If only this was a dream. If only he could wake up. If only he could be anywhere else.

But it wasn’t a dream.

Melyth vanished in an instant, and he was left standing alone. The animal and the two overseers were drawing closer. Slowly. There was no need for them to rush; it wasn’t as if he could escape. And they knew it.

The beast’s jaws were open, teeth bared. The faces of the two males looked much the same. Their fangs might not have been as long as the warg’s, but their grins were no less terrifying. Even more, in fact. At least, with the warg, the worst that might happen was a swift death. The overseers could come up with plenty of things to do to someone. Fun things. Fun for them.

The glow in their yellow-orange eyes promised nothing less than that.

The warg circled round and came up behind him, so close that its wet snout pressed against his neck. Something sharp scraped his skin... Oh, teeth! He shuddered once more. The guards loomed above him, so he was forced to tilt his head far back to look them in the eyes. But he quickly dropped his gaze.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” The voice was soft. But that softness promised nothing good.

“Looks like a little pile o’ shit to me, it does,” said the other one, taller and broader of the two, rubbing his hands together. Male’s fists were massive; he could probably snap his neck single-handedly. He couldn’t stop staring at them. He swallowed, but the gulp caught halfway down. His heart was pounding.

“Well, little shit, what are you doing here?!” The shout cracked the air, and a blow smacked his head. He flew backwards. Aaaagh!!! It hurts!!!

The taller one observed the human settlement for a few moments. “I think I saw something else move when we were coming up. But I ain’t sure.”

“We go check it out?”

“Nah. Even if there was someone there, they’re long gone. And by the time we got inside and searched, even more time would pass. We’d never find them.” The tall one leaned over him again, and he curled right up. His head still throbbed from the blow. Tears welled in his eyes, and he folded his arms over his head. And waited, trembling.

“I’m taking this little turd to Vurbag. He’ll give him a good lesson,” said the tall one.

“Yeah, Vurbag will have such fun with him,” cackled the first male. “But not before I do!”

The male’s boot struck his belly and he folded in half, gasping. And then he was yanked up roughly and slung across the warg’s back to sit in front of the tall slaves’ overseer. They took off racing toward the village.

Oh no! No!!! Vurbag. The chieftain. The one everyone feared. He’ll be brought to him. He shook all over, and tears poured down his face.

If only he fell off the running warg and snapped his neck in the fall. Yes, that would be the best! Quick and the least painful end! He tried to shift sideways to make it happen. But the iron grip holding him in place gave him no chance of escape.

If only he passed out... but that would only delay the inevitable, not prevent it.

The journey to the village was short, and the search for the chieftain even shorter; Vurbag was relaxing in the food square after the supper, surrounded by a loud crowd of males. They were sitting on benches and shouting, drinking some kind of booze. They hadn’t gone off to the females’ quarters yet.

The tall overseer threw him down like a sack at Vurbag’s feet. “We found this runt near the cage fence. No idea what he was doing there,” he reported.

He remained down where he fell, curled tight, and peeked through his narrowed eyelids.

There were many black boots in a circle around him. And everyone was laughing so loudly.

And then a pair of boots stepped forward, stopping just a couple of inches from his face. His mouth was dry as ash, and his heart thudded like it might burst. A massive hand closed around his neck like a noose and lifted him, and he came face to face with the chieftain. Vurbag held him in one hand as if not feeling his weight at all. Up close like this, he appeared even bigger.

He coughed and gasped for air. His body jerked. But the chieftain’s thick hand firmly held him pinned in place.

“What were you doing there, runt?” Vurbag asked slowly, almost lazily. One corner of his mouth twisted upward into a grin, revealing sharp teeth. The firelight from the surrounding torches gleamed in his yellow eyes. “Why’d you even go there, you useless little flea?”

Useless.

Nooo!!! They will kill him!!! His heart exploded into wild panic, his cough turned into whimpers, and a stream of warm liquid ran down his leg.

