Disclaimer- I don't own Blizzard property.
A one shot I threw together on my flight to Cali. Basically just wanted to make my seat partner chuckle hehe.
Saldean's soulless eyes skimmed over the sights before him. The rotten stables filled with long dead horses, the tattered shops covered with tarps that were more holes than material, the buildings that were bare beams and shedding shingles by the day. Brill was a dead town. What few Forsaken that could be saved from the nearby crypt were grown and gone, the small makeshift camp was now abandoned and empty. No traveler would stop by this small cluster of lean to's and shacks when the Undercity, pride of the Forsaken, was a mere stone's throw away from the Zeppelin landing tower that cast a shadow over the hills.
So it made Saldean jump when there was a horn blow from the road, announcing a small party. The sound of claws and hoofs told him that Brill's guests were mounted. The group came around the last turn as he pushed away from the barn wall, and the sight made him pause.
Banners whipped in the cold wind, the emblem of a silver dragon backed by a rising sun naming them as High Nobles from Silvermoon. His eye sockets slowly widened as their entourage came into full view and paused by the inn, their mounts pawing the ground at the scent of rot.
"Why come to Brill?" Carolai muttered to Saldean, appearing at his elbow. Her hands were gloved and seemed to be steaming slightly.
"Dunno," he shrugged back, eyeing them, "maybe some sort of merchant business?"
Carolai turned and stared at him. "Those are Sundragons- see that banner? That is no merchant family. The fight. They crusade. They protect."
Saldean shrugged again. "S'not my business. They could buy the whole town or burn it to the ground. Not my problem," and he turned to the farm wall, going back to leaning and staring into space.
The Sundragons were in the inn, their mounts outside and stabled, watched by their footmen. Several traders who circled the smaller towns of Silverpine eyed them openly, obviously hoping for some extra sales. Saldean snorted.
Carolai stayed outside for another few minutes, frowning at the inn, before returning to her works. The town slowly calmed down, sending sparse glances over their shoulders at the nobility.
Without warning, a cry erupted from the inn, making Saldean reach for his pitchfork. A blonde blood elf, wearing a slender mail circlet, came racing towards him, followed by a much darker elf.
"Is it true?" she instantly asked, stopping directly in front of him, "Is it really true?"
His eyes flicked from her, pale skin and willowy looking, to the other, dark nutty brown skinned and black haired. Deciding that the darker one was very dangerous, he gripped his weapon. "S'what true?"
"You have the special chicken feed?"
Saldean blinked at her, stunned. Did she just ask about his chicken feed? A Sundragon? "Erm... Yes. It's right here-"
"I must buy some immediately!"
"Arior don't be ridiculous!" the dark one snapped, eyes thinning, "It's an old joke. A legend. You cannot honestly believe it."
Arior crinkled her nose at her sibling and brought out enough gold to buy Saldeans entire farm. He would have paled, had he any blood flow.
Reaching out a shaking claw, he took the few silver needed and handed over several chicken feed packets. As he let them fall into her hand, something very large and very white caught his attention. His jaw, or what remained of it, went slack as the huge, lumbering polar bear leaned up to sniff his masters goods.
"Yes, Daether, it's really the stuff!"
"You ah, shouldn't ingest that," Saldean squeaked, still staring at the bear, "I mean you could, but it tastes godawful and will give you the bends like-"
"She's not going to ingest it," the darker one sighed, "Do you have any chickens around?"
Saldean stared at her like she grew a second head. "Uh, yeah, the little piece of filth ought to be round here somewheres..."
Arior giggled and clapped her hands like a small girl. Whirling, she touched Daether's nose and told him, "Stay," rather sternly. Having done this, she began creeping around his farmyard, cooing, "Here chicky chicky chicky... Heeeere chicky chicky chicky..."
The spectacle was one to behold. At first, the darker elf, who Saldean came to find out from Carolai was Katria, the Dragon Dancer, ridiculed her sister, trying to convince her to call her quest off and go home. After a very long fifteen minutes, Arior came squealing into the clearing with a startled chicken in her grasp. Katria let out a low expletive, "Why the bloody hell couldn't you have hid the damn thing?", and stepped up on the jests. But her sister now began actually mimicking the chicken, clucking around it and sometimes after it.
After thirty minutes of this, Katria shifted to begging and cajoling. It was getting late, they had been at it for a while. Their animals needed rest at home. Father needed them. Nothing could get Arior away from the small farm animal. Saldean was now into it, watching with interest as the chicken stopped running away from the elf and began looking at her as though she recognized the female.
And then the chicken began following Arior. It clucked back at the hunter, flapping its wings and garbling. Katria suddenly became interested as well, cooing to the chicken. Saldean, who had no idea what in the worlds was going on, was cheering the two on. For what, he didn't really know.
Quite suddenly, after a good hour and a half of this, the chicken stopped and cocked its head at Arior. Excited beyond belief, she knelt before it and fed it the chicken feed she had bought earlier.
They waited. Arior was murmuring to the chicken, petting its head and watching. Katria shifted her grip on her blades, biting her lip.
The chicken in question was Saldeans only bird. He used to have more, but the poultry were the first to die from the plague. Since he had started selling off his property, the chicken hadn't produced anything aside from annoyance.
He began questioning his sanity when a large egg appeared beneath the chicken. Arior snatched the egg, thanked the chicken, and strode proudly to her sister, sweat still beading on her forehead despite the chilling wind.
"Just an old joke, is it Katria?"
The darker sister scowled lightly. "Hatch it and let's see."
By sunset the Sundragon party was heading away. Saldean waved them goodbye, shaking his head and wondering whether or not he had dreamed the entire day.
Of course he had, Carolai said when he relayed the experience. How in the world could an egg hatch within the minute of it coming into existence?