AN: I don't own anything associated with Blizzard, and I don't own World of Warcraft. I also do not own the idea that kittens is the second-worst swearword in the Night Elf repertoire, with carpet being the worst. Got it? Good!
Also, I'm sorry for taking so long to update, but I fell off a set of bleachers and knocked myself on the head. So then I got a medium concussion, which really hurt, and I spent most of the summer recovering from it. And then, are you ready? My Great-Aunt died. SO, between all that, my brain is just now back to full speed and I'll start updating again now, hooray! You get a super-long chapter for your wonderful patience!
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Snap!
Alienea looked carefully around and prowled around the camp's perimeter. Only regular jungle animals had intruded upon her hearing, which was quite sharp as she had morphed into a large, dark black panther. But it was almost dawn, and other things might be waking up. "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." Faint snaps and rustles were heard as whatever it was scuttled off into the tree cover. Alienea padded back into the center of the camp and morphed back. "Better bring the fire back up and warm up that stew..." She slowly coaxed the fire back to life, and moved the stew pot onto part of it before morphing into a cat again to continue patrolling.
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Sounds of waking were emerging from Nesingwary's tent, but in Grievous's and Akomar's tents there was only snoring. Nesingwary crawled out of his tent, yawned and looked bleary-eyed at the stew pot that had gotten warmed up. "Lass, you can stop patrolling now.."
"Rrrrww." Alienea leaped back into the camp's center and morphed back. She grabbed a bowl and spoon from where she had put them away and helped herself to some of the stew. "The stew should be warm by now. Help yourself, but I'm catching a nap after I eat." She quickly began to spoon the stew into her mouth and gulp it down. "I didn't hear anything out of place last night, but what about you?" Nesingwary slowly dipped himself a bowl full of stew and began to eat thoughtfully.
"Well, lass, I don't think I heard anything our of normal. It may be what I didn't hear. See, around halfway through my watch, this jungle went silent." Alienea looked up and nodded, stew half-done.
"Yes… this place should never really be silent." And indeed, chirping and rustling could be heard all around them. She gestured towards Grievous's and Akomar's tents. "Think they'll wake up before noon?" Nesingwary rubbed his beard and shook his head.
"Unlikely. Pah! City folk." He finished up his stew and put it by the fire. "Let's get the water skins filled. If they do wake up while we're gone, they can panic all they want. We need the water." He grabbed the one they had used last night and 2 more, while Alienea trailed after him after grabbed 3 more. "Get these 5 filled, and we'll have a good 8 full water skins. 5 of us, though.. we might want to fill a pot or so if things get bad." Alienea nodded again and glanced around the jungle.
"Tickbird...tickbird... blackshadowything...tickbird... black…shadowy…thing! TO THE RIVER!" She pushed Nesingwary in front of her and ran towards the river, with a black shadow following them.
"But lass-the-camp!"
"Nononono, we need to fill up on water first and get into a clear, defendable space, and we're closer to-pant- the river!"
"But-fine, lass." They finally burst into the clear area around the river before the shadow creature caught up with them. It stalked out of the forest, and turned into a demonic green eye.
"Warlock tool... um,um,um, some sort of Eye." Nesingwary growled grabbed a stick from the ground.
"Whatever it is, a few good whacks'll take it out." He swiftly stepped forward and threw the stick at the Eye.. only to have it pass right through. "What in tarnation?" Alienea shrugged and began to fill up the water skins.
"C'mon. If we can't hurt it, then fill up the water skins and get back to camp. I'll bet you that Grievous will be able to do something to it." Nesingwary sighed and carefully began to fill up his load of waterskins, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds. Once they'd filled up the water skins, they carefully scooted around the Eye and ran back to the camp, glancing over their shoulders at the Eye which continued to follow them. They put the water skins down in the center of camp and sat, watching the Eye watching them. "I'm waking up Grievous. And Akomar." Alienea said. She got up and walked over to Grievous's and Akomar's tents and shook the tents hard. "WAKE UP! It's PAST SEVEN A-M! WAKEY-WAKEY!" Groaning sounds were heard in both tents, and Akomar slowly crawled out of his, blinking in the sunlight.
"S'not.. a decent hour to aw" he yawned "ack...whatdoyouwant?" Alienea rolled her eyes and dragged Akomar over to the stew pot and fire which was down to faintly burning coals.
"See over there?" She pointed at the Eye. "Get rid of it and you can have breakfast. Or at least try to get rid of it." Akomar sighed and launched an icebolt at it which it dodged.
"No. I can't get rid of it. Go ask Grievous." Akomar grabbed a bowl and spoon and took his portion of the remaining stew."
"I said... you.. that wasn't... ugh. Not worth it." Alienea walked over to Grievous's tent and shook it again, eliciting more groans from the tent. "GRIEVOUS! WARLOCK CONJURED THING OUT HERE! GET UP ALREADY!"
"Give me a second! I can't find my-ah! There's my wand!" Grievous walked out of his tent and looked at the Eye. "Eye of Kilrogg, basic warlock spell. Give me my breakfast and I"ll dispel it." Alienea shook her head.
"Get rid of it now, and you can have breakfast. We don't want it hanging around longer than it has to." Grievous grumbled.
"Fine." Grievous muttered some darnassian under his breath and then shot a bolt of light at it, which hit the Eye. "Simple dispel, like I said." Alienea rolled her eyes and handed him a bowl and spoon.
"The stew's in the pot. You're the last up, so you get whatever's left." Grievous sighed and poured the last of the soup into his bowl and began eating. "Let's check out that, um, blue pillar.. skytouched? Pillar today." Nesingwary shook his head and sighed.
