After the… strange discussion with Philly, Lyrika re-joined them. It seems the embarrassment from the incident at the gate had dissipated and they were now back to travelling as a group, with Olivia in the centre while Philly and Lyrika walked either side of her.
Travelling between the fields, they walked over to the nearest farmer hoping to get some directions for where Ortan was. The only problem was that they couldn't stop shaking in fear, so getting a response took a while.
"He's-he's over in th-the furthest one. Th-that way." was what the woman managed to eke out before collapsing on the floor.
"Err, thank you for the help." Olivia quickly responded before she turned away in the direction she said. She figured it would be best to leave before the woman she actually fainted or passed out from fear.
Taking the offered directions, they continued on their way, passing a beautiful assortment of colourful crops. She had seen them before but wasn't able to actually appreciate them at the time. It was lovely to see and the vibrance of it all contrasted very well with the green and brown landscape.
"I've never seen so many different coloured crops in all my life." Lyrika said as she ran her hand along some purple stalks of a crop that looked similar to wheat.
"You didn't have any near your village?"
"Sure, we had a few to go with the animals we raised to keep everyone fed. But it was nothing compared to all of these," she replied turning her head to Olivia.
"It is nice. I wonder if anyone has looked into why they are all different colours. I mean what purpose does it achieve?"
Turning to look at Philly, Olivia realised that the few biology classes she had may just come in handy here. Assuming things worked the same in this world as they did on Earth of course. And if she could remember it correctly.
"I imagine the colour is so they can attract insects and other animals to help them with…spreading their seeds" she couldn't remember if there was some technical word for it. Not that it mattered as she couldn't imagine it would mean much in this world.
"The different colours probably attract different creatures which then end up carrying the seeds from the plants in some way, letting it be spread around to grow elsewhere."
At that, Philly looked up at her in surprise.
"Strong, kind and now intelligent. If only more possible candidates for relationships were like you."
"Huh?"
Lyrika all but slapped her forehead as she heard Philly's response.
…
They continued travelling and eventually reached the furthest section of the farmland.
The field they were next to was dark orange and came to about waist height. The crop looked to be an oddly shaped vegetable, somewhat similar to a carrot or parsnip, but it was curved into a spiral.
At the centre of the field, they could see a man hunched over tossing the vegetables into a basket. He eventually stood up, which wasn't much different from when he was hunched over though, and wiped the sweat off his brow.
Hopefully, this was Ortan, and so they journeyed into the field and headed over to him.
As they got closer, they could see that he was a very old man. The hair on his head was almost non-existent, and what did remain was completely grey. They could also see how thin his arms and legs were, along with the wrinkles and signs of ageing that covered them. How this man was still able to do manual labour at his age was astonishing to her.
Only a few meters from him now, the man placed another vegetable into the basket and turned his head at the sound of footsteps.
Olivia had expected the usual look of surprise, but the only expression that showed on his face was that of a confident smile.
"Is it my time already? I had expected to get another year in before I passed on. But if it is to be today, then so be it."
The looks of confusion that appeared on each of the girl's faces were to be expected.
"Do you think I'm here to…kill you?" was the only thing Olivia could think to reply with.
"Of course. Why else would an Orc with two slaves visit me."
Lyrika looked affronted and annoyed at the insinuation, likely because it also meant they would have to explain things again like at Yoban's village. Philly however was too busy examining one of the vegetables to notice.
"Half-Orc."
"Huh."
"I'm a… forget it. I'm not here to kill you and these two are not slaves. Are you Ortan?"
"The harbinger of my death knows my name. Fitting I suppose."
"No, I…" was all she managed to get out before just exhaling loudly.
Lyrika realised that it may be the right time for her to jump in, and so walked closer to him.
"Ortan. No one is going to kill you. We were hoping you could tell us the name of the creature we found."
It seemed that caught his attention. Although it may have just been the beautiful girl next to him rather than the request.
"She's not here to kill me."
"No."
"And you're not a slave to this Orc."
"Half-"
"No. Didn't you hear the commotion a few days ago?" Lyrika said, interrupting Olivia who now had her head down.
"I do recall something happening. I was on a field on the other side of the village, so I didn't see it. People did mention a monster, but I figured it was killed."
They quickly explained what had happened, and Ortan became more amenable to the situation.
"So, you have a creature you are looking to identify. I was quite the explorer in my day. I travelled through all of the kingdoms and saw all of the wonders of the world. I even met the Queen of the demons at the time. Boy did we have some fun."
'That's too much information.' was what everything ended up thinking as he said that.
"Now, let's see this creature."
Olivia quickly walked over, and the man didn't even flinch as she did. Placing the basket down, she opened it and they were all greeted by the sight of the sleeping creature. Its eyes were closed and its belly raised and lowered very rhythmically. It was a very adorable sight.
"Now that is odd. Where did you find it?"
"Just south of the village, between here and Yoban's village," Lyrika responded.
"Huh. Someone must have brought it from the Demon kingdom then, as I have only ever seen them there. This creature is what is known as a Zentora. It's an old demonic word, a language that isn't really used anymore, and it translates Hidden Horror."
"Apt" Olivia quickly said.
