I did some deliberating and decided that this story would work better as a series of vignettes, showing different snapshots of pivotal points in Jazax's life. They will be roughly broken down into three main eras: his experiences during the Second War, the chronicle of his relationship with the woman he married, and his eventual decision to become a priest. I will try to clarify whenever there's a time skip in the notes. At present, this is during Year 5 still.
"Yo, should we be this far from the camp?" Mal looked over at her shoulder nervously, "I mean, I ain't scared or nothin' but-"
"You worry too much, Mal," Zeek shrugged, leaning down to scoop up a few bottles of ice cold lake water, "Besides, you want us to test this thing in the middle of the camp? What if it blows up, huh?"
"Pretty sure the orcs would be mad about that," Jazax added, focusing more on gently taking the device out of his backpack.
It was a beautiful thing to behold, really. They'd nicknamed it the Big Mama and even taken the time to make a custom bright red shell, adding one last minute sloppy skull painted to the side. The Big Mama had as much force as a whole batch of dynamite, at least two or three crates full. And of the good stuff, not that weak 'safety regulated' stuff they were forced to use for their work. Running his hands over the side of the missle, Jazax couldn't help but grin when he considered the sheer amount of explosive power he held. Seeing the bomb, Mal took a nervous step back.
"That ain't gonna do nothin' to save ya, if this baby goes off prematurely," Jazax said without looking up at her, "This thing's got enough blast to make one big crater outta this whole lake."
"That's why we need the water," Zeek explained, "Gotta keep the explosion temperature controlled. Don't want it burnin' up before it's done the job."
"This thing works out, we can blast a hole straight through that whole mountain," Jazax grinned, pausing to point up to the Ironforge Mountains, "Then we can finally get outta this stupid place."
"Yeah, the altitude really messin' with me," Zeek added, "Plus I hate the cold."
"It definitely ain't pleasant to fly through," Mal agreed, crossing her arms, "Specially with all those snowstorms. Honestly, I dunno how those dwarves live in a place like this."
"Don't forget the gnomes! The oh-so-precious gnomes!" Zeek said as he passed Jazax the water, "Stupid gnomes think they're so smart, but they won't be laughin' when we bring that stupid mountain down on their stupid heads!"
"Oh, hey, you guys hear the rumor?" Mal asked, looking between the other two.
"I don't really care about rumors," Jazax said bluntly before turning his full attention to adding water to the specified cooling ports of the missile's body.
"Well, I heard that the humans are in talks with the elves. Y'know, the high elves? They might be joinin' the war."
"Elves, huh?" Zeek perked an eyebrow, "I never liked elves. Too uppity."
"You don't like anybody, do you, Rapidsnap?" Jazax paused to look up at him.
"And what's that s'posta mean?"
"Just seems like you got a problem with everybody who ain't a goblin."
"And what of it, huh?" Zeek crossed his arms defensively, "Everybody's always lookin' down on us goblins, so why don't we look down on them for a change?"
Jazax sighed, shaking his head and turning back to focus on the bomb. But Zeek clearly wasn't satisfied to end it at that, and so he kept on talking.
"I mean, what's it to you anyway?" He shrugged, "Maybe you got the problem, eh?"
Jazax just rolled his eyes, shutting the cooling ports once they were filled. He'd never understand that kind of mentality. Sure, sure, goblins were great. But he'd be the first to admit there were some pretty blatant drawbacks to being a goblin. The height thing-or rather, lack thereof-wasn't really that great to deal with. And the whole effectual slave to the Trade Prince thing. Nevermind the actual slaves, too. But the worst part was definitely the competition. No matter the situation, everything always had to be a competition. If there were two goblins in the same room, they'd definitely be fighting to be the most so-and-so. It didn't really matter what. The way he saw it, goblins already had enough competition amongst each other, why bring other races into that mix? It was easier to just live and let live.
"Look, are we gonna fire this thing or what?" Jazax finally responded, stepping away from the missile, "I ain't out here freezin' my tail off just so we can chit chat about elves or whatever."
"Yeah, yeah," Zeek waved a hand dismissively, crouching down beside the missile, "Just gimme a sec to get this baby primed…"
Jazax rubbed his hands together, half from excitement and half to rub away the cold. Then he turned to Mal with a grin.
"You ready to see what the Big Mama can do?" He asked, before noticing Mal was busy squinting at something off in the distance.
"What's that?" She said after a moment, bringing her hand over her eyes, "Looks like there's somebody walkin' around over there."
"Who would be out in the middle of a snowstorm, eh?" Jazax shrugged, before pausing, "I mean, except us."
"You're prolly just seein' things, Mal," Zeek looked up from the missile, "We pushed the dwarves back to the mountain, remember? The gnomes, too. There ain't no way anybody's out here 'cept us."
"Yeah, maybe," Mal frowned, "Still, it looks like they've got a fire going, too."
"Huh? A what now?" Jazax furrowed his brow, looking over through the snow to where Mal had been looking.
"Look, you can see the smoke and everything," She shrugged, pointing.
Sure enough, the dark grey smoke was visible even through the snow, albeit faintly. It didn't look like the smoke of a campfire, though. It was much denser, like that of a chimney or something. Frowning, Jazax reached over and slapped Zeek on the shoulder.
"Hey, she's right. Somethin' fishy's goin' on over there," He said quietly, as though afraid the wind would carry his voice over, "We should go check it out."
"Us?" Zeek perked an eyebrow, "We're just sappers, Jaz. What're we gonna do?"
"Well…" Jazax tried not to grin, "We could bring the Big Mama, give it some live testing..."
At his words, Zeek's expression lit up, and his mouth formed a crooked smile. The temptation to test out the Big Mama on some humans was clearly too tempting to pass up.
"Oh no no no," Mal crossed her arms, "You guys are crazy. I don't want anythin' to do with this."
"Then why don't you just head back to camp if you're so scared," Zeek shrugged.
Mal frowned, his blatant dismissal clearly breaking her little black heart. At least, it was clear to Jazax. Zeek didn't seem to notice, or maybe just didn't care. Either way, Mal hugged her arms a little tighter.
"Whatever! Go blow yourselves up, stupid sappers!" She snapped, turning on her heel and marching away from them.
"Pfft, women," Zeek snorted, "Always with the theatrics. Can't stand 'em when they're like that….which is all the time, am I right? Ha!"
Jazax just looked over at Zeek flatly.
"Is there anybody you don't got somethin' to complain about?" He asked with an exasperated sigh, to which Zeek just shrugged.