by Gregory Loui
Tawny scoffed, “Hey, I only used the welding machine. And a few other outlets.”
“Whatever. Just follow me. This shouldn’t take long.”
Gore smiled. All according to plan.
But even without saying anything, the world decided to toy with her. Gore’s smile dropped away.
A blue light glared down at Gore through the darkness. Behind the light walked two figures.
“Oh right, magic… Blight,” hissed Gore as she blinked and then dove under a cart. Somehow the cart didn’t burst into pieces.
Gore held her breath, waiting for the light to pass. Her heart beat through her ribs, painful, trying to burst out onto the floor. Gore gulped as Howard and Debbie drew closer.
Boots smashed into the ground next to her face. A slight tremor bounced Gore’s head each time a foot stepped onto the ground. She winced but grit her teeth. The two kept walking.
Gore breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced down and watched Howard’s outline as he opened the glint box. A hiss of steam and smoke greeted him.
“Ah shit,” cursed Howard, closing the glint box with a bang, “We’re gonna need to activate the backup generator if we want to keep working tonight.”
“Definitely something I want to do. How far is it?” asked Tawny. The light from her wand turned around, glaring right at Gore. The orc’s heart stopped for a split second before the light turned away.
“Just down the hall,” said Howard while Gore cursed, the orc starting to crawl out from under the cart. “Come on. I need the light.”
“Didn’t dwarves evolve in the tunnels? Shouldn’t you have good night vision?” asked Tawny. Gore rolled her eyes, crouching behind the cart, watching them start to walk down the hall. She didn’t have much time.
“That’s racist,” laughed Howard as the footsteps faded into the distance.
Launching herself away from the cart, Gore padded over to the door, wrenching the damn thing open. She marched straight for the replicator at the center. Popping off the metal hooks holding the blood gem in place, Gore pulled out her family’s legacy. The heart of the Magnum Orcus roared in her grip, tendrils of energy curling around her fist.
A whirlwind of whispers echoed around them, five thousand years of Orc history murmuring, verging on the edge of Gore’s reality. Gore snarled, a Blighted landscape flashed before her eyes before fading into a lush jungle. Pyramids and monoliths sprouting out of the jungle, green and gold stones glinting in the red sunlight, proud warriors and priests gathering on the slopes, clad in ancient armor of scales and feathers.
Tears leaked from Gore’s eyes as the golden age of Orc civilization passed before her eyes. A fever dream beyond anything her feeble mind could conjure. Gore bit her lip. If she could only dive into that world. That world where orcs did not have to fear for their lives, did not wander from city to city looking for a place to call their own. A world where Gore could belong.
Where she didn’t have to choose.
“Gore! Wait, what are you doing?” asked a familiar voice at the edge of Gore’s thoughts, right next to her ear, echoing as if breaching through oceans of time and space. She blinked, still entranced by the dream before her.
The blood curled around Gore, sinking hooks into her mind, threatening to pull her into the dream forever.
“Blight… come on… the two assholes are coming back!” hissed the voice, panic rippling within.
Gore’s pulse quickened. The scent of the jungle. The heat of the sun. The call of her ancient people beckoned her to join them. How could any orc resist?
“By the Blight… forgive me,” murmured the voice as lights blinked to life all around them.
Then Bones slapped the blood gem out of Gore’s hands and punched her in the face.
“Shit! Bitch! What the jagd?” demanded Gore, reeling back, hands clutching the replicator. Blood dripped from her nose. Her head spun around in circles, the world distorting before her into impossible shapes and scents, the past merging with the present for a single instant before splitting once more. Gore shook her head. “What was that for?”
“The blood gem reacted with you. Your blood, the matriarchal lineage, resonated with the memories and power within this Blighted thing,” growled Bones as he crouched down, stuffing the blood gem into Gore’s bag and pulling out an identical ruby. He muttered, low under his breath, almost too low to hear, “I made the right choice after all…”
“What was that?” asked Gore, stumbling forward. She pitched backwards as she tried to breath. “Shit…”
“Shit’s right. We need to get the jagd out of here and soon,” murmured Bones while he inserted the fake gem into the replicator and popped all the parts back into place.
