Eight Days

It had been eight days in the wastes and there was still no hope for rest or food. The grudge bearers hadn’t eaten since they left the kutriguri, their rations had been dropped during the skirmish with the hell beasts and the soil was so foul that it made all their rations inedible. Azrael was not a man to do much of anything on an empty stomach, but he had to keep up with his fellow grudgebearers; taltosh would not let them stop. Not that any one of them wanted to. although Azrael was almost too exhausted to walk, he knew that another encounter with the beasts would be his last, for he could no longer hold his great sword, so on they marched. There was no more laughing, no more excitement, just despair and sludge. While walking Azrael looked out to the east and saw what looked like the remains of a forest that had been charred by fire, and he looked to the west and saw a lonely tree. Azrael questioned the out of place tree and broke away from the group to inspect it. Once he got closer to the tree he saw that it was undersized and dying, as everything was in this place, but there was a small red fruit hanging off the only branch of the tree. Azrael looked at the fruit and without thinking plucked it from the tree and having his hunger overcome his common sense he ate the small fruit. It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. All his senses flared up, his skin began to tingle, he could smell every odor that the wastes had to offer, he heard Marius and the others yelling ”Azrael!”, so he turned around to look at them and the poison began to take its effect.

There Azrael fell

“The ground is pulling him in! Help me lift him!” Garagrim Shouted. They picked him up off the blood soaked earth, and realizing that they were not only in danger of the wild beasts that lived in the wastes but the land itself would consume them if they stopped. “Put him on my shield so we can get the hell out of here.” Ra’ Shalm said, “taltosh where should we… Taltosh? Where did he go?” “We don’t have time let’s just go into the forest, and get off this ground!” Marius shouted.

Azrael awoke under the light of the moon and stars, in the middle of a garden. Shaking the dizziness off he stood to his feet and tried to remember where he was and how he had gotten to this place. Where were his friends? Perhaps they had been taken by the spawn beasts, or perhaps they found something worse, Azrael knew that there was more to this wasteland, which was now a fertile labyrinth, than met the eye.

He picked up his sword and started trough the garden, the drain of the journey had started to dull his mind and it started to wander to memories of his past. He saw a small fountain in the garden, and it grew into the ocean that he once fished in with his grandfather, there he could see the both of them sailing in the breeze to their favorite spot, laughing and joking, this was the day that Azrael caught a swordfish almost as big as himself, and he pulled it out of the water. as he took out his knife to put an end to it, the fish turned into an empire soldier and Azrael was no longer in his boat but on the street by his old home. filled with rage, he took his knife and killed the soldier. “DIE!” he exclaimed. rattled, he realized he was still in the garden looking at the fountain. He shook off his memory and pushed through the garden

“Why wont he wake up!” Ra’shalm yelled “damn it, he just has to eat everything he sees doesn’t he, even if it’s in some horrible wasteland that doesn’t let anything grow! Damn fool!” “He needs rest,” Marius said, “but I don’t know how long we can stay up in these trees before something makes us come down.” “Well we shouldn’t be up hiding like cowards!” Ra’shalm said “we need to keep moving and find taltosh, where could he have gone?” “Quiet! I hear something,” Marius said. Garagrim listened carefully, “It's howling, must be more of those dogs! We can’t fight them in the trees, let’s get down!” Marius looked at grim “no! We must try to awaken Azrael”. So Marius began chanting lowly to reawaken Azrael, while Garagrim and Ra’shalm watched as the hounds gathered around them and waited at the bottom of the trees for their meal to come down.

Azrael came out of the garden and was surrounded by a field of lily’s. Then darkness began to shroud his mind, “I should have gone home with her, I could have saved her.” he said. “But you didn’t and what’s the point of feeling sad if you can’t change the past,” he told himself, “but since you can change the future what would you want to happen to the empire that did those things to lily?” “I would want disease and pestilence to wrack the empire so I could destroy itself and I would never have to hear of it again!” The voice in his mind scoffed, “coward.” “Who are you?” Azrael asked frantically as he realized he was not talking to himself. The voice ignored him. “Disease is the coward’s way of wanting people to die.” Azrael saw the truth in this, “the empire should experience the other end of the ‘pleasure’ those soldiers forced lily to experience.” the voice responded, “yes but what good is that if they do not die? there is only one way to get revenge.” “Death,” Azrael said, “I want to slaughter them, burn every city to the ground and crush their empire beneath my heel!” “Yes,” the voice said, “but how do you plan on destroying an entire nation when you cannot defeat my minions?” Azrael heard a howl and saw that he was surrounded by a mob of hell beasts and what looked like giant men with red flesh and horns. Azrael drew his sword and the voice spoke to him, “I can destroy you, my servants with rip you limb from limb and feed on you until there is nothing left.” Staring at the massive horde of beasts, Azrael said, "it could be worse.” the voice then said, “Or you can fight for me and I will grant you the power to slay giants and topple cities, just give yourself to me and you can have your revenge on the empire that ruined you.” As he heard this, Azrael saw a creature fly across the sky toward him, a beast over twice his size with red fiery eyes and giant bat-like wings, it landed and knelt before him. one of the horned men came up to the beast with a large halberd and cut the creature's head off . Azrael could see the essence of the monster leave its body and flow into the blade, the daemon-man presented Azrael with the essence-weapon.

Azrael put down his sword looked up to the sky and said, “give me your name, my lord”.

“We don’t have time to wait for him to awake, they are all waiting for us to come down and you know how I hate to disappoint.” Ra’ Shalm said as he unsheathed his sword”. “He’s Awake!” Marius yelled as the others looked to find Azrael bolt up and bellow a deafening roar that made the Grudgebearers recoil. When they looked back down the Beasts had all gone, but before they could question it Azrael took off running into the woods and the Grudgebearers ran after him trying to catch up but he was too fast and lost them in the dying forest. “Where the hell is that fool going?” Ra’shalm yelled to Marius. “how should I know? just try to keep up!” They found Azrael in a clearing in the forest, he was swinging a halberd that looked so menacing that it had to have been forged in the heart of hell itself. “Are you alright man?” Marius asked. “yes, I am fine my friend.” “Damn that’s a big weapon!” Ra’shalm said. Azrael laughed, he looked around, “where is taltosh?” “We don’t know he disappeared when we went back to get you” Garagrim said. “We must find him” Azrael said as he started to walk, “and I have much to share with you all”. Azrael’s lord spoke to him “beware of Taltosh. He can be your greatest ally or he can be your end. You must bring him to chaos, or destroy him.” “Either way,” Azrael whispered, “he will know true power”.