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Rule set for the tournament of 19-05-2015:

Rules tournament:

- Max gear level: 690
- Arena rules ( No usage of flasks or engineering items either)
- No Blood Lust or Timewarp
- Stay between the pillars.
- stealth only allowed up to 60 seconds.
- No tank or healing spec.
- One bandage per player.
- No outsider buffs.
- talents and Glyphs aren't to be changed during the tournament. The Glyp and talent set you have locked in during your first battle will be locked in for the entire tournament.

Contenders:

- Krogon;
- Nyruk;
- Grolgoroth;
- Kargnar;
- Siyah-Gosh;
- Gashuk.

Backets:


Link:
http://challonge.com/OotRB

Final statistics:

Supreme Champion: Krogon
Worthy Adversary: Gashuk
Maybe next time: Grolgoroth
4th place: Siyah-Gosh
Joint 5th place: Kargnar and Nyruk

Thank you all for coming and I hope you enjoyed!

[Name:]

Name: Gridish Rimeweaver
Alias: -
Rank: Rrosh'tul

Age: 35
Gender: Male
Race: Orc
Clan: Warsong Clan
Class: Mage


Family: Garros ( Brother, deceased.)
Known Friends: Red Blade Tribe. Members of the Aldor Rise ( Shattrath). Gridish' Arcane teacher and the teacher's students.
Known Enemies: Ogres. All of them.

Appearance:

Gridish is thinner and taller than the average orc. Orcs that known Gridish before his Rrosh'tul training would notice a slight gain in muscle. His body has aged slightly faster than Gridish himself. Three claw scars mark his chest. His back is covered in burn scars. He also prefers a tunic and pants instead of robes for better mobility on the battlefield.

Personality:

Gridish is very quiet when it comes to chatter around the campfire. He tries to keep his emotions concealed, yet is open for others to share their feelings. When it comes to the heat of battle, Gridish is loud, clear and calm minded. He is very protective of those he cares about and would do anything to keep them safe.

History:

Gridish was born on Dreanor just prior to the Dark Portal opening for the first time. As the first war commenced, Gridish was too young to partake in the war. Instead he spent his time with his mother, a young she-orc that practiced the arts of Shamanism. During the time of the First War, Gridish heard rumours within the clan about landmarks of the newfound lands of Azeroth, one being the magical city of Dalaran. After the First War had ended and before the Second War had started Gridish had heard enough and the young orc's mind was set. He packed his things and snook his way from the Warsong Clan in the middle of the night, severing any ties he had to the clan to find his way to Dalaran.

When Gridish neared the outskirts of the city, he was stopped by a couple of rogue bandits, but before they could harm Gridish, the individuals fell to their knees, followed by their entire body. A strange mysterious man walked up to Gridish, made sure he was ok, and asked him what such a young lad like him was doing out on his own out here. Gridish told the stranger about his interests in magic, and that that was the reason of his journey. The stranger smiled and told Gridish to wait there, Dalaran was already part of the Alliance at the time Gridish got there. The stranger returned with a lot of robes, and covered Gridish up, from head to toe, and took Gridish to the stranger's quarters, on the outskirts of the city. Here Gridish found out the stranger that helped him, was an arcanist, and he would be happy to take Gridish as his apprentice.

As a few years passed, Gridish stayed with his teacher in Dalaran, training. Gridish hardly ever left his teacher's quarters, but when he did, it was usually to head out of town, take in the wonderful enviroment. Eventually, Gridish's teacher came to Gridish and handed him Lofty. Clearly the two weren't used to the sight of each other... A floating, talking book, and an orc. Not too long after the two got united, Gridish's teacher decided it was best for Gridish to continue his journey. Gridish Wasn't quite sure on why his teacher would do this, since his training was nowhere near done. His teacher explained to him that traveling would be the best way of growing for the orc. That's when Gridish thought of his family. That is when Gridish decided to search for his family, but not alone. He would be acompanied by his new companion.

Slowly gaining more knowledge of the arts of arcane while traveling with his newly obtained companion, Gridish finds his way through the Eastern Kingdoms, seeking refuge in inns when needed. if inns weren't available then he would set camp outside of the village. Traveling from village to village, Gridish slowly learns tales of a tribe of orcs. The further he traveled, the more complete these tales became. At first he thought of them as mere stories until one of the tales described a known character to Gridish. That character being his own brother. As he continued his journey through the Eastern Kingdoms, he learned of the tribe's whereabouts. "Kalimdor..." He thought to himself. As he found himself in Tirisfal Glades, the path to the Red Blades seemed straight foward to him and he took the next airship to Orgrimmar, where he would meet the Red Blades and reunite with his brother.

During the Northern Rebellion is when Gridish started to make any progression in his Newblood Tasks as well as his arcane talents, fighting off the Kor'Kron while making their way to Orgrimmar. It wasn't until the Northern Rebellion had captured the Valley of Honor when Gridish was able bind himself to the tribe by oath. After Gridish took his oath, he didn't initially start training for the path of Strength nor the path of Wisdom as Gridish wasn't certain what path would be right for him. During the tribe's travels to Garadar in Nagrand, directly after the Rebellion, former chieftain Bloodmark informed him on a new rank that would suit Gridish well. finished the Gul'Thauk training during the tribe's campaign in the Twilight Highlands as they fought off the remaining resistances of Garrosh' Horde, the Dragonmaw.

It wasn't until after a suprising outcome in a tournament that was held during the Horde Gathering in Thunder Bluff that Gridish realised the path he wanted to take, the path of Strength. After the tournament, Gridish informed Chieftain Bloodmark of his desire to train as Rrosh'tul. Chieftain Bloodmark accepted the request and started Gridish on his training as Rrosh'tul. During his training, Gridish noticed himself change. His attitude and his thought process. He felt reborn. As a requirement to become a Rrosh'tul, Gridish had to perform his Om'riggor within the tribe, where he received the name Rimeweaver. As events developed in their journey through Outlands, Gridish lead the tribe succesfully through a battle against the Alliance. That night marked the Rrosh'tul training complete and Gridish received the title of Rrosh'tul.

The tribe's final trip to Garadar before the events of Warlords of Dreanor, Gridish got ambushed by a group of ogres in an attempt to take back what Gridish had taken from them during the tribe's last trip to Outlands, the soulstone of an ogre warlock. Gridish was beaten to an inch of his life after a short showdown between him and the band of ogres. Before the Ogres could finish the deed, gridish' arcanist tutor came to Gridish' rescue and took him to safety where his woulds could heal. By the time Gridish was able to travel again, the tribe had traveled to the alternate Dreanor. Gridish set out to find the tribe once more. to reunite with them once more and to fight side by side with the tribe once more.

Things you may know about this character:

- Gridish hates ogres.
- Gridish -really- hates ogres.
- He is very fond of his floating, talking tome Lofty.
- he can lose his temper at times when others make mistakes.

Things you may not know about this character:

- Gridish doesn't think badly about the human race.
- His Arcane teacher is a "neutral" human.
- He almost left Lofty in Shattrath with Celoa ( The other floating, talking... yet civil booklet he obtained during his travels). Instead, Lofty chose to stay with Gridish.


Other Information:
He -really- hates ogres. he -really- does *nod*

The maps that have been given at the start of the event!
Pack 1: Therak, Gromkeer, Rikclar, Kargnar, Srelok.
Pack 2: Krogon, vraxxar, kogra, siyah, Rhonya.

A roar of cheers force their way through the several training facilities surrounding the Ring of Blood as one of the two rampaging ogres meets the ground with his body. A high pitched Goblin voice cuts through the crowd's cheering "AAAND THE FAT ONE IS DOWN! THE OTHER FAT ONE WINS!" followed up by cheering and cackles. Two of the Ring's guards grab an arm each of the defeated ogre and drag him away. Silently watching in the crowd is Gridish, arms folded, his face covered by his wolf mask and the hood over said wolf mask. He's not watching the fight however. His gaze is fixated on the goblin, the troll, and the ogre that over watches the duels from his throne. "20 minute break before the next fight commences! Get your food and beverages over there for a... 'fair' price!" The goblin yells over the chanting crowd, mainly consisting of ogres. The crowd leaves the outer rims of the ring shortly after the goblin's announcement, and so does the Ogre sitting on the throne. The Ogre gestures Gridish to follow before the ogre takes his leave.


"So Gridish…" the ogre says as both Gridish and him enter a run down building, " I assume you performed the assaults on the places I suggested? Did you find your friends?" The ogre asks as he peers at Gridish with a small grin. Gridish stares at the ogre, arms folded and hands made into fists "Yer intell was outdated." The orc answers in an angered tone. "There was no sign of any Horde members at the mine and the ogres at the other place...-" Gridish pauses and sighs. "The others had already perished..." The Ogre's smirk widens and chuckles. "That's my fault for you and your orc friends being too slow?" The ogre lets out a humored snort before taking a bite of a cooked talbuk leg. Gridish snaps at the humored tone of the ogre and growls to him. "If ye didn't make me fight so many of yer feckin fights and actually had given me the intel on time they'd still be alive." The ogre stops eating from the Talbuk leg and peers at Gridish. "So what do you want from me now greeny?" Asks the ogre as he's still chewing the meat in his mouth. "A proposal…" Gridish says as the crowd starts returning to the outer rims of the ring. The ogre stares at Gridish, waiting for what Gridish has to propose. "I know ye also have members of the Horde as yer prisoners, with the sole purpose of watchin them fight to the death in the ring. I want ye to let them go. Right now." Silence engulfs the room before the ogre starts laughing maniacally, spitting out some meat chunks and nearly choking on a few more. "You must be insane?!" The ogre shouts, laughing and coughing. "No way in hell that I'll just let them go... But I might just let them go if you fight one last time..?" The ogre looks at Gridish questioningly, but with a huge smirk on his face. Another moment of silence roams the room before Gridish nods, accepting the challenge.


Chants, cheers and roars come from the crowd as the goblin yells above the rest, hyping the next fight. “IT WILL BE BLOODY!” The goblin yells, followed up by cheers. “IT WILL BE BRUTAL!” yells the goblin again, followed up by cheers. “AAAAND IT WILL BE GRUSOME!” and yet again more cheers come from the crowd while Mogor, the ogre leading the event, takes his seat on his throne, over watching the duel ring. As the Ogre takes his seat, the goblin nods and looks at the crowd with a huge grin on his face “Ladies and Ogrelings!!!! Next up on the schedule is Br-“ Mogor interrupts the goblin before he can finish his sentence. “Today we have a special performance.” Mogor starts. “Over the past few weeks we’ve had a newcomer amongst us… A newcomer that isn’t from this time… A green skin going by the name of Gridish. Today he has come to prove himself once again, after failing to rescue the members of his so called Horde. Undefeated in this ring so far. Thirteen kills on his name within this ring alone. Gridish, enter the Ring of Blood!” Mogor shouts, extending his arm in the direction of Gridish, waving him over to enter the ring. With that introduction, Gridish slowly makes his way to the center of the ring, keeping his sight on Mogor. “And now for his opponent.” Mogor pauses, a wide grin appearing on his face. The crowd growing impatient, shouting and yelling for the name of Gridish’s opponent. “Three time champion of the Ogre Brawl Tournament.-”The crowd starts cheering and shouting, knowing well enough what’s about to follow. “- Also known as master of the mallet. You all know him as Uirag!”  Cackling, cheering and chanting erupts from the drunken crowd as Uirag makes his way to the ring. A muscular ogre wearing a helmet and carrying a mallet in each hand. Chains being dragged across the floor that attach the mallets to their respected side’s leather bracers. Uirag takes his place in the ring, opposite of Gridish. “Ready to get destroyed, orc?” Uirag asks Gridish, a bit muffled due to his helmet. Gridish growls and grumbles “Drop dead.” and repositions himself to a battle stance, his staff crossing his body in front of him in a defensive manner, his knees bent slightly, ready to jolt in any direction if needed, but his eyes on Uirag. “Now for the rul-“ Gridish swiftly interrupts Mogor “Shut up, we know the rules. Fight till one can’t fight anymore.” Silence hits the crowd for a brief moment as Gridish gets snarky with Mogor, but swiftly pick up the cheering as they love the attitude. “Very well then!” Mogor shouts. “Then without wasting your time any further… Let the fight begin!”


