Rise of the Warrior of Everfen

Chapter 76: Let Me Die

"Why am I here?" Erinne questioned loudly to the misty fog that surrounded her. She knew this place, she knew this was where the ancestors walked. She hadn't seen this place since Shaman Griesling had helped explain her dreams to her for the Ancestors. At least it wasn't red...it felt like it should be. Her heart felt like this place had when she'd dreamed of the red smoke that filled it.

Desperate, lonely...Griesling had heard angry shouts, cries, and the roar of a creature when the Ancestors had showed him this place. He thought it meant war. She thought it meant this. The cursed orc, the mob, her grief.

She waited but there was no answer to her question. Anger spilled into her heart and she twisted. "Why am I here? Answer me! Why am I here?!" She screamed until she felt like her lungs were bleeding and then she collapsed in a heap, covering her face. Tears flooded her eyes and she sobbed.

No one came.

She cried alone, hands pressed to her eyes. The coldness of the fog seeped into her bones, making her shiver as she poured her heart out to the silence around her. The dark, mysterious world that was filled with nothing was now filled with her cries. This was the place where the Ancestors lived, so where were they? Why didn't they answer? Why was she here?

She didn't know how much time passed before a hand laid on her shoulder.

She paused in her grief, wondering if she would open her eyes and find her mate beside her. Had Cold Hammer died going after Andol? Her tears slowed but her grief didn't cease. She kept her eyes covered, refusing to look yet, and tried to gather herself a little. Sniffling, she asked softly, "Am I dead this time?"

"No." Duran. Lohke's father. Not Cold Hammer. It'd been nearly five years since she'd heard his voice and still she recognized it.

"I don't want to go back." I want to be dead. Let me die.

"Why?"

His question made her cry harder. "Everything went wrong. The humans attacked us."

"You're human."

She frowned and finally turned to look at him. He looked the same, the tribal markings were on him, his hair braided. Lohke looked more like him with every passing year. "I'm not human. Not anymore."

"Are you sure?"

"They killed my baby. They tried to kill me." She glanced around but there was only fog. "Where is Cold Hammer and Andol? Are they here? Did the humans kill them, too?" He didn't reply and his lack of an answer terrified her. "Why did they do this? Why did they attack us?"

"Humans and orcs are much alike in their hate for each other. They take any chance to prove their self a warrior, especially against ones they perceive as an enemy."

She sniffed, trying to hold her tears in. When she met Duran's eyes, there was a gravity there, a lingering pain that made her own heart ache. "Was this the prophecy? That everything would be destroyed with another swing of his hammer?"

"Had he not attacked them when they threw that rock, you all may have made it inside the castle, but we can never know for certain."

She sighed. "Why am I here?"

"Because I felt your pain. I felt you give up. I do not want that for you. You have loved my truest friend, an unlovable orc, for many years. You have withstood the greatest of pains in your lifetime, and you always carried on. I want you to carry on."

"My baby is dead. How can I possibly want to go on after that? My child..." Sobs choked her. You will lose your son. The words echoed in her mind. Was her stillborn child a boy? Was he the son she lost? Her heart cried. "My baby is dead."