"Where's your sister?" Anduin asked to one of them.
"She's waiting up there." the young man gestured vaguely to his right, a path leading out of the central place to a dark street. The little group started to walk in that direction.

They were silent at first but as soon as they were far enough from the center, they started chatting.
"I never thought he'd do it." one of the boys exclaimed as he turned to look at the one walking behind him.
"Are you kidding me? He's so stupid you can make him believe anything! Last week I told him that you can see the Eastern Kingdoms if you climb up the highest tree around Stormwind, he almost broke his neck trying to!" another one mocked.
They all laughed hard, and Mello could only guess that they were speaking of the redhead.
"I have an idea!" the young Prince changed direction and began to walk up the path that led out of town to the village.
"What are you doing?" the taller asked, "My sister's waiting and I had a hard time bringing her here..."
"She can wait a little more for the Prince." Anduin huffed, speeding up.

Mello trailed them until they reached a small shack at the border of the village, a little apart from the real houses.
"Matt!" Anduin called, not loud enough for his voice to reach the houses, but enough so some movement was heard inside of the small hovel.
The redhead appeared, alarmed, dishevelled, obviously awoken.
"Sir Anduin! Is there something wrong?" he asked, worried, running to the Prince until he saw the others, recognising them from earlier. His eyes went wide, and it was clear he didn't understand what was happening.
"Come with us." Anduin commanded him, his tone firm enough so the boy didn't oppose despite his evident distress.

They headed back to the city but before they entered the gates, they turned left to a patch of trees.
The poor villager was looking around him, still wondering what they wanted from him, sending desperate looks to the Prince in search of a response, but the other didn't spare him a single glance as he walked.
Anduin stopped though, when he saw what he was aiming for: his friend's sister, standing her hands joined on her skirt, slightly starting when she saw the troop arrive.

"My Prince!" she bowed, her face reddening.
"Do you like the dress that I got sent to you?" Anduin asked her, eyeing her like a piece of meat.
"Yes my Prince! I am so honoured! It's too much for a girl like me! I can never thank you enough!" she spouted, her head low, embarrassed.
"Then you can take it off now."
The young woman's head shot up, a disbelieving look in her eyes.
"Your brother was stupid enough to bet against me, and he lost. And guess what he offered as a prize? Or better, who he offered..." Anduin chuckled, very much pleased with himself.
"But my Prince... I..."
"Take. Your. Dress. Off. Would you deny the Prince of Stormwind?"

The young woman sent a desperate look to her brother, who didn't move an inch, and carried out. She knew that there was no escape out of this, it was the Prince, and she knew that he could very well ruin her family and make their lives miserable if he wished so, she had already seen him in action...
Slowly, the garment fell off her shoulders and to the floor, leaving her naked, and she tried to cover her nudity with her hands the best she could.

The redhead, seeing this, tried to run away, but he was quickly caught by the arm by one of the Prince's friends.
"Where do you think you're going?" Anduin chuckled, "I've got something to show you, and you'd better keep your eyes open wide."

On these words, the Prince pushed the young woman to the ground, and didn't bother with preliminaries as he penetrated her in one go, eliciting a pained cry from his friend's sister. He looked long at the villager, a smirk on his face, as he fucked her, savouring the horrified expression of the redhead, who tried to look away but somehow was hypnotized by the scene. He couldn't believe it. The Prince had said he liked him, so why was he doing this to him? To her?

Anduin was obviously very amused by the situation, and as he caught his breath after the act, leaving the poor girl half passed out of shame on the ground, he managed to utter a few words that only made the redhead cringe even more.
"By all Gods Matt! Did you really think that I, Prince Anduin, like boys?"
He huffed, readjusting himself, adding even more distress to the petite boy facing him now, "I'm a real man Matt, I will marry a woman and before that, I will fuck as many as I please, I'm not a little bitch like you!"
"But... why?" was all the other could muster through his tears.
"Because it was funny, and the others wouldn't believe me when I told them you were a fag!"
"Don't tell anyone, please!" Matt cried, trying to set his arm free of the grip that held him in place.

