A night in Elwynn
Finally, it was night again. She could feel herself gaining more strength in the darkness, as all would who belonged to her kind. Night Elves.
Selina smiled sarcastically. She had left her home several full moons ago.
Her pupil-less, silver eyes shone in the moon light. Her light violet colored skin toned her hair well, that was long and purple, she wore it tied back in one thick ponytail.
She looked around carefully, to make sure she hadn’t been followed. Elwynn Forest could have seemed peaceful that night for the unexperienced. But she knew well that it was crawling with hungry beasts... or thieves...
She stopped. Her dark brown robe flapped in front of her.
Light could be seen from behind a nearby bush. She approached the plant carefully, and moved some branches quietly, so she wouldn’t be exposed.
She saw three dog-headed gnolls sitting by a fire. They talked, and often laughed, which they only interrupted to sip a flask. Selina was quite sure, it was not water they drank. Gnolls usually weren’t so friendly – not even to each other.
The elf could almost feel her success. Now, as she got so close to her goal, the task seemed rather easy. She tightened her muscles and would have reached for her knives, when...
Everything went black. Someone had pulled a sack to her upper body, held her arms tight and started to carry her backwards. She struggled to break free from the grip - that she had found quite strong - but with no success. Eventually she had to realize, the arms of her attacker had no problem at all holding her.
Could it be the gnolls that attacked her from behind? Those gnolls, who could easily forget their target just to fight for control? For a moment she thought to ask her attacker, but then without a word she was dropped on the ground.
Selina lept up, unsheathed her knives and readied herself to strike the greatest blow ever struck at his attacker... a grinning tauren?!
Selina tried to remain focused, but she could not hide her surprise completely. This tauren didn’t look like the ones she had met so far. This bull seemed weaker built, than his kind usually are – though the elf could have easily hid behind even him.
He wore a slightly decorated leather vest and black linen pants. His fur was gray with a coarse black mane, his eyes emerald green. His smile looked honest but it also showed lack of experience... Selina finally understood: she had met a young bull.
„Wow, you’re a night elf, are you not?” he asked in common language and on a voice that could have hardly been compared to anything else besides that of a mutating tauren. „You are my captive now, you have to follow me to our camp!”
The woman came to her senses.
"Me? Your captive?! Ha, I'd like to see that!"
She turned away to leave but the bull grabbed the end of her robe. Worried, that the precious cloth would be torn, she stopped immidately, and turned back to him.
"I have no time for this, kid! Let me go and I will do the same."
The tauren knit his eyebrows trying to look fierce.
"You realize, that I could have killed you back there?"
"Don't make me laugh! I..."
They both heard a noise. A far away rumble, that was approaching by the second. Selina first thought it to be a smaller army, with more distuingished fighters following on carts. But as they got closer, she had to change her mind.
The bones of some illuminated in the darkness. Undead. They were undead, and their wagons did not carry passengers, but corpses.
The surprise of the bull easening his grip on her robe, Selina jumped up a nearby tree with agility shaming a night saber, and disappeared into the shadows. The tauren knew, his weight was too large for the branches. He peered the ground anxiously for some hiding place, but found nothing that would fit his size.
Scared he looked back at the approaching enemy again. The first ghouls had gotten in gun range...
Suddenly the night elf jumped back next to him and covered both of them with her robe.
"Don't move"she whispered and in a few seconds, they both disappeared from all eyes – and eyesockets – like if they had never even been there.
"Must feed..." a ghoul howled, while moving its head around maniacally searching for a corpse.
On the top of the meat wagon a man sat wearing dark robes, his face was covered by his hood. He held a staff next to him with such an eager grip on it as if someone would have been trying to take it away. He seemed to be the leader of the group, but had no interest in the plea of the unranked fighter.
"Me smell meat!" another ghoul said, and sniffed the air just a thumb away from the elf and the tauren, but could not see the hiding pair.
"Onward" ordered the robed figure "We have not a moment to loose!"
The wagon had already gone ahead of the hungry ghouls, that followed eventually.
When the undead had gotten to a safe distance, Selina raised her robe, to take put it back on her. The pair could be seen again.
Although the tauren felt gratitude towards the elf, he gazed scared after the bone army, while one thought rattled in his mind:
"They move towards our camp. I must warn my clan!"
"Good luck!" the woman threw at him from a few steps away already.
"Won't you come with me?" asked the bull, still not recovered from the excitement.
"Why would I? Do your job, and I'll do mine" she replied and disappeared into the shadows again.
The bull hesitated for a moment but then set off as well.
He had to find a path, where he could avoid the undead, and yet get ahead of them. He fastened his steps.
