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A Long Road Through Hell	By : errihuseamonster Category: +S through Z > World of Warcraft Views: 7252 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own World of Warcraft or any of its canon characters, nor do I make any money from this fanfiction

Chapter List
- 1
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Chapter 1
Well shit, that definitely looked like what
the dwarf described.
Laina hunkered down behind some twisted
scrap, ignoring the dead gan�arg not three feet away. She�d made it that way,
no more threat there. Ahead, she could see her intended target � a black,
spikey structure built around a glowing green floor, exposed on all sides. A
wave of fel-green energy pulsed up and down in the centre.
Somewhere, off to her left, she could hear
demonic voices shouting, and the hissing sound of a warlock�s rain of fire.
Apparently the �lock she�d spotted earlier on her way into the scrap field had
some designs on the camp himself, as well. Laina thought it fortunate � the
psychotic idiot was distracting enough of the demons that she could get up to
her target undetected. She didn�t mind a fight, not by any means, but she was
far more likely to get out of here alive when the thing went sky high if she
hadn�t already been injured.
Looking to see if the coast was clear, she
checked her bag once more to make sure the demolition charge was near the top
(these magic bags were mighty useful, but sometimes it was too easy to grab the
wrong thing), then hustled off towards the structure, as quietly as someone in
plate could. There were no shouts of alarm, no indications that anything had
seen her. She ducked down in a spot somewhat sheltered from view � perhaps the
grotesque architecture favoured by the demons had something going for it after
all.
She placed her sword down in the purple
dust nearby, close enough to grab if trouble came. She�d need both hands and a
lot of concentration for this work. Laina quickly extracted the bomb from her
pack and placed it on the ground, examining it.
�What was it that dwarf said� connect the
red wire first, or last? Fuck. Where�s that instruction sheet�� Gods, she
didn�t have time for this. At least the pay was going to be worth it.
��Fuck!� she swore, a little louder than
she intended. A quick check ensured nothing was near to hear her. The
Light-fired instructions were in Goblin! Oh well, there were pictures�
It took a moment for Laina to decipher the
drawings, but she did it. Then she looked back at the device. Alright, it was
facing up at least, that�s a start. She searched the bomb, looking for the
first wire. There it was! A quick motion and it was in place. Good�
The second was no problem, but the third
was a little confusing. Did that symbol indicate that the wire should NOT be
connected there, or that it SHOULD be? Laina paused. This was not an error she
could afford, not when she was playing with goblin explosives.
Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and there was
a cracking sound. Choking smoke curled from the green floor, engulfing Laina�s
scant shelter. She began to cough, violent, racking coughs that prevented her
from moving from the place.
Before she could recover, an enormous
demonic hand wrapped around her neck, lifting her up. Still coughing, her hands
went to the fingers that gripped her, and her eyes widened as she saw the
massive winged demon at the other end of the hand that held her. She realized
the structure she�d been about to blow was some kind of teleporter. That
asshole dwarf hadn�t even seen fit to tell her.
The demon�s ugly face twisted in a smile
full of sharp teeth and impressive fangs. The glowing green eyes gazed with
malicious glee into her own. �A prize!� it hissed in her language, then it
spoke fel words that made her head hurt. A blast of some foul green energy
lashed out from its other hand, and Laina lost consciousness.
***
She awoke to complete darkness, so black
she wondered if she�d gone blind. She sat up suddenly, then groaned. Her head
felt like it was about to explode. What happened? She groped for her pack for a
light of some sort, and touched only her own unarmored hip. Where was her
stuff? Where was her plate? She suddenly remembered the demon, the crushing
grip on her neck, only her gorget allowing her continued breath.
�Awake, are we?� a voice drawled, somewhere
nearby and in front of her. It was a man�s voice, with a strange lilting accent
and a lighter tone than she was used to.
�Who are you? Where am I? Why can�t I see
anything?� Laina demanded, looking about. She saw nothing but dark � no wait,
there, two faintly glowing green spots. Eyes? Yes, they blinked.
�Right, you humans can�t see worth a damn
in the dark. Give me a moment.� The voice said. Then it spoke arcane words, and
a light flared into being. Laina blinked, squinting. In a few moments, her eyes
adjusted to the sudden brightness.
She was in some kind of cell, with rough
black stone walls. There was no door that she could see, but there was a small
window of sorts on the wall to her left, filled with jagged barbed bars.
