‘Breath Rascal, just breath’ she thought to herself as one of her captors carried her over its shoulder with ease. Despite feeling pain the likes of which she had never felt before racking her body, she tried to clear her head and think of a way to escape. However, the only thought that occupied her head was that this was her first mission and it should not be going like this.
Without warning her captor came to a sudden halt, then dropped her on the ground, she looked up and saw a trogg walking away and a gnome with a sinister, vindictive smile standing over her. Slowly as if to build on the aura of fear he hoped he was creating the gnome rose from his chair and walked towards her.
“Well now we did not expect to be discovered down here,” he told her. “But here you are so why don’t you tell me who sent you? And just how much do they know about our plans?” he asked.
“Drop dead, traitor,” she spat had him and was punched hard by a trogg standing beside her.
“You’re going to tell us everything,” her questioner said with some amusement. “and if you’ll take my advice you’ll tell us sooner rather than later.” He added pointing to the blood stained corpse of Vertigo, before he pulled a large gore stain blade from her dead squad mate.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Previous Day
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Rascal had always had a talent with sneaking and stealth, so much so that it had got her into plenty of trouble, as a child she used her skills to great effect during her kleptomaniac phase, and then when she was older it helped her sneak out of her parent’s house to see boys. In fact it was one particular boy that was the reason she was in the gnomish army in the first place.
He had been a real bad boy and like most girls this was something Rascal found irresistible about him. Using this he easily convinced her to join his ‘little’ street gang and use her skills to rob others. For a while they had run rings round the authorities until the guards finally caught up with them, then she and her ‘friends’ had found themselves in a jail cell.
It was then, as she was facing several years in incarceration that Sergeant Garrotte had come to her. He had presented her with a stark choice, stay quiet and loyal to her boyfriend and go to jail, or tell the guards everything and join the army where she could use her natural talents for the good of her people, not petty thievery. When she had agreed on the spot to his offer he had given her the name Rascal due to her run ins with the law.
Now a year later here she was moving quietly and stealthily through the tunnels deep under Gnomeregan. She was sure that any one of the more veteran scout squads would have found this task a bore, but for her squad this was their first mission, except of course for Sergeant Garrotte, and Corporal Shadow
Though she could not see them thanks to their training she knew that they were there; to her left was Pixi, the other female in the squad with her bright pink hair and bubbly personality, except when she had her daggers out and then she was all business. Just behind her was the shortest of the group, Vertigo, who had a talent for squeezing through tight spaces, something that had saved his bacon numerous times, due to the fact he was a notorious ladies man and had found himself evading the attentions of jealous husbands after enjoying those of their wives. Taking point was Corporal Shadow the best sneaker among them, who it seemed, could become almost invisible at will, sadly he was also the most humourless of the group as no one could remember when he had last cracked a smile.
Sergeant Garrotte was bringing up the rear and she knew that he was carefully evaluating each of them on how they were proceeding as this mission continued. Unexpectedly the tunnel which they were moving through opened up into a small chamber illuminated by a slowly dying fire, and scattered around it was numerous chewed and discarded bones of various sizes.
“Spread out,” Garrotte ordered. “See what you can find,” he added and the team move of towards different parts of the chamber. Lying over the ground was numerous crude weapons and tools which could only have been used by primitives as no self-respecting gnome would even contemplate using stone implements at anytime.
“So this proves it then,” Pixi said excitedly. “There are Troggs down in these tunnels, You think will we get to kill any Sergeant?”
“This proves nothing Pixi,” Garrotte replied with a shake of his head. “These could be troll tools, and even if they are Troggs this could have been nothing more than a nomadic group just passing through these tunnels.”
“Surely not this close to Gnomeregan?” Vertigo asked.
“Its not unheard of Vertigo, in fact, years ago, just after I first joined the army High Tinker Cogspinner sent us down here to clean out a clan of the beasts which had been raiding the lower sections of our city.” The sergeant answered.
While they had been talking Rascal thought she had heard a faint sound coming from one of the two tunnels they had not as yet scouted. Moving away from the others she tried to figure out just what it was and where it was coming from. Without the sound of the others talking she quickly found that it was coming from the central tunnel.
“Something wrong?” asked a voice suddenly from beside her, causing her to jump.
