~I bring a gift! A long chapter. =3

~Scroll 9~

The next morning Sen'jin woke alone. Panic quickly gripped his chest, stealing his breath like icy hands around his throat. He sat up with a gasp, touching the sand where she had last been, it was cold.

His mind filled with doubt, the same crippling doubt that had been his constant companion for years. Had he imagined her, dreamed her up to ease his frozen heart?

He refused to beleive it.

Jumping to his feet he sprinted towards the beach, slapping away any plants that got in his way, stubbing a toe in his rush.

'I know she was real. I felt her. She was warm' He told himself as he clumsily barreled through the foliage, before bursting through the bushes onto the beach. She wasn't there.

His heart stiffened, he felt his chest tighten.

"Jak?"

His head snapped to the left, where she kneeled on the beach, her knees in the surf, the sunrise painting her hair a riot of colors. Her gaze was concerned as she stood and took a step towards him, but he was already barreling towards her.

Her breath was knocked out of her with an 'oof' as he tackled her to the wet sand, clinging to her, squeezing her to his chest. She felt him bury his nose into her wet hair and take a deep breath. She could feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest and knew he had become frightened at her absence when he awoke.

She lifted her head up and pressed her lips to his nose, causing his eyes to open. Smiling at him, she spoke.

"I'm not going anywhere." Her voice was soft, "I love you. Stupid troll." She grinned, a bit of her old self peeking through. He couldn't help but grin back at her, before pressing his lips against hers. Much more gently than the previous evening, Sen'jin slipped his tongue into her mouth to massage hers, earning him a soft moan of appreciation.

Rolling her over, he pressed her back to his as his right arm slipped under her right leg and lifted. His left was wrapped under her neck, his strong fingers keeping her head turned up to keep the kiss intact. He tasted her slowly with his tongue as his right hand guided his suddenly hard member towards her opening.

TTT

She felt him press against her and, admitedly, she was a tiny bit apprehensive. She was a bit sore from last night. But his slow kiss, and his gentle hands kept her calm, and ready. His fingers against her front teased her expertly as he slid himself inside. He wasn't small, by any means. Probably average by troll standards, but head and...head above any night elves.

A quick thrust had him completely sheathed inside her, her natural lubricant abundant enough to provide no resistance. He moved slowly, but surely, caressing that sweet bundle of nerves inside her with every stroke, his right hand keeping her right leg bent up and backwards to keep the way clear for him.

A particular thrust had her breaking their kiss to moan loudly, her head tilting back as her back arched. He growled at the sensual display, his mouth moving to her neck to lick gently at the bite mark there. She shivered as his rough tongue touched the aching wound, it stung in the best way.

It didn't take long for them to reach climax. She came first, moaning and panting and squeezing the hand that kept caressing her. It was her moans, the deep throaty moans and the knowledge that he caused them that brought him to finish. He forced her chin up and captured her lips with his again as he came, growling against her as she squeezed him and moaned.

They lay in the afterglow until the sun rose completely, before cleaning themselves off in the water and going to find some semblance of clothes left. His leather undergear was still in one piece, aside from a few popped seams in the cheap twine, which she promised to fix. Her leather robe, however, was a bit worse for wear. The front had a ragged rip from neck to breasts, the ties in the back mostly torn. The kilt was still in good shape, not having been ripped from her.

Opting to go shirtless, Sen'jin proffered her his shirt, all the essentials would be covered, but it was obviously not made for those of the female variety.

"So." She spoke first, a question she had been itching to ask clawed it's way up her throat. "Why does everyone here call you Sen'jin? I thought that was Vol'jin's fathers name."

He stiffened slightly when she asked. He knew she would, he did give her a false name after all. Sighing, he ruffled his no longer mohawked hair and turned to face her. Expecting to find her angry, as was her wont all those years ago, he was shocked to find her calm, and curious.

"It was too much." He blurted out. He didn't know how else to word it. "Wearing the name of tha great Vol'jin's father. Ah was expected to be a great leader, a powerful shaman, but I'm none of those tings'. Ah'm average at best."

She slipped her hand in his.

"Ah'm next in line ta lead tha Darkspear." He murmured. "Unless Vol'jin has a son."

She let go of his hand, and took a step back.

"So. We can't.." She began, her eyes narrowing.

He took a step towards her and she took another back, obviously not wanting to touch him.