Someone had apparently tested them, she could see old, dry blood flaking on
them. She could see nothing but blackness beyond the window. In the corner of
the cell to her left was a hole in the floor, slightly larger than her clenched
fist. The stench of humanoid waste issued from it.
She was sitting on a hard stone bench, and
there was a similar bench less than half her body-length in front of her. The
benches were slightly longer than her body. On the bench across from her she
saw the source of the light � there was a blood elf holding up a small magical
light ball. He was wearing only a loincloth, and was lean and spare, showing
signs of not having eaten properly in a while. He was paler than usual for
blood elves, smudged and dirty, and what must have once been beautiful hair
hung lank and disheveled, the colour indeterminate. He was a mess. There was a
male troll curled in a fetal pose beside him on the bench, bruised, filthy and
likewise clothed only in a loincloth.
The troll shuddered convulsively and
covered his eyes, shouting something in another language. The elf spared the
creature a sad glance, and said a few quick words in the same language the
troll had spoken in. Lowering his hand, the light went out, plunging the meager
cell once more into blackness. Laina gasped at the sudden darkness.
�I�m sorry human, but he�s suffered enough
as it is. He�s fevered, the light hurts his eyes.� The elf said quietly. �I
think he�ll die soon.�
�What happened to him?� she asked hoarsly.
�The tender ministrations of our captors,
I�m afraid.� The elf�s voice was filled with a bitter sarcasm.
�Where am I? What�s going on?� Laina asked
again.
�Hell, as far as I know. We�re in neither
Azeroth nor the Outlands. I think it might just be whatever place the demons
came from originally. As for what�s going on, it seems you�ve gotten yourself
caught by the demons. Since it appears you still have your clothes and you
haven�t been brutally raped and tortured yet, I can only surmise that they must
have had something more fun they wanted to play with before they got to you.
Were you traveling with a paladin, perhaps? Or a warlock? They love those in
particular.� The bitter tone never left his voice.
�I wasn�t traveling with anyone. No, wait.
There was a warlock, but he wasn�t my companion. He attacked the demon camp in
the scrap field; I used his ruckus to get in unseen. I was supposed to blow up
this thing, you see, only it turned out to be a teleporter. Something came
through it before I could finish.�
�You�re lucky then. They won�t get to you
until they�ve finished with the warlock, and that�ll be a few days.�
�Wait a sec, I thought demons served
warlocks.� she stated, half in question.
�It seems demons pretend to serve warlocks.
Once the tables are turned, it�s not a pretty sight. They�re cruel to all of
us, but they have particular horrors saved up for THEM. It makes me VERY glad I
chose the arcane path over the fel path, let me tell you.�
Laina was silent for a moment. Then she
sighed, and said in a voice that trembled despite her attempts to keep it
steady, �I am in deep shit.�
The elf laughed harshly, a humorless sound.
�You don�t know the half of it.� She heard him moving around a bit on the
bench, then he spoke again. �I�m going to sleep. You might want to do the same.
I�ve only got a little energy for bread and water in the morning, and it
vanishes after a time if it�s not consumed. If you want some, you�d better be
awake.� With that, the cell was silent except for the loud and ragged breathing
of the troll. Soon after, the elf�s regular breaths indicated he was also
asleep.
After a time, she too slept.
***
�Rise and shine.� The elf�s voice and his
hand gently shaking her shoulder startled Laina awake. She opened her eyes, and
saw that there was light� of a sort. It was dim, and greenish. Everything in
the cell had a somewhat sickly hue. It was cold, and she tried to suppress a
shiver.
Seeing she was awake, the elf stepped
backwards and plunked himself down on the bench. �I conjured breakfast.� He
said.
Laina sat up, feeling a little disoriented.
The elf tossed something at her, and reflexively she moved to catch it. It was
a cinnamon roll. Another object flew towards her, and she caught it with her
other hand. It was a flask of water. �Thanks.� She said to the elf, and bit
into the roll.
�Good reflexes there.� He commented. Laina
didn�t reply, she was too busy with the cinnamon roll. She felt ravenous � she
didn�t know how long she�d been imprisoned thus far, but she knew she hadn�t
eaten since several hours before she�d been captured. She ate every speck of
the pastry, ignoring the blood elf, who was watching her with some degree of
incredulity. �Do you want another?� he asked when she finished, sounding
slightly impressed.
�If it�s not a problem�� Her tentative
inquiry was rewarded with another roll lobbed underhand, which she deftly
caught.
