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Azeroth Adventure Journal - [ 02 ]
🕑 Added 2023-10-16 09:37:03 +0000 UTC"Are you alright kid?" the gruff voice reached my ears, Thrall's voice.
"Y-yeah," I nodded despite him being unable to see it.
"Blackmoore's more disgusting than I knew," Thrall sighed, "how old are you, kid?"
'Aedelas Blackmoore was the master of Durnholde Keep and head of the orcish internment camp system shortly after the Second War, and the man who found Thrall lost in the wilds. He was a subject of King Terenas Menethil. His crest was a black falcon, which appeared on the standard of his personal troops, who also wore red and gold livery.'
I shook my head as new information intruded on my mind.
"Twelve," I tried to speak clearly but my weak voice felt like a breeze could wash it away unlike Thrall's voice that I felt in my bones, "I think?"
"What did they feed you to forget such things?" said the Orc more to himself than me, "Tell me they didn't force you to bed them?"
I felt fury simmering barely under the surface in his voice. I felt a shiver run down my spine, both at the sound and at the implications of his question. I gulped and tried to feel if my lower body felt weird or sore but I couldn't feel anything that I shouldn't. Either they didn't or my body is far too used to it.
"I don't remember," I said, a tremble making its way into my voice, "I don't think so, I don't feel weird down there."
His growl almost sent me scrambling back into the furthest corner.
"Good," he said, I heard him take a deep breath, "Say kid," he forced some cheer into his voice, "what do you know of the outside? Or do you not remember that either? It's alright if you don't."
"I do," I gulped, "but I don't know much," yeah, bullshit, I could talk myself to death with all this weird knowledge engraving itself into my memory, "What do you want to know?"
"What's your home like?" he asked and I think I heard genuine curiosity in his voice, "I can tell from your voice that you are not an Orc."
"I'm a Quel'Dorei," I said, some strange sense of pride filling me as I said so, wait what's a Quel'Dorei?
"Ughrrr," I groaned as I massaged my head from an impending headache, it was one thing to shove a few pages' worths of history into my head but why did I get a whole ass language from a random trail of thought. Or two. I blinked, feeling like I was turning into an owl with how much I was blinking like an idiot. I could speak both Darnassian and Thalassian now, though the two were quite close so maybe it was one and a half language?
"Keldorei?" he asked, tasting the word, "I don't know what that is."
"Quel'Dorei," I said before I could stop myself, "It means children of noble birth, but most people just call us High Elves."
"I see," he didn't sound like he did, "I don't think I've ever met an elf before, how do you look?"
"Uhhmmm," I said, sounding extremely intelligent probably, "I'd say we are...softer than humans, slimmer with less muscle but we make up for it with inherent magical potential. Aside from that, I think the main things are long pointy ears and glowing eyes....and long eyebrows."
I eyed said eyebrow in the darkness, it was as long as my index finger from where it parted with my skin. Very damned weird...but why is it?
"I can't really imagine it," he hummed, gone was the man sounding like he was barely containing his inner beast and something far more confusing took his place, an intellectual orc, "I only saw humans..." he sounded a mix of sadness and longing.
"You're an Orc, right?" I asked, not even having to fake the fearful tremble in my voice as the actions of the Horde against my people in the Second war flashed before my eyes. I've never met another Quel'Dorei or any elf for that matter as far as I can remember but I still felt a chill run down my spine at the utter devastation the Horde brought upon not only my kind but the humans and even the dragons.
"I am," he said, neither ashamed nor proud, just stating a fact, "We don't have a good reputation do we?"
"Nooo," I said uncertainly.
"Do you hate me?" he asked with a rueful tone.
"No," I said in a whisper, unsure if he even heard it, "I'm scared of you."
"Huh," said Thrall, "I understand."
We fell into silence, I clutched my warm stone to my chest as the only way to tell the passing of time was the annoyingly dripping water. Darkness, dripping, cold and my warm stone, that was all I had to pass the time with. I dreaded as much as starved for Thrall's voice, yeah my weird knowledge said that he was honorable but he was also just a young Orc raised to be a bloodthirsty gladiator at the moment. That was if I even trusted this dubious knowledge, I knew nothing aside from what was shoved into my head.
"Why are you even down here?" I asked after about half an hour of staring into the darkness, boredom was an exceptionally strong motivator for my young mind it seemed.
"Lost a fight," he said and I could hear the shrug in his voice, "they make me fight and if I lose I get beaten up and thrown in here."
"I see," I hugged my knees closer to me, would they make me fight too or would I be forced to 'bed them' as Thrall called it? Both sent shivers of dread down my spine, "Will they make me fight too?"
