5:36, Rotation 264 / 365, 232 AE, -67.673404, -68.106380, Reath

  And now that the Thraxes’ relative poverty was too abundantly clear, the mood soured a bit.

  “Want me to thrak some snacks from the cabin?” – bring some snacks from the cabin? Zholl whispered to Lawrah, afraid to add to the shame that his family was already collectively experiencing, but if anything, that would just make things worse. “No! No. No need.” Lawrah was desperate to try and undo her gaffe, but she was a terrible liar, and it made things worse, and now Zholl was visibly frowning, just wishing his family simply had more. But more simply was never enough.

  Yahka grumbled softly to himself, for he was getting sick of eating kelp rote after rote too, “Always the same old nuk-nuk…” – Always the same old crap… But he was not one to complain, considering it was always him who ate most of it.

  Githarie had to rest her head glumly on one hand as she continued to sup.

  Zhak, feeling the tension, hunched his shoulders, and tried to keep his eyes on his bowl.

  Zhon, always oblivious, just continued to happily slurp up all his stew. Noticing that Lawrah had not finished hers, he piped in, “Sha done with that?” And before she even had a chance to respond, tipped her bowl into his. And more than one in the party had to groan out of his earshot. This gezzno glob!

  Melloh again pulled Zahul close by the shoulder and hissed, “Sharku,” – old orcan – “ye’ve got to clear out some more damn cargo space! We cannae be doin’ three hauls just to bring in as much as Cap’n Grazichi can do in one!”, but at the mention of Zahul’s rival – as jovial as he could be, he could just as easily fly into a fit – “We can talk about that later, Mell.” he growled.

  “Talk about what?” Gnosta snapped.

  Melloh, tired of being jerked around by his captain, forced the issue. “I’m tellin’ Cap to invest. Use the Defiant for loan collateral! Ronk up” – pool some funds together – “with some others looking for group. Things have never been better so why not-”

  “Shut sha mouth!” barked Zahul, a little too loudly, even though the idea of instantly doubling his wealth just like that lucky orc Grazichi – the bugger had caught an ebb and then a pump, it was entirely luck – had indeed tempted him. Now things were really awkward.

  “Shanna talking about” – you’re not talking about – “fooling around on the ethereal chains are you?”, Gnosta sniped. “That’s just gambling!”

  “It’s not! Issa sure thing!” Melloh, stubborn and defensive to the end. “Shanna tell me that-”

  “Nothing is a sure thing.” Gnosta replied coldly. “What if you’re wrong?” She had dropped the orcish for the moment. Real talk.

  “I’m not wrong!” Melloh stood up.

  “I said shut it, snaga!” and now Zahul was bellowing as he stood too, “Thas’ a direct order from yer captain!”

  “Hai! Don’t sha call me snaga!”

  The two lifelong friends were now in each other’s faces, staring each other down, and this time, it did not look like it would lead to a mere friendly spar, as earlier.

  Melloh’s eyes filled with resentment. Zahul was his oldest friend, and they had fought shoulder to shoulder in the Exodus, facing down legions of elves, but now in peacetime, he really wasn’t paying him or Yahka anywhere close to enough for all their labor. They stared each other down, their tusks mere centimeters away, as if daring the other to strike first.

  Yahka tipped his bucket hat downward. Here we go again, he thought.

  But Zahul was still Melloh’s captain, so he refused to say another word. And after too long, the toxic masculinity subsided. And after the red mist began to fade, the two orcans finally became aware of everyone else staring at them.

  Melloh slumped back down, his butt banging hard against the simple rock stools arranged around the pit, in defeat. And since Melloh was still his first mate, Zahul softened too, and lowered himself back down slowly.

