She was running towards her doom, he knew it, so he could do nothing... nothing but run after her!
The orcs, having reached the village started a turmoil, completely unprepared, the inhabitants grabbed whatever they could find as a weapon and tried to keep the fiends at bay. "Aery! Stop, you'll get yourself killed!" but she would not respond.
"Mommy! Daddy!" She cried, silvery tears streaming down her cheeks. Boom! An explosion! A grenade of crude orcish gunpowder shattered the ground right before her, throwing the little girl off her feat. Orc rushed past her, blindly concentrating on the bigger game in the village. Dolerad finally reached her. "Come Aery, we mush get out of here!" But she would not respond, her eyes narrowed as she saw her parents run from behind a house. In that same instance, as if the force of motherlove forced her gaze, she saw her children on the other side of the town square. "Dolerad! Aerillian!" She cried. Overcome with joy the two children got up, still somewhat disoriented from the blast and the chaotic battle all around them. "Mommy!"
But her expression turned grim as she slowly placed her trembling hands on her abdomen. A wolf rider had just come by and with an unholy swoop cut right through the woman's skin. As she collapsed to the ground their father tried to fend off the orcs all the more. Infuriated by the fall of his beloved wife, but that too, proved to be in vain as an Orcish blade pierced his ribcage a second later... "R..rrun!" was all he could utter in an expression of despair, his eyes tearing he too fell...
"Noooo!" Dolerad burst into tears, he braced himself and wanted to run towards his parents. As for Aerillian... She stood there, her eyes as wide as they could. Silver tears welled up, but she would not cry, she would not move. Petrified she stood there, the battle around her faded, the whole world, faded. All she knew, then, there, was gone, there was nothing left then complete emptyness...
Suddenly a large hand janked her from her spot by her shoulder, dragging both her and Dolerad from the site.
Scream, kicking, Dolerad resisted with all his might but the man was just too strong. Aerillian, still numbed by what she had just witnessed allowed herself to be carried away with the flow of events.
"It's allright! It's allright!" spoke a familiar voice. Only then did Dolorad pause to look at who it was that had taken the siblings. It was none other then their uncle Garnazen. Despair turned to hope as the little boy's eyes as hugged him. "Come, we must leave" he spoke in short, breathless intervals. The trio quickly made their way into the nearby forest. The dark trees of Terokkar would provide shelter, the Orcs would hopefully overlook them.
And so they did, for shortly after they reached an Elekk, it's reigns bound to one of the trees. "Where are we going?" "Home... your aunt Shadrani is waiting." Confuzement overcame the boy. "But that's on the other side of the forest! What about mum and dad?" Garnazen sighed. "They are gone, as is your village; Namuun." He hoisted the younlings onto the back of the Elekk and took the reigns from the tree. The sounds of screaming had died out. The Orcs had won. The ominous silence was only broken by the singing of birds, unknowing of the horrors that had just taken place. Only a minute later the trio rode off to safety...
Nightime had long since fallen and two silhouettes stood in the doorpost, looking into a dark room. "Dolorad is fast asleep, but I fear Aerillian will hold a permanent scar." The male silhouette looked to the female shape. "Indeed, Garnazen. I can only imagine what is was they saw, and felt. But everyone deals diffirently with such trauma's. Dolorad seems to do so by dreaming." "True, he allready was half asleep when we got here." "But Aerillian, Shadrani sighed, I wonder... we best let them be..." After those words the duo left their spot and closed the door behind them. Darkness engulfed the room for all but a feint light coming from a glowing crystal nightlamp. Dolerad's breathing was all that could be heard. Aerillian lay there. unmoving in her bed, her gaze towards the ceiling, without blinking, with the same sterile expression she had adopted since the death of her parents. Het white, faintly glowing eyes would betray the darkness within. For taking a child from battle is one thing, but how does one take said battle from a child's tarnished innocence...?
