Disclaimer: I don't own it! Do I have to use The Ashbringer now?

Chapter 2:

The battle settled by dawn? That's what was said by General Drek'Thar, leader of the Frostwolf Clan. But even he couldn't have foreseen old enemies coming to this world.

The Draenei, the blue-skinned, cloven-footed abominations that had recently joined the forces of the Alliance, had bolstered the defense of the Alliance so much that they were actually pushing the Horde back. It had been three days since Apfelkuchen and Shiboito had destroyed Stonehearth tower and Shiboito still lies unconscious. Apfelkuchen had managed to bring himself and Shiboito into a nearby cave for short-term shelter, hoping for some relief, but with the advance of the Alliance forces no Horde forces could have possibly come past the front lines and assisted the mages.

There were dark, ominous clouds out bringing a blinding blizzard with it. It was all Apfelkuchen could do to keep himself and Shiboito warm during this time. He had kindled a small bonfire in he middle of the cave, but with the wind as it was he couldn't go out and gather wood, so he had to sustain it with his own magical energy.

Shiboito still wasn't stirring from his sleep, and something told Apfelkuchen that if he wasn't helped soon he wouldn't make another night. Sure, Apfelkuchen was proficient in the anatomy of most humanoid creatures, and he was proficient in simple medical practices. But something like head trauma from a board propelled by and explosion? That was something that…

There was a noise at the other end of the cave… it was quiet and slow, almost like a foot step. A shadow loomed on the wall depicting a four legged form… almost catlike. Apfelkuchen drew his Magus Blade silently and prepared a quick spell.

The cat crept around the wall to face its new adversaries. Apfelkuchen shot a fireball straight at the cat's face, but the cat rolled away just as the fireball came within a hair's breath of it's nose. As the fire scorched the cave wall behind the cat, a second cat leapt around the corner, though this one was horned and much larger in comparison. The horned cat lunged at the unfortunate mage, pinning him to the ground and preparing to sink it's teeth into Apfelkuchen's neck… when it suddenly stopped.

Apfelkuchen seized the chance and flung a shield around himself to propel the horned cat back and then prepared another spell to finish the cat off when it suddenly jumped around him playfully and started licking him and rubbing on him as if to say "He's mine". Apfelkuchen didn't know what the hell was going on but realization soon came to him. After his heart rate had slowed down a bit he started to recognize the two cats.

The horned one suddenly started to glow faintly and morph into a half-bovine, half-human form. The bovine woman looked at Apfelkuchen with an apologetic expression and wrapped her arms around him affectionately. The Tauren, Ach, had realized how very close she had come to slaughtering not only her fellow fighter, but also the one she loved.

Apfelkuchen and Ach had been together since before these wars had even began, but never had they been put in a situation where they would have nearly killed each other at a moments notice. Ach looked like she was about to cry, but instead her expression hardened and a hard slap came across Apfelkuchen's face from the large Tauren's hand.

"We've been looking for you for two days now and we tried to contact you through you're scrying crystals but you never answered them! Why didn't you come back? And where's Shiboito." Ach said with a ticked look on her face.

"Me mon's over there havin' a deathly snooze." He pointed over to where Shiboito lay on the other side of the fire, still unconscious. "He got hit by debris when we blew up Stonehearth."

Ach rushed over to Shiboito's side while one of her arms turned into a tree branch. As she knelt down beside his prone form her branch arm grew vines that twined around him, as if inspecting him. The longer they worked the more grim Ach's expression became. "I can fix him up a bit but he's not going to be able to move much on his own unless we get him back to Frostwolf Keep." The surrounding moss and lichen inside the cave slowly withered as Ach attempted to heal Shiboito and arouse him from his slumber.

Another Blood Elf ran in as Ach was performing her druidic ritual. He looked at Shiboito, Ach, and Apfelkuchen. The second cat scampered quickly over to this new arrival and sat down at his side.

"Good, you guys found them, everything all right?" The Blood Elf asked.

"Not so much Soloron, Shiboito is in a trauma induced coma and Apfelkuchen is slightly injured… partially from me." Ach said rather sheepishly.

Soloron sighed, he leaded on the ace in his hand and looked at his bow in thought. "Jeez, and here I thought you guys would have been perfectly fine" he said as he removed his black helmet. He was slightly taller than Shiboito and short red hair but his eyes weren't as bright green as most other Blood Elves.

Ach finished her ritual and was now staring at the eyes of a now awoken Blood Elf mage.

"W-what the hell?" He managed to weakly get out. Apfelkuchen explained the situation to him from the time he had been knocked unconscious to right now.

As Shiboito slowly gained strength he spoke again "Then maybe we should get out of here, we can use the cover of the blizzard to cross the front lines."

"Did that debris do more damage to your head than I thought? You can't go out there like this." Ach stated stubbornly.

"Shiboito has a point," Ach leered at Soloron "If we leave during the blizzard no one will notice us, besides can't you just turn into a bear and carry him?"

Ach relented "This is true, but if we die I blame you!"

"Everyone blames me for everything" Soloron said in a tired voice.

The group prepared to set off over the course of that next half hour. Ach had shifted into a horned bear form and was carrying the still tired Shiboito on her back, Apfelkuchen and Soloron were running behind her. The blizzard was badly hampering their senses, but they could hear the sound of battle in front of them a good distance off ahead of them.

"We're getting close, but we will have to be more careful, the Alliance probably have more patrols around this area." Apfelkuchen cautioned.

"Relax, if we slipped by them once we can slip by them again." Soloron gloated.

Something whispered into the air as it notched an arrow to a bow. "Famous last words scum!" Soloron wheeled around as his long Elven ears picked up the whispering voice just in time to dodge the arrow coming at him. He whipped out his own bow to take aim at the assailant. He let an arrow fly which struck true in the chest of the enemy, but there were more coming behind him. Far more.

"Shit! RUN!" Apfelkuchen yelled above the war cries of several more Alliance forces. Ach roared in desperation as her burden weighed her down. Soloron threw down a box and kicked it open, several highly venomous snakes slithered out to face the unsuspecting recruits. That stalled them a few seconds and cost them a few of their numbers but there were more than enough to keep the tide moving. The hundreds of warriors all rushed as one toward the group of four, fear being the only thing driving their tired and burning legs.

"What… are they all… doing here?" Soloron panted.

"They must be a group of eager and fresh reinforcements that spotted us." Shiboito said just before hurling a chunk of flame into the enemy ranks, not faltering them at all.

Apfelkuchen held up a shield to ward off the enemy arrows, but he was tiring fast. Shiboito took over with the shield just as Apfelkuchen used the last bit of his energy to create a fire among the bushes and trees. This slowed down the pursuers even more, but they had a new problem on their hands, they had reached the front lines…

Authors note:

Iwantchicken is the Blood Elf hunter that Soloron is named after.