Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

Post by rivaan »

Naisha groaned in response and nodded, holding her head for a little while longer while the healing magics settled and the pain subsided, though the slight spinning and vertigo persisted for a bit while longer even if lessened. Yeah It's been a while since she got hurt that bad to require a good deal of healing and her neck really hurt still." Thank you, I will be fine in a bit... it's funny, that's the second time I fall like this. Last time I was maybe 3 and a half summers old? I kinda stopped moving one wing to grab something midair and did a sideways spin. All the other harpies laughed at me and nobody helped me back then, the clan leader named me Useless Fall... I guess I still fall like that." She stated, a bit sad about it.

"Ugh..." She groaned and lightly shook her head, trying to get the spinning out. It didn't quite work, but it didn't make it worse." Yeah... to both... I suppose?" Naisha replied and made herself more comfortable on top of hte varying furs and pelts they were using as bedding. The twigs and other things underneath could still be felt a bit, but she didn't think it too bad. Then again she had an especially thick bear fur underneath her." I mean... the woman that well laid my egg, did so in a clutch with half a dozen others and she naturally also had others before that too, so I've got a lot of harpy... sisters. It's part of why the others didn't like me much though. I was different from the others in the nest. All off the others came out as perfect replicas of our... progenitor." She refused to call that harpy a mother. She had a true mother now." I was the only one that hatched different. The clan is known for their red and gold plummage, where as you see Im white and silvery."

"As for my adopted family, well... My mother's close to 4000 years old, so yeah, I've got a few kaldorei siblings, but I've never met of the 5 of them. The youngest is a few centuries old and all of them are scattered across the Kaldorei lands, many serving in the sentinels, the temples or as druids... Well... after the war ended and we recieved the lists of casualties, mom was devastated to learn that 4 will never return. My last remaining Kaldorei sibling is actually across the ocean right now, we recieve letters from her every now and then, she's in a place called Stormwind." She explained. Night elves had incredibly long lifespans and were in fact ageless prior the battle at Mount Hyjal. It was unknown if their prior endless lifetimes will return eventually after that world tree recovers in times, but they were still incredibly long lives to begin with and with that come low birthrates. Naisha was more than well aware that her mother will outlive her and in the case she gets any new siblings, they would too.

"Well, in Ashenvale, I was a bit of a curiosity at first. Not many harpies leave the clans after all, but people didn't seem to mind me too much. Could be my mother's influence I suppose, since she is a well respected priestess of Elune and tha I was about 4 years old at the time. So people treated me well enough, got into a few odd situations while I learned how Kaldorei society works though. I had no way of knowing that markets weren't free for all until mom explained that... or that we were supposed to walk about dressed properly. Back in the clan, most went completely naked unless they were using something magical. Found clothing very constrictive at first." She chuckled." Well... I still can't wear just anything because of my wings and talons. Most of my garments are custom made." She pointed a well maintained clawed finger at her dress and more specific to it's sides. Since the sides were actually held by strings that were tied together." My wings can't fit through sleeves of even vests." It was actually a bit of a pain to procure new clothing." Anyways, all in all they accepted me pretty easily!"

Now on the topic of other races, the harpy made a thinking face as she slowly brought herself up to a sitting position, the pounding in her head finally going away along with the vertigo. It was about time!" Well I've met Taurens. They were also very accepting of me, they seem to approve of anybody who's not out to do evil. It was mostly before the war though, before this stupid division into sides and factions. When just a year or so before the Legion arrived, my mother had brought me to a tauren shaman to teach me about the spiritual world. Tauren really undersand the spiritual world and hte spirits probably like no others on Azeroth!" Naishe proclaimed with a smile." Tauren aside... there are the satyrs... those I've seen a few times from distance and when they are causing troubles. They are evil. There are the Furbolgs. The big hulking bear people that live in Ashenvale, you've probably seen one in a distance at least? THey used to be very peaceful and spiritual people, much like the wildkin." Naisha explained with a smile, but htat smile went away." They are slowly being driven to madness too. Many are being plagued by some kind of madness... an anger that eats at their minds. They are growing hostile and the once peaceful tribes are turning into danger for many. There are still those that aren't affected, but it's been a growing concern."

