COINCIDENCE & KISMET: CHAPTER 4

THE CALM BEFORE

"Admit it."

"No."

At the same time she lobbed a shadowbolt over her shoulder at the latest iteration of idiot wildlife that tried their hand at eating them, Teegan leaned over from her perch atop her felhorse, grinning at Armesan in that highly irritating way that meant they may end up requiring bail money.

"You had fuuuuuuun," the gnome jabbed her friend in the shoulder, secure in the knowledge she was likely one of the only people allowed to do this to the night elf without losing a hand. "Admit it, you liked hanging out with those idiots and you had fuuuuun."

"You can't prove anything," Armesan deadpanned, pointedly not looking at Teegan.

"You didn't even threaten to kill them ONCE!"

"I more than made up for it last year, if you recall."

"Oh for FUCK'S SAKE just tell her you had fun so she'll shut the hell up!"

Teegan glared blandly at the death knight riding behind them. "First of all, fuck you. And second of all, you had fun too, no matter how much of an asshole you pretend to be. If you seriously hated any of this you would have tried to kill us a month ago when Tyrion handed your voucher over to us."

Pidge's glare was positively murderous. "I still have time to rectify that," she hissed through clenched teeth.

"You're welcome to try," Teegan replied smoothly. She was smiling sweetly, but her eyes hardened ever so slightly and the felhound at her feet made what passed for a growl while the succubus faded in and out of vision just behind Teegan's shoulder. The undead horse didn't flinch at the obvious hositility from the two demons, being a creature enslaved to the death knight's will, but the threat was made clear. Pidge returned the glare, but backed down after a moment with only a handful of obscenities.

Order restored, Teegan turned her attention back to Armesan, who had only been slightly hopeful that Pidge would take Teegan up on her threat.

"Anyway, as I was saying, you and One-Eye seemed to hit it off quite nicely."

The night elf rolled her eyes, pausing only to lob a throwing knife at an oversized raptor that thought it could ambush a heavily armored warcat. Teegan was her best friend, and she loved her like a sister, but sometimes she did not know when to leave well enough alone. "You were passed out drunk on a table. You're in no position to claim anyone hit anything off."

"Drunk, yes. Passed out, eh, debatable," the warlock grinned, but she dropped the smile for a brief moment and gave her friend a serious look. "It won't kill you to say you made a friend, you know."

"They were clients," Armesan repeated, hoping against hope that if she said it enough times that would make Teegan believe her and drop the subject. "Nothing more."

The silence that stretched out between them was not an unfamiliar one. Armesan had travelled with Teegan long enough now to know it, and while she knew the gnome's heart was in the right place, she also knew her friend's tendancy to live life first and ask questions later.

Armesan had been alive long enough to know that if you didn't ask those questions, things got messy fast.

Eventually, as with every time this happened, Teegan backed down first, and blew out a frustrated breath at her friend's stubbornness. "Well I had fun. I wouldn't even mind if we ran into them again."

"You mean you wouldn't mind if you ran into that warrior again," Armesan smirked, giving the gnome a sly side-eye. "You're not the only one with eyes, you know."

Teegan debated momentarily denying it, but opted instead to go with the honest approach. "Yeeeeah, not gonna lie, he could be fun. The man can wield a mean curse word."

"Curse words. Right. Curse words. That's what we're calling it now?" the night elf asked, only to get a not-so-gentle slug in the shoulder from the warlock.

"And they say I'm the one with the dirty mind!" Teegan yelled in mock aghast, but the grin and laugh as she spoke gave away the facade.

"Oh my gods, I wish I had stayed dead," came the muttered groan from behind them.

Teegan seamlessly lifted a middle finger over her shoulder so Pidge could see and continued on as if she hadn't heard her. "To be entirely fair, I also enjoyed the prospect of corrupting little Sohto into the dark and twisted ways of the warlock. Did you see the way he wasn't even slightly scared of any of those shadow spells? 'Trolls can't be warlocks'? Sounds like someone hasn't tried hard enough. So, yes, I wouldn't be completely opposed to running into those idiots…or Enoki…again. And despite your insistence as to the contrary, I don't think you'd be opposed to running into the Elder Idiot either. Even better if we manage it when one of those festivals are up and running. No need for charades to dodge the faction dogs!"

The Night Elf sighed at the mention of the future planning. She hadn't missed the hint Xan had dropped; 'We'll be around in a few months'. Neutral festivites in port cities were an easy place to mingle factions without questions. But as with everything, reality was there to spoil the fun. "You know where all the contracts are right now, right? Work is pointing north. Very…far north," Armesan pointed out, very obviously glancing backwards at Pidge as she said it.

"I know, but we can build some leave into our next contract. Saaaaaay, a few months or so down the road?" Teegan said with an innocent grin.

