It has been thirty days now since I have arrived on Rayala.

Thirty days since I was rescued and met Lilian.

Thirty days of just hopelessly staring at her from afar like some ten year old with her first lesbian crush.

Have I said I hate myself? I hate myself…

Today I find myself sitting in a chair at the table across from Lilian, watching her deftly work on some more leathers for my to wear outside.

While I already have a full set, she is being strictly cautious about having more: “especially when the mid winter storms hit!”, God! If I didn’t love looking at her or just listening to her voice, I think I would have strangled her about two weeks ago.

Thankfully, we have found a very Feng shui way of living together.

It was touch and go there at the beginning… really… I was still planning my escape with her, even in the middle of me falling in love with her.

Now though?

*SIGH*

I’m Just a hopeless dyke staring at her seventh heartbreak… well… I am getting my hopes up there… it probably won’t even get that far, I bet. My guess is that Lilian is more of a D-card kinda girl.

Why do I think that?

Because for the last three weeks, after some very emotional heart tearing talks with her after the ogre incident.

I have been putting on the charm, talking as much as her patience with me allows, being kind to her, showering her with affection, getting showered back… but I am pretty sure she sees me as something of a best friend…… Or maybe just as pet.

I am glad we were able to work out our differences though.

“Gack’tug?! Have you been listening to me?”

Most of our differences. Hate that name…

“Gratal… I have been but, is this really necessary? When am I ever going to need to know how to make leather tunics and slacks myself?”

“*HUFF* And you were once a human, living on a different planet before. What if you were to be stolen away from this world next to be placed on yet another?” Lilian asked worriedly.

Anna stretched one arm across the table, with the other one bent across in-front of her to grab the other one; she laid her head down on top of her outstretched arm.

“That may happen… But I don’t want it to… I found a real reason to stay here, I love Rayala.” Anna declared as she stared at Lilian. A slight warmth spreading across her cheeks at her confession.

As indirect as it was.

Lilian smiles at Anna fondly.

~A~A~A~AHHhhhh~… that smile…

“I am glad your love for Rayala has found you a reason to stay here,”

Wrong, but please continue talking, so that I may enjoy your sexy timber voice. Anna suspect she had a goofy smile on her face right about now from listening to her.

“but you should really be prepared. Especially for you, who does not know how she was transported here to begin with.”

Anna winced internally at that.

I have a good educated guess. But not the reason or the know how or the why.

So it is not like it’s lying… but I am keeping a secret.

The weight of Terra’s necklace had never felt so heavy on Anna.

Anna stretched out lethargically with both her arms, and half her body across the table.

“I could,” She smiled coyly up at Lilian. “or I could make your favorite tonight again…” Anna lazily offered.

She saw Lilian stiffen in her chair. The indecision written all over her face.

What are you going to do?~ Anna sing-songed in her head.

She watched as Lilian looked back-and-forth between her bedroom and their leatherworking.

She~ Is~ So~ Freaking~ Cute!~

“Ugh!” Lilian grunted like she was forcing herself through a stone wall.

Which I think she might have an easier time doing.

“N-No!” She said in an unconvincing tone. “W-We should teach you!” She told Anna firmly.

“Awe! But what is one more day if putting it off?” She teased Lilian.

*bang* Lilian’s shaky hand slams softly into the table.

“T-That is o-one more day y-you could take to learn, h-ho-how to make leather wares!” Lilian stuttered as wobbly as one could under pressure.

“Ah!” Anna lifted a fore-finger on one of her hands. “But that will also mean one less day of you could get your favorite meal: think of it like this.”

She then went on to say when she saw Lilian was about to argue back.

“If we continue to learn leatherworking, that is one day sooner I can finish learning what I need to.” Anna recited what Lilian had been saying for a week now.

Lilian trembled as she nodded her head.

She is so close to breaking. I can feel it!

“But if we do that, you may never go another day in your life with your, F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E. ………Po… Ta… Toes…—“

*SLAM*

Both of Lilian’s fists came slamming down onto the table.

Her whole body trembling.

