ASSIGNMENT SKYRIM BORDERS: Forrest Pingham gets Told. 10th of Heartfire

• Posted by Piper Jo November 13, 2012 - 1,041 views

  “What happened back there in Karthwasten, Ghorbash?”

  I was sitting next to the fire, staring into the flames, trying to puzzle it out, when I asked him this.  He had laid out his bedroll and was already lying down, with his back to me and the flames.

  “Huh?  What’s to tell?  You gave her the sword. She took it. She even said thank you.”

  “Yeah, but she was so... crushed.  ‘So that’s it then; don’t come back.’  Her mother sent her a hand-made gift, and that’s the message she takes from it?”

  Ghorbash rolled over to look at me, an incredulous scowl on his already hideous face.  “Were you even listening, when Gharol explained to you what that sword meant?”

  I thought back.  Had she explained it to me?  “She said something about grief and anger.  But how was I supposed to go from that to ‘don’t come back?’  Coming from a Breton parent, a hand-crafted sword would have meant pride and love.  When I agreed to carry it, I assumed…”

  Ghorbash cut me off. “You assumed. That was your first mistake. And you call yourself a scientist.”

  I leapt to defend myself. “I’m trying to learn, here.  If you want me to understand your people, I should think a little cooperation…”

  “I don't give a damn if you understand my people.” He threw off his blankets and lunged toward me, into the firelight.  I pulled back in alarm. “I thought that’s what YOU wanted.”  He loomed over me as he continued. “It wasn’t a Breton sword, was it? Your mama didn’t make that sword.” I crab-walked backward in the dust. “Who cares what your mama would have meant?”

  His breath blasted my face. All I could see was his tusks, gnashing a scant hand’s breadth from my eyeballs.  “Orcs are not big green Bretons. We're older by far than your infant race, and if you want to know anything, the first thing you should know is that you don’t know shit!”

  He glared at me a moment longer, and then retreated back to his bedroll. I stayed where I was.  In a calmer voice, he said, “We reach Mor Khazgur tomorrow.  If you still want to learn about orcs, then listen more and talk less.”  He turned his back to me, still muttering. “And by Malacath, if you ask anyone else about their sex life, I will crush your skull myself.”

  My heart continued to pound even after he started snoring.  I didn’t sleep that night at all.  I couldn’t decide which was more dangerous, the monsters out there in the dark or the one I’d hired as my bodyguard.