Author's Note: Hiya! This is an original story that I wrote as a gift for a friend. This happened in game, where Giselle and I (Kyri) had lots of trouble doing a group quest and recruited a guildy (Nal) to give us a hand. I wrote it a looong time ago in TBC. Please review and let me know what you think. :)
She was nervous. Her ornate sword felt impossibly heavy in her grip, sweat dripped down from her forehead and she brusquely wiped it away with the back of her hand. The lustrous teal hair was flat against her skull, further testament to the fear that surrounded her.
She felt too hot inside her armour, as if the metal plates that served to protect her against hard blows were choking her, suffocating her. The golden eagle statue on her right shoulder which signified her allegiance to the king was at an uncomfortable angle as the metal plate had shifted. She leant her great sword against her leg as she manoeuvred to move it back, having years of practice at deftly equipping her amour by herself.
Behind her, her faithful ram reared on his back legs, as if sensing her fear and doing his best to comfort her. She allowed a small smile at his antics, alleviating her worry.
"We ready to go?" She called out to her comrades and friends, Nalhune and Kyri. They smiled back in response but the anxiety was also present on their faces shown by the strained eyebrows and cautious eyes. This was going to be a very difficult challenge, the beast had slaughtered many bounty hunters in the past and had ravaged the nearby villages for months. King Wrynn had finally decided enough was enough, and sent his three most capable warriors to deal with the beast.
"Ready." Nalhune replied as she mounted up on her frostsaber careful not to crease her delicate cloth robe. Kyri nodded in affirmation and hoisted herself effortlessly onto her large elekk, removing her daggers to avoid hurting the great beast.
Giselle smiled, confident that they would be victorious, too many lives were dependent on them. She hefted her sword onto her back, hearing a click as it lodged into place. She gave her ram a comforting pat as he nuzzled her face, and then knelt to give her easier access to climb atop his back.
"Let's go!" Kyri yelled with a grin, feeling the adrenaline pumping through her veins at the battle they were heading into.
"We need to find some bait first!" Giselle yelled to her friends in return, feeling the excitement course through her, replacing the fear as the three friends rode confidently towards their challenge.
The stench of the Clefthoof's blood permeated the air around them, mixing with the taint of the broken souls that wandered the plains of Terrokar, destroyed in the ancient battle. Wiping at the viscous liquid that coated her blade, Giselle wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"The wyrm should smell this in no time," she grimaced. Kyri nodded, giving the blood coating her twin daggers a wary look before shrugging and swiping them on a nearby patch of grass.
"Best to sound the drums though," She suggested, sheathing the now nearly-clean blades on her waist. "I don't fancy waiting around for some other fiend to come and eat us first." Giselle gave a short nod of agreement then turned to Nalhune who was drinking a skin of purified draenic water.
"You good to go?" She asked. Nalhune stood and dusted off her robe.
"Ready." She affirmed.
Preparing herself, Giselle withdrew a bongo drum from her backpack, clutching it in one hand with the hilt of her sword in the other. One last glance at her friends showed Nalhune with a concentrated expression on her face, mentally reciting the spells she knew she was going to need to use. Kyri had adopted a combat stance, and with a small effort faded into invisibility. She stood with Nalhune a short distance away, far back enough to avoid the preliminary shockwave that heralded the giant wyrm's arrival, yet close enough to jump in and help Giselle kill the thing.
Exhaling one last easy breath, Giselle rapped hard on the drum, unleashing a swift loud bang.
Silence.
It seemed as if the world had stopped. No sound. No movement. Nothing. It was just the three of them alone on a barren land next to the fresh corpse of the clefthoof.
Then a rumbling came, quiet at first, but steadily growing louder. The ground vibrated beneath Giselle's feet as she widened her stance to accommodate it and conserve her balance. She eyed the other two nervously as they too anticipated the inevitable attack. She offered them a reassuring smi-
BAM!
The beast thrust itself from the ground, tearing the rocks and sandstone, causing a blast that threw Giselle off her feet. Over thirty feet in height it rivalled the towering walls of Auchindoun. If it had a head Giselle couldn't see it, and she had no intention, or time, to crane her neck and look as she knew it was preparing for a second attack.
