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Kargorr

Y es, he was proud of his new concubine for taking to his seed so well. Sometimes it took many moons, but for his Cedar, it had only been one. It made him confident he could keep her round with orcling for some time. Perhaps she had even been made for him, made for this purpose, the way her body spoke to his, called to his, and swallowed him up like he belonged there.

The first snows fell earlier than they had expected, but the cats were pleased and even ran around in the falling flakes. Cedar’s pet—he still could not call it kiya , as much as she loved that name—frolicked in the soft, powdered snow until it was so tired it collapsed in the bed Cedar had lovingly made for it.

Every morning, Kargorr awoke to her curled into him, his arms wrapped around her. He would lie there and look at her sleeping face, and not only did his cock ache, but so did another part of him, somewhere even deeper and more forgotten. It warmed him thoroughly, even as the winds blew colder, and sometimes he would remain in the furs far longer than he should just so he didn’t disturb her. Cedar liked her sleep and tended to be ornery if she didn’t get enough of it.

Other things about her were changing, too. She ate more than ever, and she would ask for strange foods, like cold milk or barely cooked beef. Sometimes she craved things he had never heard of, or perhaps he didn’t know the word in the human tongue—like something called chocolate , which he gathered involved sugar, butter, and some sort of fruit.

“I’ve only had it once, but it stuck with me,” she said morosely. “A merchant had come through town when I was younger, and I managed to buy a piece after selling some gloves. I haven’t thought about it much since then, but now...” Cedar groaned with just her desire for it, and Kargorr’s cock twitched, thinking it was being summoned. “If only I could have chocolate.”

He described the dish to the cooks who worked in the serving tent, and, rather baffled, they tried to make something that matched it with a late fall fruit that was yellow and hard and sweet. The concoction it yielded, though, did not please Cedar, as much as she tried to pretend it did.

Kargorr had begun to notice these things about her, like how her left eye would squint when she tasted something bad, which was often now. Sometimes she would feel sick, and her cheeks would blow out when she was trying to keep it inside her.

“It’s better to let it out,” he’d told her, and she ran from the tent to empty the contents of her stomach into the wet basket.

All good signs, he knew, but he still didn’t like how she would crawl into the furs afterward and curl around her belly, muttering that she would never touch her favorite syrup-covered pork again.

She always did the next day.

One night, Kargorr returned from a long talk with the armor craftsman to find Cedar lying under the furs with her cat curled up next to her. As usual, Rathka tiredly rose to her feet and departed when he stepped in with their dinner.

Cedar wasn’t usually sleeping at this time of day, not now that her pet was getting older and needed constant exercise and attention. Kargorr sat on the bed and shooed the animal away, a creature which, unfortunately, did not respect him. Kiya stretched out languidly before hopping off to find his way to his own nest in the corner. Cedar let out a dissatisfied mutter under the blankets, but otherwise did not emerge.

Even though their food was hot, Kargorr found himself very much distracted by the sight of Cedar’s chest rising and falling under the furs. He never stopped hungering for her, like a cat that hadn’t eaten for months. Every time it felt as if he’d been starved, and still afterward, he wasn’t sated. No matter how many times he took her, he craved more.

Kargorr lay down next to her, and at last she peeked out from her hiding place under the blankets.

“Are you an orcling afraid of the snow giant?” he asked, surprised to find his own tone rather playful.

“Snow giant?”

“A big, frightening monster that we use to threaten orclings into behaving.”

Cedar snickered, then groaned. “I’ll take the ice giant.”

He plucked the end of the fur and peeled it away so his hands could slip under it, around Cedar’s small body. How such a little woman could carry his offspring was a mystery and a marvel. Usually, she fell into his arms easily, and then he would breathe in the sweet smell of her arousal. But instead, she stiffened, and her breath came out as a moan—not the sort he would like to hear from his concubine in bed.

“I feel awful,” she muttered, curling tighter around herself and away from him. “I think I’m going to be sick again.”

And then she leapt out of the furs and ran to the door of the tent, groaning as she emptied her stomach.

When she righted herself once more, Cedar looked pale and shaky. She waved away food and returned to the bed, much to Kargorr’s dissatisfaction. But just as you couldn’t lead a horse to water, apparently you couldn’t lead a woman full of orc spawn to food.

