One Life ended, two lives lost

One life ended, two lives lost.
I stayed away from Ormel for the first few days, after Alahnna died. Not by choice, of course not! I just..I couldn’t face him. I should have been there with them, helping to find Elani, not that human. Light bless his kind soul. He stopped searching for Elani, for a few days he just sat with Alahnnas’ body, I heard him muttering to her a few times. I really thought he had lost his mind. 
I only gathered the courage to face him, the day he took her to be buried. He shirked off any help, support. I spoke to Anchorite Te’la, he had refused any counselling, or consoling. A few Draenei watched him go, but respected his obvious desire to be alone in his grief. I couldn’t leave my old mentor alone, it was bound to be too much for the old demon. 
He walked with Alahnna for a while, I stayed well back, I wasn’t sure if he knew I was there, his blades left at the camp he had only a shovel slung over one shoulder. After some time, he reached a clearing and laid Alahnna down on the ground, he then began digging. I had brought a shovel of my own, I would wait a while, and when he began to tire I would help him, I thought. 
He worked slowly, I crept closer, thinking he was too absorbed in his work to notice me, I was still some distance away when he called out. 
*Talaak, I know you’re there. I hope you brought a shovel. If you will not leave me to my grief you may as well help me!* He shouted, I strode forward and wordlessly began to assist him. 
We worked silently, for some time. Only when the hole we had created was large enough and deep enough for Ormels’ satisfaction, did he turn to speak to me. I was prepared to be defiant, and to tell him how it was not right for him to suffer alone, how he should allow me, his friend to stand beside him. All thoughts of defiance were crushed when I looked into his eyes, and for the first time since I had known him, I saw how old and how.. tired he really was. 
*Talaak, why did you come here?* 
*I, I’m sorry..Ormel I didn’t want you to…* 
*To what? To grieve for Alahnna, to bury my wife? What did you not want me to do, Talaak?!* He was growing angry. And, I am not ashamed to say, I was scared. Ormel was a big man, and in all my years serving alongside him, I had not once seen him lose his temper with another Draenei. 
*I don’t want you to lose yourself to your grieving you stubborn old fool! You have a daughter to think of! Elani is not dead until you see her body!* Where the courage to shout at him like that had come from, I still don’t know. For a moment, the look on his face, made me think I would be the one left in this grave. He stared at me for a minute, and his shoulders sagged. 
*Leave me be, Talaak. I wish to bury my wife. I will return to my search for Elani tomorrow morning.* he muttered, without another word, I climbed from the grave and stalked off into the forest, I did not go far, and stayed to observe him for a while. 
He laid Alahnna into the grave we had dug, and took a bag from his back, he opened it and placed Alahnnas’ blade and shield into the grave with her. Without a word, he removed his wedding band and placed that into the grave as well. 
He spent the next few minutes shovelling the earth back in on top of Alahnnas body, I was expecting to see him weep, or drop to his knees crying…he didn’t. Not a single tear, that I could see. After he had filled the grave, he walked off into the forest, and returned a few minutes later with a length of wood cut from a tree, he spent the next while carving out a grave marker. 
All the while I sat in silence, watching from the trees, after he had set the marker in its place, he knelt before it, praying I assume, and then he stood, and walked away. Not once did he look back. 
I firmly believe, that the Ormel I knew, died that day. Why? Because the stories that have reached me of his actions since then, are not the actions of the man who taught me. His hunt for revenge, against the entire Blood elf race, his open hatred for races who are only opposed to us by association with the Horde…those who have not wronged us in any way. 
I can tell you no more of Ormel, for I don’t know him anymore
Category:Story