pt 47 Descent into villany

I don't think I truly believed it, until I saw it with my own two eyes.

As a young girl I remember stories of the Worgen that stalked the woods of Ashenvale. Once I even saw a dead one that the Sentinels had brought to Astranaar. I was told it was some kind of curse. Never really thought I'd stand so close to one that was alive and angry.

The wind howls as it moves across the grassy valley of Mulgore. The clouds gather and boil overhead in an angry dance, threatening to pour rain on us at any moment. This storm almost seems unnatural, like it heralds an end to the world as we know it.

"Would you care for some more stew my child." Arch Druid Hamuul says as he stirs the contents of the ceramic pot nestled in our wind-whipped campfire.

I shake my head at the old tauren as I continue to stare into the night sky. Above me I hear the creaking of the funeral platform that Hamuul helped me build for poor little Meekha. Her body is wrapped in white linen cloth, giving her a ghostly appearance. She reminds me of my sister, whose buried not far from where I sit.

Lightning flashes overhead and the steady roll of thunder echos across the walls and bluffs of this valley.

"The shamans say that the elements are in turmoil" Hamuul says in but a whisper. "Strange storms, earthquakes... it is all unsettling. Feels like the whole world is out of balance"

"Elder, I don't know what to do anymore." I say with a pout.

He turns and looks at me for a moment, and then smiles. "It is going to rain soon. Maybe you should eat some stew? Yes, thats what you should do, eat stew." He replies as he scoops some of the hearty broth into a wooden bowl and hands it to me. "Sometimes when in sorrow it is best to focus on the little things that are good."

The warm bowl feels good on my hands. I drink from the edge of it, watching the vapor rise from the stew into the cold air.

After a moment I turn to him, as a tear rolls down my cheek. "Hamuul, I am tired of being sad. I feel so alone and scared." I pause as the old tauren places his hand on my shoulder. "Honestly, there was a time that I think I actually loved him... I was drawn to his desperation. Now that I have seen what he really is, I am scared of him. I just want to go back to my home in Darkshore and forget about all of this."

"Charibdys" Hamuul replies "You have done enough for me and the order. After what you have told me it is clear that Calmfury is not the creature we thought he was. I fear that we have loosed a monster on this world, and it is all my fault."

A strong gust of wind hits us hard at the same time that lightning cracks in the clouds above us. Animalistic fear rises in my chest as I jump in startlement. Suddenly, as if on cue, the rain begins to fall.

Hamuul looks at me and seems to pout as rain pelts his fur. He seems like a comical little boy sometimes. Taking joy in the most innane things, and suffering misery like a spoiled child. The mother in me wants to take care of him. But, I know that for all his unusual ways he is as wise as the stars in the night sky.

"Charibdys, I think you should leave this misery behind you and find your way back through the dream. Or perhaps you can help us to find Malfurion. I am going to Darnassus in a few days if you want to accompany me." Hamuul says with a smile and a wink.

"Darnassus?" I reply with an enthusiatic squeal. "why are you going ther....."

Suddenly the night is pierced with the cries of the plainstriders. In the dim light we can see a group of them stampeding across the grass. Then we see him, like a vision from hell, Calmfury emerges from darkness in the shape of a bear. His fur is matted and stained with blood and gore, the steady rhythmn of his heavy breathing sending plumes of hot vapor into the cold air.

"Calmfury my child, it is good to see you again." Hamuul says with a smile as he rises from the ground.

Without saying a word Calmfury shifts out of bear form. He looks even worse as a tauren, smeared with blood as if it was some sort of war paint. He then loosens a makeshift rope from around his shoulders, and flings a torn and battered corpse at our feet. The unrecognizable heap looks as though it had been dragged across Azeroth.

"Why is he here?" he says to me as he looks at me with his permanent hateful glare and motions to Elder Hamuul.

I step backwards in trepidation.

Hamuul steps forward in a confrontational manner. "She asked me to be here Calmfury! I came to pay my respects to the dead." The old bull stands upright, his chest puffed out and his hands balled into fists. Despite his age, he is still an imposing figure.

Calmfury eyes Hamuul for a moment, almost as if he is weighing if he could kill him. He may be able to take the Elder in a fight, but not the both of us, if he's counting on me to stand idly by, or even take his side, he is sorely mistaken.

"Fine! old fool, stay if you like. But, don't get in the way." Calmfury says with a growl as he drags the corpse past us towards the funeral platform.

