Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Warcraft.
Hello everyone! Well this is chapter 4. Enjoy and review!
Chapter 4 : Emerald help
As he rode through the forest of felwood, each leap of the frost tiger shaking him painfully, Harry thought back on his recent escape from Jaedenar.
After defeating the powerful orc warlock and his sucubi pets, he went on to try and find the exit of the maze of caves and tunnels that was Shadow hold. A few tunnels later he stumbled upon Arko'Narin.
Ironically, it was that last fight, which should have been one of the easiest, that had been the more taxing. Indeed, casting those two spells when tired and injured had cost him a lot.
After a quick legilimancy scan, he freed the Night elf and hopped on the giant tiger. One tunnel and a cave later, he was finally outside.
The camp of Jaedanar, as the armless warlock called it, was situated at the base of a rocky hill. A few stone ruins of the same elf design he had observed before were scattered all around the place and used as refuges, or places to camp by the satyrs and warlocks presents.
As "Karri" shot out of shadow hold, which had been dug inside the hill itself, every single Jaedenar resident locked their eyes on them. They barely made it out of the camp before the chase begun. Harry had had to grit his teeth and hold on for dear life as the tiger jumped left and right between the trees and the ruins before it reached some kind travel road.
From then on they had engaged an endurance contest between Arko's frost tiger, the warlocks' felsteed and the tireless satyrs. Harry wasn't a fool; he knew that with the two of them to carry, their mount would tire pretty quickly. Moreover cats weren't known for their endurance, but rather for their speed.
That was why, despite being on the brink of fainting from pain and exhaustion, he had fed sliver of his magic to the tiger every hour or so, to keep it running.
They fled to the south, the plants and trees on each side of the path were a sickly green and sported disgusting mutation, and the air itself looked corrupted; he had never seen fel corruption reach such an extent in his world.
Twenty miles or so after they reached the travel road, it looked like their pursuers had finally given up. Arko'narin kept the pace during a few more miles before slowing down to a fast walk. Harry felt like Christmas had come early.
Thanks god it's over! Was his only coherent thought. He sighed heavily and winced; the ride hadn't done any good to his wounds. He released his grip on the night elf before him to press his hand on his side.
The woman shifted and turned her head to look at him,
"Warrior, I'm thankful for your actions back there; but I have a few questions…" She said somewhat hesitantly.
He focused his gaze on her. In truth, he had been too preoccupied back in the cave to really pay any attention to her. His scan had told him that she was relatively trustworthy, willing to help and quite afraid of him. A combination that met his needs perfectly.
Now that escaping wasn't his top priority anymore, he focused his attention on her. He assumed that she was one of those "night elf" the warlock at talked about. To his surprise, she was almost the exact opposite of a house elf, but also quite different from the classic elves one can read about in fantasy books. She was tall, maybe 6 feet, and even with the chainmail and plate armor she wore, he could tell she had a well formed body.
That thought might have provoked a physical reaction, considering his position behind her, had he not been in such a bad shape. Too bad, he thought sarcastically. He returned to his examination; her face was definitely the most exotic thing about her: long pointed hears angled to the back of her head; her shoulder long dark blue hair framed a beautiful pale-bluish face. The real shock however was the glowing blue eyes that illuminated the whole.
He sighed, might as well get to know more about this world. He had no idea how the Nathrezim summoned him there; even if I knew, would I want to go back? He pushed this line of thoughts to the back of his mind for later examination.
"Ask away."
"What…" she started, but faltered. She glanced at him nervously and started again.
"How did you get there? Were you a prisoner of the shadow council? And if you were, why would they want you? And by the way, who are you?" She stopped when she realized she was babbling.
Shadow council? Must be the warlocks, they use to like fancy names.
"Let's start simple, my name is Harrison Potter, you?" She blushed in embarrassment at this reminder of her babble, which made her cheeks turn an interesting shade of blue.
"Arko'Narin." She said softly.
"To answer your questions, the agents of the demons have a lot of reasons to go after me", revenge for one. "As for how I got here, I don't really know; I think that the Nathrezim summoned me here with some kind of ritual, don't think that he really expected me to come though." He smirked. No, he definitely didn't see that one coming.
Arko'narin choked at the mention of the dreadlord, she turned completely to look at him in the eyes.
"You faced Banehollow? How did you escaped?" She asked flagger basted.
He looked at her quizzically "I didn't. There was only one way out of this network of caves and tunnels, and nowhere to hide." He locked his eyes with her and coldly stated: "I had to kill what was in the way."
She nearly fell off of Karri at this. What was this man? The people who could fight dreadlord on even ground were rare; those who lived to tell the tale even more so. Then what he said really registered in her mind, and her fear of the stranger was overcome with excitement. She asked him what he did and what he saw in the underground tunnels before he found her. He told her; taking deep breaths from time to time. The dreadlord had apparently done quite a number on him.
As he finished his recount of the events, she could do little more than gape at him like a retarded murloc. Her fear of him almost gone, chased by awe. If what he told her was the truth, and after witnessing the brutal execution of Xavalis she did trust him, he had killed almost every leaders of the local branch of the shadow council here in Felwood. Including Fel'dan, the powerful orc warlock that had ordered Trey's execution.
"H-How did you do it?" She stuttered, still having difficulties processing what he had just told her.
"Fifteen years ago, the place where I come from entered a great war, one that would dwarf any of the precedent by its brutality and duration. Eleven years ago, the enemies' leader started fiddling with demonic portal; he stumbled upon the burning legion and allied himself with them." He said with a distant look, "Let's say that I have experience".
