Monday, February 18, 2013

pt 48 The price of failure

"Do not walk away from me little brother!! I don't understand why you won't listen to reason." Eitrigg says as he stands indignantly in the shade of the gates of Orgrimmar.

The midday heat is nearly stifling.

"No brother, no I say! I cannot accept the fact that you betrayed the truth for the sake of peace! I watched you lie to your warchief, to protect a sniveling brat!!" Orkimedes barks harshly in response.

His tiny little gruntling standing nearby gets a wide eyed look on his face as he drops a heavy backpack on the ground.

Eitrigg bounds foreward and grabs his brothers arm forcibly.

"Keep your voice down!" he hisses. "I did what I did to protect our nation and our people. Besides, you should be thankful, I brought you glory and accolade for exposing the entire plot against the orphans."

"But, without telling him that Garrosh is responsible, that glory you speak of is hollow."

The two brothers square off and stare at one another for a long, painful moment.

"Eitrigg, you did not see what Garrosh was like while he was in Nagrand. Before Thrall found him he was a brooding, abusive, hatefilled child. Without his father to instruct him properly, he became a festering sore to the orcs of Garadar. Brother, he is still that spoiled child, only difference now is that he has a purpose, and a much bigger group to bully and abuse." Orkimedes whispers.

Eitrigg walks past his brother, and into the burning midday sun. The hot Durotar wind stirs up a cloud of red dust.

"Dretrigg, you don't understand what is really going on here.  Our enemy stalks us like a hungry lion.  The humans and their allies are closing in all around us, and our people are fearful.  The drums of war are pounding relentlessly.  As much as I am sick of war, this conflict will be at our gates if we don't prepare.  Also, the shamans keep telling of a sort of stirring with the elements, like an impending doom is coming.  Thrall himself has felt it as well."

Eitrigg pauses as the creaking goblin zepplin slowly comes to a stop at the tower above them.

"We need Garrosh!  The Horde puts great faith in him.  He is the kind of leader that they once saw in the Great War, full of fire and fury.   If the future holds conflict for our people, then Garrosh may be the kind of relic we need from our bloody past."

Orkimedes stares contemptuously at his older brother, his nostrels flaring in rage and frustration.  The truth of his words ring clear.

"You made your point brother.  If anything, living in the court of a warchief has given you a sharp tongue for political maneuvers"

 A loud, earsplitting horn blows from the zepplin above.  The sound echoing off the sandstone hills of Durotaur.

"Good!!  Now lets hurry, we have a boat to catch to Warsong Hold.  Thrall wants this message delivered to Garrosh as quick as we can." Eitrigg snorts with a wily grin.

The nearby Gruntling heaves his heavy pack out of the red dust and turns to follow the two orcs up the long ramp to the Goblin Zepplin above.  As they top the tower and step onto the deck of the zepplin, they notice that the railing on one side of the boat has been tore off.

"Captain, what happened to the railing here!?!" Eitrigg exclaims to the weedy little goblin in the big hat.

"Some git got in a fight wit another git." Sky-Captain LaFontaine exclaims in his raspy voice.  "They both took a tumble off the side.  Serves them right!"

Orkimedes glaces across the deck and notices a strange brown raven of unusual size sitting on the bow of the ship.  Two sharp horns jut from it's head and dried blood and gore covers it's feathery hide.  The bird glares at him with intelligent and malevolent eyes.

"Well, get that railing repaired!  The warchief doesn't pay you as well as he does to maintain a ragged ship!" Eitrigg exclaims with a snort at the ostentatious goblin.

"Brother, I have a bad feeling about this trip.  I am seeing fell omens" the grey shaman says with a whisper as the obnoxious motor of the goblin ship roars to life.

Eitrigg stares wide-eyed at his brother for a moment.  Knowing full well not to question the word of a shaman, even if he is his little brother.

"We must go Dretrigg, we are on an important mission for the warchief.  May the ancestors protect us!"

"Indeed" Orkimedes says, as the zepplin pulls away from the tower.