Author's Notes: This is just a short story about one of the Seekers of Peace, Talinth.

—oo000oo—

It was hours before the attack on Icecrown and Talinth was frowning. A lot of people thought that when Arthas fell that would be it but she knew it wouldn't be. There would always be those that threaten peace in the world and Talinth knew of one right now. Garrosh Hellscream from the Warsong Clan. He was a man that refused to let go of …idiotic past glories. He wished he had been part of the first Horde no doubt. He certainly wanted to change Thrall's Horde to it. He made an enemy of everyone not orc and some of those that are. And the worse thing…his ideals are catching hold. There are orcs that also wish it the way it was. She had heard parts of it, those angered by how hard it is for them in Durotar with little for farms and having to drag what they sell in the Orgrimar market from possibly the other side of Durotar. It is a struggle to live for them…

Talinth glanced at her shaking fist. They didn't know a struggle to just survive. She had been just a child when they came, a little girl. Tightening her grip on her ax, she felt anger and the desire to punish someone for her pain. "You have the look of someone with a burden," the rough voice of an orc said behind her. Talinth turned around and stared at Varok Saurfang, especially the scar he had on the side of his face. "…Draenie?"

Talinth stared at him a moment longer before saying, "Heavy thoughts."

"Mind sharing," Saurfang asked.

"Not particularly," Talinth replied, turning away.

"You mean not particularly…with me," Saurfang pressed.

Talinth straightened before slipping her ax into the noose for in on her belt, setting her shield to the side, removed her Dragoon tabard, and the loosened the straps of her chest armor enough to show the left side of her stomach. She showed it to him and he didn't need to look at it for more than a second to recognize it as the weapon of an orc warrior, an axe, but this scar was old, twenty years old at least. She had received it when the Horde tried to destroy the Draenie before crossing over into Azeroth. "No, not with you." She straightened her armor, replaced her tabard, picked up her shield, and began to leave.

"I had never once made excuses for what I did back then but I do regret them and ask for forgiveness."

Again Talinth stopped. "There is no forgiveness for you with me. This wound was made by an orc warrior with a scar on his face. A scar given to him mason with his pick. He gave it to him just as he attacked his daughters, killing one and about to kill the other. He had already killed the older sister and had just missed killing the younger, leaving her crying on the floor, staring up at his face with her own blood pooling beneath her. That warrior was outraged that a mere mason had wounded him and slaughtered him. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar or if this particular family was lost among the hundreds of others you killed."

"I remember," Saurfang admitted. "With every time I feel this scar or see it I remember. Others came and forced me away, saving you."

"Then you missed the best part," Talinth said, rounding on him. "They bandaged me up and took me away, having to leave my family's bodies there for you to add to that bloody damned 'Path of Glory'. They thought I wouldn't survive, you know. They tried their best but I was so small, so weak, and I lost so much blood. I was feverish, having nightmares of you torturing and killing my family over and over again, each more horrible than the last. But I don't think a one of them was a match for the real thing. Somehow I survived and pulled through. You know what happened then? I met this old shaman, he took me in and raised me. Taught me to speak to the elements and to give myself part of them to be with them. He taught me to fight and with every swing, with every elemental I summoned I pictured finding you and yours and doing to them what you did to mine. My master knew the hatred I had and tried to help me. I admit it, I thought about killing way too much. You know what he taught me next? To let go of anger and hate and I tried. I tried so very hard. I wanted to let go of the pain and forget you but then I would remember my family and it would stay, deep down where I would never forget it. The Fire Elementals understood the burning and stoked it. Wind fed it just enough to keep it alive. Water kept it from growing too large. And Earth held it, keeping me remembering what was most important, helping those that could be helped."

She never once tried to pick up her axe from the noose it was in, she didn't trust herself with it. "I eventually moved on but with each Orc I met, I hoped and prayed I would see you again. And then after coming to Azeroth, you know what I found?"

"That I had been here the whole time," Saurfang asked.

"No. I found Lord Naruto and there is something about him that will help anyone with anything. I'm kind of glad that he never got an orc as one of us but in another way I regret it as well. I want, I need, to change the image I hold for all of you. I almost did but…"

"You never forgot my face."

"No, I didn't. I still wanted to find you and kill you. And when I finally did…I couldn't. My chance had been stolen away from me by peace of all things. I have you right in front of me but I could never raise my weapon against you because I will never risk Lord Naruto's peace."

"Not even if I told you to?"

"No even if you told me to. You could put the executioner's axe in my hand, get down on your knees, and I wouldn't do it. So leave me alone, at long last leave me be."

"I do regret it."

