Feral: Chapter 4

The carriage came to a stop.

“Out,” said the official curtly.

I obediently stepped out. We’d been in the carriage for a while. As we left, the smell of the dirty city streets I was used to, began to give way to far cleaner scents, like lavender incense, the salt of the sea, and food cooking in shops and homes. And now, as I stepped out of the carriage, I realized why.

We stood in the Nobleman’s Section of Jarvin. Here, I could see Jarvin Tower even closer than ever before. Its shadow fell across the city, and it seemed to touch the sky itself. The castle where the Regent of Jarvin must have been only a few city blocks away, considering how close I stood to the Tower. The carriage has stopped in front of a space between stone walls that had to be at least twenty meters in height. The walls went inwards towards a massive castle, and a large tower stood directly in front of us, in the space between the walls. The tower in question was three stories. Several archers could be seen in the windows, with arrows trained on me as I looked up.

I’d never been in the Nobleman’s section before, usually sticking to the poorer sections of town.

And the reasons why? Well, they were staring at me.

When I’d stepped out, in all of my large, green skinned glory, wearing a grey shirt, brown pants, and boots, a gasp came from the people in the street. The cuffs on my wrists and ankles jingled as I stepped down, and looked across the crowd.

Humans, elves, and dwarves, of all shapes and sizes, stared back at me in fear and hatred.

That was the problem with the Nobleman’s section. Only the wealthiest of people, from ‘accepted’ species, were allowed to live and work there. Halflings, who were thought of as nothing but dirt farmers, were one example of species that was common in the land, and yet was treated as less than others. Despite the fact that halflings were geniuses with magic, skilled farmers, and, from what Hasha once told me, excellent beer makers.

So if they had such a low opinion of halflings, some of the most loyal and steadfast people in Turab, consider their hatred of me.

The moldy bread that arced from the crowd towards my face wasn’t a surprise. Nor were the jeers and insults that started to come from the gathered people.

I was able to have a bit of fun with it however. As I walked forward, surrounded by the guards and led by the official, I started mentally critiquing the insults, ignoring the rotten food being thrown at me, ruining a very nice shirt.

“Greenskin!”

Not the most creative of insults.

“Child-Murderer!”

A bit of stretch that.

“Garbage-Digger!”

Well, only if I needed something for my experiments. Which, to be far, was often.

“Asslicker!”

Huh… that one was actually pretty funny.

Even as I tried to keep my spirits though, I could feel despair threatening to pull me under. Here I was, being dragged to my execution under a hail of insults and garbage. The very thing I’d feared since childhood. All I had done in my life, all the control and focus I’d learned, my experiments, my dreams, all gone. Nothing but hatred ahead.

I fought past those thoughts. If I was to die, it would be as a man. Damn those who thought of me as monster. I’d die with my head held high.

Or escape. Whichever was available to me first.

We walked past the tower, making the long trek towards the castle. The crowds disappeared as we walked, apparently unwilling to follow into the grounds themselves. The castle was one of the largest buildings I’ve ever seen, with bright red shingles, polished stone columns, and statues in the image of gargoyles, the beasts that sometimes lived canyons in the Gunderson Mountain Range and Orc Badlands. The area surrounding the castle was interesting. While the path up to the door was stone, the area around was a well-kept lawn. Flowers grew in little patches, and a small fountain bubbled as water poured over stones. A Halfling gardener was tending to an apple tree. She was sitting in the branches, cutting a few of them away for a purpose that escaped me, but stopped as my entourage and I walked up, the sound of the chains clinking as the soldiers armored feet slapped against stone.

To my surprise, the Halfling gave me a respectful nod. I returned it, and she smiled sadly before returning to pruning the tree.

There was another feature in the incredible gardens surrounding the place. I only noticed its after a while. When I did, I nearly fell over.

There was a small river, flwing through the grounds. It curved and twisted in strange angles, with bridges crossing it in odd ways. But, as I put it together, I realized I could sense something beneath the water.

Magic.

The river was an enormous rune! It must have been the work of thousands of hours! The larger the rune, the more energy it took to maintain it, and yet this one seemed to be powered by the waters flowing over it! What a concept! Using motion to power something! Of course, it would be less powerful in dry seasons, and the river overflowing might effect it, but if I could harness such a thing the way I had for electricity and pure magic, then the things I could do… maybe, using the rubber tubing I’d created, I could create a smaller version of this?

