I know I said next weekend, but hey, I don't think you are going to conplain. As of this chapter the story steers the main story line away from getting the group into trouble, instead. . . I will just let you find that out yourself.
Chapter 8: Turning Of Tides
They got up early the next day and continued en route to the Tauren capital: Thunder Bluff. They walked along the waving green hills of Mulgore. There were more trees here, but nothing you would call a forest. Here they also saw much more animals. Wolves were plentiful and prey was there to. They saw animals walking around on two legs that looked like ostriches but with larger heads and beaks. They even saw one get taken down taken down by a wolf. It made short work of the animal Nell called a plainstrider after sneaking behind it and then jumping for the long neck.
"So the Tauren tribe occupying thunder Bluff is called The Bloodhoof Tribe? Charming names." Jack said. "And there is even a village nearby called Bloodhoof Village, really charming, original to."
The wind shifted and now blew find at them from a different direction. Nell halted, smelling something in the air. "You smell that?" The raptor began sniffing the air as well and made a failed attempt at nodding.
As time passed the other began to smell it more clearly. It was a scent unknown to Warrick, but Jack knew it all to well. A troubled look came to live on his face, and one that spoke of disgust sprouted into being on Warrick's face as the scent's intensity multiplied suddenly.
With a bad feeling Jack rushed over the next hill with the rest in tow. When he topped the hill he halted. Before him lay an orcish army camp. However there were absolutely no signs of live. Jack knew that the smell of death and decay was coming from the camp, but to him it all seemed quiet and nobody was lying on the ground. Nell also topped the hill and halted. "There is something wrong here." He stated. He felt that very powerful spells were cast here.
Warrick came while theatrically pinching his nose. He let go of his nose and curiously walked down to the camp. The others saw no real problem with that since all activity in the about a two thousand men strong camp had ceased.
Warrick stopped behind one orc that was standing with his back to him. He grabbed the shoulder while saying: "He you, what is going on here." In orcish. To his surprise the shoulder plating and the bones underneath it crumbled in his hands. The extra pressure on the body made it collapse. It fell forward and fell apart when hitting the ground. All the skin had dried out and all the fluids seemed to have been taken from the body. All the brittle bones cracked upon impact with the ground and dust flew into warrick's face.
Warrick instantly panicked, at the though that all thousands orcs here were dead. He fell backwards and began crawling back to his companions, frantically screaming. To Jack Warrick seemed more like a little kid than a captain in the interstellar forces. Warrick hid behind Jack's long legs and slowly peeked around the legs. He saw all the other orcs were completely dried out. Eye sockets that used to hold eyes were now empty holes staring at him. Some of the orc bodies had already fallen apart over night. Bones were scattered about the camp.
Grisha had gone out hunting the evening before, hoping to be able to catch something instead of having to eat the rations given by the army. The darkness had soon fallen and had prevented her from finding any prey animals. When she returned empty handed she saw that the whole camp had been put under some spell.
She had gone down and found everybody was dead. Just like Warrick she had panicked but besides that was also filled with grief because some of her friends were there to. Grief burning in her stomach she ran away and was only stopped when she tripped over a tree trunk and fell into a small body of water. She wasn't a seasoned warrior unlike others that had been ordered to go with the army. This was to be her second assignment, the first had turned out to be nothing.
Although she was inexperienced she was not a coward and the water had brough her back to her senses. All the orcs in the camp looked like they had never noticed their doom approaching. She had gone to a hill overlooking the camp and had waited there for anything or anyone that might be responsible for the slaughter.
When she saw the four travellers arrive she immediately knew this could not be a coincidence. When the small human had broken one of the bodies she had enough. She was going to kill that pathetic bunch of humans! Even if it was certain she was going to die!
Nell was startled by a battle cry piercing the air. He looked around and saw a orcish female warrior swiftly charging down a hill. She had her axe raised and prepared to let it come down on Warrick's head.
Nell knew he had to act swiftly. When the woman was almost at Warrick's position, who only now noticed the threat, he let loose with a spell not designed to kill. The orc froze in misstep and hung in the air. She was still screaming battle cries as Jack approached her.
