"You would forgo our revenge so quickly, Grimnir?"
Frostwolf beside frostwolf, the two spirit-brothers loped through the spirit world that paralleled Alterac. Grimnir marvelled at how naturally he took to four legs, and how much he relished his spirit form. It would serve him well on the other side.
But for now...
"I was rotting inside, Heimdall. An old, overripe melon, just waiting to burst. I had no time life."
The other wolf, just a shade whiter than him, gave Grimnir a sidelong glance.
Grimnir sighed. "Maybe it was the easy way out. But, damn...it felt so nice to rest, you know? To be free of it."
The two wolves crested a ridge and looked down upon Alterac as it should have been - brimming with frostwolves, cavorting in the spring snow.
"They cannot be truly free, you know," Heimdall observed. "Jonathan's treachery binds them to this world. Until they are revenged, they will not pass on...and neither will you."
Grimnir lay down, resting his nose on his front paws.
"Marcus Jonathan...he's...difficult to get to, Heimdall. I finally tracked him down, but he's Commander of Stormwind Defense. One of the most untouchable people in the Eastern Kingdoms."
Heimdall's voice was oddly gentle. "I thought that was why you had forsaken our Clan, and sworn blood oath to the Blacktooth? You said that only they could muster the steel to assault Stormwind."
"Aye."
"And?" the other wolf prodded.
"...And nothing," Grimnir said, standing. "You're right. I have one final debt to collect. Is there still time to return?"
The other wolf nodded. "Your friend Shadiel has been kind enough to still your earthly decay. Your mortal vessel remains intact."
Grimnir scratched himself with his hind leg, casting his gaze over the shimmering spirit world representing the Alterac Valley. It was beautiful, yes...but not the end. Not the answer. All those Frostwolves...Clan and Kin....they deserved their true rest.
And for that, one more person needed to die.
Grimnir looked at Heimdall. "Thank you, my friend...for remaining Bound to me after all this time...even after I forsook the Clan. Thank you for returning to me now."
Heimdall inclined his wolfish head, but said nothing.
Grimnir fixed his wolf with a steady gaze, then suddenly and decisively shot his head in and clamped teeth down upon the smaller wolf's neck. Heimdall's eyes remained steady as his essence bled out from the wound and spread across Grimnir's body. Both wolves then raised their heads and howled at the spirit sky, cataclysmic above them.
Grimnir fell into nothing at all....and emerged cold, shivering, but essentially whole, lying on his back. His eyes swam dizzily, found their focus, and he beheld the roof of an orcish house. Stonard, clearly.
He was back.