Author's Note: All characters in story excepting a few either have been played or are currently being/have been played in WoW by myself, my husband, friends, or guildmates on various servers.
Now that Bones is complete, I am going back to revise this story. Somehow I've lost my timeline that I made out and have had to rework it…which means a few of the things here don't correspond with Bones. And my timeline is pulled from the unofficial one on WoWWiki because it just makes more sense, damnit. But moving on!
To new readers, it is highly suggested that you read Bones before reading this fic. Since CotH does, after all, follow four years after the last events in Bones.
"Caren! Caren, slow down!"
With a huff, Carentareta came to halt, her hooves stirring up dust, and ground the end of her staff against the earth. She then turned and fixed her younger sister with a frown, waiting impatiently as the younger Tauren made to catch up with her. When she did, she bent over with one hand clutching the hilt of her sword and panted heavily. Caren did the best impression a Tauren could do of arching an eyebrow and peered down at her sibling's back, which was covered by a huge Troll-made shield splashed with a grinning face.
"Its not my fault you're so slow, Lis," she said. "I warned you, didn't I, about how it would be being a warrior?"
The younger Tauren, Alisadegeta, snorted and straightened up, glaring at her slightly taller sister.
"And its not mine that you're a barbarian," she snapped right back. She thrust a finger in her sibling's face, which was batted aside with the head of the staff, and continued, "No self-respecting druid loves battle as much as you do!"
Caren practically snarled at that, starting to walk again angrily towards the border into the Barrens. Alisa cursed in Taur-ahe and jogged after her, clutching hard at the strap that held her shield to her back to keep it from bouncing painfully against her spine.
"Caren! Blast it, Caren, you know I…"
Her sister whirled on her and the warrior took a nervous step back, frightened when eyes she knew well gleamed cat-like and yellow and fangs had replaced flat teeth.
"I have my reasons for being how I am," snarled her elder, a growl lacing her voice. "I don't care what you, litle sister, or anyone else think of them."
Alisa swallowed and said, "Alright, alright…no more bashing your way of life. Promise. Now, please, stop doing the thing with your eyes, its scary."
The elder of the pair snorted and turned to continue walking, never letting the younger see if she had allowed her eyes to return to normal. Sighing, she just plodded after her sister, doing her best to keep up as they made their way into the Barrens and towards Camp Taurajo. Caren waved at a few of the Tauren standing within the camp, who snorted gruffly in her direction as they recognized her, and kept walking. This left Alisa only a few moments to ask the flight master if there had been any sightings of the Alliance in the area of late.
"Heard something about a pair of unarmed humans being seen somewhere," he replied. "Pair of Trolls chased them into Southern Barrens and lost them when they ran into the Quillboars. I wouldn't worry about them."
Nodding, she turned and ran to catch up with her sister, who was standing in the middle of the main road in the Barrens where it intersected with that coming from Mulgore. As she came up beside her, rubbing at an itch on her white-streaked nose, she informed her of what the flight master had said.
"Unarmed?" repeated Caren, surprised. "That's sheer madness. And damn Trolls…they were probably some lost peasants that they scared to death."
"What do we care?" growled Alisa, glaring at her sibling. "Humans kill us every chance they get. If you don't recall, they killed our father."
Caren bared her teeth at that, eyes flashing feline briefly again. "I recall well enough, thank you. Don't need reminding since I was there and saw what the wretches did to him with my own eyes."
Alisa winced at that and hunched her shoulders, unable to look at her sibling now. She continually forgot that their father, a hunter, had been taking her elder sister out hunting on the border between Ashenvale and the Barrens when he'd been killed. Three Humans had come upon him whilst he was tracking a zhevra that had wandered close to the border and had killed him without pause. Caren had been back within the Warsong Outriders encampment with Kazhan, their father's white wolf, since he didn't dare risk her getting too close to the border. Kazhan had known the moment his master had died and had sat on Caren when two Orcs who guarded the border brought in their father's body. She had been filled with rage and had wanted nothing more than to seek out revenge on the killers, half-shifting into a bear even though she had only just begun her Druid training then and had not the skill to perform the transformation. There had just been that much rage in her that it brought the skill partially to life.
Kazhan still lived despite his master's death and he kept company with their mother since the both of them were now wandering out in the world. The slightly ailing wolf was physically unable to accompany them but anyone that dared try anything against their mother got the bite of his sharp fangs.
"I remember," murmured Alisa. "Sorry, Caren."
Caren snorted in response and waved a hand, grumbling, "Forget it. Let's just head on."
"Head on?" repeated her sister as the elder started walking south. "Caren, we were heading to Crossroads, not south!" She rocked to a halt and stared in shock at her sister's back, gasping, "You're not thinking of going after those humans are you?!"
"Peasants, Alisa!" snapped Caren, half-turning towards her, cloak flaring. She grounded the end of her staff hard against the earth and growled, "Probably wandered out of Dustwallow Marsh and lost. More likely that they're from Theramore! And as fragile as it is now, there is still an alliance between the Horde and those there!" Sighing, she shook her head and frowned at her sister. "Whether you're coming or not, I'm going."
With that she turned and continued down the road heading south, leaving Alisa to stare after her. The younger Tauren stomped a hoof and cursed in both Taur-ahe and Orcish before jogging after her sibling.
"Caren! Wait!"
"Decided to come?" threw Caren over her shoulder.
Alisa smiled in response, saying, "Well, can't just let you wander the Barrens alone. Something might hurt you."