Armesan sighed. Her friend was really setting her heart on this and she would hate to see her hope crushed. Teegan hid it well, the lonliness, but it was hard to miss the shift in demeanor between how she'd been over the last month to now that it was just the two of them again. The warlock missed them. And…maybe on some level Armesan could understand that…maybe even could admit that she might miss them a little bit too. But such was life in this world.

"You know they won't allow that. It's Wrynn. And Paladins. The last time they were in charge of a campaign we ended up in Outland for two years."

"Fucking paladins," the warlock sighed. "All 'duty' this and 'the call of the light' that. But I'm sure between the two of us we can work something out, right? We could argue it's good for morale. I know Shaw owes you favors."

Armesan was quiet for a moment, a sign Teegan knew meant she was considering it at least. Mathias Shaw DID owe her for that disastrous deployment that ended up with her rotting in Illidan's dungeons for half a year. Granted that was where she had met Teegan, but Shaw still owed her big time. He'd even admitted it, a rare thing for the normally proud and paranoid human spy commander. The Night Elf looked over at her friend who was giving her extremely not-subtle puppy dog eyes and a hopeful grin.

"I'll think about it," was Armesan's reply after a long stretch. Both of them knew that meant 'yes, as soon as we figure out how'.

"I'll take it!" Teegan beamed. "For now, to Stormwind, to make this asshole someone else's problem!" She jerked her thumb behind her at Pidge.

"Thank fuck," Pidge grumbled.

Armesan had to laugh despite it all.

---

It was a strange feeling of de ja vu, waking up to find Armesan and Teegan already gone much like they had a year ago, but it felt very different now. Instead of a sigh of a relief mixed with a lingering sense of dread, it felt slightly odd, as if they expected the carefree gnome to come bouncing down the stairs with the surly night elf in tow at any moment. With a sad sort of realization, Dotolo realized he might actually miss them. Well, at least two of them. If he never saw Pidge again in his life, he could die a happy man.

Sadly, he had also realized this was not something that could have lasted in any real fashion.  They were Alliance, and they were, at least officially, members of the Horde.

Which was the exact point Duma had been making for the last two hours since Dotolo had made the mistake of mentioning to Sai'in how he kinda missed their companions from the last month, and the youngest brother had overheard.

"…and good riddance! They were honorless mercenaries who were extorting us!"

"Duma…" Sai'in said, pressing her fingers against her temples. She had been slowly losing her patience the more her brother had ranted. "I swear to da loa, if ya dun shut ya mouth RIGHT NOW, I'm gonna feed ya ta da Maelstrom when we pass by it."

"C'mon Sai, you've said so yaself, da only good Alliance be dead Alliance," Duma groaned, dismayed that even his sister seemed to have been won over by the 'honorless mercenaries'.

"An' I was wrong, okay?!" the shaman snapped harshly, enough so that Sohto was startled out of his playing with the gold bands in Sai'in's braids. "I thought dey'd kill us fo' coin o' fun o' whatevah, called 'em murderers ta dere faces, an' we're still here now, MAH SON is here now, instead of dead in a ditch or rottin' in a dwarf cell! So give it a fuckin' rest!"

"They probably been killin' our people fo' years an' ya willin' ta just fo'give dem and play nice?!"

"I ain't 'playin' nice', an' I ain't fo'givin' da Alliance fo' what dey've done ta us in da past! But I also ain't fightin' a war where no one wins. I'm done, an' I want mah son ta have a choice besides gettin' drafted inta da loa fo'saken army like we were! If dat means makin' friends wit a night elf an' a gnome, den dat's dat," Sai'in snarled.

"Ya gonne get us all killed fo' treason! I let it all slide before because SOMEONE agreed ta a stupid bargain an' unlike da Alliance, honor MEANS somethin' ta da Horde!" Duma growled. "But now we honored our end, and we are DONE with dem! An' if we evah see dem again, it should be with their blood on our blades! Dey are da ENEMY!"

Dotolo sighed heavily from his place off to the sides and glanced over at his mate. Sai'in looked about ready to snap, and he could see the tiny shifts as her nails started to sharpen, a sign that meant she was perilously close to losing her temper and all that entailed.

Dotolo gingerly lifted Sohto off his mother's back lest she decide her youngest brother needed a mauling.

"Watch an' learn, little one, ya about ta see why ya nevah piss off ya mama," Dotolo whispered, stepping back and sitting back on a crate with Sohto on his lap.

"Ya wanna know what an enemy really is, Duma?!" Sai'in snarled, the tiny glint of berserker rage in her eyes growing steadily stronger. Enoki and Xan looked between the two younger siblings and then at each other and shook their heads, opting to join Dotolo on the sidelines.

"Dun talk like ya so much wiser den me! I been on da front lines same as you!" Duma snapped back, oblivious to his sister's mounting rage.