"Ohh right!" Suddenly she brithened up again with a huge grin." I've also met Keepers of the Grove and Dryads! The children of Cenarius! Keepers appear as half Kaldorei male, half elk, much like, Cenarius himself, though they are smaller than him. Dryads appear as half-kaldorei woman and half fawn with what appears to be leaves for hair. They are really really nice! " She grinned. Naisha was actually a really good friend with a dryad. They used to hang around Ashenvale a lot before the war. Afterwards her friend had to go away to tend to the forests elsewhere on Kalimdor because of hte spreading corruption from the legion. They still on occsaion sent each other letters, but it was hard since she didn't actually know where her friend was. They were going to meet eventually!" Well if it's only about 'seeing', I've also seen the Naga. I think I mentioned it earlier, but apparently a bunch of them have been making a colony of some sort on southern Darkshore. They are really really don't like Kaldorei for some reason. I mean, I heard stories that Illidan Stormrage allied with them after he became 'demonic' somehow, but never anything specific really. Just stories and rumors from travelers."
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Varasha tried to give Naisha a supportive smile. "Everyone falls down sometimes. Besides, this time was because of something you weren't used to. Everyone can stumble when learning something new." she told her friend. She made a face. "And the other time happened when you were three years old? You were still a child and what child doesn't mess up from time to time?" she added. She moved her hair back further, looking directly at Naisha so the harpy could see the scar that ran down the left side of her face, over one eye and down the cheek. "I was around ten when I made a mistake and got this for it."

She threw the harpy an incredulous look as Naisha describes what her original family were like, specifically that the rest of her.. clutch were replicas of their.. mother? "The others were.. copies?" she asked. "At least you are your own person! Being different isn't a bad thing." she added with a playful smile. "I never behaved like my other siblings had, or so I was told. It led me to all kinds of experiences that they never had.." She sort of fell silent for a moment after that, looking away. Finally she looked back, putting on a smile again. "And see, your differences led you to new experiences too! How many of your clan could ever say they got antlers from some moonkin?" she asked with a chucle.

At hearing the age of Naisha's adoptive mother, Asha's eyes got a bit wider. While four thousands years wasn't uncommon amongst the blood elves either, that would have been more akin to Asha's grandparent's age. Even so, at that age, elves of either origin were still not old; for blood elves it would be perhaps halfway through their lifespan, though she was fairly sure that the Kal'dorei lived a bit longer than her people on average now. She frowned at hearing that all of Naisha's adopted siblings were so much older and that the harpy had never met them. She frowned even more hearing that most of them had been killed. "I'm sorry. You should go and visit the last one then, at least meet her once." she suggested. "Family is important. You might not realize that until you no longer have it." she explained. "Don't take it for granted..."

She chuckled at hearing Naisha's mistake about the markets... and dressing. She arched an eyebrow at that. "Your people.. I mean harpies.. they don't dress? Huh... well, I guess I am glad that you were taught to!" she said with a chuckle. "But I can imagine how.. apparel that most other races use wouldn't necessarily fit your.. physique very well.." She smiled happily though at the last bit. "I am glad that you were able to integrate well." she replied, knowing that it was likely Naisha wouldn't have found it so easy had it been the Quel'dorei she had ended up with.

She listened with interest as Naisha began describing some of the other races she had encountered, starting with the Taurens. Asha had only ever heard of the bovine people described as savages and wild people. While everything that had been described to her by Naisha did not dispel that stereotype, Asha would wait to make a final judgement on them, since Naisha claimed that they would be likely meeting some should they manage to get to Moonglade. Her expression turned a bit darker at the mention then of satyrs. She found herself slightly baring her teeth at the thought of those creatures and forced herself to calm down. She shook her head no when Naisha suggest that she must have seen some furbolgs on her travels in the area. "We kept to the road pretty much on our way up. I guess we just got lucky." she answered.

Her eyes got wide at the descriptions of the Keepers and Dryads. What HAD the Kal'dorei gotten up to in the millenia since they had exiled the Quel'dorei? Ah, chances were, these creatures existed before that even but it was not something Asha had ever learned of. It sounded though like these creatures were just like the Tauren, uncultured creatures of the wilds. While it was good that these races were nice.. they would likely be at a disadvantage when worse forces that walked Azeroth eventually ran across them. Neither the kingdom of Lordaeron's massive walls, nor the elfgates of Quel'Thalas had stopped armies such as the scourge. What hope could wild creatures have resisting something like that?

Asha tilted her head at the mention of the Naga. "You did vaguely mention them..." she replied slowly. "I don't know what their contention with the Kal'dorei might be but we allied with.. some Naga in the Easter Kingdoms in return for their help in defeating and pushing back some of the Scourge." She waved it away. "Perhaps the Naga there are different than the ones here. I've not seen one of those myself though.." she added. She took a deep breath, putting on a half smile again and changing the subject. "How's your head feeling now?"
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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"I like that scar though." Naisha quipped with a innocent smile." It makes you look dashing!" She added, hearing the compliment being used in the past and only having a VERY loose understanding of what it fully meant. She was feeling a lot better now though. Both physically and emotionally. She knew of course she wasn't responsible for it, sometimes thigns just happened and nobody could really stop everything and back then she was just too young to understand everything. The clan just had all young harpies learn how to fly as soon as possible no matter what.

