Well, I always have swearing in my stories, but I'd figured I'd at least tell you people now. xD This is the longest chapter i've written so far! :D Aren't you guys so proud of me?
Mmm…something is nice and warm, Keina thought. She let out a satisfied sigh and snuggled more into the warmth. Except there was nothing to snuggle. Her leg was haphazardly thrown over something that wasn't soft –not uncomfortable—just wasn't soft. She slid her hand form its place on her hip and onto the not-snuggly thing. Her hand met smooth, firm flesh.
Shit.
Keina cracked her eyes open to see what trouble she had gotten herself into now. Her leg was draped over Vojjin's waist, her hand was on his stomach and she frowned when she noticed he had no shirt on. When had he ditched the shirt?
That left her with the question of pants. And that was honestly something she didn't want to find out. Her traitorous eyes dipped to the area where pants were supposed to be. A wool blanket covered him from the waist down.
How disapoin—no! Bad thoughts!
Even while she was convincing herself to look away, to not be curious about what was under the blanket, her eyes were drinking him in. Vojjin was toned, not overly muscled, but just the right amount. He bore a lot of scars, one of them started at his naval and headed up towards his right pectoral. She was tempted to trace it, but quickly squashed the thought down, that was too intimate, and she didn't know him.
No matter how much she tried to convince herself not look, Keina after all was female, and she really did enjoy the view. Clearing her throat in one last attempt to draw her thoughts away from the view, she set to the task of untangling herself from him. She was glad to find that the rope that had been binding the two together had been removed.
About fifteen minutes later Keina was sitting by a burnt out fire, clothes rumpled, and in a sour mood. A few times she swore the troll had been awake, because wherever she would try to place her foot or her hand the damn rogue would roll into its path. If it weren't for his slow rhythmic breathing she would've thought he was awake.
Damn troll.
Keina was the only one awake. Cogar was somewhere under the giant red ball of fur that was Mutton, Malar was quite obviously asleep, same with Vojjin. Keina looked over at the sleeping troll; she was seriously considering getting rid of his tusks. The damn things were near impossible to get away from. Vojjin let out a sleepy groan and rolled over, his already disheveled long red hair becoming even more so as it slipped further from the restraints of the braid. For a rogue he wasn't very aware of what happened when he was asleep, it was surprising. Keina grinned to herself, still loving the fact that she wasn't bound to him.
This was her chance to escape.
Vojjin had obviously trusted her not to run away when he had removed the rope. If she felt threatened by them then she would have taken the chance. Yet, because the troll trusted her enough to let her off that damnable rope (seriously it was horrid, try going to the bathroom with a troll attached to you. Awkward.) The least she could do was trust him back, if only a little bit, so she did.
The morning passed by in a rather progressive way, Keina didn't know how long she was sitting in front of a long burnt out fire before someone woke. Malar was the first to wake up, the huge tauren had shot a glance at her and the lack of the troll attached to her by rope, he shook his head in distain when his attention turned to the two that were still sleeping. The between Keina and Malar wasn't awkward, it was peaceful, even if it was awkward she would still be insanely absorbed in what Malar had started doing after he had settled himself down. The tauren had pulled out pieces of bone from the leather satchel tied to his waist and was now carving them.
Malar motioned her over and without even hesitating she moved over to him. He held the piece of partially carved bone out to her, offering her the carving knife as well. She shook her head quickly. "I'll mess it up; the only thing I'm good with is herbs."
A glint in the black depths of his eyes made her feel as if Malar understood her. "You understand Common, don't you?" She asked, not really expecting a reply.
The glint was still there, just more of an amused glint now. He definitely understood her. "I see how this is going be." Feeling like being rash and experiencing new things she held her hands outs for the carving knife and the piece of bone. She sat for a few moments attempting to carve bone. It was not as easy as Malar had made it look. The tauren had been scarping and hacking off pieces of bone like the bone was a piece of bread. Keina was attempting to scrape off some of the bone when the knife caught and slipped, heading towards her thumb, she barely avoided the knife. Eyeing it warily she gave the bone and the knife back to Malar who was gesturing for her hand.
"I'm fine." Keina muttered even as she held her hand out for him to inspect. The tauren grabbed her hand and flipped it over, having her spread her fingers occasionally and repeated the process once more before he was satisfied. He shook his head before letting out a sigh. Malar look to his side and reached for a woven basket and held it out to her, and then gestured with the basket to outside the cave.
He wanted her to collect herbs.
She only figured out what she would be collecting after she had accepted the basket and looked inside at the dried up herbs that were stuck in various places in the basket.
This was something that she could do. Well normally, knowing her at this moment though she'd screw it up somehow, but she wasn't going to pass up a chance to be outside this cave, out of their reach, and being on her own in the outside world for a little bit. Even if it was being outside in a desert.
And she really, really disliked deserts. She smiled gratefully at Malar and headed outside, her eyes instantly searching for any herb she recognized. She hummed a soft tune to herself as she ran her fingers through small patches of vegetation, picking Peacebloom when she saw it, the small white flower that honestly reminded her of a Daisy wasn't the herb she was looking for. It did help, especially when mixed with SIlverleaf but wasn't as strong as the other herbs that were supposed to be in this area.
