Ganked V 2.0

Chapter 7 Emerald Among Diamonds

The ride to Frostwhisper Gorge came to a quick end. The close proximity with Everlook and the pace at which they rode guaranteed a swift arrival. As they approached the bridge that spanned the gorge, Sol stopped at the bridge's entrance and raised his right hand, signaling the rest to stop.

With discipline borne out of years of practice, they formed a line beside him. Guntag and Lucilin flanked him to his left and right. Bill waited beside Lucilin on the far right. Neiana followed their lead and took her place beside Guntag, to his left. Animosities were set aside, as survival trumped everything else.

The wind-chill was colder and fouler, clinging to their clothes and hair unnaturally. Although nearly noon, an overcast, violet sky let little light through. It was an unnatural overcast, not caused by the snow filled clouds that commonly passed through. Neither did it snow there, despite the ample supply that lay on the ground. There life stopped flowing in the stream of time, becoming stagnant and fetid with a decaying past.

Neiana shivered despite herself. There was something here that was hostile. It whispered threats and promises of dark things to come. Her horse pawed the ground nervously.

"Hush, Chesse," she whispered as she patted the horse's flank.

Lucilin gave her a look of contempt.

"Do you really think she knows what to do? She can't understand us. She won't be able to follow orders," she said.

"She's a seasoned adventurer, as we are. She will know what to do," Sol reassured her.

They pitched their horses adjacent to the end of the bridge before beginning their expedition. Each member took a single sack, empty save for a few provisions: food (generally bread, cheese, and fruit), drink (water in a canteen, maybe a little ale or wine), and first aid items. Guntag, the strongest of them, slung Sol's pick and shovel across his back. They were nearly ready.

"Guntag, try tracking the Giants. What do you see?" Sol asked when they were all prepared.

Guntag gave a brief synopsis. There were three giants by the end of the bridge; one was a Preserver. All three were quite formidable. Two of the three were standing in a group to the east, while the other giant was wandering around the area to the west.

After some deliberation, it was decided that the group would lure the strangler to them, kill him, and then they would kill others who were waiting at the end. Giants were stupid creatures. They knew from experience that the two on the other end would not notice a problem as long as the third did not actively alert them. Besides, even if it was the case, the bridge gave them a distinct advantage. The bottleneck created by three giants charging them at once would make the job of killing them that much easier.

Then, with a final glance around them, examining the area, he gave his command.

"Buffs everyone."

At first, everything went off as planted. The straggler was lured to them with one of Guntag's far-reaching bullets. As he charged with rage, Neiana, Guntag and Bill whittled away at his health with ranged attacks. By the time he reached them, too blinded by rage to notice his injuries, Sol, Lucilin's and GlubGlug's work was easier by half.

They soared with confidence at the early victory, but it was tempered by experience. Overconfidence took many lives in the wild. The giant was searched and nothing particular of interest was found.

They crossed the bridge part way and then Sol commanded Guntag to aim his fire at the smaller one to the left. Meanwhile, they would back up, hoping to make them charge at them one more time, using the bridge. But this did not happen, instead, the Giants seemed to have observed the way their comrade had died, and refused to follow the same course. They had no choice but to meet them in their own territory.

At first all seemed to go as planned, and one giant was felled while another was nearly spent, when a third, suddenly appeared from behind. Guntag had not spotted a giant that was hidden away behind a ridge. He was too distracted by the fight to sense it. So it managed to approach them without discovery. Simple mortal error and they were almost dead, as the giant raised a huge fist and crushed the Forsaken priest under his pressing weight. The undead man crumpled and lost consciousness. The blow thrust Neiana forward and she nearly lost her footing. Guntag too was unsettled. He called his Spider back and bade him attack the new mob that had appeared behind them.

It was at this time that Neiana earned their grudging respect, especially Guntag's, who was a fair-minded Orc. Besides honor, Guntag respected competence. Instead of screaming, or freezing in fear, as they cynically expected her to, she quickly regained her footing and began to help Guntag with the new beast using Firebolts and Blasts judiciously.

