| abstract | - It wasn't Hammerfall, that's for sure. The place I found my dreaming self was an internment camp, but not Hammerfall. I didn't recognise it. I stood as a pup, looking through pup's eyes at an adult's predicament."You! Child!"A human voice – they sounded soft and weak compared to the comfortable, warm growl of their Orcish counterparts. I turned to look at the pinkskin. It was twice my height."Are you doing anything?" It was a demand, worded as a pup would. Well, I was a pup."No, ma'am." A very small pup. My voice was the same pitch as hers."Then come here." No room for argument there. The human – woman, I think – grabbed me by the scruff like a dog and pulled me along with her.One of the many huts that I had grown around was a sick bay. It was the one place I had seen where orcs cared for other orcs. She led me to it now, throwing me inside before stepping in after me. I stumbled to a stop. There were others here. They no more than glanced at me."You will work here," she said. The Orcish words rolled off her Common tongue like something that ought to have been in her stomach. She made them sound ugly."How?" It was a simple enough enquiry."You will heal," she drawled. She was annoyed, and bored already, but there was barely even a growl from her. Humans used so little expression in their voices."But—""You will heal." This was final. I'd seen her explain why to the older ones - a dead orc was a useless orc, and the humans sure did have uses for us - but a pup got no such thing. She turned to leave, locking the door behind her.I was a pup's height. I'd already noticed that I had no tusks. I knew mine had grown in incredibly late, really – obviously, this dream was set in a time before they had exceeded the length of my other teeth. I walked along between the sickbeds until I reached one that I thought looked interesting. Thought with a pup's mind; my choice was an interesting one in itself."Hi, sir!""Speak proper Orcish," growled the patient."Um... Throm'ka, sir..." I ventured. I was very young. The word wasn't quite right."Better. Lok'tar." He couldn't see who he was speaking to, I realised. I clambered up onto the end of his bed so that he could see me. That was polite, wasn't it?His response wasn't. "Ha!" he barked, before coughing. "They're breeding runts now, I see!"My face fell. I hesitated, but continued. I had been sent here to work. If I did not, then that would be bad news. Bad news meant the whip. Worse, if you were older."Sir, I was sent to heal you, sir.""Heal what? I'm an old man, pup. Even the real medics can't heal away the years, let alone a runt. You sho—""Heal you in any way I can, sir," I interrupted, not wishing to hear what he would say next yet again. There as a pause. I bit back the shame burning so clearly on my face. Even pups didn't cry at being called names by old, bed-ridden men; pups cried at lots of things, but not that."Pah." He snorted, and let out a hacking cough. I left another silence."...heal your cough, sir? Could do sommit' abo—"I squeaked in surprise as his ineffective fist was thrust angrily at me. It was too far away to connect, but had it done so, I would have been sent flying. I was small and light."Speak proper Orcish!""Uh... d...""Go on." He growled, a snarl forming on his lips."D... Dabu, sir.""Good." He grunted. "I suppose you won't leave me alone until you've felt you've done something besides irritate me with your pidgin Orcish.""N... no, sir." I was fairly sure that, if I blushed much more, I would have a blood vessel burst somewhere in my face."Didn't think so." His tone slipped into one for patronising the young with. "Now, what was it you were going to heal?""Your cough, sir?"He was making it clear that he thought I was wasting his time. "And how would you go about that, pup?"I grinned my tuskless grin and crawled on the bed towards the greying orc. I looked around – nobody was watching."I've got a secret," I beamed.He sighed impatiently. His look told me to get on with it. I continued, at a whisper."It talks to me all the time. Sometimes, it helps me. And I try to help it back, but the humans make that difficult. Can I show it to you?"He stared at my young face. His creased one was difficult to read; I kept grinning as I put my small hand on his bulky shoulder, and......Earth came to call, waking me up. Words formed in my head as a concept: time to move. It was sunrise, or perhaps sunset. I grunted, sat, and made a token effort to rid myself of some of the mud of the Wetlands. I would stink when I got back, I was sure. That didn't matter now. Now wasn't about getting back.I didn't let the dream weigh heavily on my conscience as the world shifted around me, just a little, to allow me to take the form of a wolf. It was either a memory (not necessarily mine) or a total figment of an Orcish imagination. Perhaps both, in equal parts.I went to find breakfast.
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