That brought a laugh out of the elder of the pair and she huffed, "Ha! More like something might hurt you!" She clapped her sibling on the arm, gloved fingers tightening about the chain mail that sheathed the younger Tauren's arm. "Which I wouldn't allow to happen, mind you."
They both smiled at that and continued on in companionable silence, keeping a close eye on the Thunder Lizards and Wind Serpents as they walked. When they passed through the Field of Giants with its Silithid infestation, Caren warned Alisa to stay in the middle of the road, walking behind her with her staff held at the ready and eyes glaring at every insect that skittered close. But they made it through the Field with no difficulties and continued on towards the Quillboar camps, finding the corpse of a human man lying on the outskirts.
The corpse was dressed in cloth except for a shoddy breastplate made of leather and was clutching a bloodied knife of equally shoddy make in his fist. Caren crouched next to him and reached through the arrows bristling along his back to pull back his shirt slightly. She pulled off her gauntlet and felt of his neck, frowning, then stood, tugging it back on over her hand.
"He's still warm," she muttered, eyes darting around. "So not dead for too long. If he's here, then the other must be around nearby."
"Probably," said Alisa, having drawn her bow and knocking an arrow after they'd found the corpse. She was only able to fire off maybe two or three shots before an enemy reached her but those shots usually hit true. "But where could they have gone? And are we sure that it doesn't have better arms than this one."
Her sister shook her head and replied, "Its his mate." She held up a silver locket on a leather cord that she'd tugged off the man's neck. Flicking it open, a small sketch of a human female was visible to the younger Tauren before her sister closed it and stuffed the locket into one of the bags at her belt. She then looked around and said, "I'll shift and see if I can track her."
Alisa just nodded and watched with entranced eyes as her sibling's frame shrank and shifted into that of a horned lion slightly larger than those in the Barrens. The beast sniffed at the ground around the corpse then padded off some distance, growling as it looked up towards the main mass of the Quillboar encampment. Then it turned, nose to the ground and followed another path that headed towards a small mass of rocks surrounded by brush. She followed, bow held at the ready and her eyes darting to and from the Quillboars around them.
Caren shifted out of her cat form as she approached the rocks, melding back into her own with a grace her sibling found awing. The shamans could certainly shift the same as the druids but there was something beautiful in the latter than the former just couldn't match. She watched anxiously as her sister approached the rocks and crouched, peering at something behind the thick brush that surrounded it.
"We won't harm you," she said in Taur-ahe to what Alisa could only assume was the human female. It was fairly evident why she was speaking in their native tongue – the Orcish they spoke to the rest of the Horde probably would have scared the poor human out of her wits and sent her running straight into the Quillboars. The woman still couldn't understand them but their tongue was somewhat softer than that of their Orc allies.
There was some shuffling and a human face, female and haggard with pain, peered out of the brush. She stared at them for a moment then moved out of the mass of plants that shielded her from sight, revealing two arrows jutting out of her shoulder and a leg that looked to have been ravaged by one of the hyenas that wandered near the camp.
Caren winced and reached out, her hands glowing as she prepared to heal the wound, but the woman shook her head, saying something neither could understand. The elder Tauren just looked at her in confusion and said, "I'm trying to heal you."
Alisa just watched in confusion as the woman smiled tightly and reached into what she had thought was simply a bulky piece of cloth she'd had wrapped around herself. When she pulled the form of a sleeping human baby out, the younger gasped, nearly losing her grip on her bow.
Caren stared at the child then up at the woman as she held the babe out towards her, eyes pleading. She shook her head, saying, "I…"
The woman said something in a strangled tone then, agony and pain evident behind it. She gasped a moment later and would have collapsed had Caren not reached out and grabbed her shoulder, keeping her upright with that grip. Blue eyes lifted to meet hazel and the elder sibling nodded after a moment, carefully taking the human babe into the crook of her other arm.
"Caren," breathed Alisa, eyes wide at the motion. "You can't…"
"Shhh," hissed her sister, jerking her head sharply for silence. She then looked at the human woman and gently lowered her to the ground, touching her forehead and muttering a prayer to the Earth Mother under her breath. The woman couldn't understand her words but it seemed like the well-wish for an easy death was something easily caught by all beings, whether they understood the language of the other or not. She smiled and said something softly before closing her eyes, lines of pain crinkling around them. After a few moments her face went slack and even Alisa heard her breath cease on one long outward gasp.
The babe stirred then and Caren stood, walking swiftly back in the direction of the road, managing to fasten her staff onto the harness at her back with one arm. Alisa followed her at a hurried pace and hissed, "What are you doing?!"
The elder blinked at the younger and replied, "Honoring a mother's dying wish. She wants her child to live."
"Their kind kill ours!"
"Can you kill it?" snarled Caren, gesturing at the babe that had settled and was sleeping in the crook of her arm. When Alisa blanched and took a step back, she nodded. "I didn't think so. S'only a babe…and I won't allow a child, even a human one, to be killed. That's barbarism saved for the likes of the Burning Blade and the centaurs."
She started to walk off, heading back towards the north and Camp Taurajo, but stopped when Alisa yelled after her.
"What will the tribe say? What will our mother say?!"
Caren stopped then turned to regard her sibling with a solemn glance.
"Whatever they think," she said softly, "I don't care. I just know that no matter what humans have done, this babe hasn't done a thing. It doesn't deserve death when it hasn't even lived yet."
With that she turned and continued walking, leaving Alisa to trail behind her, worrying about just what would happen when they made it back to Thunder Bluff with a human child in tow.