Pariah
Chapter 1 A Vision
He never really found his place in the world he had come to love and adore. Even when found as a newborn infant in front of old Fascus's tent, all others thought of him as an outcast. Never before did they have to welcome one like him into their warm abode. It was not against their teachings to accept outsiders, for they were a part of the Horde. But this time was different. The child was not meant to be among them, though his race also shared the same love for nature as they did. It was unorthodox, completely different from what they normally had to do. So for his whole live, so long as he was raised and remained among them, he would be an outsider, never to fit in with the life he would wish to have.
"Maev? Maev!"
The young night elf arose from his slumber, his back erect against the totem that he had carved with his foster father. Around him were a plethora of scrolls and texts, of which he borrowed from the shamans of the village that taught him. Since birth Maev had been taught in the ways of the shaman, constantly reading and training with his already unnatural prowess with nature and its elements.
"If you keep this up, you will be too exhausted for the initiation ceremony tonight."
"I have to learn more if I want to be an accomplished shaman, father." said Maev.
Fascus Watcher, one of the chief hunters of Bloodhoof Village, was the one who found an infant Maev at the entrance to his tent over twenty years ago. Since then the old tauren named him Maev, after the son he had lost a few years before to a raging kodo beast during a hunting party. Seeing Maev as his second chance at fatherhood, Fascus raised the night elf. Though many persecuted the boy and never accepted him as one of their own because of his race, Maev learned to live through the pains of never being one with his tauren brothers. Because of this reason and other complications of night elf growth, Maev waited five more years than usual to take part in the shaman initiation ceremony that other tauren shamans took at the age of fifteen.
"I know you will make me proud, son." said old Fascus with wrinkled grin and a tear in his eyes.
Looking from his scrolls to the clear sky above, Maev then said with a smile, "I will become the most powerful shaman in the world, just you wait!"
That night the ceremony had begun. All partook in the feast that started off the celebration. Even those from Thunder Bluff traveled down south to Bloodhoof Village to enjoy the many kodo ribs, plainstrider wings and vegetables that they had laid out before the congregation. It seemed all tauren, young and old, were warming up to Maev, for he was one of five shaman that were to be honored tonight. Surely, this would be a night Maev would not soon forget. And when the time to initiate the young shamans came, Maev was the first to step forward before Baine Bloodhoof, chief of Bloodhoof Village and son of the legendary Cairne Bloodhoof. Baine was a strong tauren, standing behind a pedestal with an ancient scroll that he could read from. He knelt down before the mighty tauren warrior, the palms of his hands firmly pressed against the ground.
"You may now recite your creed." his voice rumbled for all to hear.
Clearing his voice, Maev spoke with vigor and zeal.
"I am a child of the Earthmother. Her will is my passion, her tranquility is my comfort,
and her pain is my fury. I will swear to safeguard the Earthmother and her children for all the days of my life, until death does part me. And should death silence me, may I join the ancestors of old to watch over her people always."
Baine then lifted from underneath his pedestal a mantle, specially crafted for Maev's size. It was woven from the finest wolf hairs, fashioned with a hood and wolf claws decorating the ends of the finely crafted mantle. Maev looked in awe at what he thought to be the finest piece of tauren craftsmanship he had ever seen.
"And now, I, Baine Bloodhoof, in the name of the Earthmother and our ancestors who watch us today, name you a shaman of Bloodhoof Village, and you shall from this day forth be called Maev Nightwatcher."
Baine then donned the brilliant mantle upon Maev's head and shoulders. It matched perfectly with the rest of his shamanistic robes, a fine color of brown that seemed to go well with the silver of his eyes and the violet of his hair. Maev rose and as he did so, Fascus approached him. He carried with him a very large totem, about the same size as Maev himself.
"I crafted this totem special for you. I made it from the totem that you and I made together. Perhaps now this will better suit you as shaman."
"Thank you, father." Maev said with tears in his eyes.
"Well? What will you call it?"
Maev looked deep into the amazingly carved totem, two magnificent wooden wings protruding from the upper portion and a portrait of a raven carved into the center. Obviously,
Fascus did some research in the symbols of the night elves. This flattered Maev, and he could not help but tear even more.
"I think I shall call it... Ravenstorm..."
That night all slept soundly in their tents of kodo hide. All except, unfortunately, a certain night elf shaman. Before his eyes he could see fire and the earth quaking beneath his feet. His totem shattered in his hands, the splinters piercing his hands until it was painted red with blood. Then the sky rained blood. He could smell death and hear the wails of others in pain. And then a giant beast of unknown definition came and attempted to devour him whole. That is when he awoke, his totem still in one piece and the village not razed in fire and ash. All slept in their own dreams, but Maev just had a nightmare. Or was it more?
"A vision?" he muttered to himself. "But... Of what?"
After much thought, Maev decided to sleep on it. The rest of the night was peaceful, but a darkness loomed over the Red Cloud Mesa to the south, where many died in their sleep as a well known enemy lurked from the ravines to the east of them.
The sun rose against a blood-red sky, and Maev could see this as he rose from his restless slumber. He was the not the first to rise that morning, for the day after every ceremony was a day for the hunt to begin once more. Fascus had left with Baine and the other hunters of the village to hunt kodo until the dawn of the next day, leaving Maev alone with the others of Bloodhoof. That day was a very long day. Maev would constantly read of visions in his scrolls and spoke with the other age-old shamans of the village. From what he saw in his vision, nothing but darkness and destruction could come of this day.
