With a large, thick stick in one hand, and her heavy tome of notes in the other, Mei backed slowly away from the large black bear advancing on her, the ruined remnants of her camp all around her. She had come back from, ah, relieving herself in the bushes to find some cubs tearing into her food, and when she'd gotten too close so she could draw them, well...
That's when mama bear showed up.
The cubs were nowhere in sight now, but the eight-foot tall beast before her was definitely more bear than she'd ever wanted! It growled at her as she waved her stick at it, watching her with keen eyes as though gauging how much of a threat said stick was, and then snorted and took a large step toward her.
"No, no! Stay back! Back! Just hold on a moment, now, I haven't found the page yet!" And, propping her book up with her arm and her chin, Mei flipped frantically through the pages. Inima, help her! Where were her notes about bears?! She knew she'd written something down! Something about how to escape them or scare them off! Was it trees? Were you supposed to climb them? Or not climb them?
The bear took another menacing step toward her, and Mei threw the stick at its head. "I said stay back!" she said, and the bear snarled as it glanced off its nose. "I know for a fact human isn't your usual prey! You mostly eat fish and berries! Now calm down! I didn't even touch your cub! Oh, Inima, where is that section! Ah! Brown bears, no...polar bear, definitely not...black...hrm...no, that one has a stripe across the chest...do you have blue eyes? Apparently, the Eastern Black has blue--"
That was when the bear let out a bellowing roar--
And charged.
And with a yelp of fright, Mei tossed her book (cringecringe!) and ran, straight for the nearest tree, which she scrambled up as quickly as she could. She lost a sandal in the process, and mama bear caught it in her mouth, shook it, and tossed the ruined thing away. But Mei was already up several branches, her heart in her throat as she balanced on a branch and clung to the trunk.
"You win! Fine! You win! I'm sorry I tried to draw your cubs! I know some cultures have a fear of pictures, that capturing their image captures their soul, but I assure you, furry lady, that's not what I--oh. Oh. You can climb?!"
Because that's exactly what mama bear was doing. She dug her long, long claws into the bark and started to climb, and Mei yelped, grabbed a branch above her, and started to climb higher. "Oh GODDESS. That's what it was! Don't climb, Mei! Don't climb trees when chased by a bear! Of course!"
Yup. He was most definitely lost. Gutztomp took a look around. All the trees looked exactly the same. How was he supposed to know where he was going? It also didn't help that he couldn't make heads or tails of this stupid map that he had been given. Gutztomp tossed the map aside and sighed. This was just fantastic. It was then that he heard something roar, and it sounded big. Gutztomp grinned. Another trophy perhaps?
Gutztomp rushed to the seen to find a bear climbing a tree after some human. The bear was his only concern though. Gutztomp grabbed the bear's leg and started pulling it down the tree.
"Come 'ere," Gutztomp said as he pulled.
The bear had no choice but to come down and deal with the new threat. It charged at Gutztomp, but Gutztomp merely drew back and punched the bear in the face. The bear tumbled to the ground as its momentum continued. Determined to defend her cubs, the bear rose again. Gutztomp charged this time and tackled the beast to the ground. He then lifted it over his head and tossed it to the ground. The bear struggled to its feet and ran off as best it could, the cubs in tow.
"Oi, I ain't done with you," Gutztomp called after it with a grin.
However, the bear didn't want to stick around, so it disappeared into the forest.
And just when Mei knew she was in deep, just when she thought she was about to become lunch because she was starting to run out of tree to climb--something grabbed the bear.
Right before her eyes, a fight broke out, a giant green man versus a giant bear! And the man...won. By punching the bear and tossing her around.
Mei watched in abject fascination, arms stretched over her head to grip the branch above her while she leaned forward to watch, feet precariously balanced on the branch beneath her. What on earth was he? And that green skin, what kind of a purpose did that serve? Was it for camouflage? Was he plant-related? Did his skin perhaps grow mold like the fur of a sloth? No, he was far too fast! She'd never seen anything like him before, and her fingers itched for her book and charcoal!
"Oh! You! Down there! Green man!" she called as the bear bounded away. "Please stay right there! Don't move! I need to ask you so many things! And draw you, if you don't mind, and I'm sure you don't! Who doesn't like being drawn? Ah, but the way you handled that beast was amazing, and so effortlessly, too! Hold on, I'll be just a moment, just until I get back--whoa!"
