Aru’Gal had always been like a brother to Bruna. From the day he had to kill his father, to the day they mourned his daughter. Together they promised they would raid and conquer all of the continent if the Khan would let them and so they became menaces to the south.

They raided and they slaughtered, they pillaged and they burned. Like their fathers before them and like they hoped their children would one day.

Back then many whispered that Bruna would follow his fathers footsteps and become the Khan the changing north needed. And he was a mountain on wings, a beast in battle, a true heir of their hatred, but the new approaching age would demand more than muscle and fate had different plans. Once his love died, the mother of his only child, he became a different man. Aru’Gal had promised him to become Khan in his sake and so he did. Now his daughter had died and his sister was an enemy. The only thing that was left for the Khan to promise the beast, was vengeance.

They had taken flight together with Sha’Raph and a horde of riders. The most loyal to their Khan remained in the Frostsong lands. Ur’bak, Gor’Mash and Bur’rack were among those that were left behind. Even though Aru’Gal wasn’t sure about the watcher’s loyalties, he would still show a harsh hand and force the Khan’s will upon them. That much Aru’Gal knew, for the old rider however he wasn’t that sure, so he cut his wings.

Bruna was set on Gor’Mash’s old Wyvern again, all though this time he could feel the old rider's weariness when he had to let go of his old companion. Together with Sha’Raph and Dunefang, they made the spear behind Aru’Gal and his twisted twin tongued wyvern.

Their flight was swift for they had to show the Bladelands the Khans true might. The force that was Karn’Arak. But Aru’Gal had more in his mind than just the riders. He knew the loyalties of the north were running thin. His own clan only held together by wip and leash, the Bladelands knowing of his plans, and who could even imagine what the nomad’s plans could be.

“We will rest in Karn’Arak and then fly until we crush the ogres beneath our wings!” he had told the riders when they set off from the hollowed mountain. Their many wings made a storm that howled through the silent caves. Many eyes followed them in anger, yet with the remaining riders still no one would dare to raise a word or a spear. Bur’rack and other remaining riders cheered as their brothers and sisters left with the Khan, some of them jealous for the honour they were offered. Yet they trusted their Khan and knew times were forced to change by him. Yet none of them knew how he would force that change.

The rest flew on, fast and high to the clouds and over the western mountains. After they dashed over their peaks, snow made room for black obsidian and soon they arrived in the heat of the ashen plains, the land of their dragon. After snow had pierced their faces, shards of obsidian in the storms started to do the same before they landed on the high platform of Karn’Arak. The ashen winds were harsh that day yet the fires of the dragon's hoard seemed rather silent, but the Khan was about to change that. The most distant burning mountains weren’t agreeing with the hoard’s silence and answered their arrival as they spewed fire into the far plains.

After Aru’Gal had jumped down from his beast he instantly waved for some riders to hold its reins in his sake. Then he turned to Bruna and Sha’Raph, who were just coming down from their own beasts. Both had their eyes hidden now, she behind her mask as always, and he behind a helmet the frostsong smiths had crafted for him. It was simple yet carried the horns of a yak calf on its sides. An addition made for the man they called the beast. More than anything, it hid his eyes in shadow.

“Come.” Aru’Gal commanded them both.

Sha’Raph was petting Dunefang before her hidden brow raised to his words. “I thought you wanted to seek word with the Dragon again?”

“We will.” He answered and started to turn and walk.

She and Bruna shared a look with their hidden eyes, as did many other riders. It was only for the Khan to see the Dragon but times were forced to change. She whispered something to Dunefang in the oldest tongue before she followed. Bruna handed the old rider’s reins to another rider for the moment and followed without any words but obedience.

Aru’Gal was walking with quick determined steps and they almost had to run to catch up with him. Down the stairs that went from the plattform, down through the tunnel and the many riders’ tiny caves. Their doors still decorated with signs of their clans. Down further the many steps inside while they could hear the constant breathing down below. The heat was rising the further down they went and finally Sha’raph found the strength to speak as they followed their Khan. “Why do you want us with you?”

“To understand.” He replied quite coldly, his words almost a chill in the heat of the beating heart of Karn’Arak.

She glanced over to Bruna, but the beast remained silent. There was a time where he would have questioned his friend, no matter his title. But now as he was destined to kill his sister, and after holding the corpse of his daughter, he was broken. All he did was continue to follow. Once he had hoped for a brighter future, after the last battle was done, now he only wished for a grand warrior's death.

She glanced back at Aru’Gal, more nervous the deeper into the structure and towards the dragon's hoard they went, but there was nothing to protest anymore. Maybe she would understand him once she saw it. Maybe her doubts about him would vanish and her words could be true once more, yet for now, they remained as hidden as her face.

