September 21st
TA 2789
Quivering hand clutched tightly over her mouth to stifle the sound of her cries the trembling form of the now orphaned child no older than ten summers sunk lower behind the pile of rubble that was once a house in the bustling town of Besaid. Chest heaving as she attempted to calm herself Rafiki did her best to ignore the sweltering heat radiating from the smoldering wood at such close quarters, and the way that the smoke curling from the stone burned at her eyes, making the gently slanted orbs the color of copper and honey water at the sensation.
Crystalline tears welled to the point that they could no longer be held, clinging to the end of the lengthy lashes clustered thickly next to one another before racing down her soot stained face to reveal the fair caramel skin bellow.
"I smell your fear, woman." Rumble a deep baritone like far off thunder, the words assaulting her ears as the vowels and tones sounded, hisses and growls punctuating a language she had studied for nearly three years. The owner of the thundering tone a massive orc with skin the same shade as the moon high above them, haunting azure orbs falling closed as he inhaled deeply. "Such an intoxicating scent. But I sense something else, perhaps anger? How refreshing, my lieutenant tells me your fellow townsfolk reeked of fear, they did nothing to hide it, they begged for mercy. Pitiful."
Curling closer into herself Rafiki attempted to drown out the words carried to her by a frigid breeze as the month of September came to a close. Clenching her eyes shut words her father often spoke to both Rafiki, her sister, and their younger brother's echoed through her mind with haunting familiarity, the smile that would light his handsome face after telling them flashing in her mind's eye.
'Anger doesn't solve anything yangu, it builds nothing, but can destroy everything. Remember these words when you tremble in your resolve and you will never fail.'
The words had penetrated Rafiki's mind too late, however meaningful they were to her. A future differing far from the one originally hoped for had found seed in her heart.
The rage that had settled into her stomach coursed through her veins beneath a heavy layer of slowly dimishing fear, each word spoken by the behemoth not fifty feet from her feeding it into a blaze brighter than the sun. The feeling was foreign to the child whom had done her best to evade the clutches of anger through many sources, but Rafiki was finding that the fury settling in her heart was addicting no matter how unfamiliar.
"Find her." The thunderous words broke Rafiki from her revere, sending her eyes skittering across the snow stained landscape, searching for an escape she would not find, her sisters footprints leading towards the mountains in the distance fading from sight the further away that they moved, the path clear but unable to be followed. "Bring her to me, alive."
She knew it was pointless, she would not be able to escape, and her sister had left her in hopes of saving herself. While her sister was swift as the wind Rafiki could not outrun the wargs prowling the demolished town, let alone the arrows of the orcs perched upon their backs no matter what training she'd sought from Deckard in the past year, nor that which she'd received from the Shamans since her birth.
Her sister had escaped naught seconds before the siege had befallen them, sprinting into the distance with unimaginable speed at the urgings of their father, the thin cloak draped over her frame with hood pulled high blending with the stark landscape around her, the heir to the throne disappeared without a glance back to see her people's fate. Rafiki attempted to convince herself that Svetla had escaped the reach of the orcs, so that she could rebuild Besaid in the coming years. She could rule as she was meant to do since her birth.
Sinking herself into the now familiar stance Rafiki prepared herself to lash out at the first beast to wander close enough to spot her, shaking the remaining thoughts of her sister from her mind.
Rafiki had not long to wait, a particularly burly orc having set out straight for her, his steps heavy on the ash stained terrain, massive ax held loosely in one hand as he lumbered along. A single short wail of surprise leaving his lips at the attack launched upon him as he meandered around the tower of rubble.
Body seizing at the rapid blows landing on his skin the orc gave a final attempt at warding off the fuming child before she tore his trachea from its home in his throat with curled hands.
Shoving the body from her Rafiki backpedaled, sinking back into a crouch as she waited the next launched assault, ignoring the raven blood dripping from her fingers and the river of ruby trailing down her chin from the deep split in her bottom lip from the orcs attempts at sparing his life.
Rushing to the sounds of battle and their fallen comrade the orcs stumbled into the blurred form of Rafiki whom tore at the orcs, daggers whipping from one orc to the next, hands occasionally burrowing into ones chest as she dislodged its heart or punctured a lung.
Unwilling to fall under the mass of enemy's Rafiki prepared to fight until her last breath, giving a small shout of indignation as a massive hand came down on the back of her neck, sweeping her clean off her feet, toes dangling nearly five feet above the now inky snow.
