After a brief recess, the podium-work team put their tools away and Judge Crawbrink Bonebruiser presided once again.

　　"Where were we?" Crawbrink asked.

　　An attendant, staring forward at nothing, answered studiously, "Opening statements, your honor."

　　"Right, I remember now. I think we can move forward," he said, looking to Penelope inquiringly.

　　Penelope gave a nod. "Yes, I was finished, your honor."

　　"Then you may bring forth evidence for your argument."

　　Justafar and his team were talking amongst themselves. Penelope saw a few of them handling their weapons with serious faces.

　　She spoke with Salander.

　　"I`m not entirely sure how to start this off," she whispered to him.

　　He was holding the sheets of vellum and perusing her notes. "The best way to build a shelter is to start with the ground." He indicated one of the sheets, and she nodded resolutely.

　　"Your honor," she said loudly enough for the crowd to hear, "I have evidence I would like to submit, to launch our discussion."

　　"Very well. Do you have it here?"

　　"Your honor, I carry it everywhere I go." She walked out from behind her desk and stood in front of the podium and addressed the crowd.

　　"The first piece of evidence is me. My physical body." She held out her arms, displaying her limbs. A look of puzzlement scuttled across Justafar`s face before he submerged himself in whispered conversation with his team.

　　"Your honor, if I may ask, what do you see?"

　　A shout came up from one of Justafar`s team, "She can`t do that!"

　　The judge gave the orc a critical look. "She`s going somewhere with this. If the defense wants to start with what we see about her, then I will allow it."

　　The orc grumbled, and the judge continued, "You may, of course, counter when she has stated her reasoning."

　　Penelope continued, "Thank you your honor. Now, what do you see when you look at me? Be specific."

　　With the outburst giving him time to think, the judge said, "I see a rather scrawny orc girl. Recently malnourished, but otherwise with healthy teeth. Would you like me to comment on your clothes?" The last sentence was given with a hint of a sneer.

　　"No, your honor. To this I would like to add that I have never in all my memory been able to change forms, though you only have my word on this, and have been raised in an orc home under orc values, until my exile."

　　"None of that!" a voice cried from Justafar`s desk. "The exile has nothing to do with what she is!"

　　The judge looked at the orc that made the outburst, "Was she not exiled for not being an orc?"

　　The voice continued nervously, "Well, your honor, it was about that, yes, but it was a result of her being one, see? We think," here there was some whispering, "we think it should be overlooked if we`re talking about her&err um&physical makeup."

　　The judge acquiesced. "The jury will disregard the comment about the exile. Now, does the offense have anything to say about this piece of evidence?"

　　Some muttering bubbled up from the other table and Penelope briefly heard, "Yeah, you, Olibim," before one of Justafar`s orcs spoke up.

　　"Yeah, we got questions," he started, "Firstly, what does what she look like have to do with this? Ain`t that what cowbirds do?"

　　He got some half-hearted pats on the back, and another said, "If anything, it proves she`s one of `em."

　　The crowd murmured in general agreement at this, but Penelope added, "I can see your argument. Merely looking like an orc - looking like anything - doesn`t necessarily mean I am one. But now that I have submitted my body as evidence, I would like to bring the subject to cowbirds. Cowbirds as a whole."

　　At this, the crowd hushed.

　　"I have become as much of an expert. As much as anyone here can be. We have surprisingly little information on them."

　　She looked at Kairon, who was standing at ease outside the arena but apart from the crowd. He wore his usual mildly pleased expression.

　　"All the information I`ve found on the subject is folklore and fairytales." She held up a hand to count on her fingers. "Cowbirds are monsters that kidnap children. Cowbirds are used by the queen of the fairies to control world leaders. Cowbirds are apparent by their weird aura, making them appear outwardly normal, but which, for reasons I`m sure we can guess, does not fool the parents."

　　She spotted her mother in the crowd out of the corner of her eye but did not look at her.

　　"But we have no definitive test. Collectively, we know next to nothing about these things."

　　She scanned the audience, taking care not to rest her gaze on Eleruse, before turning back to the podium.

