The Half's Way

He lifted her soaked blouse over her head and off. "Are you ready for more?" he whispered.

Oh gods. Shagdab had always boasted of how orcs could outbreed any creature.

"Oh, fuck..." she said, as he lowered her back down to the furs.

**

It was midnight when Shauba staggered back to her hut. Mikel and Danica lay together, clothed. Rash Girl snored next to them. Shauba piled up some spare mats and lay down, her head near the others. She felt like she could sleep for days. Bashukk said she could return in a few hours once he'd taken care of his duties.

Mikel spoke, just as she was getting comfortable. "Shauba."

"I've just been rammed like never before," she announced.

"You deserve it," he said. "But..."

"But?"

"Things are moving quickly. Listen, Lash has a plan."

"Hmm?" She could close her eyes and still listen, couldn't she?

"One of her followers is the Pikeskull's gaoler. The guard started feeding the captive Danica's concoction while you were gone. Another dose for good measure, and then we'll let him go. We'll need you then. And Rash Girl."

"Sure," Shauba slipped her hand under her head, like a pillow. It smelled like Bashukk's seed. And her own musk. Actually, all of her smelled like that.

"Are you listening?"

"Yesss...."

Mikel seemed to drift farther away. "Uhh... Well, this is the plan..."

**

Shauba awoke after a few hours. She left her sleeping friends and returned to the gate to Bashukk's home. The same orc who'd let her out let her back in. She went up the stairs and into the orc leader's darkened hut. She stripped, and crawled under the furs with him.

A wicked thought came to her when she felt his stiff, rampant flesh against her ass. She ducked her head under the furs and eased his cock into her mouth. He tasted like sweat and their combined musk. Soon, Basshuk awakened fully, and his hands came to rest in her hair, playing with her ears. She sucked and stroked him until his seed flooded her mouth. She swallowed the viscous, salty fluid down.

Gods, I could live like this. Shauba grinned to herself as she snuggled against him, and he threw a protective arm around her waist. They slept until well past dawn.

They awoke to the drums for the Boss-meet. Shauba bathed while Bashukk descended to the Boss-meet chamber. When he returned, they fucked. They ate a meal of roasted pork and vegetables. They fucked some more.

Later, they rested in his mud bath. Shauba lay next to him, her whole body submerged in the warm, cloying mud.

"What does Lash want with this Pikeskull?" Bashukk pondered. "She insists we keep him alive. It's been two days. He should have been ground into pig food by now."

Shauba's eyes grew wide as she tried to recall Mikel's words from last night. Something about feeding the Pikeskull Danica's concoction. Mikel needed Shauba for... something.

She looked at Bashukk. She threw up her hands, spattering mud everywhere. "I'm sure I don't know what she wants. I haven't seen Lash since yesterday morning."

"And she didn't say anything to you?"

"Besides that she wanted to keep our captive alive? No."

Bashukk's eyes narrowed.

"We've been fucking since yesterday, Bashukk. I haven't had time to find out what Lash is up to. Wasn't she at the Boss-meet?"

"Yes. It's not anything she said this morning. I just know she's plotting something."

"Well," Shauba said. "I haven't been part of it."

Bashukk seemed satisfied with that. They climbed out of the mudbath and rinsed off.

Shauba gave little thought to what Mikel told her last night. They'd need her at some point... to let the captive go? What kind of sense did that make? She had no power to do that.

Soon after cleaning off, they were back in his hut, and his cock was deep in her pussy again. She rode Bashukk this time, bouncing up and down on his stiff rod, his hands cupping her ass cheeks.

At Smashfest, Shauba had once seen a figurine of Threll the Red, demigod of strength, son of the Goddess Shall'a. Bashukk was the demigod's likeness, an avatar of might and muscle. Their eyes locked on one another, and she bent to kiss him.

Bashukk's finger played at the ring of Shauba's asshole, and what little thought she had fled her entirely. She moaned into the orc warrior's mouth and squirmed atop him.

Steps sounded on the ramp down into the hut. She looked up to see Druk enter. The orc who'd flattened her during the shattersack game was so tall that the tuft of his headdress brushed against the high ceiling. He leered at her.

"Do not fear," Bashukk murmured in her ear. "Druk can be trusted. He did not believe how matchless you are, Shauba. So I invited him to see."

Shauba was rocked by emotions. She was embarrassed, to be sure. Angry, even. But it also excited her to be watched. To be lusted after. She gasped, feeling Bashukk's thick fingertip wriggled its way past the clench of her ass, even as his cock stretched her pussy.

