She opened her eyes, noticing that there was no sunlight which shined on this miserable place and could dazzle her. She noticed when she looked around that she was still in the middle of the only forest she had seen on this miserable and ruined island. She looked at the burned-out campfire. Only the ashes of the wood remained on the provisional campfire site. Her gaze shifted to the red-haired blood elf who was busy cleaning her armour.
"You don't need to do that" she said, giving him a barely recognizable but grateful smile.
"It's okay, I have nothing else to do" he responded and wiped over the breastplate with a sponge.
"Where'd you get the water?" she asked interestedly and pointed at the bucket filled with water.
"There is a small lake in the near"
"Have you checked if it isn't infested by the demons?" she asked, a hint of worry was hearable in her voice.
"Of course, I've tested the water. This is not my first mission where I have to survive in a territory possessed by demons" he seemed to be a bit hurt because she had assumed that he had forgotten to make such an essential check.
"So, you have scooped enough water so that we are able to survive a few days?" she asked and pulled herself up.
His response sounded a bit pessimistic. "Not having any water left and dying of thirst is not the most likely cause of death in our case"
"Stop being like this" the orc spoke, her voice sounded a lot rougher and stricter. She was wondering where the change of behaviour came from. Yesterday, he had been so motivated to destroy the Burning Legion but now he seemed to be depressed. She hated it when the elf was behaving like this and was indicating that their lifetime was limited because of the many threats on this island.
"What do you mean?" he asked, not looking up at his interlocutor.
"You have become very negative since you found out that our entire group was killed. We won't get out alive if you keep behaving like this"
"I can pretend to be full of hope but that doesn't change anything. The chance for our survival is pretty low" he spoke, sounding sad. He appeared to have lost his fighting spirits, his self-confidence and his hopes. Zatrea shook her head slightly and got up, walking over to the depressed elf. He didn't even look up at her when she put her strong hand on his left shoulder. She frowned and ran her hand through her dreadlocks, figuring out what to do to get his attention.
She took her armour away from him, returning his gaze when he looked up at her and stared in her brown eyes. "What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing" he muttered and leaned to his right side to reach his bag with the tips of his fingers. He pulled his bag to him and pulled out his red bread bin. He removed the cover, taking a smeared piece of bread out. He shoved the slice in his mouth, savouring the delicious taste of cream cheese.
"I didn't know that you still have supplies" she spoke, giving him a slightly surprised look.
"Well, this was my last slice of bread" he told and put the bread bin back in his cloth bag.
"Oh"
"We have to find something to eat but there are almost no animals or eatable plats in our near. The little forest is the only remaining form of vegetation on the north half of this miserable island. It's a real miracle that it hasn't been touched by the fire which had ravaged this area" he spoke, sounding a lot more confident than a few minutes earlier. She didn't know why his behaviour had changed this time but she was glad about that. She knew that it would have been a lot harder for her to survive if she would have had to take care of a depressed elf.
"We will find a solution. In case of necessity, we will preserve the bodies of a few demons before they dissolve, and eat them". She giggled when she saw the stunned expression on the elf's face. His lips were parted but no sound slipped out of them. "It was just a joke. Don't take it too seriously" she said and laughed.
He needed a few moments to regain his composure. "I hope that you are really just joking. I don't think that there is a fire in this world which could roast the flesh of one of these ugly creatures. Especially because their bodies are very used to felfire which belongs to the most powerful kinds of fires in the universe"
"Relax, Setai. I would rather eat my own arm than to taste one of these fel-spitting creatures"
"Err, I don't want to think about this either" he told, making a disgusted face. Zatrea chuckled and rubbed his left shoulder.
"Where is the lake?" she asked, breaking the silence which had lasted for five minutes. Setai didn't respond verbally to her question, he just turned a little and pointed in the east.
"Thank you" she whispered and squeezed his shoulder. She walked to the other side of the campfire and picked her axe up. She told him that she would take a quick bath to clean her body from the sticky demon blood which still stuck on her skin. The blood elf nodded and told her that she should be careful because demons could be everywhere. Zatrea gave him a thankful smile and walked towards the direction he had pointed at.
