Beneath broken stone and warped metal, a solitary raven panics as it senses imminent danger. It escapes certain death mere seconds before the structure finally crashes to the ground. On soaring above the devastation, the bird spies a wet-eyed woman...
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Cognizant being? Trapped? My heart beat a little faster. He was implying I had shape-shifted.
Ask who he thinks I might be? I urged Lunk.
"What is he?" Lunk asked. Inwardly, I sighed; it wasn't quite how I'd phrased the question.
Muattai now looked at Lunk. He snorted. "He is very clever for one thing," he answered. "For he is the one asking the questions, is he not?"
"Yes," the ogre replied without a cue.
The Tauren nodded and smiled; his suspicions seemingly confirmed. He gestured for us to walk and fell into step beside us once more. "I have seen you passing back and forth on many occasions, ogre."
Lunk grunted in response.
"You have an affinity with the creatures of Searing Gorge. This raven..." he pointed to me. "... is proof of that. Ah, it is a gift I miss from back home."
"Ask what tribe he belonged to." I encouraged Lunk.
"You have tribe?" the ogre asked. Close enough, I thought.
Muattai sighed deeply. "I was of the Skychaser tribe, spiritual leaders to the Tauren shamans. That is how I can sense something...unique about your raven."
We walked in silence for a while. Then I prompted Lunk to ask another question, one which bordered on effrontery.
"Are you a follower of Cho'gall? Or traitor?"
The Tauren drew to a halt, the incline to Thorium Point only meters away. Soft laughter rumbled in Muattai's chest.
He leaned towards Lunk and me. "Truth be told, I am still deciding on that, for the Earth Mother dwells deep in my heart. Good luck, raven. You must do that which we all should do at some point - find your way home."
The bovine lips stretched in the semblance of a smile, then Muattai turned and ambled back to the Twilight camp.
As I watched his back receding from view, I made a mental note to add to my ever-increasing athenaeum; not all was what it seemed.
Muattai had hinted at that about me, but having listened to his brief consanguinity and tentative allegiance to the Twilight Cult, it was apparent that not everyone we assumed to be on the wrong side, was necessarily so. Although we needed to act on the side of caution at all times, it could also be advantageous to offer the benefit of the doubt on the odd occasion.
Lunk trundled up the incline to Thorium Point, where several Dwarves greeted him amicably and a young priest, who was merely visiting the settlement, tended to the ogre's injuries.
It looked like the kindness of strangers would always bless Lunk, and rightly so. He was a compassionate soul himself, attuned to many things which most of us simply did not see, hear or perhaps even want to acknowledge.
I enjoyed the ease with which Lunk communicated with me that night, and I made yet another note to self; whatever my destiny or reality was, I would not forget this amiable ogre and would make a point of conversing with him again one day.
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