Optimizing Family: A More Efficient Fantasy, #5

By N E Riggs

Yadis has a new family. It's a messed up family, but she's going to fight to keep it. Even if she has to travel to Demonia.

A More Efficient Fantasy: Book 5

• Language: English
• Publisher: N E Riggs
• Release date: Aug 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201468668

Book preview

Optimizing Family

A More Efficient Fantasy

Book 5

N E Riggs

Copyright © 2021 N E Riggs

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

N E Riggs

[e-mail]

NERiggs.com

FirstCityBooks.BlogSpot.com

Illustrator: Rebekah Smelser

[e-mail]

Editor: Leanore Elliott

[e-mail]

Yadis woke every morning for a month assuming it would be the last time she woke. She stared at the ceiling, low over the bed in the loft. Nelen slept in the bed beside hers, shifting constantly through the night, sometimes calling out to Fashan. She didn’t need to worry about Fashan; when the elves came to kill them, Fashan would survive.

Most days Yadis had to fight to get out of bed and do her daily chores. It didn’t matter how much danger they were in, the yaks needed milking and food, the turkeys laid eggs. Then as the snow began to melt, the fields had to be sowed. Yadis worked harder than she ever had before, filling every moment of every day. When she collapsed in bed, exhausted, sometimes she managed to fall asleep quick. Most days, she laid awake a long time, wondering when she’d die and whether Mika and Fashan could do anything to save them.

Welal and Shalif wore their swords every day, for all the good that would do against a large group of elves. After the first day, Paka wore a sword too. In the afternoon, Welal, Shalif, or Fiko would train with him. After a few days, as Zivi continued to recover, Rova helped too.

Every evening over supper, Paka turned to Yadis with a huge grin and said, I’m getting better.

Yes, I know, Yadis said with a smile that she hoped covered her fears.

Ten days after Mika and Fashan left, she pulled Rova aside. Could Paka live with you in Demonia?

The large orc frowned down at her. Not long ago, Yadis would have quailed under that – she would have quailed just being that close to an orc. She knew Rova now, had seen Rova hold Zivi tight and cry when she thought no one was looking. How could Yadis fear someone who loved that fiercely?

He isn’t Demonian. Not really, Rova finally said.

Yadis nodded. I know. But if everything goes wrong, if there’s a chance that you could run away and go home, could Paka live in Demonia?

For a long time, Rova said nothing. Together they watched Paka and Fiko fight together and flirt together. Perhaps, she said at last. If none of the demons look at him too closely. If he doesn’t join a raiding party. He might be happy there.

He could learn to love it. Demonia couldn’t be as bad as the stories made it out to be, not if it contained people like Rova, Zivi, and Fiko. When Yadis thought of the first goblin she and Paka met, the one who nearly killed them both, she trembled. That had been a long time ago. Now, Paka could fight. Now, Paka had allies, people of his own race. Perhaps he couldn’t live in Demonia by himself, but he wouldn’t have to be alone.

Yadis could never live in Demonia. She didn’t need to ask Rova and the others to know this. She doubted she would live five days there, except perhaps as a slave or victim of abuse. Better to stay here and let the elves cut her up than to live like that. Or so Yadis wanted to think, because that seemed braver. In truth, she thought she could live a miserable life, if it kept her close to Paka and mostly healthy.

Better to focus on her chores. The elves hadn’t returned yet, which meant they didn’t have to abandon Last Chance. Maybe Mika and Fashan had succeeded in keeping the elves away. Every morning for a month, Yadis prayed to the gods that they had succeeded, even though she could never make herself believe it.

A few days after her talk with Rova, while Paka practiced with Welal and Shalif, Fiko came to help Yadis make super. The orcs had mostly avoided such domestic tasks until now, though Fiko seemed to enjoy cleaning out the barn. (It took her and Paka far too long if all they were doing was cleaning.)

Nelen and Rova were checking Zivi over, while Zivi complained that she was fine now so stop fussing. Do you want Paka to come live with me in Hella? Fiko asked as she crouched near the cook pot. She hunched her shoulders, as if trying to make herself look smaller. It was a losing battle; Fiko would always look bigger than Yadis, because she was so much bigger.

Yadis dumped in some potatoes. Paka cares for you a great deal. Do you care for him?

The young orc puffed herself up. Of course, I do! Paka is sweet and gentle and kind! He’s like no orc I’ve ever met.

Of course he’s like no other orc. He’s human, basically.

Yes, I know. It’s a little weird, and sometimes he confuses me, but I do love him. Seeing the extra potatoes, Fiko took up the knife and started cutting them. Her movements were efficient and precise. Does it bother you that we’re together?

No. Sometimes it did. Yadis was used to having Paka to herself, used to being the only one who cared about him. She didn’t mind sharing him with others, because Paka needed more than Yadis in his life. He needed men in particular, to show him what sort of man he could become. Perhaps Shalif, Fashan, and Mika weren’t the men Yadis would have chosen for that role, but she could think of worse men. Since their father couldn’t raise Paka, these men were better than any others. Rough they might be, but they cared about Paka. That was more than Yadis could say about any other living men.

Sharing Paka with family was one thing. She didn’t even mind that he now knew Demonians. He was Demonian, despite how he was raised and despite his wishes. If being Demonian meant being evil, Yadis would have fought to keep him from it. While she didn’t fully trust Rova, Zivi, and Fiko, they weren’t like how she imagined Demonians would be. They could be reasoned with. They had things and people they loved and feared. They could show kindness. Like the men in Last Chance, perhaps they weren’t what Yadis would have picked, but she could think of far worse options.

Paka should have a family and friends, and a heritage both human and Demonian. And since he should have a family, that meant he should have a wife if he wished to. Yadis knew that, but knowing that and accepting that Fiko might be that wife one day was another matter.

Fiko cut up the last potato and dumped it into the pot with the others while Yadis stirred in some herbs. I’ll take care of Paka, so you don’t have to worry. I’ve lived in Hella all my life, and my family is there. They’ll think I’m weird when I bring Paka home, but they’ll learn to love him. He doesn’t have to join a raiding party. He can start a farm – there aren’t many farms near Hella, so he’ll be very successful.

When Yadis imagined Hella, she saw a huge, squalid city in perpetual night. Fights broke out constantly, and humans were used like animals. Maybe that wasn’t what Hella was like. Probably it wasn’t, from what little Yadis had learned since leaving Sishil. If she asked one of the orcs, they would tell her. She hadn’t yet worked up the nerve to ask.

Instead, she said, Can he live like that? Not being native to Hella and knowing nothing of your customs or language?

Fiko chewed her thumbnail. I can teach him to speak Demonian. It isn’t hard, and Paka’s very smart. I can teach him our customs too. He’ll seem strange, he can’t help that, but so long as he keeps away from the demons, he should be fine.

"And how hard will that be, avoiding