A Blooming Pleasure Pt. 01

Feyhr Gielz came to the Ambassador's Reindling's estate with very little to recommend him. But the estate did lack a gardener, and the big orc seemed harmless enough.

Reindling knew it was a stereotype that orcs were brash and warrior-like, but it was a stereotype because it was so often true. Gielz, though, spoke few words, and softly, and looked mostly interested in his own feet. Aside from his massive size and the dusky blue-green tinge to his skin, there was very little typically orcish about the man. Most orcs prized full beards in men, and body hair and large protruding tusks as a sign of virilty in all genders. But Gielz was almost hairless but for his head, and his tusks near-invisible until he spoke. He had a way of standing that, in spite of his enormity, seemed to take up as little space as possible. And yet for all these odd looks, Reindling couldn't find it in himself to think of the strange orc as ugly. In fact, he had a kind of quiet magnetism, and the half-elf found himself offering a month's probationary work on the spot.

Jiorich Reindling was perhaps unusual in his own looks, too. He was tall for his human ancestry-- although still nothing compared to an orc-- and his body wiry and ear points subtle even for a half-elf. His chiseled face was framed by silver stubble and touseled salt-and-pepper waves. Over a career in diplomacy he'd seen little chance for combat, but...