Ifigea looked up towards the night sky of the city of Darnassus. Butterflies, so many tonight. Like yellow spots of light against the purple night sky. The little winged creatures glowed and spinned around, one of them flied into Ifigeas room. Ifigea tried to capture the creature under her hands. The golden dust dyed her hand yellow before it flew off to nowhere.
Ifigea would leave tomorrow, to Draenor. She would leave as one of the healers, a holy priest. She had sworn an oath to serve the Alliance and wanted to do her duty. She served the Holy Light, purity, everything the Alliance represented and everything the Horde and Iron Horde wanted to crush and destroy. Evil, that Ifigea wanted to fight.
After the boat trip on the Night Elven ship and stepping through the time portal past the fierce looking mages in Stormwind, she was in Shadowmoon Valley. This new so called home looked like a wild and primitive land. The Alliance Garrison was just built, the fortress smelt of resin and new wood, stone and mortar. Dwarves ran around in a hurry, giving orders to continue the construction. Groups of gnomes moved their machines from place to place, shouting directions to others with their high pitched voices. Ifigea felt as if she was only in the way of others, where was the fortresses commander to which she had to sign up?
A young woman came to her in a strong armour made of leather and metal, a heavy looking sword by her side. Ifigea noted, that there was clearly dried blood on the blade. The womans face showed courage, power and something mischievous, as if she unknowingly didn't fulfill her every command.
"Hey, you must be the new healer, Ifigea, the priest. Commander doesn't have time to receive every newcomer, so I'll be showing you around. I'm Mithrya, the paladin. And I may soon need your help. We've received an order to scout and explore the area to the east of the fortress. Useless work if you ask me."
"The commanders of the Alliance are wise. If you've been ordered to go patrol, I'm sure it will be necessary"
Mithrya looked at Ifigea in disbelief and then laughed.
"Have you ever been in a war zone? Judging from the question you haven't. Commanders always make mistakes. And it's not rare to see the situation in total chaos."
"At least we ́re on the right side and not with the horde"
Mithrya glanced silently at Ifigea and was going to say something back, but raised her hand as if giving up.
"Come, follow me, I'll take you to the healing huts. We have just one healer, a night elf druid so your help is much needed. The beasts of the vale beat us more than I'd like to admit."
The huts were built against solid rock, and when Ifigea stepped in she realised that the building continued deeper into a cave. It was a large area, but dirty and dark. The night elf druid was an old man called Alador, and he seemingly brightened up as the young priest entered the building to help him.
"Welcome, welcome. We have only two patients at the moment, soldiers mauled by wolves, but if the Iron Horde attacks, our hands are full. You won't believe how happy I am now that you're here to help."
Ifigea studied the herb stock. There was so little of anything left. And there were barely any bandages. Alador followed Ifigea with a worried expression as she searched through the shelves.
"Yes, our stocks are nearly empty. But the patrols have told us about a mountain slope, near the border of Arak where Starflowers have been seen growing. Come, I can show the location on your map."
The next day Ifigea wandered through a strange world, in a strange time and in a strange land alone with just a map to help her as her guide. Alador nearly exploded out of joy, when she had promised to go and collect the herbs, but no soldiers had come to guide her.
"Healers must fulfil their duties, just like the rest of us. Gathering herbs is your mission and the place is peaceful, yet. What do you need my men for?" the Garrisons Commander had answered Ifigeas questions.
The terrain was a forest with just a few trees, where high, and rocky hills sometimes rose. Creatures, talbuks and wandering wolves sometimes walked surprisingly close to Ifigea, but luckily most of the time they kept their distance. One time Ifigea stumbled upon a figure that she thought to be a flower, but as she got closer, it let out a high pitched scream and ran off.
"Oh, what kind of incredible things this world holds, I do wonder", Ifigea thought to herself.
The first Starflower, that Ifigea saw, glowed an unnatural blue light to its surroundings. Ifigea picked up the flower to her herb back and soon she was so focused on her task, that she forgot the time and the place. She woke up from her dream like state as she noticed that she was on top of a high hill. In front of her was a steep drop and on the other side the hill nearly glowed blue from the flowers.
"If I can just jump to the other side and collect the herbs, there'll be enough to last for months." Ifigea picked up speed and was just about to jump, until she felt the half full herb back tangle to a nearby branch. It stopped Ifigeas leap so, that she fell into the ravine.
Darkness. Dreams. A soft voice told her from somewhere to wake up, to come back.
Ifigea opened her eyes. Somewhere, between the two rocks she saw a piece of the sky and the bright glowing stars. Ifigea felt only the pain, she tried to move, but the rock had fallen on top of her, locking up her legs from moving beneath it. The herb back had torn apart and in the darkness the blue glow of the Starflowers was her only comfort.
"You're a beautiful sight to see before I leave this world", Ifigea thought. She tried to relax, the pain in her body made her tear up, but she tried to remember the temples of Darnassus and the Elven songs in the darkening evening.
The first thing that made Ifigea wake up was the smell. Sharp and sweaty. Then a number of footsteps and a quiet roar. Ifigea tried to squint her eyes. The light approached her, and from it, formed a figure, that sent a shiver down Ifigeas spine. An orc. But he had something, that made him different. His features weren't of the typical orcs, maybe even a little delicate... but that didn't make any sense. Orcs didn't have any sensibility. The figure stood now right in front of Ifigea.
"Arg un sught", the man roared. Ifigea noticed a firewolf creeping behind the orc. It stopped, studying Ifigea with its red eyes. Was the beast his pet, a companion?
The man circled around Ifigea. Dirt, that seemed to have been there for many days, showed clearly on his skin. Ifigea noticed a fresh wound on his arm, that wasn't bandaged. Animals, what more are they, the Horde. He had a crossbow on his back, and a short sword tied to his belt.
"Now I don't have to die slowly, to the pain and thirst", Ifigea thought. She hoped that the sword would be sharp, and that he would know how to use it.
The orc unsheathed his sword and circled around Ifigea again.
"Holy Light, take me with you", Ifigea thought. "Give me peace." The sword reached out towards Ifigea and she closed her eyes.
The sound of stone and metal. Ifigea peeked through her eyes and saw as the man unrolled the rocks that were on top of her. She didn't dare to even breath. She didn't understand. She felt as the rocks weight went away from her legs, but she knew she couldn't walk. The man picked Ifigea up, as if she was as light as a feather. He also picked up the herb back that was torn apart, and put it on Ifigea lap. Suddenly he started running.
Dark world. Ifigea nestled and leaned against the orcs body and felt his heat. From somewhere a soft howl could be heard and Ifigea saw the firewolf with its glowing red eyes. Ifigea didn't know how long they've been running, her body ached. She saw the wound on the man's hand, and a strange thought came up to her mind.
"I should bandage that wound, press herbs on it, do the healing spells." she thought to herself.
But he was with the Horde, an enemy, evil. Ifigea gently touched the open wound and mumbled the familiar sentences with her weak voice. The man looked at Ifigea, his eyes were green, like the Night Elves, they didn't seem like the eyes of a monster, but the eyes of a being that has seen a lot. When he noticed Ifigeas gestures, he just gave a laugh, as if to say that her motions were useless. He had seen worse, experienced far greater wounds then this one.
The orc placed Ifigea down, and she immediately recognised the familiar Garrison walls. They were somewhere behind the fortress, where patrols rarely occurred. The man placed the herb back next to Ifigea, even when it was torn, it was still half full.
"The patrol will come here, they'll see you and will take you to safety, little priestess"
"You know our language, who are you?" Ifigea shouted out, but the man had already disappeared into darkness, and the firewolf had followed its master.
