Disclaimer: I do not own World of Warcraft or any property belonging to Blizzard.

In the last chapter, I hinted at what's going to happen in Uldum with the encounter between Stormwing and Ernar. Stormwing himself is going to end up being a reoccurring character (I just love how the storm drake mounts look too much not to make one a reoccurring character, despite that it will make the character cast a bit more crowded). If anyone wants to guess how, I give you three guesses. This chapter will contain some scenes and details that will lead up to the main plot.

Flashbacks will be occurring in later chapters, explaining things about the characters from the past.

I'm also going to be continuing it after the characters are done in Uldum, so this fic is destined to have many many chapters, and hopefully many reviews.

Ahead of time note: This chapter will contain a battle, which could get a little bloody and gory.

Enjoy.

Dawn came, shedding the desert with a red hue. Presently, only Emala was up, standing at the edge of the river. She was looking south, watching the faint gray of storm clouds. Others might protest, saying that the gray was simply low laying cloud cover that would dissipate during the day hours.

Emala didn't agree. During her long and difficult journeys in Northrend, it was necessary to learn to predict storms quickly, or you wouldn't last long. She hated Northrend. The way Emala saw it, the only good thing that she had received from going there was the addition of Lastraza to their group, encountering Atlanta again, and killing the Lich King.

However, this heralding showed that the coming storm was still some ways off, three days at least. She heaved a tired sigh. If they hurried, the group could make it to Ramkahen before it hit.

Sometimes, being older than the others except maybe Lastraza, Emala felt she needed time to herself.

Despite all of them being adults, Zalleen and Imyra were still fairly young, in their mid twenties. Emala could never be sure exactly how old Skydive and Lastraza were, since they were drakes and had different aging patterns. From how they acted, she usually assumed Skydive was in young adulthood, Lastraza maybe close to leaving that stage. She was fairly sure that Atlanta was close to Emala's own age, but that she had stopped aging since she was now technically undead.

Emala herself was at the most nearly forty. She had been out in the world for a few years before the call went out to enter the Dark Portal and combat the Burning Legion. At first her and Pierceclaw had been alone. During the years in Outland, that had quickly changed.

After a few more minutes of quiet reflection, Emala concluded that it was time to stop and actually get moving. That involved waking the others up, a task that she often considered a necessary hindrance. Lastraza and Imyra were usually light sleepers and easy enough to rouse, but Zalleen and Skydive tended to sleep like rocks. Rather than waking Atlanta up, Emala would simply need to wait for her. The Death Knight never really slept but wandered the perimeter of the camp at night, reappearing soon after Emala woke up.

True to word, the sound of Atlanta's hooves sounded in the brush a few feet away. Emala looked over her right shoulder and saw her there, still fully equipped in her armor. The Death Knight silently pointed at their still slumbering companions.

"Yeah," Emala said in response. "I'm getting them up."

Emala walked up to Lastraza. She knelt by the red drake's head and snapped her fingers. "Up."

Lastraza yawned widely, standing and stretching her wings. "Ready," she said amidst the yawn. "After we eat, of course."

Emala grinned almost like a predator. She reached down into the brush and hauled a large crocolisk into sight, dead and already mostly skinned. "Here's breakfast."

Lastraza cocked an eye ridge. Imyra, roused by the activity, sat up and also eyed the catch skeptically. "Well, this is certainly a unique cuisine."

Emala shrugged. "Heh, it's meat." She dropped the corpse back into the grass. While her sister and Lastraza started a fire, she marched over to Zalleen and Skydive. Even though she knew it would be futile, she tried the gentle approach first. She grasped Zalleen's shoulder and squeezed it hard, then nudged Skydive's side with her hoof.

Neither of the two showed any reaction.

Emala rolled her eyes. So much for the gentle way.

Picking up a rock, she dropped it onto Skydive's tail. It wasn't a very large rock and it couldn't have hurt much, but Skydive still yelped and woke up in a hurry. "Ak! What?"

"Up," Emala said in monotone. "We have to start moving. I don't want to get stuck in a desert storm out here." As she said this, she offhandedly squirted water from one of the water flasks into Zalleen's face.

"Gak!" he grumbled, swatting the liquid off his face. "Hey, what ya do that for, mon? I was havin a nice sleep."

