Disclaimer: I do not own Warcraft or its sequels. Blizzard does.
Massive thanks to my beta, Dusty the Umbravita, for finding those embarrassing errors.
Chapter published 3/16/12
Amanthe
"Let's see. Backpack, check." I said, placing the large leather pack onto the stone floor of Grim Batol.
"Change of clothes?" I turned my head to look at the pair of dirt-colored clothing on the ground laying over the indigo clothing Selriona had conjured. I currently wore dull brown clothes, to prevent arousing suspicion in Orgrimmar. "Check," I said, packing them away with room to spare.
As several more minutes passed, I took inventory of everything I needed. Water, food, a map of Orgrimmar. Once satisfied, I nodded and stood. I'd been preparing for three days for my journey to Orgrimmar. Needless to say, I was worried. Selriona had told me the Orb of Deception would translate for me, but only most of the time. As for the few moments when it didn't translate, I wasn't looking forward to those. A few passing dragonspawn, swords, axes, or maces alight with Twilight enchantments, briefly glanced into the small alcove where I'd been preparing to go to Orgrimmar for the past three days, but gave me nothing more than that before turning back to their own lives.
Then realization hit me. This was Orgrimmar I was going to. The capital of the Horde, who had been my enemies all my life. Those barbaric, ruthless mongrels - neutral, Amanthe. Be neutral. I let out a breath. "This is going to be harder than I thought," I spoke to myself. The time I had spent in the Argent Dawn didn't include being around the Horde. Oh, sure, I'd been around blood elves and trolls there, but they weren't members of the Horde, so I didn't have anything against them. Actual members of the Horde, though...
With everything packed and ready, I hefted the pack up onto my back. I took a step forward, lifting my feet harder with the additional weight. I nullified that with a levitation spell.
"Gravity, I laugh at thee," I whispered, heading back into the corridors of Grim Batol, descending to the chamber where Selriona watched over her whelplings. It was early in the morning, but you couldn't tell that from inside the mountain. Grim Batol in the morning was just as active as in the middle of the day. It was only towards night that the dragonkin began to go to sleep, and could go awake long into the night with sources of perpetual light. As I descended into the bowels of Grim Batol, a feeling of anticipation nestled itself in my gut. Ever since I had drained the oath-stone, it was my duty to help keep Azeroth's corruption in check. Orgrimmar was my first mission. I could do this. And besides, this was the Horde. Finding corruption with them was bound to be simple. No, no! There are those thoughts again, Amanthe. You have to be neutral. Especially if you don't want to blow your cover while living amongst them. One slip of the tongue might be all it takes.
I floundered my way down the next staircase, tripping over the small steps and nearly cracking my head on the hard stone floor. Instead I thrust out my hands, scraping them and skidding for a moment before I got my balance back and stood. Calling on the Light, my injured hands, now slightly gray from the dirt on them, glowed a brilliant yellow for a moment before the tiny scrapes closed and the pain faded away. I huffed, repacked my stuff, and resumed my journey with little incident, but not before turning around to look at the stares and bitterly mutter, "Gravity, I laugh at thee."
My eyes stung with smoke as I passed a few forges, the dwarven machines posing no problem for dragons' shapeshifting abilities. A couple of dwarf-formed dragonkin worked at the anvils, hammering red hot pieces of metal as they cooled, and in the corner I could make out several swords and axes, likely ones that had been broken before and needed fixing. I spotted a couple enormous, curved pieces of hollow... iron? Steel? Elementium? I don't know. Razor-tipped cornucopias of metal large enough that they could easily have reached up to my waist. Inside them, I barely made out a few spikes that looked like they could be pulled out. I continued on my path, passing an increasing number of dragonkin as the day crept on, before arriving at my destination.
Selriona stood on all fours in the middle of her chamber, the sweltering heat radiating through it. I thought I spotted Ialion being given reassuring pats on the back by his clutch-mates, and had my suspicions confirmed when he fluttered over to his mother and she told him to be careful. She looked over to me and smiled. "Amanthe, you're here! I'm guessing everything's packed and ready?"
I nodded. "Yes, everything's okay."
