Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Scarlet Dawn - Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter 14:

 

 

It is a warm afternoon.

The sky is clear, but in the distance you see it darkening due to the rain to come.

The city gates of the capital city are wide open. A hooded figure and two of his guards pass through the long courtyard to the thrown room. Flower petals are lying everywhere.

Everybody inside is quiet. They are awaiting the man.

The heavy door is viciously pushed open. The three men enter the room. The hooded figure in the lead walks to the middle of it. He draws his sword and kneels down. The king rises from his thrown opening his arms as if he wanted to embrace the man.

“Ah, my son.”, the voice of the king is gentle and kind hearted.

The man in the middle of the room stands up and removes the hood. He has long white hair. His eyes show an unnatural coldness. A grim smile is on his lips.

He steps towards the thrown fast paced, his two guards take a few steps towards the guards.

Everything blacks out.

I can't see anything anymore.

“What are you doing, my son?”, the voice of the king is shaking.

“Succeeding you!”, the man replies. I hear how a sword cuts through flesh.

Something metallic is falling onto the floor.

I hear screams, in the beginning just one, the voice of my father.

But soon the number grows, two people screaming, five, then ten, then twenty, hundreds and in the end... thousands.

Everything turns cold.

 

 

I wake up still hearing the screams of my dream in my head.

Almost everybody is already awake, a part of the tents are already taken down again.

I stand up and leave the tent. I'm not drenched in sweat, but I surely slept uneasily. One of our warriors from the Crusade hands me a cup filled with water and a piece of bread. One of the mercenaries standing near by means that this is not much, but we will need it.

I don't feel like eating at all at the moment. I offer my bread to one of the other people standing around me and only drink the water they gave me.

I sit down on the trunk of a tree lying around between the camp and the river. It takes a while until everybody is finally ready. I am anxious to leave here and get going, I feel restless.

I start thinking about the dream I had. I've never had this one before. I am not even sure what happened there. It's no use, I try to stop thinking about it.

Corren has been sitting there with the other mercenaries for the whole morning now. I don't know what's up with him. From one moment to the other he changed towards me. I want to ask him what is going on inside him, but I already know that his answer will be a fake smile and that he tells me to keep with the group for some reason. I will wait until we'll reach Tyr's Hand in the evening.

Meanwhile everything is packed up again and the group is ready to continue the march.

Ray arranges the group as he thinks it will be most appropriate for the upcoming ways we have to take.

"Attention everybody!", the lieutenant shouts out.

"Today we have a difficult journey awaiting us. We will be able to follow the road until we pass the ruins of Darrowshire. Afterwards we will turn south to the hills, for today we have to go directly through the wilderness of the eastern plaguelands. This will be dangerous, but it will be the only way we can take to get to Tyr's Hand. Plainly following the road would lead us to Corin's Crossing. The town is infested with undead minions of the Scourge, trying to slip through it or fighting our way through it would be similar to suicide!", he speaks louder with every sentence.

"Keep this in mind and stay within the group. The armed forces of our troop will be watching over everybody of you.", he makes a brief pause. "Now, get moving everybody!"

As we cross the bridge over the Thondroril, the sky's colour shifts to a dark and gloomy brown. It is shocking how much nature has suffered in these parts of the former kingdom of Lordaeron. The giant fungi can be seen almost everywhere. Some of the trees are crippled, now showing structures that remind of screaming or laughing faces.

We can follow the road for about half the way we have to go through this area.

If you look closely into the woods, you can see the plaguehounds and giant bats roaming around between the trees just waiting for one of us to drop behind. These creatures are intelligent enough not to attack a group with the size of ours.

We are moving along fast today, yet the road is straight and almost completely even leaving an impression that we are hardly even moving.

We pass the crossing to Darrowshire. It is said there are no ghouls or minions of the Scourge residing there, but the ghosts of the villagers that fell in the fight against the invading hordes of undead warriors of the Lich King.

After a long march along the road we finally see the first signs pointing out that Corin's Crossing lies ahead of us. Ray signalizes us to stop and turns to the group. “Four of my men, and six of your soldiers in front, followed by the clerics and apprentices. The rest of the men secure our backs, the riders being the last of the troop. And be quiet!”, he points out the direction, we are heading and the people follow his orders. I guess we are going south-east from now on.

The earth is tough, not as soft as it usually is when walking through the woods. The plaguehounds still lie low awaiting a moment when they can seize their prey, a chance that they will not get.

We draw nearer to the lake in the south of Corin's Crossing. I see movement in the water.

Water elementals! So the rumours are true! Nature is already making its stand against the foul hordes of the Scourge!

Ray signalizes us that we should go as far away from them as we can. I don't understand why, they are friendly after all.

One of the apprentices breaks out of the line. He is about as old as I am and has long black hair. “Those are no enemies!”, the young man shouts back at us. One of the warriors wants to rush after him, but is held back by two of the mercenaries. “It's too late for your friend...”, Ray says this loud enough for everybody of us to hear. “Pray that he does not have to suffer a lot.”, Ray's voice is cold.

Meanwhile the young man approaches an elemental. The watery face of the creature is showing no expression or whatsoever. He tries to touch it.

The moment his hand reaches the elemental, it turns into a stream of water flying through the air back into the lake taking the apprentice with it, as if he is being pulled into a vortex.

We stare at the water in shock till the last air bubbles burst as they reach the surface.

So, I guess the rumours were wrong after all.

Not being able to speak after seeing this, we move on slowly and with caution. We try to stay as close to the hillside as possible so that the elementals don`t take any further notice of us.

What happened to nature here? What illness did the Scourge unleash upon them or were they driven into madness by the terrible transformation of the landscape?

We walk past the lake, the walls of Tyr's Hand now clearly visible in front of us, the flags high up in the air.

We are almost there..., finally!

Everything is quiet around us.

Ray gives the signal to stop. What is going on?

“Be careful... it is quiet..., too quiet...”, he whispers.

We are standing in a dip, surrounded by small hills, the mountain chain delimitating the southern border of the eastern plaguelands to our right. None of us is able to see over them.

Only a split of a second later a ghoul jumps up from behind the hill in front of us and takes Ray down.

We all take a few steps to the side and the group expands. Two more of the undead creatures jump at us.

“What on earth...?”, one of the warriors cries out.

“AMBUSH! Prepare for battle!”, the lieutenant shouts out loud. After these words left his throat more and more of the undead are coming over the hills, ghouls, skeletons and undead soldiers still wearing a full set of armour.

A hooded figure in black robes stands above us on an edge of the mountainside.

I turn around, not knowing where I would be safe, not knowing what to do.

I feel helpless, I feel lost.

Why always me?

“NECROMANCER! Up on the mountain!”, those were the last words of the lieutenant before he was taken down by a ghoul.

I'm scared.