The Empire Over the Wall

[Thrukk Guldarp]

Alamores Castle, south of empire territory


In the dark of night, the flaming bundles of tar-soaked rags provided the most light. Hurled down by the defenders of the Outer wall, they only served to light up moving targets.

Thrukk crawled through the mass of bodies that threatened to plug to gap. He stayed still for a few seconds to catch his breath. Arrows thudded into the bodies around him. He could hear breathing around him. More like him, pretending to be dead.

After a day of being battered by Empire catapults a section of the wall had crumpled. They had all cheered.

Thrukk had cheered.

Now, he would have rather been in the slave fighting pits than this breach.

The first band to charge the breach had all been former slaves like Thrukk. They had conscripted. Anyone who survived the initial assault would earn a bag of coin and a real position in the ranks.

Thrukk had earned repute in the fighting pits of Cerak At'thul. He had thought this would be easy money. A chance to buy his freedom.

Instead he doubted any would survive the assault and earn their coin. The climb up the rubble had been far harder than it had seemed from a distance. A hail of arrows had greeted them. Spearmen waited atop the rubble for those lucky few who had survived the first barrage and kept climbing.

His hand wrapped around the handle of his hammer. His hand was slick with blood. Not his own.

"Who is alive?" he hissed.

 

[Masika]

“So this is the muscle that’s supposed to help us?” Even with all her armor strapped on, javelins behind her and holding onto her beloved mace-axe firmly, Masika didn’t look like what muscle should’ve looked like. For one, she was the shortest fighter here. Second, her face wasn’t marred with scars. And third, she was smiling nervously at everyone around her.

The men around her were taller than many of the men back home. Their broad, thick chests were bare to showcase their corroded crisscross of trophies. Worst of all: no one was smiling. The best she got was a sneer.

“They could’ve sent a woman with more, yanno.” Masika ignored the obscene gesture.

“What’s with all the tats?” She heard. “Decoration?”

“Must’ve been a mistake. She’s a goner.”

“Pretty faces never make good fighters.”

“Um!” Masika interjected, her empty hand making a face to help ground her. “I promise to fight hard. You’ll see! I’m stronger than I look!” She smiled brightly, brown eyes sparkling with her determination. As if Masika was the funniest person they had met, the group of terrifyingly large and strong men laughed at her.

“You think so, Girlie? Tell ya what, you last longer than our old pal Junaid and I’ll give you half of what they’re paying me.” Masika followed the hand that was bigger than her head point to a man who was even bigger than him. His skin looked stronger than the armor she currently wore and he had only one eye. Surprising to Masika, his thick beard shown brightly in the sun like a ruby. Maybe because he had no hair elsewhere he took good care of his beard?

“What if we both survive? Do we split it?” Junaid and the betting man gave each other a look.

“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure only one of ya is getting out alive.”​

---

“I’m alive!” Masika called out, beginning to lift herself up, struggling to get to her hands and knees so she could lift up the fallen body of Junaid off of her. Nice guy it turned out, he had taken quite a few arrows for her. Unfortunately one got him right in the eye and he had toppled right over Masika.

Maybe he hadn’t actually purposely taken those arrows for her, but Masika liked to think they had become friends.

But by the Hundreds was Junaid a big man! So wide! So heavy! Such a great shield— oh that wasn’t a very nice thought, was it?

“I’m alive!” She said again once she had slipped out from Junaid’s hulking form to be met with… another big man. Was that a requirement? To be big? Maybe she really didn’t belong after all. She looked around, searching for her mace-axe and seeing the head of it poking out behind her, the shaft covered by the blue-gray muscle-heavy thigh. Masika sighed. “Just a minute, please!”

 

[Vlash]

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAEEEEGH!"
Up and screaming with swords in each of his three hands the pink skinned monster leaped forth. Unlike those that saught cover the reckless berserker clearly took little or no shelter from the hail of arrows as three pierced his arms and chest while one stuck out of his left leg. It gave him the look of a furious pin cushion.
"MMMMURDERRR!"
His simple and oddly desperate cry came as he returned to scrambling up the mound of bodies and debree thinking nothing of who was yet alive as he sunk his blades into bodies that he might find purchase in the trickling river of blood and piss that began to ebb down the rubble. He spared no glance at Thrukk nor Marika as he approached. It was clear that he had no intention of stopping now.

 

[Thrukk Guldarp]

“Just a minute, please!”

"Take yer time."

