After a while, I realised that while Kogan had introduced himself, I hadn't introduced myself. Whilst still grasping forearms, I don't know what came over me but similarly to the archery my mouth just started moving before I knew what was happening. "Nice to meet you Kogan, I'm Raguk." I stood there a moment with a look on shock on my face.
Shnack abruptly turned with a look of surprise on her face as well, seeing the shock on my face, she seemed to figure out that it wasn't intentional. "Do you remember? Oh by the gods you remember", she let out a squeal of delight, bounded towards me and jumped into my arms.
"I don't know, it just came out, I guess it was just in my subconscious and it took until now for it to surface." I said, Shnack decided that that was the cue to start kissing my face.
Kogan was looking at us like we were mutants, and Shnack explained the situation with my whole lack of memories.
He looked taken aback, but I quickly put that behind me as I gave Shnack a quick kiss while she was in my arms.
After that brief shock of what just happened I quickly focused back into what was going on. Schnack was giving the quick tour of the village.
In the centre of the village was a market of sorts with various produce from farms, livestock and some options for snacks. The village inn was to the north, where more substantial meals could be found, the Butchers was in the east, A blacksmith in the west and in the south they showed me a sort of arena where apparently there were many forms of martial competition.
I was curious about the arena so they showed me and as we round some rudimentary housing, there was a clearing of maybe 30 by 30 metres, with some sizeable stones in a square of about 10 by 10 that went to about knee height with gaps in between the stones so people could move in and out.
I asked what kinds of martial competitions happened here and they said that there were 4 main categories and 3 of them had competitions in this ring.
Striking, grappling and fighting with arms they explained were the 3 that occurred in the 10 by 10 arena, I asked "what's the fourth one"
"The Hunt of course Kogan" said still clearly taken aback by my complete lack of understanding.
From there Schnack described the difference in significance between them all, striking and grappling, while steeped in tradition, were more for entertainment without killing your friends, whereas where you ranked in your armed competitions, which were two Orcs who with their chosen weapons, shields and armour would fight to first blood and The Hunt which would test how good an Orc was with the bow, it would also be linked with how much food an Orc could provide for the village, so there were multiple meanings and nuance behind these competitions and how they came to be, unfortunately I didn't have enough time to learn the whole history of Orcs, we returned to Kogan's shop, where from the look on Schnack''s face we had got a very good deal for the good we had brought to trade.
Schnack said it was time to start heading back to our humble abode, whilst earlier I had been focused on Schnack, I really started to realise that there really weren't many other Orcs around and only Orcess'.
While I was thinking about that in my head, we had reached the gates to leave the village, we ran into a party of hunters, there must have been 30-40 of them, and it was the first time I had seen any group of Orcs in the village with it being about 50/50 Orcs to Orcess'. They were carrying a hefty amount of freshly killed deer so they were probably heading over to Kogan, I probably looked like I was gawking or maybe being rude because I was interested but, I also got some looks because I was clearly an outsider.
Nothing was said though and we went our separate ways.
We arrived back at the place I now called home as dusk started to settle in, we quickly started a fire and ate the meat we hadn't taken to raguk and after what felt like a long days work, it just made it taste even better.
And that was how life was for me for the next 3 weeks, living off the land by foraging and hunting, selling the excess and I was starting to get my feet underneath me.
Schnack was very impressed by how quick I was picking up the skills needed to survive considering I had no recollection of how to do it.
My favourite thing to do was hunt, there was something about the fact that my body instinctually knew how to hit almost any target I desired, and as the weeks went by, I could more consciously control the instincts that before felt wild and almost like I wasn't in control of my own body.
Naturally I got to know my surroundings better and Schnack started letting me go to hunt small game on my own with strict instruction not to go too far as to not get lost.
I don't know if Schnack meant to do it, but every time I would come back successful with birds, rabbits or whatever I could aim my arrows at that looked edible, she would amorously show her appreciation which just motivated me even more to get as accomplished at hunting as I could get.
Due to the fact Schnack didn't have to guide me everywhere, we got a lot more done in the day but once all our tasks were complete, she would continue to expand my knowledge, whether it was going further in the local area so I knew more places I could hunt, or teaching me about the wildlife, the fruits and mushrooms that I could forage, and definitely the ones I should avoid.
Even if it was a simple existence, I found myself extremely fulfilled. What more does and Orc need if not a full belly, good physical fitness and an extremely affectionate partner.