Leskai and Oahwi had some time to talk, Leskai thought he would be kept as a slave at first but he was surprised at what the King of Orcs wanted from him.
"Marry me."
"Excuse me...?"
"You are the strongest half-elf I've ever seen in my entire life, you conquered your way into my heart and mind, would you make me the happiest orc in this kingdom and marry me!"
"Ergh... I don't know?"
He did not reject him but did not accept him either. So it meant that he had some chance!? Oahwi rejoiced on that, although he was rejected, he can ask again later! "Okay." He nodded, a little sad but still cheerful, his lips curling in a smile. Leskai stared at the green behemoth in front of him who had a little silly smile on his face, making him look a little cute, no one ever reacted as he did to his face before... Most people hated it, do of course there must be something wrong with it, right? Why did he act the way he did when he saw his face? Why everyone reacted as they did to his face? He is ugly. Utterly and completely ugly.
"Then... Do you want to eat something...?" The Orc King asked wanting that the Half-Elf would say yes, that was when he heard Leskai's stomach rumble loudly and angrily, showing clearly that yes he was hungry, practically starving at that point. Well, that would not be the first time that he starved so he could go a few days without food. "Do you want to go eat something with me...?" Oahwi felt like he was going to war for the first time again, nervous and sweating tons, but also excited and yearning for it! Well, Orcs are born to be warriors, but not all Orca are! There are Orcs with various jobs on the Orc society, Orc Builders for building homes with stone and wood, Orcs Demolishers to open space for more building, Orcs Farmers to farm wheat, and other several types of necessary raw materials, Orc Chefs to cook, Orc Cleaners to clean, Orc Teachers to teach the young how to write and read...
Contrary to what most societies believe, Orcs are very much social and have multiple scholars on various topics, as well as some mages too, but they aren't that powerful. Most of them are Shamans that can use Shadow and Earth Magic, which are the ones Orcs have more affinity with, as well as smaller ones like Fire. Orcs worship two gods, Ohkiolk (Ohi-kai-olik), meaning World-Shaper, and Ahkiolk (Ahi-kai-olik), meaning World-Destroyer.
The myth about both brothers is something interesting because they both were born from the darkness, two suns that shined through the sky and illuminated the darkness. While Ohkiolk was the brother who always took his work seriously, Ahkiolk never cared about the darkness and only cared about strength. One day, Ohkiolk played with the world below, shaping it with his hands, making the earth and the animals with his light, but as soon as his brother noticed it he thought they were all weak and didn't deserve to exist, so he decided to eliminate what his brother created. His brother Ohkiolk of course would not let his brother destroy what he created, so he fought against him and spilled his dark blood on the earth below, from the earth and blood the Orcs were born, soon after came the humans, the elves, the dwarves, the goblins, the beastfolk, the minotaurs, and the dragons, some part of the blood fell in the dark abyss and from it the drows were born, and some of the blood was spilled in the sea, giving birth to the Merfolk.
Ahkiolk was impressed by his brother who could keep up with him but was enraged when he saw that his blood created life, he hit his brother and his brother's blood shone through the sky, creating the stars. Ohkiolk angrily took his brother's power for himself by simply devouring his brother's light, making him dark, so he decided to kill him once and for all and chased him through the sky. So when one brother is in the sky, the other can not be in it, this myth was passed down from generation to generation and written down too, as a form of history keeping but it was still a tradition for the older Orcs to retell the mythos about the world every end of the month.
Leskai pondered if he should, but soon his stomach and Asclepios pushed him forward and he accepted it, making the Orc King Oahwi smile happily. "Ergh..." He felt a little awkward having his hand taken and be guided by the Orc King to the palace's kitchen, he is technically a noble, so why doesn't he has a slave beside him showing him around instead of him doing it himself? He wanted to ask, but if this man is royalty then he should just let him do whatever he wants to do because he has no authority over anything, even more now because he is constantly surrounded by several tall green-skinned individuals with large muscles that can easily break his body in half snapping him like a twig.
"What do you want to eat? We have a lot of things here, from meat to fish, fruits, vegetables, and more!" Oahwi acted like a teenager in love for the first time since he was ever alive, the tiny hand he was holding was had callouses from probably training with a sword, but it was still soft compared to his rough skin. Leskai's eyes looked at him a little confused, does he not know what he wants? "I can show you some samples if you want!" Oahwi spoke with some hope that Leskai would accept his proposal, it was taught from a very young age that Orcs should know how to take care of themselves in any situation! So they learn how to hunt, clean the animal, search for anything edible (and water, not forget water), and of course how to cook it. A lot of Orcs only learn the basics and others like to take it to the next level by learning several recipes with several unique ingredients to create unique dishes.
Oahwi was one of these orcs. He was a warrior, he loved war and battle, but he also had other things he liked to do!
