Before the World Broke — A Vegetaone Story
Marn came down the mountain without his sack.
That told Vegeta enough to put his bowl aside.
The ogre stopped at the stronghold gate with both hands raised. The watchmen kept their weapons ready until Reddbull came out to meet him.
“The girls?”
“Still there.”
Marn had learned where Gorvek intended to send them. A smaller band was coming for the furnace's stores, and the two girls would go with it as assurance that Marn kept working.
“Tomorrow?” Vegeta asked.
“Tonight.”
Sarn swore quietly.
The guards were back at the stronghold, but one was ill with fever, and the northern approach required two to keep watch. There were five fighters available, counting Vegeta and Reddbull.
“Enough to reach a room,” Reddbull said.
“Not enough to hold the furnace,” Sarn answered.
Marn shook his head.
“Don't hold it. Take them.”
Vegeta studied the drawing.
No grand victory.
A door, two girls, and a road out.
“Show us the room.”
They approached after dark with Marn leading.
Rella came as far as the old wagon shelf and stayed with Hessa, two mules, and the bandages. The three stronghold guards took the outer path. Vegeta and Reddbull followed Marn beneath the storage yard.
The girls' room was a cupboard beside the grain store.
Vegeta had pictured children small enough to tuck under each arm.
One was nearly his height.
The other sat beside her with a bruised cheek and a cooking pot clutched in both hands.
Marn opened the cupboard with a stolen key and whispered their names.
Eri.
Loma.
The older girl stood immediately. The younger stared at Reddbull.
“Uncle?”
“Friends,” Marn said.
Vegeta stepped aside to give them room.
Behind the grain store, a latch clicked.
They had been seen.
The first guard fell beneath Reddbull's shield before he could shout twice.
The second had already struck an iron alarm plate.
Marn took the girls toward the side path.
Vegeta moved between them and the yard.
The timber lintel was too low for both swords to clear comfortably. He drew one and let the doorway narrow the fight for him.
An ogre swung a hook toward his face.
Vegeta ducked.
The hook caught his old helm and dragged it sideways, tearing the chin fastening.
He let the helm go.
His blade struck the attacking wrist.
Reddbull brought the shield across the opening before the next guard could exploit it.
“Out!”
Vegeta backed beneath the lintel.
Above them, the stronghold guards called that the upper path was clear.
Then Gorvek entered the yard.
He wore a breastplate made from several smaller plates hammered together. Two metal braces hung from his belt, stolen from the channel consignment. His hammer had been built around a block of furnace iron.
He saw Marn.
Saw the girls.
Moved toward them without bothering to order anyone else.
Reddbull planted his hooves in the path.
Vegeta caught his arm.
“Not here.”
Behind the Tauren, the path narrowed against an unguarded drop. A hammer blow would send anyone holding still into it.
Reddbull looked once.
Moved.
Gorvek's hammer struck the grain-store corner where the Tauren had stood.
Timber broke.
Vegeta cut the leather holding one stolen brace to Gorvek's belt. The iron fell beneath the ogre's next step.
He stumbled.
Reddbull struck his knee with the shield rim, then withdrew rather than staying to trade another blow.
By then, Marn and the girls had reached the guards.
The guild had taught Vegeta many things.
He had apparently carried enough of them here to pass one on.
“Move!” he shouted.
They ran uphill together.
At the wagon shelf, Loma refused to release the pot.
Rella considered arguing, then tied it onto a mule so the girl could see it.
Hessa dressed the cut along Vegeta's temple. It was shallow. It had bled enough to make Eri regard him with alarm.
“You lost your head cover.”
“It was overdue.”
She looked toward the path they had escaped.
“He'll come.”
Reddbull nodded.
“Then we won't be here when he does.”
Marn watched his nieces begin the climb beside the waiting mules, with Hessa supporting Loma at the steeper turns.
He turned toward the two warriors.
“I don't have—”
Vegeta lifted one hand.
“Tell Sarn where the consignment went. We can use that.”
Marn gave them the remaining store locations as they walked.
He also described the troops Gorvek had sent around the stronghold's flank.
They arrived home with people and a warning.
Sarn listened to the warning before looking at Vegeta's bandaged head.
Then he opened the large case beside his forge.
The Battle-Helm inside had the high, aggressive shape Vegeta remembered seeing in other warriors' armor. Its projecting horns cast hard shadows across the bench.
Sarn had obtained it through a Shattrath outfitter. It belonged to the same Destroyer make as the shoulders, not to the mountain raiders or their crude furnace work.
“Stronghold commander authorized hazard pay,” he said. “Information about an attack counts. So does bringing people here to give it.”
Vegeta looked at the helm.
“My share?”
“Covers the piece. You pay me for the fitting in labor.”
“How much labor?”
“You'll hate it.”
Vegeta grinned despite his sore head.
“That sounds fair.”
Reddbull found him later holding the helm over a basin so he could see its reflection.
“You look difficult to move.”
“That is one of its finest properties.”
The Tauren smiled, then sat beside him.
For a while, they watched Marn's nieces eat with Hessa near the kitchen.
“I should have seen the drop,” Reddbull said.
“You moved when I showed you.”
“In Northrend, I kept thinking a shield meant I had to stand wherever somebody needed one.”
“Sometimes it means carrying it to a better place.”
Reddbull rubbed the repaired rim.
“A friend of mine died while I was trying to be the strongest thing on a road.”
Vegeta lowered the helm.
“I'm sorry.”
“His name was Teren.”
He said no more.
Vegeta did not fill the silence with advice.
After a while, the Tauren looked toward the girls again.
“I'd like to learn how to do more than hold something back.”
Vegeta followed his gaze.
“Start with making sure they have breakfast.”
Reddbull nodded.
Tomorrow was a task they could both understand.
End of Chapter Five