A/N
I have no idea what the hell this is. Seriously. I wrote the first few paragraphs a couple months ago and finished the rest of it tonight so it probably makes no sense whatsoever. It's almost a crack!fic. I hope you enjoy it, nevertheless.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with World of Warcraft in anyway, I'm only borrowing it for awhile.
Hunting, Arguments and Herbalism
The doe paid no attention to it's surroundings, only pricking it's ears as the bushes ruffled faintly before continuing it's grazing, oblivious to the glowing white eyes shining in the moonlight, narrowing in on their target.
Muscles coiled ready to spring, the cat pawed at the ground lightly in eager anticipation. It had been too long since she'd eaten, and she had almost went another night without food before picking up this deer's scent and tracking it to the small clearing. Her focus diverted momentarily when she heard a twig snap, but ultimately decided it was nothing.
Little did she know, she was just as foolish as her prey.
The cat crept out of the thicket quietly and licked her lips. This is almost too easy. Just as she was about to pounce, a green swirl of magic surrounded her, brushing through her fur and tickling her skin while trying to heal wounds she didn't have. Unfortunately the spell made a whirling sound as it pushed through the air, and with a surprised bleat the doe was gone, kicking up chucks of dirt as it sped into the forest.
Growling in annoyance she tried to give chase, but her path was suddenly blocked by a pair of long, armour clad legs. The cat followed the legs up, taking in every feature of the intruder. Purple tinted skin, dark blue hair pulled into a long braid and tossed carelessly over one shoulder, a smirk so wide it rivalled large elven ears.
She hissed and was shrouded in smoke. The cat's silhouette was still visible through the clouds, and the newcomer watched her arms and legs grow longer as she pushed off the ground, the rest of her body morphing into a night elf that stood slightly taller than her companion.
"What the hell was that?" The druid practically shouted to the other elf.
"You said I needed to get better at doing my job. You looked a little sore for a minute there."
"That's bullshit, Elleana." She spat angrily, recalling the events from the day before. There had been a close call while she was fighting a horde of, well, horde. Orcs and goblins that had been patrolling the lush Ashenvale forests that surrounded their encampment and stumbled upon the two as they were looking for a place to rest for the night. Elariia had been fighting mercilessly, tearing apart her attackers while Elleana stood a few feet away from the brawl healing her fellow druid whenever it seemed she might need it and throwing wrath spells at a few stray greenskins that thought she may have been a weak link and decided to go after her.
She proved them wrong, of course.
But a goblin rouge had sneaked up on her, leaped on her back and tried desperately to stab at her neck. Having seen no other option Elleana focused on blocking the rouge instead of healing Elariia. It didn't take her long to send a quick typhoon his way but the goblin put up a fight and after she finished him off and turned back to her partner she was almost too late. The feline was backed into a large tree truck, obviously wounded but hissing and spitting at the two remaining orcs that crowded her. Elleana had knocked one over the head with her staff before summoning some roots to entangle his unconscious form, just in case. She'd spun around quickly and cast a moonfire spell on the other, and as it was already weakened it too passed out from the pain.
As she was doing that Elariia had also been engulfed in darkness, and when she woke up fully healed and in a small campsite, she had been furious.
Elleana rolled her glowing eyes and spoke in an overly sweetened and not at all convincing voice, "No, really. I was low on mana last night and wanted to take extra precautions to make sure you were completely healed."
"Yeah? Well your 'extra precautions' lost us a chance to fill our stomachs. What if that orc you let getaway sends some of his buddies after us, huh? We won't be strong enough to fend them off this time. Of course they might just find a couple of corpses lying on the ground because we'll probably starve to death before they can get to us and–"
"Oh will you calm down?" Elleana cut her off, annoyed that apparently she was to blame for all of this. "The orc that you let get away probably died of blood lose halfway back to his camp."
"Even better. Now when the next patrol finds him they'll be out for revenge and just follow the trail of blood, my blood, that you left while dragging my unconscious body through the forest!" Elariia spat at her angrily.
"They won't even have to track us, actually. They'll just listen for the sound of you screaming at me and find us that way."
The two night elves were so caught up in their argument they didn't notice when the bushes rustled from somewhere behind them. They also didn't expect that their little round of the blame game would attract any onlookers.
Elariia scoffed, "Back to the matter at hand... We are going to starve to death."
"We can survive one more night, Elariia. I'm an herbalist, remember? I'll just whip you up a strength potion if you can't handle it."
"You two are silly."
"Oh sweet Elune!"
"What in the goddess' name was that!?"
Both druids spun towards the amused voice eyes wide, hearts pumping a mile a minute, frightened out of their minds (not that they'd ever admit it) and with their weapons drawn. A young draenei, still practically a child, emerged from behind a tree with a sweet grin on her face.
Elariia sheathed her dagger slowly and willed her voice to not come out a high pitched squeak as she addressed the girl. "Uhm.. Hello there."
The other night elf snickered slightly.
She was rewarded a punch in the shoulder.
The draenei giggled.
Both of them jumped again.
"Very silly."
"Yeah, glad you enjoyed the show. Who are you?"
