Aaron Rosenberg - Beyond the Dark Portal

Their oversized leader killed a drake as well, but it didn't bother with a club — instead it simply reached up, catching a charging black drake as easily as Khadgar had once caught an apple a friend had tossed to him. The colossal beast held the drake in one hand, its thumb and forefinger pinning the young dragon's wings together as it struggled to get free. Then the beast brought the drake to its mouth, tilted its head back, and engulfed the scaled body in a single fierce bite, chewing a few extra times to get the rest of the wings into its cav­ernous mouth before finally swallowing.

"That was…" Turalyon started, but he couldn't find words to encompass what he'd just seen. He low­ered his sword and lifted his visor, barely aware of his actions. "You… those…"

The creature peered at him. "Dragons come. You not run, but could have. You stay and fight — helped us." There was a bit of astonishment in that earth-deep voice, Khadgar could well understand it. He was will­ing to bet that few had willingly risked themselves to help the ogres before. His heart lifted slightly; things were going exactly as he'd hoped.

"No, we do not run. We are not your enemies. We only wish—"

Khadgar had just drawn breath to continue to nego­tiate the tentative truce when the ground began to sud­denly shake again, and the creature glanced back the way it had come. It hunched in upon itself, arms wrap­ping protectively around its broad chest, and a strange sound emerged from its hideous mouth, half snarl and half whimper. Watching it, Khadgar would have sworn this beast, which had just all but swallowed a dragon whole, looked frightened.

He shuddered to think what could scare such a thing.

That question was answered a few minutes later, when a second monstrous beast strode from the moun­tains. This creature was even larger than the first one, and had more stone spikes protruding from its back and arms. Its skin was redder than that of the other, its one eye so pale it was almost white all the way across, and its teeth were longer and sharper.

That white eye held great intelligence, and it fastened upon Khadgar and Turalyon and the other humans. "Who you?" it demanded. “And why you still live?" "We are only passing through," Khadgar stam­mered. The great being's eye narrowed in skepticism. "We aren't your enemies. Just let us go and we'll—"

"No." The finality of the single word was chilling. "You leave, you speak. Speak of gronn. Speak of Gruul." The giant being thumped his chest. "Horde come. No, best you die. Secret stay safe. Gronn stay safe."

Turalyon glanced at the first creature he'd been con­versing with, hoping for help, but Khadgar could tell they would not get any there. The massive being had curled in upon itself after the rebuke, looking like nothing so much as a recently punished child. And that, he realized, was exactly what it was. The second crea­ture was its parent and this was the baby. The thought made him shudder.

"We will keep your secret! We helped the — the gronn with the dragons! This one can tell you so himself!"

The giant that had called itself Gruul scowled and glanced around, apparently only now noticing the black drake corpses scattered around the mountain­side. "You dragon-killers?"

"Yes," Khadgar answered desperately.

But Gruul was not so easily tricked. He tilted back his monstrous head, his fang-filled mouth gaping open — and laughed. The deep peals shook the walls around them and sent several small spires shattering to the ground.

"Kill baby dragons, maybe," it said, still grinning. "We do that. Not need help. No, you die."

"Wait!" Khadgar cried. "What do you want help with?" They could probably take down more than drakes, if they absolutely had to.

Gruul sobered at once. "You too weak. You cannot help."

"Maybe we can. Ask."

Gruul was silent, then he said in a somber voice, "Blackwing Greatfather."

It took Khadgar a second to figure out what Gruul meant. His eyes widened, he burst out, "Deathwing? You want us to kill Deathwing?"

"What?" cried Turalyon. "Deathwing? Here?"

"And they want us to kill him?" Alleria chimed in.

Khadgar was as shocked as they. They'd known the black dragons had allied with the Horde, and had seen several of them dart through the portal to Draenor, but he'd assumed it was only lesser members of the dragonflight, not the dragonflight patriarch… their "great and terrible sire…" himself!

"He left some black dragons behind as guards for the orcs at the citadel," Turalyon muttered. "But he brought the rest of them up here, to these mountains."

Khadgar nodded, then realized Gruul was still watching them expectantly

He took a deep breath and drew himself up to his full height. "Yes. Of course. Do not worry — We can handle Deathwing," he told the gronn with forced as­surance. "He won't be a problem for us." He did his best to ignore the stunned silence radiating from his friends and prayed Gruul couldn't see the sweat drip­ping off his brow, or that if he didб he didn't understand its significance.

Gruul nodded, a grotesque smile splitting his mas­sive lips. "Good," he announced. "Foolish, but brave! Gruul like." He peered down at them. "Now prove it." He gestured, his enormous hand lifting to indicate a peak not far away. "Deathwing," the gronn explained. "Kill. Help gronn rid mountain of pests. Then… you pass." His smile shifted down to a scowl that revealed all his fangs. "Tell no one!"

Khadgar nodded. "Agreed." He hoped his voice didn't sound quite so quivery to Gruul as it did in his own ears.

Gruul turned and began making his way across the mountainside. The massive gronn didn't bother search­ing for a path, he created one, his heavy feet shattering stone and leaving a wide, cracked trail through the stone spires, which broke off against his thick skin. The smaller gronn hurried to follow its parent, and the ogres — Khadgar was horrified to realize he now thought of them as "small," even though they were twice his own height — shuffled along behind their two oversized leaders. Grimly Khadgar followed. A thought occurred to him. Deathwing was here … and the skull was in this direction… . He paused for a second, closing his eyes, and then he grinned.

"What are you doing?" Alleria whispered to him as she and Turalyon fell into step beside him. "We're sup­posed to be looking for Gul'dan's skull, not going up against Deathwing! Do you have any idea what that dragon is capable of?"

"Yes, actually," he answered. "But he's got the skull."

"What?" exclaimed Turalyon.

"The skull is right in front of us, and so is Deathwing. We'd have had to confront him regardless, most likely."

"Wonderful. Now all we have to do is fight Deathwing to get the skull back!" She shuddered. "I'd rather face the entire Horde any day!"

Privately, Khadgar agreed with her, but he saw no other option. They needed the skull, and Deathwing had it. He was deep in thought, going over his spells in his mind, when Turalyon gripped his arm and pointed.

"Look," he said in a quiet voice.

They had reached a deep valley that led up to the peak in question, and had stopped, fanning out around the valley's edge.

Eggs. The ground was littered with them. They were about a yard long and shone from within with a pulsing red glow that revealed dark veins through the eggshells themselves — and coiled forms cocooncd inside.

"That's what was in those wagons Alleria spotted!" Turalyon whispered, staring. "No wonder the dragons were flying right above them! Deathwing brought these here to Draenor! If they hatch, the black dragons will overrun this entire world!"

"Then we had best make sure they don't hatch," Alleria countered, raising her bow and nocking an arrow. Khadgar placed his hand on her left arm and pointed. "Let's make those your first targets." The oth­ers followed his gaze and cursed softly as they saw the dark shapes winging toward them from the valley's far side.