“…Alright… ALIGHT!” Lilian shouted. “You bloody win! Just get in there and make me some creamy potatoes and spicy gawanta gack’tug!” Lilian said with the last ounce of resistance leaving her with her words.

“Yay!” Anna got up with a cheer, as Lilian was now the one leaning forward to lazily rest on the table after losing the arguement.

As she walked past her, she ruffled her hair, which was now shorter.

Much more butch.

Lilian didn’t like her touching her like this. She lazily tries to grab her hand, but never actually tried for it. She just tolerate Anna doing it.

Anna had worn her down on a lot of things. Little touches; even though she didn’t like them, she allowed them because the first time she had caught Anna’s hands when she did this, Anna had yelped in pain.

In fact, ever since I called Lilian with a royal moniker; Lilian has been more careful to be gentle with her.

At first, nothing much had changed, at least not from my perspective. But then I noticed that, if she ever had to touch me for whatever reason, she would ask first, and was also extremely cautious  and gentle when she did so.

That is when I started implementing my plan to give her little touches. To just get her used to me being physical.

She grumbled and tried to swipe me away most of the time. But there were other times like now where she just let it happen. I think, or at least I was hoping for it to be the case, that she was starting to like it.

“Must you?” Lilian grumbled with spots of darkened skin on her cheeks from her blush.

Anna smiled as she pretended she didn’t hear this as she walked past her.

She really like her hair shorter now. When she suggested it to Lilian, she was sure she would reject the idea.

But instead she just shrugged at the suggestion.

“I was going to cut some off when we made some candles anyways.” Lilian  had told her.

So, with a knife in my hand, I shorn away her hair in a very rough, middle-evil sort of way to cut another person’s hair.

And boy did she ever look good!

Short lifted bangs in the front, with tapered sides that went from the shorter part of her hair at the front, to the much longer sections I left longer as it had gone back; giving her a slight mullet like appearance.

“Just admiring my handy work, looks good on you.” Anna complimented her. Anna was also trying to get Lilian used to taking compliments.

“Shut up…” Lilian mumbled into her arms.

Which as Lilian said that, the only thing Anna could do was shrug.

Eh! She is a work in progress.

Anna realized though, that she was in trouble. Her own plans were starting to back fire on her. Her own little touches were making her go bolder, needier. She had once done something similar to today where she rubbed her hair, but also almost bent down to kiss her head.

I had stopped myself! Thank god! I almost ruined what we had been building up. That is the last thing I need be doing at the moment.

But everyday, every single day.

She felt her touches grew slightly long, slightly more bolder. She felt as if she couldn’t help herself, like she was addicted to go further. Almost like a burning need for that next hit.

She had skimmed the neckline of her tunic just now with the tips of her fingers.

They still tingle…

She lifted them to her face to kiss them while her back was toward Lilian.

Anna moved to the pantry to retrieve the items that she needed.

I am not sure what is so magical about this closet, but every time I go into here to make something, there seems to be something knew to discover. Which Lilian swears wasn’t there before.

Anna giggled at this.

She just must have forgotten what she has and hadn’t collected. I would believe her, and sort of do. But it is hard to think of the alternative, that someone is coming up here, in the middle of the night while we sleep, opening the door, stocking out pantry, then sneaking away? It just doesn’t make sense! Even if that were to have been happening, I am not that heavy of a sleeper that I wouldn’t notice the door opening and letting cold air in.

Anna argued against this herself. Because she too, started taking note of things in the pantry, but always found something new, or and found that the items had been replaced in someway.

I have found that… whatever it is? Doesn’t replace the preserved items. Only the fresh ones. Why?

She decided not to worry about it.

If spirits and ghosts want to keep us supplied and happy through the winter with goodies, who am I to stop them or question their ways?

So Anna took off with her new pots and pans that Lilian at gotten when she had taken a visit to her clans village.

She had warned Anna off from asking to go.

*SNORT*

More like straight up ordered… but I saw her point.

Anna had learned that the Mokra’Torc people didn’t like humans.

And for good reason!

Anna had actually learned a lot about Rayala’s people and what kind of world she was on.

Dwarves, elves, high-elves, humans, kobolds, goblins, a half-demon race of humans call Gouki.