"I don't know," he sounded thoughtful, "I...I don't think humans should even be able to enslave non-orcs."
"They shouldn't enslave anyone," the sentence left my mouth without conscious thought and I blinked owlishly at my lack of self-control. I mean, I did think that but did I always have such a loose mouth?
I might have been created less than a day ago.
"Right," I heard Thrall snort, "morality hasn't stopped them before, it won't now."
How do I get out of here?
To my surprise information flickered into the forefront of my mind again, one of my chosen 'Traits' to be exact, I had a bunch but I didn't even want to look at half of them. '[Bombshell]' urghh, bunch of good that will do to me as a slave, fuck.
I shook that off and focused on the one that might actually help, well two of them. [Athletics] and [Contortionist], one let me do crazy athletic stuff based on the description while the other let me fold myself up into a knot or something like that, the second being a requirement for the first. Try as I might no heaven-defying athletic instincts came to my mind, heck, I could barely walk. I might have been scammed.
It's potential, not instant talent.
I groaned, of course, nothing was free. Still, being flexible is a physical trait and I'm small so let's try this. I stood up on shaky legs, it was much better than before as I could only feel slight trembles in my thighs and it barely affected my ability to walk. It wasn't like I didn't know how to walk and more like I had to get used to walking in this body, weird, but less weird than everything else.
I bounced on my heels a bit to hype myself up before I angled myself sideways and gulped. Nothing else to do but to do it. I pushed forward and felt the cold bars against my skin on both the front and the back, I sucked in a breath as I held my stomach in for what it was worth. I felt the cold iron remain unbending as I slid through between them, I had to angle my head a bit and my poor ears got squeezed as I pushed it through but I got it.
With my head on the other side the hardest part was done, I carefully pulled my torso, hips and legs through as well without much effort aside from feeling chilled to my bones from the cold bars.
"What are you doing kid?" I heard Thrall ask from the next cell beside mine.
"I slipped through the bars," I said with a tiny ember of pride at my accomplishment.
"What?!" I heard him shout almost as he tried to keep his voice down, I heard the gigantic Orc stand and amble over to the bars just a bit over.
Fear gripped me as my eyes met a pair of blue eyes at the top of an utterly enormous body, I think my body would fit inside his one leg if they made a mold of it, that's how tiny I was in comparison.
"H-hi," I managed to squeak out as my wide eyes stared into those calm blue orbs, I didn't know if I even wanted to see him or if the darkness was the only thing keeping me from running away while screaming my lungs out.
He glanced left and right he hummed before continuing to stare into my eyes, "Hello," he said as he calmed his voice into a near whisper, "If the guards find you outside I don't know what they'll do to you, please get back inside for your own sake."
At his pleading voice, I couldn't make a sound, the situation was just so surreal. A giant scary Orc was asking me to get back into my cell before I got beaten up for slipping out.
"B-but," I started, "what if I could escape?" I glanced into the darkness as my eyes caught a single flickering torch far away next to a barred-off wooden door.
"Only if it was that easy," I saw him shake his head, "only Blackmoore and two others have the keys for the dungeons we are in now, none of whom are merciful people."
I gulped at his morose tone, it was one thing to imagine what it could be like to be a slave and then here was Thrall who grew up as one, I was tempted to take his advice.
"So we can't get out of here?" I asked sadly.
"Oh we can," he nearly laughed, "I could break these bars with one hand and that door wouldn't stop me for long either...but the ruckus would have half the keep waiting to skewer me on the other side of it."
I felt myself tear up as my dreams of an easy escape were dashed, I was far from strong enough to even break through a door that'd give a hulking mass of muscle like Thrall a challenge.
"Oh," I saw him blink, "Sorry kid," the large Orc visibly fidgeting had me chickling as I wiped my wet eyes.
"Aren't you like 16?" I sniffed as I asked.
"I don't know," he shrugged, "I could be more or less, hard to count."
"Ummm," I fidgeted with my stone as I averted my eyes from the Orc, "do you think there are any clothes here?"
I wasn't shy, not exactly in this circumstance. He could barely see me and with all the problems I had embarrassment was far down my list, still I tried to cover my privates and I felt my cheeks heat up.
"I could give you my shirt," he said in an awkward tone, probably wanting to be in this conversation as much as I did, "or maybe you could find something further that way.
I looked in the direction he pointed and could barely make out a doorframe without any door in it, a guard room maybe?
"I'll check first," I said as I clumsily ran off, only stumbling once on the way.
