Adventure Loves Company, Too
Chapter 1: First Meeting
Past and Future Disclaimer: I do not own anything Blizzard does.
A/N: Going through and editing past chapters to get everything homogenous. Disregard all updates, appologies to those reading and accidentally missing a chapter or two due to the updates. Gonna take out whiny notes as well.
There was only so much that Durotar had to offer. The dry, hot sun; the dusty, hard red earth; the ever-present scorpions, pigs, and centaur. The Echo Isles were hardly enough to chase away heatstroke and outrageous boredom. Mostly because of the infestation of voodoo practicing Trolls. So, it was no shock when a silvery shadow slipped out of Sen'Jin Village one night, looking towards the north for adventure and riches.
At the same time, a similar shadow flitted out of Darnassus, driven mad by vapid adoration of nature by her kin. Striving for more than the purple-tinted trees of Teldrassil, the mind-boggling height of that accursed tree, and driven by the vague feeling in her chest of needing and craving something more. Something a little more...wicked.
In Thunder Bluff, a dark bird flew off to the northeast, looking for a meaning to his life, craving something more than what he was given and was meant for him. Fleeing from the future of becoming an elder, and training his whole life to be such. He fled in the night towards an unpredictable destiny.
In Stormwind City, a little girl sat down on her bed, watching the sun come up, listening to the drunken roaring of a dwarf downstairs, having roped her father into an all-night drinking party. She sighed and looked outside, wishing she could leave and go off on her own, dreaming of undiscovered riches and sights as of yet unseen. She sighed and got up to help her mother with the morning chores.
A young man in Silvermoon City gathers all of his things in silence, collecting the memories of his past into a giant chest, and all of his clothes into a pack. He motioned to the Felguard sitting on his bed, and the demon hefted the massive trunk easily and followed him out. The chest was buried in a deep pit outside the city and covered as the boy and the demon faded away from the scarlet city.
All six of these disparate beings were driven by a force that none of them knew about or could ever understand. They were drawn inexorably together, their futures intertwined before they even knew each other, destined to meet despite their varied backgrounds and prejudices.
A decade later...
Claryssa sighed and let her attention drift a little bit as she watched a bluebird twitter outside her window. She smiled and totally ignored the increasing amount of smoke rising from the pot that she was stirring. It was only when a cry from her mother alerted her that she returned her attention to the utterly ruined soup in front of her and flung open the window through which she was so happily gazing, scaring off the bluebird and letting out a mushroom cloud of smoke. Laughter entered through the open window and Claryssa pulled a face.
"Sorry, mom," she said with a rueful smile. "I just can't stay focused long enough to get this soup done."
"That's okay, dear. We'll just try again tomorrow," her mother responded, and walked out of the room, accompanied by a sigh from her daughter.
Claryssa was fairly tall for a girl, with fairly long brownish-blonde hair and eyes that switched between blue and green with the light and her mood. She was wearing a fairly plain gray dress and was sitting slumped in a chair near the window, staring out at the window. She sighed again, going back to her dreams of leaving and adventure. She bit her lip, thinking. She looked from the window to the still-smoking pot on the stove. She then smiled broadly and got up.
Twenty minutes later, she was running through the forest outside of Stormwind City, laughing as the rather lazy wolves watched her run by with very little interest. She slowed down and jogged a bit, still giggling to herself, but slowing down and starting to enjoy the forest around her. She finally slowed down to a leisurely walk and sighed happily, losing herself in the sound of the forest. The birds around her, the wind whispering through the top of the trees. She sat down under a tree and pulled and apple out of the pack that she had packed before she left and bit into it.
It took her about ten minutes to start feeling uneasy. There was a subtle twinge in her chest, and her eyes found themselves roaming nervously around the forest, looking for the source of her unease. There was someone watching her, and she knew it. She could almost taste the sardonic interest from the person, and she found herself clutching her pack, peering around her in earnest. Slowly, the hairs on the back of her neck raised, and she slowly looked up into the tree above her.
She was met by bright red eyes that showed a mixture of amusement and interest. Her eyes widened in fear as the features around the eyes registered in her brain.
There was a troll ten feet above her.
She let out a small scream and backed away from the tree and tried to get up and and run, but tripped over the hem of her dress and fell face-first into the grass. She looked back at the troll to see his face break out into a broad grin. She whimpered and continued to stare at him despite the horror stories flooding back into her head, transfixed. The troll let out a dark chuckle and dropped down from the tree branch onto the ground with a shockingly swift movement, and squatted down on the ground under the tree.
His skin was a pale blue, made silvery by the short fur that was marred in places by long scars. His hair was silver, and trained back out of his eyes, and he was dressed in rather simple leather armor. The most shocking thing, however, was the tattoos. Gold tattoos defied his skin and made graceful crisscrosses and swirls on his arms and face and-and although Claryssa couldn't see-his whole body. His tusks and ears were simply decorated, and he still wore that crooked, sneering grin.
Claryssa continued to stare, too scared to move. The grin slowly disappeared from the troll's face and he raised an eyebrow. He cocked his head to one side.
"You okay dere, girl?"
