The shocked girl was feeling choked by a sense of oppression.
She was disoriented, her ears were whislting.
Thanks for your help back there, she gulped, chewing words in her mouth like a buttermilk delight.
Her voice was limpid and youthful, but its sweet notes were broken by primordial fear.
If it wasn't for you.. we.. I..
The dead boy stopped.
He said nothing, maniacally chuckling instead before starting moving once more.
The blood elf young woman nervously looked around. She started looking at the little night elf girl, hoping she would exchange a warm look of solidarity for that utter, reasonless situation.
But reason was an adult thing.
The kal'dorei kid wasn't able to understand the raw language of the orcs spoken by her distant cousin. Instead of feeling curious or upset because of it, she'd just resignedly ignore it. One thing for sure is that she was being the bravest in that confusing circumstance. One tiny hand holding tight the sin'dorei's warm one, the other didn't want to let go of Mr. Button. She seemed not to mentally accuse what happened in the wrecked house. The night lands of Silverpine Forest was not an unfamiliar environment to the night elves, and although the suffocating feeling, the web encrusted trees and the festering stench, the little girl would surely feel less scared and uneasy than any other kid in her same situation.
What's your name?
He stopped again.
Giving his back to the two elves, he raised his eyes as he usually would look down instead, scanning around random objects with no real purpose with a deviated smile on his face. He opened his mouth and inhaled, as if words were to come up his decaying throat. But instead he changed his mind, preventing the air to reach for his void-fuelled lungs as he clenched his teeth in a gnashing bite.
The sin'dorei's heartbeat started to irregularly shifting after her scared mood.
Wh- what's your name, she repeated, trying to convince herself that the undead couldn't hear her voice.
Aunt Rhody calls me Needle.
His left eye twitched.
His legs marched forward one more time.
His voice didn't sound as decrepit as she was expecting.
The thalassian girl slipped her eyes on the long needles stuck in both undead boy's forearms. His name was probably a reference to all the needles hosted in his forearms. The black leather vest the boy gave her were pretty ruined and dirty, and not much for covering. The young woman just arranged what she could together with what was left of her old clothes in order to prevent possible intruding peeks at her important, sensual lady parts. Some of the first aid bandages and runeclothes she brought with her were rearranged as a provisonal brassiere. Some were used to tie together the remnants of the beautiful thalassian silked pants, barbarically ripped off.
Her eyes wouldn't stop staring at the oddly well preserved yet neglected body of the forsaken.
Personal hygiene was even utter to compare when talking about a walking corpse, and cuts and scars would still spread here and there adorned by stitches.
She quickly grew an eye for details and analyzing due to her background.
Is that your real name?
The boy didn't seem to be able to both walk and word sentences at the same time. He nervously started scratching himself, standing still and stiff on the spot.
I don't think so. I hope it's not. It's horrible.
For a moment, he looked desperate, grinning in a maniacal way.
But then his facial expression, out of the blue, just went blank once more. He started marching again, head bowing and eyes staring at his own steps.
The sin'dorei girl wasn't feeling comfortable at all. The forsaken didn't seem stable-minded. She feared for her own sake and the one of the little girl.
He might be able to just suddenly switch mood and attack them.
She tried not to let the silence have the best of the situation.
My name is Lywe.
The boy irritably stopped for the fourth time. Without moving any other muscle, he slowly turned his head in a marked creepy way towards the blood elf, who stopped right behind the undead young man, petrified.
And what were you doing in there, Lywe?
She gulped. His tone of arrogance now totally made him sound like a different person.
Ah.. I come from Silvermoon City. I-I hired those two orcs as mercenaries to protect me on the way through Silverpine Forest and Hillsbrad Foothills.
Well, they were doing a very good job indeed, he gestured in a very theatrical way.
I.. need to reach Tarren Mill to meet with an aquintance of mine. If only..
I couldn't care less, he smiled.
And what's with the young lady over here? He switched visual on the little kaldorei, booping her nose with the bare boned tip of his left pointing-finger.
The night elf kid shook her nose, keeping her eyes innocently on the boy as she wasn't able to understand the topic of the argument.
We found her in the woods being chased by a skitterweb lurker. I can't speak darnassian nor common, so I still couldn't have any conversation with her..
But I decided to take her with me until we find her family or whoever she was traveling wi-
WHAT? ARE YOU NUTS, the boy climaxed a desperate cackling in a shouted retorical question, springing towards the blood elf, holding her tight by the shoulders.
She noticed, in the dismay, his pretty long eyeleashes almost as long as her own.
She gulped with her teeth clenched, not knowing how to react.
He then suddenly let her go, then started laughing nervously, hands on his face in a very dramatic pose.
He recomposed the previous posture and resumed walking.