Clutching her head, Gore picked up the bag and began running for the door when…
“…so that’s how the Arth-Gren Composite is created,” chuckled Howard as the glow of Tawny’s wand crept through the window.
“Fascinating,” laughed Tawny.
“Jagd,” snarled Gore, running in the opposite direction to one of the doors connecting the labs together. She snatched up the Dean’s key card and slammed it into a slot, ripping open the door and barking to Bones, “Follow me.”
“No need to yell,” growled Bones as the two orcs half-sprinted and half-snuck through the abandoned labs and into the hallway.
Gore stopped, however, and turned around, waiting for Howard and Tawny to open the lab.
“Wait, what are you doing?” demanded Bones, tugging at Gore’s shoulders.
“Shush,” growled Gore through gritted teeth, her eyes flashing red.
“Hm… do you smell something?” asked Tawny as the two students entered the lab, her voice echoing down the hallway.
Howard sniffed, “No. Wait… yeah, Blight bug… how could— damn it, Allen! I told that dopey mother-jagder a thousand times not to smoke before coming into the lab!”
Gore breathed a sigh of relief and turned away, running back through the castle hallways up to the Dean’s office. There, she shoved the keycard back into place. Turning to the grappling hook and her rope, Gore looked out at the city below her. The barest hint of sunlight shot between the distant mountain peaks. Gore clenched her fists tight, the breeze tugging at her face.
No turning back now…
She rappelled down the rope, landing with a heavy thud on the green grass. Once Bones smashed into the grass beside her, Gore ripped out the grappling hook from its place and rolled the rope up. Then she turned to the castle walls.
“Let’s get back to the Magnum Orcus. Only a short hop and skip away…”
“Um… Gore? We might want to rethink that.
As the ground shook, Gore turned around. The sentry golem from the second floor lumbered towards them. A mountain on legs striding forward with ponderous speed but eating the distance up in seconds. Gore, however, focused on a different part of the Golem. The laser sight aimed right at her ass while the machine gun whirled to life.
“Blight.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
...Just like old times
“Give me the launcher and some pellets!” hissed Bones as the two siblings began dodged between the elven statues towards the castle walls.
“What? Why?” asked Gore, her head still reeling, still trying to shake off the effects of the blood gem.
“Identification: Intruders. Determining: Orc silhouettes. Authorization: Eliminate with extreme prejudice,” hummed the Golem through a steel grill.
Bones barked, “Because of that!”
“Blight damned racist robots,” spat Gore as she turned to Bones and tossed him the launcher along with a few pellets.
Her brother turned around, still sprinting while loading the launcher, and raised the iron sights to his eyes. At the same time, the Golem’s machine gun charged up a shot of lightning.
The orc fired first.
Pellets sung through the air and smashed into the Golem’s machine gun, knocking the barrel away just in time. Th
e barrel of glint-power charging within arched out into the sky and far away from any orc flesh.
“All in the ten ring!” crowed Bones, skipping as he turned around to catch up with Gore. Once he did, huffing and puffing at her side, Bones tossed Gore the launcher back. “Though what sort of school has a freaking machine gun toting Golem for protection?”
“A fairly prestigious one,” barked Gore. She skidded to a halt just a foot away from the wall, stuffing her grappling hook into the launcher. Aiming it high into the air, Gore narrowed her eyes and fired.
While Gore secured the grappling hook, Bones shook his head and muttered, “That’s still not a good explanation. Even if we live in Tao Ein. Because what if—”
“Observation: Intruders about to scale the walls. Course of action: Intercept,” rumbled the Golem.
The two orcs turned around to see the Golem barreling after them.
“Oh, come on…” hissed Gore as she turned back around and started climbing. “This is starting to get ridiculous.”