　　"That is all, your honor." She walked back to Salander.

　　"How was that supposed to help? You left out half of what you included in your notes. What happened to appealing to the jury? What happened to, and if we have no definitive test, there can be no conclusive evidence?`," he hissed at her.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it`s taken without the author`s consent. Report it.

　　"I saw my mother in the crowd," she said lamely.

　　"You saw your mother," he parroted while Penelope wrung her hands. "And you lost your nerve? You`re an orc, Penelope. Act like one or neither of us are getting out of here."

　　The crowd behind them was growing steadily tumultuous behind them. Penelope turned to see her mother in a fist fight with another audience member, having lashed out in response to Penelope`s statements. Another orc was trying to loop an elbow around her neck as her arms were flying wildly at the press of bodies around her. One was lying on the ground.

　　"I want to speak!" she shouted, "I want to speak!"

　　The gavel banged. The commotion stopped at the sound, though not because it was startling. Everyone wanted to see how the structure would withstand it this time.

　　All eyes gazed forward, bodies frozen in whatever recent activity they were doing. Even Penelope`s mom paused mid-grapple.

　　"What?" the judge asked. The workmanship held up.

　　With the sound of a clearing throat, the judge shifted gears, "I will have order! Justafar, get your wife up here, if nothing more than to calm her down."

　　Everything slowly resumed, like a frozen pudding thawing. Eleruse made her way to the arena with purpose.

　　"I have evidence against this-," she pointed at Penelope, pausing for words, "this abomination being orcish."

　　"Commendable effort in the mob," the judge said coolly, "Please, speak with your husband if you wish to be admitted as a witness."

　　Eleruse turned around in a huff, and with a short scream, the podium fell over sideways.

　　****

　　While the trial commenced, Chicken and Amerigo were valiantly escaping the orcish city with designs to return to the kobold encampment, drive out the invaders, and save the day. These plans, dictated by Chicken to Amerigo as they carefully trudged among the rocks while the coast was clear, were slowly being sun-bleached. Amerigo, now merely slimy and rapidly drying to slightly damp, wondered in his heat-addled brain how Chicken could talk so much.

　　"I warned the orc - the one standing in the middle of our village, mind you - that I was going to use magic on it, but it wouldn`t listen," he said, idly helping Amerigo down from yet another waist-high boulder. "It just laughed at me. I really should have blasted it like I did that goblin."

　　Amerigo nodded wearily, losing most of what the kobold was spouting, wishing it was water instead of words.

　　"I spared its life out of compassion. Yeah, that was it. But it turned against me. I was tricked and caught. They dragged Salander, Penelope, and me into that city. What are you doing? Come on."

　　This last comment was made because Amerigo was sitting down in the shade of two large rocks. He waved his hand dismissively, letting his exhaustion show.

　　"Oh, I guess we can take a break," Chicken said a mite testily. "We`re not out of the jaws just yet, so we should keep going while there`s no one around."

　　Amerigo pulled the lizard out of his pocket. He hadn`t done this earlier, as this was his first chance to think about something other than running. He set the lump of lizard down on the sand, which lay there awkwardly, eyes open. He and Chicken watched it, and Amerigo appreciated the silence it brought.

　　It was quite cool under these rocks. Amerigo guessed that it was somehow in the shade all day, so it wasn`t radiating heat like the rest of the surface of this forsaken place.

　　The lizard slowly rolled from its side onto its belly.

　　It licked its eyes.

　　Chicken absent-mindedly did the same.

　　"Do you hear that?" he whispered.

　　"It`s like a far-away thwap thwap. Do you hear it? There`d been so much noise lately, it must have covered it up."

　　Amerigo stifled a sigh.

　　He carefully peeked from behind the rocks which guarded their rest spot. In the distance, through the heat haze, he could see someone bent double and hitting something on the ground. The whacks took a fraction of a second to sound as they reverberated off the jagged surroundings. He informed Amerigo.

　　"We`ll need to go out of our way to avoid&whatever that is," Chicken missed.

