Page 25 of Alien Orc's Prize

My body responded before my battered brain even had a hope of catching up. It was as if someone had thrust me into a raging battle. Hormones surged. Muscles bunched. My breath came ragged and quick. Following nothing but instinct, I wrenched my air steed off the road towards the edge of the cliffs. I ignored Padreth’s worried call from behind me and plunged right over the side.

An air steed was not meant for flying. If I’d simply run it off the edge of the cliffs I would have crashed below. But there was a steep and treacherous path down here that no one dared take by foot. It provided enough of a solid surface for me to snake down the cliff face towards the beach. Distantly, I heard Padreth swear, then abandon his air steed to run for the safer lift that was the usual method of reaching the beach from the road and palace grounds above.

I jumped off the air steed and started running, following Luna’s scent right into the water. The waves soaked my boots and trousers, the leather growing heavy against my skin. I didn’t care. Luna’s scent was all around me and I couldn’t find her and my head was about to explode.

I did find someone, though. My cousin, Althrop. What he was doing here was anyone’s blasted guess. I ploughed through the water towards him, knowing he had to have something to do with this. His back was to me, but a slight change in the way he angled himself revealed Luna’s pale arm.

I caught him by the braid and yanked.

He gave an undignified yelp a moment before he crashed backwards into the water. I left him there to flounder, my eyes and hands instantly going to Luna’s face.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Luna seemed startled by my sudden appearance. The black centres of her eyes had retracted to pinpricks, revealing shifting, effervescent rings of gold and brown that made me almost entirely forget where I was or what I was doing.

Althrop piping up in exasperation from behind me was an unwelcome reminder.

“Nothing’s wrong!” he spat, dragging his drenched body up and out of the water. Hisnakedbody. “I was merely offering to teach Luna how to swim.”

“Offering to teachmy wifehow to swim, you mean?” I hissed. Rage curled like smoke at the edges of my vision.

“An offer I actually refused,” Luna said hurriedly. She drew closer to my side, her scent growing sweeter in my presence. “Multiple times.”

“Good lass,” I said gruffly. Her scent throbbed with a new, thick perfume at my words.

Althrop swiped water from his eyes and raised his chin defiantly. “She indicated she wanted to go into the water but also told us she could not swim. It did not seem like a good idea to leave the high princess out here in the water alone knowing that!”

“Can you truly not swim?” I asked her in astonishment.

“No! I never needed that skill working on shuttles all my life. And I was only wading around in the shallow areas. I’m not dumb enough to let myself drown my first day here!”

My mouth went ash dry at the thought, the mere words.

“If anyone teaches you how to swim, it’s going to be me,” I vowed. I had no idea when I’d work swimming lessons for my wife into my schedule, but I’d do it if it meant I never had to see her cornered by my cousin in the water again, unhappiness rolling off of her in sour waves.

“And you,” I snarled at Althrop, “put some blasted clothes on!”

He gawked at me like I’d gone mad. Which, in fairness, I rather felt I had.

“What do you mean? Since when does an orc wear clothes to swim?”

He was right, curse him. No one, adult or child, wore any sort of coverings to swim here. Even my sisters, who were hurrying over from a shady spot on the beach at the commotion, only had light robes on now and nothing underneath for the water.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” Althrop pouted, his handsome face begging for me to give it a scar or two. Or twenty.

“You werebotheringher!” I bellowed. “I could smell it all the way up the blasted coast!”

Now all three of my relatives were staring at me in confusion. As was Padreth, who’d finally made it down to the beach.

“You smelled what?” Neena asked, tilting her head.

“Do you smell anything?” Padreth whispered to Noona. My sister shook her head.

“You’re telling me that none of you smelled that?” I gaped.

They all glanced at each other, then back at me again.

So. I was the only one being endlessly tortured by my wife’s maddening smells.