As Norivana's blade sank to make the kill, her blade deflected against the man's skin and made no mark. It was like trying to cut steel, and it even made a tinny sound when the point of her knife skidded harmlessly over him.
She had fought enough to recognize what it was: a magical shield had just been cast on the unconscious elf.
Dread trickled through her, and she leapt to her feet, eyes sweeping the area. She was wary; if there was one survivor, there could easily be more. Her green eyes fell on Aitto, who she thought had still been inside. To her surprise, his hand was outstretched, with the remnants of a spell drifting from his fingers. He had magically shielded the elf.
She stared at her comrade incredulously, utterly and completely at a loss.
"What are you doing?"
Krazak'zul, the war-beaten troll accompanying them, glared at Aitto with a mixture of confusion and betrayal.
"Dat be a nasty choice, takin' dat he-elf's side. What be goin' thru dat head of yours, ya blunderin' fool?" the troll nearly spat the last bit, knocking his staff against his own head theatrically. His deep jungle Zandali accent was thick, and his voice was a coarse, throaty growl. If Norivana hadn't been so used to the trolls' dialect, she'd have no idea what this man was saying.
Aitto silently gave them both a quick glance, impervious to their skeptical glares, and then knelt next to the injured elf as he spoke.
"Don't kill him yet. He may have valuable intel." Aitto's voice sounded commanding and persuasive, though still somewhat calm and collected as he always was. The elf shifted slightly, still unconscious but reacting to Aitto nevertheless.
Aitto sent Norivana a reassuring look she recognized, a look she trusted completely. Though she felt hesitant, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. She trusted him, and if this is what he thought was best, she'd respect that. She nodded quietly and took a step back as Aitto prepared a light healing spell.
The troll wasn't so easily swayed, however.
"And what if he don't know, paladin? What ya plan tah do then?" He sneered, shifting forward and gripping his staff, the tip of the weapon glowing a little brighter. Aitto stood immediately, towering over the troll, his impressive height setting himself taller - at least a foot, maybe two.
"Then I will deal with him."
Krazak'Zul was unfazed by Aitto's size, and he stood his ground, raising his weapon. Norivana sensed the air shift around them, the life in it corrupting and draining away. Through her own experiences with warlocks, she realized what was about to happen, and thankfully so did Aitto. He quickly interrupted Krazak'Zul with a powerful silencing spell, effectively ending the attempt to hex him.
Dazed, the troll shook his head and veered to the left, then to the right, and finally slumped down onto one knee to keep from continuing his disoriented dance. Blood dripped from the tusked man's nose, a tiny trickle, nothing more.
Aitto's voice resonated its deep, controlled growl. "Do not test me, grunt. I do not intend to forsake my allegiance to our Horde by mere curiosity. It would do you well to provide me with respect." Despite his growl, he expressed this all quite calmly, though his body language showed otherwise. He stood threateningly close to Krazak'Zul, thumbing a gigantic mace that for anyone else would've definitely required the use of both hands to wield. His green eyes did not waver, fixed directly on the blood red of the troll's.
Caught up in the intensity of the moment, Norivana had nearly forgotten she was still present. She planted a firm hand on the troll's shoulder to keep him from keeling over, and also to keep him in his place lest he try something again. She and the troll watched her tauren curiously.
Aitto knelt down next to the night elf again, peering at the gash on his skull. It didn't look promising, but Norivana knew Aitto's abilities stretched far beyond most healers of the Horde. He was an impressive specimen; calm, collected, and surprisingly deadly. He held so much power, yet he wielded it with such grace and restraint that many of his foes, to their own demise, underestimated him. He was not arrogant with his skill; on the contrary, he held it as almost a curse of sorts. Norivana remembered one time as a child, he had confessed that he wished he was a poor warrior, so he could die in battle rather than continue to kill. He had no way out, not for some time. However, his talents combined surpassed every other paladin that Norivana had ever encountered. He maintained the ability to heal a soldier with one spell and then within seconds deliver a deadly blow to an enemy. He was, in the eyes of his superiors, the perfect soldier. A priceless ally. If anyone could heal this elf, it was Aitto.
He summoned a healing spell that shone golden in his hand, and he pressed his fingers to the elf's temples. Light tendrils snaked out, engulfing the unconscious man in a soft glow that wove through his essence, welding broken skin to skin, leaving nothing but pale, silvery scars in its wake. It stitched down his limbs to the tips of his toes and fingers, leaving nothing untouched.
