My name is Catherine... I remember when I was just a teenager, death and destruction rained down upon my hometown in Lordaeron. The Scourge had arrived, led by our very own Prince Arthas. My father led the line of defense against the undead holocaust, but was killed shortly before the battle began. My mother locked me in the cellar of our estate. I swear, no more than five minutes later, undead creatures came blasting through the door. I... I could hear the carnage through the floorboards. My mother screamed in terror as she was picked apart piece by piece and fed to the ravenous zombie horde that swarmed the house.

Then, there was quiet... The intruders left the house. Here I was, scarred out of my mind, but I had survived. I sat in the cellar, curled up, rocking back and forth as I tried to think of what to do... Should I flee for Castle Lordaeron? No, no... I'd never make it, with all the wildlife and crazed undead about! As I thought, however, I heard a scratching at the cellar door. "I'm going insane..." I whispered to myself. "Nothing more..." The scratching ceased momentarily. Suddenly, there was the sound of a key entering the keyhole on the door. It slid open. After a moment, I ventured up to peak about; Darkness there, nothing more. Then, my vision went black.

I awoke to find myself in a bloodspattered wagon, locked in a cage. I could see out into the wilderness. A thick brown haze permeated the forest. The wagon neared a lake, the water in it a slimy greenish brown. "Where are you taking me?" I yelled. With no response, I scanned the horizon once more... On the horizon of the lake, I saw it. The island estate of Caer Darrow. Why were they taking me there?

I soon learned. The island estate was turned into a school of necromancy. There, we were forced to learn the dark arts of raising dead piles of meat as fearsome ghouls and raising piles of bones as skeletal guardians. My life hovered around that place for nearly ten years, almost as if it were against my will... Brainwashed into joining the Cult of the Damned...

Now? I'm in the arctic lands of Northrend. Though, where the Lich King, our leader, has put me I wouldn't even know. It's been two weeks since he sent a group of Cultists into the dense jungles of the Sholazar Basin to combat one of the greatest threats to our cause, The Keeper of Ulduar, Freya. The Lifewarden, they call her. They were sent to destroy a pillar of stone dedicated to her which kept our undead brethren out of the jungle. They were successful in their mission, but few came back. Now it was our turn, only this time, we had backup.

I was stationed in the Death's Hand Encampment. In the few days we've been there, we've been building large bombs to take down the rest of the pillars that are situated in the jungle. We've also been finding dead fish-like creatures and these weird bear-raccoon things littering the jungle. Something tells me they don't like eachother, but that works for us since we're creating undead horrors from them!

On one of our excursions into the jungle, we lost one of our men to a crocodile... a gruesome fate. They sent in a new guy to our camp to replace him. I was assigned by our supervisor to show him how things work around the camp. So, I did. He was very polite... Too polite, especially for the kind of crap we in the Cult of the Damned have to deal with. But it was a nice change. I got to know him. His name was Matthias and he lived in Tirisfal before the plague hit. In fact, we were both forced into necromancy at roughly the same time and place, but we'd never met.

"So, Catherine." he started, helping me put together a large bomb that would be used later to destroy what was known as the Sparktouched Pillar. "How's the jungle been?"

"Very quiet the last day or two..." I said, weaving some rhino hair into a string.

"Looks like it's been a little too hot for you, too." he said, eying me up and down.

"Just a little." My robe was rumpled on the table next to me, my shirt blowing in the wind. "Who knew a jungle like this could exist way up here in Northrend?"

"I know, I scored the jackpot when I was assigned here. Beats serving out in Icecrown."

"Yep." I said, jamming the rhino hair string into the top of a metal casing. "There, that one's done."

"Good." Matthias said. "I... I wonder, Catherine. Do you ever question your loyalty to the Lich King? We've been suffering defeats in the plaguelands and the Borean Tundra. People don't seem to like us very much."

"I'm not sure... We're people too. I still have some innocence left in me, I've never killed another person before." I said. "You?"

"I have my needs and my innocence as well. Would you repent for what we've done if it came down to it? When your own life was about to end?"

"Probably." I said. I opened a small box to find it empty. "Speaking of needs, we're out of explosive powder." I closed the box and put it down onto the table. "I'll need to go down to the waterfall near here. There are plants there that can be used to empower the powder. I'll send someone else to gather the powder."

"You'll be going by yourself?" Matthias asked. "It's dangerous to go alone. I'll accompany you."

"You're right..." I said, smiling. "And a gentlemen!" I grabbed my robe and slung it over my shoulder, then grabbed a bag and wrapped it around my waist. "Let's go."