Without hesitation Uirag tosses his left mallet in Gridish’s direction. Gridish blinks to the side, avoiding the mallet. The mallet falls to the ground, hitting nothing before getting pulled back by the chain it’s attached to. The crowd continues to cheer and cackle as they the fight commences. The two opponents stare each other in the eyes. A game of cat and mouse appears to be forming in the early stages of the fight. Each opponent waiting for the other to strike. Before too long, Uirag’s patience depletes and sends his mallet flying towards Gridish. Yet again Gridish avoids getting hit rather easily with his displacement spell, only this time he tries to strike back. Gridish appears to the side of the Ogre. Gridish lifts his staff into the air and rams the heavy head of his staff into the side of the Ogre. It looked like time slowed down as the staff impacted the side of the ogre, as nothing seemed to be happening. Uirag locks his sight onto gridish, turns his entire body around in a, for an ogre, swift motion and lands his leg in Gridish’s ribs. The smaller orc gets knocked off his feet and lands on the outer rim of the ring. The crowd goes wild as the ogre makes a small victory pose for the crowd while Gridish gasps for air and tries to get to his feet. He takes the short opportunity to get his bearings and clear his mind. “An opponent that claims victory before the battle is over.” Gridish thinks to himself as he picks his staff back up, Uirag is too busy claiming victory to notice that Gridish had gotten to his feet again.


“This was too easy… Greeny smushed!” Uirag said, still flexing and posing for the crowd. “He fly!” He cackled some more and made some hand gestures. The crowd laughed and imitated the hand gestures. Suddenly the laughter, flexing and hand gestures faded. Uirag slowly reached for his stomach just to find an icy cold trail of blood covering his belly. Silence strikes the crowd at the beat of a heart, staring at Uirag’s wound. Uirag gasps a bit for air, panting and heaving as his legs buckle and he lands on his knees, his hands still at his stomach. By this time, Gridish had closed the gap and grabs one of the chains that the mallet is attached to and wraps it around Uirag’s neck. The Ogre is too stunned to defend himself. The only thing that can be heard are the choking sounds of Uirag and his cracking neck bones as Gridish tightens the grip of the chain. A scary silence strikes the Ring of Blood as the slow death of the Ogre persists. After a full minute the ogre’s body gives in and the ogre drops dead and Gridish loosens his grip on the chain.


Gridish slowly turns his sight to Mogor and spits in his direction. “Let the prisoners go.” Before Mogor could answer Gridish, Gridish casts an ice lance towards Mogor, the ice lance barely missing the Ogre and slams straight into the throne. “The next one won’t miss.” The crowd is stunned by the development of this last battle, some staring at Uirag wondering if he’s really dead, others staring at the orc challenging Mogor. Mogor looks at Gridish with a serious face before bursting out in laughter. “You want those prisoners?!?! Here are your prisoners!” Mogor gestures towards a group of ogres in the distance. As the group nears the ring, two ring guards get to each side of Gridish. Gridish silently watches the group of ogres near the ring, ignoring the two guards at his side. The entire Ring of Blood waits in silence for the ogres to arrive. The only sounds that can be heard is the sound of the winds of Nagrand blowing through the branches of the trees. Once the ogres come to a stop, it is clear they are each carrying a bag each. A bloodied bag. “Show him” Mogor dictates. As Mogor commands it, the ogres drop the bags on the ground, revealing the missing members of the Horde, brutally murdered. Gridish stares at the bodies in silence, stunned, and enraged. The guards surrounding him grabbing him by his arms. “Greeny. You are never to return to this place. If my guards even catch a scent of you… you’re dead. Got it?!” Mogor shouts while he cackles maniacally and gestures the guards to take Gridish away.


At the boundaries of the Ring of Blood, the two guards toss Gridish onto the ground. “You heard him. Now go away.” One of the guards said, the other backing him up with a nod. Gridish gets to his feet, looks at the guards and folds his arms. “Any of ye know the meanin of a pack?” The two guards look at each other questioningly, then look back at Gridish and shake their heads. “We’re never alone.” Gridish smirks and lets out a loud whistle with his lips. The two guards look around them. Nothing happens. The two ogres look at Gridish and start laughing at him. “Now sod off so we can continue watching the matches greeny.” One of the guards says. The guard receives the silent death stare from Gridish. “NOW!” The guard said, grabbing his blade, ready to strike Gridish. The small orc stays motionless in front of the two ogres.  “Fine! Then I’ll take your he-“ Before the ogre could finish his sentence, Gridish’s worg slams into the ogre’s back, pushing the ogre off his feet and flat onto his stomach. As the ogre lays helplessly on the ground, Gridish’s worg bites into the ogre’s back, severing his spine and killing the ogre without hesitation. The other guard shortly follows with an ice lance to his heart. Gridish slowly pets his worg as a grin appears on his face. “Good boy” Gridish says in a soothing voice. He leans for the ogre’s blade and starts severing their heads from their bodies. “Come on boy… Let’s go home..” Gridish says softly as he puts the heads in a cloth bag.


For those that wander around Riverside Post will find two pikes. At the end of each pike is the head of one of the Ogre guards. A note hangs from the pikes as well “In memory of the fallen members of the Horde that have embarked on the journey to the Dreanor we thought we knew.”

With my amazing paint skills, here are the locations you can scout out tonight!



Have fun!

Darkness of the night covers the icy lands of Frostfire. Heavy gusts of wind displacing snow all across the lands. Patches of blood stained snow scattered in drops across patches of the land, carried by the restless winds. Few Thunderlord bodies covered partially in snow and an unconscious Gridish. Slowly coming to, Gridish sits up slowly. A sharp pain shoots through his head and he squints his eyes. As he tries to reach for his head, he notices his hands are shackled by chains. Slowly trying to recall the past hours, Gridish starts inspecting his surroundings. “Where in Grom’s name am I… And what happened.” He mutters to himself before looking at his shackles again. Icy wind blowing against the wound on his head, feeling like sharp knives cutting his skin as he tries to recall recent events and slowly tries to get to his feet, just to tumble down once again. Disorientated, nauseous, cold and weak, Gridish tries to call out over the spirit link. Patiently waiting for a response. “Ghrm… Feckin useless. Even if it works, no one responds.” He mutters under his breath as he looks at the shackles again. Not able to think of anything else, Gridish starts concentrating on casting a spell to remove the shackles, but without prevail. Stunned and unable to understand what is going on he looks around again, but gets interrupted by a weird feeling around his neck. “What…?” He slowly reaches up to his neck, just to find a chain wrapped quite tightly around his neck. On it a charm of sorts. The wind continues to roar fiercely over the icy lands. Shivering and unable to grasp any sense of the situation, Gridish once again tries to get to his feet. As he pushes himself up, a loud screech echoes from behind him. Before he can turn around to inspect the source, a rock hits him in the back of the head and everything goes black.

A vile stench of rotting flesh engulfs the cave in Frostfire. Laying on his back, Gridish slowly opens his eyes, looking up to the ceiling of the cave. His senses numbed as he flickers in and out of consciousness. The uncomfortable, icy cold, stone floor, littered with pebbles, rocks and bones. He slowly tilts his head as he’s unable to call upon the power to move the rest of his body. Nothing but darkness surrounds the sight of Gridish. He tilts his head, looking down at his hands that are still bound by shackles, then readjusts his head again, staring at the ceiling of the cave. Motionless, Gridish lays on the floor for a few minutes, thinking. Trying to recall what happened before he blacked out once again. “Somethin hit me…” He thinks.  “On the back of the head.. but what? Thunderlords?” once again Gridish tilts his head, looking around the cave. “No. This doesn’t look like a place Thunderlords would keep their prisoners.” A soft sigh escapes Gridish’ breath. “If only I knew what happened…” he thought again and tilted his head to the other side. Suddenly, as he tilts his head, a silhouette moved. Panic started to hit Gridish as he was defenseless to what creature might be watching him. “Who are ye!” Gridish yelled, before squinting his eyes in pain he just caused his head. The silhouette didn’t respond, not even a twitch. Gridish kept his sight fixated on the silhouette. Not a single movement, from either of them.  Behind Gridish, displacement of bones, pebbles and rocks can be heard. At first very distant, but slowly closing in on the orc. Gridish fixates his sight on the sound of the movement, not certain what to do. If it would be a Thunderlord, he would give himself up. If it would be a wild creature, than Gridish could be occupying its home and it would certainly attack, but if it’s a Red Blade, he would be safe.Gridish assesses the situation and decides to stay silent, but keeps his sight fixated on the direction the sounds are coming from. Silence. The sounds fade and there is complete and utter silence. No movement, no sound, no nothing. Just the shallow breaths and a pounding heart is all he hears. Suddenly, two ghostly lights appear out of nowhere, coming from a silhouette. He has seen those ghostly lights before. “Blackblade..?” Gridish says in a whispering tone. As if it was a response to his whisper, more pairs of ghostly lights appear from the silhouettes and Gridish notices quite swiftly that he’s surrounded by unknown creatures.

With every last bit of power Gridish has, he jolts up to his knees, still too disorientated to rise to his feet. He stares at the silhouettes surrounding him and he crawls back into a wall. “WHO ARE YE.” Gridish yells as panic starts to take over. The glowing eyes and their silhouettes slowly start making way torwards Gridish. “STAY BACK” Gridish continues to yell, trying to think of options he still might have. As if the spirits were watching over him, Gridish felt a surge of arcane energy running through his veins. Without hesitation, Gridish sends a frostbolt torwards the silhouettes. With a tremendous speed, the silhouettes jolted aside, avoiding the frostbolt that Gridish has sent for them, however they weren’t interested in Gridish anymore. Instead they made way to the spot of impact of the frostbolt. “The fell…? They are attracted by arcan-…’ As the thought rushed through his mind, he finally realized what he was facing. “Paleskins…. They are attracted to arcane.” Gridish looks around, then reaches into one of his pockets and pulls out a small bottle of ink. Still chained in the shackles, Gridish holds the pot close to his mouth, pulls the cork out with his teeth and places the pot on the floor. He dips one of his fingers into the pot, turns to the wall and starts drawing. “Please work…” he says muttering under his breath while drawing on the cave wall. After a short amount of time, the paleskins are digging and clawing the spot of impact left behind by the frostbolt while Gridish finishes drawing on the wall. He crawls back a bit and looks at his hands before returning his vision to the wall. He rests his hands on the wall drawing and starts chanting a spell. The Paleskins swiftly change their attention from the small essence of arcane to the casting arcanist and stare at him and at the wall. As Gridish chants, the drawing on the wall starts lighting up with a blue/purple’ish tint of light. Ear deafening  screeches arise from the Paleskins’ their mouths while Gridish continues to chant. Just as Gridish finishes his chanting, the paleskins jolt to Gridish, toss him aside with a brutal force and hog the painting on the wall. An arcane rune appeared on the wall, emitting an arcane aura attracting the paleskins. Gridish lands on his back and gasps for air as the last bit of energy he had left had been dedicated to the rune on the wall. He closes his eyes and sighs as he had bought himself some time, for now.

