Five years later...

Treris squatted low to the ground, carefully keeping the stag in sight. It was not aware of her presence yet, as she had taken great pains to stay downwind of it. Her cat, Ripper, stood silently beside her, waiting for her signal to go and take it down. She carefully scanned the area, taking note that the pack had moved on, while her prey was still investigating the food she had laid out. When she was sure the stag was reasonably isolated she carefully drew back her bow.

The arrow flew from the shaft and hit the stag squarely in the hind quarters. Ripper leapt from his cover and was in a moment on the creature, tearing at its flesh and keeping it from running. Treris stood up and let another arrow fly, this one burying itself in its side, hitting the heart. The stag gave one last cry and fell back. She walked over to the body, still twitching with the last vestiges of life, feeling pretty good about herself. Pulling out her skinning knife, she quickly went to work in getting the skin separated so she could make leather out of it. The flesh was still warm and by the time she was done, her hands and arms were caked in congealing blood.

Swinging the carcass on her back she began the trek back to Astranaar. The afternoon sun trickled through the thick branches above her. The cover did not make it cooler, in fact it held the heat of the summer in, and she felt sweat trickling down every part of her body and she took step, after slow step home. It seemed an eternity before she finally got back to the town, although it was probably less than half an hour. The Sentinels nodded as she passed, but otherwise made no move to help her as she made her way to the inn's kitchen. Kaela, the cook, looked pleased when she came in and quickly took the cooling stag off her shoulders.

"Oh this will be excellent," she said when she hung it up on the hook and appraised it, "lots of good meat here."

She whistled for one of her helpers, who came in with a purse and waited for instructions. Kaela was already cutting into the dead animal's belly so that she could remove the organs.

"I can get a lot of uses out of this, Treris, say, 50 silver?"

Treris nodded and greatfully took the money from the helper, who then went back into the main part of the inn. She then grabbed some salt and headed on outside to start curing the hide so she could sell it too. Laying the skin down on the ground, she was distracted by a chuckle behind her. An elf she had never met before was standing behind her, wearing the colors of a messenger of Darnassus and looked rather full of himself.

"50 silver for all that work?"

She scowled at him but didn't say anything. If he had something to say he could come right out and say it, not beat around the bush like an idiot.

"I would think someone of your talents would be out in the world, making far more than that, and having a lot more fun while she's at it."

She snorted at him, "What are you talking about? I don't know who you are, so you can't know about my talents."

"Well a stag of that size killed so cleanly," he said and then with a smirk added, "and I assumed it ran in the family."

That made her stop. She got up and turned to face him, mere inches away. Ripper sensed the tension and came up beside her, ready to attack when she gave the signal.

"And what," she said, her voice making it clear that how he answered next was important, "is that supposed to mean?"

He smiled and said quietly, "I knew your sister."

"'Knew'?" she repeated, her voice edging close to violence, "as far as I know she isn't past tense yet."

"As far as anyone knows," he said, "the fact is, no one knows."

Treris refused to let the shock show on her face, although she hadn't seen her sister in years, she had always been assured that SI:7 or the Rangers knew where she was at all times. After all, Treris didn't "need to know" what Sejova was doing. If they were asking her then something was very wrong.

He turned the giant cat and started to head off, "you've been requested by the Moon Priestess Denalia, at the Temple in Darnassus. But if you prefer hunting game and making a pittance for it, then by all means stay here."

He then rode off, leaving her blinking and staring, her rage no less diminished.

Two days later, she was in Darnassus. Her hair had been cleaned, brushed out and neatly braided behind her head. She had put on her nicer leathers, which she wore when she was a small time adventurer. Ripper stalked beside her as she entered the Temple of the Moon, feeling confident and ready for anything, which lasted for about a minute. The priestesses always made her feel self conscious. They were all beautiful, almost fragile like, dressed in delicate linens, giving them an ethereal loveliness that Treris, even when she was in her opinion well dressed, could never hope to achieve. Well at least she could be business like. She found Denalia pretty quickly by asking around. She was sitting by the pool in the center, staring dreamily at nothing at all it seemed. She looked up as Treris approached and smiled at her, beckoning for her to sit down.

"Thank you for coming," she said, "I'd hoped you wouldn't turn me down."

"My pleasure," Treris answered and got straight to business, "I understand that this is about my sister."

"Mmmm," Denalia said nodding, "as you know she hasn't been back to Darnassus in a number of years. Given the nature of her work, we are used to her disappearing for long periods of time, but now we are starting to get worried."

Treris nodded, but did not answer, and so she continued, "she had finished her last job for us, and we didn't have anymore work for her, so she said she was going to go to the Plaguelands and find work there, since then no one has seen her. At first we thought she had been killed there, but we couldn't be sure," she paused and said very carefully, "since no body ever turned up."

Treris knew exactly what the implication there was. People killed in the Plaguelands didn't always leave a body, they became part of the Scourge. So the possibilities were either she was dead and stayed dead, she had risen to serve the Scourge or she was just hiding.

"We just want to know if she's alive or not, and where she is," Denalia said, "but your sister is nothing of not professional. If she doesn't want to be found, she wont'."

Treris nodded, understanding, "you think she'll come out if she knows I'm looking for her."

Denalia said, "yes, we were hoping that if you put your name out there, she might come to you and let you know that she's alive."

She was hiding something, Treris realized, there was something else going on, but she knew that she was not going to get it.

"So," Denalia said standing up and beckoning a page over, "we have some small jobs for you to do, and from there on you can go your own way. We only ask that you keep your eyes and ears open."