"Great," she said, contracting into her pale human form with a dark blue ripple in the air, her short-cut black hair tinged with violet, her eyes holding disturbing dark blue irises. The scar on her back's right side changed to a scar running down her left hand. She reached into her robes and pulled out the Orb of Deception. "Keep this on you at all times. If you lose it, your illusion will just vanish." To prove her point, her form faded to near-invisibility for a moment as she phased in and out of the twilight realm.
A violet streak crashed into my stomach, the shock sending me to the ground. I looked up to find perched Ialion on my chest, grinning at me.
"Ialion, let her up," Selriona scolded him. With a pout, he got off my chest. I pulled myself to my feet, and soon had a twilight whelp fluttering by my side. She tossed the Orb to me, and I caught it in one hand, caressing the golden engravings with my fingers. A gentle hum of magic reverberated into my bones where I touched it.
"Alright, so I just... how do I do this?"
Selriona frowned, and scratched her head for a moment. "Um... okay, try feeding energy into it. That should work."
I fed some of my mana into the little purple-gold orb. Instantly, the changes began. My skin tone changed, becoming slightly paler, the minor tan I had accumulated over my few months here vanishing. My skin tingled as new skin appeared, my ears elongating and increasing the number of nerve endings I had. I looked over myself, somewhat disturbed by seeing the space where I should have been, but was instead occupied by a total stranger.
I ran a finger along my right ear to its tip. "How do I look?"
Selriona squinted her eyes for a moment, then nodded. "Like this." An indigo whirl appeared at her feet, rising up along her body and leaving profound changes where it passed, no doubt in replication of my own form. Her clothing was a dull brown, like my own, with her hair a red-tinted blonde. For a moment her eyes remained a deep blue before stabilizing, becoming a simple, steel gray. Overall, as far as blood elves went, it didn't look too bad.
I nodded, my face contorted into a frown, but still conveyed approval. "Not bad." I spread my hands from my body and twisted around to look at myself from all angles, still holding the Orb in one hand. Out of the corner of my eye, a blue shimmer signaled Selriona returning to a human form. "All right, so, how exactly is this going to work? I just walk into Orgrimmar, and... what?"
"Well, Nalestrasza set up your home in the Valley of Wisdom." She reached into her robes and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Okay, so, your name is going to be, and this is what Nalestrasza set up, not me, 'Amanthe Gnirevis'."
I raised an eyebrow as Ialion set down to sit on my feet. "At least I still have my name. And isn't that just my last name backwards?"
She shrugged. "Well, it's not exactly like they'll be looking through Alliance records for your name." She looked back at the paper. "Honestly, Nalestrasza?" she mumbled. "Couldn't you be more creative?" She shook her head, no doubt clearing the thought. "All right, so, you'll go to the Valley of Wisdom, and I'll give you directions from there. Your job is apparently to help some 'Seer Liwatha' with healing. She's a priestess like you, and a tauren. Of course, that 'job' is just a cover. She knows you're coming, but not who you are."
I narrowed my eyes. Something about this sounded a little too easy. "And how exactly did Nalestrasza do all of this?"
Selriona shivered. "That's the part that scares me, too. I don't know how she does it. Whatever she's truly capable of, she holds out on me."
I felt something pawing at my leg. Looking down, I saw Ialion looking up at me. "Are we going? I can't wait to go!" He thrust his wings down and flew up to my eye level, looking between me and his mother.
I sighed, reaching out to pat him on the head. "We're going, Ialion. Don't worry."
Selriona looked at me. "He's going to have to hide in your pack. Do you have air holes for him?" she said with a note of worry in her voice.
I nearly smacked myself. "I'm such an idiot!" I slung the pack over my head, placed it on the ground, and began stabbing at the thin fabric with my fingers, opening up a series of gaps in it. Once done, I held it up, showing it to her. "Is this enough for him?"
She nodded. "Yeah, that's enough. Okay, Ialion, remember," she said, turning to her son, who still fluttered in between her and I. "You can't be seen. It doesn't matter if they think you're her pet or not, our Flight is trying as hard as possible to stay hidden. So we can't give them any direction at all. It doesn't matter how small the hint is, we cannot allow them to find us. We aren't ready to explain to everyone just yet."
