5
The gentle stroke down her arm brought her awake. Bianca stretched, feeling something hard and ready pressing against the curve of her ass.
“I see it’s been a few minutes,”
she murmured, turning enough to look at Tanis.
He gave a soft snort. “A few hours. You snore.”
“Mmm.”
She buried her face back against the soft furs and the springy muscle that was Tanis’ bicep, mumbling sleepily, “When you fuck me, I want you to pin my hands down.”
He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “There may not be time.”
“Is it morning?”
Bianca scrambled to sit up.
She turned around, looking at the orc strewn across his furs, unbothered, watching her with an amused smirk. “Nearly.”
Just moments ago he’d been her entire bedroll and blanket, keeping her plenty warm through the wintery night. Even pulling away this much she felt the loss of his body beside hers, how completely protected and at ease she’d felt curled up against him.
“I guess we should get going soon,”
she whispered, fighting the urge to crawl back into bed with him, to curl up against his chest with his big arms draped over her like the heaviest of blankets.
“Soon,”
he nodded, sitting up, pulling her into his lap to lay kisses along her shoulder.
Bianca closed her eyes and felt herself losing the battle to crawl out into the dark, cold morning. This was so nice. He was nice.
“If you keep this up, I’m not leaving,”
she murmured, tilting her head back to expose the inside of her neck for him. Cuddling hadn’t been on the agenda, but who could have known there was such tenderness underneath that rough exterior?
“Mm. All part of my plan to eat you,”
he hummed against her throat, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
“Again?”
“Mm. There is a spring not far from here, the water runs clear and warm,”
he said as he brushed his mouth against her shoulder. “And you should wash some of the paint from your face.”
“Paint?”
She pulled her little knife half out of its leather wrap, checking her reflection in the metal. Part of the bluish stain that patterned his cheeks had transferred to hers sometime in the night.
A good bath sounded divine. Especially if there was going to be more…curiosity between them.
She watched him sit up, comb his fingers through the longer part of his hair and retie it out of the way. Then he dipped the tip of his finger into the little pot with the blue veined plant. In the bottom some leaves were crushed to ink, which he used to drag the inky stain under his eyes, refreshing it.
“For the harsh light,”
he explained. “You’ll see it when the sunrise hits the snow.”
“Mm. And here I was thinking it was to make you prettier.”
“The prettiest, in fact, in all of the Chasm,”
he smiled, pulling her closer again.
His touches were lighting up Bianca’s skin with need, but her head felt heavy. Already there was some sense of loss that they would not spend very much more time together. Sure, maybe there would be a little time to explore each other’s bodies further before she returned to camp, and then she would be packing up the caravans with the troupe of the Hyphae, and traveling off to the next city to perform for other festivals, ringing in the Winter Solstice. There wasn’t enough time to really explore the extent of the curious thing brewing between them.
The world was just too big. She would never run into him again this easily.
Bianca closed her eyes. How could she even begin to want to stay here, after just a night? Sure, she’d always let life take her where it would, like a leaf on the wind, but there had always been one band of actors or another that had needed a good stagehand to travel with them and even been pleasant company. But the thought of returning to her troupe where she was far less appreciated than she was in Tanis’ arms, was less of a relief– even somewhat daunting.
She was so lost in thought, she almost didn’t realize Tanis had stilled, his arms tensing around her as the sound of boots against dirt passed by.
“Tanis!”
a rough voice growled from outside the tent, startling them apart. Bianca landed hard on her tailbone on the other end of the tent.
“Dhane,”
Tanis cursed under his breath.
“…as in Tanis son of Dhane the Bloodthirsty—?”
Bianca whispered, eyes wide.
Tanis nodded, and if the exasperated yet panicked look he had was anything to go by, this was the last person she wanted to meet.
Tanis called towards the tent’s exit, “One moment, I’ll get dressed.”
At that, Bianca tried to slip her leggings back on without rustling the tent. There might not be time to get dressed when the coast was finally clear.
Dhane’s voice continued as he paced by the tent, boots crunching against the icy ground. “The huldira has eaten more of our herd. Two more last night.”
Tanis swore under his breath as he pulled on a new shirt. “Did the others find the huldira’s nest? Are we ready to hunt it?”
“No, but supplies are running low. They found a horse, wandering the woods,”
Dhane said briskly. “No rider. Don’t go near it, the thing’s bitten three different hands already.”
Bianca’s head tipped back in exasperation. That would be none other than Horace. At least he hadn’t been eaten himself, and even better, been found. At least, not before he developed some rather vicious survival skills.
“...Some scouts spotted a few caravans traveling the lower roads. I’m heading out with another party.”
