7 Chapter 6 - The Drunken Ogre.

The atmosphere in the bar shifted quickly as people git up from their seats to greet Endar with open arms, A massive burly man with a bulls head approached, picking up his smaller figure and squeezing him tightly as the witch struggles to breathe. The Minotaur chuckles deeply.

"H-Hi...Andrex...c-cant...breathe..." he strains as he gets put down, Andrex going back to his corner, sitting on his tiny seat with impeccable balance. Others sticking to hand shakes and claps on the shoulder, Camilla and Major don't know what to make of it, their faces struck with wide eyes.

Following Endar to the bar as the three sit calmly. the two looking at him with amused faces.

"Are you sure you're not evil? everyone sure does love you" Major teases with him as he scoffs.

"Its not like I'm hexing them, I've helped a lot of people and creatures over the years" he says speaking to the group with a tone they haven't heard from him yet, like he's embarrassed by the attention.

"Well I think its lovely that you even do that, nice to know there's still nice people in the world!" Camilla's says with excitement, joyously spinning around to gaze at all the interesting beasties that where here, drinking to pass the time, not a single person on the surface knows about it.

A tankard of Ale gets slammed onto the bar, catching the attention of the trio as they look up, gazing upon an Orc with small teeth protruding from his tiny under bite, a nasty gaze on the witch as Endar coughs nervously.

"Hello Endar" The Orc says as Endar takes a long breath, looking up through his mask at him.

"Hey...Rodahn, been awhile..." he says, taking his gaze away as Rodahn turns away, placing another tankard next to Major, daintily pouring a glass of wine for Camilla as they look at the drinks nervously, until Endar lifts his mask slightly so his mouth hangs out, chugging the ale swiftly, placing it back down on the bar.

Rodahn smirks and scoffs.

"You haven't changed much"

"Neither have you, and look, your tooth grew back"

"Yeah...no thanks to you and your temper"

"You're not nice, don't start acting now"

They both glare at each other for a moment before laughing together, the princess smiling at their reunion as Major smirks at it, knowing he was right.

"You two seem fond of each other" she proclaims, Endar pulling his mask back down and looking at Camilla with confident eyes.

"We've known each other a long time" The witch replies, Rodahn laughing at him with a hearty laugh. Wiping his yellow eyes with a bright grin on his face, his green skin turning purple as he refuses to let down.

Endar watches with bored eyes, seeing this all before as Camilla and Major join in, soon the whole bar is laughing, leaving Endar the only one not joining in. After they were finished they stare at each other, a tension that was only visible to Endar and Rodahn, the witch exiting his seat as he gazes over to the orc.

"Can we talk? alone preferably" he pleads, Rodahn throws a towel over his shoulder as he sighs exasperated.

"Yeah, sure" He follows him to the back room, leaving Camilla and Major alone with their drinks and the rest of the room.

Endar walks fully into the room in the back as Rodahn's figure towered over the witch by a few feet. Crossing his arms at him as the act was over, Endar sighing with guilt before looking at him.

"Ro...I'm so sorry I was gone for so long but I can explain!"

"Explain what? the fact you disappeared over night without a single clue as to where you had gone, I spent the first few months looking for you, then I just gave up"

"I-"

"No, I waited long enough for you to come back to you're gonna sit there and take it for once Endarynne..." His voice was calm but highly furious at the same time, the tone of his voice as he looked at Endar with a hateful gaze. using his full name to distinguish his anger towards him.

Endar shuts his mouth, but struggles to as it bursts out of him like a crashing wave. not wanting to tell him, but not having any other choice.

"I didn't leave!" he shouts, Rodahn's face twisting into disbelief as he keeps his stern gaze on the witch with unrelenting perseverance.

"What does that mean?" he snaps.

"Ro I was taken...and...they did something to me..."

As he says it Rodahn's arms uncross, he looks on at Endar with worried eyes.

"You....wait what?" he approaches him cautiously as Endar stares into the floor, his thoughts elsewhere, trying to figure out how to tell one of the only people whom he'd never shown his new face to.

Scared of his reaction.

"After the hunters began disappearing I thought id be safer to travel the roads from Candervale since there was barely any left...but I was a fool" he began tearing up as Rodahn holds his arms, feeling his left and pulling back in shock.