That was one thing that surprised Anna a lot.

There were such things as demons, real, flesh and blood demons. She thought with a shudder.

There were also, as the humans, dwarves, both sets of elves, and goblins deemed these people as: lesser beings.

Or basically, simple beings that they thought didn’t deserve the same privileges as humanoids! What a load of crap!

It was decided on as a whole between races, that since the human gene was so versatile, allowing it to breed with pretty much any species outside its own. That the term for a sentient being, would be called humanoid.

And they excluded trolls, orcs, gnomes, and ogres from this list! She thought out raged.

But she shuddered again as she was slicing up some meat.

Well… I might I agree with that last one, but still! How can they hold a grudge against two races of people, classifying them as sub-human with no human rights, when both the trolls and orcs were once looked at as something equal!

Anna spared a glance into the other room.

Lilian was still slumped forward on the table, looking for all the world like she was bored.

She had learned not to long ago what she was, and a part of her story.

Half-orc.

Lilian didn’t share a lot about herself to Anna.

*SNORT*

Hardly ANYTHING! She thought peeved.

But what she did learn was, that she was a daughter of a human woman, who was once saved by an orc that slew the beast attacking her stagecoach.

I haven’t learned much more than that… she lets some little things slip out now and then.

But from what I have pieced together so far is that; her mother and father were in a situation, not to unfamiliar to the one we’ve found ourselves in. They stayed with one another for almost three months before Lilian’s mother was forced to go back to her family.

But by then, she had already been with a Mokra’Torc’s child; or an orc’s child if you ask humans.

The Mokra’Torc people were an indigenous species of humanoids that lived in muddy plains and paddy fields of Mok’Coran, south west of the human lands of Falaris. They ate and hunt mostly wild game. And a fairly peaceful people.

But that all changed during what the humanoid races called: The Troll Wars, had began.

From accounts, two-hundred years ago, the trolls were nearing a crisis of over population, so they prayed to their spirit guides on where they should go.

They were told to spread far and wide, to take any land that they wished as their own, and let none stop them.

And so, they did.

The trolls first moved from their swamplands on the other side of Mount Maraiya, the trolls started to spread to areas outside of their home. This at first, did nothing to bother the races or people near where they were spreading.

But little things started to happen here and there.

Homes and villages were found slain or torn apart limb-by-limb, a traditional way of killing done by trolls at the time.

The humans and elves were angered by this, so they sent representatives to negotiate with the trolls.

Things didn’t work out.

The trolls were also angered by the accusations of wrong doings, they claimed to have never committed such things. But it had gone further. The humans at the time, demanded that the trolls return to their swamp and never return. Outraged by the simple human’s demands, they refused, then sent back the limbs of they representatives back to their people in pieces.

This then sparked the war against the trolls.

This is where the Mokra’Torc people come into the war.

The war had dragged on with the trolls for almost twenty years of land battles and skirmishes.

The humanoid races had the advantage of technology and magic on their side.

 But the trolls were not cowled by this, they also had other means to fight against them.

Their blood made for a powerful elixir, that healed all but certain ailments and death itself.

Add that on top of trolls nature height advantage over humans, towering almost thirty centimeters about the average human, and along with their four limbs, the trolls had the advantage of close combat.

So humanoid races stuck to defending their borders for years with long range attacks and mighty artillery magics.

The trolls were indeed weak to fire, which cauterized their wounds, negating their regeneration.

The elves enchanted blades cut and burnt through the trolls limbs, soldering their hearts.  Killing or preventing the trolls from recovering mid fight from otherwise fatal wounds or debilitating injuries.

But the humans were also drawn to a standstill. For them to attack the trolls back, they would need to walk into the valley from where they were from, to which their swamp resided.

This narrow and otherwise treacherous land scape made it impossible for the humanoid races to advance onto the trolls, for they had the clear advantage. They were nimble within the trees. They spoke with spirits that cursed their soldiers. They had an affinity for water magic and a sort of shamanism that granted them strength and power.

They also had darker arts that allowed them to raise the dead to fight and kill. To which they used often.