"Okay, Broodmother," he said cheerfully.
"Ialion, I mean it," she said in a strict tone. "If you're discovered, they are likely to kill you. Even if they don't, it will be a lot of trouble for you." With a swirl of violet, she returned to her true form and brought her head down to Ialion, her tusks half-unsheathed in concern.
He nodded, and gently fluttered forward and rubbed his snout against hers. "I'll be careful, Broodmother."
They pulled away, and several of his siblings gathered around him, patting him on the back and chattering in Draconic. However, as I held the Orb of Deception, the Draconic words translated themselves in my mind, so I understood their meanings even as the words themselves escaped me.
"Don't envy you - "
"Have fun!"
"Be careful."
" - so much better here!"
Watching him surrounded by his siblings made me feel like I was forgetting something, something important. It was right on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Oh well. It could wait. When they had all said their goodbyes, Ialion fluttered to me and gave me a fanged smile. "All right. Can we go? Can we go?"
I chuckled and patted his head, looking up at Selriona, whose tusks had retreated into her skull. "All right, so Ialion hides in the bag."
She nodded. "Make sure you put the Orb of Deception there, too. If they find that, well..."
She didn't need to finish that thought. "Yeah, I get it." I took the Orb and placed it in the bottom of my pack, below all the items I had packed, then looked up at the eager Ialion, clenching his claws around air in impatience. "Okay Ialion, whenever you're read - " Before I could finish he had zipped into the bag and curled around, nostrils near the air-holes." - y." I glanced down at him, and gave him a gentle smile, before slowly closing over the flap. "Make sure you don't move, Ialion. We don't want them to think you're there." A small shuffle in the pack, followed by stillness, was all the answer I got before I gingerly placed it over my shoulders.
Selriona's mouth was strained, and her pupils slitted slightly more than usual. "Good luck, Amanthe. Please, take care of him."
I walked over to her and patted her forelegs. "Don't worry, I will. Should I take him out to hunt now and then?"
Above me, she shook her head. "No, no, he's not strong enough right now. He's still a whelpling. When he's a whelp, and if you're still in Orgrimmar, you probably should take him out to hunt. But, uh, let's get there first, right?" I stepped away from her as she slightly opened her mouth, frothing dark blue energy spilling out of her maw. All at once, the energy vanished and entered the chain of her capacitor, flowing down to the disk. It shot out a beam of arcane energy and opened a portal, through which I saw a vast red desert. The arcane disk around her neck branched out violet-silver tendrils into the air, slowly recharging its store of arcane energies. "Contact me once you're in the city. I'll guide you."
I nodded. "Got it." With that, I jumped in the portal. For a moment, whirling arcane energy surrounded me, tugging me through as streams of energy washed over my skin. Then it ended, and my feet contacted soft sand. My eyesight wobbled a bit, before steadying. All around me was reddish-ground, with night having recently fallen on the continent of Kalimdor.
Portal lag was going to be a terror.
Turning around, I saw the portal back to Grim Batol close with a crack. Ialion shuffled in my pack, a little whine coming out of it. "It's all right, Ialion. That was just a portal. It's normal for it to feel like that." I remembered the first time I went through a portal, the nausea, the sickening churning in my stomach. "Now... where to go." Spinning around, I quickly found that I was, in fact, standing on a road of some sort, paler than the red stone, sand and dust in all directions. And looking up along the path, I soon found the massive spiked, armored gates of Orgrimmar in the distance.
"Well... no sense waiting around." Moving my feet towards the distant fortress of a city, I briefly checked myself to make sure my illusion still held. It did, and I breathed a sigh of relief, continuing onwards to the mammoth city walls. As the time passed and the gates loomed closer and closer, taller and taller, a myriad of thoughts ran through my mind.
This is suicide.
Monstrous, sinister wretches.
Be neutral, Amanthe.
What if I get caught?
I can keep watch. I can do this.
