Fall
A/N: This is my very first story, so be nice. I would appreciate if you read and review. Hopefully my grammar isn't -too- bad. Now to disclaimer; I do not own World of Warcraft. Blizzard does. I only own my plot and characters. The first few chapters might be somewhat slow. I will try to stick to the lore as much as possible. Any and all non-playable-characters in my story are owned by blizzard. Also I do not own the song my character was singing.
It was like every other day in the summer: boring. I woke up, ate breakfast, and read a book for a few hours.
Eventually I became bored of my book, so, sighing, I closed my book and looked outside. It was a cloudy day, "That means I won't die of heat if I go outside," I thought with a smile.
Simply to see how cool it was outside, I opened the door to the back yard and stuck my head out. Immediately I shivered in my nightdress and closed the back door.
"Strange…" I thought as I went upstairs to my room. Usually, It's too hot to go outside, and when it is cloudy, the breeze isn't that cold. "It almost felt like being in London again…" I mused as I started remembering that one evening visit to London.
I opened my large closet and started looking for something comfortable to wear. "Too frilly… Too girly… Too dark… Too big… Too small…" I muttered for each piece of clothing that was 'too' something.
"Hmm…" I held up my favorite simple, dark green shirt and brown skirt. I looked outside through my window, "I need some pants and a jacket…"
Eventually I found some long, darker brown pants and my plain dark gray (almost black) jacket.
Quickly, I put on my clothes and walked toward the stairs. Thinking, I stopped on the top stair. I quickly went back up and poked my head into my brother's room. He wasn't there, "Lifeguard duty… probably." I muttered.
There was no one at home to tell that I was going on a walk, so I simply went on my walk in peace. If someone came home before I did, they would call me on my cell phone.
I pulled the jacket closer on me the moment I stepped outside. It was still cool in the jacket, but I would survive one walk.
As I walked to the park, I listened to nature intently. Something was off, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
I looked up at the cloudy sky and sniffed the air. "It will rain later today." I murmured. Don't ask me how I knew. I always could tell if anything would fall out of the sky before by just sniffing and watching.
Silence. That's the only thing I heard until I became somewhat bored with silence. Simply to break the silence, I started humming "Hoist the Colours".
When I got to the park, I found that it was almost empty except for a few people.
I wanted to see if I could figure out what was wrong with nature today, so I went on the nature trail.
The forest was silent while I was on the path. The moment I stepped off it to go to my favorite, secret clearing, the forest burst with the sounds of birds, chipmunks, squirrels, and others.
Pausing, I listened to all of the sounds before carrying on. The birds seemed to sing somberly; their singing made me start to voice out the words for "Hoist the Colours".
"The king and his men,
Stole the Queen from her bed,
And bound her in her Bones,
The seas be ours,
And by the powers,
Where we will, we'll roam.
Yo, ho all hands
Hoist the colors high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die"
I trudged into my clearing and stopped singing abruptly when I saw a huge, wild wolf standing in the middle of the clearing.
Immediately, I froze and stared at the wolf in terror. A million thoughts burst in my mind. "What should I do?" I thought, as I looked it in its amazing, blue eyes. "Don't look it in the eyes." I thought again, but it was too hard to tear my gaze from its eyes.
The wolf showed its teeth in what looked like a smile, but I wasn't sure. I stepped back in fear. Immediately, the wolf stopped showing its teeth and laid down on it's side in what clearly was a non-aggressive gesture.
I was still somewhat frightened, but now I knew the wolf –probably- won't eat me.
Another cool breeze washed over me and I shivered again.
"You have a wondrous voice." A low voice said in my mind. It seemed to have a British accent.
Terrified, I looked at the wolf, "You… you can talk?"
The wolf seemed to make a laughing-sound, "Most creatures can speak. They just need a connection."
"C… connection?" I managed to say.
"Anything would do, really. This world simply has a weak connection, so most animals here probably don't know about the connection."
My breathing was starting to even out, "You still didn't answer what the connection is."
The wolf sat up a bit. "My apologize. The connection to the Dream. The Emerald Dream."