Darkness and the mass of bodies were his only protection. Thrukk reached out to try and find something to protect himself. A shield or a breastplate would offer some protection.

Retreat was not an option. Once they had signed up to the Forlorn Hope for the initial assault, it had been made clear that a retreat would be met by a hail of arrows from their own force.

Thrukk didn't know what their plans were. Perhaps if the entire Forlorn Hope perished in the first attack on the breach they would consider it a worthwhile use of resources. Maybe all their lives would be traded just to find out the strength of the men on the wall.

MMMMURDERRR!

The creature charging through the hail of arrows swinging swords was the perfect distraction.

"Alright," Thrukk hissed in the direction of the female voice. "Move slow at first. Goes for anyone else still moving. Forwards!"

Thrukk crawled on, dragging his mace over the bodies and rubble. There was a whole line of spears waiting, but he fancied his chances of he could get close enough to charge them.

 

[Masika]

Her beloved mace-axe in hand, Masika finally moved out from the weight of Junaid’s body.

“Right!” Masika said, somehow her voice not shaking, resolve clear in her eyes. However there were other things that showed her fear, like her white knuckles as she griped her weapon or the second it took for her to start moving.

It wasn’t necessarily the abysmal circumstances that she found herself in that frightened her, but the pink… creature that was showing a sort of bloodlust she had never seen before. She heard the shout for more arrows to rain down on them and without thinking, the woman raced forward.

She saw the line of spears awaiting for them and coming to Thrukk’s side she shouted up at him, “to get past them, do you think you’re strong enough to throw me and the… one behind us over the spearmen?” She kept up good pace despite her legs being so much smaller. “Even if only I can get over there, I know I could make a opening big enough for you.”

Vlash Thrukk Guldarp

 

[Vlash]

Distracting he was, very much so in fact for a great weight of attention now bore down on the Devil Vlash as he made his way up among the recently dead and still dying.
"THE HELLS IS THAT?" One shouted in surprise as Vlash failed to go down under the second hail of arrows.
"KEEP FIRING, KILL IT!" A commanding voice ordered.
The hail was getting annoying for him then one of his swords, which he was using to gain purchase on the slippery slope hit a wounded soldier and she cried in pain.
This gave Vlash a truly evil idea.
Jabbing his two remaining weapons into the pathetic excuse for a warrior he hoisted her up in front of himself as a grotesque shield.
"AAAAAAAGH!" Her cry pierced the sky as he scrambled forward cackling.
"CLEVER BOY, CLEVER BOY, YESSSSSS!" His gross self congratulations were drowned out by the useless woman's screams of agony as arrow after arrow pierced her chest legs and belly. She was forced to face the oncoming counter assault of frightened soldiers too panic stricken to stop.
Vlash closed the gap now, nearly upon the right flank at the top of the rubble. Spears faced him and he smiled.

Thrukk Guldarp Masika

 

[Thrukk Guldarp]

“to get past them, do you think you’re strong enough to throw me and the… one behind us over the spearmen?”

Thrukk grunted. The tone conveyed that he could. Getting Thrukk to be quiet was normally more difficult than getting an answer out of him.

He was used to the scent of death, to the sounds of agony. It was the scale of this that he struggled with. Hundreds of the dead were plugging the breach in the wall.

Jabbing his two remaining weapons into the pathetic excuse for a warrior he hoisted her up in front of himself as a grotesque shield.

The thought had occurred to him to hold someone up as a shield. Right now, Thrukk saw their only chance in gathering enough survivors to make a last charge through the breach.

Thrukk stood up, grabbing the woman by the back of her shirt by both hands.

"Go orn then!" he said, twisting at the waist and hurling her over the line of spears. He grabbed the next in line and threw them too.

"Anyone still alive!?" he cried out, voice booming. He yanked a breastplate and held it up as a shield. "Come on!"

The ogre went charging up the rocks and over the dead. With enough distractions there was a slight chance he could get through the wall of shields and spears.

 

[Masika]

Masika was about to repeat herself, wondering if maybe she hadn’t spoken loud enough to the giant beside her to hear her. She was opening her mouth, moving over to find cover, but was soon picked up like she was a ragdoll. Masika braced herself as she was hurled up and over. She curled up into herself, turning herself into a ball, and had one arm protecting her face while the other tightly clenched her weapon.

It was a good throw, she realized, as she managed to be high enough that even when the enemy lifted their spears up, she had a good amount of space to protect her from the sharp points. She landed a few feet behind the spearmen, rolling another couple of feet away before standing up.

