Through the portal

[Therak]

(( Suitable music track to listen to during the story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxN9NkaJUA
))

The warm night was deceptively quiet as Therak sat in the candlelight and finished the last letter. His eyes anything but dry as he sealed it with a few drops of wax and wrote a single name on it. 'Mira'.
He smiled sadly, at least he'd been able to see them one more time...
The letter joined the others and he looked over at Rhonya. She was sleeping as badly as he had, twisting and turning. It was always hard to sleep the night before a battle, and one where they were almost certainly facing certain death just made it even harder.
He knew why they had to go, if anything he'd prefer to go straight away. At least the waiting would be over then...
Saying goodbye to the cubs had been difficult enough, but he'd saved the crying for after. They seemed to understand there was something different, but not what.
Vaala had been wailing and wouldn't stop, Mirek had just sobbed quietly but the others had been unusually quiet. That had just made it worse...
He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes before whispering under his breath.
"I hope you five will be able to forgive me... Forgive me and maybe even one day understand why we're doing this..."
His voice was stuffy and broken in a way he'd not allowed himself in public. Kozgugores lesson had stuck that well at least. A Varog'Gor isn't just the Chieftain's bodyguard. they are dedicated to preserving the heart of the tribe. They are to be examples and something for other orcs to look up to...
With a sigh he blew out the candle and joined Rhonya in the furs, trying to at least get some sleep...


Letter to Vaala

Spoiler: show

Vaala, my dear daughter.
I understand words are little comfort for growing up without your parents. But I hope you can one day understand the reason me and your mother made the choice we did...
There are so many things I had hoped to teach you as you grew up. Among them were the fact that sometimes there comes a time when doing something is more important then life itself. More important then seeing your children grow up, because you know that you're giving them the chance to do so.
When the Dark Portal turned red, and spewed out the Iron Horde, the Red Blades, including your mother and I found our time.
They came shortly after we left from celebrating the Kosh'harg, I don't know how much you remember. But we were forced to retreat quickly, and as soon as we safely could, we sent you and your siblings back to safety. It didn't take long to realize that even with reinforcements from both Horde and Alliance we were outmatched, and a decision was made to launch an assault to push into the portal and bring it down from the other side.
In effect, a mission from which there would be no return even if we were successful.
It wasn't an easy choice to make, to abandon you or any of the children. But it's a choice we'd make again.

By now you may have noticed a few differences between you and your siblings. Perhaps you don't have an as easy time losing your temper, perhaps you're a little smaller then they are. There's a reason for it, and with time you may be able to figure it out by yourself. Your "Uncle Spiderbite" knows. If you suspect what it may be I suggest speaking to him in private. He'll tell you when you're older otherwise.

I've made sure that none of you will ever lack for money, and whatever you wish to become I have faith that Spider will be able to find you a suitable teacher. I'd hoped to be able to pass my own knowledge on to one of you and I'm sure your mother would have liked to do the same. But instead all we can do is pass down some things through letters.

There's so many things I expected to say as a father, things like "Follow your heart". It's good advice in many situations. Be it finding a mate or choosing what path to walk in life. But it's also important to follow your head, sometimes your heart may want something that is wrong, that'll cause more damage then it's worth. I hope you learn to find your own balance in that.

I also hope you don't follow in those of my footsteps that led to my time as a Thief, they were not worth it and the damage I did can never truly be repaired. It might seem tempting, and even romantic to a point. But in reality it's a lonely life, with few who wouldn't abandon you, or even betray you to save their own skin, or make a bit of money.

I also hope you never have to face the realities of war, but I know it's a slim hope at best knowing the world for what it is. Battle is a nasty thing, loud, painful and you always leave a part of yourself at every battlefield. Some claim there's glory in it, but I've never found it myself. There's times where not fighting is worse then fighting would be, and then there's reason to go to battle. But many rush into battle when the whole situation could be solved by talking, or even walking away.

