Aru’Gal was short for a man of his clan. Some said he neither carried much muscle, others whispered he wasn’t even the smartest.

  And yet he was the Khan. The heir of great warriors like Khan Ara’Gash the Mountain and Brak’ka the fury. He fought the Dragon and defended his clan. He dashed from the hollowed mountain to the western peaks and back. Every dash meant another strike at the dragon. He would need more than a thousand cuts, but the beast would only need one bite to munch him whole.

  Accompanied by the sound of thunder and song he fought the beast not as its prey, but its equal. The man that would always be remembered as the snake, fought with all his heart. Without room for sorrow or doubts or regrets. He did what he had to and he would do it all over again. Even if the dragon tried to take it from him, even if tried to take the clan and their ancestors, he would not let it happen. For he was the conqueror and he would take the price.

  While he and Venomclaw circled the mountain of scales, The Dragon sang. A song that was drowning out the clans' attempt to aid the Khan. Whenever it tried to bite or claw at Aru’Gal it stopped for a second only to continue its song once more. Once atop another peak it returned to its song even louder and Aru’Gal realised he had to stop it from singing.

  The Ashes of their dead warriors rose and rose further and further and soon their fires and whispers circled around the fight between them.

  The ancestors knew the truth, yet like the clan and every warrior that would join the battle that day, they knew the Dragon needed to be stopped, more than the snake.

  Different things are told today. How long the Khan stood against the Dragon, how often he dashed ahead and right at it like it was any other enemy. How many wounds he sliced into its mountainous body.

  Pride filled his heart when he saw its wounds and he knew what he had always known. “We can beat it.”

  Yet just as pride fueled his fire, the first fallen warriors fueled the dragon. It continued its song and the melody became commands. The sun had darkened over the valley and now while the first souls were devoured even the egg shifted in its colour.

  Aru’Gal sat with Venomclaw at the hollowed mountain’s peak and lurked over his shoulder up to the moon. Its colour turned red and the sun vanished behind the Dragon’s red clouds.

  No word left the Khan’s lips but he snarled knowing that the scaled mountain was so close to earning its price. So close, to Ascension. It had waited for more years than any orc had ever counted. For more generations that any could remember.

  Behind it on the peaks of the western mountains storms of ash rose higher and higher and darkened the day even more until nothing but the red glow of the egg lit the Frostsong Valley. Aru’Gal screamed and dashed on once more. He had to stop it. Too long had he and his people been its puppet and if there was anyone who would show that thing fury it would be him.

  Yet this time his attack was in vain. This time the dragon did not dash at him but pointed its claws and song right at him. The black storm of ash rushed at him and Venomclaw and both were casted back at the mountain. His Wyvern was crushed into its peak and fell off. Only barely he held on to not fall. With his few muscles burning he pulled himself up. He was about to ride once more when Venomclaw roared into the sky and dashed onwards to the Dragon. Through the black storm he could see how its wounds were healing, how its power rose again. To its song Venomclaw dashed in and even from the distant isles in the boiling sea a swarm of Wyverns came to aid their master.

  Aru’gal’s eyes became as tired as the dragon’s had been all those many years ago. He still held his sword and his fathers staff, yet both weakly and close to falling to the ground. This was the end. And he had played right into its claws for years. He would be eaten like the rest of them, like the first souls were devoured by it now. And he knew he deserved it. Without noticing he fell to his knees. On top of the hollowed mountain, the peak of their world. Holding the highest position of their kind and still there was a being that could beat him. That had played him so easily as he always thought he had played others. His future was stolen and even their death devoured into oblivion.

  The black storm screamed around him and finally the dragon roared together with the swarm swarm of wyverns. It licked its lips while its eyes burned through the cloud and the storm. Staring at Aru’Gal with a grin that the snake had casted on others so many times before. Then, it dashed on again, together with the swarm it aimed for the hollowed mountain and the broken Khan at its peak.

  Around Aru’gal the black storm screamed in agony. The ancestors were in pain. Below the rune echoed the red colour of the Egg in the sky and nothing but sorrow remained in the winds.

  “Sorry…” Aru’Gal whispered weakly. He felt his fathers gaze on him and had to close his eyes as he only waited for the dragon to take him out of the failure he had left behind. “I am sorry…” He whispered again. It was too late and it was weak. A man who would sacrifice the world for his own didn’t have the right to be sorry. Words his father would have said, and Aru’Gal knew them well. Here at the end of it all, he was alone. Neither the dead nor the living would come for his aid.

