Chapter 3: One Chance
The Alterac hold had seen better days, its gates permanently wedged open and various garbage and debris scattered around the immediate inside of the entrance. Anyone who could have looked from the inside of said entrance wouldn't have been able to compare the outside to it though: beyond the doors lay a solid wall of white. With as strong as the wind was howling, and how much snow was falling and consequently being blown through the open door, the immediate inside of the entrance of the Alterac hold would soon mirror the outside.
Zackel stumbled out of the blinding whiteout, barely able to pull the Draenei warrior along with him. He had no idea if she'd heard him over the shriek of the wind when he'd grabbed her and told her he was heading for shelter, but the fact he'd been able to actually guide her, rather then fight her on top of his confused sense of direction, the biting cold, and the considerable weight of the armor on the girl, indicated that she seemed to have listened to him somewhat. Blinking at finally having a vision radius of more than a centimeter, Zackel staggered into the inside of the keep and to the immediate side hallway to the left, finally getting out of the direct wind.
"Well that was an experience." Zackel said, wiping at his face for a moment before checking on the Draenei warrior. She'd managed to hold onto her axe in the escape, which was a good thing as far as Zackel was concerned: it looked expensive, at least. Unlike the mage, she was leaning against the wall with her free hand, looking down: apparently she was taking a longer time to get her bearings.
"Are you all ri-"
The Draenei answered two questions. One was whether she had her bearings. The other was whether she needed the axe. The answer to the two questions was yes, and no, as she whirled up, seized Zackel, and slammed him up against the wall with a bone-shuddering thud. Zackel wheezed air out of his lungs from the impact, air he could have used as the Draenei promptly seized him by the throat.
"What did you do out there?" The Draenei snapped in a low, dangerous tone.
"You can't…ah…"
"GIVE ME AN ANSWER." The Draenei said, and Zackel felt his feet leave the ground as she lifted him off it, one handed. The mage could swear he saw sparks literally shooting from the alien's glowing eyes, or maybe that was just the interesting colors that were starting to appear in his vision.
"Can't…breathe…" Zackel managed to get out.
The Draenei took her hand off Zackel's throat. Zackel came back down to earth, taking in a grateful gasp of air. He was about to say something, but didn't get the chance: no sooner had his feet fully settled back onto the ground then the Draenei had replaced it with the bladed point of one side of her axe.
"…actually I think the hand was better, can we go back to that?"
"You think you're clever." The Draenei said, and pushed the point in further. "I'm not amused."
Zackel swallowed, not liking the sensation when there was a point of hardened metal indented on his throat. The Draenei's eyes remained narrowed and pitiless.
"…please…just tried…to help…"
The Draenei held Zackel's gaze a second more before it grew more rational, the warrior withdrawing the axe point and stepping back. Zackel leaned against the wall, clutching his throat as he took slow, deep breaths.
"My apologies. Maybe I…"
Zackel yanked his staff up, a quick verbalization accompanying the blast of ice from it. A moment later the flat size of the Draenei's axe slammed against the side of Zackel's head, nearly knocking him silly as he fell to his knees.
"You DARE…?!" The Draenei yelled, before she heard the thud behind her and whirled around. The ogre, having taken a blast of pointed ice right to the knee to knock him to the ground, was easily dispatched by an axe blow to the head.
The Draenei looked at the corpse for a bit, before looking back at Zackel. He'd been firing at the ogre. She'd reacted on instinct, and nearly crushed the mage's skull for his aid.
Zackel, much to his surprise, had recovered from the swipe the Draenei had laid into him a lot quicker than he would have expected in the immediate seconds after getting smacked with it. Maybe she hadn't got her full strength behind the hit.
"…sorry." Zackel wheezed. "Saw shape…couldn't warn…throat…"
"…are you all right?" The Draenei said, heading over and helping Zackel up, the cold tone in her voice finally fading some.
"Think so…ow." Zackel said, touching his head. He was going to have one hell of a goose egg there if he didn't do something about it. "We need to…close the gate. More ogres could stumble over the entrance, and I'd rather not be driven into the building and have to fight who knows how many desperate, angry ogres. Even IF you seem to be very good at it."
"You're not wrong." The Draenei said, hefting her axe as she peered around.
"Controls should be nearby…provided they work…" Zackel said, looking around himself. The ogre's ability to light the abandoned fortress was less than optimal, but after a few minutes of looking around, the pair had managed to locate some switches in a nearby room. Said room was about as clean as the entrance, having long been plundered by the ogres who lived there. Worse, the switches refused to move.
"Ki'tor." The Draenei said, after several unsuccessful attempts to get the lever to work. "Jammed fast."
"Here let me try…something…" Zackel said, putting his staff aside as he reached into his cloaks. He took another minute to fish out a small bag of powder and a flask. Dumping the powder on the rusted switch, Zackel poured the contents of the flask onto it in turn and rubbed the combination into the contraption.
"Whu-ter."
A brief spark of energy flickered over the switch. Zackel tried to pull it. This time, it worked: the sound of the gate falling rang down the hallway in a dull echo. Zackel pulled a secondary switch and was rewarded with another, similar noise.
"Ah. Gnomish engineering and magical know-how. Sometimes I even amaze…myself…" Zackel said, turning around and trailing off as the Draenei warrior looked at him, wearing an expression, as best Zackel could tell, of annoyed boredom. "And you clearly don't care."
"You really are amazing." The draenei said, the sarcasm in her voice so thick it could have been used to seal cracks in stone.
"Right…okay." Zackel said, picking up his staff and heading down the hallway to check the door. The metal gate was closed, or that was what Zackel assumed, as another, wooden door had come down in front of it, from Zackel's perspective that is. Zackel checked the wood, finding it in surprisingly good condition.
"Okay, now the unpleasant part. We have to go through the fortress, get rid of any unwanted guests. I think most if not all of the clan had come out when you…came along to assist me, but there might be a straggler or three. Once we clear those out…"
"What are you talking about?" The Draenei said.
"Pardon?"
"You're a mage. Get us out of here."
"…pardo-?"
"USE A PORTAL YOU ADDLE-BRAINED PAPERSACK." The Draenei said. "And don't think you're being compensated for it either."
"…oh." Zackel said, his eyes slowly trailing upward at an angle as he lightly ground his teeth together. "Ah well, this is going to be embarrassing…"
"What?"
"I…don't have any Runes of Portals."
"…What?"
"I can't create a safe transport unless I have runes. Otherwise we're far more likely to end up…"
Zackel found himself being slammed against the wall again, or rather the wooden door he'd brought down across the entrance.
"YOU WANDERED OUT HERE WITHOUT ANY PORTAL RUNES?! ARE YOU A COMPLETE IDIOT?!" The Draenei warrior yelled.
"Can we not do this again?" Zackel squeaked. The Draenei let Zackel go, her glowing eyes smoldering with fury. "You're right, I'm an idiot. I'd likely be dead if it wasn't for you too. But that's just how the situation stands. We should try and make the best of it."
The Draenei glared for another moment, before she spun around and stalked off, axe at the ready. Zackel sighed to himself and followed.
"By the way, I'm Zackel Winter…"
"Don't care." The Draenei warrior said. "Don't get in my way, or I'll chop through you to get to the ogres. Fel, if I don't feel better in a few minutes, I might do that anyway, ogres or no ogres."
Zackel groaned to himself. This was going to be a fun experience, he could tell.
And it had seemed like such a good idea at the time.