Aethas had lost track of time since the moment of his kidnapping by a certain Wretch.

“Really? You know they are coming after you right?” Aethas grew bore out of the amount of time this Wretch had been running and dodging, he tried to take his mind off this kidnapping by just talk about something, even if it’s to his captor- as there isn’t any point in being quiet and uncooperative, either way Aethas was captured there is no escape yet- still looking for his chance to make a run for it, though, might possibly on the moment the Wretch drop him.

The Wretch hissed at him from time to time, thus Aethas came to the conclusion that this one addiction seem to get deep into the brain, to the point where it lost all sense and method of communication, this remind Aethas of another type of addiction effect that elves suffered call Withering from the Nightborne- a much further distant cousin of the Highborn, Night Elves and Blood Elves themselves.

This brought up another problem for Aethas though, he’s practically dealing with a humanoid beasts here, imagine a beast with humanoid intelligent is going to be quite a pain to deal with, especially when you’re a victim of mana thirsted one, who are known to cannibalised their victim or worse, violate them and before draining every drop of mana from their victim's body.

Thinking of the possible consequences, being eaten alive is the least of his worries, being violated is! Hearing stories from his village and through the lore from the wiki page, it gave him the shudder just by thinking about it, Aethas doesn’t mind if it was a beautiful woman- but when it came to a mindless monster whom is a degenerated version of his own species? Screw that! I’m definitely going to make a run for it! Or better yet! “DAD!!!! HELP ME!!!” Aethas screamed with all of his might.

As for why Aethas doesn’t try to use any offensive magic to try and escape- one reason, there isn’t much that could instantly cripple this Wretch or kill it outright, if he couldn’t do any of that in one cost effective spell, it would just pissed this thing off even further and it might decide to chow down on him right there and then, instead of bringing him back to it lair.

Plus, the only useful thing he got from the [Book of the Dead] was the ability to convert souls into mana and expanding his reserve beyond that of normal mortal, as for offensive? What’s that? There isn't any! It’s just theoretical knowledge that applied to previously mastered spell! The rest is just Kel’Thuzad damn autobiography and his propaganda for the Lich King, also known as Arthas Menethil.

To sum it up, Aethas only magical knowledge are enchanting, disenchanting, soul conversions and the ability to wrought control of the undead from the Scourge, only the weaker one of course, and some basic magic to create a small spark to light a fire! Which isn’t enough to kill! If he were to have his bag of explosive marble (which roughly had around 20-30 left.) he could detonate the damn thing on this sucker and make a run for it.

But no, it’s too good to be true, he left the bag on the carriage thinking that his dad could keep them all safe instead of carrying it on him at all times, and now he paid the price, however a ray of hope finally came to Aethas, in the form of his father calling his name from behind.

“DAD!!! I’M AT THIS DIRECTION!!!” he shouted out with all his might once again and struggling to get loose from his captor. “I’M COMING TO YOU MY BOY! JUST HANG IN THERE!!!” he screamed, it seem like his dad managed to pick up on his voice and chased after them.

The Wretch notice that Aethas was being quite loud and much of a nuisance, thus- a surprise in the form of a punch in the gut, which was strong enough to knock the air out of him and caused him to pass out from the pain, that is all Aethas remember, a sharp pain in the gut and everything went black, Aethas could only pray that nothing “too” bad would happen to him afterward and the voice of his father getting fainter and fainter as time goes by.

Yep, it seems like this isn’t going to end well for Aethas, hopefully nothing like waking up totally naked or not waking up at all, ever- that is probably the worse case scenario.

Part 2

By the time Aethas woken up, he did not know how much time had passed in the outside world, since all he could see and feel right now is the cold and wet ground inside of a cave, in the middle of nowhere, and being bounded up with rope, alongside a group of victim who gotten themselves into the same situation as himself, possibly becoming feed for the Wretches.

The next thing he looked for was any “violation” that had happened when he passed out, only to let out a sigh of relief the moment he found his clothes were still intact, look like nothing had happened yet- but he wished the same could be said for the victim around him, ranging from beaten up and drained of mana Blood Elves female and male, their will seems to have completely been broken by these savages, only breathing husk of themselves remained, they could only describe as soul-less meatbag if there’s a better word for it.

As for the location itself, the place is littered with bones and rotten corpses of victims, needless to say, it stinks to high heaven, imagine the smell of dead fish baking in the hot sun for a few days, the odor is much worse here since they are in an enclosed space.

“Hey you! The little boy! Finally woken up I see?” a raspy voice of a woman called out for him from the corner of the cave, where all the dead victim are kept by the Wretches, noticing the voice Aethas turn his attention there. “You were trying to cross the border huh? You walk right into those Wretches ambush, same as us- and that spy over there!” for some reason, Aethas could feel a major deja vu coming from this scene. Fate indeed has a sense of twisted humor.

“Damn you Forsaken scum, if it weren’t for you, I could have sneaked into Eversong Wood and complete my mission as planned, but you couldn’t help but chased and lead me right into their ambush huh?” the spy seems to be a Night Elf, he must have snuck in through from the Eastern Plagueland or so Aethas concluded- but hold it! What the hell?! Author! I think you got the wrong game mixed up! Aethas cried out bitterly inside.

“What is going to happen to us?” the spy cried out after noticing the grim environment around him. “What else? Possibly return to your Elune and me? Eternal suffering?” the Forsaken woman concluded- it was not wrong, that will be their fate since Aethas know the habit of the Wretches better than these two, he know of their dirty personality.

“I can guarantee that as well, you two might not know this- but the Wretches had a bad habit of breaking their victim open and drain every sip of mana from their body, before possibly cannibalised them.” Aethas added fuel to the fire, just because it was amusing to watch the Night Elf spy wailed in despair.

“There’s no crying about it now, we’re all brothers and sisters in chain now…” the Forsaken woman told the both of them as she glanced at the horror caused by these creatures- which were second to that of the Scourge.

“Well this isn’t funny anymore, here they come.” from Aethas corner of the cave, he could see a group of Wretches just enter the cave with drool all over their mouth, heading for their direction, it seems like one of them is going to die today, by now the other two also notice the incoming hostile already, the one who attracted the most attention seem to be the Night Elf spy as he trying to undo his binding- and surprisingly, he succeeded! “Haha! I’m not going to die here today!”

As he said that, he charged at the Wretch after picking up a sharp piece of femur bone on the ground and shanked one of them in the gut- sure it killed one of the Wretches, however he miscalculated, who said there was only one Wretches? Before long a group of them already jumped the stupid Night Elf and shredded him to pieces, before squeezing all the mana in his body and then moving on to the body of their former allies.

“Well that was stupid, who let him be a spy?” Aethas mouth twitched seeing how dumb that Night Elf was, whoever trained this idiot needed to be fire- or better yet, just kept training more of these dumbass so they wouldn’t have to issue about having spy in their kingdom ever again.

“Don’t worry, it baffled me too.” the Forsaken woman nodded in agreement.

*BOOM! The sound of an explosion shook the area, spooking the Wretches and causing them to immediately rushed outside to check on the situation.

“Well, I guess it’s time for us to leave, we couldn’t let this situation gone to waste now that there’s someone helping us outside.” the Forsaken woman too, had broke from her binding, it seem like she managed to sneak a dagger inside of her dead body.

“Wow… never knew being an undead could be so convenient.” Aethas couldn’t help but comment after seeing the woman digging out a dagger from inside of her back and cutting the rope. “I know, I was surprised about it too after I regained my freedom.”