A/N: Another three-chapter short story, though these are fairly short chapters. Again, this will not be updated any further.

Blink

Chapter 1

Alyna knew she was on edge, but she tried to ignore her raging nerves as she rode her Quel'dorei steed at the head of her unit. They had been escorting two magisters on some kind of research mission into the southern valleys. Ordinarily, mages of such accomplishment so as to be entitled 'magister' would have no need for an escort, but their region of interest was frequently attacked by a local tribe of jungle trolls.

The magisters had arrived five days ago at her company headquarters unannounced, which was not unusual for mages. They generally expected society to bend to their whims and saw no need to plan ahead. Alyna had been initially irritated by their demand for an escort, but was willing to grant it. That was until they had produced an official-looking scroll that was directly addressed to her. Her grandfather, Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar, was personally requesting she lead the escort herself to guarantee the safety of his researchers.

If it had been a typical day, she would not have had a problem with having an excuse to get out into the forest. But she hadn't had a typical day for a few years now. Alyna had a secret that was becoming increasingly more difficult to control: she had somehow developed the ability to wield magic. She had very little, if any, control over it and she was having a hard time covering it up. It had resulted in her progressively becoming more isolated to keep from being discovered, so a random jaunt into the forest with nowhere to hide and lots of potential witnesses was the last thing she needed right now.

They were four days into their journey and still in the forest. It would take a couple more days of travel before they reached the foothills of the southern mountains, and another day after that to get to the valley they needed. Alyna had very much kept to herself. While she had no real direct control over her magic, she knew that there was a greater chance of something happening if she was in a heightened emotional state. The easiest way to avoid that, was to not get engaged in conversation. As time went on though, that had become impossible to avoid.

The main instigator of her current problems was currently riding along next to her.

"I know you've said you're fine," started Kyala, "But I'm worried about you."

"I really am fine," Alyna reiterated.

The older woman dropped her voice and whispered, "Have you two had a fight?"

Alyna glanced at her friend, knowing she was referring to Sylvanas. "No. It was a great visit actually." Sylvanas had been home to Windrunner Spire a couple of weeks previously, and Alyna had made the three hour ride south to join her for a few days. They had spent most of it lounging around on the beach and generally just enjoying each other's company. It had been the most relaxed Alyna had felt in a long time and, inadvertently, there had been only one magical incident that Sylvanas had not even noticed when she had somehow managed to levitate their picnic basket.

Kyala smiled. "You were certainly well tanned when you got home."

"You've never been to the Spire, have you? Why don't you come with me next time? The beach is very relaxing," Alyna offered.

"Ahh … I wouldn't want to intrude."

"You wouldn't be."

Kyala appeared to consider the offer. "I'll think about it. Though, with both of us gone you know your unit will run amok."

She had raised her voice at the last sentence, and the rangers behind them chuckled. One of them shouted back, "We're not that bad!"

"You're right!" Kyala retorted, "You're worse!"

Their laughter carried through the air, but it did not drown out the scream ahead of them. Kyala and Alyna exchanged a worried glance and kicked their horses into a trot. The rest of the unit followed, the two magisters in their midst. As they rounded a corner a terrified female elf skidded to a halt in front of them, her eyes wide in terror. A split second later, a rope landed around her neck and tightened, cutting off the scream she had tried to get out.

"Trolls!" shouted Kyala, and the entire unit dismounted as one, drawing swords and loading their bows. Their trained steeds trotted back down the road out of harm's way as Alyna fired her first arrow into the troll who had wrangled the young woman before them. She stepped around the choking and spluttering woman, knowing she'd be okay.

The trolls had attacked a group of merchants, which unfortunately was not unusual for this part of Quel'Thalas. Normally though, the merchants hired bodyguards and she could see none fighting the trolls, just poorly equipped civilians. Two of the trolls picked up a pair of unconscious elves, a male and female, and darted into the trees. Alyna made eye contact with some of her rangers and bolted after them. She knew Kyala would take care of the remaining trolls while Alyna led the charge to rescue the kidnapped elves.

The trolls were easy to track given their loads, so when it became clear the trolls had split up, so did the elves with Alyna taking a young woman called Alaana with her. When the tracks changed, Alyna became wary and slowed their progress down as she tried to figure out why they had become slightly blurred. It only took her a moment to realise it was because a second troll was stepping in the prints of a leader, but Alaana had already cried out in surprise by that point. Alyna turned just in time to see the young woman drop to the forest floor unconscious, a large troll now barrelling towards Alyna.