That night, he pressed his body to her back, his cock eagerly nudging at her ass, but she just groaned in displeasure again.

He very much disliked this turn of events.

The next day, Lord Kargorr asked his shosek for a remedy, and she begrudgingly offered one. When he brought it to Cedar, she confessed it tasted terrible, but it helped ease the unruliness of her stomach.

In the meantime, he had begun to worry about something else, too. His delegation to the neighboring parog . Orgha had not returned yet, and without him, Rathka grew more irritated by the day. Kargorr didn’t like that she brought her poor spirits into the tent with Cedar, so he had a firm talk with her outside the door.

“He is gone on your errand,” Rathka had said, doing her best not to look her kazek in the eye, even while speaking impertinently. “What if my agsan never returns?”

“He will,” Kargorr said. “Orgha would never fail at this.”

And then, when the snow had stopped falling and a good foot of powder lay on the ground, the mammoths appeared on the horizon.

Cedar

It was, apparently, a major event that the party Kargorr sent away to meet with another clan had returned safely. There were whoops and cheers as they arrived outside the camp.

Cedar followed Kargorr out to greet them, Kiya at her side. Rathka rushed ahead, toward Orgha’s great cat, and rose up onto her toes to kiss her returned husband... or whatever he was. As much as Cedar disliked Rathka, the sight of their reunion stirred her heart. How would it feel to get old alongside someone you loved, and still love them when your hair was all gray?

The wagons they brought back were mostly empty of everything they had left with, and Cedar gathered from Kargorr’s reaction that this was a good thing. The other clan had accepted his gifts, and a tentative peace was brokered.

Kargorr and Orgha embraced, which took Cedar by surprise. They patted one another on the backs as the rest of the party reunited with their families after so much time away.

While the camp came out in force to greet the new arrivals, Kargorr brought Cedar in against his side. He looked simply delighted with this development.

“They will be willing to work with us now,” he said, and she wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to himself. “Their parog is interested in what I have to offer.”

“Which is what?” She was interested in this door that he was letting her peek inside.

Kargorr’s lips peeled back over his tusks in a cruel smile. “Power.”

The camp had a celebration that night, and when the dancing began, Rathka dragged Orgha into the fray. For being much older, Rathka could still move her body with an almost mesmerizing ease. It was clear that Orgha still lusted for her by the way they twisted around each other, their hands every which way.

Cedar almost wanted to dance herself, but as she sat on Kargorr’s lap at the head of the gathering, she didn’t know if he would ever let himself be seen doing something as common as dancing.

“Do you know, little deer,” Kargorr began, a thoughtful look on his face, “why this is all so important to me?”

Cedar startled. He never gave her reasons for things. He simply did them and provided no insight into his decisions. He did not ask her opinions, certainly, though sometimes she desperately wanted to offer them.

“Why?” she finally asked, curious where he was leading her.

“What I’m doing now, it’s the beginning.” He tightened his arms around her, rubbing his thumb across her belly. “The beginning of something great. Something...” He searched for the right word, cursing under his breath in his own tongue. “Ah. Magnificent.”

She wondered if he meant his successful delegation, or the creature growing in her belly. Perhaps both.

“Something that will allow me to shape the world, to take everything for the grrosek ,” Kargorr said, his voice turning low and dangerous. “I will lead all of us, in one unified front, into the south.”

Into the human lands. So that’s what he was doing—gathering the other clans to his side so he could expand his territory even further.

“And you will be king?” Cedar asked, rather boldly. But Kargorr simply laughed.

“Kings are petty rulers,” he said with a snort. “It is a title passed down with nothing to deserve it. No, I will be chosen. I will lead us to victory, and when we have driven the humans out and ground them to bits under our heels... we will become one great parog .” His eyes narrowed. “And they will ask me to lead them.”

He sounded so certain that Cedar didn’t doubt him for a moment.

Kargorr

He would have to be careful with his next move.

Now the eyes of the other parog were watching. He needed to prove his worth, show the might of his own warriors, and take one of the larger human settlements. Then, perhaps, he could call on his new ally and march even farther southward.

