The Orc Chieftain straightened up as if he was awakened from a daze. He hardened himself and stood up as straight as he could. With a quick glance, he sneaked a glance towards Moca and then back at me, giving me full attention.
"The half-elf has come to find our Stargazer." He boldly replied, trying to match his bravery, but I could tell that he was tensed and afraid. The way he fidgeted made it that much more apparent, even though he was trying to hold it in. "They left together three years ago to meet the Fire Hammer's chief."
"Stargazer?" I tilted my head, not sure what he was talking about.
"Stargazers are like seers, young mistress," Moca explained. "They can see the future by reading the stars, though that doesn't mean that they are hundred percent able to correctly guess the interpretation of the future."
"I see." I nodded. They were like seers. The thought of putting my everything into a possible future wasn't something that I shouldn't believe in; I believed that I made the choices of my future, and if I liked the Seer's possible future, I would strive to go after it like a madman. They were just markers, a goal, that gave me a clear definition of a vision of what I could make into a possibility.
"So, where exactly did they head off too?" I turned towards the Chief, waiting for an answer.
The Chief grunted a bit, mumbled something that I didn't understand in his language that sounded close to a curse word. Luckily, it seemed that Moca caught it and gave the Chief an evil glare that shut him up. Being overwhelmed by my presence irritated the Chieftain. It was usually him who was supposed to do the intimidating, not the other way around. I noticed off the bat that Orcs had a tendency to be overly prideful of their strength. What they disliked but at the same revered was power, but mostly from their own kind. I could tell that he respected me to a certain degree, but at the same time wanted to chase me away, so they can go on with their daily lives.
"They went back to the holy sanctuary of our land." The Chief quickly stated, trying his best to hurry me along.
"Where exactly would this holy sanctuary be?"
"Pass the White River, past the holy tree, and into the teeth of the tiger."
I looked at him funny. His sense of direction made me frown, showing off a bit of my white teeth. The Chief unconsciously took a step back and gulped. All he gave me were landmarks that made me want to pull out my hair. I thought I was bad with directions, but this whole landmark thing that encompasses the whole world made me want to blast him on the spot with a fireball. How pathetic can I be not knowing which way to go?! Ugh, this really infuriates me.
Moca saw my expression; he coughed and took a step forward before I would do anything stupid. I think he felt the pressure that I was giving off that made him take the initiative, in which I was quite glad. For a moment there, I could feel my stomach bubbling to blast that Chief. "We would like one of your people to come with us and show us the way."
Way to go, Moca! I thought in my head of thinking of such a solution.
"What?!" The Chief exploded out in disbelief. "W-w-why so suddenly?"
I snorted, annoyed, dust picked up and whirled around the Chief. He grimaced at my expression, tensing up even more.
"I mean," the Chief coughed and cleared his throat. "Stryd!" He bellowed out and motioned for someone in a hurry.
"Yes!" A human-size Orc pushed through the wall of Orcs that surrounded the Chief. He wasn't as buffed out as the other Orcs, but comparably leaner and more human-looking. The ugly scowl that the other had been a lot more intimidating than him, making me wonder if he was possibly a half-human. His skin was normally greenish to gray, black hair ruffled all over his head into curls. Only a small tusks appeared at the corner of its lip, making it the only similar distinctions between them. Even compared to the short Orc that was next to the Chief, he didn't even compare in size or bulkiness that a regular Orc had.
Not only that, he looked pretty decent, which meant a lot in my dictionary. The past years that I have been with amazing looking guys had pampered out my eyes a bit too much that now I was finding half Orcs decent.
The other Orcs gave him a pitying look, while the majority of them scoffed at the Stryd, who ran past them in a hurry. They didn't give him much of a second glance and just shook their head in understanding why he was chosen.
"I'm here." Stryd painted as he came next to the Chief. His ruffled hair looked even messier than before.
"Took you long enough." The Chief scowled at him, grunting and shaking his head in disapproval towards Stryd. He tapped his feet on the ground a couple of times, annoyed at how slow he took.
