TheBattlehammer

(Author’s note – in the Earthdawn world, there are no gods, only Passions. These are very powerful beings, associated with certain things, i.e. much the same as gods. They can materialise, and are served by Questors, who are mortals dedicated to their Passion and his aims/interests)

Ow. Owowowow. Slowly coming to, thumping headache. It’s dark, and I’m weighed down. Great lump on the back of my head, and it comes back. I was walking alone and had been ambushed by a group of men. They were trying to take me alive, but I don’t do polite. Must have killed 4 of them, before it all went dark.

There are two big things in my life. One is that I’m a Beastmaster (mistress I suppose), so I’m only alone when I want to be. I reach out my mind in the dark, and find my companions. Skrall,the hawk is in a nearby tree. He doesn’t like nights. Tif, the dog has pinpointed my captors with her senses. One is on watch, another is near me, watching from behind, and four more are asleep over there. Jax, who’s basically a tiger, is watching the sentry, waiting for her moment. Merry, the weasel is lurking, waiting for a chance to bite. Big heart, small teeth. And Quake. Quake is like a bison, only bigger. And a lot meaner. Quake is some distance, but he always likes a run up.

My watcher has realized I’ve come to. Men like to brag. ‘Put up a struggle, you bitch, but you’ll fetch a good price as a pit fighter. Don’t bother struggling, there’s enough chain for 6 men on you. I know you Orks get upset by being made slaves’

He knows that at least. I feel the fury, starting to course through me. I know this feeling, I can surrender to it, let it take me, and I’ll kill all I can reach.

He sees me start to twitch, and laughs. ‘Steel chains, bitch’.

They don’t know the second thing either, it seems. I am a Questor of Blork. I repeat it out loud. He looks puzzled. ‘You humans call him Lochost’. Now he looks worried. ‘Lochost, the Passion of Freedom. No chains, no bars, no locks can hold his Questors’.

I stand up and shrug the chains off. Jax pounces, and Quake starts his charge. I laugh, and let the fury take me…