She ran, ran faster than she thought possible through one of the many forests in Northrend. Her long black hair was whipping around in the wind, but she didn't care. She had to get out of there, away from that place. Anywhere would have been better than where she had been. She would have chosen death over being there for a second longer.
She heard the roar of a dragon not far behind her and she quickened her pace. She couldn't be caught; they would never allow her the chance to escape again. Her legs burned and she knew she must have run a few miles in only a few minutes. She heard wings flapping up above, and she thanked herself that she had chosen to escape at night.
The trees got thicker and soon the sky was hidden behind a thick canopy of leaves, and she had no idea where she was going. But she kept running anyway. They would be close now, extremely close, and she couldn't stop until she was sure she was far enough away to be safe.
She heard another roar, this time it was farther away, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She was out running them. But she didn't dare stop to celebrate; they would catch up with her if she did. She heard something rip and she looked down to see her dark leather pants beginning to rip from the running.
They tore even more, but she ignored it. If she had to run pants less through Northrend then fine. She would rather do that than go back to where she had been. She clutched the large tooth that hung around her neck and felt comfort. Soon she would be free, and she could live out her life, disguised as a blood elf forever if she had to.
A roar ripped through the landscape, and she began to fear that they would catch up with her again.
"No," she told herself "Not this time."
She ran even faster, if that was possible, and her muscles burned in agony. But she ignored the pain, she had learned to from the place she had been in, and kept on running. There would be a river soon, she knew, she had overheard the servants talking of one. She could swim there, her scent would be lost in the water, and she could swim until dawn. They would stop searching by then, they always did.
She heard another roar, this time closer, and the large beating wings of a dragon not far up above.
"Dalgris," she hissed quietly.
She had two choices: keep running and hope he didn't hear her, or hide.
It took her a few seconds to duck behind a bush and get as low as possible. Dalgris was a dragon, he heard everything. If she kept running, he would surely hear her. She heard the wing flaps get closer and closer, and then they stopped. She was confused at first, but then the ground shook as something big hit the ground not far from her hiding place.
She peered under the bush and saw four huge red dragon feet. Then she saw a snout of a red dragon drop to the ground and begin sniffing. She thought for sure that she would get caught, since Dalgris had a great sense of smell. She clung to the branches of the bush before her and began to hope that her punishment wouldn't be too harsh. Then she saw the outline of a red, scaly snout appear against the ground, carefully sniffing the dirt.
The dragon sniffed a few times, and then it raised a clawed hand and aimed for the bush. She closed her eyes and hoped for the best. But then, a miracle took place. She opened her eyes after hearing some strange hiss, and saw that in the clearing a skunk had come out of the woods and sprayed its stinky fumes on Dalgris.
Dalgris growled at the creature, and then snapped it up in one bite before jumping up into the air to begin the search for her.
She sighed in relief and muttered "Velathelina, you are a very lucky girl."
A shudder went up her spine. She rarely ever said her full name, she usually stuck to Vela, and whenever she said her full name it made her shudder. It was a name given to her long ago, at a time she did not want to remember.
She shook herself to get rid of the chills that had settled in and got up. There wouldn't be any more dragons coming this way for a while, and she allowed herself a sigh of relief. She turned to the direction she had been going before and began to run again. Her legs burned once again, but she wouldn't stop now that she had a lead.
She clutched her necklace once again, and found comfort, soon she would be free, free of her cursed past that no one would forget. She could live her life how she wanted to without anyone coming after her ever again. But first she had to get out of Northrend.
She didn't know where she would go after that, she just knew that she would go. Kalimdor, perhaps, or maybe she would go to the blood elf city, Silvermoon, and live out her life in blood elf form.
She had only met a blood elf once, sure he was a prisoner, but so was she, so she spoke to him on a daily basis. He had told her of Silvermoon and of his people and how the Lich king had attacked them and nearly wiped their race off the map.
And in return, she told him of her dark past, and how she came to be a prisoner among her own kind. He didn't treat her badly like the other mortals had; he treated her like a person, not a monster.
She remembered that his name was Kaldor. He had been imprisoned because he was snooping around the prison, learning the secrets of the black dragon flight. They let him live for a while, but they killed him eventually. Luckily Vela had been abducted by the red dragon flight before then, so she didn't have to see him die.
She also remembered the funny language he had taught her. She couldn't remember the name, only that it was the blood elven language. He had taught her many languages in the years they were imprisoned there, dwarven, common, darnassian, and she had taught him dragon speak.
But he couldn't say everything since some words required you to be a dragon, with a long tongue and scaly mouth.
She sighed; she missed Kaldor and his funny elven traditions. He was the reason she had chosen to be disguised as a blood elf. She remembered his funny walking and his classy manners. She just slouched all the time and ate only with her mouth, not with help from her hands.
She thought it was awfully strange how mortals ate with tiny spears, but she guessed it was some strange custom they had created. Kaldor had laughed at her the first time he saw her eat; she ate holding the bowl with her hands and shoving her face into it.
He also taught her some of the different spells he knew, he was a mage. She couldn't teach him any dragon spells though, since all of them would be so powerful that they would kill him. When she told him this he said that he didn't mind, since he already knew a bunch of his mage spells.
Her thoughts had distracted her so much that she hadn't noticed the river until she nearly fell in it. She stopped and looked back for any signs of pursuers. There was nothing, not even a deafening roar from far off in the distance.
Vela sighed in relief. She would follow the river upstream towards one of the towns the servants had spoken of. She couldn't rest, not until she was far away from the awful place she had been kept prisoner in for so many years.
She would rest once she was in the safety of the town. There could be red dragons there in disguise, but they couldn't do anything to her out in the open. They wouldn't risk giving away their secret, that one of the black dragons had survived. And they wanted Vela alive, not impaled on a spear like the rest of her kind. And they wanted to study her, learn why she was able to evade the corruption and the whispering of the old gods.
They truly believed that she knew why, and that she was keeping it a secret. But she didn't, and they wouldn't believe her when she told them that. So she had been tortured until the life was nearly drained out of her, all for a stupid secret that she didn't even know of.
She spat onto the river bank, disgusted at what they had done to her. She understood that her race was evil, but she wasn't. She was uncorrupted, yet they tortured her. For years, she lay in that cold dark room, waiting for death to claim her.
But it never did, and she was able to escape. She would be free, and she could live her life free from chains. She wouldn't be a scientist's experiment any more. She wouldn't be poked and prodded or forced to drink appalling mixtures that smelled vile.
She smiled in the night, something she hadn't done in years. All along she thought that her only purpose in life was to be studied until she died, or until they killed her. But now, if she was successful, she would get far away from them and she would be able to live her life without anyone knowing about her secret, or her past.
Who knows, maybe she'd even fall in love with a mortal. She doubted she would have kids, though. She didn't want to unleash that kind of abomination upon the world. She knew that if she had any children they would be corrupted, just like the rest of them, even if she wasn't.
She sighed. Only one hundred years ago this would have upset her, but right now, she couldn't care less. All she wanted was to live, and if she couldn't have kids, then so be it. She thought she heard something snap in the woods, and she realized that she had to get going.
She slipped into the creek and began swimming north, to where the village would be. Once she made it there, she would be okay. They would come after her, she knew that, but she was quicker and smarter than them.
She would dodge everything they threw at her, she would kill every dragon they sent after her, and she would destroy anything that got in the way of her freedom. She would fight the battle that lay ahead, and she would win, or die trying.