Fingers scratched idly through the fur on his chest as he squinted up at the ceiling, trying to get his bearings. Random thoughts and memories danced around the edge of consciousness, none of them daring the full exposure of his direct attention.
What happened last night?
His mouth felt woolen, as did his head. He could vaguely remember being very angry about something. He had been angry, and drinking. He didn't drink much these days. But it had seemed like the thing to do at the time. Then someone had arrived - someone that he vaguely knew through the drunken haze, though right now he could not recall who or how. It seemed like they were somehow involved in the reason he was so angry. Or had they been trying to stop it - to stop him from doing something stupid? Or to stop someone doing something to him?
He continued to stare at the ceiling, pondering the unusual design. He was pretty sure he had been in Tanaris, or somewhere hot and dusty. This ceiling, however, was not the stucco of Gadgetzan. His eyes slid closed again as his brain tried to make sense of things.
So he had been angry and drinking in Tanaris, someone else had been there, and now he wasn't sure where he was. That at least was a somewhat more familiar feeling. It seemed like the last few months had been a blur of constant action, never staying in the same place long. Not that his life in general had ever been very sedentary. Even while raising his adopted daughter, real life had intruded far too often.
He smiled at the thought of his daughter, now fully grown enough to be out on her own. They met whenever possible in the Tauren district of Orgrimmar. Although she was a druid also, she followed a different path from his own. That was only right - she lived her own life, and had grown into a young woman with grace and wisdom far beyond her tender years. Last he heard, a few days ago she was in Ashenvale, or maybe Azshara, with her best friend. The Tauren paladin and troll druid made an interesting pair.
The hand on his chest changed motion, massaging his large pectoral muscles. He shifted slightly and sighed. Then his eyes snapped open. His left hand lay empty on the bed, while the right lay cupped around something warm and... soft, but firm too. He moved his fingers, tracing the outline of a hip. Then they arrived at what could only be the base of a tail. That was not entirely unusual - like any Tauren, he had a tail of his own, even though the one he felt now was definitely not his. Neither was the hip, or the hand on his chest.
"By the Earthmother!" he swore quietly in Taurahe.
"Mmm?" came a mumbled response. Then the hand continued its slow trek across his chest.
He was definitely awake now. He realized that all of the unusual sensations had been there all along. They had been dancing with the rest of his thoughts, just outside conscious range. His eyes closed in concentration as he tried to bring them into focus. A head nestled on his bicep, breath tickling through the hair on his chest. Below that he could feel two breasts pressing against his ribs. Further down must be those hips and tail. A leg and hoof lay askew across his own. He had not encountered these particular sensations in many years - not since...
He stopped that line of thought, banishing it back to the dance. His hand continued its exploration, prompting a gasp of air across his chest as he stroked down the tail to its blunt end. Definitely not a Tauren tail.
WHAT happened last night?
More jumbled images and sounds wandered through his memory. A path through the hills in the dark. Shouting, far away. A thin blue woman with glowing eyes. A boat bobbing in the darkness, its lamps reflected on the water's surface.
He opened his eyes again and glanced down, his eyes struggling to focus on the head that lay a few inches away. She had horns, but they were completely different from Tauren horns. These were blue, and swept back around her ears. Her face looked peaceful, her eyes closed. A small button nose and thin lips, stretched in a slight smile. No fangs or tusks. She had a few small tendrils on each side of her face that seemed to sway on their own, and long, flowing dark hair. Her hand continued moving across his chest, even as she pretended sleep.
He realized that he knew her face. She had been there - on the boat, on the path, at the tavern. But that was not the extent of it - he knew her from long ago too. They had first met before the Shattering. Before he had discovered Lith'atal at the Orgrimmar orphanage and raised her as his daughter. Before the Forsaken had rolled their plague vehicles over the rolling terrain of Hillsbrad, and the Alliance had retaliated by crushing Camp Taurajo. They had met there in Hillsbrad, along a road in the no-man's-land between Tarren Mill and Southshore. He had saved her life then. He suspected that she had returned the favor last night.
"Aur... Auryon? What..." He licked his dry lips. "What happened? Where are we?" He paused for a moment as her large blue eyes opened, then grinned sheepishly and switched to Common. "Sorry. I haven't had to speak in Common in a long time. Guess I'm out of practice."
She smiled gently, then spoke in a husky murmur. "That's okay - it's not my first language either. Though you were speaking it well enough last night. Well enough despite the alcohol, I should say. The Alliance soldiers definitely caught your..."
She must have seen the look of confusion on his face, because she pushed herself up on her elbow and looked directly into his large brown eyes. "You don't remember any of it, do you?"
"Of course! I... um." He stopped. "Vague images, that's it."
"Hmmph." She snuggled back down, her fingers tracing down the muscles of his left arm. "Well, thanks to you I'm probably not welcome back in Gadgetzan for quite a while. You either, for that matter. At least until the matter with the goblins and soldiers is resolved."
"Goblins? I don't remember any goblins."
"You wouldn't. They weren't actually there at the tavern, unless they arrived after I dragged your heavy ass out of there. Seems that one of your goblin cohorts in the Horde got himself mixed up in something over his head. In his panic, he ended up bumbling into a group of Alliance soldiers outside the bar. They roughed him up a little, then came into the bar bragging about it. That's when things got interesting."
"Still not ringing a bell, though I remember being at the bar."
"Well, you were already a couple sheets to the wind. I had came in just a few moments before the soldiers, and you were already there ranting about something else. Were you in Uldum yesterday?"
He screwed up his face in thought for a moment. "I think so. Somewhere hot with a lot of sand, anyway."
"So, they came in bragging about having messed up this goblin brat. I told them that I didn't think their conduct was becoming to upstanding members of the Alliance. They started to get... rude... with me. That's when you went nuts and launched all three of them into the wall behind the bar. When the alarm went up, it sounded like some of the local Alliance folk wanted to lynch you on the spot. Meanwhile, the goblins were on their way to put a smackdown on the soldiers. In the confusion, I grabbed you and dragged you over the pass to Thousand Needles. This is my boat, by the way. Once we were on the boat, you passed out. I piloted us to the far end of Thousand Needles. Should be pretty safe here, for now. So, that's about it."
"Well, that definitely explains a lot. Brings some of the stray images back in line, anyway. I'm still curious, though..." He trailed off.
She waited for a moment, then prompted, "Yes?"
"Well, it's been a very long time since I woke up... naked? next to a beautiful woman."
She giggled. "You did that too. Well, mostly. Early this morning you woke up from where you had passed out on the deck, and started tearing off all your clothes. I tried to quiet you down, but you kept making all kinds of noise. Plus, I was worried that you would fall overboard. Finally I put you on the bed and tried to tuck you in. But you grabbed me and pulled me down next to you. It made you quiet, so I didn't complain. Much..." She winked at him.
"That explains my clothes. What happened to yours?"
She paused, a flush stealing across her face. "You said it's been a long time... It has been a long time for me, too." She was lost for a moment in pensive thought, a cloud that passed across her face and then vanished.
"I couldn't help but notice that you are very well put together. For a Tauren, that is." She winked again as she stroked his arm. "Everybody thinks that hunters have their pets for companionship, but it just isn't the same. Definitely not when it comes to, well... sex. I got up this morning and... I just didn't think I could take it anymore. You weren't awake yet, so I figured I might be able to wake you up in more ways than one."
"But I don't... we didn't... ?"
"Not yet."
He swore again, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. As he rolled to face her and wrapped his arms around her body, he murmured, "Are all Draenei women this... direct?"
"Only those of us who find something we want."