But as luck would have it for the humans. The Mokra’Torc people were not left scathed by the trolls spreading either.

While Mount Maraiya was a natural barrier between them and the trolls, do to the harsh climates of snow, ice, and ogres living there. There was one time a year, for two mouths at a time, when the snow and cold between the valley of the swamps and the mud plains of the Mokra’Torc’s were passible by trolls.

During after twenty years, the Mokra’Torc people were mostly, blissfully unaware of the troubles the troll people were causing for the humanoid people. But a group of escaping soldiers, with a marauding band of trolls chasing them, made their way to the mud flats.

There, the human commander sought aid with the Mokra’Torc people, who at first refused them.

They gave them supplies and agreed to hide them, but nothing more.

The trolls arrived five days later, long after the humans had actually left.

When the trolls questioned the Mokra’Torc people, they told them the truth of what had happened.

Enraged by their aid of their enemies, the troll warbrand leader slew a child near him.

This child, was apparently the son of the clans chieftain.

The chieftain, who stood there as his child had been killed, flew into a rage.

But not just a rage of anger.

This was what the Mokra’Torc people even called today as the Duroak’Fira, or the Demon’s fire.

The chieftain’s eyes and normally peaceful face transformed into such a fierce visage, that it froze the eighteen trolls in their place. The blank conjunctive part of his eyes. Had apparently been swallowed by his whole iris that day, making his eyes seem to glow with a yellow burning fire.

The chieftain’s battle cry, also sparked and ignited the Demon’s Fire within his own clan members. 

His clans members with tooth, nails and hands that day, torn the trolls apart limb-by-limb, just as the trolls had done to the chieftains son.

The clan mourned for three days before taking the ripped apart corpses of the trolls by uncovered wagon through the march lands towards the human kingdom.

They were approached two weeks into their journey, by the very same knights order that they had helped escape from the trolls.

The chieftain demanded recompense for not only his clans help to the humans, but for the death of his son at the hands of the pursuing trolls that attacked his clan.

But the human leader of the order was clever.

He had seen the bodies of the slaughtered trolls and asked how hey had accomplished this.

Once the chieftain explained what had happened. The human commander was intrigued. He promised the chieftain that he would take him to his king directly, if he would also tell his king what he had told him.

The chieftain agreed.

After meeting with the king and explaining everything as he was asked. The king, also being very clever, saw what an opportunity his soldier had brought him.

“Noble Mokra’Torc people. Do you wish for justice?! Do you wish for revenge?! Do you wish to be treated as equals and people?!”

The king started a flowery speech to the Mokra’Torc chieftain and his followers.

The chieftain, hearing promises of new land for them, guaranteed trade with the humanoids, equal rights, along with his chance of revenge against the trolls.

The chieftain’s mind was made up.

He shook the clever kings hand at the bargain.

The chieftain promised to gather clans from all across the Mok’Coran lands that spanned to the sinking isles.

Which he did, Rak’Natuak, became the first united Warchief of the entire Mokra’Torc people.

That next summer as planned, his people took the path that lead them to the swamps of Sak Tok Salawary: the trolls homeland.

The two front pincer attack from both the Mokra’Torc people and the Humanoid races were to much for the trolls to combat. They were forced to flee out to see on long boats to an archipelagos to claim as a new home.

With the victory at hand and their mutual enemies defeated, the humanoids celebrated their victory over the trolls with might feast that lasted for days.

They even invited the Mokra’Torc people to join them.

Rak’Natuak and his closest advisors, shamans and counsel had gone to this celebration, both as a show of courtesy, while also being there to ask for what was promised.

But once Rak’Natuak mentioned this to the king during the celebration.

He laughed.

He laughed and spit in Rak’Natuak face.

“You stupid “mud people”! Do you really believe that you would be anything more than the sub-humans you are? Pathetic! You “ORCS” disgust me!” The king spat at him.

But before Rak’Natuak could do or say anything.

The king had ordered his knights and soldiers to have the orcs killed.

This was a mistake on the kings part.

The chieftain had ordered half his men to escape, while he stayed with the other have of his men.