Sol could not look back and see what the commotion was about, as any distraction would cause his own death as a result of a well-aimed swipe. But experience had told him what had happened, besides, the support from the two magic users and the hunter was now gone. His chief worry was Bill, the priest. Lucilin finished the second, smaller giant, which gave her some freedom.

"What happened?" he asked as he dodged a large blow.

"The priest is gone! A third giant has appeared and now the girl and Guntag are fighting him."

"Poisson this guy, go help Guntag, and then have Neiana blast my Giant with the largest Firebolt spell she's got! We only have six minutes before he's gone!"

When Lucilin got there, she poked Neiana at the shoulder and pointed to Sol, who was still struggling with the Giant, who although near death was still formidable at twice his height and three times his weight. She got the message at once, her heart leapt at her throat and she watched the giant slowly press on him, grabbing the giant sword and pressing down, almost overtaking him.

She raised her hand and began to chant loudly, until the last words became a scream. Upon him, and falling all about them, rained down a torrent of magma and fire. It did not touch any of her party, for although they were enemies, she could mentally focus which enemies would become affected and which would not. The flames hissed and smoked as they touched the icy snow, melting it and forming puddles that would quickly freeze to ice.

Both giants screamed in agony. The one fighting Sol slumped forward, dead, his back still aflame, even as Sol was still struggling beneath him. The large beast became limp, and the creature's full weight threatened to crush the elf as he fell. But Sol was too quick and rolled away. The massive, burning, body crashed in to the snow. He proceeded to dislodge the sword from beneath the giant's felled body and rushed over to Bill's side. Just enough mana was left for him to resurrect Bill, the Priest, as quickly as he could. As soon as the spell was cast, and he saw the mangled body become whole again, being filled with golden light, he turned to the Giant and helped finish the fight.

Meanwhile, Neiana was too exhausted to cast any more spells. So she unsheathed her wand and did what she could. With the constant barrage of fangs, sword, dagger, gun, wand and spell, it didn't take long for the monster to finally come crashing to the ground.

It was only then that they gave themselves the luxury of rest. Neiana sat on the snow, and the others followed suit, except for Bill who felt rather refreshed after being resurrected, thank you very much. He rummaged through the corpses, gnawing on a few giant fingers while he scavenged for useful items.

A fire was built. They knew that the fight, although short, had taken a lot of energy and the work to come required them to be as recovered as possible. They all reached into their sacks and removed pieces of cheese, dried meat, and bred to refresh their bodies. Much to everyone's amusement, Sol sat beside Neiana. But the fire was small, and there were only four slots available for everyone to sit comfortably. It was Lucilin who caused it, by refusing to sit beside Neiana and leaving the spot beside her empty. Besides, Sol wanted to face Darkwhisper Gorge.

Over the ridge, they could see the dark expanse of the Gorge looming before them. It was a dark labyrinth of oozing slime pits and methane pools. Even from their vantage point, demons could be seen walking at irregular intervals, pacing their cherished ground.

"It would take months to properly explore that place," Lucilin observed. "That is if we don't get killed."

"Good thing we're only here for the Thorium and True Silver," Guntag observed.

Sol nodded.

"We'll try two veins tops. That should be enough anyway," he said.

Neiana could understand none of this, but she knew that they were talking business. So she began concentrating on lunch. She spread out a small towel on the snow with food, bread, jerky and some nuts. Now that the setting was more familiar, she had almost forgotten that these were not her friends. Out went the training she'd painfully received during her stay in Northshire concerning manners and decorum. She was hungry after such a big fight, so she simply went on devouring her lunch to heart's content. Nuts were stuffed into her mouth and barely chewed before swallowing. The bread was downed in three bites, followed by a large chug of ale. It wasn't until she got to the jerky (which she was tearing at with all the grace of a wolf) that she'd noticed that everyone was silent, staring at her with mix of horror and amusement.

The elves, in particular, were horrified. Lucilin slowly put down her food, having lost her appetite.

