It's the Murloc Life for Me [A Warcraft Isekai]

Chapter 13: Trust, but Verify

"...Queen Tiffin Wrynn stepped forward after King Varian Wrynn's authority and threats failed to quell the crowd. Beloved by the people, even the greatest firebrand paused to hear her words.

She implored the rioters to return to their homes. That she understood their plight. That the vindictive hand of the nobles would be stayed. That the Stonemasons would be paid for their work, vowing to sell her jewels and live as they did to raise the funds.

No grand cheers were given, but no shouts of death and destruction followed her decrees. The people seemed to cling to her words as an escape from the past week. The violence and fires of the riots had hurt more than just the noble district. As she continued her speech, portions of the crowd started to lower their weapons and depart from the mob. It seemed that after all the days of street fighting and unchecked flames, the Stonemason riots would end without any further violence.

Then a stone was cast from the dark, and the blood of royalty ran between Stormwind's cobbles."

Historian Llore, New Stormwind: From Ruination to Reconstruction

~ Gllrm

There was a sense of unease as I joined the circle on the floor of Mrgglr's hut. A silence had settled over me and the two others waiting for Mrgglr and Brgllrm to finish treating Lrsh.

Even if I knew the reason for Mrgglr's emergency meeting, I wouldn't share it before he had a chance to say his piece. I was still unsure of how he was going to portray the decision made at the council. It would look bad if Mrgglr started criticizing Old Murk-Eye for calling a muster if his own Chieftain tried to get them to support it.

I could see Glrmgrlr look toward me for an explanation. He was not the type of person to accept unnecessary delays.

"Lrsh, the poor girl, had some kind of night terror and thrashed enough to tear open her wounds," Brgllrm had been a bit more graphic with her account, telling me how Lrsh had been screaming about unblinking eyes before they managed to calm her down. She must have been terrified because I could still see parts of the bed stained by mucus. "They're just redoing her wrappings."

He nodded his head and went back to checking his spear for cracks or loose splinters. The old tidehunter could be ornery sometimes, but he had seen the outcome of leaving open wounds untreated. Without Mrgglr half of the hunters wouldn't be alive today, including himself.

"How long is this going to take?" Splyshy said as she carved a wave pattern on a small piece of dried wood. "I was about to start carving that skull you brought in last week." She waved her gouge lazily at Glrmgrlr, small bits of wood drifting off it.

Glrmgrlr shot back with an intense stare. "It has been two weeks, master carver, and you still haven't started on my trophy?"

Splyshy scoffed and returned to working on the piece of wood in her hands. "I'm sorry, I assumed you wished for your grand achievement to receive the proper planning it deserves. If I had realized all you wanted was something flattering you could hang above your entrance, I would have had it done last week."

Glrmgrlr didn't seem happy, but he shook his head. "Just make sure to have it done by the next spawning season."

"Yes, yes. You'll have your trophy in time for when your cousin visits. You just make sure to have enough shells ready."

She stopped carving, apparently bored with the endless waves that circled the wood block, and spent some time looking around the room. Not many people spent extended periods in Mrgglr's hut. It was the source of more than a few rumors in the village, mostly about spirits and all manner of magic rituals Mrgglr apparently got up to. The fact that the most common reason to enter was when you were injured, and often less than lucid, spawned some of the wildest stories.