The Beginning Of A New Path

[Mazguul]

The heat was intolerable, though not as intolerable as the exhaustion that gripped the stumbling she-orc as her legs finally gave way from under her. She landed with a soft thud in a pile of ash, unmoving, barely breathing and seemingly alone.

Mazguul couldn't even remember how she had got there. She could recall shouts, she could recall rage and then nothing but suddenly being out here in the scarred landscape of the Burning Steppes. She had a funny feeling there was a fight. A battle perhaps? It was all such a blur and felt so long ago as to be insignificant.

How long had she been here for? Days? Months? It didn't matter.

A green hand twitched in an attempt to get herself up. But as her own blood leaked into the grey ash the sludge that was created stuck to her and made her limbs feel even heavier than they all ready were. Still, the same hand was forced to move where it snaked underneath her and she found the strength to at least get to her knees. In this ungainly fashion, her head swimming with dizziness not only from blood loss and heat but also the shouts and pleas of the spirits that haunted this place, she continued onwards on all fours.

The voices never left her alone. They were always screaming in her mind. Quiet when she had the mental strength to ignore them but right now she barely had the strength to crawl let alone force the spirits out of her head.

"Don't die" she thought to herself as she recalled the last words her mate, Vargosh, said to her.

These words brought her little comfort as all she really wanted was to suddenly feel him pick her up out of the dirt; as pathetic as it would be to be found like this at least she would see him once more.

A sneer came to her lips as she told herself that if she couldn't even make it back on her own she had no right to make it back at all. So the waning she-orc continued to crawl until she had nothing left to give and collapsed in the ash once again.

She lay there for some time in a world that was slowly growing dark and she actually found herself wishing death would hurry up and claim her as she was sick of waiting. She would have been content to die right then and there, doubting she would be found, until something forcefully turned her over. Annoyed that something was considering eating her before she was too dead to feel it. Mazguul opened her eyes to glare at her assailant, though came face to face with a very familiar face indeed.

Ravage, the spirit that had joined her for the hunt, had come to find the she-orc. The bond they had between them having drawn the cat ever closer, the blood trail leading her right to Mazguul.

"Come to..." Mazguul wince as her gut protested at the gash across it "...gloat?" she finished and slowly closed her eyes again, not out of want but out of not being able to stop her eyelids from shutting.

The transparent cat sat on her haunches and stared down at Mazguul for some time. Slowly the purple maned she-orc smirked.

"Ask 'em yerself" she whispered to the cat in reply to the beast's mental speech. "All yer kind have done fer me is drive me mad, what good is there in askin' fer help? Why should-" she suddenly inhaled sharply and let out the breath with a groan "-'em listen? Why should I bother? Never-" Mazguul was forced to stop as yet another wave of pain washed over her "- do anythin' but mess things up. Least this way I'll have peace and I be won't having to tear meself up over what I did ter Osan."

"Bother fuuuurrrr him" the cat purred. "Furrrr him that has you neow. Therrrr Vargosh one. Yes? Ask fuurrrr therrrr Vargosh one. We sense yourrrr feelings for him, be with him on this plane. Chance fuurrr you to take. Yes?"

Mazguul was so shocked to hear the words from the cat with her ears rather than with her mind that she forced her eyes to open again. She looked up at the spirit. The cat was bathed in her usual creepy green glow and stared down Mazguul with ease.

What did she have to loose in asking for help this once? Mazguul asked herself. Was there really any harm in believing in hope one last time? She had seen the shaman asking for aid. Why was it that she should not? After all she believed in the spirits more than most and they had rewarded her many times for her loyalty. Perhaps, this way, she could get back to her mate on her own and finally hold onto the Mok'Nathal again. She would ask, for his sake.

Closing her eyes, Mazguul opened her mind to the screams in her her head and asked as loudly and as respectfully as she could before the darkness consumed her. She left her fate purely in the hands of the spirits.

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Later, if keen eyes passed the area, all they would see were signs that something had arrived on all fours and bleeding, yet left walking on their own two feet.

Mazguul, with the cat at her side, headed for her own with her sights set on a new path.

(( I know I said I wouldn't write any more of these but I wanted to. Just a little thing - unsure how far I'll go with this and how long Mazzie will be 'missing' for

Edit: grammar ))

[Claws]

((Can't keep a good yarn down Maz)). 

((Always a pleasure to read your little saga's
You should think of doing a full story with chapters/ episodes, adding to it weekly or when the fancy takes you)).

[Mazguul]

(( You have no idea how tempting an idea that is, Claws

I shall begin planning it. Not too sure about a weekly update though, I think folk would get rather bored rather quickly

And thank you It's always nice to know people do read my little essays *giggle* ))

[Vargosh]

((You shouldn't sto pwrite, it's fun to read, and I liked this. ))