No one requested an orc fic so I just made one myself tehe
Pls leave comment i love proof of life
The salty autumn air no longer brings the same joy as it once did. Bad luck seems to have plagued your town's crops, seeds from prior seasons were lost by irresponsible hands, four months without a drop of rain and the night prior another pack of wolves snuck into the farm and ate the last of your corn. Your town was still lucky to have enough grain and venison to trade but in such a bad condition that no human would want it
You picked the last few grains and enter inside your home with your parents, your father scowls at the little grain left "i suppose we should we grateful that orcs eat anything, scavages" he mutters distastefully
The only creature your town's mayor could find willing to trade was a far away orc tribe. Whom were set to arrive at mid-morning in a few hours.
Your mother nods as she knits a warm blouse for the upcoming winter "hopefully they won't be here for too long, " her voice screeches with pretentiousness "I heard they like to take their sweet time
Your father grumbles as he grabs his axe marches outside, probably to take his anger out by cutting wood
"Y/n dear? Open up the stand, before the last of our flowers wilt"
You nod and turn to grab the cart of your family's flowers, softened and dull but not yet dried out. “Mother, when will Christian arrive?” you ask, Christian, luckily someone wanted to marry you, it was hard for your family to try to find you a husband for you really have nothing to offer, no riches no estates or land in your name but luckily Christian didn’t care.
“The spring dear, once the weather is better he will visit and you will wed”
You couldn’t wait, you were bored of this town, and once you’re wed you will finally leave this place with him, who knows what you’ll get to see.
You pack the rest of the flowers into carts as you daydream what he will look like, Christian always sounded like a light blonde name, mother said he was 24 so maybe he’ll have stubble, thick eyebrows, a soft gentle face…
"and y/n?"
You perk up from your thoughts and turn to her, "Yes mother?"
She doesn’t look up from her knitting "Refuse service to any orcs you see".
You falter, you haven’t had a good meal in two weeks, your mother was trying to elongate a stew for days but by now it's basically just flavored water. "Money is money, mother " you try to say gently
"You know how your father is, he won't let us touch coins that have felt those green fingers " she shivers in disgust, “i suppose it wont matter anyway, what orc would have a need for something as gentle as flowers?” she scoffs and laughs hearty
"I..." you want to say something, how much flowers you weren't able to sell this season because people have been saving their money for food, no one had money for flowers, but you bit back your tongue and nod "y-yes mother "
In the central of your small town was the market place, stands set up through the edges of the entrance to the town, frantic and desperate to sell, you go up to your families old market stands, wooden supports that hold up a tarp on the ceiling and act as a back wall while the front was a table with crates of extra flowers that of course, would not be selling. You didn’t even try to sell the products to passerbys, you just felt too guilty asking people to spend their money on flowers instead of food. So you slide the chair to you, sit down, fold your arms on the table to make a good enough pillow and go to sleep…
You perk up at the sound of many horse neighs, wiping the now dried drool on your cheeks, you look up and watch in awe as the huge muscular horses trot past, everyone around you seemingly pulling down the ceiling tarp to close their stands as they walk past. Meanwhile you were too busy being flabbergasted at the sheer mass the horses had to be in order to withstand the weight of their riders. Five orcs, all humongous with huge biceps, wide shoulders, skintones of variations of green. But their hair was surprisingly well kept, shiny and black, slicked back into long thick braids,no frizz for ages. Oh gosh a barbarian has better hair than I do-than I ever will!
They trot past you to the end of the road where the mayor's house was, jumping off their horses and giving their reins to the mayor's assistant presumably to bring to a farm, and enter the mayor’s home...and then you go to sleep. You lean forward while everyone opens their stands back up again.
"Excuse me" says a deep voice from above, god is that you? Is this heaven? Are you here to take me away-How come it smells like spruce…
I flutter your eyes open, the first thing you see are outrageously big shoes-omg, THE OUTRAGEOUSLY BIG SHOES OF A CUSTOMER, YOUR FIRST ONE IN WEEKS
"Are you open?" You jolt up straight and wipe the still wet drool off your cheeks, your eyes still adjusting, "of course sir-" your eyes widen wide once the blob of green focus’s, it was one of the orcs,
He was taller than the stand but bent over to a foot above your height, he had long thick framing pieces of hair that hit at his chest. His face is sharp with wide jaw muscles, and he had dark and nicely saturated green skintone, almost healthy...in fact, handsome. His has thick brown leather tunic pieces squeal and clank with metal chest plate embedded into the leather as he leans down to your height. Out of all the unearthly features, you couldn't stop staring at his tusks.