“Damn it, Shadow,” She hissed, but he merely shrugged and focused on the tunnel they were standing in front of.
“Hmm… sounds like footsteps to me,” he commented, then inhaled sharply. “They’re coming this way, inform Garrotte, I’ll see what we are up against,” he ordered her, then disappeared into the darkness.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Present
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Why wont you break!” her torturer yelled as he threw his blood soaked blades onto the table in frustration. “So help me if you don’t talk soon I’ll start cutting bits off and let’s see the bandages and health pots we give you heal those wounds.”
“Go kiss a trogg,” Rascal then looked at the troggs in the room. “I’m sure you’ve done it before,” she added with a blood stained grin, he roared again and struck her across the face once, twice and then a third time.
“That’s enough,” ordered a much calmer and authoritative voice which came from just behind her. “We can’t get any information out of her if she is dead.”
“We are not getting anything out of her now,” her torturer countered, but still turned around and walked away. “This is a waste of time,” he said over his shoulder as left.
Rascal knew that the newcomer was now right next to her and slowly they circle around the spot from which she stood with her arms restrained above her head. She felt their gaze on her as they looked over the innumerable welts left whips and the burn marks from the branding iron, not to mention the numerous cuts and bruises that also covered her body.
“Damn look as this mess,” they commented, as they opened a large bag, then reached inside and took out a large syringe filled with a viscous red liquid. “Hold still,” they told her as they pushed the needle into her neck. As the substance entered her Rascal felt some of the pain, which racked her body began to fade, while at the same time some of her wounds began to heal. “Ok let’s dress some of those injuries,” they stated as they produce a long strip of cloth. She was far from grateful for this care, however as she knew that as soon as their job was done the ‘questioning’ would begin all over again…
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Previous Day
* * * * * * * * * * * *
From their position on a small platform Rascal felt her blood run cold, the cavern bellow went on further than their spyglasses would allow them to see and it was filled with an almost inconceivable number of troggs. Numerous groups of the primitives clustered around large fire pits and seemed to cast suspicious and hostile glares at the others.
“That’s the biggest Trogg clan I have ever seen,” Pixi hissed to the rest of them.
“It’s not just a single clan of Troggs down there,” Vertigo replied. “Look at how they are all cluster together in separate and distinctive groups,” he pointed out.
“Vertigos right,” Garrotte commented. “I can make out Brissilbacks just under us, over there are the Rockjaws, beside them are the Clawfists, hell the ones over in the distance are the Dirtdiggers, they‘re one of the most reviled clans, even among their own kind.” He informed the group, it was known throughout the army that no other gnome came close to the sergeant when it came to knowledge on troggs.
“Why aren’t they attacking each other?” Pixi asked. “I thought that Trogg clans attacked anything that was not them.”
“There are Dark Irons dwarfs down there,” Rascal stated. “Look, there are groups of them moving among the Troggs,” she added. “They must be keeping the troggs from fighting each other.”
“For what reason though?” the other female asked. “I mean even with such a huge number of troggs they could not hope to match our army and war machines, it would be nothing short of a slaughter, even with those clumsy, oafish golems of theirs.”
“That is true, and the Dark Irons don’t have any more love for the Troggs than anyone else,” Garrotte agreed. “But still they would not have gone to all this considerable effort unless they were confident of victory, or if this was not part of a much bigger and more sinister plan. What ever the reason though we need to get back and warn Commander Tout’Sweet of this threat.”
As they move away from the edge of the platform Rascal notice movement in the shadows to her left, instinctively she drew her daggers and moved to take a closer look. Out of the darkness three pairs of what appeared to be glowing red orbs for a moment they remained motionless before suddenly drawing closer and revealing that they were in fact the lenses of three pairs of low light goggles worn by three Dark Iron dwarf assassins.
In an instant all the years of training kicked in as Rascal blocked the leader’s initial attack and the noise of their weapons connecting alerted the other gnomes to the attack. Quickly the young gnome worked out that she was facing a opponent far more experienced in combat than herself, as he thrust and stabbed at her with his two short swords, keeping her constantly on the defensive, but she had one ‘big’ or rather ‘small’ advantage.