"Oh! Oh ya have, have ya?!" came the gutteral bark. Dotolo recognized it as a shift in her vocal chords. "So ya know what it be like ta be tortured den! Ta be starved an' beaten to an inch of ya life, only ta be healed up so dey can do it all ovah again?! Ta pray every single day fo' death because ya knew ya comrades, those PRECIOUS, HONORABLE Horde dat left ya here while dey fled, would nevah come back ta save ya. Dat death was ya only way out and ta have even dat denied ta ya. Ta know dat no mattah how many times or how deep ya cut ya wrists dey would not let ya bleed out in da dirt! Ta know dat in da end it was an Alliance raidin' party dat gave ya da chance ta escape?!"

There was an awkward silence between the siblings while Sai'in's words echoed in the air. Dotolo had known what was coming, but it was immediately clear that her brothers did not. It wasn't exactly a topic of polite conversation, what had happened after Sai'in had been separated from them and captured, but apparently whatever her brothers imagined did not even come close to the horrors of the actual truth.

"Sai…" Enoki started, but she held up a hand to stop whatever he was going to say next.

"Stop….jus'….don'…say anythin'. It happened, I'm dealin' wit it, an' I will be fine," she growled through clenched teeth, glaring at him from the corner of her eye. Dotolo saw the momentary war in Enoki's posture, but ultimately he nodded and said nothing else.

Duma…however, was not quite that observant nor that diplomatic when he was keyed up.

"So ya blamin' da Horde because ya got left behind?! Da Alliance saved ya? Dat's ya reasoning?! Dey shot ya! Dotolo said 'is bruddah found ya bleedin' ta death in a ditch with Alliance arrows stuck in ya back!" Duma shrieked back, but there was panic in his voice now. "Da Alliance almost killed ya! Jus' like dey killed Ma an' Dad!"

Sai'in looked almost rabid and she was visibly shifting to the bulky mangled wereform that had replaced her ghost wolf form, and from Dotolo's angle it looked like she was ready to lunge at Duma, when Xan piped up from the sidelines.

"Ma an' Dad didn' die from Alliance."

There was an audible silence as both younger siblings froze for a moment, and then looked over to their eldest brother.

"What?" was all Duma managed to say after the silence had dragged on too long.

"It wasn't Alliance dat killed Ma and Dad," Xan repeated simply, crossing his arms and leaning back easily.

"Dey were guardin' a caravan o' supplies ta da Crossroads! Alliance ambushed dem from dat Kul Tiran keep!" Duma snarled. "Dat's what we were told!"

"What we were told was dat humans attacked da caravan on da road ta Razor Hill just outside dat keep," Xan said sternly. "Da don't just mean Alliance."

"Bullshit!"

"Duma, what's da first t'ing dey drill inta ya in da rogue guilds?" Xan said, giving Duma a hard stare until the younger rogue backed down and gave him his full attention. Sai'in did likewise, some of the canine features fading back to troll.

Duma paused momentarily, then answered warily, "Never assume dat everythin' is what it seems."

Xan nodded. "It was humans, but not da humans from da keep."

"An' how da fuck ya know dat?" Sai'in asked warily.

"One o' my first assignments was checkin' in ta some rumors dat da soldiers in dat keep were pickin' off helpless traders goin' between Sen'jin and Razor Hill, jus' like what happened ta Ma an' Dad. Heard dat and figured I'd get some revenge for 'em," Xan said bitterly, but he sighed heavily and looked at his two younger siblings. "Dere was a cove hidden off da back of da keep where da Kul Tirans didn' patrol. Pirates had been usin' da keep an' some stolen armor as a smokescreen ta raid an' stock up on supplies. Dere was a pretty good chance dis wasn't da first ship ta do so, judgin' by what we found."

"So…you think…"

"No one can prove dat keep has attacked anyone or anytin' outside its borders since da ceasefire. Evidence sure seems to point to Pirates bein' da real culprits," Xan shrugged nonchalantly.

"Ya known dis all dis time?! Da fuck didn' ya tell us?!" Sai'in balked.

Xan actually chuckled at that. "Humans be humans ta most folks in da Horde. Would ya have cared back den? Or do ya only care now?"

Both Sai'in and Duma looked slightly ashamed at that. Enoki couldn't help but smile sadly.

"Dun feel too bad, I didn' believe 'im at first when 'e told me," the warrior leaned down and patted his siblings on the shoulders. "Ya spend long enough believin' somethin', it gets hard ta let it go even when ya know ya should."

"Ya, I almost lost my otha eye fo' dat one," Xan snarked. Enoki just gave him the troll equivalent of a middle finger.

"We figured it didn't matter much, and we didn' need anyone askin' questions about where our alleigence was." Enoki continued. "Wit you two still in da guilds trainin' up, we figured a human be a human, what's it mattah who dey worked fo'? Even if it meant dat all da shit da army was tellin' us about da 'Alliance scum' might not have been entirely true, it didn't change anythin'."

