“Dakka!”
Morn opened their mouth to correct the orcs approaching them.
“Dakka, we really need your help.”
Jade, Acantha and Morn rained in their squig and the Chroma in front of them did the same. They had considered going to the forest against Saint Iratus’ wishes, but decided that it would be better if they found Aoda first. And so they had continued south and had just about entered Chroma territory.
“What do you need help with?” Acantha asked.
The red orc leading the pack glanced at Acantha before returning his attention back to Morn.
“The Sndus are attacking us, we need a Dakka to help us fight the war.”
“I will help.”
“Hold on,” Jade mixed in, “I know we’re allies, but our clan is in danger too. We need to find Aoda and ask her to protect our home!”
“You can go,” Morn replied, “I will help the Chroma.”
“But-“
“Thank you!” The Chroma responded, visibly relieved, “Please come with me.”
“Where are you going?” Acantha wanted to know, but the orcs ignored her and led Morn away, leaving Jade and Acantha behind.
“Right.” Jade said, dumbfounded, as she watched Morn leaving them.
“How can he just leave us here? He can’t just do that? Can he?” Acantha shouted angrily, not anticipating any useful response and Jade was not planning on giving her one, so at least that worked out for them.
***
After an hour or so of traveling through the desert, Morn noticed that they were approaching something green. That was odd, wasn’t it? All this dry land surrounding what appeared to be a beautiful garden. When they reached the edge of the garden, which consisted of palm trees, rocks and all kinds of plants that Morn had never seen before, the orcs stopped.
“This is where you must go in alone, Dakka. You must go inside and find a sword lily, when you do, come back here, we will wait for you.”
Morn didn’t hesitate and jumped off their squig, somehow, they felt, this place was meant to enter on foot. Halfway the garden Morn realized that they had no idea what a sword lily looked like. When Morn turned to look back, they saw a patch of grass with flowers growing in them. It looked so out of place here within the desert that Morn was immediately drawn to it. The flowers bloomed in different colors, pink, blue, red, yellow and green. Morn thought about it for a second, then picked one of the green flowers and returned to the Chroma to show them the flower.
“Good,” the red orc said and gestured towards one of the squig that they had been riding, it was a green one, just like the flower, “Ride this one.”
Without asking questions, Morn got on and the squig took off as if it was hopping for its life. The Chroma were left behind and stood there watching Morn as they departed. Morn grinned, they liked this quest, it was almost as if it was made just for them.
Suddenly, Morns crotch starts heating up in a very familiar way.
“Morn?” Saint Iratus voice came from the sigil that had been burning inside Morns loincloth.
“Yes?”
“What are you doing? You sound… wobbily.”
“I’m on a quest to help Chroma in the war against Sndus.”
“I thought I had requested you to remain safe.”
“I remember no such thing.”
The sigil emitted an audible sigh.
“Morn, if you are ever in danger and need my help, break my amulet. Do you understand?”
“Understood.”
“Be safe.”
***
“Listen,” Jade whispered into Acantha’s head, holding her finger to her lips.
Acantha heard it, it was someone snoring, someone was snoring inside their tent.
“Someone is sitting in our tent, someone invisible,” Jade whispered while she slowly stood up, her feet touching the ground and sensing the subtle vibrations of the land around her. She stared at the place where she knew someone was and, was she imagining it or did she see an orc. Very slowly, a translucent figure emerged from thin air.
“It’s just a pink Chroma,” Acantha said with a sigh of relief, “Let’s go pack up.”
Jade had a quick breakfast and Acantha started breaking up the tent, waking the orc and ignoring them completely. The orc walks off without a word.
“How rude,” Jade remarks.
“You should do a better job at keeping watch,” Acantha sneered. Jade was visibly upset but held her tongue.
***
Morn didn’t like this quest. They were sleepy, hungry, thirsty and riding on a squig day and night started to hurt their cheeks. It was nearing twilight and Morn did not look forward to spending another night riding this squig.
“Are we there yet?” Morn grumbled at the squig, “I thought you were supposed to be the best squig.”
The squig didn’t respond and continued it’s forceful gallop. Morn sighed and looked in the distance, the horizon was all wavy as if they were looking at it though a pool of water. Water, oh, what they would do for a nice fresh drink. This situation reminded Morn of a dream they had not long ago, when they were turned into a rock by this guy named Morpheus. That had been a true nightmare. Morn blinked, they saw water, real water, the squig was hopping right towards it.
“Yes! You are the best squig.”
At the waterside Morn dismounted and bend over to drink. Next to them, the squig entered the water, being kept afloat by its awkward buoyancy. The squig tried to swim, but due to its round shape it simply turned around in the water. Morn looked from the squig to the sword lily in their hands. The orc took a large gulp of breath and dove right in the water, down to the bottom of the pool. There, instinctively Morn knew the right place and they put the sword lily in the sand. Nothing happened besides them running out of breath. When Morn came up for air, they saw clear strokes of color rising from the pool of water. The thick lines were translucent, but when Morn touched them they were solid.
The colorful track reached up into the sky shaped like a giant arch. Morn walked up the green stroke and left the squig, who had stopped struggling and was now bobbing in the water below grinning wide at Morn with its many pointed teeth as if to say:
“I know I am best, but what are you?”
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