With the heat of victory in his veins, he looked harder at his future here in his own parog . Perhaps in the next raid, he would find his future concubine, another soft human to warm his bed and carry more orclings for him, as his first one had taken to him so well.

The thought of putting his cock inside a different woman, though, made his guts twist. How did he know she would feel as good, as soft and wet as Cedar? How did he know she would wrap her legs around him and cling to him like she was caught in a storm, and he was her only salvation? It had taken some time to earn Cedar’s obedience, and more recently, her affection, and he loathed the idea of teaching another stubborn human woman how to live alongside the grrosek .

Perhaps, in a larger human town, he would find the right match. Perhaps he would find a woman who triggered his desire the way Cedar had, and his instinct would guide him. Then, in some years’ time, he would have his own orclings to join him in battle. He would create an army that was loyal to him.

Though he did not like the uneasy shudder that ran down his spine.

Now that Orgha had returned, the planning began in earnest. Kargorr had gathered reports from all of his scouts, and together he and Orgha began assembling a map of the surrounding area. There were a few larger settlements within a few days’ ride. They needed to choose the best target based on the force they could bring, but it was difficult to estimate from just reports.

“East is better,” Orgha argued. “Closer to farmland. From there, we can cut off their supplies.”

But Lord Kargorr didn’t want to anger the powers that be too soon and earn their attention. Picking off small villages was one form of aggression, but taking out a large settlement was a much bigger threat that might demand action.

“We isolate them first.” Kargorr narrowed his eyes at the map. “Begin by knocking down the smaller outposts.”

It would be a longer campaign, but it would yield much greater results. He could control the spread of information, and reports would be much harder to follow back to the parog ’s location. Above all, he needed to keep his people—and his concubine—safe from attack.

Orgha nodded, having heard and understood the command.

“We will leave in two days,” Kargorr said. “Plan to be gone for at least two weeks.” He frowned. “And make sure to take care with your yapira . She carries a dark cloud around with her that I don’t want near my orcling.”

His right hand opened his mouth as if to speak but then stopped himself. Instead, he nodded in understanding.

“I will ensure she takes care with your concubine,” Orgha said, but something about the way he said concubine made Kargorr’s hair prickle.

“Do you mean something by that?” Kargorr asked, crossing his hands behind him in a way that Orgha would certainly perceive as a threat.

The other orc took a step back. “No, kazek .” He tapped his fist to his chest. “It’s just that you treat her as less of a concubine and more of a...” Orgha trailed off.

“A what?” Kargorr prompted, not enjoying the direction this was taking.

“A yapira .”

A frigid wind blew into the command tent then, whipping back the flap that hadn’t been tied. At first, Kargorr wanted to tear into his right hand and show him the folly of talking back.

But perhaps he was right, too. Lord Kargorr found himself thinking of Cedar more and more often, not just of her body, but of her comfort. Her care. He brought choice cuts of meat for Kiya, as he had unfortunately given in to calling the kitten, because it pleased her.

“You know,” Orgha said in a tentative voice, as if speaking to a reticent animal, “that may not be such a bad thing.”

Kargorr reflexively snarled. His plan did not involve taking a yapira . It was to sow plenty, far and wide, and create an empire. Binding himself to one woman, orc or human, would make him look weak. A kazek with a yapira was not as feared, not as trusted to have the requisite bloodlust.

“It brings balance to your life,” Orgha went on when Kargorr did not respond. “It soothes the soul when it spins too fast, and brings warmth when it gets cold and stale.”

Kargorr wondered which soul his was.

Perhaps Orgha was right. Kargorr hated to consider it, but maybe sinking his sarga into Cedar’s supple body at last would finally slake this impossible thirst of his.

He shook his head. A kazek did not have such luxuries. Kargorr was trading that sort of life for one where the grrosek reigned over this land, and he would need his rage to conquer the humans and achieve his mission.

That thought was fresh in his mind as he chose not to respond to Orgha’s suggestion and instead bid him a tight goodbye. Kargorr stepped out of the tent into the freezing night, thinking he might take a walk before returning to his tent.

That was when he heard Cedar shouting, angry and shrill, and on instinct, he ran toward her.