"Azog the defiler." Rafiki spat, eyes burning wildly at the sight of him, accented alto spitting the harsh unfamiliar language without hesitation, the tales of his crimes having been whispered as horror stories to get children to obey their parents.
Lips curling into a smirk at the name Azog leaned close, running a calloused thumb across her bottom lip, tongue darting out to sample the blood that had collected on its surface, shifting in his seat at the exquisite taste.
"Tell me, my darling." Azog crooned, dragging the back of his free hand down the side of her face, ignoring both the scowl adorning her pretty features and the snap of her teeth as his hand neared her mouth. "What is your name?"
Lips pursing in distaste Rafiki pondered the thought of refusing to respond, deciding against it as her legs swung almost wildly as Azog shifted his position once more, settling into a more comfortable state.
"Rafiki." She supplied at last, hating the way he observed her, taking in her features and her petite frame draped in the now decimated tunic.
"Daughter of High Summoner Aeon Cid." Azog finished, well aware that she would not divulge her heritage. "Tell me, did you inherit his talents?"
"Your army butchered my family. Burned my people. Decimated my home." Rafiki evaded his question, narrowing her eyes in anger. "You did nothing to stop them!"
"Butchered your family? Burned your people?" Azog shot back frowning in a highly convincing manner that would have worked had Rafiki not seen it with her own eyes.
"I watched them!" Rafiki snarled, swiping at his face in a useless attempt to maim him, fury licking at her heart in an almost painful manner.
"Yes they butchered your family and burned your people. The order was given by one with more power than you can imagine!" Azog sneered, lips curling in distaste at the fussing child before him. "One does not defy his orders and hope to live."
"More power than I can imagine?" Rafiki questioned, mind spinning as she attempted to decipher his meaning, legends of old and whispers of alliances hedging at her mind. "His orders? You cannot possibly mean…"
"Ponder this no more, you will not find the answers you seek." Azog dismissed, pulling her closer in hopes of his words impacting her enough that she would comprehend his meaning. "You were nothing to these people. And now they will be nothing to you. Place them from your mind and you will find your place among my ranks, your place at my side; your place as my second in command as you have always meant to. You will command the armies of Mordor one day, the way your father and sister were planned to. You were destined for great things, Rafiki; I am simply showing you the path."
Rafiki's mind sputtered and seemed to jam at his words. He was not wrong, the people in Besaid were nowhere near kind to her, being second in line to the throne, meant she was next to useless to her people, and she was not male leaving her unable to join the guard as she once wished, and once her sister had begun her training she was distant, Rafiki becoming dwarfed in the shadow of her greatness. Svetla was heir and had no room for the peskiness of younger siblings, be it Rafiki herself or their younger twin brother's Eanraig and Borya. Their father Aeon Cid was held in the clutches of his duties as High Summoner when not training Svetla, and Rafiki's step-mother Yavanna, a High Priestess was usually busy teaching Eanraig and Borya the ways of the Priests before the Shamans completely took the duties from her.
But had they deserved to die at the hands of an Orc Army that descended upon them in the late hours of the night when the moon was at its highest?
Perhaps they had. Rafiki decided, the petty foolishness that the shamans often chided her for clung to the thought that perhaps they did deserve the hand that fate delivered them.
"Come Rafiki." Azog crooned once more, breaking the young woman from her thoughts. "You will be well respected, you will find no harm offered to you while you remain in my care."
"You mean it?" Rafiki questioned, mind now spinning and whirling faster than ever, as she gazed at him, watching for faults in his demeanor.
"But of course, my gem." Azog replied gently, running a hand over the mass of untamed chocolate curls, gazing at her with an unreadable expression. "You will long for nothing. You will have things you never knew you wanted. You will be the most feared and respected woman in the whole of Arda. Tales will be told of your glory. You will be a queen."
"A queen?" The thought of the title that had once been far from her reach taunted Rafiki in an alluring way that she had not expected.
"Yes." Azog smirked, enjoying the way that greed flashed through her eyes. "Like none seen before. Greater than the Valar themselves. Greater, than any can imagine. You will be queen to the armies of hell. And the heavens…shall tremble in your wake."
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Yangu – Daughter (Swahili)
Dragulj od mina – Gem of Mine (Croatian/Bosnian)
