Dinen crouched on the edge of the cliff, watching from afar as a small line of black dots quickly moved south along the riverbank, before disappearing into the darkening twilight. He stared in that direction for a moment, then stepped back.

"As we thought," he said as he returned to the others, "they went south. ”

"Searching the villages and farms will take them a long time." Sal agreed, but then frowned, "I hope Blackmore's men don't cause them too much damage." ”

"Don't worry, he won't be here for long." Albert said briskly, "He must explain this to the king—he promised that there would be no trouble with an orc." By the way, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would not let him go easily, and the Earl of Tallinns had a headache for the expenses of the asylum for a while every year. ”

"So we can get a good night's sleep tonight?" Sal said happily. Pain, blood loss and long journeys exhausted him.

"Almost. But I asked to eat first. ”

"Seconded."

"Actually, I'm hungry too...... Come on, guys. ”

Previously, in order to lighten the load, they had abandoned the leftover food and those rudimentary tools. Fortunately, before setting up camp, Dinen was lucky enough to catch two rabbits. No, he actually caught the carnivorous spider that had just caught the two rabbits, but the other two very firmly rejected his offer for the crunchy spider dish, so it took them another half an hour to get the two rabbits off the spider's web.

Dineen said that in this case, these two little bastards don't want to touch him with a spider tonight!

***

Successfully fooled the trackers, making them feel happier than ever. Albert and Sal sat by the fire and relaxed and chatted, sharing the same curiosity about each other's very different life experiences.

Dining, who rarely had patience, carefully roasted the pieces of meat on the branches, sizzling them. While not having spices is a big challenge, the diners you have to deal with are not so picky. Occasionally, he looked up at the two people who were about to burst into laughter, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

It's not like he hasn't lived peacefully with the tribe. The Silver Northern Expeditionary Army accepts all volunteers, regardless of race, occupation, or status. It was the only time Dineen could watch the tribe pass in front of him without drawing his sword. But that's all, he, and most of them, will choose to ignore the existence of the other side outside the arena. He never thought about communication, let alone that he would one day stay with an orc, the point was to be calm.

As Khadgar said, Dineen hated the Horde only because they were enemies of the Alliance. He remembered the pain of every war, so he treated tribes and demons equally, and had no doubts about it. He was cold-blooded and unscrupulous in his quest to take revenge on the tribe, and they returned the same hatred and hurt to him. He couldn't even believe that there could be peace, let alone cooperation, between the Alliance and the Horde.

But what if that actually happened?

Dineen stared at the flames in front of him in a daze. He could hear Albert and Sal's conversation and their reactions verbatim.

Raised as a paladin since childhood, Albert met the noblest of the human race, and their words and deeds gave him a natural and excellent character. Growing up as a slave, Thrall has struggled with sharp malice and abuse, and he has met both good and many more bad people, but they have also shaped his resilient character and led him to overcome his bloodthirsty nature, which is deeply embedded in his blood.

At this time, these two young people, whose lives are very different but have quite similar personalities, are learning from each other's accounts about areas that they would not otherwise be able to know. They were surprised to find that the gap between them was not as big as they thought, at least in the training part, it was hard, rigorous, and challenging. These commonalities resonated with them. They laugh together when they talk about their clumsiness and mistakes, and empathize with each other when they talk about the troubles and pains they have experienced. They seem to be close friends, and the hatred and prejudice between the races are wiped out between them.

Dineen had never seen anything like it.

Albert is a paladin, and he is bound to be in a high position in the league. And Thrall is the future tribal chieftain. Experience had taught him that the friendship between the two young men would inevitably end on the battlefield, but Dineen felt a faint regret for the outcome.

But what can he change?

Hatred has been there since the beginning and can lead to conflict and chaos, no matter how long it has passed. Look at Gianna? Prodmore, Theramore's destruction was a stab in her heart. Who else would have believed that the Union and the Horde would coexist peacefully since then?

"-What do you mean?"

At first, Dineen hadn't come back to his senses, and it wasn't until two pairs of eyes looked at him that he realized what had just been said to him: "What? ”

"We just talked about an orc phrase and wonder what that means." Albert explained, "Can you translate, Dineen?" ”

Dineh sighed: "Say it, I'll listen." ”

"Say it to him again, Sal." Albert looked at Sal.

The orc nodded. He curled his tongue and repeated the words that were deeply engraved in his memory: "Kagh! Binmogg’thazagcha!”

"Run, I'll protect you." Dinen translated, and then he saw the two of them stunned together, "What's wrong?" ”

"I ...... I thought," Sal said slowly, "he wanted to ...... Attack me. ”

"Him?"

"The first orc Sal met as a child." Albert said, "He was ...... at the time"

"I'm being mobbed by other people." Thrall interrupted him, and Albert understood and let him pick up, "But it was just training, and I was surrounded by twelve people in the middle. He thought they were going to shoot me, so he broke the railing of the prison cart and rushed out......"

