Instead of trying to hide, I stepped out into the middle of the road and started walking again, doing my best to look nice and harmless.
Just for change, it would be nice to end up in a place with no fighting. You know... I am sure it will turn out that it is a trade caravan moving spices. They found Dawn a couple of hours further down the road and she is completely fine, not even sunburned as they have this awesome healing magic.
Then I simply take her home to Buffy to fight evil hellspawn again. You know, a classic fairytale ending.
Yeah. Sure. Then I'll retire to a island somewhere to spend my time and my record breaking lottery winnings relaxing with a couple of feisty, busty redheaded twins.
When you are dreaming things up, you might as well go for broke.
I sighed and quickly checked my trusty old M-6 Carnifex. It saw plenty of duty during The Others War. Apparently if you put enough kill in one of them, you don't need dragon glass or magic blades.
It also turned out that a hypersonic metal slug to the head, usually was just enough kill. If not, two did it.
Still, I have been taking good care of her. She is a bit worn, but working perfectly still. I slid her back into her holster but left it unhooked.
Hope for the best, prepare for that dust cloud to contain a different kind of Carnifex.
As it got close enough for me to be able to make out shapes and colors more clearly, I started to think that a single tyranid was preferable.
They where green. And big. Riding even bigger, black and grey things.
Big and green.
Very few things in the universe is big, green and friendly. And I doubted that these things were cacti.
Oh please, please don't be Orks.
As they quickly approached along the road and I started to gather my mana. If they turned out to be Orks, I would shield myself and blast them to keep them away long enough to walk out and then I would get the fuck off this Plane.
If Dawn was still here and alive, she was on her fucking own! I was not messing with fucking Chaos, let alone the rest of the horrors in that universe.
It didn't take long before they rode past me, turning to circle, moving around me, and I got a good look at them and their mounts for the first time as they moved past.
Big, green. Big teeth. They were riding massive wolves and they were wearing armor, gray and red armor, carrying spears and axes. Their armor had marks on the shoulder pads.
Marks I recognized.
I almost collapsed in relief when I realized the truth. They were not Orks.
They were Orcs, as in 'Of the Horde'.
Oh, that's still plenty bad, but considering the alternative, this might as well be Sunnydale for how safe this world is.
...The fact that that thought was actually reassuring is all kinds of depressive and say a lot about my life...
The biggest one rode closer on his massive wolf, saying something in a harsh language.
I simply shook my head "Sorry, I don't understand you. I don't suppose you speak my language?" asked in return while making sure not to do any sudden moves. Primitive they might look, these are not stupid brutes.
It didn't look like they were about to kill me on sight, so that was a good sign.
I reached up to lower my hood, letting them get a better look at me when he said something else so I simply shook my head, causing the lead Orc to growl and then bark a order to the group. Three of them dismounted and started to approach me, one of them reaching for a pair of metal shackles while the others left their spears behind, pulling their axes.
Wanting to take me prisoner then?
Interesting. Also a good sign.
No need to escalate things to a 'burn them to a crisp' level. Let's go along for now.
I slowly let my white mana go. Unless they instantly killed me, like a spear through the head, I could defend myself and then heal the damage. And not like I couldn't walk out at any time.
No need to keep the mana ready like that. No need to antagonize them unless I have to.
I dropped my bag. "Ok, no need to get violent. I don't want any trouble. I'll come willingly." I said and let them put the shackles on my wrists before one of them pulled my M-6 from its holster.
The large weapon looked tiny in his large hand and he snorted at it before putting it in his satchel.
Not impressed, huh? Wait until you see what it could do.
The one that shackled me gave the chain a tug and said something I didn't understand. When I didn't respond he simply pulled me over to his wolf and threw me over it's back on my stomach just behind it's neck before getting back in his saddle.
Ouch!
I twisted slightly at the uncomfortable position but didn't complain, simply taking hold of what part of the saddle I could reach so I wouldn't start sliding around as one of the others took my backpack and they all mounted up again.
As undignified and uncomfortable as this was, it might be the best way to locate Dawn.
If she was captured the same way, which is likely if she followed this road. It seemed well traveled and if this was a normal patrol... And if this particular version of Orcs kept slaves or turned random humans walking around over to the Alliance.
This might be my ticket to find her.
If not I could always break free and take my stuff back. Or simply momentarily Walk out if things went really bad and then come back and get my stuff back.
Now when I was 'captured' it was at least unlikely they would try to kill me for no reason. I had time to plan, plot and prepare.
To Learn.
And I really need to try to find some real mental magic. If I had even Willows talent in it, with my power behind it, I could have had them dancing like puppets and telling me everything they knew.
Not that I would. I am very much against that kind of brain twisting. But I could at least have copied their 'grunt.exe' language file or what the hell you want to call it so I could understand them.
Instead I was bouncing on my stomach on the back of a oversized wolf, in front of the stinking Orc, hanging on the saddle as best I could out of fear for my life as they continued along the road as a high speed... I admit that at point it was slightly difficult to remember exactly what it was that was worth all this.
The things I do for my friends.
AN// Direct your thanks to Lord Sia for betainng this part.