The Keep

Jin'zal awoke to the rising sun glaring across the red sands of Durotar. His eyes timidly opened, pained by the bright light and wishing he could continue his peaceful and much needed rest. Oh my, what am I doing in the desert? Slowly his memories returned to him as he lifted his head, looked about and saw the endless expanses of sand.

Trying to get up he winced at the feel of sand scraping against his bare skin. What could I have been thinking?! Oh wait... At that point he felt the iron muscled arm of the young orc Lae yanking him back down into the ground and into her chest. Jin'zal grinned to himself, enjoying the moment then quickly wiped it from his face, feeling silly.

Alright then, I'll just wait until she awakes. How long could one sleep in this sun anyways? Over the next hour Jin'zal squirmed and attempted to cover himself from the growing brightness of the sun when suddenly a shocking realization struck him, Egads! In this light I'll burn like a scrap of parchment on a lit candle! Frantically he squirmed about until Lae grunted in her sleep, annoyed, squeezed him beneath her arm causing him to squeek.

It was then that he thought of waking her, "L-Lae?" he whispered, to which she responded with a "Grrrr." On second thought, he would just slowly extricate himself from her grasp so she wouldn't notice.

As the growing strength of the light urged him on, Jin'zal gradually slid out from within Lae's arm over the next hour. Finally, he could rise from the sands and triumphantly search for his clothes. Eventually he sighted his robe on a rock twenty meters away, and reclaimed it, covering himself from the blazing Durotar sun.

Over the next half hour he recovered the rest of his clothes and backpack. Reapplying his ceremonial face paint, which had the added benefit of keeping his face burn free, he looked at the snoring lovely he spent the night with. So pretty... Oh dear! She's exposed to the sun as well, something must be done! Taking his backup robe from his bags he covered her from head to toe easily, nodding with satisfaction... Then slowly he raised the top of the robe and peeked beneath at her green skin, No! You evil troll! He dropped the robe back down and chastised himself internally further, until realizing his sloppy dropping of the robe left her chest exposed and his heart jumped before re-covering her.

Coughing awkwardly, as if embarrassed but quite alone, he forced his eyes to look at the horizon. Feeling a rumble in his stomach he thought to himself, Perhaps I should prepare her a meal! A nice breakfast to surprise her when she awakes. He smiled to himself with satisfaction, poking through the orcs bags, knowing that she carried some sort of ingredients.

Over the next hour Jin'zal observed the strange orcish foods and utensils, pondering how to use them. Finally, he drew up the courage to experiment and rather incompetently started a fire over which to cook.

Putting his strange new concoction to simmer above the flames, his eyes trailed to Lae, who was now sprawled about on her back, arms and legs sticking out from beneath his robe. He rubbed his chin in thought, Lae seems to have no problem with us together, but I wonder how these orcs as a whole regard such inter-racial arrangements... Back home a troll caught with a member of another race was all but banished! Oh dear, will I get this ravishing young beauty expelled from her people?! Jin'zal's mind raced as smoke began to build and rise from the cooking pot.

While fretting over the possibilities of getting the young warrior in trouble, Trouble... Trouble? Trouble! Oh deary me, what a thought! A child?! Quickly he tried to calm himself down, the scholar in him trying to rationalize, pondering the possibilities of these two disparate races being able to commingle on such a basic level. Surely it must be impossible... Right? I mean, the sheer mechanics... From there his mind debated with itself the possibilities for some time, completely unaware of the growing flames beginning to consume the entire pot.

Jin'zal, though a holy priest of his former people, was a scholar at heart and his own peoples taboos were overcome by his fascination with the ravishing orcish lady. Well, whatever is to come, I'll stand by her side... Oh no, but wait. What if her people discard their mates after such events?! Or... he gulped in worry. I've heard of certain mantis did that after procreation, the female devours the male! Before he could begin to ponder and fret any further, his eyes were drawn away from the snoring beauty and to the high flames that were shooting up past his head.

"Ack!" Quickly he looked about for some water to put it out with, until he remembered they were sitting in the middle of a desert, Oh dash it all! Putting his mind to work, he reached for one of his empty satchels and filled it with sand, dumping it over the flames, extinguishing them immediately.

Looking down, he had a satisfied smile on his face for handling the crisis with due calm, until he realized now the food was ruined. Drat...

Over the next hour he cleaned up the site and began to ponder what else to cook now, when suddenly he felt a strong, familiar hand on his shoulder, followed by Lae's gruff but enticing voice "What are you doing over there? Get over here! And let's make it quick this time, we've got work to do today!"

An hour later, the curvaceous Lae rose from their spot and dove a hand into a small side compartment of her bag, pulling out two pieces of dried, salted meat. Tossing one to Jin'zal. which he duly failed to catch, and biting into the other as she quickly pulled her armour back on. "Hurry up and get dressed! We'll be late for the battle!" Sore, confused and exhausted, Jin'zal picked up the the piece of meat from his chest and got onto his knees, once again searching about for his clothing.

Some part of his mind told him this orc woman was too much for him, but he quickly noticed she was trotting off towards the battle. So his robe sloppily hanging off his shoulders, face paint smeared and all his belongings tucked beneath his arms, he took off after her "W-Wait up!" He stumbled, fell and dropped his bags about on the ground, to which Lae sighed, rolled her eyes and picked them up for him. I'm one lucky fellow he thought to himself, as he winced from the added pain to his fresh bruises.