The Lost One.

[jawaa]

The quiet nighttime jungle noises of Stranglethorn Vale were all one could hear at this time. That is, until, a small troll went tearing by, followed soon after by a band of shouting trackers and hunters. The young girl was running for her life, and the jungle harbored even less mercy for her than the trolls chasing her. Thorny vines tore at her clothes and skin, and the beasts of the land sensed an easy meal and joined the pursuit, lashing out at her, inflicting more wounds.

The young troll ran even after her legs went numb, and her lungs burned. She ran faster and faster, no longer concerned with being quiet, but outrunning those chasing her. She finally saw water ahead, and without a second thought, leapt off the small cliff and into the ocean, and swam along the bottom, swimming behind giant leaves of kelp and coral formations. After a few minutes, long after her lungs started screaming for air, she swam to the surface, forcing herself not to rise out of the water, but merely poking her nose and mouth out to gasp for air.

After a few moments, she looked around, realizing the water around her was red with blood in the moonlight. Her blood. Realizing she would not live long if she did nothing, she tore what remained of her clothes into strips and bandaged herself the best she could in the water. She desperately needed to rest, to get out of the water, but she swam north instead. She would not be safe anywhere near Stranglethorn.

--

Dawn washed the coast of Westfall in a golden light. Crabs skittered about, clicking their claws and hunting for food. One crab wandered across a mass of flesh and cloth half buried in the sand. It poked curiously at the mound with its claw, and when it didn't move, pinched and twisted viciously to tear a bit of meat off, thinking it to be fish.

The mound screamed and suddenly stood up, smashing her crude axe harmlessly against the crab's back. The crab, now startled, ran quickly away into the water. A murloc in the meantime had heard the troll girl's scream and alerted his friends, all of them running to attack and make a meal out of her. Again, the girl ran, this time into the green tree line of Elwynn Forest. She kept running, past very short and pale looking trolls, past more beasts that wanted to eat her, past so many things, until her body said no more, and she collapsed under a tree.

Barely able to move, the troll looked around. Nothing here seemed to want to attack her, and if anything did, she might possibly be able to handle it. Further down the hill, she saw more of the odd pale trolls. they appeared to be younger, in training. She would have to stay away from them. Looking back to herself, she took this first moment she had to think, and plan out what to do now. Her axe was dulled on the crab, her shield worn thin and cracked, and her clothing was in tatters. She herself was battered and bloody, and impossibly tired. She rolled in between a tree and a rock, and wedged her shield between them to make a third wall. Curling into as small a ball as she could, the lost troll quickly fell into a deep sleep.

[jawaa]

(( I actually rolled a character and ran it all the way out to Northshire Valley just for this story. It's actually really fun so far. Even running around flagged to make it more realistic, though it scares me to death every time an alliance runs past. I haven't been attacked yet though... Anyways... everything that follows actually happens in-game.))


The troll girl woke up to the sun shining through the limbs of the tree. She smiled and stretched taking in the new day. As she slowly stood, the pain from her wounds screamed back into her body, and immediately she doubled over. After a few minutes, she forced herself to relax, and began un-tying her crude bandages, to see how things were healing underneath. Most of her injuries were healing nicely, and she thanked the spirits for the regenerative gifts of trolls. Her stomach rumbled loudly, and she reached into her bag and pulled out one of the last pieces of jerky she had. She would need more soon. She looked at the pile of bloody cloth strips that had at one time been her clothes and sighed. She would need something to replace them with.

The troll picked up her worn shield and axe and poked her head out from behind her tree. She didn't see anyone, save for an odd looking rat person with a candle on it's head. Maybe it would have something she could use...

After a few minutes, she had new gloves, bracers, and a belt, none of it matching with the rest, and a few scraps of food. It was then that she saw a tiny warrior rush a rat-thing right next to her, killing it almost instantly. The troll girl ran and hid, but the short fighter seemed oblivious to her existence and ran off to another target. The troll poked her head out after a few minutes, and nervously resumed her gathering.

--

The young troll slowly progressed, learning combat by watching what she was fighting, and turning their techniques against them. She was surprised at how little attention the short pale trolls, humans she vaguely remembered them being called, paid her. a few even helped her kill things when she was overwhelmed by rat things. One even lead her across a river to a grove of trees that had even more humans in it, though there seemed to be a war between the two sides.

The humans on the other side of the river were mean to her, and attacked her. She fought back, and was rewarded by learning new fighting styles from them, as well as finding slightly better things she could use, mainly food.

Every night she curled up under the same tree. Every night she wondered what she was going to do, knowing she could not stay in this land forever. She did not know where she could go, just that she had to go somewhere else. And every night, she dreamed the same nightmares, re-living in dreams the painful events that put her in this situation.

[jawaa]

Running seemed to be a common theme for the troll girl, for again she was running. She had been sleeping when footsteps approaching from behind woke her up. Always on guard, she jumped to her feet and turned to face whoever was coming, her axe and shield ready.... as a blast of magical fire caught her squarely in the chest. Immediately she ran. Her attacker gave chase, followed by a large blue being.