Keina was looking for Liferoot and Firebloom. It was stronger and was better in a pinch if no one was able to heal. A sense of calm settled over her as she moved from patch to patch, picking what she knew and being careful of the small scorpions running about. She found it rather funny that she felt so calm even as sand made its way into her leather boots. She was still humming to herself and had gotten distracted by a colorful plant that wasn't an herb when a loud shout coming from the cave nearly made her drop the half-full basket of herbs.
"What the hell was that…?" She muttered to herself and turned her attention back to the cave. It sounded more like a roar than a shout really. She wondered if Cogar had woken up and dropped the pot on his foot again, he had done it a lot during the time she had been with them, it really made her think he should be limping.
"Where da hell is da elf?!" It was Vojjins voice, and that was as mad as she had ever heard him, and she definitely didn't want to see him. She wondered if the troll had noticed that he had shouted in Common instead of Orcish. She heard Cogar add something and Malar answer Vojjin, it seemed as if the tauren was trying to get the Troll to calm down.
Her brows furrowed when she realized both Cogar and Malar had spoken in Common, the tricksters. All this time she believed they hadn't understood her. She sighed and stood from the crouch she had been in and headed back towards the cave, she wasn't eager to face Vojjin's rage, but hey, what's a captured elf supposed to do? (Ignoring the fact that she was now willingly staying with them)
"I don't care if ya told her she could!" Vojjin stated angrily.
In response she heard Malar let out a deep sigh. "It was either having her collect herbs or watch her nearly cut her thumb off." Malar's voice was deeper than Vojjin's. It was the first time she had ever heard the tauren speak, she swore he just threw smiles and sighs at everyone instead of speaking. She felt that she had accomplished something after finally hearing his voice. (Even if it wasn't a goal she had originally set.)
"Cut her thumb off?" Vojjin questioned, his voice seeming to rise even more than before. "How could ya let da elf near a knife?"
Keina was now peeking in the side of the cave, watching this all play out, she wasn't quite ready to throw herself into the fire.
Malar stood up from his spot of the ground, he was now looking down at Vojjin, he really was a huge tauren. Malar gave a shake of his massive head. "Are you afraid she was going to kill one of us with it? If that was the case she would have done that ages ago, and she would have ran this morning when she woke up."
Vojjin's lips pulled back in a snarl. "Dat's not da point!"
Pointless.
All this arguing was just so pointless. Keina sighed and stepped into the cave, no matter how much she wanted to watch it play out she was pretty sure Vojjin was going to resort to violence. "Children, quit babbling, I didn't run away, nor did I try to stab someone in their sleep." She made her way between the two and the hairs on the back of her neck rose in alarm, she could feel the rage rolling off the troll and it set her instincts off. "So problem solved, yeah?"
Vojjin snarled and she switched her gaze to him. "What?" She asked.
The troll glared down at her, his eyes seeming to stab her like daggers. "Don't run off like dat again."
Keina just sighed. "I was just outside the cave, I was enjoying myself, and I'm quite capable of taking care of myself."
Vojjin let out a bark of laughter. "Capable of takin' care of yerself?" He had turned away from her when he had told her to not run off again and now he was facing her again. "Ol' Vojjin seem ta remembah catchin' da elf." He stepped closer causing Keina to step back, "da elf was weak."
Keina tried not to respond to his angry words but she failed. Horribly. "I may have been captured by you then troll," she hissed out, throwing his race at him like an insult. "But I will—"She was cut off as a large tauren hand covered her mouth. She struggled, her anger still fueling her actions.
How dare Malar cut her off?
And how could Vojjin say such things?!
She grit her teeth together and struggled against the tauren, she may have known better than to pursue this fight, but smartness be damned.
The tauren held her firmly. "Angry words do not build bridges, they destroy them." Malar murmured, even though his voice was just a whisper it seemed to fill the cave.
Keina's anger dimmed down somewhat as she tried to interpret Malar's words. Obviously Malar was referring to the friendship that the two had been building, it wasn't much, but it was more than throwing profanities at each other. Malar was basically saying that this wouldn't help that friendship, it would destroy it. Keina huffed and jerked away from Malar and headed to the back of the cave and sat down next to a perplexed Cogar and a panting Mutton. She turned her gaze back to the still fuming troll. "I'm sorry for not waking you up when I did, if I had, then maybe we wouldn't be wanting to strangle each other."
Her words seemed to diffuse some of his anger because in the next minute his shoulders slumped and he turned his gaze away from her, muttering things under his breath.
Keina couldn't help but grin a little bit, she quickly cleared her throat to cover it though and turned her gaze to Cogar, and then to Malar. "I'm onto you two." She pointed at Malar, her finger seeming accusing. "You for sure can speak in Common! So don't try to deceive me!" She turned her gaze back to the orc. "And you, I have my suspicions about you."
Even if she had just wanted to strangle Vojjin until he stopped talking, she was enjoying herself, and she was sure that hanging with these three would be a time she would never forget.
I still have no beta, so forgive me for mistakes. xD My beta is...busy xD (Well i have one, but she doesn't have a fanfiction, and she's like the chief editor of the school newspaper, and yet she still bothers to check my mistakes :D just not with this sotry xDD) I finally sat down and planned out the entiire cours eof this story. I know where it's going, and how it's going to end, i have alot more characters to introduce and reintroduce :D
Review my lovelies! Review!
