Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

Post by rivaan »

"Close enough." She nodded, looking at the bear cub." As I said, you are bonded with it now. It's not quite that strong a bond right at this moment, but if the two of you continue to travel from now on, you will be a perfect duo in the future!" Naisha happily nodded. She was happy for Asha, having a fuzzy and warm companion to hug would surely do wonders to help with the moody moments that the blood elf had from time to time, as understandable as they were. Maybe one day in the far future, the ranger would be able to leave the bad behind her, but for now, Naisha knew a nice cuddly bear was the right way to go!

Thinking of that... Naisha's expression turned all kinds of amused and happy as she saw a very cute small bear cub climbing the serious looking ranger woman. It was absolutely adorable, so she right away began to sketch it to show to her mother later! Her brief thought of her mother, made her think that she was still forgetting something, but it was quickly pushed away by the sight and the desire to capture the scene at the best of her abilities. In fact she already had a few pages filled over their journey so far with the serious and pretty blood elf, captured in different angles and expressions. On paper she didn't look much different from her mother's race. A bit of a difference in the ear lenghts and the eyebrows, she supposed when you didn't take into account the skin colors. How curious.

Moving onto the topic of tactics and plans for tomorrow, Niasha nodded at Asha's opinion." Makes sense... could buy me time to just observe the place without getting attacked hopefully. I won't!" She mused and promised, but then again this was Naisha and she was a bit scatterbrained at the best of times. So nobody could really say if something might not pull her attention while on the approach and from there... well there was a proverb saying that no plans survived contact with the enemy. Now her mother had a similar one( One that Naisha didn't really know existed) and it boiled down to: No plan survives Naisha's involvement in it unscathed.

Naisha's eyes were twinkling with joy, seeing the adorable cub now snoozing off on Asha's shoulders. She mouthed 'adorable' to the ranger and quickly did another sketch of the animal's sleepign form." Yeah, let's do a circle and go around it, come in from the direction of the mountain range. It's going to be a bit safer overall. As for other thoughts, after we scout it out, we should see if we can tackle it alone or call onto the local tribe of Wildkin. Depending on how many cultists or other evil people are present, we might be a bit too outmatched without Wildkin support. For now though you are right... we should take Thas's example and rest. I will take first watch, so you can rest for hte time being." With that Naisha settled into the most comfortable position possible and took to arranging and caring for the collected herbs she had gathered as a way to keep herself and mind occupied while her friend was asleep.

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

Meanwhile miles away in the City of Auberdine, the night had too blanketed the shores yet the city lived. Streets were lit, people were milling about and some really serious shouting was going on in the old library. A tall, well build blue haired Kaldorei woman, wore incredibly furious expression. She carried old scars that had mostly faded in the passage of time and was currently staring down a Sentinel captain." Do explain to me how my daughter got involved in this mess!? With satyrs involved no less!?" She growled.

Yes, the sentinels weren't having a good time with a pretty high ranking priestess of Elune arriving in town to search for her daughter and only to find said daughter missing and then their captain taking her aside to explain what had transpired. Whomever said priestesses weren't scary was a darn lier.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Asha idly petting the sleeping cub as she and Naisha conversed about their plan. The cub's fur, like all bears, was coarse to be sure, but thick and plush as well. There had been other Farstriders with animal companions back home, of course, but Asha had never really found a connection with one. The lynxes and dragonhawks were usual favourites but, while Asha had liked the animals fine enough, she had never been drawn to one the way she felt she was being drawn to Thas. Funny how fate worked sometimes, she thought to herself.

She nodded to Naisha's agreement about circling around whatever was going on near the tower. She frowned a little at the suggestion of calling for help from the wildkin if they needed it. A small part of it was that she was no more convinced that the owlkin were advanced or prepared enough for whatever might be down there, but most of it was that if there was some sort of invasion going on down there, they would need more than just what the owlkin could provide, in terms of numbers and abilities. "The druids in Moonglade or even the Kal'dorei back in Auberdine would make for better support if there is more than we can handle down there.." she objected lightly. "It's not that the wildkin can't be.. effective in certain situations but.." she paused, struggling for words to explain it. "They make for rather large and unsubtle targets.." she said finally.