As he does, I see the mangled and unrecognizable face of the sack of bones twitch and moan.

"It is still alive!!" I shout in horror.

Calmfury tosses the body to the base of the tower and raises his arms to the miserable sky.

"Meekha!! My beloved daughter!!" he shouts in anguish "This body is set at your feet so that you can see my promise fullfilled!!"

"Calmfury!! who is this that you have brought to defile poor Meekha's grave with?" Hamuul snarls in anger.

"It is her father Hamuul" I say in sorrow

The elder looks at me with horror across his face. Meanwhile, Calmfury stands like a statue in the wind and rain. The water drawing droplets of filth and gore down his sides.

Suddenly, he turns and walks past us, grabbing a burning log from the fire, and coldly knocking over the pot of stew.

"It is not our way to burn the dead Calmfury." Hamuul says through gritted teeth. "they must decompose naturally, allowing their bodies..."

"I am not concerned with your idiotic customs Elder!!" Calmfury replies in a low, menacing tone.

"Idiotic customs!! We are your people Calmfury, you were raised on the plains of Mulgore. We love you, you are one of us."

Calmfury turns suddenly, his eyes blazing with hatred. "I am not one of you, I am a child of the night, forged in darkness and despair! Everything good in me died with her, and I will most gladly give every day I have left, every drop of my cursed blood to see that the dogs that did this to her suffer in the worst way imaginable."

Lightning crashes overhead once again as the two stare at each other. The rain pours in long sheets of cold misery. I realize now that there is no going back for any of us. We have touched the face of a nameless feeling, and the world is indeed at it's end... at least for us.

Calmfury turns and tosses the smoldering log on the chest of Meekha's father. As if by some strange magic, the flames begin to rise and dance across his body. Then corpse begins to scream in a horrific, gurgling voice.

"Calmfury, you have just defiled Meekha's grave." Hamuul says as he spits on the ground. "You are right, you are not one of us, and I am ashamed I ever loved you as a son. Leave this land and never return."

His bitter words ring out painfully.

In dejected despair the old tauren turns and walks away into the cold night. Surprisingly I see regret wash across Calmfury's face as he watches him leave. Behind him Goregreedy finally stops thrashing and falls silent as he mercifully dies. The flames from the bonfire that now surrounds him, spread upwards and catch Meekha's funeral tower ablaze.

Without saying a word I turn and follow Hamuul into the night.

As we pass into the dark grassy fields I can hear the anguished cries of that monster behind us. Yet, no pity, remorse, or compassion rises in my heart for him.

"I am coming for you Garrosh Hellscream!! I am coming and you will suffer all the torments of hell at my hand!!" Calmfury screams out into the night.

Lightning crashes overhead once again, almost as if the very world is answering his foolish oath.

My last thought on the subject, before I gave up on misery and walked away, was that I hope Garrosh kills him.

pt 46 A promise fullfilled

I feel numb. My cold, lifeless heart bears no pain or contrition. There are no tears in my eyes. Perhaps the saddest thing in the world is the desire to grieve without the ability.

It is no surprise really. I did not grieve for my wife after I put an axe in her skull. The day after I returned from my captivity with the Lich King, she presented me our baby daughter, that was born in my absence, and when I could not show her affection, Morgilla rejected me. It is wrong to believe that a Death Knight cannot feel emotion. Actually, we feel the emotion of rage quite strongly.

So here I am, on the deck of this flying junkyard the Goblins call a zepplin, watching the darkened hills of Durotar pass below me. The cold wind blowing my dead, grey hair like a somber banner of sadness and misery. The trip to Northrend will be long and cold. The bulging bag of gold at my feet would likely get me killed if my fellow passengers knew of it's existence.

"Hey mon!" a suspicious looking troll strolls up to me in a conniving and seedy manner. "Ey know who ya be mah friend." He smiles at me through his glinting tusks.

"Do ya now?" I respond without looking at him, my grip tightening on my corroded maul.

"Yah mon! Everybody be knowin dah great Goregreedy. Dah best and fairest biznuss mon in all dah city of Orgrimmah. What ya be doin goin ta Warsong hold mah friend?" he replies as he leans on the rail and spits off the side. At his side I see him gripping the handle of a long, jagged dagger.

This could play in my favor. If there is anything that I am good at, besides crushing skulls, it's manipulating idiots.

"Hey, yah look like a strong Troll dats eager tah make a gold er two. Ey might have a job fer ya if yar lookin fer work." I say with an equally seedy smile.