Following Gore just a hand-width below, Bones chuckled, “Starting? I’m still hung up on the fact that your school has a machine gun—”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You sure you’re not tripping, right now?” asked Gore before hopping onto the battlements. Once Bones clambered up to join her, Gore ripped the grappling hook out of the stones. “Now…”
“Observation: Intruders scaled walls. Pursuit: Imminent.”
“That’s not good,” noted Bones.
The Golem proved him right by crashing down onto the wall in front of the orcs.
“You think?” asked Gore, at once running to the Golem’s right while her brother went for the left.
A massive stone fist passed over her head, dust washing over her in a thick wave as Gore slid beneath the Golem and jumped off the wall into the forest below. Branches and twigs whipped at her face as she plunged through the foliage. Ouch, Gore bit her lip as her feet smashed into solid rock. As soon as the rest of the earth swept up, she tucked her body into a ball, rolling out across the forest floor, tumbling across mossed covered boulders, smashing through small stones, then grinding to a halt in a small stream bed.
“Ouch…” growled Gore, flopping down atop the dry river stones. As she wiped her eyes clear, she coughed out a lake of moss and dirt and blood. “Jagd this shit so much. Jagd you, Bones. Jagd everything…”
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” shouted Bones from above.
Turning her gaze upward, Gore watched with extreme satisfaction as her brother tumbled down the slopes, bouncing like the world’s worst ball.
“Hehehehe… oh shit,” cursed Gore, her eyes flashing white at the sight of the Golem barreling down the hill behind Bones. “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”
“Watch out,” rumbled a voice from behind Gore, just a split second before glint-power arched through the air. The bolt of lightning smashed into the Golem’s chest and flung it into a tree. Then another. In fact, through several trees.
As the Golem lay still in a smoldering crater, ozone and magic nipping at Gore’s nose, she turned around to who cast the lightning. Her eyes flared white. Asshole strode towards her, holding a massive rifle in his arms. The massive orc lowered the bolt caster to his side, offering his other hand for Gore to grab.
“Always had the best timing. Or at least, that’s what my girlfriends used to say when I caught them cheating,” growled Asshole, a faint smile lighting up the early morning darkness.
“I can’t imagine why,” murmured Gore as she picked herself up, dusting off her camouflage and stepping away from Asshole. Her eyes turned red, narrowing on the orc. Waiting for him to make a move. She sighed, “Thanks for the assist.”
Raising an eyebrow and stepping back as well, Asshole chuckled, “You’re very welcome. I always wanted to play the knight in shining armor anyway.”
“So how about you help me up, Asshole?” growled Bones. Gore and Asshole turned to see Bones flopping around on his back, hands rising into the air, fingers wriggling.
“Meh, you’re not a lady, last I checked,” growled Asshole, though he smiled as he glanced down at Bones’s bare buttocks. Asshole kicked Bones onto his stomach. Gore frowned, her world shifting around in front of her. A certain genuine note of affection sung out through Asshole’s voice. Could the two orcs be more than just casual acquaintances? Could someone really be friends with Bones?
“Oh, shut up. I can be who I want. After all, wasn’t there that one elf who got a Blight damned medal for swapping genders?”
“No idea what you’re talking about,” chuckled Asshole as he walked over to Bones, bent down and hurled the orc to the other side of the stream bed.
“Of course you do. Ouch, have you been lifting weights? It felt like you damn near tore my arm off.” Picking himself up, Bones began sauntering over to the Magnum Orcus, which Gore had parked just a little bit away from the stream bed.
Asshole and Gore followed Bones. Gore kept her eyes trained on Asshole, her hands creeping back into her backpack and pulling out another bundle of pellets as the black orc growled, “That’s cause you’re so damn fragile. All skin and bones, nothing else.”
“Hehehe… I see what you did there,” chuckled Bones, passing around a cluster of trees to find a massive pile of branches. Bones tossed the branches off, revealing the Magnum Orcus, turning to Asshole and murmuring, “You need a ride?”
“Nah. I parked my baby just a few miles away. Should be an easy jog back.”
“Fitness freak,” growled Bones as he pulled out a pair of pants from the Magnum Orcus. He put them on. Gore breathed a sigh of relief.