"What did they do to you?" he asks with his eyes searching the witch for anything, getting sick of his mask by the second. The question hung in the air for a few moments before Endar looks up at him, his mind racing as he realizes now is the only chance he's going to get.

Reaching up the straps behind his head, unlatching them as he takes his mask of, showing Rodahn his face for the first time.

Endar's face was mostly intact but his left eye was mechanical, a piercing red dot in the middle as the metal plates the left side of his head going down back. Rodahn's face drops in an instant as he gets closer to him, inspecting it as his hand gently rests on his face. His eye was fully capable as it moves in sync with the other.

Rodahn's face slowly turning red with rage.

"How...could they do this!" his voice raises as he storms over to a cabinet, a giant war axe lays in there with a Orcish metal acting as decoration, its pristine glow hummed as he grabs it furiously, approaching the witch with a serious face.

"Ill kill them all for you, my Shoka!" He vows, placing his weapon on his bare chest and slicing across it creating a thin cut that bleeds slightly, scarring his flesh with a promise ensuring it in true Orcish fashion. Endar's face crumples as a tear leaves his right eye, hugging Rodahn with all his might, hugging back with a gentle squeeze.

"I have missed you..." he whispers in a low grumble as Endar laughs to himself.

"So have I~"

.

.

.

Camilla and Major sat quietly at the bar, empty tankard scatter the surface as Major drinks his last one, pushing his tankard to the other barkeep as they take them all, Camilla's glass of wine still half full, taking another sip as she gazes at the environment, the bar was a little grungy but the company was endearing.

Everyone seems kind and welcoming, so long as you weren't bothering anyone, once Major had found out the drinks were free he had a few so he was agreeably tipsy, sitting at his stool with a forlorn look on his face.

"How do you think Endar got that way? do you think it was magic?" He asks the Princess as she swivels on her stool and look at him with a meaningful gaze.

"Maybe one day well find out, but lets not judge him for it, it seems he hides from it at times"

"Wouldn't you?" he replies as her brows creases, understanding she too would hide it.

"Of course but...He's strong and has gone through enough, we should try and be good friends to him" she says cheerily, finishing her wine, fanning her self.

A few moments of silence pass by before the two of them start sweating, it dripping down from their faces as they pant.

"Are you getting hot?"

"Yeah...what's happening?" as they fan themselves cool, they both notice each others new faces slowly melting away from their face, everyone looking at them with shock and laughter as the two begin to panic.

"By the gods MY FACE IS MELTING!" Major shouts as Camilla because hyperventilating, before Endar and Rodahn join the bar room again, their faces morphing into huge smiles as they laugh at the two, Camilla and Major look at them with wide eyes as their true faces shine through, the spell fully wearing off...they investigate their bodies.

Smiling nervously as they look around, everyone looking at them with amused glares, the two approaching Rodahn and Endar with embarrassed faces.

"Drama queens" Ro chuckles as Endar rolls his eyes.

"Royals" he says teasingly, walking from the bar as they say goodbye to the patrons, staying just outside the door, all four of them walking the ratways.

"So what's the plan?"

"I told Ro everything, i'll let him tell you" Endar says walking a little ahead as Camilla and Major turn on the orc with questioning eyes, he smiles warmly.

"Firstly, I'd like to say it's a pleasure to meet an actual princess, us orcs don't have royalty, only the strong" he explains as he holds his hand out, Camilla takes it generously and shakes, barely moving his hand an inch.

"I've never met an orc before, I thought you'd be a little bigger~" the princess digs at him as he snickers to himself.

"I'm what you'd call a runt, I'm smaller than the average Orc"

"But you're huge..." she says as he guffaws loudly, echoing through the tunnels.

"Ill take that as a compliment, but enough talk, you want in on the tower right?"

"Yes, the counsel need to hear what I have to say"

"Well I cant get you in, I mean look at at me, but I do know someone hiding in the ratways, and they owe me"

"Why would you help us just off the back?" Major asks curiously.

"I'm not doing it for you...I'm doing it for him" He points to Endar with his finger, his face lighting up once his eyes cross his figure.

Completely love-struck with him.