The tauren hunter rolled her eyes, trudging back to the river and refilling it to replace the small amount of water she had lost by using it to wake Zalleen up. The smell of cooking crocolisk came from nearby, instantly redirecting the troll's attention to the fire.

"What's that?"

"Crocolisk," Lastraza answered. She was holding the corpse above the flames in both forepaws, sitting back on her haunches. She didn't seem to care about the heat. Imyra was using a stick to manipulate the fire, the flickering flames reflecting in her copper colored eyes.

Zalleen laughed. "Ah, so, ya are cooking reptile for breakfast?"

When neither Lastraza or Imyra showed signs of laughing, his mouth dropped open. "You're serious?"

"Yes, she is," Emala said with annoyance. "You eat that, or you get no damn food for this morning."

"There's a lota definitions of food, mon. I could have grass for food."

"You mean like a common pack animal?"

"Ya."

Emala grumbled something under her breath, although there was no real anger or meaning in it. "Are you serious?"

Just then Skydive lumbered up, blinking. "Um," he muttered, lying down by the fire again. "I don't feel like moving...carry me?"

Lastraza pointedly shook her head. "No."

"Not carrying you, Skydive," Imyra said quickly, before the netherwing could even open his mouth. He moaned loudly, then rolled dejectedly onto his belly. His eyelids began to drop, but before they could close, Imyra gained a little smirk. She fanned the smell of the cooking meat toward Skydive's nose.

The azure netherwing's eyes immediately snapped open, his head shooting up from the ground. "Food! Hungry.." he said loudly, slightly drooling as his stomach grumbled. Lastraza pulled a face at the hanging saliva, then tore a strip of meat of the crocolisk with one paw and dropped it into his mouth. Skydive chewed it drowsily, staring off into the sunrise.

Imyra gently tapped him between the eyes. "Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that head of yours."

"A lot of things," Skydive muttered dazedly. Imyra rolled her eyes, then withdrew her hand as Lastraza removed the corpse from above the fire. Emala appeared seemingly from nowhere and drew a hunting knife. The red drake continued to hold the dead crocolisk as the hunter proceeded to slice it apart. More was deposited in Skydive's mouth while Zalleen, earlier apprehension forgotten, grabbed some of the food and shoved it in his mouth.

"It tastes like river mud," Skydive stated with false disgust, but was unable to keep from smiling when Lastraza batted his head with her paw. "It does not," she snapped playfully.


They continued to fly south along the riverbank afterward, Skydive and Lastraza skimming close to the water the majority of the time, sometimes briefly dipping their heads in. Imyra tailed them closely, sometimes veering off into the surrounding palm trees and brush.

The storm had gone from simply looming in the distance to becoming far closer, to the point where a dark and ominous thundercloud was looming over their heads. After a stray bolt of electricity sparked off the surface of the river and nearly incapacitated Skydive, Emala directed both him, Lastraza and Imyra to land. Thankfully the group had made it close to Ramkahen by air already, so they didn't have far to go. By the time the outlines of the settlement came into sight, whipping winds had emerged, causing the trees to thrash amid driving rain. Emala was sure that the desert was grateful for the rare rainfall, but it certainly wasn't improving her and her companion's day.

The group ran to the closest shelter they could find, an inn with the windows flickering a warm orange. As they approached, Lastraza and Skydive shrank into their mortal guises as blood elves. They dashed inside, slamming the door behind them and slumping against it while lightning flashed.

Lastraza braced her hands on her knees, panting. In this form, she had red robes and long black hair. "That was unpleasant."

Skydive now had tawny brown hair and leather armor. He distastefully shook his arm, scattering water. "Unpleasant? That was downright awful."

Emala, of all of them, was the most discontented. Pierceclaw was shuffling around her legs, shaking himself to shed rain from his hide. She was currently cursing the weather, twisting a lock of her hair to wring out water and scowling. "I should have gotten us moving earlier. Instead I did the idiotic thing and allowed us to sleep to long."

"Ya got us up plenty early, Em," Zalleen commented lightly, wringing out his dripping robes. "Any earlier an we wouldn't have made it five feet." He allowed a halfhearted grin. "Now ya know what it was like for me in Astranaar."

