Chapter 6

The Prisoner

“Uhhh, what’s happening? Where am I?”

Out of her memory and back into the real world, Olivia awoke to find herself looking up at the sky. She tried to stand upright but failed to do so as something was stopping her. Looking down she saw rope wrapped around her feet and hands.

Next to her, a man was also tied up, who was looking down his body at something.

Seeing him, things finally clicked, and she recalled the events before she was knocked out.

This also brought a look of annoyance to her face as while she did quite a lot of damage to the man, he was still somehow alive.

“Look, girl. I wasn’t really going to hurt you. I just wanted to scare you a little. It was just a bit of fun. Come on, untie me and we can forget all about this.”

Olivia could only roll her eyes at what he had said. Only a complete idiot would think he was telling the truth after what he tried to do to the girl.

“Do you think I’m stupid? If that orc thing hadn’t shown up and knocked you out, you would have done that and more!” The girl shouted back at the man.

.....

After hearing the response, Olivia followed the man’s gaze and found the girl sitting down by the fire pit, with the man’s sword by her side. It looked like she was no worse for wear, aside from the torn clothes she had wrapped cloth from the tent nearby to keep it together.

It was at this point that the girl saw that Olivia was awake, if the sudden look of shock on her face was anything to go by.

“Ahh, it’s finally awake.”

Olivia rolled her eyes again and laid her head back on the grass, “As I said before, a thank you is the appropriate thing to say after being saved.”

Both the man and the girl were awestruck at the words that came out of Olivia’s mouth. This was unprecedented as it was the first time, they had heard a monster talk. Both had heard tales of some monsters being able to say a few words, but this was usually limited to the words ‘food’ and ‘die’. Neither of them truly believed the stories as they were so few and far between, but for them to hear this monster not only talk but talk so well, was just shocking.

“You did speak in the tent.” Her eyes widened as she realised this. “With everything going on, I wasn’t sure I heard correctly.” She looked up in wonder trying to recall what had happened, then quickly shifted her eyes back to Olivia “What are you? How can you talk?” she asked rapidly, curious as to the origins of this talking monster. It would seem her sheer intrigue had pushed through against the fear she had of the monster killing her. For now anyway.

“Yes, it was me, but before I answer your questions, I still think you owe me a thank you,” Olivia replied with a smug face. Being tied up there wasn’t much she could do. Why not have a bit of fun she thought.

“Err, Wha-, No. I don’t have to listen to you. Do you know who I-”

“I don’t, but all I’m asking for is two words to show gratitude to your saviour.”

“Bu- no, I….*huff*… Thank you… I guess.”

“Good, was that so hard. Now can you untie me?” Olivia asked, hoping this would be an easy conversation and she could just get on her way and leave this situation. Now that she had saved the girl, there wasn’t much else she was needed for, and given the response from the girl and her somewhat haughty attitude, any further interaction with her could just be troublesome.

Looking back up, it would seem her straightforward request had practically froze the girl.

As she lay there, waiting for the girl to come out of her stupor and respond, Olivia thought back to the memory that she had while unconscious. While she had no idea who the two girls were, it was clear that they were the reason she was in this form, and what she now realised, was also in another world. While she had no idea what the light they were firing at each other was, it was clear that it was the cause of her change.

She thought back to what the girls had said. They spoke of goblins and orcs before they flung the light. If she was remembering correctly, they actually spoke about turning the other into one of them and sending them back. Could it be that the light actually made their intent possible?

‘Now that I think about it, from how I look it does sort of make sense. The large muscular body and tusk-like teeth are reminiscent of orcs from fiction. They though are normally green in colour, but I think goblins can be either shade of either green or brown, maybe that’s where my skin tone has come from. Also, the ears did look like that of a goblin.’ She thought to herself. Everything seemed to add up. She was no longer human, but now some sort of orc-goblin hybrid.

‘Saying that though, why do I have both sets of genitalia. Could it have been all that talk of breeding and growing a penis that made it happen. Who were those girls?’

While still in thought about her situation, she was suddenly pulled back to the conversation with the girl.

