Disclaimer- i do not own World of Warcraft, Blizzard Ent. does. would be pretty rich if i did :)

The old anger was back faster than I ever thought it would be. I nearly took a step forward before I stopped. Reining in my fury, I ducked my head low again. All the while I kept my eyes fixed on Emala.

She had stopped walking very suddenly. She panned her green eyed gaze across the entire premise of Agmar's Hammer. She stoically ignored the blood elf as he took a step back after running into her, saying something in a indignant voice. Emala said something back in a heavily caustic tone. The troll tried to come to his friend's defense, only for the entire thing to escalate into a three way shouting match.

The verbal skirmish continued for a minute or two. However, it became rapidly obvious that despite the bickering, the three could make amends very quickly. Mainly, this seemed due to the fact that the elf and the troll laughed, while Emala rolled her eyes. I saw her cast one last careful glance about. I felt her eyes linger on me.

I tensed, casting my gaze downward once again, hoping that she hadn't seen. I wasn't in the state of mind to confront her.

When I looked up again, Emala and her companions had disappeared into the command hub of Agmar's Hammer. I dropped my shoulders, relieved.

At least momentarily.

The presence of a former friend I had parted with bitterly years ago was producing mixed feelings. Some more sentimental part of me still cared deeply about Emala. The other didn't want to give a damn about her and was raging silent curses along with that. It was confusing, and I disliked it.

I spent a bit more time just standing there. Then I made a instant decision to leave. I'd already helped Agmar's Hammer plenty; there wasn't anything left for me to do, and I had told the commander I was leaving earlier anyway. I walked rapidly from the bonfire, and in no time was heading steadily up the path away from the outpost.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I was being cowardly. The better thing to do would have been confronting Emala, trying to put my bitterness with her to rest. Instead I was running away from my problems. Once mounted on Bonesunder, I was fleeing by air.

Little did I know that running wasn't going to do me any good.

(Flashback)

Normally, the night sky over Mulgore was one of the most scenic sights of Kalimdor. Tonight, however, the sky was obscured by roiling gray clouds. Although the storm they heralded hadn't started yet, brief flickers of lightning were fast becoming a regular occurrence. Anyone with sense was sheltering in the sturdy buildings of the village.

The sky was the perfect mirror of the current attitudes of two female tauren, returning to Bloodhoof Village from a less than successful hunting trip. Emala's black fur and Atlanta's white pelt were smeared with mud and grass. They were pointedly avoiding each other's gaze, tension thickening the air between them.

It began to rain just as the pair reached a hut stocked with hunting supplies. Emala stomped in first. Tossing a bow and quiver of arrows carelessly to the floor, she turned a bitter gaze on Atlanta.

The warrior stared back with narrowed brown eyes, arms crossed. She too had thrown down her weapon. It only took a brief few moments of staring to bring out the worst of words.

"What the hell were you thinking out there?" Emala said in a low snarl, tinted with deliberate hurt. "Charging at that plainstrider like that? All you accomplished was scaring it away."

Atlanta glared at the other tauren. Over the past few months, disagreements were becoming more and more frequent. At this point, it was hard for either to imagine that they had ever been friends.

"I got impatient," the warrior responded, her rising agitation plain in her voice. "The storm was rolling in. there wasn't time for your cowardly ambush!"

A clap of thunder sounded, the noise seeming to trigger the flare of anger and hurt in Emala's green eyes. She strode forward to the point were she was nose to nose with Atlanta. Her eyes looked even more furious up close, and the pain of Atlanta's accusation could be seen swirling in their depths.

"I am no coward," she hissed, drawing the words out long and low. "I'm intelligent-something you obviously lack!"

"Now you're calling me stupid?" Atlanta shouted, her body tensing in anger. "I'm no idiot! It's a good thing we're both leaving Mulgore tomorrow. I hope I never see you again!"

"Same here," Emala spat back, the intense venom in her voice as poisonous as one of her venomous arrows. She stormed out of the hut to return to her own home, but not before turning and casting one last baleful glare at her former friend. "Good luck," she said sarcastically. "When you're stubborn pride kills you, remember my words."

"That's never going to happen," Atlanta snapped back."Bye."

"Goodbye," Emala snarled back. "Forever."

With that, she left. The wind snapped the wooden door shut instantly, leaving Atlanta in the dimly lit building. She sat down against the door and drew her knees up. Resting her head on her knees, Atlanta nursed her festering wounds.

(end flashback)

I was flying over the Dragon Wastes when I heard the rhythmic flapping of wings. The beats sounded large, powerful. Certainly not the wings of anything Bonesunder's size.

They sounded like drake wings.

Twisting in the saddle, I held onto my mount's reigns with one hand and drew my runeblade with the other. The cold wind instantly yanked my hood off, the icy sting of Northrend piercing past my fur.

At first I was half convinced I had imagined the wingbeats. They seemed to be gone now, and I didn't see anything the size of a drake. But the clouds that surrounded me now were low and heavy, weighed down with their loads of arctic precipitation.

Then there was a high whistle as a blur of blue plunged from above. Bonesunder bucked and shrieked, lashing out with his wicked claws as light blue paws snagged him and yanked him down, spinning. I had to lean back to avoid the drake's black talons as he slashed at me. A burst of blue fire just missed me and hit Bonesunder, knocking him firmly from the air.