The runes themselves were laguz and jera, along with one I didn’t recognize, their lines intersecting at the bridges that crossed the water. The one I didn’t recognize seemed to be acting as the baseline for the others. Laguz was usually representative of water, while jera was used for good years, or for harvest. So their presence made sense in a garden, but the final one… hm.

ᛚ- Laguz

ᛃ- Jera

One of the guards pushed me forward.

Right. About to get imprisoned for execution soon. Damn, I really wanted to study the final rune.

The castle doors towered over us as we walked up the many steps to enter. The doors were grand, majestic, made of a green material that shined like a pearl and had dozens of random patterns carved into it, as well as some runes. I tried to identify them, but we stepped by to quickly, the official and guards keeping me moving.

The castle itself was as beautiful as its doors, moreso in fact. I shuddered to think on the many hours of work that it had taken to make such a building, with its tall ceilings and pillars as large as most building, made. The official looked back at me, and smirked.

“Quite the sight, isn’t it?” he said snidely. The first words he’d spoken to me since we’d entered the carriage actually.

“…Yes,” I said softly.

“Hmf,” He sniffed, then started walking again. “This way. They will be waiting for you, orcling.”

He went right, rather than down the main hallway. We went past tapestries depicting great moments in Turab’s history, or simple fairy tales. In a world where anything was possible, fact and fiction can be tough to decipher.

As we walked, the chains on my ankles dragged along the thick red carpets on the floor, the links sometimes pulling at the thick weave. A few servants gaped at us, well, at me as we walked. Two, a blonde and brunette pair of girls that were almost as tall as my waist, waited until we passed to faint in what had to be a fake reaction.

Or maybe I was that horrifying? I’d have to do tests to make sure.

Hasha would be proud. That was the second in two minutes I’d pondered on experiments while being carted to an execution.

As we walked, I heard voices speaking loudly. They were muffled by the distance, but slowly became louder as we came closer.

“—an orc!” a female voice cried out. She sounded like an older woman.

“It is her right,” I blinked when I realized I recognized this voice. It was Richard, the man in armor who’d come for the Prophesied Child earlier. He had barely registered to me last time we’d met, being nothing but a man in armor at the time. But I still remembered his voice.

We came around the corner to a room. It was square in shape, and not as decorative as the rest of the castle had been. There was a window on the right wall that showed several other buildings in the distance, as well as a courtyard of stone surrounding grass and… a lake? How big was this place?

The room itself had a bookshelf next to the window, filled with texts of every conceivable genre, some of which I owned myself. On the left wall was a tapestry depicting a dragon battling a demon as two armies warred on the ground (Which could have been a depiction of any number of wars in the last century, as demons and dragons had an infamous rivalry with one another). There was a desk in the room, with what must have been a massive couch covered in black fur behind it. Three people stood before the desk.

One was Richard, dressed in the same armor he’d worn earlier that day. He looked over at us, face stern as he saw who was coming. The second was an older woman, clearly the one from earlier. She was dressed in the simple black robes of a priestess, with a brown robe around her slim waist and a shawl around her shoulders. Long black hair flipped as she looked over at us, before her eyes widened at the sight of me.

“Light protect us,” she said in horror.

Yet more evidence I must be terrifying to behold. More experiments would need to be done.

The last person in the room surprised me. “Char!” said the Prophesied Child. She stepped around Richard, a wide smile on her face. She was wearing far simpler armor now, the metal plates ill-fitting, but still less audacious than her earlier set. Other than that, she looked much the same.

She also looked happy to see me, which suddenly made all my fears of execution seem suspect. It was only further disproved when she saw the chains on my body, and she cried out in dismay.

“What have you done?”

The official blinked, then looked back at me, then at the three before him. “I…I brought the orcling?” he said, sounded very confused.

“In chains?” she said in horror. The Prophesied Child stepped forward.

“My lady!” the older woman stepped forward as well, but was too late to stop the younger girl from striding across the room, stepping past the stunned official, and within mere inches of me.

She took the chains around my wrist, looking me over frantically. “I am so sorry! I didn’t know they’d do this! I just wanted to meet you again, to talk and—” I stared at the flustered young woman in amazement as she glared at the official. “Where are the keys!?”

“M-My lady, you can’t free an orcling in the Chapel of Valor!” The official cried out in horror.

“His name is Char!” said the petite young girl. She looked over at the bemused Richard. “We need to unchain him! This isn’t right, he’s our guest.”

Richard and I shared a glance. I could tell that whatever else, we shared a sense of amazement at the situation we’d found ourselves in. With a heavy sigh, Richard nodded to one of the soldiers next to me.