I led Matthias out of the camp to bank of the Wintergrasp River. The water rushed past us, westward, carrying a lot of stuff in it. Some armor floated by, followed by an insignia of the Alliance. A few minutes later, the severed head of an orc floated down the river. "My, isn't that just lovely..." I said. We neared the waterfall and stopped on a cliff to get a look at the area. Four rivers poured down into a central lake over some waterfalls, surrounded my lush vegetation. The water looked inviting, but we had work to do. I inched closer to the edge of the cliff, trying to get a better look, when I slipped.

Matthias, with a quick reaction, grabbed me before I fell. He pulled me back up and close to him. "Careful there..."

I thanked him and smiled as I looked down. His hands were cupped over my chest. He hadn't moved them there, that's where he was able to grab me. "Hey!" I laughed, as I pryed his hands off of me. "I'd say keep your hands to yourself, but I'd be dead if you did that..."

He let out a chuckled and proceeded to find a path down to the basin.

We spent nearly a half hour picking through the weeds and the flowers in our relentless search for the plants needed for our explosives.

"Goodness, it's hot here." Matthias said, taking off his robe. He revealed his muscles, something a necromancer such as us usually never has. "I hope you don't mind..." he said, continuing to pick through the flowers.

"No, not at all..." I said slowly, as I continued to stare at him. I was going mad... I... I had to have him! But how? I grabbed one last flower and stuffed it into my bag and said, "That should be enough to last us a week."

"Alright, let's head back to the camp." he said.

I looked around. The beauty had took me in and I could contain my emotion no more. "Not yet. Wait here" I said, stepping into some shrubs. "I think I see something... interesting." I disappeared from his view, then took my shirt off. I loosened the belt around my black, long skirt and tossed it onto the grass as my skirt fell to the ground. "He will be mine..." I whispered to myself. "Matthias! Come have a look!"

Matthias walked into the shrubs. "What did you..." he started, before looking at me. "I... I uh..." he said, speechless.

"Matthias... Being in this hot jungle and meeting you showed me that I'm still a normal person... that I have needs." I said. "And right now, I need you!"

Matthias stepped closer, keeping his eyes fixed on my chest. "Catherine..." he said, looking up at my face. "You're right. Others may view us as monsters, but we're still people."

I grabbed a hold of him and hugged him. "Love can exist in even the darkest of situations."

"It can." he replied.

I woke up next to Matthias. He was still asleep, with a smile on his face. I looked around for my clothes, but couldn't find my clothes. Maybe Matthias was asleep on top of them? Of course, he was still naked too... "Hey, Matthias?" I said, nudging him.

He yawned and stretched, then looked up at me. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Do you know where the rest of my clothes are?" I asked.

He sat up and looked around, revealing that he wasn't on top of them. "I don't see them."

"Great..." I said. I stepped out onto the sand that surrounded the lake and looked around. I noticed a black strap half buried in the sand a few feet from me, then dug it out. "Why..." I said, as I found my bra. "Matthias!" I whispered to myself and smiled.

"Oh... I kinda buried that while you were asleep." he chuckled. "I just wanted to see a little more of that before we headed back for the camp. Your shirt is buried a little deeper."

"You know, it's amazing we were able to get any sleep in this wild jungle without something eating us alive." Matthias said.

"Yeah..." I said, happily. Heh, happiness. Now there's something I haven't experienced in ages. "That was fun, and felt amazing... we should do that again sometime soon... Maybe tomorrow?" I winked at him.

"Maybe..." he said suavely, putting his arm around me.

"But perhaps we should take a little less time, eh? We've been gone a long time."

"Speaking of which, we should create a cover story for why we've been gone for so long."

I thought of a story that would trick our rather dimwitted supervisor. "How about a dastardly gnome made off with our flowers? And we chased her through the jungle until we caught up with her!"

"Yeah, and then we tripped over her and you stomped her into dust!"

We both laughed at the silly story as we neared the camp's entrance. It had been nearly eight hours since we'd left. What we found shocked us. Everyone in the camp had been slaughtered. All of the bombs were dismantled. I rushed into the tent of the camp supervisor with Matthias close behind me. The supervisor lay dead on the floor, his head missing. Next to him lay a piece of paper, with some words scribbled on it.

Matthias picked it up and read. "To any survivors, should I not find all of you cowards; Bow down to the might of the Alliance." he said. "Signed. Samantha, Warrior of Gnomeregan." He dropped the letter and looked outside. "Catherine... This is our chance!"

"What?" I asked, shocked at what had happened.

"Our chance to escape the Lich King's grasp! All of those who kept eyes on us are dead. We can escape, flee to Stormwind..."

"You're right. We can start our lives over..."

"Together..."