Asha dipped her head in gratitude at being given second watch for the night. She was rather tired tonight.. perhaps in part due to the warm, furry friend on her shoulder. Very carefully, she took hold of the furry bundle. Thas woke slightly, making a crying objection to being moved. "I need to get my bedroll ready, little friend." she told him in a quiet voice, leaving him on the ground for a moment as she went to her pack and began to undo the bedroll from the bottom of it. She rolled it out near the fire and settled in, drawing in the bear cub beside her. On the soft hide of the roll, Thas was soon asleep again, and Asha, trusting in Naisha's ability to keep watch, followed not long after.

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

Halfway through the night, Asha awoke at Naisha's urging, to take her turn at watch. The blood elf slid herself carefully out of the soothing warmth of a bedroll filled with a furry bear cub who still slept and turned to Naisha. "Everything's been quiet, I take it." she said in a whisper. Of course, had it not been, Naisha would have awoken her at some point but Asha just wanted to be sure there was nothing remotely suspicious going on. She glanced up at the moon still in the sky and grimaced slightly, wishing that the sun would come sooner rather than later. She longed for its radiance to be back in the sky.

She took up her bow and quiver as Naisha began settle down for her own sleep, and starting making around just outside of camp, looking and listening for anything out of place. As she made it halfway around, she heard a small sound, but one she had been growing more accustomed to. Thas walked up to her in the darkness, like a little child that woke up looking for its mother, but still half asleep. Asha knelt down beside the little bear, running a hand over the top of his head. "It's all right, little one. I have to take watch to make sure we all stay safe. Go and cuddle up next to Naisha." she said in a whisper. Thas made a little sound but then turned and headed back towards the camp. Asha smiled, wondering if the harpy would notice her 'nest' being suddenly invaded by a little bear cub.

Hours later and there had not seemed to be anything going on. It almost felt like the forest here was too quiet, that it lacked much of the normal animal and insect life. Asha had been on edge because of that but, nothing overt ever showed itself. Finally, thankfully, the sky began to lighten. The blood elf gathered a fair sized log and headed back into the middle of camp, putting the log into the waning campfire and bringing it alight again. She retrieved some of the meat from her pack, cutting it into strips and using a small metal pan she had, began to cook the meat over the fire as she waited for Naisha and Thas to wake up.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Naisha's night was rather nice. She felt warm and fuzzy in her sleep after she went to bed at some point. It was an almost familiar experience as comfortable somewhat soft weight was added to her sides. She snuggled into it as if she had done so a million times before, which she had done with a different furry animal. Her mother's moonsaber to be specific. The now gone giant cat, had taken to Naisha just like her mother had and was caring for her. Being given a tongue bath by a giant cat wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, but it was bonding. Still the big cat was always there whenever Naisha would fall asleep in the garden outside the house or even inside the house. Falling asleep by the fireplace at winter with the giant cat's warm company was a very pleasant experience for a young child.

She actually dreamed of adorable bears, cats and foxes… along with a few very fluffy lil birds. She was surrounded by warm things in her dream nest! Come morning when she finally started to leave the realm of Ysera, she felt very relaxed and rested. Sleepily she opened her eyes, feeling some kind of weight across her front torso. A sleepy look at herself revealed a some furball that was curled up by herself too. She closed her eyes a few times, turned back to bed, ignoring the sound of fire, stood like that for a few moments before she opened her eyes again. It took her a few more moments until her brain started working and the metaphorical gears and cogs started turning and she rationalized what the situation was.

Naisha grinned widely as she slightly pulled herself up into a half sitting position, using her arms to keep most of her torso up and looked at Asha.” Good morning!” She greeted with rested and happy voice.” Thas makes for a very warm and comfortable sleeping bear!” The harpy chuckled, her hair, arm and tail feathers looking a bit more wild than usual. It was usually like this, but she took the time every morning to groom herself properly.” What ya doing? Ohh roasting the meat?” She asked, curious, looking Asha fiddling with something by the fireplace.

With a bit of careful maneuvering, she pulled away from the bear cub and sat up by the fire too, rubbing her eyes for a bit, before she started neat up the wildness out of her feathers with. Which was a bit like a regular bird preening, but instead of using a beak( or even her sharp talons), she pulled a small hard brush like tool that was perfect for the job.

