Alleria stared at him for a moment, and Khadgar knew what she was thinking. This would be a perfect time to flee, to let the drakes attack the ogres and their strange leader for them. But Turalyon grinned and nodded; he'd gotten it. Now the Alliance members, too, focused on the flying reptilian creatures, setting to them with sword and arrows. But their efforts were feeble compared with what the ogres did to the drakes. The ogres easily smashed the beasts out of the sky and then stomped on them, crushing the immature dragons beneath their massive feet.
Their oversized leader killed a drake as well, but it didn't bother with a club — instead it simply reached up, catching a charging black drake as easily as Khadgar had once caught an apple a friend had tossed to him. The colossal beast held the drake in one hand, its thumb and forefinger pinning the young dragon's wings together as it struggled to get free. Then the beast brought the drake to its mouth, tilted its head back, and engulfed the scaled body in a single fierce bite, chewing a few extra times to get the rest of the wings into its cavernous mouth before finally swallowing.
"That was…" Turalyon started, but he couldn't find words to encompass what he'd just seen. He lowered his sword and lifted his visor, barely aware of his actions. "You… those…"
The creature peered at him. "Dragons come. You not run, but could have. You stay and fight — helped us." There was a bit of astonishment in that earth-deep voice, Khadgar could well understand it. He was willing to bet that few had willingly risked themselves to help the ogres before. His heart lifted slightly; things were going exactly as he'd hoped.
"No, we do not run. We are not your enemies. We only wish—"
Khadgar had just drawn breath to continue to negotiate the tentative truce when the ground began to suddenly shake again, and the creature glanced back the way it had come. It hunched in upon itself, arms wrapping protectively around its broad chest, and a strange sound emerged from its hideous mouth, half snarl and half whimper. Watching it, Khadgar would have sworn this beast, which had just all but swallowed a dragon whole, looked frightened.
He shuddered to think what could scare such a thing.
That question was answered a few minutes later, when a second monstrous beast strode from the mountains. This creature was even larger than the first one, and had more stone spikes protruding from its back and arms. Its skin was redder than that of the other, its one eye so pale it was almost white all the way across, and its teeth were longer and sharper.
That white eye held great intelligence, and it fastened upon Khadgar and Turalyon and the other humans. "Who you?" it demanded. “And why you still live?" "We are only passing through," Khadgar stammered. The great being's eye narrowed in skepticism. "We aren't your enemies. Just let us go and we'll—"
"No." The finality of the single word was chilling. "You leave, you speak. Speak of gronn. Speak of Gruul." The giant being thumped his chest. "Horde come. No, best you die. Secret stay safe. Gronn stay safe."
Turalyon glanced at the first creature he'd been conversing with, hoping for help, but Khadgar could tell they would not get any there. The massive being had curled in upon itself after the rebuke, looking like nothing so much as a recently punished child. And that, he realized, was exactly what it was. The second creature was its parent and this was the baby. The thought made him shudder.
"We will keep your secret! We helped the — the gronn with the dragons! This one can tell you so himself!"
The giant that had called itself Gruul scowled and glanced around, apparently only now noticing the black drake corpses scattered around the mountainside. "You dragon-killers?"
"Yes," Khadgar answered desperately.
But Gruul was not so easily tricked. He tilted back his monstrous head, his fang-filled mouth gaping open — and laughed. The deep peals shook the walls around them and sent several small spires shattering to the ground.
"Kill baby dragons, maybe," it said, still grinning. "We do that. Not need help. No, you die."
"Wait!" Khadgar cried. "What do you want help with?" They could probably take down more than drakes, if they absolutely had to.
Gruul sobered at once. "You too weak. You cannot help."
"Maybe we can. Ask."
Gruul was silent, then he said in a somber voice, "Blackwing Greatfather."
It took Khadgar a second to figure out what Gruul meant. His eyes widened, he burst out, "Deathwing? You want us to kill Deathwing?"
"What?" cried Turalyon. "Deathwing? Here?"
"And they want us to kill him?" Alleria chimed in.