Camilla and Major give each other a look of confirmation, mischievous smiles curling on their lips, learning more and more about their mysterious friend. Trailing deep into the tunnels, a wafting smell of dung and soaking wet fur, Camilla covers her nose as Rodahn moves the group into an open chasm.

The group looks around before a skittering of claws could be heard from an upper level, looking at the tunnel where the noise came from, everyone drawing their own variant of weapon, the Princess summoning a ball of light as the entire chasm lights up with a pinkish hue, then it shows its face.

A rat, way bigger than your usual rat, spewing rabies from its mouth with a colorful gem embedded in its forehead as it rears its head and screeches loudly, a rumbling sound shakes the chasm with the group looking around them in preparation for a fight, millions of rats flood the chasm as it begins filling, the group slowly falling under the mass, shouting for each other.

"HELP!" Camilla shouts as they all get pushed through different tunnels, separating the four as they all land in the maze of tunnels, the rats scurrying away leaving them all standing in their respective areas, looking for anyone else.

"RO? PRINCESS?!" Endar yells into the maze as his echo reaches them all faintly

"ENDAR WHERE ARE YOU?" Camilla shouts, trying to conjure another light, but her many emotions quickly smother it, leaving her in full darkness. Her whimpers echoing through the tunnels as Major sprints through the maze with exceptional speed, unrelenting in his search for Camilla.

"CAMILLA?!" he tries bellowing, gaining no response from her. Rodahn wasn't worried as he casually strolls through the sludge, his war axe balanced on his shoulders. Endar takes a deep breath and sits in the gross water, crossing his legs and placing his hands together.

Muttering many incantations before pulling his hands apart as strings of red expand from his fingers, forming into a delicate pulsing heart that floated in his palm, looking through the walls, seeing multiple moving red blurs, following the closest one, Major quickly tackling him at full speed.

The two falling into the shit water coughing and wincing. Endar's spell smashing on the floor as the heart shattered, his eyes ablaze with anger.

"Gods major that spell is fucking hard to do!!"

"You walked in front of me!"

Getting up and dusting themselves over as they look at where they were, pure silence came from all sides. dread written on the two as they take a moment to breath, Major tuckered out from sprinting.

"This isn't good"

"That was magic, whoever is down here can control the rats somehow...maybe a hex..." Endar scoffs, standing from the wall.

"Then lets find the others and handle the fucker" Major spits, the confidence in his voice inspiring the witch to hold his arm out.

"Lead the way"

.

.

.

Princess Camilla shudders as she aimlessly wanders into the dark, unaware of where she was going, her clouded emotions blocking her from doing magic, unable to clear herself from all these different feelings at once.

"Hello..." she whispers as her breath echoed through the tunnels as she's greeted with silence, a slithering figure sneaking up behind her as she turns to see what it was, her blood curdling screams race towards the corners of the maze, everyone hearing her shriek of fear, before she's silence, whisked off into the darkness.

All that remained was the echoing voices of her companions, kidnapped by the mysterious figure as they slowly slink away.

.

.

.

Rodahn hears the scream from behind, turning as he quickly takes off in the direction, attempting to close the gap between them, hearing other scuffles of footsteps, interacting with Major and Endar rather quickly, laying eyes on each other as her screams no longer ringed in the tunnels, their faces alight with dread and fear.

"It came from this direction" Major says pointing in one direction, Rodahn shakes his head as he points different to Major, tightening his lips in a look of displeasure.

"No it was that way"

"We don't have time for this!, the more time we waste bickering, the less time we have to find her...Have you got anything of hers at all on you Albert?" Endar asks as the soldier feels everywhere on his person, but not a shred of luck helped find anything.

"No magic then..."

"I could try sniffing her out, she had a fruity perfume that should be easy to track, it'll take a few minutes before I get my bearings...this place reeks of shit and piss water to the high heavens" he grumbles, taking in a big whiff before gagging.

"Make that more than a few..." he says regrettably, as the two wait in anticipation a smile forming under Endar's mask, happy to see his nose was in top shape still.

After a few moments of unbearable silence he perks his head up.

"There, this way!"

The three men racing down the tunnel, following their Orc friend with heightened focus, The Princess is as good as saved...or is she?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------