Page 76 of Orc's Pride

There is a gasp from the fallen orc, his eyes glazing over as he stares up into the sky above him. “Oh…”

Old Malik places a hand on his shoulder. “What do you see?”

“The God of War… I’m being called.”

“Go, now. You’ve been brave. Thank you for everything.”

With those last words, the orc’s body goes limp and slumps in the guards’ arms.

“Shit,” Pitha mutters.

I don’t like the look on his face. As our leader, I’ve never known him to look worried before. But now that’s all I see written on his face.

Just how bad is this war going to get? We’ve already been fighting it for generations. And now there has been an added twist of ‘monsters’ being added to it.

What are we going to do?

“Take the body to the infirmary.” Pitha tells the guards. “We’ll give him a proper burial. Everyone else, clear out.”

Someone on the other side of me steps up. “What about what he’s said? What does any of it mean?”

Pitha sighs. “It’s complicated. For now, all of you go back to what you were doing. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but we need to get some things in order before we can figure out our next steps. For now, we’ll need to get our guards up.”

There is some murmuring among the crowd, but no one is willing to stand up to their Chieftain. As everyone dispurses, I stay rooted to my spot, my eyes glued on the dead orc being hauled up by the guards.

“That means you too, Inhidral.”

I rip my eyes away to frown at my Chieftain. “The monsters he mentioned…”

“I don’t know anything about them.”

I search his face for the lie, but come up with nothing. “But you know something.”

He fixes me with a look. “Now’s not the time to be digging around for information. Go back to the training grounds or go home for the day.”

Pitha turns from me, following Old Malik who trails behind the guards carrying the corpse back in the opposite direction that they’d come from.

I sigh to myself, a pit forming in my stomach.

Whatever is brewing on the horizon, I’m not going to let it drive us into extinction.

If the dark elves really think they have a chance at slaughtering us so easily, they’ll have to get through me first.

The End

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Preview of Mated to the Dark Elf

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Mated to the Dark Elf

By Celeste King

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