Khadgar was as shocked as they. They'd known the black dragons had allied with the Horde, and had seen several of them dart through the portal to Draenor, but he'd assumed it was only lesser members of the dragonflight, not the dragonflight patriarch… their "great and terrible sire…" himself!
"He left some black dragons behind as guards for the orcs at the citadel," Turalyon muttered. "But he brought the rest of them up here, to these mountains."
Khadgar nodded, then realized Gruul was still watching them expectantly
He took a deep breath and drew himself up to his full height. "Yes. Of course. Do not worry — We can handle Deathwing," he told the gronn with forced assurance. "He won't be a problem for us." He did his best to ignore the stunned silence radiating from his friends and prayed Gruul couldn't see the sweat dripping off his brow, or that if he didб he didn't understand its significance.
Gruul nodded, a grotesque smile splitting his massive lips. "Good," he announced. "Foolish, but brave! Gruul like." He peered down at them. "Now prove it." He gestured, his enormous hand lifting to indicate a peak not far away. "Deathwing," the gronn explained. "Kill. Help gronn rid mountain of pests. Then… you pass." His smile shifted down to a scowl that revealed all his fangs. "Tell no one!"
Khadgar nodded. "Agreed." He hoped his voice didn't sound quite so quivery to Gruul as it did in his own ears.
Gruul turned and began making his way across the mountainside. The massive gronn didn't bother searching for a path, he created one, his heavy feet shattering stone and leaving a wide, cracked trail through the stone spires, which broke off against his thick skin. The smaller gronn hurried to follow its parent, and the ogres — Khadgar was horrified to realize he now thought of them as "small," even though they were twice his own height — shuffled along behind their two oversized leaders. Grimly Khadgar followed. A thought occurred to him. Deathwing was here … and the skull was in this direction… . He paused for a second, closing his eyes, and then he grinned.
"What are you doing?" Alleria whispered to him as she and Turalyon fell into step beside him. "We're supposed to be looking for Gul'dan's skull, not going up against Deathwing! Do you have any idea what that dragon is capable of?"
"Yes, actually," he answered. "But he's got the skull."
"What?" exclaimed Turalyon.
"The skull is right in front of us, and so is Deathwing. We'd have had to confront him regardless, most likely."
"Wonderful. Now all we have to do is fight Deathwing to get the skull back!" She shuddered. "I'd rather face the entire Horde any day!"
Privately, Khadgar agreed with her, but he saw no other option. They needed the skull, and Deathwing had it. He was deep in thought, going over his spells in his mind, when Turalyon gripped his arm and pointed.
"Look," he said in a quiet voice.
They had reached a deep valley that led up to the peak in question, and had stopped, fanning out around the valley's edge.
Eggs. The ground was littered with them. They were about a yard long and shone from within with a pulsing red glow that revealed dark veins through the eggshells themselves — and coiled forms cocooncd inside.
"That's what was in those wagons Alleria spotted!" Turalyon whispered, staring. "No wonder the dragons were flying right above them! Deathwing brought these here to Draenor! If they hatch, the black dragons will overrun this entire world!"
"Then we had best make sure
they don't hatch," Alleria countered, raising her bow and nocking an arrow. Khadgar placed his hand on her left arm and pointed. "Let's make those your first targets." The others followed his gaze and cursed softly as they saw the dark shapes winging toward them from the valley's far side.
Fortunately, it seemed that none of the largest dragons were protecting the eggs. The first fledgling dragon to approach was swatted aside by Gruul, his casual gesture slamming the small dragon into the valley's far wall hard enough to crack the stone there and drop the body in a shattered heap. The next one fell, twitching, with one of Alleria's arrows through its right eye, and Khadgar froze a third into solid ice with a quick incantation. Those three had only been the vanguard, however — a fierce shrieking arose from all around the valley, and suddenly more dark, darting forms descended.
