Hi all.

I don't know how many of you write lots of these so stating this ismy first attempt at fan-fiction may be unnessessary. Even so, I really just started read these works after the idea for this story would not let me be until I wrote it down. So I'm trying to figure out what people like and dislike still. Since I first wrote this chapter and submitted it (sans this intro) I think I have learned a few things.
One: humorseems to be the popular favorite. This story could never really be a comic piece so I'm out of luck there.
Two: Style matters. I am afraid the style I have started the story with may turn folks off. If you can get past the racial speach patterns or just my strange way of building sentences please let me know. I'll have about 15 chapters in all. If I need to start over I'd much prefer to do so now then a few months from now when I'm working a chapter in the double digits.

Well hopefully some of you out there will read this and let me know what you think. I also hope you like it.


Ragebound Souls - Chapter 1

Stranglethorn Dawn

"Joo got to be kiddin me! I ain't going no where with some bloody cow," Greymuck hissed.

Sergeant Crunuk's face flushed in anger. "Shut it, troll. General says he go with you. So he go with you," barked Crunuk. "You better not cause me no problems Muck. I about had it with you shit."

"Joo got plenty of problems already Pigface. Joo just too stupid ta see dem."

Crunuk's hatred for the hunter was barely held in check on the best of days. As Greymuck knew it would, his insults pushed the orc over the edge.

"I KILL YOU, YOU SCUM!" Crunuk bellowed, launching himself around the fire pit.

Greymuck shifted his balance to one leg, preparing to sweep Crunik's feet from under him, hopefully toppling the orc into the fire. He never had a change to make his move. Both adversaries halted immediately as a powerful voice thundered from behind the troll.

"ENOUGH!" roared General Gormug. Greymuck had noticed someone had tromped into the tent at his back. Not wanting to take his eyes from the frothing Sergeant, he had not glanced over his shoulder to check who it was. Had someone tried to slip up on his blindside he would have worried about it. As a huge green fist wrenched him off the ground, by his throat no less, the scarred troll realized he had erred. An assassin was far less dangerous than a General. The massive orc let Greymuck slowly choke as he dealt with Crunuk first. "You weak Sergeant. You let this meat get you every time. If you can't deal with Muck here, next time find one who can."

"Yes General," the shamefaced orc replied. "I dismissed?"

"No. Just stand there and shut you up. Now as for you. What wrong Muck? You looking bluer than usual."

The General's arm was solid as a rock, holding the troll off the dirt floor. Greymuck knew that if he stretched he could get his long toes to the ground and ease grip on his neck, but that would just piss the big bastard off. Greymuck was always good at reading the wind. Better to choke a bit than have the General beat him to a bloody pulp.

"must be de altitude…… air bit thin up here…… sir" he wheezed.

The General guffawed and tossed the aside the troll. "One these days, Greymuck, you mouth get you gutted."

"So joo say every time General," the troll croaked.

"Don't push it." the officer rebuked, all trace of humor gone once more. "Crunuk gave you me orders. You got real reason for arguin' with them? I don't count fact you just don't like no-one as real reason either."

"Dat I do General. How joo expect me ta sneak a message cross haf de land with a walking beef mountain on me tail."

"Bet you be surprised Muck. This Tauren might able to sneak better then you. Now you gonna give me more crap or you gonna go and do what I say?"

"Knowin' joo, more crap still won't get joo ta see sense. Ookey but when he fall behind, I ain't gonna be a'waiting for him."

"Don't you worry. He keep up with you."

Greymuck was never very good at hiding his feelings and even Gormug flinched slightly from the waves of rage pouring off the tattered hunter. "Den joo might as well strap me ta de whippin' pole cause I ain't goin' no where with no cursed shaman."

"One day you realize Muck, not everyone around you is total idiot. You kill last shaman you travel with. You think I put you with another?"

The troll's animate brow rose for a moment before a grin twisted his mouth up behind his tusks. "Dis may prove ta be interestin'. First time for ev'rthin eh General? Ookey I go get de bull."

The glaring with unmasked hatred, Crunuk watched the troll depart. "What he mean by that?"

"Sergeant, Greymuck be pain in ass but cannier pain in ass you not gonna meet. He already figure out who I send north with him."

The orc chewed that over for a moment frustrated he could not see how the cursed hunter would know the tauren's profession from that vague discussion. Giving up he asked the question he had long wanted answered. "So he smart but why you put with that dog? Everyone hate him. He bad for morale. He have no honor."

