Boom, baby! I'm back! And I know I said I wouldn't write a sequel, but here I am. Actually thought of a really rough plot idea about a month back, but over the last few days I've really been pulling it together. Sorry. I couldn't resist. I hated the way I ended the last story, because it seemed so . . . un-Kathryn, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, if you hadn't gathered, this story is a sequel to Last Chance At Humanity. You don't have to read it first, since it's the worgen starting experience, but I strongly advise you do, as it covers a lot of the character development. Just a suggestion.
And, finally, here's a warning in advance. My lore will be rusty. I will, however, be doing quite a bit of research. At the moment, I am not up to date at all, and for all I know, I could accidently start puttering on about stuff that happened in Wrath of the Lich King or Burning Crusade; mainly because BC is my strongest area of knowledge. I'm sorry. But hey, if anyone would like to help me with said lore, that would be really nice. You'd get major brownie points.
~Ice.
1 – Return
Kathryn
'Been here ten minutes and I hate it already,' Kathryn muttered, looking around as she walked. 'Little to no stealing potential . . . and it's too buggering clean. By the Light . . .'
Darnassus definitely hadn't turned her soft.
A handful of older mothers that passed by turned to glare at her, and her slight use of profanity around small children, her own included. Kathryn grinned impishly at them, before hitching Liam up on her hip and continuing on.
She honestly didn't care if Liam learned to swear before he could even walk properly, since she tossed around curses left and right. It might not be socially acceptable, and she would be frowned upon as a mother, but hey, there were more important things to worry about.
Like a freaking war, for example.
Liam grabbed a lock of hair in his little fist and yanked, causing her to wince slightly. He giggled at her expression, and she prodded him in the stomach playfully.
'Bloody demon child, you are,' she told him in mock annoyance, and he laughed. 'Don't know where you came from, because you aren't mine.'
He giggled again, and said, 'Dada.'
Kathryn immediately froze, letting out a long, slow exhale as she began her routine of shoving hopes, fears and memories into the back of her mind. Finally, she straightened again and nodded, before walking on in silence.
Liam seemed to realise that he had done something wrong, and his little face fell. Immediately regretting upsetting the poor child, Kathryn hugged him and ruffled his hair, putting a large and overly false smile on her face.
'Come on,' she told him. 'Let's see what we can find today, huh?'
Once again happy, Liam fully believed her cheeriness, and together they meandered their way through Stormwind as the sun rose further overhead.
Half an hour later, she still hated it. It just felt . . . different to Gilneas. It lacked any aspects that made Kathryn want to call the place home.
Liam clearly didn't care. He looked around with eyes the size of saucers, and tried to steal anything he could off passing carts. Kathryn grinned. Okay, sometimes he was just like her.
She normally would have been a little unnerved to see all of the guards walking around the place, but since she had seen worse things in life, the mere prospect of being caught trying to nick a loaf of bread was laughable. Besides, she had social connections, and technically, a place to be. It wasn't like they could toss her in prison.
Well, they probably could, but she wasn't going to dwell on that.
She paused, frowned scrutinisingly at her surroundings, and plopped down on a bench. Damn these huge, unfamiliar cities. She was lost.
Already.
She chewed her lip as she watched civilians pass by, going about their daily business, and looked back at Liam. After a few seconds of thinking, she came to a quick decision and got back up, her head spinning a little at the sudden movement, as she hadn't eaten all day.
'Um, excuse me,' she called, stopping a young woman as she neared. She made sure Liam was in clear view, and flashed her one of those I'm-an-adorable-sort-of-teenage-mother-look-how-cute-my-kid-is-please-help-me sort of grins. 'You wouldn't happen to know where Stormwind Keep is, would you? I'm kind of new here.'
Naturally, it worked. The woman cooed at the sight of Liam, who was babbling happily like small children do, before coming closer to answer.
'You from Gilneas?' she asked, cocking her head to the side. Kathryn pulled a funny face, then nodded. The woman cracked a grin. 'Figured. The accent sort of gave it away. The Keep's down that way -' She pointed further down the street, trying to look around the numerous clusters of people. '-and turn left. Should be somewhere around there. You can't miss it.'
Kathryn beamed. 'Thanks.'
'Have you got a meeting with the king?' she asked, now looking a little interested. 'You must be important.'
Kathryn paused, then gave a slight, offhand shrug. 'Well, yeah. I suppose I do, from an angle.'
A king, not the king.
She nodded. 'Alright then. I won't be keeping you.' She smiled. 'Have a nice day.'