The ogres excelled at brute force. Though smaller than the gronn, they were still large enough to wrestle a drake down and snap its long neck or bash in its skull. Many of them also proved to be spellcasters, firing bolts of arcane magic that scared through dragon wings and hide alike. The sheer number of drakes would have overwhelmed them, however, if not for aid from both gronn and Alliance warriors. Turalyon had his men using their shields for protection from the drakes' claws and teeth, then slashing at their wings; though tough as leather, the wings were still the drakes' weak spot, and once a wing had torn the creature was forced onto the ground, where it lost most of its agility. The ogres quickly caught on to this tactic and began tearing wings off entirely, hurling the leathery appendages aside while the now-grounded creatures were stomped flat with heavy feet. Khadgar was reminded, with a sick feeling, of a cruel child tearing the wings off butterflies.
At one point Turalyon muttered, "You know, I'm not sure we're fighting the right enemy." Khadgar had to admit these tactics were brutal, almost ghoulish, but he couldn't argue with the results.
Gruul and the other gronn — Khadgar thought of them both as male — had selected thick spires from the cliffs just beyond the valley. They swung these clubs around them with enough force to create strong winds that buffeted the drakes, driving them back into one another and making them easier targets for the ogres and humans. Any drake unlucky enough to actually be within the clubs' radius was crushed instantly, and the valley floor was soon thick with bodies.
"The eggs next," Khadgar said to Turalyon. But the paladin hesitated, peering at one of the eggs but making no move toward it. Khadgar frowned at him. "What's wrong?" Khadgar asked.
"I… dragons are sentient creatures. They think, they feel. It's one thing to fight the drakes, but — these are infants. Just… babies, really. They can't even fight back. And we'd be butchering them."
"Turalyon," Alleria said, "Light, do I love you, not least for that compassionate heart of yours. But these are black dragons. You know what will happen if they're not killed now."
Turalyon nodded grimly, making yet another one of those difficult decisions any general has to make in the thick of battle.
"Destroy the eggs!" he shouted, striding to the nearest and bringing his hammer down atop it. The thick shell shattered with a loud crack, followed by a softer thud as the hammer connected with the half-formed dragon inside. Large as a medium-sized dog, the unhatched dragon had smoky red skin, and nubs where head and wings would have been. It did not move as it was attacked, save to twitch slightly. A pale reddish fluid oozed from the broken egg as the shell crumbled away and the whelp within slumped to the ground, its final shudders already fading.
The rest of the Alliance warriors quickly followed suit. Just as Turalyon was breaching the last egg and the ogres were dismembering the last drakes, Khadgar heard a loud shriek from the peak above — the same place where he had last sensed the skull. Glancing up, he saw another shadow launch itself into the air, its wings covering all the valley in darkness. Its bulk dwarfed even Gruul, who shrank back against the valley wall before growling and straightening defiantly. His ogres and the lesser gronn were not made of such stern stuff; they shrieked and fled in terror. The shape plummeted down, sunlight glinting off its skin, its long neck arched, its jaws wide. Lava burst from its throat, a torrent of glowing magma that instantly incinerated ogre, human, dead drake, shattered egg — anything unlucky enough to fall within its spray.
"Pull back!" Turalyon shouted to his men, who were already scrambling away from the monstrous apparition. "Back to the valley wall!"
They clustered there. Khadgar and Turalyon and Alleria at the forefront, and watched the gargantuan dragon alight. Khadgar gulped. He'd known the creature would be impressive, but this — Deathwing was almost inconceivably huge. The drakes they had been fighting seemed as toddlers compared with their great parent. Khadgar could barely take it all in. But one thing struck him as curious, even in the midst of his awe. The father of the black dragonflight had plates of silvery, glinting metal running along his spine. Beneath those plates were glowing lines of red, like the magma Deathwing had just attacked them with. The dragon's massive claws dug deep into the stone of the valley floor. All but his left fbreclaw, Khadgar saw. That was held high and curled inward, as if injured — or holding something.
"The skull!" he whispered to Turalyon and Alleria. "He has the skull with him!"
"Nice of him to bring it to us," Turalyon muttered. "But how do we get it?"
Deathwing folded his wings behind his sinuous body and settled on his haunches. His long neck reared up and glared balefully down at them, his red eyes alight with rage. "My children!" the dragon howled, his voice like fire licking at burning wood, like metal chipping bone. Along with the anger was a deep grief. "My children, murdered!" His tail lifted, slammed down, and a crack ran along the earth. "Come forward, disgusting, cowardly wretches, murderers of defenseless infants, and know torment and madness before I devour you whole! Who will be the first to be blasted to ashes?"
