[pre-story]By The Horns continues! This time, Rhuno finds himself in Shattrath, unwittingly targeted by an unscrupulous draenei. No sex yet, just lots of dialogue. Also, not 100% on the chapter name, yet, so if you have suggestions...
As always, if you like what you read [redacted] I hope you enjoy![/pre-story]
Locking Horns, Part 1
So, the World’s End Tavern didn’t have a great reputation, but it wasn’t THAT bad. They didn’t have the best drinks in Shattrath, they didn’t have the friendliest patrons (or staff, for that matter), the nicest beds, or even the cleanest floors… Okay, so maybe it actually WAS that bad. But it had the distinct advantage of being open to everyone, not JUST those who signed up with the Scryers or the Aldor. Refugees, orphans, smugglers, thieves, criminals, people who had no place else to go or who just wanted to stay out of sight of the authorities… people like Nisha.
As Nisha strode into The World’s End, her glowing blue eyes scanned the room from beneath the hood of her cloak. What she saw was not unexpected- the usual unsavory characters that lingered in the dark corners, Kylene carrying a tray of drinks out onto the floor, Haris Pilton standing around in her sunglasses with that horrible little dog of hers, a few Azerothian travelers here and there… one of whom caught her eye. A massive, black-furred tauren, sitting at the bar with a pitcher of ale in one hand, wearing a shirt and pants that, while simple, were nonetheless a little too nice for this neighborhood. As he spoke to the bartender, a glint of gold caught her eye, a sizable ring that held his braided beard together. A dark smirk crossed her glossy, deep purple lips. She’d spotted her first target.
She reached up to her collar and opened the clasp holding her cloak in place, and in a single, smooth motion, pulled it away. She liked this outfit. The black, thigh-high stockings hugged the shapely contours of her legs, and contrasted nicely with her bright pinkish-purple skin, leaving several inches of thigh exposed. Her top was basically a black leotard, legs cut high over her rounded hips, with a deep V running down from her neck to nearly her navel, squeezing her full breasts together to create some eye-catching cleavage. It left her shoulders bare, exposing the deep purple tattoo of a naaru she had on her upper arm. Some might say it showed a little too much skin, but then, with all these adventuring types running around in plate armor bikinis, in order to draw attention, one had to be a little… aggressive.
Nisha reached back behind her neck and ran her fingers through her long, deep purple hair, making sure it was straight after removing her hood (it was), and strode across the room, cloven hooves tapping on the stone floor. She quickly sidled up to the bar and slid into the stool next to the burly tauren figure, throwing a little extra flourish into her motions to make sure she got his attention. She didn’t look at him for a few seconds as she settled into her seat, but when she finally did turn to regard him, her smirk widened a bit as she caught his eyes flicking up to meet hers, just a little too slow to avoid being caught staring.
“Well, hello there, stranger.” She greeted, her voice smooth and sweet like honey. “I haven’t seen you around here before… Buy a girl a drink?” She asked, flicking her head in the general direction of the bartender.
The tauren arched an eyebrow that was split by a long, vertical scar that continued down onto his cheek, looking at her curiously for a moment. Then, he rolled his broad shoulders in a shrug. “...I don’t see why not.” He conceded, his voice deep and rumbling, raising his free hand to get the broken bartender’s attention. “And who is this drink for?”
“Call me Nisha. And what’s your name, big guy?” She purred.
“Rhuno. Rhuno Sunheart. A pleasure to meet you.” He replied, before Sharuubo noticed the hand and came over. “A drink for the lady.” The tauren ordered, gesturing in her direction. The old man caught her eye for a moment before shaking his head, and without even asking what she wanted, began pouring her drink.
Nisha smirked. “The pleasure is all mine.”
-----
“Sunwalker, huh? Sounds like an exciting life, travelling the world to protect the innocent… But carrying that burden must be exhausting…” Nisha purred, stroking his ego as her hand came to rest upon his muscular forearm. Paladin types always got on her nerves, but at least it was easy to push their buttons. They all wanted to be the center of attention, to be praised and adored for their heroism and their sacrifices so they can dismiss it all with a ‘oh, please, it was nothing, just doing my job’...