"Indeed. They are not to be trifled with, but they are fascinating and very intelligent creatures. Very protective of their young, unless there is something wrong with it, and given its size, I would say that is the case here. It is very small for a baby, and I'm surprised it's still alive."
"We found it in a small hole after we killed its parents."
"Ok. If I recall correctly, that is how they determine whether it's worth taking care of it, so to speak. I believe the idea is that the hole stops it from fleeing in the night, but after a week or so, it should be strong enough to get out itself. If it does, then it is deemed strong enough, and the Zentora leave with it. If it can't get out in time, then the Zentora just leave it to die. Quite horrible, but tis the nature of these beasts."
"But the parents were near it when we fought them."
"It's likely they were probably in the process of leaving it, when you came across them."
'Huh. That may have been the case.'
Ortan then looked up in thought as he tried to recall some more information on the creatures.
"I'm sure you can recall your fight with them. How you managed to survive I don't know, as I have hardly heard good news whenever someone encountered one. They can blend in with the woods, are very agile and that spike on their tail, you do not want to be on the receiving end of it."
Olivia slowly ran her hand against her body where the spike on the end of one of the adult's tail had pierced her, and she fully agreed with him.
"But even then, people still try to buy and capture them. Probably thinking they can keep it as a pet to kill their enemies or something, fools. They grow up fast, and there is no way to train an adult because they are too free and aggressive by then. I had heard that some people were trying to breed them to get a baby, hoping it would be more malleable when training, which may be true, but these creatures do not breed in captivity. I don't know how they do it, but they can stop themselves from giving birth, keeping their young inside them indefinitely, so they can do it when they are free. Which more often than not, doesn't take long for them to achieve."
Olivia had liked the prospect of keeping this, Zentora, as a pet and training it. From all the novels she had read, having a animal companion sounded great. But after hearing all that, and how training didn't usually turn out well for the trainer. The idea didn't sound as good as before.
"So, do you think there is any chance that we could actually train him. Or is he just going to try and kill us at some point?"
"Well, that is hard to say. These creatures are all about strength, dominance and free will. As an adult, they know they are strong and try to remain the most dominant, and if you take away its free will, things go badly. But as a baby, and a weak one at that, I would think that as long as you show it that you are stronger and the dominant one in the relationship, it should respect you. Same for the free will. As long as you don't keep it cooped up all the time once it grows up, it shouldn't see you as a problem. If you do all that, I don't see why you can't train it like you would any other animal."
"Ok, that doesn't sound too bad," Olivia said now warming up to the idea. From this, as long as she trained, which she is going to be doing, she should get stronger and show it who's boss. And on the free will side of things, they have spent most of their time in a forest, and will probably continue to do so, so that's covered.
"Also, before I forget. It's not technically a him. I mean sure you can call it that, rather than well, 'it', but it doesn't really have a gender till it comes to…mating. Then it sort of…decides what it wants when it's with another of its species. It's probably down to whichever is the strongest or most dominant between them, but again, I don't know for certain. Then when it comes to it, its body just changes to match, and can keep changing either way for every subsequent mate."
"That's very weird."
*cough* "Says the half-orc girl with a dick." *cough*
She heard it, but Olivia refrained from looking over at Lyrika whom all of a sudden found herself looking away at the vegetables.
"You know quite a lot of… facts about the Zentora. How?" Not wanting to go into how he knew so much about the mating process.
"You don't have to make it sound weird. I studied them. Many creatures actually. I wrote a massive bestiary, adding to it all through my journey. When I finished writing it, I gifted it to Priscilla, the Demon Queen at the time. She said she would keep the original and have it transcribed so that the world would know all about the beasts that roam it. It's been some time since then, so I wonder whether she was actually able to."
Ortan quickly moved down to pick up the basket of vegetables he had been picking and then turned back to the group.
"Well, it was a little odd but quite nice to meet you. On how to actually train it, I can't help you there. You may wish to visit the stable for some ideas on that. Anyway, I wish you luck in training it, and if you manage to, I would love to see it in action. Now, I need to get these back to the storehouse."
At that, after saying their farewells, Ortan headed off, slowly, for the long journey back to towards the village, leaving Olivia, Lyrika and Philly to just look down at the Zentora contemplating on all that he had said.
The Zentora all of a sudden woke up where it then yawned and stretched. It then looked up at the three heads, where it then tilted its own and mewled, causing a round of 'Awwws' to ring out.
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Hi All, I am just putting the note here in case not everyone reads the author's note. In case you don't, I do put comments there and on occasion, questions to you readers. So, in case it wasn't seen before, please let me know your thoughts on a name for the Zentora. It being Androgynous might make things harder in terms of a name, but for some reason, it felt right to make it like that given that Olivia is a futa and has both sets of genitalia. I have seen a few comments on a name for it already, so thank you for those, but given its gender, these may need to be rethought. I can't promise I will use one, as I will go through the names and see if any fit with what I had in mind for the Zentora. If not then I will try and come up with one.
Also, I have seen a few comments in regard to the censored swear words, so wanted to ask officially whether they should remain as such. If you can leave a comment on whether they should stay censored or become uncensored, then I will go with the majority.