Claryssa jumped. Her eyebrows knitted together and she blinked. She stared at the troll, not believing what she just heard.
"You...speak common?" she asked tentatively, hardly hearing herself. The troll chucked again, but it was a little bit softer than before.
"Yah, not relleh somethin' you t'ought you'd heah in yo' life, right, girl?" he grinned again, a bit less savagely. He stretched his shoulders forward and yawned, revealing a lot of sharp, unpleasant-looking teeth in conjunction with his long tusks.
"N-no, not really," she muttered meekly, holding her legs to her chest and buring her face in her knees. "Wh-what do you want...?" She hadn't really meant to voice that question, and immediately turned bright red and hid deeper in her knees. The troll's eyebrow raised higher.
"Not'in', relleh. Jus' passin' t'rough. Yeh're prob'ly scared witless righ' now, 'nd 'm sorreh for dat. I'm not gonna eatcha, girl. Was jus' watchin'."
"But...why?"
The troll shrugged.
Silence passed in the clearing, and Claryssa calmed down when she saw him looking around nonchalantly, and slowly let her legs down and took another tentative bite of her apple. She jumped when he stood up suddenly and took a few steps toward her, and squatted down right in front of her. Now that he was in front of her, she could see the light scars on his face and the intricate carving in his left tusk. He cocked his head again and raised an eyebrow. Claryssa shrank back a bit, but still looked into his bright red eyes. Despite her fear, she smiled weakly.
The troll blinked and erupted into laughter. Harsh, gutteral laughter that threw his head back and slapped his hand against his knee. "Heheh, you be brave dere, girl. I know ya be scared outta yo' mind, but'cha still go an flash a smile at me. Yer cute, girl, I like yah. Whatchyo name?"
"Claryssa..."
"Heh, dat be so? 'S a nice name, girl."
"Th-thanks..." she didn't want to admit that she was secretly happy for his praise. "Um...what's yours...?"
"Heh. Jen'Zin." He stuck a hand out rather shyly for a handshake, uncertain for the first time in their encounter."I won' be offended if ya don'-"
He was cut off by his hand being taken by hers in a rather awkward handshake. She smiled a little bit broader, blushing furiously, and still shaking from fear. He flashed his lopsided grin at her and sat next to her, stretching his long legs in front of him. He sighed and leaned back against the tree, looking at a bird perched in the branches of a neighboring tree.
"You don't seem to be...well...very Horde-like..." Claryssa paused, wishing she'd thought of something less offensive. Jen'Zin caught on to what she meant and chuckled again.
"Yeh, well, I don' give any allegiance to neit'ah da Horde or da Alliance. I jus' don' agree wit' eit'ah of 'em." He continued to gaze at the bird, who was singing its heart out. "I don' follow da idea dat dere be only room in dis world fer one of 'em. Da world be huge, and dere's no reason we shouldn' get along."
"That makes sense," Claryssa agreed, calming down a bit. She was feeling a bit happy that she hadn't yet been eaten or strangled or worse. "But why did you decide that? I've heard that trolls would give an arm to be able to kill something."
Jen'Zin snorted. "Crazy Alliance dipshits. All dey see is da battlefield. Dey don' see da home life. Trolls be pretty tight-knit in dere tribes, and we'd march ten miles fer our neighbor." His eyes had narrowed into a slight glare, and the bird sang on, oblivious. He sighed and closed his eyes. "But still, we be violent." He lapsed into silence, his eyes still closed.
Claryssa twitched a bit, her first question still unanswered. She was a bit worried about upsetting him, especially considering his last statement, but that question gnawed at her insides and she finally asked him why he left again. He pulled a face.
"It re'lleh be very simple," he replied opening an eye to look at her. "I be a shaman, and I listen to a higher author'ty dan Thrall or what's-his-face. I follow what da spirits tell me, not what da borders an' da regulations say."
"Wouldn't that be considered treason, or something?"
The troll yawned. "Some considered it dat, but when I was brought b'fore da Warchief, he agreed wit' me and let me go." He snickered in a rather hateful manner. Claryssa was taken aback by the look of irritation on his face, and grew quiet. He looked at her and put a huge, three-fingered hand on her head in a friendly manner. "Don' worry, 'm not mad at ya, just thinkin' bout how stupid I was back den. I actully used da spirits as an excuse ta get outta grunt work. I wasn' much of a shaman back den, but da Warchief's an odd sorta guy, and by believin' me, he made me feel super guilty, and I quadrupled mah trainin' ter make t'ings up to bot' of us." He laughed again, the same harsh laugh, but there was a ring of embarrassment in it that wasn't there before, and he gave a bashful grin. "Actu'lly, I wen' back ta talk to him aft'r I had become comp'tent, and he said he knew full well dat I was jus' pretendin'." He sighed. "Odd man, he is."
"You know Thrall?" Claryssa asked a bit fearfully. "I've heard terrible stories about him."
"An' dat's all dey are."
"Huh?"
