No orcs allowed

With our stuff gathered, I check my bag to see that I hadn't been robbed of my gold, while I didn't have an exact count it all appeared to be there. Quinara mounts her hammer to one side of the saddle and put Zihans axe on the other before throwing the saddle onto our new horse. And what a horse it was, it was huge with deep maroon fur I had seen these horses before but usually they were farming horses pulling plows not for riding. Though thinking about it, it made sense that Zihans horse would need to be such a beast to carry him. "You sure we can both ride it?" I ask Quinara, while the horse was huge so was Quinara and with my weight added I was concerned for the animal. "Relax runt, you weigh basically nothing we probably will be lighter than he was, especially after a raid he would have like five humans worth in trophies". That image wasn't one I particularly liked but it was very easily believed, "ok... what's it's name?" I ask her, "Gail, her name is Gail" she says petting the horses mane, "that's a nice name" I remark stepping closer to stroke it's mane as well. "He named it after the first human he killed" Quinara shares, instantly all the magic was gone, "gods is there anything he did that wasn't just pure evil?" I groan, "die" Quinara replies, letting me know about his single non evil act.

Quinara mounts the horse, her height serving her greatly, before grabbing me and with one arm lifting me onto the horse. I sat in front of her cradled by her strong arms as she took the reins. We left in a hurry, Quinara putting Gail to work as we galloped out of the orc camp, I couldn't blame her for wanting to get out of here quick. We speed through the rocky trails of the mountain lands, putting as much distance as we can between us and Quinara's clan.

"Hey I think you can ease up a bit, we're free" I say to her as we continue to gallop, we had maintained this pace for the last hour since leaving the camp. "No chance runt we need to get out of orc territory" she says, "look they're not going to come after us, why would they?" I say, sure when Zihan was alive they had an interest in getting Quinara back but now she had no ties and I think the last thing her brother wanted right now was to see her. "I know but there's less inns in orc territory and I'm not fucking you in a bedroll on hard ground for our first time" she explains, suddenly I had no issues with her hurried pace; in fact I wanted her to go faster.

The sun is beginning to set it's amber glow illuminating the building in the distance, "this had better be an inn" Quinara says her frustration evident. As we gallop closer we find out it is indeed a tavern, "The Nags Head" the sign says hanging from the side of the building. However that's not the only sign as in the window is a scrawled handwritten sign saying "no orcs allowed". We pass next to it and Gail slows to a trot, "it's ok we will find another place" I say reassuringly looking back at her. Quinara's face was awash with contemplation, I see her scan the barren landscape, and glance back at the sun as it threatened to dip below the horizon. "We aren't finding anywhere else before night fall" she observes "and Gail needs a rest" she adds, Gail was indeed panting we had been pushing her quite hard with our eagerness for a warm bed. "Ok let's find somewhere to set up camp then" I suggest, Quinara scowls "I'm not having our first time be on bedroll and hard ground" she states firmly, "ok then we wait until tomorrow when we find a inn, we just get some shut eye and leave early tomorrow" I suggest earning yet another scowl from Quinara. "No, I'm not waiting. You fought for me, you're mine now and I'm not waiting to take what's mine" the intensity from her words worried me, and what further worried me was her guiding Gail to the water trough outside the inn. "W-what are you going to do?" I ask not liking where this is heading, Quinara reaches to her hammer "I'm just going to talk to them, see if they can make an exception" I gulp as I prepare for the upcoming confrontation.

"Squee!" The sound of a fiddle sharply scratching to a halt signals our entry to the Nags head, the silence is palpable as all eyes turn to us. There's roughly six people in the tavern not including the barkeep and the fiddle player on the raised platform serving as a stage. They all glare at Quinara their hands resting on their blades, the barkeep pulls out a heavy crossbow before spitting "can't you read?" Quinara says nothing but takes a step forward as the barkeep raises his crossbow, "I'm warning you" he shouts, I was scared, not for Quinara I had zero doubts she could take everyone in here effortlessly but I was scared for them. I didn't even know if Quinara planned on attacking, she had said she didn't like killing and avoided it unless absolutely necessary, would getting me in bed make this necessary? I would usually say no but there was an intensity in her eyes that had me thinking I was about to witness a bloodbath.

"Stop!" I shout mustering all my authority, the rooms attention turns to me as they all stop in place. "Sorry about that the dumb brute isn't fully trained yet" I say cringing internally from saying it but I had an idea and it was worth trying before Quinara started cracking skulls. Quinara's head snaps to me and I expect to see rage in her eyes but instead there's a curiosity, she was wondering where I was going with this. "Trained? You're training an orc?" One of the patrons ask, "yep it's going well, she will be no trouble we just need a room for the night" there's a murmuring among the patrons before the barkeep says "how can we be sure?" I turn to face Quinara, looking into her eyes I see recognition, the patrons may not believe it but I knew Quinara was sharp enough to understand what I was doing here. "Kneel!" I command, Quinara kneels doing as I ask, "stand!" The same occurs Quinara obeys, "speak tell them who's in charge!" I command once again, "yes master, you are in charge master" Quinara lies, I notice the men look at each other in disbelief "how do you do that?" One asks, I laugh "orcs are dumb enough to where you can condition them" I lie, feeling awful but they buy it completely, "fuck man that's a real skill" one says in awe.

With the tension dissipated, I walk to the bar leading Quinara both ashamed of the role I had to play and relieved that no one had died. "Hmm interesting stuff" he says placing the crossbow on the bar "why would you go through all the effort of breaking in an orc?" He quizzes and as he does I see the answer in a wanted poster behind him, the sketch was of an orc I knew milky eyes, dark hair, it was a headshot of an orc whose head I took earlier that day. "Needed one to get into orc territory, had business there business that I think would be of interest to you" I turn to Quinara "fetch the axe" I command snapping my fingers. Quinara nods "of course master" she was playing her role perfectly, she heads out to get Zihans axe.

When Quinara returns there's a gasp from some of the patrons, they were local enough to recognise the weapon, no doubt Zihan had terrorised everything that was in the vicinity of the orcs camp with raids. Quinara places the axe on the bar and the barkeep looks at me with stunned disbelief, "you killed that thing?" He says in shock, "yep, I'm here for the reward money, just take out how much it is for the room out of it" I reply. The barkeep grins, "nonsense your rooms are free, two rooms is it? He asks, "one room with the biggest bed" I say, he raises an eyebrow, "I need to keep an eye on her, just in case" I add hoping that placates him. "Fair enough any other requests?" I think for a second, if the patrons were to overhear a conversation between me and Quinara it would be difficult to explain why I was letting her speak to me as an equal among other noises that may be made. "Um yeah can I get a room with thick walls" he really raises his eyebrows now, he pauses likely waiting for an explanation of some kind. My mind goes blank but thankfully Quinara steps in for me "I disobeyed master will need to discipline me, he's just trying to be curt-ee-us" she says phonetically sounding out the word "courteous" as if it was a word I had taught her that she wasn't familiar with. Now I knew Quinara absolutely knew what courteous meant but they didn't know that and Quinara was selling it, I also couldn't help but notice what an inspired choice it was to choose courteous, she was playing right into their preconceptions of an orc perfectly. The barkeep nods "right so how long will you be staying?" "A week", I feel Quinara lightly kick my shin "er actually make it two weeks" I say this placates her, the barkeep gets our key, a successful endeavor; we had a bedroom to consumate our marriage and Quinara didn't have to kill anyone.