Title: Not Gonna Get Us
One had survived...
Clear blue eyes stared out at him from behind the tree, and he was thankful for the rain that poured down around him, disguising the tears that were streaming down his turquoise cheeks.
The human girl stepped out from behind the tree, standing before him with her hands clasped in front of her. She stared up at him... she looked so pitiful, so weak. She was two feet shorter than him with limp, mousey brown hair that was matted with mud and rain, her face blotchy from crying. Her skin was pink...
She was just a human, and just a girl for that matter, but here, despite the carnage that lay behind them on the road, he was afraid of her.
She started speaking, bleating out something in her own language that he didn't understand. Trembling, he shook his head, stepping back, trying to keep her from coming any closer to him. When she stepped forward, once again speaking, he growled in discontent. Her face held shock when he reached out, pushing her roughly to the ground. Pulling a crude dagger from the belt at his waist, he moved to stand over her, shouting at her.
"Dis no' yo' place! Choo no' welcome he'a'!!" He shouted in orcish, knowing she wouldn't understand, and she cried out in terror as he raised his hand over his head, dagger clutched in it. She tried to find something to defend herself with, hands and feet scrabbling at the mud beneath her, but there was nothing there. He snarled again, watching her hide her eyes behind muddy hands as she waited for the killing blow to come, to deliver her into the embrace of death... so she could be with her father again. So she could be with her mother again...
For a long moment, the only sound was the rain thundering down around them, and neither of them moved. After that long moment, the human girl peeked between her fingers, and saw the troll looming over her, shoulders shaking, hands at his sides.
He hadn't killed her... he couldn't kill her.
Gripping handfuls of muddy grass, she dragged herself away, out from underneath him, but he didn't move. He simply stood in the rain, small sobs of pain and fear escaping him.
Why hadn't he killed her? She supposed... there was nothing that would achieve.
Gutteral voices filted up the road towards them, and she found herself looking at the troll in desperation, pleading to him silently. To her surprise, his orange eyes flickered open, turning to her, boring into her.
He then reached down, seizing the front of her dress and hauling her from the mud she lay in. She let out a squeak as he wrapped one strong arm around her, reaching up with the other to take hold of a tree branch. Using his powerful legs and his free arm, he scaled the tree, dragging her up with him. They settled onto a high branch, the troll pulling the human girl close and pressing a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't scream as two orcs shuffled into view. Both of them were clad in dull chain mail armor, one of them carrying a large war axe, and together, they began to wander through the killing fields, trying to find any survivors.
After speaking to one another briefly, the orcs began to drag the corpses about, lining the Horde bodies up and tossing the Alliance bodies into a pile nearby. Several more orcs joined them from the Crossroads, these ones beginning to dig a pit by the side of the road. The Alliance bodies were thrown in... when the rain stopped, he supposed they would be burned.
In his arms, the human girl was quietly crying, watching as they stripped corpses bare, flinging them without respect into the pit. He supposed her parents must have been in there...
He watched as they sorted the bodies, and upon seeing his parents lined up with the other trolls, he realized that both he and the little human girl were alone.
The orcs stood about until the rained stopped, at which point in time, the sun was beginning to near the horizon. Oil was added to the pit, a lot of oil, and one of the orcs easily set the corpses on fire, several of them laughing as they watched the flames reach into the sky.
The troll boy and the human girl had no choice but to stay in the tree that night, as the orcs weren't making any move to leave the pit. A wagon came in the dark to take the corpses of the Horde away to the Crossroads, and with it, the orcs went.
At that point in time, the girl had cried herself to sleep, so the boy had no choice but to stay in the tree, too. It was uncomfortable... but it was trivial, he told himself, as he watched the smoldering ashes in the pit. His discomfort meant nothing.
Night became day, and the rains again came. It was his voice that stirred her from sleep, and as she shifted, she suddenly felt empty space beneath her, gasping as she started to fall. Her descent was stopped as the troll grabbed the back of her tattered dress, dragging her back up on the branch and barking something at her in a scolding tone.
He moved so she was against the tree trunk, then gestured at her strangely. She blinked at him, watching him leap down from the branch and disappear into grass.
She needed to relieve herself... But with him gone, she was too scared to come down, so she told herself she could wait until he came back. Moments seemed to stretch on forever, and when she finally couldn't any longer, she decided to be brave.
She slipped part of the way down the tree, falling into the mud below, tears streaming down her filthy cheeks. She pulled herself out of the mud, looking around for a place hidden enough to relieve herself. When she returned, she found she wasn't strong enough to get back up into the tree, so she opted to crouch in the mud beneath the tree, hiding in a silverleaf bush.
That's where he found her when he returned, though it was only her snivelling that allowed him to find her. He dropped the rabbit he was holding and sighed, reaching into the bush to drag her to her feet. He looked her over, curling his nose up at how filthy she was, but as she did the same thing to him, he realized how filthy he must have been, too. He had intended to have the rabbit for breakfast, but he supposed getting clean was the first thing they should have been doing.
There was a small pool nearby with water clean enough to wash with, and the two of them managed to scrub themselves clean, knowing they wouldn't be able to keep too clean with the rain turning all the earth to mud.
Afterwards, the troll gestured to the rabbit, using his knife to skin it. He offered part of it to the girl, who shook her head, face turning a bit pale. He frowned, wondering why she didn't want his gift, but he soon realized as she began to search for a dry place that she didn't want to eat it without cooking it first. They sought refuge beneath one of the larger trees, one of the ones that had branches and leaves leaning over to offer shade from the sun and refuge from the rain.
There, she gathered together some grass and wood, and used her magic to start a fire. They exchanged a smile, and he was the first to hurriedly look away, startling when she reached out with one tiny pink hand to touch his arm.
He looked back at her, questioning her silently, and she smiled again in a shy way.
"Hikari." He heard her say, and she pointed to herself. "Hikari."
"Hi'kari." he repeated, the word feeling so strange on his tongue. She smiled and nodded, pointing to herself again, and he realized that this word was her name. Her name was Hi'kari. She settled back on her heels, looking at him curiously, expectantly, chewing on a piece of rabbit meat.
He thought for a moment, then decided, at this point in time, there was no harm in telling her his name in return. They were stuck here alone together, weren't they? What harm could come of him telling her his name?
So just as shyly, he nodded to her, raising a hand to point to himself.
"Tol'ray."