　　Amerigo nodded solemnly. This very easily added a day to their journey, and they already travelled through most of the night. He inquired about water.

　　"We`re near wet ground here," Chicken said. "That`s partly why it`s so cool." He was feeling the sand they were sitting on.

　　Amerigo wandered to the edge to look again at the person hitting the ground.

　　But it wasn`t there.

　　He looked back at Chicken, his brow furrowed in puzzlement.

　　"You don`t see it?"

　　Sigildred, unaware he was being spied upon by escaped convicts, was toiling away on his farm. All he had to his name was this sword-turned-plough, a plot of land granted to him by the city, and what he could make with his two hands. At that, it was one of the farm plots furthest from what his lordship referred to as society.

　　As an orc not in good standing, he had the assistance of no prisoners to speak of. He needed this farm to get started, so he was a begrudging guinea pig.

　　He whacked the ground again and again. The "tutorial" his lordship had prepared to educate Sigildred, and the others in his predicament, was ill-suited for this kind of ground. It had needed to be cleared of stones, but after moving several tons of rock with his own hands, he only had a couple yards square in which to work.

　　He also remembered being instructed to loosen the soil. Furrowing, the tutor had called it. He had to jam the plough-thing in the ground and scar the earth with it in straight parallel lines, like he would torture a victim. The ground here all but actively resisted the touch of the plough, so he had taken to using the plough as an axe to carve lines in the gravelly sediment.

　　He took off his thatch hat and fanned himself, taking a brief break. In a short while he would have to go back to the watering hole near here. A few more rows before then, he decided, and took his plough in hand and stood up. He didn`t notice the small rocks around him begin to hover slightly off the ground.

　　Chicken pointed at the figure in the distance. "Ah! It`s there. I think it just stood back up. Do you see it?"

　　Sigildred`s plough went further into the ground than normal. The ground had crumbled beneath it, almost swallowing the whole implement. It threw him off balance, but he didn`t go in after it. As he bent down to examine this defect under his land, he felt a faint rumble beneath his feet&

　　Chicken and Amerigo watched as the figure was blown into the sky by the sudden geyser.

　　"I knew I had magic! I knew it!" Chicken said excitedly. He couldn`t contain himself. He was bouncing in place.

　　Several yards away, Sigildred bounced.

　　"I pointed, and there was a geyser! Woosh!"

　　Amerigo winced as he watched the body hit the rocks. And again.

　　Sigildred, woozy but still alive, lay there for the moment.

　　"C`mon, let`s go! We can get a drink of water and book it back home!" He was already breaking cover before Amerigo could decide to join him.

　　They raced over the rocks, Chicken holding nothing back and nearly skipping from rock to rock as if they had been paved road.

　　Amerigo struggled to make the hops between the scattered boulders like Chicken was doing, tentatively aborting a step to try again.

　　Chicken made it to the farm plot, ground zero for the upheaval that Sigildred experienced firsthand. There was a sink hole filled with water, a few lazy bubbles dotting the surface.

　　Amerigo, struggling hand and foot, caught glimpses of Chicken reaching the edge, then bent over to bring handfuls of water to his face, then standing again and looking around.

　　Sigildred rubbed his head as he realized the worthlessness of his plot of land. He sat up groggily, despite the weight of his poor choices and bad luck.

　　As Amerigo steadied himself on a boulder, trying to secure the next step, he tried to remember where Chicken had stepped. Had he placed a foot there, on that round stone? It was a bit of a reach, but maybe he bounded up the next rock with momentum. No, wait, it was that rock there. He looked up to see Chicken making his way back to him.

　　"What are you waiting for? We need to go!" he called.

　　Amerigo made the step and looked back up. Chicken was gone.

　　Trading care for speed, he made his way to where Chicken had been last. He saw a hole in the ground.

　　The thing that had bounced - an orc, Amerigo noticed in horror - was stirring and groaning. He made a split decision.

　　When Sigildred returned to his farm plot, he was just as alone as before the discovery, and he was none the wiser.