Bashukk rolled his hips beneath her, and soon they were gently fucking once more. Shauba kissed Bashuk again. She could feel Druk's stare, like the heat of a nearby flame.

Bashukk lifted her, pulling her upwards against him, until her sopping pussy was over his lips. She hunched above him as he fucked her with his tongue.

Druk pulled his furs aside, revealing a long, thin cock. He began to stroke it as he watched.

Shauba felt Bashukk's finger invade her asshole again. She hunched her clit against Bashukk's nose. She came, her orgasm drawn out by his tongue thrusting into her wet hole.

"Oh, fuck," she shouted.

"As you wish," replied Bashukk. He flipped her onto her back, her head pointed towards Druk. Shauba spread her legs for Bashukk, and he plunged into her once more.

Tilting back her head, she could see Druk fisting his cock, and the glistening pearl of fluid at its tip. Druk leered, taking a step closer.

Bashukk plowed Shauba's pussy, pressing her legs back so that her feet twitched in the air. He felt so good inside her. He was like a part of her that throbbed and tingled, driving her down an endless path of pleasure.

Druk was closer now. Shauba remembered Mikel's story of the brewer cousins filling him at both ends. She remembered how that image had excited her. Her eyes met Druk's. Her lips parted.

Druk tipped her head further back, and slid his cock into her mouth. Shauba moaned around Druk's cockflesh as he began to play with her breasts, squeezing them and tugging on her nipple rings.

A massive ballsack hung before Shauba's eyes, ramming into her nose and cheek from time to time as Druk made her gag. The orcs grunted over her, filling her completely, possessing her. Bashukk gave one powerful thrust to the hilt and trembled as he came inside her. Shauba came too, her pussy convulsing, milking him of his seed.

Druk continued to fuck her mouth. But as Bashukk pulled away from Shauba, the bigger orc swung around her to take his place. Shauba watched him fist his cock between her legs. She closed her eyes as his cock filled her. Druk moved slowly at first, but then he planted arms like tree trunks beside her head and began fucking her with powerful strokes. She rolled along on the path to another orgasm.

Bashukk sat next to her head. He stroked his cock idly with one hand while the other held her face, slipping a finger into her mouth. She sucked on it, eyes nearly crossing with bliss, like a baby at a teat.

Time lost meaning. It could have been hours or days that passed. She didn't fucking care. She was Bashukk's now. He and Druk took turns with her. She came on their cocks. She swallowed their seed like it was ambrosia. All she wanted was to revel in their craving for her, to feed upon it.

Bashukk fucked her from behind as she stood, bent over between them. Druk fed her his cock, and she grasped his asscheeks to pull him deeper.

"Shauba!" A voice came from outside the hut. A voice she instantly recognized. "Shauba!"

It was Mikel.

Shauba let go of Druk, but he didn't release her head, holding it down. She twisted away from Bashukk, and moaned in protest around Druk's cock, ready to bite him.

Bashukk growled in irritation. "Go deal with that, Druk."

The big orc released her.

"Druk, leave him alone," Shauba said. She groped for her clothes, unsure for a few moments where she'd put them so long ago.

"What are you doing?" Bashukk sneered.

"I have to go."

Bashukk watched her pull on her trousers, disbelief on his face as clear as his scars. "You choose that runt of a human over me?"

Shauba stopped. Druk had already left the hut. She looked at Bashukk squarely. Shagdab's advice about humans and orcs rang loud in her mind's ear.

The word on her lips pained her as she uttered it.

"Yes."

Druk and Mikel were shouting at each other outside.

Bashukk must have sensed her seriousness, her air of purpose. "Whatever you're about to do," he said, "will destroy you."

Shauba swallowed and nodded. "Most likely."

She turned and hurried up the ramp, even as she heard Mikel's choked cry.

It was dark outside. A discarded brand lay on the ground, the flame sputtering out. Druk held her friend by the throat. Mikel's feet were barely on the ground, kicking as he tried to dislodge the orc's iron grip.

Shauba took it all in at a glance, noting that Druk was naked, his stance wide. She rushed up behind the orc and punted him in the balls, jamming the hard bone of her shin up between his legs.

Druk released Mikel instantly. The orc sank to his knees, howling in pain.

Shauba helped her friend up, pulling him towards the stairs down to the village. Mikel gasped, but managed to follow. He could see little in the dark and she would need to guide him.

"You half-quag bitch!" Druk sputtered. "I'll tear your guts out!" The orc struggled to get up, but then collapsed and curled into a ball, clutching his groin.

