Allyria dragged the bleeding orc out of the village as fast as she could. The guy could hardly breathe, and was gurling up blood, but she wouldn’t let him die, not after what she had done to save him. The goblin was talking orcish in a tone of voice that suggested he was coaxing the orc to keep moving and stay alive. He sounded incredibly worried.

When they had gotten out of the residential area Allyria pulled them off the path and into the forest. Allyria had wished to get a good distance between them and the inferno, but the orc collapsed and neither of them had had the strength to get him back up. He needed to heal himself. She hoped with all her might the guy still had the mana to do so.

The goblin was still franticly trying to keep the orc awake, but the big guy’s consciousness seemed to be faltering. His eyes were shut, and his breathing got shallower by the second. Allyria decided she needed to do something. She placed her hand on a wound that was still bleeding heavily and burnt it shut. The orc jolted awake from the pain and, instead of diligently starting to heal himself he looked her straight in the eye and only said: “Why?”

Tears were streaming down his face. Sorrow, not physical pain caused them. The look struck Allyria in the heart, but she couldn’t answer his question. Not now, maybe not ever. She burnt another wound shut.

“Don’t ham!” the blue goblin shouted, pulling a knife.

His hands were trembling while he held it to her throat. Allyria didn’t care if he killed her. She knew she deserved to die, but she just didn’t want her actions to be in vain.

“Heal yourself!” she ordered the orc, then turned her head to face the shaking goblin. He was crying as well. “I mean you no harm.” She said to the goblin. It was one thing he should understand. And he did. He put his knife down and hugged the fallen figure of the orc, saying things in orcish again.

The orc grunted and gritted his teeth. His breathing slowly improved. He was doing it! As his breathing steadied, he lost consciousness again, still very much hurt, but he seemed out of mortal danger for now. Allyria checked his pulse. It was steady too. He was probably going to make it.

Allyria suddenly realised how exhausted she was and lay down beside the orc and the goblin. The darkness crept up to her. What had she done? There had been so many humans in that church. She had killed them all. Just like that. In that moment she had had one mission and no doubts. She had burned them, and it had felt good. How could something so horrifying feel good?

A voice within her said: ‘because you are evil.’ And she knew it was the truth.

***

“Elf?” she heard someone say in the distance. But she was no elf. No elf would have done what she just did. No elf would have saved an orc and a goblin. No elf would have burned an entire church full of innocent humans. No elf would have burned anyone.

No elf was evil.

“Hey, elf?” someone was touching her ear. She opened her eyes and stared straight into the face of the goblin. He looked worried.

“Nargi is good?” he said.

Allyria nodded. “Let him sleep for now.” She said softly.

“Yes, sleep. Okay.” The goblin said. He nodded a bit to himself and Allyria closed her eyes again.

Something soft and wet was on her forehead, she jumped up and bumped her head against the goblin’s. He looked at her with big eyes.

“You good! You help! You friend! Kiss for friend!” he stammered, backing off.

Allyria didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to think either, but she was quite sure the goblin didn’t want to hurt her.

“Friend?” she said.

“Yes! You friend! I Grishar, friend. You?” he held out a scrawny arm.

Allyria hesitantly took it and shook his hand. “I am Allyria,” she said softly.

“Thank Allyria for help Grishar and Nargi. We friends now.” The goblin said it like it was a verdict. It made Allyria feel strangely awkward, but lighter nonetheless. Well, orcs and goblins were evil too right? Maybe she belonged with them?

She thought about it as she slowly drifted off. She had completely depleted her mana setting fire to everything and completely depleted everything else in her system trying to wrap her head around what had happened today. It didn’t matter it was the middle of the day, she needed to sleep.

***

Allyria woke up from the lovely smell of dinner. It wasn’t an elvish dinner, that was for sure, but since she had surely lost her claim on being an elf anyway, she might as well indulge. Her stomach growled in agreement.

She opened her eyes and sat up. The orc was cooking a stew while the goblin was yapping about. They hadn’t noticed her waking up yet.

For a second Allyria had the urge to flee, but then her memories came crashing down on her, along with her decision to stay. She got up and walked over. Both heads turned at once and both smiled at her. One smile full of enthusiasm and happiness, the other one tender and slightly worried.

She sat down next to them and let her eyes roam the body of the orc. The wounds hadn’t all been healed, but it looked way better than before. He was only wearing pants, new ones, without blood on them. It was a little indecent, just sitting there with all of his muscles showing. Nargi looked like he either didn’t care or didn’t even know it could be considered offensive, so Allyria decided not to say anything about it. It wasn’t as if she should be offended by something like that, being the one that had just roasted an entire village. Just didn’t seem right in perspective.

Also, it wasn’t a bad sight.

‘What in the vines are you thinking!?’ A voice inside her screamed and she quickly averted her eyes. Luckily the goblin started talking again. In human this time.

“Hey Allyria, want eat? Nargi make nice rabbit and rootsies”

Rabbit… right. Her conscience screamed at her to not eat animals, her stomach screamed at her that they were dead now anyway and it was hungry. The stomach won the argument. She wasn’t an elf anymore. She belonged to the demons now. Get used to it already.

Allyria nodded and Nargi handed her a bowl. The stuff was hot and really tasty. ‘You have been missing out’ the part of her mind representing her tastebuds said. “Shut up.” Allyria said, which made her companions raise their brows, but continue their dinner anyway.