“No, wait. Now that I said thank you, can you tell me how is it that you can talk, and talk so well?” The girl asked her, the haughtiness in her voice having dissipated slightly

Looking quickly over to the man, it looked like he had just resided himself to his fate and listened to the conversation, while the girl sat there with her arms crossed, waiting for a response.

“I learnt how, like I imagine you did. Now, could you please untie me? I have somewhere I need to be.”

“Wha- no. If I untie you, you’ll attack me.”

That threw Olivia for a loop. She managed to save this girl’s life and suddenly she was seen as the bad guy.

“Why would I do that?”

The more she thought about it though, she realised that she did look like a monster to this girl, and probably to everyone else. Also, from her knowledge of fiction, goblins and orcs are never the good guys, and given that she is a mix, it is somewhat understandable why the girl is worried.

Mostly understandable.

“Yeah girl, you better untie me so I can save you from this monster. Who knows what it will do when it breaks free? You need a big strong man to help keep you safe.” The man called out, trying to wriggle his way into the conversation having seen an opening.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” But he was very quickly shot down.

The girl, just sat there in thought, trying to figure out what to do about this situation.

She threw a few more questions out to Olivia, asking why she had helped her and what she was doing here. Both were easy for Olivia to answer, but it just caused the confused look on the girl to grow.

While she was still trying to deal with this situation, the girl was suddenly interrupted by the sound of snapping.

The sound of rope bindings snapping.

Hearing this the girl quickly looked at Olivia, fearful of the monster getting free and attacking her, but she found her still lying there. Confused at this, she then quickly realised her mistake, and turned to the man, finding him quickly trying to remove the binding on his legs, with a small knife.

With Olivia being tied up, the girl was actually helpless as to what the man would do once he broke free. She went to grab his sword as a way to defend herself, but its weight and size made it almost impossible to move.

Olivia, seeing that the man was trying to break free, and knowing what he would probably do should he manage it, knew she had to do something. Still bound, she rolled on her side over to the man, whereupon reaching him she shouted “grab his arms”.

The girl hearing this, still frozen in place, was pulled out of her daze and ran to the man. While this was happening Olivia brought herself to a sitting position and used the only tool she had at her disposal to deal with the man. Her teeth.

She bit as hard as she could into the man’s neck. He cried out in pain and went to grab her with his free hand but struggled to do so as the girl had jumped on top of him to hold his arms out of the way.

“Get off me you b*?&%!” He cried out. “I am going to beat the s*?& out of you when I’m free.”

Still clinging on, Olivia bit deeper and with more force, eliciting more pained cries of anger from the man.

He managed to get his free hand out from under the girl and tried to reach Olivia but to no avail. All he could do was punch the girl on top of him, to try and get her off his body, causing her to cry out in pain.

After a while, he continued to cut away at the rope, but his movements started to slow down, and the strength from his punches was sapped. The pain and loss of blood were getting to him, slowing him down, where eventually he finally stopped moving.

Both Olivia and the girl stayed in their positions in case he was faking, but after several seconds they rolled away, with Olivia spitting up the blood and the girl still groaning from the pain. As they rolled, they did so in the same direction, ending up with Olivia and the girl laying next to each other on the ground, both facing the other, only a hair’s breadth away.

‘So close’, was the thought roaming around Olivia’s head, and she was sure that same thought was in the girl’s.

Silence echoed through the area, as neither knew what to do, until the sound of a nearby bush rustling broke them out of their stupor, causing the girl to jump up despite the pain she was feeling.

“Th-thank you again.” She looked away saying this.

A few moments later, she turned back to look at Olivia and saw her still bound on the ground with blood around her mouth, “I-I think I’m going to trust you and release you now. You know, after having saved me. Twice.”

Making her way over to Olivia, she did just that. The girl released Olivia from her bindings who in turn gave her thanks. Olivia then slowly stood, rubbing her wrists as she did.

The girl moved away and looked at Olivia, staring almost as if she was trying to figure something out, while she kept her distance.

Olivia, now back into the world of standing people looked at the girl, then turned to look at the man.

This was followed by her throwing up after seeing the mess of contorted flesh and blood.