Sha’Raph always wondered how the Frostsong could live in such a cold place. But there were few nights where it felt colder than this. She saw the distant fires around the mine and wondered why they were still working there. Then she saw a pyre down at the valley of dolmen and felt sorrow for the unknown. The lands of her clan would welcome the rising ash, and one day a seer would draw the dead's story into a dolmen. Without even knowing who it was.

She landed Dustfang on the riders grand cave entrance and leaned down to whisper. “Soon my friend. Soon you can rest.” The grand Wasteland Wyvern had been up for days now. Ever since they had arrived in the Bladelands. Either fighting or dashing through the winds. She could trust him to know the way, so she got some sleep on their way to the Frostsong. Even though a grand Wyvern like him could stay up for much longer than an Orc, she could feel that he was tired and felt guilty when she felt the same, despite her sleep.

Around them some Riders stared up to her, while some Wyverns screeched and roared at Dustfang. Yet he remained silent, both because he was tired and because they were all so small compared to him anyway. Sha’Raph did it similar to him and just remained seated, patting a big scale of his while whispering in the oldest tongue.

After a while the riders straightened and Aru’Gal arrived. His face seemed tired. Hardened and even in the darkness of the Cave and through the hidden view of her Mask, Sha’Raph could see her friend carrying a mix of fury and sadness in his eyes.

He straightened his back and pressed his fist against his chest “Shak Aruk, my rider.” He said as proud as he could still manage.

The gathered rider’s eyes rested on Sha’Raph when she wasn’t returning his greeting. “We need to talk.” She stated with a cold breath, muffled from beneath her mask.

He huffed and glared around the riders. For a moment Sha’Raph regretted her words but before she could add anything he spoke. “Then come down, watcher of the wastes. Greet your Khan properly and tell of Wastes and shores.”

She knew him enough to know the act, yet not why he was so desperate to keep it. Not able to do anything more, she answered plain and simple. “I will.” His glare turned into a squint. “My Khan..” she added with a slight hint of a bow. “But not here.”

He raised a brow, his face turning to honest worry while she continued. “My words will not be hushed as whisper nor are they meant to echo through this mountain.”

The gathered riders shared looks with each other and some looked back to their Khan. He was about to speak yet was cut off by Sha’Raph one last time. “Aru’Gal..” she pleaded “Please..”. There was honesty in her voice, an honest bagging. Despite of what she had learned, despite of him carrying the mantle of Khan, she still remembered their time together as riders over the distant cliffs of the Savannah.

He caught her voice and his eyes turned from the glare of a Khan to those of a concerned friend, if only for a second. Then he looked down and breathed in. After a moment he looked back up with a cheap grin “Well if she wants me that badly..” He played off a laughter that was echoed by some of the gathered riders. Sha’Raph ignored his words for she knew they were an act not meant for her.

Slowly he approached Dustfang, petted his horn and then started to climb the big beast. Once he was high enough she reached down to give him a hand. Their eyes met, yet only she could see his, while her own remained hidden by her mask.

“Wish me luck boys!” he yelled as he settled behind her and more dirty laughter was the answer. Again she remained silent and simply whispered Dustfang to fly once more. He huffed tired but moved to the platforms edge. Once there he let himself fall down before he spread his wings and made them fly towards the distant range of the west. Where the land of Frostsong were cut from the rest of the north.

A moment of silence was granted to them as they flew through the cold and clear night.

He broke the silence with a whisper behind her. “Sorry…”. He sounded distant.

“I know.” she answered just as plain, yet with a hint of warmth in her voice.

He sighed. “There were few days when I hated this old piece of leather more than the last two..” he tugged on his dragon scale cloak.

Without looking back at him she knew what he was talking about, yet struggled to find words of comfort. She heard him breath louder and heavier which made her finally turn to him. There she saw him, not the Khan but her friend looking down in tears, finally away from the rest of his riders and his clan. One mask that had slipped.

“I don’t know if I can do it..I..” he tried to breathe again and wash the tears away when she grabbed his hand. Her eyes caught his, yet he could only look at her mask.