It rapidly became clear that the dwarf was far more use to fighting enemies that were larger than him, so as yet another of his attacks passed over her head Rascal dived forward stabbing one of her daggers into his right knee while she stuck the other into the top of his left foot. She was astounded by the fact that in the blink of an eye she had all but crippled him and it seemed that he could not believe it either, as he fell to the ground. Her years of training kicked in as she press home her advantage leaping on to his torso as he hit the ground and plunged both blades into his exposed neck, however the sudden rush of bright red arterial blood which erupted out of the fatal wound and spurted right into her face caught her completely by surprise.
Coughing and spluttering from the shock of this sudden event Rascal stumbled away from her slain foe and after she finally wiped the blood form her eyes she looked about to see how the others were doing. Vertigo and Pixi were working together to against a extremely frustrated looking female dwarf who could not hit either of the gnomes as they dance out of the way of her two handed sword again and again. However the dwarf who was facing off against Garrotte was the one with real problems, the sergeant was both mercilessly and systematically taking apart his foe. For a moment as she watched the squads leader with the words he had spoken to them when they had first lifted up their wooden practice daggers.
“The enemies you will face in your time as scouts will more often than not, have bigger, more deadly looking weapons. They will have greater reach and therefore appear to be able to inflict more serious injuries, appearances though can be deceptive,” he had lectured them. “I will instruct you not just how to kill your enemies with many smaller less fatal wounds but turned their own fighting style against them, so stand up and prepare to learn the ‘Bleed Out’ technique.”
With a final exhausted grunt the dwarf warrior’s body went limp and the large axe slipped from his grip as he collapsed to the ground his armour and clothing saturated in his own blood. Without even looking back at the corpse Garrotte turned and sped over to help slay the last of the gnomes enemies, but he only took three steps before the situation turned disastrous…
Seeing her two companions fall the female dwarf, wrong footed Vertigo and ran, but not the way the squad expected, instead of attempting to disappear into the shadows she sped towards the small platform where they had observed the trogg army. The gnomes could only watch in opened mouthed horror as she hurled herself off the edge and yelled out a warning to those below.
“We’ve been discovered,” she screamed. “Gnomes from the city above are here, kill them!!” the cavern walls seemed not only to bounced her voice but amplify it as well. Soon though the sound of her voice was replaced by the wet crunch of her body hitting the ground, then silence as those around it first stared at her remains and then upwards at the started faces of the gnomes. For a moment no one moved as the squad looked down meeting the startled gazes of the dwarfs and their primitive companions before a deafening roar from the troggs bellow which startled the gnomes out of their horrified trance.
“Pixi, Rascal, find Shadow he was supposed to be making sure that we were not discovered,” Garrotte ordered the two females. “Vertigo your with me we need to find a way to slow that army down, MOVE IT!!” and with that the group split apart both rushing off to there respective goals while a vast horde of angry blood thirsty troggs was bearing down on them…
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Presant Day
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The trogg fell back arms flailing wildly as it hit the ground, the dumb brutes had a thing or to too learn about gnomes if they thought that Rascal was now a meek and timid prisoner. Before she could even attempt to build on her victory two more troggs rushed her and wrestled her into submission, then began to pull her out of the room.
“I see there is still some fight in you then,” commented the traitorous interogater with a sneer of both contempt and amusement. “Get her into the interrogation room,” he ordered the troggs.
Despite her sudden kick which sent the trogg to the ground Rascal had no strength or energy to resist her captors from taking back to that torture room. Once again she was slammed down into an uncomfortable metal chair, and quickly restrained.
“Now that you’re all better,” her torturer commented. “Let’s try this again from the top so to speak, tell me who sent you down here?”
“Ok, ok I’ll talk,” Rascal said breathing deeply, the traitor paused for a moment and looked at her with suspicion. “It was the High Tinker’s…” she began.
“Yes,” the gnome interrupted looking expectantly at her.
“Robotic Chicken,” she blurted out with a snorting laugh. “It sent us down here to find some nice juice worms to eat, and it looks like we succeeded” her laugher became almost hysterical but neither her torturer nor the troggs seemed to find her comment funny at all.
