Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction, which clearly states the intent of my story. The concept belongs to Blizzard, and no copy right infringment in intented. In short, this is for fun =)
Note: Please feel free to review and thank you for reading.
The wind carried the smell of death away and fortunately they stood up wind. The steady, cold breeze whipped her white blonde hair about, revealing her pointed ears. The stray wisps of hair danced along her delicate elven face like a prison. Her large companion shook his massive shoulders, unaffected by the cold and ice that surrounded them. Northrend in all it's the frozen glory. Looming walls of jagged black ice surrounded them on all sides, and the ground beneath was a mixture of rock and ice, cracked with fissures and crevices large enough to swallow her whole.
Valena Sunblinder blinked green orbs at the sight of the massacre. Alliance and Horde alike littered the ground like marionettes with their strings cut; left in the positions they had fallen, limbs bent in disturbing places and gaping masks of horror painted their faces. In the aftermath of the battle it was nearly incredulous, a travesty. To lose so many... and for what? ''What has come of our war?' She thought to herself, feeling reflective. Around the fallen soldiers laid the corpses of large humanoid spiders, the necrofiends, their purple and green exoskeletons simmering faintly in the weak sun. Black blood tainted the ice underfoot, and blood soaked the snow elsewhere. Everywhere she looked there was blood, bodies, and death. 'Does this bring you peace, Arthas? Has it ever brought you peace?'
A heavy, warm and immense weight settled upon her shoulders, and she looked over to find Gandin Spirit's ever-present bear-skin cloak encasing her nearly nude body, draping to the ground and collecting on the dirty ice, her height insufficient to keep it from dragging. Her great tauren companion grunted and withdrew his hands, continuing his own scrutiny of the battlefield. Pennons, folds of clothing and hair -both humanoid and beast- stirred fitfully in the breeze, but nothing alive moved aside from them. Valena drew an icy breath and questioned her friend, her sultry voice calm. "What do you make of this, Gandin? Or are warriors too stupid to understand the significance?"
The massive tauren warrior shook his shoulders a second time and snorted. "We've been together too long for your acid tongue to sting me, Valena. I know you hide behind your cruel words in fear of what is out there, what it is we face. Very well, little Elf, I will play along. The Alliance scum were fighting the Scourge peons, and weak as they are, were failing. Our Horde Vanguard caught the scent of blood and came in from behind, pressing their own attack against both adversaries." He pointed as he spoke, vaguely outlining what he saw in the tracks. Valena sighed and spoke, her voice always cool and conversational. "Your bigotry blinds you, cow. As it does every Horde and every Alliance. Our fight on this continent isn't with each other; we have Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms to squabble over to our hearts contents. No, our true enemy is the Dark Prince. The Lich King. The Vanguard should have aided the Alliance."
The big tauren snorted. "You asked me what happened here, not what I thought of it." Gandin shook his head, his black mane ruffling like a horse's. "And just where will we draw the line, Blood Elf? Where will they? Shall we wait for them to turn and attack the Vaguard? Would you trust the word of a human? And who would command? Who could be trusted to command? The humans are a deceitful race never to be trusted, and any who follow under their honourless banner deserve the same death they do." Valena turned and studied her companion of many years. Over eleven feet tall, dark fur grew patchy over old scars. Bright blue eyes gazed at her over a protruding snout, his massive head sitting low from his shoulders. He was large even among the tauren, a hulking mass of unyielding muscles and strength. The hair that grew from the top of his head to the nape of his neck was course and pitch black, and his horns were onyx, curling up and outward. His tail swished back and forth absentmindedly, tipped with a tuft of grey course hair. Clad in mail and plate he appeared even larger and was undeniably intimidating. She could admit to herself that had Valena not known him she might have been apprehensive of her friend.
"We've done it before." She said softly to herself, her eyes returning to their gruesome search. A minute passed, and then another, before she set her feet determinedly upon the path, directly through the bodies. Gandin was beside her as always, the ice groaning under his immense weight. Her eyes picked out the Horde soldiers on their own accord, fearful of finding a fallen she knew. Once she stopped at a male Blood Elf, half his face missing, a gaping and raw hole where it should have been. "Someone you knew?" Gandin asked flatly. To sounded cold, heartless. Inconsiderate and insensitive. But no one understood their peculiar friendship, and no one would ever recognize the out Gandin had given her. That she could turn to him and unleash her despair and grief in a firey rage against him, berate him for his indifferent words. "Would that make you jealous, Gandin? He's prettier than you are with only half a face."
Gandin grunted a laugh. "All you Blood Elves are pretty. Your males are disturbingly so. They strut around like proud birds, displaying their pretty feathers. This is not the nature of a true male." Valena gave an unladylike like snort and they continued their onerous walk, the icy fingers of Northrend crawling up her spine and clawing into her neck despite Gandin's heavy cloak. "Thud your chest some more, I don't think they can hear you in the next valley." Ahead there was movement; one of the human bodies had shifted. Again it moved, and a low whimpering accompanied it. Valena looked at the tauren warrior before speeding up, Fel eyes only for the pathetic human.
It was another man, ravaged inside his armor, blood seeping from every orifice. How he was still breathing was a miracle, let alone moving. She stopped before the nearly lifeless human, and her shadow fell across him. He looked up to see what obscured the light and begin yelling in the Common tongue. Bending low and slowly onto her hunches, Valena lowered her staff and held her fingers wide and apart, appearing unarmed. Her thigh muscles tensed, and her thin skirt -if it could be called that- only covered her most private areas, allowing the man's eyes to drink in much of her pale flesh. "We mean you no harm. Please, tell us what happened here."
The man started screaming again and tried a feeble knife swing. Valena grabbed her staff and jumped back on slipper feet even as she cast a poisonous spell on him. The man struggled, crawling toward her on his belly. He didn't make it more than two inches before the spell claimed him and the light faded from his eyes. Gandin snorted and shook his head again. "You're always the most dangerous when you're polite. For anyone who knows you and means you ill will, that's a fatal flaw." Valena turned to the warrior. "That's why I endure you, Gandin. Why else would I put up with your disgusting body odor and limited intelligence?"
A death grip tightened around her ankle, and Valena looked down to see a desiccated hand covered with ice holding her hostage. She yelped in surprise even as a large sword severed the offending appendage. Gandin pulled at his blade held fast in the ice, shield in his other hand. Looking around, they watched the true power of the Lich King come to life as the corpses stood up from the ground on shredded knees, bones popping and armour clanking. Heads limp, jaws slack, and eyes gazing at them in avid light, they surged forward as one. Gandin let out a bellow that challenged the heavens and ran forward, crashing into the thickest of them. 'Stupid, stupid tauren!'
Valena gasped and cast a shield quickly around the warrior and than herself. She slammed the butt end of her staff into the ground, and a quick flash enveloped the surrounding area. The spell decimated a few of the rambling carcasses, but many more filled the empty places their deaths left, and now all looked at her. "Gandin... I do not wish to alarm you, but I fear we may be in trouble." When there was no answer she turned, looking for her friend, panic rising in her throat as she searched for him and kept an eye on the advancing undead. "Gandin...?" He was no where to be seen.