It came back. The hateful child-killing monster that was the elf sneaked up to the tent, clearly sensing it had been disturbed.

It was beautiful.

SHE was beautiful.

No that wasn’t even the right word. She was magnificent, radiant, glorious, stunning, exquisite and breathtaking. But none of those words did her appearance justice either.

Well maybe breathtaking. Nargi hadn’t exhaled since he set eyes on her.

Everything happened in a blur. The screaming, the charging Grishar, the elf turning, only to be gravely cut by the knife-wielding spinning kobold. Her green eyes widened in shock, mouth slightly opened, perfect lips tensing as she let out a shriek. More spinning Grishar, blood gushing from the cuts in the porcelain skin of her slightly toned arms. A flame, smoke, Grishar running, Grishar running on fire, Grishar running on fire screaming, Grishar running on fire screaming his name, Grishar…

As Grishar smashed into his chest, Nargi snapped out of it and started to extinguish Grishar’s burning clothing. He was burnt BAD, that was going to take some serious healing later, but first…

Nargi picked Grishar up under his arm and jumped aside. Right in time as the red-haired beauty threw a fireball into the exact spot where they’d been standing a fraction of a second earlier.

“Where were you?” Grishar shouted as Nargi dodged another fireball.

Nargi didn’t know. His mind had just wandered off. It never did that, but it had, and now they were dodging fireballs.

“I can get close I think, then slice her throat” Grishar said. Overconfident idiot. He looked and smelled like a barbeque had gone wrong. Yes, he was fast, but another hit and Nargi wouldn’t be sure if he could heal him. No, it was going to be him. It had to be him.

“I’m going to go for it. Sneak behind her back in case I fail. Her attention will be on me. Do NOT enter her field of sight, ok little one?”

Grishar grinned and nodded as he usually would, but Nargi could see the little guy was in pain. He put him down, dodged another fireball and started running.

The ground thumped as he ran as fast as he could. Nothing could stop a running Nargi as he set collision course straight for the elf. Run up and smash her head. Run up and smash her head. Run up and... 

Another fireball hit Nargi in the chest. It hurt like hell, but since it was just hot air, it didn’t offer any resistance to Nargi’s charge. He clenched his fist, aimed, looked at the elf’s determined green eyes and forgot to punch.

The collision was brutal. Bashed by Nargi’s chest in full force, the elf’s body landed 20 feet away against a tree and slumped on the ground. Nargi trotted to a halt and checked his injuries. Heavy burns on his chest was all. That and the complete loss of chest hair. Grishar had been worse, so he would fix him up first. But before anything else he needed to check on the elf.

“Shall I cut her throat just to make sure? It’s kind of a waste, she’s really nice looking. If she wasn’t unconscious, I’d totally do her.”

“What the hell are you saying!?”

Grishar made some very suggestive and disgusting movements to explain his train of thought. Nargi wished he didn’t.

“But she’s an ELF!” Nargi said, with a voice that said THAT was the most disgusting thing on the planet.

“Yeah, but she’s really hot you see. Ha, HOT. I made a pun!” Grishar laughed loudly at his own joke. Which wasn’t very funny in any case.

Nargi looked at the unconscious elf. Her auburn hair, closed eyes with long lashes, a small nose, soft plump lips. Holy lord in the sky how on earth does such a creature exist? Oh lord in the sky it even had freckles...

“Hey!” Grishar yelled, waving a hand in front of Nargi’s face. “Did your head wander off again? I was asking you. Shall I kill her now or do you want to heal her so that I can have sweet make-up sex with her? I bet the sex is ON FIRE. Hahaha!” Grishar was rolling over the floor laughing from his own dumb joke.

Kill her now! Nargi’s brain screamed at him. You can’t leave an elf half-dead. They’d come for you and this one wasn’t even strangling people with vines but actually setting them on fire. She set people on fire. Nargi had never heard of an elf who’d do that. He thought they hated fire, with their nature-loving shit and all. This one was kind of impressive. The way she looked when he was running at her. Not afraid. She was going to die and there wasn’t a single hint of fear. What a woman…

Kill her NOW! His brain screamed again as her lips started moving. A groan came out of the perfect creature’s mouth and Nargi’s heart just stopped.

“Nargi, mate, it’s really time to make up your mind…” Grishar tugged at his arm.

“She’s just…” Nargi exhaled and tried to think of a word fitting in that sentence. He found none. Never had he seen something like this. She was too perfect, he just couldn’t kill her. He couldn’t even keep his eyes off her.

Grishar chuckled, “Ha big bad orc wants to have a go as well? It’s okay I can share.”

“Shut up.”

“I’ll shut up if you heal me. I just gotsta look my best for this one.”

“Fine.” Nargi put Grishar on his lap and put his hands on his wounds, then channelled the healing energy as he had practiced, and the burns on Grishar’s body slowly started disappearing. Meanwhile Nargi and Grishar both kept their eyes on the elf’s face. At one point her eyelids fluttered open and she looked hazily at the duo. The way her eyes moved made Nargi sure of the fact she had a bad concussion. Probably her brain would swell in the next hour or so and she’d die.

She mumbled something in elvish. It had the word slaugh in it. That meant orc, it was the only elvish word Nargi knew, well that and ‘mor’ which Nargi guessed meant ‘die’ since the two words usually went together. But in her sentence they didn’t. She didn’t look like she was about to kill anyone either. More interesting, she still didn’t look fearful. She was lying helplessly on the ground with a bad concussion with an orc and a ‘kobold’ looking at her and she still wasn’t afraid. Just… WOW…

Grishar had noticed the same thing. “She’s not afraid of us. She must be insane. The insane ones are often the best in the sack though, so this looks promising. Are you going to heal her now?”