"Because one thing Greymuck better at than any in Horde I ever see. He survives. We cannot fail at this. To work I need meanest, subbornest wretch can get. The one who will not die."

"Fine General but when he get back, he die. Cause I kill him."

"That you choice Crunuk. But you make sure one thing if you do take him down. Cut his head off. If you don't, you best not sleep no more."

A few tents away a huge figure knelt on a woven rug. Most viewing him would think the Tauren was meditating but only one who knew his people well would notice the bestial cast of his features. Having shifted himself just enough to sharpen his senses Tohma Reddrum eavesdropped on the general with only a small touch of guilt. As much as he was loathed to spy on his allies, Tohma could tell there was much he was not being told about the mission he was to undertake. Orcs were not as easy to read as his own people. They were always so rash and volatile it was difficult to judge what was their normal passion and what was abnormal tension. Still Tohma could tell something was troubling the commanders. It was not just this enigmatic troll, Greymuck. He hoped that in the meeting to come his questions would be answered but the ancestor's wisdom told him such was not likely to be.

As for this hunter they were pairing him with, Tohma has his own reservations. "...Cut his head off..." kept running through his thoughts. What kind of brute did it take to make the mighty General Gormug nervous?

Then again what type of fiend would kill a holy shaman. As a druid the only ones Tohma truly felt akin with amongst the troll and orcs were the spiritual shamans. Unlike druids, they did not know the freedoms that come from shifting and physically becoming one with the natural world. Still the shamans had their own conduit to aspects of Earth Mother ythat even the druids could not surpass. Tohma always wondered what it would be like to hear the voice of the land and sky, to be able to reach out to the spirits of the ancestors and creatures of the wild. Though his gifts had marked him as druid, Tohma held a strong affection for those who walked the other hand of land's magic.

When Tohma was a small boy he had seen his grandfather die. The rocky cliff which the elder Hohamal Reddrum had been walking upon with his young grandson gave way. His grandfather hurled Tohma to safety before falling to his death. The youth had grown sick with grief and guilt, believing it was his fault his grandfather had been killed. It was the village shaman who called forth the spirit of Hohamal Reddrum. To this day Tohma still dreams of the night he spoke with his grandsire's spirit, how there was no blame only pride and love. Healed in mind and soul, thanks to arts of the shaman, the young man grew to become a powerful druid, but a few years away from day he would be awarded one of the great kodos to ride in service of the Earth Mother.

Tohma's musings were dispelled when a pair of footsteps stopped at the door of his tent.

"Heh Druid. Joo in dere?"

"Come in." replied Tohma hesitantly. With Greymuck's ominous reputation, Tohma was expecting something other a typical troll. Even so the tauren was by no means prepared for the lanky figure that stepped through the flap. Literally from head to toe Greymuck was covered in scars. Against the grey-blue skin, ash pale ridges formed webs on what flesh was visible along his arms and legs. His face was gouged from numerous encounters. One set, most likely claw marks, ran from forehead to chin, luckily spaced far enough apart to save both eyes. His neck was the worst. As hard as it was for Tohma to fathom, the grey scar patterns told the tale of not one but at least two different hangings as well a ragged stab wound. His nose must have been broken many times. Half of his left ear looked as though it had been bitten off.

Seeking something to stop him from gaping at the mangled visitor, Tohma hit upon a puzzling thought. The general had been right; somehow the troll had known he would be a druid?

"So are joo ready ta meet with de high mucky-mucks? Dey be awaiting for us."

"Of course. Let's go."

Smirking, the troll left the tent. Instead of heading straight to the general's tent, he detoured slightly towards a heavy iron cage. Usually these metal boxes where used to hold captured members of the Alliance. This one instead held the ugliest creature Tohma had ever seen. Not a wolf or coyote, but similar and incredibly savage. It snarled and lashed out at the bars holding it. Even though the cage was close to the center of the compound not one member of the Horde came within twenty feet of the cage. Greymuck on the other hand strode right up to it. Crouching down, he reached through the bars. The hyena snorted once as the troll scratched his neck then resumed growling at the orcs milling out of reach.

"Be few more minutes, boy. Joo be good."

The beast huffed once more and then lay down. "Sorry bout dat." Greymuck told Tohma. "If I dinna settle him down he mighta chewed his way out again." The tauren was about scoff at the joke when he saw how deeply the beast's jaws had scored the heavy metal bars. Whatever the Earth Mother had planned for him, She surely picked the most unusual of companions.