Warcraft: The Shadowhand Conspiracy

[rivaan]

Naisha was having a wonderful sleep aside the few times they had to get mostly up to stoke the fire with the spare firewood to draw the burning time instead of dumping it all at once. As the sun rose across the horizon and eventually it and combination of hte cold draft and the harpy's feathers woke Asha, Naisha herself was still snoozing innocently. She was having an especially pleasant dream about one of the times she and her mother were camping out in the forests before the Legion arrived and everything well to the Nether and back. They had picked this nice location outside of the lake surrounding the town. They were literally close enough to see the town, but on the outside edge of the lake. Her mother had thought it prudent to be close to home in case something goes wrong. Still they spend whole heavily snowing week just with the two of them, out in the nature, living in her mother's tent, scavenging for winter foragables or learning how to hunt and make sure they never hunt more than it was needed.

In her dream she was back by the tent, snuggling with her mother as the blizzards howled outside. They had a small stove going inside hte tent. It was one of the most magical times in Naisha's earlier life. 7 days just by themselves, spending all the time together, telling stories or learning. Sometimes just standing sitting by the tent's entrance and looking out in the white veil that was the blizzard. Her mother told and taught her many things back then, many of which Naisha still didn't fully understand, some of which if at all.

Thus when Asha finally woke up and tried to get her to wake up too, Naisha naturally in the haze of the dream had other things in her mind." Muuu... let's roast a few mowe... *mumble mumble*-er legs. They are vewy crunwhy and tashty..." Was her first words as she made herself more comfortable instead of removing herself from Asha's person. Following attempts to wake the harpy came with varying effects of efficiency." Mhmmm... just a little bit more, mommy... It's nice and warm in here... can't we just spend hte day in the tent again...pwetty please..." Was what came afterwards in a sleepy dreamy voice.

Finally after a bit, Naisha slowly pulled herself, or rather her head, up and looked around sleepily, noting she was on top of Asha with just a passing note and smiled." Ohh, good morning, Asha. Did you sleep well? I did, it was very warm. You and Thas are warm..." She said quietly and cuddled back into her bedroll, but this time rolling off Asha, freeing her." I had a good dream..." And with that, Naisha once more began drifting off into the land of morning sleep. Seems she wasn't an early bird. Or maybe it was because of the heavy cloud cover that blocked much of the sun. Besides as far as Naisha was concerned in this weather, there was no point in getting at the crack of dawn... it was too cold out of their shelter, it was best to wait just a bit. So she curled up in her bedroll and blanket, hiding her head under her wing as she did.

[Keira Kelly]

Asha helped half push Naisha back to her own bedroll as the harpy rolled off, though she kept Thas for herself. As Asha sat up, Thas curled up on her lap sleepily. Asha rubbed at her eyes. It had taken her a long time to get to sleep and she had awoken early, getting probably not enough sleep, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now. She glanced over at the sleeping Naisha, her brow furrowing slightly in envy at the harpy's ability to be not only somewhat warm, but to be so comfortable to sleep like that as well... and dream of nice things, it seemed.

The blood elf's dream had been nice too.. until she had been woken up. And the memories had come back. She was sure that if she could succeed in getting back to sleep, her former dream could easily turn into a nightmare. She had had many over the past six years. It would be better just to stay awake and begin to get some food ready or something. A few more minutes of hugging the little bear cub first thought.

She stared at the remnants of the fire, which could barely be called that anymore. That was the last of the logs there, almost burnt black at this point, with only stray flames still living around it. Half an hour more, and breakfast would likely have had to be eaten cold. Finally, she put Thas down and slipped out of her bedroll. The little bear instantly made a sound of annoyance and wormed his way into the still-warm bedroll. "You are going to need to get up soon too..." she whispered softly at the lump in it, patting it softly.

She shivered, going over to her pack and digging through it, looking for some of the meat she still had and dragging it out. She stood up, rubbing her bare upper arms with her hands as she left the little shelter, looking around in the dim light. The sun would be coming from the other side of the mountain soon so it would take a while yet to get light on this side, but she could see well enough for what she needed. At least the snowstorm had passed, though the wind was still strong and sharp and cold.