"Eehhh... yes? I mean our clutch at the time had no father... it's how harpies work! Mother taught it to me later when I was old enough to understand...which according to her was last year. Harpies can lay eggs without a mate and the eggs in turn are hatch to be identical copies of the harpy that laid them. It's how they maintain populations even when they aren't able to capture males from other races to be fathers or when they need to boost their numbers rapidly following some event that lessened them drastically." She explained with a straight innocently ignorant face." It was why they always found me weird, since I should have been the same as my sisters, but I wasn't. Mom thinks it's because I was destined to be a blessed by Elune from before I was hatched."

"I don't actually care too much about them anymore, but you are right! I don't recall much about them, but I know it was all the same everyday. Just stalk the roads, talk about doing bad stuff and capturing or killing things." She nodded in agreement and used her hands to trail her new antlers. Antlers that she DID enjoy a lot, but it was really getting a strain to her neck." I think... I need to get used to them overtime." Naisha finally quietly admitted and carefully took the trinket off her silver chain around her neck and put it carefully in her bag. She had barely taken the trinket off when the seemingly physical antlers, rapidly shrunk and then vanished into thin air like they had first appeared. " As for my sister, I think I will go to visit her one day. I mean, now I'm traveling with you, so I can't , but eventually I will. I will take mother along! I hear we can actually take a ship from Auberdine all the way to Stormwind. It's a rather long journey though, weeks on the ocean. You are right." She explained and made herself a bit more comfortable.

"Hehe, they said it's because I was young enough to adapt fast and that the bad habits from the other harpies hadn't sunk in yet. Besides, at least I've always liked to be clean so mom didn't need to teach me that. Most harpies in the clan are kinda filthy!" Naisha shrugged, taking the compliment in stride. She might have even prened a bit. Just a tiny bit.

"I'm not sure, Naga are smart... well their women are smart, the men are kinda dumb." Naisha stated." I watched the ones in Darkshore from distance when I spotted them. I kept at it for about a day, looking from afar, hiding in the treetops at the treeline to not be spotted. They were milling about the shoreline, setting their colony. The women were just barking orders left and right. Anyhow, I know that Naga were working for Illidan Stormrage at some point. Don't know details though. The last I know of it were that a lot of naga left Kalimdor to go east with Illidan and that the Warden forces followed after them. What happened afterwards, I do not know, seems you might know what happened over the ocean better than me." The harpy smiled.

"My head feels better now." Naisha replied with a smile that held on her face for a bit, before it melted away and she curled up a bit and turned towards the Blood Elf." Hey, Asha... back there with the corrupted wildkin..." She began, words getting stuck in her throat." I killed... them. I used my powers to kill them... I never killed before anything sentient before." She quietly said. She was a predator so she had taken care of prey animals. Deers, rabits and the like. What's more her mauther taught her to also cook and clean game. So she had killed animals, but never had she killed a sentient being, it was very different feeling, one she hadn't came in contact with before and now didn't know how to deal with it." Does killing them make us... me... a bad person? Mom hoped I never have to kill ,but now..." She asked, her voice shacking a little.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Asha shot the harpy a crooked smile. "Dashing... That's not one I've heard applied to me before. I've heard anything from hideous to curious... but never dashing. I'll let others thing what they will of it though. For me, its a reminder.. to always strive to better myself, to be able to defend myself and to learn anything I can learn about the world around me." she explained. "It drove me to learn things that almost certainly later saved my life when I was older." she added. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for this lesson."

From what she was hearing about harpy.. reproduction, Asha was a little uncomfortable. The one way sounded like no fun.. but then again, she supposed, the other way would be no fun for a captured male. Asha decided, seeing Naisha's innocent expression, that she wouldn't ask any more questions on that matter. It was something best put to rest as far as she was concerned. "I think we make our own destiny, that it isn't picked for us." she answered back. "But I'll not argue with your.. Mother." she said, pretty sure that Naisha meant her adoptive mother.

She watched Naisha take off the amulet and the antlers disappeared from the harpy's head and noted how Naisha seemed a bit disappointed to put them away for the moment. She raised an eyebrow. "You know what. You can strengthen your neck muscles to help with that. Every morning and evening, put the amulet back on and get those things back and do some simple neck muscle exercises. It will help. I can't say that I have experience with antlers in particular but back when I chose to first learn to use a bow, it was hard to draw the string. After a day of training, I couldn't even move my arms... but I set myself to a regime of going arm exercises every day which helped over a short amount of time." she explained. "Now I can shoot my bow all day and feel no strain. I'm sure you can do that for your neck too."