At those words, everything seemed to slow down. Bianca swallowed. Somehow the word ‘party’ invoked less thoughts of drinking and camaraderie with new friends than it usually did, at this dim hour of the morning.
Bianca watched the color drain from Tanis’ face, his hands becoming fists in his lap. “When?”
“As soon as the others are ready. Wait on our return before you go to track the huldira again.”
‘Stall him?’ Bianca mouthed, and Tanis called out quickly at the footsteps starting to walk away, “No, um. I’ll– I’ll come with you. Give me a few minutes.”
Dhane’s voice returned dismissively, somewhat distant. “Don’t bother. It’s full of halflings. Shouldn’t take many of us, nor very long.”
Bianca felt dizzy as she put a hand on Tanis’ knee, squeezing to try and convey her silent panic. She couldn’t just burst from the tent and start gnawing on Dhane’s ankles to try to stop him, how little it would do.
Tanis covered her hand with his.
Her head was spinning with a dozen questions. How bad would it be? She’d only ever heard stories about orc raids before, and right now she couldn’t recall any of the details. Would they hold them at blade point and demand all their food and gold, and everyone would get away without a scratch? Or would ransacking the camp mean she wouldn’t have a troupe to return to?
Then again, with an orc whose reputation for bloodthirst named him, perhaps no answer was needed.
When she was sure Dhane was gone, Bianca whispered, eyes wide and brimming with tears, “That’s my camp.”
Tanis nodded quietly.
“That’s my camp!”
she hissed. Her throat was tight with fear, “I have to go find them, they’re so nearby, I have to warn them—!”
“We can’t return you to them. Dhane will catch up with them, and you could get hurt when they—”
He stopped, shook his head and quieted himself. “First, let’s get you out of here. We’ll plan on the way.”
“We should get Horace– my horse,”
Bianca swallowed weakly.“It’ll be faster.”
Tanis blew out a breath. “That was your horse?”
She nodded, and Tanis scrubbed a hand over his face, finishing pulling on his boots while he muttered something about how of course she would have a terrible horse.
Leaving the tent, mist hung low against the ground. It was still very dark, every shape only a muffled deep blue, but torches and campfires burned low against the early morning light.
Tanis held his cloak around her shoulders, covering her entirely, though this time she walked quickly at his side beneath it as he crossed the camp.
In little glimpses, Bianca spied the length of rope tethering Horace to a tree. He whinnied and took snapping chomps of air at another young orc girl. She swore at him as she tried to get close enough to put a feed bag over his head.
“I’ll take over here. Go help your brother watch the herd,”
Tanis directed when he reached her, tilting his head in the direction of a field. Bianca held herself as close to his side as she could.
“But Dhane said there weren’t enough left to have more than one watch,”
she replied, handing the bag over despite her surprise.
“He changed his mind. More eyes keeps them safer,”
Tanis said, taking the feed bag from her, the movement rustling his cloak. Light rippled briefly across Bianca’s face and she shrunk back as best she could.
The orc girl didn’t notice her, thankfully, she had already turned on her heel and headed to find the yakgoats herd. She clearly didn’t want to spend another minute with Horace.
When the coast was clear, Bianca slipped out and slowly stepped towards Horace. He towered over her, his breath clouding in the air.
She reached out a war hand, ready to pull it back. “Horace, hi, I’m so glad you’re ok, oop, ok, no, don’t do that, hey, Horace–”
The demon nickered and took a cheeky nip at her. He snorted then, as if to laugh at her, at how terrified she looked.
“Try calling him by his name,”
Tanis suggested unhelpfully as he rounded the other side of the beast, giving him a wide berth.
“His name is Horace– forget it. Look, buddy, I’m sorry we got separated–”
While Horace’s attention was on her, Tanis slipped forward and swung a leg over his back. He pulled himself up into the saddle and gathered up the reigns in a swift, well-practiced motion.
Bianca waited a heartbeat for the demon to kick, buck, something.
Horace took a few steps forward and back calmly. Between Tanis’ legs, he seemed positively well behaved.
Was Horace being just a regular horse for Tanis? Absurd. Honestly, kind of rude. What did he have that she didn’t? Besides feet that reached the stirrups.
He leaned over the side a little, holding out a hand to her. “You coming?”
Bianca said nothing, her heart twisting. Now was not the moment to be affronted at Horace’s clear favoritism. She took Tanis’ hand and scrambled up into the saddle with him.
The ride was fitful at best, and she found herself looking over her shoulder every few minutes at every little sound, seeing only the dark woods. Her troupe likely had no idea they were in any danger, if other orc scouts could move as quietly as Tanis had.
Every so often one of them aired a thought, the beginnings of a plan, but none got much further. There simply was nothing a few halfling actors with stage weapons could do against an attack.