“So… we are scouting the place today, I will try to count everybody carefully!” She proclaimed, making a thinking expression.” Hey, Asha, have you seen one of those long tubes with glass on either end that make viewing things from distance easier? I think it’s a spytube? Far-glass? Far-seeing-tube? … I don’t know the name! But I’ve seen people in Auberdine have em, usually those captains on boats. Think I should get one of these to make scouting easier in the future? Imagine it, I can fly up high and just spy down and below!”
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Asha glanced up from her cooking at the sound of Naisha's voice and smiled a greet as she flipped some of the frying meat pieces. "Sleep well?" she asked. "He does indeed." she agreed with Naisha about Thas. The little warm bear had indeed been a comfort while she had slept as well. She nodded. "Some of the meat from that moonsabre from the other day." she explained. "We didn't really have time to smoke it or anything so I figured it would be best we used it up as quickly as possible before it goes bad." She took a deep breath of the frying bits. "Still smells pretty good yet..." she added with a nod to herself.

She glanced over to the little bear who was just waking up now that the harpy was beginning to move despite Naisha's careful manoeuvring. Asha watched with an amused smile as the half-asleep cub stumbled over to the blood elf. She rubbed his head with one free hand as he sat down beside her. She began to scratch him under the chin, staring at Thas' eyes for a long moment. Hmm, curious. Thas had deep, amber coloured eyes whereas most bears tended to have a darker brown. Amber wasn't necessarily unheard of, she was pretty sure, but it definitely was on the more rare side. She smiled at the uniqueness of her new companion.

She returned to the food, noting that the meat was pretty much done, and began spooning it up along with some bannock she had also been cooking alongside the meat. She handed Naisha a bowl with half the food, getting the other half for herself, though before she began to eat, she fished out another good sized chunk of raw moonsabre from her pack and gave it to Thas. She picked lightly at the still-hot pieces of meat in her bowl, trying to blow on them to cool a bit when Naisha began to speak again. She glanced up with her glowing green eyes as she popped the first piece of fried meat in her mouth, nodding in response to the statement about scouting and counting. "More than counting, we need to see what they are actually doing.." she added after she had swallowed.

She frowned slightly at the harpy's next question. "I believe there are a few names for them, but any of those are valid enough. Most often I've heard spyglass though." she explained. "And yes, I've seen such a thing once or twice. There were some engineers in Silvermoon City who liked to tinker with things. My parents once bought me a spyglass from them to play with when I was young." she added with a bit of smile. They had thought that seeing things from far away would have been enough to sate young Asha's appetite to see new things.. but it had only enticed the blood elf to roam further and further out from the safety of the city. "I dearly loved playing with it.. until it was broken," she touched her scar on her face, "when this happened."

She smiled at Naisha's enthusiasm. "Why not?" she began but then frowned a little. "But! If you do, be careful when using it? Like... perch before you start looking through it.." she strongly suggested, already getting a pretty good understanding of Naisha innate talent to become distracted and.. forgetting to flap her wings properly. She frowned a little more. "It may not be the easiest item to find to purchase either but.. indeed, I could see it coming in handy." Where Naisha would even find such an item, Asha had no idea. She doubted the druids they were heading towards would own such a piece of technology and neither would many of the isolated small camps and bases peppering the lands.

After a moment, she snapped her fingers as she remembered something she had seen on a map of Kalimdor. "Winterspring!" she said suddenly. "If I recall correctly... and I can say I only overheard some chatter when I was in Orgrimmar, there is a decent sized settlement of goblins in Winterspring, to the east. If anyone would have a spyglass in the direction we are headed, it would be them. And even better, the goblins take no sides and are open to all who wish to do business." she explained. Her brow drew together again. "I don't know how far it is but.. I believe it's past Moonglade?" she added. Goblins had long since been amenable to dealings with the Quel'Thalas even back in the Eastern Kingdoms. She assumed the same was true even here. They only ever seemed to care about business and inventions anyways for the most part.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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"Mhm!" She nodded, putting the food to the side for the moment as she was still dealing with her feathers. As a harpy she had to put the effort of making sure she was in good health and appearance. It was what set her apart from her more wild sisters. Harpies in the wild were sentient yes, but very feral in many ways. Living in their filth and generally looking unkept and very wild. Her mother had put a good deal of effort into teaching her that maintaining her looks and clean state was of utmost importance when living in society, that and Naisha apparently made for a cute child back then after bathed properly and given decent attire. She distinctly recall women back in Auberdine tended to flock her often enough to pat and caress. Something about her baby feathers still being around at the point and being very soft or something.