  So he told himself, in that moment of defeat.

  But then another song echoed through the wind and rumbled through the earth. It was sung by many, by countless orcs all across the continent. By Frostsong and Bladelands and the Ashen. By Darkling Clans and Greenskin tribes. By Shaman and Druid, beast and wind. It was sung by all.

  Slowly Aru’Gal looked back up. Behind the western mountain a new swarm of Wyverns arrived with the new song. It was hard to spot through the black storm yet at least one Rider was among them. The swarm became one with the Wyverns around the Dragon while the rider dashed on until they circled the Hollowed Mountain.

  “Fools!” The Dragon uttered. The black storms circled the Dragon and the Wyverns started to turn on their master. The rune below shifted its colour and the Egg above started to regain its natural silver shine. “You still dare to defy me?!” It roared and bit at the wyverns next to it. Its maw was great enough to munch down a swarm of them before it darted to the skies and above. “I allowed you to exist!!”

  “Your mistake.” A dark but familiar voice crossed from behind Aru’Gal. For a second he thought the ancestors were speaking to him, then he heard the snow crunch below boots. It was an uneven crunch. The leg of the voice must have been wounded. Shortly after he heard a Wyvern crash into the edge of windhall just below the peak. And he knew only one Wyvern big enough for such a landing.

  Slowly Aru’gal looked over his shoulder again and was met with the angry glowing stare of the man he once called brother. Bruna’Gash the Beast.

  Their eyes locked. Hatred was glowing in Bruna’s and defeat in Aru’Gal’s. The ancestors circled around them. Their glares cast on them. At the Snake and the Beast. The Past and the Future. The man who was the Khan, and the man who should have been.

  Finally Aru’Gal broke the peak’s silence. “Are you ending me now?”

  Bruna stomped in and with one hand around his white scale cloak that marked Aru’Gal as Khan, brought him back up to his feet. “I SHOULD!!”

  Their faces were close and both men knew the other might be their end. All the while the Dragon fought the Wyverns and the Ancestors. The tide was turning on it, yet far from crushing it by its own. It roared and spewed fire and both men looked over through the storm and the horizon. Its fire was meant for the Wyverns yet casted another avalanche down the western mountains.

  Bruna returned his glare to Aru’Gal. “Every part of me wants to throw you off this mountain!! Every single…!” He was too angry to speak clearly and huffed himself to sense a few times. As he roared again his hand still remained on the cloak around Aru’Gal. “I want to snap your neck, you lying piece of scum!!”

  “Maybe you should.” Aru’Gal answered plainly and with a bitter smile on his face.

  “Earn your death, COWARD!!” Bruna’s voice echoed over the peak and through the mountain. “You are our Khan, start acting like one!!”

  “Why now..?” Aru’Gal replied weakly yet his gaze went back to the Dragon and how it struggled against the swarms, and the slightest hint of hope was born inside him again.

  “Because it will eat my DAUGHTER!!!” Bruna’s voice forced Aru’Gal to look back at him. “And you father! And my Father! My Wife, my mother…your mother, EVERYBODY! The dead, the living! EVERYTHING you are meant to protect!! So stand straight you Coward!! One last time! And EARN your DEATH!!”

  Aru’Gal grinned and looked back at the Dragon. “That is much more than I deserve!”

  “IT IS!!!” Bruna roared and a bitter chuckle left the snake.

  Yet his eyes returned to the man he once called brother. “One final strike..” He nodded. “One final blow right at its neck. With storm and song and thunder…”

  “Don’t be so happy about it!”

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  Bruna huffed at Aru’Gal’s words and looked back at the Dragon. “I will jump with you.”

  “You will die.”

  “So will you.”

  Both watched the dragon now. Finally Aru’gal took word again. “I don’t know why it had to come to this…”

  “You challenged its power, what did you expect?!”

  “It would have tried this sooner or later…I just wanted to be ahead of time.” Aru’Gal’s words had taken a tone he almost never spoke. They were calm, and they were honest.

  Bruna’s words went lower as well. “Listen to the songs…you think we are in need of some foul sorcery to destroy it?”

  “You can’t deny that we would be doomed without it now.”

  “These are our songs, Aru’Gal. Not some foul play of the west. These are ours.” Bruna looked over the horizon and listened to the songs.

