Important Note: This is AU as Alexstrasza is dead instead of Korialstrasz. Also the Aspects don't lose their powers.
I do not own World of Warcraft, and if I did the game would most likely be terrible.
The Red Caverns. Great caves that had supposedly been flooded with the Sundering. Only the Aspects and those they trusted most knew they were still accessible via hidden tunnels.
I couldn't help but feel a little bitter that my broodmother hadn't revealed their existence to be, even after the thousands of years since we thought that they had been lost. I pushed those feelings aside, silently scolding myself for not respecting the dead. Every flight had been heartbroken when the Life Binder fell, though we had gotten a small taste of revenge by slaying Deathwing and wiping out the entire Twilight's Hammer cult.
The tunnels were dark and damp, and I wondered why Korialstraz and the Aspects thought that my mother would have left some eggs down here for safekeeping. There was no way the eggs would be warm enough to survive down here, as we were many miles down, and below the Northern Sea. I turned a corner and almost gasped as I saw a warm glow up ahead. I trotted down a tunnel that grew wider as I went until it could have allowed for two aspects to walk side by side.
The tunnel opened up into a wide cavern that I knew from when I was a newly hatched whelp. The cave was kept warm from enchanted fire kept in cracks along the floor and walls. Lava fell from the roof down into a fairly small lava pool along one side of the chamber, and damp grasses and leaves were piled into small alcoves along the floor where there were no shock of seeing this place intact and almost exactly as I remembered it was quickly replaced by an even greater surpise.
Large eggs, ready to hatch at a moment's notice rested in groups around the cave, piles of meat enchanted to stay fresh next to them. I hurried over to the nearest group, and gently nudged one egg, praying that I would hear a small heartbeat to let me know that the tiny whelp inside was alive.
Ten seconds passed.
Then a minute.
I sighed and moved onto the next egg, and then the next, confirming that no whelp in the group lived. I briefly closed my eyes, mourning for the whelps that would never know what it was like to hunt or to feel the wonders of the sky as they soared through it.
The next group of whelps was no different. I sighed, all negative feelings towards being sent down here replaced with the terrible knowledge that an entire generation of the red flight was gone.
Suddenly a faint sound reached my ears. Thump. Thump. Thump. I spread my wings and quickly flew to the other end of the room, new hope coursing through me. There was a small group of eggs near the lava pool, and all looked ready to hatch. Landing beside them, I listened carefully. The heartbeat came from the egg in the middle, slightly smaller than the rest. I nuzzled it gently, moving aside its fallen clutchmates, only to rear back in shock as a crack traveled along the shell.
Had I done something wrong? Would it be my fault that this whelp died? The egg had looked ready to hatch, but it was so small, there was no way the whelp could survive. The sudden hopelessness lasted only an instant, quickly replaced with the thought that I had to do my best to help the whelp survive.
I snatched the egg up in a claw and with a flap of my wings, flew over to one of the dips in the earth filled with leaved and grass. Gently setting down the small egg, I shrank down into my mortal form, choosing to be a bright red haired high elf with glowing amber eyes.
Another crack appeared on the shell, and then another. Suddenly, one of the cracks was replaced by a hole, which a tiny claw poked out of. I did my best to remember what mothers did to help their whelps, having never had a clutch myself, before showing that train of thought to the side, as I knew for a fact that I had never heard of a whelp being born out of an egg half the size of its brethren.
I stared at the egg for an instant before leaning over it, and sticking my fingers inside one of the larger cracks, began to aid the whelp in its escape from the egg. After what seemed like forever, but in reality was less than a minute, a small head poked out of the on the holes I made, quickly followed by the rest of the whelp.
The newly born dragonkin flopped onto the grass, staring up at me with giant eyes. It opened its maw and made a sound that must have been a roar to it, but was just a small squeak to me. I could only return its gaze for a moment before I got to my feet and dashed to the nearest pile of eggs, grabbing some magicially preserved meat before hurrying back to the newborn
As I set the meat down, I noticed the whelp had remained immobile for the entire time I had been gone, which I knew for a fact wasn't normal. I picked up a piece of what looked like a deer leg and held it out a few inches in front of the whelp, staring at it hopefully.
Slowly it stretched out its small neck towards the piece of meat, then turned its gaze on me for an instant before springing forward and snatching the food quickly, then retreating to what it saw as the safety of its shell. I stared at it for a moment, then a thought occurred to me. What if it doesn't realize I'm actually a dragon?
With that thought in mind, I move back far enough so that I won't crush the whelp, then slowly transform into my true form. The newly hatched dragon blinked at me in surprise before walking clumsily toward my head, which I rested gently on the ground.
As it reached me, and gently nuzzled me, it occurred to me that after giving them something to eat, the first thing that broodmothers did was give names to their children. Slowly standing up, I picked up another piece of meat for it, dropping it next to the newborn whelp before using magic to check its gender. With a smile I realized that "it" was actually a "he".
After laying down for about half an hour, I looked down at the whelp that was now sleeping next to me.
"Alinstrasz. You shall be known as Alinstrasz." I whisper. The name perfectly fits the whelp. The whelp that I now consider my own.