It was while Mei was leaning forward that, unfortunately, she lost her balance, slipped off the branch with a yelp, and wound up dangling by her arms. And unfortunately for her, she wasn't built for strength at all, so she dangled just a second or two before her aching fingers slipped and, with a cry, she went falling down.
Gutztomp looked up at the human girl and scratched his head as a very rapid stream of words came flying out of her mouth. Then, the human fell out of the tree. Gutztomp simply stood and watched. What was she doing up there anyway? Gutztomp scratched his head once more as the girl lay in a crumpled heap on the ground. This human was particularly strange. Scrawny too.
Fortunately for Mei, she landed in a bush, otherwise she would have broken something!
As it was, she bounced off the bush and landed hard on the ground, where she lay there groaning, leaves and twigs in her hair and clothes and bloody scratches on the bare skin of her arms and legs. Rubbing her head sorely, her body achy and bruised, she sat up weakly. "Owww...you were supposed to catch me!"
Gutztomp merely looked at her and asked,
"Why?"
Catch her? Why would he? If she were tougher she wouldn't have needed to be caught in the first place. If anything he had one the puny human a favor by letting her hit the ground and get toughened up a bit.
"Because I could have died! Or broken a bone, at the very least!" Mei said as she picked leaves and sticks from her hair. "And because that really hurt! And because you did fight off a bear, so it stands to reason if you were strong enough to do that you were strong enough to catch a tiny thing like me."
Craning her neck, she looked up--waaay up!--at his face, squinting against the light. "Inima, you're massive!"
"Why should I care about a tiny fing like you," Gutztomp replied slightly irritated by her tone. "It's not my fault you're small and weak 'ooman. All you 'oomans are small and weak. You need to be bigger and tougher like an ork."
"An 'ork'? Is that what your people are called?" Mei asked, and scrambled around looking for her book and rucksack. They'd both gone flying somewhere when she'd fled from the bear. "Oh, gosh darnit, where are my notes! Hold still, don't go anywhere! I have much I need to ask you!"
Wincing sorely, she rose to her feet and started to limp back the direction she'd gone, one foot bare since her other sandal was chomped up. She found her book not far away, and her rucksack discarded just a bit further down. Carrying both back to the ork, she sat down cross-legged and smiled up at him.
"I'm afraid I can't help being small. This is as big as I'm going to get! Now, as for you, would you mind staying just like that so I can draw you? I promise it won't take long!"
"Draw me," Gutztomp asked. "Wot da hell is that?"
Pulling a stick of charcoal from her bag, Mei held it out so he could see it. "Drawing! It's making pictures on parchment!" she said, and flipped her book open to a blank, fresh page.
"This is charcoal, see? And I'll use it to put a likeness of you down onto this blank page! It's for my own reference later. So just hold a comfortable pose, and it's okay if you want to talk so long as you don't move around too much! In fact, you should tell me about orks while I do this, okay? Tell me everything."
Gutztomp was admittedly intrigued by this idea of drawing. He did like himself, so the idea of a likeness of himself was also intriguing. He decided to let this human do whatever it is she wanted to do. It wasn't like she was of any threat to him.
"We're da biggest, meanest, and strongest fings around," he told her. "No one's a better fighter than da orks."
Mei's tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth as she started to sketch, glancing up at the ork every few seconds as she worked. "Is that so? Well, after seeing you fight that bear, I would have to agree! You are big and strong, certainly! Mean is up for debate. You're being rather kind right now!" she said with a wide smile his way before she started up her furious sketching again.
"What else? What is your name? Why are you green? Where do your people live? Are you a nomadic people, or stationary? Are you a social culture, or solitary? Please, don't skimp on any details, if you don't mind!"
"I am Gutztomp," he told her proudly. "Orks are green because orks are da best and green is da best."
He had no idea what that other stuff meant, so he just skipped it entirely. Fortunately for Mei, she managed to get Gutztomp into a talkative mood with all her compliments.
"Gut...stomp?" Mei repeated with a slight wrinkle of her nose as she looked up at him. Though she was fluent in Common, sometimes the nuances and colloquialisms escaped her still. And it was also possible his people had a different language and it was Gut-Stomp at all! Maybe it just sounded like those words in Common, but actually meant something different and refined in his language. After all, he did have a funny accent!
