Blacklake-Book4-1 Three Cousins

Chapter 29
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From a comfortable new executive—said that on the label—leather arm chair I’d already gotten moved up to my new office, I pointed where I wanted my other furniture set, as the facilities guys queued up at the door with their arms full. I got more than a couple odd looks today. I’d sat in the middle of the bull pen since I was fifteen when we opened this building. I think everyone downstairs thought I was gettin’ too special to be around em. Especially Wekz. I think the troll’s eyes maybe welled up a little.

Uknol had complained at me a bunch of times in the past that there are conversations the other folks didn’t need to hear—that I needed an office with privacy.

Besides runnin’ the non-technical side of the business, with a law degree, that troll is pretty assertive. Go figger, an assertive troll hen. They must teach that in lawyer school. She’s finally gettin’ what she wanted—maybe it was time.

She will be two doors away from me now. Don’t know if that will work for me. I just need some space with all the personal things currently goin’ on. Now Uknol will prolly think it’s dandy to just stroll into my office any time she wants. I should mention to her that attorneys aren’t my favorite folk. Necessary. But not beloved.

Crita growled from the door to get my attention. “Shouldn’t ya be at home.” Her growl repeated. She was back already?

I tried to look around her, but she pretty much filled the doorway. I started to ask her—

“Fool thought I should help him with his bags. Why do humans need so many things?” She growled again. The fool she referred to had to have been hidden behind her ample hips.

“Ya leave him at the airport?” I asked.

Still out of sight, David’s weak-stinkin’ voice muttered, “Tell me she isn’t going to be my boss.”

Crita looked down her shoulder and growled again. “No one would have blamed me for beatin’ ya up a bit. We already have too many humans on the payroll.”

Uknol’s voice vibrated from down the hall. “Ya get us sued for that kind of talk and I’ll have yar carcass buried in a shallow pit under the new facility’s foundation.”

Crita gifted me with a confused look. Almost made me laugh. “We gonna have to watch how we speak now? I suggest killin’ the humans and hidin’ their bodies right now.”

“That’s rude.” David’s voice floated around my opinionated project manager. “I’ll bleed all over you, you stinking ogre female.”

“Hen!” Crita screeched.

I might should worry. Instead, I said, “I can see ya two are gonna get along famously.”

David shouldered his way around Crita. “You’re finally setting yourself up like a real manager, huh?” Love how his eyes traveled over the new furniture. “Nothing like our dorm room.”

“Just tired of havin’ my private conversations spread around the entire Range five seconds after speakin’ em,” I said.

“When have ya ever had a private life, uh conversation?” Crita asked. “We all raised yar ungrateful shiny ogre butt. Ya’re suggestin’ we aren’t invested in whatever’s goin’ on in yar life?”

I pointed at Crita. “That’s exactly why I’m movin’ into an office with a door.” Takin’ up a conference room we hardly ever use, except for birthday cake time. Which isn’t for ogres. It’s orcs and goblins who have the sweet tooth.

“Ya’re growin’ into such a pansy.” Crita growled softly. Under her breath she continued, “Spendin’ too much time with stinkin’ humans.”

“You let your employees talk to you like that?” David asked.

“Crita,” I snapped, to end the bickerin’ before it got dangerous for David. Rule number one—never anger an ogre hen. “Thanks for pickin’ the fool up. Ya need anything else?” Don’t know why I was being so polite. Oh. Rule number one.

She ripped around and disappeared. I’d pay for that dismissal. Shoulda sent him a ride-share.

David dropped three large gym bags to the right of the door. “You going to move another desk in here for me? Plenty of room.”

My attention snapped to the two trolls settin’ up my new credenza and armoire. The beautiful, almost red oak of the new furniture made me nearly swoon. I could straighten out David in a moment.

“I get furniture this pretty?” David asked under my more important conversation with the facilities guys, which I also ignored. The troll fillin’ my new, eight-foot-long desk, smirked, maybe snorted a bit.

“I get my own trolls to set up my office?” David continued.

Every stinkin’ troll in the room growled. One turned and asked David if he had a death wish? Too funny. David continued with his basketball court trash talkin’.

“Two humans in this company, bring a bit of civilization. That what you’re going for?”

I could have snapped at him, but I think the four angry troll glares was good enough. Couldn’t have beat that. “Actually, yar first job is to get Thomas back on the job, along with Daze.”

“Daze quit?” David asked, a bit of sincerity in his voice, I think. Not that I really get humans. “What did you do to tick Daze off? I love that troll.”

Tried to remember the threat Daze leveled on David the first day they met. Something about harvestin’ his gizzards with an unwashed fist and feedin’ em to him. David can be truly annoyin’.