  “Enough!” The Dragon declared and unleashed another earth shattering roar. It dashed away from the wyverns and the wind that was fighting it and back at a nearby peak. It’s hungry gaze went up to the moon. And it started its song again. With the last air of its lunges it roared it to the sky and casted red lightning around it.

  “We waste time with words! Where is your Wyvern?!” Bruna questioned Aru’Gal.

  The Khan shook his head. “I lost my horn, and now my beast is there, fighting among the swarm.”

  “More than you are doing!” Bruna huffed and shoved Aru’gal away and close to the mountain’s edge. He stumbled to the western edge and looked on to the dragon. He watched the dragon, as if to look for an opening.

  Aru’Gal watched for one of his own.

  Bruna’s wound was healed by the craft and prayer of the human, yet it still hurt.

  The sky was turned red again, yet the song of the clans echoed against the Dragon.

  Aru’Gal spit and stood up again. “We need more than this! Look at it! We need~”

  “A shaman at the hall. Where are they?!” Bruna said and returned his gaze to Aru’Gal.

  “I don’t know.” He answered and walked next to him, to watch the dragon too. Both riders tried to study its attacks one last time. Yet both had their eyes return to the men at their side, for they both knew he could strike at any second. “Many caves have collapsed. And avalanches turned down. They were up here but they must have gone aiding below..”

  “They should have stand and fight!” The beast roared, yet knew his words false.

  “They are wisemen, not warriors.” The snake answered with a hint of disgust.

  Bruna’s gaze was taken to the southern horizon. A cloud of wyverns approached yet different to the others. It was the riders.

  The Watchers horn sang across the Valley and they dashed at the Dragon. Only one flew towards the mountain. On it were two figures. A man and a woman and both Aru’Gal and Bruna knew the traitor was one of them.

  The Khan walked to the southern edge to watch the approaching watcher and Bruna watched him. Then the dead seers staff in his hand. He said no word yet turned his glare back to Aru’Gal. The Khan looked at him and huffed, finally in anger himself.

  “Down to the Hall.” Bruna commanded. “We waste too much time talking!”

  Aru’Gal hated to answer Bruna’s call, yet he knew he was right. No matter if he wanted to die fighting the beast or if the spark of ascension was still lingering inside him, they needed to act.

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  Both men ran down the slim path of the mountain's peak and into the northern opening of the windhall.

  Sha’Raph and Sir Raimond watched the Dragon from Dustfang, while a young woman leaned on the biggest sword either of them had ever seen. Its craft was similar to a Khan’s weapon and Aru’Gal stopped in his tracks, if only for a second. His gaze went on the sword and for a second he felt even more dread than the Dragon had caused in him. The Khan’s sword was still in his hand and he felt a heat rising inside it. It wanted to see the other weapon swing. It wanted to clash with and against it. They were brothers.

  Finally he huffed and took a step into the hall. He felt Sha’Raph’s glare just as angry as Bruna’s even through her mask. “You waste time!” She stated coldly.

  “I know.” Bruna answered and quickly approached the girl and her sword. He was about to simply take the sword yet felt a strange burning in his heart. The girl watched him and while the runes on Defiance started to glow she felt the same.

  “I forged it.” She said by instinct. “And I brought it here.”

  He needed a second and then took a hand on its grib. She removed her own under his then he spoke once more. “And I shall wield it.” He felt the fire inside the metal even through the pelt on its grib. She watched him and he shook his head. “I won’t just wield it…I will kill with it.”

  The winds rose inside the hall and all eyes were cast on the man they called the Beast, and Defiance in his hands. The ancestors howled and Aru’Gal felt the dread rising once again. “And I will beat you…” the wind whispered and Bruna smiled. It was if the sword gathered the ancestors around the mountain to it. Like flies to the fire their gaze was drawn to it. Even back at the Dragon, those that were freed by the song of the clans started to swirl around the mountain. Then the wind whispered again. “She is here…”

  By instinct Bruna turned his gaze to the southern entrance just before a wyvern landed there. Ur’Back and Mara were on it and both quickly jumped down.

  Ur’Back greeted the group with a fist punching his chest while Mara stood in silence to look at her brother. He looked back at her yet before more could be said. Ur’Back spoke fast and with his heart pounding for battle. “The Dragon…I think it’s spell is halted but not stopped. The riders will take it occupied but I doubt we can do much damage.”

  “We will.” Bruna declared without hesitation. He now held Defiance with both hands. Its tip resting on the ground.