She marked his name down in the special characters Thanati used to denote foreign words. "Very nice! It's a joy to meet you, Gutztomp! I'm Mei! Hmm, now, you say you're green because it's the best. Interesting. I'd say that's rather subjective! I'm rather fond of red, myself, but green is a very calming color. Very natural and soothing. Where do you live, Gutztomp? Are you alone out here, or are there more of you?"
"Green is da best," Gutztomp reasserted. "And I live alone in a cave in da mountains where I keep all my trophies of my greatest kills."
"I see!" Mei said and, pursing her lips, wrote down "solitary" in her notes. "So you're a hunter, then? What kinds of things do you hunt? Do you eat a meat based diet, or are you an omnivore?"
"I hunt da biggest fings I can find," Gutztomp replied. "And I eat meat. A lot of meat."
"Interesting! Very interesting!" Mei said as she sketched, and decided she would have to try to pry more answers out of him some other way. He was clearly a simple man.
Soon, she had finished her sketch, and she sat up on her knees and held her book open to him proudly so he could see. And it was actually a rather good drawing! Mei had always been artistic. "There! All finished! It's the spitting image of you, don't you think?"
Gutztomp looked closely at the drawing and frowned.
"It's not green," he said flatly.
"Well, no. I have no pigment with me," Mei said with a laugh, rubbing her nose and smudging charcoal onto it in the process. "Far too messy! This is already messy enough. But aside from the missing green, I'd say it's a pretty accurate likeness, wouldn't you?"
"It's not green," Gutztomp repeated, crossing his arms. "It has ta be green. I'm not white like a puny 'ooman."
Mei let out a laugh at that and glanced down at her own arms, her skin a warm, dark brown. "Well, I'm not white, either!" she said with a grin. "And I'm human! It has nothing to do with that. These charcoal sticks only come in one color, I'm afraid!"
She held the stick out for him to see. "I mean, I could do some shading to make you look darker, but I'm afraid that's the best I can do. Unfortunately, I can't color with green if I don't have any pigment, and I have no pigment!"
Gutztomp scowled. He was not pleased. He was an ork! Orks were green, not the same color as puny little humans.
"Den get some pigment," he growled. "I will not be puny 'ooman color."
Uh oh. Mei saw his mood shifting before her eyes, and she glanced down at her book, then at him.
"Ah...well...I, see, that is, we're actually not near any towns or places where I could get some," she said. "But I assure you, you're still green! Just, your drawing isn't green. Yet! I even made a note beside the drawing, see, that says you're green--for future reference! And you are a magnificent, majestic green, believe me! Besides, this drawing doesn't have you human-colored. The colors aren't any colors at all, because it hasn't been colored in yet! It's just blank. Besides, not even light-skinned humans are white. They're more...pinkish."
"I know wot color a 'ooman is," Gutztomp snapped. "Do you fink I'm stupid or somefing?"
"What? No! No, not at all!" Mei said quickly, shaking her head. Oh dear. Ohhh dear. She did not want to deal with an angry giant that punched bears for fun! "No, I'm very aware you know what humans look like! I was just making conversation, that's all!"
"I also know wot they look like broken in two," Gutztomp informed her. "So don't give me reason to show ya. You've been alright so far. For an 'ooman."
The blood drained from Mei's face at that and her eyes widened. "A-ah...if I offended you, I'm really terribly sorry!" she said, shutting her book and taking a step back away from him.
Please don't break me in half!
"Why you so scared, " Gutztomp asked menacingly . "Are you hiding somefing? Wot's dat book even for?"
"Well, I just, I don't want to be broken in half!" Mei said with a laugh that came out far more nervous than genuine. He certainly wasn't helping with her nerves! She hadn't been really scared of him before until that comment, which lead her to believe a slip up might lead to spine-breaking.
Besides, he was rather intimidating when he was being growly...
"This book, it's just my notes. I'm a scholar, you see..."
"Wot day hell's a scholar," the ork asked.
"Oh, that's...that's someone who researches, essentially!" Mei said, calming a little and hoping his curiosity would keep him subdued. She mustered up a smile.
"I travel all over the world, learning about things and recording it in this book here," she said, patting it. "I suppose I should decide on a focus, a specialty, but I just can't settle on one thing! So I suppose this is turning out to be more of a documentation of my travels than anything, but I'm also hoping maybe I'll uncover something no one else has written about or find something new, or debunk a myth! That's my dream!"
"Sounds boring," Gutztomp commented. "Fightin' is way more fun den that."
