The Hunt Ends

[Grogok]

The Darkness  was all around him, so dense was it that he could not even see his own hands if he held them up towards his face. The only source of light was a green flickering miles behind him, or at least he thought so since the light never seemed to reach him and he did not dare look. He had been running for what seemed like ages, always with complete darkness all around him. His heart was pounding like it was trying to burst out from his chest to flee even faster, so strong was the fear that he felt as he continued his maddened rush forward. He had never felt this frightened before, it was a fear so strong that it defied all logic, his mind had grown blank and he had been running ever since. He did not  know what he was afraid of, or what he was running form, he did not even know for how long he had been running in the darkness, or where he was. He knew he was naked,  because the air was so chilling it made his skin feel like it was being pricked by a million needles all the time, and the ground beneath him was wet, cold and muddy, but as with everything else he did not know why.
Every once in a while, he would get a strong burning feeling at the center of his chest, as if someone had taken white hot metal and pressed against his skin. Whenever the burning sensation appeared in his chest, an ominous sounding drum was heard behind him, although he did not actually hear it as much as feeling it in his very being, as if the sound of the drum made his bones shake by the raw power of it. As sudden as the burning feeling and the ominous sound had appeared, it disappeared, when that happened he would always gasp for air, as if he had been holding his breath for long time, but every time it felt as if instead of air rushing in, it got pulled out of his lungs,  giving him a sense of being chocked, yet the fear forced him to keep running.  Almost instantaneously the ground beneath him was dry and burning hot, at the same time the burning sensation in his chest reappeared, but nothing was as before, it was much stronger, making him scream in pain. The scream quickly changed to a scream of fear and panic, the sound of the drums had gotten immensely closer, so too had the green flickering light, which had been behind him for as long as he remembered.
Now it was in front of him, blocking his path. A great wall of fel fire, but it was neither the ominous sound of drums nor the fire that had caused him to stop him dead in his tracks.

Above the fire was a huge monstrous face, like nothing he had ever seen before. Green runes covered the face, and from the forehead huge black and green horns reached for the sky. The mouth full of sharp teeth that looked like they could tear through anything, wide open as the being was laughing.
It was now that he realized, it hadn't been drums he'd heard, it was this beings laughter, so deep and full of evil intend that had shaken his very being to the core and made him flee in horror. However none of these things were the worst part. The worst part, was the eyes. Eyes that seemed like they could stare right through a beings heart and know their worst fears, eyes so red, that it looked more like huge maelstroms of blood, ready to pull any unlucky soul that got to close into a cruel and untimely death. It was these eyes that now stared down on him, as the laughter continued. He fell to his knees and the laughter rose in volume and his chest started to burn like never before, then all went black.

Kargnar woke up with a fright. In his hands was his axe, ready to strike at everything that might have attacked him, his body covered in cold sweat, his heart beating fast and his breathing shallow. However he was all alone in his camp, as he had been before he went to sleep, what seemed only a few hours ago. He tried to get his breath and heart back under control, with a forced slow breathing.
He placed his axe beside him and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands, muttering low curses while doing so. He had had that very same nightmare several times since the time in the barrens where the fel imp had hit him with its felfire. He had not told anyone, not even his blood brother about this, as he did not want them to worry about him especially since the rise in demons had given them enough to worry about that the time. He had been told the fel had been cleansed entirely from his body, which was supported by the fact that three of the present four shamans had been so exhausted that two of them had fallen asleep, one of them not even making it to a bed, but instead sleeping sitting up beside him, where she apparently had been while the cleansing and healing had been done.
But it was this that worried him the most, he could understand the nightmares if there had been even a little bit of fel still poisoning his body, and if that had been the case, he knew Srelok would have been constantly watching over him for any signs of weakness or trouble. It was also for this reason, that Kargnar had not told him about the nightmares, nor the fact that he planned on leaving for a while. He had planned this since the gathering that he had attended along with the chieftain, and had heard reports about cultists springing up all over Azeroth. The fact that his nightmares always were the same, and always had felfire in them, and that they had begun after he had been wounded, only made his belief in the importance of his plan even stronger, so a few days after he packed his things at night and snuck out of the camp they had at the crossroads.

