Inheritance

Month 2 – Week 1 – Spring Begins

Kron – The Treaty Line Farm House

She was here. His human had taken up residence in the farmhouse. She hadn’t yet started farming and Kron’s fingers tingled with anticipation to see what new crops would push up through the fertile soil. In the days since he made his decision to keep this human, kind of like a pet, he’d become enormously proud of anything she might do. Even the things she hadn’t done yet. Perhaps it was because of how she had been exiled, rejected by her family as Kron had been rejected by his Hive.

Kron watched the farm through the wavering branches of the huge old oak he currently sat in. When the surveyor and map maker came through this land weeks before; Kron had at first been enraged at the way those men had blatantly ignored the sovereign territories of the Horde. This land was his responsibility to patrol. It was the land farthest from the hive, his personal banishment from the Horde. Berserker bloodhounds were not considered safe in close quarters. Even the other five males of his patrol were uncomfortable around him.

Listening to his prey as he stalked them, something had come over Kron. The woman that was taking this property had been banished here too. She was alone and no one wanted her the same way that no one wanted Kron. Instead of killing those men or at least reporting them as he should, the orc wanted them to achieve their work so that this lonely human they spoke of would have the same place of solace as he.

According to the human males Kron had listened to, she was beautiful. As Kron had never seen a human female up close, he wouldn’t hazard a guess what their idea of beauty was. But it had brought the poor Dara, that’s what they called her, no end of trouble. Their Matriarch, what Kron gathered to be the human equivalent of a hive queen, had sent the beautiful Dara away because too many men belonging to other females wanted her.

It sounded ridiculous. But the girl had somehow angered many of the high-ranking females in the human lands. The queen had sent her great-granddaughter away to avoid a power struggle. In that hour of time during which Kron debated whether or not to murder those men, Kron had learned more about humans than he had ever thought to learn.

By the time the survey and mapping were completed, Kron had decided to let the humans live. Not for their sakes. Kron couldn’t care about those males, for the woman they were preparing the site for.

As the forest was cleared, the orc questioned the wisdom of his choice. If his patrol mates came into the territory which they had designated as his responsibility, this transgression might be discovered. On the other hand, he was the only orc from his hive to set foot this close to the humans for as long as he could remember. The last patrols didn’t even come this close to this part of the boundary until his patrol leader had needed something to do with the dangerous berserker he’d been assigned.

Trees were felled, and a house and a barn were built from the still-green wood. The woman who was to live there would have a terrible time of it come winter when the boards had shrunk and gaps in the walls let the cold winter air in. Sure, it wasn’t as cold in the north as it was in the more populous human lands to the south, but there was no excuse for shoddy workmanship, especially at this altitude. The remainder of the wood was lifted off of the ground and covered with a shed.

Every day, except for the occasional required stint on guard duty at the hive, Kron came down through his patrol area to see if his neighbor had arrived yet. When at last the morning came that smoke rose from the stone chimney, the orc was both overjoyed and terrified. His good deed had resulted in a kindred soul having a place in the world where she was safe from those who hated her. Unfortunately, she was in danger from every orc in his hive and it was all Kron’s fault.

It was with a sense of satisfaction that he watched the curling smoke rising from the chimney. He figured that as long as she stayed in the cleared area and out of the forest, then she should be fine. Hell, as long as she stayed within the boundaries of her property and kept quiet, she would be safe. Only Kron knew that she would be there, and he didn’t intend to tell anyone.

He should probably introduce himself to her. By human standards that would be appropriate. So here he was, hiding where the trees met the wide scar of open dirt which was the farm, hovering between revealing himself and, well, not. If only there was some way he could do this without revealing that he was an Orc? He didn’t want to be feared by her. There was enough of that back at the hive and at his patrol’s camp.

A sound drew his attention to the front door of the house, which conveniently, faced away from the road which brought one to it and backward toward the forest where Kron waited. The barn had two openings through which a carriage or cart could exit. One faced the field, and one faced the road. There was a third person-sized door that connected the barn to the attached farmhouse.

All in all, it was good. The Orc felt no small sense of pride in knowing the part he had played in helping build it. Look at him. Proud of being part of something. That something was standing in front of him. It wasn’t great but it was there. And standing on the porch was a tall female human with long brown hair.

She had a pack with her and a roll of paper in one hand which she unrolled to study for a moment before collapsing it back into one hand. The woman came down the stairs, and did a tour of the open ground before turning toward the woods. She continued on into the trees at the edge of the forest, straight past where Kron was hiding. Without hesitation, she found the path along the stream which Kron hadn’t realized anyone else could find.

Hastily he retreated back the way he had come. He wasn’t ready to introduce himself to any humans today. Now that his morning jog down to the forest’s edge was completed, he followed his well-worn trail along the stream to the pool for a dip in the lovely water doing his best to avoid the girl along the way.