“...Not really.” Rhuno replied, a faint smile crossing his lips.
Nisha managed to resist rolling her eyes. “I think it’s really incredible what you do, throwing yourself into harm’s way over and over…”
“It’s really not.” Rhuno interjected, cutting her off suddenly. “People say it’s hard a lot, but I’ve never understood that. It’s not hard to get hurt. When you’re tanking, your whole job is to just stand in the way and be a big, annoying, shiny target for the bad guys to hit while everyone else does the difficult and complicated work. You’re there because, if you die, it’s fine, but if the healer dies, everyone dies.” He explained, then, oddly enough, smiled. “But it’s not bad, honestly. I… A long time ago, I thought it was stupid. Why get hurt if you don’t have to, right? But now… There are people out there who are really, really good. Just solid gold, all the way through. And there are lot of people out there who aren’t perfect, but they’ve never really done anything wrong, they’re just trying their best to get by. Protecting those people is just… good. When I’m protecting people, I know what I’m doing is right. I live in those moments where I don’t have a doubt in my mind that I’m doing the right thing.”
Nisha blinked, taken by surprise, falling silent as Rhuno raised the pitcher to his lips and took a drink. She’d been doing this for a long time, and she’d gotten pretty good at reading people, figuring out what they were going to say next… But that was definitely not what she’d been expecting. But more than being caught off-guard, what surprised her the most was the fact that he didn’t seem to be lying. He didn’t seem to be fishing for compliments or trying to convert her to worshipping the light, he just seemed to honestly believe what he was saying.
She was silent for a moment, then took a drink from her own mug, considering her options. Logically, she knew what she SHOULD do to keep things on track, which was nod and smile and continue to fawn over his ‘big, strong muscles’ and his ‘noble soul’… But something in her demanded satisfaction, it needed to speak up, to explain to him how… naive he was being. Normally, she could keep silent, but as she lowered her mug, the words pushed past her now-empty lips before she could silence them.
“...Do you think they’d do it for you?” Nisha asked.
“Hm?”
“Well, you want to protect people because they’re good and innocent, but if you look at all the people you’ve put your life on the line for, how many of them do you think would put themselves in harm’s way for you?” She pressed.
Rhuno blinked. “I…. Well, it’s not exactly a fair comparison, a farmer’s not going to be able to survive jumping in front of an angry dragon. You can’t blame them for being hesitant...”
“You know what I mean, but fine, let’s even the score, say you’re in a fight and…” Nisha began.
-----
A half-dozen empty mugs and pitchers rattled on the bartop as Rhuno pounded it with a massive fist. “Shadow magic is EVIL. Don’t gimmie that ‘oh, it’s not good OR bad’ crap, everything that comes outta the void is either straight-up super-evil or, at best, secretly corruptive.”
Nisha slammed back the last of her drink and slammed the empty mug down on the counter, waving a hand through the air in a sweeping gesture, gathering motes of darkness until her hand was engulfed in an orb of black light. “Explain to me how this is evil.” She demanded, pointedly.
Rhuno scowled. “Well, it’s gonna slowly drive you insane, for one thing.”
“That’s not evil, that’s just dangerous. If you use a sword for 20 years, chances are you’re gonna hurt yourself at some point.”
“That’s not the same thing!” Rhuno objected
“Isn’t it?” Nisha pressed.
“Fine, how about that it controls minds?”
“You CAN control minds with it, but I’m not controlling anyone’s mind right now, I’m just channeling some shadow magic to make it visible. It can’t be inherently evil unless the very act of channeling it somehow hurts other people!”
Rhuno threw up his hands in exasperation. “Fine! Okay! So it’s not INHERENTLY evil! But you can’t deny it lends itself to evil purposes! Mind control is never ‘good’, no matter...”
