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!!
-----------------------------------------------------
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.
