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My hands let the cup go, spilling tea on the floor. Wasting no time on it, I rush behind Nani with Hannah on my side as we go outside. We see the gathered crowd at the assembly even as we walk. Everybody is gawking at something and the people whisper at each other.
When we come to the assembly, I see Gremlo standing looking unhappy. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
“This is not your tribe and I gave you permission for the woman and the beast but not them. They need to leave. Now.” He says.
Nani moves people out of the way and the relief that washes over me translates to my body instantly. But it is fleeting.
I squint my eyes. I must be seeing things.
The murmurs make Igor turn his head and our eyes meet. I frown involuntarily when I see all the blood he is covered in. He checks my body before he gives me a small nod, I return it.
My eyes look at the others he’s with – humans. They land next to Owa where my mother and a white furry tail stands just behind my mother.
My feet take me forward. My mother’s eyes lift to me and she weens herself from Owa.
“Mama!”
“My child.”
She squeezes me from the side. My heart is overwhelmed. She is real? We pull apart so I can see if it’s true.
“Mama? Is it really you?” I ask.
Her eyes glisten as she nods. She places her hands on my shoulders, trembling. We embrace again, for long, much longer this time. Our wet faces mush together and nothing else matters. When we finally pull back, my eyes find Luna next who is now standing in front of me.
“Luna.” I pull her in my arms. “We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
She vibrates in a purr as I brush her fur.
My eyes find Igor when I look up, my mother on my side and sister on the other. I mouth a thank you to him and he nods.
“Let me take you this way while they discuss…” Owa says and she leads us to her quarters.
I don’t protest because it is closer and my feet are killing me.
My hand remains on Luna’s neck. It is like having my best friend back. I didn’t realize how incomplete I was without her. After all that time we spend at the house, this means more to me. And while I don’t know how this pending conversation is going to go, with Luna here, I know I can face anything.
After Owa makes us tea, she comes back, but it is like she doesn’t want to. I observe her and my mother and they are exchanging looks I cannot decipher.
“Where do you two know each other?” I ask.
I feel like this is the fair question to put things in perspective for me and I don’t want to go around the issue. I think that is the biggest one for me. How do they know each other and what does it have to do with me?
“As you know, I am a servant of the Goddess Odala.” Owa starts. “So is she.”
“I don’t understand.” I look between them both.
My mother’s eyes fix to Owa before Owa fixes them to me, and she has a sip of her tea before she inhales deeply and exhales and continues.
“I was given a vision a hundred and fifty years ago. There were two roads for our kind. A path of destruction, the one we were headed to as the orc race, but also a chance for salvation. We were going to wipe each other off the face of the realm. It was going to be gradual, but it was sure. But from the seed of the Soko, the Goddess had made a way.”
Nothing makes sense, so I listen.
“A thousand years ago, a Soko princess ran away from her duty. Leaving the responsibility of The Ring unattended. The fall of the Sokos was gradual but everything started there. They would not survive, she knew, but she left anyway, taking her new-born daughter she had gotten from a merchant Modo orc.
“She left the child in the Modo tribe and crossed to the human realm. She had more children. Generations of them were born with most not appearing too different from the humans. Odala had foreseen it all, and she made a way for our survival.” Owa says reflective, her eyes turning down to her tea, new tears streaming down. The subtle relief in her features.
But I still don’t understand.