Some of the men turned around, breaking away from the back of the line. Masika got up quickly, taking a deep breath. It was only for a second and then she was dashing off to spearmen facing her. There were three but Masika felt no fear. She was smaller than them, had less reach— especially with the disparity of length in their weapons— and yet she moved with unflappable determination.

She was fast, pushing her thighs to push as much power as they possibly could down into the ground. If one blinked they would miss it, the way Masika gave herself a wide berth that should have put her at a disadvantage to close the distance between her and the three enemies. Faster than what was normal for any human, she was behind the three men, and with a bloodcurdling war cry she swung her maxeace at their heads.

The swing was powerful, knocking the men into each other. The least injured had a broken jaw, but the unfortunate soul that had taken the most of her attack had his head lolling off on his broken neck. Masika didn’t hesitate as she bashed their faces into the ground, easily denting the metal like she was a blacksmith set on making a new sword.

The spearmen still holding the line looked back, but it was already too late: Masika was running towards them, preparing to swing her mace axe and break their manmade wall.

Vlash Thrukk Guldarp

 

[Vlash]

Not long after Marika and Thrukk had begun to engage Vlash hit the spearwall on the far side from them.
The poor soldier he was using as cover, now long dead, he used to crash into the mortified soldiers of the wall. The ghastly sight sent fear through them like a shockwave and the Sword Devil took full advantage, hacking and slashing this way and that. The enemies ringlet armour was defense enough for their bodies and their helms and shields protected well but their arms and legs were less guarded.
The first one to loose their hand tried to force their way back in fright and the screaming spread.
His three arms lashed out like whips. Indeed he seemed to have little bones at all in his limbs as they warped about his foes defenses, darting in at unnatural angles to cut and slice with precise cruelty.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
His laugh was hysterical glee. Even when a spear struck his leg he did not cry out in pain and only turned with savage menace upon his attacker and laughed as he cut them down.
Vlash had brought with him a frightening honesty to the bloodletting.


Thrukk Guldarp Masika

 

[Thrukk Guldarp]

It turned out that there were more than a few of the forlorn hope still alive. When Thrukk started his charge people rose up out of the mass of bodies and followed.

They knew that if they ran back they could be killed and that if they stayed eventually the assault would end and the soldiers on the walls would come down to finish the job.

Following Thrukk seemed the best choice in the moment.

He was less certain. The girl was over the wall of shields and spears, but those points were all lining up in his direction.

A clang rang out behind the line. A scream rang out to his right. The faces in front of him suddenly looked panicked. They turned. Thrukk could see how thin and fragile the line was.

A spear was thrust down towards him. The seasoned pit fighter grabbed it with one hand. He pulled himself upwards, turned and swung the spear over his head, flinging it's wielding down the breach.

"Fiiiiight!"

 

[Masika]

The exhilaration! It was addicting! It was wonderful! It was divine. Masika wasn’t certain if she had ever felt more alive than now: there was an acute awareness that took over her. All at once she could feel her heart beating, the blood rushing, her muscles twitching, joints and ligaments working. Her body seemed to have synchronized like a well oiled dwarven clock, everything working in perfect unity and harmony.

There was rhyme and reason in the fight around her, with every movement from Masika granting her the edge she needed to make that opening for the others. Beside her was another comrade, the pink monster (in the best sorts, not the worst sorts!) with their three arms that was bringing twice as many men down than Masika.

She grunted with every big swing of her mace axe, knocking men to the side or bashing it against their head and shoulder to bring them down to their knees. The spearmen were outnumbered soon enough, and the archers above them were trying their best to use their arrows one by one to help their comrades but it was futile. Masika ducked into cover once again, watching Thrukk and the others charge through.

She took time in catching her breath, analyzing the current moment. They needed to get rid of the archers. And Masika took that job upon herself, letting Thrukk and Vlash handle things on the ground while she began to quickly scale up a wall.

Vlash Thrukk Guldarp

 

[Vlash]

They were starting to understand now. Not fully of course, few could gain that kind of insight from just a few moments engagement but the backs of their little brains were sparking with the recognition of what they were facing.
They couldn't cut him down, he didn't bleed.
He had no bones to break.
No organs to pierce.
Vlash was entirely a thing unlike any of them. The Devil hacked until his swords became too bloody and clotted to cut anymore so he simply smacked them against helmets and shields, smashing defenders off balance and joyfully charging one or two off the ruined heap of rubble that had been a wall. Some that fell got up and ran, even into the enemy lines perhaps hoping that mercy would come at another enemies whim. It didn't.

