Kara’Gash was the daughter of an Exile, granddaughter of Great Khan Ara’Gash the mountain and niece of Mara’Gash who at least she knew as the brave.

Yet she had failed her name. At least so she felt as she was riding on the back of a stranger's wolf while a drunk smelling woman held her in place from behind her. “It is not that far…a small river, near a cliff at the coast!” she told the woman and her wolf as he ran through the pines. “I know the river girl..” The wolf woman replied with a light hiccup “don’t worry..”.

Hearing the drunk woman hiccup made Kara shiver in fear for her aunt. Maybe if the noseless man, the healer and druid it seemed, was that drunk too she could steal whatever he presented as medicine and flee for her aunt. Still she would need to find out how to properly use it. She had seen her aunt heal and care for some clan members from the mines before but never truly aided her. She was not a healer, nor a warrior, not even a hunter or a herder or craftsmen as her fate was yet to be chosen, unclear what future she would hold in the clan, if they were ever to return. Thoughts that brought her fear in so many ways. An unease that was to be crushed by the pure panic about her aunt's life as a screech echoed over the forest. “That’s the wyvern!” she screamed at the drunk woman who replied calmly and cold “It has followed the trail of blood…only a question of time until it finds its prey again..”

Kara only answered with an angered frustrated growl that made the drunk woman smile. “We will reach her in time girl, hick…don’t worry..”

They reached the small river that ran down the ever growing hills of the forest. Branak the wolf stood still for but a moment to find the scent before he quickly followed it uphill. “We must hurry!” Kara said with a mixture of plead and determination. “Just be ready, girl..” the drunk wolf woman replied just before a big shadow flew above them towards their goal.

As it landed uphill it crushed the smaller trees nearby.

The wolf woman took a tomahawk from her belt and whispered to Kara “Is your aunt here” “in the bushes right there!” Neither the drunk wolf woman nor Branak needed an answer as they both saw the sea wyvern sniff and walk towards the same bush. Its greyish blue scales seemed to reflect the moonlight in parts while its wings ended with fins in the end. Not great for flying, other wyverns would always do it better, but great for it was able to both dive and fly the same. “Don’t do anything stupid, you hear?..” The wolf woman whispered as she slowly, drunk and shaking, stood up on the back of her wolf. Kara almost couldn’t hear her over the drums that her heartbeat had become. It was pounding from inside her chest and flowing over her entire body.

She felt how the wolf woman almost fell off Branaks back behind her as she threw the tomahawk at the beast, just as it sniffed the bushes where her aunt was hidden, and slowly dying. Before she could even scream for her aunt the Wyvern screeched in pain as the wolf woman’s tomahawk had landed in its cheek. It turned around only to face its thrower. She jumped over Kara towards it with her big blade in two hands. “Death and Glor~ Hick…” Even her scream was intruded by a hiccup.

Too fast for Kara to realise all things that were happening Branak threw her off next to her aunt before he ran after his fellow hunter.

Kara would take a quick glance at the hidden body in the bush, covered by a bed of leaves and earth. Her eyes were closed but her mouth was still moving. Whatever the wyverns poison had done, it did not kill her yet. It was hard to see the woman that raised her like this. She was only seven years older than Kara and far memories crossed her mind. How a girl cared for her when she could not even properly walk, how that girl carried her up the mountain to hear its song for the first time, how that girl cried when she got her scars and how that girl became a woman when little Kara was still so far away from that.

But for now, she was safe and there was no time to dwell. Reassured about her safety Kara looked back to the fight that had ensued behind her. Even with her lack of experience she could see that the drunk wolf woman was struggling to even stand properly with her big sword and drunk head.

The wyvern was about to snap its maw at her only for it to be answered by wild open swings at its snout and Branak at its throat. It screeched again and tried to snap down at Branak before it stood back on its feet and spread its colourful blue wings in the moonlight to shake him off.

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Kara was frozen, she could still feel the drums of her heart but her body was not moving and just staring in shock. She didn’t have any fights before, for the other children always feared her bloodline and its wrath. As granddaughter of the great Khan, and daughter of one of the strongest riders it was expected that she would do something great as well, still here she was. Frozen, in fear, weak and angry.