"Different strokes for different folks!" Mei said with a small shrug. "I find it very rewarding and fulfilling! I've gotten to see so many amazing things and meet so many amazing people and have some pretty wild adventures! A few awkward adventures and mishaps, too, because I'm afraid I'm not all familiar with all the local customs and colloquialisms and nuances, and it can be a bit of a culture shock sometimes, but that's all part of learning and growing!"
She smiled, relaxing more. She could deal with his disinterest unfazed! It was his aggression that worried her.
"I'm sure fighting is very fun, though!" she added quickly. "I have a lot of friends that do that. I know a lot of warriors. I was just never made to be a warrior." She rolled up her sleeve to show off her skinny arm. "Too puny!"
"Dat's for sure," Gutztomp said. "You learn plenty by fightin' though. I learned dat trolls can't heal if you take dere 'eads off."
Mei stared up at him.
"That...well. That's one for my book," she said with an uneasy laugh. "Though, I believe most things can't heal after decapitation."
"Trolls heal really fast," Gutztomp explained. "You cut da damn fing's arm off and it grows right back, but not dere 'eads. Dere 'eads stay cut off."
"Oh...I...I see," Mei said, and after a pause, her nose scrunched up, she flipped her book open to the page after Gutztomp's portrait, knelt back on the ground, and started to take notes on that. "Huh! I actually didn't know that! Then again, I can't say I actually know much about trolls. What else can you tell me?"
"About what," he asked.
"Oh, about trolls!" Mei said, looking up from her writing. "It sounds like you fought one, so surely you know much about them."
"I've fought quite a few," Gutztomp said. "Dey kinda tall and have big ears, kinda ugly. Dey heal really fast which is annoying. Dey hit kinda hard, but dey only use rocks and sticks and stuff as weapons. And dey're stupid too."
That really wasn't very useful information, but it would have been rude to say as much! So Mei wrote down the parts she found useful, and then smiled up at Gutztomp. "I've never seen a troll before," she said when she was done. "But they sound rather fierce! How brave you must be to have fought so many!"
"Trolls aren't dat big a deal," Gutztomp bragged. "I've killed a dragon before."
"A dragon?" Mei gasped, and she wasn't just putting him on. She was legitimately surprised and impressed. "Well, don't stop there! Tell me about it! Don't leave out any details!"
Gutztomp thought for a moment.
"Well, it was big, scaly, and it liked to breathe fire a lot. Their skin is too tough to through, so you gotta cut dere softer belly if you wanna do anyfing to 'em. Other then dat, you just gotta dodge da fire, da claws, and da teef."
"Oh, you can give me more details than that!" Mei said with a laugh, looking up at him. "How did you defeat it? What was it like? How did you feel? What did the one you fought look like? I want to hear the whole story! It's not everyday you meet someone who's met a dragon, much less killed one."
"I already told you everyfing," Gutztomp. "I killed it by cutting its 'ead off. It's hanging on my trophy wall."
Oh, that was so not the exciting, epic, detailed story Mei was craving, but Mei was getting the distinct feeling that this angry, green man wasn't one for details.
"Hmm..." she said, trying--and failing--to hide her disappointment. "That's very exciting. Ah! Where is your trophy wall?"
"In my cave in da mountains," he told her. "It's a big wall, but I'm startin' ta run outta space."
"I take it you have a lot of trophies," Mei said, trying to imagine how many things he must have slain to be out of space in a cave! Then again, it could have been a tiny cave. She decided she wouldn't speculate that out loud.
"What is your favorite of them?"
Gutztomp scratched his chin in thought. Which one was his favorite? He had never thought about that before.
"I don't know," he said finally. "I never picked out a favorite. I just stick da trophy on da wall and den go for another."
"Oh! Well, that's very interesting!" Mei said, even though it was a little anticlimactic, because she figured that telling him everything was interesting would keep him nice and...not threatening to bash her skull in.
"What other sorts of beasts have you hunted?"
Gutztomp thought for a moment before counting off a list on his fingers.
"Trolls, dragons, goblins, ogres, other orks, oomans, dwarves, elves, bears, giant lizard fings I find in da forest sometimes.... Pretty much anyfing and everything."
"Wait. Back up. Did you...did you say humans?" Mei said, eyes going large.
"Yeah," Gutztomp replied. "I've killed a bunch o' oomans. They die so easy, though. It's hard ta find one dat puts up a decent fight and doesn't go down after one hit."
"...Oh." It came out a small squeak. Maybe Mei should have figured that, considering his earlier threats, but still!
