"I ain't fightin for you dagger ears" the orc growled back.
I needed someone to fight for me in a trial by combat. Orc laws and all that. My fighter can't use magic so it's not like I can pick another elf. I could get a goblin or a dwarf, both talented fighters. But, a single dwarf can't take on the Orc's champion. Kurdan Marag was the only one who stood a chance. He had won three times against their champion and would fight for the highest bidder. He claimed that your innocence was worth the price.
Now he sits there and tells me that he's retired. An Orc does not simply retire from combat. That is nonsense. The scars on his pale green skin tell stories of battles won and lost. Yet he doesn't have a single scar on his back. He took every wound head on and walked away. A legendary fighter that relied on technique and not just power like other Orcs. A savant. Some say that he isn't even a full-blooded Orc. His father is supposedly one of the smarter races. Possibly a dark elf, it would explain his love of setting his weapons ablaze in his younger days.
"Please, I can't go to the elves and none of the other Orcs will fight for me because they say I stole sacred sword. It's not true. I don't want to die."
"Tough luck runt. You're a high elf ain't ya? Throw some of that money around. Orcs like shiny things too. What you all call it? A bib? brib?"
"A bribe. I already tried. I don't have enough. My family is disgraced and was excommunicated from the high council."
"I don't know what that means. If I was you, I'd run," he laughs at his own joke. Someone who never ran from a fight in his life telling me to run.
"I can't run they'll catch me."
"Run faster."
"I know you've fought for Elves before."
"Dark Elves, I respect them. They've done a lot even when you and yours have left them out of yer meetings. I fought for Wood Elves. They fight different but they fight honorably. You High Elves are about nothing but getting more power and coin."
"You don't get it. That's why I am her to begin with. My father didn't agree with the other High Elves and we became outcast. He tried to bring the Dark Elves to the council. This is all a plot to punish him. I need help."
"When is your trial," he asks with a sigh.
"In a moon cycle."
"Let's go meet yer pa. If you're lying, I'll kill the whole lot of you and won't lose sleep. If it be truth, I fight for you."
"Excelent, when do we leave?"
"Now."
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