I didn't even notice when I'd walked up to the gates and was stopped by a tauren in red plate armor, the insignia of the Horde on her chest. "Halt!" I heard her say, the Orcish word flying over my head but the translation making itself known in my head. "Who are you?"
I suppressed my fear and hatred at the sight of a tauren and, remembering the name Selriona had told me I'd go by, I replied. "Amanthe Gnirevis, I have - " My tongue tied itself over at that. Just saying 'I have' proved difficult, the Orb of Deception's translation magic making me think the words in Common, but nonetheless they came out in Orcish, which then translated itself in my mind. I swallowed, and tried again, stumbling over the sounds as I spoke unfamiliar words. "I have a home - a home here, if I'm - I'm not mistaken," I said, casting a subtle spell to soothe her mind. I felt Ialion shuffle slightly in my pack, but not enough to be noticeable... hopefully.
The guard placed a gauntlet on her chin, and considered this for a moment. "All right, fair enough. You can pass."
"Thank y - Thank you," I said, hurrying past the guards. The tunnel soon opened up into a colossal courtyard, the red stone making walls of Orgrimmar looking like it had been carved into a mountain at some places. A few members of different races bustled about in the night, and the massive keep that I knew from my map to be Garrosh's stronghold dominated the valley, drawing my eyes to it, no doubt the effect the Warchief wanted to achieve. 'All right, I'm in. Now where?'
Selriona's voice came into my mind, along with a pressure above my ear. 'Right, so, um, you just came out of the tunnel in the gate, right?'
I nodded, then remembered she couldn't see me. 'Yep.' People were beginning to stare, so I began walking forward, acting as natural as I could.
'Follow the road, take the first left.' I did so, and told her that. 'All right. You'll come to an intersection. Go left, and where you would go into the Valley of Spirits, I told you about that, go right towards the Valley of Wisdom.' A few minutes of walking got me there. I made the appropriate turns, making note of how the number of goblins and trolls increased as I got closer to the Valley of Spirits, and as I got closer to what I assumed to be the Valley of Wisdom, with several places of the land sunken into lakes, I saw increasing numbers of tauren.
'All right, I'm in the Valley of Wisdom. At least, I think I am. There's a lot of tauren around for this time of day, anyhow.'
'Yep, that's it. That Valley is the tauren district. Your home should be next to the inn, one spot to the left. It may have been some store or another before, but according to Nalestrasza, it's recently been vacated.'
'I'd hate to have her as an enemy.'
'You and me both, Amanthe. You and me both. Is Ialion okay?'
As if on cue, the whelpling shuffled slightly in my pack. 'He's fine. Keeping very still, too.'
A sigh of relief came through the link. 'Good, thank you. Let me know if anything happens. For now, you'll just move in, and try to sleep.'
'Damn portal lag.'
'Yeah. So anyway, keep an eye out for anything suspicious. And please, keep Ialion safe.'
I smiled lightly at her worry. 'I will, don't worry.' With that, the pressure on my head faded as the link's use stopped.
Walking through the streets of Orgrimmar was nothing if not nerve-wracking. None of the night-folk spared me so much as a second glance as I nervously, almost shaking, tip-toed under the starry sky, the disk of the White Lady currently taking on a bloody red hue, the Blue Child nowhere to be found. However, every time an orc's eyes briefly shifted to me, or a goblin looked up from their work as I passed by, I felt a cold spell of terror rush through my heart, every muscle in my body screaming at me to either turn around and run or kill those filthy savages for all they have done to the Alliance. My eyes flew quickly over every thing I could see, anything not covered by the blanket of darkness, anything revealed by torchlight, taking in every detail, anything that might hurt me. Rationally, I knew I was being absurd. To them, I was just another blood elf. But after being their foes for all my life, well...
I soon came to the inn, made obvious by the multiple items of food inside. Right next to it sat a small hut, but in spite of the size, the wooden door was more than tall enough for me to enter. Closing and locking the door behind me with the key I found just inside, I looked around the house. It was of fair size, with a few shelves and tables, with a chest tucked in the corner, lit by torches, with another passage that led to several other rooms. Checking that nobody could get in, I gently took the pack off of me and set it down.