I could write you a thousand pages and yet never quite feel I've said all I wanted.
So instead I'll end the letter here.
I love you more then life itself.
Your father
Therak Duskstalker

Letter to Thu'uk

Spoiler: show

Thu'uk, my firstborn.
I never thought I'd have to write a letter like that, and I understand that you would have preferred if I'd been there to speak to you myself. I would have preferred that myself.
But if wishes were wings, peons would fly.
I don't know if your mother left any letter for you, we don't speak much. You had absolutely nothing to do with that. We both love you, even though we no longer love eachother.

The Iron Horde came bursting through the portal, and to stop them we're going through it to shut it down on that side. If we'd done so from here it might have torn our world apart.
It's a parents duty, and not just duty but willingness to lay down their lives in the protection of their children. It's not a decision to be taken lightly, and in this case it wasn't. But failing would have meant your deaths, and so we went.

You may have noticed some differences in tempers and size between you and the other cubs. Spider will explain things when you're old enough, if you've not guessed it yourself by then...

I've done my best to make sure you're all provided for, money should never be a problem and you'll have the best teachers that can be arranged for whatever paths you wish to take in life.
I wish I could have been around to teach you some myself, but as I can't there will be friends of mine there for you. Spider first among them but there'll be others too.

I wish I could have been there to see you grow, see you find your place in life and finally see you have children of your own. When you have them, I hope you'll understand better why we made the choices we did, even if it meant leaving you behind.

I grew up without family too, except for an 'uncle' who took me in and taught me. I hope us not being there for you doesn't lead you down on the wrong path in life. It just does more harm then good even though it seems simple and easy. Or maybe especially when it does. Follow your heart, and follow your mind. But more important then those is to follow your conscience. It will rarely lead you wrong. Every time I didn't follow mine I found myself regretting it.

Part of me hopes that you'll find a safe profession, one to keep you away from the horrors of war and the loss and pain found in it. But that choice will be yours, there are things worth dying for and I hope you find yours in time, even if it leads you to the battlefield.

You're the second oldest among the lot, Skorm will need your help keeping an eye on them, you're all a handful and I doubt that'll change.

There's not enough words in existance to tell you all the things I wanted to... But my time is short so know this. I love you, and I'd face any end to keep you safe.

Your Father
Therak Duskstalker.

Letter to Skorm

Spoiler: show

Skorm, son of my heart if not by blood.
I'm sorry I won't be there to see you grow up. I would have liked to but the situation we're in when I write this is desperate. If we didn't fear for what would have happened if we hadn't gone we would have stayed with you and your siblings.

You're the eldest, with that comes some responsibilities. Responsibilities that you'd have had even if we were there, but will weigh even heavier now.
You'll have to keep an eye on the others, even if it's not by much. You'll be older, and that leaves them looking up to you. It doesn't mean you should boss them around, but be there with advice and help keep them safe.
So please keep an eye on them for me.

I've done what I can to make sure none of you will ever lack for money, and that you'll have teachers to help you find your place in life.
Money isn't everything, in fact the best things in life comes without the need for it. Friends, love... family. That is why your mother and I have to go, because all of you are worth more to us then our lives. If we can keep you safe by dying, we will. That's what parents do. I hope you one day will have children of your own and understand what I mean.

There's alot of things I wanted to tell you, and teach you. But I'll settle for one thing.
Stay away from the fel. It might be tempting, but in the end it always ends badly...
Promise me that, if you promise anything.
I've had my dusts with it, it almost cost me my life. But it also cost me much more, I've yet to meet one person who hasn't lost more then they gained, even if they don't see it immediately.

It is my honest hope that you never see battle, never have to deal with the horrors of it. Or worse, get so jaded it no longer is a horror.
I hope that you will live in times of peace, and times of joy. But I fear even if we succeed that hope won't come true. If you do see battles and war, at least fight for something that you care about, and something that is right.

