Two townspeople wandered by, carrying bags over their shoulders. Sandra stepped in front of them, smiled, and waved. They were men, so they should react.
They didn't, apparently oblivious of her presence. If she did not step out of the way, they were going to walk into her.
As she quickly moved aside, her foot slipped on a piece of charred wood, causing it to skitter away. She caught her balance and avoided falling, for which she felt no small amount of relief. Outside the walls, the muck was not as bad as it was in the main part of the city, but she had no desire to get any more of it on her than necessary. Coordinated as she was, she could not recover her balance without making noise. The men walking past obviously noticed the sound of her near mishap because they stopped and looked in her direction.
"Must have been a big rat," one man said, glancing at the ground around him.
"Do you see it?" the other said.
"Nah, it must have run away."
"Too bad. There's good eating on a nice, fat rat."
Sandra held her breath while the men looked around a bit longer before giving up and continuing on their way.
The test told her two things. The first was that they did not see her, and the second was that she really did not want to be stuck here after the food they brought with them in the ship ran out.
She tried similar tests on other people—batting her eyes, sticking out her tongue, making faces—and no one seemed to notice her. She had no idea why they could not, but it gave her a superhero kind of feeling. She was the invisible woman! She could have a lot of fun with something like this. Of the people she knew, it only worked on Brax, but there was a lot of practical joke potential there. Lisa probably wouldn't like it, though—not here and now, anyway. Their commander was worried about them getting back, and Sandra sympathized. She knew she would not want to be in command of this crazy mission.
With the efficacy of the cloak confirmed, she headed in the direction of the orc camp. She knew the approximate location, but once she got past the outer edges of what passed for civilization here, she quickly lost her sense of direction. As a city girl, she seldom saw trees clumped together as they were here, and never without a nicely tended trail between them. This place didn't have one. It had a lot of plants and stuff like that, but it didn't have anything helpful. There were no signs, no landmarks, just trees, and they all looked pretty much the same to her—green part up and brown part down and stuck in the ground. What more could you say?
She walked in what she thought was the right direction for about half an hour, wishing this place had some kind of satnav, or perhaps a helpful girl in a red riding hood who could point her toward the orcs' camp. But the only recognizable creatures she saw were squirrels. There were plenty of those, and occasionally one would stop and look in her direction, but whether it was because they saw her or just heard her, she did not know.
Something that must have been there for some time without attracting her attention finally did. A heavy smell of wood smoke filtered through the trees ahead, and she followed the scent as quietly as she could, which she had come to realize was not all that quietly. The ground at her feet was littered with sticks and leaves and all kinds of things that cracked and rustled when she stepped on them. Someone really needed to sweep up around here once in a while.
Soon, the woods opened into a place that no one could accurately call a clearing, but there were fewer trees—and a lot more orcs. The first thing she noticed was that one of them was looking at her.
"That you, T'ump?" he said, glancing to either side of her. "If that's you, you better get back. K'pork's looking for you."
He continued to peer around and seemingly through her for a moment and then shrugged and moved on.
Sandra realized she had stopped breathing and decided it would be a good idea to start again. She forced herself to do it slowly. The first test of the cloak on an orc appeared to have been a success in any case.
The orc camp spread out to both her left and right, but she seemed to be at the outer edge. Smoke curled from several fires, some with small animal carcasses hung over them on spits, and most with orcs around them. All were adult males, as far as she could tell, and many appeared to be sleeping. Those who were awake wandered about talking or simply sat watching the fires. Two sitting together by a modest fire at the edge of the camp had their backs toward her. They were talking, so she decided to eavesdrop.
She crept forward trying to be as quiet as she possibly could, consciously taking slow, shallow breaths. She couldn't do anything about her heart, which seemed determined to pound despite her wishes. That was the trouble with hearts. They never listened to what your rational mind said.
She got just close enough to hear them, when another orc approached the fire. His glance slipped by her once but did not pause.
"What you watching?" he said to the two who were seated.
"Fire," one said.
"Any good?"
"It's okay."
"Seen better," the other one said.
"P'tok had a good fire yesterday. It smoked and crackled a lot. Smelled good, too."
"This one's not as good."
"Nope."
The first two orcs shook their heads but continued to watch the fire. The new arrival shrugged and wandered off, perhaps in search of something more entertaining.
"Could play sizzles," one of the remaining orcs suggested to his companion.
"Okay, you go first."
The orc dug one grubby finger into a piggish nostril and flung the contents into the fire, where it did indeed sizzle for a brief moment. Sandra felt quite relieved that they had their backs to her, which spared her from seeing the play too closely.
"Not bad. My turn," the other said.
He made his shot, resulting in an even louder sizzle.
The game continued for a few more moves until one said, "I'm all out."
"Me, too. What you want to do now?"
"Don't know. K'pork got a big funny hat from the human city. We could watch him wear it."
"Nah, K'pork's not fun anymore. Not since brain eater."
"Quiet! He's still leader. He hears you, he'll bash your head, and then brain eater will eat your brain."
"They're not here." He pointed further into the camp. "K'pork's over there somewhere, and sucker-head's in his cave." He swung one long arm around to point to the right, where two especially large orcs stood outside the mouth of a cave.
"Never know with brain eater. He's magic."
"Daytime. He won't come out."
"Right." The orc scratched his head, releasing a few small insects. "Hey! B'gur killed a boar last night. We can watch him cook it."
The other orc shook his head. "Nah, watching cooking makes me hungry."
"Um, we could watch N'stan. He might be digging a hole."
"Why?"
"He likes digging holes."
"Me, too. Want to dig a hole?"
"No, let's watch N'stan. He digs a good hole."
"I can dig a better hole."
"But N'stan has a human-made shovel."
The orc paused in what for him must have been deep thought. "Yeah, he got it from the human city yesterday." He pondered the idea a moment longer. "Okay. We'll watch him."
They got to their feet.
"Maybe if K'pork sends us back there, you can get a shovel."
The orc shook his head. A few more insects took flight. "I don't want to go back. Not even for a shovel."
"Me either. Walls and arrows and now that big flying monster thing, but if K'pork says go, we go. He's tribe leader."
"Yeah, he'll bash our heads if we don't go." The orc shrugged. "Come on; let's watch N'stan dig a hole."
"Okay. He digs a good hole."