"Okay Ialion, you can come out," I said, opening it. Ialion looked up at me with bored eyes. Crawling out of the bag, he flexed his wings a few times before taking off into a hover.
"I feel stiff," he said in Draconic, twisting his head around, no doubt relieving a crick in it. "I don't like feeling stiff."
"Well, I'm not surprised. You stayed in one spot for quite a while."
He looked around, blinking his eyes, which then widened as they saw something. He streaked towards the empty bookshelf, landing on the uppermost enclosure. He began raking his claws at it, collected the wood shavings, and made a little nest in the shelf. He sighed and nestled down on it, looking out at me with his head on the wood, wings lying limply to his sides. "I like it here. This is comfortable. So, what are we doing next, um...?"
"Amanthe."
"Oh, right. What are we doing now, Amanthe?"
"Well, right now we need to go to sleep." There was no way nobody woke up to the whine Ialion gave out. "I know, but we've got portal lag. It's night here. We need to adjust sooner or later."
Ialion growled, and pouted, raising his head and slamming it down for emphasis. "Fine." The Twilight whelpling closed his eyes, and began to deepen his breathing. In the meantime, I looked around the place that was to be my home for anywhere from months to years. The closed shelves, upon opening them, had food in them, preserved meats and grains, fruits permanently chilled with magic. Stumbling on the chairs next to the table and opening the wooden chest in the corner of the room, I found that it was filled with several dozen gold pieces. I narrowed my eyes. This seemed strange. It was as if I'd already been living here for a few months. How had Selriona's Red self set this all up? I knew it had something to do with shared dreams, but still!
My illusion rippled and began to fade. Panicked, I snatched the Orb of Deception from my belongings, the form of a blood elf strengthening the moment I held it in my hands.
Exploring the rest of my room, I found that it also held a place to bathe, in addition to a bedroom. The bed, while it looked soft enough, did not appear to be the least bit inviting. Still, I needed to get rid of my portal lag, and the only way to do that was to sleep. Blowing out the nearest light, I laid down in the bed, tracing a finger over my new, outrageously long ears, and after what seemed like hours of tossing and turning, fell asleep.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
I bolted upright at the sound, something rolling out of my hands, and briefly wondered why the stone of my cavern had turned to wood before I remembered my situation. A shrill shriek filled the air, and I bolted out of my bed to find Ialion haphazardly flying in every which way around the room he was in, dark blue scales reflecting the light of the few torches alight. "Ialion!" I hissed to him, catching his attention, and making him crash into a wall. Ducking back into my bedroom, I clasped the Orb tightly to prevent my form from returning to my natural one.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! "Go into the bedroom! Now!" He didn't need to be told twice. Before I could blink twice, he had disappeared around the bend.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! "Coming!" I yelled after the visitor, tucking the Orb out of sight into my pocket, moving my way to the door and opening it, sunlight pouring in unabated. On the other side stood two tauren, a female with white fur spotted with brown, wearing light red and green clothes for the springtime weather. Her two ivory horns went out to the sides, and their points, while dull, still made me shy away. Her friend, standing a head over her and nearly two over me, had black, rugged fur. He was well muscled, suggesting that he had some physically strenuous occupation here. He wore the same clothing the other tauren did, but sized for him, and his black horns came out from the sides of his head and pointed forward, their points a lot sharper than hers.
She spoke first. "Hi, are you the new resident?" she asked, extending a hand to shake mine.
I fought down my revulsion and shook it, trying my best to bury my scowl under a smile. "Yeah, I am. I'm guessing you're my neighbors?"
The bull nodded, before speaking in a deep, baritone voice. "Indeed. We live two spaces to the left of you. My name is Breorn, this is my mate, Saltio. It is a pleasure...?"
"Amanthe," I said, also shaking his now extended hand. "I'll be a working with Seer Liwatha, as a healer." I held up a hand and briefly called upon the Light, creating a minor flow of light over it. Just that small effort made exhaustion crash over me like a tidal wave, in spite of the sleep I just had. I wavered on my feet before falling over, catching myself with a frantic levitation spell, easily the most useful spell to have ever been discovered. Spinning about in the air, I shortly righted myself before removing the enchantment from myself, dropping to the ground, yawning.