She moved around to where the piles of loose rock were and, pawing through it, pulled out a quite thin but just a bit bigger than hand size piece of flat shale, making sure that it was a dry piece from beneath other pieces. This would work. She headed back into the shelter, feeling numb already, she set the piece of shale down on top of where the strongest flames yet were. She kept a cautious watch on the rock for a few minutes until she was confident that it didn't contain any moisture pockets that might explode as it heated up and once she judged it hot enough, she began to throw bits of meat onto the rock to sizzle and fry. The shelter took on the pleasing scent of frying moonsaber, so much like the springpaw lynxes of her own homeland.

After a while, she had judged the meat pretty cooked, having taken on a crunchy texture, so she turned to Naisha who was still sleeping. She reached out, rocking the harpy. "Naisha, time to get up now. Breakfast!" she called out. "Come on, the fire isn't going to last much longer." she added, looking out at the lightening day beyond the shelter walls. "It's going to be getting a lot colder in here soon and not so much fun for sleeping.... Naisha!" She paused, without having much luck it seemed.

Now that the wood she had brought had all been used up, they didn't have a chance for another fire before they could get down the other side of the mountain. If they got caught on the other side before they got down low enough to decent temperatures, it might not go so well for them tomorrow night. They needed to get an early start for that reason let alone all the other reasons that she could think of. She sighed, going and retrieving Thas at least out of her bedroll. The cub whined.. until he smelt the cooked meat and then began to make hopeful noises. Apparently he knew better to wait though than try to steal the meat. Asha gave him a look, about to give him some food but paused, a smile forming on her lips. "Go and play on Naisha." she said quietly to him, gesturing to the still-sleeping harpy. "You'll get an extra helping of meat for breakfast if you help wake her up." she promised

With a cry that could only be described as playful, Thas launched himself at the top of Naisha's bedroll, and began to romp and roll around on top of her, as if he was playing with invisible siblings, making all sorts of playful bear cub sounds, though being careful not to tear anything with his claws. Asha's giggles could be heard behind the cub's squeals and grunts.

[rivaan]

Naisha had a nice nap again. She was warm, there was scent of food in the air and she REALLY wasn't feeling like getting up. It was all nice right now... like camping with her mother. Nice, warm and perfect for snoozing in... maybe get a nice breakfast of perfectly crunchy spider..."LEeegsAghhhhhh!" She cried in alarm as something moderately heavy fell on top of her sleeping form and began stomping about on her lithe body." Whyyyyyyy...." A now rather awake Naisha coaked as she was feeling the aftereffects of being samped on by a small bear. Hey her body was light and she was easy to hurt!... well not that easy. She wasn't a regular bird, but she was a pretty lethe young woman still.

"Ashaaaaa...! Not niceeeeeee!" She cried out after a bit, having heard the older woman's giggles and objected vocally. By objecting she was mostly pouting at her friend though as she carefully pushed Thas off herself. The harpy was now busy rubbing her sides where she had felt some heavy bear cub paws impacting." That's gonna sting for a bit." She mumbled, clawing her way out of her bedroll.

She visibly shivered once outside the warm confines of her sleeping spot and quickly wrapped herself in the blanket for the time being. The harpy's hair feathers were all sticking out in different direction in a manner similar to bedhair, making the plummage appear even more volupmtious than usual. Add to that the fact it was already fluffed up for the warmth and her 'hair' was positively huge.

"Couldn't we have stayed in bed a bit longer? It's cold outside still from the night and the storm. It's gonna take a bit for it to be survivable outside our shelter and we need for hte sun to be fully up before we leave." She let out a small complain, wrapping herself tightly in that blanket, before her eyes fell on the meat that was cooking on a piece of stone. She stared at it for a bit, then at Asha and tilted her head before sighing." I thought in my sleep that it was Crunchy Spider legs... Mom used to make some very often... When we were camping out in the woods of Ashenvale when I was little, she'd bring some for our camping trips to make on the campfire or she'd catch giant spiders in the wild to do so. She once got some crabs from a river to cook instead... the spider was better."