The tension in the air grew as the soldier slowly stepped towards me. He took out a key and pressed it to the lock on the chains. I kept still, knowing that if I lashed out, all the orc durability in the world wouldn’t stop the halberds around me from stabbing deep into my flesh.

The chains around my wrists fell. Then the ones on my ankles. I rubbed my wrists, feeling the small marks where the links had caught on my tough skin, then looked at the Prophesied Child.

“I…” I hesitated. “…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” She smiled brilliantly, her happiness at my words clear to see.

“Out, all of you.” Richard declared.

“My lord—” the official shut his mouth when Richard looked at him sternly. Gulping, the official nodded. “Yes, my lord.”

Giving me one final glare, the official and the soldiers left, leaving me with the Prophesied Child, Richard, and the priestess.

I looked between them awkwardly, still confused. “So…Nice place you’ve got here.”

The Prophesied Child beamed up at me. Richard chuffed out a laugh, then coughed to hide it. The priestess glared at me.

“My lady, allowing a peasant of such,” the priestess glared at me, “breeding, is not a wise thing to do! This orcling might—”

“Enough,” Richard waved a hand dismissively. “It is done.”

Grumbling in anger, the priestess turned away. Richard nodded, then looked at me. “I suppose,” he said gruffly, “introductions are in order. I am Richard Dedicat, a knight of the Chapel of Valor, and newly hired bodyguard to the Prophesied Child,” he gave her a smile. “Though I’ve been her caretaker for much longer than that.”

The Prophesied Child smiled back at him, then looked at the priestess. The woman, feeling our eyes on her, scoffed. “Oh, very well,” she said. “I am a Priestess of the Chapel of Valor, Gwen Rivers. And the advisor to the Bishop of Jarvin, who is away on business.”

“And I’m the Prophesied Child!”

“I hadn’t guessed,” I said wryly.

“Really?” she blinked. “Oh. Well, I am!” I realized then she had not encountered enough sarcasm in her life. How refreshing. “And my name is Katya Narveaz! It’s nice to see you again, Char!” she held out a friendly hand. After a moment of hesitation I took it.

Feeling like it was my turn, I looked around at the three of them. The priestess still refuse to look at me without glaring suspiciously. Richard was eyeing me cautiously. And the Prophes— Katya was still smiling at me.

“Char Com. I’m a blacksmith, armorer, and trainee-in-magic.”

The priestess snapped her eyes to stare at me in shock. "You are a wizard?”

The emphasis on the word ‘you’ made it clear what she thought of the concept.

“No, just a trainee. I could never be a wizard,” I answered honestly.

“Oh,” Katya gave me an encouraging look. “I’m sure you could one day!”

I stared at her, then smiled. She was extremely naïve. And a bit airheaded. But I was honestly beginning to like her. It was rare that I’d met someone who could be so sweet to me.

“So…Why was I brought here?”

“O-Oh yes, I forgot,” Katya chuckled, blushing a bit, and looking over at the priestess and Richard.

“I’ll leave to my duties then,” the priestess grumbled, her face pinched in anger. She glared at me again, then strode out past me.

Richard watched her go, blue eyes scanning her. Then he looked at me. “Well orcling, the fact of the matter is that you’ve brought it to my attention that, despite being trained at costs that would bankrupt cities, and being given armor of pure gold,” he scoffed, “my dear charge was not given armor made for the rigours of battle.”

I immediately understood what was happening. “You want me to make armor?”

"She wants to make you armor,” Richard nodded at the Prophesied Child, who nodded at me. "I said that our own armorers here could do the job,” he sighed, going around the desk in the center of the room to take a letter off of it. “But she will accept no less than, ‘nice Char’ as her new armorer.”

“Yep!” Katya nodded, eyes closed. “You taught me a lot about armor, and I saw your artifacts! If you could make me armor like the one you were making, then I could save a lot more people, and make everyone safe!”

I blinked as I watched her clutch a fist in determination, her eyes filled with determination. It was very surreal, going from an execution, to a young girl dreaming of saving the world.

“I have no problem making you armor,” I looked between the cheery Katya and the dour Richard. “But I will need payment.”

“Money is no object,” Richard said simply. “I don’t know why you’re the one she chose, but if you can do the job, and get it done in a week—”

“A week!?” I stared between the two. “A week? That’s too short a time! Any of the other projects would need to put off for that time.”

“And we would compensate you for the damages,” Richard frowned. “It must be done by then.”

“Why?”