The Night Elf frowned. Something told him that Anduin would make sure that the whole capital knew about the redhead's sexual orientation just out of amusement. He hadn't changed a bit. He only knew how to have fun by taking advantage of people, humiliating them if not properly ruining it for them, just as he used to do when he was a kid.
Mello had met him only once in Nighthaven long ago, but he had overheard his mother and father talk about the Prince on several occasions when his father would come back from war and report the latest jinks of Anduin while shaking his head. His father used to say that he didn't understand how the little Prince could be so undisciplined and mean when his father was an example of righteousness. The queen had passed away when Anduin was still a baby but still, it was no excuse.

One more reason why Mello despised Humans. They didn't have the littlest basic respect for what Mother Earth had created. It wasn't uncommon among Night Elves to mate someone of the same gender, living creatures were the way they were as they came to this world, and no one was in a position to discuss nature's choices. But Humans, as always thinking too high of themselves, had deemed unacceptable same gender's mating, and the poor boy was the victim of this nonsense.

But he wouldn't intervene. It was tough for the boy but the Night Elf was still only a guest here, and confronting the Prince himself would do no good for relationships between Humans and his people, and the redhead would probably be mistreated even more as a revenge as soon as Mello would be gone.

The boy finally ran away, still crying, while Anduin walked happily in the other direction, still laughing softly.
"Give this to your sister." Anduin threw a small purse to his friend, "That should make up for this."

The Prince came back to the castle, and the Night Elf rejoined his apartments to finally take some rest.

Early in the morning, the King sent someone to fetch Mello so they could discuss political matters as planned.
The topics were quickly surveyed, in times of peace there was not much to talk about anyway, and Mello didn't complain, he wanted to leave Stormwind as soon as possible.
As him and Varian left the room, they heard some fuss in front of the castle, and the King started to run in that direction, recognising Anduin's voice.
Mello stayed behind, but he could hear everything from where he was.

"What's going on here?" Varian said loudly, inwardly hoping that his son hadn't stirred trouble once again.
A man in his mid forties knelt immediately in front of the King. He was dressed nicely, although it was clear that he wasn't a noble by any means.
"My King, please forgive me! I didn't mean to cause you any displeasure! It's my daughter... her mother found her dress that she wore yesterday and... the dress wasn't hers, I mean, it was too beautiful to be hers, but she doesn't want to tell me who offered it and the dress it was... my wife saw it... it was, there was blood and... other things..."
"What are you trying to say?" Varian didn't understand a word of what the man was trying to explain and he was starting to get irritated.
"My daughter, she was dishonoured! She doesn't want to say who it was, but whoever it was... No one will marry her now... and what if she gets pregnant? Sir, she is my only daughter!"
"I'm sorry to hear that. I understand your concern, and I want you to rest assured that I will find a suitable husband for your daughter as soon as possible, and should it prove impossible, she will be sent to the best convent of the shire. But if she doesn't want to name the culprit, then I'm afraid that he can't receive the punishment that he deserves."

Anduin was nervous, but he tried to keep his composure. Even if it came to be known that he was said culprit, he didn't risk much, he was the future King after all. But still, he didn't want to face his father's anger if he learnt the truth.
"We know who it is, Sir!" the man went on, "She admitted when and where it happened, and I went there with my neighbours, we searched the whole place for a clue and we found this."
He handed out a sandal to the King.
"It belongs to Matt, the son of the fisherman."
"Who?" Varian asked, not sure who the man was talking about.
"The son of the old Jack, who passed away ten years ago while trying to catch crabs under the docks, he got eaten by a shark."
"You mean the one that was married to Lita, the fortune teller?"
"Yes, that one! His son has lived alone in the old cabin since his father passed away, he's not in his right mind but I always thought he was a good boy..."

Varian turned to his son, who was livid by now.
"Wasn't it the one that attacked you yesterday?"
Anduin, feeling the trap closing in, replied the first thing that came to his mind.
"I'm so sorry this happened... yes he attacked me yesterday, I didn't want to say why because I didn't think he was a threat, but... I have proof that he is a... he is attracted to men... and he didn't like it when I confronted him, that's why he was after me yesterday. As for the dress, your son helped me for something lately and he didn't want a reward for himself, so I thanked him with the dress for his sister. I think Matt saw me give the dress and he took his revenge on me on your daughter. I'm really, truly sorry, tell me if there is anything I can do for your daughter."