'You too.' Kathryn trailed off a little as she turned and hurried off as the woman instructed. Sure enough, the colossal greatness of the Keep loomed in front of her, and she moseyed on, walking past the guards and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. She didn't really notice much of the scenery as she started the long slog up its numerous steps (child in tow, mind you), since she was more bent on where she was heading as opposed to what it looked like.
Another set of guards stopped her when she finally reached the door, and Kathryn, not feeling particularly patient at the moment, handed them a square of parchment she had shoved in her pocket earlier.
'Kathryn Weiss,' she said shortly. 'I've got an appointment with the king of Gilneas.'
One of them opened the note and scanned over it, before giving a small nod. 'His Majesty Varian Wrynn is currently in a meeting, and King Greymane is with him. I shall see if he can be excused. Wait here.'
Kathryn nodded and leaned against the doorframe, depositing Liam at her feet, as her arms were starting to get sore.
Here she was. After a good couple months of travelling, she was finally returning to her "family". She supposed it was about time that she stayed somewhere for more than a few weeks. Stayed somewhere for good. After all, Liam deserved better. Most other children weren't brought up without a definite home just because their mother had wanderlust. They had a house, a family, other siblings to play with, and a father to love them. Liam didn't have that. He just had her.
And Kathryn wasn't sure that was the best thing.
Actually, that wasn't entirely true. When they were in Darnassus for a while, he had his grandparents. But that wasn't all the time. In Teldrassil, Kathryn always wanted to move around, so she had carted the poor child from pillar to post, until they had explored every inch of the giant tree at least twice. Then, when he was almost a year old, she had finally done it.
She had taken him to Gilneas.
They were only there for about half an hour, because it was too dangerous, but all the same, it had fuelled Kathryn's desire to travel. So they didn't go straight back to Stormwind. Instead, they slowly crossed the land either on foot or by wagon, spending the nights in taverns or sleeping on the ground, getting there the long way.
And they had finally managed it.
Her train of thought was interrupted by the towering figure of Genn Greymane appearing in the doorway. Kathryn's head snapped up, and she hastily bobbed into a curtsy, grabbing Liam by the wrist and tugging him back in her direction.
'Your Majesty.'
'That's enough, Kathryn.' Greymane's voice was gruff, as it usually was, but it was laced with endearment. 'Come inside.'
So she did. She followed him through the large, stone corridors of the Keep, until he went through a wooden door. Once inside, he drew her into a fatherly hug. 'It's good to see you again.'
'You too.'
He pulled away, and extended his enormous hand to Liam, who was looking at his grandfather with an expression of slight awe. He seemed to vaguely recognise him, but not enough to realise immediately.
'And you, boy. Have you been good for your mother?'
Liam nodded his head awkwardly, and Genn laughed. Now realising that it was okay to relax, Liam did too, and happily let him ruffle the top of his head.
'Mia is coming,' Genn told her, and Kathryn nodded. Liam perked up at the name. He definitely remembered her. Mia wasted no time in spoiling her grandson rotten, and if Kathryn didn't know any better, was probably his favourite person.
Sure enough, the greying woman swept into the room with an air of grace, quite like she usually did. 'Kathryn! You're back!' She pulled her into a strong hug, before stepping away and giving her a firm look. 'What took you so long? It's been months!'
Kathryn shrugged a little and mumbled an incoherent response, but she was saved having to answer as the queen noticed who else was in the room. Mia made a noise of adoration, and surged forward to scoop Liam into her embrace.
'He looks more and more like his father every day,' she said, looking at him with sadness behind her eyes.
Kathryn's bottom lip trembled. 'I know.'
Things settled down a little after that. Kathryn and Liam were given a guest bedroom, and invited down to dinner soon after.
'How were you able to support yourself for so long?' Mia asked, looking across the table at Kathryn, over her bowl of soup. 'Did you take money into consideration before you left?'
'I was fine,' Kathryn insisted, not for the first time. 'Really.'
'How fine?' Genn asked, now looking a little stern.
'I . . . I have a few silver left.'
'That would not have lasted you much longer, then,' a new voice put in. Kathryn instinctively shrunk a little in her seat. There was no way she was able to shake off the fact that when the Greymanes dined, it was with King Varian Wrynn himself, and that honestly made her a bit antsy. The guy was nice enough, but he looked terrifying. Kathryn was someone who had initially trained herself to keep her distance from royalty (which had obviously failed), so now she tended to be a bit wary whenever interacting with someone she didn't really know.
'Well, I suppose,' she answered, after managing to not swallow her tongue, and pull together a coherent answer. 'But if I really needed to, I suppose I could have sold something.'