[Keira Kelly]

Asha chuckled at Naisha's objections to Thas jumping around on her, seeing the little bear just being a carefree cub and having fun. Despite him having lost his mother to the blight that was infecting Darkshore, losing everything he knew, he was still young enough to be completely carefree now. True, he was only a bear but even a bear could feel. "He was just wanting you to get up so he could play with you." Asha explained with an amused look. She rolled her eyes slightly at the harpy's complaints, knowing that Thas was careful with his weight and strength. Hopefully that would be a trend that would continue once he was grown. Asha would have to make sure of that, in fact.

She shook her head in negative to Naisha's question about staying in bed. "It will probably be light enough to start out by the time we get breakfast over with and everything packed up." she explained. "We'll definitely be making it to the other side of the mountains today, and I've heard that night comes on very, very quickly on the east side over there. I want to get as far down the mountain as we can today. Don't want to get caught without shelter with night coming on quick and besides... if we go fast enough, maybe we will get low enough that tonight, it will be considerably warmer for sleeping..." she added, trying to sell the point. "The faster we get up and over, the faster we get out of this damnable cold."

She caught Naisha looking behind her, following her gaze to the cooking food before looking back to the harpy. "Well, I don't know about spider legs but this moonsaber is almost as good as springpaw lynx." she replied. "Besides, I can cook it to be crunchy. Not really the same thing but crunchy meat strips is quite a treat." she said as she turned back to the food to check on it. It really was making some pleasing sizzling sounds. "It's just too bad we don't have any nectar drink to go with it... it would go perfectly with the meal..." she added wistfully, thinking of the common juice-type drink from her own homeland.

Shrugging the nostalgia off, she tested the meat with a fork, finding it suitably cooked. She used the fork to divide up the meat slices equally, moving each pile into a bowl. She handed one to Naisha and took the other for herself. "Careful, let it cool a little bit.. though in this air, I imagine that won't take too long.." she said as she moved to sit back down on top of her bedroll, shivering again now as her arms had no protection from the elements. As she sat down, Thas was right after her. True to her promise, she retrieved a couple good sized chunks of fresh meat from her pack and handed them over to the little bear who immediately began to hungrily devour his fare. Asha turned to her own, risking the heat to begin her own meal.

She took a bite, making a contented sound at the taste of crispy but flavourful meat. There were better ways to prepare meat like this, something akin to how the humans she had met prepared a food they called bacon, but.. this was the best she could manage under the circumstances. That being said, though the meat was still fresh, she knew she would soon have to discard the rest of it. It would only be edible for so much longer. Hopefully they would be down out of the mountains before that happened, and then she could track a new source of food.

She glanced over at Naisha, and began to speak between mouthfuls of the breakfast meat. "So, we get up and over the pass as quick as we can.. which should also help keep us warm, and as far down as we can before it gets too dark to travel. Hopefully from then, the rest of the trek to these druids will be.. easy?" she said with some anxiety. She was still worried about how these druids would react to a Sin'dorei. While it might be true they had not really taken sides between the Alliance and the Horde, most of them were still Kal'dorei... That alone might make them have a less than friendly attitude towards one from the race that was formerly known as high elves. "How much do you know about these druids over there?" she asked. "Are we sure they will.. remain.. neutral?" she asked with some trepidation.

She sighed at herself. "I guess even if they want to take me into custody, if they heard what happened in Auberdine... or if they just really wouldn't want a Quel'dorei there, at least, we can give them the warning that they are needed back there...." she said, her shoulders drooping a bit. Even if it took her life, she would do this; one life to save others. A price she was willing to pay, just like many she had loved had done. "No matter what, they should listen to you though, right? With you and your mother's connection to the priestesses?"

[rivaan]

"I will." Naisha replied, being indeed careful with her freshly roasted meat. It was nice and she did like meat. PLus if she wanted it to cool she just had to poke it into the snow for a few seconds or so and it was going to be cool enough if a bit wet. She didn't do it cause the cold was strong enough that it rapidly drained hte temperature from the very hot meat that didn't have a means to retrain said heat nor produce new unlike living bodies. IN any case soon she was nibbling on her breakfast with a content smile. Being stomped by a tiny bear almost forgotten from her mind.