As the healing light receded, the elf gasped loudly, inhaling a single, raspy breath and opening his glowing amber eyes, which were so intensely bright that they cast reflections off of Aitto's plate armor. Norivana had never seen an elf's eyes shine that strongly.
The silver-haired man took one single look at the massive figure of pitch black fur that was Aitto and snapped. A crazed, half-feral snarl—or, more like a panicked bark—escaped his throat, and he nimbly found his way to his feet and launched himself toward the nearest exit. Aitto was prepared for this, and before the elf had made it more than four paces, he was captured again by the brawny tauren and held immobile.
Aitto quickly shouted for Norivana to restrain the elf by use of cords or ropes, or really anything they could get their hands on. Norivana had a roll of twine rope in her pack, and she removed it and went to work on the struggling captive. By now, he was letting out an angry stream of unintelligible threats that sounded Darnassian, along with a few growls that sounded more feral than anything she'd ever heard come from a person. His pronunciation was so garbled; she couldn't tell what he was saying. Maybe the guy had a killer concussion, or maybe his dialect was contorted for some reason. She should've been able to understand him, as her own Thalassian language was quite close to his. Maybe he was literally speaking gibberish.
She finished binding his hands and legs, which proved quite a feat due to his thrashing and kicking and the occasional attempted bite.
Krazak'Zul had been watching from afar, skulking, pacing the ground now that he'd recovered. When he saw that the elf had both been fully healed and detained, the wicked sneer reappeared on his face, and he waltzed over to them.
"So we be healin' before torture? Dat a new kind o' cruel, Mon," he simpered at Aitto impishly, a flash of excitement passing over his features, as if he believed his own words.
For a moment, Norivana thought she could see the night elf's eyes widen in shock after the troll said this, which struck her strange. It's abnormal for an Ally to understand Orcish, the Horde's universal language. But first and foremost, this pest of a troll needed dealt with.
This time Norivana stepped in.
"No. If he knows nothing, we kill him quickly. Painlessly." She said the last word with a grimace. How could they get it through his thick skull that this elf was not to be tortured?
The troll snorted indignantly and waved a hand at her, finally acknowledging her presence for the first legitimate time. "Tssh. I don't be bossed by children, little girl. Leave da work to da real soldiers."
Norivana bristled. Indeed, she was young. Immensely young for an elf, and though she was matured both mentally and physically, in their cultures she'd be considered adolescent. But she'd been abandoned by her kin, and with that abandonment went all the beliefs, customs, and traditions that followed the blood elves.
She glared at the warlock but refused him the satisfaction of a response. Anything she could say she'd probably regret later on. She returned her attention to the night elf, who had paused his squirming and was staring at the two of them, confusion written across his face.
"Aitto, you know the Common tongue, right?" Norivana asked, having completely forgotten what they'd have to do after they'd restrained their captive. She didn't know the language, and she knew Aitto didn't either. Neither of them had ever had the need for the language. This was the first time they'd done something like this.
Aitto froze for a second, his face scrunching up, and his green eyes furrowed. "No, and I forgot you don't either..." he trailed off, his eyes searching the ground as if it held an answer to their issues. Norivana studied him hard for a few good seconds. He had a look on his face she had never seen before. He looked out-of-place. Trapped. Confused. Lost, even. None of those words could be applied reasonably to the predicament they were in. He had something else brewing in his head. He had saved this man's life for a different reason than this, she realized. He didn't really want to interrogate him.
She didn't say anything, though. Not with this troll here.
Krazak'Zul let out a loud guffaw, clapping his hands together. "Save da Elfie to interrogate it, and you don't know da tongue to do it? Now who be da stupid one?" He doubled over, his off-grey and blue-streaked matted hair falling over his face as he laughed.
Aitto and Norivana ignored him as best they could, and the snowy-haired elf appeared more terrified than ever at the sight of an enemy troll laughing itself to bits about something obviously regarding him.
"We can take him to Orgrimmar," Aitto mumbled, and Norivana nodded.
"That works. There are many there who speak Common. Not to mention we can just pass him off to higher-ranks and be rid of him. I don't like this responsibility. It makes me edgy."
"Guess that's the only option we have," Aitto agreed with a snort, and he pulled the petrified elf to his feet before loosening his grip, allowing about six inches of slack. That, however, was a huge mistake.
