“It was honestly strange how the contact with the various orcish and goblin tribes went so differently in the two continents. Most nations in the northern continent of Alcidea which happened to border the territories of the tribes viewed them as barbaric savages at first, marauders and raiders which were only fit to be met with spears and arrows. At the same time, however, the tribes were collectively too strong to make punitive expeditions worthwhile as an option for said nations.

Meanwhile, in the southern continent of Ur-Teros, the tribes of orcs and goblins were mostly assimilated into part of the first Elmaiya Empire in the distant past, and from there proliferated to the rest of the continent as just another people. Many historians credit the therian founders of the Empire with this relatively smooth assimilation, as the therian tribes of the south had shared many values with the orcish and goblin tribes, and could often be called old neighbors by then.” - Excerpt from “The Tribal Life” by Fergus Harrington the IIIrd, sociologist and researcher of tribal society from Caroma, circa 403 FP.

Once the festivities gradually came to an end, a couple older orcs - some of the few who were not drunk off their ass, as even the shaman had drunk until he slumbered where he sat in celebration of his returned health - led Aideen and Celia towards a circular tent that they noticed being erected even during the festivities. Celia had no idea what the orcs had said, but their tones seemed to convey a sense of respect, and the way they politely led them had also given her more confidence.

Unlike the far more confident Aideen, Celia still found herself rather nervous to be in the midst of so many orcs, even if they proved to just be another people rather than the stories she had heard of fearsome, man-eating savages. To be fair, the fact that she could not understand their language probably played a factor in her nervousness as well.

The tent they were led to was a rather flat-topped, circular one like the Shaman’s tent, if smaller in scale. The interior was plain, but the ground was covered with mats from dried, woven fronds of grass, on top of which woven rugs and animal pelts were laid, then topped with soft cushions to create the general sitting/sleeping space that seemed to be the norm for the clans.

“What was that all about?” Celia finally asked as she stripped off her dusty tunic and sat on the comfortable cushions - the orcs seemed to have it filled with feathers and fur from the animals they hunted - and relaxed. The young unliving woman lounged on the cushions as she stretched herself, clad only in her chest wraps and pants, and sighed half in relief.

“Pretty much as you saw. I healed up their old shaman, offered my help in exchange for their housing us, and apparently the old guy decided to make us into honored guests,” said Aideen as she similarly lounged on the other pile of cushions. The nights in the prairie were rather chilly, but it was pleasantly cozy and warm inside the tents, so they had both undressed to their inner wear rather than keep their tunics on.

“They are… pretty friendly. Completely unlike what the stories we were told,” admitted Celia after she gathered her thoughts some more. “Just another group of people… Different, sure, but people… I have to wonder why the stories told of them in my homeland portray them so poorly.”

“Well, for one, I imagine most people from your homeland would just be seen as intruders and unable to explain themselves,” said Aideen as she stretched her slender yet muscular frame over the cushions. “Language barrier is a major issue, for one, and what do you think they would have done if they ran across intruders who refused to leave and could not be communicated with?”

“They’d… likely resort to violence,” said Celia after some thought.

“Indeed, and knowing orcs, the violence would not be light-handed either. I’ve known quite a few of them from my homeland, and while they were generally nice people, once they were moved to serious violence, they rarely stopped until the other party stopped moving,” explained Aideen with a nod to the younger girl’s conclusion. “Honestly, it’s fortunate that their language stemmed from the same one as what their cousins at my homeland spoke. Would have been harder to make peaceful contact without being able to communicate with them.”

“True, I guess,” said Celia as she nodded as well in understanding. The younger girl quietly removed her shoes and smiled at the comfort of the rug she stepped on. “So what’s the plan going forward?”

“I’m thinking of sticking with the clan for a while, maybe foster some good relationship with them,” said Aideen. Given what she knew about the orcs, she knew that they greatly valued favors and would often return them even generations later. Some time spent to foster good will with the current generation might well pay off in spades in the future when she had need of it, so she saw no reason not to do so while she explored the northern prairies. “Why, do you mind staying with them?”

“No, no, not at all. I was just curious about what you had in mind,” replied Celia hurriedly. The warm welcome the orcish tribe had given them caused the preconceptions the young woman had about them to break apart already, and she couldn’t help but to view them rather favorably after that grand feast laid out in their welcome.

More than anything, even a simple village girl like her could tell that the orcs were a simple, blunt, and sincere people who wore their feelings on their sleeves. While the hostility early in their meeting was palpable, so was the warm welcome they laid out, and she could tell that other than the occasional looks of curiosity, none of the orcs seemed to care much or mind at all that there were humans in their midst.

It was definitely a refreshing change of atmosphere, compared to how some of the people - some of her fellow humans for that matter - she had met in her travels so far had looked at her tanned skin and roughspun clothes and then scoffed as if they had looked at a pile of trash before.