It's a late and quiet night in the saurfang outpost as noises come from a hut. "wwhhoo goes there?!" Lofty grumbles at the sound "Gridish. What the hell are you up too. Can't a tome catch some rest here?" Nothing but darkness, accompanied by the silence of the night, for once not even the wind making a sound. "I won't just forget that you are up and running in the middle of the night by being quiet." Lofty continues to grumble. "what are you doing up at this time of night?" The darkness is once again accompanied by silence. Light reflected off the moon shining vaguely into the cabin's window. The silence gets interupted by Gridish' sigh and he lights a candle that was standing on a table. "Nightmares." Gridish mutters.

Candlelight flickering and dancing, eluminating the entire room with an orange-reddish light as silence falls upon the room once again. "Is it because of your findings today?" Lofty asks in a low and caring voice. Gridish nods in response as he pulls one of his daggers, that he slammed into the table earlier that night, from the table. "you know you don't have to be ashamed or anything. Anyone that has experienced what you have would be worried with ogres nearby " Lofty continues " Heck.. most people would've perished that day..." Lofty's tone turns eary and a grim tention fills the room. "how about you ask Rhonya for some herbs for sleeping? Maybe talk to her.. or someone to clear your mind." Gridish slowly shakes his head as he peers at the candle, his eyes dancing with the flame. A longer period of silence hits the room. The only movement is the movement of the flame, dancing in the tension filled room. "want to keep an eye on the ogres tonight..?" Lofty asks. Gridish stares at Lofty, then jumps to his feet, his weapon already in his hand, as if he was anticipating the question.


A clear sky watches over the lands of frostfire as Gridish and Lofty take place on the overwatch. Flickering of fire from torches and campfires iluminate the surroundings of the tower the ogres are occupying. Grunts and snoring are the only sounds that can be heard from the place as the ogres have found some time to sleep. Hours pass without a word being said between the arcanist and his tome. The simple occupation of sitting on the ridge and keeping an eye on the ogre campsite seemed to be enough for both of them, the orc wrapped in his cloak, trying to stay as warm as possible and Lofty hovering on his spot. "nobody blames you for losing the fight you lost, Gridish.." Lofty says in a low voice. "and nobody will think of you as a coward for fearing the-" Gridish interupts Lofty with a stern look "I. Don't. Fear. Them." Lofty silently peers down at the valley while making a nodding gesture. A tense vibe surrounds the two as Gridish returns his sight on the ogre camp. "I'm sorry... You are only trying to help." Gridish says with a sigh. "No no, I understand Gridish. I can't possibly understand the feelings you have right now, but I do know that your actions are havily influenced by your feelings." Lofty continues "You're my friend... You can always talk to me if you'd like. Or when you prefer nights like this, I will certainly sit with you through them." A small smile appears from under Gridish' wolfmask as his gae stays on the ogre camp down below


A couple more hours pass, once again in silence, glimps of  morning light slowly appearing on the horizon. "I was certain I would die there that night." Gridish says with a sigh. "By a bunch of unorganized ogres no less." The thought alone makes Gridish growl under his breath. "Yer mind gets filled with thoughts near death. What could ye have done better. What ye could have done differently. What ye would have done differently." The wind picks up and starts howling through the hills and gaps of frostfire, those lands sculpted by the elements that have been grinding at those lands for years. "You did all you could that night, Gridish. Stop beating yourself up over it. Most would've simply handed the soulstone over and died a coward. You fought for what was right, what you believed in. You didn't fail that night.  You were victorious if you ask me. You might have lost the fight, but you never gave up, and that is where you were victorious, why you are here today, reunited with the tribe." Gridish nods slowly in response to Lofty's peptalk hut keeps his gaze on the ogre camp. "come on.. everyone will be up soon. We'll find Rhonni so you can get some of her herbs, alright?" Gridish takes one last glance at the ogre camp, before nodding slowly, gets to his feet and heads back to camp.

The blistering, dry and overwhelming heat of the blasted lands rages on as Gridish makes his way to the dark portal. "The soul link still doesn't work. It probably will if I go through the dark portal" Gridish thinks to himself, not paying any attention to what is happening ahead of him. "You, Orc! Who are you and what are you doing here?" A strange voice yells torwards Gridish. Even before Gridish could look up and react, he is stopped in his tracks by two heavily armoured orcs. "I asked you a question." One of the two said. The two guards certainly weren't joking around. Their body language was tense, strict and clearly ready to beat someone to death that gave them the wrong answer. Gridish however noticed very little of their intimidation. Instead, he was inspecting the events that were occuring around the Dark Portal, checking to see if he could find a single familiar face in the masses. "I'll give you one last chance to respond before I kick your arse, orc." Said one of the guards. That did get Gridish's attention and responded hastily, yet certain "I'm searching for members of the Red Blade tribe. Have you heard or seen any orc with this tabard?" Gridish plucks at his tabard to draw attention to it. "Never heard of them. Now get lost. You've got nothing to do here." Said the guard again and the two guards reached out to grab an arm each until a familiar voice arose from the masses. "Stop! That orc is with me. Touch him and I'll have both of your heads." The guards and Gridish peered in the direction of the voice. The sight of Gridish' elderly teacher brought a smile to his face. The two guards slowly acknowledged the man and let Gridish go.


"Gridish. You're up and well.. I'm filled with joy to see you. Did I miss his message?" Gridish's teacher asked as he gave the orc a firm handshake. " Ye haven't missed a word my old friend. He betrayed us both with lies for the simple cause of revenge. He told me my tribe had died by an ogre attack and told me that you were too busy to visit." Gridish growls lowly and continues to look around. Troops polishing armour, sharpening blades and preparing supplies. "what is going on..? Are the Red Blades alright?" Gridish turns his sight to his teacher. His teacher explains the recent events to Gridish, how the iron horde came through the Dark Portal, how they were fended off and how the Dark Portal on the other side was destroyed. Gridish sighs and looks around again. His eye catches orcs training combat scenarios and nods slowly, still confused with what is going on. "what are these troops doing here if the portal has been disconnected?" Gridish asks as he looks at his teacher. "every now and thwn, archmages on the other side are able to open small portals for a short period of time for reinforcements to join the fight." Gridish folds his arms and nods slowly. "how do I get the permission to go through one of those portals?" Gridish asks and peers at his teacher again. "Concider it taken care of if you are certain on this decision, Gridish. My tent is not to far from here. Get a decent weapon and some armour and I'll get you access to one of those portals. I can't promise you that the next one will be any time soon. So all I can tell you is to be ready." His teacher says and Gridish nods slowly, giving his teacher a firm handshake once more and walks off to the tent.


There isn't a single moment of silence within the camp. Training sessions, drunk singing and smithing make sure of that. Exactly how the preperations of war should sound like. Searching through his teacher's tent, Gridish finds his old robes from his stay in Dalaran and a decent blade that he can use as well as a set of daggers. As he continues searching, he gets startled by a familiar, high pitched, squeeky and bloody annoying voice. "GRIDIIIISHHHH!" Before Gridish can turn around, he gets 'bodychecked' by a speeding book. "You're stil alive! I can't believe it! Well.. i can. I never doubted you.. ever!". Gridish snickers as he pats his lost pal Lofty. "It's good to see you Lofty, but what are you doing here?" Gridish peers at Lofty as he sheathes his blade. "well.. I followed the tribe all secretly like until here. They were in a huge fight and thats where I hid- I MEAN FOUGHT BRAVELY! By the time I looked around, they were gone. So I stayed here and that's when your teacher found me." Gridish nods slowly and continues to look around for some supplies. "Would you be up for joining me in search of the tribe?" Gridish looks torwards Lofty, questioningly. "well.. I don't know. I'm pretty busy.. but then again, someone needs to keep you alive..... Well.. hmmm... SURE!" Lofty bumps against Gridish again and snickers. Gridish snickers as well and finishes up on getting his suplies ready.


A few hours later Gridish and Lofty are joined by Gridish's teacher. "Ah! I see you two have reunited again. Gridish, everything has been taken care of. You will be able to join the troops on the next portal out." His teacher smiles at the two while Gridish nods and shows his gratitude with another firm handshake. "However, there is one thing you need before you leave." Gridish looks at his teacher questionably as his teacher pulls out a smoothe stone and hands it over to Gridish. "You have encountered one of these before on your trip to Nagrand. It's a communication stone. As always, I have someone watching over the tribe.. at your request. Once you go through the portal, you'll be able to contact him and find your brothers and sisters easier." Gridish looks at the stone, takes it and puts it in his pocket and gives his teacher a tight hug. "thank ye for everything. I owe ye my life and then some." His teacher smiles and pats Gridish' back. "It's been a true honour. May our pathes cross again some day, Gridish." The conversation quickly gets interupted by loud shouting "REINFORCEMENTS. MOVE! THE PORTAL HAS BEEN OPENED!" Gridish and his teacher look torwards the yelling. "off you go Gridish. Lofty, take good care of our friend here." Gridish and Lofty nod before they head off to the portal to continue their journey.

Present day


Late afternoon light shimers through the window, iluminating the old, stylish room, walls covered in bookcases and the center of the room occupied by a large spiral staircase, guarded by the remains of a aviant dinosaur that are hanging from the ceiling. Occupying a desk by the window is a heavily bandaged orc, reading one of the many books. He slowly flips through the pages, reading them as he goes. "Gridish, your food is ready. Come and get it while it's still warm." The orc sighs, closes his book, gets up slowly and starts making his way down the spiral staircase of the tower.


Just like the upper floor, the other floors' walls are covered with bookcases, filled with books. Gridish makes it downstairs and takes a seat at a table that is prepared with a meal. "Ah there you are Gridish. Did you learn a lot today?" The human asks. Gridish grunts lowly as he eats, hardly acknowledging the question at all and the human sighs in response. As they continue their meal, Gridish slowly looks up at the human. "How did they die?" The human nearly chokes on his food at the question and looks up at Gridish and looks at the orc suprised. "You know the answer to that question. You've asked me that question every meal since you've been informed.." Gridish grunts and continues with his meal, sighing softly.


A few months ago


"He's still in his coma.... How long do you think it will last?" Gridish teacher asks the human mage. "I'm not certain. His wounds need to heal. They can only heal properly if he's in this state." says the mage softly and continues " I'm fully aware you have tasks to furfill. I'll take care of the orc as if he was one of my own. That I promise you. I will send a message for you when he awakens." The mage and Gridish's teacher nod slowly to each other before the teacher leaves.


A few days later Gridish slowly awakens, before trying to jump out of bed, attempting to grab his blade and get ready to strike. Instead he  slams onto the ground as he notices he doesn't have any strength in his legs. After hearing the loud thump of the orc hitting the ground, the human rushes up to check on the orc. "ah.. you are finally awake, Gridish. Do you remember me? Maybe you remember this place? No?" Gridish stares at the human. "yes, it's me.. the poor mage you and your orc friends attacked on your trip in red ridge. This very tower you besieged. It's alright though. I promised our teacher I'd take care of you." The mage nods slowly and walks to Gridish, helping him up and helping him back to bed. Gridish looks around, not certain with what's going on. "you got ambushed by ogres a month ago... You lost the fight, but your teacher and some of his pupils rescued you and brought you here. You've been asleep since then."