"Que the laughter," Emala said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Both Imyra and Atlanta, who had known her from childhood, had devised the nickname that had just been used. When Imyra had started to travel with her sister, she had continued to use it, and now the integrity of the group would call her Em at times.

The argument would have continued, but a tentative cough interrupted them. Still silently lining up bantering material, Emala turned to face the voice.

Despite hearing about the area from the Orgrimmar mapmakers, she hadn't heard any info about local humanoids. What she saw now at first resembled a centaur, which made her instinctively uneasy. The tauren relaxed when she looked closer, realizing that the humanoid's lower half was that of a large feline, while the upper half looked human, but with a head that looked like a cross between cat and human.

Emala managed to cover her surprise for the most part from her meager pre knowledge of what to expect in Uldum. Her only reaction was a few startled blinks, but she more or less upheld her stoic manner.

Zalleen's reaction was somewhat more extravagant. He yelped and jumped abruptly backward, slamming into Skydive and crushing the shape shifted netherwing against the wall. He uttered a curse and the two began an all out shove fest. Lastraza edged away from them, a flush of slight embarrassment tinging her cheeks. Imyra laid a annoyed hand on her forehead. Atlanta completely ignored the scenario, instead gazing absently about the bar.

"I've never encountered anything like you before.." Emala began awkwardly, a eyebrow creeping up, although not in a unfriendly way. She held out a hand, silently proposing a shake. All the while she somehow managed to ignore the scene behind her.

The feline creature grasped it and shook hands with her warmly. "I understand your apprehension. I am a Tol'vir. Some foreigners who came here before you gave me the privilege of learning their foreign tongues. I am Abasan, and I assume you wish for room and a meal?"

Skydive's stomach rumbled at that exact moment. He clutched it and glanced from side to side, trying to act subtle. Zalleen openly chuckled at his friend's awkwardness. Emala suppressed a sigh, then answered Abasan's question. "Yes, we want a room. And we'll pay for a meal tonight too. Damn storm," she grumbled under her breath.

Emala hadn't thought the innkeeper had heard her last few words, but apparently he could hear far better than she had thought. "Yes, this current storm is-"

A huge thunderbolt flashed brightly outside the windows. The resounding noise briefly seemed to shake the ground. The patrons glanced outside, then returned their attention back to their previous tasks.

Abasan winced, then restarted his sentence. "This current storm is the fourth this week. They've all been the same as this one-abrupt, vicious. They all seem to be coming from the Skywall."

"What's that?" Imyra asked curiously.

"It is the realm of the air elementals," Abasan answered, gesturing for the group to follow him to a table. "Our enemies, the Neferset tol'vir, seemed to have aligned with Deathwing."

"What?" Lastraza yelped. Her fist clenched under the table at the mention of the former Earthwarder. "Why would they do that?"

"Maybe we could find out for you?" Emala said in a unaffected tone, sitting down in a chair and clasping her hands on the table top. Her green eyes had darkened at the mention of the world's current enemy, but she didn't show any further reaction. Diehard determination was already starting to show. "We've been in countless fights and infiltrations."

Abasan shot her a grateful glance. "I personally cannot condone you to go there, but our king can. King Phaoris would be very grateful, although gaining a audience with him could take some work on your part."

"Such as?" Emala inquired calmly, while Zalleen came trooping back loaded with food, followed by Atlanta. The troll eagerly began sampling it, while Abasan replied to the question. "Helping the locals out with their own troubles. They'd be able to vouch for your audience."

Emala smiled in response, although it wasn't a happy smile, but the kind that a hardened veteran would offer when they knew very well danger was all that awaited them. The smile of someone who had seen disaster at its fullest, and lived through it.

"Very well then," she said softly. "Will do." Then she allowed a genuine and warm smile. She then arose and departed for the inn's small bar.

Zalleen couldn't help but smile when he saw the leader getting up and striding toward the nearest source of alcohol. Compared to others that he had met, Emala never seemed to let go of her stoic manner or flammable temper. Moderate drinking was basically the only thing he had ever seen her openly enjoy, besides fighting. The resident mage returned to obnoxiously digging into his food.

"Hey," Skydive whispered, gently elbowing him in the arm. "Let's have a eating race."

