Dsclaimers: World of Warcraft, and by extension the Warcraft Universe are the property of Activision Blizzard Entertainment. I make no money from this and do it because it pleases me.
Ashenvale forest, one of the centers of the night elven people was unusually quiet this night, almost as if it knew of the horrors about to be committed under its boughs. the horde had been slowly advancing north grinding out territory inch by bloody inch. The night elves had fought with everything they had but with most of their forces called away to fight in the frigid wastes of Northrend victory for the orcs seemed almost certain.
"You noticed it too mother, the eerie calm as if the forest is holding it's breath?" Arzevel said, rolling her shoulder under her armor to relive a pinch.
Jayla simply nodded, turing to go back inside.
"Wait, how is Shandrina's ankle?" Azevel asked.
"It is mending, I expect her to be well enough for the evacuation." She closed her eyes and tilted her head up, sighing. "Curse those orcs to the fel pit they crawled out of! She opened her eyes and brought her gaze down to meet her daughters. "You have been to the front lines, how goes the war?"
"It...goes mother, the gains are slowly increasing as we loose sentinels to the horde. Their force grows stronger while ours simply gets weaker. The rotation is slowing down as the women reach their breaking point and need to rest." she frowns, "Frankly? We are loosing. Badly."
"What about the forces of the alliance? Did we not join forces with the humans to prevent this kind of thing from happening?"
"The Alliance turned it's back on us as soon as they had what they wanted, namely our forces in Dragonblight." Her frown deepened. "I do not expect any help from the alliance." She spat on the ground.
"You hold so much contempt for the humans, yet, wasn't your husband a human?"
Arzevel got a faraway look in her eyes and sighed, "Maxwell" She reached up and unconsciously played with the locket on a choker necklace. "It still cuts like a sword to my heart to hear his name..." She sighed again "But yes, I hate the humans for what they did to him, to us...to me"
"What happened up there, you never told me, the letters where so full of hope and wonder and then one day they suddenly stopped. I feared the worst, and then you show up a bedraggled mess barely capable of feeding yourself. Not that I would call those horrid fat bars you where eating food." Jayla said, going from empathetic to stern mother in the space of a paragraph.
"I told you I would tell you when I was ready!" Arzevel practically yelled, a sharp spike of anger visible in her features, her body, and even her armor seemed to just bristle with the emotion.
Jayla took a step back and held her hands up in a placating manner, ready for anything from her daughter, when Arzvevel took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"I'm sorry, that was rude."
"You scare me, you went from carefree and innocent to an unstable wreck. Whatever happened up there, it was big."
Jayla walked up to her daughter and reached up to start rubbing her back under her cloak. "When you are ready to talk, I am here. I am always here."
Arzevel reached over and pulled her mother into a tight hug.
"Thank you, for everything." Arzevel let Jayla go, "Now, lets get some sleep the Sentinels will be wanting to move everything tomorrow and I don't want to help you move all of Anoveils stuff without a decent amount of sleep. It will be a few weeks until the horde makes it this far at least so we should have time to pack."
Arzevel was wrong. They didn't have weeks. They had hours.
The drums, the horribe earth shaking drums. That was what woke her from her sleep.
"Mother! We need to leave! Now!" Arzevel flew out of bed, a whirlwind of leather and metal as she dressed, picking up her staff on the way out of her nook she took off at a dead run to the opposite end of the building, only to crash into a Sentinel who was coming in from the outside, knocking her to the ground.
"OH! I am sorry sister." Arzevel offered a hand to the Sentinel.
"It is alright." The Sentinal said, taking the offered and and allowing herself to be towed to her feet. "We must wake everyone, the Horde is here, now."
Arzevel nodded and resumed her sprint down the hallway toward her mother and sisters nooks, blasting into her mothers, grabbing Jayla and shaking her like a rattle.
"Mother! Wake up!"
"I am awake!" Arzevel stopped shaking Jayla and set her down on the bed.
"We need to leave. Now. The Horde is here."
"But Shandrina, she won't be able to keep up, not with her ankle the way it is."
"Then I will carry her."
"What about your pack? It is full of your things from Northrend."
"They are things, I can replace things."
Jayla reached over and squeesed her daughters shoulder under the armor.
"I am proud of you, come lets get Shandrina and go."
Jayla moved to the chest and gathered a few things from it, small trinkets and a few small weak potions that she shoved in her pockets. Arzevel watched her rummage around in the chest for a moment before heading to the next nook and gently poking Shandrina with her staff.
"Five more minuets." Shandrina grumbled waving off the staff and burrowing her head under the pillow.
