Tusktaker's Secret Part 2

Afterschool, Lorka tries to sneak up to her room so she can read the book.
”AHHHHHH! There’s my little bone-splitter!”
Oh shit.
Her burly, Orcish father scoops up Lorka and gives her a bear hug.
He sets her down and snorts. “I’m going on a boar hunt this weekend. You’re joining me.” Lorka put on a fake smile. “Oh great! Sounds fun dad!” Lorka hated hunting. Especially since her dad made her stick to the old ways. That meant minimum clothing, smearing dirt and leaves onto the skin as camo, and using a spear or a bow.
She’d have to spend all of Sunday washing off dirt, sweat, and blood. And she’d be behind on all her homework because her dad didn’t respect that “scholarly word junk”.
Lorka’s mom walked in the room wiping off her hands on a towel. “Jor’ak we talked about this. She needs to study and do her homework. This isn’t a good time.”
Jor’ak bristled. “Who cares about that garbage, Radha? She’s gotta be a hunter and provide for herself if she wants to find a good mate! No one wants to marry a weak orc!”
Radha arched an eyebrow “Really? I don’t seem you minding marrying a “weak orc” like me. I was never into hunting or fighting when I was younger. But here I am.”
Jor’ak looks down, scuffling his feet against the floor. “Baby, don’t be like that. I just want to make sure she’s strong enough to take care of herself.  You know I love you.”
Radha walked over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You know I’m right. Orcs can’t just live by hunting and killing anymore. Lorka needs an education so she can find a good job.  Go wash your hands, dinner is almost ready. “

Jor’ak shuffles out of the room. Lorka always enjoyed watching her mom mess with her father. Jor’ak would put on a big show of being a chest beating alpha around his friends or Lorka, but he was a huge pushover when it came to his wife.
Dinner went by without incident. Her mom did keeping trying to pry into Lorka’s love life. When she brought up “that scrawny little boy you torment” there was an amused smile on her face.
Lorka slammed a fist on the table and told her dad about what she’d done to him today.
He cackled with glee when she described Thomas’ face when she slammed the book into the trash can.
Radha rolled her eyes and gave Lorka a curious smile. Like she knew something. “I guess you really like him, huh sweetie?”
 “Me? Like a little weakling like him? Pffaah! He’d probably wet himself at the sight of the creatures me and dad hunt!”
”Whatever you say dear.”
After dinner, Lorka whizzes through her homework and pulls Thomas’s book out of her backpack and begins to read it.
It’s about the life of a human boy who is born deformed. He is extremely short and speaks in a high shrill voice. The story revolves around his experiences with the world around him, and how even though he is such a different individual, he has his own unique philosophy about God and life.

The book starts off as bizarre and somewhat inappropriate slice of life story about Owen and his best friend. But then Owen accidentally kills his best friend’s mother,   and Lorka just can’t put it down. She gets through almost a third of it in one night.
She falls asleep with the book in her hand, her dreams filled with talking to Thomas about the book while holding hands.
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Lorka took the book with her to school and read it whenever she could.
She hid the book in her textbook and binder while she pretends to pay attention. Not like she needed help with chemistry or math. She worked on that stuff for fun.English was another matter. Lorka wasn’t exactly the best at expressing herself thanks to the differences in English and Orcish. Outside of class it was fine, but when she got down to grammar and sentence structure on tests it wasn’t easy. Writing essays also took her a lot longer than most of the other students. Normally, a student struggling with time constraints could get extra time, but Lorka’s Orcish pride kept her from asking for help. It was just something her dad had always told her to do.
Still, she tried to pay attention while the teacher was speaking. She couldn’t afford to get another D or C in English if she wanted a decent GPA for college application.

The best part of English was sitting behind Thomas. When she walked in after lunch she made a beeline to his desk to pester him.
”Hey squirt what sappy shit you are reading today?”
 Thomas didn’t even look at her. “Cat’s Cradle”.
 “Sounds like something a sissy like you would enjoy. Is it some kinda arts and crafts manual?”
Thomas curls his lips up with disgust. “No actually. It’s about a scientist who just does whatever he feels like without regards to anyone’s feelings. And how his thoughtless, self-absorbed actions ruin everyone’s lives.
He shoots her a hate filled look and then glances at the trashcan.  “I’d say you might enjoy it, but well…I know how you feel about reading for fun.”
He was right. She had been a huge asshole yesterday to cover her reputation in front of her friends. Her Orcish instinct tells her to smash his face, to wipe that look off his face. Instead, she just takes up her seat behind him without saying a word. She’s on the verge of crying. But a strong orc doesn’t cry. Even when the guy she likes hates her.
The lesson goes by mercifully quick. It’s Lorka and Thomas’s last class before school ends.