  After a long enough pause for them to cool off, Melloh spoke softly, “All I’m sayin’ is sha consider-”

  Now Zahul, feeling bad for forcing Melloh to lose face, couldn’t help but turn around and defend him. “Y’know, Gnostie, he might have a point-”

  “We already spend too much time on this damn kroozer,” Gnosta interrupted, “Owing debt is only going to krimp us all down” – tie us all down – “even harder. If it doesn’t turn out the way you think, and sha get nurd,” – and you get unlucky – “then Zhak is going to miss even more classes, as if you three little globs,” – three little dummies – she scanned her eyes at Zholl, Zhon and Githarie, “aren’t truant enough already just to surf!” She looked back at Zahul, “You’ve got to think carefully about what’s best for the children.”

  Her articulate voice always made him feel like he was being lectured to, condescended to, nagged- “Of course I’m thinking about the kids!” He roared and stood up again. Zahul had now fully lost it. All he wanted was what was best for his children. How badly he wanted to give them everything, and more! But no matter how hard he worked, it was never enough. Never. “That’s all I think about!” And he really didn’t need to yell, skai.

  Now Gnosta too stood up, and although she did not raise her voice, her tone was acidic. “Don’t you talk to me like that, Zahul.”

  As much as Zahul and Gnosta were passionate for each other, they were also a bickering couple. Of course, it was their mutual headstrong nature that made them attracted to each other in the first place, but it also led to too many arguments, ones that Gnosta usually won logically with her quicker wits, but to which Zahul would override with an emotional tantrum. Such as was the case right now.

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  Githarie fumed with anger. How could her friggin’ gezzno parents, her friggin’ stupid parents, do this in front of her best friend? On her birth-rote! Her birth-rote, sha!

  Zholl pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Law, I’m so sorry.”

  Lawrah, horrified at herself, stammered back, “No, Zholly I’m the one who’s sorry, I-”

  And then Zhak, always the clever diplomat, having quietly retreated to look afar from the railing, interjected “Oh look! Nakaz Lawry,” – little Lawry – “it’s your dad’s junk!” And indeed, it was, for Chief Raigo’s junk was sailing in quickly just over the horizon.

  Suddenly realizing how she could fix this awful situation, even if it meant inviting atul instead of just Githarie and Gnosta as previously planned with father, the Chief’s daughter immediately followed “Hey, atul, let me invite y’all over for brekkie, father has always got a kop ghash spread.” A top class spread.

  And just like that the pissy moods evaporated.

  The whole lot of orcans rushed over to the railing excitedly.

  “Sha mean it Lawrah?” Githarie asked, hesitating to take advantage of her friend’s generosity. She was genuinely surprised.

  “Yeah! Come on, we al - ways have too much, so father always encourages me to invite friends over.” The former was true, the latter was not, but how would any of them know anyway, thought Lawrah.

  “I’m sorry, I-, Gnostie, I-” Zahul was now stumbling over his words.

  “Shh”, she put a finger to his lips, “It’s okay, Zaza. I get it. No biggie.”

  Just as easy as they were to quarrel, they were all too easily ready to forgive, even verbal abuse, no matter how well intentioned. “Just don’t do it, ok? For me?” Zahul nodded.

  “Oh, we be eatin’ now!” Yahka chimed in happily to Melloh. But Melloh, a little bit more geshzugas – orcish for wiser – only folded his arms over his chest. He knew Zahul better than that.

  And just like Melloh expected, Zahul fumbled a weak excuse, afraid to overextend the welcome, “Sha two, uh- ye’ve gotta finish up hanging the kelp. We’ll come back when we’re done. We- uh… we’ll bring something back. Mog.” Bet.

  For Zahul, family always came first, but when it came to those in his employ, he could be quite stingy, even for his first mate. Yahka was visibly crestfallen, but Melloh just pursed his lips.

  He waved farewell with a brusque, “On Lok.” Gotta run.

  With that, Zahul leapt in with a pencil dive, spreading his limbs out after he hit the water, for he knew any other dive would send his great bulk too deep.