Shauba and Mikel hurried down the dark stairs. He leaned carefully on her as they descended. A startled orc attendant stepped aside to let them out. Once they emerged from the gate, there was enough torchlight for Mikel to see.

"This way," he said. He led her south along the cliff wall.

The main part of the village was quiet, but there were a few orcs, including a group wagering over a game of bones outside their hut. Shauba glanced behind her, but it didn't look like they were being followed. She and Mikel had just passed the entrance cave to the Boss-meet when they reached another gate in the cliff wall.

Opposite the gate, standing in the shadows, was Danica, with Rash Girl on a leash. The warpig was draped in his studded leather coat. A pile of Shauba's belongings lay beside Danica.

"You're going to need these," the human woman said.

"What are we doing?" Shauba asked.

Danica said nothing, but she wore a cloak and carried a spear. Even Mikel fastened on a belt with a curved orcish shortsword in its sheath. Shauba was certain her friend had no idea how to use the weapon.

She pulled on the boots she hadn't worn since the first night in Esker. Then her belt and the hatchet. She bound up her hair. She grabbed her war ax and Rash Girl's leash.

Whatever was coming, she was ready.

A voice beckoned to them in Orcish from the iron gate. It was a guard.

"Take him out the south gate," the guard said. He opened the gate and stepped back, shoving the Pikeskull through.

The orc captive stumbled, fresh and days-old welts and scars on his face and back. His wrists were bound in front of him with thick rope.

Mikel grabbed the end of the rope and led the dazed Pikeskull south. The guard - who must have been Lash's gaoler - shut the gate and disappeared into the tunnel, leaving them alone.

This is madness.

They'd already been seen. None of them had any authority to take the captive anywhere, let alone past the gates.

"What the fuck?" Shauba whispered to Danica.

"Didn't Mikel tell you everything? Come on!"

Shauba cursed herself for sleeping through this cock-eyed planning process. There was nothing to do at this point but follow, even as the group of orcs who'd been gaming stopped to watch their odd little procession head towards the gate. She caught up to the others, Rash Girl trotting along beside her.

The south gate loomed ahead; the wooden gate that led out of Esker and to the surrounding pastures. Several orc guards stood upon the wall and inside the closed gate.

Shauba desperately tried to think of some reason why they had the captive. She and Mikel had caught him. Did that make the orc theirs, to do with as they pleased?

Then she noticed the orc warrior sitting atop a hogmount, silhouetted between them and the gate. It was Alog, walking his mount forward to meet them.

Shauba's cousin looked at them all soberly, his underbite fixed into a flat grimace. "I'll deal with this," he said to Shauba and the others. "Say nothing."

Alog, still mounted, took the captive's lead. Shauba and Rash Girl walked at his hogmount's side Mikel and Danica followed behind the Pikeskull.

One of the gate guards stepped forward, a hand up ordering them to halt. "The fuck is this?" he demanded, eyeing the captive.

"We're taking him to Yakka's hillfort," Alog shrugged. "So they can mount his skull on a pike, I guess, carry it into battle."

"On whose orders?"

"Lash."

The guard snarled, glaring at Shauba and the humans.

"They're coming along to explain how they caught him," Alog added.

The guard scowled. He approached the captive, examining his condition. He poked the bound orc hard in the ribs with the butt of a spear. "What's your name, Fuckskull?"

When he got no answer, the guard smacked the Pikeskull in the face with the spear haft.

"Sorgha," the Pikeskull croaked.

"Sorgha, it looks like you're getting to see your tribe again. Well, your head is anyway!" the guard guffawed, and the other sentries joined in. "Open the gate," he ordered.

They walked through the gate and into the darkness. With the best night-vision, Alog led. Danica prodded the ground with her spear butt, walking with Rash Girl, just behind the Pikeskull. Shauba fell behind with Mikel.

"What the fuck are we doing?" she hissed, as soon as they were out of earshot.

"I told you last night."

"Couldn't you see I was sleeping?"

"We're letting him go. Danica's been feeding him something that will make him violently sick for the next few days, though hopefully not too soon. When he gets back to his tribe, he'll tell them how the Red Tusk hillforts are teeming with plague-infested humans and he'll get ill, just to drive the point home."

Shauba grunted. It wasn't a terrible plan, but... "I see problems."

"So do I Shauba," Mikel said. "But this is the best plan. Because the alternate plan is to get rolled in a war the Red Tusks can't win."

"Why did we have to sneak out of Esker?"