She barked a nervous laugh. "Yes, indeed, humans do tend to die easily! We're rather soft and squishy, I'm afraid. We don't have much in the way of natural defenses! We're really quite naked in that regard. Ah, you probably shouldn't kill them. We pose no challenge at all!"
"Dat's for sure," Gutztomp agreed. "They not big, tough, and green like da orks. I took on a whole lot dem at da same time and killed 'em all anyway. It woulda been better if there had been more of dem."
"Eh heh..." Mei paled a bit at that, and started to back away from him. Perhaps she had gotten all the research she currently needed from him. She slipped her book back into her bag and took another backwards step.
"True enough, that! Well, sir, it's been lovely chatting with you! I had probably better be on my way."
Gutztomp shrugged.
"I'm going to go find dat bear then," Gutztomp said. "I ain't through with it yet."
Gutztomp then turned to go off and find that bear from earlier. He was hungry, and bears had a lot of meat them. It would be enough for a day's worth of food for him.
"Ah..."
Mei stared at him for a long moment, debating with herself, and then cursed to herself and darted after him.
"Wait, no! You should leave the bear alone! She's a mother with cubs, and she was only protecting her young!"
"Then I'll kill the little 'uns too," Gutztomp replied. "Dat bear's gonna keep me fed for a whole day at least. Da small ones could be a midnight snack."
"WHAT? NO!" Mei gasped in unbridled horror, and the thought of those cubs dying was enough to make her bold. Perhaps foolishly so. She ran up ahead and came to a stop in front of the ork, spreading her arms wide and puffing herself as much as she could. All five foot nothing of her.
"You can't! They're just babies! That's horrible! I understand you need to eat, just as anyone does, but I assure you there are plenty of other things to eat than bears! I have food! You can have that! But killing cubs is like murdering children, and to kill a mother, too? Inima! You like challenges, too, you said. What challenge is there in killing something too young and helpless to defend itself, much less against someone as powerful as you?"
Gutztomp grabbed Mei's arm and lifted her into the air, bringing her level to his face.
"I can kill whatever I want," Gutztomp growled. "Dare are plenty of other bears, killing one won't make no diff'rence. Besides, you don't 'ave enough meat on you to be wurf anyfing."
Gutztomp then turned and dropped Mei onto the ground behind him before continuing on.
Mei squeaked when Gutztomp grabbed her and hoisted her into the air, and whatever boldness she'd been displaying drained right out of her. She blanched when she came face to face with him, abruptly reminded that this was a creature that punched bears, that he confessed to killing people, and that he could snap her in half with just his fingers! She froze, scarcely breathing, and prayed he didn't break her arm!
And when he mentioned she didn't have enough meat on her, her eyes went wide.
Did...did that mean he'd considered eating her?!
But while her mind was playing catch up, he dropped her, and she landed awkwardly on her feet, which had gone weak with fear, and which slipped out from under her so she landed with a thump on her ass.
"...You...you are indeed correct. I am very scrawny! Aha...ha..."
"Yes you are," Gutztomp replied as he continued on. "Now stay outta my way if you know what's good for you."
Against her better judgment, Mei bounced to her feet and trotted after the ork.
"I will stay out of your way!" she said, keeping out of arm's reach. "I will! But! I must advise you leave those bears alone! They're a vital part of the environment here! And probably a rare species, since I didn't recognize them from my notes! More than likely! If you kill those bears, who knows what kind of irreparable damage you could be doing! They could be the last of their kind! They could, um..."
Mei pursed her lips. No, no doubt the simpleton wouldn't care about any of those very important facts!
"There is better food in the other direction, anyway!"
The mention of better food made Gutztomp pause and turn around.
"Wot kind of food," he asked skeptically.
He might not be the smartest creature, but he knew that she might be lying to him to save those bears.
"Uhhh...good food!" Mei said, grasping at straws. "Lots of meat, all greasy and steaming from the cooking fires! Better meat than tough old bear meat, that's for sure. I'm talking tender stuff that will melt in your mouth. Like..."
She scrambled for ideas. She was a lifelong vegetarian, so she was just going off of what she'd seen, and cooked meat looked greasy and gross! She wasn't sure what kind of meat would be tender. "Like cow!"
Gutztomp listened to all of the nonsense the poured out of Mei's mouth. Meat was good. Gutztomp liked meat. Supposedly she knew where there was a lot of it.
