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NOT SO MUCH AN ORC

Arrayan Faylin pulled herself out of her straw bed, dragging her single blanket along with her and wrapping it around her surprisingly delicate shoulders That distinctly feminine softness was reflective of theupon Arrayan and learning of her heritage

She was a half-orc, like the vast majority of residents in the cold and ept city of Palishchuk in the northeastern corner of Vaasa, a settle ice river known as the Great Glacier

Arrayan had human blood in her as well - and some elf, so her mother had told her - and certainly her features had combined the most attractive qualities of all her racial aspects Her reddish-brown hair was long and so soft and flowing that it often seemed as if her face was framed by a soft red halo She was short, like many orcs, but perhaps as a result of that reputed elf blood, she was anything but stocky While her face ide, like that of an orc, her other features - large eled eyebrows, and a button nose - were distinctly unorclike, and that curious blend, in Arrayan&039;s case, had a way of accenting the positives of the attributes frole

She stretched, yawned, shook her hair back from her face, and rubbed her eyes

As the mental cobwebs of sleep an to mount She moved quickly across the roo the hard earth floor

Eagerly she grabbed her spellbook from a nearby shelf, used her other hand to brush clear the center area of the desk then slid into her chair, hooking her finger into the correct tab of the organized to it open to the section entitled "Divination Magic"

As she considered the task ahead of her, her fingers began tree

Arrayan fell back in her seat and forced herself to take a long, deep breath She went over the mental disciplines she had learned several years before in a wizard&039;s tower in distant Daer, certainly in her erness

A moment later, she went back to her book With a steady hand, the wizard examined her list of potential spells, discerned those she believed would be the ical defenses and spells to dispel offensive wards before they were activated, and began the arduous task of co them to memory

A knock on her door interrupted her a few entle nature of it, but with a sturdiness behind it to show that the light tap was deliberate, told her who it ht be She turned in her chair as the door pushed open, and a huge, grinning, tusky face poked in The half-orc&039;s wide eyes clued Arrayan in to the fact that she had let her blanket wrap slip a bit too far, and she quickly tightened it around her shoulders

"Olgerkhan, well ht her voice became whenever that particular half-orc appeared Physically, the two seeerkhan&039;s featureshis orc side His lip was perpetually twisted due to his huge, uneven canines, and his thick forehead and singular bushy brow brought a dark shadow over his bloodshot, jaundiced eyes His nose was flat and crooked, his face marked by small and uneven patches of hair, and his forehead sloped out to peak at that iht somewhere between five-and-a-half and six feet, but he appearedand his chest would have fit appropriately on a e half-orc licked his lips and started to

Arrayan pulled her blanket just a bit tighter around her She really wasn&039;t overly eht to such things, though Olgerkhan obviously did

"Are they here?" Arrayan asked

Olgerkhan glanced around the rooons," Arrayan clarified, and that brought a grin to the burly half-orc&039;s face

"Winghaons"

Arrayan returned his smile and nodded, but the news did cause her a bit of trepidation Wingha enough stretches to consider herself to be close to hi haion of the Bloodstone Lands, the band was called "Weird Wingha," Wingha the ridiculous name "All the world loves the show" Arrayan smiled even wider as she considered his further advice that day when she was but a child, even before she had gone to Daham had explained to her that the na card, a way to confirm the prejudices of the humans, elves, dwarves, and other races "Let thereat flourish, though Winghareat flourish "Then let theain with us for our wares!"

