Grok Battlecry: Bounty Hunter

Prologue: Bounty Hunter

Grok Battlecry ran as fast as his Orc legs could take him through the woods. Behind him roared a Red Drake, its mighty roar echoing in between the snow covered trees. Instinctually, Grok rolled to his right, putting his back to a tree. Not a moment to soon either as a cloud of smoke and flame exploded right where Gork was mini-seconds ago.
Grok couldn't keep hiding forever. What was the point? He pulled out his battleaxe and waited. He heard another explosion, this time coming from about ten yards from where he was now. Only this time the pillar of flame was coming towards him. He ran to a thick oak tree and leapt up onto a nearby branch. He cursed as the tree turned out to be infested with spiders. Big spiders. He hated spiders. Especially big spiders. He slashed to his right as one heck of a huge spider came nearer. It body was swung out of the tree, poisons in its huge fangs pouring out. The Drake happened to be unlucky here, as the spider found itself lodged in the dragon's right eye. It came crashing down, bringing earth up and uprooting several trees. Grok jumped off the top of the tree and made his way over to the dragon's body. Its head reared and shot out a jet of flame at Grok. He was flung backwards by the force of the fire, but luckily nothing was broken or hurt. Thank the gods for the magical bracers he was given by his employer. But now it was back to business. "Come now dragon, I don't want to hurt you." he said out loud, but added under his breath, "much." This did not distract the dragon for long, but it wasn't meant to. It did not notice Grok's increased speed and his raised axe as he charged the dragon, to busy trying to get the spider out of his eyes and sorting out what he had said. Grok's axe firstly struck at the underbelly, causing pain and then slicing upwards, cutting its throat, red magma spewing over his axe, melting it. "Damn." Grok said and then began the lengthy process of using his long dagger to hack of one of its horns. "This should prove sufficient," he said without a trace of emotion. He headed towards town.

* * *

"Here is your dragon," Grok said, tossing the huge horn over to his employer, the mayor of this village. "When shall I be getting paid?"
"Ye not be getting paid, ye filthy Orc!" he said spitting as he did so.
Grok's fire red eyes intensified and his muscles bulged. Through gritted teeth he said, "I wasted an Orcish Battleaxe killing this dragon to rid you of this Dragon.and you agreed to pay me! I can assure you, weapon or not, I could kill you in six seconds without even breaking a sweat, so if I were you I'd hand over the gold!"
By this time the mayor was sweating as he did not have the gold, he had spent it last night on ladies. "I am sorry, I do not have the gold, but I can grant you full access to the Arcane Vault at Fort Heralolotis. I can write you a sufficient number on this ch-"
"It had better be double; otherwise you'll be thrown from this room for cheating me out of that gold!" Grok roared. He saw the hand of the mayor scribble frantically over the piece of parchment which was now worth, due to these strange human symbols, two thousand gold. He did not understand human currency, why make a piece of paper be worth more than raw gold? It did not matter as he walked outside and towards the inn.
He went inside and up to his room where his human companion was be sitting, contemplating. "Imalis my friend, we are now two thousand gold richer!" Grok said cheerfully.
"Too bad it must be spent at a fort." The old human said, reading the Orcs mind.
"Yeah well never mind that," Grok said, "We'll get some new gear and then head of for another village and look for some more work."
"Grok, my friend. You have learnt much from me but now I grow old and I fear my time in this world is diminishing." He said, but paused and sighed, "I must show you something. But you may not like it."