Chapter 1 #2
I look at him skeptically, assuming he’s talking about the pouch he carries around when we go out.
I’ve had my suspicions that there’s more to that bag than meets the eye, but I haven’t gotten confirmation.
He snorts at the face I’m making, bringing his camping supplies into the bedroom and motioning for me to follow.
“This bag is much larger on the inside than it appears,” he tells me after placing the bedroll on the floor and grabbing his other bag.
He turns to one of his clothing chests and grabs a large stack of shirts and pants, a pile larger than the bag itself.
I then watch as he proceeds to put all of them into the bag, which bulges out a little, maybe.
Not nearly as much as it should—it should have burst by now.
“I knew it,” I whisper to myself. Magic bag. I’ve seen them before. Well, I’ve seen one before, once. “Where did you get that?”
“A port city in the north.” He motions me over, holding the bag open so I can peer inside. “My sister and I made the journey there together. It is known as a ‘spacious satchel.’ I’ve had it over a decade.”
Looking in the top of the satchel is weird. It’s pitch black, like a void. I’m almost scared to put my hand in. “How does it work?”
“After you have put something inside, you simply need to picture it in your mind as you reach in to retrieve it,” he explains.
I give it a shot, picturing one of the shirts I just saw him put inside.
The inside of the bag feels cool as I insert my hand, and suddenly my hand feels full.
Pulling it out, I can see that I’m now holding the shirt in question.
I repeat this with another shirt and a pair of pants.
Then I try inserting my entire arm, touching the bottom of the outside of the bag with my other hand at the same time and ignoring the smirk I receive for my antics.
“That’s awesome.” I would love to get my hands on one of these myself. It would be so useful for traveling. Not only does it give all that extra space, but anything inside is basically weightless. I could carry all sorts of equipment and loot in that thing.
“I trust this will suit our needs, then?” He hands me the satchel so that I can start adding in my own stuff.
“Perfectly, Sir.”
Khazak and I leave for the patrol the next day after lunch.
We’re both in uniform, him carrying the bedroll and supplies while giving me the weightless bag holding our clothes and other items—I packed a couple of books in case it gets boring.
He wasn’t going to let me carry anything else until I convinced him to at least let me hold his bow for him, so I have that strapped to my back with my sword scabbard.
The guards open the gates for us when we approach through some mechanism I don’t see, but I’m willing to bet is magic.
They both salute the captain as he passes through, closing the large doors behind us once we are on the other side.
Immediately, we are greeted by the sight of the forest. As we make our way forward, the trees around the city walls look larger than the rest, covering the wall hiding the city behind it.
Their height seems to even out to normal levels fairly quickly as we move away, and you probably wouldn’t even notice if you didn’t know what you were looking for. More magic or just good landscaping?
The forest is quiet aside from the occasional bird chirping or squirrel rustling the leaves.
It’s so peaceful and untouched, despite the fact that there’s a city not even a mile away.
There are no paths—that would probably defeat the purpose of the city being hidden—so it feels a little bit like we’re just wandering randomly through the woods.
Khazak seems like he knows where he’s going though, so I don’t question it.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Okay, maybe I do. “I mean, are you doing this from memory, or is there some kind of trail I’m not seeing?”
“Afraid you might get lost?” Khazak muses as he looks over to me.
“No... Maybe.” The last time I was out here I ended up getting arrested so...
Khazak laughs and pulls me up to walk alongside him. “At this point, I could probably get to the campsite blindfolded if needed, but there are landmarks. Remember that large tree we passed a short while ago?”
I nod. “It looked like some of the branches were bent strangely.” Almost twisted together.
“We left the city through the west gate and walked two kilometers until we reached that tree.” That’s around one-and-a-quarter miles—my twin brother Michael would be proud at all the math I’ve been doing lately.
“Then we turned northwest and have been walking another two kilometers looking for...that rock formation.”
He points to a pile of mossy boulders coming up on our left. The smooth surfaces tell me they’ve been here a while. The largest of the boulders sticks up from the center, almost making the pile resemble some sort of throne.