"Hmmm? Well... it should. Moon Glade's a very unique place. It's shrouded in constant moonlight, there's no real 'day' there. There's only night and moonlight which I think is a blessing from the Mother Moon, but not quite completely certain. It's apparently tied into what the druids call the Emerald dream." The harpy went on a tangent for a bit, before tilting her head a bit as if thinking." Ohh yeah... easy. Once we enter into the Glade proper the temperature would raise quickly, snows and winds would lessen and we should be good. It's as if the Glade's an unique place in itself separate from the rest of Kalimdor."

After thinking for a bit and finishing her meat, Naisha cleaned her claws, fingers, hands and face with handfuls of snow." Ohh the druids are nice! They give me candy whenever I go with my mother and she keeps telling them I need not that much sweets cause I'm apparently very chaotic when I eat too much of it." Naisha recalled with a smile." Neutrality is their most important goal. It's because of it that they can maintain ties with both Alliance and Horde and attempt to heal places that are usually locked into border struggles. Plus once we explain everything, they will be certain to help! They hate Satyrs! Something about someone called Xavius, which is really familiar and I Just can't recall from where, but anyhow... Satyrs are killed on sight."

Naisha began nodding her feathered head, causing all her feathers to wave and bristle at the rapid activity." They will listen! I'm sure of it!" She said in a case of utmost optimism about the situation." And Archdruid Ironhoof will not allowed anything to happen to you. He's one of the high ranking tauren druids that live in Moon Glade. He's a bit old and very much a goffy grandpa, but he's strong and his word carries weight. Also apparently he headbutted an Eredar warlock into death during hte war."

[Keira Kelly]

The meal was finished pretty quickly but the warmth of it in Asha's stomach was a relief from this damnable cold. While her stomach was warm right now though, her bare arms, face and long ears certainly were not. She shivered as they ate and spoke. Her green, glowing eyes turned sharply in Naisha's direction. "Eternal night?" she repeated with a bit of a grimace. "I don't know that I would call that a blessing. I would miss the light of the sun too much in a place like that." she responded honestly. The warmth of the sun on a nice summer's day was too much of a pleasure to want to ever give up.

Her face did light up at hearing that the temperatures on the other side of the mountain range would be much nicer though. "Well, I look forward to getting over there as fast as possible, even if its eternally night there... just to get good and warm again." she answered. She was all the most determined to get moving out, cause the quicker they began to get over the pass, the sooner they could be warm again. Being from Quel'Thalas, she just could never get used to this form of cold.

Asha couldn't help but laugh at hearing that the druids liked to give Naisha candy, and more so that she was chaotic with so much sugar. "Somehow I don't find that too hard to believe." she said with a chuckle. She turned a bit more serious in hearing that these druids, despite many being Kal'dorei, were intent on neutrality. It made sense but it was good to hear. She patted the makeshift sack that sat tied to her pack still which contained the head of the satyr they had killed. "Well, I think we will have the right introduction letter right here then." she answered about how the druids hated the evil creatures.

She got up, beginning to clean up and put away the rest of their gear, packing it up as Naisha kept talking. She glanced back at hearing an odd name mentioned. Archdruid Ironhoof. Well, high ranking by the title apparently but.. Ironhoof? Not a very Elven name... The next sentence contained the answer to that. "A tauren? Huh.." she trailed off, thinking. Taurens were horde, just as the Sin'dorei was now so that was some proof that faction did not matter.

She knew very little more about the tauren though other than they were horde, and they were.. very.. primitive in some ways, at least compared to her own people. It might be interesting though to meet a tauren and see for herself. After all, they were a respected part of her own faction now. Her eyes grew wide and Asha made a surprised sound at hearing how this particular tauren had headbutted an enemy to death once. "I think I may very much like to meet this Ironhoof now." she said with a bit of a smile.

---------------------------------
HOURS LATER
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The climb up the rest of the mountain pass had been strenuous but finally they had crossed the high point of it and were now on a downward slope. At first it had been a bit treacherous, with snow and ice still on the ground but very quickly, the warmth had come back. A while after that, they had made it to the treeline. Asha was overjoyed, not just at not being chilled to the bone, but at once again being in a forest. She so loved the woods. She rubbed again at some patches of skin on her arms which remained paler than her normal complexion and hurt around the edges. The tips of her ears also hurt somewhat but that was secondary to everything else at the moment. She would deal with it later. At least her hands were in good stead, having kept them around her and nestled under her arms for much of the hike through the pass, keeping them warm enough.

