Koldusek

A 2000 word commission for @envy-kitty​​, the second place prize for the 2000 follower giveaway! A young herbalist hears singing from the swamp near her home, where she often gathers ingredients for her remedies, and decided to befriend the singer. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Towns Masterlist

Though I am a frog, And I live in a bog, I lament that I’m alone.

I sing and I sing, Hoping it might bring A friend to call my own.

You heard this song every evening. The voice was a coarse and croaky baritone, but strangely not unpleasant, and you wondered if it really was a frog singing its sad song.

You didn’t live in the swamp, but you were close. You were an herbalist and owned the apothecary of the nearby village, and a lot of your stock came from the swamp, so you were in and out of that place rather often.

It had been you, at first, to sing. As you were gathering ingredients for a tincture, you were humming an old lullaby to yourself as you gathered, not noticing at first that there was a second voice harmonizing with you. Just the knowledge that you weren’t alone was enough to startle you, and in what was considerably not your finest moment, you shrieked and dropped all of your things, running back toward your cottage as fast as your feet could carry you.

Your orc knight is more than easy to pick out a crowd.

His presence tends to fill an entire room, and even in an outdoor gathering like today's equinox festival, he is very hard to miss.

And yet, you've walked the entire grounds at least thrice over since slipping away from your family's boring obligations, and haven't laid eyes on him.

So where exactly did he get off to?

You skulk off on your reconnaissance mission, quite experienced with sneaking around without dirtying your fine clothes by now.

"Well, what do we have here?" You ask breezily as you lean over the railing of the stone half-wall to look down at him, as if you didn't seek him out with purpose. "What is my personal knight doing all the way out here?"

"Following orders." He says gruffly, not flinching or moving from his post at all, and then remembering to add; "My liege."

"Well, you can't exactly bodyguard effectively from all the way over here, now can you?" You sigh, absently picking at a spot of crumbling mortar in frustration. "It would seem the king and queen still haven't truly grasped what the personal part of a personal knight means."

The orc doesn't comment on that directly, apart from a simple, neutral grunt- in his position you suppose you wouldn't be caught admitting to questioning your employer's judgment, either.

"Gatehouse duty." He explains curtly.

You look out at the desolate, dusty road leading out into the nearby farmland and see that it is as deserted as you expected. Almost no one uses this side entrance on most days, except for the local farmers bringing in loads of crops- and of course none of them are working on a festival day.

"Hmph. I'm surprised they didn't install a very important new latrine, just for you to watch over." You tease, only half-joking.

That does get a muffled chuckle out of him.

Your parents' meddling aggravates you to no end. He is your knight, not someone to be commandeered by your parents and set to work doing menial tasks that are insulting for his skill level. Not to mention the fact they clearly put him over here to exclude him from the festivities…

You're going to have to have a talk with them- again. You, and they, are well aware that by ancient law, your will and word supersedes theirs when it comes to your own personal knight- even if they are the king and queen. But you don't doubt they would take advantage of him not knowing that, being an outsider to your culture.

You take a breath and put on your best commanding voice.

"From now on, you only take direction from me. Only me. Do you understand?"

"You… have that authority?" He asks, seemingly trying to phrase it in the least disrespectful way possible.

"Are you questioning a direct order?" You scoff in a way that you've been told many times is unbecoming of a young royal.

"No."

"Then, come back with me, please. We've missed your chance to dominate the tourney, I'm afraid… But the celebration hasn't fully winded down. It's got some life left yet to enjoy- Please."

He pauses, helmet tipped slightly back in thought.

"…I apologize. I cannot."

"Why not?"

"I… do not think that my presence would be appreciated."

"I appreciate it."

You take the luxuriant flower crown made of crocuses, pale roses and laurel leaves off your head. Then, leaning over the ledge precariously, drop it gingerly atop the orc's helmet.

After a moment lost for words, he scrambles with a horrible clanking noise to take the favor off his head once he's realized what's happened.

"My liege, I cannot take this-"

Unfortunately for him, you've already darted off in the other direction, back towards the heart of the celebration.