Heh, everything has gotten weird now, with Cata. Writing about places that aren't there anymore. I should hurry up and finish this story so I can move on to another one that's up to date. :P

World of Warcraft belongs to Blizzard Entertainment. Melusina Sunveil, Tai, Feng belong to me.


Chapter Six: Pest Problem

Tai let out a frustrated sighed. Behind her, Melu's mumbled string of practice words came to a halt as the blood elf and Feng glanced at the young woman. The forest was as dreary as ever, though if Melu had to take a stab at the time, she guessed it was probably almost noon. After breaking camp and setting out, Tai gave Melu her daily set of words and phrases and the trio left one another to their own devices.

This is the second time in five minutes she's sighed like that. Is something wrong? Melu looked nervously between the siblings. As far as she knew, the two hadn't been arguing, though she hoped they would so she could actually attempt to escape for once. Melu realized then that she had been so engrossed in practicing the words and sentences Tai was teaching her, that if they were fighting, she probably wouldn't have noticed.

Melu's face reddened in embarrassment. She shouldn't get so familiar with her captor, even if one of them treated her a little nicer than the other. Tai was still escorting her straight to the heart of enemy territory, never to see Silvermoon again. Melu's stomach twisted and quivered at the thought. Never again.

"What's up, Tai?" Feng asked, quietly.

And just like that, Melu's entire body went from home-sick to immensely ecstatic, straightening from her slumped position and a silly grin spreading over her face. I heard that! I understood! After a moment of struggling to contain the squeal bubbling in her throat, Melu thought, Wait, isn't 'what's up?' a greeting? I don't get it... As she brooded over it, the two humans continued talking.

"Nothing, I just... have a bad feeling," Tai muttered, looking around at the tall trees and the gray mist surrounding them.

Before the words even completely passed her lips, a terrified screech shattered the still quiet. The two humans whirled their horses around frantically, trying to locate the scream.

Melu's eyes widened slightly as she realized, That was a child... she knew she shouldn't feel concern. It was obviously an Alliance child, one that would one day undoubtedly grow up to kill many members of the Horde. It was considered backwards and traitorous to even pity any race that weren't allied with the Horde, at least in the eyes of the blood elves. After all, if they weren't with the sin'dorei, then they would inevitably be against them.

So why couldn't she stop her eyes from combing over the area, anxiety chewing at her from the inside out? Despite the constant teachings of her superiors to be as cold as the ice she wielded, Melu couldn't help the growing need to find the distressed child.

"Which way?" Tai asked, gripping the reins of her horse tightly.

"East," Feng breathed before racing off into the forest, Tai hot on his trail. Melu did her best to hold onto the saddle, still tied to it awkwardly. The horses skirted around tree trunks, leapt over boulders, and scratched their way up a suddenly steep hill side before grinding to a halt.

Tai and Feng were off their horses and running toward something ahead of Melu before she even righted herself from the abrupt stop.

Wait! I want to help! Melu thought, tugging on her bindings as she glanced around. Two young human children, huddled behind a night elf who looked like she hadn't quite hit her adult years yet. Their eyes were swollen with tears and their whole frames shook with such terror that Melu doubted the trio saw Feng and Tai coming to their rescue. Not that she was very focused on them either.

Eyes wide, face numb, she felt the world fall away from her as she spotted the creature that had caused the children to scream for help.

A spider.

A very big one to be more specific. Apparently the mother of all arthropods decided to grace the woods of Darkshore with her presence that day. Melu could see everything. The legs, the claws, the hair, the eyes, the mouth. The mage trembled.

"S-sorry... can't-" Melu stuttered quietly. Though she knew no one planned on asking for her help, she felt the need to excuse her uselessness. Yeah... they can save the kids. They're not even Horde, anyway. I mean, they're safe. Tai won't let them get hurt, so there's no reason for me to get involved, right?

Tai let out a ferocious cry she charged at the arachnid. Melu shrunk into herself as the spider hissed at it's assailant. Tai's oversized claymore swung clean through one of the legs and lodged into another. The creature screeched and went into a wild biting frenzy.