  Aru’Gal stared from Bruna and Defiance to Mara. “Why is she here..?”

  His words brought him Bruna’s anger. “You should ask why you are still alive!!” He roared and took a step closer to Aru’Gal while the runes of the Ancestors and Hatred burned brightly on Defiance.

  For once Ur’Back couldn’t hide his face any longer and watched in surprise as his Khan was threatened so openly.

  Mara stepped forth. “We don’t have time for words! If it continues it will start to devour them again and I will not just stand by while it eats her..” She huffed at her own words, trying to calm her heart and let the shaman speak, not the aunt. “All of them…”.

  Bruna nodded and looked down at the Seer’s staff in Aru’Gal’s hand.

  Aru’Gal stared back at his once brother and over to Mara. Hatred was in all of their eyes. It was her who had conspired with his father to collapse the mines. If not for her he could have ascended already. Their kind would be saved and he would have started a new era of conquest. For a moment the battle of the Dragon seemed far less important than the fire of hatred in the hall. None of them should have been alive anymore, yet here they stood. Ready to take the Khan’s throat, and Aru’gal ready to poison theirs.

  Their glaring eyes were forced back to the west when the Dragon roared again. It was about to drown the distant songs and take its distance. It needed to die.

  Aru’Gal snarled in anger but threw her his fathers staff. She caught it and felt its vibration. She knew that it belonged to her master before and took a deep breath. She wanted to throw words of hatred at Aru’Gal and those of calm to her brother, but they needed the shaman, not the sister. “I’ll carry their voices to the mountain but you must strike.”

  She looked at Bruna and he nodded. Aru’Gal continued to glare before Sha’Raph shouted from Dustfang. “Are you done?”

  “We are.” Bruna said and went back to climb the big desert beast with defiance in his hand.

  “For now…” Aru’Gal added as he stared at Mara but a moment longer. He and Mara knew that either of them would die that day and they both knew if the choice was left to Bruna it wouldn’t have been the Khan.

  Then he climbed Dustfang too. His eyes met Sha’Raph behind her mask yet only for a moment. Before she reigned the Ashen Wyvern to the edge of the western entrance.

  Reila just stood there and watched, naive to most of the tension. To her the only battle important was the Dragon. Defiance liked her. “Good luck.” She said, They were the only words she could think of.

  “Strike true.” Mara added as her eyes were locked with her Brother one last time.

  Then with a roar Sha’Raph made Dustfang dash on into the wind and towards the Dragon.

  Mara looked after them and took slow deep breath’s.

  Ur’Back had saddled his Wyvern already and was dashing into the frey.

  Reila simply stood there in awe at the fight ahead. Her heart still pounded with Defiance. She looked at the shaman and the staff next to her. “What can I do?”

  “Sing.” Mara answered. “All the voices of our people, shall sing.”

  “I never got the tones…” Reila admitted and started to grin. “But I was loud..hehehe…”

  Mara smiled. “Just be true. Like their strikes.” She took a deep breath and approached the western entrance. “Just be true..” She said more to herself and raised her masters staff.

  Reila gulped down and readied herself to sing.

  Then Mara closed her eyes. The wind howled around her and slowly drowned out the song of battle before her. The cold touched her cheek only to be burned hot ash that was flying by.

  “She is here..” The aunt and shaman thought and finally started to lead the song from her throat and into the wind. It was caught by the ashes, howled through the hollowed mountain and into the earth. Through the caves and mines, into the land and the boiling sea until it became one with the voices of the horizon. The voices of the clans and tribes, of druids and shamans. Darklings and Greenskins.

  Reila did her best and started to sing along. Indeed her tone’s were wrong and her throat only barely in use, but she was loud. Her song was carried with pride for she was the bearer of Defiance. Part of its birth and she would witness how it would strike.

  Throughout the mountain shamans started to sing along. Whenever there was a shaman who did not flee through the collapsing caves, they sang. Soon throughout the valley and the villages, the Frostsong finally started to aid the songs of their kind. The final chants of battle as the grandest of all beasts was about to be struck by the might of the Khans.

  The Seer’s staff started to vibrate in Mara’s hand and she felt its weight rise and rise as the voices echoed through it. First just hers, then Reila’s, then those of the mountain, soon those of the valley, then those beyond their lands. The deathwhistles and chants of the Bristling pines, the deep chants of the Ashen wastes. The bells of the Bladelands accompanied by the songs of the sea. All of them echoed through the staff and to the dragon. The skittering of the spiders deep in the south, the roars of lions in the savannah, the drums and roars of the southern coasts and the sorrow of the white wastes.

