Bruna’s flight to the south had been far slower than it would have been to his liking. Yet he knew that Watcher Ur’Gak was right when he said “If they catch us, beast, no one will save your daughter.”

A wyvern could have reached the pines, even the Savannah behind it, in mere days, yet they took their time. Fast enough that they would catch up with them, even if they were running further and further down, yet careful enough to not gather the pine’s eyes.

Most of their time wasn’t even spent flying, but strawling the pines while their wyverns tried to find his family's scent. A few old pelts and clothes that had remained in their tent when the girls fled, were the only lead the wyverns had. It was not much, yet it had to be enough. Usually they split over the day, circling different parts of the pines until they met back at camp when dusk was falling. Everyday Ur’Gak was back before Bruna, and every single day the beast felt the urge to punch the laziness out of him. He was the Watcher, a title he carried himself before his exile, yet here he was preparing fire and food when a daughter of the clan was missing in the pines. The land of the enemy, where there was no victory.

The only thing that stopped Bruna the beast from Ur’Gak the Watcher’s throat was that he knew, even a lazy aid meant more hope to find her alive. In the few moments where his mind was clear he was even grateful that the Watcher had prepared camp and food. It meant more time for himself to search further. Yet those moments were few, for the more days had passed the more he feared for her life. It had already been so long since he went away to search for the scroll, so now that he could finally search for her the chances were slim and he knew that he would have told everybody else that there wasn’t much hope. There weren’t many things he was afraid of anymore, yet that thought was among them.

The Wyvern he had gotten from Gor’Mash was just as old as her usual rider. It said a lot that not only did Gor’Mash manage to become this old as one of Karn’Arak’s best, not only did he carry his Wyvern all the way from his first ride, but also that he would just hand it away. Even if it only was for a few weeks. Most riders would see even a mention of a ride on their beast as a challenge. They would fear that their Wyvern would look at the new rider as their new master, yet the old warrior did not and it was clear why. No one, neither beast nor Orc, would ever doubt that he was the master of this old dark red beast and no one would ever dare to challenge him. He was only slightly younger than Bruna’s father would be now and had trained generations of riders. Bruna’Gash, Aru’Gal and Ur’Gak were all trained by the old Warrior and it was the biggest honour for Bruna that he was allowed to ride his Wyvern to find his daughter. The last of Ara’Gash’s bloodline.

Yet none of it changed how desperate his search had become over the days. Parts of his mind already saw the terror of never finding her or even her body, but to live and die without ever knowing her fate. He would not allow that to happen. He would search the south until his end if he had to and he would find her no matter the cost. “Mara”. He thought. She would be the cost. The small thing that was his sister, the tiny lump he had carried up the mountain with pride when she was just born, and he was merely a boy. The girl that had to become a mother for his daughter when her actual mother died by winter's hand. And the woman that stole her from him.

It became harder for Bruna to contain his anger, to not destroy beast or tree in his wake. Yet he knew, his mind had to be sharp. Not only for the dangers of the pines but also for whatever Ur’gak was planning. The watcher was the kind of Orc that thought himself smart, when he only lacked muscle to compensate for his simple mind. “If he would embrace it, he could be strong.” Bruna had thought, yet the watcher seemed to think differently. He was afraid, Bruna knew that, and he had a fair reason for it. They both knew he carried a title that not only was Bruna’s before, but that their Khan would wish for him to carry again. One evening to Bruna’s surprise he actually spoke aloud what they both were asking.

“Will you become Watcher again when we are back?” he poked the campfire with a stick yet glared over it to Bruna.

“You think there is room for thoughts like that right now?” His dark voice bellowed back loud enough that their two wyverns around the camp looked up.

“No..” Ur’gak mumbled back and escaped the beasts gaze again “But you still know the answer don’t you?” Slowly his glare returned while a hint of a threat laid deep and hidden in his voice.

Instead of bellowing or returning the threat, Bruna sighed and shook his head. “I have given what I can to Karn’Arak..” His voice sounded unusually soft “I have to grant the rest to my family..”

Ur’gak seemed surprised and took a moment to gather a question “Are there any more of them left?” A question that now surprised the beast. Most in the clan knew his family's history, even aside from his father. Yet here, the supposed Watcher, did not.

“No…” he returned deeply “Her mother died a few Winters ago..” his mind went to his sister for a moment before he continued a little lower “There won’t be anyone else left…”

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A moment of silence followed. The wyverns eased again and nothing but the campfires crackling remained for a while. It was broken again by Ur’Gak “Who was her mother?”