"Doesn't matter to me."

"I'm…sorry," Saurfang continued. "I might have met your father before once."

"Don't you speak of him," Talinth snapped.

Saurfang decided to push, knowing this would hurt. "He was in a quarry when I came by hunting for game."

"Don't you speak, don't you dare speak of him!"

"He shared a meal with me and told me of his wife and two daughters. I told him of my wife and son and…"

Talinth couldn't stand hearing of him talking of her family any longer. She didn't grab her axe, she went with what she had already. Her large round shield was slammed right into the side of his face, adding a new scar to his collection, and knocking him back several steps. She raised a hoof and smashed it into his midsection, bending him over. And she brought her fist right up into his face, knocking him up into the air and down onto the frozen ground. "Get her off him," someone cried out before several people took hold of her, trying to pull her off him.

"You killed my father! You killed my mother, my sister, and you dare speak of them like you knew them! YOU DARE!" Talinth had trained for decades for this moment, now that her anger finally had release she wasn't about to let even a dozen people come between her and him. With them pushing her back, she dug her hooves into the ground, she pulled her arms free, grabbed the one holding her in front around the waist, flipped him up and tossed him to the side. Saurfang was just looking up and he got to see something he hadn't seen in nearly twenty years. The completely unleashed wrath of a draenie that knew they were going to kill you even if it meant dying themselves. Talinth threw them off her like shrugging off water for all it mattered to her before running right back at Saurfang. He had just gotten back to his feet when she speared her shoulder into his stomach, throwing him to the ground again. Sitting on his chest and holding his collar with her shield arm, she hit his face with her fist again and again, not stopping even when the blood ran from his face and her hand. "Fight back, damn you! Fight like you did back then!"

"I…don't deserve to," Saurfang said threw the blood in his mouth. Talinth didn't want to hear that, she didn't even know what she wanted, so she switched hands holding him down and raised the shield to bring the edge of it down on his neck and kill him. And she didn't bring it down.

"I…don't want this," she said as tears began to fall. "Why couldn't you have left me alone? Why!" But Saurfang couldn't say anything anymore, he could just lie there watching her shield for when she brought it down.

After a moment, another orc grabbed her arm. "Get off him," the Horde warrior growled.

Talinth glared at him a moment before pulling her arm free. She looked down at Saurfang and said, "Never talk about them again. Especially if you want to keep your teeth." Saurfang looked at her a moment before turning his head and spitting a few teeth out. "What you still have then." She got off Saurfang and looked to those around her. Focusing on the warrior that grabbed her arm, she grabbed him and said, "He and I have a personal matter to deal with. Don't interfere again." She pushed him away and walked off.

Saurfang stood up and watched her. Before anyone could say anything, he said, "I killed her family and tried to kill her twenty years ago when she was a child."

—oo000oo—

Ka'nes found Talinth sitting on a boulder, sharpening her ax so she sat down next to her. "Heard that Naruto is going to marry Elaine in a few hours."

Talinth nodded as she continued.

"Also heard that you beat the bloody hell out of Overlord Saurfang."

"I did."

Ka'nes licked her lips as she sat down next to her. "Can I do anything to help you?"

"No."

"…I could turn him into a frog and you could step on him."

"No thanks."

"I could…"

"No," Talinth said again. "I'm fine." She put the sharpening stone and looked to her. "I do need something."

"Anything?"

"Garrosh Hellscream, something needs done about him now."

Ka'nes tilted her head but nodded. "How do you want it done? Quietly, in his bed, slip in, and leave with him dead?"

"No, not yet. He can die later, I want him to know what he wants to be."

Ka'nes nodded as she began to stand. "And what is that?"

"A murderer, berserker, savage, barbarian," she slipped her axe back in the noose. "Without honor. Dead."

"Sounds fun," Nara Pathfinder said, slipping over a rock ledge above them followed by Nekomata. "…By the way, Talinth, I heard what you said."

"Nara, be quiet." She said as she walked away. "Ka'nes, I somehow doubt he would just let us walk into his camp and do what we want."

"Somehow I agree," she replied.

"And what is it we want to do exactly," Nara asked.

The scrape of a boot on ice was the warning the got as someone came closer. "I'm sure that whatever it is, I can help," Saurfang stated.

"I don't think you should be here," Nara told him while Talinth stared at him again.

"I can help, I want to help. You're right, my ladies, Garrosh needs stopped before he becomes a threat. Before he makes the mistakes I did."

Ka'nes and Nara looked to Talinth as this was her mission and she nodded. "We will accept your help." Talinth focused on Ka'nes, "Can you make us look like orcs except me?"

