Chronicles of Eden - Act VI (39 page)

She sighed then scooted closer to the river while rubbing her face tiredly. Using her hands she then scooped up some water and quietly took a drink, then promptly spat it out and coughed heavily before looking at the river with disgust.

“What in Eden? The water this morning has become most foul,” she scorned before spitting a few times. Looking towards where the water was flowing from she saw a few dead fishes floating towards her. “Seems something is tainting this river in the most horrendous way. But what?”

Standing up she peered carefully upstream, seeing the river curving around some shrubbery and old trees before losing sight of it. The reptile girl quickly trotted over and put on her armored leggings and hip plates before making her way along the stream while keeping on guard. As she got closer to some bushes near the river’s edge she saw the water having turned an oily brown color, and also noticed the air had become just as foul as what she had taken a drink of earlier.

“Dear lord,” she hissed while holding her nose. “What died over here?”

“Was it her?” Scay eagerly asked while pointing to Rulo. “She’s an orc and orcs are really smelly, kind of like how she smells a little from here. Was that her in your story? Was it? Was it?”

“Hey, what the hell are you saying?” Rulo yelled out at her. “I don’t smell that bad!”

Scay and Tabitha glanced to each other while the neko was still being held close by the naga then looked at Rulo with raised eyebrows.

“So… was it you then?” Tabitha plainly asked.

Sasha carefully brushed aside the bushes and walked through, eyes resting on the sight of a young orc who was apparently sleeping close to the river’s edge. Her short hair was messy with mud and leaves in it, her clothing consisting of a ragged brown skirt tied with too long of a rope and a top that was made of poorly stitched tatters of leather and wool fabric, a collar with a broken chain attached to it, and nothing on her feet which one was dangling off the muddied log she had apparently chosen to sleep face first on during the night and dipping into the river where it was turning brown from the filth on it washing off. Next to the quietly sleeping monster was a crude stone hammer with a wooden handle, the size of the block being much larger than the upper body of the orc herself.

“An orc,” Sasha muttered with disdain. “Of course, that would explain the stench and the river becoming a brew of death.”

“Called it!” Scay cheered.

“Knock it off!” Rulo shouted at her. “She’s making me sound worse than I really was!”

The orc snorted in her sleep and then farted, with Sasha slowly backing up a step as the smell was extremely pungent around the monster.

“I pray my master didn’t compare my poor state last night to that of this wretched thing,” Sasha scoffed before coughing a bit as she could taste something rancid in the air.

“How I wish I was,” Sasha dryly said.

“Whatever,” Rulo snorted before looking away from the girls.

With an oink Rulo slowly rolled over on the log before falling off it and into the river with a splash. She scrambled to her feet in the waist high river coughing and snorting, frantically wiping the water away from her face before looking around in a bothered daze. Shaking her head to get the water out of her pig ears she oinked and grumbled to herself before noticing Sasha watching her from the riverbank.

“What?” Rulo snapped. “What are you looking at?”

“My apologies,” Sasha retorted while still holding her nose. “I was afraid something had died over here and was tainting the river with its decaying corpse, but I see now that it was just you.”

“Fuck you, bitch,” Rulo barked back before looking away and just standing there. The water flowing by her turned an oily brown with a fish surfacing nearby and floating away dead.

“Aren’t you going to get out of there? You’re killing everything with your mere filth,” Sasha said shaking her head.

“I’m taking a piss! Why are you watching me? You like seeing shit like this?”

“Well, I’m never drinking from that river again,” Sasha dryly said. She then looked around and saw nobody else nearby. “Where’s your herd?”

“
Horde
,” Rulo derided at her. “We’re not stupid bovinettes, we’re orcs. We travel in
hordes
.”

“Alright. Then where’s your
horde
? I thought orcs never travel alone.”

“This one does,” the orc retorted before making her way out of the river and climbing back onto the shore. She shook her body to get the water off then marched over towards Sasha with a scowl on her face. “I don’t need anyone. Never have. Never will. I don’t need any sisters to share the men I catch with. Whoever I catch out here goes right down between my legs and my legs only.”