“Tell me.” she demanded plainly, her warmth far more in her heart than her voice and she hated herself for that.

He shook his head and stared down to the dolmen below them for a while. “I killed him..” he said almost more to himself than her. It took but a moment in his own thoughts that deformed his face into a wicked smile. “I killed him.” he repeated.

Not catching her eyes he looked back at her. His smile had vanished again, hidden by his own kind of mask yet his eyes were pleading for any sign of emotions on her hidden face. She didn’t find any words and he huffed rather distantly as he looked away once more. “I cannot allow regrets anymore..” He shocked his head and Sha’Raph’s hidden eyes swelled as she still couldn’t find any words. She looked away herself and turned to take Dustfangs reigns once more. They stayed silent until they landed on a snow filled plateau that belonged to the western mountains.

Quickly she climbed down and offered him a hand as he did so himself. She was one of the few, if not only people, where he would accept it.

The plateau was rather empty as they were quite high. Their horizon was painted by the moon and drew a picture of the entirety of the Frostsong lands. From the last edge at the boiling sea in the north east, over the hollowed mountain and the valley of Dolmen before it, and down over the mine and the valley until it reached the distant pines. The moon stood high once more and their shadows were casted over a long way.

Dustfang laid himself down, ready to rest, even if it should only be for very short.

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Aru’gal took a few crunching steps on the snow before he turned to face her. He sniffed, his mind clearly still tugged inside his damaged heart. “Now then…” he said as if to mark the shift to duty “What did you find watcher?”

She looked at him with sorrow. Instead of saying a word she just stepped closer and grabbed his hand again. “Don’t be a Khan yet…” she pleaded and for once her voice carried her heart.

His eyes echoed her words and closed. With a heavy breath he closed his gloved hand around hers and slowly looked at her hidden frame once more. It gave him strength. For once in these last days he wasn’t alone and for once he wanted to tell everything. “My father…” he said, now without tears but a brewing fury in his eyes. “I killed him.”

Her hidden eyes widened before she spoke “He was the Seer…”

Aru’Gal nodded as his face turned colder with every word he spoke. “He was.” A cold breeze carried white dust of snow to their moonlit bodies. “He was also a traitor..the one who collapsed the mine and the one who blamed his own apprentice for it.”

She could feel how he squeezed her hand stronger with every part of the truth, but she could withstand it. She would endure.

“Then his death was just.” she stated, her words making a cloud in front of her mask.

“It was…” he nodded, needing to believe her words. “A son killing his own father..” a bitter smile formed on his face as he looked up at the bright moon. “A story as old as the mountain. Yet here I am..the Khan. The one who should symbolize us all, and I shed tears over that traitor..”

“Because you are a good man..” she whispered and squeezed his hand.

He shook his head. “Am I, Sha’Raph?” His eyes were bitter. “Am I?”

Words came to her mind to his question. She wanted to say something about the man that ventured the cliffs with her, yet the truth she learned in the bladelands crushed that thought. There was no point in lying. Not even for comfort.

She sighed and looked down. Their bodies close, yet surrounded by cold obsidian. “I know what you will do.” she slowly said and looked back at him.

He moved slightly backwards “What do you mean?”

“The scroll..” she said and brought a hint of fire to his eyes. “The Bladelands..they learned what it may do. Their watcher did. And they told me.”

His eyes hardened and he released himself from her hand. He took a few steps backwards. For a moment nothing but the wind and their long moonlight shadows stood between them. Then with a face full of determination and sorrow he drew the big Obsidian sword from his back. It was crudely crafted. Almost more like a black stone on a stick, yet runes were carved into its centre. One for each of the elements and next to them one for the three northern clans and the riders of Karn’Arak.

She watched him closely. Instinct would have told her to have her hand ready at her own axes as well but she did not. “Just tell me why..” she pleaded. “Make me understand..”

His eyes told of mistrust, maybe even a hint of panic, yet his body eased up all so slightly while his hands remained a tight grip on his sword. “You can feel the night, can you not?”