"If you become the leader of the Darkspear." She began. "We cannot be.. together." Her voice was soft, be he could hear that edge, that sharp angry edge she used to wear so often. It was a defensive mechanism she used.

He said nothing, and his silence spoke volumes.

"I used anotha name tah escape this life. I nevah mea-" He was interupted by a far off scream. Both their heads snapped to the west, towards Sen'jin village on the mainland. Lunaea instantly bolted towards the water. It was relatively shallow between the island and the mainland, she could swim it in minutes.

"Luna wait!" Sen'jin shouted. She didn't of course, and he growled as he took off after her. He cast a quick water spell on his feet and took off after her, sprinting across the waves. Running across water was akin to running on wet sand, awkward as they both moved under your feet. It took practice, which he was lacking, not to fall when walking across it.

He got halfway to the village when he fell, and growled when he couldn't get up, before deactivating the spell and swimming. He spotted Luna a fair bit ahead of him, and a brief memory flashed in his mind of their last time swimming together. The memory caused his heart to ache with a stabbing feeling.

'If you become the leader of the Darkspear, we cannot be together...' Her voice was so soft, he could feel her pain at the thought. His aching heart echoed hers.

The waves seemed to be working against him as he struggled to swim to shore. He felt his muscles burn as he struggled harder and harder. He saw Lunaea reach the shore and dart towards the sounds of panic and fear. In the back of his mind he admired the pale figure she cut against the suddenly darkening sky, before a sudden wave dragged him under the sea.

Straightening his legs out he was shocked when his feet didn't meet the cool sand, but instead found nothing but water. He began to panic as he fought to find the surface, his lungs burning for air. Distantly, as though in a dream, he heard a dark voice cackling.

'Dear, dear Sen'jin. Watching you struggle really does make these old bones feel alive once more.' The voice was deep, though raspy, as though the throat is belonged too wasn't used too often.

Sen'jin twisted and turned in the darkening water fighting to find the body to the voice.

'It's no use my boy, I have caught you!' And he cackled again, the bodyless voice echoing through Sen'jin's skull. It amplified, bouncing around in his head until he saw stars, and his ears rang. He saw blood float through the water and absently noted that it was coming from his nose, but he could do nothing to stop it.

He tried to move his hands but they were as lead. He rolled his eyes up and saw the sun get covered in dark rolling clouds, as an icy cold hand wrapped around his ankle and began to drag him through the waters.

'We cannot be together..' Her soft voice echoed in his head, cutting through the cackling, as he drifted off into the darkness.

TTT

Reaching the shore, Luna was bombarded with screams and panic and flames and smoke. Taking a moment to adjust to the sudden sensory overload, she took a shaking breath and bolted among the burning huts.

Fighting her way through the throngs of running people, she slid to a stop when she found the cause. Undead.

Ghouls.

Ghouls were running rampant, attacking eveything with a pulse, feasting on those without.

Lunaea was suddenly cold, surrounded by frost, her fingers numb. Her heart was beating too fast, her pulse leaping through her throat. Her vision was blinking in and out. Darkness, a ghoul chasing a woman. Darkness. Several ghouls feasting on a man with pale while hair. Darkness...

A piercing scream brought Lunas attention to a young child, a boy, being dragged away from his screaming mother as ghouls tore into her legs and back. Vicera and blood coated the sand a dark burgandy. The color tried to send her mind spiraling into another world, another life, but the young boys scream as a ghoul brought his arm to it's mouth had her muscles twitching to move.

'Move' she told herself. 'Save him!' But she was frozen, she could do nothing.

"Please!" A voice screamed, it was the mother, her legs tore apart. She was barely alive as ghouls fed on her.

"Please." She said softer as she died. "Please save my son..." She whispered, a mere breath before her eyes faded and her light was gone. Another single moment.

The boy screamed again as the ghoul bit into his arm and tore a meaty piece from his forearm.

"Stop! Stop it hurts!" He screamed, kicking against his assailant. But the ghoul felt nothing.

Time slowed for Lunaea, as she walked towards the ghoul, suddenly in full control of her limbs. The ghoul raised it's eyes to her as she walked towards it, her hand held out to her side. She watched as the ghoul released the boy, as it's eyes widened at her right hand. She watched it take a step back as she reached it, and her right hand lashed out like lightening, and her claws decapitating it with one swipe.

Grabbing the boy with her left hand, she cradled him against her side as she ran in the direction everyone else had run. Reaching the edge of the village she sat him down and ripped a shirt off of a nearby corpse, tightly wrapped his bleeding arm, and said one word.

