The Trip Part 3
A couple of minutes passed of pure silence before Clara spoke up. "We..." she paused before starting again. "After our night together we spoke for a bit. During that time Elaria said she didn't want this to just be a one night thing. I had to agree with her on that, I didn't want it to be a one night thing either." She turned to look at Elaria, "She cares for me and even though she has tormented for the past few weeks, I think I care for her as well."
I looked up at Elaria as she was looking back at Clara. "Is this true?"
"Yes. When I saw her in Ratchet after that Orc stuck her, I was hurt that I wasn't there to protect her. I don't want her to get hurt at all." She looked terrified at what might happen to Clara if she's not there.
"So..." I paused, thinking of what to say next. "This thing between you two, whatever it is, is new?"
"Yes." Replied Clara.
"And I take it I'm the only one who knows?"
"Well.." She looked at the floor. "Thalina already knows."
"How?"
"When you and her," She tapped Elaria's hand. "Were wondering around Razor Hill, she and I were talking and I told her."
"So I was the last to find out?"
"Don't take it personally, we were going to tell you."
"Fair enough." I stopped leaning on the wall and made my way to the door.
"Where are you going?" asked Elaria.
"Well, unless you want to remain a Night Elf in Horde territory, I suggest you allow me to leave and make the potions."
"Oh, right. Just one more thing." She made her way to me and hugged me. Something I wasn't expecting as it was out of character for her to hug me. "Thank you for understanding." She whispered to me.
I pat her on the back, "You know I'd understand. You're like a sister to me." I pulled away from the hug, picking up the bag of herbs and walking out the door, back to my room.
The rest of the journey to Tirisfal Glades went by without any incident. I made enough potions for the remaining trip to Silvermoon whilst everyone else went about their business.
We went through Tirisfal Glades on horseback but had to leave them at The Bulwark before entering the Western Plaguelands.
"Goodbye boy." Said Thalina, stroking the horse's nose one last time.
"Come on, the easy part of the trip is over." I gently pulled her away from the horse and we set off into the Western Plaguelands.
We were making good time, we got halfway through Western Plaguelands before anyone attacked us. Even then we only got attacked by a couple of undead here and there, they were wondering away from a massive cell of scourge. As we passed into the Eastern Plaguelands, I could see a massive difference in how tainted the ground was with the plague and why it was probably best to keep our horses stabled away at The Bulwark.
"Expect to be attacked from anywhere." I told the group.
"This place stinks of undeath..." Mumbled Clara as she pulled a mask over her nose and mouth.
"We're going to have to pass by major Scourge strongholds to get into Quel'Thalas. We need to be quick but quiet when we pass them."
I looked back at Thalina and saw she was walking close behind me, as if she was trying to shield herself behind me from the sight of the plague.
As much as I wanted to protect her out here, it was going to be impossible if we're attacked by a group of undead and she stood there doing nothing.
I stopped suddenly and she walked into the back of me.
"Sorry." She said to me.
I turned around and put my hands on her arms. "Look at me Thal," She did. "I know it's scary out here. Seeing this place reminds you of that butcher than came into our kingdom and decimated our population, but you need to be strong. If we get attacked, I need to know you have our backs like we have yours."
She looked so young in that moment, too young to be out here in the plaguelands, too young to have witnessed what she has in her life. She shook her head quickly to get rid of any negative thoughts and focused on me. "I've got your back."
I kissed her forehead, "Good." We started walking again, Clara and Elaria waiting for us just up the road.
Just as we made it back to them, I heard rustling in the bushes next to us. Without thinking, Elaria and I drew our bows, nocking arrows and aimed at the bush.
"Come out!" Elaria shouted at the bush. But that's not where the attack came from.
Before we had a chance to notice, a group of ten ghouls came running towards us from behind, targetting Clara and Thalina. Elaria span on her heel and fired an arrow at the first ghoul, landing between the eyes, making it stumble and collapse in half at the sheer power of the shot.
I fired an arrow at the bush and out came a plaguehound. The arrow hit it in the side but didn't take it out. Snarling, the plaguehound came rushing towards me and pounced in the air, I dropped my bow and drew my sword, thrusting it in the air and impaling the plaguehound. It went limp as I dropped my sword, watching it slide off whilst doing so.
I turned around to join the fight behind us and saw four more ghouls on the floor.
"Burn the bodies!" I cried.
Clara and Thalina done so without question. It was then that I noticed a necromancer in the back, raising more undead.
"Thal!" She turned her head at me. "Stay with Elaria, clear out these ghouls. Clara."
"Yes."
"Come with me, we're taking out that necromancer."
"Sure!"
We made our way through the remaining ghouls and faced the necromancer.
He cackled, "So, a lowly mage and her elven pup. Save us the trouble of fighting and bend to my will."
I smirked, "Shame, I was looking forward to a fight."
"Foolish boy, you don't stand a chance!"
Just as he said that, Clara sent a ball of fire towards him. He blocked it with his own spell, which gave me time to fire an arrow into his arm.
He rounded on me, "Call that an attack? Hah! That was nothing." He quickly cast a small necromantic spell and threw it at me. It was too fast, I couldn't dodge it. Luckily Clara was there and cast a small barrier that soaked up the spell. For all its speed, it wasn't strong enough to break the barrier.
"Enough!" He snarled. "You're not worth my time!."
Elaria and Thalina were standing by us now, having killed all the scourge that was accompanying the necromancer.
"You're going nowhere. Face your end, necromancer!" Thalina cried
He chuckled. "My dear, I can sense power inside you. You'd make a powerful pawn for the Lich King. As for my end? No, it will not come today..." He sounded confident and before we could kill him, black smoke surrounded him and us. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.
