Raef: How to Join a Guild (Graphic)

**Content Warning: Graphic depictions of violence. This includes skinning and hanging.**

\_\_\_\_\_

*Sunlight* *filtered into the room, lighting upon Az's light green skin and dark hair that was disheveled from sleep. Raef smiled at the sight, reaching over to brush back a strand of hair and he placed a tender kiss to the orc's forehead. He didn't know how he was so lucky.*

*"You're staring," Az mumbled, opening one eye and grinning.*

*"Oh no, you caught me." Raef chuckled and kissed his husband now that he was awake. "I'm heading into town. Do you want anything?"*

*"We're almost out of spices."*

*"Okay." The elf dragged himself to his feet, but not before he stole one last kiss. "I'll be back tomorrow night. I love you."*

*"I love you, too."*

Raef stared at the flames flickering in the fire place, grip tightening painfully on the glass in front of him. Anger swelled in his heart, mixing with the hurt of the memory that had flitted through his mind. It was the last time he had seen Az and that bitch wasn't going to help him find the orc that ordered Az's death. He had tracked a chieftain down to this very city and *she* knew about the orc yet she had told him *no.* She had told him no in helping him ease the pain that had taken over. She had told him no in bringing justice to his love. *She had told him no*.

"*Fuck!*" he snarled, flinging the glass across the room to shatter against a wall. He whipped up his cloak from his seat and pinned it on. Fine. If she wasn't going to help him, he was going to help himself.

\_\_

Orcs could be hard to find, if they wanted to be. This particular orc was either too stupid, too egotistical, or both to bother covering his own tracks. Even if he had, Raef had tracked him for weeks to Skyport after hearing the faintest of rumors that the chieftain had been seen with his primary target. He needed the information rolling around in the chieftain's head and this night the orc had made one fatal mistake on his way back to his camp: he had deigned to travel alone.

Raef followed the chieftain's movements, perching on a branch of one of the many trees that crowded in on the little used path. He twisted the rope within his hands, lengthening the noose, and he waited until the orc was within distance before dropping it down over the thick head and around the even thicker neck. In the same instant, he stepped off the branch so the noose tightened about the orc's neck and lifted the male partially of the ground.

"You are even more stupid than you look," Raef commented as he tied the rope to a broken off stump near the tree.

"Fuck you," the orc choked out, clawing at the rope with one hand as his other struggled for the ax at his hip.

"That is an awfully rude thing to say." The elf smiled, darting in to relieve the orc of his ax. He untied a smaller piece of rope that he looped over the struggling orc's wrist. It took another moment to convince the orc to drop his other hand, a moment involving the threat of a slow and painful death. Soon both hands were tied firmly behind the chieftain's back. "Now, my little friend, you will tell me where Bloodgrut is."

"Stupid elf," the orc sneered before coughing sharply as Raef twisted the tip of a dagger into the small of his back.

"Wrong answer. One more time: where is he?"

The chieftain was stubborn and filled with snide comments, but Raef had all night long and plenty of anger to vent. At first the threats were large, a knee here or a punch there, until it became obvious the orc wasn't going to relent under that abuse.

"You really could have avoided this by just telling me what I want to know." Raef drew the tip of the dagger down along the side of the orc's face. He received no answer due to his second dagger being shoved up through the orc's lower jaw to secure it to the roof of the orc's mouth. "It would have been a lot easier." He peeled back a flap of skin, careful to keep out of range of the blood that spurted out. "You can also nod if you want to answer my question."

Raef received no nod in response and he kept on, carefully drawing down strips of skin to reveal the gleaming muscle beneath. Anatomy was always fascinating, but tonight was not a lesson on anatomy and what made orcs tick. Each strip removed elicited a pain filled, muffled scream and struggles that Raef avoided. It was near dawn when the elf had finished, a pile of skin at the orc's feet and a pool of blood covering the floor.

"You're still alive. Good." The assassin stepped away from the exhausted and bloodied chieftain, grabbing the rope one more time. This time he hoisted the orc into the air, watching the feet dance and sway before he came back. "Since you were too stupid enough to answer my question, you can at least pass along a message for me." He yanked his dagger out of the orc's mouth and used it to pin a piece of paper to the chieftain's chest. One word was written on it hastily scrawled orcish:

*Run*.

\_\_\_

After cleaning up and dressing into fresh clothing, Raef took himself down to the pub in order to find himself a fresh meal, paid for by the gold he had found nestled in the chieftain's purse. He had just settled himself down to eat his late lunch when a familiar sight barged into the pub and helped herself to a seat near him.

"I want you to join the guild," Ripley stated, answering any question that Raef had to her being there.

"No." He took a swallow of his ale before eating a bite of the stew that was still steaming. He had no interest in working for someone that had just denied helping him the other day.

Ripley took in the near empty mug before smiling in a less than pleasant way. "I bet I can out drink you."

Raef snorted derisively. "Bitch, not only can I out drink you, I can bet I can drink twice as much. Two shots for every one of yours."

\_\_\_

Sunlight filtered into the room, making the elf roll over onto his stomach and groan. His head throbbed and his stomach was in knots, but that wasn't the biggest problem he was facing that morning. The biggest problem was that he had lost a bet and had become a member of that damned guild.