by L M Gregory
"Oh. An orc was in the smithy yesterday," Tom said.
I choked on bread. "Why didn't you send him over?"
"I didn't even know you were back at the time."
"Is he still around?"
"I doubt it. He just wanted his sword repaired. My father fixed it, and the orc went on his way."
"Damn. Though, maybe I can still track him."
Tom nodded. "You probably could. Or you could go to their camp."
I looked at Tom.
"I didn’t mention the camp?"
Between gritted teeth, I said, "No."
"Oh. Right. They are camped near Pearson's Lake."
Pearson's Lake was in the forests to the east. A large lake that was being eyed for a settlement by the baron or, so I'd been told.
"Are they staying?"
"No, just traveling through. He said something about restocking supplies then moving on."
"So, we don't have a lot of time." Damn. I needed time to consider my options.
Of the sentient races, the orcs were more... wild. They hadn't settled in cities, and few individuals from their tribes did either. Wizard Grammer wrote a who treatise on why that was. I'd perused, but not read the book. His theory was that orcs were still more tribal than humans.
I had my doubts, I had a lot of doubts about the research abilities of my fellow wizards. They seemed to always manage to prove what they originally thought. Weird how that worked.
"I'll come with," Anna said.
"Come with?"
"To visit the orcs."
"Really?"
She grinned. "Yeah. There's something I need to check out, and this is as good a time as any."
"Did you want to collect the semen for me?"
She laughed. "Sorry butterfly, that's on you. Literally, from what I've heard."
"What are you talking about?"
She waved me off. "Nothing. Nothing. What I'm after won't affect you."
I glared at her, but nothing I said or did, would break her refusal to tell me what she was talking about. Women!
* * *
Pearson's Lake wasn't far from the village. A little over half a day's travel. It meant we'd have to spend the night. Hopefully, that wouldn't be a problem. The trip offered me the opportunity to pick up the ingredients I need for the contraceptive potion. Hopefully, I wouldn't need it. An orc would be fine with me using my hand to milk him. Right?
I sighed.
A way too big a part of me hoped he wouldn't.
"So, why are you coming with?" I asked as Anna and I neared the lake. We'd talked about inconsequential things so far, but I wanted to know. As much as Anna liked to run around, leaving for an entire day would get her in trouble with her father. What could be worth that?
She smiled. "Something I heard about."
"You said that already," I said dryly.
"Oh. Then why did you ask again?"
I glared. This woman should have been a wizard. She certainly ran circles around me!
"Because you didn't answer the first time either."
"Huh. Fancy that."
"You're not answering this time either, are you?"
She grinned. "Nope."
I sighed.
The orc camp into view. Where the elves had been almost hidden, the orcs were out in plain sight. Two large tents, and by large, I mean huge. Each had to be able to hold a dozen individuals. Necessary, because there were at least 20 orcs in view.
They looked like a people of green Tom's, only bigger. Towering over all but the tallest humans, and outweighing all but the heaviest humans, most of it muscle, the orcs were drying fish and other game.
"It looks like they've collected quite a bit of meat," Anna said.
"We did," a voice said from beside us.
I never would have thought a being so big could move so quietly. The orc who stepped out of the trees was a head taller than Tom. That put him a good bit above Anna and me.
He looked from Anna to me and back again. "Twins? No. There are differences. But close. Huh."
His green skin rippled with muscle where it was exposed by the simple vest and trousers he wore. His black hair flowed down his back, longer than even most women kept theirs in the village. Only Anna's—and mine—approached the length of the orc's hair. The orc’s head was rounder than a human’s and he had four teeth, two on top, two on the bottom, which stuck out like small tusks.
"I am Samson," he said. "And you are approaching our camp. Did you have business with us?"
I glanced at Anna, who shrugged. If there were niceties to Orcish society, I could remember having read about them and Anna didn't seem to have any clues either. This should go well.