Bianca was grateful when the daylight started filtering through the snowy trees, even if it felt like her head had become twice as heavy and she’d gotten no sleep at all. They slowed when they saw the low-burning campfires of her troupe and the circled caravans.
It was so quiet, and so still.
Tanis dismounted first, helping her down.
Bianca started towards the camp, when Tanis caught her arm. Her head whipped around to find him crouched behind a nearby fallen tree, pulling her down with him.
“We’re too late,”
he whispered, and she followed his gaze.
They were there already– a handful of orcs, snow-laced and quiet as the dawn, making their way towards her camp, weapons on their hips and backs. They had paused just a little ways from it, still hidden from the caravans, talking quietly amongst themselves, pointing around the camp’s perimeter.
“What do we do, what do we do?”
Bianca whispered frantically. Gnawing ankles was about to be back on the table.
She pulled out her little mushroom cutting knife, not sharp enough to fight with, the only weapon she had. Her hands shook as she clutched the blade before her.
Tanis remained silent, but Bianca looked up at the first thought that came to her head. “What if I kidnap you?”
Tanis stared back at her for a heartbeat they didn’t have.
“... I mean. I’m interested. And very flattered,”
he started to murmur, looking a little confused, “But we need to focus on the matter at hand.”
Bianca shook her head. She didn’t have time for whatever social ritual kidnapping apparently was. “You’re Dhane’s son, would that be anything? Would that be enough to keep my troupe safe? If I hold a knife to your throat and tell him I’ll kill you if they follow us?”
She watched him try to figure out her question like a riddle, unhelpfully as the seconds ticked by, and the orc party crept closer to her camp. She could have screamed with frustration.
She couldn’t wait another second. It was this or nothing, now or never. Bianca leapt to her feet, throwing her arms around his neck, scrambling to hold on as he stood.
“STOP RIGHT THERE,”
she yelled across the frozen forest.
A number of birds scattered from their nests.
“I didn’t agree to that plan–!”
Tanis was hissing to her when he froze, standing up fully and facing the other orcs.
They stared at each other for many long seconds, assessing. She took them in, so much larger than anyone in her troupe and all their tusks and non-stage weapons in their grips. But they stared on at her, half bewildered, half startled.
“Go back to your camp. Or I’ll–, I mean, I’ll–”
Bianca stammered, a sort of stage fright taking over. Perhaps she preferred working backstage to having this many eyes on her, actually.
One took a step forward.
“DON’T YOU DARE,”
she bellowed, clutching a fistful of his cloak with one hand and the other her blunt little knife. She made a show of the knife before she held it just under his jaw.
There was the sound of her troupe’s caravans creaking, doors opening as her friends crept out of their beds to see what all the fuss was about.
She couldn’t look at them. This was so much more complicated than foraging had ever been. Not nearly enough planning had gone into this.
Already her nails were digging into his shoulder, her grip slipping as Tanis tried to subtly boost her up.
“Back off, I will do it!”
she screeched, though she barely believed herself. Even as she struggled to hold herself up, she didn’t want the knife to press too much against his throat.
“Tanis, what is that?”
one of the orcs started to say, as if she looked more like an accessory than a kidnapper to them.
Another orc took a daring step forward, and Bianca slipped, her nails tearing a path of scratches down his arm.
She felt Tanis twist in her grip to try to catch her, and it happened all too quickly to stop it and too slow to look away. The sickening feeling of the blade in her hand dragging and then gliding effortlessly through his skin, the knife falling from her hand, covered in blood.
Bianca scrambled to her feet as soon as she hit the snow. Tanis was on his knees beside her, his hand pressing hard against his neck just under his jaw, drops of deep green on the white ground.
He pulled his palm away, and she let go of the breath she was holding. It was just a shallow scratch. “Oh, Silvain’s tits, I cut your face. I’m so sorry–”
“Don’t worry about it,”
he muttered, but a deeper shade of green started to color his cheeks and his eyes grew darker as he looked to her from the blood on his palm.
Bianca stumbled as she got to her feet, a wave of some sensation she couldn’t place knocking through her.
Her neck felt hot, and her hands were reaching to undo the ties on her cloak before she could think. How was it this warm all of a sudden?
“Did I hit my head? I’m so dizzy,”
she mumbled.
“It’s the Blood Fever,”
Tanis said, and she had to have heard him wrong. “You drew first blood.”
Bianca squinted at him. Why was he bringing up that ritual thing he had told her about before? Was this really the moment for that?
She looked from Tanis, to her troupe in their sleeping clothes and housecoats, looking terribly confused, to Dhane and the orcs with their weapons cautiously drawn.
All was quiet for a heartbeat, before one of the orcs called out, “This is your mate? A halfling?”