They said that the banquet hall that day was so filled with blood, that once the doors opened on it, it ran from the hall, down from the Falaris capital streets.

No one survived the Bloody Hall Massacre. So for the humans side, not a soul understood why the “ORCS” had betrayed them.

The Mokra’Torc that escaped, had been lead by the brother of the warchief: Dracogusse, along with his witnesses, were the only surviving testimony of what had happened that day.

Ironically, the human’s new king of of Falaris; King Leopold the second. Asked for the criminals that escaped the Bloody Banquet Massacre, to be handed over to them on accounts of regicide along with the deaths of over a hundred-and-eight-four nobles.

Dracogusse, obviously refused. Blaming the humans were the ones who had started the attack against them.

Naturally, the humans and humanoid alliance did not take kindly to the accusations of the Mud people; the literal human tongue name of the Mokra’Torc.

So the short lived peace had come to an end, and a new war began.

Anna sighed as she remembered the tale of the twin wars that Lilian had told her about.

What a shame…

Makes me ashamed to just just be apart of the same race as them. Anna thought morosely.

At least war with the humans versus orcs ended quickly though…

Both sides at the time had been dried of to much by the previous war: the orcs of their people, being a big contributor of armed frontline men during the battle of the trolls. And the humans, who had not enough collateral or resources to continue to keep up an expensive battle that ultimately, amounted to nothing for them to gain, even if they won the battle.

For the Mokra’Torc’s land, was only valuable to the Mokra’Torc people, and them alone.

After five years of battling, a cease fire was agreed upon, along with a treaty, that the Orcs; also know as the Mokra’Torc: leave the human lands and return to there home, along with never to invade their country by force again with no chance of trade.

The Mokra’Torc people agreed, with the stipulation that: the Mokra’Torc people would also never come to the aid of humans or the humanoid factions again.

Such tragically stupid and pointless fighting. Human’s are so selfish.

But this is why Lilian had ordered Anna to stay behind, not only was the path down treacherous, but it was also at worst, a two day journey up and down the mountain in freezing cold and snow during the winter season of Mount Maraiya: the daughter of Rayala. But it was because the mistrust towards humans was ever strong with the Mokra’Torc people.

Not that I blame them.

She had left for a full day’s time, leaving Anna alone in the cave.

Lilian had taken the skull of the ogre she had slain down as proof of her victory.

Lilian brought back several gifts to Anna, who was besides her self with join.

Bags of ground flour, along with pots and pans she could use.

The celebrated that day with something Lilian had confessed that she only had a few times when she was a child.

Chocolate cake; specifically cake is what she hadn’t had since she was a child.

Before Lilian left, Anna had asked if she could grab a bag of flour: which she had.

Now on certain days,

Like today!

Anna would bake her a cake.

Anna had found non-roasted cocoa beans inside a bag in the pantry, this made her have the thought of roasting and grinding her own cocoa.

What a treat it was!

Seeing Lilian’s face in an almost orgasmic state from having chocolate for the first time, UGH! Sploosh!

Anna was smiling as she was plating up their food.

But then her face turned sullen as her thought became melancholy.

That is also why is how she is now… why she lives up here… she hasn’t said it to me yet, but it is pretty obvious.

Her dad, former chieftain, lived up in these mountains with her by himself… it was probably do to him having a child with a human……

It is also why she doesn’t live down there with the Mokra’Torc people. She is stuck in this halfway of hell and limbo, for just being a product of her parents love.

She was also, at some point, obviously dropped off by her mother and left to this environment… she hasn’t said so yet… but it is obvious. If from what she has told me about the Mokra’Torc people, they don’t do things like she would. Or have civil dining etiquette… She lets that slip out and scolds me when I do something incorrectly.

So that is what I plan to do tonight! One way or another! I am going to drag an explanation out of her! Then I will confess to her! Then we will have hot lesbian sex AND!…—

She shook her head

Woah there girl! Back it up… one thing at a time.

She moved over to slide the door open with a free hand, then moved back to grab the plates and the pan of chocolate cake.

Okay! Anna thought pumped. “It’s dinner time!~” She sang as she skipped into the next room.