Page 7 of Marked By the Wild Orc

“I pay weekly.”

She nods and looks away, still biting her lip.

And this is when I realize today is Sunday. “We pay on Mondays. Tomorrow you can be paid for today’s work. Then next Monday you will get a full week’s pay.”

“Really? You can start to pay me that soon?”

“Yes, this is no problem.”

“Thank you,” she smiles with a flash of perfect teeth.

Shadow gives out a loud meow, as if he agrees.

I giveKavin’s human sister a quick tour of the shop, the chairs and our supplies. Time flies as I train her to take over the cat’s feeding system and the front counter. The good news is that she is indeed smart and takes direction easily. It helps that the cats like her.

“Everyone pays in cash?” she asks with true surprise after I show her the cash register. “You don’t have a point-of-sale system?”

“A what? I’ve never heard of that.”

“Oh jeez. Well, you at least use QuickBooks, right? So at least there’s that.”

“What is Quick…what did you call it?”

Her mouth drops open.

“I bought a franchise of Heat and Ink but turned it into the only orc tattoo establishment in the country. As far as I know, we’re the only place that practices tattoo art in the ways of the ancients and even allows the ancient ink onto humans.”

“I’ve never had a tattoo.”

I glance at her with surprise. “I assumed you had tattoos on your body that were under your clothes. Why have you never had one?”

“I can't handle the thought of the pain. Plus, I always think to myself, what if I hate this ten or twenty years from now? I don't want to be like a celebrity I heard of who had to spend two years of pain and two hundred thousand dollars to get all the ink lasered off his body that he’d accumulated, including the names of ex-girlfriends.”

I chuckle. “That is human idiocy.” I proudly point at the work done on both my arms. “Orcs never apply tribal ink that would later need removal. Our symbols are earned as a badge of honor and have life-long meaning.”

She blinks. “If they are so meaningful, why do you place these on humans too?”

“I understand their desperation for orc ink on their bodies, because it is indeed the best. I give humans special art that I’ve specifically created that looks similar to our markings but is in truth not our tribal ink. Humans can’t handle the pain of orc tattoo application. They think what I make for them has orcmeaning, but it is simply decorative. Only orcs receive ancient tribal ink in the ways of old bestowed on them by their elders, which I then apply.”

“Do the humans know this?”

“I avoid telling them that theirs is different, but if directly asked I will answer truthfully. I do this because I’m trying my best to keep the secrets of tribal ink amongst orcs. And we charge humans twice as much as we charge orcs.”

“Oh.”

“Do you consider that unfair?”

“No…it makes sense. You said that this is originally for orcs and only recently have you been allowing humans to get these tattoos too. You had to go through the bother of creating special tattoos so humans could be included while still preserving orc rituals for orcs only. It makes sense to me that they should be charged more for this privilege.”

“Exactly.”

“I understand. Your secret is safe with me.” She gives me a wide smile, which causes her to look even more charming than before.

And then thefirst orc customers arrive and my training of this human begins in earnest. I make sure to leave the door to my room open and at first I am able to keep an eye on her for questions and still keep up my work, so that I am not leaving Krissy alone in front.

But eventually I am in deep thought, busy heating up tools and talking with an orc under my care who needs a tattoo to memorialize his first successful knock out of his older brother, tossing him over the fire pit, which is to be celebrated. When I finish the last burn and we both admire the work and he leaves, I notice a human has arrived who wants an orc tattoo.

I overhear him talking to Krissy at the front counter as she signs him in, and I don’t like the way this male stands too close when he speaks to her.

---