Of Notices and Alliances
by Jason Hunter and Anya Greyback
Chapter One: Notice Board
The late afternoon sun shone brightly over the active Orgrimmar City. Throngs of fighters moved through the crowded city boulevards. Those fighters, of diverse races, classes and trades, bought and sold supplies or talents. Others came to rest from days travel or fighting. Burly, highly-trained Orcish guards moved through the city, keeping the peace, providing directions or defending from assault.
A cry from and emerald raptor was lost to the bustle and noise of the crowd, except one. The leanly muscled figured shifted in the saddle on the Emerald's back, leaning forward to pat the raptor's scaled neck. Sharp, dark red irises focused on the notice board, disregarding mundane flyers, he searched for some well-paying jobs. After a handful of moments, one in particular caught his eye.
Wanted:
Escort for Arathi Highlands!
Paying Five Gold! The first to successfully get me to the Thandol Span, unharmed, will receive payment.
Please, NO TROLLS!
Find me at the inn in Tarren Mill, under Mira Starwind...
He was startled out of reading as an Orcish female rudely shoved his mount to the side.
"Move it, buddy; you're blocking the notice board." She didn't even bother taking her eyes off the board as she gruffly pushed at the raptor again.
"'Oi! Wait'cha turn, Orc!" the Troll atop the raptor snapped.
The female Orc finally turned towards her obstruction, casting her dark eyes up at him. "Makhania waits for no one!" she said menacingly, thrusting a thick forefinger in his direction.
"Unless Makhania wan' 'er arse handed ta 'er, she be wise ta back down."
"Oh yeah?" The Orc's eyebrows rose a centimeter or two and a low, rolling chuckle escaped her lips as she leisurely set her hands on the handles of the axes she wore at her waist. Makhania seemed to size-up the Troll and his mount. "You and what army?"
"Ah don' need an army ta—" he was abruptly cut off as Makhania roughly shoved the raptor again, putting most of her weight and strength behind the push. The startled creature reacted by rearing up, jarring his Troll rider from the saddle and dumping him unceremoniously on his back. Dust stirred around him from where he landed, as the Emerald raptor made a bee-line down the road. It drew many eyes to its' flight, but none made an attempt to halt it.
The Troll collected himself from the ground and stared off in the direction his raptor had flown. When he turned back to the Orc called Makhania, he glared into her dark eyes.
"Wha' da hell be ya problem, Orc?" he growled angrily. "Now ah gotta find me damn mount!"
"Like I care," she snorted. Even though she was considerably shorter and less broad than he was, Makhania didn't seem in the least bit daunted. Her black hair, which shown with plum colored highlights in the waning sunlight, fell well past her amply-muscled shoulders. Beneath her armor, which was scuffed, dinged and scorched and displayed signs of having been worked to fit her smaller frame, lurked a dense musculature that he could only guess was the rival of her species' males. Her darkly colored irises didn't flinch away from his own crimson orbs, betraying volumes about her character and internal strength.
"Oh, you will, love," he said, his low and almost purring. Then, in one blinding display of speed, his hand shot out and grasped the sheet of paper that hung on the board. He tore it from its' pin, leaving a small piece of jagged paper behind as he bolted away, following the tracks his mount had left in the dusty soil.
"Hey!" Makhania bellowed, turning to follow the Troll. "Get back here with that!"
Thanks for reading...