"Da whole point ta tellin' ya all dis now, Duma, is ta get it through ya thick skull dat da world ain't black an' white, an' hell sometimes it ain't even shades of fuckin' gray. Most of da time it's just muddy as fuck an' ya make da best call ya can at da time," Xan said. "So fo' example, when a pair of very powerful war veterans help save ya sistah an' ya nephew, ya don't fuckin' throw dem aside as soon as ya done wit dem, even if dey happen ta be from da Alliance. Allies be everythin' in dis world."

The little gathering of siblings was quiet after that. The last of Sai'in's feral traces faded and she silently got up to go sit next to Dotolo, gathering Sohto up in her arms and cradling the infant gently. The death knight didn't say anything about the shine of angry tears that he caught from under her messy crest of bangs and simply put an arm around her and held her close.

Dotolo really wasn't that surprised by this little revelation. His time in Arthas' thrall had warped most of what sense of 'normalcy' he'd once had and honestly he had difficultly finding differences between his position and that of Teegan and Armesan. He had been the enemy, fought alongside elves and humans and dwarves. Slaughtered Alliance and Horde indescriminantly. And now he was back amongst the living. If he had been anything else but Sai'in's mate and Sohto's father, would he have been treated any different than Duma was treating Armesan and Teegan?

Yes, they had in fact likely killed many Horde in the past, just like the five of them had all taken Alliance lives at some point. But it's entirely possible that Teegan and Armesan had chosen to help just as many Horde when they could. They clearly had morals and were willing to lie to their own faction to preserve them, who was to say they were the first ones they'd stuck their necks out for?

The world really was just a muddy fucking mess, wasn't it?

"Ya just wanna try an' fuck dat Night Elf, don't ya," Duma grumbled at Xan after a moment, giving his brother a knowing glare.

The elder rogue barked out some vague threat, but it was diminished by the laughter behind it as he made a grab for Duma. The younger managed to dodge the headlock and hide behind Enoki and just like that the tension was gone. Sohto, oblivious to the pressuring philosophical conundrums, only saw his uncles romping around and laughing and started squealing and clapping along like it was some wonderful new game and even Sai'in couldn't help the tiny smile that threatened to spread across her face.

There would be no answers today. Each of them had to figure out where they wanted to go from here in regards to how they approached this shift in their world view that had slowly crept in over the last year, and Dotolo and Sai’in had a child to look after now. They had to start figuring out the specifics of what they were going to do to provide for him.  

Most of the rest of the trip was spent on such conversations. Neither Sai'in, nor Dotolo, wanted anything to do with the front lines, between Dotolo's lack of a voucher and both of them having deserted, they had to stay off the army's radar as much as possible. There was talk of starting up an alchemy shop in one of the cities, quietly relocating back to Dotolo and Soto's old haunts in Stranglethorn, hiding out in Revantusk until the paranoia around Death Knights died down. 

Each met with it's own unique defeat. There was so much competition in the cities that only limited licenses were being given out to crafters that allowed them to set up shop. Everyone else had to freelance through the Auction House and the cut the Goblins took was astronomical.

Grom'gol was small and Dotolo had worked there for years, the entire outpost and all the neighboring settlements around their ramshackle house knew him by sight and he was technically supposed to be dead. The in the ground type of dead. He'd get reported immediately.

Revantusk had never been thrilled with their presence, only tolerating them because they needed the guards and wanted to keep the Horde as an ally. They were a bargaining chip to the village, not particularly welcome. And it was already tight living quarters, with just Xan, Enoki, and Duma there. With Sai'in, Dotolo, and now Sohto…they'd end up sleeping outside more often than not. Not particularly ideal for raising a child.

In the end, it was a detour they ended up taking on their way back, that solved at least one of their problems. They had opted to pick up some spare coin acting as caravan guards for some goods being sent to the Crossroads. They were bound for Ratchet anyway and the shipping company offered to pay well for seasoned fighters to guard their goods. More evidence of the war that was brewing up north it seemed, as most of the company's usual stock of guards had been contracted out to the army instead.

One of the caravan drivers was a particularly chatty orc who used to live out here and had been droning on and on about the hidden beauty of the Barrens.

"Most people just write this place off as a dry ass wasteland full of hyenas and vultures but if you reeeeeeally pay attention you'll see that it has so much more to offer!"

"Like Centaurs? Or Quilboar?" Duma had asked with a wry grin. The orc took the little jab in stride, undeterred.

"Like Oasises that are as vibrant as the jungles of Stranglethorn. Coastlines as pristine and wild as Feralas. Mountains as majestic as those surrounding Tauren Mill. If all you see is grasslands and Striders then you're not paying enough attention! There are so many places an orc could live and die happy here and so many just hear "Barrens" and assume they'll end up like Ol' Mankirk."

The conversation had gone on for awhile after that, but Sai'in and Dotolo had looked at each other and over the next few days of guard duty, had seemed to come to similar conclusions. Why not try the Barrens? Close enough to civilization where they were not at risk of being isolated and easy enough to stay hidden when they needed to.