He held his forehead, looked at the ground, and said slowly, "He's dead." He died to protect me - but I didn't do anything, I didn't even understand what he meant, and watched as they chopped him to pieces. ”

There was silence around the fire for a while. Then Dineen sighed.

"Although I hate to admit it — because I hate tribes, very, very much." "But in reality, sometimes they're much stronger than some humans." ”

The other two looked at him in surprise. But Dineen ignored them. He furrowed his brow in contemplation, as if the sentence had been uttered completely unintentionally.

"Tribe." He said to himself, drawing the bright red glare sign on the ground at his feet, and looked at it for a while.

Maybe he could give it a try, even a temporary peace would be able to drain a little less of the Alliance's strength. For the inevitable attack of the Burning Legion, they must strengthen themselves as much as possible. He had lived through that era firsthand, so he knew better than anyone what the world was about to face.

But even then, the final outcome is not up to him. This thought inexplicably relieved Dining. He wasn't afraid to take responsibility, but he knew he couldn't make a quick and firm choice, at least not to tell himself as decisively as he had been before, and he was right to do it. This is undoubtedly a serious flaw for those who give orders. So giving up the choice is the truly responsible thing to do.

- But the immediate priority is the Cursed Sect, and the tribal dispute will be postponed.

Dineen raised his hand to wipe the sign away. He suddenly sniffed the air carefully, then frowned.

"Lads." He interrupted Albert and Sal's whispering of heads against their heads. It seems that they should have chosen to talk this way so as not to disturb his thoughts, but the downside is that the two fools can't even look at the fire in front of them, "I have to tell you one thing - remember to pay attention to your surroundings the next time you chat, haven't you noticed that those two rabbits have been roasted?" ”

"What !!!" *2

After some scrambling, their rescue failed. Looking at the two rabbits that had been cut off for a whole lap without seeing fresh meat, the two young men finally realized that they had to choose between sleeping hungry and roasting spiders.

Albert's face was clearly written as if his heart was dead, and Sal poked the basin-sized spider and smacked his lips in embarrassment, unable to figure out how to eat it.

"At least you have a good memory." Dineen said with a straight face, as if the two-thirds of the dinner was wasted had nothing to do with him.

The two of them looked at him together with resentment.

"Alright, alright." Dinen surrendered, he could pretend it had nothing to do with him, but he still couldn't do something like starving his companions, "Why don't you try this spider now?" I promise it's not as scary as you think. ”

This is true. It wasn't the first time Dineen had eaten spiders, so he knew they tasted just like crabs.

Albert held up a hand.

"What's the matter?"

"Do you know more about orcs, Dinein?" He asked solemnly, and Sal nodded vigorously in support, "I want to request a diversion of attention." ”

"I thought you were past the time to like bedtime stories, man."

"It's not a bedtime story, we're eating right now, are we?"

"But they serve the same purpose - okay, don't look at me like that, I didn't say no."

If storytelling solves their psychological barriers to food, Dineen doesn't mind. His own experiences and the otherworldly memories that had completely become his knowledge reserves made him more than enough to cope with the curiosity of two young people.

"Let me think about where to start...... "He set up the spider on the fire, "Let's start with Draenor." ”

***

Years later, Sal still remembers that night.

At that time, there was a bright galaxy above his head, a wet ground under his feet, a dark forest behind him, a warm fire in front of him, and a trusted friend next to him. There are also hands and feet that have been freed from the shackles, the freedom that I have experienced for the first time in my life, the crackling spiders that have been roasted, and the silence that permeates the cool air...... and the longing for his distant homeland and his siblings, who sleeps in his veins and slowly awakens in Dining's narration.

He listened to those unfamiliar and familiar terms, listened to the heavy snow and rushing magma of Frost and Fire Ridge, and the two-headed wyvern soared in the wind and snow. In the endless grasslands of Nagrand, huge split-hoofed oxen rumbled and roared. There are also the golden red of the mountains of Talado, the eternal darkness of the Valley of the Shadowmoon, the dense and dim jungles of Golrond, the sharp peaks of Aranca, and the dark gates of Tanaan......

And his people. Migrants trudging through the snowstorms, wolf cavalry running in the steppes, hunters looming in the jungles, torches lit like stars on the night of Koshhag, songs of shamans praising their ancestors and elements, totems and fluttering flags, heroic epics passed down from generation to generation – "lok'amon" for family history, "lok'tra" for war, and "lok'vadnod" for the life of heroes, so the orcs say. Thrall kept the words in his heart as he had been when he had learned what Blackmore wouldn't allow him to know. He enriches his imagination with them, and then gets a grand, wild world and a history of orc clans.

For the first time, Sal knew exactly who he was, where he came from, and where he was going. He was no longer confused and confused, the path under his feet was clear again, and he strode forward with courage and pride.

That night, he dreamed that he was walking through the wind-howling snowfield with a flag in hand, and a huge white wolf roaring in the sky beside him.