Chapter One

The green light which seemed to drain whatever strength he had left began to grow larger. His robes grew heavy with the weight of his own blood. He could feel his heart pounding what little blood he had left as his vision began to fade. He felt cold. A familiar blackness surrounded him as he could hear a distant voice.

"You will grow strong," it said, "You will make me proud, Borin."

He could not hear these words, but rather read them in his mind. A mild buzzing filled his ears as he heard these words, as though he could feel everything he once was slipping away. It was now black and cold. He could no longer feel his body.

"Wake up," he heard, "I hate sleeping next to you!"

Borin awoke, feeling his heart still pounding in his chest. As he sat up, he was relieved to be safe back in his bed with his friend, Ulric. They were both orphans of Stormwind City and had been best friends ever since they could remember.

Borin found himself flat in the middle of the one-person bed, skin as white as snow. He scooted back over to his "side" of the bed, a line which they had both agreed on since the "merging." Borin hated sharing the bed as much as Ulric seemed to express, however they had been some of the lucky ones. Many of the children were sleeping on the hard wooden floor with nothing but blankets which had been torn to share among the others and pillowcases filled with hay or dirt.

"I wish this stupid war would end already," Ulric rolled on his side with a smug; "All of these other kids are hogging our beds!"

The war between man and orc seemed to never die. The constant territory gains and losses forced many families to migrate from place to place. Not to mention the dangerous food shortages which had made Stormwind City one of the only places men could live without fear.

The soft sound of rustling implied that Ulric's quiet ranting had awoken some of his fellow orphans. "Shh!" one child ordered. Borin was relieved that the pitch black room prevented Shellene, the orphan caretaker from knowing who exactly had awoken the others. As the warmth of his own blood began to fill his body again, Borin laid back down and tried to go back to sleep. He wanted to tell Ulric about his dream, but only received a tired grunt every time he attempted to get Ulric's attention with an elbow to the back.

A good twenty minutes had past of attempting to sleep before Borin found himself wide awake. He sat up again, wiping his eyes and jumping off of his bunk bed. Although reaching only five feet, he had been used to jumping off of his eight foot high bed without making a noise. He and Ulric had made it routine to sneak out about once a week before the other children had shown up to the orphanage.

He walked over to the nearest window and jumped out. The soft patch of dirt which he and Ulric had made allowed this to also make no noise. Night shift guard duty did not seem to be too intense, mostly given that there were not much adult men left in Stormwind. The only guard who ever had seen him or Ulric was Shellene's husband, Rowan. The only reason he never turned the two children in is because it would cause his wife to get into some rather serious trouble with the city. Through the years, Rowan had began to converse with the boys during their "escapes." During these times, Rowan would explain how he had become a guard. "Because I could never tell the difference between the ends of a horse back in school!" he once told the boys with a hearty laugh.

This seemed to Borin like a good time to meet up with his only adult friend. As usual, he found Rowan patrolling along Stormwind's canal system. He could always tell which guard was Rowan by looking at the cloth on the side of his armor. It seemed to be the only clean one of any of the guards. While many of the others were dirty from their days of use, Rowan's still held a vivid red. While Rowan slept during Shellene's work, she would wash his clothes along with the children's. As Borin ran up to him, Rowan could hear his ever so sly footsteps.

"No duo of destruction tonight?" Rowan laughed.

"Ulric is dead as a rock" Borin smiled.

"Well, now that you mention it, it's not Friday," Rowan said as he looked up at the stars, "what are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep," Borin said as he looked down at the ground, "I had a nightmare."

"Oh what, and I'm not as scary as a nightmare?" Rowan asked sarcastically with his raspy voice. "Tell me about it."

Rowan had shown many friendly sides to both of the kids. While many viewed children as another mouth to feed, Rowan and Shellene's love for children was shown from their ability to keep sane after watching over countless children. Borin often wished for a father like Rowan. Many of the other men in the city who did have children mainly taught his kids how to fight with a sword, often punishing the kids if they didn't meet his expectations.

After Borin told him about his dream, Rowan took off his helmet. His brown hair reached the top of his neck and had eyes as brown as soil. He took Borin over to a nearby bench and put his helmet aside. "You really are quite an interesting little fellow," Rowan said bluntly, "most kids have nightmares about wolves chasing them or Shellene coming at them with a cooking pan, but you really take the cake on this one."

"Yes sir," Borin laughed, as he could not come up with a better response.

They had spent another twenty minutes or so talking about things such as girls and war before Rowan glanced at a nearby sundial. "Whoa! Look at the time! I have to get back to work!" He blurted, "I'll walk you back to the orphanage."

They walked back to the center of the city, but Borin could not help but feel like he forgot to say something. As Rowan motioned towards the window, he finally remembered.

"Hey, are you going to come over and visit me next Thursday?" He said before entering the window.

"What's so special about then?" Rowan turned his head.

Borin glanced up at Rowan and smiled, "It's my tenth birthday. I'll finally be old enough for school!"