"I will make note of everything, I've got good eyes! I'm a harpy after all and our eyes are really good, but getting one of those spyglass thingies in the future will be good. Maybe we can buy you a new one to remember the good memories?" She carefully suggested though as she finally put the brush away and moved onto the food. She then stopped and blinked, making a thinking face." Ohh! It's like how I tried to grab a fruit off a tree with my hand while flying!" She proclaimed in realization after a quick thinking after Asha point it out. The young harpy woman wasn't stupid, she was just too distracted with... pretty much everything. So much things to think about and pay attention to. Like the little birdie that flew oever as she proclaimed that and she completely started following it's flight path over to the nearby tree and lost focus from their conversation." Red Tailed Quail! Haven't seen one since the Legion War!" She exclaimed happily, eyes twinkling with joy. The bird made a few sounds before flying away, Naisha nearly followed after it, but stopped herself, just before she dropped the bowl of food." ... sorry." She apologized, realizing she completely forgot Asha for a moment.

She blinked when Asha brought up Winterspring. Her expression kinda turned a bit tensed." Asha... you do know that the Blue Dragons for some reason like Winterspring, yes?" The harpy carefully brought the topic." Before the war we didn't really go there much from my understanding. I know there are bases there now, but that's about it. I can't fly there, the dragons would eat me in a single bite! I think the flight pats that are in place are secure enough, but just walking out there beside those is like inviting the dragons or the demon remnants that lurk in the area to gobble you up!" She said rather afraid actually. Many among the kaldorei thought dragons to be a dangerous, but kind enough creatures and while it was true, Naisha had a rather huge fear of them. It was a leftover from her day with the Harpy Clan when she was just a tiny child. They used to scare the lil hatchlings with the dragons that would gobble them up if you don't obey the matriach or the like. Besides she had never met a dragon, so she couldn't really say if it was true or false! Her mother's tales of the Mad Aspect Malygos also didn't help the situation any. Of all dragons she most feared the blues and the blacks for that reason.

After a long moment, Naisha sighed, grumbled and nodded." Yes, Winterspring is past Moonglade. You could take one of hte trained flying creatures over the flying paths, try to bargain for passage with the furbolg or just try to scale the mountain paths as we are about to do to enter Moonglade." The harpy finally confirmed.
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Asha was beginning to have second thoughts about allowing Naisha to help with scouting... She didn't doubt the harpy's understanding of the serious nature of what they were going to be doing, but Naisha was young.. fairly young, the blood elf judged, and her tendency to become distracted could become a serious danger. Asha knew she herself could deal with the scouting mission easily but she worried for her companion. Even one second of distraction could be fatal. Naisha had proven herself before.. sort of, but that was for short spans. This scouting mission would likely take some time. And the blood elf was not exactly confident that Naisha could keep focused that long. Still, she couldn't really tell the harpy no either. There was a powerful reason they were doing this. The Kal'dorei were.. essentially Naisha's people, and had it been reversed, Asha would never had let anyone stand in her way to help her own people.

Asha frowned when the conversation turned to Winterspring and dragons. "So? People obviously make the place home and the orcs at least so travel there from time to time to deal with the goblins so it can't be that dangerous." she answered with a shrug. "If you are afraid, we just use the flight paths then. We are going to Moonglade first, after all, I assume they have a flight master of some sort there so we just fly out from there to Winterspring after.. and then from there on to.. whereever we choose to later." she suggested. "If dragons were that bad, there'd be no goblin town left in that area, would there?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Goblins, being so tiny, probably wouldn't make for much of a fight for a dragon so if the dragons really were trouble there.. yeah, the goblins wouldn't probably have survived this long. Then again, Asha did not know much about dragons in general, but it seemed like pretty sound reasoning to her.

"The safest way would be taking the flying paths then." she said finally as she finished up the last of her food in her bowl. Despite all Naisha said about dragons and demons, what worried Asha the most were the apparent hordes of furbolgs. Those were real threats, ones that were most definitely known to be native to the area. It would be best to avoid those by taking the flight paths. She frowned slightly. "Are you all right with riding on a flying animal?" she asked suddenly, the realization of the oddity of a flying creature riding on a flying creature striking her. To be fair though, the creatures that she had seen employed for travel though were likely a lot faster... and more competent at remaining in the air than a harpy.