His gleaming eyes narrowed as they focused with dreadful intent upon Gruul. "You," he said, drawing out the single syllabic so that it contained a world of promised agony, his voice dropping to almost a whisper, almost a caress, and Light help him, Khadgar knew a sharp gratitude that that terrible gaze had, for the moment, passed him over.
Yet Gruul did not quail. "I!" he proclaimed. "I am Gruul, greatest of gronn! This my land. My mountains. And you will not take them! You go or end up like children!"
Deathwing's roar of fury nearly deafened Khadgar. "My children!" he wailed, and the pain in his voice almost — almost — made Khadgar feel a twinge of sympathy. "Perfection incarnate… beautiful and defenseless . . ." The words turned unintelligible as Deathwing howled and almost flailed in his anger and grief, magma dripping from his jaws, shredding the stone upon which he stood, his flapping wings creating almost tornado force gales. Khadgar began to wish he'd listened to Turalyon's reluctance to smash the eggs. What had they been thinking? Light, what had he been thinking, to stand up to this monster, this ancient, evil, terrifying vision of rage? How could they possibly defeat him?
"Oh, how brave of you!" Deathwing's grief had sharpened into scorn, less raw but no less deadly. "Such courage it must have taken, to smash shells and murder defenseless infants! A pity you will not live to brag about such a noble feat!" His wings flared out behind him and beat down again, the powerful gust they created slamming Gruul back against the wall. Gruul's ogres yowled in fear and cringed back, almost hugging the walls of the valley. Gruul would get no aid from them.
"Puny mortals! I have had many names throughout history, all of them spoken with dread: Neltharion, Xaxas, and many more. Yet you shall know me best as Deathwing, for so I am! I am the bane of life, the darkness within history, the lord of death, the master of destruction. And I tell you now, and so it is true, that this world is mine.”
"Never!" Gruul replied, snarling, and launched himself at Deathwing. The giant gronn slammed into the colossal dragon's chest with an impact that cracked the cliffs around them and sent rock cascading down
from the fractured peaks. It drove most of the Alliance forces from their feet and even the ogres to their knees. Other dragons had appeared along the valley walls, watching their father intently, and they were forced back a step as well. But when the dust had cleared, Gruul was shaking his head and Deathwing stood unmarred and unmoved.
"Is that the best the oh so mightн Gruul can do?" Deathwing sneered, lowering his head so that his bony forehead ridge brushed up against Gruul's own thick brow. "Is that all you have?" He lifted one forуclaw, the other still closed and curled up to his breast, and held it over Gruul's head as if he were preparing to squash an insect. It was like a signal. The dragons shrieked a battle cry, sprang from their perches, and flew with lethal grace toward the humans, ogres, and gronn lining the walls of the valley. The ogres seemed to be paralyzed, staring, slack-jawed, at the winged doom.
"Sons of Lothar! Attack!"
Turalyon's voice was clear and strong, and carried much farther than it should have. He lifted his hammer, his eyes bright, and charged forward to meet the drakes. The hammer glowed as it struck the first drake square in the skull. The beast dropped like a stone.
"For Quel’Thalas!" Alleria and her rangers began firing. Battle cries rose from the Alliance soldiers, elf and human alike, and it was joined by the carsplitting roar of the ogres and gronn as they roused themselves from their terror. The dragons swooped down, heady with excitement and pride in their father, spewing magma or clamping their jaws on their enemy. The ogres and gronn seemed to remember that they had fought drakes before, and again began to pluck the creatures from the very air and rip off their wings. One ogre slammed his flapping victim so hard into the wall of the valley that a whole chunk of it crumbled, sliding slowly down in a mass of broken stone and dust, burying in its path those too slow to escape.
Khadgar kept his eyes on the battle between Deathwing and Gruul. The gronn was brave to even go up against the black dragon, but he would lose soon. The mage suspected the only reason he hadn't lost before now was because Deathwing was toying with him, tormenting the creature he believed had slain his precious, obscene offspring before dispatching him.
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