Zalleen grinned widely. "You're on, and ya gonna lose, mon."

Lastraza groaned in exasperation. "Why is it that every time we are in a bar, you two decide to be so immature?"

"It's because they aren't at all mature," Imyra snickered.

Zalleen turned a deep blue. "Hey, mon! I am totally mature." He cleared his throat and started to talk in a false air of formality. "Miss Imyra, may I ask permission to eat the way I desire?"

Skydive stifled a snort of amusement. "Nice," he said with barely disguised glee, disregarding Imyra's indifferent eye roll.

"And completely misguided," Emala's voice came from directly behind Zalleen. He started and coughed as some food went down the wrong way. Skydive whacked him in the back, while Emala sat down in her original spot, a keg of beer in her right hand. She cocked an eyebrow at the display. "I suspect you just learned the dangers of eating like a savage."

"More like ya startled the crap outa me, Em," Zalleen responded, but he was still grinning at didn't sound at all angry. "So, ya volunteered us to deal with problems around here?"

"Yes," she retorted. "Some issues appear to spring from the surrounding Titan ruins, which I would like to get closer to anyway. And this Skywall place sounds like it could be very interesting."

Zalleen had forgotten the third thing Emala seemed to enjoy. Vast interest in Titan ruins and the prospect of conquering danger. It was both something he admired and cursed, although usually the leader's decisions ended up being proven correct and worthwhile.

"Ya, well," he added with a shrug. "That was the point a comin here. But if it gets us killed, mon," he said, making a finger gun at Emala, "My ghost is gonna haunt ya, Em."

"Or, I could be dead too," Emala sucked down a drought of beer. She licked her lips. "Anyway, we could both be spirits, so I could shut you up still by gagging you and stuffing you in a closet."

Skydive cracked up, pounding a fist onto the table top. Lastraza bit into a slab of meat, eyes flicking with an amused gleam between the two. Atlanta had her elbow on the table with her chin propped on her fist, watching noiselessly. It was hard to see if there was any emotion in her eyes, although Zalleen felt he could see the slightest hint of a smile on her lips.

It could have been wishful thinking on the troll's part, though. Atlanta seemed to have numbed out any emotions and larglely forsaken speech. According to Emala, the former warrior had used to be far more social, and the tauren hunter would often say that she missed Atlanta's laugh. Zalleen would love to hear it, but in the many years they had been traveling together, he had never once heard Atlanta laugh.

That gave Zalleen the most brilliant idea.

Stealthily he slipped his hand under the table and poked Atlanta's leg with the end of his fork. Then he dropped it, bent to get it, and purposely fell to the floor.

If he was hoping that would make the Death Knight laugh, he didn't achieve it. Wild laughing came from the others. Even Pierceclaw was able to imitate a laugh with his limited vocal cords.

When Zalleen clambered back to his feet, he rubbed the back of his head and grinned. He spared a glance at Atlanta. This time he was certain she was smiling, with a slight trace of mirth even. It was gone quickly, but he had seen it. Now all he needed to do was get a laugh out of her.


Elsewhere in the storm, the figure of a young storm drake stood perched atop a massive stone building, with a cluster of walls and statues ringing the perimeter. It carried plenty of resemblances to the Titan ruins in Northrend, but seemed to have a more primal feel and appearance.

Ernar stood unaffected in the midst of the wind and rain, then proceeded to glide down from the top of the structure. He completely dismissed the lightning bolt that flashed through the sky half a second later.

He stood before the gaping square archway, the Titan text around it showing him that he had found the right place. With a careful and ominous dexterity, Ernar stalked down the length of a dark stone hallway, paying no heed to the statues that lined it. With their carved stone weapons facing him, they looked oddly as if they were ready to throw them, impaling intruders.

Ernar was undaunted. He continued until he arrived at a sealed door, made of black iron and impossibly tall, barricaded with spiked beams of steel.

He could make out the smallest hint of access-a tiny keyhole. But it wasn't shaped like he would expect. The keyhole was shaped like a star, surrounded by a circle carved with Titan runes.

Ernar's eyes gleamed greedily. My ticket to Al'Akir's court. I will show the Windlord that I am a worthy lieutenant by eradicating all those who are not loyal to him.

