Matter of self respect...

[Uguu]

This story contains seriously "Not for children" themes and mature subjects. User discretion is HIGHLY ADVISED.




"It's just for a few weeks..." The armoured woman spoke up at the man looming over her, his Fel-green eyes locked onto hers, as he quietly drummed his fingers against his folded arms. "Damn it, Sathia... If I didn't owe your mother..." With a bright smile, Sathia lept against the man, wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you... I owe you, greatly..." The man cracked a grin, laughing for a moment, as he returned the hug."Ahhh... The hell ya do, girl. Your mom would hit me with a pan, if I held a debt for... 'this'." The seriousness of the event finally dawned on the woman, her smile fading away as quickly as it had come. Slowly, she released him and slid down to her feet, adjusting her clothes neatly. A heavy frown, he nodded once to her, and handed her the mace she'd set down onto his table. "Look... I can't tell you how this will end, or even what to do. You're a big girl, you'll do just fine. Just come back safe, alright?" Those words hung with Sathia, clinging into the deepest reaches of her mind, as she made her way out of the modest building and into the street. Silvermoon City... It had always been a beautiful home to her, but it offered no safety against what she must do. She had done more than just a few favours to convince a local mage to grant her his skills, a portal to a distant land. Her objective warrented it, atleast, as she soon found herself in a Horde camp in the Grizzly Hills. "Hey! Blood elf! Get over here, now!" She turned to face a rather imposing figure, a brutish Orc if there ever was one. A cracked, scarred face, and a towering broad form gave the Orc a dominating show of force. Hesitant to do so, Sathia quietly followed the Orc into the center of a pack of tents. There she found another Orc, far smaller, laying out on the ground. Screaming. His arm was covered in blood, a large gash running down his shoulder to his forearm, as three other Orcs worked to hold him down.

"Fix him." Despite the confusion, the man's injuries were rather clear. So, Sathia stepped forward and closed in with the Orc. The others watched as she quickly mended his wounds with a force of Light, the Orc's screams dying down as she did. Thankful, the Orc was quick to exchange his thanks with her, and even offered some coin. She declined, simply waving her hand at him to display this, as she turned to face the Orc from before.

"...You could have said please." Even with her mask covering most of her face, it was clear that she was certainly far from the bravest Sin'dorei to face down an Orc. With a glare, he loomed over her, and snorted right in her face. "What brings your kind here, elf?" "I'm looking for someone..." The Orc snorted, again, waving her off with a fake, metal hand. "Can't help you. Go find your friend elsewhere, I've better things to do." With a heavy breath, Sathia set off from the gate, and walked out into the road at the start of the forest. The Grizzly Hills, she hadn't been there in her entire life, and she had expected herself to find a single person in the entire mess of it all.

"Light... Guide me well."

[Uguu]

Hours later...

Sathia carefully put her boot down onto the ground, easing herself down from the log she climbed over, when she took a moment to check her surroundings. Admiring the quiet beauty of the forest landscape, Sathia allowed herself a short respite from the past few hours of hiking in armour. Slowly, she lowered herself down against the log, letting her legs slide out in front of her, as she relaxed as best she could. A slight tug of her finger had her mask down around her neck, as she took in the smell of the forest with a slow inhale. "It is pretty out here, atleast..." Listening to the sounds of the forest as best she could, she began to feel herself drifting away, though always kept herself from sleeping completely. Her eyes slowly scanned the clearing ahead of her, little more than an old stump of a once great tree, and the half-eaten corpse of a local stag. As her mind began to wonder, she leaned her head back against the log, and gently shut her eyes part-way. Nearly twenty minutes passes, in silence, before she lifted her head forward again to re-examine her surroundings. Then she heard a slight crack coming from above her...

She suddenly turned her head up, finding herself looking at a man with a crossbow pointed at her forehead. "Don't even breathe..."

Staring at the loaded bolt, her eyes caught the motion of two other men as they moved in around the log and stood beside her. Slowly, she got to her feet, keeping her eyes on the weapon, before taking a step back from the three men. Suddenly, another Sin'dorei put a hand on her shoulder, as the Undead with the crossbow dropped down in front of her. With a narrowed set of eyes, the Sin'dorei spoke to the Undead. "Lou, put that damn thing down. I told you, no Sin'dorei. Period. We're letting her go." The crossbow suddenly turned onto the man, himself, the owner hissing back in anger. "No. I'm sick of your damned 'feelings' for your people. We're bandits, you moron. Stop acting like some damned goodie two-shoes." Finding herself stuck between what seemed like a comedy, Sathia began looking around, slowly, for anyways she might have to disarm the apparently kill-happy Forsaken.