No matter how much I write, I'll never be able to say all I wanted.
But know that I love you, more then my own life.
Your 'father'
Therak Duskstalker

Letter to Mirek

Spoiler: show

Mirek, my son in spirit if not in flesh.

It's no easy task leaving ones children behind and marching towards what is likely to be our deaths. Not being your true father does not change that.
I love you, and your siblings equally. Make no mistake of that. And when the Iron Horde came, and our choice came down to going and making a difference or staying and not even trying... Your mother and I felt we had to go. For the future of all of you. Even if that future would be without your parents...
You always were your mothers son, always clinging to her and never quite wanting to let go. Even more so the last time we saw you... I hope by the time you're reading this you have found strength elsewhere and have found the courage and confidence I in my heart know is inside you.

I've done my best to arrange things so that none of you will lack for money, and will have good teachers when that time comes. You'll be looked after and you will have the support and guidance to find your own place in the world.
I've never been one to pray to the spirits, but I hope they will allow you to find your place to be one of peace and prosperity. That is one of the reasons we felt we had to go.

There are many kinds of advice I'd love to give you. Things like to never stop dreaming, to always chase those dreams as long as your conscience allows you. But in the end I'll settle for this.
Don't let your twin sister push you around too much.
Perhaps you'll laugh at this, or perhaps you'll smile at how wrong I am. But from what I saw she has a strong will and is happy to apply it to get her way.
Stand your ground when it matters to you, it'll do her good to not always win.

I wish I'd had the time to see you grow, and be there for you as you did. I wish I could have had the years left to see you have children of your own one day.
Unfortunately I don't have that luxury.

I could keep writing until long after the assault on the Portal. But I can't, there are things that I need to get done before then. I would never manage to get everything I wanted down anyway. So I'll just end the letter here.

Grow up to be a fine orc. You have the love of both me and your mother.

Your 'Father'
Therak Duskstalker

Letter to Mira

Spoiler: show

Mira, my adoptive daughter.

It's not easy to write this letter. I've written one to all your siblings already but that doesn't make it easier.
It's in the middle of the night, and tomorrow we march to what is most likely our deaths.
The choice was simple, but not easy. If we went, we'd likely die. And even if we succeeded we'd never see you again. If we didn't go, it would be out of our hands and perhaps it'd all fail and then you and your siblings would die along with us.
As a parent, if the choice is between your death and the deaths of your children... The choice will almost always be to go face death for them.

We love you dearly, and I have fond memories of what little time I had as an extra father for you. You were the curious one, the one who were up to mischief from the time you could walk. You weren't afraid of others, you played with anyone without hesitation.
It's a good trait, and if I was to give you one piece of advice it's to never stop exploring. Never stop learning, don't let anyone but you put a lid on your curiousity.
But don't let the curiosity rule you. There are dangers out there, there are things that are morally wrong. Let your conscience guide you in that, let your head rein you in when the danger outweighs the benefit. You rule your own fate, but that means you -have- to rule it rather than letting it rule you.

I've done my best to ensure none of you will lack for money. I could at least do that much for you, and I've arranged it so that you will have little trouble finding tutors in whatever area you wish to explore further.
Take the opportunity to do so. Knowledge is power, and even if you don't want power it gives you options that might not have been there otherwise.

I would like for nothing more then have you and your siblings grow up in times of peace and plenty. As small as that chance is, I cling to the hope. Just as I cling to the small hope your mother and I makes it on the other side of the portal.
But I understand that it is likely you will one day face war.
War, even today I sometimes wonder why we go to it. Even the survivors leave something behind on the battlefield, be it friends, limbs or something in our souls.
But maybe you'll have something that is too important to not let you stay back and let others fight.
In a way I hope you do, because then you have found something bigger and more important than yourself.

There's not enough time left to write down all I wanted to say. Not in a night, not in a month.
I love you, and I always will.