“Hahahahaha!!!” Vurbag’s booming laughter drowned out his whine. He pointed at him with his free hand, extending his finger to show everyone. “Look! The little runt is so scared that—”

In that movement, the chieftain’s hand brushed his stomach — and not just the stomach, but also what was tucked against it. Vurbag stopped mid-sentence. His eyes narrowed to slits, and the grin vanished.

“What’s this you’ve got?!”

A moment later Vurbag yanked the playthings tucked into his belt beneath his tunic.

Tears blurred his vision, but he could still make out the chieftain’s eyes flicking between him to wooden animals, back and forth, back and forth.

“This is much more than just watching! You’ve been spending time with them! You’re acting like them! And you’ve got the same things they use!!!”

The noose of fingers around his neck tightened, and he couldn’t see any more. The world around him was turning black. He couldn’t breathe, the grip was too tight. His mouth opened, but in vain. And then he flew through the air, as if kicked out from a bow. He landed hard on his side and cried out.

“Slice him open Vurbag!!!”

“Kill him if he likes humans!!!”

A pair of heavy boots stopped once more next to his nose. And the scrape of steel told him that a knife had been drawn from its sheath.

Nooo!!! I want to live!!!

Vurbag’s foot slammed into his gut, and the pain exploded through his whole body. “I’ll gut you whelp!”

“Do it, hahaha!!!”

“Yeeeaaah!!!”

Vurbag knelt beside him, clutching his long knife.

Nooooooooo!!!

“Or maybe I won’t! Maybe I have a better idea!” Vurbag grabbed him by the neck again lifting him off the ground, and his arms and legs were flailing in the air. “You will be spared for now but only because you’re a male! So you’ll serve the Master in war one day! But since you like the slaves so much you’ll work with them! You’ll be a slave! Until I decide otherwise!!!”

“That’s right!”

“Well done Vurbag!!!”

“Yaaaay!!!”

“The little slimy slave!!!”

He’ll live!!! They won’t kill him!!! He won’t die!!!

But then the hand holding the knife mowed toward his head.

-x-x-x-

What the... Ouch!!! A hand grabbed him and yanked him up. What’s happening?!

All around him was darkness, except for a narrow grey rectangle a little further away. He blinked. Oh, hut’s open door. A strong male hand clamped around his upper arm and dragged him out into the grey dawn.

The guy threw him to the ground, and the pain seared through his whole body. Whimpering, he glanced around. The world was blurry and twisted. He could only see with his left eye, because the right one was swollen shut; that whole side of his head throbbed with pain from yesterday’s beating. Oh, how was he supposed to survive this? Tears filled his one good eye.

“Ready to work, slave?” The overseer cackled, then kicked him hard. He doubled over, gasping for air. “This is your everyday routine from now on. We come for you at dawn, and you’ll work till dark!”

“Hahaha!”

He spent the entire day working in the fields, with only one short break. Humans were around him — adults and children. The overseers rode their wargs and supervised them. And used their whips to quicken anyone they thought didn’t work hard enough or fast enough.

“Aaah!”

Vurbag’s whip frequently landed on his back. Oh, how it burned! It hurt! Not just where the whip struck, but his whole back.

Work, Murtash, dig faster, or he’ll strike you again...

But it did happen again, regardless of his efforts. Again and again.

The following day was the same — jolted awake, then dragged into the fields.

Actually, not quite the same. This day was even worse. Each and every muscle in his body screamed after the previous day of labouring. Every movement was an agony. Oh, he’ll certainly die today, no way he could survive this...

“You look awful.”

He flinched. A few steps to his right there was Melyth. He saw her from afar, both yesterday and earlier this morning, but didn’t notice when she got close to him. She kept on working with her hoe while watching him. He quickly looked around. No overseers nearby. Good, they wouldn’t catch them talking.

So, he looked awful? Well, he certainly felt awful. As if... as if a band of trolls had trampled him.

“What they did to you...” She paused and motioned toward his head. “And making you work with us... that’s a punishment? Because you played with me?”

He nodded.

She went quiet for a moment, working steadily and watching him. Her expression was grave.