The troll says nothing, he just smiles and shows me the jeweled hilt of his still sheathed blade.

"Ey gots won hundert gold coin if ya keep..."

Suddenly there is a shout of alarm, I turn just in time to see a large brown raven divebomb the deck, then in an instant, in mid air, it fluidly changes shape into a hulking black bear. I don't even have enough time to react before the snarling beast slams into me. Pain rips through my body as his claws and teeth sink into my flesh.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRR!!!!!" the raging bear roars as his slobber and my icy blood sprays across the deck.

Suddenly, the bear once again shifts his shape and turns into the massive form of the Tauren claiming to be Calmfury. He lunges forward and clamps his meaty fingers around my throat.

Fear clouds my mind as I stumble backwards against the railing, fumbling clumsily for my maul. He leans on me hard as my throat begins to be crushed in his hands.

"I come to you bringing death!! Your master has forsaken you Goregreedy. You are a murdering, heartless bastard and I will see that you suffer, as my daughter suffered!!"

As I try hard to gasp for breath, I grope desperately for my maul. Behind me I hear the railing groan and crack under our weight. Finally, my hand finds a the leather loop that serves as my lanyard on my hammer. With all of my might I swing the loop hard over my head towards my attacker. As my vision darkens I hear the rewarding thump of something heavy slamming it into the side of the tauren's head. To my relief, he stumbles backwards, releasing my his hold on my neck.

My vision returns as I gasp for breath. Then, to my horror I hear the unmistakable the sounds of coins raining across the deck of the zepplin. Instead of my maul, I grabbed the loop of my backpack full of gold. I watch helplessly as my fellow travelers, the two orc guardsmen, the goblin crewmen, even my troll hireling begin to scramble greedily for the rain of precious coin.

Calmfury once again lunges forward at me, slamming me into the railing. I try hard to beat him back, but he pummels me hard with his bare fists. I am nearly helpless, and no one is cogniscent enough to stop him.

Suddenly, the railing gives way behind me and I tumble backwards over the side of the ship. In desperation I grab and find a dangling rope to stop my fall. Far below me I can see the red rocks of Durotar, shimmering in the silvery light of the moon.

"You bloated sack of filth. You and your kind are not worthy of existence." the Tauren says, standing on the deck above me, as he picks up my maul. "It is my pleasure to send you to hell."

"Yah got ta believe meh!! She ask'd me ta teech 'er to fight. She wunted tah be in da areena!" I scream

"She was an innocent child!! You tried to make her like you!!" he bellows as he lifts the maul high into the air. "Now Goregreedy, your lies will die with you!!"

I watch in slow motion as he swings my corroded, gore encrusted maul downward. In his eyes I see a burning hatred, and in my heart I finally feel a sense of grief. The maul slams into my head, cracking my skull, and shattering my polished tusks. My head swims for an instant, long enough to make me let go of the rope. As I begin my long journey down to the earth I watch as Calmfury leaps off the zepplin, and shifts into a large brown raven.

As I plummet helplessly to my second death, I can't help but think that life has unnecessarily been cruel to me. Of course, for that matter I have been quite merciless to everyone I dealt with, even my wife and child. Even though I am innocent in what I did to her, I am guilty of many other crimes. It's just too bad I can't die on my feet in....

Whump!!
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I'm not sure how long I laid there on that jagged rock next to the seashore. But, I was finally awakened by the feeling of someone tying a rope around my legs. Looking up, I see my own ribs protruding out of my chest, my blood and guts are splattered all around me, and at my feet there stands that dreaded Tauren, tying a makeshift vine around my legs.

"Yoor tyin me up?!?" I say weakly as I once again look into his angry eyes.

He glares at me for a moment before smiling broadly.

"I never thought after that fall you'd still be alive!" he laughs mockingly at me. "I guess being a Deathknight is both a blessing and a curse."

"Ugh!" I choke on foamy blood. "Ya beat meh Calmfury.. just finish meh and be dun wit it"

He smiles broadly at me before turning serious once again. That baleful look of hatred burning in his eyes as he ties the other end of the rope around his own shoulders.

"No way old friend! Time is short, your daughter's funeral awaits, and it's a long run to Mulgore."

Suddenly he shifts forms to a bear, the vine still tied around him. Turning he begins to run and I am cruelly yanked off the rocks with my entrails dragging behind me.

Such is the end of Goregreedy the Merciless, Veteran of the Third war, redeemed servant of the Lich King, and murder of women and children.