untitled - by Ian

Long-long ago, in the kingdom of Dalaran, a few years before the prince Arthas was born. The ruler of Dalaran was young King Terenas, son of the great leader Arcanas. King Terenas was confused by the thoughts of the orcs invasion to the city. The orcs had also raided the other towns and cities nearby, leaving Dalaran as one of the last city survivors. The only allies left were the wizards of Stratlholme, but because the city was located to the far south, no one could reach it without being attacked by orcs. The ambassadors had figured that the reason why the orcs didn’t invade Stratlholme was because they knew that fighting the wizards would be folly and would end up with the orcs getting killed.
Meanwhile, in a village in the outskirts of Dalaran, lived a hardworking peasant named Uther. Uther lived in a farm and had always relied on his crops and his works for his own needs. He had always dreamt of becoming a knight who served the royal family and fought against the orcs. Although that dream seemed impossible to be fulfilled, but he always believed that one day it would come true if he had tried his best to do whatever it takes to fulfill the dream. That evening, Uther was tilling the soil for his seeds. Just then, he heard a scream coming from the forest, followed by running footsteps.
Uther immediately took his broken sword and ran into the forest to find out. On his way, he saw tracks of horse hooves and pieces of broken swords. Standing on the bridge was a lady who looked quite worried. Uther had asked her what happened and in reply, she said that her prized possession had been stolen by a bandit.
Hearing this, Uther ran immediately to the forest to capture that thief. At last he arrived at a clearing. He saw that the place looked like a camp, and in front of a broken tent, he saw a bandit, half dead because of severe bleeding. In front of him was a broad looking dwarf with a long beard holding a giant axe.
“HOW DARE YE THRASHED THROUGH MY TENT, AND YE STILL TRIED TO KILL ME? WHO DO YE THINK I AM?” roared the dwarf.
The bandit shrieked in terror as the dwarf threw him back into the forest. Seeing this, Uther was amazed with the strength of the dwarf and approached him.
“Excuse me, did you happen to take anything from that bandit that may seem to be valuable?” asked Uther.
“Hmmmm?” said the dwarf as he turned around, “Ye mean this?”
He tossed something that looked like a pendant.
“What are ye doin here anyway?” asked the dwarf.
“I came here to retrieve that item for a lady” replied Uther.
“I see you have a good heart lad. What’s yer name?” he asked.
“Uther. My name is Uther. By the way I saw you fight that bandit you were amazing! Might there be any chance for me to join you in whatever you’re in?” Uther asked.
“HAHAHAHA so ye wish to join me? Someone like ye might not last very long in a fight. But yer quite interesting; I’ll give ye a deal. If ye could at least help me catch a boar for dinner I might consider letting ye join us! Oh and by the way, names Muradin.”
After introducing each other, Uther set off deeper into the forest to look for some boars. He was walking through the bushes when he smelt a delicious scent. He sneaked behind a tree to find out, what he saw was so horrifying that he nearly screamed! Standing in front of a bonfire were two big fat ogres arguing over who should eat the roast boar.
The first ogre said,” Me catch this boar first, so me eat it first!”
“No! This my food! Last time I catch and you eat it!” said the second.
Uther thought of a bold plan to steal that boar while those two ogres were quarreling. Although the risks were high, Muradin might give a second thought on him. So Uther sneaked near the bonfire by moving stealthily through the bushes and hiding behind the giant boulders.
Just when he was about to take the boar from behind a boulder the first ogre noticed him,
“Look, look a human!” The second ogre said,
“Let’s catch him and eat him!”
Immediately those two ogres charged after Uther. Uther ran as fast as he could and just about when those two ogres caught him there was a loud explosion along with screams of pain. Following it were more explosions, and the two ogres collapsed to the ground. Behind the dead bodies were several dwarves holding something that looked like a stick with a metal tube.
Standing among them is Muradin, shaking his head while exclaiming, “Are ye nuts? Taking on two ogres by yerself? Well at least yer safe.”