“I am sorry,” she finally said softly and shrugged.

He looked at her. “What—”

"Melyth!" The angry exclamation came from the nearest human male, followed by a string of sharp words directed at her. Those closest to them, grown-ups and children, were glancing in their direction.

The girl raised her head high and simply waved her hand dismissively. Then, still not looking the least bit frightened, she turned and looked at everyone nearby.

“I’ll talk to whoever I want.”

The man said a couple of more words to her — the voice sounded like a warg’s growl to him — and resumed working.

“Uh, umm... I didn’t understand. What did you mean, that first thing you said to me?”

“Sorry. That?” When he nodded, she pursed her lips. “Right. You don’t even have that, do you? You orcs don’t care for anything or anyone. But you...” She fixed those bright blue eyes on him. “You might understand it. Yes. After all, you did warn me that day.” She paused, as if searching for the right words. “When you’re sorry about something, it means you are sad that it happened. That you wish it hadn’t. That you’d want to change things.”

He took a deep breath. So, that’s what it was. Sorry. How... unusual. The girl was sorry they’d done this to him? Meaning, she was sad about it? Huh!

No one had ever been sorry for anything that happened to him. Quite the opposite. The boys in the village enjoyed torturing him, especially Shozrac.

Strange... and interesting. If they had caught the girl the other day, back when they caught him... yes, he would be sorry. Her being in trouble would not have made him happy in the slightest.

And that little lame girl in the village, a couple of months ago... she helped him and got beaten for it. Back then, he hadn’t had the words to express what he felt. But this was it. He was sorry.

-x-x-x-

“Why are we doing this? Why are we digging and making these holes and turning the earth over?”

They’d been doing it for days now, and it didn’t seem to have any clear purpose to him. Some other tasks did make sense — like picking fruit and vegetables, or slaughtering animals. Every two or three days, carts full of meat, vegetables, and potatoes were sent to the village, just like they always had as far back as he could remember; the only difference was that he used to be there in the village and see the carts arriving, and now he stood here with humans and watched them leave. But this digging of empty fields...?

“The soil must be prepared to sow wheat. That’s what we’re doing now,” answered Melyth.

He stopped for a moment and shook his head. Prepare...?

“How? Why? Can’t you just plant it? And how do you even do that?”

A few children and grown-ups standing nearby gave him quick glances, but then just looked away and continued to work. The only one who kept looking at him was Melyth’s mother.

“Well, well, interesting,” she murmured so quietly he barely heard. Her face looked thoughtful. “A curious little orc.” She studied him for a while, then started explaining how soil had to be prepared, why it was necessary, and how wheat was eventually sown. They kept working the whole time she spoke; had they stopped even briefly, the whips would have come down on them. When the overseers approached once, she went quiet, and resumed only when they moved away.

So, that’s how it was. It wasn’t all the same, but it had to be done in a certain way. Interesting. And then, at the end of the whole process, there would be wheat.

Wheat. Bread. And other food. Something that just appeared on the plate, right?

In his old life, yes. But now he knew just how much work went into getting that food.

The females of his people did some things with food — they had to cook or roast it. But that was all they did; they didn’t produce it. And judging by what he had heard and seen day in day out, producing food was... well, pretty complicated.

And not just complicated, it was a lot of work! “Wait a moment — we have to dig up all that?!?!” He stretched his arm out toward the south and gaped. Sure, he had always known that there were wheat fields south of the village and the cage; which kid didn’t? Maybe just the smallest ones who didn’t know anything yet. But that the fields are this vast?! They stretched out before him as far south as the eye could see.

“Not all of it. Some of that’s grazing land for the livestock. But yes, most of it needs to be dug up.”

Some of the work was done by oxen pulling strange contraptions with metal and wooden bits jutting out in every direction, and the rest was done by them — the slaves. One step, one swing of the hoe. Step, swing. On and on for hours.

If only he could rest for a bit—

A crack of the whip, and just a heartbeat later an explosion of pain across his back.

“Keep working, slave! No slowing down!”

He moved faster and continued.

