Chapter 7
I took the opportunity to return to Ebon Hold and, as I had hoped, those emotions faded away in time.
My renewed strength was short-lived, however.
After Ardjet and Fearcast were recovered and restored, we were sent on assignment with Nathroshaz to lay seige to Light's Hope Chapel. There, we discovered rather abruptly that the Lich King considered us expendable. The Ashbringer was miraculously restored in the hands of Tirion Fordring and, subsequently, its power opened our eyes to the truth and shattered Arthas' hold on our minds completely.
All of my memories were restored save for much of the time I spent in the Lich King's service.
Tammy the turtle had long since left her fallen master for a life at sea, leaving Ardjet with no ties to the past. Though he now remembered, he kept his new name and resolved to to join with the newly founded Knights of the Ebon Blade to bring Arthas and his entire twisted empire crashing to the ground.
I learned that Fearcast was once a happy young girl named Mousie. She insisted that she was no longer that innocent youth and asked that her fearful nature be reflected in her new name. Fearmouse was the compromise on which we all settled.
Nathroshaz sought out Yaluk in Northrend and joined him in the wanton destruction of every Scourge they came across while Tanta rejoined Rain in their continuing quest to regenerate the Plaguelands.
Pammajay and Slaot became inseparable in their battles for the Argent Dawn and soon found themselves further motivated by budding romance.
I endured the march of shame through Orgrimmar and, covered in spit and rotten fruit, met Thrall for the first time. I swore atonement as well as fealty and in his great wisdom, he saw fit to accept me into the Horde.
Since then, I have done great things in the name of the Warchief. I am slowly making up for all the damage I did during the time I spent in service to the Scourge. I am determined to make Arthas pay for all that he did to me and to my people. Lady Sylvanas can always rely on me. Even now, I remain her dedicated soldier. Always at the ready.
Arthas is not the only threat to our World, however.
The more I thought about it, the more I came to understand that the Draenei are a dangerous cancer on the face of our planet. Their kind empowered the Burning Legion by giving in to temptation and exchanging the future of their people for additional power. If that had been the end of it, their race could have died out in their home world and never plagued us with its unwelcome presence.
Sadly, they chose to flee their world and seek refuge in ours, bringing with them a conflict that is not native to Azeroth. One of such scope that it threatens to consume us all if we do not rise to meet the challenge laid before us.
They speak of unity and sacrifice, but when their lives are on the line they look out for their own and leave everyone else to their fates.
They are cowards who, for more than 25,000 years following their flight from Argus, have refused to answer for the crimes of their people. They assert that they are different than the rest of their race but prove regularly to be prone to the same weakness. They happily spend time with humans because aside from themselves, humans are the only race who use the Light as an excuse to justify their own shortcomings.
Truly, they are blinded by the love and temperance of the Naaru. Their eyes must be forced open.
This was the case I made to the people of the Horde. They saw it too. They agreed that something had to be done to punish these extra-dimensional wastes of carbon and to ensure that their destructive behavior never again has the chance to bring disaster upon our world.
Now, here we stand on the dock of Azuremyst Isle. Our sights are upon the Exodar and our thoughts are focused on slaughtering as many of those wretched blue creatures as we can manage. An outsider, I suppose, could easily confuse my hatred for the Draenei with the bigoted ranting of the newly liberated Varian Wrynn. There is, however, one very important difference.
Varian Wrynn wishes to wipe us all out because he is a mortal human and he suffers under the realization that he must share the world with beings he finds unsavory for the whole of his pathetically short, insignificant life.
I wish to wipe out the Draenei because they are a menace and a threat to our world's very existance. They are bringers of chaos and disaster... and I am a bringer of death.
I will not sit idly by and do nothing while they invite further catastrophe.
My death charger rears dramatically as I raise my sword to the sky. "Onward Brothers! Slay them all! FOR THE HORDE!"
Unified cries of "FOR THE HORDE!" ring out across Azuremyst Isle, accompanied by the sounds of roaring engines and assorted creatures trained to serve as mounts as we sweep into the Exodar and execute every Space Goat in sight.
Their guards fall like toy soldiers, their lifeblood staining the floor as we infect every corner of their ship, exterminating every living thing inside it. Even the Propet Velen falls to our combined might within minutes.
We have done it. The Exodar is ours. With their primary base of operations sterilized of all life, the remnants of their kind will be scattered to the four corners. In time they, too, will be eradicated.
My work is far from over, however.
My brother has escaped from Naxxramas and has rejoined us in Silvermoon City. We have both been having the same dream of late, in which we see our father making his way through a frozen tundra accompanied by a robed figure whose face does not reveal itself in the vision.
We are convinced that he yet lives. With this dirty Draenei business behind us, we can search for him in earnest.
If he's out there... we will find him.