Suddenly she could feel something. The hairs on her neck stood up. Something was disturbing the forest floor. Something big and heavy, but stealthily. Whatever it was, it wasn’t wearing shoes, nor did it have any hooves. She looked at Nargi’s bare feet. Could it be an orc? Nah it was too stealthy for an orc.

Allyria got to her feet and assumed a fighting stance.

“What is it?” Nargi said, getting up.

“I think we are being hunted by a very large predator.” Allyria voiced her conclusion in hushed tones.

The orc smelled the air carefully but didn’t appear to sense the beast. That was only logical, the direction the hunter was coming from was downwind. Allyria pointed.

For some bizarre reason the goblin took this as a sign to run off screaming in that direction.

“Grishar!” the orc yelled and, when that didn’t help, signalled Allyria to follow Grishar slowly. Both of them were ready to attack if necessary. Allyria had lighted her flame already.

From up ahead she could hear the goblin’s voice. First something in orcish, and then, quite clearly and even more disturbing: “WOW! You have most big round man-parts I see EVER!”

Allyria cringed at the words enthusiastically exclaimed by Grishar from a couple of yards away and drew closer to get a visual. Had her assessment of the treat been wrong?

“Why, thank you little blue creature, I am very proud of them.” A low voice rumbled. It was a growl, but cheerful. Allyria couldn’t really match those two types of sound together in her head, but inching forward she presumed it had to be something like…

A… TALKING…. TIGER?!

Allyria’s eyes couldn’t have gone wider as she saw Grishar happily petting the fur of an at least 55 stone tiger. After recalibrating for a second, she noticed her fire had gone out and her mouth was open.

She closed it.

Nargi shouted something in orcish, to which Grishar enthusiastically replied. It bothered Allyria to no end that she couldn’t understand what they were saying half the time. As Allyria made a mental note to learn Orcish, she realised: I am truly the worst possible disgrace to elvenkind.

Well, poison it. She wasn’t an elf anymore anyway. To autumn with them: this is my life now.

She looked at Nargi, who seemed equally dumbfounded by the sight. Or by the conversation, Allyria couldn’t quite tell.

“You very good with ladies?” Grishar asked the tiger, making suggestive hip-motions that made her dinner move up back into her throat.

“No, not really, I’m not really good with men either though. But you seem like a nice fellow, can you introduce me to your companions? My name is Barton.”

Grishar looked at Nargi, eyebrows raised. He had clearly not understood what the tiger was saying.

“Hello Barton, nice to meet you. My name is Nargi.” The orc started. “The little kobold is Grishar and this…” he pointed at Allyria who was still trying to remain relatively unseen, just to be sure “... is Allyria.”

“Why hello Nargi, Grishar and Allyria. You are an interesting bunch. I’ve never seen an elf an orc and a goblin together. I thought they were enemies.”

“Who you say is goblin?!” Grishar shouted out and drew a knife. He seemed very offended, which made no sense, because he clearly WAS a goblin, albeit a blue one.

“Oh, sorry Grishar, my mistake.” The tiger purred “You are clearly a very fine… what was he again?” “Kobold” mouthed Nargi. “Ah, yes, a very fine kobold. Forgive me for my ignorance.”

Grishar put the knife away and asked: “what is word ignorance?”

“It means I’m a little stupid.” The tiger volunteered.

“Ah, yes you are.” Grishar said happily. “But not be sad, you can learn be very smart. Grishar help you.”

The little guy must have nerves of ebony speaking like that to a jungle cat that could technically eat him without chewing once. Allyria couldn’t help to be impressed and made a mental note not to call Grishar a goblin. Oh well. They all weren’t what they seemed anyway. Although she was sure that kobolds were small mountain dwelling reptilians. But whatever pollinized his flowers…

“Barton, if I may be so impolite as to ask… how come you talk like a human being?” Nargi asked.

“I could ask you the same thing.” The tiger purred.

Nargi opened his mouth and Allyria waited expectantly for the answer. This was what she wanted to know! Was he a cursed human?

“I learned it from a witch I used to live with.” Nargi said. “Now I’m teaching Grishar.”

He used to live with a witch?! Aren’t orcs always in tribes?

“Oh, how kind of her, she must have sensed something in you,” the tiger said. “Well, I’m actually a human. This appearance is caused by a spell of my own doing. I am a druid you see, but I think I’ve quite outdone myself. It was supposed to last for an hour, but it’s been almost three weeks already.”

“When will you change back?” Nargi asked.

“I hope never, but you’ll never know.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to change back? Why wouldn’t you want to be a human. You have a village and people who like you and now you’re a solitary being. Isn’t that horrible?” The orc exclaimed, baring his soul for everyone to see.

The tiger laughed. “I don’t think the other humans really care about me. And being a tiger is awesome, you should try it sometime. But yeah, it gets lonely. How about I tag along with you guys, where are you going by the way?”

Grishar and Nargi exchanged some word in orcish, which, for some reason gave the tiger the idea to turn to Allyria and greet her in, albeit very old-fashioned, elvish.

“Flowers of morning be opened by your presence, oh fair lady.”

Allyria didn’t really know what to say to that. The sound of elvish was like nectar to a butterfly, but it stirred something within her core that didn’t sit well. The melodic tones stung like knives in her chest and brought out the terror of the betrayal to her kind.

“I am the glory of the trees no longer.” She said, carefully pronouncing each word. It would be the last elvish she’d ever speak.