"Fine den," Gutztomp said. "Show me."
"...Ah. Right. Of course. Show you. Show you were the meat is..."
Great. You and your big mouth, Mei! Now she had to think fast and lead this big, green, murderous wall of muscle to a source of meat before he decided to just go ahead and have her as a snack. Looking him over, she wondered how fast he could run, and if she could outrun him.
"Yes! Meat. Well, ahaha...yes. Just follow me, then! Quickly!" And then she took off at a run, deciding she would test that right now.
Gutztomp took off after her. He was slow at first, but he got faster as he gained momentum. Once at top speed he was barreling through the forest crushing underbrush and snapping branches. He was gaining on Mei due to his longer legs and bigger stride. The fact that he could just run through obstacles that Mei had to avoid helped him keep up as well.
That answered that. Think, Mei, think! Um! Arca! Yes! She could take him to Arca! That was miles away, but that was the only civilized place she knew of! And if they got into civilization, surely there would be meat?
Either way, Mei couldn't run forever, and it was a short while before she slowed and then stopped, doubling over and wheezing for breath with her hands resting on her knees. She held up a finger, signaling Gutztomp to wait, because she had run for barely a minute and she was already winded!
Hey, she was a scholar, not a runner! She hated running, truth be told.
Gutztomp was breathing slightly heavier, but was perfectly fine otherwise. Even with his armor and weapons weighing him down he was not nearly as exhausted as Mei.
"Where is it," Gutztomp asked looking around.
Oh, jeez!
"Just a bit further!" Mei panted, straightening back up. "It's, er, well, you see, I'm not a very good runner, I'm afraid! More time studying, less time exercising! But if we walk briskly, we should be there soon! Why don't you tell me more about orks while we walk, hm? Do all your kind have green skin?"
Just keep him talking! Just keep him talking!
...And hey, besides, she was genuinely interested.
"Of course we do," Gutztomp replied. "Green is da best. Orks is da best. So all orks are green."
As they walked, Gutztomp wondered if Mei would even be enough to be considered a snack. She was very scrawny. If she was lying he'd probably just snap her in two and leave her. She didn't have enough meat to be worthwhile. If she was telling the truth, then she wasn't important enough to deal with at all once they got to their destination.
"Indeed! You certainly do seem to be an apex predator. Perhaps when we've reached our destination you wouldn't mind if I take a few samples? For science, you see. I like to study things, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can about a wide variety of subjects! Become very well-rounded, you know! I'm not sure my people really have much information about orks, actually, so anything you can tell me is invaluable. You've already told me a lot, but there's still so much more! Like your culture! Do your people have any spiritual beliefs?" Mei chattered as they walked, keeping up a stream of conversation that, while genuine, was also helping her think up a Plan B.
She wasn't very familiar with Arca, and she had a feeling this Ork wasn't very patient. She needed to find a place that served meat fast!
"You talk too much, and too fast," Gutztomp said. "You're giving me damn headache. Either shutup or slow down."
Gutztomp hadn't really paid attention to anything she just said, but was she ever annoying. He had half a mind to dislocate her jaw until they reached their destination.
Mei blinked.
"Oh. Ah. Should I speak slower, then?"
"Or not at all," Gutztomp mumbled. "All you 'oomans are da same. You all talk too much."
Mei paused for a moment and pressed her lips together as though repressing another speech, seemingly thinking very hard as she considered his words, before she shot him a cautious look. "...I'm not sure I can do that."
"And why is dat," Gutztomp asked irritably.
"Wouldn't the silence be awkward?" Mei asked, cocking her head to peer up at him. "Just...walking quietly, not saying a word? That's not strange to you? Because it would feel very unnatural to me, but then again, I'm not too fond of empty silence and it's apparently human nature to fill in silences with noise. You're not a human, of course, so maybe orks don't have that impulse? Do your people prefer silence to conversation? Do you perhaps have nonverbal ways of communicating?"
Gutztomp slammed his fist into a tree creating a shower of leaves and spooking a great many birds.
"Dat's how orks communicate," he said simply in the silence that followed.
Mei flinched at the crashing, cracking noise and violence he inflicted upon the poor tree, but then stared up at him in fascination. In an instant, she had her book out and a piece of charcoal in hand.
"Really? What did that mean?"
"It means I'm gonna break your damn jaw if ya don't quit flappin' it," Gutztomp replied.