Your expression must have been more shocking than normal, because his brow raises "something wrong?" He has an accent, deep with firm jaw movement his tongue gliding with sharp rs and k's that almost roll, grumbly g's that seem to also end with r's and you perk up with the missing ‘the’
"N-nothing" you think past to what your mother told you, but how would father know whose money was who's? You couldn't last another bowl of thin broth for dinner. "How...how can I help you"
He gestures with a calloused hand to the roses "people buy these?" He asks gruff with such aggressive curiosity you can't help but giggle
"Yes"
He scoffs "why not sell weeds? why would anyone buy one"
"Well...they're pretty, men get them to give to their wives. Also because they are pretty, people enjoy looking at them."
He tilts his head in understanding at the roses "they are rather lovely"
You sigh in relief "they are" you lied, looking at the sad excuses of roses you had
"You do seem to have an abundance of them" you say suspicious
"No one has money for anything except food and water."
He huffs and straightens up to dig into his front pouch "is…this your only source of income?"
you're taken aback by that, "i um, well my father does cut wood,"
he scoffs "everyone can cut wood, all ya need is an axe"
i sigh exacerbated "okay yeah we're also not doing much better than everyone else"
you finally glance puzzled at the sudden quietness. Everyone was too busy staring daggers into you and this orcs back. A butcher slowly cutting through his meat menacingly, a mother hiding her child behind her skirt as if the sight of the orc wasn’t appropriate for children.
Meanwhile he digs into his pocket and drops a bag so heavy that it dents the your front table. One thick gold coin fully rolling out "tha' enough for all of them?"
you gawk at the gold a minute too long "o-oh! m-more than enough!" enough for three days of meals, and by then the mayor would've distributed the produce he got from the sale.
even though you're not looking up at him, you can hear a smirk in his voice "good"
you look up at him with an amazed smile "wow, you orcs must be well off"
he kind of shrugs "orcs just eat meat and grain, we have no use for other fruits or vegetables, but our grove is bountiful of them"
"huh" you hum, realizing that a lot of information you know of orcs must be wrong, what else is wrong about them you wonder.
"so, you got a wife?" you ask as you carefully wrap the huge bouquet of all your flowers
he turns his head sharply to you, eyes widen in surprise, his cheeks turning brown, wait is that blush "hahh?
“You know, someone to give these flowers too? ”
“Oh! er um no" he clears his throat and turns his head away to compose himself
"oh, well do you enjoy the look of the roses?"
"no..." he says but then quickly adds on "no…rmally! Normally! but today feels different"
"oh...how long are you in town for?"
"normally we would be done by now, orcs like to do business quick but mayor wants to negotiate more in morning" he scoffs and rolls his eyes "if I were tribe leader I would negotiate through night"
"heh, yeah im sorry about that, our local inn's beds would probably snap immediately at your weight"
he chuckles at that, "yeah, that is why we will be sleeping outside"
"oh! That's good, I hope you sleep well!"
he chuckles "thank you...you have been kind,my name is Grom" he adds as you put the final touches on the huge bouquet of flowers, wrapping a red ribbon around the stems.
"im...im y/n" you say, the adrenaline of rebellion flowing through your veins, you could already feel your parents disappointed. It makes you shiver and quickly hand him the bundle "here's your bouquet, Grom,"
As he leans forward to take it, you get another whiff of spruce. It's from him. You realize "thank you, you will be here tomorrow?"
"well...i did sell all my flowers"
His face falls a bit in disappointment before he turns to his bouquet and picks one flower out to gently place on the front "not that one" he says in a smug tone, the edges of his straight lips twitching to a smile.
you stare at it, and you have to admit it, this was your first time seeing a magical creature and well...it was so interesting, the culture shock, how different he lived and well...it was your first rush of rebellion. You wanted to know more about his species.
"You're right. One more left, I'll be here tomorrow until I sell it"
he huffs, "good" and turns to leave.
You smile proudly at the last rose as you pack up shop for the day, but as you are reorganizing your carts you hear steps behind you and turn. “Mrs Mallard!” you say excited at the arrival at your stall neighbor who sold dyes for wool. Oh no, did she want my last rose? What am I gonna tell Grom when comes and sees I don’t have it left, I can't refuse her!