"Where did this girl grow up? With Kobolds?" she hissed.

"You must have been quite hungry. Would you like some more?" Sol said with amusement as he offered her a bit of his own food.

This shamed Neiana more than anything else. Turning a deep shade of crimson, she set down her food. Then, with as much grace as she could muster, she removed a kerchief from beneath one of her sleeves and began to wipe her mouth.

"I don't care where she grew up! I like a woman who enjoys her meal!" Guntag said heartily.

He followed it by a hearty laugh, which Sol joined. Neiana perceived that they were laughing with her, relaxed and grinned. She raised her glass, took a sip this time, and then laughed as well.

"Fire 'n smoke! Them Giants made me 'ungry!"

Bill too was there, now returned from the scavenge with a fist full of items.

"Is it me? Or did she just sound like a dwarf? But then again all Alliance sound the same," he said.

Sol glanced at her judiciously.

"No, Bill, you're right. She did sound like a dwarf. That's an odd accent..."

His eyes narrowed pensively for a second as they regarded her. She didn't notice, because she had buried her face in her cup, but then he turned his attention back to Bill.

"So what did you find?"

"OH! All sorts of things! You should see..."

Half an hour later, they were all packed and ready to go into the ominous land before them. Their expedition to Darkwhisper Gorge was actually less exciting than their trip through the bridge. Each demon spotted was killed off methodically, taking care not to alert any creatures nearby. Then, when a viable vein of Thorium was found, they stopped and set up shop. Now it was time for the unglamorous job of digging up metal, sorting through it, and separating the good stuff from the dirt.

Sol and Guntag removed their armor tops and began to alternately shovel and pick at the vein. Pieces of the ore were gathered on the floor and then sifted by Lucilin. Neiana helped by conjuring up spring water, which was used to wet the ore.

It was a very productive vein. Besides raw thorium, true silver and diamonds were found. The first time that Sol spotted a diamond, he removed it from the ore and showed it to Neiana. It was still just a rough looking stone, with little clue of how it would look after it was cut, but she knew what it was. She'd done this many times with Skinflint.

She smiled appreciatively and nodded, understanding his meaning. Sol turned and put it away in his jewelry box, before going back to his work.

At that moment, her earlier fears were erased and she wondered how it was that she could have misjudged them, thinking that they would betray her. Sure, Lucilin was cold, Guntag was gruff, and Bill was still creepy, but they were an elf, an orc, and a Forsaken, respectively. Of course their behavior would reflect their nature! And he had just shown her that he had every intention of keeping his end of the bargain.

The process of digging, picking, sifting, cleaning and gathering was repeated several times that day. Between each mineral vein, Bill and Neiana gathered up Darklotus they found along the way, dividing it up equally.

She became so comfortable with them, that she, along with everyone else, did not notice how quickly the time passed. By the time they finished up with their third vein, the sun was nearly set, although they could not see it in that dark, forsaken world. Guntag's stomach rumbled, signaling dinner time.

"I think it is almost time for the sunset," Guntag murmured. "Perhaps we should go back now that we are done with this vein. The path we carved to get here should still be clear."

The rest of the team readily agreed. Their tools were gathered, Sol and Guntag donned their armor and off they went. Everyone agreed the expedition had been successful, with enough ore and diamonds to sell for profit, and that was if none were used for crafting. He could craft several pendants, rings, and other items to more than make up for the pains. It wasn't just Sol who would benefit, but everyone else as well, as the team required a general fund for lodging, food, animal husbandry (including food, livery, and care), and general repairs.

So it was that they made it back to the entrance, only to find their coats still laying undisturbed at the campfire.

"It seems that the giants haven't bothered to climb up yet," Bill said.

"They are a lazy lot," Lucilin replied. "What do you expect?"

They passed by the campsite but decided not to stop. They were weary and they relished the idea of sleeping at the inn.

After crossing the bridge, Sol and the team began to pack up their stuff when Lucilin suddenly remembered something.

"Sol, I left my coat at the camp, could you get it for me?" she asked with annoyance.