Setai waited until he wasn't able to see her anymore, then he dipped the sponge in the bucket of water and continued to clean Zatrea's armour. He sat there for a while, cleaning her armour as best as possible.
Suddenly, he heard a loud scream. He jumped up jerkily and grabbed his sword and shield, rushing to the east from where he had heard the scream. He heard another scream when had covered half of the distance to the lake.
He began to run faster when he realized that these sounds came from Zatrea. He came to the lake and spotted the orc which was surrounded by three large demons.
She was standing in the middle of the lake, which surface reached to her hip. She was holding her axe in her hands. Her upper body was wet and completely exposed. She didn't seem to care about this because she was busy fighting the demons.
Setai was trying to not stare any longer at her exposed breasts and muscular stomach. It didn't work pretty well and he found himself blushing because of it.
He knew that this was not the time for such inappropriate behaviour. He slapped his forehead hard enough to pull himself together. He stopped staring at the orc's exposed skin and rushed to the nearest demon which's back was turned to him. He rammed his sword in the wrathguard's back, his lips formed a wide grin when his ears recognized the wrathguard's loud and painful screams. He pulled his sword out of the demon's back, cutting off its legs before it was able to turn around and attack him. He beheaded the demon before its upper body landed in the water.
He looked at the orc, noticing that she had managed to kill the second demon. The last remaining creature was a massive felgreen core hound. The double-headed beast looked like a giant cross-breeding of a dog and a demon. The left head of the demonic creature barked while the second head bared its teeth. Zatrea stayed calm and regarded the creature's every move with narrowed eyes. Her hands held her axe tightly. She was ready to strike. Ready to kill this ugly monstrosity. But the creature was ready as well. Ready to jump on her and tear her head apart.
The paladin tried to get the creature's attention by insulting it and shouting at it but the core hound didn't turn around, nor did it stop moving towards the warrior. The hound stamped its feet on the ground before it rushed to the orc.
Zatrea jumped to the side and prevented that the demon would have rammed her. The creature turned around and lifted its left foreleg to ward off the axe swing with the shin pad which was made out of pure iron. The piece of armour prevented that the orc's axe would have cut the demon's leg off but it got seriously damaged in return. The orc knew, without looking closer at shin pad, that it wouldn't protect the demon for a second time.
She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Setai was rushing towards the demon but she knew that he wouldn't able to kill it before it would attack for the second time.
The demon leaped forwards, his left foreleg hit Zatrea, causing that she was flung away. A painful scream escaped her lips when she landed with her back on the stony dry ground. She ignored the pain caused by the ugly looking wound in her right arm. She didn't know what had happened but she assumed that one of the many spikes, which covered the demon's body, had bored its way into her flesh.
She gritted her teeth, pulling herself up which required a lot of strength. She was holding her axe in one hand because she wasn't able to move her other arm without crying out in pain.
She looked at the demon and noticed for the first time that corrosive saliva was dripping out of the hound's jaw. She knew that the saliva etched everything which got hit by it, meaning neither her or the paladin should get hit by this disgusting liquid. This meant that she had to avoid the beast's jaws, which was easier said than done.
She managed to avoid all of its biting attacks but was hit by a bash with one of the demon's claws. Lucky for her, it had only hit her back and not her face or her exposed front. Deep claw marks were visible on her back, blood flowed out of the fresh, ugly-looking wound. She ignored the massive amount of pain, which was caused by her wounds, and lifted her axe above her head.
She dodged the next attack from the demon and rammed her axe into its left head. A loud cry was hearable out of the jaw of the left head before it was silenced forever. A loud bark was hearable from the other head before it was chopped off by the paladin's blessed sword.
The core hound's body flinched before it fell over and stopped moving. The orc threw her arms in the air as she cheered, totally forgetting that one of her arms was heavily wounded. Her facial expression reflected the pain she was feeling at the very moment where her barely moveable arm was stretched out.
She lowered her arms immediately, pressing her hand on the ugly hole in her right upper arm to stop the bleeding. Somehow, she didn't notice that the water was soiled through the demon blood.
"This is not a good idea, Zatrea. You are only making it worse if you are rubbing contaminated water in your wounds. Hold still, I will take care of your injuries" the blood elf said.