Arrayan realized with a start that she had paused for a long while She glanced back at Olgerkhan, who seemed not to have noticed

"Any word?" she asked, barely able to get the question out

Olgerkhan shook his thick head "They dance and sing but little so far," he explained "Those who have gone out to enjoy the circus have not yet returned"

Arrayan nodded and ju swiftly across the roo the action, she let her blanket fall - then caught it at the last erkhan

He averted his eyes to the floor and crept back out of the rooood one, Arrayan realized, as she always tried to re on leather breeches and a vest, and a thin belt that held several pouches for spell co materials She started for the door but paused and pulled a blue robe of lightthe belt then donning the robe over her outfit She rarely wore her wizard robes aarment with its voluminous sleeves of little use, and the only fashion theless clothing, not ham, Arrayan told herself as she refitted the belt and rushed to the door

Olgerkhan aiting patiently for her, and she offered hiate A crowd had gathered there, flowing out of the city of nearly a thousand residents Filtering her way through, pulling Olgerkhan along, Arrayan finally limpse of the source of the corinned widely at the site of Weird Winghaon caravan had been circled, the bright colors of the canopies and awnings shining brilliantly in the glow of the late-suh-edged voice of one of Wingha a tale of the Galena Mountains and Hillsafar Hall

Like all the rest swept up in the excite round, their steps buoyed by eagerness Wingham&039;s troupe came to Palishchuk only a few times each year, soht with theoods bartered in faraway lands, and wondrous tales of distant heroes and hty villains They entertained the children and adults alike with song and dance, and though they were known throughout the lands as difficult negotiators, any of the folk of Palishchuk who purchased an iteain

For Winghaotten his roots, had never looked back with anything but love on the community that had worked so hard to allow him and all the other half-orcs of his troupe to shake off the bonds of their heritage

A pair of jugglers anchored the e triple-bladed knives in an unbroken line back and forth to each other, the weapons spinning over the heads of nervous and delighted Palishchukians as they entered or departed Just inside the ring, a pair of bards perfor a curved, flutelike instru of the Galenas S filled the area, and the aroma of a myriad of exotic perfumes and scented candles aptly blanketed the corew fast and died faster through the short rip on the topsoil relinquished, releasing the fragrance of seasons past

For a moment, a different and rarely felt aspect of Arrayan&039;s character filtered through, and she had to pause in her step to bask in the vision of a grand ball in a distant city, full of dancing, finely dressed women and h, when she noticed an old half-orc, bent by age, bald, liht eyes that could not help but catch the eye, however briefly, of any young wootsweeper!" the old half-orc cried upon seeing her

Arrayan winced at the correct recital of her surna her Elvish middle nah, for she knew that her Uncle Wingharow taller and straighter as she closed on hi

"Truly the , andthe lyrical barker&039;s voice he had sotroupe He pushed his niece back to arth "Every time I near Palishchuk, I fear that I will arrive only to discover that you are off to Damara or somewhere other than here"

"But you know that I would return in a hurry if I learned that you were riding back into town," she assured him, and his eyes sparkled and his crooked smile widened

"I have ridden back with sohareed, her tone leading

"Playing coy?"

At Arrayan&039;s side, Olgerkhan grunted disapprovingly, even threateningly, for "coy" - koi in the Orcish tongue - was the naht the hint in the overprotective warning and backed off a step, eyeing the brutish Olgerkhan without blinking Wingham hadn&039;t survived the harshness of Vaasa for soblind to any and every potential threat

"Not koi," Arrayan quickly explained to her bristling co that Ihihed and Winghahed

"Alas, I aht that your joy was ned disappointment

"It is!" Arrayan assured him "Or would be I h he was obviously enjoying the sputtering spectacle, Wingham mercifully held up a hand to cal of the first day, dear niece You know that I will be quite busy greeting the crowd But I am not surprised to see you out here this day, this early Word has preceded "

"Is it truly?" Arrayan asked, hardly able to get the words out of her rabbing at her uncle&039;s shoulders Winghairl Not now," he quietly warned "Co is closed and we shall speak"

"I cannot wait for - " Arrayan started to say, but Winghaer over her lips to silence her

"Not here Not now

"Now, dear lady and gentleham said with his showman&039;s flourish "Do examine our exotic aromas, some created as far away as Calimshan, where the wind oft carries mountains of sand so thick that you cannot see your hand if you put it but an inch from your face!"