She began to clean out her bowl, rinsing it with some water from her waterskin, and then began to clear up the rest of the stuff she had used to make food. They wouldn't set out until after Naisha was finished with her meal too but Asha wanted to get all the equipment and gear stored away now just in case. She glanced though, at the harpy, as she worked. "Naisha... you will be careful today, won't you? When we are down there, scouting? Don't let anything distract you for once. This could be very, very dangerous...." she said in concern. "The other situations we were in were.. somewhat dire too but this.. we don't know what could be there. What sort of foul magics these things down there might have. I don't want to see you get hurt." she explained. "Promise me you will keep focused? A lot of people are relying on us today, whether they know it or not..."
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Naisha made a very serious non commital noises when Varasha proceeded to confidently say that Winterspring was surely not THAT bad given that golblins lived there along with other people. While true, it definately didn't make the Harpy any less concerned, worried and concernly worried about the place. Blue dragons were... a fickle bunch to her understanding. Some were worse than others, but given that their own Aspect was supposedly gone completely and utterly crazy, it left the rest of the flight to try to make it work. She REALLY didn't want to think about how the goblins were getting along with teh dragons. She knew that some Kaldorei inhabited the area kind of like hermits, exiles and just rangers priot and after the war, but it was one thing to be a small group or single person with ease of hiding away from flying dangers and another to confidently 'stroll' about in the air there.

"I've taken the flight paths before!" She hummphed, showing the face of an offended lil kitten." I'm fine with it, it allows me to draw the scenery and see things as we go along. Besides the hippogriffs like me!" She added. Naisha in her innocent way had a rapport with many animals. She wasn't able to converse with all of them like druids were able to, or how rangers did with their companions, nor how she could do with avian kind, but she did have a rapport with many types. Otherwise how would she have wrangled all those cats and a pig for the prison break she ennacted? So yes she got along with many animals, especially flying things. There were of course the more naturally hostile ones like the moonstalkers and the huge strider raptor birds. Both were predators and rather hostile ones that attacked first and were rarely easy to approach, but anything that wasn't attacking on sight, so it meant most pets and prey animals, she loved cuddling them.

"Alright, I will be the veyr soul of caution!" Naisha smiled with her huge innocent smile and promised." Will be careful and not get distracted from the dangerous people there." She added and with having finished her food, she put away the rest and stretched." Alright, I will go now, meet back at the stream? I will circle around and approach from a different angle and then fly away after scouting." She added and with a few swings of her feathered arms got ehrself into the air, before she did a bit of a loop in it and then get higher to just under the cover of these millenia old trees and began flying away to circle around on the far side.

Unknown to the duo, a malicious force in the forest had already sensed something was afoot, given there were already people watching the tower that were also observed. An ancient malignant evil that lingered even after all these millenias was looking at his scrying spells, surveying the forests of Darkshore, trying to find the source of the presence that had been sensed by the magics of the tower, however nothing was discovered quite yet. But he hadn't survived for all these millenias by being loose and careless. The plans were so close to fruition! Mayhaps it was time to kill the annoying Kaldorei Scout that kept an eye on the tower. By the time anybody realized his loss, it would be too late...
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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Asha raised her hands up at Naisha's offended tone, but an amused smile played on her lips. "Was just wondering... I was just thinking that a winged being on a winged creature.. how that would work." she explained with a small laugh. The smile though faded to a raised eyebrow expression. "The hippogriffs may like you but.. I don't know what they would think of me... I've never ridden one nor ever been all that close to one before." she admitted. "We tend to use dragonhawks for travel back home. I hope the hippogriffs are just as well trained..."

The blood elf smiled in relief at Naisha's committal to being careful. The smile was tempered though with a bit of concern. Not so much at the validity of Naisha's promise but more so at harpy's ability to keep it in mind for the span of their task. Tasks done, Asha stood up, nodded at Naisha. "I'll meet you there then." she agreed, watching as the harpy took to the air. She knelt down again, urging Thas to climb up on her backpack and shoulder, taking only a moment to become accustomed to the new spread of weight. "Hold on tight, Thas." she warned, before she began to move out from the camp and down the hill, taking a round about way around the tower below.

Moving as fast as she dared, Asha tried to somewhat keep up with Naisha, having said she wanted to be able to keep an eye on her friend in case anything went wrong, but the harpy was so much faster air than the blood elf could get along the ground, and she soon lost Naisha through the tree cover. With some muttered curses, Asha just decided to keep going the way she was going, scouting as best she could before making for the stream.