"Grisha?" he said when he had his face three inches from hers. It had to be her, The pitch black hair and slightly upturned nose.
Grisha looked at him and spat in his face. "You filthy humans! Why did you do this, you are no better than my squad leader told me!"
Jack wiped his face with a sleeve and prepared to say something back. "We did not do this." He said as he slapped her across the face, hoping to bring her back to her senses. He didn't hit hard, only enough to obtain the effects he wanted.
Grisha's battle lust seemed to evaporate like snow in the sun. But she still put up a defiant face. "Than who?"
"We just arrived here. We have no idea."
"That might not be true." Nell said as he released Grisha from his spell. He knew the way the magic felt around him, it felt ominous. "I think this is the work of demons. Or at least a demonic spell.
Grisha knew demons from legends and stories her dad told her about the invasion of the burning legion a few years back.
Jack had personal experience with a demon and also didn't like it at all, but he kept a neutral face.
Warrick had never heard of demons in the way the others had but thought it could never be a good thing.
Raptor let out a hiss as she to knew about the legion that had ravaged the land and it's animals.
Now that she was in the camp while daylight she saw something was wrong besides all the orcs being dead. She walked to a group and recognised them, her squad leader and three others even while their flesh had dried out and skin was hanging loose on the bone. She took a few steps back and then looked around the camp, seeing what had disturbed her subconscious mind. She walked back to Jack and told him: "There are orcs missing who should be among the dead."
"Orcs missing?" Jack replied.
"There should be three thousand orcs here." She let her eyes estimate how many there were there. "I would say one third of the army is missing."
"You mean who ever did this has the ability to kill two thousand orcs without them knowing it and then capture a thousand!" Warrick found that a bit extreme. But as he looked around he came to the same conclusion, two thousand orcs were standing and sitting without showing any signs that they knew what had been about to happen. "Shouldn't we go warn ThunderBluff that a threat such as that is going about the Tauren lands?"
"We may already be to late. And then they might come after us if they are still at Thunderbluff." Nell reminded him.
"Well, we wont find out about that until we get there." Warrick sneered back harshly.
They agreed with him and returned on their route to Thunderbluff on more hastened pace. They weren't far of but in the mean time rain clouds began streaming into the large valley of Mulgore through the passage. Those clouds would be stuck there and would empty above the hills of Mulgore. By the time they reached Thunderbluff it was already raining so much they couldn't see the tops of the four rises that made the Tauren capital. The clouds were completely blocking the sun and Lightning was also coursing through the dark sky regularly and producing thundering noises.
The only access to the top where all the inhabitants lived was by using the great lifts made of wood. Acording to those who had never seen the lifts before they had to use some form of magic to make them work even now. Multiple lifts worked day in and out to make sure all cargo and traffic would be processed.
The rain had completely soaked all of the travellers and thunders that echoed through the valley nearly deafened them. "We are to late!" Nell shouted of all of the surrounding noises.
"Why!" Jack asked equally loud.
"I can sense strong magic playing up above!"
Warrick had other ideas than leaving now. "If we know who is doing this we can give that information to the orcs or who ever we run into!" With those words he stepped into lift that automatically goes up and down. The rest followed quickly and crammed in side the lift.
When they got to the top Warrick got his first glance at a tauren. A Tauren was guarding the lift, but he was standing completely still. The stood on hoofs which lead to relatively short legs. The legs were attached to a wide and extremely well muscled body. Thick arms jutted from the upper torso and this Tauren's case held a large axe. The hunched over back ended in a bull like head that sported horns on the side. The complete body was covered in fur that was soaking wet at the moment form the rain. The tauren wore large pieces of armor that protected his shoulders. Leather bands reached down to the also reinforced leg armor. The tauren was slightly shorter than Jack.
The tauren wasn't a dried out husk but only stood still ignoring everything. Warrick walked to him and waved a hand in front of his face. The tauren was still breathing and blinking his eyes, but besides that nothing.
