The Culling:
Chapter 1
She woke up and yawned. She rolled out of bed and walked to her trunk, taking out a brown linen shirt and throwing it on, then slowly pulling her plate armor into place: chestpiece, shoulderplates, pants and greaves, boots of forged titansteel. She pulled on bracers and gauntlets slowly, and before she placed her helmet that only the finest servators of lordaeron were granted, she pulled a deep crimson tabard on over her armor emblazoned with the emblem of an axe. She then placed the silver and blue lined helm over her head and walked out.
Wincing at the sunlight, the short statured woman walked to the armory and saluted to the quartermaster. With a nod and a salute he quickly and precisely spoke "The usual ladder ma'am?" She quickly replied "Yes Sir McClean, I'll get it myself though"
She trotted over to the corner of the armory and fetched a regular footladder and set it down, stepping up on it. Private Marcus stepped in and with the stool she was still smaller than him. "Lieutenant Shinbreaker?" he adressed her by her nickname, not her real name. "Yes private?" In her head she quickly cursed at the fact her reputation proceeded her. "Need some help with that?" She sighed briefly and said "Yes Marcus, you'd save me a good bit of time doing so" The skinny private grunted as he lifted a sword twice the lieutenant's size and handed it to her, her strapping it to her back after lifting it with an ease noone her size should be able to lift.
Her name was Nafti Grindgear. Since the age of three she showed to be considerably stronger than other gnomes. Her parents secretly were ashamed of her...why couldn't she be an engineer or a mage like the others of her kind? They had a word for her kind, a special kind of Gnome: the Ferdosr. frequently the Ferdosr exiled themselves in order to seek an inner strength that allowed them to give and recieve the blows a warrior of another race such as the dwarven and humans could. Nafti was no different. On her 16th birthday she tied her white hair back, got dressed and slid on the light mail armor Wendel Steelmace had forged for her as a favor for doing his mail duty briefly. She strapped an arclight spanner to her waist and headed out. She passed her sleeping mother and father and simply bowed her head trying not to cry at the thought that she may never see them again.
She had only been in the biting cold outside of Ironforge twice before in her life. Twice in her life her father had volunteered her unusual strength to move crates and other materials for the Dwarven holiday of Brewfest. She began to walk out when she heard a semi-high pitched male voice "Wait!" she turned and saw her father, green beard and bald sprinting after her. She yelled back "you won't stop me dad, I have to do this" He caught up to her and placed his hands on his knees and began to pant. "I'm...not...trying to...stop you. Don't tell your mother i'm doing this, but here it'll help you on your journey." He handed her a small parcel. He embraced his daughter who was tall for a gnome, and then smiled "You've grown up to be quite the hero. Good luck my daughter, and if you ever get the chance, stop by our shop." Tears forming in his eyes she hugged her father back "I promise i will Dad" She turned and walked down the steep embankment in front of Ironforge to the Steelgrille Depot.
At the depot she opened the parcel and took out a small key and the paper contained a note "To my daughter: She might not be on the flashy side, but she was the first i ever made, look for the white one!" She looked up and immediatley saw what he was talking about: A Pure White painted Mechanostrider with a turbo-drive. She decided she'd prefer to earn it first. After setting out again she saw a human traveler about to faint from the cold. The man wearing all black burnt leather and a red bandana he quickly spoke "Can you take me to Dun Morogh? I have someone to meet there" she willingly agreed to help the human and carried him to the inn using her odd strength. Then left him as she continued on her way. This pilgrimage had been uneventful so far. She turned to return to Ironforge when she heard an explosion and turned to see the inn on fire. She ran inside to aid the effort to get people out. Inside she saw the human she had just aided holding the innkeeper by his shirt yelling "Where are you hiding the blade? your friends the Dark Irons are paying good coin for that damn thing!" Before he noticed her presence she quietly snuck behind him and unsheathed the spanner. She pulled her arm back and slammed it into his calf as hard as she could. His shin exploded from inside the leather, bone and flesh sticking out, pouring with blood. With this moment to turn around the innkeeper quickly slammed the human in the face and threw him out of the inn. The Dwarves of Dun Morogh then proceeded to put the fires out.
At the bar the dwarf set down a drink in front of Nafti and quickly said "Your gonna need it in about 5 seconds" Approximately 5 seconds later the dwarves of the bar sang a song entitled "The Ballad of Shinbreaker" speaking of her heroism in destroying the rogue's shin and freeing the innkeeper from harm. The innkeeper beckoned her behind the bar and into the back room. He quickly pressed in a panel and the wall shifted revealing a normal sized sword that glimmered unnaturally. "It's all yers Shinbreaker. It's a truesilver champion reforged to have a keener edge than any you've ever seen" Surprised she replied "Really sir? Such a fine blade and you'll just give it to me?" "Yeh've earned it lassie. Now take it and get on yer way" She took the blade and strapped it to her back. Then walked out to Steelegrille's depot, mounted her Mechanostrider and took off for the capital of Lordaeron.
Done reminiscing Shinbreaker set out to the front of the ranks of men in front of her and with a booming voice shouted "Alright boys...Today we ride out to assist our Prince Arthas in his conquest against the scourge...Mount up and head out NOW!"