"Attack for the goddess!" She screamed and charged, sword aimed at the Wyrm's scaly green flesh…
The next moments were a frenzied blur. She remembered the ache in her bones as her sword smashed into the creature. The echoing battle cry from Kyri as she vanished from sight and reappeared behind the beast, striking at it's flesh as hard and fast as she could. The soothing touch of Elune as Nalhune cast a renew spell on her. The sting on her skin as the Wyrm spat acid down on her, corroding her armour.
Many times she felt the pain overwhelm her as the battle waged on, seemingly endless. She felt certain that this ending would be the same, that they wouldn't last to see the beast fall, but then the cooling, refreshing touch would surround her and she felt rejuvenated into continue, loosing another sunder on the beast with a primal yell.
The Wyrm reared back. It screamed. The unholy screech pierced their ears and it hurt. They yelled in pain, falling to their knees with palms pressed against the side of their head. The Wyrm span, and vanished deep into the earth from whence it came.
"No!" Growled Giselle when the ringing in her ears finally subsided. They were so close to defeating it! It wasn't going to escape! She turned to the others, Kyri looked bewildered, azure hair plastered to her skull with sweat and blood, daggers gripped in her hands, so tight her knuckles were white. Nalhune had paused in her chanting; the frantic healing spell still on her tongue as the battle appeared to be over, with no apparent victor. Giselle sighed and brushed her hair back behind her ears. It was over.
They should have known better.
The great behemoth lurched out of the ground once more, about five metres behind them. Venomous toxins were frothing at its mouth. The Wyrm spat, targeting the three elves who had injured it already,
Caught unprepared, the three desperately thought of ways to avoid the toxic death falling towards them. Panicking, Kyri sought the nearest shadows and jumped through them, re-emerging behind the beast, away from the noxious shower. Nalhune threw her arms up, above her head out of reflex, and a glowing effervescent shield sprung from her fingertips surrounding her form. With less than a second to think as Giselle leapt to her feet and concentrated fully on the section of the beast where green blood bubbled and oozed out of a wound. The acid shower drew closer as she grit her teeth and cast a small prayer to Elune, hoping that this would work. With less than an inch between the toxins and her head she charged at the beast, hoping her rage would fuel her speed.
The poisons plummeted to the ground behind her, missing her by a few centimetres. Many drops landed on Nalhune's shield, but fizzled away harmlessly above her head. The priestess didn't spare them a second glance as she was already murmuring a restorative spell.
Apparently the toxic attack had been the creature's last stand, aware that its health was waning. With a penultimate thrust of Kyri's dagger, and a final blow from Giselle's mighty sword, the beast unleashed a keening death wail, loud enough to once again cause the three humans to clasp their palms against their ears. It swayed once, twice, then slammed to the ground.
The adrenaline coursed through Giselle's veins as she studied the fallen beast. Great heaves shook her slender body as she fought to regain her breath, her sword dropped to the floor, suddenly too heavy for her fatigued fingers to keep hold of. She sank to the floor next to it, not quite believing that the monster had been slain. A gloved hand rested on her plated shoulder and she looked up to see Kyri smiling down at her, blood encrusted on her face and hair. The rogue removed her daggers and pitched them next to Giselle's sword, and then she herself slumped to the floor with a satisfied smile.
"Well," she wheezed between gulping breaths. "I'm certainly glad that was over."
"Me too," Giselle agreed, a smile forming on her face, cracking the dried blood that caked the left side of her cheek.
"Me three!" Nalhune said as she came and sat down beside them, uncharacteristically pale from the effort she had used trying to keep them alive and a sign to how much she had exerted herself.
"I don't know about you guys," she stated, "But I could really go for a drink right now." Giselle and Kyri laughed, the rich sound a welcome change to the usual gloomy atmosphere of Terrokar. "I'm serious guys! Let's get out of here, that clefthoof is really stinking the place out!"
This time they all laughed, unable to stop themselves with the exhilaration that defeating the monster had produced. They retrieved their weapons from the floor, and without bothering to wipe them, ("What? My armour's gonna need a wash anyway." Kyri had protested at the raised eyebrow from Nalhune.)
Nalhune gave a shrill whistle and three large mounts, a war ram, frostsaber and war elekk, galloped towards them. Joyous that their rider's had made it through the battle in one piece. Giselle's ram smelled the blood on her face and nuzzled her worriedly. She laughed and stroked his neck softly.
"I'm okay," she soothed. "We're all okay."