"I'm Joh... Joan," I said with a sigh. There was a good chance the orcs wouldn't recognize male or female naming conventions in human society, but this one spoke the common tongue without an accent. So maybe they did. "And this is my friend Anna."
"That tells me who you are, but not why you are here." His voice was a deep booming sound. I wonder how he'd be as a singer? I'd heard many traveling troupes perform over the years. Some of the most moving songs had a deep-voiced man performing with a high voiced woman. None of the men had matched this orc's voice... and that was irrelevant. I sighed.
"I was hoping to speak with... well, I'm not sure who. I have a proposal."
"A trade?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "We are just returning from the market, so most of what we have is human trade goods. But you are welcome to speak with our patriarch."
"Thank you," I said with a bow.
Anna spoke as Samson turned. "I'd like to speak with your matriarch if that is possible."
I glanced at Anna. What was she up to? She just winked at me.
"Of course, she will be interested in what you have to say."
We approached the camp, which despite the bestial reputation of the orcs, looked orderly and smelled better than many human encampments I'd seen.
"I have not been invited to the woman's tent, but if you approach, someone will meet with you," Samson said to Anna while pointing to one of the two tents. That made sense. From what I recalled of orcs, they kept their sexes separated. Wizard Grammer theorized that this was because the orc males were unable to contain their sexual desires.
I swallowed. If that were true...
"Maybe I should stick with you," I said to Anna.
She waved me off. "I don't think you'll find what you need in the women's tent."
I sighed. She had a point. But I had some coin. Maybe I could pay a female orc to collect the sample. Anna seemed to get a great deal of pleasure over the idea of me doing all the work myself. What was up with that?
"Unless your trade involves a woman's issue, you are better off speaking with our patriarch," Samson said.
I sighed, something I was doing more and more often. Oh well.
I watched Anna move confidently towards the women's tent. How did she do it? She was about to approach complete strangers on her own and didn't display a bit of fear. I'd be quaking in my boots.
I was quaking in my boots.
"This way," Samson said, leading me to the other tent.
A few orcs were gathered outside. All male. Were all the women in the tents? Or did I just not recognize the sexual differences in orcs? Nothing in my reading had claimed that male and female orcs were indistinguishable, which meant I was likely seeing men.
The tent flaps parted, and I stepped inside. Lanterns, burning fish oil if the scent indicated anything, gave the interior a bright glow. A few orcs sat around a table going over documents. Paper documents. So much for Wizard Grammer's belief that the orcs were bestial or wild. Had the man even spent any time with them?
Samson cleared his throat. "Patriarch Lewis, Sub-Patriarch Sooner, Shaman Claman, may I present Joan?"
I blinked. That was as formal a presentation as I'd ever had. Fuck Wizard Grammer. I was going to write a review in the next Wizard's Guild newsletter ripping his book on orcs.
"Joan," the oldest of the three orcs said with a nod. His voice was even deeper than Samson's, and his gaze seemed to take in everything about me. Well almost.
Shaman Claman said in a soft but deep voice, "Wizard."
Lewis looked at Claman. "I thought all human wizards were men?"
Claman shrugged. "So did I, we were wrong."
"Huh." Lewis turned back to me. "How can we help you, Wizard?"
I cleared my throat. How did I say this? Blurting it out had worked with the elves, but the orcs were different. I knew less about them than I did the elves. Well, honestly, I was learning that I knew nothing about the orcs. Or elves for that matter. Maybe book learning was only a foundation and not the be all end all that my master claimed it was.
"I find myself in a bit of predicament," I said. Then started my tale. I had no other options.
The four orcs, Samson had stayed for the story, looked amused when I finished, though they didn't laugh as much as the elves had. Or my friends, for that matter.
"I can see where this would be a problem," Claman said. "However, I'm not sure we can help you. While we have magic that can break human magic, I don't believe you are held in this female shape by a spell. You are female."
I sighed. Physically, he was right. I'd determined that as well. "I agree. The issue at hand is that I used up the reagents necessary for the potion in my original concoction. It seemed faster to collect new ones than wait on a traveling ingredient seller."