This had been over a month ago, and in this time, he had been to almost every place where there had been reported sightings of cultists, and while he would always be able to find the tracks of large groups moving, often with signs of demons among them, or finding places that clearly had been used in a demonic ritual. The amount of demons and cultists he actually found was scarce. Whenever he found any, they either fought to their deaths or killed themselves before he could subdue them and question them. He was now at the border of Hillbrad foothill and the Arathi highlands as he had heard about cultists making up camp somewhere along this border.

Kargnar shook his head and let out an annoyed growl as he looked out through the cave opening.
"At least this time, I woke up with the sun" He muttered to himself, as he got up from his furs. He walked over to a bucket of water he had filled the day before, and took some of the water in his hands to drink. When he was no longer thirsty, he took the bucket and poured the water over himself to get the cold sweat from the night off of him along with making his mind more clear, as the cold water helped him wake up properly.  
Once that was done, he grabbed a few pieces of dried jerky from his bags before walking out of the cave and over to a tree stump, upon which he had placed a map of the area, fastened with rocks on each corner so it would not fly away if a heavy wind came. He started studying the map, while drying off and eating the dried jerky, making rings at the area he was going to investigate today and checking for the best route. The map was covered with similar rings, all of them crossed over, some with small notes at the site of them like: "saw signs of movement, of large group" or: "Nothing in this area, but good for hunting if things drag out" .
When he finally had decided on a route to take and eaten his breakfast, he got dressed and hid the stuff he wouldn't bring in the cave in a small hole he had made, covered by a large rock. He then went outside again and let forth a sharp whistle. While he was waiting he went down to the nearby river and filled his drinking skin with water.
As he was kneeling down by the river, the familiar sound of heavy paws running reached his ears and drew a smile to his face. He may have been able to leave his tribe and his blood brother behind without as much as a word of goodbye, well knowing he would see them again of course, but his worg, that had grown up with him for years was an entirely different thing. Kargnar got up on his feet as he was satisfied with the amount of water he had filled into the drinking skin, and turned around. Behind him, sitting on its hunches with its tongue sticking out of it large and frightfully strong jaws, was said worg.  He went over and scratched the work between the ears and it licked his hand as he did so.
" Slept well?" He asked the large beast, which let out a soft growl in response. One thing that stilled amassed Kargnar to this day, despite having been around frost wolves most of his childhood, and most of his life in fact, was how intelligent they were, they reacted to what was being said to them, in ways that could only happen if they somehow understood what had been said. Kargnar scratched the worg once more, before putting a saddle on him and mounting up.
"Let's hope we find something today, hunting these weaklings are getting tedious." The worg let out another soft growl before moving. "Not to mention the feldamned nightmare." Kargnar muttered beneath his breath.



Kargnar swore slightly as he pulled a dagger out from his arm,  throwing it next the dead body of the cultist it had belonged to. He had found the camp a little over noon, although there were hardly any cultists left. Most likely the cultist that were there were the lowest ranking members, or the weakest, since they had been left to leave last, but that did not stop Kargnar.
He had two things to ask them about and he was damned if he would let them get away, or let them all die for the matter, not this time. He had climbed down from the worg silently, and removed its saddle and armor, so it could travel freely and silently.  He had then told it to wait for an opportunity and strike at one of the cultists when they were alone, and to keep the cultists alive.
Kargnar looked around in the camp, all around there were dead cultists and traces of lesser demons that had been slain by his axe. Confident there were no more enemies, he places his axe against the mountainside and inspected the wound. The last cultist had in panic breath stabbed wildly with his dagger, which had resulted in the stab wound in the upper arm, however the panicked cultist clearly had not known how to use the weapon, or to apply any damage, for it was clear that despite the dagger having been stuck the damage it had cursed was superficial.
The cultist itself had been cut deep in the neck by his axe around the same time the dagger went into the wound, so the wound had not caused any trouble for Kargnar during the battle either. As the wound had been bandaged, he used the dead cultist's robes to clean the worst blood of his axe, before he turned around and left the camp. As he was walking he let out a small three tuned whistle, and was rewarded with a wolf howl a bit further to the left.