The skeletal gryphon crashed to the ground, spilling me from his back. He scrambled to his feet and cawed irritably, clawing groves in the snow of the Dragon Wastes. I regained my footing and stood up, drawing my runeblade.

My attacker came spiraling neatly down from the sky. I had to stare for a moment to remember what he was.

A netherwing. I didn't think one would leave Outland.

And yet here he was. The drake was a dark azure blue everywhere except for the spurless, translucent wing membrane, his eyes, horns and paws. All of these were a stunning, light neon blue.

I didn't realize until the drake landed that I had three riders. The same ones I had seen at Agmar's Hammer. The only one I didn't see was the blood elf, but I had begun to have a suspicion that the elf had been the drake all along.

One of the riders was the ted haired troll. The other was Emala's red raptor, Pierceclaw. And the third was Emala herself.

Damn her intuitiveness, I thought, gritting my teeth.

The three had already dismounted. I was already trying to think of away out of this mess. I was obviously outnumbered. If it had just been Emala, her pet and the troll, I may have been able to take them on with Bonesunder's help. The drake looked on the slim side, like he had been made for aerial fighting. I could see him panting slightly from carrying three passengers. Despite the netherwing's slim build, though, he was still three times Bonesunder's size. We were definitely outnumbered and outmatched. Flying away didn't seem like a good idea, considering how fast the drake could probably fly, even with passengers.

Bonesunder cawed again. He lunged forward, only for me to grab his reigns and yank him back. "Stay here," I said in a low undertone. "Not yet."

So far, Emala hadn't moved. She was just standing with her other friends, a burning gaze fixed on me. There was a swirl of different emotions in there, things I had no trouble discerning. The most prominent was anger, but there was also confusion, some tiny traces of hurt.

I blinked. Did I see a flicker of guilt?

Whatever it was, the emotion was gone before I could identify it. Emala took some long steps toward me, green eyes narrow.

The troll, raptor and netherwing moved to attack, only to stop when Emala spoke one sentence.

"No. This is between me and her."

I met her gaze with a proud stare, tilting my head up. "Long time no see, Em."

She stiffened. The childhood nickname was one her sister, Imyra, had come up with. I had called her that too-but not in the last tense months when we saw each other last.

Emala spoke in a growl. "Same here." Her glare intensified. "What were you doing in Agmar's Hammer? Trying to undermine it for the Lich King?"

The name pricked my skin like a wreath of thorns. My reply was a measured one, made of of only a few words. "No. I don't serve him."

A sneer graced Emala's features. "You're obviously a Death Knight now. And they serve the Lich King."

"Or," I replied bitterly, "I've broken free, and am telling the truth."

Emala mouth twisted in a equally bitter smile, one with no warmth in it. Faster than I though possible, she drew a wicked looking spiked longbow and fired a flaming arrow at me.

I released Bonesunder's reins and let him charge forward in a storm of claw and wings. Then I jumped aside, letting the arrow pierce the snow and splutter. Then the projectile exploded, showering me with smoke and ashy slush. Three more arrows sparking with arcane energy flew at me. I swung my runeblade in a fast arch, cutting the first two arrows in half and rendering them useless. I had to dodge the third one.

Bonesunder had reached Emala by now. My faithful mount reared up and lashed at her with his wicked, curved claws. She swiftly back-stepped, letting the undead gryphon's claws slice through empty air, missing only by a hair's length. Bonesunder didn't get a chance to try again, as he found himself barraged by frostfire bolts. He squawked and backpedaled slightly, only for the netherwing to pounce on him. The troll-revealed as a mage now-continued to fire spells at him while the drake and Bonesunder writhed in a screeching, roaring ball, tossing up sprays of snow.

Me and Emala continued our hatred charged dance. I would dodge, she would fire. I would lunge forward and try to make contact with my runeblade, and she would duck below it, jump back, or use the metal longbow to block.

Eventually, I broke the cycle. I stood still as Emala fired arrows at me. When one passed close enough, I feinted a hit and pretended to fall to my knees.

Perhaps Emala was blinded by rage. It certainly seemed that way to me – I had never known her to fall for such a simple trap. She came somewhat closer, aiming for a killing strike with her longbow.

Fast as lightning I stood, swinging my runeblade and knocking her bow away. I rotated the weapon and plunged it at her chest. I wasn't sure what I was aiming for, whether I wanted to kill her or simply gore her.

Either way, it didn't matter. Emala, still just as fast a thinker as ever, drew two one handed swords form her sides and sidestepped. My strike went into empty air. When I tried to target her with a downward cleave, Emala crossed her blades and stopped my runeblade short.

A tense standoff was initiated between me and my former friend. Close by, I could hear that the netherwing drake and the mage had won out over Bonesunder. He had no doubt phased into his own shadowy dimension by now, to injured to continue to fight. He would heal-but not in time to keep me from becoming severely outnumbered.

For all I knew, my time of dying (for a second time) was near. And this time, I probably wouldn't be coming back.

I know that the update took a long time-but my update times are going to be a few weeks (1-4 weeks) for the summer and probably for the rest of my fanfiction career. I'm more busy now, especially during the summer. I also want to allow more time to increase the quality of my literary work :P

Please give me reviews and tell me how I did. I crave both (especially for reviews) :D