That night clouds blocked out the moon and it began to rain. What was worse, Maev had an uneasy feeling coursing through him as he looked to the south of the village, along the road leading to Camp Narache of Red Cloud Mesa. The elders of the village grew worried because they had not yet heard from the messenger who would give his daily report of the camp's condition. The only true threat that remained on Red Cloud Mesa at the time was...
"Fire!" cried out a stationed guard to the village as he ran through it to the elder's tent. "Camp fires! Thousands of them – to the south!"
The elders were shaken by this news, and one responded, "By the Earthmother! Are you sure?"
"I swear upon my ancestors that their numbers are beyond count!"
"So it has finally happened..." spoke another of the elders. "The quilboar have finally taken Camp Narache and have come here. Hide the women and children. Assemble all able-
bodied warriors to the south entrance of the village. We will not let these beasts take us without a fight!"
So the war had begun. The sentient quilboar of Red Cloud Mesa had finally launched an assault against Camp Narache, taken it for their own, and were aiming for the peaceful Bloodhoof Village. Maev Nightwatcher, though just recently initiated as a shaman, was more than ready to take up arms against the advancing quilboar with all his might. With Ravenstorm by his side, Maev believed that this would be an easy victory for his tauren brethren.
But this was not so. The enemies' numbers had increased twofold, and their martial might greater than any enemy the tauren had faced since their war with the malicious centaur. Now would be the day Maev would prove himself as one with the tauren that he grew to love with such a passion as to fight alongside them. The downpour of rain may have extinguished the campfires the quilboar had made, but it did not mask their numbers from the eyes of Bloodhoof Village. Their eyes leered through the darkness and struck fear into the hearts of even the hardiest of the tauren warriors. Their advances were slow at first, but then began to build up momentum as their pace increased.
"They come!" shouted a large tauren warrior. "Ready yourselves!"
As they came, Maev raised Ravenstorm onto his shoulder using the primal strength of his race, ready to swing at the first quilboar to make the night elf as its target. Suddenly stricken with a surge of bloodlust, as most shaman did in these times, Maev could not hold back his passion. He raced ahead of his other brethren, becoming the primary target for many quilboar to mangle and kill.
"Maev! Come back! You cannot take them all!" called out one of the other tauren fighters.
"I must! For my father! For Bloodhoof! For the Earthmother!"
And with one mighty swing, Maev Nightwatcher sent a trio of quilboar sailing through the air and crashing into their own. Raising the totem above his head, he cried out, "I will pulverize you!" He then sent Ravenstorm crashing into a foolish quilboar that decided to attack him, crushing every bone in its body. Maev consistantly swung his totem at every quilboar that made the mistake of coming within range. Blood trickled from his mouth and he continued to feel the bloodlust, his body overcome by the feral nature of a night elf. But after many piles of quilboar lay dead in his wake, he decided to make his body count even greater. He put Ravenstorm to the side, raising one fist into the air and the other open palmed toward advancing quilboar.
"Chain lightning!"
The sky rumbled and thundered when suddenly a bolt of lightning came down from the heavens and struck Maev's higher fist. The current of lightning pulsed through his body and then out through his right hand, sending the lightning into the swarming quilboar. One by one each quilboar died instantly by the sudden shock as it jumped from one to the other. Maev was now completely overtaken by power, his eyes wide as the battle tore apart his childlike innocence. Never before had he felt such omnipotence, such a craving to destroy all in his path.
With one final strike to the ground with his mighty totem, Maev uttered the most devastating word that any shaman could speak of to the Earthmother. A word so tainted with power that it has been forbidden by all tribes because of its fearful strength. It is of a language long lost to all sentient beings, its origins dating back to the days of the Old Gods. With this one word, Maev could sense all elemental energies quickly leave him, and suddenly the error of his actions became clear. As his spirit grew cold, he could feel the warmth of all the elements surrounding him. Storm, earth and fire, each working together in a single anthem of pure destruction, tearing apart the fabric of life and reality. And as all this happened around Maev, all he could see was the image of a colossal red dragon standing before him, weeping for the lives lost around them. It was not until Maev turned to look behind him that he realized that Bloodhoof Village had been razed in flame, the elements striking at it will all the intensities that nature could offer.
"Look at what you have done!" cried out the mighty dragon. "Only darkness can come of this! Did you not realize by your vision that this is what was to come? From this moment forth,
you shall become a pariah to all my children. No matter the time or place, my children will seek to destroy you and end your pitiful existence. You will know no love so long as you walk this earth, which is why I allow you to live this day!"
Just then another dragon of immense size appeared beside the red dragon. Its scales were bronze, yet his existence seemed to blur and fade in and out, as if its formed was continuously altered by time and space. It comforted the red dragon, and then turned to Maev with anger burning in his eyes.
"Come, my sister. My agents and children are already on the move. We shall watch this fool's existence from the safety of my home. And you!" the bronze dragon exclaimed. "You will be hunted by all who serve my will! Wherever you go, you will only be a danger to yourself and those around you. I have seen the sands of time turn against you, young Maev, and it speaks of your own kin turning against you. So I advise you leave this moment! No go!"
At that moment the two dragons disappeared from his sight, and the standstill of time ended. Maev could feel his body grow weak and darkness overcome his thoughts and sight. And then... nothing...