As Kargnar arrived there, he could see a cultist lying on the ground, clearly alive as the chest, although with some trouble due to the huge worgs front paw were places right in the center of the cultists chest, to stop him from moving, rose and fell as he was breathing. From the amount of bite marks on the cultists arms, it was clear that he had at least tried to put up a fight, or tried to take his own life, but the powerful jaws of the worg had simply bitten down on the arm he had used and broken the arm.  The cultist moved his head as Kargnar got closer,  staring wild eyed at him, clearly fearful of why he was left alive by this huge beast. Kargnar kneeled down beside the cultist, studying him for a while.
"I have some questions for you, if you answer correctly and are helpful, I will free you." he said, while continuing to study the cultist to see if he understood. It left a foul taste in his mouth, as he saw the panic stricken eyes, turn more calm at the chance of making it out alive.
Cowards, all of them. he thought while eyeing the cultist.
"Let's start with a more easy question. I got hit by felfire about a month ago, and have had the same occurring nightmare ever since, I want you to tell me how to cure this." He said staring down on the cultist in front of him. The cultist stared back at him, all the same, before a slight laughter left him, quickly stifled, as the worg snapped its jaws to getter right in front of the cultists eyes, making him quickly rethink his actions.
"You have likely been marked, a way for powerful warlocks, or demons to torture someone from a far. If you only have nightmares, it could because your will, when you are awake are too strong, or the more likely scenario, you aren't the only one which are being tortured by whoever or whatever is doing it, the mark will be somewhere on your body. If you feel pain in these nightmares, the mark might be around there." The cultist's scared gaze left the worg for a moment to stare at the imposing orc that were kneeling beside him, blood splashed on him, from the other cultists.
"Did you get a burn or an open wound when you got attacked? If it was open, the mark might be placed on the inside rather than the outside."
This time the cultists couldn't help smiling, a smile that never really reached his eyes, but was full of malcontent and hatred, mixed with fear and pain.
"How you would remove the mark, I don't know, I don't deal in healing them, but more in inflicting them."
Kargnar snarled, and as a reaction reached for his axe, but stopped himself as he studied the cultist. He had to stop from doing what he wanted, he had more to ask.
"Fine, the other thing I want to know is: Why are cultists gathering, where are you going and who commands you?" He could see how the fear appeared on the cultists face as this, which was quite understandable, the answer would very well doom him no matter what he chose. The cultist was just about to refuse to answer by shaking his head, when he once again stared at the worg.
"I don't know why, or who. Only that something big is about to happen, it must be, since even the newest and weakest of us are put to work, we are being gathered from all over. I have heard rumors that we are going to gather in Tanaris, Un'goro and Silithis." The fear was clear in the cultists voice as he spoke. Kargnar swore within himself, but on the outside he mustered as smile as he got up on his feet.
"Thank you for answering my questions," he said as he turned around. His smile turned to a soundless snarl, as the cultist's hopeful voice reached him: "You will let me go right? that was the deal!"
Kargnar threw a glance over his shoulder at the cultist.
"A deal is a deal, and you did answer my questions."  Kargnar raised his hand as it to order the worg to let go of the cultist, who let out a sigh of relief. "However there is only one problem, I never said I would let you go, I said I would let you free. I will free you from your cowardly life that is."
The cultist was trying to get on his feet for a second, before the words truly struck him, but if he had tried to say anything or scream for help, that was silenced before he even had a chance, and the worg's jaws closed around his throat, killing him instantly.  
As the deed was done, the worg walked up beside him, licking its bloody muzzle.  Kargnar absent mindedly placed his hand on the head of the worg as he scratched it.
"At least we got one truthful answer of this one, it would seem it is time to start heading home."he said as he pulled out a map of Azeroth, along with a piece of coal. He crossed over Hillbrad foothills and Arathi highlands, before running his gaze over the map. At the bottom of Kalimdor, the three areas, the cultists had mentioned were already crossed over.  
Kargnar let out a low sigh, but still couldn't help smiling, as he gave the worg its saddle on once again, and rode off to pack up his camp and head home to the tribe, he just hoped he wouldn't be too late, so they had moved to a camp that he could not find.

[Rhonya]

Argh, Karg, I'd love to read this, but.. pleaaase, paragraphs! xD It's just one huuuge wall of text right now... *strains eyes*