As the class is exiting, Lorka puts her hand on Thomas’s shoulder. He whirls around and glares at her. “Yes?”
”We aren’t square from earlier.” She wants to apologize. She wants to let him know that she’s sorry and she only picked on him so much cause he was cute and smart. The least she can do is offer him to take him to get a burger or something.
Thomas pulls out his wallet and hands her twenty bucks. “I’m sure that will cover it. If not, I can help you with your English later.”
Tears begin to well up but Lorka fights through it. “I don’t want your money!” She slaps the twenty out of his hand and stomps out of the classroom.
Thomas sighs as he leans down and picks up the money. This is the first time he’s seen her display an emotion other than brash arrogance. He puts hand over his face, kneading the bridge of his nose.
Godammit, she was always bullying him, always teasing and haranguing him, and she could be even worse when her friends were around. That was all true. Even so, Thomas thought to himself, why do I feel like such an asshole?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lorka stormed into her  house. She doesn’t want to deal with her dad. Oh God, that’s the last person she needed to see right now.
The house is mercifully quiet. Usually her dad would be watching TV on the couch if he was home. The one human invention he respected. Orcs didn’t like to admit it, but one of the most fun things when they were in the wild was listening to the tribe shaman tell tales of the old heroes around the fire. Her dad spent a lot of his free time watching old war documentaries of the humies versus the orcs and the occasional hunting program. She still needed to avoid her mother. She just wanted to be left alone.

"Lorka sweetie, are you home?” her mother walked into the living room. “Oh sweetie, you look upset. Are you okay? Did one of the girls challenge your position in the group?” Lorka wiped the tears from her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything’s fine”.
Radha puts her hand on her hip. “Sweetie, your dad isn’t here. He’s going out of town on business for a bit. You can talk to me. I know it’s not okay to bottle your emotions up. Come on sit on the couch, I’ll make you some herbal tea.” Lorka sat on the couch and tried her best to not look pathetic. She was just glad her dad wasn’t her. He didn’t like to see much weakness in his daughter.
Radha came into the room and sat down next to Lorka, offering her a steaming cup of green tea. Her mom’s tea was the best. It never ceased to make her feel better. “Alright dear, now tell me what happened.”

It all came gushing out. Lorka told her mom about her feelings for Thomas. How she thought he was cute and smart. It didn’t even matter that he was short and weak. How she picked on him with the other girls constantly to cover up her feelings. She told her mother about how he was mad for throwing away the book and that he hated her and just saw her as a bully.
She curled up on her mom’s shoulder and cried for a bit, while her mother stroking her hands through her wild mane and braids. “Sweetheart, you really made a pig’s ear of this didn’t you? You’re just like your father even though you have so much of me in you.”
Lorka sniffed “What do I do?”
“Well sweetie, you have to know your man. I know you are into books and education more than you let on around your dad. You need to make some kind of gesture as an apology. Maybe get him a gift that would speak to him. Then you can spend time with him if he accepts. If he gets to know you, I’m sure you’d hit it off. He seems to share your interests.”
“Maybe I should just give up…”
Radha cupped her hands around Lorka’s face and stared at her. “Sweetheart, that’s the worst thing you can do. I know your father spends all his time talking about ‘what makes a great orc’ but I’ll tell you the secret of being a great orc. You don’t give up on the people or things you hold dear no matter what. That’s how we’ve lasted as long as we have. Your father didn’t want to marry me at first because he thought I was just a soft shaman’s daughter. So I went out into the woods and killed the biggest boar I could find and left it on his doorstep. I didn’t give up and your father respected that. I think Thomas will respect you too, if you apologize and tell him how you feel.”
Lorka wiped the rest of the tears from her eyes. “Thanks mom that helped a lot.”
“No problem, sweetie. “ Radha got up from the couch. “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. Go ahead and wash up.”

