A/N
So... I guess I was lying when I said this was a oneshot. Oh well!
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Elariia hopped off her Stormsaber and made her way down the slopped dock where three boats waited, all decorated with tiki faces and colourful paint. Darkspear trolls were definitely here. She barley had time to identify Commander Sharp before the man in question was speaking to her.
"Oh good, a druid. Maybe you'll have better luck dealing with these trolls." Maybe she was just paranoid, but was that a hint of sarcasm? "See what they want and try to get rid of them."
Elariia stepped forward and surveyed the group on the small rowboats. There were seven of them, all armed. Just enough to defend themselves if this got out of hand, yet not enough of them to look threatening. This should be rather easy..
She opened her mouth to greet them, but the troll on the middle boat beat her to it. "Dese be troublin' times for us Darkspear. Da Zandalar be reuniting all da troll clans an' plan to take back all da lands dey lost."
The night elf's mouth pulled down in a frown, "And why are you here? Shouldn't your tribe be doing something?"
The same troll as before answered, Elariia assumed she was the leader of the emissary party. "We tryin' to warn all dat we can. But we might be too late."
"Why would the Darkspear want to warn us?" Commander Sharp protested before Elariia could reply, the two guards behind him grumbled their agreement. She was getting tired of being interrupted. Didn't these people wanther here?
"Another Darkspear gone down to Stranglethorn to warn da people," The troll continued as if she never heard the Commander. "But it ain't safe to travel alone in Stranglethorn."
It disappeared as fast as it came, but Elariia noticed the flicker of worry in the troll's eyes, "What do you need me to do?"
"Help me find him and make sure da people of Stranglethorn are warned of da rise of da troll tribes."
Even though she basically agreed to whatever the Darkspear were planning, the guards behind Elariia didn't relax their battle stances. She decided it didn't matter, her mind was made up.
"How are we going to do that, then?"
"I gonna bind my spirit wit' ya. When ya get to Stranglethorn, I be able to aid ya."
Elariia nodded, her forehead creased warily for a moment, then it was gone and she smiled. "Elariia. You are?"
The troll held out her hand in greeting, "Bwemba. We are very grateful for ya help, druid."
The night elf just nodded and shook her hand firmly.
"Da first place we check gonna be da place most likely to be attacked first. You call it Fort Livingston."
Elariia raised one long brow, she had been to Stranglethorn very few times, but the name was familiar. "Why is it most likely?"
"Fort Livingston be surrounded by troll ruins..." Bwemba started, but Elariia could guess what came next. "It make for an easy target."
She nodded. Dumb place for anyone to hang about, who'd want to be surrounded by trolls?
As if reading her thoughts, Bwemba's eyes glinted and her mouth moved into a smirk around her tusks, but she continued on in a neutral tone. "Maybe we find da emissary dere. Hopefully it ain't too late."
Suddenly there was a puff of blue, almost smokey, powder. Elariia's eyes widened, but otherwise kept her face indifferent.
The troll still noticed her surprise, "My spirit gonna be watchin' over ya, Elariia."
She had decided not to fly through Duskwood, she'd save more time if she went on foot rather than to inevitable get her wings caught in almost every spider's wed she tried to navigate through. Of course her mount didn't agree with her, he hated travelling at night, even more so in the rain. But eventually they had gotten to Northern Stranglethorn, and she expected to arrive in Fort Livingston shortly after.
Bwemba's spirit appeared beside her almost as soon as she entered the Vale, and even though she made little remarks about finding the emissary, Elariia tuned her out best she could. She didn't have a problem with magic, she wasa druid, but the thought of spirits or ghosts made her a little uncomfortable. Of course she had died once, but it was a terrifying experience that she never wanted to repeat. So she made the trip in silence.
When they made it to Fort Livingston all Elariia could do was gape. Dear Elune, what happened to this place?
"Dis is Fort Livingston? It look like we already too late. Da Zandalar attack, it begun."
There were bodies everywhere, some weren't even dead. On the way in she noticed a few adventurers on the side of the road, they were a sickly green, but they were alive. Elariia didn't let herself worry until she made it to their destination. Guards were fending off most of the attacks, but she could tell they were getting desperate. I thought this was going to be a troll attack? Why are there so many serpents?
She lead her Stormsaber into the fort and towards a Livingston Marshal, "Excuse me.."
She couldn't finish her sentence. How was she supposed to explain her situation? Luckily the man seemed to realize what she was struggling with, "Another Darkspear emissary passed through some time ago telling us to be on our guard. He mentioned some other trolls may show up, but not in spirit form, and not escorted by a night elf druid."
That was as good an opening as any, Elariia had no choice but to explain. She'd have to wing it.
"I was informed the Zandalari were trying to take back the land they lost. We were going to warn you, but..." She trailed off and let her white orbs flicker to around the fort.
"Because of the emissary's warning we were able to gather more adventurers to help defend. But we thought we were going to be fighting trolls. Instead we found ourselves overwhelmed by serpents! They seem to have come from everywhere. We are barley able to hold on, and I only suspect it's going to get worse."
Elariia nodded, and eyed the man in determination, "What needs to be done?"
"Help us and eliminate the serpents and perhaps your troll friend here can use some magic to cure the poisoned."
She hopped off her mount and shifted to her cat form easily. After a quick survey of her surroundings she charged at a stray jungle serpent, bunched up her muscles and pounced. The snake-like creature turned on her and hissed, the sunlight gleaming off it's fangs. It darted forward angrily, and she leaped to one side, narrowly avoiding it's bite. Elariia growled and slashed her claws along it's side, causing greenish blood to ooze from it's scales. The serpent spun around and came at her again, this time managing to catch her shoulder in it's mouth.
Elariia ripped away from it, but was unable to do much more than that as she almost fell to the ground dazed. The serpent knocked it's head into her side and she fell, as the snake was about to tear into her stomach, she raked her paws down it's belly, claws unsheathed, shoulder protesting wildly. Her opponent gave one last hiss, a mix of pain and rage, before it sank to the ground as it's life drained from it. Elariia shoved it to the jungles floor and sat up, she looked to the entrance of the fort and saw Bwemba's spirit healing the poisoned adventurers and nodded to herself. She glanced back down at the serpent, but didn't bother changing forms to skin it.
She saw another snake slithering towards a guard that already had it's hands full with two others, and ran to intercept it. Elariia limped a few steps before shaking it off and charging towards her next fight, despite the pain in her shoulder. I need to do this more often, she thought as she leaped on the serpents back, working with that archaeologist has made me soft.
A/N 2
It took me forever to write that fight scene and it still sucked :( whateves. And I kept all the dialogue the same, I mean, would you change it? Sorry if you don't like what I made my character say in reply, but I figured she should say something, y'know? There's probably an easier way to get to Stranglethorn Vale then going through Duskwood, but I really haven't been there very often.. R&R.