Druids, bears, beasts, he muttered. He softly let out what resembled swearing, probably in gutterspeak.
W-where are we going now?
WE? There is no 'we', he said panting anxiously.
Leave me alone. Who are you again? Ah, the.. the little girl, we, he paused. We can't take her back to Brill. A-Ah.. I.. Oh no, we can't.
The blood elf was totally left speechless as he seemd to start panicking.
No no no no no no no no no. They are going to eat her alive. And if Gordo finds us before we even get there? WORSE. WORST.
One more obsessive laughing culminated in these two last words. He seemed to be experiencing another personality disorder attack, holding his head with both his hands.
Lywe wanted to just run away with the little girl, as trying to kill him with her dagger might turn out unsuccessful. But the thought preventing her from doing so was that whatever was out there lurking in the unfamiliar shadows of the forest could have been even a thousand times worse than that.
She battled her shaking. All her life she's always been a strong girl in a men's world. But this was way too much, altogether. For what she knew, she and the night elf could both be stabbed at any time for no apparent reason. She didn't know if she would be able to protect both herself and the kal'dorei child.
Meanwhile, the little girl calmly stared at the two grown ups, holding Mr. Button tight against her chest.
The dead lad let go of his head. He slowly raised it and stared at the darkness in front of him. He exhaustingly blinked his eyes.
His cold, left hand posed across his face. A tingling in his brain pierced through the chaos of his mind.
The sound of a tear drop hitting water surface.
I'm sorry.
He stood up once more, approaching the immobile beautiful but stress marked young woman. He grabbed her other hand, carefully choosing to do that with his right one in order not to cut or scratch her with his bare bone clawed hand. She flashed a look at it, noticing his black nails, before switching back with eyes glued to him.
Lywe.
The girl froze at the sound of her name. Her shimmering emerald eyes widenly stared in surprise at the blank, ghostly ones of the undead boy. The necrotic magic made it hard to localize the dead pupils, but after a while she could clearly notice them.
Don't take her with you to undead outposts.
All of a sudden, for apparently no reason at all, the twisted undead now seemed to be replaced by something else.
Something.. human.
Gilneas might be our only chance to deliver her safely, but we can't get too close. Oh, no. Worgen are vicious and hulking, their senses way too sharp. Now that I think of it, I am pretty sure that citizens who are not joining the Liberation Front are being sent safely on ships straight to Darnassus.
They don't need a pretext to attack, and the war going on with the unliving made them even more merciless. The Banshee Queen is trying to claim what's left of their kingdom, so it's not much safe..He took a moment to ponder.
The little girl might be involved in something.. or.. well, it's the most logical thing I can think of.
Logic, she wondered.
He glanced at the little girl.
Also, not to mention that the Bloodfang hold no diplomacy towards official members of the Alliance. So, she wouldn't be spared.
These forests are too dangerous to be stalked by two fragile girls like you.
I, he paused. I will help you approaching the walls as much as we can. It's the best we can do for her.
Lywe felt goose bumps as she looked straight at the boy's concerned glancing towards the kal'dorei kid.
His broken voice suddenly sounded like a reassuring man's, determined to protect them both.
He saved us, she thought.
He gave her a doll. He gave me his clothes. He can't be this bad after all. Or can he? I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I never really thought about it. Nor cared. How must it feel like to be a forsaken..? I wonder what he had to go through. What kind of man he was before.. before he died? Was he just like this..? Would I be any different or better if I died myself and be reborn from undeath? I wonder what his name really is. Did he have a family? His face is.. I think like it. He doesn't look too much.. dead? Meleon told me once. Rumored rituals the Dark Lady has been practicing over fallen corpses because they can't procreate. Which means he can't use..? His skin is so pale.. I wonder how it feels like touching it. Ah. His hand is cold.
The sin'dorei young woman looked down at the young lad's left hand, showing his ripped off flesh on the tips.
She felt disgust.
Whatever I do or say, please forgive me and don't mind it. Don't walk off from me and don't leave me alone.
As long as you stick with me, I won't forget.
Lywe turned her eyes once more to his, completely putting aside the revulsion for that trivial detail.
She started feeling disturbingly attracted by that firm, deep voice that awkwardly wasn't matching at all his portrait.
The young man crouched and gently posed his right pointing-finger flexor tendon under the kal'dorei girl's chin.
We'll take you home, he spoke common to the night elf with a warm smile.
The child's face brightened. She nodded enthusiastically.
Lywe didn't understand, but couldn't stop feeling surprised by him every moment.
He would not forget the human language after all.
Whatever he told her, the little kaldorei seemed reassured.
Don't leave me alone, he said with one last glance at the mesmerized blood elf girl.
And the restless stalking would start all over again.