"Ah," the Patriarch said. "You believe we might have one of the ingredients you need? We would be happy to trade with you and promise not to hold your predicament against you. Much." He winked while his black eyes twinkled.
"Uh, I know you have one of the missing ingredients." I hadn't mentioned the exact spell composition during my original story. "I, uh. Need orc semen."
The stern gazes of the four orcs fell. They burst out laughing.
Of course they did.
I waited for the laugher to do die off. It took a while.
A long while.
Meanwhile, my face burned. But other parts of me warmed as well. I had to admit, the orcs were good looking. Like majorly handsome and with builds that made my heart beat an extra beat just from looking. I could handle having sex with one of them. Yep. That wouldn't be a problem. That thought sent another burst of heat through my body. I didn't need to have sex with anyone, despite what Anna kept thinking. Or what the elves had required. They could just do it themselves or at worst, I could use my hand.
I had a feeling that wasn't going to be the case.
A moment later, Lewis said. "Are you aware of how orcs have sex?"
"Uh, no. I was hoping that wouldn't be necessary. I could pay one of your men..." But I was cut off.
"Oh no, what fun would that be?" the Sub-Patriarch spoke for the first time.
I gritted my teeth. That put me back where I was. I could wait for a trader to have the ingredient. Or I could hurry. While a part of me wanted to walk off and just wait. I knew I wouldn't. Not once the orcs had asked the question. Why would how orcs have sex matter? They looked humanish, and nothing I'd ever heard indicated anything odd. Which made the question strange. Which meant I had to know.
"How do orcs have sex?" I asked. Fearing I would regret the answer.
Orcs mate in orgies. One woman, many men. Many, many men. It was an old tradition dating from their earlier, tribal days. By having sex in groups, there was no way to determine who the father was. That meant all men were the father of all children. It also meant that groups had to shift around as adults to avoid hereditary accidents. The plus side being that all tribes were related by tradition.
The tradition had so ingrained itself, that even once it wasn't as necessary, they kept going.
"You wouldn't consider just letting me borrow one of your men for a few minutes?" I asked, even though my pussy throbbed in excited arousal. My wizard's curiosity hammered at my head, demanding I witness the orcish mating orgy. Only the little bit of humility I still possessed suggested I at least try and get out of it.
The Sub-Patriarch's wide grin was answer enough, but he added, "What fun would that be?"
"Is the blindfold really necessary?"
"It's tradition." I'm fairly certain that was the Patriarch answering, but I couldn't know for sure because the orcs had insisted that I needed to be blindfolded.
This was after I'd stripped down to nothing.
Part of me was happy that I could no longer see, as I'd been stripping—in the open; apparently privacy isn't traditional either—more and more orc males had been entering the tent. How many could there be in the camp?
The murmur of deep voices filled the tent. I couldn't understand what they were saying, there were too many voices, but the basic idea came through loud and clear. I flushed red; the feeling of warmth burned my entire body. The orc men were talking about what they wanted to do to me. Human women volunteering to be serviced by orc men wasn't common or, so I was coming to believe.
Despite the upcoming... tradition, the fear, and embarrassment, my body reacted. Maybe because of the fear and embarrassment. I was no longer sure what my body liked or didn't. All I knew is that I buzzed with anticipation.
A throat cleared.
"My orc brothers! Today we have a special treat. A human female has asked to be bred by our tribe. This is an amazing opportunity. Few humans come to us, as you know. So, I would ask that you make sure she enjoys herself to the fullest extent possible. Maybe she'll send more of her sisters to us!" A roar of laughter greeted the Patriarch's proclamation.
My body reacted too. I swear wetness slid down my inner thighs I was so ready for this. Though I still didn't know what this was. The orcs had been vague. Oh sure, sex. But how? I was on a pile of furs that smelled surprisingly good, like... masculine? Was I that far gone into my feminine side? Men smelled good?