Your 'Father'
Therak Duskstalker

Morning came, as always far too soon. His body felt heavy even though his mind was alert enough. Rhonya was still turning in her sleep as he snuck out of the tent to begin on making breakfast.
He ate lightly, while looking out across camp. It was already bustling with slow, but purposeful activity. Many were as Therak, cooking. Others seemed to not eat at all. The red dust and the dry air made the smallest breeze kick up clouds of bothersome sand.
As they day passed, the mood of the camp was subdued. Of course there were the usual boasts and wagers. But even they seemed to lack the usual enthusiasm that was so often associated with army camps.
Therak and many others spent the time checking their equipment over and over.

Time passed at a crawl.

The assault itself was nothing but a chaotic blur. A constant dull aching of his whole body, parries and cuts into whatever exposed flesh he could find. His legs burned as he tried to keep close to both the Chieftain and his mate. Somewhere along the line the portal collapsed, covering the battlefield in a cloud of dust. The shouts went up "To the ships! To the Harbor!" and Therak did his best to urge Bloodmark and Rhonya in the right direction. In the chaotic scramble for safety Therak was jostled to the side, stumbling over a corpse and something heavy fell on him from behind.

He could see the ships in the distance, a heavy weight holding him down. Bloodmark's unmistakable form was making its way up the plank to one of them, and he thought he could see Rhonya on another one, then a something stomped over the tauren on top of him and everything went dark.

It was a good day for Fess'kar. At first he thought it was not, not when the Portal they had so painstakingly built had been ruined. Especially when Vemda, the she orc he had his eyes on was on the other side...
But then they'd routed the green skinned weaklings! Or well, the others had. Fess had been stuck guarding the supplies... Luckless Fess the other orcs had called him. Always Luckless Fess... But not so Luckless now!  While the others were tending their wounds, he had the chance to 'make sure the green bastards were dead'!
That meant he had an excellent opportunity to take anything he wanted off them too! Perhaps enough to finally attract a mate of his own! Vemda was pretty of course... But there were plenty of pretty she-orcs around. Soon they'd have to call him Luckblessed Fess! He chuckled to himself as he searched through the pockets of a horned furry creature, discarding a blood stained letter with contempt and pocketing a small pouch that clinked of metal.
Not much, but every little bit... He chuckled again as he thought of what he'd already collected.
Wait... there was an orc under the big one! And this one had a satchel. It -had- to contain something valuable...
It took several minutes to move the oversized bastard of an orc enough to finally be able to search the other one.
He scrambled up to the orc, shoving a worn and ugly hat aside, almost gigglesnorting as he saw the ring on the orcs finger.
'Now that's a nice color of metal... With that I'm sure to attract someone...' He muttered to himself and stretched out to tug at the ring, cursing as it wouldn't come off. Just as he was about to reach for his knife, and cut it loose the orc beneath him opened his eyes and his hand darted towards Fess'kars eye.

Things weren't changing for Luckless Fess... Not for the better at least...

Therak wiped his blade on the shirt of the orc he'd just stabbed. His victim was barely old enough to shave, but he pushed that thought firmly aside.
The shadows of Dusk had the world in its grip and that gave him some time to get his bearings. There was alot of activity down by the docks, clearly not friendly. There was no way he could take a ship on his own so he turned a half circle, his eyes landing on his hat.
A smile spread across his lips. 'Well, that's improved my day at least... I still have my hat.'
The darkness would hide his skin color at least, and if he took the helmet and shoulderpads of the dead orc he'd pass as one of them from a distance.
A few minutes later he'd managed to strap the too big shoulderpads to himself, and managed to remove the padding to put the uncomfortably tight helmet on his head.
Time to find a way out of here...

[Kaigron]

Love these kind of stories as I get to know the character! Well written.

[Okiba]

Brilliant! the letters made for a lovely bonus!

[Gromgeth]

Love the added music.

Iron Maiden \m/

[Therak]

Written in a bit of a hurry and not entirely pleased with how it came out. But here's the second part of what Therak was up to after he got seperated from the rest.


