What Lurks Below by Michael Soldat

Author:Michael Soldat [Soldat, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-24T22:00:00+00:00

8

Lara snapped awake, hearing what seemed to be an intruder smashing through an office wall. Thinking they were being invaded in broad daylight, she leapt out of bed and darted into the office. There, a snoring orc sat in her chair, leaning against the wall. Lara smiled, a wave of relief washing over her. Nami, somehow, was still sound asleep, possibly because her bed was on the opposite side of the room, far from the doorway. Her head lay between the wall and a balled up shirt she was using as a pillow. Lara envied her.

After taking a look around, Lara realized that it was not actually daytime. The light shone from a torch Diedra placed in a holder on the wall, not the sun. If it had been day, she would be too late to leave on schedule. Outside, only a few buildings nearby cast light into the early morning darkness. If the bakers had begun, then Lara aimed to start with them. She walked back into the recently designated bedroom and shook Nami’s shoulder.

“Aah! Five more minutes! I was cutting off so many heads!”

“Get lucky, and you might do that today anyway. Or, unlucky, maybe.”

“Ugh. You’re right, but it’s much nicer in bed.”

“And that’s why you’re the assistant, so far. Get up.”

Lara walked back to her desk to see Diedra still snoring away, though her head tilted and quieted the noise. She heard a thump from the other room, looked back, and saw Nami half fallen out of bed.

“Why is getting out of bed so hard?!”

“That’s hard? What I want to know is how you managed to sleep through the roar out here. I thought we were being attacked.”

Lara now faced a problem: she had never roused an orc before. It was not exactly the type of issue anyone in town ever faced, at least to her knowledge. She snuck up to Diedra and poked her in the arm before backing away. The orc snorted, but kept sleeping. Lara tried again, but harder this time.

Diedra shouted as she snapped her head back and hit the stone.

“Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know how to wake you up, and I uh, I just, I’m really sorry!” Lara said.

“It could be worse,” Diedra said after groaning. “I live alone, so it is best you did not shake me. I live with things that wish to escape. If I mistook you for them, who knows where you would land.”

Lara couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I’ll arrange for breakfast. Is bread and stew fine with you? Do orcs have coffee?”

“Thank you, it will do, but I must educate you some day on the rest of the world. Things like coffee don’t stop at your borders,” she replied with a smirk.

“Well, there’s something we have in common. I can’t imagine living in a city too far north to get coffee beans.”

Lara walked outside her door to find a steward. She asked one what they could scrounge up so early in the morning, then returned.

“It shouldn’t be long.

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