They were starting to keep their distance until one of them, better than the others, perhaps a leader? They spoke to Vlash, barked words or at least what passed for words among these feeble and hated things.
"Fight me Monster!"
It sounded like screeching animals to him, worse than that. It was a wholly infuriating noise. All of them did it and they wouldn't freaking stop.
Vlash answered with an unintelligible roar and dropping his wrecked weapons leaped onto the soldier. Their surprise at him was what sealed it. With the help of a third arm grappling an opponent with a mere two upper limbs was easy and within seconds Vlash had one of his pink, six fingered hands around the soldiers throat and was squeezing for all he was worth.
"Shut-up, SHUT-UP! ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT-UP!"
The scene shocked the others who formed the spear wall about them, now in disarray. Too stunned to even notice Thrukk creating his own discord or the swift Masika scramble up the ruin of the wall to reach the archers.
A sickening snap at it was done. Vlash picker up the dead soldiers sword and cried out again, leaping up to attack the next nearest spear.
He was not yet done with them.

Thrukk Guldarp Masika

 

[Thrukk Guldarp]

It had all descended into chaos. Chaos suited him and the stragglers that tried to finish the climb.

Order was the ally of the defenders of the wall. Neat lines and a small front to defend. Chaos and bedlam could let even an ogre like Thrukk survive.

He swung his mace and took each step in turn. Even when he struck armour, he sent humans sprawling.

A distant horn sounded. It was ahead of them, not behind. The forlorn hope - those damned and sent into the breach - could not take the castle. The defenders were ordering more troops forward.

"Take the walls!" Thrukk cried out. If they could hold this piece of wall then the imperial force might send reinforcements.

They hadn't been sent to start the real battle, but to die forcing the defence to show some of its strength.

 

[Masika]

In no time at all she was climbing up the wall with ease, movements nimble and fluid that hid just how much she was exerting herself in climbing a wall that shaded the fighting below her. Everything was going well though, with Thrukk and Vlash down below causing chaos in the fort’s copacetic forces, granting Masika just the time she needed to get to the top.

At least she though as much until the archers did see her. Luckily it was only one who noticed and it was much too late as he shot a arrow her way. She leaped up, trying to cross more distance but it was easier said than done— and because of her lack of skill, the arrow embedded itself into her bicep. It was a crooked thing that might have whizzed by her if she was slender, but the flash of pain was enough to really have Masika focus on getting to the top as quickly as possible.

Another leap, this time taking the risk of bending her legs more and crouching much like she did as a child mimicking a frog. When she jumped upward, rock and debris crumbled beneath her feet and Masika felt like a kite that had just been thrust into the air by a strong gale. She had enough time to remove her mace from its slot on her back and hurtled herself down to the wall.

The archers were stunned, even if their body moved on its own to grab arrows and pull back the strings of their bow. Right after Thrukk had cried out, Masika swung her mace axe, knocking the first archer off the wall.

Vlash Thrukk Guldarp

 

[Vlash]

The horn blast and Thrukk's command rand in Vlash' ears.
His face opened unnaturally in a gaping smile that showed rows of his shark-like teeth.
Which he used to bite down on the face of the soldier before him.
He had grabbed this one and forced him to look at his face as he bit down tasting the breaking of his skull. The horrifying spectacle might have gone on for a longer time but for the urgency of his situation. So he clamped his jaws tight and utterly shattered the poor mans frontal skull. Two fled back and he looked forward into the city to see the gathering garrison of soldiers marching lock step to repel them. Shields locked and spears forward.
He wondered what to do about it as an archer fell behind him with a heavy thud.
Turning around he offered the poor soul his hand. Weak and barely able to see the archer lifted his hand to take it.
With unholy strength Vlash gripped the mans wrist and bracing his foot against the mans chest pulled hard with his two right hands releasing the man from the burden of a working limb and then beat the poor soldier to death with it.
Above him the wall was being taken.
WITHOUT HIM the wall was being taken.
Biting onto the limb and holding it tight in his wicked teeth Vlash climbed up the wall like a spider. He would not be left out of the action.

Thrukk Guldarp Masika

 

[Thrukk Guldarp]

Thrukk continued at the centre of the brawl in the breach. He was stood in the rubble from the section of the wall that had been collapsed by imperial catapults.