Nell saw how whoever was doing this played their trick. "They first make sure everybody is frozen in place and then they have all the time they need to do their next spell!" He explained.
Thunderbluff's middle rise had three different levels, they were now standing on the lowest level. Grisha had been here once before on a visit and lead the way to where Nell had told them where they should look first, The highest level. On their way they saw tauren in all shapes and sizes. The female tauren were more slender and sported feminine forms. Most of the Tauren they saw were just merchants and the inhabitants of Thunderbluff.
Besides the main stairs that connected all the levels there was a path leading along the edge of the middle rise as well. They took that path in the hopes of not being spotted when coming through the door on highest rise.
As they got closer Nell began feeling the presence of a mighty being on the level they were heading. When they arrived they saw it. A demon was standing in the middle of two orcs and one human, explaining to them in a low and booming voice: "I have more important things to do than watch over you as you drain the life from these worthless tauren. You now how the spell works." With that he waved his arms in a pattern and vanished with a small flash of light. After he vanished a small dark green gem appeared where demon was standing.
Nell thought he knew what it did. "They use that to drain the life from those they use it one and store the life essence of those they drain inside, I think."
Jack ran to a building as fast as stealthy as he could and pulled the gun from the holster, the Raptor followed him like a tail. Jack indicated to Warrick to go the other way around the three demon worshippers. Nell and Grisha followed Warrick as he to began moving bent forward from building to building.
When the two groups were on two sides Jack tried to make something clear to his raptor companion. "do you understand what I am saying to you?" The raptor made a poor attempt at nodding. "Okay, when I come out from behind the building on this side you come out on the other side and run to them as fast as you can and grab that shining stone from their hands, then you continue running to Nell and give to him, understand?" The raptor again made a poor attempt at nodding.
He signalled what he had come up with to Warrick on the other side of the small square. He walked out in the open, gun drawn and aiming at the two ors and one human, and set the plan in motion. The plan proceeded smoothly, Raptor came out and immediately grabbed the gem and brought it to Nell, who already had his flame spells ready to use along side Warrick and Grisha who had their axes in hand. As Nell conjured a large flame above his outstretched hand Grisha and warrick spread, so they were closing in on the three in the middle from four sides.
Those that were object of the tactics did not panic however and the orcs drew their weapons charging Nell, who was holding the gem in the other hand. The human stayed back and began casting spells of his own. As Jack caught sight of what the human was doing he shot him in between the shoulder blades. The human did not fall, instead turned to Jack and let loose with a quickly cast flame spell, merely sizzling him. Jack in turn let loose a full salvo of bullets, taking down the human.
While that happened Nell shot his already conjured flame towards one orc who set aflame by the spell, The rain however greatly helped smother the flames so Nell shot more fire at, finally putting an end to the orc. The last orc had been attacked by the raptor. The raptor went for the throat, however the orc had quick reflexes and batted the incoming head away with the back end of his sword.
Grisha and warrick came in on him from the sides and prevented him from attacking Nell. Grisha and Warrick worked in unison by attacking at the same time. The orc however was not unskilled and in one smooth arc deflected both axes. Jack still had his axe he got from defeating the centaur leader and brought it into play instead attempting at shooting the last orc, which might hove resulted in hitting one of his companions.
Now that the orc had to fight on three fronts even his skill could not help him against three rather unskilled fighters. Nevertheless he still managed to graze Warrick's arm with his sword. In the same blow he brought his sword around to deflect a blow from Jack's double headed axe. This left him open to Grisha who used the opportunity to bring her axe down on the orcs spine. The spine cracked and nerves were severed as the axe came down. The sword fell fro hs hands and the body followed soon after.
The grass and stones were coloured red and darker red from the blood coming from the dead bodies. Red blood flowed in a steady stream from the chest wounds in the human's body, while darker red blood flowed from the one relatively undamaged orc body. The other had been completely incinerated. The rain mingled with the Blood and the colors faded a bit from being mixed.
Warrick did not notice the new wetness spreading on his arm until the raptor began licking it. He pulled up his sleeve and saw it actually was pretty deep, he did not feel it however from the adrenaline flowing through his veins.
