Page 15 of Horn in My Side
He jiggled the knob.There was a something about the magic that feltoff, like it had been worn down.A brute-force counter spell, he guessed.Temporary, maybe lasting only an hour or two, but effective against locking spells.Jasmine had mentioned the paramedics had to break into the house the morning Vrig died.Seeing as there was a large population of magic users andcreatures in Dewberry Falls, he wasn’t surprised spell-casting would be standard training for anEMTaround here.
Now that he was here, he would have to re-do everything to remove the remnants of the counter-spell.Better to start clean, anyway.For now, he disabled it and walked inside.
The interior was just as nice as the outside, and like the shop, it had been expanded from its original size to more comfortably accommodate an orc’s larger frame.Dark, masculine colors like mahogany and ochre dominated the main living area, and a well-worn black leather sectional couch sat in front of the large flatscreenTV.
Walking over to the fireplace, Mal spotted a few knick-knacks and two picture frames.The first one was a portrait of an orc couple—Vrig’s father and stepmother.The second frame held a photo of two male orcs, an older one who looked to be in his thirties, and a gangly younger teen.They were both smiling into the camera, dressed in their finest furs and leathers, standing outside the Urduk Horde’s family lodge in the homelands, likely during a major celebration.The older one he recognized as Vrig.And as for the younger—he knew that lopsided smile anywhere.
Hargoth of the Urduk Horde.
His father.
Vrig was already off to college when his stepmother became pregnant, which explained why he wasn’t around during Hargoth’s fledgling years.Then he joined the Army Corps of Engineers, so he traveled the world for an extended period.From what Mal’s mother had told him, Hargoth had very much looked up to his older brother, and when they did reunite, they acted like best friends, picking up where they left off like no time had passed.
The last time Mal had seen Vrig was at Hargoth’s funeral,and he had been quiet and somber through the whole three-day affair, staying up until the end, watching over the pyre as the last embers died on the final morning.He spoke a few words to Mal and his mother Morlak, promising to come if they should ever need him.
The first three years without his father had been tough, but they’d managed to get through it.Then when he was thirteen, Morlak met Karak and the rest was history.While Mal couldn’t ask for a better father figure than Karak, there were times he wondered what would have happened if Hargoth hadn’t been killed in that car accident.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Mal made his way toward the kitchen.Like the living room, it was spacious, well-maintained, and sparkling clean, except for a small desk in the corner piled with envelopes and papers.Hesitating at first, he reminded himself that all this was technically his now, and that there might be something in there that could help speed up the process of settling Vrig’s estate.
As with paper contracts, orcs did not believe in wills either, and according to ancient law, all assets went to the next of kin, split equally.And because all orcs kept their word, there were no petty squabbles or court battles over inheritance.That, of course, would have been fine if they were in the homelands, but because Vrig lived and worked outside of orc territory, he was subject to the human law, which made it more complicated for Mal to simply take possession of his property as Vrig’s last living relation.
All right, let’s get through this.
There were two piles on the table.One consisted of bills, junk mail, official letters, bank notices.The other was a mishmash of papers of different colors and sizes.Mal picked up an oversized sheet of yellow paper that had obviously been written by a child’s hand using crayons.
Dear Mr.Vrig,
Thank you for bringing us Pete today during assembly.I learned a lot about the chamrosh, and he has pretty wings.
Love,
Jenny Green
Second Grade
Edith Hamilton Elementary School
Underneath the writing was a drawing of what Mal assumed was Pete the chamrosh—a creature with the head of a dog and wings of an eagle.
There were many more letters and drawings from children on top of the file, expressing gratitude for bringing all kinds of creatures to the elementary school during various occasions.At the bottom of the pile were sheets of plain white paper—printed emails.
Of course Vrig still printed his emails.
Most of them sounded like they were correspondences with his buddies from the army corps, all personal stuff, so Mal put them aside.However, one particular email jumped out at him, or rather, the sender’s name did.
From:[email protected]
Subject: Tygre pic
Hey Vrig!Here’s the photo I said I’d send to you.So adorable!!
The photo attached showed Vrig holding his hand up as a small, blue catlike creature rested in his palm.
Unable to help himself, Mal rifled through the rest of the emails between Jasmine and Vrig.They were all friendly, mostly work-related, with pictures attached of different creatures from the pet shop or repairs that needed to be done.There was one picture that had caught his eye—it was a selfie of Jasmine and Vrig outside the shop, both of them smiling up at the camera.
“Get ouuuuuuuuuut!”