"Done," Ka'nes said before casting an illusion spell. "And I assume you want me to port us right to his door step?"

"A bit farther than that," Talinth replied. "Nara, do you have a pair of manacles?"

"Yeah, what are you up to?"

"We're going there and he's going to meet us, I know it."

"You mean to make yourself a prisoner to draw him out," Saurfang stated.

"I do," Talinth said before catching the restraints Nara tossed her. "Now, I need one of you to hit me. Hard."

—oo000oo—

Three orcs led a draenie prisoner into the new Warsong Hold in Ashenvale Forest. The only male held the chain while the hunter held a bow and arrow aimed right at her forehead in case she thought to do something stupid while the mage led the way. A few hundred yards from the Keep, they were met by patrols. "Who are you and why do you bring that…thing with you," a warrior grunted.

"We are mercenaries," the hunter told them. "I am Garona, the warrior is Galford, and the mage is Hectares. And we bring this prisoner for bounty."

"Why here and with us," the leader of the band of eight asked.

"We find how the Horde does things…distasteful you could say," Hectares told them. We figure to come here and bring a gift. I'm sure if you knew just who this is, you would lead us in with a parade." She grabbed the draenie's chin and turned her to look at them. "This is Talinth of the Seekers of Peace, an ally of the Dragonkeeper. Garrosh will know her." Talinth pulled her chin away and glared at Hectares but when she held up a hand covered in fire, she backed down.

The guards began to grin. Even if she isn't who they said she was, Garrosh would be happy with the gift. "We welcome you to Warsong Hold and will lead you in." The leader held out a hand for the chain.

"No," Galford growled. "We aren't handing her over until we get our compensation."

"Very well." They were led inside the wall but told to stay inside the courtyard. It was a little while before Garrosh came out.

"…Yes, that's her," he said, looking at her. "So, how does it feel, so far from your precious Alliance loving pigs?" Talinth muttered something, her head bent to the ground. "What was that?"

"I said Path of Glory, do you mean to recreate it?"

Garrosh laughed and said, "A draenie would think of that! I haven't really decided yet. It sounds like an interesting idea, killing everyone you know and turning their bones into a path right to this Keep. Does that horrify you, sadden you, scare you even?"

She looked into his eyes and he didn't see fear or even anger. He swore he saw disappointment. "No it doesn't. I survived the purging with a scare across my stomach from a real warrior, Saurfang. I fought things a child like you could never compare to."

Garrosh snarled at her and said, "I will make you regret those words!"

"Go ahead and try," Talinth said while stepping a little closer. He raise his hands and axes and Talinth pulled her arms free from the restraints and catching his hands. "Now, Ka'nes!"

"Good as done," the naga princess said finishing up a teleport spell. Talinth, Nara, Nekomata, Saurfang, and Garrosh disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared a world away. In Garrosh's confusion, Talinth kneed him in the stomach followed by kicking a hoof into his face. Garroshed hit the ground and scrambled to get his feet under him only to pause at what he saw the ground was made of. Bones, trampled and broken, it was enough bones to belong to thousands of people.

Talinth grabbed him by his back and pushed his face back into it while she grabbed one in particular. "Do you see what your precious Horde has done now! Is this the glory you want!"

"That Horde spawned heroes like my father," he growled.

"It spawned monsters! Look around at what they did! This land this once fertile land is a barren waste caused by your Horde!"

"I know what it did," Garrosh growled.

"No you don't!" She flipped him onto his back and shoved the bone in his face. "Look at what they did and tell me where the honor is!" It was a skull but not from any warrior the Draenie had back then. This was far too small. "The ridges in the horns, count them! Seven! She was just seven years old! Where was the honor in killing her! Where was the honor in trying to kill me back then! The Horde as you are trying to recreate is a bloodthirsty murdering animal!"

Garrosh raised a boot and kicked her off him. Getting up himself, he looked at the four against him. "The witch, the ranger, the shaman, and…Saurfang. Hehehe, this is too funny." He reached down and picked up the skull. "I see this and…I see a mistake." He looked to Talinth and growled. "Yes, there is no honor in killing children. Better to kill them though than let them grow to be your enemies. You are an example of that. The one who let you live was no warrior." He dropped the skull and was about to crush it underfoot.

"No!" The one that stopped him was Saurfang himself. Saurfang threw him aside and drew his axe as Garrosh drew his. "You keep seeing things that aren't there pup! Look around at our world! We did this! Not the Alliance, no one else but us! We are strangers in their world and we should have respected that but we haven't! That is their world and they deserve to live as much as we do!" He slashed with his axe, forcing Garrosh back.