The Night Elf couldn't believe what he just heard. Was Varian really believing all of these lies? Swiftly, he jumped on the back of his Frostsaber and crossed the distance between the throne room and the front of the castle, startling everyone as he rode past at full speed.
The King, persuaded that his visitor was going after the redhead, ordered his guards to follow and find the boy.

Mello was too quick and easily distanced them. Yes, he was going after the redhead, but not for the reasons the King thought he was. The boy was in trouble, and Mello had the feeling that whatever the poor lad could say wouldn't be heard. They might even sentence him to death, and he couldn't let that happen. If he had to, he would confront Anduin this time, but if he could avoid breaking the peace between his people and Humans, and keep the boy safe, it would be his first choice. Varian might know of his son's bad habits, it didn't mean he'd accept the dishonour, especially not coming from the mouth of his visitor.

But when he arrived, the hovel was empty.
Grabbing the mangy blanket that was laid on a straw mattress, the Night Elf gave it to his tiger to sniff.
"Ash Karath." he whispered to the animal, and the huge cat was gone.

What surprised him was that the guards weren't anywhere in sight, they should have been there by now. Mello made almost all the way back to the castle, running, then changed opinion seeing that there were still no guards in front of the entrance, which meant they were still after the young villager. His saber wasn't back to him either and it was taking quite a long moment.
The Night Elf didn't have the leisure to think further as a storm of white fur made a half circle around him, leaving the young man just enough time to hop in the saddle before the animal was speeding up again in direction of the forest this time.

The first thing Mello noticed was the smell of blood, and so did the tiger, as he growled lowly.
Then the voices of the guards. It was too late, they had found the boy.
Furtively, the Night Elf approached, drowning in the shadows of the trees, to witness the scene.

The redhead had an ankle stuck in a wolf trap, that's where the blood was coming from, and the reason why the guards had caught up with him. The boy was passed out, probably because of the pain, and one of the guards was pulling the security of the trap out of the ground so they could bring their target back to the castle.
They didn't even bother removing the iron claws off the boy's ankle and he was thrown over the shoulder of one of the men carelessly.

Mello headed back to the castle and waited in his apartments after informing the King that he had found nothing. Varian sent him a dubious look, but he didn't say a word.
Since when do the best hunters known on Earth fail to find what they're looking for?

Not long after, the guards were back, throwing the boy like a bag of sand at the feet of the King, who was sitting in his throne.
"The trap stopped him, we just had to pick him up."
Mello, hearing the movement in the throne room from afar, slid in the corridors, staying out of sight, but with a very good view on the scene.

Landing roughly on the ground seemed to wake up the redhead a bit, and he tried to straighten, barely managing to sit, whimpering of pain.
"You are accused of molesting Prince Anduin, my son, yesterday afternoon, and of raping Deymen's daughter last night. What do you have to say for your defence?" the King said in a voice that he tried to keep loud and severe, but the sight of the frail villager in front of him made him doubt the accusations: the poor boy would have been unable to rape the vigorous young woman that was Deymen's daughter, she was taller, larger, and could more than certainly defend herself from such a scrawny twig. And so did his son. There was no way Anduin had been defenceless face to this boy.
"What?! No! I didn't!" Matt opened wide eyes, in total disbelief.
"Your sandal was found where Mila said you raped her, how did it end up there?" Varian went on with the questioning. He hated that the boy's eyes screamed of innocence, he felt that what he was doing was wrong, but everything was against the redhead so he had to carry on.
The young villager gave a desperate look at Anduin, who looked away, uneasy. It didn't go unnoticed by the King, who focused his attention on his son, making the latter decide to take action before Matt said anything that could backslap him.
"Where you in Wollerton's Grove last night or not?" the Prince asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Y-yes... but-"
"ENOUGH!" Varian shouted suddenly, making everyone start, "Anduin, go to your apartments. Guards, bring Matt to the kitchens and attend to his wound after you removed the trap, then feed him and let him go. Sir Deymen, my intendant will give you a thousand golds and will send a magus to your abode so your daughter can be taken care of. I am sorry for any inconvenience, but the matter is closed and I do not wish to hear about it anymore."