“A fate worse than death, I’m sure,” Sasha flatly said with a glance down to the orc’s skirt.

“Screw you!” Rulo snorted before shoving the reptile girl hard, sending her flying back into a roll through the bushes and onto the grass. Sasha quickly got back onto her feet as the orc charged through the shrubbery with her oversized hammer held back behind her shoulder. The monster’s steps were heavy and uneven as she ran before she yelled out and swung down with her hammer. Sasha leapt back as the weapon slammed into the ground with a powerful strike, shaking the area slightly and causing Sasha to stumble off-balance for a moment. As she regained her footing she watched with a careful eye as Rulo yanked the hammer back up over her shoulder using both hands and charged her once again with a loud snort.

“Not what I want to be dealing with this morning,” she growled before racing back towards the clearing where her sword was, running swiftly along the grass while Rulo quickly lumbered after her.

“Get back here so I can squash you, you bitch!” Rulo shouted out with an oink.

“Do not test me, orc!” Sasha yelled back at her before stopping next to the large broadsword. She grabbed the handle and lifted the weapon up with all her might, straining to hold the sword out towards Rulo who swung her hammer around towards the girl. With a loud clang Sasha’s broadsword was knocked clear out of her hands and off to the side, flying through the air before striking into a tree and piercing through it. Rulo stumbled a bit with her footing as she held her hammer down behind her from the heavy swing while Sasha stared in disbelief at seeing her sword having been struck right out of her hands and through a tree.

“Sounds like Rulo was more of a fighter than you were,” Tabitha snickered.

“She definitely seemed stronger,” Scay agreed.

“Damn straight I was stronger,” Rulo proudly boasted.

“She was not stronger than I,” Sasha snapped at the girls.

“Dammit, how did-” Sasha cursed before Rulo swung back around with her hammer and smashed it into the reptile girl, sending her flying straight back towards the stone ruin with a painful grunt. She slammed into a fallen pillar on the ground with a loud yell, feeling her back taking the brunt of the collision while her shoulder and chest ached from the powerful blow she endured.

“If at best she was my equal,” Sasha stubbornly insisted.

Sasha slumped down against the rounded column with a long groan, her world spinning slightly before recovering to notice that she was sitting back against the pillar and was having trouble breathing properly. She spat out some blood then hissed at Rulo who was walking towards her with a smirk on her face while dragging the stone hammer behind her in the grass.

“Not so high and mighty now, are you?” Rulo snorted before stopping in front of the reptile girl and lifting her hammer back up behind her. She swung down with a loud yell, smashing into the stone pillar as Sasha quickly rolled over to the side and avoided the hit. As the column cracked and shattered from the force of the attack Sasha scrambled to her feet before tackling Rulo to the ground. The two started swatting and hitting each other with their fists before Sasha grabbed a stone from the broken pillar and struck it across Rulo’s face. Blood splattered onto the grass as Sasha then started hitting the orc’s head repeatedly with the stone, a feral roar coming from the enraged girl while Rulo’s legs kicked and her hands flailed about while screaming in pain.

“I don’t remember that part,” Rulo mentioned while rubbing her head.

“I’m not surprised,” Sasha said before continuing again.

After a few more hits Sasha held the stone up high with both hands, watching with a murderous glare as Rulo whimpered and oinked beneath her with a battered face and blood coming from her mouth and ears.

“Wait… stop, I’m done now,” Rulo whined while her hands tried to weakly push Sasha off her. The reptile girl swatted them away then grabbed the chain to the girl’s choker while preparing to smash the orc’s skull in with the bloodied rock.

“I warned you not to test me,” Sasha hissed. She then watched with wonder as Rulo started crying while trembling beneath her.

“Please… don’t…” Rulo breathed out. “I don’t want to die now, I don’t…”

Sasha saw the orc whimpering and cowering before her, the image flashing to seeing herself being held down by her two sisters as they prepared to eat her alive. Their laughter and cold smiles at her while she pleaded for her life rang in her ears and caused her to shudder from the memory. The image then faded and showed Rulo sniveling while again trying to weakly push the reptile girl off her. Sasha looked down to the girl’s hands then growled before slamming the stone hard into the ground next to Rulo’s head. The orc squeaked and froze in place as Sasha leaned close to her face while holding her collar’s chain.