He then stopped for a moment and then said again, “Congrats! Ye passed the test! Starting tomorrow ye should bring yer stuff and set a tent in our encampment. And don’t worry I’ll train ye and give ye better equipment.”
The next day, Uther brought all his belongings to Muradin’s camp. When he arrived, he saw that the camp was crowded with dwarves who were busy eating their breakfast. Just then Uther heard a familiar voice, it was Muradin! He said that they had been asked to capture a few gnolls who had been poaching some of the farmer’s livestock.
“If we finish this job successfully, we’ll be given a reward of money and probably some valuable items. Oh and by the way, I fixed yer sword. Turns out it’s a blade made out of fine iron.”
Muradin handed Uther his sword and saw that it turned out to be very sharp!
“So, when do we start?” asked Uther.
“Right away! But before we leave, I should give ye this.”
He handed Uther a vial which contained some sort of green liquid inside it.
“It’s a potion. Use it when ye get badly hurt, yer wounds will heal quickly.”
Finally they began their journey to the heart of the forest. “What are gnolls?” Uther asked.
“Gnolls are similar to wolves but they can walk with two legs. They’re very vicious and will chase their prey till the end. They are a smart and better race than normal wolves so we should be cautious.”
Just then both of them heard a howl, followed by rustling sound of bushes. “They’re near, on yer guards Uther!”
Uther immediately unsheathed his sword. Then from the bushes out came two big gnolls with sharp looking claws and teeth. In a flash Muradin and Uther were surrounded by vicious looking gnolls. Muradin charged to one of them and slamming it to the ground. Then the other gnolls attacked Uther, he tried to push them back but it seemed useless. One of the gnolls rushed at Uther from the back and slashed his back and caused him to bleed heavily. Uther then turned his back and stabbed the gnoll’s heart and killed it. More gnolls appeared and surrounded Uther, but Muradin bashed them were all thrown back into the forest.
“That should do it. They wouldn’t dare to come back here again. Drink that potion I gave ye lad.”
Uther did as Muradin said and drank that bitter potion. He suddenly felt a tingling feeling in his back and touched it, his wounds are healed! “Whoa that was quick!” he exclaimed.
“Potions are all like that. In some places they sell potions with stronger effect than those. There are many kinds of potions, potions of invulnerability, potions of invisibility, and much-much more.” Muradin said. “All right then lad, lets get back to our camp an’ get our reward.”
Once they arrived, they saw a farmer waiting in front of Muradin’s tent. Uther recognized that man and called,” Dominic? Is that you?”
“Uther? What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you were the one who took care those gnolls.”
“I sure did!” said Uther proudly.
“Well enough of that where’s our reward?” asked Muradin.
“Errrr, you see, I don’t have enough money to pay you but I have some valuable information! Said Dominic.
“Spit it out!” replied Muradin.
“You see, king Terenas is running out of warriors to fend off the orcs. So, what I suggest you do is destroy them! Destroying the whole orc army would be impossible for you to do Uther, but if you kill the orc leader, they will leave their ranks and victory will be at hand! If you do so, King Terenas shall pay you handsomely.”
“Hmmm, what do you think Uther?” asked Muradin. “I say we go beat those orcs and give them a lesson!” said Uther with excitement.
“All right! That’s what I’d like to hear! But before we leave, we need to get some provisions for our journey.”
That evening, Uther and Muradin left to the Dalaran market square to buy stuff for their journey. Uther and Muradin kept stopping at shops only to buy food and Uther was starting to get bored. “Here’s our last stop.” Muradin said.
Uther looked at the sign and said, “Goblin storage shop? What kind of store is this?”
“You’ll see.” replied Muradin.
Once they got in, Uther saw that this place was different than the other shops. It was cramped with all sorts of stuff including pendants, potions, rings, and other things. Muradin immediately took what he wanted and put it on a counter where an old goblin sat while reading a book. Uther finally caught a glimpse of something interesting. A dagger with a weird ornamental handle was being placed on the top shelf.
“What’s this?” Uther asked.