As she drew nearer to the tower, though still quite some distance away, she began to really feel the magic and corruption that was taking hold of this area. Now more than ever, she could sense something.. familiar about it, about the power here. She was just at the beginnings of feeling the hunger for magic again, it being just a small urge now and not the painful gnawing hunger that it could grow into, but.. it almost felt like what was down there.. could help sate it. The idea made her recoil though. Whatever was down there was evil though, she couldn't absorb that sort of magic, she told herself.

She took a deep breath, shaking her head, trying to clear herself of the very thought. She had to move away from the source of that power for now. She would head towards the stream and the meeting place, she decided. Checking that Thas was still holding tight, she took off into a run in the direction she knew the stream to be in. The feeling trailed her all the way to the water, though it did diminish as she gained some more distance. Seeing Naisha not yet there, Asha knelt, letting Thas slip to the ground before she went to the edge of the water, cupping her hands and splashing some of it on her face, trying to shake herself of the odd feelings as she waited.

( I know you want to bring that one dude in, but I'm not sure how you wanted to and my brain is still lacking some sleep so I thought I'd ask rather than jump in without my brain working too well XD )
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

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True to her word Naisha flew carefully, but pretty fast all things considering just under the treetops. Having spend her life living in Ashenvale, it did make her somewhat adept at low flying under trees, more so than most of her Harpy kin. The unsettling feeling of the area did made her irritable as she was yesterday, but there wasn't much to be done about it. She neared the tower after some expert flying and circumventing around the place, approaching from the northwest. She didn't push further in towards it, instead took perch up in the treetops and the branches, observing the clearing where the tower was.

Her good eyesight allowed her to spot a good deal of things while hiding away. First of all... there were a lot of different races serving as warlocks at that place, but mainly it was humans and orcs. There was also a Satyr wandering the area. She didn't dare venture further in to the tower right now. The fel energies were too strong and she feared what would happen if she lost control of herself in her irritation and blew her hiding place or revealed her presence. If she was to approach this place later, she'd need to pray for purification and protection for herself and Asha.

She nearly fell out of her perching branch when a magical bolt blasted through the air, purple and green energies swirling through the air as it impacted in the treebranch nearby. Her eyes locked on a stayr that was intently watching in her direction, seemingly having sensed something. She quietly gulped and prepared to leave, having already spied about 2 dozens of cultists milling about the place plus a satyr. If he was the boss of this place, she didn't know, but weirldy doubted it. There was something especially malignant in the tower and it wasn't even the corrupted tower itself! Another sizzling corrupted bolt flew her general direction and she knew it was well time to flee, so she did, diving throug the foliage and speeding away. Another few sizzling chaos bolts flying her way. She managed to evade all of them..." AHHH!" She let out a paint gasp, as apparently, she did not in fact evade everything as one had lightly clipped past her leg, leaving a somewhat decent sized wound that was starting to bleed. She didn't have the time or the freedom to try to heal it right away, especially since she wasn't sure if they will be chasing after her, so she soed up even more, making as annoying to follow turns and zig zags above the trees.

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

Over at the meeting location of the duo, there was some noise happening not too far from Asha. There was a sound of battle, shouts, curses and arcane incantations in the foul language of the demons. A beareded Kaldorei was currently fighting for his life in a running battle as a squad of 5 warlocks and their fel minions were chasing after him. He was wounded, but hadn't allowed himself to fall as he ran and in an expertly trained way would occasional do turns around trees, spinning just for long enough to fire a single shot with his bow before continuing to run. Most of his arrows were being blocked by the blue and purple mass of the 2 voidwalkers that served as shields for the warlocks. The other 3 minions were a fel stalker and imps that were tossing smaller fireballs at him. One of his shots managed to needle the gap between the void walkers and it impacted one of the warlocks right into the eye as he was laughing, sending him tumbling dead on the ground, dispelling the fel stalker just as it was going to pounce on him. At this point it was a a corrupted magic bolt that hit him just under the knee, sending him falling prone on the ground. Balthule Shadowstrike was not having a good day, he concluded as he felt the taste of the dirt the moment his face hit the ground in force at the sudden support of his legs being stopped. His right leg was already burning with pain. Without some serious healing magic, he knew that his carreer as a scout and hunter of the forest was over. That was if he survived this and it seemed more unlikely by the second. He rolled sideways, evading a few more magical attacks send his way as they hit the ground where he was moments prior. In surprising speed for his position on the ground and the pain that filled almost all of his being, he managed to let loose another arrow, one that impacted the void walker's braces with quite hte force, cracking one of hte gemps. The crack sent ripples across the surface of the warlock's minion. It wasn't quite right to say it was in pain, for it was unknown of Voidwalkers even felt pain. What was a fact however was that the now unstable creature of the void lashed out all around it, buying Balthude another few precious moments to crawl behind a tree to try to bandage his... barely held together leg, while the crazed Voidwalker literally smashed an imp into paste.
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Keira Kelly
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Club Owner / Prince of Toronto
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Re: Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

