Hazy smoke filled the hole-in-the-wall tavern as Anata sipped on her Cherry Grog. A man in heavy armor opened the door with a thud walked in, clunking down his sheathed sword on the counter. She hoped he would sit there and drink quietly, she was not in the mood to talk.

"What can I do ya for?" The barkeeper asked.

"just some bourbon please." The man said. His voiced hissed in a raspy way that grated on Anata's ears. She glanced up without raising her head into the mirrored wall behind the bar, on which the bottles of alcohol were stored. Two glowing blue eyes pierced into hers.

She heard his armor creak as he turned towards her, but she didn't move a muscle, but sipped more of her drink down.

"'s been a long time since I've been here. What's your name, gorgeous?" he said. He smiled at her, hoping she'd look, but it dissolved when she didn't bite the bait.

She snorted. "What's eet to you?"

" Never seen your kind before here. I've been away for a long time, on a crusade of sorts."

" Ay am a Draenei. we come from Draenor. You would know more about eet say where the burning leegions came from."

"Ah." he sighed as the bartender placed a stein filled with bourbon in front of him

"5 silver for th' mug, or ya can haf th' whole jug for 20."

The man reached into his coin pouch and plunked down a gold piece.

"Consider it my pre tab."

The barkeeper nodded and pocketed the gold coin.

"So, those horns, do they -" He started, trying to make conversation. It had been a long road to Ironforge, and he wasn't about to drink alone.

"Zey are real, and zey do cut glass."

"-ever help you in battle…" He slammed down his stein on the counter. "Do you ever think of something other than yourself? Would it harm ONE of you to be nice?"

"Most of us Draenei are nice, we are ze emessarees of ze naaru. Ay just wanted to as a human put eet, stare at ze bottom of an empty mug all night." Anata hesitated.

"Not just you Draenei, you are the first I have met besides in travel. The Alliance! You lay down your life for them, follow your leader to a bad end and here you're treated like absolute shit afterwards!"

Anata scooted back a bit. "By ze light Ay deed not ask for trouble tonight, ezer pull yourself together or leave me een peace!"

"The light means nothing! It's… it's…" He sighed and rested his head in his hands. "I'm just so angry right now at so many things. I don't know what is what anymore."

Anata narrowed her eyes at him, and spoke "Zen what do you know?"

"My name, and what used to be my purpose," He took his head out of his hands and looked at her. "I used to be called Durnhelm, and I was a knight, under Arthas."

The bartender piped up. "Fat lot 'o good that did ya', may th' bastard freeze 'is balls off in Northrend."

Durnhelm chuckled loudly. "I wouldn't know about that. You can't feel much after you've been there for a couple of hours. I wouldn't doubt that they're now frozen to his armor!"

The barkeeper cringed "Ya won't find much in th' way of friends 'round here, lad. 's long 's yer gold's good, yer welcome here, but I'd be careful out in th' marketplace. I know there's more than one dwarf lookin' to lay their blade into someone for what havoc the plague wreaked on ther families." He turned around and went back to polishing the mugs.

"Zat ees all you know?" She asked

He nodded solemnly and took a swig of his drink. "That, and apparently a lot has changed since I last had my feet on the soil in the Eastern Kingdoms as a free man. Our best rangers are gone, Dalaran's gone, the whole atmosphere is different. Tense, on edge, even with the reappearance of Arthas and our subsequent severing of our ties to him, I think the world is still waiting for something more. They thirst for new blood to shed, not old."

"What would zere be left? We have subdued ze wretch Kael'thas, keeled ze eediot Eeleedan, knocked off Zul'jeen, slain magthereedon, and Ay am sure we weel have no trouble keeling ze Lich Keeng for good. What you say troubles me. Why would anyone not want peace?"

"Because we've only known war for so long, we won't know how to deal with peace."

"Ay theenk zat peace ees more natural zan you theenk." She sighed and heard the loud clang of the bell down in the great forge chime five times. Anata placed her hand on Durnhelm's shoulder. "Leesten, do you want to head upstairs, eet ees ze end of ze work day and thees place gets really busy."
Durnhelm quirked an eyebrow at her. "Upstairs?"

Anata glared at him. "not many go up zere, more relaxed, quiet, and they leave you alone. Eef you stay down here, You're not guaranteed peace."

He nodded and gathered his things and his mug. "I wouldn't think anyone would find this place, it was really out of the way."

Anata replied as she walked up the stairs, her hooves clicking against the stone "Eet ees mainly used by ze gnomes. Kreeti told me about eet."

He leered at Anata as she walked up the stairs. Dragging his sheathed sword in his left hand, it clunked all the way up the stairs.

The barkeeper shouted after them. "No Funny business, ya hear?"

Anata giggled. "Sure theeng." She called from over the banister.

She flopped down into a seat in a back corner. "Come seet heer."

Durnhelm smirked and sat down in a seat across from her. He set his sword down under the table along with his pack. He took of his heavy gloves, and his shoulder mantle, and shoved it in his bag too.

She looked at his hands. They were still covered with flesh, she was still confused as to whether he was really undead or not. She was more curious about the stranger than about how she had come to drink herself into oblivion again tonight. Her curiosity had tamed her inner selfish side and wanted to discover more about this man she barely knew. She tentatively reached her blue hand out towards his and held it in hers. His hand was warm, but it wasn't natural warmth that she was used to feeling, something different, most likely some fel energy of some sort.

He peered curiously at her. "Hmm?"

"You are warm."

