Elis sat on the bed scared and awkward. He didn’t understand what was going on. One minute he was on his way to work, the next his village was attacked by Orcs and everything went black. Before he knew it, he found himself sitting on a comfy bed in the hut of an Orc. He looked over to the doorway to see two guards, doing their best to spy on him without being noticed. He sighed, he wasn’t sure what he was meant to do, he just wanted to go home and sleep. The first Orc guard turned to her counterpart and started to whisper something.

“What you think it is thinking?” The first guard asked.

“Do you even think that it can think? Or does it just do things?”, the second guard said. Elis frowned, he could hear the orcs talking about him, he wasn’t annoyed that they were talking about him, he was just annoyed they weren’t even trying to hide it.

“I have an idea!” The first guard said enthusiastically.

“Wa?” The second guard questioned in the broken Orc English. Elis wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but he felt a shiver run down his spine. The two Orc girls nodded at each other and burst into the room. Elis was already expecting them as had seen them plotting the entire time.

“Human we are here to ask you questions!” the first guard said.

“We have come to believe that our master likes you! You should feel honoured as we try to find out why puny human!” the second guard said equally as loudly and smugly. Elis stared at the orcs, a bitter and resentful look in his eyes. He didn’t like orcs to begin with, but he was starting to hate the loud and smug creatures even more.

“It looks angry.” The first guard said quietly to the second.

“Ok remember that, it feels anger,” the second guard said. Despite the orcs trying to whisper, Elis could still hear them very clearly.

“I also feel annoyance and the urge to hit you both” Elis said, narrowing his eyes at them. He was finally getting his wits together, he’d calmed down and had started to assess the situation.

“It speaks?” the first guard questioned.

“Yes,” Elis said, doing his best to hide how annoyed he was. The first guard muttered something to the second and pointed out of the hut. The second guard ran off.

“What is your name human,” the remaining guard asked.

“Elis,” he said, curling his legs into his chest.

“Elis…” the girl said, nodding her head as she repeated his name a few times so that she could remember it. “Get up”, the guard said. Taking Elis by the arm, she led him outside.

The second guard soon returned with a very embarrassed looking Orc princess.

“This is princess Regnica.” The second guard said, gesturing towards the very shy yet still somewhat brave looing orc princess. The princess looked to the side, her face bright red.

“This is Elis your greatness, would you like to help us with the interrogation? Is there any information you want from him.” The guards said. They could tell the princess liked him, and they were willing to help her in any way possible until she was comfortable around him and able to talk to him confidently.

“Fine, we shall interrogate the prisoner on his use of magic!” Regnica said, crossing her arms smugly.

“Then let us start by taking a closer look at the human,” The first guard said. Before Regnica could protest, the guards had already stood her alongside her captive. The warriors placed Elis on one side of a large rock that they had found in the nearby forest and put the princess on the other side. They faced Elis away from her so that she wouldn’t have to look at his face.

The two guards giggled to themselves as they watched the princess’s face light up as she stared at him. They could tell she liked him, now all they needed to do was enable Regnica to look him in the eyes without blushing and getting embarrassed. The two guards moved up behind her and held her still as they ordered Elis to turn around and look at them.

“NO!” Regnica yelled as she started to struggle against the two warriors. Elis looked at the three girls with a look of disappointment.

“Idiots” he muttered as the three girls wrestled around on the floor. At that moment all fear and respect he once held towards these orcs vanished. First impressions definitely count, he thought to himself.