She paused. "You said she is in Stormwind? It may be much to the south but if you ever do decide to come and visit Quel'Thalas, you can head down there too. Or the opposite." she suggested. "And yes, I know the journey..." she added with a grimace. "I just finished that journey to get here." she reminded. She made an exaggerated sour face. "Weeks in cramped, damp quarters going across the Great Sea, then sleeping in an orc inn... and then framed for murder. Maybe sleeping in an owl-bear bed won't be so bad in comparison after all..." she joked.

"Well, like I said, I never encountered any Naga personally." she answered. "I just know that Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider made a deal with one.. I think her name was.. Lady... Vashj? For help down around southern Lordaeron when dealing with the Scourge." she explained. "It's possible they were the same group, the same Naga but I really wouldn't know. Maybe your are right, from what I know.. I don't think there were Naga around Lordamere Lake before the Scourge came through... At least, I never heard of them before that." she added with a shrug. "But they did help us against the Lich King, or so the Prince told us anyways."

She smiled at hearing that Naisha's head was feeling better. When Naisha said her name, Asha tilted her head questioningly in response, sitting and waiting for something that seemed to be hard question for the harpy to ask. Her smile faded as well when the beginnings of the question were presented. She had a knowing expression though. "No, no it doesn't make you a bad person." she said quietly. "Sometimes you must kill to save innocents. Had we not, Relneth and his family would have died. There was no time to wait for hope of someone to cure the corruption, no way to reason with those moonkin. At that point, it becomes a balance, one life for another. Who is worth more? A corrupted killer or the innocent farmer?" she asked.

"What would make you a bad person is if you enjoyed it and sought out to do more of the same. That is not you. What we did was the only mercy that we had the time to do. Granting them quick deaths so they would hurt no more innocents." She paused taking a deep breath. "Just be happy that you did not know those you were forced to take the lives of." She shook her head, looking off. "You may think that fighting this Legion would have been bad.. and I'm sure it was.. but the Scourge.. a large portion of it was made up of our own fallen... People I knew..." she trailed off, nearly in a whisper. She swallowed hard. "We saved innocent lives today. That is what matters." she added finally, some of the strength returning to her voice.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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"Yes, that's a wonderful idea!" Naisha vigorously nodded her head, rustling her silvery plummage and making it give off soft sounds." I will do so, but from tomorrow onwards. If I can feel my neck muscles then that is." She added, stretching her neck a bit. Everything still felt somewhat sore even with the healing. The trauma caused by the head-dive would take a bit to go away. That and the muscles certainly were a bit stretched and compressed from the unnatural movements they had to do because of said hit. Had she fallen from higher, she might have very seriously hurt herself or even died. No amount of healing would save you if your entire neck was snapped into an odd angle." I will also slowly get used to having them by trying to gradually fly with them, maybe just lightly get up a bit for a moment or two until I get a better feel for the new center of mass." Naisha was going to have to learn how to fly with those on and get used to the differences. It wouldn't be as hard as learning to fly from the very basics, but having gotten used to a certain manner, it would require a bit of adapting and more attention being paid for the time being. It wasn't as if she couldn't have flown if she was careful and attentive. Even with the added weight messing her balance, if she wasn't as airheaded at the moment, she might have been able to compensate or at least land back before she flipped over. So yeah, training, practice and attention.

"Ehh, no offense, Asha, but I don't think any Kaldorei would risk heading north to the lands of your people... Tensions are a bit too high right now." Naisha quipped." Besides, she's at least save within the city, it's said to be one of the more heavily protected and well defended locations in the world. I will probably travel there wiht mom, we can take the ship, it's not going to be quite pleasant as you said, but at least it will do the job and in the best case scenario, we might be able to find a mage to set a portal for us. Thank you, for pushing the advice to visit her. I want to know what's left of my family indeed."