I raised an eyebrow, but when he didn't answer, I sighed and sat down at the base of a tree.
"This reminds me. We haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Ven."
"Nice to meet you Ven. I'm Alna Smith." I smiled at Ven.
The wolf stood up and bent one of its paws while bending down. "The pleasure is all mine, Alna." Then he sat back down
We continued talking for about an hours. It went from question to answer to opinion. We struck a friendship in just an hour. Eventually, I had no more questions, and a silence washed over us again. The forest stopped making noise at all.
The wolf sniffed the air before asking me a question, "The song you were singing. It's very somber, but beautiful. Can you tell me about it?"
I smiled my light smile. "It's called 'Hoist the Colours', and it's a song for and about pirates, thieves, beggars, and outlaws in general. I didn't finish singing it before; I ended on the first verse."
"You have a wondrous voice," he repeated himself from before. "I'd very much like to hear you finish it," he said with a smile in his voice.
My grin grew a little wider, "alright." I cleared my throat quietly.
"The king and his men,
Stole the Queen from her bed,
And bound her in her Bones,
The seas be ours,
And by the powers,
Where we will, we'll roam.
The wolf started to sway a little with the song. The forest is still oddly silent.
Yo, ho all hands
hoist the colours high
heave ho, thieves and beggars
never shall we die
Yo Ho, haul together,
Hoist the colours high,
Heave Ho, Thieves and Beggars,
Never Shall We Die!
After the first verse, the birds seemed to start singing with me. It really did seem as if the birds were singing to this song.
Some men have died,
And some are alive,
And others sail on the sea,
With the keys to the cage...
And the Devil to pay,
We lay to Fiddler's Green!
The breeze came back again, but this breeze wasn't as cold as the last ones. This breeze was strange: it came from the wrong direction, and it smelled of a different kind of trees. I shook it off as I continued singing.
Yo Ho haul, together,
Hoist the colours high
Heave Ho, Thieves and Beggars,
Never Shall We Die!
The Bell has been raised,
From it's watery grave...
Do you hear it's sepulchral tone?
We are a call to all,
Pay heed the squall,
And turn your sail toward home!"
The wolf's ears perked up at the last word, and he sniffed the air again.
Yo Ho haul, together,
Hoist the colours high
Heave Ho, Thieves and Beggars,
Never Shall We Die!"
The moment after I finished the song, the wind seemed to be pulling me toward something. There was a strange hum in the air. The wolf looked at me as I tried to hold to the tree root, "Something is calling you. You should answer the call, or spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened."
I was never a person who ran off into certain danger: I avoided danger like the plague. My logical mind said that this was a strange call and I shouldn't go. My instincts told me otherwise, but I always listened to logic more. I opened my mouth to say no to the wolf who already stood up, but the most beautiful and odd melody struck in through the hum in the air. The melody wiped most logical thought out of my mind.
I let go of the root and stood up quietly from the base of the tree. Looking northward, I listened for the melody.
The wolf obviously heard the melody too. He looked sad and homesick. Throughout our entire talk, I didn't ask him what a wolf, like he, was doing so far away from any large, normal forest. The question never came into my mind before. Now seemed like an awful time to ask, so I kept my mouth shut.
The wolf sniffed the air again before starting a quick trot toward the melody. With each step, the melody became louder.
The wolf disappeared through some bushes and I hastily followed. When I emerged from the bushes, I stopped. My breath caught in my throat. We found the source of the melody, which was an archway made from tree roots. In the archway was a natural green, emerald, and dark blue light.
It was very stunning. The only thing I could do was walk up next to Ven who was already staring in front of the archway. Hours seemed to pass in minutes as we stood there listening.
The music started slowing down, but the wind came back again. It started pulling at me again. The logic was still not back in my mind, so I listened to my instincts and touched the light.
Immediately, the light engulfed me. What followed was what—at the time—I believed was the strangest dream I've ever had. And believe me, I had strange dreams.
A/n: Honestly, please review. Next chapter will be up either tomorrow or the next day.