Ernar's eyes narrowed in frustration when the thought crossed his mind. "Dammit!" he growled, lightning flickering over his form from the explosion of temper. "I didn't count on a key..."

A series of gasps sounded from behind the young storm drake. He glanced behind him with the corner of his eye. What Ernar beheld was a group of humans and a few trolls, all wearing bandanas and ragged desert clothing. All of them were dripping wet.

The largest human, clearly the leader of the bandits from his stature and scars, reacted first. With a irritated glare, he yanked a gun from the grip of a stunned ally and aimed it directly at Ernar's forehead. Despite the apprehension visible on his face, it was obvious he wasn't going to stand there cowering, which actually made Ernar respect him somewhat.

With that thought, a idea started to worm its way into the young storm drake's head. Maybe this could be beneficial for me...

"Move, drake," the human demanded in a gruff tone, taking a step forward. "Sentient or no, I have no patience for complications."

The corner of Ernar's mouth quirked up. "You think you can challenge me?" He laughed without a trace of humor. "I could defeat all of you."

To prove his point, he spread his influence throughout the surrounding air. Lightning danced along Ernar's body, creating wild bolts that mercilessly rained down on the bandits.

It wasn't a strong pulse, and the young storm ceased the storm of electricity after a few seconds. But it was enough to achieve his goal.

The bandit leader remained stonefaced, but Ernar could see a small flicker of fear cross his features. He knew immediately that he had achieved in bluffing him and his companions into backing down.

"I have a better proposition," Ernar continued, flicking his tail toward the locked door. "A key is needed for that. If you help me obtain it, you will share half the reward."

It was all too easy to read the crafty and subtle smirk on the human's face. No doubt he thought Ernar hadn't seen it. He could already tell what mundane thoughts were racing through the lowly mortal's mind-double crossing and claiming everything in the end.

Too bad for the bandits, the storm drake already knew this and had planned how to get out of it.

"Just one thing before we start the actual treasure hunt," he said tonelessly, gazing out into the thrashing storm with a malicious smirk. "I need a poisonous regent from the riverbank. In order to rid me of a 'friend' of mine. Stormwing will not interfere."


In the morning, the group finally got their first good look at Ramkahen. Bright sunlight now poured down on a sandstone city, paved with the same rock. Two level buildings with square perimeters were placed close together, lining wide streets. The structures had tarps of cloth stretched between wooden rods that had been placed both on the edges of the roofs and occasionally above doorways, providing shade. The city plan resembled the low steps of a ziggurat, with three levels arsing up from the ground. Two massive cat headed statues, carved with armor and spears, stood two hundred feet tall by the part of the city facing the bank of the river.

Tol'vir were everywhere, in the streets and bartering and managing market stalls. Zalleen immediately became enthralled. "Mon, these guys are everywhere."

"Duh," Imyra said with a eye roll. "This is their city."

She could understand Zalleen's excitement, just without the heaps of questions. Imyra had seen a lot of things since she had begun to travel with her older sister, but she felt that she liked Uldum's scenery.

Lastraza was having similar thoughts, but she was also slightly more preoccupied in another sense. The mention of the Skywall from the night before had been nagging at her all through the night until morning. The red drake felt she had heard something during the night, like a roar.

Lastraza shook her head. She must have imagined it.

She felt Skydive poke her arm. "You alright?"

She gave him a questioning look. "Yes. Why did you ask?"

"Because you looked like you were in a trance."

"I wasn't," Lastraza replied. She gave Zalleen a irritated glance when he wriggled his fingers in her face. "Stop it."

Zalleen held up his hands in mock defense. "Just checking that ya weren't completely zonked out."

A dry chuckle came from their right. The four turned and saw her standing behind them, holding a rolled up parchment.

"It's fun sometimes to watch the banter rather than being part of it," she said with a small smile. She unrolled the sheath of paper and held it up for the rest to see. "This says bandits have been murdering caravans and pillaging temples. There's a heavy bounty on their heads, and it could very well gain us an audience."

"Okay," Skydive said with a wide yawn. "Where are we going, then?"

"East," Emala replied, already striding in said direction. "No lollygagging."

