Chapter 4: Auberdine

Shiromar was only 7 at the time. She could remember sitting before the fire, brushing her thick, green hair, waiting for her mother to return from her hunt, and her father to return from the bar. She loved her mother with all her heart; she was the only thing that could protect her from her father's drunken wrath. Her mother, Anthetalis, was the one who always tucked her in at night. She was the one that made her breakfast of Fried Elk and Moonkin Sausage every morning.

"Eat well," she said. "You will need those muscles to grow up and be a strong hunter like me."

But she despised her father. He was never home. He was always out drinking Dwarven Lager at a bar in Darnassus, and when he came home that was when she hated him most. She remembered one night in which he hurt her most of all:

"WHO ATE ALL THE FUCKING MOONKIN SAUSAGE! GET YOUR FAT ASS OVER HERE SHIROMAR!" he screamed as loud as he possibly could. "YOU WORTHLESS NIGHT ELF!" He threw her against the wall. "Do you want some more? Here eat the rest of the Elk too why don't you? You fat fucker. I don't know why I had you, bastard half-breed. If I had just married a Human you wouldn't have been such a mistake, I assure you." He tore off pieces of Fried Elk and shoved them down her throat, one by one. Her mother was off on a hunt then, too. "If you tell your goddamn mother about any of this, I swear to the Titans that you won't live to see your 8th birthday."

"How could someone be so cruel?" she thought. "I didn't even eat all the Moonkin. I was feeding it to my pet Frostsaber, Mindy. I was teaching her to do tricks is all."

She didn't want to go to sleep. She had night terrors about her father. She had nightmares about him waking her up from a dead sleep and throwing her against the wall again. She doesn't have them as often anymore, but they happened almost nightly as a child.

But this time it was even worse. He came home crying.

"Why are you crying Daddy?" asked Shiromar. "What's wrong?"

"Go to your goddamn room before I hit you." he replied, sobbing afterwards.

The next day her mom didn't come home. Or the next. Or the next.

"Where's Mommy? I'm scared."

"Your mom is fine. Go to your room."

"But I wanna know where she is Daddy."

"You wanna know where your mom is? THEN GO FUCKING FIND HER YOU BRAT!" he hollered, kicking her out the door.

"Daddy, I'm so scared. I don't know where she is." she said. "I don't wanna g-"

He threw her out the door.

"AND DON'T COME BACK UNTIL YOU FIND YOUR GODDAMN MOTHER!"

"Why is he so mean?" she thought. "Why does he do these things?"

She stealthily walked around the house, hoping he wouldn't hear her footsteps. She stopped at a window and saw him holding a bottle, crying. Even after all that he has put her through, it hurt her to see her own father like this.

Shiromar was walking down the road, hoping, praying that the next Night Elf she saw was her mother coming to take her home. The purple leaves on the dirt crunched underneath her feet as she walked. Crunch, crack, crunch. Each footstep sounding as if a bomb went off in her mind. Each footstep is a name that her father calls her. Bitch, worthless. Bastard, half-breed, cunt. Each footstep is her counting the seconds as her father beats her senseless. One, two three, four…

"Are you lost?" asked a stranger that was passing by her.

He was very tall, and he wore a beautiful white robe that seemed to encompass his entire being. It was embroidered in blue, gold, red. He held a staff with the same colors, towering at almost the same height as the man.

"I don't know where my Mommy is, and my Daddy won't tell me. He told me to go find her."

"Oh, wow. I'm so sorry. If you like you can stay with me and we can look for your mother in the morning. It is pretty dark and you need some sleep if you are going to grow big and strong."

"Ok, sir."

They headed northeast to his home in Darnassus. Shiromar can still remember the first time she stepped through the Darnassian gates, with living trees the size of giants smiling down at her. She remembered looking up and seeing columns supporting a marble roof. She remembered wondering how anyone could have built something so massive, and when she returns, she gazes at these gates for hours. They went to the Tradesman's Terrace district, and stopped at the first story of a tall building.

"Alright, let me show you around." They entered the building. "Here is the kitchen, here is the bathroom. Oh, here is where you will be sleeping for tonight. You must be hungry. Would you like some Moonkin sausage? I have plenty of it."

"No, I don't like Moonkin sausage." said Shiromar. Suit yourself. At least drink some Harpy milk before you go to sleep."

Shiromar did as she was told, but she didn't sleep a wink that night. Her mother was out there, somewhere. She just had to find her.