“Oh your going to be a joker are you,” he snarled as he grabbed her head and forced her to look at him, “Well laugh at…” but he never got to finish his threat as without warring he was pulled away from her with such force that the chair which she was restrained to toppled over. Striking her head on the ground Rascal felt unconsciousness rushing over her, but before she passed out she thought she saw a figure in the shadows…
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Previous Day
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Rushing through the darkness they listened hard for any sounds from Shadow, Garrotte had tasked him with making sure that they were not discovered while they had been observing the trogg army. However since the dwarfs had actually attacked them Rascal feared the worse for the corporal, it was vital that they attempted to locate him and then hurry back to Gnomeregan with the knowledge of the threat rising from beneath.
Her acute hearing suddenly picked out the faint sounds of a hushed conversation and though she could not make out the words of the speakers, Rascal was able to work out which direction they came from. Using a series of quick and hand gestures she instructed Pixi to follow her down a side tunnel towards the source of the voices.
The pair came to a sudden halt as the reach a crossroads where the tunnel they were cut across another, standing almost in the centre was Shadow and a Dark Iron Dwarf. The two were deep in conversation and did not notice the girls approach but they did hear the shocked gasps that escaped from both of them which caused the males to turn and looked in their direction, Shadows expression became one of shock and anger at being discovered, the dwarf however smiled.
“Oh dear corporal, it looks as if your secrets out,” the dwarf mocked Shadow as he unhooked a large two handed mace from the back harness on his back.
“Not if their dead,” Shadow snapped back as his daggers appeared in his hands and both advanced towards the stunned girls. Knowing that they could just turn and run the girls chose the only other option available to them, attack.
Almost immediately Rascal found herself fighting the hammer wielding dwarf, despite her intention to engage Shadow, no that duty fell to Pixi. Unlike the other dark iron she had fought this warrior seemed to be experienced in fighting someone of her size as he swung his hammer with full force directly at her skull. But with her training came a speed that clearly he was not prepared for as she rolled forward under his blow and was inside his guard before he released. Thrusting with her blades she sought to disembowel him but his plate armour deflected her weapons and then with a burst of speed of his own he removed his left hand from the grip on his hammer and punched her in the face.
Blood exploded from her nose and lips as his metal encase fist hit them, she staggered back with the pain all but blinding her but she still heard him step in to finish her. Acting on instinct she threw herself to the right, feeling the head of his weapon strike brush by her shoulder moments before it connected with the ground. As soon as it did so she spotted a weakness in his armour she went on the offensive again.
With a scream of rage Rascal sunk both her blades deep into the joint between his upper and lower armoured plates destroying his elbow rendering the upper limb useless. In desperation the he dropped his hammer and attempted to flee but as she tore her daggers free from his arm he lost his footing and crashed to the ground, with out even having to think about it Rascal leapt on to his chest and punched her daggers into his exposed and vulnerable throat.
Only a few metres away Pixi was having a lot more trouble dispatching the traitorous Corporal, both were moving so fast they seemed to be blurs of motion; thrusts were parried, strikes deflected, slashes blocked and kicks dodged,. Inevitably though some of their attacks struck home; a crimson red line appeared in Shadows right arm, then a gashed opened in Pixi’s right shoulder, soon the pair were bleeding from numerous wounds.
It was an undisputed fact that Pixi was one of the best ‘Slice and Dicers’ in the gnomish army and slowly she was wearing Shadow down, it was only a matter of when, not if, he made that fatal mistake. Then in one split second he raised his right arm too high and Pixi saw her chance with a powerful stab right towards his heart, but an instant before her blade touched his leather armour he dropped both his daggers and seized her striking wrist with his left hand. With just a small twist of his body away from the blow he pulled her off balance, their eyes met for the merest fraction of a second and her confused stare met his cold calculating one. At the same time he reached into a small pouch on his belt with his right hand and brought out a fine glittering power which he blew into her face as he released his grip on her wrist.
Blinded by this Pixi stumbled about, rubbing her eyes in a desperate attempt to clear her vision. She managed it a fraction of a second after Shadow had let her go but by then he had vanished from sight. Cursing him she turned slowly on the spot in an attempt to locate him but he was nowhere to be seen, then she her training and senses told Pixi that he was behind her.
