A Tale of Three Druids
Chapter 19: The Baring of Scars
Let's all give a hand to Groose for that last chapter, and give him some more reviews, he deserves 'em! About blew my mind when I read it.
As Resdlen loped over a boulder, he called back to the paladin, "So what's ya name? I'd raddah not be callin' 'Hey! Human whose name I do not know but I made an alliance wit anyways, I need some 'elp!'"
The man chuckled, and, scaling the boulder, replied "Doesn't exactly sound good, does it? Ah well, I'm Bolvar Fordragon, at your service."
The name rang a bell deep in Resdlen's memory, but since most of the names in his memory were people he had killed, or been tortured by, he chose to ignore it. He'd rather not have some pesky memory of this human slaughtering an innocent village ruin their alliance.
When the human slammed his hand on the final handhold, and heaved himself up, he surveyed the camp. Fires dotted the landscape, and many tents constructed of artificially produced material (not leather), clustered around them.
The paladin sighed. "Just like the Forge Camps all over again." He muttered.
"You and I must 'ave gone ta different Forge Camps." Resdlen remarked.
"Good hearing you have there!" the paladin exclaimed, marveling at how the troll heard the whispered phrase from at least seven meters away.
"Nope. I'm not mind-blind." He replied, and leapt into the air—off the boulder-slamming into the ground, a mushroom cloud of powdery snow marking his landing point.
"Who goes there?" A night elf cried, straining to see through the white powder.
"Me." Resdlen replied, stepping forward.
"We are the D.E.H.T.A, and we demand to know your name and intention here!" An Orc barked.
"Oh, you're druids? Me too. And I'm here to kill ya all." He stated calmly, and stepped forward, striking the spear out of the night elf's hand. Seizing it with his other hand, he crouched, and backed away, as the Orc struggled to draw his staff and the Night Elf gawked in amazement at the speed of the stranger. Stepping forward, and hurling the weapon with all his might, Resdlen flung the spear into the Orc, where it penetrated about halfway through, and then stopped. The Orc died with an expression of surprise on his face. The Night Elf reached for his dagger, but his reaction was too late. A golden hammer of Light struck him in the temple, and he collapsed, blood leaking from his mouth.
The troll chuckled. "What is Azeroth coming ta? A human and a troll hacking dere way into a tree huggah camp to save an Orc." Bolvar dropped from the boulder and clapped the druid on the shoulder.
"Azeroth is coming to one hell of a boom, mate."
After hundreds of gallons of blood, and at least nineteen small intestines, the two soldiers limped towards the prison, nursing dozens of small wounds apiece.
"All right, let's get the greenskin." Bolvar sighed.
"Oh he'll be fine, what we need ta be worrying about is Jack." Resdlen scolded him.
Kicking open the door to Jack's cage, he hefted the monkey onto his shoulders, and began strolling out. When the troll wasn't looking, Bolvar unlocked Oktago's cell, and hurried after the confident, mad, and altogether amazing troll.
When Resdlen arrived back at camp, he found Fliflax with his head in his hands, Nordelei pacing, muttering something, and Yeow sitting dejectedly next to what appeared to a dead body.
"Hallo! What are ya doin?" Resdlen asked cheerfully at first, but soon realized that they were altogether too far gone into depression to be cheered up. He sat on a log, and asked Nordelei "What 'appened, mate?"
The Death Knight spat on the ground and gestured at Yeow and Fliflax. "Ask them! Ask them why there's even more innocent blood on the ground! Ask them why a Death Knight, a lord of the Dark Arts, can't bear to be near them. Ask the traitors!" he screamed, gesticulating wildly at them. His long hair was disheveled, and his helm was lying discarded in the snow.
"Sit down, already," Resdlen said to Nordelei, and then, addressing Fliflax, asked "So. What did happen?"
The Tauren, slowly, and gruesomely related the story to Resdlen, frequently pausing to recollect himself. Even the troll looked shell-shocked after hearing this tale, but this band was soon to learn that it was for a far different reason.
He rose, and looked at Nordelei, and then Fliflax. "You fools." He spat, fury in his eyes, "Your sister, Fliflax, faced being shunned by her tribe, exiled from her home, rejection for the rest of her life, and this is how you repay her?" He whirled around to Nordelei and struck him full in the face. "If you were skinned and dying, and you knew it was over, you would never feel again, and then you woke, to find you had a new start, would you blame the one who saved you?" Turning again to Fliflax, he roared "Your sister faced a punishment almost as great as yours to give you a life, you craven fool! LIVE IT!" He rose and stormed away, disgust clear on his face.
Everyone looked amazed at this outburst of emotion and forgiveness, from a very unexpected front.
Nordelei rose and made to follow the troll, but Bolvar's heavy hand descended on his shoulder and gripped until the hardened warrior shifted with the pain.
"Let it go." He hissed in the Blood Elf's ear, and forced him into a seated position.
Fliflax shook his head, however. "No, Bolvar. If that's the one thing Resdlen has taught me, one must never let any precious moment of our lives go." With that, he bounded after the troll, determined to have words with him.
Super-amazing emotional chapter! Man, I almost couldn't write that, the image in my head was so powerful. I feel the need to thank my co-author Groose Almighty for thinking up this plot bunny, for I think that is the most emotional I have ever gotten in my writing, or for that matter, in any other form of expression. Even the finale of Alagaesia High (my first completed fic) wasn't this powerful. Dang, Resdlen is a character I just really love, I feel like he is what really gives this story its power, its emotion, but without all the others, I don't think that it would be the same. Thank you for reading, and reviews are appreciated.