Getting pulled out from his slumber by an irritating presence nearby, Thurrock cursed his old battle instincts, that refused to let him ignore any presences nearby even after all those years.
Reaching for the half empty bottle of booze next to him, Thurrock felt his vision swimming and with a little too much force and to little finesse, the bottle shattered, and the life saving content got lost over the ground together with an explosion of glass.
Thinking whether he should try to save some of the valuable liquid, Thurrock conceded that even he was too prideful for that. Turning his attention back to the intruders, he instead tried to focus and make out the forms as an all too familiar furry started to rise.
He needed more booze, or he would squash these intruding orcs as he had squashed innumerable of them on the battlefield before. He would …
Wait, orcs? There were no orcs, looking at him from a tunnel opening next to him a laughable small green toddling creature together with a fine bestial creature were trying to decide what to do with the situation.
Feeling the rage give way to curiosity at least temporarily, Thurrock decided to find out what these two had to do here. Trying to push himself up, Thurrock felt a headache starting to introduce itself. These two better have another bottle of booze for him!
Coming awake more and more, Thurrock managed to stand up with only little problems. Feeling the great scar over his right hip light up with spiking pain, Thurrock smashed his fist into the wall with an angry grunt.
Looking over at the newcomers, Thurrock was surprised when even the Gremlin didn’t move away even after his eruption. They had courage! Since his retirement from the battlement people had forgotten more and more who he was, but that didn’t mean he didn’t cut an imposing picture anymore.
Even his low and unimpressive gate nowadays couldn’t hide his above average size and weight even among his brethren while his scars usually managed to scare away any smaller races on sight.
Pushing himself off from the wall, Thurrock slowly started to walk towards the two. Feeling the air firmly from a low growl from the beast, he instinctually gave back a growl of his own that symbolized his greeting. Seeing the beast leaning its head to the side in surprise, Thurrock nearly laughed as his vision drifted back to the Gremlin. The diminutive thing was actually getting into a position to fight now and by the look of it wouldn’t be its first one.
Being more than willing to look at what the little shit had to give, Thurrock got disappointed as the beast held its partner back and communicated something. Well, not matter. The beast was much more interesting anyway.
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Looking up at the looming face of the orc above them, Puck had to gulp. Even though seemingly drunken the orc before them seemed like an enemy far above their caliber. Being decorated by both small and big gaping scars all over, Puck was especially impressed by the big crack leading through the middle of the orc’s inborn bone plate on his breast.
Having gotten the signal from Taron that the orc seemed rough and unfriendly, but not violent to him, Puck decided to trust his judgment. With a small jump Taron suddenly jumped forward towards the orc and Puck was ready to join him in a fight in moment’s notice as his friend stood up on his hind legs, his maw ripped wide open and his snake heads spreading out in an imposing corona.
What was he doing!? The orc would… But the orc did nothing to initiate a fight, instead a rumble that Puck could make out as a laugh emerged from his chest. Then in a slow and deliberate motion where he swayed only very little the orc went down to a knee as his great body went down to pet Taron on his many snake heads.
Puck could only gape. The other orcs till now had seen Taron as someone to be respected or at least someone they wouldn’t move against, but this one seemed different. The respect was there, but it didn’t seem to be based on fear or anything else, it was pure and unadorned. Valuing Taron simply for what he was.
Slowly taking a step forward himself, Puck got shocked as the orc moved with a speed that seemed impossible with an as great and heavy body as his. In an instant the orc loomed above Puck, shocking both him and Taron to the bones.
Screeching out in surprise, it seemed as if Taron wanted to go to battle instantly, but the orc simply took a few careful steps back again. Raising his arms, he seemed out of phase his head just now catching up to his own actions. That look on his face though, … now Puck felt the fear creep in that should have been there rightfully already much earlier.
For but a moment the face of the orc had resembled a mask of hate and anger unlike anything Puck had seen before. Only one thing had been close before, the heart of darkness itself…
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Looking upon the rising sun, shining on his empire below, Kartorok gnashed his teeth in both frustration and elation. The preparations were going to slow, but the war would soon be there no matter what. He couldn’t wait!
Turning around and away from the imposing image of the thousands upon thousands of war forges that worked day and night, Kartorok instead turned to his advisors waiting behind him.
Stepping towards Bartock, he felt the great orc chieftain shiver under his attention. Enjoying the situation, Kartorok took his time as he threatened his fifth advisor to make him get along with the preparations faster. Just to make his point real he also ordered him to execute his own grandson for his lacking performance till now. The great chieftain didn’t even think about standing up against his emperor, what a waste…
Turning away from his second advisor, Kartorok instead turned to his first and foremost. Eldur, the one and only orc, he had ever truly trusted to do things as they should be done.
“There is no option anymore, we need him back! Send out scouts and scour every corner of the Empire for him. For the coming war we will need the legendary berserker; we need Thurrock the mad!”