It took a lot of effort for him to not stare at her exposed upper body. He only managed it because his eyes focused on her lovely face. The orc nodded and walked towards the edge of the lake, stopping suddenly.
"Is something?" asked Setai, wondering why she was making an embarrassed face. Then he lowered his gaze and blushed when he noticed that she was wearing nothing but brown leather panties. He shifted his gaze to his feet, seeing out of the corner of his eyes that she was wrapping a towel around her lower body. Setai looked up after she had told him that he was allowed to look again.
Zatrea sat on the ground, her wounded back was turned to him while she was crossing her arms in front of her chest. The elf sat down behind her and removed his gauntlets. He put his hands on her wound, making sure that his touch wasn't hurting her. His hands began to shine golden, holy light was radiated by them and began to treat her wounds.
It took half an hour for the paladin to close the wound on her back and lower the amount of pain she was feeling.
"The wound is closed but you can assume that a scar will be left. Now hold still while I take care of this ugly upper arm wound" he said and put his hands on her right upper arm. He closed his eyes as he felt the light which flooded his body and helped him to close this threatening wound.
He opened his eyes after he was done, noticing that the orc had turned her head and was looking at him. She turned around, arms still crossed in front of her chest, and gave him a thankful smile. The noticed the penetrating smell of sweat and dried demon blood which came from her body. She smelled after an intense battle but it didn't bother him even though the smell was very unpleasant.
The tips of her little tusks in her lower jaw slightly pointed at her nose when she gave him a smile. "Thank you for helping me" she said and came closer. She wrapped her arms around his back when she gave him a quick hug.
A deep blush appeared on Setai's face, his eyes widened and he was biting his bottom lip hard. He hadn't expected that she would hug him for healing her, especially because she was an orc. Normally, orcs didn't do such things as hugging others who weren't a member of their clan.
Zatrea pulled away and chuckled when she saw the surprised face he was making. She tilted her head a little and pointed at the contaminated lake. "We should find another source of water. We could need a bath and more drinkable water. There is a small stretch of coast in the west if I remember correctly. Hopefully, the water there is not polluted"
"So, we are traveling to it first before we return to the base?"
"Yes, we should do that. We need water and we have to get rid of the smelling demon blood. The demons can find us easier if the blood keeps sticking on our skins. Unless you have a better idea"
"No, I have no other idea, to be honest. We should look for this little coast"
"I need to put my clothes and armour on first... Would you mind..." spoke Zatrea and hinted that she wanted to get dressed. A slight blush appeared on Setai's cheeks, then he banished the inappropriate thoughts out of his mind. He turned around and looked in the entirely opposite direction, only looking back at her after she had given him permission.
She was wearing a thick leather vest which covered her entire upper body except for her cleavage and her muscular arms. The elf found himself staring at her cleavage and her astonishing muscular arms. He shook his head slightly. His face came redder than it already was.
He cleared his throat, signalizing that he wanted to go to the little camp and prepare their onward journey. Zatrea chuckled and picked her axe from the ground, following him quickly.
They walked back to their camp, packing their things as fast as possible. They covered their tracks, making sure that one body would find out that they had rested there.
They left the little forest after a walk of about twenty minutes, coming into an area which looked as miserable as the rest of the island.
The ground was very uneven, friable and contained a lot of holes. Around the edge of the forest was a thick circle of wood remains which had been burned by natural fire and demonic felfire. Most of these remains were stumps of once gigantic and magnificent trees which had been around on this island for hundreds or even thousands of years.
These trees had fallen victim to the Burning Legion like the rest of the vegetation on this island. The entire island, which had once belonged to the most beautiful places on Azeroth, had become a wretched place which was overrun with demons. The name Broken Shore fitted perfectly.
Setai regarded the burned forest and the burned ground for a few moments before he turned around and looked at the orc who was making an impassive face. As an orc, she had not the same connection to nature as the blood elf, so she was not as sad as him about the loss.
It was depressing for him to see that these once beautiful trees were as destroyed as the rest of this island. A sad sigh escaped his lips when he regarded the remains of the forest. Zatrea gave him a comforting look and signalized him to keep walking. He nodded quickly and followed her.