“Grishar, what are you saying? You’re never afraid of anything either.”

“True, and my sex is the best a woman could possibly get, see, my theory is correct!”

“You just called yourself insane.”

“Insanely good looking is what I am!”

Nargi sighed and focussed on the elf again. If he just healed her, she might set them on fire again. He needed to talk to her.

“Elf, you are hurt. I can heal you, but I don’t want you to set us on fire.”

The elf spit some comments in Elvish. This wasn’t working. Nargi tried to find the words from the human language. Maybe she understood that?

“Elf. You are hurt. I can heal you. Don’t roast us.”

The elves eyes went wide and she replied, “You robbed my camp and attacked me, why wouldn’t I burn you to the ground?” Her human speech was fluent, which surprised Nargi a bit.

“Should we just leave you like this then? Your brain will swell and you will die within a couple of hours.”

“Why do you care, slaugh?” She spit out the last word as if it was the most disgusting thing she’d ever said.

Yeah why DID he care? She was an ELF. A monster. He had happily killed many of her kind and had cut of their ears to show at home. Why did he care now?

“I don’t know.” He said.

“What the fuck are you doing Nargi? What sounds are coming from you?” Grishar interrupted.

“Shut up for a minute Grishar, I’m talking to the elf.” Nargi bit back in orcish. He was getting annoyed. Not because of Grishar but because of himself. His head was weird. It wasn’t working as it should. He shouldn’t even be in this situation. Why couldn’t he just do what was right and kill the elf?

The elf sighed. The sound had the hairs on Nargi’s arms stand up, in a good way, which was even more terrifying then the bad way. “Well. Are you going to kill me or what?”

“No.” Nargi replied immediately.

“But I’m a monster to your kind am I not? Why don’t you slash my throat and cut off my ears to take home to your tribe?”

“I don’t have a tribe. I have Grishar. And well... we both think you’re brave.”

“Wow. So you and the speedy goblin are a team. And you’re not killing ME, an ELF, because you think I’m BRAVE?”

“Yes.”

The elf looked befuddled. She looked over Nargi and Grishar as best as she could from her horizontal position, then looked Nargi straight in the eye. Nargi’s heart jumped out of his chest and he froze. The elf mumbled something in elvish and closed her eyes again.

Nargi cupped his hands over the elf’s hair and started healing her.

“Are you sure she won’t set us on fire again?” Grishar asked.

“No.” Nargi replied simply.

“Then why are you healing her?” Grishar assumed a battle stance and aimed a knife at the elf.

“I don’t know.” Nargi said. “I want her to be alive I guess.”

“To have sex with her?”

“Grishar, stop it. Not everything is about sex. She is brave, like a warlord. And she is.. well… I don’t know. I just think the world is a better place with her in it.”

“Are you sure? She sets things on fire, you know. Besides, I saw you looking... It SO IS about sex. I can tell, I am an expert on horny faces.”

“Shut up or I’ll hit you.”

“Hah, gotta catch me first!” Grishar ran off, leaving Nargi sitting besides the elf. The wound on her head was healing nicely and the cuts in her arms and neck were slowly disappearing as well. She slowly opened her eyes again and looked quizzically at Nargi. Her raised eyebrows looked so delicate, Nargi wanted to paint them. And he couldn’t even paint. How he suddenly got the idea of painting something other than battle colours on his raiding party’s faces was beyond him.

She kept silent, her face twitching slightly to reveal an array of emotions, none of which Nargi could place. Suddenly her hand reached out and touched his chest. The stinging pain caused him to recoil. Was she burning him again? He looked at her hand and realised she wasn’t. She had just touched the burnt patch of skin that had resulted from her attack earlier.

He looked back to her face and tried to read her thoughts but failed miserably. Her face was anything but cold or emotionless, it was just… Complex. And hauntingly beautiful. A part of him wanted to bring his face down to hers and kiss it. Damn Grishar…

Nargi snapped out of it and struggled for words. He had to say something now. This silence was getting totally uncomfortable. And silence never made him uncomfortable. It was just that he needed to think of words to make sure his mind wouldn’t wander off and become… and orc. Or worse, Grishar.

“How are you feeling?”

Again with that strange look. Why wasn’t she talking?

“I’m sorry, I’m going to check your head now okay?” He said again as he slowly lifted her up, bending over slightly so he could see the back of the elf’s head. There was a lot of blood. He touched the skull, but it seemed intact and the bleeding had stopped.

“You should be okay now, but please let me know if you’re dizzy.”

“I burnt you…” the elf said. The tone had an accusation in it, which didn’t match the words.

“Huh?” Nargi looked at his own red chest. “Oh, yeah it’s okay,” he added. It wasn’t okay, it hurt like hell. It just didn’t seem of any importance for some reason.

The elf raised an eyebrow and glared at him. Then she very carefully pulled herself up to a seating position, inching away from the orc. Nargi smiled at her reassuringly. At least, he had meant it like that, but the elf jumped up and ran. Before Nargi could turn to see where she went, she had already disappeared into the forest.

Nargi sighed and stared in the direction she had bolted off in. His mind went blank and he had no idea of how long he had been sitting there when Grishar came running carrying three sliced-up rabbits. “Hey! Where did she go?”

Nargi shrugged and stared blankly in the distance.

“HEY! It was my turn, I called dibs! How could you just let her go? I even brought food to woo her!”

Nargi sighed again. “Well Grishar, seems like it’s just you and me for dinner. Shall I prepare them?”

“That’s the LEAST you can do…” the kobold grumbled, clearly annoyed at the absence of female company.