She had felt the cold since she arrived at the Frostsong skies. Before she could answer he just continued. “The Dragon is dying.” words that made her nervous while he lowered his sword “Not only will our lands freeze…from the boiling sea to the fires of Karn’Arak..but our enemies will know it.”

Heavy breaths formed cold clouds before her mask “They already do…”

“What do you mean?” he demanded to know.

She looked at him and the boy from the cliffs was gone, only the threatening presence of the Khan remained. “The Ogres..” she answered “And their sorceress. They attacked the Bladelands”

He sighed in anger and looked up at the moon again “of course they did..”.

He planted his sword next to him, then she continued “They want to conquer a path to you and take the scroll back.”

His eyes shifted back to her before they went to thoughts “Then she knows it..”

Sha’Raph hated the darkness in his voice and couldn’t help but follow her instinct now. With a hand on her weapon she asked. “What do you mean?”

His eyes pierced into her mask to catch hers. Even though he couldn’t see them, he knew that she would feel his stare. “You said you know what the scroll will do?..”

She slowly nodded.

“Then you know what price there is to pay…”

Again she nodded, yet now with an added whisper “And I cannot believe you are willing to pay it…”

A bitter chuckle escaped him “Neither am I..” he said before it took him some cold moonlight air to speak again. “But if the Sorceress is making her move, it means she will if I do not.”

“You will sacrifice them all..” she said in disbelief and carefully took a crunching step towards him.

“And what else can we do?!” he screamed back. “What else than to pay the price worthy of a new age?!”

“Fighting!” She yelled back. “Winning!”

“Don’t act like the fools down there, you are smarter than that!” he exclaimed and he was right. He took his sword and pointed it towards her. It was hard to hold with one hand and no true strike could be made like this, yet the message was clear. “Don’t betray me too Sha’Raph…” He pleaded. “Not you of all Orcs.”

Sha’Raph took a deep breath. She was glad that Dustfang was asleep, otherwise he might have acted on Aru’Gals gesture. A cloud was born from a cold sigh below her mask as she looked up at the moon herself for a second.

His head shifted as her answer took a while to form, then she looked back to him.

“She needs to die first.” She said, her voice as cold as the night.

A bitter smile was born by her words and with a sigh of relief he brought the sword down again. Yet he shook his head “Not just the Sorceress..” he said and looked down at the Hollowed mountain. “The Druid too..” a moment longer until he continued. “And finally the Dragon.”

“But only at last..” she added. Her coldness echoed his bitter words. “Or they may use his corpse against us..” She moved closer to him once more until she stood next to him. If not for the Obsidian they would have felt the warmth of each other in the cold night.

He slowly nodded as he looked at the lands of his clan. A hint of sorrow on his bitter face. “This is the worst time to leave them alone..”

“They won’t be..” she added as she looked down next to him. “Your clan’s watcher is still living is he not?”

“He is.” He admitted in thought “But far from a loyal man to me.”

She thought for a moment. “Bruna is loyal to you.” she finally said but he shook his head as an answer. “He has lost..a lot.”

Without knowing anything Sha’Raph remained cold. “Then a new quest for his mighty Khan would be exactly what he needs.”

The Khan raised a brow in Agreement. “Maybe..”

They remained for a moment. Close again and looked down over the wide lands of the Frostsong below.

“We will take some of the less loyal riders and fly for the Bladelands.” His voice was cold yet carried the Khans fire. “We will return with the witch's head and then take care of her companion in the pines.”

“And then the Dragon..” she whispered darkly and looked back to him with a bitter smile.

“And then the Dragon..” He repeated as his eyes were drawn to her mask.

The moon watched them closely that night. For their plans would change the fate of all their kind for the ages to come.

Neither of them knew the true darkness they would create if they were to succeed and yet both had plans of their own.

Aru’Gal for once was happy again, as finally there was someone that understood his plans that agreed with him and that he could trust.

Sha’Raph however, was happy that she wore a mask.