Post by Keira Kelly »

The odd feeling she was getting was quickly forgotten as Asha began to hear what was unmistakably the sounds of fighting drawing closer. She had seen enough of combat during the Scourge invasion to know it all too well. This one in particular sounded mostly arcane as she could hear spells sizzling and thundering but not really anything of blades clashing or the like. She turned to look at Thas, pointing a stern finger at him. "You stay here and hide." she said gravely before turning and running towards the direction she could hear the combat in. As she ran, she pulled her bow off her shoulder, nocking an arrow in preparation, worried that maybe Naisha had gotten into some trouble on her way back to the meeting spot.

What she saw as she drew closer through the trees was not what the blood elf had expected to see. Five obvious warlocks with demonic minions chasing a lone... Her eyebrows rose as she saw who they were chasing. Quickly her brow furrowed as her expression turned into a snarl, turning to face the warlocks. As she had approached, she had circled around, hoping to catch foes from behind, and from behind she had. The warlocks had not seen her arrival at all, so focused were they on the Kal'dorei. Still a little too far, she could only watch as one of the demonic servants clipped their prey with a magical bolt in the leg, felling him for the moment. Run faster, Asha, run faster, she told herself, dodging trees and jumping over large, fallen logs. She could barely see now that the Kal'dorei man was trying to take cover behind some trees. She noted then, that one of the warlocks was down with what looked like an arrow in the face. She smiled wickedly at that. Wounded.. but he was a fighter. Good.

The minion of the one that the Kal'dorei had taken out was dead, fading away already as it lost the control the master had held over it. That was truly the important targets, the controllers. If any of the minions carried on after, they would be dealt with then but the chance of taking out two targets by killing one was the smart way to go, Asha reasoned as she levelled her bow as she came into range. She took a second to note that one of the warlocks' void-summoned minions seemed to be erratic, lashing out at friend and foe alike.. Why, she didn't know at the moment but it was time to take advantage of the situation as the other warlocks suddenly spun to deal with the new threat in their midst.

She let a flow of arcane magic from within flow into the arrow before releasing it at the back of the closest warlock. The arrow hissed and then screamed as it was let loose, flying through the woods, past trees before impacting the orc right in the middle of the back. These warlocks, they wore no real armour, only cloth robes and clothing that did little to stop real weapons. Normally they had their minions and other arcane means to defence most likely.. but right now, they were wholly distracted and the unawareness of Asha's presence had given her an easy kill. She paid little heed to orc's dropping body, or to the unfortunate human warlock who now seemed to be the target of the unstable voidwalker after it had destroyed one of the imps, pulling out another arrow and focusing on the next warlock, another human, a female this time.

This warlock had actually noted the fall of the orc and was turning to see where the arrow had come from. As Asha charged another arrow with her own energy, the warlock woman sent out a bolt of corrupt magic, causing Asha to dodge. Thankfully, the shot had been a quick reaction and hadn't been all that carefully aimed. But she had her bow aimed, even through the dodge, and the warlock's pet was still on the far side of her away from Asha. She released the arrow with the sureness of an elven ranger and the arrow landed true. Right through the forehead of the woman. Behind her, her imp minion screamed as it lost its hold in this world when she died.

Two down. The human male was still locked in combat.. or more to the point, desperate defence against the voidwalker. Asha let off a barrage of arrows against the fel stalker that had turned and began to sprint towards her. She backed up as she shot, arrow after arrow into the demonic quadruped, worried that arrows might not be enough. She was just prepared to drop her bow and draw her blades when the creature's charge faltered. It tripped, falling, its momentum rolling it end over end until it came to rest at her feet, dead. She looked up just in time to lock eyes with its orcish master. He snarled, raising a hand crackling with foul looking energies in Asha's direction.