Before anyone could even react, the third man, an Orc, suddenly blew the Forsaken's head off with a shotgun, sending the body to the grassy floor. "This bores me... I'm going home." With that, the Orc began to lumber off, reloading his shotgun as he went. Before he could defend himself, Sathia suddenly grabbed the other Sin'dorei by the arm, and forcibly slammed him against the ground. "Do not move, you hear me?" Despite smirking like an idiot, the man opt'd to just obey, and kept himself limp on the ground. "Relax, miss. I'm on your side." Drawing out her mace, Sathia lifted it above her head, prepared to bring it to bear if he resisted. "Some common bandit... On my side? Who are you, why are you here?" "Yeah... I'm a bandit. Gotta make a livin', somehow. Point is, I told that idiot not to target Sin'dorei. He did it anyway, so I guess I'm outta work, eh?"

"How many have you killed...?"

[Uguu]

The two stared at each other for a few moments longer. "...Twelve or so." Their eyes narrowed at one another, as Sathia took hold of her mace, and his own hands tighened around an axe. "You know... it doesn't have to be like this." "Murderer. You deserve what you get." Before he could open his mouth again to protest, Satha had suddenly rushed forward, breaking his hand with a downward stroke of her mace. Screaming from the pain, the man loosened his axe from hand and let it fall to the grass below. Despite his attempt to reach for his dirk, Sathia soon cracked his skull with another swing of her weapon, and finally put the bandit down. As she watched the body hit the ground, blood leaking from the dent in his skull, Sathia turned to look around for the Orc that had left before. Finding him gone, she simply moved on from the scene, and continued her journey forward. Carefully, she removed a small scroll from her belt, and rolled it open. Taking a few minutes to get herself read, she soon set a course towards the north, to a position marked on the map. Within the quiet, seemingly unpopulated forest, Sathia began to feel rather alone, her mood declining steadily as she made her way through the forest.

Hours passed before she finally reached her destination. Onward, she looked down from the hillside and at a deserted campsite. The fire snuffed out only minutes before, as she slowly moved closer. With a heaved breath, she checked around for a moment, before moving on. Upset with failing to located her 'objective' at the site, Sathia began humming tunes to herself, trying to keep herself motivated as best she could. Not long after she left the first camp, did she find the second. Cages lined the campsite, a pair of guards watching over their captives, as Sathia started checking their defenses from a distance. "So uhh... How much longer we gonna keep this lot, eh?" "f**k all if I know, alright? Boss just says to stand here, and 'look pretty'. So... Look pretty!" Watching the two men argue back and forth, for what seemed like two days, had the already tired woman on her last legs. Finally having buckled over, Sathia found a quiet, safe distance away to make camp, and slept for the night.

The following morning...

[Uguu]

"Get up, wench!" The man screamed into a scared woman's ear, dragging her forcefully to her feet, tearing away what little of her ragged clothing she had left to cover herself. Beaten and bruised, the woman could barely stand on her own, as she was violently thrown forward and into the dirt. Blood ran down her arm, as the brutish thug harshy grabbed her up by the throat, and forced her to stagger forward a few more yards. Tears streamed down the prisoner's cheeks, as Sathia struggled to keep herself from lashing out at the men, full well knowing she'd just be cut down by the two of them. Unable to watch anymore, she ducked down behind the hillside, and tried to focus on preparing herself to strike, when an opening was presented. Laughing and cheering, the two men took turns beating the already weak woman with sticks and the blunted edges of their swords. Hearing her scream, pleading for mercy and help, Sathia slowly edged up from the hillside, peeking down at the two men, as they threw their captive into a pit. "Gonna play a game! I put a few land mines in there, if ya can cross the pit without bein' blown ta bits, you can go free!" Letting out a sick cackling laugh, the man goaded her forward with a jab with his spear. Barely even able to walk without stumbling over, the woman began to cry more franticly, desperatly trying to navigate the hostile mined pit of mud and sludge, praying to some uncaring god for help.

Sathia flinched, the sound of the woman screaming for a moment as she put her foot down onto a land mine, the explosion blowing her in half and turning one of her legs into a shower of blood. The men, ducking to avoid the blast, began to laugh even harder. Cracking joke after joke at bits and pieces of the woman laying on the ground around them. Sickened by the horrible sight she beheld, Sathia felt her stomach turning over on itself, struggling to keep herself from throwing up. Then she noticed it. In their depraved laughing fits, the men had mistakenly distanced themselves from their weapons, backs turned to her. Without warning, Sathia suddenly bolted down the hillside, catching the first of the two from behind, as she swung her mace in from the side. The man let out an ear piercing scream, as the mace shattered his elbow with a sickening crack. Falling to the ground, screaming from the agony of it, he was quickly silenced as Sathia swung the mace again and smashed the side of his skull inward.

"No! You fucking whore!" Enraged at the sight of his brother's death, the second man suddenly brandished a previously hidden dagger from his boot. Charging headfirst at the Sin'dorei woman, screaming in garbled tongues, he soon closed the distance and began slashing at her like a madman. Raising her mace to parry away the first three strikes, Sathia found herself outclassed by the berserker the man had become, being forced back to avoid being diced apart. Her hand glew a sharp gold, as she erected a shield around herself to defend against another four swings of his dagger. Tripping over a rock on the ground, Sathia quickly found herself knocked around, the man falling to land onto her to begin pummeling her with his fists. With a agonized roar, the man found himself alight with holy flames, the ground around them both cracking with seering power. Forced from her, the man began to desperately roll over the ground, trying to put out a flame beyond normal fire. Cutting the magic off, Sathia quickly closed in on the man, and grabbed him by the coller of his shirt, mace lifted high in the air.

