Page 20 of That’s My Orc, Tusk Off

At his frown, I explained what it was.

“That’s…not inaccurate,” he said.

I went around and opened the gate for him.

The ground near the fence was uneven, rutted from spring runoff, and my foot caught on something.

I stumbled.

Traig caught my elbow, steadying me.

I looked up.

He was close enough that I could see the exact shade of green in his skin that was darker at his temples and lighter along his jaw. I could count the fine lines at the corners of his eyes.

His hand remained on my elbow. His gaze dropped to my mouth before snapping back up.

Nix, cradled against Traig’s chest, discharged into both of us.

The shock snapped up my arm, making me jerk back, though it didn’t hurt. It almost felt pleasant, in a weird way.

“Apologies,” Traig said.

“It’s not your fault.”

“I should’ve warned you about Nix. They can discharge multiple times without depletion.”

“Next time, I’ll stay away.”

Nix blinked up at Traig.

“Into the enclosure with you,” Traig said.

He set Nix inside, secured the gate, and bound the gap in the fence back together with wire.

We walked back toward the main building.

My elbow tingled where he’d touched me, but that had to be residual static.

It couldn’t be anything else.

Back inside, Fred had settled on the reception counter, his wings tucked against his sides and his grumbling reduced to a low purr. Seeing us, his tune picked up again.

Traig set his tablet down and once we’d both sat, gestured to the computer. “Could you pull up the intake form? You said they aren’t intuitive.”

“They might need a few tweaks to make them clearer.”

“Show me what you mean.”

I walked him through it from the perspective of someone calling for the first time, step by step. “Someone who doesn’t know the difference between Intake-Medical-Crossref and Intake-General-Misc-Temp-B could get confused.”

I wanted to do a good job here, but I didn’t have a master’s degree in Traig’s brain.

He listened without interrupting, thankfully.

When I’d finished, he tapped his tablet screen, pulled up the form, and started adjusting fields.

“If I consolidate these subcategories,” he said, “and add a reference guide here⁠—”