That's a really big spider, Melu thought to herself redundantly, But this might be a good time to run away. The blood elf glanced around to find the rogue. He was preoccupied herding the petrified children toward his horse while Tai held off the enraged beast. Shifting her nervous gaze between the ever alert Feng and the rabid arachnid, Melu subtly began to work the knots of the rope. Though, with her sweaty palms and brittle fingernails, the rope was doing a bigger number on her. Her focus on her captors began to drift as she struggled with her bindings more and more, biting back curses.

Almost... Almost... There! She nearly cried out with joy as the knot finally slipped free. With one final glance at Feng, Melu dropped the rope behind her and slowly dismounted.

"Watch out!" At the sound of Tai's scream, Melu whirled around, ready to fry anyone who got in her way. The rate she moved felt almost lethargic compared to the super sonic speed with which the spider raced toward her in blind rage.

Melu felt the blood drain from her face as numbing panic consumed her nerves like a cancer. Mouth gapping like a fish and eyes wide in horror, the mage's legs gave out from under her. With a piercing shriek, Melu threw her arms up defensively. Seconds passed in complete silence as the young elf waited for her ugly demise. Gathering what meager courage she had left, she willed herself to pry one teary eye open. Mere feet from Melu was the corpse of the spider, frozen solid mid-leap. Getting an eyeful of the frigid beast that was invading her personal space, the mage yelped, crawling backward until she could no longer feel the cold emanating from the body. She curled into herself, screwing her eyes shut again and quivering.

Get up, Melu. You have to run while the Alliance are still confused. Get up and run! Get. Up. As if in a trance, Melu shakily rose to her feet. Wiping her clammy hands on her dirty dress, she turned and walked face first into the the chest of Feng. She looked at him with wide, uncomprehending eyes. Melu didn't fully realize who was in front of her until Feng grabbed both her wrists and lifted them high above her head, almost lifting her off the ground. The rogue scowled down at Melu then turned to his sister.

"She got out of the ropes again," he growled.

Tai looked up from the children whose wounds she had been checking. She laughed. "Well, at least she didn't burn through it again," she said with a grin.

Feng grunted in reply as he lead Melu back to the horses. This time, she was put on the rogue's mount while Tai helped the children onto her horse. The siblings lead the small party the rest of the way to Auberdine. Once there, the children scrambled down off the horse and raced toward a group of fretting adults. A pair of sentinels stopped Feng and Tai, one silently sending Melu a disgusted glare.

The mage tried valiantly to ignore all the dirty looks being sent her way as one night elf spoke to Feng, and the other inspected Melu and the horses. However, this situation was much worse than Astranaar. Here, she was alone. She suspected this coastal town saw a lot of prisoner transportation, most of whom probably weren't as quiet about their situation as she was. Which explained why the guards treated her like was the entirety of Silvermoon City's guardians, not just a single mage.

Melu wasn't an idiot. She knew the Alliance wasn't evil. In all her life she had never seen 'true evil' that the war-mongers always spoke of- to scare children, in her opinion. She knew the Alliance treated their people just as well as the Horde treated their own. Her only problem in this scenario was that Melu wasn't Alliance. She was a Horde soldier in Alliance captivity and the two factions had a deep, malevolent relationship with each other that Melu didn't really like to think about.

I wouldn't even consider myself a soldier, the mage brooded miserably. More like cannon-fodder. Melu's thoughts were brought back to the present as the sentinels cleared Feng and Tai and pointed them toward one of the larger buildings across the bridge. Is that an inn? Do we have to wait? Is the boat not here yet? Melu glanced around as they made their way across the bridge. Am I going to be glared at the whole time?

Feng lifted Melu off the steed and herded her into the inn and up to an old wooden desk where a night elf woman stood, watching her warily. Feng said something quietly an quickly, handing over a few silver coins. With a curt nod and a short reply the night elf waved them off, still eyeing Melu. Grabbing her shoulders, the young man lead the mage up a flight of stairs and through a door on the left.