They reached the lowest steps and Aru’Gal turned to them, behind him the grand tunnel, that led to the long way above the dragon's hoard, breathed. It was slow and heavy, and filled the air with thick smoke and the stench of sulphur.

“If I…” Aru’Gal started but stumbled over his words. It took him time to gather them once more as he looked down. Once he glanced back at them he had composed himself and for once that day spoke as the man, not the Khan. “If you see it, and still think I am wrong…” He breathed in a final time his eyes weary yet honest “Beat me.” His words sounded like a mixture of a command and a pleading.

Sha’Raph nodded, almost not visible with her mask, she knew of Aru’Gal’s plans and the price they would demand. He had to show a lot to make it worth that price.

Bruna however just huffed with a stuttered breath. His daughter's last words echoed through his mind, rumbling like the thunder of his sister’s axe. “But I will beat you.” She had said before the fight started that ended with the axe in her shoulder. Words that seemed distant yet so heavy, echoing through his mind and into the obsidian halls of Karn’Arak. His answer to his friend was nothing more than a deep audible huffing from below his helmet. His sorrowed eyes remained hidden as the helmet did what it was made for.

Neither was the answer Aru’Gal wanted to hear yet both the ones he expected. “Come.” he said and started his walk into the tunnel and soon the long way above the Dragon’s hoard.

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Both followed him with slow steps. First into the cloud of smoke then to the long bridge above the lair. Fire and pools of melted metal, offerings to the greatest of all beasts, shone through the mountain hall while the heat of its very breath shimmered in the air. It was deep and heavy while it echoed through the fiery mountain, yet it did not stop the Khan, neither the beast, nor the ashen mask.

Once at the last edge above the layer Aru’Gal waited, his two companions behind him. After they stopped, Sha’raph was the first to dare a whisper. “Is it sleeping?”

Aru’Gal shook his head and waited but a moment longer before the mountain started shaking. First only with a booming voice, then with the weight of the moving Dragon hidden inside the red burning smoke. “A R U’ G A~” It stopped in his words once its gigantic big glowing eye appeared before them in the smoke. All three orcs stared up to it. They saw how its eyelids were held open by nothing but sheer strength alone and even then they were not completely revealing the orange glowing eye. Its pupils widened with what all of them could read as utter panic. “What is the meaning of this, Khan?! Has tradition made room for~”

“We are not here for Tradition.” Aru’Gal shouted and interrupted the greatest of all beasts. Sha’Raph looked at him in hidden shock before her eyes returned to the Dragon. Bruna formed the hint of a smile and tightened the grip on his fathers axe. This was a beast worthy of death, he thought yet soon it vanished once more. Its half lid eyes and panic were far from the greatness they had been promised. It was big, gigantic even, greater than any beast could ever be, yet he saw those eyes and knew. His mind went back to the dying Wyvern of his Daal’Gavek. To the beast that had given up, its throat open and bleeding. Those eyes were the same. This dragon was not a beast of legend, but a corpse that still drew breath.

The Dragon’s pupils grew wider once again, now even followed by his eyelids if only slightly. It moved more and more and made the mountain shake under its weight. Its eyes darted around the volcano, up to every little rock that could hide more orcs.

“It's afraid..” Bruna whispered, more to himself yet Aru’Gal nodded to that. Sha’Raph was lost for words. After another moment when the Dragon could not find any other orcs hiding it breathed out. A wave of heat almost shoved the Khan and his companions away yet they stood tall. With its breath the red smoke vanished and the entirety of its gigantic body shown. It filled the Volcano while molten metal dripped down from its wings where it had rested in them before. Its throat started to glow while it stared down at the three.

Bruna once again grinned, if it was to attack he would jump it. Maybe his axe would hit it before he was turned to ash. A true warrior’s death, worthy of his fathers name. So he told himself, yet his mind could not bring himself to think the same for his daughter's life. No warrior's death would make worth the life she was robbed of.

Sha’Raph was far from grinning, she breathed heavily below her mask. Bruna brought his shadowed eyes to her. His grin vanished and a hint of anger brewed in its stead. Aru’Gal had chosen to be here, and he, the beast, had nothing more to live for, but she was a proud warrior still. She had reasons to fight, not to die. He glanced back over his shoulder and behind them, down the long bridge and into the tunnel. If the Dragon would breathe somewhere else than directly at them she could have time to run. A jump at its side, towards its wing would force it for such, but it was quite the jump. Still it would be worth it. At least his life could be the price for another.

