A violent heat flushes my body as sweat erupts in rivulets down my face. Exhausted and wracked with pain, my gauntlets cling to the orc's bulging neck: so close that I can feel the moist breath of her gaping nostrils. The scent of mead, brandy, and stale sweat assails me. My numb fingers make a feeble attempt to constrict this ravening she-beast's air passage, however she seems just as fatigued. The gruesome orc brings her mailed mitten up against my helmet.
The orc, she of savage face and bulging muscles, is as enfeebled as I am; too battle fatigued to muster any real resistance. Still, we struggle together for the survival of our lives, rolling down the grassy embankment towards the river below. When we finally hit the rocky river bottom, we are completely submerged, wrestling in it's hazardous surge, weighing each other to the depths with our respective bulk and armor.
A flash of sinking blackness jolts me as though I have been struck by a hammer. That blackness lingers on as though I am about to pass out, but I can still feel my hand around the neck of the orc female and she does the same with mine. Through this tight embrace, the two of us sink into the deepening darkness.
When I come to, the orc female is still clinging to me. Through the murkiness, I see her face: snaggled, tusk-laden jowls and beady eyes peering out from behind a vacant expression of horror. Unable to free from her tangled grip, I writhe to the shore bank like stranded seaweed caught in an undertow. There I slump away from her languid hold to the ground on my side, coughing in waterlogged fits until my body settles enough to take in fresh air.
And yet, here lies the monstrous creature still. She remains motionless, limbs curled against her torso, lying canted against the soil where I had dragged her ashore. Above, the sun begins to set over the western horizon as its ruddy glow bleeds into the blue expanse above.
Gasping for breath, I rise to a sitting position; looking down at my handiwork, the seemingly catatonic orc lays inert by the bank, eyes staring up blankly at the sky above. Blood leaks from a ragged wound running along her right temple, no doubt left behind by a glancing pass from my blade. At long last I retrieve my sword and dagger from my belt. With a sigh of relief, I slip my battered arms out of their armored jackchains and lay back, on the brink of passing out.
Yet, before I can even so much as close my eyes, I hear rasping sputters and hacking coughs beside me. Puzzled, I turn to see the orc now dragging herself towards me, pained growls tearing out of her throat as she knees up on her shaky legs. A blood-matted lock of auburn hair obscures the view of one golden eye while she slowly, haltingly, scuttles unsteadily to me.
Against all expectations, the orc crawls over to my body and throws a powerful arm over me with her last strength. We are completely drenched and too weakened to be capable of struggling further, we drift off to a soporific slumber.
And here I am, waking up creaky and stiff, seeing a scene I did not expect to see: the face of an orc female, surrounded by locks of fiery red hair, her yellow eyes wide and perplexed with bewilderment as she stares at me, face-to-face; this monster and I intertwined under the baking sun as the morning breaks through the trees.
No words are exchanged between us for a long time as we lie there discomforted in our bed of sand and rocks; both unwilling to pain our racked bodies further to rise and war. So long does this standoff go on that we come to soothe in the strange soft warmth of each other's bodies pressed against one another; the odd sounds and aromas of nature salving our aches as we find ourselves lost in an unsolicited, impromptu cuddle.
Slowly but surely, I feel the rigidity in my body loosening up as though my flesh is knitting itself back together again. But we cradle into each other closer, tenderly feigning sleep. If she can fool herself, then so can I. This could be a charade. What if this were the best opportunity to make the kill and escape? To remove this dangerous combatant out of my path to survival?
In fact, despite these questions, I don't have the heart to pry myself away. And, frankly, neither does she. In the midst of this unusual situation, I can sense the tension in her muscles as well; she feels similarly hesitant about what to do next. Instead of thinking about what should happen next, I allow myself to become immersed in this peculiar feeling.