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Both Sides Now	By : Firefall_Varuna Category: +S through Z > World of Warcraft Views: 4997 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own World of Warcraft, races, characters, settings, or themes presented within. I do not make money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 3 – Lich

Several things occurred to Una within a few hours in The Barrens. The first was that it lived up to the name. It was a dusty, arid savanna under an endless dome of blue sky. The landscape stretched on as far as the eye could see; only broken by the odd mesa or sudden, rocky outcrop. They passed small farmsteads, primitive by Stormwind's standards, and prides of lions that lounged in whatever meager shade they could find under the sparse, twisted trees.
The second thing she noted was the heat. Elwynn, Westfall, and Redridge could all get hot during the summer months and certainly humid, but nothing like the heat they experienced now. Even when the occasional storm blew up from Stranglethorn, it was never this oppressive. Despite being early yet, it was already quite warm. The cloudless sky warned that it would only get hotter as the day progressed.
"Stay hydrated." Backbreaker had cautioned as the sun rose. "It's not just hot here: it's damn hot."
The young woman wasn't sure she would like what an orc thought to be that hot. What little she knew about them, they had settled on this side of Kalimdor for a reason. Sure enough, she quickly found herself longing for the cool, overcast skies of Darkshore.
They rode into the Crossroads, only stopping to refill their canteens and eat a brief meal. The residents openly stared at the unit and whispered in Orcish between themselves. However, the citizens didn't have long to wonder about their strange visitors. Soon enough they mounted back up and rode as fast as they dared in the heat.
The miles melted into endless miles and never-ending road, grass, and blistering sky blurred together. By noon, her back, armpits, and crotch were soaked with sweat and she could feel a steady flow running in the hollow between her breasts and around her pendant. She could say confidently that the crushing heat was the worst she had felt in her life. She found herself daydreaming in an effort to at least mentally escape as the temperature continued to soar. Vesper tended to stick close to Jet, allowing his rider to sink ever deeper into her thoughts.
She was jarred rudely back to reality by a sharp smack to the back of her helmet. Una glanced at her attacker in shock.
"No daydreaming!" Captain Backbreaker barked to her right. He had drawn his worg even with her horse. "We're in centaur country, girl. Stay alert!"
"Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir." Una muttered, rubbing the back of her neck and blinking several times to wake herself up.
The orc smiled paternally, clapped her once on the arm, and urged his worg to the front of the line. She openly stared as he led them off the road and into the backcountry. Backbreaker wasn't at all what she expected an orc to be and she found that puzzling.
They paused at yet another small, half-dried watering hole to allow their mounts to drink. Anaru warned them to stay mounted as Garrack and the hunters dismounted. They were at one of the last places the cult had been observed and the edge of their search radius.
The captain produced a soiled wad of cloth from his pack and offered it to the hunters. Dagan accepted it, knelt and held it out to the eager wolves. The animals keenly sniffed the rag; snuffling, licking, and burying their noses deep into it. Soon, they smelled the air, ground, and grasses. They circled the unit, the horses, and slowly outward.
Dagan's little female wolf, Snow, jerked her head up, her body rigid, tail held at attention. She howled and was off like a bolt fired from a crossbow, followed closely Tallak's large male wolf.
"The hunt is on!" Backbreaker proclaimed as he mounted his worg.
They hurtled after the wolves, who led them ever deeper into the bush. She could see the giant, thorned canes of the Razorfen now, standing high above the mountains and stretching onward to the vast, winding canyons of the Thousand Needles.
They finally came to a large escarpment and the animals stopped. Their hackles stood on end as they crouched low in the tall grass with soft, almost inaudible growls. A cave was visible in the steep slope; humans, trolls, and orcs in dark robes milled about the cave mouth like a swarm of wasps.
The cultists were on high alert, but hadn't seen them yet. Dismounting and tying the horses off under a tree, the small band of fighters ducked low in the grass. From their position they could clearly see the bulk of the hostiles.
"Private Whitebrook, I want you to stay put and guard the horses." Anaru said, much to Una's dismay. She was beginning to sense a protective, older brother streak in her cousin and it was getting on her nerves. While the young woman understood his motives were sterling, they were misguided as well.
"Belay that order, Private." Garrack stated firmly. He was pulling rank on her cousin and everyone knew it. "She comes with me. I want the new recruits to stay out here and set up a perimeter."
"Sir?" Anaru questioned unhappily, his eyebrows knitted together.
"I need every experienced man in there, Commander." The Captain explained gruffly, "Liches are devious and powerful. If she can heal, her Exorcisms will hit harder."
Anaru couldn't argue with that.