He was close, when a skeleton jumped out from behind a tree, moving its scythe in a height that it would have beheaded the tauren, had he not been careful.
The undead did not hesitate. It stroke again and again at the tauren, but missed him continously. When the tauren had enough, he grabbed the handle of the scythe and swung it with enormous strength. The undead moved with its weapon, but when the bull suddenly stopped his arm, the skeleton flew right to a tree and disintegrated to bones.
Then a ghoul attacked. The tauren watched the creature with disgust. He had only heared of such from elders' tales. He had seen skeletons raised from the dead, because some races in Kalimdor also mastered the dark arts of necromancy, but in the battle of Mount Hyjal he did not participate because of his young age.
The ghoul held no weapon, but its claws reaching an at least four inches length, was more than enough to strike a fatal blow on any being.
The rottening flesh only covered the yellowy bones in some places. Bent, licking his jaw with what was left of his tongue, the ghoul eyed the tauren.
The bull fastened his grip on the scythe aimed towards his opponent. He was not going to flee the battle. But then, on his left side another ghoul appeared from the bushes, and on the right a third one. The tauren kept an eye on his foes and he had to realize they tighten the circle. Then the one in front of him attacked.
The bull swung the scythe, and succeeded in cutting down the left arm of the undead. With the swing he could move the blade with its flat side to the ghoul on his right, which fell back, giving the bull some time.
The latter sensed the creature on the left approaching, but the armed one got dangerously close again, that the bull had no choice, but to strike him. He swung again, thus the undead now had no arms at all, but clapping its’ jaws together it still moved forward. Frustrated, the tauren cut down the skull of the same foe. This was too much even for the ghoul, it fell on the ground „lifeless”.
But the opponent that the bull had ignored for the success now opened his jaws wide, and bit a rather large chunk of meat of the waist of the tauren.
The bull screamed from the pain and fell to his knees and the ghoul immediately started to chew its reward. Blood sprinkled from its flawed jaws, making it look even more disgusting.
The night elf searched the track back to the gnolls. She as all of her kind found their way easily in the forest, so she could locate the place... only the gnolls were gone. Selina cursed.
Obviously the dog-headed creatures had also sensed the danger, and they fled. The elf read the tracks, and already found the way, which the gnolls possibly took.
Then she heard a large scream. She peered around searching the source, although she recognized the voice of the tauren right away. She sneered as she imagined the large, clumsy hooves stomping each other. Of course, he may also have gotten in trouble...
She stopped for a moment to look back. This was none of her business! She might be caught even, for real! The truce since the battle at Mount Hyjal was nothing but unwritten and fragile.
She eyed the trees as if expecting approval from them, that she has nothing to do with the tauren and his problems. But the forest did not reply. Even the wind that had spoken through leaves quited now.
The elf stepped towards the gnolls with unease, and then she moved on.
Backwards.
Maybe she can borrow something useful from the orcs. Yes, obviously there must be a valuable magic item in that camp, this is why her senses demand going back, and not...
The tauren gathered all his strength, and due his latest experience, he stroke a powerful kick into the face of the feasting ghoul, making the skull fall on the ground. The body followed.
Meanwhile the last foe came to its senses. Realizing that a dead prey doesn’t fight back, the undead lifted its right clawed arm high, to end the misery of the bull. In that very moment Selina appeared, and with her knives she cut through the spine of the ghoul.
What in the Nether am I doing here? she asked herself and glanced at the tauren.
„Wait... let me help.”
„The clan... my clan...” he moaned and tried to stand up, but the elf held him back.
„If you don’t allow me to bandage it, you are going to collapse halfway” Selina said, while she reached into her pouch to take out a roll of white textile which looked soft and strong at the same time.
„You’re so... prepared”
„You get used to it, if you can count only on yourself.”
The elf put the bandage carefully on the wound, and helped her temporary patient up. Seeing that the moves of the tauren were still rather clumsy, she said:
"Very well. I'll escort you to your camp, but after that we part, as if we had never met!"
Approaching the place the tauren was directing them to, they had a strange feeling. Deep silence. This was rather unlikely to orcs, who usually were loud, both while on the battlefield and chatting. When the elf and the tauren got closer, even Selina was surprised by the view.
The cortex of the trees spoke a battle of claws and axes. The tracks of the meat wagon was colored red by puddles of blood. The tents were less damaged in the fight, most of them still stood. Selina figured, that the clan was not the main goal of the undead, just an obstacle.
In the middle the campfire was still burning, it could have warmed around ten or twelve orcs. On two sides Y-shaped branches were pitched into the ground, to roast a rather large prey. But there was no meat now, nor a cook.