Saltio grimaced. "Are you all right?"
"I took a portal from the Eastern Kingdoms." True enough. "Portal lag."
Breorn nodded. "Yes, that is unfortunate. Why don't you come with us? My shift isn't until the afternoon, I'll buy you some coffee at the inn right here. It's on me."
I wanted to resist. I wanted to protest. I didn't need a member of the Horde to buy me coffee. But I reminded myself that I needed to learn to be neutral, and being hostile would not help me in that regards. Besides, the mere mention of coffee made my willpower crumble entirely, the phantom scent wafting into my nose. "Thank you. Just give me a moment, I need to get ready." And I needed to tell Ialion, not to mention put out a breakfast for him. I figured that, on one hand, he wouldn't want to be cooped up in this house the entire time, but on the other hand, he had been cooped up in a single chamber all his short life.
I closed the door in their faces a little louder than I needed, and got a slab of bacon from the shelves, as well as pouring some water from the jug into a cup, both also from the shelves, and carried it into my bedroom, where Ialion had taken to the bed and pulled the covers over his little form.
"Ialion." His scaly head peeked out from the covers. I could see the small indent in the covers moving, indicating his tail wagging back and forth. "I'm going to go get myself settled in." I placed the food and water on a small slab of wood holding a currently extinguished torch. "I'll be back later. Do not leave this house. If anyone other than me comes in, hide. If you want to leave, then I'll be with you so I can maybe, maybe, pass you off as a pet." He hissed at this. "I know, but would you rather stay here for months?" His eyes avoiding mine answered this question well enough. "Okay, be careful. I'll be back soon."
He nodded, pulling himself out from underneath the sheets. "Okay Amanthe. I'll be good." He sat down on top of the bedsheets, an innocent smile on his snout.
I nodded. "Okay, thanks. I'd hate to tell your mother you got yourself killed." As I turned around, I heard the sound of cooked meat being torn by fangs behind me. Opening the door back up, Saltio and Breorn were in largely the same spots as before, but slightly backed up, with Breorn infront of Saltio instead of how they'd arrived.
Oh Gods. Was I really neighbors with tauren?
In no time at all, Breorn and Saltio led me to the inn, where they purchased a cup of coffee for me, in addition to a few eggs for all three of us. We sat down at one of the many tables in the inn, a few others occupied. A Forsaken sat at the far end. The smell... ugh. The eggs, however, I couldn't find it in me to be revolted at. The food of the Horde was, to my surprise (Be neutral, Amanthe!) neither better nor worse than the eggs I had eaten in Stormwind. Somewhat chewier, though. For a while we ate in silence, before I decided to stir up a conversation with the two tauren, in order to help get myself acclimated.
Besides, it would do well for me to have friends here. "So, what do you two do here for a living?"
"Well, I am on the city guard," Breorn responded, swallowing the coffee in his mouth. "My shift is on the afternoons, so we won't be seeing each other much then." I don't intend to see you much at all.
I turned to Saltio, who was busy scarfing down the eggs. She stopped, swallowed what was in her mouth, and spoke. "Well, I work at Yetmak's Alchemy and Potions, over in the Drag. I keep inventory there. In fact, I think my shift starts soon," she explained, looking at the mechanical clock within the building. She gulped down the rest of her food before my eyes, and got up. "I'll see you later." She kissed Breorn, making the hair on the back of my neck bristle. Neutral, Amanthe. Then she left, placing down some silver coins at the Innkeeper's desk before departing.
Alone with Breorn, I suddenly got the paranoid feeling Ialion was in trouble. I knew I was being absurd, but couldn't help it. I took another sip of the coffee to take my mind off of it, the black coffee's sharp, bitter taste helping to shake off my drowsiness. It was night over on the Eastern Kingdoms right now...
"So, you're working for Seer Liwatha?" Breorn asked, breaking the silence. "She's a priestess, you know. Helps tend to the wounded, from whatever reasons. Wars, duels, clumsy accidents, all sorts of things."
I nodded. "Yes, I am. I told you, I think. I'm a priestess myself."
