Walking through the village they all experienced the same thing. Stares of both wonderment and hostility. Thankfully, none of the villagers acted on it. Whether it was actually coming over to ask them questions or to take out their swords and attack them, they all remained where they were and got back to what they were doing once they passed.
There was also one time when she saw an old lady looking right at Lyrika. She quickly turned her head to her and then back to Lyirka, all before shaking her head and heading inside. What that was about she didn't know. She also didn't quite get the slight blush on Lyrika's face when she noticed her as well.
The whole situation with the villagers was odd, to say the least. Olivia had expected some inquisitive people to actually work up the courage to talk to them, or someone to actually snap and rush them, but no one did. Not that she was complaining.
She had to imagine it was the work of Teagan. The mere fact that his shouting out 'stop!' had caused all the guards to stop their attacks, even the ones that were fighting her, was telling. It showed that they completely respected him, so when he basically told them not to worry, interfere or try to attack her, they all followed his order to the letter.
Only time would tell how long they would do so though. Surely, their respect for the man could only hold out so long against the anger and fear that some felt.
…
After several minutes of walking through the village, they finally reached the training grounds. It looked almost deserted, with only a few people in the area actually training.
It was however quite early in the day, so it could be that others had chores or jobs they had to get to first before they could actually train. With the number of people that had been there to take her down in that barn, she had to imagine that this was the case given how empty it was.
Towards the back of the dirt and sand-covered area, she could see around four men all following another bull-kin's instructions, who was walking around them as they swung their blades. It looked like it was combat drills that they were practising, going from overhead strikes to slashes left and right, followed by some fancy footwork. From where she was standing, they all looked to be in sync and quite deadly with their attacks. The instructor must really know his stuff.
Olivia wondered if he would be willing to teach her how to fight properly. She had thought it would end up with her just practising by herself, but that may no longer be the case. Assuming he had no problem teaching a half-Orc half-Goblin how to fight better and inevitably kill people.
That's how she imagined he would see it.
As they entered the grounds and started walking over, they heard a 'thunk' from afar. It was a sound Olivia was all too familiar with, having had to dodge what caused the sounds in the field.
Looking over, they saw a woman holding a bow and arrow, having been hidden by the nearby building, who was firing arrows into straw targets a good distance away. As she fired them, she was steady as a rock with her stance. The arrows speedily flew through the air before hitting the bullseye, which already had a good dozen arrows embedded in it.
Having been watching her fire arrows, they missed the men they were heading towards start to remove their gear and thank the instructor. As they put away their gear in the nearby weapon rack, the instructor looked over and noticed them standing there in the centre.
He watched them for a moment, and after a deep breath, spoke out to them.
"You must be the Orc everyone has heard about."
Turning away from the archer and to the instructor that had walked over to them, they could see he was quite an old man. His hair was mostly grey and his face, the only thing not covered by armour, had a good deal of wrinkles in between several scars, showing he was quite the veteran of combat. It made sense that he was training people.
She could also see that while he spoke in a friendly tone, he did keep a firm grip on the pommel of his sword.
"Half-Orc, but yes that's me. I was hoping you could help train me to fight." Olivia quickly replied as she took her eyes off his sword.
"Half-Orc?" He walked a little closer but stopped himself before he ended up right in front of her. "Ah, yes I see it now. You have the body of one, but I've never seen an Orc with your skin tone. Plus, the ears are all wrong. I would get you are either part-elf or part…how it would have happened I don't know, but part-goblin."
She was very surprised, something that was also evident on Lyrika and Philly's faces. Why wouldn't she be? Not only did this man correctly figure out her species, but it also seemed like he was familiar with Orcs. For the most part, the people she had met knew of them but had hardly encountered them.
"Yes, that's…yes, I'm part-goblin. Have you…have you seen other Orcs before." Olivia asked. She still needed to find the ones that were hiding, and who knows, him seeing one may have been recent.
"Part-goblin. Now that is a surprise. How does that even happen? I thought Orcs only went after beautiful women." He said before looking over at Lyrika and Philly. "Something that still appears to be the case today I see."
Well. If Olivia was sure of one thing. It was that he was very much a ladies' man in his day if the slight blushes at the compliment on both Lyrika and Philly's faces were anything to go by. To be honest, she was sure that if she was in their shoes, she would be doing the same.
"But on your question about Orcs, I have seen others before. It's been quite some time though, twenty years ago I think."
"Where was this? What happened?"
"Huh, well it was just in my travels. I was making my way through the Demon kingdom and I spotted a few travelling in the forest. I can't for the life of me recall which forest it was though."
The Demon kingdom. It had been a good deal of time since he saw them, but it looks like she just got her first and only lead on them. Pretty much out of the blue too.
But, while good to know, she still had a maiden to kidnap and a chief to deal with. Searching through dozens of forests to find a few Orcs could wait.
Coming out of her thoughts, she saw the instructor wave at the men he had been training, sending them off. They looked a little reluctant to actually leave, probably fearful for his life, but he shooed them off.
"So, if I can recall what you said before, you want me to train you. I would have thought your tribe or parents at least would have already taught you how."
"Well, I'm a little different compared to other Orcs you may have heard of."
"I would think that's an understatement given you're in our village and you know, not killing people. Ok… but I'm only going to teach you the basics. I am not going to teach you how to kill a man."
"That is fine by me."
"And what about you two? You looking to learn how to fight." He said looking over at Lyrika and Philly.
"Oh, I'm just here to watch", was Philly's very quick response.
Olivia quickly turned to her after she said that.
"You know, if you are travelling with us, which it seems is the case, you should probably learn how to defend yourself. You're going to need it where we are going."
The girl gave a slight huff at that but relented and decided she would learn too.
"And you."
"Oh, I'm an archer." She said glancing over at the woman who was still firing her arrows at the target.
"Well, if you're fine with it, I'm sure Marielle won't mind giving you some pointers."
Even with the distance from them, the woman managed to hear her name, quickly turning her head to whoever called her. Olivia had to imagine she was a hunter or something with hearing and reflexes like that.
The woman quickly walked over to them all the while keeping an eye on Olivia as she did.
"Adan, what did you call me for."
"Your free right now, right? Fancy helping to train…err." He drifted off, not knowing her name.
"Lyrika."
"Yes Lyrika. I'm going to train these two in melee combat, but she is an archer. Are you fine to do so?"
The woman, Mariella, did roll her eyes at him as he said that, but ended up saying 'sure' and agreed.
"We can only train you for a while. Another group will be coming a little later."
And so they headed over to their respective sections of the training grounds and got to work.