Zalleen stopped staring at a fruit vendor's cart and trotted after her. Lastraza, Skydive and Atlanta followed, while Imyra took to the air as a bird. She circled and glided above them as they left Ramkahen, and began to travel across the fertile riverbank. Once there, the two drake members of the group shape shifted back to their normal drake forms.

For a few hours they roamed eastward on foot, enduring the sweltering heat. Emala keenly studied the sand and picked out the barest details of travel, like the faint ashes of a fire and some burned wood, coupled by filaments of food scraps. Subtle tiny hints that only the eyes of a practiced tracker could make out. After the hunter was certain of their path, she turned to her companions.

"Well, mon?" Zalleen asked, his fingers drumming impatiently on his staff.

"There's definitely a trail," Emala answered, dusting her hands off and rising out of her crouch. "It started several hours from civilization, and the only way that could happen is if someone was deliberately staying away. Only those with foul intentions would bother with that."

"Fair enough, Em," Imyra responded. "But what if they aren't the same guys?"

"Only way to find out is by following the trail," her sister responded. "Atlanta, you have Bonesunder? We go the rest of the way by air."

The Death Knight nodded silently, swinging herself into the saddle of the skeletal gryphon. Bowing their necks, both Skydive and Lastraza allowed Emala and Zalleen to climb on just between their shoulders and the bottom of their necks, one on each of them. With a few powerful flaps, the two drakes were cutting through the desert air. The flight was riddled with sudden gusts of wind, but nothing climatic. The drakes skimmed close to the sand, ensuring that Emala could keep the trail in sight.

"Temple ho!" Zalleen shouted, pointing ahead while one hand shaded his eyes. Sure enough, the towering form of a ancient stone temple was ahead, the details lost in the glare of the morning sun.

The closer they got, the more Emala's instincts started to sense disturbance. Her skin prickled under her black fur, but she couldn't dismiss it as simply being hot. In addition, she had a gut feeling that danger was close. She'd learned a long time ago not to ignore those feelings, because they were usually right.

Her narrowed eyes spotted the sure signs of their quarries, a single trail of footprints. From what she could discern, the prints belonged to trolls and the booted feet of either human or elf.

Emala gave the area one final sweep. She could find no trace of any other trails. After circling the temple once, she could confirm that there was no other way in. Emala rejoined her companions back at the singular entrance.

She held up a hand and raised one finger, keeping the others down. The form of silent communication sent a clear message-to approach with silent caution, with absolutely no talking. The idea was to go for a silent approach. Skydive and Lastraza began to glide silently on the air currents, their wings cutting silently through the air. Bonesunder followed in eerie quiet, Atlanta casting quick glances about.

The two drakes came within the point where they could latch onto the contoured rock entrance with their front paws. Their leader made a quick gesture at the walls, communing the next phase of action. Emala had always favored subtle approaches, and hence had worked out a system of silent signals with the others a long time ago. As they neared, Emala whispered a question into Skydive's ear. "Hear anything?"

The azure netherwing nodded. "I can hear them."

She nodded, satisfied with the information given by the drake's superior hearing. Emala roped one arm around the base of Skydive's neck as he grasped the rock wall with his front claws, flipping the rest of his body sideways. He dug his hind claws into the right wall and pressed himself against it. Lastraza did the same, then copied Skydive as he began to crawl along the rock. When the two drakes neared the statues, they leaped from the wall and landed with hardly a noise on the head of a statue. Emala and Pierceclaw climbed of Skydive's back. The tauren hunter knelt quietly, removing her bow from where it was slung over her shoulder.

The weapon was a powerful looking longbow, dubbed Vhishka by its owner, made of flexible metal and tied with feathers and animal teeth.

Keeping a wary eye on the ground below her, she removed a trap from her worn backpack and set a crimson crystal in it. Emala then swiftly attached the trap to a plain arrow that lacked a point, aiming it square toward the center of the hallway.

Opposite of them, on the head of another statue, Lastraza and Zalleen braced themselves. Zalleen stood in a spellcasting stance, while Lastraza scissored her jaws in preparation.

Atlanta landed Bonesunder just outside the temple entrance. The skeletal gryphon trotted over to one side while Atlanta took the other, holding her runeblade at a horizontal angle. Their part of the strategy was to block any attempt at escape.

Emala was a hunter, and she didn't want her pack to lose the prey.

