Honour Scarred

[Rudha]

Rudha's Prequel

Caged

I should have been drowned at birth, Rudha thought to himself as he gripped the steel bars on the cage he had been trapped in for the last four days. He growled at a group of pinkskin females as they walked past with buckets of water, startling one of them as her bucket fell to the ground, spilling into the mud. You are a disgrace, Rudha. To let these pathetic creatures take you. To take you without a fight! He punched one of the bars, immediately regretting it as pain shot through his fist and up his arm.

He dropped down into one of the corners, his back against the bars, and let out a deep, grumbling sigh. I have brought dishonour to myself, to my clan... to the horde. Suddenly, he felt a gentle brush touch upon his shoulder and he jumped up, growling like the wild animal these humans thought he was. His gaze froze, however, as he saw a young human girl looking at him through the bars.

"Forgive me," she said. "I did not mean to startle you. I do not mean you any harm." She gave him a strange look, the corners of her lips curled upwards. Was she smiling at him? He had never been smiled at before. At least not by any human.

Rudha said nothing, keeping a fixed, grim stare on the human girl.

"I have always been fascinated with orcs. I wonder if I could pick your brain, if you don't mind?"

Rudha jumped forward, only a bit. "You'll have to kill me first before you take a blade to my skull!"

"No! I didn't mean literally!" She covered her mouth as she started laughing at him. How dare she laugh at him! It wasn't enough that he had dishonoured himself by getting captured, but now he was being ridiculed by their females. "I mean, ask you some questions, about you and your... kind."

Rudha's eyebrows raised curiously. "You... you wish to speak with me?"

"That's all I want." She smiled. "I give you my word."

Green Eyes

What could she want to know? Perhaps she wanted to know Garrosh's plans, his strategies. Pfft! It wasn't as if Rudha had ever been invited to the war councils. "Ask your questions then, human," said Rudha, keeping his expression guarded.

"Is it true that when an infant is born in Orcish society, the Chieftain holds it and pledges his protection to the child?" she asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

Rudha raised an eyebrow. "That is true."

"Oh," she sighed. "I wish the lords of the Houses did something of the sort to the children born under their rule. It would surely give them a stronger connection to their people."

"Do I look like I care about your wishes?" Rudha growled.

"Oh, I'm sure you weren't born with that grim expression..." She ran her eyes over over him. "May I ask your name?"

"You may ask," he said. "I won't tell."

The girl dropped her shoulders and sighed. "I don't mean you any harm, you know. I do not agree with keeping you caged like this, but Lord Thraend holds no love for your kind."

"Thraend?" Rudha narrowed his eyes. "He is my captor?"

"He is the Lord and commander of this outfit." She glanced around at the soldiers stationed in the camp. They were all dressed in iron plates, draped with red cloth. The whole camp was full of them, and as Rudha took the time to examine his surroundings he guessed that this girl was perhaps the only civilian in the entire camp

"Then I know who to kill when this cage shatters beneath my fury..."

"If I were to tell you that perhaps you need not kill anyone, or break any cages to secure your freedom, would you trust me?" she asked.

"Trust you? Hah!" He grabbed the bars in front of her and snarled. "I'd rather die then place blind trust in someone like you!"

She smiled at him. Why did she smile? Was she not terrified of him? Damn this cage! Were no steel between them she would never dare speak to him, let alone mock him as she did. As he stared at her freckled face, he unwittingly found himself gazing into emerald-green eyes that stared back at him, feeling the grip on his expression slowly fade. There was something about them, and as he felt a rumble in his lower stomach he broke the stare, shook his head and turned his back at her.

"Leave me, female," he said. "Let me rot here in peace."

She gave a sigh as she walked away.

I need no help to break this cage...

Fury

I need help to break this cage... Rudha thought to himself as he let his back fall against the bars he had spent the last hour trying to bend and break. He slid down the steel, his rump hitting the cold floor with a thump. His forehead was beading with sweat and his hands gleamed with crimson blood.

"Stupid beast," came a voice few steps away. As Rudha reared his neck he saw two guards stood, leaning on their halberds, grinning wide through the opening in their helmets. "Can't believe Stormwind refers to this as a war. They should call it what it is, a beast hunt, a necessary culling of overpopulated wild beasts."

"I don't know," said the other one. "I think they've proven to be a formidable foe in the past. I think calling them beasts might be a bit of an underestimate."

"Whatever," barked the first one. "I know a beast when I see one." He walked up to the cage, his plated hand gripped tightly around the halberd.

"Careful..."

"Just watch," he said as he raised the halberd, extending it towards Rudha and jabbing it
at his side.

Rudha jumped and growled. "Keep your stick away or I will shove it somewhere nothing was meant to go!"

The guard laughed. "Your threats might mean something if there weren't thick steel bars between us." He stepped one foot closer and thrust the tip of the halberd into Rudha's side, piercing the skin only a little. My threats always mean something.

The guard's eyes became pools of shock as he realized that Rudha had the halberd's neck locked in his knuckles. "Stay away from me," Rudha growled before pulling as hard as he could on the halberd, knocking the guard's head into the bars. He watched with pleasure as the guard slunk to the ground with a motion as smooth as silk.

Rudha took the halberd, held it under his crossed arms and watched as the other guard dragged his unconscious friend away. "You'll regret that, orc!"

I'm sure I will.

[Claws]

Oh my.
Nice read.

[Nosh'marak]

Love it!

[Rudha]

--Updated with new chapter--

Thanks!