I shook my head, squirming on the furs. I didn't know what was going on, but I'd at least collect orc semen, and that meant I would be one step closer to returning to being a man. Collecting semen... somehow. Beyond that, I had no idea. Would they approach one at a time? Multiple at once? How was I to handle this?
The rustle of movement had me stretching to hear. But if the orcs were speaking, I didn't understand. Maybe it was the removing of clothing? I moaned softly and this time heard the distinct sound of chuckles. Whatever the orcs were doing, they were masters of anticipation. Or maybe my female form was just that sexual? I knew nothing! It wasn't fair. Why did I have to be blindfolded? I could have gotten what I needed with a hand and a few minutes.
Well, I could have gotten the semen. But what I needed? The ache between my legs throbbed so hard I thought I might climax without being touched. Maybe I did need this.
A scrap of a bare foot on the fur floor. Near me. So near. I stretched out with my senses, but I hadn't realized how much I relied on sight. Without being able to see, I didn't know where the orcs were. I could guess. From the sounds. But were they further away than it seemed? Or closer?
A touch. Just a light brush of what should have been a brutish hand. The orcs were barbarians, weren't they? How could they know the gentle arts of lovemaking? I expected a pounding. Maybe even needed it.
But it started softly.
Just a touch.
Humming.
Humming?
The soft sounds of the orcs humming filled the tent. Grew. Deep. The vibrations sunk into my body, into my being. Slow. Calming.
"Gods," I whispered.
A finger touched my lips. I kissed it. Took it into my mouth. It tasted no different than a human finger. There was a theory that all the intelligent, bipedal species were descended from a single source. The proof of that being the ability of all the species to interbreed. There were even half-species species being recognized as their own distinct variety. Like the half-elves. Humans and elves got along fabulously.
Orcs and humans? Not so much. We competed for the same ecological niches.
/> But, I thought, if humans could experience this, we'd open our arms to the orcs. Or our legs.
The humming grew in intensity but stayed slow in speed. More touches. There had to be more than one person touching me. More than one. I'd only just relieved myself of my virginity, and now I was being touched by multiple people. Orcs. Orcs were people. I knew that even if some authors argued otherwise.
For the first time, I understood why wizards needed to undertake a wizard-journey after our apprentice training. Books and a stuffy tower were fine for learning the basics, but in just a couple days of running around after semen, I understood elves better and now would understand orcs better. At least their sexual practices. Maybe I could travel with the orcs for my journey.
My hips lifted, but powerful hands pushed me back down. Hands. Not one. Multiple.
How many?
They touched me everywhere. My face. My neck. My chest. My stomach. My thighs. My calves. Even rubbing my feet. Despite my growing arousal. My powerful need. Despite those, the touches soothed me until I rested back on the furs.
Once relaxed, the tone of the humming increased in pace. Deep, the vibrations filled me, touching my special places. As if a signal, the orcs touched my special places too.
Fingers teased my nipples. Caressed my lips, both upper and lower. Teased along my neck. The back of my knees. Everywhere I could experience pleasure, they teased.
A voice whispered into my ear. "Soon. Soon. Relax." Followed by the humming.
The other ear. "Relax. Enjoy. We are all one," another voice whispered.
I shivered. I wanted to cry out. To lift my hips, signaling my readiness. But the orcs had their own pace. Their own traditions. I would follow them. Gaining the semen and learning something about the practices of the orcs had to be better than just one.
Of course, my body didn't agree. It wanted to be filled. To be used. To be gratified.
Pleasured. I was being pleasured. Just slowly. My arousal reached a simmer and stayed there like one of the potions I often made. Just simmered for hours. Surrounded by the musky scent of orcs, their deep humming, and their gentle touches.
Maybe the orcs weren't the barbarians. How many human men would be able to handle seeing their woman with other men? I knew the answer. None. Humans were competitive and stayed competitive. We didn't share unless forced by circumstances.