Without a sound she spun on the spot, moving faster than any gnome had ever done before, there was a flash of a metal blade moments before it cut through leather, skin, muscle and bone. In that exact instant Rascal looked up from the slain dwarf to see Pixi and Shadow standing so close together the tips of their noses were touching, both had expressions of confusion on their faces and Rascal was not sure what had just happened.
Then Pixi staggered away one of Shadow’s blades bury hilt deep into her abdomen, Rascal watched in horror as her friend took one step, and then another before falling on her ass. Shadow though did not move to finished her off but remained where he was looking not at the girls but straight ahead with his mouth opening and closing, it was then that Garrotte stepped out of the shadows from behind the corporal his face a mask of cold rage.
“Traitor!” was all Garrotte said and twisted the blade he had stabbed into Shadows back. There was a sickening crunching sound and the squads former second in command dropped to the group dead. “Vertigo, help Rascal with Pixi,” the sergeant ordered and began to search the corpse.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Present Day
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Rascal, Rascal, can you hear me, wake up,” a familiar but distant voice called, She tried to focus on it but her mind refused to obey. “Damn it what did they do to you?” the speaker asked.
She felt herself being lifted up till the chair she was upright again and then the restraints holding her arms and legs were removed. Her vision began to come back as she saw blurs moving in front of her but no details. Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening to her right and the figure in front of her looked in that direction.
“We got company, can she move?” another recognizable voice asked, the shape in front of her nodded. Hands grabbed her arms and pulled her out of the chair and towards the door, her rescuers man handled her out of the room and pushed her into a much smaller tunnel across from it as the sound of heavy footsteps rapidly approached. “Damn there’s dozens of them,” her second rescuer commented.
“Indeed we can’t stay here for long,” agreed the first. “Quickly hold her down while I inject her with this healing solution.” They dropped her to the ground and one of them was suddenly sitting on her back and placed a hand over her mouth, for a moment she wondered what was going on, then she felt a chill on her back side, moments before a sharp, inching scratch before all the pain seemed wash away and her mind became sharp and focused once more.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Previous Day
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Aw man, we are so screwed,” Vertigo commented as her press a healing injector into Pixi’s wound. “If Shadow is a traitor, then who else is?” he asked the sergeant.
“Quiet Vertigo,” Rascal hissed at him, she could see that Garrotte was scanning each passage way for any signs of trouble.
“No way Rascal, we’re in trouble here,” he responded with a distinct note of fear in his voice. “This has to go to the top, all the way,” he added. “Tell me I’m wrong sergeant.”
“Vertigo, shut your mouth now,” Garrotte responded without even looking away from the tunnel he was staring down. “We need to get out of here first before we can worry about who else is a worthless traitor like that thing,” he stated and kicked the body of their former squad mate. “Commander Tout’Sweet needs to know about the danger our city is in.”
“How do we know he’s not in on it too,” Vertigo countered. “He could have sent us down here to di…” he never finished his sentence as he found Rascal’s hands closing tightly over his throat.
“Don’t you ever even hint that the Commander is anything but a loyal solider of Gnomeregan,” she spat at him her voice filled with venom. “He sent us down here because he thought there was a danger to our home here and we have the proof that he was right,” her grip was beginning to tighten until Pixi’s hand appeared and gently but firmly pulled them off.
“Easy Rascal, he’s just scared,” Pixi told her, Vertigo place his own hand where she had grabbed him and nodded apologetically. Rascal became aware that Garrotte was looking at her with amused smile on his face as if she had just confirmed something about herself that he already knew.
“Ok Rascal, I need a new corporal, you’re it, until you’re dead or I find someone better,” Garrotte said as he promoted her on the spot “Now it won’t take them long to notice that one of their officers has not returned. So let’s haul ass outta here.” He added as he pointed down one of the tunnels.
Not long after they had set off they began to hear the loud and clumsy sounds of their pursuers giving the gnomes all the encouragement they needed to increase their pace. But it soon became apparent despite this the large number of troggs, dwarfs and traitors were drawing closer to the squad.
“Their trying to block the tunnels to the upper levels,” Garrotte informed the squad.
“How do you know that?” Rascal asked.