"Why should I get it?" he snapped.

"Because this whole thing was your idea, that's why."

After a bit of banter, Sol finally agreed to go, if only to shut her up. Neiana was not paying attention to any of this, as she was trying to sling the pack of items up on her horse. The attempts were futile, as the bag proved too heavy for her to lift as opposed to hauling it on her back.

She was just about to ask for assistance when she felt something sticky cling around her knees. At the same time, the horse bolted with fear and an unseen hand stabbed her in the back. It was an expert hit, one meant to injure and not kill. Lucilin didn't want to do that quite yet. Neiana tried to cast, but all she said was garbled. As her body was consumed with by the sickly black light of a shadow bolt, her mind was able to register that she had been betrayed. She tried casting again and again, knowing full well that silence did not last forever.

All I have to do is blink and frost, blink and frost, she chanted in her head like a mantra.

She felt her eyes grow weary. Poison? The blade that Lucilin was holding was poisoned, and the effect was a dull fatigue that seeped all the way to the bones. The spider clawed at her legs, biting and chewing. Guntag hit her with only one bullet, to the shoulder, but it drained her mana in half. And on and on Lucilin sliced her, splitting at the skin but not landing a mortal blow, watching with glee as the woman suffered.

It was then that she felt her magical abilities return. Still holding the heavy bag, she spoke one word, "Blink!" and instantly she was transported away. But what could she do then? Her body was numb from the poison, loss of blood, and injuries. She could barely walk from the pain, and her flesh ached to the touch.

That is when she noticed that the bag she'd been holding was empty. It ripped open during transport and the items contained within were scattered about the snow. A trail of loot marked the path from the torn web to where she now staggered, trying not to fall. She glanced up and watched the Horde running at her with full speed. Guntag was ahead of the pack, riffle ready, about to overtake her.

At that moment, she could not think rationally. Instead of thinking of a way to kill them, or escape, which was now impossible, her mind went to an item that had fallen out of the bag and on to the snow. It was an item she carried with her everywhere.

"My pendant! My Malachite Pendant!" she cried.

She knelt and began to sift through the snow. It was a small item, so it probably would have been one of the last to fall. It didn't take long for her to find it. It glittered green in the white snow, like an emerald among diamonds. As she reached to grab for it, a black gloved hand picked it up. She looked up, after the hand, to find herself face-to-face with Sol. The other members of the party hung back in a semi-circle, giving them space but close enough to charge if necessary.

Why aren't they attacking? she thought.

Then she understood. It was Sol. He was the undisputed leader of the group. It was his money which largely financed the expedition, his judgment decided who would join the party, and now, they were leaving it up to him whether she would live or die.

He regarded her coldly before examining the pendant.

"What a ridiculous thing," he said in Orcish. "What a small ridiculous thing that you're so willing to give up your life for. I have made hundreds of these. I could make them in my sleep. What a foolish, ugly, pathetic woman you are. You and your vermin kind..."

The tone enough was enough for her to understand her fate. She would die, but she did not cry, or beg. Instead her mind was somewhere else. She was in Elwynn Forest, beside the clear blue river she knew so well. The Elf, with green eyes, who saw potential in her that no one else had, gave her something beautiful. She had never seen something so beautiful.

It's green! Like yer eyes it is!

That is when her eyes watered with tears. Not out of fear of death or a broken heart, but rather to mourn her loss of innocence. She realized then that her dream of seeing Autumn once again was gone. If she did see him again, he would be an enemy. Even if he were good, unlike Sol who stood before her, it wouldn't matter.

A wave of righteous indignation hit her. How dare he touch it! How dare he soil what was so precious to her with his dirty, filthy, traitorous hands. Still weak with poison, her arm shook as she lifted it, palm open.

"My pendant, give me back my pendant!" she demanded between clenched teeth.

He sneered at her.

"Ya dun deserve it ya blood 'lf snake!" she screamed with furry.

Sol flung it to the ground beside her before casting Judgement. A searing white light blinded her for an instant, and then, oblivion.