Since this chapter is Libby's POV, italics will be Orcish and regular text will be English.
Libby wasn't sure why the orc - Bargul, he'd said his name was - wanted to bring her to Ratchet, but once she thought about it, it seemed like a good idea. Seeing as this was apparently really Azeroth, which was still really strange to think, that meant there were magic users in this world. She'd never played a mage, since she preferred melee characters, but she knew they had access to all sorts of teleport spells. Since it was possible in the game to transport a character between Outland and Azeroth, it wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine that one could send her home as well. Right?
Of course, that all assumed she was understanding Bargul correctly. She wasn't sure why she could understand the place names and nothing else, but it was better than being completely lost. This whole time she'd been assuming she would be able to understand any people she came across, but she obviously didn't know Orcish, and based on the difference in the sounds, she suspected that he'd tried to speak Common to her as well. Which was a problem; how could she ask someone to send her home if they didn't understand her?
She could think about this later, she told herself. Bargul had paused next to his wolf and was looking back at her impatiently, so she set aside her worries for later and trotted after him.
"This is Kalu," he said when she caught up to him, pointing at the wolf. "Kalu."
Libby gathered that Kalu was either the name of the wolf or the Orcish word for wolf, and she wasn't sure how to figure it out. She settled for smiling at the wolf and reaching out a tentative hand for it to sniff. Possibly-Kalu looked at her and started growling softly but insistently. Libby beat a hasty retreat, putting Bargul between herself and the wolf. Kalu was huge, although Libby wasn't sure how it compared to the wolves on Earth, and its teeth were sharp and nasty looking. She did not want to upset it.
Bargul said something in Orcish, too fast for her to follow, but it made Kalu stop growling. He turned to look at Libby, speaking in the slower way he used to address her. "Libby, go ahead. Kalu's fine now." He gestured her towards the wolf.
"Nope," Libby said, shaking her head firmly to make sure he got the message. "I'll stay back here, thanks. I like having hands."
"Yes," he insisted, nodding just as firmly. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her around in front of him. "Like this."
He released her in order to hold his hand out to the wolf, making her notice for the first time that one of his arms was missing. He stared at her firmly and waited, so she bit her lip and slowly extended a hand toward it as well, hoping she wasn't about to become wolf food. But Kalu simply leaned its head forward to sniff her offered hand, huffing warm air over the slightly curled fingers. Then, inspection complete, the wolf seemed to lose interest and turned away. Libby let out a quiet sigh of relief, earning a disapproving stare from Bargul.
He looked at her intently for a moment, looked over at the wolf, and seemed to come to a decision. "Come here," he said, making a beckoning gesture and moving to stand at the wolf's side.
Giving Kalu one more distrustful look, Libby edged around to join him. He rolled his eyes. "Don't be so scared. You're going to have to deal with her a lot, so get used to it." Libby had no idea what any of that meant, but before she could try to figure it out he was lifting her onto the wolf's back like she was a child, driving the matter firmly from her mind as she tried not to freak out. She'd never even ridden a horse before, and horses were a lot less likely to tear her throat out if she did something she didn't like.
Libby sat stiffly, not sure where to hold on, as Bargul swung himself up behind her. The movement spoke of lots of practice with this sort of thing, and he seemed perfectly comfortable sitting on the wolf's back. That was right, wolves were the standard mount for orcs. Great.
"Hold on," he said, reaching around her to grab the reins laying loosely across the Kalu's shoulders.
With a twitch of his hand he urged Kalu into a walk. Although it was somewhat slow, the unexpected movement made Libby jolt and almost lose her balance. She cast around for something to hold onto and settled for holding onto the slightly upturned front of the saddle worn by the wolf now plodding peacefully along.
The ride wasn't awful once she had some time to get accustomed to it. The wolf's gait was fairly even and didn't jostle her too much, and Libby eventually let herself relax, loosening her death grip on the edge of the saddle.
As they rode, Bargul pointed out and named in Orcish the various things they passed – mainly trees, rocks, and various kinds of plants. There wasn't much variety in the things they saw, so he eventually ran out of things to explain and lapsed into silence. Libby stared into the area around her and mentally practiced naming what she saw. She was getting pretty good at saying tree in Orcish. That would be a useful skill to get her home, she thought sarcastically.
Having two people in a saddle meant for one, even if the other person was as small as Libby, did start feeling uncomfortably squished after a while. An few hours after they had started, Bargul stopped Kalu long enough to dismount.
"Do you want to walk?" He pointed at the ground, so she assumed he was asking her to get off the wolf.
"Yes," she said, ungracefully clambering down after him. She'd figured out that word quickly enough.
Stretching her legs felt nice after the long ride, although her muscles were unexpectedly sore despite the fact that she hadn't done much. The road was mostly made of worn stones, cool and smooth under her feet, so she didn't have much trouble keeping up with Bargul and Kalu despite her lack of shoes. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her suddenly that she still hadn't eaten.
"Bargul?" She asked. He turned to look at her and she motioned toward her mouth, trying to mime eating. "Um. Food? Do you have any?"
"You want food?" He repeated her eating motion.
"Wantfood? Yes," she said, guessing that he'd said something about food.
"No, do you. Want. Food?" He repeated the sentence, this time slower and with gestures to match.
"Oh. "Yes, want food," she agreed.
He looked in one of the packs tied behind Kalu's saddle, neither of them slowing their pace. A moment later, he resurfaced with a chunk of bread and what looked like dried meat, along with a water skin.
He offered her the water first, but pulled it away when Libby reached for it. She frowned, confused.
"Water," he said, shaking the water skin as he did.
"Water," she repeated, and he rewarded her by handing it to her.
The water tasted better than she ever remembered water tasting, even warm and with a weird leathery taste. She drank deeply, not having realized how dry her mouth was until that moment. After a moment she handed it back to him, and he took a turn drinking. They repeated the process with each food item. He told her what it was called and gave it to her when she said it properly. After she finished, he took a share for himself, eating as they walked.
Eventually her legs grew tired – they'd been walking for much longer than she was used to – and she stumbled her way through a conversation with Bargul until he understood and stopped Kalu so she could get on again.
He walked for a little while longer before joining her. As they rode, Kalu's rocking gait and her comfortably full stomach joined forces with her tired muscles, causing her to drift off leaning over the wolf's furry neck.