Grim Views

“Avon den, Tranquility”. Bloodshine’s raspy voice, usually so guttural in orcish, spoke the smooth tongue of gnomish as if she had always spoken such a way. As she spoke, she let her shield and mace fall to the dirt floor once she brushed through the tent’s entrance. Normally she would care about the respect towards her weapons and would have offered them more ceremony, but not today. She was tired, her head ached as a troll’s head should never ache. Since her return to this plane she had been whisked through an Azeroth of chaos. With only the desire to improve her skills and power for a future purpose guiding her taloned hand, she found that she ended up as one grumpy troll at the end of the day. To many this type of life would be an adventure, a challenge, and although she had the stomach for such things like any good old warrior would, well, Bloodshine found that daily her heart rested its care in other matters. Matters she could not even begin to address.

A gentle voice of gnomish origin replied to Bloodshine in the orcish tongue, “Pick those up, we aren’t slobs, now are we, no we are not, my dear Bloodshine, now did you hear that Fizzle and Pozzik are still in business and have a speed barge out in Thousand Needles, well, in what was Thousand Needles was I mean of course now it’s the Shimmering Deep and I would very much like to go there, I think you and I could have some fun, you still remember what fun is, right my dear?” Tranquility, in his gnomish way of run on sentences, looked up from his book, his eyes, brilliant blue, sparkled at the sight of the old troll.

Bloodshine didn’t give the gnome even a respectful glance, but sat down heavily on the furs, propping up a few to rest her back against. She sighed. She was no further ahead than she had been the day before, with the exception that her skills and strength had far surpassed what she had thought possible of any normal Horde or Alliance. But the days were no longer normal, and the world was not as predictable as it had once been when manipulations and control had been within her grasp. At least, she thought to herself, aligning with The Grim, as her daughter had once done, had been a clever move on her part. The way of the guild and her own were shared in the shame desires, at least in principle, if not in every action.

With a feline stretch, Bloodshine raised her arms over her head and rested her talons behind her mess of red hair, pausing to rip out her pony tail. “Any news, today Tranquility?” Her old, raspy voice was back as she spoke in orcish.

The gnome closed his book, and stepped over to sit beside Bloodshine. He looked young to the untrained eye, but in this world one could never tell the true age of an inhabitant. His hair was bleach blond, his skin a light tone. His nose large and even bulbous with the boyish quality that most gnomes are renowned for. To top all this off, he had the bluest eyes that ever had existed on a gnome. He seemed quite comfortable beside the ancient ex Matron of the Sandfury Trolls, and she just as comfortable in his presence. This suggested that the two of them have been together for some time. “Of course there is no news to be given today, Bloodshine, it’s the same as every day neither of us has been able to find a hint of where to look or where to turn for Lilliana, she and that demon have both vanished into the nether as souls that are damned often do and I will probably give you the same answer tomorrow and the day after as you will most likely give me the same answer in turn.” Tranquility spoke gently. He was not cross with Bloodshine and shared in her sorrow on a daily basis.

Bloodshine’s black eyes, enormous orbs unusual for a troll, narrowed and she hissed. Her face contorted into an expression of hate and anger that were only present to mask the sorrow of the mother that rested beneath. It smoldered and burned painfully and she knew that it would until there was something, anything, to put it out. She was not attractive and quite fearful to look upon when she was in such a mood, if you know how trolls can look when displeased.

“You know I hate it when you hiss as it is such a nasty Sandfury trait that I would have thought you to be exempt from my dear.” Tranquility glared at Bloodshine and she leapt up to her feet realizing that she had come home too early and needed some air.

“I’m sorry, Tranquility.” Bloodshine paused to lean down and kiss the gnome on the forehead, and then stalked back to the door, the way she had come in. She stopped at the skin hide flaps to say, “I’m going back out. When I return we could go to your Speedbarge and drink with the rest of the gnomes and goblins, if that really is your fancy.”

Tranquility merely grinned at Bloodshine. He had learned long ago to not question her moods, and he had learned even longer ago to steer clear of her furious tirades which bordered on berserking. She was a troll, after all. And he shared in her desires and plans. He would like to have the young troll, Bloodshine’s daughter, back among the living and prayed that her soul was returnable.

Once outside, Bloodshine snatched the reins of her undead mount, preferring to have the calmness of ground travel as opposed to the swift air travel her drake offers to her. She wasn’t going anywhere, only clearing her head after a day where her same head must have been smashed in about twenty times between Alliance and other beasts. She urged her mount out into the sands of Tanaris, her ancient homeland and onto the dunes of her youth.