"One expects me not to be, being a death knight and all, right?"

"Ay suppose…" Anata trailed off.

"It's some weird magic of the lich king. It keeps us alive, breathing, and I feel stronger than I was before. It's like I'm alive, but in a different state. I'm whole, but I don't feel exactly whole."

She sighed and called the barmaid over for another round of cherry grog. Durnhelm raised his mug a small bit and downed the last of the bourbon in the mug. They heard a loud group come in down stairs, the deep dwarven voices were punctured by the higher pitched gnome ones.

Anata stifled a giggle. "Grum modor algos." She muttered to no one in particular.

"Excuse me?" Durnhelm said, looking at her. He motioned at the barmaid with his mug.

"Oh, that stupid dwarf. I overheard their loud ruckus downstairs, and the dwarf had tried to go it alone stealthed all the way down to the Emperor. What an Idiot. Even I can't do that."

Durnhelm laughed. "I bet you I can get down there no problem, but there would be a fee."

She glared at him, lowering her drink a little bit so he could see her eyes.

He smirked "Gold would do, being away for so long, and not needing it while under control, I don't have any. I've got my gear, my strength, my wits and, well, my booze. Other than that I don't have anything."

"Ah." She said, averting her eyes. What in the nether hells was she thinking anyways, he was undead so he probably didn't feel anything, why would that even cross her mind, her second thoughts chided her.

"Mhmm" He said, chuckling darkly. "You like power, and strong men."

"Mature men" Anata corrected. "Do not even get your hopes up, boy."

"I am no mere boy."

"Ay am over forty thousand years old"

Durnhelm whistled. "Well then, I guess even the long ears are young to you."

Anata narrowed her eyes at him "Ay could keek your ass to the curb and zen some."

Durnhelm snorted and took a long swig of his bourbon. "You do that, and I'll lay into you so fast you won't know which part of you I'm attacking."

"A dwarf left here a few weeks ago weeth a good number of holes een heem, seenged clothes, and hoof marks planted firmly on hees behind."

He laughed at her futile arguments. "So your horns are strong enough to pierce my plate armor?"

She slammed her mug onto the table, and closed her eyes, clearly displeased the way this conversation was going. "Ay deed not ask for company tonight whilst Ay dreenk, but have decided to entertain ze notion of beeng friendly weeth you. Eef you are going to make fun of me, ay am eenclined to leeve now."

He stopped his laughing and looked at her. "… I'm sorry. I'm used to being like this, well, being like this before I became a death knight that is. We used to sit around the camp at night and jab at each other, all in good fun."

"Ay am not used to your customs, so forgeeve me eef Ay seem a leetle angry at what you say. Learning the common tongue was hard enough weethout having to learn the nuances of your language as well. Just be kind and courteous, and Ay theenk we'll get along much better, as far as conversation goes."

He nodded and took a sip of his drink. "So, who is this Kreeti you talked about earlier?"

"Oh, her? She ees my roommate. Een exchange for renting out a room she has een her home heer een Ironforge, Ay cook her meals, and help her geet loot. She gets most of eet herself, but there are sometheengs zat she needs help getting."

"Like?"

"Well, Ay cannot mine meenerals for her, but ay deed slaughter a lot of the scarlet idiots so zat she could have the full matching set. She must match, she goes out of her way to match. Eet ees annoying sometimes."

"Ah." He chuckled "Glad to see that the Scarlet Crusade is still as stupid as ever."

"Eet was fun to mess around weeth them. The look on Mograine's face was priceless. That and ze look on ze adept's faces as Ay slaughtered some of zem weeth Herod's leg bones."

"What did you do with Mograine?" He said, sitting up straighter as she had grabbed his attention back.

"That ees best left for a later time, Ay do not know you well enough to know zat you won't go spreading zat story all over Azeroth."

"You can trust me, I swear on my mother's grave."

She patted his hand. "No."

He glared at her of the indignation of not being able to be trusted. He stood up quickly and managed to bang his head on a rafter in the ceiling

"Sonuva.."

"Careful there, Sparky. You forget Dwarves and Gnomes are smaller zan us."

He made a rude gesture at her, he was getting tired of her attitude. "Why you little…"

Suddenly, Anata's hearth stone began glowing and buzzing, so she picked it up.

"Hello?"

A small gnomish voice was crackling over the hearthstone. "Need help… wrong turn... dragon country… singed beyond repair…pony…gone… gonbo.."

Anata rose up out of her seat quickly and banged her head on the same rafter, while Durnhelm let out a hearty laugh.

"That's what you get." He replied.

Anata ignored him and clutched the hearthstone close to her mouth. "Ay am on my way leetle one, hold on!" She said into the stone. She tossed a few silver coins towards the barmaid and was almost out the balcony door when she turned back to Durnhelm.

"Ay am sorry, but Ay must go… Ay hope to see you again here, eet was eenteresting to say ze least."

He nodded his head towards her. "Likewise. Stay safe."

She was smiling, and was she blushing? He couldn't quite tell. He was glad to have made a friend, though, for now, those who once stood by his side as comrades in arms now reviled him and cursed him to his face.

He wasn't that odd looking for being a death knight, his face was young, and he looked strong. Anata thought to herself as she ran to gather her things from their house before leaving to Dustwallow Marsh, the signal of Kreeti's last message. She hoped she would meet him again, and if he challenged her anymore, she might just decide to stab him in the arm with her horn for good measure. She chuckled to herself, it had been an interesting day.