And yet, as hard as it was, maybe there was one good thing about all this. He was working. He was contributing. Hopefully no one would call him useless now. Hopefully no one would want to kill him now.

-x-x-x-

“Muwty! Why were you away for days? I want us to go play at our place in the woods!”

He sighed. He’d just returned to the hut; every evening, he followed the overseers and dragged himself back to the village, and then he just collapsed on the blanket and remained there. He had no strength to move even a finger. Not even to eat dinner. And the little one was kneeling beside him with a grin on his face and shook him by the shoulders.

“Come on come on let’s go!!!”

He sat up halfway and leaned his back against the wooden wall, taking a half-sitting position. The hut wasn’t empty; other kids were running around the table, and two of them were chewing on their dinner bread. Too many ears around. But he really didn’t feel like going outside.

“Come closer.”

Uldut sat sight next to him, leaning so close that their heads nearly touched.

“Uldy, what I’m about to tell you, none of them can hear it, and you must remember it well,” he whispered, motioning toward the other kids.

Uldut’s face turned serious. The little one stared at him with wide eyes. “Yes, Muwty.”

“You must never, ne-ver, tell anyone about our playthings. It’s not just that the other boys would take them from us. The grown-ups get really angry about it. Really, really angry. They found the playthings on me, and I was punished. Now I have to work with the humans like a slave. That’s why I’m not around during the day, and I won’t be for a while. And if they ever found our playthings again, they’d surely kill us.”

Uldut opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything, just closed it again. And then again. Then he shook his head a little and frowned.

“Why do gwown-ups get angry if we just want to play?”

Good question. Even if the things they used for playing looked like the ones the humans did — what was so bad about playing? They were just kids!

“I don’t know. But that’s how it is.”

Oh, how different it was in the human world. Human grown-ups didn’t beat or kill their children for playing. Such a... such a good world. Maybe... He looked his brother in the eyes. “Uldy, when we grow up, we won’t punish kids for wanting to play like they punished us, deal?”

The little one nodded firmly. “No we’re not.”

“Good.” He slid back down into a lying position and closed his eyes.

“But no one will see us in the woods. We can play there, right? We go? We go now?”

He whined. “Tomorrow, Uldy.” Hopefully he’d find the strength tomorrow. He’d try. “I’m just so tired. There’s so much work.”

“Oh.” Uldut’s sigh was full of disappointment. Then he looked at him with curiosity. “So what do you do there?”

He sat back up and gave a brief recap about the fields, the barns, and working with animals — taking them to pasture, cleaning the stables, and so on. Uldut listened and nodded, occasionally asking more questions.

“And did you make any friends there with their kids?”

“Well... yes. I have. I talked to a girl. And her mother.”

“Oh, right, Muwty, why is our mother’s tummy getting big lately?”

He grinned and looked at his little brother proudly. This he knew! Time to look smart in front of someone.

“When a female’s belly grows, it means there’s a new baby inside. So she’ll give birth in a while.”

Uldut gaped. “So that’s it! I hope it’s a bwother and not a sister!” he burst out. “Then when he grows a little we’ll show him our pla—”

“Uldut!” He grabbed the little one by the shoulders and covered his mouth with one hand. Quickly, he glanced around at the other kids. Whew! They were still running around the table, paying no attention to the two of them, so they surely hadn’t heard anything. “They must not know, remember?”

“Oh yes, Muwty.” The little one lowered his head and eyes. “I won’t anymore. I’ll be careful.” He sat like that for a while, staring into space. And then a squealing blur crashed into him.

One of the girls running around must have slipped, and her impulse carried her straight into Uldut. The impact sent him slamming into the wall, while the girl tumbled off in the opposite direction.

Uldut jumped to his feet. “Stupid little thing! I’ll give her a good beating!”

Bumps, accidents, clumsiness. How many times had he seen those things happening when human children were playing, all those times he watched them? Plenty. And he’d also witnessed what came after. A hand offered. A shrug. Play continued.

But in their village? It never went without punches. Without blood. Punches... they hurt. They weren’t the best thing that could happen to you.