'The clothing off your back?' came Mia's sceptical response. Kathryn twisted the gold bracelet on her wrist, and chewed her tongue, deciding not to respond.
Thankfully, a perfectly timed distraction arrived in the form of Liam, who sprinted through the dining room, giggling manically and being chased by a hysterical nursemaid.
'Come back, you little -' She cut off immediately once she realised just where she had ended up, and dropped straight into a deep curtsey, her pale face flaming bright red. 'Your Majesties!' she cried immediately, now backing up a little. 'I am most sorry, I was just -'
'Don't worry about him,' Kathryn said, getting to her feet and dive tackling Liam in one go. 'He's a bit like that. Sorry.' She straightened back up, and handed the wriggling child to the poor girl. 'Chain him up if you have to,' she joked.
Seeming relieved that she wasn't going to have her head lopped off for her obvious failure, the nursemaid gave her a grateful look and hurried back out again, closing the door behind her. Thankfully, the conversation that had been going on before was quite forgotten.
'Little rascal,' Genn said, chuckling, and even Varian had cracked a slight smile.
'I think I have to formally apologise, as that ratbag belongs to me,' Kathryn said, grinning a bit and sitting back at her seat.
After that, the meal progressed. Once Varian left, saying that he had business to attend to, Genn finally brought up something he had clearly wanted to talk about for a while.
'Darius Crowley and his daughter.'
Kathryn's head snapped up, and her stomach plummeted, immediately expecting the worst. 'W-what about them?'
Seeing her alarmed expression, he continued immediately. 'It is nothing bad as of yet, but I have something to discuss.'
Kathryn swallowed, and nodded. He continued.
'They have left with a large group of our people, and returned to Gilneas. They have called themselves the Gilneas Liberation Front, and are presently working to push the Forsaken from our land. Our aim is to reclaim what rightfully belongs to us, and perhaps some of Old Lordaeron.'
She limply set down her glass. 'So it's finally happening?'
'Yes. I feel that you have the right to know, as you played a crucial part in our survival when the Forsaken first arrived.'
Kathryn's mind was working at top speed, processing that information and constructing the skeleton of a plan. 'Are they sending reinforcements any time soon?'
'Yes. A group is departing from Darnassus tomorrow, and another small group is leaving Stormwind later this week.'
With that, the skeleton started to solidify. 'I'm going.'
'What?' Mia said, looking shocked. 'Kathryn, you can't.'
'Yes I can,' she said stoutly, giving everyone at the table a firm look. 'I can and I will.'
'Things are different now, Kathryn,' she replied. 'Two years ago I might have let you, but you were nineteen then, and a fighter. Now you have a son. You can't just go.'
'I'm no less of a fighter now than I was then,' she shot back. 'And I'm not that much older – barely twenty one. I need to get out and do something. I can't leave Lorna to fight them, and I've got to help get Gilneas back. I'm just going to have to leave Liam behind.'
'Kathryn, you're the one that has to bring him up! You can't leave him! It's not what he deserves. You have to be there for him. You're not going.'
'Then to hell with that!' She shoved her seat backwards and stood up, slamming her fist on the table. 'I never wanted him in the first place, anyway!'
The room went completely silent, except for Kathryn's heavy breathing. Then, finally Genn spoke.
'You don't mean that.'
She exhaled slowly, her head falling forward. She slid limply back into her seat and rested her face in her hands. 'No, I don't. I'm just high strung.'
'That's understandable.'
She straightened back up, and looked at Mia again. 'I need to go. Please.'
Genn and Mia exchanged a look, and seemed to be having a silent argument. Finally, Genn seemed to win, and they both looked at her again.
'I myself believe you would be a crucial factor to this war, Kathryn, but I don't like the idea of you going, either.' He sighed. 'But, I know that if Liam were here, he wouldn't sit around either. He would be with the rest of our people, fighting the undead by the hundred.'
Not Kathryn's son, Liam. The prince of Gilneas, Liam. A wonderful man with the most beautiful hazel eyes, too much good intent, the need to protect his people, and so much bravery. And very much dead.
'But you would have let him go,' Kathryn said faintly. She exhaled again, and knitted her brow into a frown. 'Which is why you have to let me. At least let me fight in his memory, or something like that.'
'He would have conniptions if we let you.'
Kathryn let out a weak laugh. 'I know. Then I would've told him to man up or bugger off.'
Genn gave a small smile. 'That you would. Then, if you want to go so badly, then I suppose . . .' He trailed off and gave her a look that confirmed the answer he and his wife had decided upon. Kathryn felt an intense feeling of elation.
She was going home.
24/9/15
