Chapter 5

The bear lunged at me, rancid fangs tearing through the muscle in my arm. I swing the grizzly with all my might into the ground to force its jaws open, but the teeth are locked into me. I push a hoof into the bear's chest and pull: blood and tissue tear away. The bear lay on the ground, a good chunk of my arm still locked in its jaws. Summoning fire into my hand, I thrust flames upon the animal to end its life. However, in doing so I leave myself a target to the bear's master. The dwarf had all the time in the world to aim.

He fires; the bullet tears into my leg, skimming the bone. It'll take him a moment to eject the shell and load a fresh one, that was my only chance. Despite the shocks that surges up my leg, I run at him with all my strength. Something about eight hundred pounds of pissed off Tauren must scare him because he fumbles with his bullet. It slips through his wormy little fingers. I wasn't goanna let him get another. I brought my hoof into his chest, leather and mail armor bent under the force. I'm sure I heard a rib snap.

He stumbles back, lifting his rifle again, but I tear it from his hands and deliver another kick into his chest. I cuff my hands together and slam my two fists into his back.Grabbing hold of his collar, I punch him several times before throwing him away like a rag doll away. The words to a powerful spell burst out of my mouth, anger rages in my heart. I'm going to kill him: I have to or he'll kill me. But before the spell is finished, he pulls something strange from under his cloak and throws it at my hooves. He begins to chuckle. The small strange thing explodes beneath me.

The fire burns my fur, bits of metal rip into my good leg. I'm crippled on the ground, dazed and confused at the outburst of orange. The ringing in my ears deafens slowly and the spots fade from my eyes. As I struggle to get to up, something cold pushes into the back of my neck. "Like the bomb? A little gift from me cousin. Ye know cow, I was goanna let ye live. Least till we got to da Undercity. But now cow, I'm goanna blow ye bovine brain out. Any last word?"

I mutter under my breath.

"Ye have to speak up cow," the dwarf laughs.

I twist on the ground to face the hunter and clutch the rifle, bending the barrel. Most never believe I can move as fast as I do, which is why he doesn't get the shot off. I reach up and grab his chest in my mitts: the words to summon lightning come roaring out of my throat. Hot, burning energy engulfs his small body, organs and entrails burst outfrom allsides.The dwarf makes a few struggled gasps as he losses grip on his rifle.He buckles over, his arms wrapped around him as if trying to sustain his life. After a few painful seconds his spirit hesitantly leaves its shell. I was in incredible pain, several bones in my legs were broken, I was sure. I somehow manage to stand up and lean heavily on my staff, I can't use my left leg because of the sever bullet wound and burns. The right is aching under the pressure, skin peels off with each step. I turn to the dwarf's spirit that's quickly fading from this realm. Without a shaman of my powers to sustain a spirit, they must cross to the other side. He's scared, terrified at what is happening. I begin to chuckle."You talk too much," I say as I struggle away.

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Don't ask me how, but I manage to get to a river with out passing out or losing too much blood. She comes to my side. "Are you alright?" the soul of the night elf asks.

"Do I look alright?" I grunt. I wash the drying blood out of my fur and cut the bits of metal from my legs with a skinning knife. When this is done, I wrap my hooves with a silk cloth and summon the spirits to speed up the healing."I don't know if I can do this," I say. "How many has it been?"

"Twenty-seven. Humans, trolls, orcs, gnomes, dwarves, elves. And that's just freelancers. You've always had to fight the the Dark Lady's personal armies."

"I won't last long at this rate."

She settles down beside me and puts a motherlyhand to my aching muscles. "Taff," she says, using my first name. She's one of the only beings on earth that calls me by it."You have to be strong."

"That dwarf would've had me if he didn't talk so much. Soon I'll slip up."

"No," she whispers. "You can't, you are their only hope."

I stand up and the sudden sharp pains settle into steady agony. I stick a pair of fingers into my mouth and whistle as loud and long as I can. After several agonizing minutes, a large grey kodo shuffles out of the woods. "Hello Goliath, have you missed me?"

A scratchy tongue licks my hand as I pat the kodo's leathery head. I mount the great steed and pull her up in front of me.She is able to maintain a physical form so long as she is either close to me or concentrates hard enough. The same is with her visibility.Due to my powers however,I can always see or touchher. "Where to know?" the spirit elf asks.

"Undercity, but I don't know if I can do it alone."

"Hey mon, good thing I be here then," said an accented voice above me. The troll that jumps down from a tree branch has royal blue skin, crimson red hair laced down his back and dark black eyes. He wears mainly black leather armor, the only exception a pair of cloth boots that lets him walk silently. On his belt he carries a pair of short swords and on his back a bow and quiver.

Aloos is a psychotic murderous troll rogue. So far, in the short time I have been wanted by the Dark Lady, I have had to fight bible thumpers, crazed hunters, blood thirsty warriors, and corrupted warlocks. God I love Aloos.

I tell the troll what had happened so far, and what I still had to do. He slaps his leg and laughs. "Hey mon, that be a lot of killing you be doin. I'm in," he said with a psychotic grin.

"There's a good chance you'll die."

"Then I just hang out wit ya like Mab, mon."

Mab is the night elf spirit that travels with me. While Aloos is not trained in the art of shamanism, Mab makes herself visible to him. He calls his own steed: a green raptor he named Snot, and mounts the creature. "You lead the way mon."

"Because when there's a bounty on my head, I really want a rogue behind me," I rumble.

"Hey, if I were goanna kill you, wouldn't I 'ave done it when ye were wounded by da lake?"

"Good point."