"The Horde stands alone, old man! We always have!"

"If only you knew, boy!" Garrosh swung both axes down on Saurfang. He raised his two handed axe up and caught them and pulled. "But you're right, you do stand alone, we don't!" An arrow took Garrosh in his left leg while a firefolt hit him in the back. Nakomata hit him from the side and pinned him to the ground.

"Wretched beast, die," Garrosh bellowed while he swung an axe at her side. Talinth's hoof came down on that arm, breaking the bones inside it. "AGH!" He looked to Talinth who held her shield and axe again and said, "Kill me you daughter of a whore! Your whole race will die, I swear it! The Warsong Clan will never…"

"You father," Saurfang, interrupted him. "We were friends when we were young, back then finding a half orc wasn't uncommon. There were half-ogres and half draenie. These were offspring from love, not force. Your father planned had loved and planned to take a draenie woman as his wife before she died in an accident." Garrosh stared at him in shock. "Not even your mother did he love as much as her." He looked to the fallen skull, picked it up, and carefully dug a hole to bury it in. "Say what you want, Garrosh, we, your father and I, are monsters. For what we did, we could never undo and never make up for it." He faced Garrosh again and tightened his grip on his axe. "And I will kill anyone who tries to become what we were. I faced what I did and asked forgiveness for it, your father didn't. He never admitted even to himself what he did. So, do you think what we did was something worthy of such a monument?" He held his arms out.

"We aren't here to kill you, Hellscream," Nara told him, holding an arrow at the ready to do just that if needed. "You need to understand something. The world will no longer tolerate a tyrant. If you want to do something like that, take you damn clan and head back here. Take over for all I care. The Kurenai have found friends in Shattarath as have the Maghar. They are leaving this dying land but are welcome to it. You just need to take it from the demons."

"Or," Ka'nes said suddenly. "You can walk away," she offered. "Here we are, in Outlands where no one knows the kind of orc you have become. Look that way, Garrosh, you hut, your clan, is waiting for you. You could go there and pretend that you haven't become an orc that has betrayed your own Warchief. You'll never hear from us again. Hell, you might never even see another race from Azeroth again. Undead, humans, trolls, everyone that has grown to hate your guts will become a bad dream."

"I don't run from anything," Garrosh said but without the convictions he had earlier.

"Then learn to," Talinth told him, still holding his hand down with her hoof. "If you never lose, you never learn. So do we leave you here or do we send you back to Warsong Hold?" She stepped off him and moved back.

"Nekomata," Nara said, getting the ghostsaber off him.

Garrosh stood up, cradling his arm. "Send me back to my clan. I will think on this but you will know what my answer is soon."

"After we have killed the Lich King," Saurfang commanded.

Garrosh nodded and faced Talinth. Figuring he was expecting her to heal his arm, Ka'nes cast the spell to return him to Warsong Hold just as he is. "Let's head back, Light knows that Naruto probably got himself in trouble while we were gone."

"He could have," Nara said with a chuckle.

—oo000oo—

Appearing back at the base camp for the Grand Army of Azeroth, they headed off in their own way except for Talinth. She fell in step with Saurfang. "…You didn't have to do any of that. Why did you?"

"Needed to deal with Garrosh anyway."

"…Why did you…the skull?"

"I told you the truth, Talinth, I regret what I did and I wish I could undo it. I am sorry."

They walked in silence a while until they saw where the wedding was to take place. "Saurfang," she said, stopping. "For what you did, there can be no forgiveness. You have done too much to too many."

"Yeah, I figured as much."

"But…"

Saurfang looked back to her. "But?"

"But I think I can let go of the anger." Saurfang looked at her in surprise. "This by no means that I want to be friends! I'll just stop hunting for you and trying to kill you."

Saurfang nodded and said, "I'll take what I can get."

"And that's it." Talinth walked away and didn't look back at him. She didn't need to anymore. Finding another out of the way spot, she sat down, took out her sharpening stone again, and started sharpening her axe once more. She had been at it for some minutes when she saw Elaine. "My queen," she said in jest.

"Talinth," she said with a smile. "What's this I hear about you getting in a fight or something?"

"Or something," she replied. "Just needed to get something off my chest."

"And did you?"

"Yeah, I did." She set down the stone and looked to the sky. "It feels odd without it, like something is missing. Though it's not something I would ever want returned." She looked down her axe, nodded, tossed the stone in the air, and then cut it smoothly in half. "Now, don't we have a wedding to get you too?" She jumped to her feet, dropping her axe back in its noose, and offered Elaine her arm.

"Yeah we do." She took her arm and headed to it.

—oo000oo—