Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-25828117-20191026122532/@comment-7262318-20191026175447

A week earlier

Shrava sat by her lonesome once again, away from the campfire of the others. The group had arrived on the edge of a small pond, and had made camp there for the night. While the others were chatting and getting ready to sleep, Shrava was staring out across the waters and quietly thinking about the road ahead of them.

She thought a lot about her experience within the mist. Long had she talked about taking her revenge on Delusul, provoking the same fear within him that he had provoked within countless others. And yet, when she saw him there within the mist, she crumpled like paper.

She wondered about how that could have happened? Every moment of the last 8 months had been spent cultivating her spite for the Dark Elf, fueling her hatred and focusing all of her fury onto his existence. How could it be possible that she still feared facing him? Was it because of his power, and his ability to warp the mind of many souls into docile, brain-dead beings? Was it because of all the ways he coerced and convinced her into following him, only to reveal at the end that it had all been for not? Was it because of the stitches and scars on her back that she had allowed for his ‘experiments’? Perhaps a terrifying combination of the three?

As she thought on this, the bushes rustled behind her, followed by heavy footsteps.

“Come to finally take a bath in the pond?” Shrava asked.

“Way you keep askin’, I’m beginning to wonder if you just wanna see me naked,” Garran responded.

“Hah… whatever helps you sleep at night,” Shrava rolled her eyes.

“Anyways… I just came to see how you were holdin’ up,” The Orc said, taking a seat next to her.

“This One is holding up fine…” Shrava nodded.

“You sure?” He pressed on. “You’ve been awfully quiet the last few days. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to miss when you’d just insult everyone for no reason…”

“Yes… This One is fine.”

“Ah, you’re a bad liar,” Garran grunted. “C’mon… what’s up?”

Shrava drew in a breath. She was content with her newfound friendship with the Orc, but the one drawback was that he seemed to be developing a sixth sense and knew exactly when she was troubled. Not only that, but he would not take ‘fine’ for an answer. She appreciated that he cared, but it was nauseating to keep touching up on old feelings and memories when she had all but bottled them up and sealed them away.

“… This One keeps thinking about the mist,” she said.

“I figured… seems like everyone’s been shaken up by it,” Garran nodded.

“… what did you see in there?” She asked.

“I, uh… I saw a few… other Orcs,” He muttered.

“What other Orcs…”

“I… my ma’s clan,” He admitted. “They uh… there were a lot of them. Axes, big… I think the mist made ‘em bigger than they were supposed to be… growling and talkin’ about how they were gonna chew up the runt.”

He shrugged. “I ran… didn’t look where I was going, and ran smack-dab into the middle of Emile’s sword,” He sighed. “That was about it…”

“You fear your brethren?”

“They ain’t my brethren,” Garran shook his head. “They wouldn’t have me, and I didn’t really like them all too much either.”

“It seems as though their judgement haunts you?”

“Haunt’s a pretty strong word,” Garran looked at her. “I mean… well, I’m not really scared of it… it just stung a little bit.”

“A little?”

“… Maybe a lot,” He said. “I got over it… I’ve never actually met them but my ma’ kept telling me, If I went to find them, I’d be murdered. Hung up as a warning to all the other travelers…”

“It’s just… it sucks, you know? To know you can’t ever go to your real home because you came up short in the bloodline aspect of things…”

Shrava nodded, still looking into the water.

“What about you?”

Shrava stiffened up then. “… She saw her old master.”

“Oh,” Garran grimaced.

“Yes,” She said. “This One thought she was ready to face him again… then he came to her in the vision and she… she fell apart.”

She let out a deep breath and closed her eyes. “This One is angry at herself.”

“Angry?”

“She was supposed to be ready for him to show his face,” She growled. “She was supposed to be without fear. She was going to beat him into a bloody mess and take her vengeance for the years he had stolen from her and the torment he had caused… and…”

She reached out for the ground and squeezed the dirt. “… She wasn’t.”

“Shrava-“

“She was supposed to be ready!” She repeated, a tear welling up in her eye. “She… was supposed to be ready…”

“Hey, c’mon…” Garran said soothingly, noticing the tear rolling down her face. “Shrava, listen… I…”

Shrava reached out and wrapped her arms around the Orc, tightly hugging him and burying her face into his shoulder. Garran had essentially opened the floodgates and the tears could not stop. “She can’t face him, Garran… she can’t…”

Garran was taken aback by her sudden move, but after a while returned the hug. There was nothing that he could say that would abate her worries. This monster, whoever he was, had caused all of this rage and fear and heartache within Shrava, presumably over the course of many years. That was not going to be fixed by his limited choice of words.

Instead, he simply held her and allowed her to bawl into his shoulders. “It’s… it’s gonna be alright,” He whispered to her. “I’m here.”

“Shrava… He will break her… and you… she can’t…” She choked up on her words. “She… can’t let that happen to you… or them.”

“It won’t,” Garran said. He didn’t know that, of course, but there was no reason to feed her fears. “If this bastard shows his face, we’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt you. Or anyone.”

Shrava held onto Garran for a moment, looking up into his eyes with her own, reddened from the tears. “… Thank you.”

Garran nodded and brought her closer to him, resting his head on her shoulder and patting her back. “We’ll be alright… promise.”

Shrava returned the hug, in no rush to break it.