Elleana elbowed her friend and shot her a dark look. "What she means to say is, are you out here all alone? Or perhaps someone a little more... capable... is with you?"
The girl shook her head, paused, then nodded it.
"Well when you put it that way."
"Be. Nice."
"My name's Nadia, and I'm with my mentor. He brought me out here to collect herbs but I think he got lost." The draenei, Nadia, still seemed terribly amused by the night elves.
Elariia smirked, "Yeah, I'm sure he's the one that's lost."
"I'm Elleana. And the druid that seemed to forget her manners is Elariia."
Nadia's smile, if at all possible, widened at the new information. "You're a dro– a drui– you can shape shift?!"
"Yes, we both can." Elleana smiled politely.
"Though she prefers her magic. I'm the only one in our whole guild that can even begin to handle the power that comes from changing forms." Elariia boasted proudly. "It takes a lot of work, you know. I've even mastered my survival instincts, which is difficult for a night elf my age. If you succumb to your instincts it's hard to come back to yourself, but for me it was easy as pie."
"So you're the only feral druid in the guild. Big whoop. Some of us like to focus more on harnessing mana to subdue our foes instead of ripping them to pieces with our mouths." Elleana countered hotly. "Using magic takes more finesse. You talk about how dangerous relying on your instincts can be? Try using magic for an extended period of time without being corrupted by the oh-so-addicting arcane."
Elariia glared at her partner and crossed her arms, "Everyone uses magic nowadays. It's no big deal."
Elleana mimicked her defensive position, "Exactly. Everyone does it. Add that to the fact that it's harder to master than what you do, just proves that over half the guild is more powerful than you."
"Oh, please. You wouldn't know true power if it clawed at your face. Which I have."
"You arrogant little–"
Nadia, for her part, looked as if she was about to explode from excitement. "You're in a guild? I've always wanted to join a guild! That's amazing."
The druids glared at each other silently until a loud crashing sound broke through their argument. Elariia pulled out her dagger and crouched slightly, ready to change forms at a moments notice while Elleana summoned a glowing yellow ball of light in one hand and aimed it at the thicket.
She hissed at the young draenei that was glancing frantically around the forest, "Nadia. Get behind me."
"No, it's okay it's just Kazimir."
Elariia's brows furrowed, "Who?"
"Just get behind–"
"Nadia!" A large draenei leaped out from the mass of trees, hammer at the ready.
"Kazimir! Don't worry, these are the nice type of elves." Nadia grinned again.
"Did she just compare us to blood elves?"
Elleana's ball of magic scuffed out, "Are you this one's mentor, then?"
The elder draenei lowered his hammer and nodded, "Yes. Kazimir, as I'm sure you've deduced from her yelling. You two are?"
"I'm Elariia, and this is my nursemaid Constance."
"I'm your guild master, and my name's Elleana."
"You couldn't play along this one time?"
The younger draenei laughed again, "See? They're harmless."
"Hey now–"
"I don't think harmless is the appropriate word here..."
Kazimir twitched, "Okay, little one. I think It's time to move on."
"But, wait!" Nadia pulled away from her mentors light grasp and ran up to Elleana. "When you two were fighting, you mentioned you were a herbalist, yes?"
"Well, yeah, but–"
"Great! So you can help us!"
"Nadia, we don't need any help." Kazimir urged gently, but not without a hint of annoyance.
Elleana chuckled nervously, "Yeah, you guys look pretty good at whatever it is you're doing."
"We're just collecting herbs! Kazimir you said four hands are better than two, so why not eight?" She rounded on her elder.
He sighed, "I guess, if it's alright with these two, they can join us."
"Oh, no that's okay. Really, we're kind of on a deadline and–"
Elariia, who had been silently observing the whole time, cut her off. "No, little Nadia's right. Eight hands are better than four, but I'm sure you could make-do with only six."
"But we have a deadline." Elleana ground out. She really just wanted to get away from the pair of draenei's and get home.
"Yeah, which is why you'll only have six hands." Elariia rolled her eyes. "I'll hurry on back to Astranaar to hand in this quest and check out what's next on the to-do list for our journey to rebuild some mystical staff, and you can go ahead with 'old and new glam' over there."
"Elariia. I really think they need us both back in town."
"Well so do these two." Elariia gestured to Kazimir and Nadia who were watching their little debate with apprehension and amusement respectively, before grinning mischievously. "Besides, the little one is just so excited to hang out with an actual shape shifter. You wouldn't want to let her down, right Elle?"
Elleana floundered for a moment, alternating between shooting despairing glances at Nadia and her puppy eyes and glaring daggers at Elariia. She perked up suddenly and smirked, "But you're the only one in the whole guild that can even begin to handle the power that comes from changing forms. I'm a little rusty myself, and we could use the protection while collecting herbs."
"But as you said we're on a deadline." Elariia growled out.
"I'm sure our employer can wait an hour or so. You wouldn't want to let her down, right Ria?"
Nadia squealed and wrapped both of her arms around the torsos of the night elves, completely oblivious to their glare-fest.
"Well, then... Let's get started." Kazimir said and lead them deeper into the forest, all the while wondering what the hell his little apprentice had gotten him into.