"No, we need to leave now, put some pants on and meet Mother and me by the door."
Without another word Arzevel turned to leave pausing only to catch the pillow Shandrina lobbed at her and return it to the face of the sender in one smooth motion.
"Pants. Now. We are leaving."
"What about my ankle, I cant keep up with everyone with it still broken!" Shandrina wailed.
Arzevel grined wolfishly. "I am carrying you, you in turn are going to carry my stuff."
Shandrina boggled at Arzevel. "That's a lot of weight, are you sure you can carry it?"
Arzevel shook her head, "I was sort of joking, I am carrying you, but my stuff gets abandoned for the Horde to take" She sighs and looks around. "Come on, get dressed, I'll meet you at the entrance."
She turned and left, striding back down the hall, pausing at every nook to shake it's occupant awake and tell them to pack as lightly as possible. Everyone was leaving. She stopped in her nook and looked everything over, pausing on an Argent Crusade Tabbard with a giant blood stained hole over the left breast. She clutched it to her chest for a moment and closed her eyes, she sighed and stuffed it back into the pack.
"So many memories. I had to let go sometime." She kicked the pack into a compartment in the floor and sealed it with her magics.
"There, on the offhand we do get Silverwind Refuge back, I can find it and still have my things." She nodded to herself and left, leaving her staff propped against the door frame and walking to the door, milling in with the group of people flowing out. "Mother? Shandrina?" Arzevel called, zeroing in on Jayla's waving hand.
"Here Arzevel!"
Arzevel emerged from the crowd and stopped in front of her mother and sister, Shandrina was playing with something, a blanket from the looks of things. She held it up and showed it had three holes cut in it.
"What is the blanket for?" Arzevel asked.
"I made it to help you carry Shandrina, this hole goes over your head and these two go on Shandrina's legs" Jayla held it up and smiled.
"Mother, I appreciate the gesture, but this will only choke me and slow me down. No I need to carry her-"
"THEY ARE HERE! RUN! FLEE!"
Arzevel immediately stopped talking and scooped up Shandrina, throwing her crutches aside with a clatter.
"Come on, if we hurry we can make it to Astanaar by dawn."
She turned to look at Jayla, who was in turn transfixed by something to the East of the Refuge. An Orc rider, a scout was slowly creeping into the light of the lanterns.
"Sentinals! A foe!" Arzevel screamed, she pinched Shandrina's shins in her elbows and launched a spell at the orc, the green ball of energy blasting him off of his Worg. Arzevel grinned and then saw the other Orcs coming out of the tree line.
"Time to go, go, Go, GO! MOVE!" Arzevel grabbed the transfixed Jayla and pulled her around, roughly shoving her North. "We need to GO!" The trio started moving away from the Refuge, Shadrina looking back.
"The Sentinals are here!" Shandrina cheered, waving her hands in the air and causing Arzevel to stumble.
"Stop that! The only thing the Sentinals are going to do is buy us time, nothing more. Every single one of our sisters is going to die tonight, and I would imagine a fair amount of us. So less cheering, it throws me off balance"
"You really believe that don't you? This is the Horde, not the relentless Scourge." Jayla chided.
"You think I don't know that?! The Horde are a relentless war machine bent solely on destruction. They fought for the Titan relics in Northrend and won. We lost many soldiers in those fights, good men and women. Some with families. So don't you lecture me about how the Horde is harmless." She took a deep breath and stumbled over a root. "Fuck!" She cursed in common. Jayla looked at her inquisitively. "I have not heard that word before." She stated.
Shandrina rapped her knuckles hard on Arzevel's head. "I have, it's a naughty word." Shandrina smugly quipped.
Arzevel looked sheepish for a moment, looking at the ground. "Shandrina is right, it is a naughty word. I'm sorry."
Jayla shrugged, "I don't even know what it means," She held up a hand to Shandrina when she opened her mouth, "And I don't want to know. Arzevel has her reasons for using such an ugly word for no real reason, lets leave it at that."
Shandrina folded her arms on top of Arzevel's head and huffed. "It really is a bad word, you shroud hit her."
Jayla sighed, "I am not going to hit Arzevel unless I have a really good reason and I-"
Arzevel suddenly slammed her arm into Jayla's chest.
"Stop! Listen!" She hissed quietly and eventually the other two women could hear it too, the cries of people dieing, no of people getting slaughtered.
"Should we go help?" Jayla whispered.
Arzevel shook her head, "All that would happen is we would die too."
Jayla looked at hr daughter, "But you have your magic. I, We, saw you knock that one Orc off his Worg."