Gridish slowly looks around, checking his surroundings. "where is the tribe?" Gridish asks and looks up at the human. " oh...well, an army of ogres ambushed Garadar.. The troops of Shattrath were to late to do anything. No orc survived. I'm real sorry for your loss." Gridish grunts and looks away in disbelief.  "your teacher would like you to stay here until he returns. My house is your house. I'll give you some time." The mage nods slowly and walks down the spiral stairs.



The present day

"You didn't answer my question" Gridish grumbled as he looked up torwards the human. The human mage nods slowly. "The Red Blades died to an ogre attack on Oshu'gu-" Gridish jumps to his feet and slams his fists on the table, interupting the mage. "You said they died in Garadar. They aren't dead.. are they!?" The mage also jumps to his feet and stares at Gridish, seemingly a bit nervous. "t-that.. thats what I meant.. Ga-" Before the mage can finish his sentence, Gridish slams the table asside, clearing the path between him and the mage.


"Where... Are... They!?"  The mage takes a few steps back. "they are dead!" Gridish lets out a loud roar, conjures a frostbolt and casts it at the mage. "Where!?" The mage hastily dodges the frostbolt, but trips and falls onto the ground. "Alright! Last I heard, they went through the strange dark portal... Something strange happened to it and the Red Blades went through it. That is the last report I've read from your teacher's student... Please don't kill me." Gridish stares at the mage that is shaking on the floor. "I won't kill you. I will let our teacher decide what to do with you. You haven't just lied to me." Gridish spits on the floor beside the mage and walks off and opens the door. "step through that door and you won't be able to return. What would your teacher think of you." Gridish looks over his shoulder and grunts. "The only one that needs to worry about him is you and what he'll do to you. Gridish snorts walks through the magic barrier into the wilderness of Red Ridge.

The setting sun of the late evening, illuminates the lands of Nagrand in a yellow and red tinted light as Gridish is on his way back to Garadar.
At first glances, it's a peaceful evening in Nagrand. Branches of the trees dancing around while the wind leads them, sounds of the wildlife calling for one and other, and then there's Lofty, yapping, yelling and singing.
"So, when are we going to pick Celoa up again?" Lofty blabbers while immediately bumping into Gridish's side. "I don't want them to take too long.. I'll get lonely with Celoa!.. Gridish!... Gridiissh!!! Tell me!"
Without any interaction with Lofty at all, Gridish continues his way to Garadar calmly, looking through a book he received as a gift for taking Celoa on the tribe's travels. The book contains history of the lands of Nagrand.
"Gridiiiiish!!! Staaahp ignoring meeeee!!!" Lofty starts shouting and demanding. "I -COMMAND- you to te-." A strong gust picks up and blasts Lofty back a bit, causing him to lack behind.
Treebranches start dancing even more in response to the picking up of the wind as Gridish looks up from his book, closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and lets a smile appear on his face.
"Lofty, it's a beautiful evenin out, isn't it?" Gridish looks back at Lofty while smiling, before looking around him again, watching a flack of owls glide in the wind. "Let's take a small break before reaching Garadar.. What do you say?"
Before Lofty could even respond, Gridish stepped away from the road, took a seat in the grass and looked over the plains of Nagrand, still fully illuminated by the setting sun.
Wind blowing through his tabard, the trees and the grass, creating an orchestra of nature's music. Reflection of the orange tinted sun in the patches of water, surrounded by the grassy lands.
While inspecting the lands and it's music, Gridish adjusts his seating and leans back on his hands, seeming at peace in his mind while Lofty slowly floats up to him and hovers in the air beside him, using Gridish as a windwall.
"Gridish...." Lofty says in a questioning voice. "Orcs within the tribe keep asking you why you keep me with you... and it's a valid question. You've learned most spells I contain, and truth be told.. The only thing I ever do is get in trouble. I don't really fit in.. Why haven't you gotten rid of me yet?"
Any signs of peace in Gridish's facial expression dissapeared, replaced by confusion and suprise while he turns his gaze to Lofty.
"Oh.. Now you're going to yell at me again.. aren't you?" Lofty whimpers and starts shivering a little in his place. "I'll be quiet.."
The wind picks up even more, making Gridish's tabard flap violently in the wind as Gridish continues peering at Lofty. The flack of owls quickly dive to the ground as the wind seems to be too strong for them to glide peacefully. Even some leaves let go of their branches and float into the nothingness of the skies, though Lofty hovers without any problems as Gridish is still acting as a windwall for him.
"There is no reason for me to yell at ye tonight, Lofty. Yer question is valid. Ye were assigned as a learning tome for me after all." Gridish looks up at to where the owls have landed. His confused  and suprised facial expression turns to a peaceful smile. "Do you see those owls over there? The ones that were gliding in the sky?"
Lofty lets out a soft "Mhm", almost unhearable by the sounds of the wind, the branches and the grass whistling in the wind. "What do ye think they are?" Lofty stays quiet while Gridish looks back down at him with a smile. "I see them as a family. They stick together through thick and thin. They take care for one and other when it's needed.. and they'll never abandon each other."
The strong gust settles and the owls take to the sky again, happily gliding in the wind. "Yer probably wonderin why I'm telling you this, hmm?" One of the owls dives to the ground, then quickly changes his travel direction and heads for the skies again, holding a rat in his beak as Gridish pauses.
"It's because I see you as my family, Lofty. Out of everyone I know so far, you're the one that has stuck with me the longest. You're the one that, eventhough ye're quite the pain in the arse at times, helped me become the arcanist I am today. Besides that, ye've helped me become the person I am today." Gridish looks down and pats Lofty gently on his cover " Yer my family and yer my best friend... Don't ye ever forget that."
Quickly after Gridish finished, a few more owls dive down to the ground, and quickly changing their travel direction, also carrying food in their beaks. Shortly after, the owls let the wind take them away and they dissapear in the distance.



Neighing of multiple animals can be heard feintly in a distance, catching both Gridish's and Lofty's attention as they both look around, searching for what animals are making the noises. A herd of Talbuk appear on the horizon. They're still neighing and looking around as they make their way to the pool of water.
Gridish points out torwards the Talbuk while leaning torwards Lofty. "There they are. They're makin the noises.. It's probably their drinkin spot." The herd of talbuk slowly make their way to the pool of water, some starting to graze and drink water while a few of them keep watch, making sure they don't fall prey to danger.
The white and purple tinted fur of the trip colours orange and reddish- brown in the light of the setting sun. "Wooowww... That's beautiful! Look at their furs in the sunlight!" Lofty says in a soft tone while the two gaze at the herd. "Why are those two over there looking around instead of eating and drinking??"
Gridish peers at the two that Lofty is talking about and smirks a little. "They are makin sure the rest of their pack doesn't get ambushed by other hungry wildlife, Lofty.... Soon they'll switch places with two others so they can eat and drink.. Just watch." Gridish nods slowly as he points out torwards the herd while explaining.
As Gridish predicted, two Talbuk take the spotters' positions and the old spotters turn to grazing and drinking. "That's the strength of the pack, Lofty.. A grand example of it. The Tribe does the same in situations. Part of the pack is busy with somethin, while others keep an eye on the surroundins. It's to keep the pack safe and make sure we're not up for any suprises."
Silence appears between the two as Gridish starts bringing up memories of the tribe. Situations where the strenght of the pack was reflected at it's finest. He slowly nods while in thought, slowly lowering his arm. "Stayin in a pack is important. It's somethin that Grogona and I try to keep fresh in the tribe's orcs' minds."
Lofty doesn't seem to be listening and continues staring at the herd, clearly impressed by the sight of the event unfolding in front of him.
The two continue to gaze at the trip while the herd does it's thing. A peaceful and beautiful sight unfolds into a scene of panic and terror in the blink of an eye as the Talbuk quickly jolt away. "W-what's happening?!?!" Lofty shouts as he peers in confusion at the jolting herd of Talbuk. Gridish softly pats lofty's cover and points at a couple of clefthoof make their way to the pool of water.
"The spotters spotted a threat.. A threat too great for their pack, so they decided to retreat." Gridish looks at Lofty, nodding and still pointing torwards the talbuk and the clefthoof. "That's the reason why there are spotters, Lofty. If not.. then they could've been trampeled."
Lofty lets out a soft gasping noise, then makes a nodding gesture, still gazing at where the herd of Talbuk were, still seeming quite confused. "Would orcs hunt for those Talbuk things?"
Lofty bursts out in laughter even before Gridish could answer him. "Ofcourse not.. What's that nice orc's name..? Uh.. Rhonni-... RHONYA! She has one, yes?" Gridish looks rather suprised, then chuckles and nods slowly "Aye.. Rhonni has a Talbuk. We would still hunt on them though. We also hunt worgs. We need to survive Lofty, and to survive, we need food." Gridish nods slowly while grinning. "One day, Rhonya will probably find a dead Talbuk while it's bein eaten by our worgs.."
Seemingly not amused with what Gridish said, Lofty rams against Gridish's head and starts shouting "THAT'S NOT FUNNY! THAT'S A HORRIBLE THING TO SAY! TALBUK ARE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES! YOU EVIL EVIL ORC! BAAADDDDDDD!!!!" Gridish does nothing but laugh at Lofty's outburst.
As time passes, Lofty calms down and starts hovering beside Gridish again, looking out at the field. A period of silence appears between the two. The only sound that is heard is the rinseling of the branches and the grass.
"Did you mean everything you said, Gridish?.. I mean.. about me being your family.. Not the Talbuk stuff." Lofty asks a bit in a low tone. Gridish looks down at Lofty with a smile and nods slowly. "Ye know yer my friend and my family. Ye shouldn't have to ask such questions, ye silly tome."
The two stare at each other in complete silence for a brief moment, only interupted by the soft breeze of  Nagrand's winds, carrying the branches and grass in the seemingly endless dance.
"W-... Well... Just so you know.. I also see you as family. I can't imagine being happy anywhere that you aren't." Lofty says in a low voice. "Can you promise me something..?" Gridish looks at Lofty with a confused sight, then nods slowly. "Promise me you won't ever abandon me."
Silence falls again between the two, Gridish peering at Lofty and Lofty hovering on his spot, shivering a little, seemingly distressed by what he just asked and what the answer might be.
"I promise ye Lofty... I'll never abandon ye. If we get seperated, then I'll come and find ye. Just like I did back at the horde gatherin in Silvermoon City. Remember when those trolls stole ye? I burned their entire camp down for ye!"
That broke the ice between the two and they both started laughing, clearly amused by the thoughts of the past. "Thank you Gridish... That means a lot to me." Lofty softly says, still snickering slightly. "That's all I wanted to know.. shall we continue our way back to Garadar? Today was a long day and you probably need your rest."
A short gust picks up and blows through Gridish's hair and tabard, flapping them around a bit before Gridish nods slowly and turns his gaze back to the field in front of them, Lofty doing the same.




( Picture not mine.)