After dinner, Lorka spent the rest of her night reading Owen Meany. She felt a lot of connection with Owen. He was such a strange person compared to the rest of his world, but he always felt he had a purpose. He spent all of his time getting ready for what he considered to be the reason he was put on this Earth. If she had even a fraction of his determination, Lorka was sure she could make Thomas like her.  She drifted off to sleep, the book still in her hand. She didn’t see her mother slip into the room. Radha plucked the book from Lorka’s hands and set it on the night stand. Her mother kissed her on the cheek as she pulled the covers over Lorka’s sleeping form.
“Sleep tight, my little Aru’ka. May your dreams be free of worry and your nightmares cower in fear”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A week had passed since the incident with Lorka. She had been keeping her distance from him. Thomas hadn’t even been accosted by her friends in a while. It made him feel uneasy. Thomas was a constant target of bullying and harassment, he had developed somewhat of a sixth sense for when trouble was going to come his way. Still, it had been so quiet after he told her Lorka off. He was expecting a bit of revenge, if not from Lorka herself maybe her friends. But it was too damn quiet for his taste. She was avoiding him. He’d offered to help Lorka with her English twice this week and she turned him down both times.

As Thomas made his way to his locker, Lorka brush past him. He tried to say hi but she just let out a snort and kept walking.  It made him feel worse. He didn’t really hate her. She could be a huge pain in the ass but she’d never hurt him like some of the other bullies. A small part of him must have felt guilty for the way he had treated her. It didn’t make much sense to him, logically speaking. She was a bully, why should he worry about a bully’s feelings? He tried to shrug it off as best he could.
Thomas settled down for another boring day in history.  Could be worse. He knew most of the stuff in this class so he could goof off and read novels if he was careful…What’s this?
Thomas pulls out a book someone left in the desk. Huh. “This looks just like my copy of Owen Meany” Thomas flips open the cover. “Wait…this is my copy!” It was a bit torn up from when Lorka slammed it into the trash, but it has his name on the inside of the cover. There’s a little sticky note on the inside.
“Found this in the trash, thought you’d want it back. I need to talk to you about your situation. Meet me after school behind the gym. Signed- A friend.”

This seemed really sketchy. Why wouldn’t they just give him the book back like a normal person?  It could be a trap from some rape happy monster. .. But they had taken the time to get his book back to him. Most monsters Thomas knew weren’t this patient. Thomas was willing to take a chance.
The rest of the day went by fairly quickly. When he slid in front of Lorka before English, she didn’t say anything. She seemed to be busy thinking about something else. Thomas settled in for another boring day in English. The lesson dragged on forever. The teacher was a particularly dispassionate Sahuagin. She knew her stuff, but the way she presented the material was so dry it almost made Thomas fall asleep. His mind drifted back to his mysterious friend, deepening his curiosity.

When class finally finished, Thomas ran out of the classroom and rushed to the gym. He waited for the last gym class to filter out and then snuck behind the gymnasium. There wasn’t much behind the building, just some a dumpster and a couple of old gym matts. He leaned up against the wall and waited.  After a couple minutes he heard footsteps. Finally time to meet his mysterious…
An orc rounded the corner. She was a foot taller than Thomas and had mottled green skin like most of her kind. A few scars were visible across her arms and feet, doubtlessly from hunting. While she wore the typical school girl’s uniform of a shirt and a medium length skirt, she also wore a band of leather around her right arm and a bearskin shin guard around her left leg. Her hair was a wild mane of black, with a couple strands knotted into braids. Thomas could see bones and totems wrapped in her braids, trophies of important kills. Her eyes were red with black sclera, giving her a gaze a cruel and arrogant cast. A small pair of tusks curled out of her green, full lips. She was at once savage and feminine, with wide full hips, a large bust, and thick, meaty thighs.  She could probably break Thomas in half over her knee if she wanted to.
She gazed down at Thomas. Her expression softened for a moment. “Hey, I’m uh… glad you showed.”
Lorka!? Lorka was the one that left the note!?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thomas was expecting a lot of things. To be punched in the face. To be extorted. Maybe even raped if she was feeling particularly angry. Nothing could have prepared him for what happened next.