  “We really do appreciate all the help, seriously. Mell, I apologize for Zaza flying off the handle. See sha soon!” And with that Gnosta followed after with a graceful forward dive, and so too did Githarie with an “On lok, zilnok, uncles!” Gotta go, goodbye, uncles!

  \“Zil, Yahka, zil, Mell.” Zholl stuck his tongue out happily at Lawrah as he turned around, leaning back against the railing, and then went in with a backflip to backward dive, so Lawrah, not wanting to be outdone, did a reverse dive after him. “Zil, uncles!” – Bye, uncles! she cried out in the split second she had facing them before inverting backwards into the seas.

  Zhon leaned over the railing and snorted “Showoffs”, and then noticed that Zhak was a little hesitant, so he slapped his younger brother on the back.

  “Sha got dis Zhakky”, lifted him up to the railing with one arm, and then they cannonballed in together with a “WAHOO!”. Zhak waved zil to Big Yakky and Mell, that was all he needed because the truth was the little pipsqueak was ash who really had the duruk, absolutely everyone loved him. Zhon took off.

  Melloh sighed, put his hands on his hips, and looked over at Yahka.

  “He really doesn’t pay us enough.”

  Yahka, folded his arms on the railing to rest his chin on it, and snorted.

  “Skai, he certainly doesn’t.”

  As they all swam towards the junk, now quickly pulling in, Lawrah swam up to her longboard, still floating in the water by the Defiant where she left it and patted the side to motion Githarie to join her, and the two gurls paddled up first. They were soon joined by Zholl and Zhon front crawling, by far the faster swimmers. Zahul and Gnosta made sure to backstroke together so they could keep an eye on Zhak as he slowly breaststroke his way over.

  For if they were really in dire need, they could go to the village dining mess, and they would indeed be fed, no questions asked. But such ‘moochers’ – those that could not pull their own weight – were looked down upon by the rest of the village, and the Thraxes were far too proud for that.

  ‘Thrak’ - orcish for ‘bring’.

  ‘Nuk’ - orcish for something bad, ‘crap’, ‘nuk-nuk’ for emphasis.

  ‘Ronk’ - orcish for ‘to pool’, as in for many orcans to pool their resources together for a greater project. Also used to mean ‘to stake’ on the ethereal chains.

  An orcan phrase used by gamblers to denote an attempt to influence prices on the ethereal chain by encouraging others to buy in on the same bets. Taken from massively multiplayer online role-playing games of the Godlikes, and adopted by degenerates who liked to gamble on ethereal chains.

  It had not been. Grazichi had been tipped off that there would be a big pump.

  It hardly was a sure thing.

  He was wrong.

  And if either struck first, he would strike hard, and there would be no mercy.

  Although it usually made for great makeup sex.

  This was because gynous Gnosta was always critical and androus Zahul was always defensive, a very common pattern. Thankfully they would never put contempt upon one another. But Zahul stonewalled on occasion.

  It made no sense for Zhak to say nakaz, given that he was considerably more nakaz that Lawrah, both in age and stature, but he was just trying to add whatever levity he could to stop his parents from arguing.

  She didn’t usually use too much orcish lingo, just ‘sha’ and ‘zug’, sometimes a bit more around Githarie. Father found it crass. But she wanted to sound like she was hip to it around Zholl.

  She would be even more so very soon.

  This promise would be broken.

  Orcans of a village were wary of abusing the Chief’s generosity. It held the same stigma as mooching off the village cornucopia, but with greater consequence. For the Chief had the right of banishing any villager who was deemed a liability, and then that banished orcan would end up a nomad. And nomads were universally looked down upon by villagers. Banishment was in fact the only codified punishment that could be meted out. The Horde did not imprison.

  ‘Mog’, orcish for ‘I promise’, or ‘I promise that I will’, but also used to mean transmogrification.

  ‘On Lok’, orcish for ‘gotta run’, or goodbye.

  ‘Zilnok’, orcish for ‘goodbye’, often used in conjunction with on lok, often shortened to just ‘zil’.