As time passes, the dancing of the treebranches and the orchestra of nature simmers down, as the wind starts to settle. It was like nature had called it a night. The wind settles. the sun sets, leaving the orange tinted land in darkness and the sounds of wildlife dims.
"Lofty, ye still awake?" Gridish asks as he adjusts his seating again, pushing himself up from his hands and looks down at Lofty with a grin. "Ye ready to head back? It's gettin late."
While grabbing his stuff, Gridish takes one last glance over the lands he's been looking at all this time. He takes one more deep breath and smiles again, then starts traveling back to Garadar again with Lofty floating behind him.
Crickets sing in harmony, showing that there's still life at night within the lands of Nagrand as the two travel back to Garadar. Gridish, enjoying his walk back while happily looking around, still at peace in his mind.
"Gridish..." Lofty says in a low tone, unable for Gridish to hear him over the crickets' singing. " Gridish..!" This time Lofty says it a bit louder and Gridish looks back at Lofty, peering at him slightly. "I'm getting a real bad vibe right now.."
As if it's clockwork, the singing of the crickets starts to dim and Lofty starts to shiver and shake while hovering on one spot. "What kind of bad vibe, Lofty..?" Lofty stays silent, still shivering and shaking on the spot. "Yer probably imagining things, come on.. let's get goin. we're still a ways away from Garadar."
As Gridish is about to grab a hold of Lofty, he gets sidetracked by movement in the corner of his eye. The peacefulminded orc quickly turns into a focussed Arcanist while he unsheathes his blade and turns his entire body around in the direction of the movement. "Who goes there!" Gridish yells, without a response. "Show yerself!" Gridish shouts again and again without a response.
The lands of Nagrand have turned completely dark by this time of night as Gridish holds his blade out ahead of him, feeding it arcane power as he reaches a hand out torwards Lofty, that is shivering and shaking right behind him. "It might've just been a wanderin Talbuk, Lofty.. come on.. let's continue." Gridish says, quite unsure what to believe himself.
Lofty slowly floats up into Gridish's hand and nudges Gridish slightly in a signal that it's alright to move up. The sound of crickets has completely dissapeared at this moment. A feint light comes from Gridish's blade, still filled with arcane power and held in front of him, ready to stand his ground if needed.
"There are multiple of them... I can feel it, Gridish.." Lofty says while his voice breaks up a bit, shivering and shaking in Gridish's hand. The night turned from a peaceful and harmonic night to a tense and deadsilent night, darkness surrounding the orc and his tome as they continue following the path to Garadar, slowly.
Low voices appear beside the path that Gridish is traveling on "Is that the orc...(I think it is! It is!!) How can you be so sure? ( A tome! A talking tome!) Oh yes ofcourse! (Ofcourse indeed!!!)" As Gridish hears the voices, he turns his blade in their direction, turning his entire body, keeping Lofty on his back and shielding him from danger.
"Show yerselves! NOW!" Gridish shouts and commands. As if it's a response to Gridish's shouting, heavy footsteps can be heard coming from the bushes and the grass, slowly getting louder and getting closer, whispers coming from the same direction "That's him(him indeed!)" "What do we do? ( Kill kill kill!!)". The sounds of whispers and footsteps surround Gridish and his tome, before the sounds fade.
"We're surrounded."Lofty says in a low voice, shivering and shaking heavily in Gridish's hand. Blinded by the darkness of the night, it's impossible to make out who or even what has surrounded the orc, but he knows almost certainly what he's up against.
The moments of silence seem to last an eternity as the orc holds his defensive stance, desperately looking around him, knowing well enough that he won't be able to see who's surrounded him. His heart is racing, adrenaline and arcane power pumping through his vains waiting for the challenge ahead of him to reveal himself and ready for what's about to come.
"Hand it over and we'll let you live ( No we won't! We won't!!) Shut up! We will! ( Lier!!)" Laughter from multiple individuals can be heard, shortly after followed up by a ring of fire, lighting up Gridish's surroundings, though what he sees shocks him. He bares his teeth as he sees that he's surrounded by five ogres, both him and the ogres surrounded by a ring of fire.
The pounding of his heart is uncontrollable as he realizes in what kind of situation he's in. Sweat appears on Gridish's forehead as the combination of the mental pressure and the heat of the ring of fire get to him. "What do ye want?!" He shouts, turning on the spot and holding his blade out torwards the ogres in a threatening manner.
One of the ogres steps slightly forward in response to Gridish's question as the blade points torwards him. "We want the soulstone ( GIVE IT NOW!) It's not yours.. It's our master's ( GIVE IT! GIVE IT!). Give it now and we'll let you go ( NO! WE'LL KILL YOU SWIFTLY!)"
Gridish bares his teeth, growls and slashes torwards the Ogre, letting some of the arcane power clash out of the blade, torwards the ogre."Ye'll never get the soulstone! Never!" The ogre steps back in response to the slash and laughs. As if it's a qeueu, the other ogres laugh as well. "Foolish orc.. You're dead either way. Give it now and you'll die swiftly!(Swiftly and painless!)"
While the ogres laugh, gridish channels some arcane power to the hand he's holding Lofty in and freezes Lofty into a thin block of ice and whispers "Lofty.. get out of here. Get to safety. Go to the tribe and warn them.. Then return to Shattrath." A muffled, yet very clear protesting can be heard from the iceblock as Gridish tosses the iceblock through the fire. As Lofty lands on the other side, the iceblock shattering.
He tries to get back to Gridish, but is unable to by the ring of fire. "GRIDISH!.... GRIIIDIIIISH!!!!!" Lofty screams and yells, but without any response. The only thing Lofty hears is the laughter of the ogres and the raging of the fire.

(Duo to eceeding max chars, story continues in next post..)

A bright flash can be seen in the woods during the late afternoon.
" Gridish, Why are you tiring yourself out when you have a tournament to attend to in a couple of hours?"
Gridish freezes the last standing trainingdummy, then shatters it to pieces with a frostbolt.
" Lofty, I'm not tirin myself out... This is warmup. Ye can't enter a tournament without a proper warmin up."
Gridish reaches for his flask and takes a drink of water while he looks at the once called dummies.
Gridish puts his flask away and grins at the sight of the destroyed training dummies.
He mutters lowly to himself "This tournament should be mine." He grabs to the cart, and drags out a couple more training dummies.
He sets them up in a standard pattern and unsheathes his sword. " Alright Gridish, these are the last set of training dummies we have brought with us.. Make this round count."
Gridish grins to Lofty's comment and executes a sequence of spells, obliderating the training dummies one by one.
Gridish sheathes his sword again and turns to the position he started in. By that time he notices he has visitors.


A small group of trolls have gathered, however they don't seem to be paying any attention to Gridish. Instead they are fully focussed on Lofty.
One of the trolls stands ahead of the others in the group, poking with a stick in Lofty's direction.
" OI! DON'T POKE THAT STICK AT ME YOU BARBARIANS!" As Lofty shouts the trolls jump back. Lofty giggles as they jump back.
" I thought so... Don't poke me with a stick you stupid beings." Gridish slowly approaches the group with his hand resting on the hilt of his blade.
" Somethin ye trolls need...?" The trolls quickly shift their gaze towards Gridish. The troll armed with the stick takes a couple steps foward.
He stares at Gridish, slowly turns his gaze towards Lofty while pointing with his entire hand towards the floating tome. The troll then returns his gaze towards Gridish while slowly retracting his arm to himself.
Gridish raises an eyebrow while staring the troll down " Ye want the book..?" The troll nods, quickly followed by the rest of the group behind him, all nodding.
Gridish shakes his head " No.. Ye can't have the book.. He's mine." The leading troll points once again towards Lofty and hisses towards Gridish " Evil... Mon."
Lofty quickly floats towards Gridish and hops into his pouch on Gridish's belt. The troll tilts his head, staring at the orc with a demanding gaze. " Book... Mon."
Gridish shakes his head once again " Ye aren't gettin the book. Now back off. We're do-"  A hard object hits Gridish in the back of his head with high speed and his sight goes dark.
A few moments after the impact, Gridish blinks slowly. His gaze is blury. After the first blink he can see the trolls tieing Lofty to a stick.
After the second time he blinks, the trolls have found his bag and are searching through it.
After another blink one of the trolls peers at Gridish, walks up towards him and kicks him in the face. Once again everything goes dark.


A feint female voice can be heard in a echoing manner "~Rimeweeaaveer~..... ~Mr... Rimmeeeeeeeeweeaveerrr.~" a soft pounding can be felt, but it is hard to make out how, what and where.
The feint voice becomes more clear, and the pounding does too. It's a constant pounding to the chest " Mr. Rimeweaveerrr! WAKE UP!" Gridish opens his eyes and can see Celoa bumping into his chest constantly yelling " Wake up! Don't die Mr. Rimeweaver!!"
Gridish puts his hand between Celoa and his chest to stop her from bouncing against his chest. " Oh! Mr. Rimeweaver! You are alive!!!! Oh! that wound on your head looks like it hurts! Does it hurt? Do I need to get help?"
While Celoa asks questions constantly, Gridish seems to be in his own state of mind, looking around, inspecting his surroundings.
The afternoon sunlight has changed into the late sunset of the night. His bag lays empty on the ground by a tree, and eventhough there is a yelling female voice.. something else is missing.
" DO I need to get help Mr Rimeweaver? Can you still talk?! Do you w-" Gridish points a finger towards Celoa in a motion for her to be quiet.
" Where's Lofty..?" Gridish stares at Celoa for a brief moment as both of them are silent. " Celoa... Where... Is... Lofty?" Celoa silently floats in front of Gridish's face.
Gridish raises his voice now to a state where he's yelling. "ANSWER ME. WHERE. IS. LOFTY?"
Celoa starts to shiver of fear as Gridish raises his voice. " I-I... I don't know... You were gone for a long time.. so I came looking for-... you were on the grou-... I thought you were dead!"
Gridish grunts and slowly sits upright. " Gridish! You should lay down! you might be seriously injured!" Gridish points his finger again towards Celoa in a motion for her to be quiet.
" Ye've explored these grounds while we've been here this week... right?" Celoa makes a nodding motion. " I've been attacked by a group of trolls. They took Lofty, everythin from my bag-.." Gridish looks around. " And my sword. Show me where their camp is."
Celoa silently floats in front of Gridish's face. " Celoa.. NOW!" Celoa shivers again as Gridish raises his voice and starts floating in a random direction " T-This way.."


" It's quite a ways away. The ones you are talking about are quite the bunch. They've been stealing magical artifacts from Silvermoon City -all- the time! It's a small group though.. Very small camp."
Gridish silently nods while feeling his face. There is an open wound under his left eye. The back of his head also has a wound on it, however it is already clautered.
" We almost there Celoa..?" Celoa stops for a moment and peers around " Here... No... There? Maybe...." Gridish peers at Celoa and sighs. " AH! This way Mr Rimeweaver!"
another hour goes by as the two search through the woods when all of a sudden they hear a feint annoying, high-pitched voice "Let go of me you bunch of barbarians! I'll cut you all up! I'M NOT BAD GUGU! YOU ARE!"
Gridish grabs ahold of Celoa and puts her in her book pouch on his belt " Thanks Celoa.. I'll take it from here." Gridish approaches the annoying screaming voice as it gets louder and louder. " STOP POKING MEEEEEE!!!!!"
As Gridish gets closer to the camp, he can see the light of a campfire going. Gridish looks around, then notices a small hill and decides to take the vantage point to inspect the camp.
As he inspects the camp, he can see Lofty tied to a pole, yapping and splashing around like a fish caught by a fishingrod with trolls standing around him, poking him with sticks.
Further in the camp is a pile with Gridish's items from his bag. By the campfire are 3 trolls sitting in a small circle, staring at a purple stone, hitting at it with sticks. Further there are tents made of leaves, branches and leather spread around the site.
Gridish stares at the troll camp for quite a while, trying to plot an extraction plan. After a while, Gridish is satisfied with the plan he's thought up of, and moves down towards the camp. On his way to the camp, he frosts up a layer of trees closest to the camp.
After the frosting process, Gridish approaches the camp on the side of the tents, and approaches the tent near the pile of items. Gridish slowly puts his stuff into his bag, then creeps back out towards the other side of the tent.
He then makes his way to the tent closest to Lofty and gets close to the ground. He turns his gaze to the group of tents he just passed, and sends a small fireball flying towards that way. The fire hits one of the tents.
The fire slowly starts to spread on the one tent, then slowly continues to spread thru ought the group of tents. The fire starts raging through the camp. The trolls all look up towards the tents and start running in panic.
The trolls guarding Lofty drop their sticks and head towards the flaming tents. While They drop their guard, Gridish runs towards Lofty and cuts the rope with one of his daggers, grabs a hold of Lofty and puts him in his pouch.
Gridish looks towards the campfire of the trolls, where three of them were gathered with the purple stone. Now, only a purple stone can be found. Gridish runs towards it, grabs a hold of it and leaves the camp.