In the far distance, she could just barely see a path through the trees. It seemed that it split near where they were descending, going both north to south and splitting off east as well. "Any idea which direction we will need to head?" she asked Naisha. "Or how far the druid camp may be?" She glanced up at the twilight sky, even though she was sure it wasn't that late in the day yet... or was it? It was difficult to tell. "I'm not sure if we should stop and make camp.. and maybe get some good sleep, or press on and make what distance we can..."

( I feel like a traitor here, writing Asha hating the cold of the mountain with a passion XD Being canadian, I'm used to teasing others I know from the south when they can't seem to adapt to cold weather XD

Also.. Asha has a bit of frostbite >< Bare arms with no protection is not a good thing in that sort of climate XD Think we both have some healing magics so it can be dealt with at some point. )

[rivaan]

"Yeah, he's great! Grandpa Ironhoof actually did want me to take me up as an student and teach me the ways of the druids, but I was already learning under mother's guidence and he did not push the issue. Druids and Priests tends to respect each other a lot, because the druids, even tauren ones, know of Elune's existence and they respect her domain and ways. Same goes for the priesthood of Elune who well venerates Cenarius in their own way and respect the ways of the druid greatly." Naisha chirpped in exposition. Truth was that Ironhoof had instead taught her the way of pranks. Her mother may have afterwards fed the pranking flames in her own way, but the old tauren was the one who started it all up. He loved pranking the other druids who, in his words - had sticks in unfortunate places. Mother never explained that one to her.

[Long Hours of Great Horrowing Howling Mountain Climbing Journey Later~]

It took a while but eventually they made it past the peaks and began descending. Goind down was certainly easier and faster than climbing! Granted she could have flown, but Naisha kind of forgot about it for a while, having too much fun walking with Asha. Eventually Naisha casually noted they had made it through the twilight enchantment of the glade. It was already nearing night when they did so it wasn't a very sudden unexpected difference, but it would probably give a case of confusion to anybody not aware of it. She probably would have noted the ranger's confusion and dissoance, but Naisha wasn't really looking for that.

"Mmmmm... we are a few hours away from the nearest camp to the east, I think." The harpy commented as she looked at Asha and noted actually the woman's somewhat haggard appearance when it came to ehr extemities." We should rest here. We are already within Moon Glade's protection. The chill and the cold wouldn't reach us here the same. Let's camp here, rest, heal up and after resting good, we can continue!" Naisha quipped as she began collecting fallen branches, twigs and other burning materials. They couldn't really freely cut trees here, but with a forest this ancient, there were more than enough old fallen branches, twigs, pine cones and other tree seeds that burned good. Not to mention old drying up leaves.

Once a good supply of fuel was collected to last them a few hours at least, she sat down and looked expectantly at Asha, before she patted the spot in front of her with her clawed hand in energetic manner." Come, Asha. Let me heal you, I can see that you aren't quite alright because of the cold. I've seen those symptoms before. Let me help you with them. Here in the Moon Glade my power is stronger and I can more easily reach the goddess to pray for healing." She stated, waiting for the ranger to sit in front o her, eyes big and innocently expecting. She wanted to help after all.

[Keira Kelly]

At Naisha's estimation of the distance, Asha glanced upwards, trying to judge the time of day. Her expression turned to one of confusion at what her experience told her versus what her eyes were telling her. She was about to say they should press on for a bit when Naisha suggested resting instead. Asha was most definitely not going to object to that, even if she would have pressed on had she been alone. When she had a goal in mind, she was quite driven.. though with what they had just been through on the mountain, a good night's rest in decent temperatures sounded even better. They would get there tomorrow and be able to deal with the satyr head and getting help.