"I figured that out when you levitated yourself after you nearly keeled over, not to mention when you called on the Light back there." My cheeks burned. Way to go, Captain Obvious. "Ah, well. You should probably go meet her soon, if you're going to be helping her out. She's not too far away."
At this, I felt a little pressure above my ears. 'Amanthe, are you awake?'
'I am.' Breorn continued. "So, what did you do before you came here to Orgrimmar?"
'How's Ialion? Is he all right?'
I hesitated, before responding to Breorn first. "Oh, not much, not much. I actually didn't have an occupation just before I came here." 'He's fine,' I told her, not knowing if that was true, cursing myself for not having the sense to not leave him alone. 'But this isn't a good time. I'm talking with someone right now.'
'Oh, okay. Let me know when it's a good time.'
'Just a moment,' I told her. "Thanks for the breakfast, Breorn," I said, drinking the last of the coffee from the cup. "But I really do need to be going."
The tauren nodded. "Very well. Take care. Twilight's Hammer activity is nowhere near as high as it was during the Cataclysm, but they're still out and about."
I nodded, standing up from the table and leaving Breorn all alone, headed back to my home to check up on Ialion. A lead, but it was one that Selriona and I already suspected. Still, it was nice to have it confirmed. The cultists had not yet gone into complete hiding. There was stuff to watch out for. Once I was out of the inn and could focus my mind, I contacted Selriona.
'Alright, Selriona. I can talk with you now, there's no one else to distract me.'
'Okay good. Are you all settled in? Everything good?'
'It's good. I'm neighbors with two tauren, but other than that, it's good. I'm going to go check in with Seer Liwatha soon.' I stepped inside my new house and locked the door behind me, fingering the Orb of Deception in my pocket. "Ialion!" When I heard no response, I got a rush of paranoia. Oh-Light-what-had-happened-this-was-all-my -
Stepping into my bedroom, I saw the meat and water gone, and a small scaled body on the bedsheets, eyes closed, breathing slowly and deeply, the telltale signs of sleep."Oh noooo, no you don't. Wake up. Up, up, up!" I said, shaking Ialion's wings from side to side to awaken the dozing dragon. His poisonous green eyes opened, and he yawned, the yawn turning into a shriek as his mouth opened all the way. Ialion pulled himself into a sitting position.
We eyed each other, before he spoke. "Why did you wake me up?" he asked in a disappointed voice, as if he had expected better of me.
"You can't go to sleep in the day. You'll never adjust otherwise." 'I just caught Ialion sleeping. He can't do that in the day, right? Or is he young enough?' It dawned on me just then how woefully unprepared I was to take care of Ialion. We should've just not allowed him to come along.
'No, he can't. Our metabolisms work a bit differently. He needs roughly nine hours of sleep, but only at night. Right, so, um, anyway. Are you settled in? Already asked that, um... how's Ialion?'
'He's good, but I can tell already he's going to have a hard time getting rid of the lag. Little bit of a problem here: I need to go check in with Seer Liwatha, but I'm afraid to leave Ialion alone.' I didn't add 'again'. What Selriona didn't know...
A dull hmm resonated in my thoughts. 'Tell Ialion that if he ever leaves without you, that I will personally fly over there to have a little discussion with him.' I relayed the rather ominous message, watching Ialion shuffle nervously on his rump. I knew well enough what Selriona meant. The times my mother had to give me a good scolding when I was a toddler, I'd have the fear of death in me. I think I had wet myself that one time I had nearly burned the house down through an incident involving grasshoppers, mud, and an oven.
"Okay. Ialion, I'm going to go check in with Seer Liwatha. I don't know how long it'll be, so you know where the food is, right?"
Still fearful of his mother coming over to yell at him, he nodded his trembling head. "Y-yes."
"Good. Hey, I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?" I said, kneeling on the bed to pat him on the head. I turned around, preparing to find Seer Liwatha. Once in the doorway, I turned back around. "Take care. And no sleeping!"
'Again, good luck, Amanthe.'
'Thanks. I have a feeling I'll need all the good luck I can get here.'
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