Heart of the Beast Pt. 2

‘Come, my friend. We can go to my college and find my krewe to get our wounds tended.’ When they left the Citadel after the confrontation between Grimpaw & the centurion with Dinky, the two soon made it to Rata Sum, where they explained what had happened to the asura’s college professor while being patched up and made comfortable.

On their rehab trips around asura territory, Poppler told the charr of the asura problem with inquest while Grimpaw simply took in the lush jungle and animals. The next two weeks saw Poppler mostly healed, and the charr felt as though he was coming back to life as well, albeit with several large bald patches.

By the third week Grim was tired of being lazy healing, and would disappear all day just being up and out, doing something, anything. And usually he would be back at his friend’s college by nightfall at the latest, but this time dawn had come around and there was still no Grimpaw.

Poppler and his krewe gathered a group of asura and spread out over Metrica Province looking for his friend but found no sign. Because as they were still searching jungle and swamp the next evening, the charr was getting his skull cracked by his centurion at the Hero’s Canton canteen.

The centurion in Rata Sum at night

‘WAKE UP!’ Dinky smacked Grimpaw on the left side of his snout, the only response being rattling chains the sleeping engineer was hanging from in the ceiling and floor. The legionnaire reached over and picked up a bucket of water from the floor, turned and threw it in Grimpaw’s face. A second later there was a waking snort, he shook his head and exhaled a few times, then looked around trying to focus.

Vision blurry from what he later found was the centurion’s fist knocking him out and across the canteen floor ten feet, head swollen and throbbing, he first saw his legionnaire Dinky toss the empty bucket aside then place his paws on hips. ‘Well well, our little warrior is awake, boss. When do I….’ Grimcrotch stepped forward and pushed him back, ‘Leave him alone, Dinky.’

‘You’ve already done enough by beating his friend without my authorization. If you hadn’t done that we wouldn’t be in this situation, just back off.’ Dinky turned to his friend, ‘But…’ with upturned paws. ‘No buts. I should make you go help Vesta Fuseheart on the war wagon prep deck for a month, we haven’t had an engineer there. So don’t push it,’ he said, poking his friend roughly in the chest.

The centurion turned to Grimpaw, ‘Where’s your friend, soldier?’ Grimpaw’s foggy vision and head both began to clear, the dull throbbing pain continued. Arms flayed out chained to the ceiling and staring down Grimcrotch, he remained silent.

Elexis Shredskin jogged through the Black Citadel holding cell doorway. ‘Sir, we found out where he is. In Rata Sum.’ The centurion looked over at Dinky who was already on his way out, ‘Get the battalion together.’ His 2nd spoke up from around the corner at a jog, ‘On it boss!’

——

‘Just stop, put your weapons down, I’ll go. No need to start a war for one person. I did what had to be done, and would do it again. In fact I’m rather curious as to what they have to say or do about my completely justified act of friendship.’ Poppler shoved Lefty’s charrzooka away from his professor’s direction and began to walk toward the asura gate past the tanks and war wagon.

The inner circle of charr lifted their weapons and moved toward the gate as Poppler neared it, then they circled him again and hand & ankle cuffed him, weapons pointed out. The rest of the battalion moved back in waves, covering their backs. The legionnaires relaxed but remained encircling their centurion, observing their soldiers orderly exit.

Grimcrotch grabbed Lefty gruffly by the shoulder as he walked by, holding on and pulling him closer and speaking with a threat under his breath, ‘You get out of that war wagon again in the middle of a mission and your replacement will be burying you.’ Lefty’s smile dropped and eyes grew wide. ‘Ye…yessir!’ he stammered.

The centurion shoved him away slightly, then said aloud ‘Good job, soldier,’ giving him a hard friendly slap on the back toward the gate. The big grin returned to Lefty’s face as he saluted then jumped up onto his iron beast, tossed the charrzooka back into its rack near his seat, fired up the war wagon and drove back through to Lion’s arch then the Citadel, cigar stub puffing like the exhaust.