He was certain that far behind them, the imperial siege forces were watching carefully. They would have expected their Forlorn Hope of slaves and volunteers to die in the breach. They would have learned about the enemy and then returned to launching stones to bring down more of the wall. More breaches and more assaults.

Thrukk didn't care about the outcome of this battle, nor of this entire siege.

But he didn't want to die.

The girl was up on the wall, in amongst the archers. The angry beast was climbing up after her.

Ahead of them, the second line of shields was advancing. What few had survived the charge into the breach couldn't take the fortress.

"With me!" Thrukk shouted. He gathered a handful and charged into the open ground between the wall and first rows of houses. Ahead of them was the inner keep. The final bastion of Alamores Castle.

He turned sharply. Rather than lead the survivors to their death against the shield wall he turned and found the stairs on the inside of the wall. An archer was fleeing down them, only to be greeted by Thrukk. His mace crushed the slender little human against his own wall.

"You, you and you!" Thrukk shouted, pointing a fat digit. "Hold these stairs."

The wall was not meant to be held from an attack from the inside for long, but it was better than the open field or the breach against the defensive spears.

"Take the tower!" he cried out. The door to the next tower was currently open, but it would be closed soon. The girl or the monster would hopefully hear him and rush on.


In the dark of night came a welcome sound.

Drums.

Not the defensive force, but the imperial army.

They were sending more troops.

Thrukk grinned. They might just survive the night.

 

[Masika]

Masika was quick but the archers were spread further apart than the initial row of shields had been. She had to keep moving, couldn’t afford to stay still as the archers also had daggers hidden away on them that they could pull out and sneak up on her with.

In truth, Vlash coming up to the wall was more of a help than Masika realized in that moment. Not only did he make it so not all focus was on her, but it gave her that extra second or two she needed to finish clearing off the wall. If the archers on the outer wall were down, that had to count for something, didn’t it?

Thrukk shouted to her. The tower? Masika paused, finding Thrukk’s hulking frame (how on Arethil could he climb up those walls? Did he actually fit on those stairs?) and then took another moment to understand his words. Take the tower? What tower? Masika looked behind her, over the side, even the other side, and looked forward again. Yes, she was strong, but what good would taking out the tower do? Did he just want her to barrel into it?

“WHAT?!” She shouted back.

Vlash Thrukk Guldarp

 

[Vlash]

"Something about showers but it doesn't look like rain! Hee hee haw!"
Vlash had joined Masika stop the wall and was beating an unfortunate archer with a severed arm when he spoke. His shoulders peppered with arrow shafts.
He didn't care about towers. Only that there was fresh killing to do there.
The archer screamed all the way down to the ground.
His eyes moved independent of each other to search for someone else to toss over the wall.
His pink six fingered hands snatched and scratched and held each one high before dooming them to the unforgiving earth.

Thrukk Guldarp @

 

[Thrukk Guldarp]

One day later

A siege was a dark business.

The soldiers had talked about it. Thrukk had been brought here in a caged wagon. Purchased from the fighting pits of the Black Bay to sell, they had approached the army in train to offer the slaves they had.

Whilst still in his cage they had talked of the impending battle. They had expected days of testing the defencing, thousands dead before they finally broke the defence. Then would come the chaos. The looting and raping and burning.

They had said that the commanders knew that after the horrors of trying to push through well defended walls, the commanders would turn a blind eye to this outpouring of violence for a day. If it did not stop on the second morning, they would erect a set of gallows to make a point.

This was late in the night after the city had fallen. A handful of slaves and volunteers of the Forlorn Hope had survived the first breach. They had desperately held enough of a wall for the army to make a sudden assault and take the gates. The fate of the city had been sealed.

They say around their fire in what had been a market. The smoke and low-hanging clouds above glowed a deep umber from the numerous fires that had been lit. There was the odd cry, the occasional clashing of swords as pockets of resistance were found.



"Hey, you all got some ale?"

A group of regular soldier in uniform stopped at the edge of their firelight.

Thrukk stood up. His skin was marked by dark ruddy smudges of dried blood. Much of it was his own.

"Fuck off an get yer own," he said.

The sergeant in the group rolled his shoulders as if he was about to give an order. Then, after a moment of thought, he decided to follow Thrukk's suggestion.

Thrukk picked up a helmet that had belonged to one of the defending soldiers. It had been filled up with ale.