"I knocked him off his Worg, I didn't hurt him, I didn't maim him. I knocked a light scout with little to no armor off his mount," Arzevel twirled one finger in the air. "Woo."
Shandrina looked around, tuning out her sister and mother, appreciating how tall her sister really was, she absently played with Arzevel's hair until she suddenly saw something, a glittering in the distance. She smacked Arzevels head, "Shhh! I saw something, there." She pointed at the offending glitter.
Arzevel suddenly grew pale. "Light, Goddess, no..." She hitched Shandrina higher on her shoulders. "Run! Run as fast as you can, don't stop for anything, not even us!" She took off on a dead run, her mother right behind her. "The Warlocks" *Pant* "Near the end of the" *pant* Northrend crusades wore a brown" *pant* armor with glowing shoulders."
Jayla nodded, focused on running.
That's when Arzevel heard it, the cackling sound of fel fire, the horrible stench as it snaked along the ground, burning everything in it's path. She started running faster, hoping she could put enough distance between her and the spell that it would miss and dissipate. That's when she realized she wasn't the target of the spell. Jayla was. "Mother! Run! Run as fast as you can! Get away!" She screamed, tears unconsciously streaming down her cheeks.
Jayla ran, but it wasn't enough. The spell caught her and wrapped around her legs, slowly burning her clothing to her skin. She screamed in agony and stumbled, falling to the ground.
Arzevel stopped and her and Shandrina stood transfixed as their mother was consumed by fire, her flesh darkening, blood vessels being exposed and popping, her body turning black and peeling, all the while Jayla screamed in pain and futility tried to put the fire out as it consumed her. Only when it reached her head and burned the flesh off of it did the screaming stop.
Arzevel turned and took off at a dead run, tears still streaming from her face as she tried to put as much distance between her and the warlock as possible, and to run away from the charred husk that used to be her mother. She made a half a mile before she ran into the horde again. A roving squad looking for stragglers from Silverwind Refuge. The orcs yelled in their harsh language and cheered as they encircled the two elves, trapping them in the clearing. Arzevel glared at the orc captain.
"You. Drop. Other. Now." The captain demanded in broken Common, pointing at Arzevel.
"You okay to stand? Put weight on your ankle? Because you need to look uninjured to survive this. If we look healthy they might only take us as prisoners. Then we will be exchanged for orc prisoners and-"
"You. Stop. Talk." The orc captain growled. "Drop. Now."
Arzevel dropped Shandrina gently to the ground. "Stand." She hissed when Shadrina leaned on her for support, lifting her injured ankle off of the ground.
"I can't!" Shandrina bawled, leaning heavily on Arzevel for support.
"You. Stand." The orc captain grunted.
Shandrina shook her head, "I CAN'T!" She yelled across the clearing.
The orc captain grinned ferally, "Stand. Die. Choose." He grunted something in his vile tongue and two of the scouts unsheathed their bows and knocked an arrow, pointing them at Shandrina across the short distance.
Arzevel suddenly threw herslef between the bowmen and Shandrina, "Mercy!" She cried in orcish, temporarily throwing the captain off guard.
"You speak orcish?" He demanded in orcish.
"No." Arzevel replied, still using the harsh laungue. "Small..."She stopped and seemed to be searching for a word. "Small bits."
The orc captain laughed and nodded at one of his lieutenants, one wielding a large two handed axe. The lieutenant got off of his worg and strode toward the two elves. He flung them both to the ground and stood over Shandrina, who was cowering in fear, a large wet spot growing on the front of her robe.
Arzevel lept to her feet and started running at the orc with the axe, only to be blindsided by another orc in plate mail who pinned her to the ground so she could see Shandrina and the other orc.
"Watch. Night Elf. Mercy." The captain said, nodding at his lieutenant.
The lieutenant grunted and brought his axe down on Shandrina's head with a sound like cleaving into a watermelon. Her blood soaked the clearing, spraying everywhere, coating the shirtless orc in a spray of purple blood. Arzevel screamed and fought the orc that had her pinned, her eyes glowing with renewed fire and spittle flying from her mouth. She fought like an animal, a caged, enraged animal. Clawing, biting, scratching. "You monster! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" She struggled free of the orc holding her and ran at the captain, only to be clobbered from behind by a troll with a small mace, knocking her out cold.
The orc captain smiled and held a brief discussion with his lieutenants, who sighed, picked up the oversized elf, bound her, and threw her over the back of a riderless worg. He took one look around the clearing and laughed, spitting on Shandrina's corpse before turning and following his men back to an unknown destination.
So... the next bit is...graphic and I am a little hesitant to up load it. Figured I would test the waters before I got to crazy. What do you guys think?