Three weeks has passed and being here in this forest with this orc has given me more peace than I have ever known. I feel like for the first time in my life I have finally made a friend, a real friend.

Igor doesn't expect me to be anything, anything other than that which I already am. He doesn't try to squeeze me into an expectation too lofty or strenuous for me. He just lets me be me.

He doesn't look at me strangely when I eat an extra piece of meat or when I make embarrassing noises when I am enjoying a meal. He doesn't expect me to look a certain way or talk a certain way.

I feel like I am discovering myself for the first time...and I like it.

I am enjoying getting to know me once more. What I like, what I don't like. He doesn't stifle me. Like that one-time last week, I wanted to learn how to skin an animal after seeing him do it a few times and instead of making me feel horrible for wanting to learn such an 'unladylike' thing, he handed me the knife and showed me how.

Or that other time I wanted to climb the tree and get the high avocados and he let me. Shepherd would have said many things discouraging me, but nor Igor. He encourages me to see the world and experience and touch...well so long as it's safe. He is a bit of a mother hen, I'll admit.

The winter has also arrived. It had been getting colder and colder but last week it really started sinking in. And it has been raining most days.

Although Igor and I have been getting a lot of wood for the fire, but we are burning through more than we have in storage, or we can dry. And if it persists, we will be struggling for dry wood in a few weeks.

But here in this small house in the deep of the forest I find myself settled. I have healed completely But I don't know if I want to leave. I know I have probably overstayed my welcome and as the days tick, I keep waiting for the day he asks me when I am leaving him to his peace.

I've been wanting to ask to stay an extended period even though I know I must leave eventually. Maybe I will go South to the Obu kingdom, and I may get shelter.

The truth is I haven't begun thinking deeply on it. I have enjoyed so much peace that my trivial worries have just faded away temporarily.

I clutch the blanket closer to me as I sit in the porch waiting for Igor to come back with something to eat. He said there are wild mushrooms I have to taste that grow after every storm and yesterday had been a big one. I would have gone with him, but he said its far and I still don't have shoes and I don't like travelling longer distances.

So far, I've been to where we get wood, then the river, and the hot spring not far from here, a small heaven Igor showed me where I wash my hair every 2nd day. I truly have everything here in this simple place.

Although certain things about Igor still don't settle me. Like the fact that I have known him for almost a month, and I have only seen him sleep twice and both those times were in the chair. It has been awkward, and he has swatted my question about why he doesn't sleep.

But I aim to get to the bottom of it, and hopefully I can help him a little after all he's done for me. As my eyes wonder carelessly over where I am expecting the orc, my insides freeze when my eyes meet others that are behind the bushes.

Panic sets in immediately. But for a few long moments, I find myself not able to look away from the creature. I sit there not able to move, utterly mesmerized by the creature I can't even see. My senses come back quickly, and I practically run inside. I close and lock the door.

What was that?

I sit on the chair, giving myself a vantage point where I can see everything. Both from the direction of the window and the door. I clutch the knife tight in my hands, hopeful that the creature doesn't come, but if it does, maybe I give the illusion that I can use this knife and I can do some damage.

The door moves, and I point my knife towards the direction of the door in case the animal has limbs and is a two-leg walker like me and Igor. Maybe it's one of Igor's enemies.

"Aria."

The relief that fills me is unexplainable. I rush to the door, and I open.

"Whoa." He says when I open, and I realize I am still holding the knife.

"Oh, sorry."

I see a deep frown in his face. "Did something happen. You look afraid?"

Should I tell him? What if I was seeing things? And what will I even say I saw? Eyes? Eyes behind the bushes?

"It's probably my crazy brain. It's nothing." I place the knife on the table, turning from him.

Powerful arms rest on my shoulders before he turns me around gently. His piercing gaze searches mine and he looks over my body.

"I'm fine, Igor. I just...I thought I saw something behind the bushes. But I also don't know. I just saw eyes, maybe I'm just seeing things."

I see relief in his eyes and it's my turn to scowl now.

"Oh. That." he says flatly.

"You know what that was? Is it an orc like you?"

He drops his hands from me, and I immediately miss their covering and warmth.

"It's the white wolf." He says dismissively like I'm supposed to know what that is.

A wolf? He knows a wolf?

"Igor, is that...wolf your friend? And why were they staring?"

He closes the door before he turns to me. He continues to go to take a cloth and dries his body. He is soaked from hair to toe, and everything looks more defined.