They walked more careful and slower than usual because they didn't want to attract the attention of any demon which could be in their near. They had to make a few detours to avoid demon patrols and small bases which were filled with these wicked creatures. In the end, they needed twice the time they had expected but they reached their destination without getting interrupted by any foe.
At this very moment, they were standing on top of a small mountain and looked over the coast around the mountain's foot. The coast was uneven and a few rocks were sticking out of the yellow sand.
There were a few wreckages rising up out of the water, remains of similar ships laid separately on the sand. To their relief, there weren't any demons in the near. But their absence didn't mean that no foes were around. The elf and the orc saw about two to three dozen naga which were claiming the coast and the seashore as their territory.
They spotted at least three patrols. Each patrol consisted out of three naga with tridents and two spellcasters. They also saw a few naga brutes, which were about two hundred up to three hundred fifty feet tall. They had six eyes, three on each side of their ugly faces. Unlike the other, smaller naga, their scales had a dark purple colour instead of light-blue.
The orc and the elf didn't need to check their surroundings twice to know that they would never get to the other side alive - Not with so many naga which would attack them as soon as they spot them.
"Well, there is the clean water we've been looking for but we won't able to reach it without getting killed" said Zatrea and looked around, trying to find a way to reach the coast without getting noticed by any naga.
"I wish that Dane would be still with us. He would have made us invisible so we would have cleaned ourselves without getting spotted"
"Sadly, he is gone. I didn't know him at all but he was a very funny guy. Not as funny as Kean but at least funnier than most of the members of the Horde and Alliance I have met over the years" the orc told as she stared at the naga, having a thoughtful look on her face.
"I miss all members of our group. I haven't gotten known to the new ones so I didn't know half of our group but they didn't deserve to die by demons, Also, I hadn't wished that the Alliance got slaughtered like cattle. I may not like the Alliance but that doesn't mean that they deserve to get killed by these miserable creatures"
"You are right, Setai. They deserve to die a glorious death by the soldiers of the Horde. It's degrading to die by the hands of the wicked demons"
"The demons will pay for killing our team. Gul'dan and all other commanders of the Burning Legion will suffer for trying to invade Azeroth once again"
"You are right. We will make them pay for their actions" responded Zatrea and put her hand on Setai's left shoulder, giving him a confident look. The corner of her lips formed a small smile.
Setai shook his head slightly, his eyes were narrowed when he regarded the former allies of the Burning Legion. His normally handsome facial features were distorted by anger and hatred. "They took my sister... She was so young and innocent... And they murdered her..." he whispered quietly. He was staring at the ground, sadness and grieve were written all over his face.
The orc rubbed his left shoulder and spoke in a smooth and comforting voice to him. "I didn't really know Vella. I have only spoken with her a few times but I have gotten the impression that she cared about every single creature on Azeroth. Even though she belonged to the Horde, she didn't shrink back to help the Alliance. She didn't saw them as our enemies, she regarded them more as possible friends who could help us against the Legion. I know that we need the Alliance's help to win against the Legion but that doesn't mean that we have to make them to our friends. We are enemies after all but your sister had a different opinion about the Alliance"
"I know. Vella was different. She always saw the good thing in every creature, no matter how wicked it was. She was such an innocent girl. She was only fifty years old which is nothing for a blood elf. Most blood elves reach the thousandth year of life, a lot of them become older by a lot. At least if no wars would happen which are robbing a lot of innocent lives. I have tried to convince Vella to stay at home with our family but she insisted on fighting the Legion and going with me on this mission... If only I would have tried harder to convince her to stay at home... She would still be alive..." he spoke. His voice sounded sad. Tears were built in the corner of his eyes.
"You shouldn't blame yourself for this" whispered Zatrea and came closer to him, putting an arm around his shoulder. "It was her choice to go with you and the Legion's fault that she died. We will make them pay for everything they have done. The enslavement of my people, the creation of the Scourge, the many invasions, the numerous deaths of innocent people and so on. We will repel the Legion and save our world... with the help of the Alliance if it's necessary"
"You are right" he responded and wiped the tears away. The Horde and the Alliance will be victorious even if we don't survive this scenario"
"We will fight to our last breaths"
"So, you won't be fighting for too long" inferred a strange voice. The orc and the elf turned around immediately. Their eyes widened when they saw what was running toward them.
