Jasper's POV

My body felt desensitized as I lay on the cold hard ground. It had been weeks since I last laid eyes on my mountains... or Brenna. I chose to go back to the fight to get her off my mind, but her entirety stained my mind, especially during the nights when everything grew still.

The flaps of my tent whipped around in the autumn wind. Summer had passed, and the land began to grow cold. I missed Brenna with my entire being. I longed to be under my mountains beside her. I wondered if she felt the same about me.

A role of thunder interrupted my thoughts. I took a deep breath in; the air was crisp but smelled damp. I forced my rigid body up from the ground. My muscles were stiff from fighting and sleeping in the dirt.

I pulled back one of the flaps to my tent and looked out. The surrounding forest was a void of darkness. Even my exceptional vision at night was no match for this kind of darkness. A bolt of lightning illuminated everything around me for a second. I was able to see the black storm clouds overhead.

I could also make out the outline of Sten's tent to my left. I couldn't make out anything in the distance, but I knew my warg was close. I let out a low whistle to signal to her.

"Amity, come here, girl."

I didn't want to speak too loud because Sten and I were a good ways away from any of the Orc posts. When I rejoined the fight, the humans had begun another battle with us. We have managed thus far. However, we hadn't pushed their line back much.

We decided to leave our post and sneak into Blackwater territory undetected. Our goal was to get close to the human's post to watch from a distance and see what information we could get from them.

I saw something in the darkness coming closer to me. Gods, it was so dark out here. I nearly jumped when I felt Amity's wet nose nudge against my arm.

"Come here, you great fleabag." I moved aside and coerced her into the tent. Wargs' are the size of horses, but I wasn't going to have her out in this weather.

Amity had thick, dark grey fur and yellow eyes. She wasn't much different from a typical wolf or coyote except for her size. She had to be three to four times larger than me. She sniffed and groaned as she flopped down beside me. I could hear her tail thudding on the ground. It wasn't often that I let her sleep next to me.

It wasn't because I didn't love her, but by gods, her stench could burn the hair out your nose. She rolled around in the dirt beside me and nearly flattened me.

"Alright, Alright! Don't get too comfortable now." Not even a moment after the words left my mouth, She licked me in the face. Her hot rotten breath nearly suffocated me.

"Amity! You better quit that shit." I said, gagging.

She couldn't help but be excited. If I was uncomfortable before, I had no words to describe this situation. There was absolutely no room left, and her smell overwhelmed the air. God's forbid I tied the tent flaps closed. Her stink would kill both of us.

The rain began to come down and beat against the tent. As cramped as it was, Amity got up, walked around in a circle, and flopped down again. She laid her massive head on my chest. It took some time, but I did finally fall asleep myself. As bad as she smelled, at least I had some company.

~The Next Morning

I held Brenna's hand as we walked into the field behind the Northern Orruk castle. The warm spring sunshine gleamed off her amber hair. I led her to the falls and laid beside her in the lush grass, gazing into her beautiful doe eyes.

Suddenly I felt a warm breeze engulf us. That's when I realized something was off. There was a foul stench in the air. I jerked awake to find Amity licking my face.

"Quit," I groaned. I pushed Amity off me and sat up.

It still seemed somewhat dark outside, but light shined through the space between the flaps of my tent.

"Go on," I said, pushing her toward the exit.

Once Amity was out of my way, I pushed myself up from the ground. I armored up and grabbed my gear. Today Sten and I planned to push further into Blackwater. I walked out of the tent to see Sten sitting on a stump.

"You want something to eat?" He said, taking a bite out of a strip of dried meat.

After waking up to warg breath, I didn't have much of an appetite. "No, I'm good."

"Suit yourself."

Sten had already taken down his tent, so I figured I'd do the same. We needed to be moving on soon. He continued eating and throwing pieces of meat to our wargs' as I began pulling stakes up from the ground.

When I got to the last one, I felt a strange rumbling under my feet. I stood up and looked at Sten. He didn't seem to notice as he chugged water from a pouch. I started to turn my attention back to the tent, but I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

A massive stone was hurling through the air. Sten was still oblivious, and it was headed right for him. I don't know how but the humans had spotted us.

"Sten!" My voice boomed.

I rushed toward him. He stared at me wide-eyed. He was facing away from it all and didn't understand what was happening. I couldn't let him get hit. He was like a brother to me. I am willing to sacrifice anything rather than watch him die.

I made it over to him in the nick of time to knock him out of the way. However, I hadn't had enough time to get out of the way myself. The boulder slammed into my body, knocking me back. Everything happened so fast that I felt nothing at first.

My body was embedded into the earth, and all the air had been knocked from my lungs. I could only lay there choking. My lungs were inflamed, begging to take in oxygen. I continued to gasp as a sharp pain wrapped around my torso.

I looked around for Sten, praying to the Gods for help. I saw him running toward me but crashed into the dirt as an arrow impaled him. I could feel my face turning purple, still struggling to take a breath. The last thing I saw was a human approaching us, then everything went black.