The Dark Sire Issue 3 (Spring 2020) | Page 53

However, to his half-breed nose, his body radiated only outrage and injury, violence and pain. It exuded no pride, only the smell of potential carrion which hung about him on savaged skin and bone. “Wank,” a gruff voice barked. He wrenched open one swollen eye, flakes of crusted blood reluctant to let his lids part, able to make out the guard – squat, thick of limb and covered in hair – despite the darkness. He’d been long enough down here that he couldn’t remember the last time his inner lid had reflexively closed over his large, half-orc pupils, needing their whole iris to see even faint glimpses at times, though the sights were horrors. Despite this, he had never once whimpered, never once cried, never once begged for mercy. He had never asked for one damn thing, because that, he knew, he could get. “Wank,” the voice barked again. Wank, he thought, what a helluva name. Moleshit, in orcish. And did he ever feel just that these days. From Worg’s Bane to moleshit in the length of one growl of a chieftain. “Rahsik wants to see you.” Wank tried to open his mouth and speak, searching his fractured faculties for some response to reflect his disdain for this grotesque creature, but his benumbed mind was beaten, stripped of all thought. His 51