From darkness, the world around him began to reform itself. From the chill of the grave, he had returned, though he had other concerns on his mind, even as the winged woman floated in front of him informing him of his rebirth. He clutched a gem in his hand as the undertaker approached him.
"About time you woke up. We were about to-
Wait, that staff on your back, that stone...
Could it be? Is it really you?"
"Yes, undertaker; I live again..."
"Ah, I knew it. I had better take you to the Undercity. I'm sure the dark lady would be glad to see you..."
As the undead took his arm, the once elderly human pulled his staff from his back and struck down the undertaker, and he ran from him as fast as he could.
"I should have known he would do this. Well, I had best find aid from the death guards, or the master will be lost to us..."
As Starshock opened his eyes, he found himself back in Orgrimmar for the first time in a year, though it felt like forever to him. Surprisingly, very little had changed about the city in spite of the apparently vicious siege, though he figured they could have cleaned up in a few months time.
"Hail, innkeeper. Can you inform me of any recent events?"
"Starshock! I thought you had vanished from the face of Azeroth. Anyway, after the siege, things have been pretty quiet. Thrall is still in Pandaria observing Garrosh's trial, Vol'jin has reached a ceasefire with the alliance, albeit a temporary one, and the search was cancelled."
Starshock knew of most of these events, but the last one caught his attention.
"Excuse me, innkeeper, but what search do you refer to?"
"Oh, it was a minor story, so it makes sense you don't know. Well apparently, there's some kind of new faction forming. They haven't opened themselves up to the public, so a lot of folks were getting suspicious about them. Garrosh sent out a search party to track down their base of operations, but nothing was found, and Vol'jin didn't want to waste their energy."
Starshock was worried he might have been talking about the CoM, but he kept himself composed and responded calmly,
"Well, if they make themselves known, I'm sure we can handle them."
Knowing he couldn't find out anything else in Orgrimmar, he called his nether-drake and flew to Ashenvale to see if the Kor'kron, or what was left of them, were still harvesting lumber. Before he reached the outpost, he saw something hiding in the trees. He decided to ignore it and continue flying, but a forceful blast of frost energy sent his drake falling to the ground, along with himself. In spite of the blast, he landed without injury, and his drake was only startled, but he figured that whatever did that was hoping for a lot worse...
"I figured the night elves would still be here, but I was hoping to go about this peacefully...", he whispered to himself, then he pulled out his axe and walked up to a nearby tree.
"Well, if that's how you want to play," he shouted in rough Darnassian, "Then this is how I'm going to play!"
He lifted his axe as if to cut down the tree, and as he did, a night elf leaped out at him, but he was ready for her and knocked her away with his shield. Getting a look at her crimson hair, her unnaturally pale skin, her glowing blue eyes, and her weapon of choice, a blade giving off a deathly blue glow, he realized why she was so quick to attack him.
"She's a death knight. Why am I not surprised?"
Though he said this in Orcish, she seemed to understand him and responded back,
"And just what do you mean by that, paladin?"
"I mean," Starshock sneered back, "That only a death knight could be so quick to make an attack like that, and so uncalled for..."
"Stow that talk, tauren, or you'll learn of something else only a death knight could do. Now leave this forest at once; this is the land of my people."
"Yes, I know that, but I'm not here to cause trouble. I've just been away from Kalmindor so long, so I needed to see what had changed. Apparently, many things have, and this time for the better..."
The elf seemed kind of surprised by his last statement, and asked him,
"What do you mean?"
Starshock put his axe away and began talking again.
"You see, I'm not like the rest of the horde. I don't want to see these people wasting their lives on a war that never needed to happen in the first place. I know very well what awaits us in the years ahead, and so do you..."
As the night elf listened on, she put her sword away, seemingly growing calm. She finally spoke again.
"Very well. But if you want to see more of what has changed, I recommend you journey back to the Eastern Kingdoms, as there is little else here for you to find."
As Starshock prepared to call his drake, he couldn't help but detect a powerful fel taint from somewhere...
"So I guess those demons aren't important?"
He and the night elf followed the potent fel energy to its source, and what they found shocked them, to say the least.
In the Demon Fall Canyon, a base of demonic operations not far from Orgrimmar, the legion's division was apparently building some kind of giant machine, and had evidently been bolstering their ranks.
"I thought we had driven the legion out after the Cataclysm...", the death knight said, clearly surprised to find demons within their forest.
"Well," Starshock responded "I guess we'll have to finish the job!"
Before either of them said anything else, he rushed into their base and began hacking away at the demons. Very soon, he was surrounded by fel guards, succubi, and even an infernal, fending off attacks from all sides. As the infernal prepared to land a crushing blow on him, the creature roared and collapsed, destroyed by the elf's frost magic. She slayed many other demons over the course of the ambush, all too distracted by the large paladin who had charged them to even see her. They had cleared out the main area pretty quickly, but they knew that the demons would return, and would be more prepared to fend off any future heroes.
"The demons must have a hidden gate of some kind. There is no other way they could have replenished their ranks so quickly."
Starshock nodded back to her, "Well, they are gone again, and this time, they know that who they're up against hasn't given up. Perhaps you could gather up a few scouts and hunt down that portal, then we could end the legion's presence here once and for all. I'd love to stay and help, but I'd like to check out the Eastern Kingdoms like you said I should."
"That is exactly what I intend to do," she called her undead steed to her, ready to return to the night elf capital and rally a search party. "Oh, and I forgot to say, you fight very well for a tauren..."
"Thanks, elf. You're pretty good yourself."
"Please, don't call me 'elf'. My name is Anstyce."
"Anstyce...
Then you can call me Starshock. Good luck Anstyce, and let's hope we get a chance to meet again."
He mounted his drake and flew back to Orgrimmar, and as he left her sight, the night elf whispered to herself,
"This one seems rather unusual to me. Perhaps I should let Trixye know he's on his way to her location..."