They split into three groups. One group, made up of the newest and most inexperienced recruits, would stay out to guard the horses and set up a perimeter. The other two groups would circle around from opposite sides to envelop the cultists in a pincer movement. Once the cultists outside were eliminated, they would convene at the entrance of the cavern for the primary assault.
Una closely followed Captain Backbreaker and the other men. Tallak took up the rear so he could remain at range. The cultists still hadn't seen them. They used a boulder for cover as Anaru's team maneuvered into position.
A shadow fell across her and she froze. It was at the wrong angle and too large to be a bird. It languidly moved across top of the stone and down behind her.
She knew immediately it was a rogue.
Time slowed to a crawl. Her panic-stricken mind begged Garrack to turn around as she sensed the blade slide under her neck.
She heard the lazy stretch of a bow string. Why didn't the rogue hear it?
Time sped up to a blur as the arrow was loosed on the man behind her. She summoned the Light to cover her in a protective shroud as he drew the knife across her throat. The arrow hit the rogue's neck even as the blade grated harmlessly against the force surrounding her.
She struck the dying human male with her elbow to force him away from her and sidestepped as he fell.
The cultists were shouting, now aware of their presence, and the battle was on.
"Lok'tar ogar!" Garrack bellowed, leading the charge.
Tallak's hand fell on her shoulder and he spun her around quickly, his gloved fingers raising her chin to look at her neck.
"I'm fine!" She yelled and the hunter released her.
The skirmish was brief. Her cousin was right, these were not trained combatants. Faced with adept soldiers, the cultists succumbed to panic and perished swiftly. Tallak and Dagan picked off many as they attempted to flee.
"Stay sharp!" Captain Backbreaker warned as they assembled at the cave mouth. Those inside likely knew they were coming, but they probably weren't prepared for what was to come. He nodded to Lieutenant Ludger, who armed a stun grenade and tossed it in.
The flashbang exploded in a shock of light, sound, and heat. Blinded and disoriented, the cultists inside were dispatched with ease.
"What is this intrusion?" An unnatural, half-disembodied voice howled wrathfully. The temperature was noticeably dropping. Her breath was soon visible, despite the oppressive heat outside.
The cavern wasn't large, but it was deep. The unit proceeded down the ramp cautiously, keeping their backs to the wall. The runnels of blood were slowing as they advanced, turning to slush and then ice. Garrack pointed to three stalactites and gestured to Una and the two hunters to take cover.
Anaru was counting down with his fingers. Three… two… one…
Captain Backbreaker lunged forward, jumping off the last feet of the ramp to draw the Lich's attack. As the other men charged, Una and the hunters swung from behind the stalactites to attack from range.
The Lich was an impossibly tall figure, shrouded in flowing, violet robes trimmed with fur, gems, and floating chains. Upon its skull was a headdress not unlike a bishop's mitre studded with gold and yet more gems. It floated several feet above the ground, its robes fluttering in the icy, magical wind that circled its form.
She allowed holy energy to fill her entire being. The radiance to ripple out from her, lashing the Lich with its power. The hunters rained arrows down upon the undead. A storm of divine energy raged around him from her cousin and the other paladins.
She ducked behind the pillar as bolts of frigid energy shot in all directions from the undead sorcerer. A shock of frost spread across the rock like a spider's web.
Hammers filled with divine energy struck his form again and again, flashing against the frost covered walls of the cavern.
"By fire be purged!" Hakander cried, unleashing a divine torrent. Wings of golden energy sprouted from his back and lightning arced and hissed upon the air. Each strike of his massive hammer resounded upon the unliving bones like peals of thunder.
The Lich turned in confusion and inexperience, torn between the Vindicator's crushing blows and the warrior who taunted him in guttural Orcish.
His confusion left his back open to Anaru, who viciously slashed through his robes with a sword searing with sacred fire. No sooner than he turned to face Anaru, another paladin would seize the opening he left.
Una was halfway through summoning for another volley when she suddenly felt something around her neck. The young woman pawed quickly at her neck, thinking momentarily her necklace had caught on her armor. She couldn't see or feel anything, yet an unseen force constricted her throat like a thin, invisible cord.
And then she was airborne, jerked forward like a dog being dragged on its own leash.
She passed over the men and Lich as if in slow motion.
In her peripheral vision, she could see the hunters flailing through the air as well. They crossed above her and vanished from her sight.
She managed to magically shield herself an instant before she struck the far wall. Even with the Light's protection, the force of the impact cruelly drove the breath from her lungs. Her neck and face stung as her helmet went flying. Her left knee collided with her chin with a crack. And then the floor leapt up to meet her.
Una sprawled where she landed, stunned.