“This is your
last
warning,
orc
,” Sasha snarled. “Run away, far away from here, and don’t ever cross my path again.”

She slowly stood up and hissed down at the orc, seeing Rulo shaking while watching her with weary eyes, then started walking over towards the tree that her sword struck through it. Feeling her ribs aching she tenderly held an arm around herself, her breathing ragged and eyes struggling to remain focused as she took a few steps before stumbling slightly.

“Dammit,” she grunted before stopping next to where her blade was set through the timber. “This is not how I wanted to start my day off.”

Grabbing hold of the handle once again she tried to pull the sword out, struggling to do so as her shoulder and chest were sore while her strength had dropped significantly from earlier.

“Dammit… dammit!” she yelled before turning to Rulo with a frustrated glare. The orc was sitting back up against the fallen pillar and holding her hands to her face, feeling the lumps and cuts she had before seeing Sasha marching towards her with growing fury.

“Now I’m in even worse condition to please my master when he returns!” Sasha roared at the orc, with Rulo slumping back down against the stone column with a nervous whine as the reptile girl came closer and grabbed her collar and chain with both hands. “You! Because of you I can’t do as my master ordered me to, I don’t have time to fix this now! You ruined everything for me! All you orcs are nothing but a plague to Eden, you stupid, putrid, blundering, bitch of a pig!”

“I’m sorry! I get cranky when I get wet, I don’t like taking baths! I’m sorry!” Rulo cried out before Sasha, despite the pain her body was in, lifted the orc up by her collar and held her a foot off the ground while glaring at her with rage.

“Do you have any idea what you cost me?” Sasha yelled before throwing the girl over the pillar into the ruins. Rulo tumbled along the dirt and stone bricks before slamming into a wall that shook slightly from the impact.

“I was going to have a purpose in my life again!” Sasha shouted before leaping over the column and marching towards Rulo, the orc trying to get onto her feet while watching the extremely angered reptile girl with nervous eyes. “I was going to have the perfect mate in life, one who could have given me everything!”

“Wait, are you saying there’s a man nearby or something?” Rulo asked looking around. Before she could move Sasha grabbed her by the collar and swung her over to the side, throwing her through a broken-down wall and onto the ground. The overhead archway of the dilapidated hall cracked with dust and dirt dropping down between the bricks as Rulo oinked and struggled to get up again underneath it.

“He is more than just a man, you filthy pig,” Sasha hissed as she walked over and stood above the orc with a fierce glare down at the trembling girl. “He is my life, my world, my
master
. You’ve ensured that I will fail his task of proving myself to him, and for that you will suffer greatly before I silence you for good.”

“Stop, please,” Rulo whined while holding a hand up towards her. “I’m sorry, alright? What’s the big deal, you beat me didn’t you? You’re still standing, you’re fine.”

“You took everything from me,” Sasha shakily said with a tear forming in her eye. “I may be weakened because of you, but I can still put you out of your sorry misery.”

The archway above crackled then collapsed, with Sasha only having time to look up in surprise before she was knocked straight down on top of Rulo by the falling debris. The two girls screamed as the walls beside them caved in while a standing pillar nearby broke apart and fell over through the crumbling wall on top of them and the rubble. Dust flew up in a large cloud and rolled outward away from the collapse, revealing Sasha pinned down atop the orc with bricks and loose stones covering them from their shoulders down to their thighs. Their legs and Sasha’s tail were able to move slightly, however between the two girls only one of Sasha’s arms wasn’t buried under the rubble, with her free hand lying on the ground above Rulo while Sasha’s head was next to hers. The orc snorted and oinked while wearily looking straight up at the sky as Sasha coughed and turned her head away from the orc since both the dust floating around them and Rulo’s foul odor were making it even harder for her to breathe.

“
Ow
,” Rulo whined before trying to move, being unable to budge her arms while she could only kick her feet slightly.

“I hate this day,” Sasha cursed. “It was supposed to be different. It was just supposed to be me and my master, and no
you
.”