Well... one could certainly live without them. And he wouldn’t have known that if not for what he’d seen from the humans.

Crazy, right? Humans — the lesser ones. The slaves. And yet, some things he’d seen from them were alright.

“Uldut.” He pulled his younger brother’s arm just as he was already stepping with fists clenched toward the girl crying on the ground a few steps ahead, holding her knee. “Leave her.”

“But Muwty she hit me!”

“It was an accident, she fell. She wasn’t mean to you.” He sighed. “Don’t go beating those weaker than you.”

“Hmm... like I’m gonna hit someone stronger!”

He burst into laughter. “Haha, that’s not a good idea either, for obvious reasons!” Then he grew serious again. “How do you feel when someone beats you up?”

“Bad.”

“It hurts?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Do you like it?”

“No!”

“Me neither.” He lifted his tunic and showed his brother all the bruises on his front, and then his back.

“Oh!” The kid opened his mouth, gaping. “Does it hurt, Muwty?”

He nodded. “If we know how bad it feels when something hurts us, then we won’t make someone else feel that way. Not if they weren’t mean and it was just an accident. We’ll do what’s good, you and me together.”

Now Uldut’s face turned serious, too. “But how will I know what’s good?”

Hm, could he explain that properly? And after all, could he himself define that? He wasn’t sure... but after everything he had seen, the answer sort of came to him spontaneously. He took a big breath and scratched his head. “If what you do makes someone else hurt, then it’s not good. If you do something that makes them smile, then it’s good.”

Uldut brightened at those words, eyes wide. “Okay Muwty. You are my big bwother and you know everything. And you can make those— umm, play, and you know lots of stuff. I’ll listen to you.” The kid grinned and gave him a body-squeeze.

Heh, the little guy was alright. And he really liked him.

“But you know, if someone treats you badly, then you should hit them back.”

If you can. If you’re not by a head shorter than the other one.

-x-x-x-

They spent another ten days digging through the southern fields, and then finally reached the edge of a grassy plain that was clearly untouched. He grinned cheerfully. Finally, the digging was over!

Except it wasn’t. They also had to keep digging north of the river; some grain fields were on that side.

“The cultivated area up there is a bit smaller, and part of it has already been handled,” Melyth’s mother told him in passing. “We’ll be done in two or three days.”

Did that mean his work would finally be over? Would he be allowed to go back to the village? Well, he’d find out soon enough. Until then — work.

And whip lashes.

He resumed working. And while he was digging, at some point he happened to glance north, into the distance. Hm, what was that? Right at the edge of the horizon were some black specks. A lot of them.

“What’s that?”

Several nearby humans followed his gaze after he spoke, but none of them answered. They just lowered their heads and resumed working. One female shrugged at his question and shook her head.

“I don’t see anything,” said a girl standing close by, then returned to her digging.

He glanced around. Melyth and her mother weren’t far, but when he moved closer to them and asked them about it, it turned out they couldn’t see anything either.

But he wasn’t imagining it; something was there. Even the overseers were now pointing north. Interesting! So, humans see worse than his kind?

After a while the specks resolved into carts and figures on wargs and horses — broad-shouldered figures with massive arms, long black hair, and significantly taller than any male in the village. They all wore black, with a burning eye painted across the front of their leather armour. The swords hanging from their belts were probably longer than he was high.

The Master’s Guards! Those who served in the special units of the Master’s army, those who were the Master’s hand and voice and command across their land. The ones lucky enough to be in direct contact with him.

Too bad he hadn’t been born as one of them.

Now that he thought about it... yes, they arrived around this time last year, too. Though, back then he didn’t pay them much attention and only saw them from afar. Did they come in the years before that? Possibly, but those older memories were too hazy.

Oh, how enormous and grim they looked up closely! He shivered. All the humans pulled back and started digging farther away from the newcomers, and he hurried after them. But, interestingly, not even the overseers approached the towering figures. Vurbag was the only one who stepped forward — and even he walked slower and more reluctantly than usual.