Huon
WarCraft
Titleless
Release I
My village sits in southern Mulgore, surrounded by its rolling hills on a small but sufficient plateau. This village is my kin, the Vain tribe. My father is the chief; the mighty Vainstrome. Riding tradition, he named me Vainnos.
We are shamans, pacifists, using our powers to restore and retain life in the beautiful world that we live in. We grow the best crop in Mulgore, and I guarantee that the oldest of tauren live in our village. Moons ago, the elder Vain members were great heroes against the centaurs.
Our circumstances did not change much when the mighty Bluff decided to join the Horde. The orcs became our greatest ally and helped us put to rest the great struggle with the horse-man. That used to be the crude way of acknowledging our enemy.
The conflict never came to a true end though. Small centaur remnants survived Thrall's allegiant wrath, fleeing to the oases in the Barrens. As time passed their kind spread to the surrounding areas. The horse-man even re-spoiled the great plains of Mulgore. Our village had not known of this atrocity until I had become of age.
I inherited a double-portion of my father's childish love for battle. He told me tales of glorified victories against the centaur. He and his tribe were protectors of Mulgore and to the tauren kind. Their fame, however, is little; they are only known by many of the other smaller tribes. His valor and skill are in me. I dreamed of battle my whole childhood. My dream came to me in the early days of my adulthood.
I woke up to a new week, a day of the village hunt. We rose at the early sunrise with a brisk chilled wind. My tent rippled with the passing weather. I dressed myself in the simple garb a shaman needed: a leather vest and dark cloth pants, along with my waist bag. I exited my room to the larger living area of my family's tent to find both my mother and the chief leaving for the village center. I followed them out.
We reached the village center where the hunting parties gathered. My father turned to me,
" I see the anticipation in your eyes."
"I have dreamt of this day. I am excited," I replied. My father smiled, and then addressed the hunters.
"Good morning, tauren of Vain!" The assembly turned to the chief. "Today, we hunt for our village as we usually do. Unusually, we have a new hunter. He is my son, Vainnos. Today he will test his skill and a rising shaman of Vain. His challenge," the chief paused, "is to defeat his first kodo." There was a cheer from the crowd. "May his mind be clear and his knife swift. Now, to hunt!" the chief commanded. The still assembly roared as movement ensued once more. The hunting packs quickly dispersed into the wilderness. The chief and my mother left me in the village to my rite of passage.
I had seen the kodo in many places and for many moons. Though I had never killed one, I knew how to. The question was, 'what kind?'. There were the peaceful roaming herd of Mulgore or the volatile lightning kodo near the roads of Camp Taurajo. I was never fond of the lightning kudos; when I was young, a baby kodo shocked me as I walked by, heading to the Crossroads. I decided to hunt the Barrens.