“Ya can figger that out when ya have a conversation with him,” I said.

All the trolls straggled out of the office, without askin’ if I was satisfied with how they set up my office. I’d let it pass. I might have a concussion, but could prolly line up a stapler and tape dispenser on my own. Maybe not particularly, perfectly parallel, the way my vision shimmied from time to time.

“My desk?” David whisked his hand about.

“Ya can talk to Crita about that,” I said. He might have lost a bit of color in his face. Funny. Things come back around. He’ll learn about teasin’ ogre hens. Unbelievable it hadn’t already sunk in, considerin’ how much time he’s spent in the Valley.

~ Ezra ~

We were cleanin’ up from the afternoon rush and Zarade moseyed up next to me. Softly, she said, “Let’s go sit outside and have a conversation.”

Those are the kinds of words that should worry anyone. Not just because they came from an ogre hen. I wiped my hands on my apron and followed her. We stopped to pour ourselves a hot cup of tea before headin’ outside. The looks from Chanz, Glaar, and Vlas made me think maybe they were already in on what was about to come. Was she gonna fire me? Had they all gotten tired of all the recent ogre-human drama? No. Anything that creates rumor-talk is golden, to them.

There were a lot of fluffy fist-sized clouds passin’ quickly over the Valley, scatterin’ shadows hither, though a soft breeze at ground-level only gave me a bit of a shiver after the heat of the kitchen.

We settled on our bench overlookin’ the garden, took a few moments as we both stretched out our ankle-length skirts just right. Maybe we were both a bit worried about the comin’ conversation.

“Since ya started workin’ here part-time durin’ high school, I’ve felt a special connection with ya.” Zarade isn’t much for talkin’ personal. That took me out of my thoughts for a moment.

“Ya have a hen sibling of yar own,” she continued. “Though I’m a few decades older than her, I’ve always kinda felt like ya and I were nearer to one another than—”

I gave her maybe a bit of a confused look. Then a sense of where this was going struck me. “Ya’re indeed closer to me. Glaza was always busy growin’ up and movin’ away.”

For hen siblings, we were never very connected. Prolly great part of that, was Kriz and Ike were always a part of my every day life. Could she have resented em?

Zarade nodded. Maybe a pinch of pink crossed her cheeks—though that might have been the bit of chill from the breeze—or not.

“So ifn ya needed a hen to talk to. ’Cause of course ya’re gonna get absolutely nothing but nonsense from those two favorite cousins of yars. Especially the cross-eyed fool.”

Folk are so mean to Kriz. Ogres don’t trust anyone who hates eye contact. My mind returned to her words. Nothing but nonsense. She never has thought much of a bull’s opinion on any matter. Maybe even, especially, from her own mate, despite bein’ over the moon for the bull. I’ve always maybe had a bit of a crush on the stinkin’ old bull. Love the way he looks at Zarade as though she is the sky and heavens.

Wait. She insulted my favorite cousins. I had to level a tiny argument. “Ike is surprisin’ly more down to earth than rumors might imply.”

She snorted, mixed with a good ogre growl. “He’s still a bull. They have their place. Which isn’t drivin’ the direction of family, or creatin’ the mortar that binds folks together in a meanin’ful way.”

“I get ya don’t have a great deal of respect—”

“I think bulls put the color in our lives,” she said. “But they don’t have the sense the gods give rocks and earth.”

I covered my mouth and clasped my snout closed to keep from laughin’ up a lung.

“Ya wanna have a special relationship with that human—” She paused, givin’ me a bit of a tick in my chest. I continued to wait. What in the world could follow that?

“The fool, I can tell ya without the tiniest doubt, has sincere feelings for ya. That can’t be mistaken. So if ya’re doubtin’ him. Get over it. Now ya just have to settle upon what community grief ya’re willin’ to put up with, from all the idjits like me who think a human—not a Range human—is lower than the snake in the grass. But even snakes have purpose.”

I glared across at her. Maybe more confused than I’d been, yet.

“Ya dislike humans yarself,” I said.

“I talk up the dislike like every other fool in the Range,” she answered. “It’s maybe, definitely, habit. Doesn’t really mean anything.”

That alone gave me a lot to think about.

A good five minutes passed after that without either of us speakin’. We spent our time finishin’ off our cold tea like it was a profound undertakin’. Before headin’ inside we did speak of trivial things, maybe because my mentor’s words had shaken the world on its axis too much already.

As we strolled for the kitchen, I got a text from David. “I’ve been given a task I can’t do alone. Can you pick me up?”

~