As Gridish runs from the camp, absolute panic can be heard, as well as the flickering of the light of fire can be seen, coming from the camp. Gridish lets out a deep sigh, then lets Lofty out from his pouch.
Lofty pops out and floats in front of Gridish's face. " About time you came to rescue me! Jeez! It's almost morning! Just look at the sky! I CAN SEE DAYLIGHT STARTING TO FILL THE SKY! By the way.. you look horrible!"
Gridish lets out a humored snort and walks on " I could've also let them burn ye... yet I didn't!" Lofty makes a sighing noise. " I guess.. Thanks Gridish..."
Gridish lets out another humored snort " Well, we have quite a way to go Lofty. So shut up or get in yer pouch.. My head is killin me."
Gridish continues navigating through the woods while Lofty silently floats after him as the sunlight can be seen coming from the horizon.

As the late evening sun starts to set, Gridish is setting up training dummies deep in the woods. Lofty is floating around in circles " this surely is a beautiful place. I mean look at the colours of the leaves! With this sunset they are a more reddish tint." Gridish raises an eyebrow while setting down the final training dummy. " Eh Lofty, get yer mind set onto the trainin ahead. We have a lot to do for the tournament this week." Lofty makes a sighing noise and inspects the pattern that the training dummies are set up in. "Alright, well you know the drill Gridish, get to the first two unseen and take them out quickly. Blink up to the next group and take them all out at once with a surge of arcane power, then finish off by running up to the last dummy, empower your blade and finish him off with it."
Gridish nods and runs the training sequence.


After a few hours, the setting sun has turned into the night light of the moon. Gridish has set up some torches that light up his training scenarios. " alright Gridish, time for a break. You seem to be these runs perfectly. Keep this up and you'll just stomp any apponents that come across you!" Lofty lets out a hearty chuckle while Gridish takes a moment to readjust his shoulderpads. "Gridish, since you are getting a new staff in silvermoon, don't you think this is a perfect place to get that shoulderpad fixed?" Gridish looks up at Lofty and gives him an approving nod. " good, now lets get back to your training, Grdish! We are almost finished up for the night." Gridish unsheathes his blade and gets ready to start his training. As Gridish gets ready to sprint off towards the first training dummy as a sudden movement appears from some bushes to Gridish's left. Gridish quickly adjusts his footing and casts an arcane blast towards the movement. The arcane blast impales a tree. In a defensive stance, Gridish checks his surroundings. "Who's there, show yerself." A light chuckle can be heard from a bush behind Gridish. A mysterious figure appears from the bush. A human wearing darker robes appears from the bush.


"Lofty, inspect the surroundings for more alliance troops, if ye find more then send word to the tribe." Lofty seems to struggle with the sudden command, as if he doesn't want to leave Gridish's side but after a few seconds of concidering he does as Gridish tells him and floats off into the distance. Gridish channels a quick arcane blast and casts it towards the human. In a response the human blinks. The adcane blast hits another tree. Gridish looks around searching for the human, holding his blade out ahead of him. " I'm not here to hurt you arcanist." Gridish channels another arcane blast and casts it towards the voice. " If you won't stand down, I will have to use unnecessary measurements, arcanist." Again, Gridish channels another arcane blast and casts it towards the voice. " Very well, you leave me no choice." The human steps through the bushes again with hishands behind his back. Gridish attempts to channel another arcane blast but doesn't seem to be able to. "That won't be necessary orc, I have noy come to harm you. I have come to aid you. A mutual friend has sent me in his time of absence. " Gridish holds his blade out towards the human " not a step closer. When Lofty finds the other troups, the Red Blades will come to skin ye and yer kind." The human lets out another soft chuckle " I have come alone. I don't think ill of your kind. Like I said, I am merely here to assist you. " Gridish keeps his blade risen towards the human. "Who sent you?" The human smiles " Once, a timenago, you were a young orc with little skill, searching for something you heard of, right?" Gridish nods. " Well, one day someone saved you from a near death experience. That is also the one that sent me. I am also one of his students." Gridish slowly lowers his sword. "Why are ye here..?" The human turn around and reaches for a leaf on a tree. " Our teacher has requested me to watch over you while he investigates the isle that appeared off the coast of pandaria.


Recently you have aqquired an item which you have questions about, right?" Gridish nods and reaches into his robes and grabs the purple stone, holding it out in his hand." This started glowin when we slayed a warlock Ogre." The human inspects the stone from a distance. "Could I hold it please?" Gridish stares the human down, hesitant on giving him the stone. "If you want I can take it from you with force, and give you the answers you are looking for then, Gridish." Gridish blinks and silently stares the human down, then tosses the stone over. The human catches it, inspects it closely. He then closes the hand thst he's holding the stone in and closes his eyes. Moments later he opens hiseyes again and tosses the stone back to Gridish. "As I thought. The soul of your foe, lays within that stone. Warlocks are know to carry soulstones. If their body dies, they'll be able t be resurrected with that stone. However.. this soulstone feels tampered with in some way. I do not have the knowledge nor the ways to figure out what they've done to it." Gridish nods slowly, putting the stone away. "Well, before anyone comes looking for you, I should be on my way. May the spirits protect you Gridish." The human blinks into the bush, then dissapears out of sight.


Gridish silently stares at where the human was just standing. Lofty comes floating back "Gridish! I didn't find any alliance troo-... where is he? Did you kick his ass?!?" Gridish shakes his head slowly. "we'll continue the training Lofty."

A few hours have passed since the battle. Gridish had found his way to Nira and laid down beside her and closed his eyes. It felt like only seconds had passed when he got tapped on his shoulder. A Shadowmoon Village guard that fought by his side earlier, reported in for a patrolling duty. With a somewhat dissapointed sigh Gridish replied " zug'zug, give me a couple minutes and I'll be ready. Gridish kisses Nira on her cheek while he gets out of bed, grabs his gear and heads down stairs, where a goup of guards are ready to go. "Alright orcs, lets give the other patroll group a few minutes to report in, then we'll head out". The guards  check the map to check the route again.

Gridish takes this time to look around. At this time of night, most orcs have found a place to rest. Menders are still checking up on the wounded every 15 minutes, but other then that the village has calmed down. Yet the village still paints a picture of panic and death. The guard tower that has been demolished, the bridges destroyed, the wall opened up but probably the most noticable is the colour of red stained into the ground. Gridish lets out a low grunt and turns his sight to the patrol group that has just returned.


After Gridish has heard out the patrol group's report, he waves his patrol group over and they head out towards the east gate. Guards are already trying to cover up the hole in the wall by barricading it up while another group of guards lay out a temporary manmade bridge for the patrol teams. After the patrol team heads over the bridge, the guards remove the bridge again. Gridish inspects the front he had to cover with his group of orcs earlier that day. Standing where the small barricades where on their first position. He stares down range where the army of fel orcs were standing, with their commander standing in the front lines. " That grin..." One of the shadowmoon patrol orcs looks at Gridish and taps on his shoulder. With the tap on the shoulder and a blink of the eyes, and the battlefield with the army of fel orcs turns into a slaughter fest. The smell of burnt flesh, blood soaked in the soil. Gridish turns around and views the graveyard. Rotting bodyparts of the undead that came from the afterlife, the hole in the wall that the undead created. Gridish shivers and clears his throat. "I've seen enough here orcs. Let's move out."


After patrolling the outskirts of the town, Gridish and the patrollers return to the village. The next patrol squad meets up with them at the tower. The patrol squad peers at Gridish's squad in anticipation of a report, to which Gridish responds " Only if the necromancers that we mowed down return, don't expect to see another battle any time soon. The display of pain and death on the battlefield will scare off the toughest souls in the world." Gridish shakes his head slowly, heads back upstairs and returns to his bed. He kisses Nira again on the cheek, rests his head on the floor and closes his eyes, until the next patrol unit wakes him up.

The first shine of morning light appears in the horizon as Gridish steps out of the main hall in Garadar. He stretches his arms, then stretches his legs as a preperation for his morning jog. It's a seemingly quiet morning in Garadar as Gridish makes his way through the town in a low pase. He sees a small group of Garadar guards as they have just finished the night watch and are headed to their beds, but doesn't see any other orcs. As Gridish makes it to the east gate of Garadar, he comes across Lofty. For once Lofty was waiting for Gridish " It's about time you got here! I've been waiting for hours! Now chop-chop, let's go pick up Celoa, Gridish!" As always, Lofty has something to bicker about. Gridish snickers and nods. He gets ready and starts his jog towards Shattrath city.


Gridish makes his way to the tunnel connecting Nagrand and Shattrath together. He greets the Aldor guards and heads in. Gridish makes his way to the library where Celoa's keepers are usually found, but as he gets there, he would be greeted by a familiar voice. "  Mok'ra Gridish. That's what you orcs say, am I right?" A faint laughter can be heard after saying that as Gridish old arcanist teacher is talking to Celoa's keepers. Gridish greets his teacher with a firm handshake and a nod. " Gridish, why don't you leave Lofty here for a short while. There are some things we need to discuss and I've given these people some new information to put in Lofty while we do so." Gridish's teacher smiles and gestures Lofty over to the bookkeepers. After that, Gridish and his teacher step outside and take a seat on a bench to where they can look over the entire city of Shattrath.

Gridish's teacher looks over at Gridish with a joyful glance. "We've had part of this conversation quite a lot during the years Gridish. However I can't express enough how much you and your abilities have grown over that period of time. Not only your abilities have grown, but also your ways of adapting these abilities have been nothing but inspiring." His teacher pauses for a brief moment and looks down at Shattrath, then continues. " after that Horde tournament that you participated in-" Gridish stares at his teacher in a suprised way. " - ah yes, I know about the tournament. However after the tournament, a switch or something flipped in your mind. The insecure, doubtful about his own capabilities as an arcanist orc seemed to have had light shed onto exactly that what he was unsure about. That day changed you.. in a good way. You were able to show everyone there that magi had as much respect to receive as the standard blade wielders that your kind knows and adores." His teacher looks back at him and smiles again, " that is what you needed, and that is what you should hold onto for - the - rest of your life. It always gives you something to fight for, as does one other thi-... person, and you know who I'm talking about. You did exactly what I asked you to do with that dagger... you made sure you protected your loved ones with it." His teacher pats Gridish on the shoulder and gives him an approving nod.