The hoots and howls of his pursuers cut through the jungle, causing the birds to explode upwards to the safety of the skies. Therak grunted and pushed himself back to his feet, they'd caught his tracks again.
He'd had only a few minutes rest, he'd trusted his skills to buy him more time then that. But this was their home turf, their lands and the jungle was hardly a place Therak was at home.
He set off at a jog, weaving between trees and trying to avoid the worst of the underbrush. The humidity and heat made it feel like each breath had to be sucked in through a wet blanket. He wasn't sure when he'd last slept, or even eaten.
A burst of movement on his left caused him to throw himself down and to the side, coming up in a roll with a blade already lashing out towards his attacker, the white painted face reeled back with a yelp of pain and Therak followed it up with a thrust.
He only stopped long enough to check the dead orc for any water before moving off again.

Hours later, night was falling and he could still hear his pursuers. Always just behind him, always hooting and howling. They weren't chasing him, they were herding him.
He took a moment to catch his breath, and pull a pouch out of his satchel, smirking to himself as he opened it and began to drop the caltrops behind him as he moved on, each pointed end filed to make a barb. He didn't want to be the one to pull one of those out of his foot...
The gleeful howls soon turned into howls of pain.

He'd kept moving for days, eventually reaching the mountains. The Frostwolf he'd found and spoken to said they still resisted the Iron Horde. North and west, into the cold. Head there to find what refuge remained in Draenor.
Draenor... this didn't look like the Draenor he knew, but that meant little at
this point.

The further west he got, the colder it became. Soon there was the first signs of snow, and he had to cut his blanket up to wrap around his hands and feet. He was starting to wish he'd brought his winter armor along, or even worn it. Of course, it'd have been as dangerous to him in the jungle, dehydrating him as his other armor was now, leaving him exposed to the cold...

It'd been almost a week when he finally reached the end of the mountain range, he could look out across a snow covered landscape with jagged and sharp mountains, and perhaps volcanoes.
All he could feel of his hands and feet were pain, the wrappings hadn't been enough but his options were limited. Keep moving and risk dying from exposure. Stay still and die of exposure or go back and die from the Iron Horde.
Keep going, perhaps others in the tribe had gotten this far... It was the only realistic choice.

The descent would normally have been easy enough, there were good handholds and footholds availible, but he had trouble gripping them.
To make things worse, his hands were bleeding to the point they were bleeding through the wraps.

Suddently, the world exploded around him and he fell. He hit the ground hard, a sharp pain digging into his chest and he could feel ribs breaking. The air around him felt charged and the charge slowly grew. He shook his head to clear it and looked around, his eyes falling on a brown orc clearly channeling something, lighting dancing across his hands, next to him crouched another orc carrying a spear in hand grinning savagely. He lept high up in the air, closing the distance in a single leap and Therak barely managed to roll away before the spear stuck the ground where he'd just been. He kept rolling, lighting striking from the sky throwing up shrapnel in the form of sharp rocks.
Therak finally got to his feet, his hands uselessly gripping for his weapons as the spear wielding orc rushed towards him. He barely managed to get out of the way of the spear before he was tackled by the other orc both of them landing hard on the ground. Therak flailed with his useless hands, taking blow after blow towards his already injured ribs before he finally got a strike in that stunned his attacker momentarily.
Long enough for Therak to dig his teeth into the throat of his opponent.
Blood rushed across his face and his opponent thrashed trying to get loose, but before long the thrashing slowed down and Therak let go, pushing himself up and stumbling towards the lightning channeler who was channeling frenetically now that his ally had died.
Theraks stumbling turned into a run, and he smashed his elbow into the throat of his opponent, feeling a certain satisfaction as he crumbled to the ground, gasping for breath that wouldn't come.

Therak slowly began limping out into the frozen plains. He'd have to find Frostwolves somewhere... Or he'd not survive for long...