"I'm too late" moaned the bull, and bend his head down.
After some moments, the elf replied,
"I'm sorry" It struck even her, how emotionless her words had been. Peering around searchingly she stepped towards the tents.
"What... what are you doing?" the tauren asked.
"What anyone with a common sense can do. Searching for something useful."
"No, don't! I can not allow you to rob them!"
"Who?" Selina asked.
The bull spread his arms to answer the seemingly obvious question, but no words came out of his mouth. The ground was covered with dropped axes, branches used as temporary weapons and blood... but no corpses. Not a single one. While other races stole objects and treasure from their victims, the undead took the bodies themselves.
The woman had looked around carefully, but didn't find much usable. Only some mail armor laid on the ground and orcish weapons, all useless to her. Most were even cracked or broken. No matter, how much the undead were urged, obviously they didn't leave anything valuable behind, but what was stranger that they took most of the gold and silver as well. What use in money, when you use brute force to take what you need?
While Selina were wondering about undead tactics, Thygore silently prayed to the spirits for the peace of his fallen comrades. He had bowed his head to mumble the words needed until he spotted something. A violet colored crystal lay on the ground only a few feet away from his hooves. The tauren stepped there to lift the stone.
"What's this?" he asked, showing the strange loot to the elf. Selina carefully took the crystal and turned to expect it in the moonlight.
"I'll tell you what this is" she said taking a last peek at the stone "useless junk."
With that she carelessly threw the crystal behind. Thygore was surprised by the ignorance of the elf. He tried to catch the stone, but he wasn’t fast enough. The crystal fell on an axe and broke into pieces. In that moment Thygore saw a strange white smoke eruptfrom the shards. He felt he should touch it for some reason. As if lightning had struck him, Thygore thought the force would kill him. But soon he realized the strange smoke didn’t hold the power of the elements, but emotions. Endless anger, fear but also joy had struck him and soon he heard wolves howling, as if a whole pack would have tried to greet the moon right in his skull. He barely managed to pull his hand back when finally the vision was over, the smoke was gone. He stood there surprised, still effected by what he had just seen. He heard Selina’s words from afar, until the elf yelled.
„Are you even listening?! I said we need to leave!”
The tauren looked up mesmerized.
„You heard it too?”
Selina looked at him puzzled.
„Heard what?”
Thygore gave her a weird look. The howling... it felt so incredibly loud, the whole forest should have been disturbed. And yet an elf with trained ears standing just a few steps away from him had no idea of what he had seen?
„Look, I have no time for daydreaming!” Selina snapped, sounding more impatient „The undead may return!” so she turned to go back into the forest.
The tauren had to accept the elf was right, and he set off as well, but his thoughts still lingered around the strange crystal.
They had been walking for about an hour, when the bull suggested having some rest. Selina thought, they had gotten far enough from the undead, so they lit a fire. When the tauren seated, she took the bandage off him.
„The bleeding has eased. I must clean the wound” he eyed her quesioning. „This means it may burn now a bit.”
„Go ahead! I can stand the pain.”
„I’m glad to hear that” Selina replied, and took some wool cloth out of her bag, and a bottle that contained a blurring green liquid.
„My name is Thygore” the tauren initiated, and watched curiously what the elf was doing.
„Selina” she replied shortly while cutting a piece off the wool with one of her knives.
„Why are you alone?” the bull pushed on.
„Because I don’t have a companion.”
„Yes, but why?”
Selina did not reply, just soaked the piece of wool with the green liquid.
„You aren’t too talkative...”
„Wander the world alone, like I do, you won’t meddle so much yourself.”
She pushed the wool to the wound for the first time. Thygore quivered, tears appreared in his eyes, but he’d rather bite his lip than giving even a slight sign of complaint. The woman smiled seeing that the pride of males was an attribute of any race, and continued to clear the wound. When she finished, she put new bandages on it, and Thygore sighed with relief. He leaned back slowly on the ground.
Selina packed everything in her bag, and also sat down by the fire.
„Why did you want to take me to your clan?” she asked.
„I was supposed to be kippered to a mature bull today. These times a tauren must hunt a creature of the wild...” he paused because of Selina’s angry glare „...but I would have surely let you go after it!”
„I doubt it would have been so simple...” she muttered, but the bull could no longer hear her, he was already sound sleep.
Great... Looks like I will start the lookout Selina thought, doubting that Thgore would ever weak up again before morning. She cursed silently, having to waste the night in such a way, but there was no way back now. Why hadn't she left when she had the chance...