“I saw you talking to that Orc!” she screeches in a tone of disgust, let untense her shoulders and silently sigh in relief, “yes he just bought almost all of my stock! Im so happy, now my mother can make a good meal for our family, im sure Mr Graves has some potatoes-”
“They are vile creatures!” she cuts you off “why would even risk talking to them? One wrong word and you could set them off, they have a horrible temper you know”
“Really?” you falter, it didn't seem like it, “i’m sorry Mrs Mallard I was just desperate for money, i’ve been so hungry"
Her expression softens, she sighs and reaches over to pat my hand “the lord made man in his image, not those green creatures, therefore they are not to be trusted, dear” your chest hurts at her words
“Yes Mrs Millard, i’ll refuse him when he comes back”
“Good” she states and her eyes dart with burning jealousy at your large pouch before she marches away.
As you walk home you stop far enough away from your house and gently reach into the pouch Grom gave you reached in to feel it, the coins had the normal engravings that were standardized around the whole kingdom, nothing felt off, around it, and yes you felt weird checking it but nothing even smelt bad about it…
"hello mother" you said walking inside "i sold all the flowers today" you say casually making your mother drop her knitting needles
"ALL OF THEM?"
you turn to her to drop the coins on the table gently, a smile on your face at the thought of what Grom said "well technically all except one"
"How?!"
"some husband that forgot his wife's anniversary." you lie, your back was turned to her so you could hide your of pain at your chest your lie causes you
"oh thank heavens he did so."
"Yeah, shall I go out to buy dinner?" you ask maybe a bit too eagerly that your father would catch your lies
"yes! perfect idea dear! By the time you come back and i finish cooking yout father should be back! Hes running a bit late" late? He's never late. Whatever I need to get this money spent
you smile in relief, eagerly grabbing the pouch to head outside to grab ingredients for dinner, thereby ridding the evidence of your encounter with Grom, oh how you couldn't stop thinking about him. Though you hated lying, you could not wait to see him tomorrow, that would be the last time you would ever see him anyway so it's not like it matters that you lied, right?
˚₊ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚✧ ˚₊ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚
The next day, early in fact you set up your stall, already thinking of excuses to tell your neighbors once he came, it was a good thing today was wednesday, Mrs Mallards restock day.
you smile at the smell of spruce and look up to see Grom "good morning Grom, how was your sleep?" you ask taking your time wrapping up the one flower,
"stiff" he says rubbing his shoulder right shoulder
"yeah the ground must not be that nice to sleep on...what do you guys usually sleep on?"
"we have beds made of stone"
"Really? how is that much better!?"
he chuckles "they are layered with hay straw...may I ask you question since you did?"
"Of course!
"why...why do all your women wear these..." his eyes gesture at your skirt, his tone filled with disgust but genuine curiosity
"a dress, and well it’s just what we wear"
"well your men wear pants, like us"
"its whats modest"
"pants cover same amount as your dress does" his r’s roll sharper than normal when he says the word. Like it was the first time it entered his mouth.
"Well..." he stares hard and you finally find an answer "tradition!"
He scoffs annoyed “if we always followed tradition we would always stay where we are, is enough for single flower?" he slide another gold coin across the table
"yes but, I really cant accept this though its too much, especially after yesterday"
he raises a brow, a challenging smile grows on his lips "I make too much, besides, you are quite literally only one I can buy from"
he gestures around and wow, everyone has their stands front covered by tarps, therefore not letting even anyone buy from them.
"ill accept a copper piece"
he scoffs playfully "did not bring any"
"Liar"
"well you have no proof"
"i can see it in your smile" the edges of it twitch
"what smile?" he jokingly says
You roll your eyes "lets meet in the middle, silver piece"
"deal" he says with a fond smile and slides a silver piece to you, you look down sadly at it "so you're leaving today?"
he pauses "no need to stay in town that hates me"
"I don't hate you Grom" you say too gooey but it comes out before you can stop it.
but he smiles, looking touched "i do not hate you too y/n...maybe we can do business with your trib-villiage again, and you can tell me again about all weird human things you guys can do, and in return ill tell you mine"
"id love that"
The tallest of the orcs comes out of the mayor's room and yells a command to Grom in a language you assume is orcish, he responds back and as he does his tribe leader's eyes dart to you, cold and assessing. He had tusks with engravings that reached his cheekbones. His eyes are piercing and yellow like a predator, his face sharp like rock with scars and old scratches will all of his hair slicked back into three long braids. He hops on his horse, flicks the reins and trails out of the village with the rest of the orcs, leaving just pile of dust
Next