He was too close for her to use her bow. She tried to duck, but he grabbed her slender arm in his huge two-fingered hand and yanked her off her feet. With no real effort, he hurled her bodily towards a tree. She braced for the impact, hoping idly it would not break her neck as she flew towards it head first, but the impact did not come as she expected. For a brief moment, her body tingled all over and the world blurred. When it snapped back into focus, she had a split second of confusion before she slammed into the floor and skidded a couple of metres. In a daze, she rolled to her feet and looked back at the troll, but she could only see part of him – the tree she should have slammed into stood between them and blocked her view. She had somehow blinked through it in a manoeuvre she knew only mages could perform as her elder siblings had constantly blinked around her to annoy her when she was young. In a move that showed he was just as confused as she was, the troll peered around the side of the tree to see where she had gone, and was surprised to see her on the other side.

Alyna didn't wait for him to recover. She pulled a throwing dagger from her belt and hurled it at him, finding her mark as it buried itself in his eye deep enough to fatally wound his brain. While she knew she had killed him, she still watched his body collapse just to be sure. She heard a scream from not too far away, and figured one of the elves was no longer unconscious. She looked at Alaana who was groggily trying to sit up, and was waved away. Drawing her sword, Alyna ran in the direction of the scream.

As she reached a natural clearing in the forest, she could see the elven woman running frantically across it towards her. Behind her were five trolls. They were chasing her and laughing, seemingly toying with her. Alyna was torn. She knew she had to help the woman somehow, but she could not hope to succeed against five trolls. She quickly unslung her bow and nocked an arrow, looking for anything that she could do with it to give the woman time to reach the trees. If she could get that far, perhaps they could lose them in the forest.

But they were gaining on her too fast. In a desperate attempt to help, Alyna fired her arrow and began to reload. She figured she could take three of them out before they reached her position in the trees, and she would just have to take her chances with her sword after that. As she aimed her second arrow, the woman stumbled and fell. Alyna swore and loosed her next arrow, catching one of the trolls in the throat.

"Get up!" she cried at the woman, but she seemed resigned to her fate. Alyna growled her frustration, willing the woman to get to her feet and keep going. She desperately wished she delay the trolls somehow.

With no warning, a wall of flames erupted from the grassy ground between the woman and the trolls. One of them didn't manage to stop in time and fell through the wall, setting himself alight. Both the remaining trolls and the woman stared at him in shock, none of them having expected such a thing to happen.

"RUN!" screamed Alyna. The woman now turned towards her and saw her for the first time. To Alyna's great relief, she picked herself up and began to run again, just as Alyna felt a presence at her shoulder. She whirled around, holding her bow out defensively, but she quickly saw she wouldn't need it. She had been found by the two magisters, their robes slightly torn from their jog through the trees. One of them gave her an odd look before they were very quickly joined by the elven woman. She flew into the arms of the second very surprised magister.

"Thank you, sir! Thank you!" He looked at Alyna and his companion in confusion before looking back at the woman who was still thanking him profusely. "If not for the fire, they'd have had me. Thank you so much!"

Alyna stepped in and took the woman by the arm. "There'll be time for that later. We need to get back to the road." She looked at the magisters who nodded their agreement, and the group hurriedly made their way back through the trees, collecting Alaana along the way. When they made it back to the unit, Alyna was relieved to see that all of her rangers were accounted for, albeit some with scratches and bruises they did not start the day with. They had managed to save five of the travelling nine elves, more by fortuitous luck in their arrival than anything else, and Alyna made the executive decision to escort them to the nearest village and call for reinforcements. She was not about to go any further without making sure there were no more trolls in the area, and she didn't give a damn if the Council didn't like the delay in their research. Her first duty was to the people, and she had to make sure they were protected now there was an active troll party in the immediate area.

She had just finished arguing that fact with one of the magisters when Kyala came over, leading her own steed and Alyna's.

"I'm going to hazard a wild guess and say our esteemed magisters are not happy with the delay," Kyala observed dryly.

Alyna rolled her eyes. "I daresay they have no option but to follow, unless they want to continue without us." She lifted herself into her saddle and gathered her reins. "Still, I have to say they were certainly useful. I don't think we'd have saved that woman I went after if they hadn't put that wall of fire up."

Kyala mounted her steed as well and pulled up alongside Alyna as the group got themselves together. "Fire? Are you sure?"

Alyna raised her eyebrows at her friend. "I think I know a wall of fire when I see one. Hot. Orangey-red. Hint of yellow. Burns trolls nicely. Did I mention hot?"

It was Kyala's turn to roll her eyes as she flashed her captain a patient smile. "I just thought they were both arcane mages, and therefore unable to create such a thing." She shrugged. "I must have been wrong."

Except now that Kyala had mentioned it, Alyna was sure that she wasn't, and her stomach dropped. The only other possibility was that Alyna had somehow created the fire herself, but was she really capable of such a thing without conscious thought? She had willed something to stop the trolls but she'd have happily dodged a herd of stampeding bulls just the same. She now understood the look the magister had given her, and a cold fear began to spread form her heart.

What had she just done?