"Thank you, Asha... thank you..." Naisha mumbled in the end, closing her eyes and holding a bit of a sob. When all excitement of hte day leaves you and the adrenaline wears off, things start to settle and the memories and thoughts start flooring one's mind. The young harpy was experiencing that right now. She just curled on the huge Wildkin fur laiden bed and closed her eyes, trying to get a bit of rest, maybe a brief nap? She certainly needed some, given that healing magic sometimes did make one feel sleepy. In any case, they had a bit of time until the feast the Wildkin were throwing and they hadn't rested properly in days. A brief nap, wouldn't hurt anybody." Than...k... y..o...zzzZzz" In the end the stress and fatigue( both mental and physical). Finally overcame her and her words were halted as she fell asleep, her breathing stable and calm enough with a few lil tears on her cheeks. Having Asha around helped her feel calmer, still it was needless to mention that Naisha did not have a nice and calm nap. Haunting visages and nightmares haunted nearly every moment of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The nightmares that haunted the young priestess's nap, terrified her to the bones, knowing those were creatures of Elune that she had killed. Even if it was partially with the goddess's blessing. Normally Priestesses of Elune underwent military training, making them as effective if not more than the sentinels, but Naisha was too young to have underwent that. She might have never trully passed all the usual requirements for Kaldorei Priestesses, given her lifespan was likely to be a lot shorter than theirs, but still she was just an initiate, her mother wanting her to enjoy her early life. In the end after what turned out to be a few questionably restful horus, Naisha slowly stirred from her sleep.

"HOOT!"

"!!!" As a chirpy hoot sounded by her head, Naisha nearly jumped up, looking around in panic, until the sleepiness went away and she was able to properly think and process thoughts. She recalled they were at the Wildkin camp and the hoot had actually came form the young wildkin they had saved earlier in the day. For a beaked creature it certainly had a very smirk-like expression in amusement. Naisha noted it was already dark well mostly dark. The ngiht was settling and through the thick folliage and dense forest it was hard to say, but having lived all her life in these lands, she knew that there was still some vestiges of light remaining were soon going to be gone. Night had settled across these ancient forests.

In the middle of hte camp she could see an impresive large pyre that was erected with Wildkin milling about, taking care of varying tasks. Another hoot pulled her attention as she was told that they were going to be starting the feast and celebration soon. She nodded and looked about, finally searching for her newest friend." Asha?" She called, turning to where she had last spotted the Sindorei before she had fallen asleep.

The wildkin had done some impressive preparations for a wild race such as theirs. There were some primitive musical instruments such as drums even. Some of them wore colorful trinkets on their hides and antlers. There was meat being prepared on big stakes to be grilled by the pire more than likely. In fact the celebrations appeared to have unofficially started as two wildkin could be seen dancing by the fire already. Naisha had seen wildkin dances before, they'd usually gather practically teh entire tribe for the proper dance around the pyre.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Sleep seemed to overtake the harpy quickly as Asha sat there on the opposite end of the bed. Unsurprising really, given the events of the day, but.. the blood elf was definitely more reluctant to fall asleep in such unfamiliar territory as a wildkin village. After she was sure that the harpy was out, Asha pulled herself back on the sleeping palette until her back was against the hut wall to which the palette was right against, crossing her legs as she sat back. She made she her bow was within reach just off to her side just in case before resting her head against the wall too. She took a deep breath. Some of the conversation today had dredged up painful memories... That, more than the fighting or anything else, had left her feeling drained. She had volunteered on this mission specifically, well.. aside from trying to help her people, to get far away from reminders of what her life had been like before the Scourge had come to her home, even if just for a time. It seemed that running from one's memories was an impossible feat in the end.

Though it had been around six years now, it still hurt. She closed her eyes, trying to still her mind in a form of mediation. To just not think. Without attempting to, she slipped off into sleep as well. Sleep troubled by nightmares of her own, of reliving events from six year previous.

---------------

A loud hoot woke Asha, her eyes popping open. She couldn't understand where she was for a moment and her first reaction was to defend herself. She grabbed for her bow but in her still half-asleep state, she nearly fell off the bed. That was enough to fully wake her. She shook her head, trying to get the last cobwebs of sleep out, reminding herself that they were guests here, there was no need to fight.. she thought. Besides, now that she was awake, she noticed the source of the sound that had woken her. It was one of the wildkin.. children? Cubs? It was the same size as the one they had saved earlier but Asha couldn't tell any of them apart save if their colouration was different.

She heard Naisha call her name softly from the other side of the palette and looked over. "Have a good sleep?" she asked. She frowned, gesturing subtly with her head in the direction of the young owlkin. "What did he.. um.. it, err.. they say?" she asked, wincing at having no idea if it was even male or female. It led them out of the hut, into the gathering area in the centre of the village where there was a large bonfire with meat on spits ready to be cooked nearby. By the size of the meat, Asha was glad to see that it wouldn't be any type of rodent like she had feared.

