable.

Which had me wondering if the orcs had a fixation on adorable children.

The adults though were all Female and drop dead gorgeous at that.

They were all beauties that made your mouth drop.

This had me thinking.

This meant that the women who had been set free would also be this beautiful but under the cruelty of the orcs had become mere shadows of themselves.

This also confirmed my suspicion that the orcs only took the ones they fancied alive. (Nordic Reference. As to why most Viking descendants are pretty. “They only took the pretty one’s home”)

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All of the adult females Kaiser had brought most likely assumed that they were being traded from one Orc clan to another so when they came to a clearing and saw me with Ayanna who was cuddled up to me they all appeared confused.

They became even more confused when Kaiser came towards me and kneeled.

Kaiser: “My God, I have brought the humans as you asked” as he said this the females all began to get excited. I could here whispers such as ‘We won’t be slaves?’, ‘He’ll set us free right?’, ‘he looks like a nice man’, ‘The Orc called him my god’ and the like. Kaiser and I listened to their excited whispers and simply smiled at each other but his smile broke into a grin “I also watched Black Tooth execute his men. It was a blessed feeling watching Black Tooth decapitate his men one by one for a total of 32 of them” this also broke me into a grin.

How nice I thought to myself.

Black Tooth had killed his commanders to appease a fake god. This thought coupled with the fact that I had saved 38 lives made me extremely happy.

Kaiser glanced at Ayanna who was sleeping on me and then noticed my uncomfortable position.

He chuckled before gently picking up Ayanna and depositing her back on the wolf cloak.

I silently thanked him and then turned back to the crowd of onlookers who looked shocked at an Orc treated a girl gently.

I smiled at them and gestured for them to come closer to me.

The group timidly came closer to me.

The children appeared slightly bruised and tired from their journey and experience and anxious at what was to become of them while the females were trying their best to appear brave even though they looked tired and scared.

All in all they looked quite cute so I simply smiled at them.

MC: “Kaiser could you please start a fire and cook some food for these poor children” I said looking towards Kaiser before gesturing to the group of humans.

They became tense when they heard me say Kaisers name.

I don’t know what they all expected but they all became extremely relieved when they heard me tell him to cook for them.

I patted the ground next to me and circled the short area around me gesturing for them to sit down.

The female adults were wary of me since they had no idea what I would do to them.

I did after all look like a sixteen year old who had a huge orc under his command.

The children on the other hand all appeared tired and fatigued and dropped around me.

Soon there were children sleeping everywhere, some on top of me, some cuddled up to Ayanna and her wolf cloak while some fell asleep on Kaisers bear pelt.

All in all my surrounding soon looked like an outdoor kinder garden session.

The females appeared to relax once they realized that I wasn’t going to harm them before they soon deposited themselves around me.

The children who were sleeping on the not so comfortable ground soon made their way to the females and nestled against them.

Kaiser had started a fire close enough to the group to warm them, but not so close as to burn them.

He also kept his distance from the group as well.

Soon my surroundings changed from that of an outdoor kinder garden session to that of an incredibly peaceful picnic under the setting sun.

I smiled at the peaceful scenery and watched as Kaiser finished cooking the fish and brought it towards the group.

The females hesitantly accepted the fried fish and began to slowly dig in, while the children who were slowly woken up ate in a hurried fashion before once again falling asleep.

Our peaceful dinner had ended and Kaiser now had a nice fire going.

He sat on the other side of the fire so there was some distance between him and the humans but I gestured for him to come closer.

He hesitated but he came and sat close to me.

The females became startled but I smiled at them and passed Kaiser a few of the children around me who then began to sleep soundly on Kaiser.

I then gently spoke the words “sleep well tonight, we can talk more later” to the females and closed my eyes.

I thought it was best to let them all rest before I talked to them about their lives.

Maybe I could return them home, but that chance was slim.

I had to think about the future.

Today was a good day all in all, but we couldn’t live outside like this with forty of us in total.

I had postponed the idea of getting a residence for myself until after I made more companions but it seemed like it would have to be sooner now, although it would wait until Black Tooth died.

I sighed before letting the sleep realm surround me and take me into its clutches.

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