Jack inspected everybody to make sure they were really dead. Grisha walked to building the three demon worshippers were standing in front. She walked in through the open door and than came out screaming the rest should follow her in again.
They walked inside the large tent that was made of leather and wood. Inside there were two heavily armored tauren guarding an even more heavily armored tauren. This last one was very large, About the same as Jack was tall. The tauren however was much wider and sported very well muscled arms, even for a tauren. The face bore the many scars of battles and age. To his side there was his weapon. But instead of a sword or axe or any of that he used a large thick totem for slamming it into his opponents.
"Cairne Bloodhoof!" Grisha practically gasped in admiration of the large creature.
"Let me try something to wake him up." Nell said. He approached The much larger tauren and inspected the spell that was preventing him to do anything more aggressive than breath and blink. He decided how to handle it and began forcing the spell away. He wrote incantations in the air and spoke words in an unknown language.
Cairn blinked, then blinked again, and again. He frowned and suddenly launched into action. In one smooth movement he turned around, grabbed the totem with one hand, slammed the other hand in Nell's face, who standing the closest. He prepared to bring the totem down on the next creature in his path, Grisha. When he saw she was an orc he halted and considered something.
That moment was all Jack needed, he realised that Cairne was just confused because he suddenly sees three humans a raptor and an orc in his house. He ran into Cairne, using his bulk to throw him off balance. He only hoped Cairne would pause long enough so they could make it clear to him he was the object of an assassination.
Cairne however had more bulk and used to his advantage. He turned again to throw Jack of and than decided what to do. He brought the axe down on Grisha who, in his eyes, must have been collaborating with the humans and lead them in Thunderbluff.
Before the totem hit he froze in mid swing. Nell, who had been launched to the other side of the room by Cairne, had cast a spell to freeze combat for a moment. Grisha immediately got away from the totems path. Warrick stepped forward to speak while Nell held up the spell.
"Stop stop. We are not here to kill any of you. Actually we are here to warn you." He said.
"Than explain to me why there are three armed humans in my house." Cairne Retorted.
Because two orcs and one human were outside preparing a spell to suck the live out of you." Warrick answered.
Cairne's face seemed to loose a bit of certainty about the situation. "How did you get past all of the guards?"
"Those that were here before us had cast a spell to prevent them from doing anything more aggressive than breath."
"I wish to see this." Cairne said a bit more friendly. He saw that he had not really convinced them with his sudden change of mood. "I wont strike."
Jack came up from behind Cairne and nodded to Nell, who released Cairne from his spell.
Cairne made no movements that would suggest he wasn't honest in his statement about not striking anyone. They walked outside and Cairne inspected the carnage. Cairne was not without a bit of magical power himself, he could feel that wrongness of those that had once been in the place of the bodies. Through the rain he also saw his people standing like frozen. "That is evidence enough for me. . . I suppose I should thank you for saving the lives of all those in ThunderBluff."
Jack's expression grew dark. "To bad we were to late for the orcish army a few miles away from here."
"Army?" Cairne began.
"That is something that can be discussed later, first we should figure out a way to wake these tauren," Nell intervened before either Jack or Warrick began telling a lengthy tale about their journey through The Barrens and the discovery of the army of dead orcs.
"agreed!" Cairne and Grisha both said.
"And I know a way." Nell added. "But I'll need someone to restrain the tauren I cast upon so they don't attack when they awaken from their slumber.
"Her first." Cairne said pointing at a female tauren. "She is a well trained shaman and can help in waking up my people."
They walked over to the female tauren. She wore light brown clothes and carried a staff in her left hand. She was partly standing in the rain and the part that was in the rain was completely soaked.
Jack positioned himself on her right side while Cairne positioned himself on the other. Nell stood in front of her and on his sides were Grisha and warrick, prepared to catch the tauren if she would jump at them. The raptor was of not much use with this and knew that, so she stayed outside.
