Tales From the Red Book: a Peaceful Life

It was near evening in the village of Woodfell. Summer was in full swing and everywhere one looked, one could see green only occasionally interrupted by the blossoming flowers before it gave way to vast fields of golden wheat. The village was quite big, mainly because of its close proximity to the castle Greenrock. It made the entire region safe and protected.

At the edge of the village, two young girls sneaked through a small patch of woods towards a lone hut. The first girl, clearly leading the pair was gnomish. Small in stature but big in spirits. Her name was Arilla, she was freshly nineteen and adventurous only as a young gnome could be. The other girl was human, shorter than average, but still, she towered over her compatriot. Her name was Lis and she was one year younger than her friend. She blushed profusely when Arilla took her by her hand.

They slowly approached the hut, hiding in the bushes, before they settled in a nice spot, where they could see the big fireplace behind the hut.

When the lord asked Tulgash for his price for the years of loyal service the orc warrior asked only for one thing. To be given the old, abandoned hut not too far from his home village. To have a peaceful life, he said.

For five long years, he served in the lord's army. He endured three long campaigns fighting for gods know what and he always survived. He even trained some of the lord's personal guards later on. They were laughing that it was because of his orc blood that he was so good at fighting, but the truth was, that he was trained since he could stand on his feet.

The small indignations he endured, it was the unfair price his kin always paid when they left the tribe behind. After the first battle, however, there were no more indignations, no more quips about him. After that first battle, most of the soldiers in his unit would die for him without hesitation.

Five long years of war. He could be a captain in the castle by now, but he wanted to go here. To have his small peaceful life ... and to repent.

The hut was abandoned for at least a decade. It took him a week to cut the grass and small trees that plagued what was to become his land. He then set up the fireplace, he liked gazing into it during his silent nights. He was planning to tear down the hut and build his own house but he had to move fast if he wanted to be done before the end of summer.

No one visited him here, he left behind no friends when he left ... just her and he didn't expect her to visit.

The girls watched as the orc took up his axe and continued chopping wood. Shirtless, his grayish skin rippling with muscles and shiny with sweat. The girls marveled at his broad shoulders. This was the game. Sneak here, watch him work and go home in the night. What happened at home, underneath their sheets or hidden away somewhere by the river, they never discussed.

However, if Arilla wasn't so focused on the unknown orc, she would notice how Lis kept looking at her.

Suddenly something unexpected happened. Someone approached his hut. For weeks he was here and so far the girls saw no one ever visit him, but now, this beautiful half-elven woman approached. She had a bad reputation in the village and the girls held their breath in anticipation.

She came.

He didn't expect her to, but here she stood. Resmae in all her glory. Her raven-like hair, long and free, reaching down to her waist. Her figure was unchanged, maybe even more refined than he remembered. In her simple gray dress, which she cut up to above her knee so that one of her legs was showing, she looked gorgeous. His gaze lingered on her thigh, looking at the familiar birthmark on its upper part.

Her thin waist, her big bust, everything about her was as he remembered it. No, better than he remembered, because this was no memory, this was really her with her brown eyes staring right at him.

"I uhm ... I will get the tea ready." He grunted, putting the axe away. This was to be difficult anyway, a little tea to calm the nerves would be nice. He picked up this habit on a campaign in a distant land. The lord was part of the king's army in its push to defend against an invasion of some nomadic tribe. They brought these specific herbs with them and they caught on.

He looked around himself "You can sit whenever you want, it won't take long." he muttered, turning and heading to the hut.

The girls watched silently as the orc went inside the hut and heard him rummaging in there. The woman, Resmae sat on a tree stump next to the fireplace and waited. Lis watched her intently. She was beautiful, no wonder they say she bewitched those men. She heard her mother talk about it to some of her friends.

Apparently, a couple of years ago Resmae ensnared multiple men with her charms, bewitching them and using them for pleasure. She was shunned by the community for this, but the lord's judge found her innocent of any crime and life went on in its slow rhythm, as it always does in villages like this.

Lis, however, didn't believe in any ensnaring. Resmae was beautiful, she needed no magical help getting those men to fall for her. When found out, the men just lied and said that she bewitched them.

