Page 44 of Orc's Pride

I scramble to my feet.

Shoving the door to Pitha’s house open and getting inside, I quickly shut it and lock it for good measure. Through the window on the side of the door, I see both orcs heading right for the house, one of them already coming up the steps.

Shit.

Running back to my bedroom, still dizzy from the explosion, I ransack through everything and find the list that I’d tucked under my mattress the night I’d run away from Pitha up on that bluff.

I slide it into the pocket inside of my boot, hearing the front door crash open.

The window is the next thing I’m heading over to. I rip it open and immediately send myself through it. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I’m off running. I don’t stop and wait for anyone to catch up to me, I just continue to run through the base.

I gasp when another explosion is set off behind me, debris from the building flying through the air and nearly hitting me before I duck from it.

What the hell is going on?

There are screams all around me, terrified and blood-curdling that send chills racing up and down my spine.

Fuck, fuck fuck. I need to get out of here.

But where?

Just as I round the corner of another building, I spot the forest in the distance.

“I think she went this way!”

Shit.

I run for it, not caring to look back to see if the voice had been talking about me or not. I’m not taking my chances in figuring any of that all. All I need to do now is run until I can find cover and hide. If this really is some kind of attack, I want no part in getting caught.

I’m not sure if they’re here looking for the list or what but I’m not sticking around to ask those orcs why they were following me and trying to get to me by breaking Pitha’s door open. That isn’t the normal behavior of some friendly orcs—that’s some ‘I’m going to kill you’ type.

The second I reach the forest, I can hear shouts behind me.

At least if I can lose them here, I’ll be fine. I’m easily lost among the big trees and the tall, overgrown bushes. I kick myself momentarily for forgetting to grab a weapon, but then again, when would I have had the time?

There had only been a few seconds that I’d been alone in that house before the door to it had been kicked down.

I dart around more trees, keeping myself as low to the ground as possible in order to blend in to my surroundings. I have no idea how good these two are at tracking, but if they’reanything like the orcs I know from Malik’s clan, then I need to be as quiet as possible.

I stop right as I get to a large expanse of space and tuck myself under a few bushes crammed together.

To the right of me, I hear the crashing of a pair of heavy bodies moving through the forest, not at all trying to be quiet. They stop once they hit the small clearing, both of them looking around trying to spy me among the brush.

“Where did she go?”

“I thought she went this way?”

“No, you idiot. I was askingyouwhere she went back before we went through here!”

“That’s not what you said!”

There was a loud groan. “You go that way and I’ll go this way. Meet back here in ten minutes. We’ll find that bitch in no time.”

“Right.”

As they both split off in opposite directions, I held my breath and counted to thirty. My lungs screamed as I let myself breathe again, already strained from me running and having the wind knocked out of me earlier.

I need to get back to the base somehow and find Pitha. If anyone’s going to keep me safe from these strange orcs, it’s him.