"Fascinating!" Mei said, and her charcoal flew over the parchment as she wrote in neat Thanati characters. "Now how do you tell the difference between different punches? By the force or the object that is punched? I'm sure there were some nuances in that gesture that were invisible to my non-native eyes."
Gutztomp facepalmed and sighed.
"I punched da tree, cuz if I punched you would prolly would have died," Gutztomp told her. "Orks don't punch random fings to communicate. We punch faces."
"...Oh!" Mei said, face going pale. "Oh...well...I certainly appreciate you not punching me in the face! Ah, please don't do that, okay?"
Gutztomp sighed. This was starting to seem like too much trouble, but the bears were probably long gone by now. Once they got to where they were going, he was going to kill this annoying little human. She was just so irritating.
"Are we almost dare," he asked.
Mei looked from Gutztomp to the road ahead--and saw that, indeed, she could make out the city wall not far ahead. She had been so distracted talking to the ork (and hoping he wouldn't punch her!) that she'd lost track of their destination.
"We are, indeed!" she said, and pointed. "See those walls? That's it! Once we're inside there, your reward won't be far."
She fidgeted with the straps of her haversack as she spoke, growing a little sweaty beneath her robes. This little walk had been all fun and games (and very informative!), but, er...she still hadn't figured out what she was going to do once they were within those walls.
Perhaps running was a wise idea...
"It better not be," Gutztomp grumbled.
He picked up his pace slightly so that he could get there quicker. Finally, he would be able to fill his empty ork belly.
It wasn't much longer before they reached the city gates, and by some miracle, Mei managed to control her tongue. It was mainly the threat of punching that did it! There was something about that that just made her realize how much trouble she could potentially be in if she didn't come up with a plan, and so she used the energy she'd normally expend on talking on thinking, and thinking fast!
The marketplace. She could take him to the marketplace. She never said she would buy him anything, after all! She could point out the meat and then leave!
"So, here we are!" she said as they approached the gates. "Almost, I mean! The meat's all inside! But before we enter, you have to be on your best behavior, okay? No punching anyone, or killing anyone, or destroying anything, otherwise you won't get any meat! Okay?"
"I can't promise anyfing," Gutztomp told her. "Especially if there's not as much meat as you say."
Gulp.
"Ah...well...I suppose that will have to work," Mei said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear nervously. "Very good, then! In we go!"
And with that, she lead the way inside, eyes darting around as she walked. "Just a little farther, and we'll be to the marketplace!"
The massive green beast walking through the city definitely turned a lot of heads. Some people slipped inside the nearest building while others just stared. The majority of them have never seen such a creature before. Gutztomp, however, paid them no head. He was used to it. No one ever had the guts to say anything to him anyway.
Soon, the clamor and noise of the marketplace began to grow louder and louder, the sounds of people haggling and animals bleating and clucking filling the air. Mei looked around nervously as they finally entered the marketplace itself, already looking for escape routes and wondering if she could lose herself in the crowd. The ork was fast, that she had learned! But she was small, and hopefully she could get somewhere he couldn't!
"Ahh!" she said, taking a deep breath. "I can already smell the meat! All rich and...meaty..."
Gutztomp inhaled through his nose. He could smell it as well.
"Where is it," he asked.
"it's, uh..."
Mei cast a look around the marketplace, heart in her throat, and then pointed when she caught sight of a woman selling cuts of some sort of red meat. "There!"
"Finally."
Gutztomp walked over and grabbed a massive green handful of meat.
...Aaaand this was her cue to flee! That...that was not exactly how she imagined that going, but on further thought, she wasn't sure how else it could have gone.
Because, predictably, the merchants flipped, turning on the ork and screaming at him indignantly and demanding he pay for what he'd soiled. And Mei had a feeling this wasn't going to turn out pretty!
With a wide-eyed, panicked look his way, she turned on her heel and ran.
Turn out pretty it certainly did not. Gutztomp did not appreciate the shouting, so he had grabbed the merchant by the neck and tossed her aside. Soon the guards were called, but the ten or so that came were no match for the massive greenskin. The scrawny human that had led him there had completely slipped his mind and he enjoyed beating the daylights out of all who tried to stop him.
Eventually, the townsfolk relented and let Gutztomp walk away with his prize. The marketplace was in ruins and several bodies lay broken on the ground. Meanwhile, Gutztomp was shoving the raw meat into his maw amidst satisfied grunts and loud, obnoxious chewing.