Chapter Four

Use your new skills with pride; you have earned them.

Alpea could not help the warmth of pride that she felt, nor the wide grin that spread over her sharp face. But the old hunter was not done, and he held his hand up as she began to thank him, silencing her. "You now have the power to tame a pet, but you must also gain the skills to train it.

"Travel to Darnassus. There you must speak with Jocaste. She will give you the ability to train your new pet, so make haste."

Alpea nodded. "Of course. Elune-adore," she said. Elune be with you.

"Elune-adore," He smiled back.

She was not upset to be going back to Darnassus. Now she could finally tame her own pet, something that would fight at her side and be with her until she decided she no longer wanted its companionship. But, regardless, she would not be traveling the world alone.

The pet trainer Jocaste was easy to find. Alpea explained why she was there to see her with a small smile, but was not greeted with the same good humor.

"A fledgling hunter, I see," the trainer said. "Yes, I can bestow upon you the skills you need to train and guide your pet. But remember, Alpea, always respect the balance and live in awe of nature around you. Now, go forth. We shall speak again, at a later date." And then she was given the magic and shooed away again. Nothing special, just the memories of how past hunters had learned to train their pets.

There was not much to do inside Darnassus besides memorizing its layout and where all the important buildings were. The only ones she was worried about now were the bank – on one of the central islands, set inside the tree – the auction house and the portal to the bottom of the tree, to Rut'theran Village. She took the portal and ran down the small hill, to the left pier that she knew led to the island's flight master. She spoke to the night elf there, standing beside three ebony hippogryphs, and arranged a flight across the Great Sea, to the small village of Auberdine. This flight – the flight path, actually, the path that connected the two villages – was free, because it was the only way besides boat to get across the ocean.

The ride was not as wonderful as she thought it would be; it was fast, yes, but the motion of the beast's wings beating unsettled her and if she hadn't been sitting before the wings she would have slid off because of the slant the creature flew at. But they made it to Auberdine in just a few minutes, landing at Darkshore's flight master. She spoke briefly to the female and gave her name, so that she would be able to use the female's hippogryphs to fly across the continent; she would need to connect with the other flight masters first, though, or she would not be able to fly to them.

She traded with one of the merchants in the village before she went to the pier to lighten her bags and make a little more money. The merchant glanced at her curiously as he inspected her offers. "You're heading to the boats?" he asked. "But at your rank, you should be here, working in Darkshore."

Alpea smiled, taking the coin he gave her for some old scraps of leather. "I know I should. But I want to go to the other initiate areas and get acquainted with the cities there."

"Ah," The merchant smiled. "A good strategy, if you would like the rewards they offer to those with good reputations in the city. Here, I'll take the boots and vest for two silver,"

"Deal," Alpea said, and left. She walked down the wooden pier, glancing down at the water occasionally. There were a few schools of fish and a wealth of crabs – crawlers, if she remembered right – below the surface, and every so often another young night elf would swim buy to hunt or catch fish. She passed a human, too, an older, far more experienced one, fishing off the dock near the intersection for the boats. A sign nearby posted onto which dock the boats to which city would stop and wait for passengers. The boat to Stormwind City was on the left dock, so she deigned to wait there.

The boat was there in a few minutes, one of the many that made rounds between the two docks. She stepped aboard as a small group of people left – not much older than herself – all riding the swift sabers that she would eventually be allowed to buy. The passage on boats was free, so she would not lose any money in traveling. It was the hippogryphs and gryphons that needed to be paid for, except the few instances in which travel was free. The boat did not wait long before leaving again, but the trip would take a while, until they reached the twist in the ocean, so Alpea decided to sleep. There were bunkers for the travelers to rest in, so she took one. There were three beds in the room; she took the one farthest from the door and laid down to sleep while the boat took off.

Stormwind Harbor was much bigger than she had expected; she could not see it's end even when she got off the boat. It was all hustle-bustle, workers and cavalrymen walking or hauling 2lumber to and fro. At least two ships were in the process of being built a few docks down, and cannons littered the area, ready to be fired at enemy ships or Horde invaders.

The lowest section of the harbor, where the ships came in to port, was the busiest of all. Then came the ramps and stairs that led up to the city, where travelers and guards alike traveled. One group of guards on foot walked in a circle up the lowest ramp, in a circle around a prisoner; Defias, the troublesome lot of rebels based to the south, she assumed. Alpea followed them, running to catch up in the hopes that they were heading towards the city. She had been made to memorize the layouts of all of the Alliance's main cities before her initiation, as well as the continents and the location of each region, each zone, therein. But the cities were confusing, and she wasn't sure of which way the actual entrance to the city was, from the harbor (from the tram and forest it was quite easy; there was only one road). So, following the guards that were escorting a prisoner would be the easiest way to get into the city.

In the end she didn't stay in the capital, instead asking a guard for directions to the eastern entrance. He escorted her to the trade district before suggesting she speak to the flight master in the gryphon roost and leaving. She did, and circled back into the trade district to go out of the main gate. From there it was just a short jog until she was in Elwynn Forest, and from there another short run to the place she was looking for, Northshire Valley.

She found him just inside the gate, scratching enthusiastically at an itchy spot just beneath his ear. She smiled and came up to scratch at the spot, earning a wagging tail and careful lick to the hand. He was small, she realized when she looked at the other young wolves in the area, and was still bleeding slightly where the plague had eaten away at his skin and fur and had not yet scarred over. She sat with him for most of the day, warning off the young humans who were interested in slaying him to deal with the pest control issue they were being told to handle, and rubbing off the dead skin that the wolf had not yet chewed off. When she was finished and had begun to turn back for Stormwind, the young wolf followed her, tail wagging in earnest.