As Branak did crash into the ground the wolf woman had taken the time to rise again and rush in with an attempt to stab the wyvern in its chest only to be met by one of its wings and be launched backwards down hill and into the dark.

Branak barked in fear for his fellow hunter while the hair on his neck stood up. He rushed in and bit the beast's short knees just to be sent away as well.

Hate was rising inside Kara, not even at the beast but herself as she, the Heir of such great Orcs could do nothing but cover in fear. Her Grandfather had slain hundreds of wyverns, her father too and even her aunt had been part of battles to defend the valley before, yet here she was. Only a shadow of the fury that were her ancestors, only a lifeless dull motivation in their stories. She grinded her teeth as tears ran down her face, fueling her anger even more.

The wyvern was turning and aiming for Branak again, just as a swarm of birds crashed into its face, followed by Kazok who jumped from a tree nearby his axe risen above him. “Death and Glory!! AHAHAHAH!” He yelled into the night but before he could reach the blue Wyvern's head it turned and smacked him down with its pointy tail. Unlike it did with her aunt, without stabbing him with its spike. His axe fell down and away, closer to Kara and her aunt.

The wolf woman then came stumbling back from the forests she was thrown in. Bruised, hurt and still as drunk as Kazok. She screamed and made another attempt to cut at the wyvern, so did her wolf with its teeth and her druid with his knife while birds circled its head, but it was all in vain. Maybe without the alcohol the battle would have been different, maybe if they would have actually trapped it or maybe, Kara thought, if she wasn’t but dead weight to strangers who fought her battle.

Anger swelled more and more inside her while the drums in her chest became louder and louder until she could swear to hear them echo across the forest. She grinded her teeth until she growled. It was too much to keep sitting and doing nothing, for her blood felt like it would burn her if she did. She grabbed Kazoks axe that had landed so close to them. It was heavy, but she was the heir of the mountain and daughter of the beast so she gathered will and muscle, both fueled by her fury.

Kazok had started to use a big bone knife from his belt, Branak barked and tried to get his teeth into the wyvern whenever there was an opening and the Wolf woman despite how often she was thrown into the dark stumbled back time and time again with her big sword ready to finally hit. As she did this time she could almost not hold herself on her feet and Kara saw how the wyvern was about to use that moment of weakness. Just as it was about to snap she rose the big axe above her with a roar. It was almost too heavy for her to lift and just as the big wyvern turned to her she had to bring it down by its own weight with a roar of all her fury.

She missed and the beast now stared at her. “That axe is meant for muscle, little darkspawn! Hahahaha!” Kazok laughed with bloodied teeth over the battlefield. His laugh made even Kara smile into the great Wyvern’s maw before her. Fury and fire were pumping through her veins and her burning eyes brightened a little more as she roared right at its ugly face.

The wolf woman saw the girl and knew she was about to get snapped if she would not strike now. She then used the moment and climbed the beasts back. Rushing over its tail and onto its back where she finally brought her sword down inside its neck just in time.

As it roared in pain Branak came in to snap at its neck from the other side again and a gurgling screech escaped the winged beast while the wolf got covered in blood. Kazok, who struggled to even stand himself, whispered to something inside his hand just to suddenly open it towards the beast. A bird was flying from it to the others that started to pick at its eyes now. It unleashed another gurgling scream just before Kara brought down the too big axe again and again, now hitting its snout and spraying herself with hot blood. Meanwhile the wolf woman and Branak did the same. All until the wyvern fell down and soon stopped moving, short before its head was cut off completely by the wolf woman.

Kara still smashed it a few times with the axe just before Kazok arrived and simply took it from her. “Kag’Magosh..” he said and petted her shoulder with a dark giggling smile of bloodied teeth. He then walked past her and towards her aunt.

For just this moment the thought of her aunt did not come to her mind. Too much fury was still drumming through her veins. She breathed heavy fire in her lungs while her body was shaking. The wolf woman stumbled and fisted her shoulder, walking past her too. “Good hick hunting, little one…” she said and walked behind a tree where her hiccups finally forced her mouth to lose the liquor of the night again.

Branak did bite and tug on the remains of the Wyvern for a while more as Kara’s drums slowly faded again. Her first serious fight was over and even if she would still struggle, even if she did not know what her clan was now or where her future was leading, she knew she was an orc.