She didn't make it very far. She collapsed nearby a lake as the blue beast brought its heavy fist across the back of her head. The warlock stood over her body for a few minutes, then left, leaving her to the beasts of the forest. The troll laid there for a while, til she was sure the caster was gone. hearing the wolves circling and growling hungrily, she grabbed her axe and used it to drag herself into the lake, hoping that the wolves would lose interest in her there. Once she was in the water, floating on her back, feeling the cool water against her burns, she lapsed into un-consiousness.

[jawaa]

The waves brushed gently against the body on the shore. The troll girl lay there motionless in the tall grass, watching as light faded from the sky, not daring to move until the stars were out. she had come to as her head slid onto the shore, but she had heard sounds of fighting nearby, and resisted the urge to run into the hills. she didn't know how long she had been out, or how long she had even been awake.

As darkness fell, and stars one by one began to appear, she wondered if this was how she was to die. Alone in a strange land, with no one to save her, no one to remember her. Desperately, quietly, she wished for someone to help.

The troll's head bolted up from the ground as she heard a splash on the opposite side of the lake. she couldn't see anything there, but knowing that something was in the lake with her scared her enough. Quickly glancing around, she bolted out of the lake and into the relative safety of the nearby hills.

[jawaa]

Days passed, then a week, and some more days. Each day that passed, she willed herself to keep on doing... she didn't even know anymore. She hardly even thought anymore. She was surviving on nearly pure instinct, managing to scrounge together just enough food to keep her alive, as everything in the forest around her
set out to kill her.

And then her axe broke as she was hunting for food. The wolf she had been fighting had caught the handle just right in his mouth, and twisted it just so, snapping the head off the handle like a twig. The troll lashed out a few times with the splintered handle, but the wolf just seemed to grin at her and reached out, catching her arm in his mouth. The girl yelped and wrenched her arm free, ignoring the gashes left by the wolf's teeth, and ran into the nearby lake. For some reason, nothing ever followed her into the lake, so if she was ever in a bad way... that was the first place she went.

She lay there in the lake, waiting for the wolf to lose interest, and watching as the regenerative troll blood in her veins did its work on the cuts on her arm. After the wolf wandered off, she swam to the shore. Her stomach rumbled loudly, and she looked from the broken axe in her hand to the wolf that had broken it. She needed food, and soon. Pulling one of the last few crude throwing axes from her bag, the young troll drew back and hurled it at the wolf, burying the head neatly in its side. As the angered wolf charged at her, she flexed her fingers inside her gloves, and hid behind her worn shield as the wolf slammed into it. Attempting to block the wolf's attacks with one hand, she began swinging as hard as she could with the other. but she could already tell she was on the losing end of the fight. Slowly she backed into the lake.

Suddenly the wolf ceased it's attacks on her. she looked down at it, and saw a look of pain in its eyes as it flopped limply to its side. The troll moved her eyes to the wolf's side, where a long glowing blade extended out, into a plated hand. She didn't wait around to look any further. She turned and ran a few paces into the water, stopping to look back. The armored figure pulled the sword out of the wolf and slung it over her back. Then she looked at the troll in the water and grinned slightly.

"Oi."

[jawaa]

((Yay Kimmy!))


Kimdreg took a step into the lake towards the quivering troll, who responded by defensively raising the remains of her axe up. The orc started laughing. "Like dat'd stop me! Yer lucky I'm not 'ere ta fight ya."

The troll girl lowered the axe handle slightly. "Y-you're... an orc?"

"Last time I check... wotz ya doin' way out 'ere?"

The troll stood silent in the water. Kimdreg squirmed her boots in the mud, shrugged, and stepped out of the water onto dry shore. "I gotz it, none o' my bisnez."

The troll girl slowly turned, keeping her attention focused on the orc in front of her. "I'm here alone... I was chased here. That's all I really want to say on the matter." The troll paused, glancing around nervously, until she was satisfied nothing was going to eat her at that moment. "What are you doing here?"

"I gotz my reasonz." Kimdreg stated shortly. "Sidez, I saw ya in dat scrap dere. Ya doez good in it."

The small warrior looked down at her shattered axe and beaten gear and sighed quietly. Kimdreg eyed the girl and smirked. "But ya isn't gonna kill anyfing wit dat... Ya wanna fix dat o' get a real pig-stikker."

Standing waist deep in the water, the troll girl decided that the orc in front of her was safe enough, and cautiously stepped onto the shore, settling into a tense crouch. Kimdreg watched the small warrior and her apparent unease. "Ya wantz me to go?"

The troll almost leapt towards Kimdreg. "No! I... uhh, I mean, not unless you want to. Y-you're the first person that hasn't tried to kill me for... a while."

Kimdreg smirked and glanced around. She was far too close to the human settlements for her own comfort. "Well... I ain't gonna stay 'ere longer dan I has ta. Kome on, letz get you outta 'ere." With that, she started walking along the shore, brushing past the little girl, who just watched in silence. Kimdreg turned slowly when she realized she wasn't being followed. "Ya komen?"

The little troll glanced around, quickly thinking back to the humans gnomes, elves, and everything else that had attacked and injured her. She jumped up and ran towards Kimdreg, stopping a few feet short. "Yes... please. Let's go." Looking down, then back up, she added: "I'm called Rizin."

The plated warrior grinned slightly. "I'm Kimdreg. Now come on, let'z go."