I do not own World of Warcraft. I do own the original characters in this story.

-.-

"Hey, (slurred name,) wake up! We have to leave! WAKE UP, ( slurred name!)" He opened his eyes drearily; flames danced into his clouded vision, screams tore into his incomprehensive ears. A beautiful woman kneeled next to him, shaking him awake. Tears streamed down her teardrop shaped face. Ash and soot took residence in her golden hair, and her simple white dress looked as if it were burned; her left sleeve was completely missing, and her arm was covered in red blisters.

"What's going on?" He asked lethargically.

"They found us! They're attacking, I think someone here is a-" Her mouth hung open, but she spoke no more. Something peculiar poked through her chest…

"Wake up…"

He woke up with a start, eyes darting all around him. He was in a small clearing in a forest; the trees around him were thicker around than he was. He heard a stream trickling along nearby, as well as owls hooting far above. He looked up; stars poked through the few openings in the leaves.

"Where am I?..." He glanced around and saw an undecorated staff resting against a tree, a small but thick book at its end. He felt as if he had just had a horrible dream, but he could not recall it. "Come on… Remember! What was that dream?" He ran his hands through his hair… But he had no hair?

"I can't remember anything!" His eyes opened momentarily in shock. "Not even my own name!" He looked around him for answers, and received none. "What is this?" he shouted; the owls above fluttered away. He cleared his thoughts; the last thing he could remember… Was a deep voice telling him to wake up.

"Who was that voice, anyway?" He asked himself. "No use waiting around here to find out…" He stood up and walked as softly as he could to the staff leaning on the tree. As he reached out to grab it, he realized his hand was gray. His fingers were nothing more than bones reaching out from underneath the decaying skin. He stared at his arm for a long while. His hand was just reaching out from behind an old, tattered brown robe whose sleeves were longer than his arms. He pulled the sleeves back; his elbow was laid open with rot, showing sinew. Patches of skin were, and had, fallen off at random all over him. "What… Is this…?"

He felt as if there were memories dangling just out of his reach. "What am I?" He could see that the small beams of moonlight had disappeared. Something inside him, perhaps instinct, or experience, told him that sitting here thinking would do nothing for him. He started to walk towards the sound of the stream when he realized that he had left that book lying on the floor. He jogged back and picked it up, thinking it, perhaps, had something from the past.

As he reached the stream, he opened it to read, and it seemed second nature to hold it in perfect balance in his left hand, using his staff to make sure he didn't trip on something as he buried his face in the text. But, as he opened it, he saw runes and symbols that he did not recognize. At the same time, it seemed it didn't matter, as he turned quickly to a well-worn page and began to read it over and over.

What it meant, he had no idea. But it felt as if these words were his being. As if the lines were his core, the center that he based everything upon. In these lines, he could translate two words, but they made no sense. The runes were Nevren Agol.

He looked up and realized he had been traveling down-stream along the river long enough for the sun to be rising above the tips of the trees. He thought to himself, ((something about these words… It's as if I know them from a past life. What have I forgotten?)) His staff splashed into a small puddle filled with clear water. He looked at his reflection; he was bald, but that was the last thing he noticed. His skin was a decrepit gray, and his eyes glowed orange. But his face, at least, seemed to be spared from the rot that had spread across the rest of his body; it was still whole. He saw a small hood reaching up from the back of his robe. He pulled it up; he didn't know what he was, but it was obvious it wasn't normal.