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His name was Japheth and he was a monster. When he was ten, he was as tall as any of the men in the village. When he was fifteen and the girls started to smell good, they had put him in a collar with a muzzle. He wasn’t there to fuck, they told him, he was there to lift things.
Then they cut off one of his fingers for touching Abigail and told him his balls were next if they ever saw him going after another girl.
Japheth thought this was unfair. All he did was give her a flower. But by now he knew that arguing just made it worse.
When he was twenty, the raiders came. Monsters that looked like his reflection in the mill pond, but dressed in armour instead of rags. They wore no collars, no muzzles. They tore through the town, killing anyone who got in their way. The men had beaten him with whips and driven him out of the town hall where they were all hiding.
“Make they leave, Japheth!” they had ordered.
He didn’t ask how. His was not to question. He settled for stepping in their path and simply asking politely. “Could you stop killing people, please?”
Somehow that worked. Sort off. Now they were all standing around looking at him in disgust.
Up close he realized they were not that same kind of monster as he. The shortest was still inches taller than he. And were he was all wrangy and lean, they were muscular and thick. The biggest of them pushed through the crowd and snarled at him extensively.
Japheth flinched and hunched over, ready to take the blow on his already bleeding back.
They went strangely silent at that. If anything, it was worse. They muttered to themselves for a while then one of the older ones spoke, his accent so heavy Japheth could hardly understand him. “What is your name?”
“Japheth.” he said simply. Extra words were not encouraged. People didn’t like to be reminded that he could speak.
The old monster narrowed his eyes, Japheth flinched again. “Is that your name?”
Japheth nodded.
“What is your real name?” the monster sounded angry.
Japheth dropped to his knees. When people were angry, a show of submissiveness helped.
It did not help here.
It made it worse.
One of them crouched next to him and said kindly. “We will stop killing people and leave. There is only one thing we wish to take and as long as we have it, we will not come back to this village.”
Japheth nodded. He was not in a position to negotiate, but surely the elders would give up one thing to save the village.
The orc carefully draped a cloak over Japheth’s shoulders and pulled him up. “Ok, we are taking you with us. Time to go.”