  All of them joined this final chant of battle as their voices went through the earth and the wind, to the staff and the Dragon.

  Finally it realised. It could die. Panic was born in its mountainous eyes again and it shouted to the swarm around. “NO!” The Wyverns and riders were cast away by a storm of fire and red lightning that exploded from the dragon. Some were cast against the mountains, others caught themselves in the wind to dash in once more. But the Dragon started to fly up itself. It was not to die here. Not so close. It flew higher and higher. It would flee to the stars until it was forgotten again and then would return to devour them all.

  Sha’Raph had her cold gaze on it and simply flew higher and higher. Both Bruna and Aru’Gal held their swords ready as they held themselves against the big hollowed scale. Sir Raimond whispered a prayer to the sun above and the sea below. They went above the clouds and the mountains. The cold started to threaten them and soon even breathing became a fight.

  Sha’Raph huffed. “It will flee.” She stated coldly but continued to fly on.

  “It can’t!” Aru’Gal shouted.

  “It won’t.” Bruna stated as the runes of the ancestors started to glow more and more on Defiance. In the distance up there beyond the clouds, the sun was going down in the west. And the first stars to arrive once more.

  Sir Raimond whispered in a prayer. “It’s last shine will be the brightest.”

  Below Mara sang with her kind. Her eyes were closed and followed the wind and the ancestors. They rose, higher and higher until she saw them up there. In her mind she had been falling before, now she was rising to the stars and it felt the same. She saw her Dustfang and the warriors fall by the weight of the stars. Bereft of air. It was but a vision yet a tear started to fall down her cheek. It didn’t catch the ground.

  Slowly it rose and rose while the wind around the hall and the mountain did the same. The heat around Mara was rising until it blurred the air. Reila took a few steps backwards yet continued her song.

  Mara’s vision went from her falling brother to her dying niece. To the flames of the oak and the final cry of anguish she heard from the girl she was meant to raise. Meant to protect. More tears were born from her yes, yet none hit the ground, but the roof. The blurring heat around her was slowly turning to fire. It hurt, like it did then, like it always would. A scar that would never heal. Then she felt Kara’s touch. “Let me help him..” the whisper pleaded in the wind. Mara was huffed and cried and was about to cast the heat away, like she did back on the Mesa. Then more voices aided the chants.

  They were closer than the others and of different tribes. Around the valley on the mountains and on the once forgotten holy stones that marked their land, the greenskins that had been at the Mesa gathered and sang. Despite the amount of voices, despite all of orckind singing in unison, she recongized them. Kazzok and Rika. She felt how her heart warmed and calmed, even though her niece’s cold touch remained on her cheek. She remembered the words and the warmth. The arms around her shoulder and the hands around hers. The care and the trust. Who was she to disagree?

  Mara nodded and sang louder once more. With the voices close the ancestors' ashes followed the dragon. Through the clouds and the lightning. Up towards the stars. They dashed passed Dustfang and its group and started to catch the Dragon in the same black tendrils of ashen storms it had tried to drain them all.

  It huffed in panic. And its wounds opened again. Aru’Gal grinned. And Bruna smiled. He knew, she was among them and he was the proudest father an orc would ever be. “Tear its wings!! Let me aid you!!” He roared up to the cloud and as defiance’s rune of the ancestors glowed as the sun, the storm of ashes dashed around the dragon and soon tore holes into its wings. It realised it couldn’t fly any longer and started to circle around to fly down again. It wasn’t falling, it would survive both the storms and the glide down. “Now.” Bruna commanded and looked over to Aru’Gal. “Earn your death.” He declared and gave him no time to answer. The snake looked back up with cold eyes at its prey. Sha’Raph stopped Dustfang to dart upwards and readied the Wyvern sideways. The dragon tried to glide but was forced around by the storm. It cirlced and roared and was falling right next to them back through the clouds. Bruna stood up. So did Aru’Gal. Both held their swords high and finally jumped after the beast.

  As he jumped, Bruna was ready to die. Ready to cast away his life so his daughter would be safe, at least in death. This would be his final hour and he would strike true.

  Defiances rejected the thought.

  Aru’Gal had jumped off next to him and had no illusions of death. Only his prey before him.