A tapestry that had been hung above where she crashed fell indolently over her head.
Her instincts screamed for her get up, but her muscles weren't obeying. She gasped, coughed, and sucked in deep breaths of stinging, sub-zero air.
"You belong to me now!" The Lich shrieked ominously.
Her muscles finally started working, but she couldn't find the edge of the tapestry. She squeaked in fear, clawing desperately at the cloth.
A sword stroke blessedly opened the way for her. Una rolled out, coming up onto her hands and knees.
She stared up into Ludger's face. The Dwarf's brown eyes looked bizarrely hollow, his jaw drooping. He bared his teeth and raised his sword. Una tried to bring her shield up to deflect the attack, but it caught firmly in the thick material.
Garrack was suddenly there; ramming the Lieutenant with his shield. Ludger collapsed in a heap and laid still. The warrior spun smoothly his heels and charged the Lich once more.
Una bolted upright and called the Light again. The Lich screamed as the Exorcism tore across its form. Without delay she called on it for a second time, filling her mace until it was brilliant white. She threw with every ounce of her strength. It struck.
And then it was over. The Lich spun, its form evaporating before her eyes.
"You only think you've won!" The undead thing screamed shrilly. "I will return!"
"Phylactery!" Hakander bellowed. His gaze was fixed on a worn bookcase behind where the Lich had stood.
"Destroy it!" Garrack roared even as the Draenei paladin threw his shield like a missile. It struck and the soul jar shattered upon impact. The Lich's disembodied voice gave one last screech and all was silent.
Una sank to her knees, out of breath.
The men in melee backed up little by little, as though the puddled robes might spring back to life. Gradually, they fanned out moving around the cavern.
Beside her, Ludger's unconscious form stirred and he uttered a low moan. He sat up shakily, holding his head. Una lunged to him and felt the back of his head for damage. She felt a warm lump forming, but she found no blood and felt nothing broken.
Garrack made his way over after retrieving Una's mace and knelt beside the Dwarf. "Sorry, old friend," The orc said, "But the Lich was going to have you skewer our lovely medic." He laid the weapon down by her knee and placed a hand on Una's shoulder as he watched her check the man over for additional injuries.
"Ye still hit like a loaded minin' carriage, Lad…" The demolitionist moaned. Backbreaker gave a small chuckle and lightly clapped him on the shoulder.
Una noted the Dwarf's eyes were failing to focus and one pupil was more dilated than the other. She started to fear he had a concussion. She pulled a Gnomish flashlight from the medical kit on her belt and shone it into his eyes. When his pupils failed to react to the light, her worries were confirmed.
"Medic!" Hakander yelped.
Una rose quickly and cast a worried glance back down at the Dwarf as she hooked her mace onto her belt, "Captain! Whatever you do: Keep him talking!"
Backbreaker nodded and she ran over to where she had heard Vindicator's voice.
She found Hakander and Tallak assisting Dagan to walk to her. The bald hunter was covered in blood and his left leg was failing to support his weight. Her eyes fell on a huge gash across his forehead that was pouring blood down his face. His wolf tailed them, whimpering plaintively at her master.
"By the Light, what happened?" She demanded as they helped Dagan to lie down. She snapped on a pair of sterile surgical gloves from her kit and knelt beside him.
Dagan grimaced as she probed the wound on his forehead. The incision was jagged and deep enough she could see a bit of his skull at the bottom of the cut.
"Weapons rack," He grunted succinctly. "Hit it when he threw us."
Tallak spat out a mouthful of crimson and dabbed a tear in his bottom lip with his middle finger. He grunted a brusque command in Orcish to Dagan's wolf and the animal laid down a few feet from them. Una jumped slightly at the sound of the normally quiet orc's voice. Snow obeyed, but continued to whine.
Una winced and checked him over thoroughly. The hunter was covered in numerous lacerations and abrasions, all of which were bleeding. Luckily, though it was ruined now, his armor had done its job. The cut on his forehead and his bum knee were the worst of his injuries.
Whatever had made the gash on his head had been dull and possibly rusty. The orc shut his eyes tightly as she surveyed the ragged edges, but otherwise held himself still so she could tend to him.
The elf woman cleansed the wound as best she could and stared at it, trying to figure out how to tackle it. None of the men had gone unscathed, perhaps save for those left outside, and she needed to conserve the last of her strength for the others.
A shout echoed down the corridor and the bulk of the unit bolted out. Garrack shouted orders at Private Thompson to stand guard over Ludger, Dagan, and her.
"Dagan, there is no way I can close this up cleanly." She said finally, pulling a small candle from her kit and lighting it. She passed her suture needle through the flame repeatedly to sterilize it and then carefully threaded the hook shaped instrument.
