See, that's just not enough parks. Orcs are... somehow intensely distasteful and wrong people? They're pantomiming finding orcs very upsetting.

Nelen ducks into the portal again.

Whether because they don't know how or don't want to or can't, no one follows him.

He does wait around for a while, sitting on the chair and picking through the photos on his everything, just in case.

This time he waits another week before he goes in again.

The alien who fed him a pastry is sitting on top of a nearby building. She waves. "Nelen!"

Gulp. "Hi Faervel."

"You came two time! I say you maybe come two time, we should wait, but Thenteth say maybe not say orcs, orcs scary, maybe not come back."

"It was scary," he murmurs.

"No orcs here now probably. Can ask if you want but usually no orcs here."

He winces.

"- can't say no orcs ever, that's no good, but can say no orcs now for Nelen probably?"

That's not better, apparently.

She looks kind of stuck. "- orcs not that scary. No fun but not - they not mean, just ick."

Yeah she's really not helping but he has decided not to run away yet even though he's super thinking about it.

"I don't know what's bad, can you say it?"

"Why are -" That's as far as he gets.

"Why are orcs? Oh, Melkor."

"...what is a melkor?"

"Melkor made orcs. Long ago was only Elves and then he wanted bad things to be in the world so he hurt Elves a lot very much and if you hurt Elves forever and hurt their babies then their babies are orcs and that is why orcs. 

Melkor is gone now. He got in trouble."

Nelen is confused and still pretty freaked out but still not running away! Go Nelen.

"I still don't know what's bad."

Nelen chews awkwardly on his lip. "I'm scared."

"Okay. No thing to scared. Orcs not here, not scary. Melkor not here, never here again."

"No, not of - not of those -"

"Of us?" She puts her hands up in the air. "Not scary."