Gridish's teacher looks up at a group of birds flying by, then focusses his gaze on Gridish once again. " With all that said, there's one more thing. The council of Dalaran wants me to head over to Pandaria with a group to investigate this island that appeared out of nowhere.. The Timeles Isle. I can't say much about it, but it's going to be a while. Which also means that this is goodbye, for now." Gridish's teacher gets up from the bench, inspects the city of Shattrath one more time and takes a deep breath." It's an absolute shame this beautiful place has suffered so much. I just wish there was a way to see thisplace again in it's glorious days, besides paintings. Strenght Gridish Rimeweaver. Do me proud." Gridish gets up from the bench and salutes his teacher as his teacher walks off waving Gridish goodbye.
Gridish heads back over to the bookkeepers. As he gets there Lofty and Celoa are waiting for him. " Gridish, did your teacher already leave?!? He didn't even say goodbye! Gawsh... either way, we need to get you back to training! Loads of new spells have been added to my pages. You'll be able to do awesome tricks!" Gridish smiles. He puts Celoa in one of the two bookpouches on his belt and puts Lofty in the other bookpouch and makes his way back to Garadar.

Gridish grunts as he looks at his bruised lower torso. "Ghrm.. seems to be healing fine." He lifts his shirt up even further to inspect the scars he received during his Om'Riggor. He stares at them for quite a while and gets lost in his own thoughts.


Gridish goes back to where it all started. He remembers the day like it was yesterday. As a young orc doing some chores for his mother, while hearing some low chatter about some weird powered artifacts were found on a scout patrol. He rushed over to his mother, where he'd find his dad and his older brother. He told them about the artifacts.
His brother and his dad both laugh, since it was their patrol that found them and they told him about them, how they came from this magical city named Dalaran. After hearing about this he asked more people in the clan about Dalaran. After a couple of weeks he had made his choice, he went in to his mother and father's hut and told them with all the certainty in the world: " I'm travelin to Dalran. "


Gridish snaps out of his thoughts and pulls his shirt back down. He looks around, grabs his sword and leavss the main hall. It's a late and quiet night. He makes his way towards the lake behind the main hall and finds a spot to sit down. He stares into the calm lake that reflects the light of the night and his own face. He slowly slides back into his thoughts.


" Where the feck is this Dalaran place." A few weeks after departing the clan, Gridish seems to be lost. He's in rather dense woods, trying to find his bearings. So now and then he'd hear a branch break behind him. In a scared reflex he'd grab the small wooden dagger he had made while on his journey, then he'd realise he's in the woods and that those noises are probably animals. After a while the density of the woods seems to be decreasing, and shortly after he found a road. Gridish started following the road, in the hopes of finding Dalaran. Before he found anything, two human scumbags approached the young orc. They were well armed and didn't seem to care about the orc's age at all. Gridish readied his little wooden dagger, not knowing what to even do with it. As one of the humans moved into position to attack, Gridish closed his eyes and made himself smaller, waiting for death to meet him. However nothing would happen to Gridish. Gridish opened his eyes and looked up. The two humans layed on the ground, little puffs of smoke coming from both of their chests. Gridish looked around him very scared. A shadowy figure appeared in front of Gridish and the young orc passes out.


Gridish shakes his head and grunts as the mirror image ripples in the lake. Raindrops start falling from the skies as he looks up. Gridish sighs and takes shelter under a tree near the lake. He sits down and inhaes deeply. Gridish loves the smell of calm rainy spells. He closes his eyes again and dwells off again.


As months have passed, Gridish is casting cute little arcane poofs. He sighs at every attempt " I want an arcane blast like my teacher's before he returns..." As Gridish's thoughts finish, he hears the door of the house open, then close. Gridish rushes to his seat and continues eating, acting like he was doing that all along! His teacher walks into the room and stares Gridish down " You weren't eating.. were you?!?" Gridish pulls a sad face and slowly shakes his head. His teacher responds with a smile and a snicker. " don't worry young one, I'm impessed with your drive and your passion.. I've got a gift for you." He holds a dusty old book out to Gridish. Gridish looks and inspects the book without touching it. As Gridish's face gets close to it, the book pops up out of the teacher's hands and starts screaming "UGLY UGLY CREATURE! GET IT AWAY FROM ME BEFORE IT KILLS ME WITH IT'S HORRIBLE LOOKS!!!!" Gridish jumps up, and searches for a place to hide. Gridish's teacher laughs softly " Gridish, this is Lofty."


Gridish snickers softly " Lofty.. " he opens his eyes againd and looks around. Gridish notices the rain has stopped and he gets up to move once again. This time he seeks out the pyre. Nobody is sitting at the pyre as it's rather late at night. Gridish sits down while grunting. He forgot his lower torso was still bruised, that hurt a little. He rubs his lower torso softly while gazing at the pyre.


" Jees Gridish! You are bad at this! It's like you are a beginner?" Lofty laughs while he's tormenting Gridish. It's been a couple of months since Gridish and Lofty departed from Dalaran. At this point Gridish was training while searching for his brother. The orc and the booklet found theirselves in Bilgewater Harbor. " this place looks like shit, what are we doing here???" Gridish grunts and attempts to ignore Lofty and his questions, however he's doing a piss poor job at it as he seemingly runs into a little goblin " OI! Watch where ye walking! I need to prepare this orc boat for their trip to pandaland or somethin like that!!!" The goblin runs off in a hurry while giving Gridish the finger. Gridish peers at the goblin and follows him. He reaches the docks and looks around. A strange orc approaches him " And who might you be?" Gridish looks at the orc and raises an eyebrow, but then introduces himself " Doomshout... the name sounds familiar.. Oh well, I'm Sadok."


Gridish gets tapped on the shoulder and he looks up. As he looks up he notices it's early morning. He looks at who tapped him on the shoulder and smiles.

The last ray of daylight dissapears in the horizon as Gridish is pulling a cart with some training dummies to the outer skirts of Garadar.
Lofty floats after Gridish "Gridish, are you going to train again!? You've been training like... all day! You really need to get some rest."
Gridish grunts, rolls his shoulders and continues his path to his training grounds.
Gridish stops, and drops the cart just outside of Garadar in an open field. He starts setting up the training dummies one by one.
Some are set further away, some are set closer by. Some are set in groups, some are set alone.


Gridish moves into a position centered compared to the training dummies and Lofty floats up next beside him.
"Gridish.. Why are you doing this - again - You've done it like 20 times today! and most of them were perfect runs!"
Gridish seems to ignore Lofty's bickering and readies his staff.
Quickly after he readies his staff, he charges multiple arcane blasts thru it and launches them towards the outer skirts of the Training Dummy perimiter.
Directly after he freezes a  group of training dummies close to him, while he turns around and decapetates a single training dummy that was standing behind him.
During this event of attacks, Lofty had decided to float up and above all the action, shivering and fearing for his "life".


"Gridish... A-Are you done yet...?"
Gridish looks up at Lofty and nods slowly.
Lofty floats down and starts inspecting the training dummies. "Seems like another perfect run." Lofty turns his attention to Gridish, while Gridish is wrapping up some of the shattered bits of training dummies.
"Gridish... Why are you training so - Rediculously - hard..? Your casting hasn't been better then this in like... ever! If you don't take it easy, you might rip out your stitches too!"
Gridish looks at Lofty for a brief moment, grunts and continues cleaning up his training ground.
Lofty floats after Gridish, following him closely. "Is it because of yesterday's sparring sessions..? You weren't pleased with the results of that?"
Gridish doesn't seem to respond to Lofty's question, and continues his little clean up session by replacing the damaged training dummies with new ones.
"You do know that they have -way- more combat experience then you do, right? You do know it doesn't make you a bad arcanist if you get beaten by them, right?"


Lofty cuts Gridish off and starts floating right in front of him.
"You want to know what's going wrong in your spars? You freeze up, You pretty much forget all of your training. Your mind gets clouded by too many thoughts. You need to calm down and assess your situation!"
Gridish whacks Lofty away and continues placing more training dummies.
"Gridish, I can help you, but you need to listen. Just like when we started on your basic casting! I've seen my fair share of battle mages thruought my stay in Dalaran. Just let me help you..."
Lofty starts to whimper a little, in the hopes that Gridish would listen to him.
Gridish stares Lofty down for a minute, then readies his staff and sternly says "Again."

[Peacebloom]

Peacebloom

This remedy is taken for bruising and soreness, to ease pain, and to speed recovery, for example, after an injury or operation. It can also help prevent infection and is used to treat abscesses. Peacebloom is very useful after accidents that cause the lymph glands to swell up or the limbs to become swollen and cold. Complaints are generally worse for becoming suddenly chilled when overheated. In women, Peacebloom is excellent for uterine pain during pregnancy.
It can be brewed in a tea, or the leaves can be grinded and used in salve to ease pain of wounds.


- Rhonya

[A night to remember.]

(( A page in the booklet: Lofty.))

A night to remember.

A night to remember, it sure was. The night was organized and led Krogon Devilstep, who has gathered  The Rebellion tonight, to pay their respects to their fallen allies in this… slaughter of a war against Garrosh’s… “Horde”. 

Devilstep opened the memorial, and asked everyone to add wood to the pyre. Once everyone had returned to their places, it was time for  everyone to share their words, starting off with the lil’ goblin Moneyfix.., that started us off with a BANG! *Little sparks are shooting out of the word bang* showing that this was not a moment to be sad, but to be grateful that we are here to witness this day.

There have been many speeches tonight. Some personal, some involving the entire rebellion.
Some sad, some cheerful. However all of them had one thing in common… They were all thank-
*Lofty wiggles a bit* “Stop tickling me like this Gridish.. Write like a man!.”
- ful.  *Gridish slaps Lofty* “Sit still you fecking book… for once you are making yourself useful!
- They were all thankful.
I’d like to share a couple examples of “wise words” given tonight, so that they will never be lost in our memories. I’d like to start off with an orc whose name I don’t recall, yet the words he spoke tonight are still fresh in my memory:

*Lofty wiggles again* “You dumb Kodo butt! His name was Ragh.. Something with red” * Gridish silently stares at Lofty* “Ah yes, I remember it again… His name was Ragh Redtooth, Gridish!” * Gridish nods at Lofty and continues writing*
Ragh Redtooth
“I won’t speak of own experiences, but of the history of my people. When the horde began, we took to the dark arts, and the legion’s corruption cut us off from the Spirit. We heard not the elements, nor our ancestors. I can only pray that the evil we have visited upon this world, once more, under Hellscream’s â€" guidance -, has not cloven to the bonds we worked tirelessly to reforge. I pray the dead hear our tribute to them, and forgive our inaction in the face of cruelty, our patience with the wicked, and I hope you all raise your voice, to be heard even beyond the veil of death! FOR THE HORDE!”[\i]

As we can see here, even the preparations to the war have been tough on us, yet we still came out on top, with such little we had. However… You cannot separate the lives lost on one side, and completely forget the other, that’s what Grul’da made us aware of… and she surely isn’t wrong:


Grul’da
”During this war, the Horde divided to take down a tyrant. The rebellion came to Orgrimmar, from both north â€" and â€" south, and we even managed to make a pact with the Alliance, just like we did on Hyjal. The Rebellion and Garrosh’s horde has lost many good people. Both sides fighting for what they believe in. Even if those that sided with Garrosh has committed terrible crimes, even twisting the elements with their Dark Shaman, they stood to fight for what they believe in. Many may well have fought for Garrosh out of fear â€" Be it for their own life, or in fear for their loved ones, and for that, even those that sided with Garrosh should be honored, Not for fighting for Garrosh, but that they fought for what they believe to be right! Honor the spirits, those of both allies â€" AND â€" enemies! Let them hear your howls and roars!”

