Beyond the Dark Portal

"Wait!" Khadgar shouted. To his relief, the things ac­tually paused. Thank the Light, he had the means to at least converse with them. "We meant no offense!"

"Offense? You live, that is offense!" The creature roared and continued to advance.

"Whatever you're telling him, it isn't working," Tu­ralyon muttered. "And damn it, here come the drakes again."

Khadgar never thought he'd be happy to see drag­ons, but when the drakes circled back right at that mo­ment for another attack, he wanted to thank them. The ogres and their master were completely distracted when the drakes began spitting magma at both groups, and turned their attention to the assault from the skies. They raised massive conical clubs — Khadgar realized at once that they were simply using spires they'd broken off the mountain itself. Khadgar realized an opportunity when he saw one. "The drakes!" he cried. “Attack the drakes!"

Alleria stared at him for a moment, and Khadgar knew what she was thinking. This would be a perfect time to flee, to let the drakes attack the ogres and their strange leader for them. But Turalyon gri

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 pi

"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 gro

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 gro

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 gri

"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 ca

"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 gro

Gruul nodded, a grotesque smile splitting his mas­sive lips. "Good," he a

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 gro

"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?"