"Alright," he sighed, "just rush back as soon as you hear the door open."
"Okay," I said in a chirpy tone.
"Her eyes really glowed blue," I heard the Orc murmur as he slumped back to the ground and I held down a snicker.
I have glowing blue eyes.
For some reason that thought made me feel giddy, it meant I was magical, bathed in mana and changed by it. I blinked, of course, I am, I'm a Quel'Dorei.
I shrugged, putting the conflicting thoughts out of my mind as I peeked into the dark room. Okay, after a short observation, I came to the conclusion that I can't see shit in there so I waddled my way back and stared at the torch up on the wall.
"Can I take the torch for a bit?" I asked, giving some force to my voice, not that it helped much with it being as soft as silk.
"Sure," I heard Thrall say lazily, "just keep an ear out for the key turning in the door."
"Okay," I stood on my tiptoes as I wrestled the torch out of its holder. A few seconds later I held the burning piece of wood and was walking back to the dark room with short, careful steps. The fire was warm, it felt nice.
Once inside I glanced around with the torch throwing flickering shadows all over the place as I moved around. It was a bit scary but it was nothing compared to the giant Orc sitting a dozen meters away from me in his cell. I walked around but there was no visible clothing around, still, I had my eyes on a chest shoved into the corner of the room, the rest of the room was filled with tables, chairs and some rotting appliances that might have been used to make food once long ago.
I stepped around all the very flammable stuff as I held the torch in both hands, my heart had been beating rapidly ever since I slipped through the bars but this sent it into a frenzy. I stepped around chairs and broken tables with more and more finesse, making my way over to the chest in less than a minute. I glanced around but found nothing to hold the torch while I somehow pried the heavy top of the chest off of it.
I settled for kicking away everything I thought susceptible to catching fire and placing the torch down onto the stone floor as I quickly got to opening the chest. I grunted as I tried to lift it, failing spectacularly, making me huff as I released it and cradled my strained fingers as I considered my options. Was it closed? The thought didn't even come to mind as I assumed it wasn't from the overall decrepit nature of the room but it might be, or I'm just far too weak to open it.
I ran my fingers over the chest but found no keyhole or anything like it, probably not locked then.
As I was searching for something to open the chest with my eyes stopped on a piece of metal. No, it wasn't a piece, I noted as I squatted down and pulled the round metal out from under a pile of wooden fragments.
"Urgghhh," I groaned as I put my whole weight into it, "AH," I yelped, falling onto my butt as the metal came free suddenly.
"Okay," I eyed the thing, it was a mostly straight beam of metal as wide as maybe half of my wrist with only a little bend in it, "this should do."
I scrambled onto my feet and pushed the pointy end of the metal into the small crack between the chest and its top. I was wheezing from exertion but I managed to push it in, then I decided to just sit on the thing instead of trying to pull it down. I was far less pleased with myself when the idea left me falling onto my butt again even if the chest flew open.
The forming bruise was already starting to itch as my ring worked on healing it ever so slowly. I bit my lips to stop myself from scratching that itch and making it worse and instead poked my head over the edge of the chest. What greeted me was a pile of old clothes, most of which stank from mold and other things I either couldn't or didn't want to name.
With my breath held in, I started digging through the pile and found myself some stuff that while far from good clothing would keep my skin mostly covered. I found a short pair of pants that fit me first and just that put a grin on my face, it got wiped off as I put it on and felt how it'd chaff everything it touched.
Better than being naked.
I resolutely went back to searching, now half-clothed. In the end, I picked out a large shirt that stank the least and threw it over my head before tying it up with a rope on my waist, no boots or underwear but I already felt better and much more importantly I didn't feel the cold seeping into my bones.
I looked around for a bit more but I found nothing else so I ambled out of the room after picking up the torch and placed it back into its holder.
*Click*
My head snapped to the side, my brain quickly connecting the dots. Clicking sound, door...run. So I ran, my heart beating in my throat as I slipped and tumbled over the floor, pulling the skin off my knees but I scrambled back onto my feet and quickly rushed to my cell.
I dared not look back as I heard several clicks and clangs from the door as I slipped in between the bars, the rush making me push my still-aching body through with far less finesse than on my way out.
I fell to my knees and hissed in pain, the bars behind me as I breathed heavily. I heard a loud thud and then the wooden door creaked open, smashing against the stone wall.
I closed my eyes as I tried to ready myself for whatever was to come but I couldn't stop my body from trembling as heavy footfalls echoed through the dungeon.
Comments
P3t1
Fixed
ShotoGun
“ I nearly laughed” should be “he nearly laughed”