"Dey only be stories. Warchief Thrall be a pretty nice guy. He be a bit more int'rested in diplomacy dan in war, but since da core nature of da Horde is war, and de Alliance big wigs aren' int'rested in listenin', he can only resort ta war." He stretched out his legs a bit more, wiggling his toes. "Anyway, 'nough 'bout dat, what 'boutchu? I been talkin' like an old geezer, and know nothin' boutcha except yer name."
Claryssa smiled ruefully. "There's not much about me that's interesting. I've lived my whole life in Stormwind, with my mother trying to teach me to cook and me failing miserably at it."
"Aw, dere gotta be more dan dat."
"No, that's about it. I spend most of my time in that abominable kitchen, and come out into the forest to escape whenever I can." She found, much to her chagrin, the troll's smooth, rhythmic accent was starting to affect her speech as well. The troll made a sound of irritation.
"Dat's borin' girl. Haven'tcha ever dreamed of goin' out an' doin' stuff? Adventure, discov'ry, all dat?"
"All the time," she said, that rueful smile coming to her face again. "But I'm too scared to. I don't know what's out there, and I don't know what to do by myself."
They both fell silent for a while, just enjoying the forest. It was maybe a half and hour before Jen'Zin heard the jingling trot of a warhorse, and the troll stiffened and jumped up into the tree they were sitting in, hiding himself in the leaves effortlessly. Claryssa looked up in surprise.
"What is it..?"
"Shhh! Quiet, girl! Dere be a soldier on his way ovah here. Pretend I'm not here, yah?" He fell silent, and she couldn't see him in the tree anymore.
She pouted, her new aquantance hidden in the tree above her with the excuse of an inbound soldier. After a few minutes, however, she could hear it, too.
A guard entered the clearing, mounted on a horse covered in light mail. It wasn't the normal mount for a soldier of such low rank and she eyed him curiously. He spotted her and trotted straight towards her.
"You there! What are you doing out here alone? The forest is dangerous, especially right now."
"Uh...I was just admiring that bird. He flew out here and he had such a beautiful song that I couldn't resist following." She pointed to the still-singing bird that Jen'Zin had been watching, and the troll disguised his laugh into a cough, which he disguised into a crow's squawk. The guard looked at the tree in disgust, but did nothing else.
"Anyway, it isn't safe out here. There's been reports of a troll sighted here, and we don't want any accidents."
"Yes, I'll go home right away. I just need to go get some berries. Since I'm out here anyway, may as well."
The guard grunted and didn't move. "Well, I should watch you anyways. Just to be safe."
Claryssa sighed and got up, discreetly dumping her basket's contents of bread and fruit out before walking off to a known berry patch. The guard urged his horse to follow, and they walked off, out of the clearing. Jen'Zin growled low in his throat and followed swiftly, jumping steathily from tree to tree. Things were going great for a while. Claryssa, followed by the guard, walked steadily ahead, and the troll, unknown to both of them, followed several yards behind, jumping from branch to branch. At least, things WERE going great, until they reached the berry patch.
Jen'Zin miscalculated and found himself flying toward a dead branch. He sighed mentally and tried to catch a different branch, which failed. Faced with the inescapable knowledge that he would, no matter what, give himself away, he resigned himself to that fact and hit the branch, jumped off of it, and barely managed to grab one above it. He hoised himself up and hid again as the dead branch fell to the ground with a great crash.
The guard was thrown from his horse as it reared an bolted, spooked by the sudden noise. He rolled and righted himself, drawing his sword and moving stealthily towards the tree. Claryssa slowly backed away from the guard, trying to use the distraction to slip away from him. The guard flipped the branch over and looked into the tree.
A silvery blue foot collided with the guard's face, and he fell to the ground, out cold. Jen'Zin dropped to the ground and turned the guard over carefully. He flashed a straight-faced thumbs-up to Claryssa, who laughed shakily.
"Now den, you should be gettin' back home, girl. I'll carry da excess weight, but 'm sure dat your mom be worryin'."
"Why are you worrying so much about me?" Claryssa asked, her sense of suspicion finally kicking in. Jen'Zin hoisted the guard ont his shoulder and looked at her.
"Curiosity, mos'ly. Now c'mon, girl. Da sun be goin' down." He set off with a smooth, leisurely gait that Claryssa still had to jog to keep up with.
"Curious? About what?"
"Everythin'. Never been 'round humans much." He didn't turn, but she could see his ears twitch as he grinned. Claryssa pouted and harrumphed. Jen'Zin stopped and turned, placing his hand on her head again and chuckling. "Don' worry. I don' wanna hurtcha. Sounds odd, but dere be somethin' 'boutcha dat draws my attention."
He continued forward, and they soon found themselves near the entrance to Stormwind City. They paused and stared at it for a while, and Jen'Zin laid the unconscious guard on the ground by the road.
"Well...I guess dis be it, den. You go on home, Claryssa." He flashed her a grin.
"Yeah. Uh...You going to stay here long?"
"A little while, yah."
"I'll see you soon, then!" Claryssa ran off towards the city before the troll could respond, leaving him standing with a slightly bewildered expression. He smirked and shook his head and trotted back into the woods. Claryssa dashed home, and took the lectures from her parents in good spirits.