Chapter 2: That Sly Bastard Arthas
Disclaimer: I don't own World of Warcraft blah blah. I am not being paid to write this Blah blah blah.
Damn that bell. How the hell did they even know it was morning? The sun never shown and the sky was always dark. Never the less, I dragged myself out of bed and began to put my armor on. I was one of the highest ranking Druid's there was in my encampment, so it was only fitting I got to wear the best gear. For the most part, it was alright, but the shoulders got heavier the longer you wore them. That, and the helm looked ridiculous. It made me look as if I had a raven's beak. It protected me though, and that's what counted the most. I threw on my boots and clasped my cape to my back then headed out of the tent I shared with two others.
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, which usually wasn't so bad, but today the smell was terrible. I coughed and wheezed as I looked to see which direction the smell was coming from. Smoke was coming from the Alchemy lab at the far end of the camp. As I jogged my way over to see what had happened, the smell became worse. It was clear to say that was where the smell was coming from.
Several humans wearing gas masks were hastily cleaning up what looked to be like some sort of chemical explosion. I could already tell who had done it. Gimbly. That gnome had a talent for blowing things up, especially with chemicals. No doubt the commander would be chewing her out this very moment.
That's just what he was doing too, when I found him and Gimbly several feet away from the accident. He was yelling pretty loud too, So loud, I'm sure anyone with ear's as sensitive as mine could hear him from the other side of camp. Poor Gimbly, she was only trying to help too. I kept my distance while I waited for him to go away. As he stormed away from her, I silently crept up behind her and let out a sigh.
Gimbly jumped so high, you would have thought she had sprouted wings or something. I covered my mouth to suppress the giggle trying to escape my lips.
"Seth!" Gimbly exclaimed, "Don't sneak up on me like that! You know how jittery I am."
"Sorry Gimbly," I apologized. I was sorry, but it was always so funny to frighten the poor girl. She was fixed on the idea that one day I would give her a heart attack. "What were you working on this time?"
" Ex 139B," she stated. I gave her a quizzical look. She sighed before clearing her throat. "The potion that brings ghouls back to life! The way they were before they died."
"Seriously? I thought you would have given up on that one ages ago!" Gimbly was a genius with potions, but this one seemed a tad far fetched. I mean really, a potion that brings ghouls back to life? PLEASE! If it were that simple, I would have discovered it long ago. I was a wiz at Alchemy. "What ingredients did you put in it?"
"Well, lets see.." as she started to list off the various ingredients, counting with her fingers, I felt a sudden chill in the air. As dead as the land around me was, it could still speak to me. As a druid, I was trained to listen to it carefully, and to trust it's word with my life. Something was moving; something big.
"Winter's Bite, and Fire Leaf," finished Gimbly.
"Wait, what? Winter's Bite and Fire Leaf? Geeze Gimbly! Even you should know those two cancel each other out. Alchemy 101!" yelled another gnome to her as I wandered away.
I began to pick up the pace as I maneuvered my way through camp to the main tent. What ever was about to happen, I had a feeling my superiors should know about it, if they didn't already. Apparently, they already knew. Not even ten feet from the opening of the tent I ran into the commander. He had seemed to be in some deep thought before I knocked into him and sent him back to earth.
"Saberwind? Good, just the person I was looking for. You're to head to the field immediately. The scourge is moving an army full of Abominations away form Icecrown Citadel up toward The Conflagration. We have already sent several platoons that way. We need every available unit out there now, and that means you!" said the commander. I nodded and went to gather my things. This was the third movement like this this month. What was Arthas up to?
As I approached the battle field, it looked like the battle had already begun. I quickly dove down and touched ground, shape shifting into my tree form upon landing. I went from crowd to crown tossing a heal to who ever needed one, every now and then switching into cat form to take on a ghoul or two who thought I was an easy target. That was the last thing I would ever be.
The longer the battle dragged on, the more I began to wonder what was the true meaning behind this skirmish. Usually Arthas was more clever than this. Was this just a meaningless massacre? No, there had to be a reason for this. As I threw out a few more heals, I felt a chill again. Something was missing...Oh no..Abominations! Where were they!? Hadn't the commander said this army would be made solely of them? Had he been misinformed? No, he hadn't. Right on cue, several Abominations appeared from what seemed to be no where. I mentally cursed my luck. I would probably die out here. Well, at least I wouldn't go without a fight!
I changed from my tree form to cat, and started slaughtering any ghoul that got in my way. Again, I felt a chill. They weren't fighting back! But why? I swore my heart stopped beating for a split second when the realization finally hit me. This was a mass suicide attempt on Arthas' part. He let us catch word of this movement, knowing we would send the majority of our troops here. That's when he would send in the Abominations and blow everything within the vicinity up. I tried to call for a retreat, but it was no use. My voice wouldn't work. I was frozen with fear. Every passing second seemed to creep by slowly, as I looked death straight in the eyes. It smiled at me, welcoming me into it's cold embrace, I tried to run, but my feet failed me as well. I had locked up. The only thing that seemed to work was my brain, which, at the moment, was of no damn use to me anyway.
Just as my body started to unlock it happened. Thousands of screams all at once, as abomination by abomination blew up, sending hundreds upon hundreds of men and women flying. I tried to escape with some of the others who had tried to flee, but it was too late for everyone. The force of the explosion had knocked me sky high. Just as I was about to fly off, something hard and warm flew at me, both knocking the wind out of me and making everything in my world go black.
Saying I was surprised was an understatement. I was alive! I couldn't believe it! Was I uninjured? Of course not! My head was pounding so hard I could have sworn I had just been run over by a heard of Kodo. I used my hand to prop myself up, and to my surprise, I felt something...fuzzy? As I placed my other hand over the back of my head, I cracked and eye open. Where the hell was I?
It was a circular room with bookshelves lining the walls. Here and there books were scattered around. Near the door, there was a desk with a giant book on it that sparked my interest. I stood up, careful not to disturb anything or show any sign of ever being there. I quietly walked over to the desk and took a look at the book. It was open to a page with what seemed to be some kind of recipe for a potion on it. I skimmed over the ingredients, recognizing some while others I had never even heard of. I silently flipped to the next page and skimmed through. My eyes began to widen when the importance of what I had stumbled upon hit me. Right in front of me was a way to win this awful war. I flipped back to the page with the ingredients on it. I quickly ran over to the window to see if the book could fit through. There was no way. It was too big, and probably to heavy for me to carry anyway. The scene outside the window sparked my interest. I had never been in this building before. Though, that was probably because it was Icecrown Citadel itself! How the hell did I end up in here? I shook the thought out of my head and returned to the book. I quickly memorized the ingredients written in the book and made a mad dash for the window.
I could feel my body begin to change shape as half of my body was already out of the window. My body had begun to shrink and my facial features had begin to change into bird like features. I could feel the bones in my arms begin to become light enough for flying, and feathers begin to grow. In an instant, the process froze. My body became cool, my heart came to a sudden halt, and my vision blurred, ultimately fading to black.
Wow, two chapters in two days! Thats never happened before...I guess I really like writting this story! As always, please review! Also, once Seth loses her memory, where do you think she shoud end up? Please let me know! Also, I also put a poll up on my user page, so please check it out and vote!