She thought of the warriors within The Grim. They were all individuals to respect, as always of course, and they were always ones that their enemies would have reason to fear. Between Aureliya, the reserved mage and Gadu the determined druid that had powers Bloodshine had not yet witnessed on a regular citizen of the Horde since her return, and the others that had far surpassed her abilities, Bloodshine was quite confident that one of these warriors would have some information for her. Even the ones whose strength mirrored her own, ,such as Broyii and Lohuur, baffled her mind in their strength. The ranks had indeed been altered over the years; many warriors her daughter had befriended in the old days were retired or gone. She wished she could find the wretched little mage troll, Regnaetah, but reports had informed her he was long gone to an unknown location. Using Warneshi was out of the question, and his demise, or what she could confirm of the demise of his powers which caused her to lose his location, only further doomed her quest. Souls are durable things in this world, but once destroyed she has found that there is no way to bring even part of the essence back.

Earlier today she had traveled to Orgrimmar, to the Sandfury Embassy put into place by Warneshi. Warneshi, the self proclaimed ex Sandfury King that resembled her and the cursed Chief Sandscap, and born from the snake demon that destroyed her people’s strength, had gone into hiding shortly after her daughter’s death. Although Bloodshine accepted she was in part to blame, she had always hated the Soul Eater. A curse of her people, blood and souls were consumed as readily as food and water to a Sandfury Troll. She found that the Embassy’s building was still there of course, but used for other purposes. She had been confronted with a bustle of Horde rushing in and out conducting their business like good little drones within what once had been a hopeful liaison to her cursed and lost people. Much had changed in these six years, and there was much that Bloodshine had to learn if she was to be a success in any shape or form.

“Oh, Ioa Bwonsamdi, watch over her.” Bloodshine tightened the reigns and urged her mount forward. She knew that there was no Ioa Brownsamdi for her kind. Zum’rah, the cruel troll witchdoctor, controlled and manipulated the souls of the Sandfury dead. With this remember, she would find solace in the culture of her people, however terrible it be. Indeed, she had left behind this way of life when Sandscalp’s life and soul were destroyed by his “son” to curse him to roam Zul’Farrak for all eternity protecting his worthless sword, but she was still a Sandfury Troll, and all trolls have their primal urges, their instincts that over overcome even the most educated and wise minds. She felt her talons tighten around the reigns and rip the horse’s mouth to the side even before she knew what she was doing. She could find solace immediately. She charged towards the gates of the ancient city Zul’Farrak, where she was once known as Matron. She challenged the remaining Sandfury to come to her as she climbed their gigantic step pyramid which lead to the alter of sacrifice. Many Sandfury came to her, crazed in the delirium to protect what was left of the city. Bloodshine took her time in dismembering those of her brethren that approached her. And she took her time in the drinking of their blood.

After a couple hours of quenching her thirst, her bloodlust saturated, Bloodshine returned to where she and the gnome had placed their camp. She went inside and together they left for the Speedbarge where she joined with him and many gnomes and goblins (often fighting each other in a drunken heap of little limbs). Tranquility thought to invite the blood elf, Eezhe, strange one that he is, once they arrived and to make this a friendly affair.

Bloodshine was passive and polite for the evening, and all that a proper troll should be when in the public eye. Well, for what’s that worth in this day and age in Azeroth, anyway.




Bloodshine
Matron of the Sandfury Trolls
The Grim

((yes, the aim is to be creepy with the gnome, I hope I'm successful))


The night air was cool, and the reflection of the moon echoed off the waters of Ashoodwood lake, just like flame flickers against the reflective qualities of a mirror. Occasionally, like fish checking the surface in hopes of a stray bug skittering atop the surface, a ripple would occur, suggesting the life that rested under the clear surface. The trees of Grizzly hills stood sentry, casting shadows here and there, proud beings of the forest and of the lake to which Bloodshine and Tranquility, the young looking gnome, had come to visit.

Silently, Bloodshine swam beneath the surface of the lake. She waited to emerge until her lungs told her that they would burst if she spent even just a second longer surrounded by the crisp waters of the pond. When she could take it no longer, her head broke the top of the water in silence, her lungs quietly taking in the air that they had begged for over the past few minutes but to which she denied. With black eyes she gazed around her, enjoying the wind as it played with her wet hair, cooling her face. She loved how when your skin cooled after being in the water, that a quick duck under the waters surface warmed you right back up.

Drifting to the shores edge, Bloodshine rolled onto her back to gaze up at the stars. It was a quiet evening, the gentle aura that surrounded the lake quite the contrast to the chaos and harsh reality that is truly Azeroth. It was nice to pretend from time to time that peace actually did exist. Bloodshine was good at that, bringing herself to an alternate existence for a brief period of time. War didn’t have to exist every moment of the day, now did it?