Like hitting a brick wall, spikes of pain tore through the blood elf's body. She gasped in the agony of the warlock's spell, dropping her bow and falling to her knees, barely able to even breath against the pain. It felt like spikes of ice were being driven through her body. She could hear the orc's menacing laughter as he drew closer to her but she was unable to act. She couldn't help but let out a strangled scream. Was this how it was to end for her?

Suddenly a ball of fur came streaking out of the woods, slamming into the orc's legs with a high-pitched bellow. Despite his size, Thas bit and clawed viciously in a frenzy. The orc's attention turned to the rabid ball of fur at his feet, trying to get away from the teeth and inch long claws that were mauling him as he kicked at the cub and tried to move back. His concentration on his spell to disable Asha waned. She was up in a heartbeat. The remnants of pain still tore into her but they were starting to fade. She struggled to draw a deep breath to collect herself but the orc savagely kicked Thas, sending the little bear rolling away. Seeing Thas lying still on the ground, rage overcame Asha.

She drew her curved elven sword and dagger and with a savage growl, leaped at the orc, her blades whistling through the air as she sliced and stabbed without reason or tactic. The orc's hands came up to defend himself at this unexpected whirlwind but it only served to have fingers and limbs sliced off. Hot blood sprayed. It only drove Asha on. Without intent, one blade slipped across the orc's throat and after only a moment, the body crumpled under the onslaught. Continuing to stab the body on the ground, Asha was suddenly blindsided, something hitting her head hard and knocking her to the ground as well. Her vision swam as she lay there for a long moment. She put a hand up to her head, trying to feel for an injury. She she pulled it back to look, her hand was covered in blood.. but so was her face, her hair and the rest of her, from the orc. She shook her head, noticing a good sized rock lying nearby.

The last orc, the one who had thrown the rock, smiled viciously at Asha, as he began to bring his hands up towards her. Apparently the thrown rock had been only to get her attention. He wanted her attention before he cast something nasty in her direction. Asha began to pull herself unsteadily to her feet, gripping her sword but leaving the dagger on the ground. She held the sword in both hands, bringing it up over her head. Suddenly the orc went rigid with a gasp. Without waiting, Asha let her sword fly. He had thrown a rock, she would return the favour with her sword.... The blade plunged into his chest and the orc toppled. As he did, Asha noticed an arrow stuck in his back. Looking past the body, she saw the Kal'dorei male with a bow. She locked eyes with him for a moment, giving the barest nod of gratitude, before turning to the final.. threat?

The last warlock hadn't survived the fight with the voidwalker. And now with the orc who had commanded the walker dead, it took the opportunity to slip back to its own realm. The battle was over.. for now. Asha's first concern was Thas and she ran over to the little bundle of fur, nearly in tears that he still hadn't really moved. As she knelt down, running her fingers into his fur, she could feel he was still breathing and she breathed in relief. Thas made a little sound, moving to get up. "Take it easy, little one..." Asha cooed to him as she ran her hands over his little body. He flinched when she touched his ribs but they felt solid enough. Maybe cracked at worst. Painful but not life threatening. He got to his feet himself and stood up on her knees, moving well enough though with some pain. She held his head for a moment in a bit of a hug. "We'll get you some healing as soon as we can." she added to him in a quiet voice.

Though she could heal a little with her magic, the amount she had just used on many of the arrows she had shot had nearly depleted her. The hunger for it was ravenous within her now but.. she had other concerns still. She would deal with the hunger later. The withdrawal if it came to that would take some time yet. She scooped up Thas in her arms after retrieving her weapons, trying to ignore both the hunger and her own pain as she moved now to where she had seen the Kal'dorei man.

Pausing in her approach for a moment, Asha, having seen no sign yet of Naisha, cupped her hand to her mouth and let out a very fair screeching approximation of a startled forest strider bird she had heard from these lands. It had been a signal the had worked out during their journey and Asha hoped the harpy was close enough to hear it and would be drawn here. She turned back to the Kal'dorei man.

"Bal'a dash. Greetings. We are friends." she said, still trying to catch her breath as she held up her one free hand in a gesture of peace. She figured it unlikely that this one would have heard anything of what had gone on back in Auberdine. "How do you fare?" she asked. "Are you able to walk? It might be imperative that we vacate the area before they send more reinforcements.." she added, looking around, listening. She was only half watching out for potential foes, but also trying to see if she could spot Naisha at all either.
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