AN: Right, I figure I should give you all a heads up: Nyx does some biting and fighting. Obviously I'm not killing my pup, but when I wrote the end of this chapter I had to scale back pretty hard from my original descriptions because it got brutal fast. I hope you enjoy the representation of how quickly exciting and then dull Tarren Mill can be.

Day 116

It turns out that while we do have a surprising amount of hides, thank you Gorrak, Jina, Jonjon and Mugga for that, we do not quite have half of what we need. So off the hunters go on an adventure while the rest of us poor shmucks have to collect more wood. For convenience and safety we followed the hunters Southwest for a bit before we came across an acceptable number of trees.

I wasn't entirely comfortable going in even the vague direction of Southshore for this activity but the day was uneventful. I can't say it was quiet because after all the noise we made even the dumbest scout would have noticed. On our way back with the logs I started to wonder if the skeleton horses are decent at pulling wagons. I want to say no because they have no muscle but they also manage to carry warriors in plate so what the hell do I know? I'm just tired off carrying logs.

Day 117

The hunters are off again though they took Jonjon and Mugga this time. They were heading further from Horde territory and needed the extra protection. I asked if they wanted Kilgorath for his muscle but to his disappointment they declined. Now he suffers for showing hope under my fiendish gaze, mwahahaha!

Really we shared the suffering today. My arms and torso ache from sawing as well as pounding the splitting wedge in. To be honest watch the wedge split wood so cleanly was entertaining but having to saw them down to fit dimensions was not. Shatterbang was having a blast ordering people around after suffering under the authority of myself and Mason. At least he isn't still pouting about not being able to play with explosives.

I've had to requisition a bunch of nails but with all the wood cutting we've had to do I'll be damned if I don't put a floor in the building. Maybe they'll replace the hide roof with shingles in the future but I sure won't be doing it. Do you know how many forms I had to sign to order those nails? Five too many! Curse my need for recordkeeping.

Day 118

We've been hard at work today on the house. Despite the occasional hurt thumb and double checking the frame supports we managed to get most of the walls done with little issue. Shatterbang and I had an argument about how the flooring would be handled but my desire for a properly framed floor to take the abuse of the stomp happy orcs and heavy tauren won out. Pine may not be the best for the job but it is sturdy enough to last.

In other news my blanket is finished and it is fantastic. Way too warm right now of course but Nyx was happy to roll around on it. Gonna admit here that I half expected a lingering smell from the lady who made it but I'm pleasantly surprised to find she scented it with something flowery. Orcs can like flowers too, right? Screw them if they say I can't.

Shortly after dinner I took a walk down to the old barn to satisfy my curiosity. Despite being within range of the towns patrols and a common location for guards to chat it was practically empty inside. The cause for that had to be the fifteen foot gap in the roof letting in the elements. I'm guessing that someone kept the place clean but that nobody has gotten around to repairing the roof. The rest of the structure was aged but standing well to my eye.

That is a problem for another day however and besides mentioning it to Shatterbang and Taliaa I put that aside. Gorrak had been asking for a place to work on the hides so maybe once we've finished the walls of the house we can switch over. We're not really eager to work on the floor with the roof still days off. Why don't we make it from wood you ask? Mostly because none of us have experience doing that but we could copy the barn for a patch job. Then we just wait.

Day 119

I am pretty sure the High Executor is laughing at me. It is totally not my fault this is taking so long, I am working with what I am given and what I can do. We finished the walls early today and I took Shatterbang over to check out the barn. What a mess that turned into. He told me we'd have to cut out an even larger section of the roof due to rot before we could repair it.

We aren't a construction crew! Someone find me a peon team, please! Please? I'm practically begging to hit something with my axe at this point. Just sleeping in for a few days would be good. Once again we had to chop down trees though this time we didn't need many. Small mercy that it is. I'm worn out even with bullshit healing magic easing muscle strain.

Day 120

I really should have been more careful about what I ask for. We were taking a break today and getting some light sparring in after a lunchtime barbeque. I was laughing myself silly as Jina pinned Gorrak to the ground when Nyx started to howl. We were experiencing one of the infamous battles between Horde and Alliance.

The sound was like a bucket of ice down my back as I spun around while reaching for my weapon. A swarm of Alliance adventurers were charging Tarren Mill from the South. I'm pretty sure if I'd tried for my horn I would have died to the dozen that split off the main host through the orchard. As it was I was engaged in combat too quickly to think about it at the time.

I was unlucky enough to draw the attention of two of their warriors, a dwarf and a human. The dwarf was swinging around a heavy axe while the human guarded him with sword and shield. I took note of Taliaa engaging some pansy human paladin before things really kicked off. The dwarf charged with his axe and while I dodged him the human tried to gut me. My shield slapped that aside but I was already moving again to avoid the axe.

The human attempted to charge me but superior mass and planting myself had him stopped cold. A spectacular punch over his shield put him on his ass but the dwarf was coming in with the axe again. My darling Nyx chose this time to make an appearance and latched onto his arm before trying to drag him off his feet. It was a valiant attempt but he managed to yank his arm free and tried to bring his axe around again.

I was already in front of him and swinging. His body hit the ground just before Nyx growled and I found myself with a rough introduction to the dirt and a burning pain in my side. My shield managed to clip the human when I brought my arm around and I yelled in agony when he pulled the sword with him. Nyx was back into play after that and while I struggled up she had his sword arm in her grip and wasn't letting go.

That is when I realized the bastard had a knife. And it was already swinging. Nyx yelped and I roared in fury and then it all kind of turned red for a bit. Nothing mattered but his punishment. When the sound of vomiting nearby brought me out of the haze I realized I had already killed him and let my fists drop before turning to Nyx. She finally let go of the wrist before limping over so I could remove the knife from her shoulder before I looked around.

Argan was down not far from two bodies, one bearing obvious signs of the tauren totem and the other being target practice. Mugga was currently electrocuting the shit out of a human mage while the hunters seem to have found their counterparts and dueled it out. I didn't look too hard into that area after seeing Muscle feasting. Morba seemed to have our hunters and Scar in hand and that was all that mattered.

Taliaa was standing proudly over her opponent while healing an injured Kilgorath but it was the sound of sniffling that really drew my attention. And revealed the source of the disgusting vomit smell. A human priestess knelt next to a dwarf that had obviously tangled with Jonjon. The vomit puddle was a bit closer to me than to them so I guessed that she got distracted in her escape. It didn't matter.

One look around at my battered but triumphant squad rallying to aid the town and then to Nyx and I made my choice. "You surrender?"

"Yes." The reply hesitant but hopeful.

"That dwarf going to live?" A nod as the Light grew a bit brighter. "My wolf and I are next. Don't try to run, pretty sure the troll would get you."

The rest of the attack was repulsed and while a decent number of the Alliance escaped the loot was good and spirits were high after the healers were done. And that is how I managed to acquire a prisoner who was useful, a dwarf, a new scar, and hopefully a decent ransom in the future. Now I have to figure out where to put them and how much it will cost to feed them. Damn it all. At least my greedy black heart didn't fall for the crying, there is no way Stormwind wouldn't ransom a priestess. Don't know about the dwarf but he might have rich cousins.

-Borgin