Page 45 of Orc's Pride

Plus, he’ll know what to do if they happen to somehow be enemies with his clan.

Pushing myself up slowly from where I’d been hiding, I slowly make my way out from under it all and step into the small clearing. Straining to hear anything, all that accompanies me is silence.

I let out a small sigh of relief.

Well, that’s one less thing to worry about.

“Found you.”

I whip around, seeing one of the orcs who’d been chasing me standing only a few yards away. He grins widely at me, showing off his sharp fangs.

“I know you’d be around here somewhere. Just had to wait for you to come out of hiding, I see.”

My heart pounds in my chest.

Oh gods.

I don’t say anything back to him. Instead, I take off running again.

“Hey!”

My legs burn as I sprint through the trees, stray branches and twigs slicing at my face and stinging me the more I break through them to get away from the footsteps pounding after me.

There isn’t another single thought in my mind other than: run.

20

Dana

The footsteps grow distant as I race through the trees.

It’s hard to see with the thick canopy overhead, even with the light trying to come through. Now that I have no plan on where I’m going, or know where Pitha is, I’m fucked.

I’m so fucked.

What started the fire? And the explosion?

Whowould cause such a thing to happen?

It makes no sense. The chaos of it all had grown too big too quickly for it to be something simple like a kitchen fire that had gotten out of hand. And why had those orcs chased after me instead of helping quell the fire?

None of this made any sense and that pit in my stomach from earlier has only been growing heavier and heavier by the second.

I stop once I reach a small clearing. I recognize it from my date with Pitha. The bluff was up here, wasn’t it? If I could find it, I could look over the base and see what is really going on. Maybe I’d even be able to spot Pitha.

Heading north, it doesn’t take me long to find the rocky trail leading up to the bluff. In the distance, I can hear shouting fromthe base, far enough away from it where the many voices smatter together to create a cacophony of chaos.

I hope no one’s been seriously hurt.

Even with their hostilities towards me since I’d arrived, that didn’t mean I wanted any of the orcs to suffer or be hurt from something that seemed like it’d gotten out of control from outside forces. What those could be, I have no clue.

I only hope that Pitha could keep his base under wraps before it devolved into complete destruction.

Climbing up the ridge, I start to hear more voices, but this time, much closer than the base. They’re clearer and harsh sounding as they talk to one another.

Lowering myself to the ground, I crawl up the last few feet until the top of the bluff plateaus and the ground flattens. It’s easy for me to conceal myself behind the shrubs that grow wildly around me, but it’s harder than I expect to part them silently in order to get a good look at who is here.

“It seems that it was a success. The base should be in shambles by now.”