Another large owlkin came by, handing each her and Naisha a deep wooden bowl filled with a liquid. They probably used these bowls because it was easier than cups with their beaks, she supposed. On examination of the contents, it seemed it was some kind of fruity drink. She took a sip and had to admit it was nice. She leaned closer to Naisha to speak over the sound of crude, primitive instrumental music. "So, do we have any idea what will be expected of us here?" she asked, knowing the harpy could question the cub that was still with them. She felt very helpless, not knowing what to do as she could understand none of the language here.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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"Not really. Bad dreams." The harpy admitted quietly, rubbing her eyes and looking out to the Wildkin that were doing their thing. It was nice ambience actually, Kaldorei celebrations weres always much more reserved, this had it's own charm. It had much more pure emotion in a way and she really appreciated that. Plus watching all those mighty creatures dancing like that or just grill meat was kinda amusing and the little Wildkin cubs were absolutely adorable. it seemed that Elune likely agreed because the sky was clear the moon was shining real bright tonight, bathing the clearing where the pyre was in a soothing light.

"It's a he indded. A male cub." Naisha nodded and looked at Asha, giving her a small smile." Well he's saying that the feast is about to begin and was waking us up so we can participate if we want more or less. That and that once the musics and dancing starts, we were going to be likely woken by the drums." She replied and stretched her arms and feet. It also gave a good perspective how big her wings were when she stretched good. Usually for the most part they were mostly pressed agianst her arms, feathers neatly packed together, but as she stretched, they did appear rather big. Still not big enough to supposedly be able to support a humanoid body of that size, but harpies were innately magical beings, so magic was likely woven into their very beings that allowed them to fly.

She picked up the bowl of fruit juice after that and gave the Wildkin that handed those over a big smile and thanked them. It was actually rather nice taste and a bit cool. Must have been kept somewhere where the temperature was lower. Maybe a cave somewhere or the fruits were kept in running water to keep em fresher for longer. SHe wasn't sure, but just was grateful for experiencing this. The taste wasn't quite like anything she had tasted before, Kaldorei used different fruits for their day to day living. She could recognize some of the forest fruits used in this though. Was also reasonable certain she could taste some herbs also. One of the herbs was often used to boost health if she was recognizing it corretcly.

"Well from what I gathered so far, from the most part we are supposed to just enjoy this? Kind of like proper holiday celebrations in our societies? We can eat, drink, dance and just spend time with them." Naisha replied as the young Wildkin hooted at her and tilted it's head in adorable manner. The harpy nodded." Well, I'm invited to take part of a ritual at midnight, one to pay respects to the Mother Moon and give her gratitude for all her blessings." Another hoot followed as the cub pointed at Asha and then towards one direction where the elder stood along with other Wildkin that were hooting at each other.

"Ohh, you are invited to go to the elder later. Apparently he liked you a lot. If I'm being told here that the Elder was conversing with the spirits while we rested and whatever the spirits revealed to them, he wanted to talk to you about it." The harpy quipped and looked at Asha in curious manner, before she was pulled away towards the campire by the cub that started to pull Naisha into joining the few others in a dance.
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Keira Kelly
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

Post by Keira Kelly »

Asha tried to hide her displeasure that Naisha was going to go off with these wildkin in the middle of the night, mostly cause that meant that the blood elf would be left without a translator or cultural buffer between her and these creatures. She couldn't talk to them and even improvised hand signals or something would be.. difficult at best given that the wildkin's 'hands' were more akin to bear paws. Maybe by that point, Asha could just slink back to the hut they had been given for the night and try to get some sleep. "If you must." she responded, still also a bit unsettled at the whole idea of paying homage to Elune. Her presence had never been a blessing to Asha's people.

Asha glanced over at the elder standing in the distance following Naisha's translation of the cub, and gave the elder a small nod of acknowledgement, before turning back, brows furrowed a bit and frowning slightly. She had no clue what any spirits would want with a Sin'dorei so far from her own homeland. She looked squarely at Naisha. "You will be there too, I expect? As I can't..." she began but just then the cub starting pulling the harpy away towards the centre of the festivities. Asha watched them go and then sighed. "As I can't actually understand him." she said quietly to herself, finishing off her sentence.

