AN: Hello! The next Leda chapter will be out this weekend, but I was thinking of making a little cache of one-shots/mini moment stories/exercises I write when I'm stuck on a chapter and either won't fit with TWOA or may appear in the main narrative but aren't super spoilery.. Anyway, let me know what you think!

For this story, it is an exercise of weaving in-game dialogue with the story. It's set in the Karasang Wilds, Pandaria, when the red crane Chi-Ji's temple has been raided by sha. Cassandra is in the surviving camp of Chi-Ji's monks when she sees someone she recognizes. Cassandra's 21 and Anduin's 15, but Anduin takes a little brother role in Cassandra's life.

Mud burped under Cassandra's boots as she approached the prince too busy cutting up the dead head of a sickly white serpent to pay attention to anything else. She deepened her voice and growled, "Well, it looks like I've finally found the White Pawn."

Anduin hesitated before stabbing the snake again.

"If you've come to return me to my father," he said briskly, "I must ask that you look around us first—can we truly walk away from these people in their time of need and still claim to represent the Alliance?"

She stepped to his side and dropped her fake voice. "I'm hurt, your highness. I thought you knew me better than that."

He finally looked up at her and his face brightened. "I wasn't expecting to see you so soon again, Cassandra!"

"And I wasn't expecting to see you carving up snakes," she said as she squatted next to him.

He cradled the teal head with faded purple eyes in the palm of his hand. "Murkscales. Take a good look. The river nearby is swarming with these snakes. Their venom causes a condition the locals call 'the murksweats.' Several refugees were bitten as they fled the temple and have already begun to show symptoms: nausea, vomiting, and intense sweating as the body rejects all fluids, causing dehydration and potential death."

"So you've been looking for the anti-venom in the snake itself?"

He nodded. "We are administrating anti-venom as quickly as possible, but we'll need more venom glands."

"I can go grab some more snake glands."

"Don't bother removing the glands yourself-just bring back the whole head."

"That makes my job easier, then. I'll be back in an hour," she said.

"Be careful," he said, his head bent over the snake's head again and his fingers pressing against its gills.

"I will."

She grabbed an empty burlap sack and made her way to the nearby riverbank.

By the hour's end Cassandra returned with six bloody murkscale heads stuffed in the burlap bag. Anduin was still absorbed in his work and didn't seem to notice Cassandra as she approached him.

"Inside the jaw…two inches from the second set of fangs…" he murmured.

"I have one order of murkscale heads for you, your highness."

She plopped the bag next to him. He sheathed his knife and pulled each head out, examining each with a careful eye. Cassandra watched him and smiled to herself, as she could almost hear her father screaming at the sight of Anduin's ragged and ruined clothes. Dewey beads of sweat clung to his dirty head band, his golden hair a greasy cap on his head.

"Thank you, Cassandra," he finally commented. "I knew you'd be hardy enough to handle it. Judging by the sounds coming out of these refugees, I would not wish the murksweats on my worst enemy."

"Is it alright if I help cut out the glands with you?"

"Sure, you can have my—" he stopped when Cassandra pulled out her concealed dagger. "That'll work."

Cassandra sat next to him bow-legged and they both set to work cutting out glands as easily as peeling potatoes.

"How did you end up here?" she asked casually, even though her mind was starting to spin with worry.

His story did not ease her worry. After "escaping" SI:7, he had been captured by the Horde. Cassandra bit her tongue hard as he explained that he managed to escape during the chaos at the Jade Serpent statue. She glanced at him, saw that his body was stiff, his eyes focusing completely on the snake head and his knife as he told her that he hitched a ride to Zhu's Watch and met Mei Barrelbottom.

"She told me of the Red Crane order, and on her advice I accompanied a courier to the temple to seek an audience with Chi-Ji, the Red Crane. I was studying with the disciples there when the sha arrived."

"Sounds like you've had quite the adventure," Cassandra said, but Anduin didn't relax. She could see that he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. "Wouldn't have gotten that in Stormwind, eh?"

He looked at her and laughed, his shoulders slumping with relief. She could hear her mother, her father, Admiral Taylor, and King Varian all yelling at her from the back of her mind, "You let him get away with running away from SI:7 and now this! Do you not care about his well being? Do you not care about Stormwind?" But as she talked to him and listened to him talk about all the things he had been learning in excited and exact detail, she knew she was doing the right thing by supporting him. She just hoped it wouldn't get her in too much trouble.