The room was quaintly decorated, clearly nothing vital or expensive was stored anywhere in the inn, just in case a storm hit the coast and washed the town away. It reminded her of Haphaestus' teacher, who took him in when Grandfather threw him out. Everything in his home he built himself, from the cheapest material he could get his hands on. "Things are easy to repair or replace when they didn't cost much to begin with anyway. You don't regret the loss!" he would alway tell her with a laugh.

Oh, a window, Melu noticed and immediately shuffled over to the small, ornately carved hole in the wall. "You can see the ocean," she whispered quietly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Feng lift his head at the sound. Seeing her standing passively at the window, he went back to whatever he was doing. As she watched the water break against the shore, her mind drifted back to the forest spider. I wonder who froze it? I guess it must have been one of the children.

"Are you completely incapable of carrying your own fucking luggage? What am I? Your maid?" Melu glanced up at the sound of Tai's irritated voice as the paladin threw open the door and dropped several travel packs to the ground.

Feng smirked and asked, "Did you ask when the boats would get here?"

Tai sighed, hands on her hips, clearly unsatisfied with his reply. "Yeah, they said the ship to Stormwind is scheduled to arrive later this afternoon."

It was Feng's turn to be fed up. "Great. You get to watch her now." Feng motioned nonchalantly toward Melu.

"I'm tired! Why can't you do it?" Tai whined, stomping her foot sophomorically.

Feng rolled his eyes. "Because I can only handle one pain in the ass at a time, not both of you. And , since you to seem like such good friends, I figured you wouldn't mind." He strode to the door, ruffling his sister's hair as he passed. Tai, clearly unpleased, batted his hand away and crossed her arms in a huff.

As Feng left, the mage watched Tai turn to her. Melu didn't move from her perch at the window, instead she chose to pointedly ignore her female captor.

Being within sight of water had always calmed the girl. She remembered how angry Grandfather would always get whenever she snuck down to the beach. While the Sunveil estate rested on the water, the entire thing was fenced in, so that clumsy children like Melu wouldn't fall into the cold sea and drown. Of course, the beach wasn't much safer for her, when a sudden influx of wraiths and mana wyrms forced the sin'dorei to abandon the Golden Strand. Only the Sunveils remained, refusing to leave their home. Melu had only ventured down to the beach alone once, on the pretext of assisting the grounds keeper, Wyllithen with a pest problem. Of course, it all turned out to be a great deal harder than she imagined when said grounds keeper really did make her take care of them. The pests being the afore mentioned wraiths and wyrms. By the end of the day, Melu was too tired and shaken up to even enjoy the beach.

Melu stood rooted to the window, watching the shore, listening to the human shuffle around behind her in boredom. While she liked Tai far better than her brother, she was still the mage's enemy, and Melu felt a gnawing shame for acting so familiar with the paladin. What would Remiel and Haphaestus say, if they saw me like this? Her chin dipped as she stared morosely at the floor. They wouldn't say anything. If they had been at the gulch, I never would have been in this situation, because they're not idiots.

Several grueling hours passed before Melu spotted the bobbing speck in the distance. The boat, she noted, tears welling up in her eyes. All attempts to escape had failed. Melu doubted she would be able to escape during the voyage and knew very well she had no chance once in Stormwind itself. She had never been taught the spell of teleportation. When she was under Dawnwind's tutelage, he had focused entirely on the element of fire with her, since she was a slow learner and required more focus to preform the simplest of spells. She never learned any frost or arcane based spells, with the exception of blink and polymorph, but she was so horrible at them that they hardly counted.

I could start a fire, once I'm inside the boat. Melu's eyes drifted to the horizon. She was quite far from the nearest Horde capitol. Swimming there wasn't an option. But if she could salvage a large enough plank from the ruined ship, and floated to shore, she could probably walk to the Zoram Strand. Assuming that no one else survives her little burning spree.

The two women looked up at the sound of the door creaking open. Feng stood there, throwing an irritable glance at the loud door. Turning to his sister, the rogue uncrossed his arms and made a beckoning motion.

"C'mon, the boat's here."

Tai rose languidly to her feet and stepped over to Melu. With one last glance out the window, the elf faced her captors, steeling herself for what would be her last chance to escape.

Let's hope I don't screw this up too.


As always, please feel free to R&R!