A question that was rather hard to answer for Bruna. He struggled for words, not even sure why. “She..was a girl from the last Edge..” he nodded a few times “The fishers from the boiling Sea.” Another moment of silence followed, this time Broken by Bruna “She never much liked the Valley. Far too cold, she said…” The hint of a smile was born on his face as he looked up at the sky were a dimming Moon shaped the night “We got to know each other through my Daal’Gavek..” the hint now became a full on smile “I was foolish enough to seek the Wyverns Isle in the boiling sea, and after I was done, and had the right to become a man, she was foolish enough to be my partner.”

Ur’Gak blew air from his nose with a big grand smile, amused by the beast's soft demeanour. Yet Bruna didn’t notice and continued “Kara then just..well..happened..” He had to laugh at himself before he looked back at Ur’gak and hardened his face again a little. “And then she died when Kara could barely walk.”

“To bare a child with your first love rarely works out” Ur’gak said with a smile that made Bruna question if he was just an Idiot or if he tried to provoke him now.

Still he growled back “I know..”

Either Ur’gak realised his mistake, or that a fight would have meant death, but he stopped his smile and quickly asked further “You think she would have been there for a lifetime?”

Bruna sighed “That I do not know…” he said as his eyes wandered into the flames “But I would have loved to try..”

After that another silence took hold and this time neither Orc disrupted it. Yet the memories of his love remained into the night and carried him to sleep. He tried to remember the good times they shared, something to ease his mind, yet Kara always dragged him back. And with her the memory of the winter that took her mother away.

It had been the darkest of winters, yet there was never a time when Bruna was closer to his family, to those two girls that shared his Bloodline. The only orcs remaining that did.

He remembered how he and little Kara sat in that dark tent. The body of her mother, his love, bared in front of them. Decorated with runes that were meant to burn with her as soon as they would bring her to the field of the dead. Covered in the most beautiful pelts their family still had, that were meant to warm her cold lifeless body until it would be ash. Her hands lay atop each other on her stomach, where no air remained.

He tried to be strong as his daughter's tears ran down. She was too young to understand that her mother would never wake up again, yet dragged into that realisation. Now she was drowning in that reality. Her tears and cries never ending, her body shaking from the shock. He laid his arm around her shoulder, trying to hold her near, trying to be the mountain she needed, yet soon his own rivers started to flow. He tried to hide it, tried to be what he thought he had to. After all he never saw his own father cry, too bloodied were his eyes when he did. But now he could not help himself. It was all weighing him down and the weight was pressing out the tears in force. The death of a woman he loved, his absence when it happened and the fact that even now he could not be there and carry his daughter's tears. It all ran down slowly making him shake just like little Kara. He remembered the shame he felt when she looked up at him crying, yet how his heart was warmed so greatly when she kneeled up to hug him. All he could do was to embrace her and hold her close. Both their tears ran down as they did nothing more but to shake and cry in silence until the moment came when she was meant to burn.

Mara was already a shaman apprentice by that point, and she stood watch in front of that tent. Being left alone in the cold as she struggled with her own tears. None of them were flowing down, yet she had to fight them while dusk was settling. It was tradition that a shaman was protecting the tent where the dead were laid bare. Yet Bruna wished she could be inside with them. He had carried her like a daughter more than a sister, and he knew she was left alone. A whisper was heard outside, one carried by still seeing Elder Cra’Gal. Shortly after Mara stepped into the tent as slowly and carefully as her trembling bodied allowed her to. Bruna looked up as she entered and then waved an arm to join the two without a word. “Thank you..” she whispered as she sat with the two. It took a moment where all three of them simply looked at the dead body before she had gathered the bravery to take a hand from each of them. Not much, yet Bruna was in awe how strong she had become. He answered by holding her hand while little Kara moved in to cry at her shoulder. Mara had closed her eyes and whispered the little prayer she had learned by now. She sobbed as she did, and after she felt that the ancestors allowed her, her own tears silently ran down as well.

Later that evening, once night had fallen, they burned the woman before them at the field of the dead. They placed a small dolmen as a memory to her and watched how the wind gathered her ash to the last battle at the grey wastes, while the shamans sang her final song. It was the first song Mara had to sing as part of the shamans and Bruna knew it would remain part of her forever.

It was after that day, when Bruna had told his sister that she had to watch for little Kara now, for his Khan still had need for him. “You have to make sure she is safe, Mara.” He said to her, ready to fly off again. She nodded boldly and with determination in her eyes. “I know..” she said and suddenly sounded more like a woman than a girl as the weight of her new role forced itself into her mind. Never was it harder to leave the mountain and never should it be again. Yet Aru’Gal was young for a Khan, and he needed all the aid Bruna could give him. “Only a few years.” he thought back then. “Then I shall remain with you two.” Those years went by and the mine collapsed. Caused by his sister, so he was told, and done in disobedience to the very Khan he had given everything to. Now she had taken it all away. His pride, his honour, his name, his daughter. And she would be the one to pay for it all. Her life for a future with Kara. That was the price he was willing to pay. Here in the land of the enemy, where there was no victory.