"I'm sorry, Chief. I will make it an effort to come faster." Stryd said as quickly as possible to reassure the Chief that he wouldn't fail next time. The Chief snarled, showing off his canine teeth, disliking the runt.
I could tell that there was some kind of animosity between these people, especially against Stryd. The only thing I could think of was that they just didn't like him.
"Go with them and show them the way towards the holy sanctuary back on the mainland." The Chief took off his necklace and pushed it into Stryd's chest. "This is an order."
"Yes," Stryd took the necklace from the Chief, he then glanced over towards me in fear as he took a gulp of air. Shakily, he fumbled as he shooked. "But, why me, sir?"
"What do you mean, why you?" Chief glared, not liking how he was being questioned. "Who else would go do this job but you?"
"Well." Stryd glanced down, embarrassed that he asked such a question. He wasn't too quick on the uptake of the thought of him just being thrown away like useless trash. ��I'm not really allowed to enter into the Holy land because….of what….I am." His voice became smaller.
The Chief raised up his eyebrows, stared for a moment, and scowled at his answer. He then growled at what Stryd had said and gave him an angry response. "I gave you my crest, which would allow you to stay. Now leave." He ordered towards Stryd, growling again as he bared his teeth. "Now go before I say anything else."
I disliked how the Chief was misplacing his anger and frustration on the wrong person. Mostly because I really hated seeing him being looked down on. Just when I was about to scare the crap out of the Chief one more time for being a bully, Moca raised his hand and shook his head.
"Young mistress," Moca replied in his best gentleman's voice. "We should leave."
Moca's words caught the Chief by surprise. The Chief then gave us a toothy smile, happily complying with the idea of leaving. Rubbing his hand together, he coughed and pulled Styrd to the side and pushed him forward.
"He'll show you the way." The Chief replied, "I am sure he could also be a good bag carrier to help assist you on your journey."
Bag carrier...as if. I thought at how easily they were just throwing him away. Oh, how I wanted to beat the crap out of him right here and now, but I didn't. A strange feeling that Moca having something up his sleeves made me stay silent. Strangely, I wanted to know what he would do, mostly because he was such a quiet type of butler, and it was scarce to hear him speak so much.
"That would be fine," Moca replied, waving his hand gently in front of him, welcoming Stryd to come over.
Tart snorted and examined Stryd up and down. Shaking his head as if he was a big disappointment.
"Young mistress." Tart frowned. "He smells so weak." He turned away with his nose turned up in the air. "Do we need to take him?" The way he said it made me feel bad for Stryd at the same time; we really needed a guide. Without having one, I was certainly going to get lost in this world, it was definite. Especially with their crap of directions that really didn't tell me which directions I needed to go.
"Tart," Moca spoke towards Tart with a very stern voice like scolding a child. He then gave him a deadly glare told Tart should not say anything else any further.
Tart cringed when he saw Moca's gaze and shuffled his feet towards me. Coughing a couple of times as he looked away from Moca. I couldn't help but watch with amusement at Tart's and Moca's reaction, mostly how easily Moca quickly handled Tart. I had to now wonder why Moca was acting like this, but I couldn't ask him now.
"Alright, Moca. Let's go." I replied, getting up as I waited for them to hop on. "Get on," I ordered Stryd, who stared at us with worry.
"Get on?" Stryd asked, completely confused at what I was going to do. "I don't quite understand."
Tart was appalled Stryd even asked such a question. He then turned towards Moca and then back at Stryd as if he heard things. "Young Mistress has allowed you to ride on her back."
"We're flying?" Stryd squeaked, he started to tremble in fear.
"How else would we get there?" Tart snorted at Styrd's answer. "You think we'll just magically teleport there?"
"Uh….no. I guess?" Stryd replied, embarrassed that he just realized how they were going towards the holy land.
Tart sighed. He then shook his head and jumped up onto my back. Sitting between my spikes, he made himself comfortable.
"Young mistress, excuse my rudeness." Moca bowed, he gracefully scaled my back and made himself comfortable.