�Enjoy it while you can,� he said. When she
looked up in alarm, he added quickly, �� I mean, you can get pretty sick of
bread after a while that is.� Laina glanced at the elf, who continued.
Apparently he was feeling talkative. His voice was certainly a little more
cheerful than the night before, even though there was a sarcastic edge to a lot
of what he said.
�I know I can barely choke my share down
anymore. You know, it seemed like a pretty good idea when I learned the spell �
everyone I�ve ever traveled with always had an ample supply of food, but it was
all preserved stuff. Jerky, bacon, cheese, stuff like that. I figured being
able to conjure up the pride of any Silvermoon patisserie would be well
received, and it was. But after � shit, months of the damn stuff, I don�t ever
want to see another bread product in my life. What the hell was I thinking�? I
know spells for six different kinds of bread and four different pastries, and
all I really want right now is a big fucking steak and maybe some vegetables. Yeah,
I�d even eat those creepy little cabbage things right about now.� He said.
�You mean bloodpetal sprouts?� Laina asked,
finishing up her roll.
�Yeah, those things. I never understood the
lengths some people will go to get the damn things. Off in the tar pits of
Un-Goro, dodging shit that should have been extinct thousands of years ago� And
then there�s the devilsaurs. Don�t get me started on those. How can a creature
the size of Medivhs� tower be so damn sneaky?�
Laina stifled an amused snort at that.
She�d wondered about the very same thing a time or two.
Two cinnamon rolls were not really enough.
She found she was still hungry, and she looked hopefully at the elf. �I don�t
suppose I could have another?� she asked, hopefully.
Yet another roll was flung her way. She
started on it, and the elf spoke. �How do you keep from being as big as an
elekk?�
�It�s not hard when you spend most of the
waking day in forty pounds of plate. Try running in it sometime.� She commented
between bites. Finishing the roll, she uncorked the flask of water and took a
drink, and was surprised to discover sparkling water. Not bad. She had a
thought. �I don�t suppose you learned how to conjure a good dwarven stout?� she
asked, hopefully.
�Sorry, no. Just water. Many kinds of
water. Apparently alcohol is difficult to conjure. You tend to end up with
something fit only for cleaning the engines of gnomish devices. Water is
safer.� He said. �Besides, beer for breakfast? That just seems so�� his voice
trailed off.
Laina shrugged. �It sounds like I�m not in
for much fun. I figured if it got bad enough I could always drink myself into a
stupor.� She said.
�Somehow, I don�t think they�d let you get
away with that. They�re very creative when it comes to making sure you suffer
to the fullest extent possible.� As he said this, his voice took on the
bitterness from the night before. He stared straight ahead, not looking at her,
or anything else. �Fear, pain, humiliation are an art form to them. I think
they feed on it actually. Gods only know there�s nothing else to eat, except
for us. They wait until we�re dead to do that, at least. I don�t think it�s out
of any kind of mercy that they wait until we�re dead, I suspect it�s merely to
capitalize on the amount of torment they can milk from us before we finally
give up the ghost.�
�They eat people?� Laina felt a bit ill.
�Take a look out the window. Nothing much
grows in this place, I suspect. They eat their slaves, they eat each other, and
they eat us when they can catch us. After they�ve killed us with their �fun�.�
Trying to stifle her growing sense of
horror and despair, Laina got up and moved to the window. She gazed out between
the jagged bars. A wasteland met her eyes, blackened ground cracked and
parched, the charred remains of a few scrubby shrubs the only indication that
anything had ever lived her. Above, the sky was a sickly mix of black and green
bands traveling in nauseating patterns at high speed across the heavens. She
saw no sun, only the all-pervasive green light from the tortured sky. Sickly
lightning flashed across the sky, without any sign of rain, and off in the
distance she could see a cloud of something she realized was a violent dust
storm.
It was worse than any of the devastation in
the Outlands. She realized that Shadowmoon Valley was becoming like this, and
felt a stab of dread for the world she was clearly no longer in.
At that point the troll stirred, moaning
feverishly and suddenly shouting something in another language. She turned from
the window. The elf got up, holding a flask of water. He spoke to the troll in
that other language, and held the water up to the troll�s lips. The troll
muttered a slurred refusal and batted the flask away, which flew out of the
elf�s hands and onto the floor, where it vanished. The elf pleaded with the
troll, who merely curled into a tighter ball, covering his eyes with his arms.