The second Aitto relaxed his hold on the night elf's bindings, the elf wrenched himself forward, nearly pulling out of Aitto's grip completely. Once he'd gained a decent amount of space, a few feet at least, the elf then let out a roar, which to Norivana's terror, became much more intense as he transformed into a sleek, pearly-white saber cat. He was a druid.
She'd encountered many druids, but this was a whole new level of shapeshifting. He was hands-down the biggest, strangest-looking cat she'd ever seen—at least the size of a full-grown tiger, if not larger. The transformation tore the twine around him like putty, and what lay crouched in front of them now was a whole four hundred pounds of lean, deadly, pissed-off white feline.
Norivana, wide-eyed, ducked just in time as the cat leapt at her and the troll, claws shining like poisoned daggers. Aitto let out a shout at the sight of the druid attacking his companion, and he charged at the silvery creature, giant hammer at the ready. The cat crouched again, preparing for a counter-attack. Norivana realized the cat had sights set on Krazak'zul, almost exclusively. He launched again, but what Aitto did caught him off-guard.
Aitto let out a burst of lightning, complete with a deafening clap of thunder that resonated through the ground and knocked the feline off its feet and nearly unconscious. Norivana stumbled backward at the quake, and the troll nearby simply toppled onto his butt.
Before the cat could recover, Aitto swung his hammer and caught the animal right in the jaw, sending him reeling. The druid's golden eyes flickered as he collapsed, and he had no choice but to shift back to his elvish form, as the energy to sustain the shapeshift was too great. After a failed moment of trying to regain his composure, he fell unconscious.
Norivana and Aitto stood there panting, and out of the corner of their eye Krazak'Zul let out a low whistle as he stood.
"Still want to take dat one back to Orgrimmar?" he asked derisively, and Norivana sent him a look of daggers.
"Now more than ever." she bit back, and the troll gave her a wide, mocking grin. She turned away and approached the downed druid. "So, rope doesn't work. He'll shift if he wakes. Unless..."
"Unless what?" Aitto asked, by now hoping for a miracle that would help them get this elf to Orgrimmar without incident.
"I could torrent his energy, prevent him from shifting again. He'll be nothing but a flower child without his mana pool."
Aitto gave her a look of gratitude and shook his head. "You're a gem, Norivana."
She gave him a smile, something she rarely offered to anyone but her brother-in-arms. Without hesitation, she placed her palm firmly on the unconscious elf's chest and unleashed the torrent, creating a vacuum around her that engulfed a large amount of the energy and mana from the druid. She waited a bit to regain her power, then did it again, effectively removing all mana from the elf's pool.
"That'll be a surprise to wake up to," she said, smacking her hands together, satisfied with her work.
The group managed to make it out of the gulch and into the woods just inside the forests of Ashenvale. They chose to take the wooded route as they'd be less-likely to encounter anyone who could pose a threat to their live cargo. Not everyone in the Horde understood the concept of 'more valuable alive'.
Aitto had the elf slung over his broad shoulders, and they traveled south for nearly an hour before they decided to set up camp just off the road. It was dark out now, and traveling through the woods at night tended to attract all sorts of unwanted attention.
Aitto shuffled over to a large, broad tree and placed the elf at the base so that his back was resting against the trunk. He then wrapped a large, strong length of twine around him, tethering him to the tree, this time knowing that thanks to Norivana, there was no way he'd break free.
Krazak'Zul watched from a distance, then approached Aitto after a moment.
"I don' see no reason to be goin' through all dis trouble. I bet if ya tried hard enough, Elfie would speak any language ya want 'im tah speak. Pain can make a man do anything." The troll's tusked grin crinkled darkly.
Aitto stiffened, finally letting annoyance flicker across his dark features. "What's got you so intent on torturing the creature?" he inquired, shaking his head and placing himself between Krazak'Zul and the tied druid.
"Any sensible Horde be putting his duties tah his cause at number one, tauren," Krazak'Zul took a step back from the tauren. "Why ya so bothered by da idea of it? It be fasteh, easieh, not to mention a lot more fun." His eyes seemed to flicker at the thought, and he flashed a sickeningly wicked glance at the pale blue-skinned elf.
Aitto growled low in his chest. "You will not harm him by spell or by blade, lest you wish to suffer for it. Am I clear, warlock? We will leave these matters to the Warchief."