Like cooking. for example. And reading too. What? It first started when he wanted to know a little more about an enemy he was going to face, the information came in hand, so he decided to learn what he could from every book so he may use that information for something one day, so that's why he is also a good strategist.
They arrived at the kitchen and it was surprisingly small compared to shat he thought it would be, Leskai looked around and saw several Orc chefs cooking and cleaning too, doing their best to cook... Strange, they didn't seem to care that Oahwi was there. none of them bowed or even acknowledged his existence at all, leaving him be. What Leskai didn't know is that sometimes Oahwi would come to the kitchen when his father was alive and cook, soon the chefs learned to leave him be because he would always do whatever he wanted when cooking.
"Do you like meat?" The Orc King asked hopefully as the other chefs looked at him with a knowing smile, they knew the king liked to cook, but he never cooked for others so this meant this person with a bag over their head is someone important to the king. Leskai just nodded and that made the king smile in delight as he ran to get the ingredients to cook his favorite meat dish. He took a big slice of Earth Boar, a native Boar to the Orc Kingdom and the Orc Lands, the land that surrounded the Orc Kingdom and had an enormous affinity to Earth Magic, making his hide very hard to pierce but his meat the most delicious meat you could ever taste! And better yet, they reproduced very fast!
There were several farms for Earth Boars that would keep them as livestock and make a huge profit from it. They even had trade routes with Dwarves, and surprisingly enough, Elves and Drows too, the Beastfolk, and also the Goblins that bought meat from their kingdom, trading for metals, weapons, literature, and even labor! Some dwarves came to live in the Orc Kingdom, and dwarves are great warriors too, so they felt at home here, skim Elves and Drows also came to live here, most of them were curious and soon left, but some decided to live here and now are happily married to some Orcs too, most Minotaurs and Beastfolk also come to live here, making the capital of the Orc Kingdom, Irqipabs (Ir-ki-pa-bis) meaning Land of Blood and War, a lively place with several unique individuals, as well as money and culture.
Leskai watched as the king of orcs, known for their brutality and being barbarians, skillfully held a knife, not to cut a man's head, but to cut meat. The orc was so good at it that was hypnotic, he kinda got lost and could only follow the movements of the hand, analyzing it as he did every time he wanted to learn something- No, he was taught to listen and observe, to analyze and copy, that was what he had to do. When he was in the house of his nobleman sperm donator, he was tasked with helping every single servant in doing whatever they were doing. Cleaning? He would clean too. Cooking? He would cook too. Washing clothes? He would do it too. Taking care of the horses? He would do it. Essentially he had to learn a lot of things quickly, how to make tea, cook, clean, wash, take care of various animals, harvest fruits and vegetables, and also a little bit of how poisons work.
Well, he learned it as the sadistic nobleman explained to him what those were and what they could do as he injected it on him, making him feel pain and suffer, but that also made him the perfect taster. He would taste anything to see if it was poisoned, he became practically immune to poison by that point thanks to Asclepios keeping him alive every time he was on the brink of death after been given a great amount of poison all at once. So he was not afraid of what the Orc king would mix on it, he could take it after all! When the Orc King was cooking, he couldn't help but think that he was needed, that the king needed help and he needed to help the Orc King that was cooking right now! Years of that imprinted deeply into his mind that he needed to be useful or else he would be worthless.
Just like his mother.
He got up from his seat, Oahwi was so focused that he didn't even notice it, his focus was on the food he was cooking. He remembers his mother saying something about conquering a man by his stomach first and later his heart, and that was what he planned to do! When everything was done, he turned his head around just to see every single chef looking at the table with wonder, when he curiously looked over, he could see Leskai carefully placing the cutlery on the table, plates, knives, forks, a glass in each side of the table and the tea kettle in the middle of the table, easily reachable by both parties. He seemed focused as his hands moved and a cloth handkerchief was folded into a small heart, this made him blush for some reason... Why did he felt like a husband coming home just to see his lovely wife preparing a secret romantic dinner?
He turned his head away as the other chefs snickered and smirked, knowing all too well about what he felt about the little one. It was then that he saw it, the half-elf was still in his armor! His slightly broken in some points armor that would barely protect him from sideways attacks. "Ergh... Can you please take your armor off?" Oahwi thought of asking him to take the bag off, but he saw how uncomfortable he was without his "mask", so he decided to let him keep it on. "Ah," Leskai said, slightly embarrassed that he was still wearing his armor after all that time! He quickly took it off, leaving him in his not-so-good clothes, they were slightly dirty which made him feel embarrassed, and they also exposed some parts of his body, showing his scars.
His whole arms had several scars on them, they were blade scars and could easily be distinguished by experienced doctors or fighters that they were made by short blades, like daggers, and the circular scars around the wrists told them that this person has been through bad things... They had slaved individuals that ran from their owners, some of them had the same scars around their wrists, which made Oahwi boil inside for some reason he had yet to know. He didn't like that Leskai was hurt. He didn't like it at all...