A/N: The first "origin" chapter, for Veser. I figured that, since the comic introduced Veser through his past, that would be the best way to introduce him here. I'm aware that this is probably not the most realistic crossbreed, or even that it probably couldn't even ever happen, but out of the choices I had for him, this made the most sense.
For those confused, Lauriel is Lee's Warcraft-self.


Lauriel, as patient as he was, couldn't help but just sigh in exasperation when heavy footsteps stormed out of the entrance to his house just outside of Darnassus, preceded by a lamp being thrown and tormented screaming.

Of course, it had always been this way. Ever since they had found her.

He had been scouting one of the coasts of Ashenvale, close to what was now called Blackfathom Deeps, with one of his closest friends when they found her: a Kaldorei woman. Of course, on closer inspection, it was quite clear that she wasn't completely one of them: her eyes were reflective and green, her ears were forked and webbed, and her skin was an almost aqua hue. Realizing that she was, in fact, a partially-mutated naga, they immediately captured her, surprisingly without a fight.
They thought she was mute at first, because when asked questions about her society, she remained silent. But when Lauriel had come to her bearing food, he could hear light singing, harsh but sweet, in the Nazja tongue. His friend offered to keep an eye on her until they could find someone who spoke Nazja.

Before he knew it, his friend was asking him to be present at their private wedding ceremony. And while he agreed, stunned, he wouldn't help but start to wonder. They had been friends for at least six hundred years, when they were but children, and there had always been an eccentric streak in the other, but... marrying a woman who was partially mutated into a naga?
But he was supportive, and he could understand as time went on; despite her inability to speak Common and her cold nature, she was unnaturally attractive.
And eventually, he found himself just as in love with her as his best friend was.

Which is why it hurt just as much to discover that, somehow, she was pregnant. Because every time he would come over and hear her beautiful singing as she cooked or sat outside by the water surrounding Astranaar, only to be pulled from his daydreams by the excited words of his friend as he wondered what his child would be like.

He could faintly remember when Veser Amaker Hatch had been born. It had been at least a hundred years earlier, and he was shocked when he saw his godson for the first time. Because Veser looked almost absolutely normal.
The sleeping infant's skin was a beautiful pastel shade of dark lavender, ears the absolute normal length of a normal Kaldorei infant. Of course, his eyes were an intense green instead of a reflective silver or gold, almost human-looking, and his teeth were almost frightening with their shark-like appearance. But if the community hadn't know his mother's origins, they might have just assumed he had a genetic defect of some kind.

But they knew. And their disapproval was clear as they told his father that Veser would never fit into Kaldorei society.

Veser also aged a bit quicker than normal; by a mere eleven years, he was the equivalent of a human six-year old. Lauriel humbly filled his position of a godfather, often taking in the child when his friend left for excursions. But his mind and eyes would always wander back to her, whether she was just mixing herbs or washing clothes, because of her singing.
Veser noticed it, too. "It's weird," he said, having finally reached the maturity of a young adult. They were both watching as she sat by the water's edge, tracing shapes in the water with her finger. "When she sings, I can understand it, but when she speaks, I can't."
"Maybe it is a bred trait," Lauriel suggested, tying his light green hair back with a frayed piece of rope.
Veser snorted, kicking out his legs and yawning much like a cat, his teeth casually imposing in the sunlight. "Probably. I'm already enough of an outcast as it is, might as well add that in."
"You..." The elder elf stopped himself, because by saying that the younger boy wasn't, he would have been lying. "Should not think of it like that."
"How else can I think about it? My mom's a fish... lizard... fuck, I don't even know what she is."
"Besides partly a naga?"
With a sigh, the adolescent ran a hand through his hair, colored a dark gray. "Besides partly a naga."

Lauriel shook his head. "Perhaps you are looking too deeply into it. You should be looking at your lineage as a gift." Veser quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing in response. "You have chores to do, do you not?"
The hybrid muttered under his breath before spinning on his heel and heading back into the house.

The last time they spoke as two living, breathing people was shortly after Veser's parents had disappeared. It was a sudden, simple thing: one day, they were there, the epitome of a happy, if not somewhat dysfunctional family. And the next, the house was abandoned.
Veser sat with his back to a tree, one eye half-lidded due to a black eye. "Lost a bet to some human kid," he told Lauriel, who had only noticed ten minutes after they had initially met for the day. "It's nothing."
"Alright... will you be alright alone if your parents don't come back tonight?"

Veser scoffed. "I'm old enough to take care of myself. Have been since I could walk. Don't worry about me."

Truth be told, Lauriel didn't. His mind was focused on his best friend's wife. The bruise was of no concern; Veser was accident prone, if his build-up of injuries were any indication. And so he left the hybrid to his own thoughts, not aware that it would be the last time there would be any civil conversation between them.

As Veser watched his godfather leave, he wanted to scream: "You fucking idiot! Can't you tell I'm lying? Notice I'm lying!" But, of course, he didn't. Elune forbid he tell anyone of this weakness, of how he, with his sharp teeth and sharper tongue, was powerless against the fist of the man he called his father. But it didn't matter. This was something he had to do on his own.

If there was anything that Veser was good at, it was lying and being stubborn.