“From here it is another kilometer north until we reach a stream with a fallen tree spanning it, and then after a short hike northwest from there, we will be at the camp.” Khazak marches forward confidently as he speaks.
I nod, glad for the instructions. I’m not actually worried, but if for some reason I do have to make it back to the city on my own, at least I know how.
I try to pay attention to how long it takes us to cover a kilometer at our speed; it’ll mean less math to do in my head later.
I keep my eyes peeled for the stream in question, though I figure it will be pretty hard to miss.
Unless the direction we’re going is completely wrong, we’ll have to cross it eventually.
I end up spotting the fallen tree before the stream.
It would serve as a very useful bridge to cross if the stream wasn’t little more than a trickle.
I barely have to jump to get to the other side.
When we’re both across, Khazak leans back against the fallen log with his hands clasped in front of him, waiting for me to tell him where we need to go next.
Easy. We were already walking north, but I look up at the sun’s position just to verify.
“Camp is that way.” I point northwest from our position.
“Lead the way.” He pushes himself up.
“Oh, is this my job now?” Despite my words, I start walking in the direction of the camp.
“Merely testing your skills,” he defends as he follows.
“Uh-huh. You just wanna stare at my ass.” I’ve gotten a lot more confident in the flirting area (at least with a guy).
I hear a thoughtful hum from behind me but no denial. Yeah, he’s totally looking at my ass right now.
We’re only walking for a couple of minutes when I feel Khazak’s hand on my shoulder. “Wait.” He points ahead of us. In the distance, I see a figure walking away from us: a person. An orc. Must be one of the other rangers headed to the campsite.
Khazak lets out a noise from my left, something between a growl and a bark. It’s not loud, but it does make me jump. It also makes the orc ahead of pause and turn around, returning the noise and throwing an arm up to wave when they see us. They start walking back to meet us halfway.
“You didn’t just say something, right? That wasn’t a word?” Otherwise, learning this language is going to be even more complicated than I thought.
“No,” he chuckles. “Just a signal.”
Once we get closer, I recognize the orc.
Not just from the station, but...shit he’s one of the orcs I fought in the ruins.
The one who was slightly burned before I feinted his attack and uh, kicked him.
He’s a little shorter than Khazak, and a little chubbier, with medium length brown hair and a beard but no mustache.
His left tusk is gold, either plated or replaced, and his arms are covered in tattoos, way more than the crest on Khazak’s chest or the bands on his upper arms, probably more than I’ve seen on any other orc so far.
Shit, what was his name? Ranger... Bighands.
Nope, that’s not it. Widefingers? No, wait it’s— “Deepfist!”
Both orcs turn to look at me for my sudden outburst.
“That is my name.” The ranger in question leans in and leers at me, winking. “Maybe one day I can show you exactly why they call me that.”
“I—I—” I stammer, the implication of his words making my body flush immediately. Khazak had mentioned something about fists in passing the other day, and my morbid curiosity made me press him for the details of what exactly “fisting” was.
“Wow, Deputy Rockfang was not joking. It is easy to rile him up.” Deepfist pulls back, a smirk on his face.
“If you are quite done,” Khazak chides, but there’s no irritation in his words. Probably just mad he didn’t think of it himself first.
We resume walking toward the camp in silence. Comfortable for them but awkward for me.
“I’m still really sorry about the day in the temple ruins!” I blurt out after another minute or two.
Deepfist tilts his head at my second outburst. “No need to worry, kid. You are practically one of us now.” He smiles. “Besides, I was mostly over that once I saw you give the captain just as much trouble in the arena. Not bad for a human.”
“You were at the arena, too?” I really shouldn’t be surprised by that anymore.
“Pretty much every ranger not on duty was there,” he states like I should already know. “And the rest of the force was told the story in very graphic detail.”
“...Great.” You’d think after working with them for two weeks, I wouldn’t still get embarrassed learning someone was a witness to my very public fucking, but here I am, feeling too warm in my clothes.
Going forward, maybe I should just assume anyone new I meet has already seen or heard about me having sex.
“Hey, I said I was impressed. Most of us were.” At least they’re not dicks about it. “Call me Arik.”