It was a few tense minutes before she knew that patience had paid off. Sometimes it amazed her how quiet her boisterous group could be when they were focused.

Steps sounded below, echoing against the stone. A group of fourteen humanoids rounded the corner. From their attire and rugged appearance, it was concurred that these were the bandits the group was after. Oddly enough, the trolls and humans were largely empty handed except for a small wooden box.

Emala's eyebrows briefly creased in a frown. Why would they come here just for something that small and not take anything else?

Rather than bothering herself about that in the present, she set the thought aside for later. Emala released her hold on her bowstring just as the group of bandits came within a foot of the area between the statues.

The trap went sailing silently down, landing just in time for one of the trolls to trigger it.

A explosion of flames erupted into being. The group of vandals scattered briefly in confusion, while some flailed about amid the now fading flames of the trap, hair and clothes alight and covered in burns. The regenerating abilities of the troll was healing the burns, but the human caught in the blaze was cursing vehemently, every part of him save for some parts of the face charred and inflamed.

A round of fireballs came flying down next, successfully impacting one bandit and sending him sprawling against the wall. He was instantly unconscious when he cracked his head on the rock. Frost spells from Zalleen followed the fire up, entrapping them.

The crack of guns sounded. Emala ducked and jumped, Skydive aiding her fall to earth as the top of the statue's head became rained on by bullets.

Emala landed in a maneuverable crouch, while Skydive went soaring into the air again. Distracted from her by the nether drake, the bandits directed all of their firepower at Skydive. He pivoted and swopped, becoming an azure blur that used both the air and the walls as his tools to evade. A few bullets slightly nicked and grazed him, but Skydive was able to vastly remain unharmed, raining neon blue energy bolts down on them. Three fell, but the majority began to either fight back harder or run. Zalleen and Lastraza dropped from from above and began aiding in the battle, Lastraza using her claws and tail in a storm of physical blows and fire to ward off and maim the bandits. Zalleen but up a frost shield and attacked with frost bolts and rains of arcane energy.

The bandits soon revealed that they had more than guns. Some began to bombard Zalleen with arcane spells, while others threw down shaman totems. Lightning was summoned from a bandit shaman in a attempt to ground Skydive. The netherwing dexterously twisted in midair and avoided it, only to have a gun aimed square at his chest.

Before the gunman could even think about firing, one of Emala's heavy black arrows went sailing through the air with a deadly whistle, thunking into the back of the enemy's neck. The man fell limply to the ground.

Emala didn't even blink. A slightly morbid smile was on her lips. "Alive or dead," she droned flatly, her green eyes cold as flint. "No one kills any of my friends."

she whipped around with blinding speed, launching three arrows at once. One pierced a bandit's leg joint, causing the human to howl in pain. Another thunked into a troll's chest, just barely missing his heart. He snarled and ripped it out, the natural healing kicking in. despite that the wound was still spilling blood. The third arrow stabbed another bandit directly in the forehead, causing the man to instantly die from brain damage.

A battle cry sounded behind Emala. She whirled around and drew one of the two lightweight sabers she had sheathed by her waist and blocked an oncoming blade with it.

The bandit sneered, no doubt thinking he had leveled the playing field. Suddenly a low growl emitted from behind him. Pierceclaw seemed to materialize from thin air as he shed his invisibility, landing with claws spread wide on the enemy and tearing into his back with his talons.

The foe howled in pain and tried futilely to shake the raptor off. He managed to block Emala's first saber, only to feel the second one rip through his chest. Emala kicked him in the stomach with a heavy hoof, then slammed the hilt of a saber into his temple. The bandit fell unconscious.

Emala sheathed the sabers and took up her bow again, her eyes still cold. "If you know what's good for you, don't wake up. I don't mind killing those who try to harm me."

Well, that's the second chapter. 9 page document. It was kind of fun for me to reveal the side of Em that comes out in a fight.

This battle does have a point, as does what is in that wooden box. I cut the battle in half because for one thing, I felt like having a cliffhanger and I feel this story needs an update, and for another, I didn't want to make this chapter tediously long. Although if you would prefer the chaps to be linger, tell me.

Anyway, I hope this was satisfying. Review please (anonymous reviews accepted)

sincerely,

~dharak