Through a dark forest, a figure moves unhindered by the thick foliage. The bigger obstacles such as thick vines, small trees and lurking monsters are directly eviscerated, by the axe in its hands.
Grey's eyes wander the forest looking for familiar places, trying to ascertain his path before he starts moving again.
The trek barely tires him out, he may be old but his strength never left him.
His second Title -Mad Berserker- ensures that he is a powerful warrior by all standards. Not many have their title evolved from their basic one, but when they do, that means that they have reached another level entirely, and it depends on their personality, decisions and achievements what kind of new addition they get.
Grey's title is an evolved one from a normal Berserker, meaning he is at least twice as powerful as any normal Beserker.
Grey finaly stops moving. He has reached it. His destination.
He looks upon the small hut, with smoke coming out of its roof and with tribal etchings on it. The forest is quiet around the hut. Not even the chirps of birds are heard. The silence is deafening, it causes nervousness in the air around it. Grey drops his axe on the ground and slowly walks to the hut and knocks on its door.
"Come inside" a raspy voice is heard from inside the hut. The voice sounds high pitched and filed with tremors caused by the age of its owner.
Grey slowly enters the hut and as he looks inside he sees it. An old orc woman, far older than anything else that should be alive at that age, her eyes are clouded, most likely blind and she has a bone staff that looks old itself. With cracks running through it, she uses the staff as a walking stick and turns from the cauldron she was cooking and looks in Grey's direction.
"Why are you here Grey? Want to know how your daughter is doing?"The words leak out of her mouth, one at a time, taking her far more time than normal.
"No, I need to find something out about an artefact," Grey says this respectfully, not having moved from his place since he got into the hut.
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"An artefact you say..." The old women come closer yo Grey and move her hand to touch him, her hand is blackened by some kind of charcoal and her finger nails are long enough to coil by themselves, more properly calling them claws than nails.
But Grey moves closer to her, and knees leaving her to caress his face, not recoiling in the slightest at the wizened old hand.
"Look at you Grey, how old you have gotten, all because of that cursed Title, oh Grey do you remember that I told you not to use it? I watched you grow. From a small boy into a teenager full of vigour and dreams....do you want to make me watch you die before me?" A tear drips, coming down her aged face. Her hand is shaking from the strong emotions.
"I don't regret doing it, and I don't want to discuss this again, it has already been done."Grey gets up and looks at the old women with strong feelings. She was to one who raised him up and cared for him.
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More than fifty years ago, in the Namila forest, a high pitched cry is disturbing the forest.
A small green baby is on the forest floor, in his bindings, only his face can be seen, he has small tusks at the edges of his mouth and his grey eyes are full of tears, Crying, asking to be feed. Most likely his parents abandoning him in the forest, not being able to feed and care for him.
But the baby does not know that making any noise, in a forest is like lighting a beacon, startling the peaceful animals and waking in monsters the hunting instincts. A pack of wolves far larger than normal ones hearing the commotion head straight for the unprotected and defenceless child.
There are 7 wolves in this pack and they are all fierce killers, working in a team, instincts teaching them to not sub estimate prey, they surround the crying bundle.
Getting closer, they start growling. The baby cries even louder, frightened by the growl, his cries reach a wooden hut and a certain old woman hears them.
Suddenly, the wolves ears fall down, they whimper, and like a pack of sheep chased by the wolf, they dissapear. The baby may be too tired after all that crying and falls asleep.
After a few moments soft sounds are heard beside the bundle, they are steps, somebody comes and picks up the small bundle, that someone speaks "Well, well, what do we have here, eh a small troublemaker"
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She has been more to him than any parents, and she loved him like her own child, but he wounded her feelings, when he put his life in danger for his family, fighting desperately against the trolls that attacked them and even so he only managed to save his daughter.
Shaking the bad memories out of his head, he says to the old women "Mother, I found a human who was been teleported right in front of me, and from his words, this was done by some powerful space artefact. Check for yourself, I don't know any artefact strong enough to teleport someone the distance he says."
The old shaman comes close to Grey and cuts his arm with her nail, a small drop of blood remains on the fingernail that she puts in her mouth, and closes her eyes.
In her head, everything that Grey spoke with Ben replays itself like a movie.
After a moment of waiting, she opens her eyes and with a frown, she says" He is most likely an otherworlder, but that remains to be seen, there has not been anyone powerful enough to send keys to other worlds for thousands of years now. And what is they'r motive for doing so?"