Page 29 of Marked By Feral Monsters
I stay back and out of the way and eventually follow the crowd outside toward the fire. Someone's always tending to it, and it burns at all hours for meals and community. The seating around the fire is large enough to offer a fair amount of space for most of the villagers, though people are always coming and going.
It was my job once to tend the fire, but I accidentally caught the overseer's shift aflame, so that didn't last long.
Ergo, a man a few years older than me, with a skill for carving bows, wraps a blanket around Skyler's shoulders. He crawls onto the log behind her and warms her arms, cooing praise for her bravery.
Her brown hair shines as he strokes her head, pulling her in for a kiss. I tug at my dishwater blonde strands, then tuck it behind my ears. Unwashed, my hair gets greasier faster thanhers. And Skyler, blessed with voluptuous curves, gives off a damsel-in-distress vibe that I've never been able to mimic.
I watch the couple with envy—the way they look at each other, the way he looks at her. As if she's something meant to be adored.
Another man, Tika, sits beside Skyler, but when she doesn't return his attention, he looks over at me. Almost reluctantly, he shrugs a shoulder, then moves a seat closer, likely assuming that's enough affection to get me to let him into my furs tonight.
I've had sex with Tika. I've had sex with every single eligible man in our village. But outside of my tent, out here in front of everyone, they're always hesitant to be seen with me.
I'm not a pariah. But I get in trouble a lot because I'm a daydreamer, and more than once I've been caught with my head in the clouds when I was supposed to be gathering berries or tracking turkeys through the woods. Or paying attention to open flames when the overseer had his back turned.
Dinner is served—a warm stew in wooden bowls. Like most nights, I'm given the wonky bowl that's misshapen enough to spill the contents over the side if you hold it wrong. I am the one who carved this bowl, so I don't mind always getting stuck with it, but it perplexes me how, despite dinner being passed from one person to the next, it always lands perfectly in my hands each time.
I should just throw it away, but we waste nothing here.
Within our village, everyone has the freedom to choose their profession. They may work in whatever field they have an affinity for. The only rule is that you earn your keep.
I'm just unlucky enough not to have any actual skills or even interests, so it's been hard to earn my keep. So, it's no wonder that no one in the community respects me. Despite my best efforts, I fail at every task.
As the sun sets around us, Devis regales tales of orc battles around the campfire while I do my best not to roll my eyes. "But the giant monsters trespassed beyond our borders, forcing our soldiers to retaliate to protect our people. Arrows would not puncture their thick skin, and our spears were no match for their great height and weight. While they mercilessly stormed through our camps, we gathered the women and children and ran through the forest in the night, with nothing but the shifts on our backs. We lost everything in that battle."
Devis snatches the empty air with his fist, shaking it to drive his point home. Silence descends around the group. Some are caught in the memory of the last attack, while others, too young to remember, shiver at the fear of the unknown.
I should know better by now not to push Devis's buttons, and I really don't mean to, but I've always wondered… "Were any of our people actually injured, though?" I ask, interrupting the respectful silence.
I hear groans and scoffs, making me wish I'd kept my mouth shut. Tika shuffles a few inches away from me.
Devis's sharp eyes cut to mine. Snarling, he says, "You're an idiot, girl. You've heard these stories a thousand times. We've told you of the orc's destruction. And today you wandered right onto their path. You could have led them straight back to us. It's sheer luck Skyler was out there with you. At least one of you has some sense."
Each year we honor the dead. Every villager who has lost someone close to them shares the story of their loved ones, including how they died. But none of the deaths are from orc attacks. Shouldn't some of them be?
Be quiet, Eden.
But I can't let it go. It bothers me that things don't add up. My mouth, with a mind of its own, keeps prodding. "It's just, you always talk of their destruction, but no one's ever actually said—"
"Be quiet, stupid girl!" Devis snaps. Other elders chime in, and Ergo, with Skyler wrapped in his arms, shoots me a look, silently encouraging me to stop talking. So I do.
When the sun fully sets and the sky bruises purple, and the mood around the fire has lifted, I excuse myself without a single person noticing.
In my tent, I crawl under my furs and listen to the sounds of laughter filtering in through the thick leather walls; to the tales of men fighting orcs, saving the women and children from certain death. Tales of blood and gore and mayhem. Stories that have been told so many times, I could repeat every word.
But are the orcs really as violent as the elders claim? I've seen the tracks myself. I know they are big and powerful. What stopped them all these years from coming into our village?
Maybe I am as foolish as they say. I'm lying here, listening to these violent stories, and my mind still wanders carelessly.
Here in the dark, alone and under the covers, I can let myself think those inappropriate thoughts, of forbidden things. The same things that have been teasing my brain and body all day long, ever since I saw the tracks this morning. The same things that would surely have me excommunicated.
It's all I can think about. The orcs. And how big they must be.
Most of us cycled through each other, some more than others. And although most of our village finds me off-putting, I still have plenty of nightly visitors.
But lately, I've needed to ward off the attention. Maybe I'm just getting older, and still not finding my place here is weighing on me. It's not that I don't want sex. I do, I always do. That's part of the problem. I've yet to find anything that satisfies me.
More. Bigger. Fuller.