Before he could do such, Aru’Gals voice echoed through the hoard once more. “We are not here for a hunt…” he bowed his head all so slightly. “Master…”

Bruna grunted and lowered his axe. The Dragon’s throat lost its glow and Sha’Raph’s breath seemed more at ease once more. Its head lowered itself right before the bridge yet it remained enormous. Just its eyes alone were twice as big as Dunefang. But now it was close enough for a hit, thought Bruna, yet he was not to risk their lives for his death.

“Then what is the meaning of this?!” the Dragon’s voice demanded. Pools of molten silver bubbled over his voice echoing through the mountain.

“You demanded an army.” Aru’Gal answered without flinching. “Yet my clan has seen trouble. Treason and strife among the cla~”

“Why would the struggle of your clan be of my concern, oh great Khan?!” Its voice was vile, defensive and its eyes layered with an anger that was hard to spot.

Bruna huffed in anger at those words and Aru’gal looked over his shoulder to meet his friend’s angry gaze. At least one of the two understood. He looked over to Sha’Raph and felt her eyes looking into his, yet as always she was hard to read.

The Dragon looked back and forth between them but said nothing until Aru’Gal returned his gaze and words to it. “Those who dared to wound you are on the move.” It breathed out at his words, bringing another wave of heat at them. After the wave Aru’gal continued. “We will defeat them. But if the clan saw you themselves, if they were to see you, to see what they are fighting for, then~” “I will show them a fight myself!” The Dragon answered, its voice booming once more. Now Aru’Gal’s eyes widened in shock and he quickly spoke again. “Let us fight this fight…we~” “You think I cannot fight my own battles anymore, young Khan. I know that well and you are far from the first to think such.” Aru’Gal took a step back at those words. “I will show you…show all of you why your ancestors feared me!”

A moment of silence was born in the mountain, only disrupted by the bubbling metal down below. “By defeating your old enemies?..” Aru’Gal asked after a moment, his voice far from the Khan he had been a moment ago.

A growl was heard inside the Dragon’s throat until it turned to a loud laughter that was echoed by the fires of Karn’Arak. They spew and roared while their master laughed into the hidden sky above the hoard. “Do I finally hear fear, great Khan?!” it asked with a wide grin that showed its rotting teeth.

Shame and anger mixed in Aru’gal and he huffed to compose himself as the Khan once more. “Wait for us at the mountain.” He commanded the dragon. “Master…” he added and got an angry glance from Bruna. “The nomads are on their way and we shall gather the Bladelands, so all may see you..” He said. His words a untrue, yet spoken with proud honesty. Bruna and Sha’Raph shared a hidden glance at his lie before they looked back up to the Dragon once again.

“As you say, oh great Khan. Gather them. Let them come. Let them watch!” It started to spread its wings again. “It has been too long since I have felt my winds…” Its last words sounded more like a longing than a thread and it started to spread its wings. Once it took flight a storm of fire was born beneath it. They were pushed back by the force of its mighty wings and the hot glaring fire that followed. Sha’Raph almost fell down into the hoard but was aided by the beast and the Khan. They aided her up once more and stood back close towards the tunnel. Their gaze followed the Dragon as it flew up and outside the Volcano that was its hoard. Sha’Raph in shock, Bruna in anger and Aru’Gal with a slowly forming smile. Once it was up at the edges of the volcano and free from its hoard it roared into the sky. A roar that echoed far over the distant burning horizons and was answered by all the burning mountains that granted it colour. Wyverns and riders at the top of Karn’Arak were shocked and all forced to kneel as the beast of their worship showed its face. Red lightning echoed over the red smoke of the ashen plains until the dragon's roar was complete. As it took flight for the east, the lands of their clan they could still feel the storms made by its wings.

Bruna’s angry shadowed gaze turned to Aru’Gal once they couldn’t see the dragon anymore. “Why do you lie to it?..” He asked with fury in his voice.

Aru’Gal slowly shook his head before he faced his friend's hidden eyes. “If the sorceress or the Arch-Druid get their hands on it, we are lost.” he nodded into the distance as he continued. “If they do, we have lost everything…”

Bruna already did, yet this was not the place to state such and he continued to question “Then why even lure it away from here?!” Anger turned his voice into a roar, yet Aru’Gal remained calm now that the grand beast was on its way to the hollowed mountain. He brought his hand to his friend's shoulder. “You shall see my brother.” It did not ease the beast so he repeated. “Trust me, and you shall see.” The Khan's face was one of victory. Bruna did not understand why, yet Sha’Raph had her hidden gaze on him. Terror went over her body. A mixture of disbelief and utter horror at the reality they had set in motion. She knew so well what would happen, what the Khan’s plans would be. He would break them all. At least, if she was to break first.