Fighting My Orc

This couldn’t have come fast enough. Ashley had helped me dress for my date this morning. Which ended with me in tight black leggings and a blouse. Ashley gushed about his online profile. Shouting so I can hear her from the bathroom, “He looks quite handsome. I think you’re going to have fun. And you know how to defend yourself so you can whoop his butt if he-”

I start to laugh. Opening the door to my bathroom, “You do know they are warlike creatures. There is no way two years of practical fighting lessons are going to save me.”

Ashley huffs and crosses her arms, “You know you’re at the top of the class Olivia, I can’t even get past beginners.”

I punch her arm lightly, “That’s because you just ogle your instructor the whole time.”

She holds up her hands in defeat when a knock sounds from the door. Our banter halts as I walked to the door and opened it up.

The smile on my face seemed to relieve Osiris as a grin of his own lights up his face. True to his profile picture the green tint to his skin is light, and his tusks frame his broad face.

He holds out his hand to me, “Ready to go?”

I grip his hand firmly, “Of course.”

We begin to walk down a path towards a sturdy looking Jeep. He opens the door for me before we drive off towards the orc sector. It’s a short fifteen minutes as he continues asking me questions about my family and friends.

Both my parents are landscapers for the increasing needs of the supernatural species. On the side they take great pride in physical combat, something Osiris found extremely pleasing.

Osiris answered all my questions about his family; his parents live a few houses down from him in his community. Unlike me he has two siblings, a younger sister and an older brother.

His brother owns a house with his orc wife across the river from his house. They are the ones who wanted him to sign up on the dating site. But I keep my mouth shut about how I sighed up.

The dating site did allow up to set up our own date though. Osiris decided to make our date a secret though, which is the same reason a can of pepper spray is in my purse.

He starts to glance over at me frequently, so I take pity in him. Asking the question that has been bugging me since Osiris and I matched on the dumb dating site, “And what kind of surprise did you set up for today?”

He rubs the back of his neck, “There’s fighting competitions today with the top orc warriors.”

I smirk towards him, knowing that he will be shocked at my enthusiasm, “Then we better get going. We’ll want good seats if we want to see anything.”

He looks startled at my reaction before chuckling, “If we park here it's only a short walk to the stadium." He looks to me for confirmation before pulling his Jeep to the side of the roadway.

We walk side by side and I can feel his knuckles brush my hand multiple times. I grin and take his hand in mine softly. I can see in my peripheral that he looks to our hands and smiles.

I tried convincing myself that holding hands doesn’t mean much, until I realized most of the orc couples were doing it. My smile dampened until we made it to the stadium.

Osiris pulls me up to the middle section where his family is sitting. His mom and dad looked surprised to see me, but each envelope me in a hug nonetheless.

Osiris pulls me down the stadium bench and sandwiches me between himself and his older brother, Hunter. Since the stadium is packed, Osiris grips my hand tightly whenever another male walks by.

I’ve noticed with his family, his father, Alaric, sits on the outer rim of the bench with his wife, Gena, tucked beside him. His sister, Cassandra, is in the middle. And Hunter’s wife, Odera, sits next to her as she holds her husband's hand calmly.

I look to Osiris who is still eyeing the orc next to him because he has taken notice to me; the only human at an orc fighting stadium. I nudge Osiris's shoulder, “Relax. I’m here with you.”

He smirks to the other male who heard my comment, but he still squished me closer to his side.

When the fighting finally begins I’m excited to see what the outcome will be. One orc is lean and seemingly anxious, but it could be a hoax so his competition gets cocky.

Hunter leans down and nods towards the ring, “Who do you think will win?”

I eyed the two fighters as they get into a fighting position. Noticing the massive orc is just standing straight and showing off muscle, while the lean orc is calculating his opponent.

Subtly pointing to the small one I smirk, “That one for sure.”

He holds his hand out, “Wanna bet?”

I gripped his hand firmly, “You’re on. I’ll bet ten on the lean one.”

Osiris leans down after watching our conversation and whispers in my ear, “Good choice. I trained that warrior.”

I wiggle on the bench in excitement, causing Osiris to grip my hand in his own joy.

When the fight begins I know the lean one is going to win and so does Hunter. The massive orc moves slowly and only gets a few hard hits in at a time. While the lean one gets him down to his knees before breaking down his arms and pinning him to the floor.

Osiris and I stand and cheer, like a lot of orcs around us. The orc looks pleased but reserved as he tries to hide his injuries when he exits the ring.

Osiris and I sit back down and I fake punch Hunter’s shoulder, “I won.” I sounded cocky but he didn’t seem to mind as he nodded.

When the next two came out they looked more evenly matched, and when I bet against Hunter I quickly realized I had chosen the wrong fighter.

I groan and push my head into Osiris’s shoulder as the fighter I bet on gets pummeled. This time when the last fighter is standing it’s Hunter and Odera that stand and cheer.

An announcer suddenly steps out to the center of the ring. Dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts. He whirls around and greets the audience, “Welcome! Now that we’ve gotten a taste of some of our new warriors, it’s time to challenge their mentors!”

A wild cheer goes around as the crowd begins to eye each other, more than a few glances landing on Osiris. I lean towards his ear, “Didn’t you say you trained one of them?”

He cracks his knuckles, “Yeah,” suddenly the announcer picks Osiris out of the crowd, “Time to bet on me.” With a wink and a tight squeeze of the hand he stands. The crowd started cheering while Hunter shifted me so I sat between him and his wife.

I track Osiris with my eyes as he enters the ring. His opponent is apparently someone else from the crowd. Another mentor presumably.

The other orc turns his back on Osiris as he waves his fists in the air, trying to pump up the crowd.

Hunter and I give each other a knowing glance as Osiris watches his opponent with stealth. Osiris is definitely going to win.

When the fight begins, Osiris wastes no time giving a few blows to his opponent. I wince when he suddenly gets a fist to the gut, followed by an undercut hit to his face.

By the time Osiris is bloodied and pinning his opponent to the ground his entire family and I are on our feet cheering. Odera looks at me mischievously.

When Osiris leaves the ring I wait with his family for him to return to the benches. I feel a small bump on my back before a cold drink runs down my hair and soaks my shirt. Immediately all attention is on me.

I yelp and stand up, turning around to confront the orc behind me. “Oops sorry kid.” He says with a smirk as he and his friends laugh.

My anger bundles up and before I can stop myself my fist is connecting with his face. But I don’t stop there. I hit is throat and groin and don’t stop punching his body until someone pulls me off him.

It’s Osiris. He turns me around and I stop my hand before I hit him. He looks concerned before looking behind me and laughing. Soon his whole family joins in and I duck my head in embarrassment.

“Damn Osiris! Your girl can fight!” Hunter shouts from behind us and I bury my face in Osiris’s chest. The feeling of adrenaline still coursing through my veins.

Osiris chuckles and whispers in my ear, “Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

I groan not wanting to point out my fighting abilities, “I go to fighting classes during the week.”

He chuckles, when the announcer points us out, “Looks like there’s been a fight in the crowd. Let’s say we bring these rowdy folks into the ring!”

Shit.