Then I do the stupidest thing I could have ever done, my gaze drops lower, and I see a bulge. Its not even a bulge, that is a whole mountain, and it is amplified by his wet pants. I swallow before I drool as I momentarily forget my own name.

Is that? How is it that...? Oh, sweet goddess.

A throat clearing brings me back to the present and I find his narrowed eyes. I look away from him.

"I'm sorry, I...I didn't mean to...I shouldn't have. Sorry." I go to the bed.

I hear a sigh behind me as I climb the bed.

"I don't know the wolf, but I thought you did." He sits on the chair, and I frown again.

"Me? Why?"

"They are the ones that saved you that day. They must have pulled you out of the water and they got you medicine that kept you alive long enough for me to get here with you."

I furrow my eyebrows. I was saved by a wolf. But why? The questions are bubbling in my head.

"Come on. I am soaked after getting those mushrooms. Now come so I can help you make them."

Igor brings me back to the present. Oh yes, the mushrooms. I fold my arms.

"I didn't hear a please, Mr. Orc."

"It's Sir Orc, to you, human."

I chuckle and he chuckles back. The past few weeks he has opened up to me little by little. I have come to understand the orc can be really humorous if he means to.

"Say please, Sir Orc."

He shakes his head. "Fine, please. Now please vacate the room so I can change."

I move to get off. "Hardly seems fair though, you've seen me naked on a number of occasions, but you don't want to show me what you were gifted with." I joke as I stand up and move to get out.

"You want to see me naked, Aria?" his voice is that low timbre that makes my skin dance and my insides melt.

I pause for a moment, and I look to see if he is serious. I huff when I find amusement in his eyes. I get out with a huff and I slam the door closed.

"Hey, it took long to make this door." He says from the other side, and I scoff.

I liked him better when he was still stoic.

I take the basket with the mushrooms and other green vegetables, and I place them in the empty basin so I can wash them. He comes out changed. My back tingles as I feel his gaze behind me.

I feel it then, something is going on between us. I don't know how to describe it as I've never really had any real relationships or friendships outside my family and then Shepherd.

All my childhood friends abandoned me when we were children. Apparently, I was too much for them. Too much from the different side of the road, too much into books, too much into talking, too eligible for those who wanted to secure husbands and I was the shadow that made them not shine.

One of the children I thought was my best friend said that to me when we were 12. That was usually when most of us would start getting marriage proposals. I had many but my father kept refusing all of them, until he received the late king's offer.

But like all of them, they've never seen me. Not really.

"Are you okay?" he places a basin with water next to the other one. I see real concern in his eyes.

I nod. "I'm fine, Lord Orc."

He gives me a nod after a second. Then we are back to washing the vegetables and cutting them and making vegetable stew with wheat flour bread for our dinner. And he was right, the mushrooms are not only the biggest, but they are the tastiest I've ever tasted.

As we sit and eat, I remember the incident from earlier.

"You also don't know the wolf?" I ask as he collects out plate and the mug we both drink from and takes them to the kitchen. When he comes back, he leaves the door open a little and he sits back down at the chair.

After weeks of trying to understand how we both can coexist, we finally found something that works for both of us. The heater gets too hot for him, so we keep the door open a little from time to time that way it doesn't get too hot, there is still ventilation.

"I don't. I met them that day and they've come every other day to check on you."

I furrow my brows.

"They just stand at the border, and they never come in. You certain you don't know them?" he asks

I lean back to the pillow. "No, I don't know any wolves, Igor. I barely even had a pet as a child."

He nods.

"But it's odd. Do you think they are dangerous?" I ask.

"I can't ascertain that, but they saved your life, and they haven't tried to harm you or come close. I'd say maybe they think you are their soulmate, and they are in love with you."

I pull the pillow and I throw it at him. He chuckles and I see all his tusks. I always love when he laughs or smile, and I get to see more of his tusks. They fascinate me.

He turns a little serious after.

"But if you feel unsafe, let me know, okay?" I gauge nothing but sincerity in his expression.

"Why are you being so kind to me, Igor?" the question spills out of my lips without any fore thought. But it is a true question. I have wondered since the moment I saw him.

He is not my kind; he doesn't have to be kind to me or help me in anyway and he doesn't even know I'm a disgraced former queen of a land not far from here.

His gaze fixes on me and we sit there staring at each other. I try to see behind his eyes. I see a myriad of things. Most I don't understand.

But most prominent is confusion. "I don't know." 

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