What was troubling was the sudden dawning realisation that he wasn't under the park's bushes any Longer. These weren't the thin branches and thorny brambles of his former hiding spot. These were large Leaves, thick vines and long limbs of plants that didn't look like they belonged in a well tended garden. A little wiggling and he'd freed his arm, a little more after that and he could sit up.

He was sat in the middle of a forest. It seemed like he'd rolled there from a few feet away which would certainly explain why he was covered in shrubs and vines. Maybe he'd passed out and Freddie had decided to take him out and dump him in the middle of nowhere.

Then again surely he'd have left a trail. Despite the obvious signs of where he'd rolled there was no evidence of anything disturbing the surrounding flora. He'd been camping a few times when he was young. He knew what to Look for. The complete absence of any trails was actually quite disturbing. It seemed Like he'd just fallen out of the sky.

Frustrated, Gregory moved his free arms to untangle his legs from the plants and vines before lifting himself to his feet. A quick glance around revealed a nearby tree that he was able to climb to get a better view of his surroundings. He found no signs of any trails around where he'd woken up but he did notice something else in the distance.

He began to turn to climb down when one of the vines that had been wrapped in the tree came loose in his hand. The sudden loosening almost made him fall from his perch but he managed to balance himself rather than returning to earth much sooner than he'd have liked. He looked at the vine, tugged on it and found it Latched to a branch higher up. Now having been raised on a series of fantasy novels, movies, computer games and comic books Gregory understood that chances such as these were made to be taken. He tugged on the vine again to make sure it was firmly rooted in the tree limb above and then allowed himself a small grin before dropping from the branch and holding on for dear life.

The rush of air was felt immediately as he swung on the vine directly toward his point of interest. Shortly before he managed to get there the vine snagged in another branch above him and swung him hard to the right to slam his body straight into the unyielding trunk of a Large tree. Pain shot through his wrist where he tried to brace himself and he swore aloud to the nothingness that surrounded him. A large bump on his forehead would also Likely be swelling up to high heaven in no time at all as a result of his quick tete-a-tete with the hard wood.

ALL in all it could have been worse and the pain seemed to subside when he saw what he'd been looking at. The forest floor was clearly pushed aside and there were notable tracks in the dirt beneath his feet. Large footprints, flat with no treads or heels which was an oddity in this day and age and long thin trails indicating something with wheels had passed through the area. It seemed to be some kind of road.

Gregory let out a breath of relief and started to walk. Roads had to lead somewhere. Hopefully they'd lead somewhere with a phone. Thinking back on his situation he considered that maybe swinging on the vines had been how he'd gotten laid up in the ground in the first place. It seemed a viable explanation for how he seemed to have dropped out of nowhere. Maybe Freddie had drugged him or something and let him loose in the forest? No, that sounded more Like a Bond Villain than Freddie.

What's more this forest didn't exactly scream English countryside at him either. Vines on trees? Did they even have vines in English woods? He sure as hell hadn't seen any. The trees were wrong too. He knew what trees looked like and even what they were called in most cases but he saw no oaks, willows, alders, ashes, pines or anything remotely familiar. Some had needles like pine trees but the wrong structure, some wilted Like Willows but didn't have the right branches. Many were beautiful to behold with one in particular bearing vines that were in the midst of flowering along with the tree itself. He didn't recognise any of the flowers.

This was getting eerie. Since the gap in the road sometimes allowed the trees above to part he saw the sky and figured the sun wasn't even at its peak yet. It was Late morning, not Late afternoon. He'd been out cold for an entire day?

That was when he met Algra for the first time. It was certainly one of the more interesting meetings of his life. This was largely because she introduced herself with a deafening scream of a battle cry and then burst out from behind a tree in front of him wielding a very large club she'd made from a fallen tree branch.

It was perhaps doubly or even triply startling for Gregory because Algra was, quite unmistakably, an orc. You see despite the many attempts of humans to dress up as magical creatures throughout the ages of earth the sad fact is that no matter how close your attention to detail and how brilliant your costume might be, no man or woman can quite manage to look Like an orc

The first thing that startled Gregory when he looked upon Algra was her size. As with most females, she was smaller than an average male by about twelve inches. This put her squarely at six and a half feet in height. Orc females are also considered equal to the tasks of orc males and so Algra was incredibly fit. Her muscles were defined and taut and her body was lean and capable of easily overpowering most human men. During that first meeting Algra also happened to be wearing relatively little. A few thick Leather straps were wrapped around the generously proportioned curves of her breasts and a sash made of animal hide hung over her hips. The small garments, despite showing off her incredibly powerful musculature and undeniably feminine curves also gave Gregory a view of her skin. He had never in all his Life seen such a rich shade of green. In places it was marred by dirt and he saw some evidence in of various wounds that had long since healed up but generally she seemed to match the colour of the finest emeralds.

Her face was the picture of violence. No mortal species that has ever existed can quite match the fury present in the face of a pissed off orc. The moment Gregory saw the way she looked upon him he would have turned and fled if it weren't for the fact he'd been stunned stone still. He saw her dark eyes and the deep downward curve of her brow. Her lips, a darker shade of green than her face, curled back over her white teeth revealing her lower canines that were far too long to be human and curved outward Like small tusks made for shredding meat. Wild untamed black hair framed the terror-inducing sight and made her seem almost primal, a force of nature.

He watched as the ferocious female slammed her club against the earth and then bellowed at him some more. When she didn't attack after a while he began to regain some of his wits, although they damn sure returned few and far between.

"I...I'm sorry I..." He tried to speak only to be interrupted by another unmistakable battle cry from her.

“Look..." He started again and lifted his hands up to show he didn't want any trouble.

That was when she finally Lunged at him. It only took her two bounds of her powerful legs to close the distance between them. The charging creature sent a shot of adrenaline right up his spine and his instincts flew into overdrive. Her first swing was aimed at his arms and he quickly spun out of the way. The world seemed to slow down as the fight began. Thankfully lady Luck took him in her arms and seemed to instinctively guide him past the orc‘'s first three swings. Finally his brain seemed to fall into the routine of a sparring match. Since Freddie had made him take up Karate he'd spent many hours there and that certainly wasn't the only martial art he'd studied since then.

It was time to stop letting her set the pace of this fight. She swung again and this time Gregory found his balance and leapt over her club before delivering a heavy roundhouse straight to the side of her head. Given that he Looked so puny and that he'd spent so much time fleeing her attacks the move took her completely off guard. Gregory pressed the advantage with a succession of quick punches that unbalanced her before he moved to heft her clean off her feet. As she fell he grabbed her wrist, twisted until the club came free and claimed the weapon for himself.

The orc saw the human lift the club over his head to finish her off and crossed her arms above her face.

"Yield! Yield!" She shouted.

Gregory hesitated and then stepped backwards, still holding onto the club.

“What the hell are you!?" His stomach felt like it was playing leap frog with his Liver.

“Algra! I am Algra!" The orc's tone was pleading.

Gregory didn't know what to do with this information and so he fell into stunned silence for a moment. Algra peeked out from behind her arms to see he wasn't standing over her any Longer but had taken a few steps backwards. Her face was much different without her fury twisting her expression. The tusks were still quite strange, with her mouth closed they poked up to rest on her upper lip. Her features were much softer than he imagined possible, her eyes wide now and the colour of very dark chocolate. They struck him as very human rather than the soulless bloodthirsty orbs he'd first taken them for.