Lorka began to speak. "I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice - not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany." She just perfectly recited the first paragraph of Owen Meany. What.the.Fuck.
 She glances at him nervously, rubbing her arm while she addresses him“It was a very good book. Thank you for sharing it with me. I called you out here because I wanted to tell you something. I’m sorry”. The last two words Thomas expected out of her mouth.
“I’m sorry for being such a dick all the time. I’m sorry for forcing you to put up with my bullshit. And I’m sorry for not respecting you. ”

She pulled a package out of her backpack and handed it to Thomas. “Here, it’s an apology for damaging your book.”
Thomas ripped off the wrapping paper. It was a hardcover copy of a Prayer for Owen Meany. “This is amazing…it even has the stuffed armadillo from the book on the cover.” Thomas looked up at her. “I don’t know what to say.”
Lorka looked at him, and gave him a warm, genuine smile. “I’m just glad you like it.”
“I don’t understand…why do all of this? I thought I was just a chew toy to you?”
Lorka face blushed, a deep shade of crimson washed over her face. “Be-because I think you are cute, and smart, and I like you a lot and I just wanted you to notice me even if it was just cause I was being mean to you.”
Thomas sat on the ground. “Wow. I thought I was pretty much ready for anything. I don’t think I was expecting any of that.”
Lorka sat down next to him, both of them just leaning against the back of the gym. She was afraid to say anything. She didn’t want him to hate her. She didn’t want him to say “I’d never date a gross ass orc”. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Thankfully he broke the silence.
“So everything you did, it was because you liked me?”
She nods her head. “The 'me' you see in public…it’s not really who I am. Orcs aren’t supposed to be book smart or kind. We’re supposed to be strong and proud. I messed with you because I thought it was the only way I could talk to you without looking like a weakling to the other girls. When I would bully you, I’d see what you were reading and then read it later.”
 “You like to read?” Thomas asks.
“Yeah. A lot. It’s kinda of frowned upon to care about unimportant things. Orcs don’t really value things they think are ‘un-orcy’. We’ve got to be strong, and doing stuff with books or art is considered a waste of time.”
“That’s really sad. I don’t think reading or caring about things outside strength is a bad thing. I mean look at us humans. We aren’t as strong as most monsters but we’ve been able to survive as long as we have because of our intelligence. Don’t ever let them discourage you, Lorka. I think you’re very strong for telling me how you really feel.”

Lorka blushes and tries not say anything. It’s the first time she’s felt accepted for who she is by someone other than her mother.
They just sat there for a little bit. Lorka didn’t really know what else to say. Neither did Thomas. Thomas didn’t really know what to think. This girl just bared her soul to him, told him how she felt, even let him see her at her most vulnerable. It was shocking, to say the least.
Lorka turned her head to look at him. “Thomas…I have to ask. What do you think of me?” Her eyes were pleading. It was strange to Thomas seeing an orc this open with their emotions. She could be awfully cute when she wasn’t terrorizing him.
“I think you’re amazing for setting aside your pride and telling me all this. It took a lot of guts to do that. But if all you’ve said is true, I don’t really know the real you. So I can’t say if I like you or not.”
Lorka wrapped her arms around her legs. “I see…” Her heart dropped. At least she’d given it a try.
“So I have an idea. If you can be a little more patient, why don’t we go on a date this weekend? We can talk and stuff in the meantime. I can get to know you better. Then we can go from there. Okay?”
Lorka’s heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. She stood up suddenly “Yes! Perfect! That sounds great!”
Thomas stood up too; he couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. The more he interacted with her, the cuter he found her. “Then it’s a date! Here, let’s swap numbers so we can text about the details.”
They pulled out their phones and exchanged numbers. As they started to leave, Thomas walked close to Lorka. “Hey, I just wanted to say thank you. I know that wasn’t easy for you.” He stood on his tip toes and gave her a kiss on the lips. Lorka’s eyes widen in surprise, but then she leaned down to make it easier for him to reach her. After a moment, Thomas broke the kiss. Lorka’s face turned a bright shade of red. Thomas gave her a smile, satisfied at her reaction. “See you tomorrow, okay?”

He quickly departed, Lorka just stood there with a daze look on her face, her fingers tracing the spot where Thomas had kissed her. Then all at once, her animalistic instincts swelled up. Pride, Happiness, Lust, and Affection, all of it swelled until it couldn’t be contained any further.
She pumped her fist into the air and let out a roar of triumph, “Gor’ma tu Vehk!
 “Glory in Victory!”