Before long the orc came back with a kettle and some herbs and mugs. He seemed nervous.

Tulgash started preparing the tea, trying not to look at Resmae. Why did she come, this was way more difficult now. He prepared the water and the herbs and sat down, looking into the flames.

"Tulgash," she said after a while "Look at me."

He obeyed and their eyes met.

"Am I not worth even a simple visit from you?" her voice filled with anger and sadness at the same time.

"It's not that." he answered almost whispering.

"What is it then?" Resmae didn't expect this meeting to go like this. She wanted to come here and be angry. Shout at him, hit him, curse him and then leave him to desperation. But when she came, when she saw him, how he changed in some way and stayed the same in others, she couldn't do it. But that didn't mean she would make this easier.

"I thought that you would have a family by now. Husband, kids. I didn't want to come and disturb that." he said, looking into the ground. He would rather face a horde of enemy soldiers than her ... but then again, wasn't it this exact cowardice that drove him to the army?

"Yet you settled here, so clearly you were going to disrupt my life anyway." her eyes stared at him intently, he felt them burying into his skull "Luckily for you, there is no life you could disrupt."

"You are still ... unwed?" he looked at her with surprise. Was that a glimmer of hope in his eyes? No, she should stop lying to herself, thought Resmae.

"I am." she said proudly "Why are you here, Tulgash?"

Just her saying his name made his spine tingle. It's been five years and her presence brought the same emotions it did before. Was it even possible or was just his body betraying his mind?

"I came to live here, in peace. I have had enough of war. I came ... as penance ... for how I left things between us." He couldn't keep looking at her, because he was afraid she might notice. In his eyes, she might see the truth – that over the past five years, he kept thinking of her and the night he joined the army.

"What do you mean?" asked Resmae, not even hiding her surprise. She saw his scars and she had to suppress the desire to caress them.

"To watch you raise your kids, living a happy life with someone else, being distant and close. That was to be my punishment ... for as long as I could take it." now he looked at her. The softness in his rugged face shocked her to her core. "I am truly sorry for leaving you like that," he continued "It's been five years and I never stopped to blame myself for it. I should have at least sent a word ... sorry."

Resmae felt as if her entire body was collapsing in on itself. The contradictory emotions his speech evoked. She wanted to cry, to run into his arms as she used to before and cry until he tells her it will all be alright. She wanted to take out her dagger, hidden at a sheathe on her inner thigh and stab him with it. To scream at him and kiss him at the same time. In the end, she did neither. Just sat there in silence, breathing heavily.

He walked over to the kettle and finished their tea, handing her a mug of the hot liquid. She set it down next to her. Then she scoffed. What a stupid situation this was. What did she expect anyway? She started laughing, but only for a moment. "So you are sorry?" she said "You are sorry and that's it? You don't get to pretend, that you are the one who was wronged here. After all we've been to each other ... I have known you my entire life and then ... after that night you just disappear? What the fuck did you expect me to say? That I understand or that I forgive you for leaving me in this shithole?" tears started flowing down her cheek as she spoke. Unable to stop them now she instead made sure he saw them. Flaunting her sorrow.

Tulgash swallowed, nervous as if he was marching to a hopeless battle. "It wasn't like that." he said.

"How was it then?" accused Resmae unstoppable in her anger and despair "I thought I mean something to you, I thought..." She didn't finish the sentence. There was no need.

"You did ... you do." he said silently.

"You ruined me." she said staring at him intently "What you did to me, how we have been ... I tried to erase it. From my mind and my body, to forget you. But with each pleasure, I took, with each man who fell for me I felt nothing, but the void you left in me the day you left." her words cut him deeply, she knew that "There was no forgetting you, no escape from you, nothing. The village shunned me, called me a whore – that is why I am unwed. Because you ruined me. Because I tried to escape your hold over me in pleasure with others. And now you come here and say that you are sorry?!" she was screaming now, but she didn't care. It's not like the villagers could think any worse of her. She was standing up screaming at him, her fists clenched, her tears flying from her face with each word she said.