A Newblood's Plight

[Rainwhisper]

Hello Orcses! My first instalment in what will hopefully be many about Ahka. I've set a slightly larger font, because it's late and it's easier to read (for me)
Hope you enjoy

"All Scars Have an Epic Tale" - or "Trophy for Duskstalker, a Newbloods plight"

The fire cackles happily in front of me, and the smell of roasting boar meat is in the air. I turn the spit over the fire and the drips of fat from the meat makes the fire hiss and spit red hot sparks into the nightsky. Around me the woods have gone quiet, apart from the distant howling of a few wolves up in Felwood. I am not worried about that. I have spend most of my life since I came of age camped outside, here there and everywhere. It is only this past decade I have known a home in a city or a permanent camp.

I feel as safe here in the dark among the wild animals as I will anywhere. I turn the spit over one last time, before removing it from the flames. Placing the meat gently in the grass a moment to cool off, I reach for the skin of mead I brought. It is nothing strong, but with a long day's trek behind me, I feel the familiar humming in my feet after only a few gulps of the sweet drink.

Sitting up straight, I try to shake the urge to sleep. I take a few deep breaths of the cool evening air, stand up and stretch my back. Sitting back down again, I grab the spit and promptly burn my hand. Cursing my own impatience I reach for the mead skin again to fill my grumbling stomach with something!

I guess it's around this time I fall asleep. I do not now how long I was gone, but I recall I was dreaming. We were back in Desolace, all of us.. Setting up a camp and getting ready to start a big restoration project there. We wanted to study the kodo, see what we could do to make the land green again. It always got cold at night and I would huddle up with *him*, close enough to keep us both warm and I would fall asleep with his breath on my neck.

When I wake up, something IS breathing on my neck. I roll over and stare straight into the face of a Felwood bear, munching on MY roasted boar leg. I let out a yelp of surprise, I try to scramble to my feet, but the grass is wet with dew by now, and I fall on my ass before I know it. And then the bear is on me. I will never know why it went for the boar leg instead of me first, but I suppose it wanted to start with something light.

The fight is only on for a few seconds, but I swear it was some of the longest of my life. I reach up with my left arm to cover my face, sheer reflex, and my right arm is fumbling around in the grass where I think I must have left my hunting knife. The bear locks its jaws around my arm and just when I think I will pass out from the pain, my hand finds the hilt of the knife and I jam it into the side of the bear.

I must have hit something vital, because the bear lets go of my arm with a pained roar. The fire has almost died and I can barely see the beast, but the weight is off me. My arm is bleeding heavily and my head feels light, I try to heal myself but the words are not coming out right. All my potions are in the backpack, I remember trying to say a prayer..

When I come around again, I'm on my back and there is two tauren, a goblin and an orc staring at me, proclaiming that they thought I was dead. They have found me, patched me up and brought me back to Splintertree Post it turns out. My arm is hurting, but they assure me it is nothing major. I ask about the bear, and they proudly present me with a cleaned bear skull and a rather small bear skin.

They seem to sense my confusion at these small trophies, as I recall being attacked by a brutal, massive beast in the dark. All four of them roar with laughter inspite of my near-death-experience, as they describe my attacker. Seems it has been a rabid cub from last summer, gone astray on a small adventure from its home in Felwood. I had managed to stab it right at a bald patch and right in the gut.

"Ya lucky the runt bled out first." the goblin cackled at me,  and offered to buy the skin from me, for a handful of silver. "Imma make the lil' misses a coat!"
So my friend, that explains the bandage. I will have a great scar, the medic in Splintertree ensured me. He kept me for days, because he thought it might be infected. I think he just fancied my company.

And now the question arises, do I tell my mentor that I hunted down a bear with the axe I was given for the task, or should I tell him the truth and hope he will accept the trophy?