At the mention of their leader, Krazak'Zul's leering grin turned into more of a sneer, and then an angry scowl as he finally got the paladin's point.
"Fine," he grunted simply, recognizing the fact that Aitto was stronger than him and taking a step back, slumping down next to a tree on a soft spot of lush, blue-tinted grass.
While this went on, Norivana had been silently gathering stray branches for a small fire, and when she returned she saw Aitto lounged on the ground, tactfully having placed himself between the warlock and the druid. The druid was still out cold, and it appeared the warlock was sleeping. Aitto lay awake, however, and he sat up when he saw her approaching.
"Never would've guessed we'd be in this situation at this time yesterday, huh?" Norivana smirked, and Aitto shook his head.
"'Vana, I really don't get surprised anymore. It's too much work," his voice carried mild humor.
Norivana continued to smile slightly as she piled the wood and lit the tinder underneath. After a moment she had a healthy, young flame, which hungrily ate the twigs and branches she fed it until it had grown to an acceptable size. She leaned back on her heels and watched Aitto, who was deep in thought, staring at the dancing flames with intelligent eyes.
"Aitto," she began, and the jet-black tauren raised a brow and met her gaze.
"Mm?"
"Why did you save the elf? And please don't say it's because you want to interrogate him. We've encountered survivors before. You've never once done this."
Aitto let out a sigh, pondering silently. Just when Norivana thought he wasn't going to answer, he spoke up.
"No clue, really. I surprised myself in placing that shield on him."
Norivana thought for a moment.
"So you didn't want to capture him for interrogation then?"
"No. That was just my excuse. I guess..." he trailed off, and Norivana almost sensed shame in his voice.
"What, Aitto?" she asked, this time her voice soft and quiet, anxious even.
"I guess I just didn't want him to die." The confession seemed to be not only to her, but to himself, too.
Norivana pursed her lips. This actually wasn't as strange as it should've been. Aitto wasn't the sort of person to wish death upon someone in the first place. Sure, he would do what needed to be done, but he never took enjoyment in it. In fact, as a general rule, outside battlegrounds he was somewhat of a pacifist - a gentle giant. What struck her strange, however, was his plan to take the elf into Orgrimmar. Why save a man's life just to throw him to the wolves?
"And yet you're taking him to Garrosh Hellscream? Isn't that a fate worse than death itself? You know of his outlook on the Alliance, Aitto. Not to mention he's the leader of the Warsong clan, the very same faction we're opposing just by letting this elf live."
The bull gave her a pained expression, and she immediately wanted to drop the subject. This was, for some reason, seriously affecting her friend. She scooted around the fire next to him, feeling like an ant compared to him. Placing her head on his elbow, as that was the nearest to her height, she tried to comfort him.
"We could come up with something else to do. What if we just...let him go? For all Hellscream knows, every single Alliance soldier was killed there."
He gave her an appreciative nudge with his arm, snorting once before speaking. "Our friend the troll would get us executed for that. I honestly don't know what's come over me. Seeing that man lying there, completely at the mercy of you and me, fated to die for no reason other than pure, utter racism... That's what all this is. That's what our fight has become. And I am done. I just cannot stand the thought of...of killing one more..."
As if on cue, the night elf behind them stirred, and Norivana turned around to see that he wasn't struggling at all against his bindings, just getting comfortable. His bright golden eyes lay wide open, staring through the darkness straight at her. The hair on her neck bristled at first, the sight a little too eerie for her liking. It was as if he were trying to read her. His stare shifted to Aitto, who hadn't turned.
At that moment Norivana decided she'd had enough for one night. This was stressful, and if she wanted to be able to deal with it in the morning, sleep was the best medicine.
"I'm going to sleep, Aitto. We will figure something out at first light."
Aitto nodded and turned his head down to hers, pressing his sloped forehead against her skull in an affectionate gesture. She rolled out her bedroll and placed it near the fire, and fell asleep to the comforting warm crackle of the burning wood.
An agonizing, gut-wrenching shout of a man in pain ripped through Norivana's consciousness, and she whipped her eyes open, lurching upright and searching wildly in the direction of the sound. Morning light barely peeked through the forest canopy, and her groggy eyes struggled in adjusting to the surroundings. She stood up, glancing around frantically, but saw nothing.
Another cry ripped through the trees.
It was then that she discovered Krazak'Zul was missing.
And so was the elf.