At this, the elf cursed, looking down bleakly. Laina saw grief and helpless
frustration etched in his face. She realized that for all his sarcasm and
bitterness, the elf still had a streak of compassion, of kindness.
Wordlessly, she returned to the spot on the
bench that seemed have become hers. The elf was trembling, ignoring her
completely, ignoring the troll, staring at the ground.
�Is he a friend of yours?� she asked
suddenly. He looked up, a flicker of sorrow crossing his face, then he resumed
his own spot on the bench across from hers.
�No. I don�t even know his name. But I �
have a hard time just sitting here watching the others die.� His voice was
soft, rent with an inner agony.
�How long have you been here?�
He was silent a moment, again staring off
into space. Then he responded. �I think it�s been about three months. It�s hard
to really know, I�ve kind of lost track of time.� The sarcastic harshness was
gone. Instead, the elf sounded bleak, empty.
�How come you�re not dead yet?� she asked.
He looked at her again, misery in his eyes.
�I keep the others alive. With the food and
water, I mean. I can�t heal� if I�d been a priest I�m sure they would have
killed me already. Like I said, there�s no food here. And even if there was,
I�m not sure we would either want or be able to eat what the demons eat. Once
they found out I was keeping the others fed and watered, they stopped molesting
me.� He looked away again. �Well, not entirely, but they stopped short of
causing lasting harm to me. I� supposed I�m not really doing you guys a huge
favour in keeping you alive.� He sighed. �It�s just more time for them to
torment you after all, but damnit, I can�t stand to see people die like that.
And really, with the exception of the night-elf, no one�s ever turned down the
water or the food unless they were about to die.� He glanced sadly at the
troll.
�The night-elf?� she asked, trying to
prevent silence. She didn�t think she could tolerate the silence right now.
The elf laughed that harsh laugh from the
night before. �He looked at me once, long enough to discover what I am. He
never looked at me again, he refused to acknowledge my presence, didn�t take
the water or the food. It took him three days to die, and that death was not
good. Even until the last, he pretended I didn�t exist.�
She had no words for that. The silence
engulfed them, horror and despair weighing on her like an oppressive, crushing
miasma.�
Impulsively, she stood up. The elf gave her
a startled look. Ignoring him, she started to stretch, then started to complete
some of the unarmed battle-forms she had learned, the ones that could be
completed in a small space.
�What are you doing?� asked the elf.
�Exercising.� She grunted out the word amid
some of the more intensive movements.
�Why?� amazing how the elf could pack such
a wealth of sarcasm, bitterness, and futility into one word.
�Because if I have to move quickly, it�ll
help if I�ve done this. And I don�t want to lose muscle mass.� She stated
between forms.
�So you�ll be nice and flexible for when
the demons bend you over and rape you? I�m sure they�ll appreciate your
efforts. And they�ll probably appreciate your efforts at preserving your
meat.��
�It beats sitting here,� was her reply.
�You might prefer to have sat there. It�s
cold now, but give it another hour and it�ll be sweltering in here.�
�I�ll deal with that then.� She grunted.
After going through as many forms as she could think of, she finally stopped,
and then lounged across the bench. The elf might just have been right, she was
sweating and hot. �Got any more water?�
�Some.� He passed her the flask, almost as
if watching her exert herself had made him tired. She accepted it,
uncorked it, and drained it in a few seconds.
�Thanks.�
�You�re welcome.�
They sat in silence for a bit longer. Then
Laina turned her head towards him and spoke. �It occurs to me that I don�t even
know who you are. If it�s not too much to ask, I�d like to know the name of the
person I�m going to be spending my time cooped up with.�
At this the elf smiled, looking back at
her. �It�s not too much. I�m Jerlis. Jerlis Flamewick. Once upon a time, from Silvermoon City.�
�I�m Laina. I had a last name once, but I
got disowned. Not that my family exists anymore, they were in Tirisfal Glades.
I�m pretty sure the plague got them all.�
�I�d say it�s a pleasure to meet you,
Laina, but given the circumstances�� Jerlis�s mouth twisted in an ironic smile.�
Laina chuckled dryly.
�Sorry about your family, by the way. My
people have also suffered from the Scourge.� He said.
�Don�t be too sorry for them, they were
really not nice people.� She said.
Jerlis was in the process of opening his
mouth to say something in reply, when part of the wall between their benches
vanished in an instant.
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A Long Road Through Hell