Slowly, she followed, moving closer to the edge of the firelight, where there were logs positioned around, obviously used as seats or benches at times, and sat herself down. Many of the owlkin seemed curious about her and watched as they passed. A few tried to come over and made sounds at her but Asha had to shrug and shake her head helplessly. All the hooting and trills were nothing more than animal sounds to her and meant nothing despite knowing that it was apparently a true language. Eventually, one of the wildkin stopped in front of her, bearing a stick with a rather large portion of now-cooked meat on it. The blood elf took it gratefully and she was pleased to find that it was moonsaber, something she could recognize the taste of. The portion though is what she hadn't expected. Obviously, given the moonkins' large size, their portions were understandably... well.. more than what a Sin'dorei would be able to finish off. Still, she idly took bites from it, noting it had been seasoned as well with an interesting array of spices foreign to her, as she waiting for Naisha to finish dancing.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

Post by rivaan »

Naisha was apparently having a nice time dancing around the bonfire. It was a good way to clear her head from all those bad thoughts that were plaguing her mind since earlier. There was also a distinct peace and calm in the air, making negative emotions fade away, leaving just the enjoyment of the celebration as the moonlight was settling across the clearing. To Naisha, she could almost physically feel the Moon Goddess's presence right now. This clearing in the forest was observed and the goddess was looking after her charges. The dance lasted for a bit, before Naisha finally broke off, stumbling a bit out of breath back over to Asha who was munching on her huge piece of roasted meat.

Naisha in turn also had one, but was in addition to that, munching on some dried fruits she was picking from a pouch she now kept in her lap." That was great!" She stated, peering curiously at the Blood Elf." Why don't you join us for the next dance, Asha? It's a nice time, it's more about the experience and enjoyment that any specific dance." She pointed out and looked at the wildkin that were dancing jumping around the bonfire, the rythms of the drums leading the dance more than anything. Of course the ritual dance for Elune later was different, but here and now it was all for the enjoyement." Besides, a good deal of activity is nice for the stomach, helps it settles the food we shall eat tonight!" She began selling the experience. They were here, might as well make Asha experience it all with her and hopefully enjoy it.

"It's quite different from Kaldorei Celebrations, but I like it. It's more earnest, I think." She stated, munching on the meat in small bites. True, people can call Wildkin primitive and while true, the mighty guardians of the sacred to elune places were an ancient culture that still retained it's roots for millenias. Primitive they might appear to be, but that did nto make them barbaric. There were complex talismans scattered around the camp, simple in look, but offering a great protection from all that means them harm. What's more, Wildkin shamans were very skilled also.

"Hoot hoot!" A gruff wildkin 'voice' came from teh side. There stood one of the bigger Wildkins in the camp, dark brown with great antlers. After another series of hooting, he stomped away, not because he was angry, but because he was big enough that his steps were naturally heavy.

"Ohh, the elder's calling! Come on, grab the drinks and the meat!" Naisha exclaimed in enthusiastic way, pulled her meal along with her, heading in the direction where the elder was. Turned out he was in a big tent of sort, made out of tree branches and furs tossed over them, tied with vine ropes and making a proper structure that had seclusion from the outside. Inside the elder stood by a much smaller campfire with a number of things lined about. There were differnet puches with dried herbs, dusts and other substances. There were different talismans hanging from the wooden ribs of the tent.

The deep HOOT was their greeting as the elder wildkin gestured for them to sit, before hooting and tossing some kind of dust into the bright orange campire. The moment the dust made contact with the fire, the color changed momentary to bright blue and stood such for a few moments before returning. He hooted again, clearly saying something and Naisha was nodding.

"Alright, so, Elder Moonbeak is once more repeating his thanks for saving the cub." Naisha began and nodded at the elder as he hooted a few more times." Now is saying that the spirits told him to give us and more to the point you information about about the northern parts of Darkshore... Something about the wilds beign angry with the hand of darkness trying to reach into Darkshore. Translation is a bit hard here, something about Spirit Speak I think. I Don't actually understand it." The harpy explained as the hoots for a moment turned kind of dreamy and distant. Then he reached into a big bow of dried herbs and tossed them itno the fire, making it go white as gray smoke was rising from it. The wildkin leaned forward and inhaled for a moment, before gesturing to the two women present to do the same.

Naisha looked at Asha and with a smile proceeded to do it. She was a child more or less and this seemed like a really interesting experience to have. The harpy leaned forward and breathed in from the gray smoke rising from the white fire and everything suddenly halted. Then it twisted as color went away and she felt a pull as seemingly her transaprent form separated from her now still body by the campfire. She could see The elder's and Asha's bodies briefly before she was pulled further away and away. She had no idea where they were, but it was... different. It wasn't the Emerald dream she had heard about, no the color scheme didn't quite match. Maybe... she paid attention to the surroundings, seeing weird things moving in the distance, hazy as if looked through an illusion, she could vaguely recognize elementals from the distance too. Was she... in the spirit realm? Were those things moving just beyond her preception the spirits the existed? Usually only shamans could interract with them.