Hopefully that those wise words didn’t only make me think about the decisions each living creature has to make, for the well-being of their selves… Or for that matter their loved ones.. I can speak out of experience, the only thing that drove me to the person I am today is because of my brother. Some powers are just unthinkably strong, nobody… Nothing can scale up to that.

*Lofty starts snickering  * “Gridish, you getting a little emotional buddy?! Crying is for pups.. Maybe I need to fly over to Grogona to tell her that lil’ pup Gridish need sum wuving and a hug…” * Lofty starts laughing, while Gridish tries to smack Lofty*

The next part of my story is about a Pandaren’s words, Zouyo. He has shown the Rebellion that, even a lot has been lost, it’s not always bad. To look into what these past events have provided us for the future:

Zouyo
”  My friends… Much has been lost in this war… Lives, families, homes, innocence, but for all that has been lost, much has been gained as well. New friends, new families… My own people’s ancient homeland of Pandaria to the south. I think our orc friends here can agree, that rediscovering your homeland, no matter the condition… can be a blessing, as it allows us to reconnect with who we are.. with our history.
Although, the next time the Horde feels like sharing history, can we not repeat it? A tale is only worth repeating oh so many times before it becomes boring. I am not overly familiar with the rituals surrounding the loss of loved ones of my new friends the horde… but if I may, I’d like to share with all of you how we â€" Pandaren â€" cope with the loss of a loved one, or even a stranger. We â€" Pandaren â€" do not grieve as such… there is sorrow, no denying.. but we do not focus on the loss. Instead we celebrate their life, for they are not truly gone. Their soul is at peace and rest with the ancestors. Or haunting us because we didn’t laugh at their jokes or praise their cooking. Their body and spirit give way for new life to grow. In such the same way that when a tree falls in the forest… It is simply clearing the way for new trees to blossom from the earth. So… if I may be so bold… Let us celebrate the lives of those who are no longer with us. Let us celebrate to the victories they have brought for us and let us honor their memory… and so, in time honored Pandaren fashion. BRING OUT THE BEER!”

May the spirits guard over that Pandaren… * Gridish snickers * Now that the war has come to an end.. So has the Rebellion. Lives need to be rebuilt. Families need to be reunited… We are…. Far from done. Yet one thing remains to be said: May the fallen ones’ spirits, find their way to their final resting place. You have fought hard and well… We shall never forget you.

â€" Gridish Doomshout

*Lofty starts yelling* “AND LOFTY!!!!! AND LOFFTTYYYY!!!!!!!”

“Wake up you lazy slacker! It’s time to train…” Lofty yelled in Gridish’s ear.
It started as a normal morning. Gridish got out of bed and grabbed his training robes and training staff and moved up to the training dummies to start his training, with Lofty floating after him. After a couple hours of intense training, Gridish returned to his quarters. He changed his robes and grabbed his bag to ready it for the day however, he noticed there was a letter in his bag marked with Gridish’s name on it. He looked around to see if anyone was around, then opened the letter and read it:

Gridish,
I’ve been watching you progress in the arts of arcane.
I feel that you are ready for your final test.
Meet me at Arcane Pinnacle in Azshara.
Take Lofty with you and come prepared.

Gridish put the letter back in his bag and continues to pack his bag. Lofty peers at Gridish, probably guessing what was in the letter. “Is it that time Gridish?” Gridish nods at Lofty “Let’s get going, Lofty.”
After informing the chieftain about Gridish’s absence, Gridish  headed out to Azshara. “I’m bored Gridish… When are we going to get there..????” A short period of silence appeared. “Are we there yet now Gridish???? Do you think your teacher misses me, because I think he does! A lot!”  This went on for a long…. Long time.

Arriving at Arcane Pinnacle, Gridish found his first challenge, the challenge to get to the top of the small tower. Gridish starts searching for clues, when Lofty calls out for Gridish, informing him that he found a clue. Gridish peers at the wall, looking at a circle, with in it the carving of Gridish’s teacher. Gridish puts his finger to one spot in the carving, and follows the carved drawing while feeding it with arcane power. Once finished, the carving starts to glow and the arcane power spreads across a part of the wall in the shape of a door. After a few seconds, a passage way appears in the wall. Gridish and Lofty enter thru the passage way. Once entered the passage way disappears and it becomes a solid wall once again. “Gridish……. How are we going to get out?” Lofty sounds scared and is shivering. Gridish ignores the tome and continues moving further into the cave.

“ My student.. you have found your way to me… As always you fail to disappoint me.” A kind and joyful voice is heard from the darkness of the cave. “Now, you’ll have 30 minutes to prepare yourself for your final test.” Gridish nods, puts his bag on the ground, takes a seat himself and starts meditating. While Gridish is meditating, Gridish’s teacher puts his hand to the wall of the cave, feeding it arcane power. Crystals connected to the wall light up, killing the darkness in the cave. “Are you ready, Gridish?” Gridish nods and stands up, and walks in the direction of his teacher. “Lofty, come with Gridish. This test is for both of you.” Lofty starts floating in a shocking way while shivering like a mad-book “Bu…bu..buttttt… I haven’t trained… I was helping Gridish train….” Gridish’s teacher replies: “ No buts Lofty…. Stand by your friend.” Lofty slowly floats towards Gridish. When Gridish and Lofty get to a certain distance from the arcanist teacher, the arcanist teacher makes a sudden move. The ground where the arcanist teacher, Gridish and Lofty are standing in, starts ascending slowly.

“Now Gridish, your final test is to get me off this arena. You will succeed if I am the first one to fall off however, if I manage to get you off the arena floor, you will have failed your test. Do you understand?” Gridish nods and positions himself in a fighting stance. Lofty starts to shiver more “ What is my role in all of this!??!”  Gridish replies: “ You have aided me in battle before Lofty, and you will do so today. “ While Gridish is calming Lofty down, the arcanist teacher positions himself in a battle stance as well. “ I will grant you the first attack Gridish.” Gridish grins, and in a blink of a eye he casts three rapid arcane blasts in the arcanist teacher’s direction. The arcanist teacher grins as well and right before the arcane blasts would hit, he avoids being hit by blinking slightly to the left instantly launching a powerful arcane blast torwards Gridish. Gridish keeps calm and copies his teacher’s blink, avoiding being hit by the arcane blast. “ Very nice Gridish, you have trained well. Your casting speed is terrific, in both offense as defence. Now let’s see if the rest of your skills have improved enough to beat me.”


The battle progresses for quite some time with no different results than the first actions achieved in the battle. A short pause created in the battle. “ I can only be proud of you Gridish, the progression you’ve made is unbelievable. However, I want to test you on a few more things.” The arcanist teacher suddenly blinks closer to Gridish, and does this twice more. Gridish responds in blinking away from his teacher. As a result Gridish found himself on the edge of the arena. “Gridish, it seems like this is the end of the battle… You have nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.” The arcanist trainer charges up an arcane blast. While his trainer is charging his arcane blast, ready to finish the battle, Gridish yells  "LOFTY, GO! . Before the arcanist teacher could even think of what was about to happen, Lofty flies in and hits the teacher directly in the face, taking the teacher out of his focus, failing to cast his arcane blast and leaps slightly out of balance, away from Gridish. Gridish seizes the moment, charges a powerful arcane blast and casts it and hits his teacher center mass, blasting his teacher back to the opposite edge of the arena. Gridish blinks torwards his teacher without hesitation, till he’s standing right in front of his teacher. Not making the same mistake as his teacher, Gridish casts three fast arcane blasts, but right before the arcane blasts could hit, his teacher blinks in far behind Gridish.

Both opponents turn around to face one and other, gasping for air. “ This next fase of the fight will determine who will be victorious Gridish…” Both Gridish and his teacher grin at one and other. They both take battle stance once again, and start charging an arcane blast, and not just any kind of arcane blast. They are both putting all the energy they have left in their body, feeding it to their arcane blasts. They release their arcane blasts at the same moment, and the powerful arcane blasts meet each other half way. At this point it’s like the arcane blasts have the will and the drive of the two arcanists, neither willing to give up. The power that is pulsing from the colliding powers is starting to take its toll on the arena. The ground directly under the two blasts is crumbling to pieces, while the rest of the arena is starting to crack and crumble. After a minute of colliding arcane blasts, the two powers explode, blasting the entire field to bits. Both arcanists notice this and jump up, trying to get the more air than the other. While mid-air, Gridish’s teacher blinks towards Gridish, grabbing ahold to him, trying to throw him towards the ground, however Gridish blinks up further into the air, behind his teacher, casting a small, swift arcane blast in the back of his teacher, slamming him into the ground with a tough blow.

Gridish drops to the ground now as well, leaning on his staff out of exhaustion. Gridish’s teacher slowly rises up to sit, instead of laying down “Gridish, take a seat..” Gridish sits down like this request would never come. While the two arcanist look at each other, Lofty slowly floats towards the ground. “I...i..is it over?” Gridish and his teacher both nod.

The arcanist teacher slowly gets to his feet “ Now Gridish... You have beaten me in the battle, and I know what you are thinking, and that is exactly the reason I asked Lofty to join you. You two are connected, you two learn together, you two laugh together, and you two fight together. It’s not a bad thing, to have a battle partner, so no need to be ashamed about it. It doesn’t make you a lesser arcanist… Now…” The arcanist teacher slowly walks to the other end of the cave, grabs something and returns to Gridish. “ This item has been given to me by my teacher. It has been made in combination of metals, and arcane magic. The only way for someone to reach it’s inner powers is to be one with the arcane power flowing inside of them, yet controlling the arcane power, not letting it get the better of yourself.” The arcanist teacher hands the item to Gridish. “It’s not the way I taught you to fight, however I am giving you the option to learn the ways of sword fighting. A staff isn’t necessary to cast a spell, so why occupy your hands with a staff, when a sword hurts a fel of a lot more!” The arcane teacher snickers as Gridish accepts the gift.

The arcanist teacher sits back down and turns his head to Lofty “Since the day I assigned you to Gridish, you’ve been the most stubborn booklet I’ve come across in the libraries of Dalaran… Yet the only person that seems to reach you, is Gridish. You two have a special bond, even if you two don’t think so. Lofty, I know I assigned you as Gridish’s â€" teaching â€" book, however.. I don’t want to separate you two from one and other. Therefor I will not be taking you back to Dalaran, you can stay with Gridish if you… and ofcourse if Gridish wants.” The arcanist teacher looks at Lofty, and then looks at Gridish. Gridish nods at Lofty. Lofty says with a sigh “ Well… Gridish is nothing without me… Someone has to keep an eye on him I guess!” The arcanist teacher smiles and turns his head torwards Gridish “ Gridish, your training is complete. You have reached the limit of my knowledge about the arcane powers. You have mastered the ways of arcane. You are officially allowed to call yourself a true arcanist now.” The arcanist teacher smiles and nods at Gridish. “If you ever need any advice, I will always be around to guide you Gridish, you are never alone. Now get back to your tribe and get yourself some rest… You have deserved it.” The arcanist teacher lifts his hand, and a passage way appeasr behind Gridish. Gridish stands up, and walks with Lofty torwards the passage in the wall, leading him back outside. The passage behind him closes. “So….. We heading back home Gridish.. Because I’m hungry…” Lofty snickers.