“Char,” Katya tapped my arm, her metal armored fingers touching to the bare skin. I jumped at the feel of cold metal on my skin. She smiled in apology before speaking. “I’m headed into a den of monsters in a week.”

“…I am compelled to ask why.”

“It’s part of the prophecy,” she said brightly. She closed her eyes, sounding as though she was speaking from memory. “’The Prophesied Child, with heart alight in the radiance of the Light, will step into the world of beasts, and cleanse the land of the monsters that plague it.’ It is the first part of my journey,” her bright smile turned into a confused frown. “Haven’t you heard the prophecy, Char?”

“…” coughing awkwardly, I turned my head. “I… may not have had much contact with the Chapel of Valor before this.”

“Oh,” she brightened. “Well, I can teach you later! While you make my armor!” she looked over at Richard, who was smirking at me. “Right?”

“Of course my lady,” he kept his eyes on me as I looked down at him. “Well orcling? Can you do it? Make her an armor worthy of protecting the Prophesied Child?”

I honestly didn’t know. I was still overwhelmed. I’d spent the whole journey here convinced I was coming to my death. Instead, I was being given the commission of a lifetime. Armor for the Prophesied Child. There were blacksmiths who would rip their own children’s tongues out and burn them to ashes for the chance to have such a job.

And yet… if I failed, I would be in a dangerous position. In fact, just taking the job was dangerous. This was high-profile job. People would hear about me. And some may try to harm me simply for being a half-orc. And if I failed, then some might assume I had done it in an attempt to get her killed. One wrong rune, one badly forged piece, and I’d be executed.

I looked at the Prophesied Child. She was staring at me hopefully, eyes quivering.

Damnit. I couldn’t say no. And it wasn’t just because I’d feel like a monster for making her sad. It was because this job was an incredible chance. If I did this right, made the greatest armor I’d ever designed, then people might see me for the blacksmith I really was. I was never ashamed of my blood, but more work would come if people ignored my heritage. I could help Arthur more, pay back Hasha for all he had done for us. We could have a real business, without looking for loans from our friends.

And then, there was Katya. She was supposed to be destined to save the world against a great evil. As a young child just learning how to blacksmith, I’d dreamed of wearing armor I’d designed and saving the land. Later, when I realized how impossible that was, I’d changed my dream to having armor I’d designed be worn by a great hero who saved the land.

This was my chance. And I couldn’t let it slip me by.

“I’ll do it.”

“Yes!” Katya cheered, looking less like a great hero and more like a teenage girl.

Richard grunted. “All right. You can stay here for the night. You’ll be under guard, but the room will be comfortable. You can get started after we get you back home in the morning.”

“This will be great!” Katya said happily. “I’ve never had a friend stay in the castle!”

“…Friend huh?” I quirked my lips at the thought.

“You can meet Mountain!” Katya walked around the desk, touching the couch I’d noticed earlier and rubbing the fur.

“Mountain?” I asked.

The couch moved.

I froze in horror as what I’d taken for a very big couch, bigger than the desk, as big as the carriage I’d ridden in, slowly moved. Black fur heaved in waves as muscles even larger than my own shifted underneath it. A head moved up from the floor to look around. Eyes opened, a bright purple glow to them. A massive jaw opened and closed, teeth the size of daggers slicing the air as a bright pink tongue lolled. Four legs lifted the enormous body off the ground, before the massive being shook itself, tail wagging as floopy ears waved.

A dog. A dog that was as big as a carriage. And not a small carriage either.

“This is Mountain,” Katya said brightly. “He’s a good boy, isn’t he!?” She rubbed his head, her petite form even smaller next to the massive beast.

He barked happily. The room shook.

“…His name may be a bit small for him.”

On hearing me speak, Mountain turned to look at me. I froze once again. I was strong, and tough. But I got the sense that nothing short of the toughness of a bear would be able to truly impress this beast. So I simply watched as he strode over. A nose on slightly smaller than the palm of my hand sniffed at me, taking deep whiffs. Then, Mountain sat back on his heels. Even sitting, he was taller than me. A new, and very uncomfortable experience, to have someone taller than me.

Then he lifted a paw, looking at me gravely. I stared at it, uncomprehending.

“He wants you to shake,” said Katya gently.

Seeing no other alternative, I shook the massive beasts paw. He grinned a toothy, doggy grin, eyes still glowing with purple light. He circled around to Katya, and she smiled at me. “So…Can I watch you when you make the armor?”

I did what any man faced with a petite girl who has asked you a question while backed by a beast that towers over him would do. I nodded in agreement.