She nodded in agreement. "It does feel better down here." she replied. "Maybe a bit cooler than Quel'Thalas, specially with the sun.. down? But still, better than on that damnable mountain." she added with a sideways smile. "Being well rested to go before these druids sounds like a very good idea." As Naisha moved off, collecting things for the fire, Asha brushed away the dead leaves and whatnot from the small clearing that they had stopped in and gathered a bunch of rocks that she could find, making a circle of them for a small fire pit. With all the tree material around, she didn't want to start a forest fire. That was something she had learned early on as a Farstrider: how to live off the land and be careful of it. Perhaps she might have some more in common with these druids than she had thought. Farstriders were also connected to the forests, even if Asha still had only rudimentary training and experience in that. It was more than most of her people had.

With the fire pit dug and lined with the rocks, Asha stowed her pack to the side, telling Thas to watch over it, as she moved off to help collect some bigger pieces of dry fallen logs that Naisha was a bit too fragile to handle herself. Once they had both brought back a good supply of logs and sticks and whatnot, Asha set up the campfire and got it going. As the fire slowly began to grow, she put out her hands towards in, trying to soak in the warmth, trying to soothe the flesh that had apparently been damaged in places by the cold weather. It did not really seem to help. She raised a now warmed hand up to touch to the tip of one of her ears, wincing at how it hurt to even touch.

Naisha calling her name drew Asha's attention. She opened her mouth of object that she was fine but stopped herself, glancing down at the spots of white on her arms. She touched at one, feeling how numb it was in the middle but how much it hurt around the edges of it. She sighed, looking over at the harpy. "I never knew cold could harm like this." she said as she got up to move over to where Naisha indicated, sitting down before the harpy. She was reluctant to let anything from Elune do anything for her... but since it was Naisha, she would allow it... and it would be nice for these patches of damage to be fixed.

She frowned, slightly turning her head to one side so Naisha could see her ear there better. "Is.. is my ear tip white too? It hurts as well... " she asked. "Are they both like that?" she continued, turning hear head also to the other side. With a slightly annoyed sound, she added, "This is why elves don't live where it is so cold.. Well, I don't know about Kal'dorei but we only live where we have made it a decent temperature all year round..." she said with a little laugh. "Some healing would be welcome, my friend." she said at the end of that.

With that, Thas nearly jumped into Asha's lap, full of energy apparently. "What, you want healing too?" she asked the cub. "I don't think you need any, scamp. We healed you all good after that last night and well.. you have your own coat! You were probably toasty warm the whole time up on the mountain!" she objected. Thas answered back with a small bear moan of complaint. As if she perfectly understood, she looked over at Naisha. "Lies. Don't believe anything he says!" she said jokingly. "He just wants attention.." She glanced down at the cub who was just staring right back at her. "Or is it food?" She glanced at Naisha again. "It's both.. he wants both..." she added flatly. "After this, we are going to have to get some dinner going..." she warned, still half-jokingly.

[rivaan]

"Ohh yes, it does! This is why we generally have winter clothing out here!" Naisha chirpped at Asha's cold damage comment." Well... I tend to not need it quite as much because my body's made different to a kaldorei. Harpies can live with minimal clothing even in the constant snows and cold. Mind you it's very very cold and unpleasant, but we don't suffer quite the same degree of damage from simply being in the cold." It was a weird quirk of the harpy race. Granted in the cold and snow their plummage tends to be grander and warmer, but they still retained a lot of parts of hteir bodies that lacked feathers. So it was probably some innate magical nature thing." Mhm, mother usually has us wear these warm fur and cloth hats with big ear pockets in them when it gets especially cold. They are quite comfortable and warm."

"Yeah, you've gotten quite a bit of cold damage on our way here, especially today. Last night you looked well enough, but once the snow subsided the temperatures drop rapidly and while it was mostly sunny today even up top, temperatures were a lot lower. Don't worry, it will be as if the hurt never happened" She promised as Asha agreed to some healing from her. She laughed happily at Thas's antics. They cub was adorable, causing indeed innocent honest laughter from the younger woman who gave a grin to Asha.

"Alright, now come give me your hands." Naisha called as she reached hers, waiting for some physical contact here and once she had it, her eyes closed as she began speaking prayers to the Mother Moon in Darnassian. The younger woman had a natural gift for the divine magic of Elune. It showed early in her life as how easily she conntected with teh goddess, how easily her prayers were heard and here and now was not an exception. Mere few words into the prayer and the dark twilight above them was broken as a pale soothing silver radiance descended, light soaking into Asha's wounded and hurt skin as the frostbite was rapidly healed until no trace of it remained after a bit. The light tickled the bear cub a bit too before Naisha's prayers finished and the soothing silver radiance finally ended, leaving them to the previous gentle twilight.