He then looked at her cautiously; if I want her to help me around here, I have to tell her this.
"As you probably guessed by now, I'm not from around here. I am pretty sure that this summoning ritual took me from another world, or maybe from another dimension, as I have no idea where I am and had never encountered a being like you before." He said.
Arko'Narin had indeed wondered about this war she had never heard of. The words of the stranger comforted her too; he is lost and wounded in a new world, he needs help. She took a look at him, his stony eyes still unnerving but no longer frightening; she then lowered her gaze to his clutched side.
"We'll soon arrive at the Emerald sanctuary. It is a settlement shared by Tauren and Night elves of the Cenarion circle; once there we will be able to heal your wounds and answer your questions."
She looked back at the road; Jessir will have a heart attack when I tell her.
An hour later, they finally reached the druid settlement. A dirt path led to it, a few hundred feet from the main road they had followed. It was built like a small village, and wouldn't house more than one or two hundred Night elves and Taurens.
Harry, however, was in no condition to appreciate the view, or throw more than one glance to the curious cow-like people roaming around the wooden houses of the Emerald sanctuary. His eyes were shut in pain and his head wobbling from the fatigue.
Ow! Ow! That hurt. He thought, barely coherent now. Feeding energy to that damn cat for hours at end had been the last straw. And now, with his magic so weak, he couldn't prevent the corruption of his wound from spreading anymore.
He blinked tiredly in Arko's direction. He gave her all the incentives he could to help him. Now it was her choice. Not something he wanted to think about.
They stopped in front of one of the largest building.
"I need some help here!" He heard her shout. Relief washed through him at those words.
People started to come out of the wooden inn. Some night elves and some cows, dressed in… twigs and leaves? Harry was too tired to do a double take, too tired to listen to what they were saying. All he could do was concentrate not to pass out when they took him off his perch.
He winced in pain as one solid pair of arms hauled him indoors and laid him slowly on a soft mattress.
As his conscience and the memories of the recent events came back to him, Harry gradually became aware of the presence of other people in the room.
His eyes fluttered open and did a quick scan of his surroundings. Arko'narin stood beside the bed, talking to one of the twig-dressed people. Another elf, male, big, purple hair and beard, was bending over him and examining his injuries.
He could see his sword and the rest of his clothes lying in a corner of the room. Harry took a look at his condition: he was lying on a bed, his chest bare except for the bandages covering his wounds and the scorpion amulet resting above his heart. He guessed that there would be at least one addition to his battle scar collection. One more story to tell, he thought.
At this rhythm I'll be a walking novel in a few years.
The purple bearded druid; seriously, purple? Finally noticed his return to the livings and spoke:
"Hello Harrison Potter; I see that you are awake." His voice was deep, but not threatening. The statement halted the conversation between Arko'Narin and the Night elf female as they turned to look at him.
"Yes, thank you for taking care of me…" Harry said, looking straight into the golden orbs that were the eyes of this elf. He could only sense honesty and kindness from this one.
"That's quite all right." He answered truthfully, "We, druids of the cenarion circle, have sworn to protect life and nature. I did what was expected of me in this situation."
"Plus," Interrupted the female druid, "If what Arko'Narin told us is true, we owed you that at the very least" She said with an inquisitive tone. This one seemed to be curious about him. No wonder if Arko told them of our escape!
"That's very noble of you." And very convenient, he thought as he explored his wounds with the help of magic. The druids had done a good job, stopping the corruption of his side from spreading, and healing all the minor injuries he received during his various battles. Now he just had to wait a few weeks: two, maybe three; and his magic, with a little elemental help, would purge his body completely.
"You're welcome. I'm afraid though, that we only managed to contain the evil that hurt you. In order to heal it, we would need water from an uncorrupted moonwell." Harry raised an eyebrow at that; healing a fel-infected wound was not something he had heard of.
"Unfortunately," the druid continued, "there aren't any in Felwood. This is why we waited for you to wake up; so you could be escorted to Astranaar."
The druid woman was clearly not thinking along the same lines, but she was stopped before she could start to argue by the man's raised hand. "We cannot keep him here Jessir; first, this kind of wound must be treated as soon as possible before the corruption can spread. Second…"
And there he cast Harry an unsure glance, "this is not the circle's responsibility to deal with, the sentinels must be made aware of this." This, however, was spoken with authority and confidence, accompanied by a stern look in the female's direction.
Jessir narrowed her eyes at first, and then huffed as she understood that she wouldn't win this battle. Harry didn't like this one bit: he wasn't anyone's responsibility. Right now though, he couldn't do anything about it. At least, it didn't seem like they thought of him as a potential enemy, if the presence of all his weapons in the room was to go by.
No, they just don't know what to think, so they send me to the "higher ups." He relaxed at that thought. He could deal with those "sentinels" when he meets them.
"Ok then, how do I go to this Astranaar?" He asked. Arko'Narin perked up at this.
"I can bring him with me by hippogriff; it's on my way to Darnassus anyway. And it wouldn't be safe for him to fly alone." She babbled slightly. She stopped, and her eyes widened at her boldness. The druid-man chuckled lightly at that. "It's decided then." He turned to face Harry, "you should rest, it's only a few hours fly from here to Astranaar, but in your condition it will be quite exhausting."
Harry nodded and shut his eyes as they left the room. Purple!
Four down! I hoped you enjoyed this one. I know that after all the battles it may seem a bit boring but hey! It couldn't go on forever.
Anyway, thanks for reading and review!