“Because it’s what I would do if I was trying to stop us,” he answered. “We need to pick up…” he began to order but the rest of his words were drowned out by a deafening roar as a dozen troggs wielding crude clubs of wood, stone and even bone burst out of a tunnel in front of them.
“Ah lugnuts,” Vertigo exclaimed, but the gnome’s momentum sent them all into the ranks of their hated enemies.
Very quickly however the ground was littered in blood soaked trogg bodies as once again the gnomes used their small size to maximum advantage, dashing between their much large opponents. They had killed almost all of them when more of the beast like primitives rushed into the fray, but this time however they were ledby a chieftain who stood head and shoulders above the rest.
“Stupid gnomes,” the chieftain yelled. “Dirtdiggers will kill you all.”
“Rascal, take others and make for the upper tunnels,” Garrotte yelled as he opened the throats of two troggs on either side of him. “I’ll hold them here for as long as I can.”
Realizing that this was the best course of action Rascal killed the trogg that had attempted to grab her then broke free of the fight with the others. Looking over her shoulder she saw the lone sergeant showing three more before he vanished from sight as the trio rounded a corner.
Stealth was no longer an option as the trio tore through the maze of tunnels as they sought to reach the safety of their home city. All around they could hear Troggs and Dark Iron Dwarfs attempting to intercept them, but it seemed that they were still one step ahead of their pursuers. The light from the lowest levels of the city began to filter down and it seemed as if they were home free. The thought of safety was so tempting that Vertigo accelerated, but Pixi’s recently healed abdomen wound caused her to quickly fall behind.
“Keep going,” she called out as Rascal turned to help her. Rascal was about to respond when the floor underneath suddenly collapsed. “RASCAL!!” Pixi screamed and the last thing the newly promoted corporal saw was the terror on her friends face before darkness swallowed her…
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Present Day
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“How did you find me?” Rascal asked and she handed the water bottle back to Pixi.
“After you fell I went back hoping that the sergeant had some how survived,” she pointed to Garrotte whose leather armour was in tatters and coated in dried trogg blood. “Take a lot more that an army of troggs to kill him,” she joked
“Why did you come back?”
“No choice really the dwarf sappers brought down the access tunnels,” her friend answered. “All of them.”
“How are we going to get out then?”
“The same way that the traitors have been moving down here undetected,” Garrotte answered coming over and hauling her to her feet. “Teleportation and I already know where their machine is.”
There was no time for any more questions as the last of the patrols searching for them passed out of the nearby tunnels. Once again moving as silent as death the three gnomes navigated their way through the enemy stronghold, soon they found themselves in front of a crude metal door, Pixi produced her lock picks and immediately got to work.
“Anytime Pixi, the natives aren’t exactly friendly,” Garrotte hurried her along. Her reply was the clicking from the lock and the door swinging open. “Good Girl,” he commented and ruffled her hair. Inside as he had told them was the telaporter humming quietly to itself.”
“Any ideas where this thing will send us?” Pixi asked as the sergeant began to power it up.
“Somewhere in the city,” he stated. “Corporal you first,” he ordered Rascal, and with daggers drawn she stepped onto the pad.
There was a bright flash and for a fraction of a second Rascal felt that her skin was covered in ice before everything seemed to return to normal. She found herself standing in the middle of a large well furnished office containing dozens of bookshelves each over flowing with tomes and books, also in front of here was am massive table which was covered in strange inventions and items that could only have been magical in nature. There was a rush of air as Pixi stepped into the room, a second quickly followed as Garrotte joined them.
“Where are we?” Rascal inquired staring at the books, however when she turned to speak with the others they had vanished. Turning rapidly she spotted a brightly dress gnome sitting at a large desk, due to the disorientating effects of the teleportation and the overwhelming atmosphere of the room she had not realized he was there. She recognized him instantly with his trademark arrogant smile on his face, before she take even one step towards him the room seemed to become a great deal larger, and warmer…
“Archmage Ringus,” his chief aide called as they entered, they looked surprised at the three sheep which now stood in the office attempting to chew the carpet. “Is everything alright?”
“Oh yes everything is just fine,” Ringus replied leaning back in his chair. “Could you please take these sheep and place them in the arcane zoo in the wings lower levels, they will make invaluable demonstration aids for our young students,” he instructed.