"Hello youngling." Naisha heard a deep baritone voice as she turned to see the Elder Wildkin. Of course! This was the realm of spirits! Well, she wasn't quite sure if THAT was it's name or if it even was it's own thing. For all she knew, it might be a subpart of one of the other realm like maybe the Emerald Dream or whereever the dead souls ended. Here they were simply as spirits and understanding could be reached despite the lack of common language! In any case, she heard the Wildkin speak in perfect 'common'. But moments later her attention was pulled as something burshed against her leg. She looked down only to see a ...rock fish? it was softly floating, consisting of a number of pebbles in fish-like shape. She tried to touch it and it 'swam' away, needless to say Naisha chased it, turning it into a game of tag around the place.

She didn't even notice when Asha would have arrived, but the Elder Wildkin did." Greetings Child of blood to the In-Between. The most surface part of the spirit realm." The Wildkin spoke to the blood elf. The place looked identical to the real world, though the colors of washed off and one could spot the spirits in the distnace, for hte most part just beyond once's perception, making them looking hazy and illusionary.
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Keira Kelly
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

Post by Keira Kelly »

Eventually Naisha rejoined her, trying to entice Asha into joining the next dance session. The blood elf gave a pained smile, shaking her head. "It's okay, but I think not tonight." she answered. Even with all of this, she wasn't terribly in a celebratory mood. She was still worried about her people back in Auberdine, worried about having been branded a murderer and being chased.. worried that all of that might have hurt the peace process and that in turn would end up hurting her people. She winced at the next bit. "Speak for yourself; jumping around on a full stomach is more likely to give me indigestion." she replied. When her people had feasts, they were more likely to just relax afterwards.

Speaking of which, she was beginning to feel the start of a hunger, though not for food. It had been a couple of days since they had left the vicinity of the moonwell in Auberdine, and just today she had twice used arcane power for spells... It would still be a couple of days before the addiction drove her to seek a source of power but she could feel the beginnings of it. At least she had mana crystals with her though they were short term measures. From the remnants of the moonwell's energy though she could stave it off for a few more days...

Asha had noticed a rather large wildkin moving towards them but she made no indication of it as she talked with Naisha. Not that it was all that hard to notice this particular owlkin by its sheer size and weight of its footsteps... The blood elf turned to Naisha after the giant owlkin had hooted something, awaiting translation. Asha took the stick of meat with her but left the bowl with the drink. There wasn't much left in her own and besides, she wanted at least one free hand just in case. She followed the very excited harpy over to where they had seen the elder earlier, finding him in one of the... huts, was the best way she could describe it. As they went in, Asha glanced around at all the odd knick-knacks lying around and stuck to the walls. The elder's gesture for them to sit, at least, was fairly understandable and Varasha carefully sat down before the fire, cross-legged.

She leaned back away from the fire as the owlkin through something into it, making the flames change colour. She arched an eyebrow as Naisha began to translate the old moonkin's.. sounds, still, half-jokingly to herself, wondering if the harpy was just making all of this up and the owlkin were in fact, just making animal sounds. The translation though didn't seem to make much more sense to the Sin'dorei. When the elder threw something else into the fire that began to produce smoke, Asha leaned even further away from it, suspicious of it. She wasn't all that keen on breathing in something that might be poisonous for all she knew. Though the owlkin had breathed it in first, that didn't mean it would be healthy for an elf to breathe.

She turned to her companion but it seemed Naisha had already breathed the smoke it and was sitting immobile. She a grunt of annoyance, she decided to follow suit. If worst came to worst, at least.. well, she didn't have much to lose right at the moment. If she died, perhaps she would find what she had lost. She slowly leaned forward, forcing herself to take a deep breath of the acrid smoke. It felt like running at full speed into a wall and then suddenly.. it was the weirdest sensation. Or more like a lack of physical sensation? She glanced around. And everything looked different, washed out and hazy. Maybe she had died from this...

A sudden voice made Asha spin around, finally noticing the elder. She was more than surprised to suddenly be able to understand his words. Maybe Naisha hadn't been making up anything after all. Speaking of which, she glanced around quickly, taking stock of where the harpy was. She could see her companion not far away, chasing some sort of creature. Satisfied that Naisha was still nearby, she turned back to the elder. She was surprised that this owlkin knew her people and what the name they had only recently taken on meant. The spirit realm! Were they dead? Likely not, she supposed.. probably.

"Why did you bring us here, Elder?" she asked, looking around again. In the near distance, she could see elemental spirits. More than see, she could feel their presence... feel the arcane magics that they contained. She could feel even more acutely the addiction, the hunger for it. She took a deep breath, focusing herself away from that and turned back to the elder. "What was the message you wanted to give us?"
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