"Ready?" Nell asked. When saw everybody nodding, "I will begin." He wrote the same incantations in the air and spoke the same words. The shaman began rousing from her sleep. When she was fully conscious she blinked like Cairne had done to make sure she wasn't imagining those in front of her. She found them real enough and began shouting in the tauren language and tried to get away, but she was held tight and could not move.
Cairne began talking in soft and comforting words in his language. The female looked at him and was even more surprised than before. Cairne quickly told her what she needed to know about those that had roused from her slumber and the events on ThunderBluff.
"We must wake the others!" She said in orcish so the others could understand as well.
So they did. Cairne and the shaman worked in tandem and Jack and Nell worked in the same way, Jack holding the tauren while Nell cast and if necessary Warrick and Grisha would talk reason with the tauren.
Cairne called his rescuers again when they had awakened the highest part of the middle rise. "From her my peoples shamans and druids will be able to handle the waking on their own, I suggest you begin thinking about who and why this happened." The group agreed and retreated back to Cairne's home, which they had been allowed to use for their new goal.
They made little progress beyond that it involved demons and a group of demon worshippers. Those they had killed had nothing on them that would suggest which group had send them. They at least knew one reason for the demons to do this: demons were always working to spread mayhem amongst all.
"We have been talking like this for half an hour now, I think you can think up more without me." Jack told them. He wanted a bit of fresh air, even if it was raining. The others did not protest as he stood up and walked outside. He returned quickly and took of his Battle harness. "It gets a bit tight around the shoulders after wearing it for two days in a row." He gave as an explanation. He considered at least taking the gun but didn't think he would need it now.
He walked a full circle around the highest part of ThunderBluff. The tauren looked at him distrusting but also surprise because he was the biggest human they had ever seen. The fact that was among those who had saved the tauren also rewarded him with a few appreciative looks. He then intended to walk back to the others, to see what they had cooked up. When he was a few feet from the entrance he heard something come down on the ground from a short fall. He turned and was greeted by the Back of a demon.
"where are you worthless. . . I told you to deal with the tauren fa. . ." The demon finally saw those he sought were no longer alive. He turned around and saw all the tauren walking around, trying to get their things away from the rain, but most of all he saw Jack standing in front of him. "You!" He grabbed Jack and tried to impale him on the sword the demon held in his other hand.
The tauren tried to come to Jack's help, or at least get the demon out of their capital. The demon noticed it and began holding Jack as he would hold a hostage. "You will do for interrogation I think." Jack brought his foot down on the demon's foot. The demon grunted but did not let go. Still holding on to Jack the demon began a spell.
When the spell was finished Jack immediately found himself in a cave. The air felt depressing, rotting, and he was surrounded by orcs, humans, a few demons and figures he didn't recognise. A large demon stepped forward. "What have you brought? Where are those you were supposed to take back?"
"They have been slain, and this one was among the tauren, he should not have been there." The demon holding Jack paused for a moment and then resumed, "I sense something about him to."
The lead demon stepped forward and inspected Jack up close. Jack saw the demon had many scars and eyes that spoke of cruelty. The demon's breath smelled as if the demon was decaying from the inside. "You are right, I sense one of our own in him, a powerful one. You have done well in taking him with you." The lead demon glared at the one holding Jack and then backed away.
A heavy fist came down on the back of Jack's head. He felt consciousness recede from him but he refused to give in to it. He turned around, surprising the demon holding him. With blurry vision Jack tried to strike his adversary's jaw, but instead he hit the chest. Blackness began filtering in on the edges of his view as the demon recovered and slammed a fist in Jack's face. Jack staggered back and had trouble keeping his footing because of imbalance. Through blackening vision he saw the orcs and humans circle around him.
The strength to try and strike out at the horde coming for him receded from him. He felt powerless. If only he had his gun now, he would make them pay even in his current state. He made an ill attempt at swinging his hand at the nearest.
The orc caught his hand and then slammed his own into Jack's face. He didn't feel anything anymore, but he still heard the crack emanating from his nose. After that he knew nothing anymore.
What will happen now? Read that in the next chapter.