"Not if you want to come back to this camp, lad. I want a more defensible camp before having people leave." Alienea looked up from scratching in the dirt, which she had started after handing Grievous his bowl.
"Just finish sharpening the sticks. If we have to, I can fly over there and back in raven form. It looks enough like the tickbirds." Akomar looked up and shook his head.
"No, no, they've got warlocks. If they did notice you looked a bit different, than they could easily capture you. And from there, they could probably do some rudimentary form of form-freezing, and I don't know if Grievous or I could break that." Alienea blinked.
"We have not been taught that people can freeze our forms. This is... most distressing, and something I must relay back when this mission is over." Akomar and Grievous looked at Alienea with expressions of mixed amusement and a touch of horror. Grievous spoke up first.
"You-They-What-It's-Idiots-" Akomar started off in a more coherent vein.
"But they-every druid should know that! The Horde certainly wouldn't refrain from using any druids they could freeze against us! How would they not have taught you!" Alienea sighed.
"At the present time I'm not going to go into druid politics. Suffice it to say that Fandarel must be displaced soon." Grievous shook his head.
"Well... Let's get started on making this camp defensible." Alienea and Akomar nodded, and Nesingwary brought in the sticks that still needed sharpening, handing out knives.
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"I never want to sharpen another stick in my life." Akomar and Alienea nodded at Grievous as they surveyed the ring of stakes that now surrounded the camp. Nesingwary chuckled.
"Well, we've got it done and that's what's important, lads and lass." He glanced up at the sun. "We've still got a good few hours, so let's stock in on supplies, and we can see about your cultists tomorrow. I think Jerestin and I could defend this camp now for a full day and night by ourselves. Speaking of Jerestin... OY! HOW ARE YA UP THERE!" Alienea and Grievous winced, covering their sensitive ears. There was a slight rustling in the tree above them, and then Jerestin's face poked out.
"I'm fine, Nesingwary! I can hear and see lots from up here!" He nodded and disappeared back into the tree. Alienea sighed.
"Lovely to know all that work flying him up there wasn't wasted, then. Gah.. Gnomes! Gnomes I can fly around Sholazar, but you dwarves are heavier and stockier. How do you manage to look so small and weigh so much?" Nesingwary chuckled.
"Who knows, lass. Now c'mon you lot, let's teach you poor city people how to hunt! A rhino'll feed us all for a bit!" Grievous and Akomar gulped.
"A.. rhino?..." Akomar gulped. Nesingwary patted him on the back.
"Just a wee baby one, don't worry!" Alienea chuckled.
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"See now, that wasn't so bad, and now you can say you've killed a rhino! Or.. healed people killing a rhino." Grievous and Akomar nodded and sighed. Alienea handed them daggers and set the to skinning the rhino while she cut the chucks of meat off and wrapped them for carrying back to camp. When they'd finished, Nesingwary led them back to the camp.
"Now lads and lass, do ye know how to dry the meat?" Alienea, Grievous, and Akomar shook their heads. "Well, normally tis' a very long process, but I've got a ready-made spell right here for the purpose." Nesingwary dug around in his pack and brought out a small, runed wand and began touching it to the strips of meat that Alienea had cut and divided to dry. When the wand touched them, they dried up and became preserved. "So, you're lucky ducks, eh?" They all nodded, and Akomar began inspecting the runes on the wand.
"Interesting spellwork, easy to recharge. A concentrated, contained firebolt drying it out, and it conjures the spices and all to make it taste good." Nesingwary shrugged.
"It works very well, lad. Now start packing those strips that I've dried!" Akomar, Grievous and Alienea nodded and began to pack up all the meat. Alienea looked up into the trees and squinted.
"Jerestin, you can come down!" There was no answer. "Jerestin!" Alienea went to the base of the tree and called again. "Hey, Jerestin!" She kicked the tree, and Jerestin came down with a thud. "Oh... kittens. Kittens kittens kittens!" Grievous winced.
"Must you swear like that?" Alienea turned around while Akomar and Nesingwary sent puzzled glances at each other.
"He's DEAD! I can swear if I want to!" Alienea morphed into a cat and climbed the tree, sniffing the bark. Grievous ran over to Jerestin and nodded.
"He is dead. I can't bring him back, he's too far gone and I can't afford the reagents for that anyways. I'm sorry, Nesingwary, but I don't think we should leave his body here or bury him with what's going on. Would he've objected to being burned?" Nesingwary sighed.
"No.. I understand, and so would he." Grievous nodded and began casting Holy Fire. When he was done, white flames burst out of Jerestin's body and incinerated him in seconds. Grievous bowed his head and prayed.
"Guys... There's no scent I discern up here. Something vile, though, and I think that it must be demon." Alienea dropped out of the tree and sighed. Grievous nodded and began casting some spell. Alienea sighed and muttered.
"We're all lucky we were gone today, I guess, although we might've been able to hold whatever did this off. But I think tomorrow we've got to go check out the pillars. And if you guys won't, I will." Grievous finished, and a burst of light radiated out to the boundaries of the camp, and then stopped. He turned around and sighed.
"Wards. And yes, tomorrow we must begin." Nesingwary sighed.
"I'll just make meself an escape tunnel, then." He pulled some mining implements out of his pack and began to sharpen them. Akomar smiled grimly.
"Better make it big enough for the big people, Nesingwary." Nesingwary nodded at Akomar and continued his work.
"I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight, lads. I'll take watch and wake on of ye if I have to." Akomar and Grievous nodded, but Alienea sighed.
"I'll stay out here in cat form and sleep near you in case anything happens." Nesingwary nodded, and they all headed to their tents, the ground, or a chair.
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Thanks to both reviewers so far!