"Because Lash didn't get permission from the Boss-meet. They would have said no."

"Oh gods," Shauba said. "So at any moment, we could get caught for being traitors."

Mikel thought about that for a moment, and nodded.

"I was in paradise an hour ago. Now I... we... are fucked. And not in the good way," Shauba said.

"Before I called out for you, I heard you in Bashukk's hut. Well, I didn't hear actual words, but... it sounded like you were having a good time."

Shauba smiled proudly. "Now you know why I was so exhausted last night."

"Yeah. I was pretty tired too, or I would have probably noticed that you weren't listening."

Shauba looked at her friend, waiting for more. "Tired from what?"

"You're not the only one who spent that day getting rammed."

"What? I thought Karag was gone."

"He was."

"Wait..." Shauba recalled who Mikel was with the previous day. "No!"

"Yes."

"But you don't like girls!"

"Lash is no girl. She is an orc female," Mikel said with reverence.

"Gods!" Shauba realized she was getting a bit too loud. "How can such a small man be such a giant slut?"

Mikel grinned. "The secret is stretching."

Shauba threw an arm around his shoulder, squeezing him as they walked. "It's a good plan. The Red Tusks deserve to be saved."

"Thank you," Mikel said. "But we couldn't have done it without Danica and Alog."

"This was all worth it," Shauba said cheerfully. "Even if we are about to die horribly."

**

They stopped briefly at dawn so that Alog could scan the hills behind them. Shauba went to join him as he peered northward. The pine-wooded slopes were still steeped in shadow from the low angle of the sun.

"Why do you look so sour?" Shauba asked.

"Because we're fucked," he said. "I'm surprised no one has caught us yet. Orcs on the march can move much faster than what we're doing right now."

Alog sighed. His hogmount had begun to munch on grass, so the orc swung the reins around so that they could head back to the others.

"We can't just cut Sorgha loose. He has to believe he escaped on his own," the scout went on. "His binding ropes are frayed. We'll be just above a rockfall slope in less than an hour. He's a scout. If he knows the terrain, that's where he will make a run for it. Come on, let's go."

When they reached the spot, Shauba could see why it was a good place for the Pikeskull to try to escape. They crossed a wildflower meadow with a steep, rocky slope downward along its eastern edge. The pale rocks provided good cover and would be difficult or impossible for a hogmount to descend in pursuit. For added measure, Alog had dropped the captive's lead and ranged far ahead, as if he were scouting.

Shauba walked to the Pikeskull's right. Mikel and Danica brought up the rear, with Rash Girl on a leash. No one stood between Sorgha and the relative safety of the rocks.

About halfway across the meadow, Sorgha broke and ran, throwing off the thick rope around his wrists. Danica screamed for effect, but she held tightly to the warpig's leash.

Shauba trotted after the Pikeskull, slowing enough to match his lumbering pace. Alog swung around. But instead of charging to intercept Sorgha, he angled towards Shauba.

The Red Tusk scout unlimbered his bow from the saddle. As the hogmount drew up alongside Shauba, Alog nocked an arrow and took aim.

"What are you doing?" Shauba hissed.

Alog held the arrow to the string, as if undecided.

"This is wrong," he muttered. He took a breath, shifted his aim slightly and shot wide, just as Sorgha reached the rocks.

Yeah, but it might just keep you alive, Cousin.

The Pikeskull picked his way among the jagged boulders and began to descend, disappearing from view.

"Come on," Shauba said. "Let's make a show of it."

Just then, she heard Sorgha shout in alarm. She raced to the edge of the slope, reaching it just ahead of her cousin's hogmount.

Below was a large clearing enclosed on three sides by spruce and rock pine forest.

It appeared that Sorgha had lost his balance and slid down the rockfall, because he'd already reached the bottom. Loose rock tumbled around him. The battered orc staggered to his feet and barrelled towards the nearest trees to the south.

"That one can take a beating, huh?" Shauba said.

"Oh fuck," replied Alog, pointing down and to the north.

Shauba counted at least six orcs breaking from the woods and charging across the clearing towards Sorgha.

Mikel shouted. He and Danica ran towards them. Behind the two humans, at the edge of the meadow, were more orcs.

The Red Tusks had caught them.

"You're fucking dead, you half-quag bitch!" The huge orc that emerged, yelling, from the woods below, was none other than Druk.

"Well, that's it then," Alog said grimly.

He'd already drawn another arrow. He nocked, aimed and shot, dropping the lead orc below. "I can't get down there easily," he said, drawing another arrow.