  They fell through the clouds after the Dragon. Just as it was below it circled around to glide once more. It spew fire at the ashes but could not burn what had been dead.

  Then Bruna heard the song, but not the many voices. Not the clans or the tribes. Not the drums or the bells. But his sister. Her heart sang with sorrow because she knew he would die. She would always carry the scar of Kara’s death. So would he. But in her song he heard that his death would take such the same. It would scar her, leave her to nothing but sorrow as the last of her family would die.

  “She has her pack and will live.” He tried to tell himself when a deep voice whispered to him through the wind once more. “Protect her..” His father whispered. Bruna huffed himself to anger before another voice came. “Protect her…” It was his mother. “Protect her..” It was Kara and he smiled.

  Finally the last voice touched his mind. “Live..” It was Kara’s mother. He grunted. Who was he to deny her a wish?

  His eyes opened and his heart pounded the drums of fury. Fire was born in his veins and he roared to the sky. He was not here to die trying. Not here for one final bravery. He was here to win.

  And Defiance burned with the thought. Its runes started to burn yet its fire was of no pain to him. The sun casted its last rays and even through the clouds reflected on the blade, far more than they should.

  The singing clans and tribes around the valley saw how light was glowing from the cloud while the dragon fell below them.

  While Bruna and Aru’Gal fell through the clouds the runes on their swords were all glowing in answer to the song and their hearts. Slowly as they fell their blades gathered the lightning that would have been born in the clouds. Their blades sang with the wind and the ancestors and the clans. And together. Siblings in forge and battle they fell through the clouds and at the Dragon. One carried the white scales of the past, the other Darkscale’s red of the future. One would be remembered as the Snake, the other as the Beast. Once brothers in battle they struck together one last time as the orcs, the ancestors and the egg were watching.

  Both struck down with lightning and broke the scale they were hitting. The ancestors’ ashes dashed down with them and in the final strike ripped the dragon’s neck open. Its final roar was but a whimper. Bruna felt its final heartbeat echo through Defiance and with a roar sliced upwards to rip it open. The sea answered and for a moment stopped to boil. The valley crumbled under the final heartbeat of the beast that gave it birth and the fires of Karn’Arak went cold.

  Across the continent Darkling’s huffed what they thought would be their last breath. Their eyes stopped to glow and they fell to their knees. The fire that fueled their hearts rhythm extinguished by the very blade born to protect them.

  Only four remained standing. A shaman of each of the old clans.

  Silence was born across the Valley and time seemed to hold its breath.

  While Reila kneeled and struggled for air and a heartbeat, Mara remained in the flames. Her mind went across the Horizon and to Kru’Gan. There, like everywhere else, time was waiting for their choice. “We have flames of our own.” He whispered through the earth.

  Mother Mar’Dak whispered through the sea and the Bladelands “We have earned their aid.”

  “Even if we have forgotten it for so long..” A third voice whispered through the fires. It was deeper than an orc and belonged to the once chieftain of the lost fourth clan. Te’Kash, who now carried the name Third-Fist.

  “One last time..” Mara whispered through the wind. “For now and forever.”

  “Aid us.” The four shaman’s whispered together. Through wind and sea and earth and fire.

  The ancestors answered their call. The ashes started to glow in the wind and with them the eyes of the north. The storms dissolved and the ashe’s circled across the continent. They brought memories of the dead to those that remembered and finally one last thought to them all. A reminder that their fire was born so long ago and they would carry it until the end of time. Born from the corpse of a Dragon and enslaved by another. They finished the battle that had started before the first of them formed into being. They had answered its final wish and final thought.

  Hatred.

  Mara opened her eyes and the flames around her vanished. Reila started to stand up once more and rushed to the Shaman. She looked at her and back at the falling dragon.

  Mara was just looking on. Not even in prayer, not even as a shaman or an aunt. Just as a sister. Her heart pounded loud enough to drum through again but finally she saw them. They jumped from the falling corpse of scales back onto Dustfang and darted back to the Windhall.

  They had won. Despite everything, they had won. She smiled and the tears on her eyes were finally born of joy as they fell to the ground.

  Bruna and Aru’Gal stood on Dustfang as it slowly glided away from the Dragon and were answered by the only cheer and orc knew.

  Roars. The valley, the mountains, the continent thundered in the roars of victory as the Khan’s raised their swords.

  But Mara’s smile vanished, for she knew there was another enemy to their people.