They told her brothers when they got to Ratchet, as the three were getting ready to board the boat back across the sea.

"We not be goin' back wit ya," Sai'in had said when they arrived at the dock without their packs or mounts.

"I'm sorry ya not what now?" Enoki had asked, more than a bit surprised. Sai'in sighed. She knew her brothers had always been overprotective of her, as the youngest, and that tendancy had only gotten worse after their reunion in Booty Bay last year. Xan at least was more like a father figure, being about 15 years older than her and having raised her. Enoki and Duma were far more protective in the sibling sense, she had a feeling they would not take their decision well. She had asked Dotolo to stay out of it and let her handle breaking the news to them, to which he happily obliged.

So it was he stood there in the background with Sohto slung across his chest while copious amounts of yelling and arguing commenced. They ended up missing that day's boat back, and moved the conversation back to the inn. By around midnight tempers had been calmed and everyone's points and counterpoints had been made; They were fugitives, and unless they wanted Dotolo being shipped off to the front lines and Sai'in being reprimanded with likely imprisonment, leaving Sohto functionally orphaned, they could not stay with them. It would be too easy to find them if they all stayed together.

But staying out in the middle of the wastes without even the miniscule safety offered by guarded settlements was just as dangerous, opening them up to raids from wildlife, bandits, and the elements themselves. Sai'in might've been a pretty powerful shaman given her age and experience, but even she had her limits. She couldn't control everything that might come for them. And they could not risk rumors of a Death Knight in the Barrens. So a compromise was made. Xan, Enoki, and Duma would help them set up their home here in the Barrens, close enough to Ratchet that easy trips to town were an option, and they'd only visit when they came through on their tradesman's trek, to avoid suspicions that something, or someone, of interest was out here.

It took a few days to find one of the Oasises the orc had been talking about, just half a day's travel southwest of Ratchet by raptor. Initially it seemed overrun by aggressive wildlife and the odd patrolling centaur hunting party, but once they did some quick scouting they found a defensible outcropping against a cliff face that separated the oasis from the sea. No centaur ventured this close to the edge, and the wildlife that did call the area home was no more threatening than a pesky vulture. They'd dealt with more dangerous beasts outside of Revantusk.

Now they just had to build a hut, and Dotolo and Sai'in had to admit, they were glad her brothers refused to let them do this alone.

It had been almost another month since their departure from Booty Bay, and while they dug holes, felled trees, and collected grasses, Dotolo noticed throughout the whole thing Sai'in slowly falling back into familiar habits with her siblings, the way their banter became easier, more teasing and less serious. There were still spats, but those spats had moments of calm and honesty at the end of them this time, a far cry even from the breakdown on the boat. It was heartwarming, watching his mate heal from her wounds and relcaim her family.

But at the same time, Dotolo couldn't help but feel a pang of loss. Watching from the sidelines, seeing the familiar jabs of sibling rivalry brought back old memories of similar times he once shared with his own brother. A brother he had killed. A brother he had no right to mourn.

"…and don't think I didn't notice you cozying up to that fuckin' warlock, too."

Dotolo shook himself out of his lapse into darker thoughts when Duma's voice cut through the evening air, coming in his direction. He and Enoki were coming back with a fresh batch of wood for the base of their hut. Sai'in and Xan were weaving together thatching for the roof with Sohto nearby chasing what they hoped was a lizard and not a scorpion. Sai'in had put up a poison cleansing totem nearby just to be sure. Dotolo was digging the foundation for the posts and was nearly invisible at the bottom of the pit, save for the shock of dull blue hair sticking up.

"Ya need ta learn ta lighten up, Duma. An' appreciate a fine pair o' tits when ya see 'em," Enoki grinned at his brother's mildly disgusted look.

"She's a fuckin' gnome."

"With a fine pair o' tits."

"Ma defnintely dropped ya on ya head too many times as a whelp," Duma snorted in dismay as his older brother merely laughed at his discomfort.

"Ya gonna spend ya entire life judgin' people an' none of it enjoyin' it," Enoki said nonchalantly, setting down the oversized log he'd been hauling. "Gotta learn ta roll wit what da world gives ya. Ya never know, ya might be pleasently surprised."

Dotolo couldn't help the chuckle at that comment, indavertantly drawing attention to the fact that he was there huddled in a hole, barely visible in the waning sunlight.

"Ha, ha, ya both can go ta hell," Duma sighed defeatedly, his words lacking any real malice as he deposited his cargo and went to secure some of the lighter materials for the night.

"He always dis cheerful?" Dotolo asked idly, watching the youngest brother leave.

"Eh, give 'im some slack," Enoki said easily, but there was a sharp hint of defensiveness in his voice. "Poor kid's still gettin' his head on straight afta da last few years of t'ings goin' sideways."

Dotolo scoffed, but mostly in agreement. "Sideways be an understatement."