"So how'd you two end up here?" he asked. It had taken just enough insanity from the three of them to move forwards into the breach when all hope had seemed lost.

 

[Masika]

Masika had put it on herself to be the one to cook. She had felt guilty about it, going through various buildings and collecting items that could be used to feed others. She tried to keep the thoughts out of her head as she entered rooms that felt lived in, with personal belongings still lying around.

It was better to focus on the task at hand.

Sitting around the fire with Thrukk and Vlash— names she had asked from others and not from the persons themselves— Masika was busy roasting various things on sticks. As they were ready she would hand them to others. She had taken the time to season the goat meat, better she kill it than someone else, and had made flat yet soft bread. It was exhausting work and nowhere near as nice as she could have made it. Masika, usually so full of energy, felt tired for once.

She didn’t even feel nervous when the biggest of them, Thrukk, cursed at the sergeant. Masika kept her brown gaze on the fire before her, absently pulling apart pieces of bread to put into her mouth. She looked up when there was a question addressed for her. She rubbed at her bandaged bicep, the arrow had come out cleanly but there was an obnoxious soreness that lingered.

“Empress-Reagent Medja sent me.” Masika said with little enthusiasm. “Some extra muscle for the cause.” There was a weak chuckle as she thought over the conversation she had when she first arrived. Poor Junaid.

Vlash Thrukk Guldarp

 

[Vlash]

They were doing it again.
The noise.
The noise that came from their mouths.
Useless, ugly mouths.
But for all his natural hatred of them he had enjoyed the day and was feeling less aggravated than he typically would have.
Today many of them died, that was good.
"Was asked if I wanted to kill for the Empire."
His mouth dropped saliva as he spoke. His eyes watched them independent of the others.
"I told them I'll kill for anyone, heh, they offered me money, heh heh."
His laugh was a dry and cruel thing that worked it's way out of his throat.
He was cleaning his swords at the time. Three hands worked oil and cloth up the curved blades. His arms bore new trinkets of metal, jewellery he had looted after the fighting. All of them taken from people he had killed.
He did not eat not drink at all having taken his fill of death from the days battle.
He wondered when he'd get to kill again. There were no monsters here like him. No things born of hate. They all killed for their own reasons. It was amusing to hear them. As if murder itself was not a peace all it's own against the ceaseless jabberings of life.
"And you? Why does an, Orc fight for the Empire?"

Thrukk Guldarp Masika

 

[Thrukk Guldarp]

“Empress-Reagent Medja sent me.” Masika said with little enthusiasm. “Some extra muscle for the cause.” There was a weak chuckle as she thought over the conversation she had when she first arrived. Poor Junaid.

"Empress-Reagent sent you, and you ran at the wall with the first batch of stupid fuckers meant to die? Feck, y'av got bigger bollocks than me," the crude ogre noted.

"And you? Why does an, Orc fight for the Empire?"

Thrukk considered correcting the demon. A few drinks in, Thrukk decided that he didn't want to contradict the creature. The girl was almost pensive, this thing seemed disappointed that the fight was over.

"Not much choice in the matter. Brought here in a cage. Promised if I survived - which they thought we wouldn't - I'd get to go free."

Thrukk didn't think much of that promise. He was more likely to be able to slip away in the night, or hope anyone who remembered why he was here had died.

"Guess I'm the lucky one, survived being forced into that fucking hole in the wall."

 

[Masika]

“What?” Masika said, looking at Thrukk with wide eyes. She was supposed to die? Mistress Medja would never! She wasn’t even a emerald hand, still only a granite hand. As Vlash and Thrukk spoke further, she was still contemplating the fact that she should have been dead. Had she been sent here to die?

“Are you… a prisoner?” Masika asked sheepishly, towards Thrukk. To Vlash, she looked over at them as well and then motioned to some of the food. “And won’t you want to eat?”

Vlash Thrukk Guldarp

 

[Vlash]

Vlash looked at Masika with one of his eyes and spoke in his chill rasping voice.
"I have eaten my fill. Hech hech hech."
His laugh was a mocking noise. It was true he did not hunger. He never hungered, ate only when he was able to and favoured fear above all flavours. Today there had been much fear.
"Yesss, we were to die today but we didn't. Weee killed THEM. Hech hech. And tomorrow we will kill more and more."
The idea genuinely delighted him. Had he known he could kill so many so quickly then he would have started soldiery years ago.

Thrukk Guldarp Masika