“Blight brain.”
The two orcs chuckled and punched each other in the arms. Though in the end, Bones tumbled ass over head backwards. Yeah, Gore noted to herself. Yeah, the two orcs were friends. Friends who could joke around with each other and tease each other without fear of hurting each other’s feelings.
Lucky bastard.
“Wait, why’s Asshole here?” demanded Gore, as the conversation lulled, her thoughts at last biting through her skull and exiting through her tongue.
Looking to the side, avoiding Gore’s gaze, and scratching his neck, Bones coughed, “Um… I enjoy his presence?”
Asshole rubbed his temples as he stepped forward and growled, “I’ve agreed to help him out with the some business regarding one Cousin Kalask. Namely the trade of a blood gem in exchange for several thousand tons of pixie dust.”
“Oh shit,” muttered Bones, his eyes flashing white. “Oh Blight…”
Gore’s entire body froze for a split second as images, whispers, scents, touches and even tastes of those waking nightmares came back to her. She turned small once more. Small and fragile. Cold sweat poured down her neck. Then steel, sharp and burning at the same time, swept up from within, curling her hands into fists.
“What?” asked Gore, her eyes diving into red, slamming her right fist into a nearby tree.
The tree toppled over in a thunderous roar.
Then Gore wheeled at her brother and roared, “Is what he said true?”
“Um…” muttered Bones as he stumbled back, tripping over a boulder. He fell down in a tangled mess. “Shit… it’s complicated, Gore. You gotta believe me. Please.”
Gore crouched down before her brother and shot out a hand, grabbing Bones’s collar. She growled, “Is what he said true? It’s an easy yes or no answer. Now answer me.”
Eyes plunging black, Bones just looked down at his feet.
“Jagd,” growled Gore, letting go. Bones fell and stayed there, unblinking. “You absolute idiot.”
“You didn’t tell her,” grunted Asshole, glaring at Bones from around Gore’s shoulder.
“I was planning to… eventually,” mumbled Bones as he looked away, avoiding everyone’s gaze. He stumbled to his feet and mumbled, “I thought it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Come on, it’s Cousin Kalask. He’s been with us since the very beginning. He’s—”
“You tri
ed to sell me to him,” murmured Gore, all the hurt bottled up for over a decade pouring out in six words. All the hurt of a decade of isolation, from years of never trusting a single soul, from those terrifying days when it was her against the entire world, that Gore had kept festering inside her heart burst through their container. “You tried to sell me as a sex slave for drugs and alcohol…”
The world swirled around her, the ground fell away from under her as echoes a decade dead whispered in her ears, as the stench of orcs and semen filled her nose, as rough hands pressed against her throat and metal bars crowded her vision, Gore stared at her brother. The center of it all. The center of her daytime nightmares. That person who had betrayed her. Who had thrown her to the wolves so that he could destroy his life.
How could she have deluded herself into thinking that he had changed?
Nothing in this world changed. Nothing could ever change.
How? Was she that desperate for a connection? For a someone from the past to reenter her life?
Shaking her head, Gore shook her head.
She couldn’t let her brother back into her life.
He had not changed. Still drowning in drugs and who knew what else. What else… Gore shivered. Footsteps thudded behind her and Bone’s alcohol drenched breath filled her nose. What else?
A liar. A thief. A orc. Bones was all the worst sides of Gore’s life distilled into a walking gutter.
And she needed to leave it all behind.
“Gore… I worry about both of you,” murmured Asshole, placing a hand on Gore’s shoulder. She slapped it away and pointed her launcher at his chest. The orc blinked and raised his hands above his head as he backed away. “But look, your brother’s in a lot of trouble. He needs all the help he can get. Please, you gotta understand. Please give us the blood gem.”
“He got himself in this mess,” murmured Gore, her head shaking, her hands shaking. Her whole body shook. Bones approached from the side. She snapped her launcher at him. “Now he wants to sell our family’s legacy for drugs. He wants to sell the heart of the Magnum Orcus for a few moments of ecstasy.”