“If you stay in there any longer, you’ll get all pruny and winkled and then what would you look like pretty silly if you ask me I believe you would never get me in there for that long, baths are never any fun you know that at least in my view.” A gentle and serene voice of a male gnome broke the tranquil silence that Bloodshine had been soaking up like a sponge. Her eyes cut towards the owner of that voice. Her eyes darkened and if looks could kill this one would have easily sliced his head off at the neck in a slow and torturous manner. When her glare landed on Tranquility, her gnome companion, her expression softened, almost became as gentle as the tranquility of the lake she floated within. She found her footing, stood up and stretched in her feline, animal like manner. She was unclothed, so as to allow her ease of moment through the water, she did so hate being encumbered by clothing and thought it a shame that she needed so much of it to keep her safe and to make spell casting and cursing easier as she fought the wars of the Horde. As she squeezed the water from her fiery red hair, her head thrown back still lost in her stretch, the soft light of the moon caressed her rough, sandfury skin and made it look smooth as silk. She made her way through the water to shore, droplets falling freely from her wet skin and hair and following her like a trail to tell of her travels until the air dries it up and it would be as if she never was there.

She stepped into the grass, and towards the voice of the gnome. He had hid himself comfortably within the grass, beneath large tendrils that grew almost to Bloodshine’s very tall height. The blades had fallen over, creating a small hole, to which he was resting within. Bloodshine joined him, skin somewhat goosebumpy from the cold air mixing with her wet skin.

The gnome raised a golden blond brow at the troll. Her level of introspection had grown quite fierce over the past few weeks. He knew that much rested on her mind, reeking havoc over her thoughts and her cold old heart that only had room for a select few. Bloodshine rested her head upon the gnomes lap and closed her eyes. Tranquility placed a plump hand upon her shoulder and watched her as she rested, her own war waging inside of her that had nothing to do of the wars of Azeroth. It wasn’t long before Bloodshine was sleep, her breathing slow and tranquil, as if she did not have a care in the world. And she dreamed….


Bloodshine dreamed of times long past. Within the deep reaches of her mind it became ages ago, became the ancient days of her tribe. Bloodshine, then but a small and spry youth, ran through the sands and rocks of Tanaris as if nothing could get in her way and slow her down. The sun beat mercilessly against her rough and bright skin and she felt the power of the world within her. The ancestors of the Sandfury brought to her strength and fed her with a thirst for power and knowledge, and an endless abundance of trickery that kept the future Chief of her Tribe on his toes. And with that in mind, a fierce battle cry erupted from behind her, a sword nipped at her shoulder, but missed.

“Ukorz, you are hopeless!” The young shaman, just a girl really, screetched with a laugh. She knew she didn’t even have the right to be called shaman yet, but she could cast spells that still caused her elders difficulty, and she spared no thought in driving the young Ukorz, back with but a shove of her mace. Ukorz, just a young child himself, with his fiery red hair so similar to that of Bloodshine’s, flipped his body back to avoid a clubbing that would have broken bones had Bloodshine’s aim hit true. His grace was fluid, his movement strong and sure, as a future leader should be. But despite that, Bloodshine had always given him trouble. He roared and threw his shoulder at Bloodshine, a reckless and stupid move, aimed to tackle and stun her. The opposite happened, and the two toppled onto the ground, rolling and grappling for control like crazed squirrels spinning around a tree branch. Each one aiming to be the one who landed on top, forcing the other into submission like a hunter forcing it’s prey to give up it’s life, grow weak and limp from exhaustion in fear and give in to the strong. Of course Bloodshine was triumphant, hissing and snarling as she pinned the larger troll beneath her strong arms.

The sand bit into his skin, and had fallen into his mouth and stung his eyes as Ukorz battled to be released. “Lay off, you wretched excuse for a female!”

“Say you give! Uncle uncle!” Bloodshine, her voice so clear of the rasp that all know her by in her life with the Grim, sparkled with youthful mischief and beauty as she challenged Ukorz to admit to his weakness. “Say it!”

Ukorz spat up sand into Bloodshine’s face, struggled, cursing, swearing, hissing, but eventually he gave in and weakly said “Uncle”. Together the two of them got up, laughing and beating on one another all the way home. Together they walked into the great, flourishing city of Zul’Furak. The streets bustling with the world of the Sandfury Trolls. When Bloodshine’s dark eyes met with those of her comrades, her brothers and sisters of her age as a child, her face burst into a childish grin. Here she was sheltered by the high walls of the city….here she knew that t was good to be home.

To be continued….

((Well, I’m trying to get some backstory here! And any folk are welcome if they see a spot they want to intervene, I’m friendly really!))