“Muradin turned his head and observed the dagger with a confused look on his face and said, “Weird, I never seen anything like that in my life before.”
“The goblin turned his face up and said with a croaky voice, “That dagger belonged to the long ago thief Kelen. I retrieved it when he was executed for stealing a valuable artifact. I’ll tell you what it can do if you buy it.”
“How much?” asked Uther.
“Forty five gold crowns.” The goblin replied. “FORTY FIVE?” said Muradin in a surprised voice.
Uther looked at the dagger and thought about whether he should buy it or not. After some time of thinking he finally said, “Forty five gold crowns it is!” “Good good! Now as I promised I’ll tell you its function.”
The goblin then whispered to Uther something. After a while Uther finally nodded and left the shop with Muradin. It is night time when Muradin asked Uther,
“So, what can it do?”
“What?” replied Uther.
“You know, that dagger.”
Uther then gave a grin and said, “You’ll know it when you see it!”
The next day, Muradin ordered all his brethren to pack up and get ready for battle.
“Ye ready lad?” asked Muradin.
“Ready whenever you are!” said Uther.
At the break of dawn, the dwarven army marched towards the orcish encampment.
“We shouldn’t strike at the enemies main forces, it would mean suicide. Distract the enemy to the north by firing with our riflemen. Send our main force to attack the rest of the enemy to fend them off, meanwhile Uther and I shall strike at the enemy commander.” commanded Muradin.
From the north of the camp came a blast which surprised the orcs, it seemed some of the orcs got distracted but it was less than what Muradin expected. Muradin then decided to send another team to distract them. This time the orcs got even more suspicious and sent more forces to figure it out. Then, Muradin’s main army charged forth sending blasts of gunpowder to the enemy. Meanwhile, Muradin and Uther got busy looking for there leader. They chose the biggest tent of them all to look at but even before they got in, a tall orc wielding a gigantic sword stepped out and striked Muradin. He easily blocked the attack with his axes but is surprised with the orcs massive strength.
He was able to trouble me with the very edge of his sword, such monstrous strength! Muradin thought. “Uther! Attack him now!” Uther immediately unsheathed his sword and striked at him, but the orc created mirror images by using his amazing skill to fool Uther, but Uther kept confident. He unsheathed his dagger and swung it wildly in the air. After a few moments, Uther disappeared. The orc leader pushed back Muradin and slashed on his chest, leaving him unconscious. He looked around, desperately trying to find Uther but he was no where to be found.
Suddenly he heard footsteps from his back and instinctively swung his blade towards Uther and nearly hit him but Uther backed off. The orc leader ran towards Uther and swung his blade towards him, missing him and slicing a tent in two. The orc chieftain created mirror images to confuse Uther. Uther swung his dagger again and appeared somewhere else. The rest of the orcs were pushing the dwarven forces back and were winning. Uther tried to ignore the other orcs and concentrated on their leader. He gave one last try and swung his dagger and appeared behind the orc leader. Immediately he stabbed the orc through the chest, but it was merely a mirror image! “DIE HUMAN SCUM!” said a voice from Uthers back.
Just when Uther thought he was going to die he was wrong. The orc collapsed to the ground and the mirror images disappeared. Standing on top of the dead body was Muradin, although his chest had been slashed, it was merely an injury for him.
“Good job lad. Now let us bring back the orc’s blade and return to Dalaran.” said Muradin. The rest of the orcs saw that there leader was killed, and they immediately ran away.
The next day, Uther and Muradin went to king Terenas’s castle. “My lord, may I present to you, the blade of the orc leader.” said Muradin.
King Terenas’s eyes widened at this sight. “Who did this? Who killed the orc leader and brought peace to our land?” asked the king.
“I did.” said Uther triumphantly.
“What’s your name?” the king asked.
“Uther, my name is Uther.” he replied.
“From this day on, you shall become a paladin and shall serve at my side. Thus you shall be named, Uther the light bringer!” And after that day, Uther’s life changed forever. And that was the story, of how a peasant could become a great man!