"Yaaaah, I think hearin' what really happened aftah we lost Sai in dose ruins rattled him good. But he's gotta lot of propaganda ta sort through now. Lotta things ta question an' figure out."

Dotolo looked to where the youngest brother had gone and nodded. It was a hell of a thing, asking someone to reassess their world view and their place in it after years of certainty.

"Speakin' o' which, how're you holdin' up?"

The Death Knight paused and actually looked up to find Enoki staring back expectantly. Looking around to see who he was talking to, it took Dotolo a moment to realize Enoki was asking him.

"Me? 'm fine," Dotolo turned away from the warrior and set down his shovel so he could climb his way out of the hole he was in. He clearly wasn't getting much more done before nightfall, so he opted to just sit there at the edge of the hole and appreciate the twilight. "I'm…well…'alive'ish…mah son an' mate be safe an' happy. Can't complain too much now can I?"

"Dun see why not. Ya got mo' ta deal wit den any of us," Enoki hedged, sitting down near the edge of the hole and letting his bad leg stretch out on the grass. "'cept maybe Sai."

Dotolo sighed, but smiled. "I dun t'ink ya gotta worry 'bout her. She's strongah den she looks."

"Ya, dat's fo' sure," Enoki chuckled, glancing over at his sister, who was prying a very angry lizard out of Sohto's mouth while chastising the little whelp. "Sai was always da one dat adapted da easiest ta stuff. Probably 'cause none of us knew nothin' about raisin' a magic user as powerful as her. She always had to a figure t'ings out fo' herself. Not much a warrior like me o' a rogue like Xan could do ta help."

"Da witchdoctahs didn' help any?" Dotolo asked, his curiousity peaked. Sai'in had never really spoken of her time growing up in Revantusk, and always glossed over it as nothing special. It never really occurred to Dotolo until now, doing the mental math of her siblings and their ages, that she was the only magic user amongst them, and she had never known her parents.

"Not 'til she accidentally set one of their huts on fire as a whelp," Enoki grinned, a bit of malevolent glee at the memory seeping into his voice.

"Was ya otha bruddah a warrior too?" Dotolo asked. Enoki nodded.

"Ya, though if ya asked any of da village they'd have said 'e was a Dire Troll ratha than a warrior."

 Dotolo grimaced. "Makes our childhood growin' up in a da wilds of Stranglethorn seem like a dream, even if we were mo' den likely gonna get eaten by tigers."

"Ya both grew up in Stranglethorn? Even aftah da exile?" Enoki asked, his turn to be drawn in by curiousity.

"Eh, we were bastards. Whoevah our motha was dropped us off in Sen'jin not long aftah we were born an' disappeared. No one evah claimed us, so we grew up changin' hands. One of dem was a travellin' leatherworker needin' some extra hands gatherin' leatha in Stranglethorn. Ended up spending most of our childhood with dat one til we came of age," Dotolo shrugged. "We stuck around in Stranglethorn once we were in da army proper simply because we knew it bettah den most. Didn' really t'ink much of it."

There was a lapse in the conversation as Dotolo mulled over the memories of his childhood with Soto, how simple everything seemed, and how much he'd taken it for granted. Like it would never change. Even after they'd met Sai'in, it seemed like some things were a given. Until they weren't.

"It wasn't your fault, ya know."

Dotolo glanced at Enoki with a raised eyebrow. The warrior met his quesioning glance with an equally appraising expression.

"Sai told us what happened," he clarified. "To ya bruddah."

Dotolo sighed. "Ah. Right."

"Ya allowed ta miss 'im."

"I'm da one dat crushed 'is throat."

"Undah Arthas' control. Dat wasn't you."

"How can ya be so sure?" Dotolo scoffed darkly. "Sure it's easy ta say da Lich King had us enslaved, but none of us came outta dere unscathed. O' unchanged. Just look at Pidge."

Enoki actually snorted, trying very hard not to burst out laughing but failing miserably. Dotolo didn't share the amusement.

"Dat bitch be EXACTLY why I know whatevah ya say ya done, I know dat wasn't you," Enoki snorted, leaning back and looking up at the sky that was slowly starting to fill with stars. "Ya both be Death Knights, gone t'rough da same shit. One of ya stopped yaself from killin' ya mate, made sure ya got 'er ta safety when she got sick, an' so far seems like ya doin' a pretty good job takin' care of ya whelp, even at ya own expense. Da other one can't even remembah if Pidge is 'er real name and had to be blackmailed inta NOT commintin' war crimes against 'er own faction."

Dotolo couldn't help the chuckle at Enoki's blunt yet accurate description of Pidge.

"If ya really were a day away from snappin' an' killin' everyone around ya, Sai' woulda pegged ya as dangerous on day one. Girl's always had a knack for readin' people, an' if she trusts ya, den ya got nothin' ta worry about," Enoki laughed. "An' if ya t'ink Xan wasn't watchin' ya like a hawk all o' last year jus' ta make sure, den boy do I have bad news for you."