"Cute trick," mumbled Elaria, "Lucky for him he had that spell, or he would be dead right about now."
"That he would," I looked over at Thalina, "You alright?"
She was just standing there, staring at where the necromancer was.
I slowly walked to her, stretching out my hand for her to grab. "Thal?"
She took my hand whilst still staring at the spot. "What did he mean a powerful pawn for the Lich King?"
"Who knows, I suppose that because you're a mage, you'd be something the Lich King would want."
She shook her head. "But why me specifically? He didn't say it to Clara."
"I'm sure he didn't mean you per-"
"She's right." Clara interrupted.
I looked over at Clara. "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is. That necromancer was talking about her personally. She's a Magister is she not?"
I nodded.
"Well that should be one indication that she would be a strong asset for the Lich King. Also, us mages can sense power in other mages. Unlike muscle, we can sense how much magic one can posses at any one time. This is how she got judged into being a Magister."
I pinched my nose. "Hold on. So you're telling me, she is someone the Lich King would want? All because some necromancer said that she has power inside her that he could sense?"
"Pretty much."
I studied Clara's expression and saw she wasn't kidding. "So we need to get her and ourselves to safety before more members of the Scourge come looking for her."
"I couldn't agree more." Said Elaria.
"It's a days walk through the rest of the Plaguelands if we take it at normal travelling speed. Seeing as we could be being hunted now, I say we make for the borders of Quel'Thalas and fast."
Clara and Elaria nodded and were getting ready to leave, I picked up my bow and walked back to Thalina who seemed lost in thought. "Baby I need you to focus now."
She snapped back into reality and looked at me in the eyes. "Right, sorry."
"Don't be. We're heading to Quel'Thalas now, no resting in between here and there, you got that?"
She nodded.
I kissed her on the forehead. "Okay, let's go."
We made our way through the rest of Eastern Plaguelands, making up more time than I thought we would. As we got closer to Quel'Thalas, I noticed the change in landscape was drastic, the plague didn't affect the land in Quel'Thalas as it did in Lordaeron.
"The dead scar.." I said to myself quietly.
As we crossed through Thalassian Pass, I noticed a couple of rangers stationed nearby to fend off any wondering scourge.
"Halt! Who dares enter Quel'Thalas?" The leader spoke in Thalassian.
I replied in the same tongue. "Four Sin'dorei returning home after a long journey."
The leader of the group looked to his second in command then back at us. "Welcome home brother."
We approached the group of Elves that allowed us entrance, clasping forearms with their leader. "Thank you." I said to him.
"What brings you this far south of Silvermoon?"
"We were returning from an ambassadorial mission to Undercity."
He inspected me. "You're ambassadors?"
I realised he saw how heavily armed Elaria and I were. "We," I indicated to me and Elaria. "are not, no. However the other two are and they needed protection getting through the Plaguelands."
He seemed to buy that lie. "Very well. There are not many towns left to inhabit since the Scourge invaded, I'm sure you know of Tranquillien?"
"Yes. Is that the closest one?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Then we best be off. Thank you...?"
"Captain, Captain Perlaeris Redsun."
"Ah, well thank you Captain Redsun."
We set off shortly after, making our way to Tranquillien. The roads were quiet, we heard scourge activity nearby but figured it was on The Dead Scar.
As we reached Tranquillien, night was upon us. We spent the remainder of it in a nearby inn and without question, we all collapsed in our beds and slept.
We awoke the next day, only to find out we all shared the same room. We were clearly too tired yesterday to notice. As I sat up, I saw the potions I gave Elaria and Clara were starting to wear off.
I reached over for my bag and pulled out two vials containing the potion. Knowing they wouldn't break I threw one at Elaria, forgetting I was a good shot, it hit her in the head.
"Ow.. What the?" She woke up
"Take it, quickly."
"Take wha.. huh?"
"The potion! You're becoming yourselves again." I spoke in a hushed tone.
"Oh shit.." She quickly drunk some on her potion before I threw her Clara's which she handed to her after waking her up.
"Close call, imagine if we didn't all share a room."
"I don't even want to think about that, I wouldn't still be here if we didn't."
We got ready to leave shortly after, all pulling up our hoods so we don't get noticed by people who may know us.
As we were leaving the inn, the guards were having an incursion with some Scourge that were attacking Tranquillien.
"We should help them." Thalina said to me.
"They're fine, they're stationed here to do exactly this." I replied back.
That's what they were here for, specialist troops trained to take out Scourge members who decided to attack the few inhabitable towns left.
Whilst all the fighting was going on, we slipped out the town unnoticed and made our way to Silvermoon City. The trip wasn't long, compared to the journey through Eastern and Western Plaguelands, this was a safe trip. The roads were clear and patrols were walking up and down them to make sure it stayed that way.
As we arrived near Silvermoon City, Thalina tensed up in front of me. I put a hand on her shoulder to calm her. "What's up?"
"We're coming close to where we live, well... Lived." She pointed at a nearby village on the outskirts of Silvermoon City.
"Ah, you can go visit if you'd like? We will go settle in at the safe house we got provided to us in Silvermoon City."
"No, it's okay. I'd rather stay with you three anyway, all the questions about where I've been and what I've been doing is something I don't want right now."
"Okay." I looked around to make sure nobody could hear us then crouched down to her level. "If you do get approached by anyone who knows you, or even me, and they ask where you've been. Just tell them you travelled the world for a while and decided to come back to Silvermoon for a couple of weeks, you got that?"
She nodded then threw herself at me, arms going around my neck and hugging me tightly. "I got it."
I put my arms around her and whispered, "We're home."
