The child sat in the back alley in Old Town, Stormwind. Her breath ragged as she waited for the guard to pass her hiding spot. As their plated footsteps started sounding further away, she moved from behind her barrel toward the poisons shop. She'd wait there for a bit. The owner was usually content to let her hid behind the counter, especially if she helped out a bit. Though this time she had herbs to sell him, meaning dinner was a promise she could make for herself tonight.
"Luna Von Tempest..." Came the deep voice of the shop owner, Miles Sidney, as she entered the doorway, "Ya look a mess, child, city guard givin' ye a hard time agin'?" He looked her over with a soft smile. The girl nodded, reaching up to lower her hood, letting her blood-red hair fall to her shoulders in soft waves. Her skin looked like she'd been hiding under that hood for days, and the dirt caking her face made her young face look ghastly. Dark circles under her vibrant violet eyes showed for her lack of sleep in recent days. "Ye been 'earin tha' voice agin' 'aven't ye?" Sidney asked her now, referring to the reason she'd first stepped into that shop over a month ago. 'Tha' voice' was something she'd become aware of about a year before. It'd first been in a dream, of a young man. The man had seemed to know her. He'd looked upon her with a wistful, almost saddened look. He had opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the demon at his side, a felguard. Tall, hulking, but somehow...not as scary to her as the ones she'd seen illustrated in books in Dalaran.
"Conrad..." the demon had said, before the man turned, nodding, and walked away.
"Watch over her, Friend," He'd said to the creature, before vanishing, leaving her alone with this...this creature...something she'd been taught to fear, but somehow couldn't. Though, being alone with it, still left her uneasy. The demon would nod and look to her before stepping forward. Its massive hands had reached out to her, as if beckoning her to it.
"Luna..." the creature had said her name, its voice bellowing out the word as if testing the sound of it. At the time, she needed only to wake to leave the being behind. "Luna..." she shuddered now. As if a cold wind had crept up under her cloak even in the still heat of the summer in Elwynn forest in the Eastern Kingdoms. It now called to her in her waking hours. Like just now. Almost like it was trying to...no, she wouldn't let it.
"Ah need more..." she says in a shamed tone. "An' before ya try tellin' me it ain't good fo' meh...I've gone to priests, they can't do a damn thing. Their magic stings like a damn scorpid. Leaves me writhin'" she says darkly. The mixture that Miles had finally figured out was the only thing to date that made the voice vanish, if only for a bit. "Jus' make it a stronger dose, yea?" she said, her violet eyes pleading with him for help. She then reached into her sack for the package of herbs she'd collected for the elixir. She'd even gone above and beyond, picking extra for him to use in his own mixes that he sold to rogues.
Miles nodded and smiled softly as he reached back behind the counter for a sack of coins which he then handed to her. She looked inside, trying to figure out how long they would last her. She didn't have a standard profession, picking herbs was all she could do, no one would train her for anything else. She was unable to follow her mother in the priesthood, as their holy magic burned her to channel, and she wasn't too keen on close combat. Even the magi in the city had turned her away. Her only hope seemed to be the fel casters, but she'd be shaming her family name if she dared turn to them.
"Prices have raised due to the demand of these herbs on the market, Kiddo." Miles said with a broad grin as he watched her eyes go wide when she counted the coin in her head. "Think tha' covers the extra that ya brought meh?" he asks her with a laugh. Luna looked up at him with a thankful grin. "An' lookin' at the amount ye brought meh, I'm bound ta make a small fortune with these. So consider yer next brew on the house, 'kay?" Luna nodded and smiled feebly, She could get a lot more than just food with this, especially with her small appetite. She started to try and figure what it would take to bribe the scribes to train her.
Luna waited a few hours before leaving the shop. She helped the two men running it to organize and label the herbs they had, as well as organizing the many other supplies they usually left lying around. By the time she had left it was dark in Stormwind, so moving around would likely be much easier, especially with her cloak being as dark as it was, that was, as long as she didn't walk around too openly in the Trade District, so sticking to the canals of the city were likely her best bet.
After exiting into the alleyway she pulled out one of the vials that Miles had prepared for her. She popped out the cork and took a sniff. The smell always reminded her of her mothers herb garden back when Lady Von Tempest had been alive. The mix of wild kingsblood was something she had always taken a liking to for some reason. Probably because it grew so abundantly in the window box back then...
Taking a quick drink, she inhaled sharply at the sting on her tongue. He was right, increasing the potency led to a taste she would likely need to get used to. She leaned into the wall of a building at the opening to the alley, dizzy from the sudden rush of the concoction. It always left her a bit fuzzy headed, but it was worth it to not hear that ominous voice every few hours. It was also worth the lack of that feeling of being watched all the time. Especially when that dream told her it was a bloody Fel Guard doing the watching. She shuddered again as she braced herself with her free hand once she had re-corked her precious elixir. Didn't need any going to waste.
She was almost to the canals between Old Town and the Trade District, almost halfway to her targeted destination, when the sound of armored footsteps could be heard behind her, and damn it all, she was a minor that likely looked intoxicated. She cursed under her breath, hoping the guard would just leave her be for once in her cursed life. Standing still, and as tall as she could, she turned to face the sound a bit, leaving her face half covered by the hood of her cloak.
"Ye alrigh' there lass?" came the heavily accented voice of a dwarf, Paladin by the looks of his armor. He stopped to help her upright as the dizziness nearly landed her face first in the cobblestones. She just nodded in silent thanks. "Ye sure? Look like ye could use a bit o' grub in ya, iffen ya get what ah mean?" he said in a softer tone now. She shook her head.
"Naw, I'm jus' headin ta the flight master, got to get to Duskshire for an errand," she told him. The dwarf smiled as he reached up again to help her. The holy energy flowing through him was enough to make her feel sick to her stomach, the pain of his skin on hers burned her own through the gloves she'd 'borrowed' from the local clothier, though she attempted to make no movement to pull away. She allowed the dwarf to help lead her to the gryphon master, and even get her on the mount headed for Duskwood. She was too out of it to notice him hand the money over to pay for the trip, or to hear when the master sent the gryphon off with her barely holding on. Leaning into the beast's neck, the scent of barley and ale could be made out, stupid dwarfs and their love of the brew...
"Luna..." The sound of that booming voice frightened her into nearly loosing her grip on the reigns somewhere above the river between Elwynn Forest and Duskwood. Why the Hellfire was it speaking to her...She'd just taken the drought... "Luna Von Tempest..." The voice said, this time her full name. The sound in her mind pounded against the walls of her sanity as she attempted to get the Gryphon to land earlier than the town of Darkshire, to no effect though. The beast landed near the flight master in the small dark town just as she herself collapsed off the mount and onto the dirt beneath the creature's feet, she tried to stand back up getting only to her hands and knees before everything went black.