Post by Skreeran
Part 1Part 2**************
Thorm continued to run, the sun beating down on his back. It seemed hotter too. The whole world seemed more hostile and unforgiving. The stones under his feet felt sharp and painful. The hot air stung his eyes. Where just the day before he hadn’t a care in the world, now everything seemed to intensify his pain. He did not even find comfort in the food his mother had given him.
What was wrong with these humans? Why did they kill and destroy and burn? He almost asked his mother why they wanted to kill them, but managed to keep his mouth shut as they stoicly ran north. He already knew the answer she would give anyway.
They were humans.
They hated him.
He vaguely knew why they were so filled with hate. His parents had recounted the stories several times before, regret lacing their faces, sadness in their eyes. The orcs had once lived on another world, but they were tricked by demons into killing their world, and had to come to this one to survive. They had fought the humans in the two great wars, and were eventually defeated and imprisoned. He barely remembered the prisons. He had been freed when he was only four years of age, so he didn’t remember very many details, but he remembered the feelings. The feeling of being watched all the time, the constant sadness of his parents, the gnawing hunger.
He realized that his mother hadn’t partaken of the small meal that he and his sister had shared, and he felt terrible. He remembered his own hunger from the camps so long ago, and realized that his parents must have felt even worse, having given him much of their food.
He continued to walk on, holding his sister’s hand, and noticed she was crying slightly. He held her closer, trying to comfort her, even though he felt the same inside.
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Robert stood, in shock at what he had seen. The Horde had not only burnt the village, but the villagers as well. They were monsters. His heart quivered with rage as he looked at the smoking pile of corpses. Men, women, children. None had been spared. What if it had been
his family? He could not fathom such wickedness.
His father tried to say something comforting, but couldn’t find the words. In truth, he was as shocked, outraged, anguished, and infuriated as his son was. The only thing he could think of was the memory of Stormwind burning as a child. This was a painful reminder of what the orcs were. They were not people. They could not be reasoned with. They killed indiscriminately and without mercy.
Suddenly, a horn was sounded and the forward company began marching south. Robert and his father looked up as their captain began barking orders to continue their march.
Robert felt tears stinging at the edges of his eyes. It was just overwhelming, the fatigue, the death, the prospect of the possible battle to come. He whimpered slightly as he continued to force his feet up and down, marching in rhythm with the rest of the company.
They marched south, out of the gates of the city, moving down the road toward the jungle of Stranglethorn. They marched for hours, finally getting a bit of light as the sun peeked in from between the treetops. The canopy overhead was growing less dense as it gave way to blue sky.
Finally, they reached the border of Duskwood, a deep gorge splitting the jungle in the south from the forest in the north. A single wooden bridge crossed the canyon, which surprised Robert, as he had expected the Horde to have burned that as well.
The forward company was beginning to cross the bridge, when a foul odor presented itself in the air about them. They paused a moment, unsure of what the smell was, when a projectile smashed into the side of the forward rank that was crossing the bridge. A greenish gas radiated out from the spot where it had hit, instantly striking terror into those that could see it. Seconds later, another barrel exploded as it hit the side of the bridge. Cries of agony and fear rang out through the gorge, as both companies turned to run. Robert looked back, empty armor and green puddles lying where men once stood, until finally there was only one rank left. Robert was speechless. He knew what had happened, but he couldn’t believe it. Even the slain villagers he had seen hours before were less appalling than this… travesty. So many dead, without warning, in seconds.
The calls of the captain broke through the shared shock of the company as he ordered them back to Stormwind. They marched quickly, despite their fatigue, almost running back to the capitol.
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Thorm continued his swift walk behind his mother. He couldn’t tell where they were, but he could tell he was much farther away from home than he had ever been before. He kept pace with his mother, even though his feet hurt. His sister was having trouble keeping up though. She clung to her doll as she hurried along, stumbling at times as she tried to keep up with her mother’s long strides.
Suddenly, over the hilltop, they saw the group of humans that had burned their house to the ground. Thorm began to say something, but his mother covered his mouth and quickly hurried out of their sight. They waited. And waited.
Finally, Thorm’s mother cautiously looked back over the hill.
And fell to the ground, pierced by an arrow from one of the knights. Thorm screamed in horror, pulling his mother closer and cuddling her face with his own. She smiled and kissed him on the forehead, before standing and facing her attackers. One of the knights dismounted and drew his sword. Thorm’s mother growled and yelled out, before kicking the knight to the ground, using his own sword to impale him upon the ground. But she was too late to stop the sword stroke another knight brought down upon the back of her neck.
Thorm cried out and ran at the knight, beating upon the human’s metal plate armor with his fists in anger. The human prepared to strike down the young orc until he was stopped by another human that appeared to be an officer.
“Hold Johnson, we can certainly get a gladiator out of this one, and the other there will make a decent slave. At the very least we could sell her to the goblins, I’m sure they can find a use for her.”
“Roma, run!” Thorm yelled in Orcish, before he was subdued by the bigger and stronger human knight, and bound hand and foot.
Roma froze in place, weeping, before she too was bound and thrown over the saddle of one of the knights.
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Part 4