Dotolo grumbled something unintelligible. Of course the spy would have been watching him for anything off. Loa he really was bad at this game. Enoki patted the Death Knight on the shoulder.

"I can't tell ya dat da guilt evah gonna go away," he said, after a long pause. "Loa knows I still keep wonderin' what I coulda done different dat mighta saved Zorka's life. If only we'd have turned down that raid, o' been strongah. Smartah. Anythin' that didn't end with us alive and our bruddah dead. But I also know dat Zorka woulda been da first ta tell us not to let his death be da t'ing dat destroyed da rest of us. An' maybe it ain't too much ta think Soto probably woulda said da same?"

Dotolo was silent for a moment, daring to probe the one memory that haunted him the most from after his ressurection and the one he had avoided at all costs.

'Make an example of him, my Champion,' the Lich King had whispered.

Everything was clear, but surrounded by a haze of what he now knew was compulsion. He hadn't recognized Soto initally, as broken and bloody as he was, regeneration hampered by infection and Blight. The wounds jogged some sliver of Dotolo's memory from before he'd died, weapons carving matching marks into him before the world went dark.

But it was when Soto had opened his eyes as Dotolo had reached down and grabbed him by the throat that it fully sunk in who Arthas had sent him to kill.

"'Tolo? Is dat…" But the compulsion to kill had moved his body for him, and his grip tigtened as he slammed his twin against the filthy wall of the rotted cabin, cutting off his words. The other prisoners shrank back from him, all waiting their turn but in no rush to meet it.

He could feel Soto struggling to breathe in his grip and futily try to pry his icy grip off him. Part of Dotolo's mind was starting to panic, asking what the fuck he was doing, why couldn't he stop, but that voice was small and weak, and paled in comparison to the whispers that urged him to snuff out the life in front of him.

Soto must have seen it in his cold dead eyes, because as the ice seeped into his throat and started freezing his vocal chords, he choked out a few quick words in desperation.

"Dis ain't you, 'Tolo. Fight 'im. Dun evah stop fightin' him. Please."

There was a sickening crack as the muscles of his neck froze and shattered and the unholy strength imbued in Dotolo's grip snapped Soto's neck. His brother's body fell limp in his grasp, and he tossed his corpse to the ground with a callouse disregard while the back of his mind screamed.

Back in the present, Dotolo couldn't help but chuckle darkly. He hadn't remembered that last part until now, those weak raspy words Soto had said in the end. He'd been too afraid to look back too closely.

"Ya," the Death Knight said at last, his voice cracking slightly. "Ya I guess he'd say da same."

Enoki smiled and patted Dotolo on the shoulder in solidarity, hobbling his way to his feet to leave the Death Knight to his thoughts. Dotolo took the offered solitude gladly. He was fairly certain he couldn't cry anymore thanks to whatever fuckery raised him from the dead, but he would not be able to keep his voice steady. Sai'in came by not long after with a very sleepy Sohto, and in that strange empathetic way she had where she could tell if he wanted to talk or not, she simply kissed him gently and went to settle down to bed as the last of the sunlight disappeared and the stars and moon took center stage.

So it was that Dotolo spent much of that night quietly contemplating what Enoki had said. The warrior had always had an oddly level head for a fury warrior who used to be classified as borderline berserker, but it was still funny that he was the one who managed to poke a hole in the wall Dotolo realized he head inadvertantly been building between himself and everyone around him.

Ever since the chaos of their travel had ebbed, he'd felt more and more out of place amongst Sai'in and her brothers. The dead amongst the living. The unnatural amongst the natural. A monster. If it weren't for him, they wouldn't have to hide out here, their son wouldn't have to grow up in exile. It was an easy slope to go down. Monsters didn't get to mourn those they've killed. Didn't get to live a peaceful life. Didn't get to have families.

Except that wasn't entirely true. Not really. Sai'in was his mate and she reminded him often that she loved him and had no intention of going anywhere without him, dead or otherwise. Sohto would always gravitate to him, finding the unnatural cold of Dotolo's lack of body temperature soothing in the burning heat of the day. The boy had no fear of whatever magic slipped Dotolo's grasp, giggling and playing with the wisps of shadow and frost. Xan trusted him enough to have dropped his constant guard around his siblings. Enoki cared enough to check and see how he was doing. Duma was calm enough around him to involve him in the occasional insult as if he were just another one of his brothers.

And if Dotolo stopped holding himself at a distance, punishing himself for what he was and feared he would become if he ever dropped his guard, he could also be their brother. He had lost his brother to Arthas, and that loss something he would have to allow himself to process, but first he had to stop blaming himself for something that was beyond his control. While that would take time, in the mean time, there was a new family waiting for him right here.

---

They had arrived in the Barrens obstensively in late spring, and bid farewell to Sai'in's brothers a few weeks after that once their hut was finished.