It was then she realized he would be her first pet, when he looked so much like an eager puppy, with his ruined nose and greasy, ragged fur. She tamed him then, using the magic that the trainer had passed onto her. It was not a surprise when the wolf bit her – nipped, really – or when he growled when the process was finally done. She had expected that, and knew that he would stay in a foul mood until she found some type of food for him.

She decided to rid Elwynn of a few kobolds – little rodent-like humanoids that had been infesting the mines – and loot whatever they had of value before letting her new wolf, Crone, as she named him, eat the remains. He was in a much better mood afterward, and even deigned to allow her to do odd jobs in the valley in order to extend her reputation with Stormwind's humans. The plagued wolves and kobold vermin infesting the valley were so weak that she didn't have to charm any arrows or send Crone to defend her if any came after her. Two well-placed arrows were enough to down any rabid wolves or particularly mean rodents.

Eventually she moved southwest towards Westfall, the proper area for her to be working at her rank. The only downside to the area that she could think of was that it was full of the Defias, the band of rebel humans that often attacked travelers and explorers alike.

Crone trotted beside her as she went about finding the flight master, gathering oats for an old and tired mule and helped in gradually killing off the human insurgents. She killed the boars and hostile vultures as they went, collecting what was of value and a few choice cuts of meat and nutritional organs, storing them in a bag she had found on one of the humans that was perfect for keeping food. She eventually traded most of it to a farmer that needed them for ingredients in a stew, but was too afraid of the Defias to go hunting for them. In return, the old woman gave her a copy of the recipe and taught her how to properly prepare it.

She grew stronger here. She could feel it in how she gradually grew less tired after the series of charmed shots and stings she fired. And her enemies fell faster, so that Crone merely had to nip them once or twice and she didn't need to use more than three arrows at a time. It was at that point, once she had finished her jobs, that she took a gryphon back to Stormwind to seek the city's hunter trainers.

The trainers themselves were in the back of the city, inside the Hunter Guild Hall, which in turn was inside the Dwarven District, close to the keep that help the city's king, Varian Wrynn. A guard gladly showed her the way, taking her through the canals and over the many bridges to get there. She thanked him as he left, standing just beside the stable master. The pudgy little dwarf nodded at her and pointed her chin at the building beside her, smiling all the while. Alpea nodded and smiled back before going inside, where three old hunters and a retired pet trainer stood chatting. A set of stairs led up at the back of the room, passed the row of bookcases, to where she assumed the fourth trainer was.

Alpea approached the dwarf closest to her, another female, and asked for the training she had missed in her last few ranks. The dwarf gladly gave her the knowledge. "Why aren't ye in one of them battlegrounds, dukin' it out with the Horde?" she asked.

Alpea frowned. "What do you mean, battleground?"

The dwarves laughed. "Are ye daft!" One of them shouted, "Everyone knows once ye get passed the tenth rank, ye can go fight them Horde invaders up in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin, lass."

"Oh. Right," Alpea laughed and turned away. Stupid, she admonished herself. She was told about those battlegrounds ages ago, when she was still a trainee. They were areas where the Horde and Alliance battled constantly – the Warsong Gulch in Ashenvale forest, for example – over resources or territory. Special sentinels that were stationed inside the cities were able to teleport fighters there, or they could just fly or walk there and join the fights.

She decided to find the sentinels of Warsong Gulch. If she was skilled enough to be able to fight against the Horde, then she would do it. She would start there, in the battle for Ashenvale, where all the rookies started. There should be sentinels in the gryphon roost, near the flight master.

Crone whined beside her, ears flattened and tail wagging. She smiled at him and pulled in front of her the bag at the small of her back. This was where she kept the meat and fish she managed to get for his food and her cooking, and she took out a big chunk of boar meat and tossed it over to him. The dark gray wolf caught it and ate it in a single gulp and looked back up at her, his ears still flat. "All right, all right," She laughed and pulled out a small rack of ribs she had taken from a vulture and handed it back to him. It took him longer to eat this, as he crunched the bones in his jaw and moaned quietly as he swallowed each rib. She waited outside the Hunter's Guild while he ate and only set off when he was done, a few smears of blood lining his muzzle.

They crossed the canals over bridges twice before they finally entered the trade district, where the roost was kept. She and Crone ran up the access ramp and the small walkway that led into the stone-walled hallway until they saw the two night elves and the Warsong banner, talking to each other quietly.

"Night elf," one of them called over to her. "Are you prepared to fight for the woods of Ashenvale forest?"

"Yes," Alpea squared her shoulders as the two sentinels nodded to her and began channeling the magic that would teleport her to the Alliance hold, at one end of the gulch.

"You know how these staged battles"- staged, meaning the battles were carefully watched over for the younger fighters, and organized so that the battles stayed inside the gulch –"how they work, right?"

"No," Alpea frowned and held onto Crone's neck ruff. One of the sentinels smiled at her.

"Warsong, like so many others, is an hourly battle, my friend. We keep it controlled so as to hold off further war. This battleground is a simple capture-the-flag fight. Whomever wins – either by capturing the flag three times, or being the team with the most captures when your time for fighting expires – will have control of the area until the next battle begins. If neither Horde nor Alliance captures a flag, the battle is naught and neither side may have control of the gulch's resources. Good luck,"

And she was gone.