"M-mercy!?" The man cried, as his skulled split apart from being repeated assaulted by the blunt weapon. As his body fall limp from her hands, her chest rising and falling rapidly from the fight, Sathia struggled to calm herself down. Blood dripped from her hands, her weapon, and her face. Mask pulled down to her shoulders, as she smeered the blood around her cheeks, trying to clean herself off.

"Where was her mercy..."

[Uguu]

Catching her breath, Sathia stumbled a few steps untill she reached the cages within the campsite, blood still dripping from her clothes and mace. Eyes filled with fear and confusion, the prisoners stood up in their cages, weak with hunger and abuse, and stared at the woman in disblief. "Just... a moment. I'll get you all out of there." With that, naught but a few moments, the prisoners began to cheer, speaking words of thanks in too many tongues at once to make sense of. Despite being exhausted from the fight, legs shaking to keep her up, she began smashing the locks on their cages, setting them free one at a time. With the prisoners freed from their cages and shackles, lined up before her, Sathia began giving out directions as best she could. Pointing members of the Horde or Alliance to their respected camps, hoping it'd be enough. Watching them set off in makeshift parties, headed towards wherever they may go, Sathia turned her sights on a drawn map, hung to a tree by the men that guarded the camp.

"Damn..." Nearly an hour, utterly exhausted and barely even able, Sathia spent scaling a small mountain, reaching the top by sundown. Pacing herself a few yards, her legs finally buckled and sent her down onto her rear, landing on the ground with a pained grunt. Staring ahead of her, chest expanding and falling heavily with her breathing, she kept her eyes locked on a figure chained to a large rock. A woman, barely looking alive, and showing weeks of torture, abuse, and borderline starved to death. Sathia began to cry, as she dragged herself across the ground, finally proping herself up to look down at the woman. Her hand slowly moved outwards, pressing and wrapping tightly around the woman's throat, as she began to sob more heavily. Choking the life from her, she began to furiously shake her head back and forth, before wrapping the other hand around her throat. Tightening down around her small, bruised neck, Sathia suddenly let go of her entirely, and fell over onto her back. Sitting upright, after a few moments, still sobbing her eyes out, she began beating her fists against her knees.

Angrilly, she suddenly grabbed for her throat again, struggling to lift her mace over her head, as she tightened her hand around the bruised skin of her neck. "This isn't fair... You don't get to be the victim!" As the mace fell from her hand, her grip loosening around the woman's throat, Sathia fell forward and weakly held her hands against the ground, keeping herself propped up. "Not again... You don't..." As the tears streamed down her already soaked cheeks, she limply fell over onto her side, crying into her hands. "Get to be... the one hurting..."

[Uguu]

Six days later...


Sathia looked up in slight relief, as she beheld the large, ornate designs on the wooden door in front of her. With a heavy breath, she gave the door a firm knock with the metal knob linked to the doorframe itself. Moments passed, in silence, before the door slowly opened, revealing a man dressed in usual servent wear. The man gave her a short eyeing over, before calling back out into the house. "Sir, there is a woman to see you." Awkwardly looking around, Sathia didn't wait long before a man dressed in a fairly expensive robe appeared, and greeted her with a warm, albeit concerned smile. "Oh, Sathia. Elivan! Put some tea on! Come in, please." Making her way inside, Sathia soon found herself guided to a nearby table, seated into a chair, by one of the servents. Before her were a set of plates, clean and neatly arranged, and upon them laid a lavish assortment of food. Still wearing armour, tabard across her chest, she began to quietly eat from her helping.

"I am sorry, for all this... dreadful business. If there is anything I can do... feel free to ask, Sathia." Servents entered the room, only two of them, and quietly brought the two of them some tea, placing the cups beside their plates. "Just... don't tell my mother. Or... anyone. At all." After a short lunch, however awkward it had been, the two of them went out onto the balcony, and looked over the city. "You're always welcome here, you know? Your father and I may not have... been friends, but you're alright in my book." "Why did you two argue, so much?" With a short chuckle, relaxing back into his chair, the man began to gently loosen his shirt. "I fell in love with your mother, a few... oh, I don't know... seven hundred years ago? Your father beat me to the punch, though. Always thought I'd try to steal her from him." The conversation changed constantly, moving from topic to topic, as the sun continued to drift along the sky.

With the day coming to an end, Sathia left the man's home, carrying a small crate with her, as she made her way to a local inn. Renting a room with some spare change, unpacking the crate on the bed, she looked down at the spider crawling around inside it. "Atleast I have you..." The spider slowly crawled along the wall of the crate, onto her hand, and soon made its way along her arm and rested on her cheek. "Cute..." Turning in for the night, albeit hardly getting any sleep, the woman stripped herself bare of her armour and clothes, slipped under the covers of the bed, and found herself laying in silence.

The End