-----
“No, no, you’re coming at it from the wrong angle, societal roles don’t come into this, if somebody says ‘I don’t feel comfortable calling myself either male OR female’, what right do you have to tell them they’re wrong? You’re not in their head, you don’t know what they feel.” Rhuno insisted.
“I’m not saying they’re WRONG, I’m just saying the concept of ‘nonbinary’ doesn’t fit into society’s infrastructure as it stands, and trying to force a square peg into a round hole is a recipe for disaster, and it’s only going to encourage that us vs. them thinking that is going to get people hurt-” Nisha replied, her vigorous gesturing knocking over the nearly-empty glass in front of her. Sharuubo appeared out of nowhere and swiftly wiped up the mess. “-Sorry.” She muttered, sheepishly, as the old draenei poured her a fresh glass with a shake of his head.
“So, what’s the alternative, then, should they just keep waiting until ‘eventually’ society is ready for them?” Rhuno replied, keeping the discussion going “It’s not perfectly safe for them, but will it EVER be? If you believe in something, you have to be willing to accept some measure of risk, you have to be willing to fight for it-”
“There’s the problem! It’s not one person individually accepting the risks, by forcing the issue NOW, they doesn’t just put themselves at risk, they put everyone they know and all the other nonbinary people at risk! With increased visibility there’s increased scrutiny, so it just gets harder and harder to hide! I’m not saying give up fitting on the square peg in the round hole, I’m saying, rather than just trying to jam it through, take a second to cut the hole open a little wider first.”
“I always hear that argument, ‘just wait a little while until it’s safe’ but it’s never going to be perfectly safe! Sure, you need to be careful, I’m not saying put yourself in immediate danger, but if you’re not in a safe situation, you need to get out and go somewhere where you can be who you are, not just wait until the people around you ‘maybe, eventually’ open up and become more accepting. To borrow your metaphor, a square peg shouldn’t HAVE to cut open the round hole all by themself, there are square holes out there already, and the more square pegs people see, the more likely those round holes will open up on their own.”
Nisha levelled her gaze at him. “Really? They’ll just open up all on their own, huh? You’re putting a lot of faith in people’s ability to change.”
Rhuno chuckled, a faint smirk crossing his lips, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I like to think of it as ‘hope’ more than ‘faith’.”
-----
“I’m saying, like, listen, listen… listen.” Nisha urged, gesturing the tauren closer, her drink sloshing dangerously in its glass. “Don’t tell anybody, but I’m, like, THE BEST at sex.” she confided, then burst into a fit of giggles.
Rhuno sighed. “Okay, I think you’ve had enough…” He muttered, reaching for her drink.
“What? Hey! No, I’m fine, I’m fin! I’ve got a- a high tolerance.” She shot back, yanking the glass away from his reaching hands, the vigorous motion splashing mead onto her stockings, though she didn’t seem to notice.
“Right. Just in case.” Rhuno added, his massive, three-fingered hand closing around her delicate wrist, the other insistently prying the drink from her hand.
Nisha giggled. “You know what they say about guys with big hands…” She purred, her free hand coming up to stroke his muscular forearm. “...They need big gloves!” she finished, before cracking up in a fit of giggles once more.
“Okay, I think it’s time for you to get to bed.” Rhuno muttered, smirking, despite his best efforts, as he stood up, still gripping Nisha’s forearm.
“Ohh, so now you wanna get me into bed, huh? Well, it’s 20 gold for a quickie and 100 for a night.” She replied, still grinning, as she was abruptly pulled onto her hooves.
Rhuno froze for a moment, then shook his head. “...I’ll pay you in the morning. Right now, you really need to sleep this off.” He muttered, before heading off toward the back of the tavern, weaving around tables full of unsavory-looking individuals.
“Oooh, you think you can last ‘till morning? Not gonna happen, big guy, I don’t care how big you are, I’m gonna ride you like a cowgirl until you pass out!” She declared proudly as she half-stumbled after the hulking tauren figure. All of a sudden, he seemed a little blurry… then, everything went dark.
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