The King was mortified. His son had once again acted as anything but the Prince that he was, and although Anduin was revealing to be a genius in plotting and hurting people, he didn't have the brain to realise when he would give himself away. The young man had named the place where Mila Deymens had been raped, when no one had uttered it once, admitting his guilt.

The father of the dishonoured young woman kept silent, not daring to go against his King, already relieved that things would be taken care of for his daughter, and seduced by the large amount of gold he was about to receive. If he was lucky, no one would ever hear about his daughter's misfortune and once the magus would have rid her of an eventual illegitimate offspring, she would look like new and could be married anyway.
He retired, bowing several times before following the intendant.

Mello was relieved that the redhead would be freed, even more so that he didn't have to intervene.
Anduin was in trouble, but it wouldn't be by his words, the Prince had brought his fall upon himself all alone.

Once everyone that didn't belong to the castle, minus the Night Elf who hadn't taken his leave yet and was waiting for Varian to be in a better mood to do so, had left, the heavy steps of the King resounded in the corridors, walking in direction of the Prince's room.
Mello couldn't hear anything of the father-son conversation from his apartments, but he didn't wish to.
He had no curiosity, and no malicious delight to hear Anduin get scolded.
Because it was more than certain that Varian wouldn't do more than scold his son even considering the seriousness of his acts, Mello was sure of that. Anduin hadn't become the despicable being he was by himself, there was an obvious lack of fatherly implication behind such a behaviour.

He could hear voices from time to time, when Varian yelled at his son or Anduin responded crying and opposing, but nothing intelligible, and finally, after two long hours, it was over and Varian's steps resounded again, this time in the opposite direction.

Mello gave him a moment to calm down, and, considering that he had waited enough after an hour of time, he packed and left his apartments, his saber in toe.

"I'm sorry that you had to witness that, I do hope that we will meet under better skies next time." the King tried to smile, but he was still very angry and could barely refrain the frown on his face.
"Ande'thoras-ethil." The Night Elf simply said, knowing that the Human perfectly understood those words.
Then he walked out of the castle and jumped on his mount, who speeded out of the capital with a leap.

Mello never relied on his hosts to provide for sustenance while he travelled, and so his bags were almost empty. He had also promised the alchemist of Dolaanar, the village close to where he lived, to find a few plants that were rare in Teldrassil but profuse in Duskwood, so he would hunt a bit while gathering the required herbs before rejoining Stormwind's harbour to take a boat that would finally bring him back to Ruth'Teran, the small village that had a path to Darnassus, the Elf capital in Teldrassil. From there, he'd purchase the few things he needed before going home at last, on the other side of the island, east of Dolaanar, just before Starbreeze village.

He reached the outskirts of Stormwind quickly, and stopped when he started to spot patches of wild steelbloom. Dismounting, he stirred a little knife from his belt and began to cut the plants, filling a bag he had unlaced off the saddle.

Absorbed by his gathering, Mello spent the rest of the day in the forest, and only decided that it was enough for the day when the sun was low in the sky. Not that he was scared of being in the dark, he was a Night Elf after all, but he still needed to hunt for sustenance before the fauna around fell asleep.

Silently, he sought for small preys. He wasn't long to kill enough to fill another of his bags. He would skin and prepare the meat later, he hadn't meant to stay another day here but there would be no ship at this hour and not until the early hours tomorrow morning, so he could only resign to camp around here.

Walking a bit, he found a spot he deemed acceptable to spend the night, and gathered some wood for a fire.
He was about to light it when the smell of blood came to his nostrils. A known smell.


Note:
- Ash Karath : literally "do it", more like "go!" in that case.
- Ande'thoras-ethil : "May your troubles be diminished" (a way to say goodbye for elves.)