Chapter 8: The Contractor
"So you lied about him telling you where your friend was? Does your friend even exist?" George questioned as he carried Kraven in a sack as the trio walked through a vista littered with orange grass and trees.
"Yes… but I know he knows. He said something about it before he took Krug and I into captivity", Laiken said.
"So you do know?" George asked.
"I said I think he knows something…", Laiken was cut off by George making a swift hand movement.
"I am a man of absolutes… not really, just give me a simple answer", he barked.
"I just gave you one!" Laiken shouted.
He was beginning to feel a sensation unlike he had ever before. Even though this annoyance was a mere annoyance, he still felt like it could literally boil out of his mouth and into pure, uncontrolled rage at any given moment.
"Gentlemen, can we calm down? I'm still trying to figure out where we are!" Krug said.
George rolled his eyes and looked back at the orc engineer.
"For an engineer you sure don't know a lot of what we're going through. We're on the outskirts of Aszhara, damn near directly north of Orgrimmar, so we have to be quiet. If you can't keep up with the conversation don't try to join in at all", George snapped.
"You're very grumpy for an old man", Krug stated, peering at George with squinted eyes.
"Grumpy isn't the… best word to use to describe my situation. I have an outpost I set up a long time ago, in Ashenvale, but that's due west and we're making horrible timing getting there, so can we move this along please?" George was now sounding anxious.
Just as he finished saying that, the sack began to kick and make noises. Kraven was awake, and not in time according to the flustered look on George's face. He threw the sack over his shoulder, causing it to slam on the ground with a healthy thump.
"We'll have to find somewhere to set up camp seeing as how we didn't make it to my outpost", George angrily said, dragging the sack along the ground while Laiken and Krug followed into a secluded area.
George undid the rope fastening the sack closed and out popped Kraven like an eager mouse coming out of his borrows.
"This won't go far without me telling my buddies back in the cartel, you'll see!" he squealed, before personally meeting George's boot.
"My friend here tells me you're being contracted by someone", George said, calmly.
"Yeah, the cartel. What do you think I am? Stupid? Alliance pig", Kraven spat.
"So because I'm human means I'm automatically aligned and on good terms with the Alliance? Now listen to who's stupid", George retorted.
Kraven grumbled, and turned over on his stomach, hoping the three would walk away and leave him alone, but, to his anguish and anger, they didn't and Laiken nudged him rather hard with his own boot.
"Did you, by chance, meet a human? Besides this one… someone who paid to have us captured… maybe killed", Laiken wasn't angry when he asked this of the goblin.
"So now you think I'll reveal my contractors?" Kraven said.
"You're telling us that there is someone then, correct?" George snapped.
"Idiots, the lot of you. You think that I am scared of you? Three rag-tag people who managed to capture someone smaller than them, beat him up and might possibly leave him for dead in the middle of a place that is exclusively Horde controlled?" Kraven asked of the three, his eyes wide open in sarcasm.
"Just tell my friend what he wants to know… and maybe I won't sacrifice your pathetic soul for eternal torment and suffering so I can call forth one of my demons", George sneered, revealing a hollow, but still active, soul shard that seemed to grab out at Kraven's soul.
Kraven screamed for a brief moment, before being kicked in the stomach by Laiken. He then looked up wide-eyed at George, then gulped loud and clear before speaking to Laiken, who was now angry.
"Not even he told me his name. But what I remember that when my friends… who are now probably dead or mentally inept due to your demonic rampage… and I got contracted by him, he was tall, and wore a mask… like an SI:7 assassin would wear, except he carried two orange glowing blades at each side. His voice was cold… like ice piercing into your soul, and he was terrifyingly and impossibly tall… I mean for a human", Kraven sounded as if he was going to throw up as he finished talking.
"So… you were contracted, by a man who didn't tell you his name, but contracted you anyway?" Laiken said, eyeing George, who moved the soul shard closer to Kraven, which made him squirm.
"The man himself didn't sign the papers… his 'associate' did, his n-name was Logan… somethin' Blood… I forget, the papers were burned back at the test zone!" Kraven now was frantic, and yelling.
Kraven was now silent, for he had spoken everything he could tell.
"In my general experience… goblins usually aren't lying when they're forced to tell something…", Krug said, finally adding his thoughts.
"He's right… as much as I hate to see such a fresh soul go walking, he's right… we should arrange for a boat to take us to Booty Bay, in the Eastern Kingdoms, that way we can begin our search there, which is probably where he picked up the contract anyway… that or the Nesingwary camp that's in Northern Stranglethorn… either way, someone knows somebody with a first name like Logan…", George deduced, refocusing on the goblin.
"Can't I go now?" Kraven whined.
"Tell anyone about… me being here, and it'll be your fresh soul, and you can count on that", George snickered as Kraven forced himself to stand and ran off into the aimless wilderness.
"Shall we depart, group? We have searching to do, and Laiken can't do it without me or you George", Krug said.
"Excuse me?" Laiken asked.
Before he was given an answer, he was strong armed by both George and Krug who began to walk due west, into a shrouded dark forest that George referred to as Ashenvale.