"There we go. As good as new! No scars or anything shall remain." Naisha chirped, observing the prayers' handywork. She was happy that all hurt on Asha was removed as she stood up." Alright, I will go secure us some food at least! I know the edible foragables in Moon Glade already, so I will be faster on gathering them. Might even get a rabbit or two!" And with that Naisha was off into the forest, with nary another word as she vanished into the trees around their campfire.

[Keira Kelly]

Asha held her hands out as she grimaced, bearing her fanged teeth as Naisha began to heal her. The Blood Elf winced at the pale silver light that grew and brightened the twilight forest. While the power Elune, the magical healing that Naisha conjured, was soothing and did in fact heal, it was cold and distant to Asha, just as the moon was. It was nothing like the golden warmth of the Belore, of the sun, nor anything to akin to the beautiful brilliance of the Sunwell. Asha felt an inner pang at the sudden memory of the Sunwell, the hunger that was starting to creep back into the core of her. It would be perhaps a matter of days, if she did not use any of her own power, before she would need to siphon arcane energies once more. Her own supply of arcane crystals for such a purpose though was beginning to dwindle. Perhaps.... perhaps these druids might have a moonwell somewhere in these woods though.. While not as sustaining as the Sunwell had been, they still would sate her for far longer than the crystals...

Before she realized it, Naisha had finished. She checked her arms before cautiously reaching up to feel one ear, and then the other. She sighed with relief at the lack of pain touching them caused this time. She gave the harpy a genuine smile of gratitude. "Thank you, Naisha." she said before arching one eyebrow. "Remind me to next time bring something warm if we decide to go somewhere so cold..." She nodded at Naisha's volunteering of getting food, about to respond but the harpy was off before she could say more.

She sat, instead, beside the fire, taking a deep breath at she stared into the golden-orange flames. She... didn't like sitting here alone. The only thing that kept her going was action, conversation. Sitting alone meant things she would rather keep behind her, memories, pushed their way back into her mind. Memories that had enough weight that they would drag her under if she didn't keep active. She had told Naisha of some of the worst of it, of course, but.. perhaps she hadn't let on how much it all still ate away at her, deep inside. She wouldn't though. The harpy was too young to understand really and.. well, Asha did not want pity nor did she want to get dragged into it all either.

Asha stood, rubbing at her face with a hand, only now realizing it was wet with tears. She turned in the small clearing, facing east, looking off into the dark forest, as if she could see straight across two continents and the vast ocean between, back to her homeland. All of her people yet alive had lost someone, even most of their loved ones. Asha had lost... every. single. one. Her teeth clenched together as she spoke those words within her own mind, eyes shut tight and head bowed. Nobody she had cared about had been spared. Not a one of them. Why was she still here? What was left for her here?

A gentle whine came from beside her. She opened her eyes to see Thas staring up at her. Though most people probably could not be able to discern it, she could see concern in his eyes staring back at her. She forced a smile as she knelt, putting a hand on the top of his little furry head, grateful at the interruption to her dark thoughts. "I'm here for you... and for Naisha. To keep you both safe." she whispered to the bear cub but then paused. She was, there was no doubting that, but.. for how long? Her own people wanted her back for reasons that.. she was uncomfortable with. She also still did live for her people, to protect what was left of them... but the rest of it, she didn't want right now but yet.. how could she refuse to help her own people?

She moved to sit back down beside the fire again, allowing the bear cub to curl up in her lap. He wouldn't be able to accomplish this for very much longer with the way he had grown even just in the past week. She grabbed at her pack nearby, pulling it over without disturbing Thas and retrieved some of the remnants of meat, that was starting to turn, out of the bag, feeding it in small chunks to the bear cub who didn't mind and wouldn't be affected by the meat if it wasn't totally fresh any longer, as she waited for Naisha to return.

( Up to you if you want Naisha to overhear what Asha whispered to Thas at all. )