The orc chuckled softly, "Bah, scars don't concern me."
"I'm not worried about scars!" Una exclaimed, "You could get an infection! I'm already worried about Tetanus! Your wounds could turn septic easily out here!"
"Relax." The bald male said with surprising cheerfulness. She knew orcs had incredible pain tolerance and viewed scars as badges of honor, but this was bordering on the absurd. "You'll deal with it. And once we're done, my wife will deal with it. She's a shaman; she'll take good care of me."
Pushing aside her bafflement over his efforts to reassure her, Una bit her lip as she mulled over Dagan's wound. She had only practiced sutures before on cadavers, practice dummies, and leather. Regardless of skin color – she was about to perform sutures on a living person for the first time. She leaned forward, hesitated again, and sat back. She had just screwed up her courage again when Dagan seized her arm.
"Relax!" The orc told her firmly and then his mouth flexed into a grin. "You're making me nervous."
Una giggled in spite of herself.
"Besides… "Find-the-Scar" makes for great foreplay." He purred suggestively and winked at her. "My wife has a boundless imagination for that stuff. Oh, the things she did to me…"
"Like you get any." Private Thompson retorted with embarrassment. He looked distinctly uneasy at the direction the conversation had gone. Ludger watched them quietly, but a wide, sly grin was stretched across his face.
Dagan laughed, "Hah! She's going to pop our first kid out any day now. Or didn't your mommy explain where babies come from?"
Private Thompson shifted uncomfortably and Una shot him a glare, mutely ordering him to hold his tongue.
Una turned back to Dagan, took a deep breath, and made the first suture. Dagan grinned at her encouragingly and she made another. More shouts sounded from outside and she tensed up, the action clearly wasn't over.
"Want to hear something funny?" The hunter asked, attempting to distract her from the sounds of the fight outside. They both knew they'd call for her if or when she was needed.
"Dagan, please do not make me laugh!" Una said tersely, piercing his green skin once again with the needle and then pulling it through with the needle driver. The last thing she needed was to laugh when she was only three sutures into her first patient.
"Alright." He acquiesced, but he cast a strange look at Private Thompson without turning his head. "How about a story then?"
Una wasn't sure what the look meant, but the hunter was clearly up to no good, "Sure."
"So a couple years back, I met this fine thing. She had all the curves in the right places. Her lips were sweet as wine, but she was eager for something more… interesting." He grinned lecherously. "Her parents weren't home, so I swung in for a visit. She was waiting and bared her succulent form to me. Her mother had baked some fresh apple pies, but those went to the floor as I pillaged her moist little pussy on the kitchen table. Her petals were soft and so delectable as I teased her with my tongue…"
Una felt like she had heard this before. Private Thompson was beet red as the lewd story continued, the hunter going into graphic detail. Then it occurred to her where she had heard it before; a trashy romance novel she had purchased a couple years ago.
"But it wasn't quite good enough," Una interrupted as she tied off the suture in a square knot. "So you had anal sex, using the pie filling as lube."
Dagan's mouth fell open and he laughed. Thompson looked scandalized; she made the haphazard guess that he had originally been a priest. A celibate one at that.
"And a paladin knows that how?" The hunter asked, genuinely amused.
"My mentor was frequently too drunk to ride. I had to do something to stave off boredom!" Una smirked as she performed the last suture, bolstered by both the joke and her first success as a medic. She pulled one of her rolls of gauze from her pack to begin bandaging the wound. "That book was such a fun read too."
Dagan guffawed. Thompson squirmed even more and muttered something about those books being unbecoming of a Lady. Ludger chortled and then put his hand to his head with a whine.
"Still doing okay, Lieutenant?" She asked him, concerned.
The dwarf had his hands pressed to his face. A muffled "Aye, Lass," emanated from between his palms.
The bandage done, Una squeezed and manipulated the orc's knee, feeling and listening to the workings of the joint.
It was swollen and certainly sore, but she felt nothing terribly amiss. In a normal situation in Stormwind, she would tell him to stay off it, keep it elevated, and put a little ice on it. However, the orc needed to be able to walk unassisted.
She muttered a blessing, allowing the Light to flow through her, and into Dagan.
Una rocked back onto the balls of her feet as the hunter sat up. He gently probed his knee and then the bandage on his forehead. He nodded in approval and held his hand out for the roll of bandages she was holding. "I can get the rest. See to the others."
Una nodded and surrendered the bandages. She sterilized the needle once more and then put out the candle. She was packing up her supplies when the shouts outside became more insistent.
"Whitebrook!" Garrack screamed. There was a note of panic and urgency in the captain's voice.
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