Though if you asked Dotolo, it was more that Sai'in threw them out after enough badgering about safety and making sure they had all the necessities. It was touching, their concern, but Sai'in had had enough of their babying and threatened to summon an elemental to hog tie them to the next available boat in Ratchet. Uninterested in testing their sister's wrath, the three brothers finally bid them fairwell with a promise of seeing them in the fall. Finally free of her brothers' well intentioned if smothering presence, Sai'in and Dotolo were finally able to truly settle into their new surroundings.

For maybe a month or so it was almost idlylic. Sai'in would gather herbs and sell her potions either to the Crossroads vendors or those in Ratchet, pick up supplies on her way back and they'd hunt for whatever else they needed. Vulture jerky and eggs were a common delicacy, with the occasional boar or strider if one happened to cross Sai'in's path out on the roads.

Dotolo remained mostly in their secluded hut, foraging around the area and caring for Sohto unless he went with Sai'in, which he tried to do just often enough not to be interesting. Most of the locals who lived there either didn't care, or figured him out and then after getting smacked around by some pissy fire elementals, decided they too did not care. And when he wasn't attempting to pass himself off as a very pale introvert, he was pouring over trade manuals trying to pick out one that suited him. He'd dabbled with engineering a bit back in the day, then picked at some jewelcrafting patterns when a wandering trader came through advertising them, but neither had really stuck. So when Armesan had mentioned picking up a trade to help keep the army from dragging him back to the front lines, he'd grabbed every tradesman's manual he could find in Ogrimmar, determined to find one.

Unfortunately , his hunt for a fitting profession was quickly usurped by the near constant need to chase his son away from imminent danger. Sohto, it turned out, was quite the adventurer, and at the tender age of six months, decided that he feared absolutely nothing. Poisonous insects, wild predators, sheer drops from cliffs, everything was fair game.

There were bars on Sohto's window by the Midsummer Festival, and by then it was almost second nature keeping that extra eye and ear out for anything that Sohto was getting into. By some stroke of luck, at the same time most larger things with survival instincts learned to steer clear of their hut thanks to the unholy aura around Dotolo. Sometimes being an unholy abomination came in handy. And if that failed, reanimating critters to chase things away was a viable form of security, so long as he didn't let them stray far.

It had been strange, getting used to wielding magic. The most he'd had to deal with when he was alive was the occasional enchant on his armor or weapons doing weird things to him in combat, but this was a whole new level of bizzare. If Sai'in hadn't also been a magic user, Dotolo suspected he would have been found out and keel hauled to Northrend almost immediately thanks to being unable or unaware of how to control the magics that he had access to now.

There had been a close call when he'd accidentally raised some bandits that had tried to mug them on the road and he barely managed to steer them away from the Crossroads before Sai'in managed to bring them down. They added magic lessons to Dotolo's routine shortly after that. It also made his choice of profession relatively easy, as he decided to take up enchanting as a means of further obscuring any magical mishaps. He wasn't very good at it, and honestly as far as he was concerned, the more he had a reputation among the locals as an enchanter with safety issues, the better. He could easily pass off a stray frost patch or shadow slip as a wayward enchantment gone haywire rather than evidence that there was a Death Knight NOT fighting for the Horde up in Northrend right now. The news out of the north painted a very bleak picture and the army was not shy about drafting anyone they could make use of, and Dotolo had every intention of NOT being made use of.

Sohto, ignorant of his parents' unique circumstances of self-exile, continued to do what little troll whelps did, and got into anything and everything that was left unattended for too long. The only real moments of peace Dotolo and Sai'in had once he gained mobility came when the little boy was either asleep or whenever one of his parents was working with their magic.

That was a bit of an unnerving discovery, once they realized that it was magic that Sohto was lulled by. It made sense with Sai'in's. Aside from occasionally summoning an elemental to help do some heavy lifting, she stuck mainly to healing magics, but Sohto seemed strangely at ease with all the vulger and dark magics that tended to pop up around his father. Dotolo had even caught his son trying to play with one of the undead critters he kept around for practice. Most whelps would probably be at least nervous around skeletal raptor hatchlings and rotted scorpions, but no, not their's.

The undead troll had a sinking feeling that this kind of weirdness ran in Sai'in's family, to which she had simply sighed and agreed when he brought it up. Though she didn't miss the opportunity to point out that it could also be Dotolo's fault. They still hadn't entirely nailed down whether Sohto had been conceived before or after Dotlo had been raised from the dead. Unable to refute it, the death knight had simply agreed and gone back to practicing controlling the little scorpion corpses. So their son was a bit weird, so what? Nothing in Dotolo's life had been normal since he'd met Sai'in, and he didn't expect it to start now. What mattered was that he was alive, he had a mate he loved and adored, a happy and healthy son, and a home.

And beyond that, they had allies out there. Maybe even friends. That is, if they ever saw them again.

---

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