"Run." and he did. He ran towards the boats not too far from there.

Lunaea didn't have time to inspect her hand, as another scream pierced the sky.

Bolting back through the burning village, she came to the road into town, just in time to see a man get the life drained from him. She watched as a tall troll, dressed in black robes with a white mask, stood among a horde of undead. He handled the dead man like a rag doll, as he turned to look at Lunaea, his yellow eyes piercing her soul.

She knew where she had seen those yellow eyes before. The undead.

She felt him stare at her as he tossed the man to the ghouls to feast upon. The sound of their smacking lips, and tearing teeth echoed too loudly among the quietly burning huts. It was then that she noticed that the screaming had stopped. Had they all ran? Or all died...

"Ahhh.." he spoke. "There you are my dearest." His voice sounded like a whisper.

"I was wondering when you would show up."

"What do you want!" Lunaea demanded, her voice bringing her to the attention of the ghouls. The man grinned, or at least she thought he did.

"I want what everyone wants dearest." He whispered. "Power!" He shouted, as a sudden weight settled onto her. Dread poured into her from every pore, crushing her body, squeezing her lungs until she could barely draw breath. Luna fell to her knees under the crushing weight. But, there was one part of her that remained unscathed. She felt the dread fight to grasp her heart, but it could find no purchase. Like trying to run across a wet marble floor, it slid off.

Clinging to that feeling, Lunaea delved deep and tried to coax that flame bigger, for a flame it was. She dug her metaphysical fingers into the embers and teased the feeling alive, burning herself in the process, but where she was burned, she felt no dread.

Taking a deep breath, Lunaea prepared to dive wholly into the fire, until icy fingers stopped her. Snapping her eyes open, Luna saw the undead man had a hold of both of her wrists.

"Oh no you don't little girl. I need you dark, lost... dreadful." He cackled again. He transfered both of her wrists to one of his large hands, reaching the other around to rip at her hair, but the moment his fingers touched her hair, she thought of Jak, and how he ran his fingers through her hair before kissing her, and suddenly she was on fire.

The man hissed and released her as her skin suddenly burned with a firey glow. The man cradled his hand against himself, inspecting the blisters, before raising his eyes to the glowing elf.

But where Luna had been there was no elf, but a saber. A pure white, glowing, angry, saber. His eyes widened as he beheld her, as she stretched to show her lean muscles, and her eyes met his. And she was angry.

"Fool!" He screeched moment's before she lept at him, sinking her fangs into his bony arm. He shrieked as he shook her off, flinging her with a strength that betrayed his gaunt form. She flew off as his flesh gave way, a foul taste in her mouth as she was thrown into a nearby hut.

"I was planning to keep you alive a while longer elfling!" His voice screeched from the air, " But now I think I'll kill you slowly, and painfully!" His rage was palpable as Lunaea watched him dissapear in a puff of black smoke, not unlike the smoke from the burning building.

The smoke from the hut around her burned her eyes, and the floor underneath her burned her paws. The entrance was engulfed in flames. Was this what he meant to kill her slowly?

Throwing herself against the wall, she was suddenly a night elf again, and her strength wasn't enough to break the wall. Panic blossomed in her chest as she threw her shoulder into the wall until it cracked, and her fists bled the force of her beating.

Falling to the floor, she leaned her left side against the wall as tears overtook her. She couldn't get out now. Lifting her hands, she imagined them as claws again, but she could not force a change. Clenching her fists until her palms bled, she sobbed as she remained an elf. If she could become a saber again, she could rip the boards apart. But alas, it seemed she was meant to burn to death in a sea side hut.

Hunching against the wall, she began coughing and sobbing as smoke filled her lungs. Her nails pathetically scratching the planks as heat and smoke overtook her, and darkness began to coat the edges of her vision, like ink dripping into her eyes.

"Help.." she whispered, so softly that the flames ate her words. "Jak.." Cursing her fraility, Luna closed her eyes, listening to the flames grow ever closer.

Just as she felt herself begin to drift off into oxygen deprived slumber, an axe bit into the wood less than an inch from her nose. She felt the presence of the cool steel as it was jerked out of the wood, only to strike again in the same spot. She imagined a hole being cut into the wood and Jak pulling her from the flames in the last second, but it wasn't Jak's voice she heard calling to her.

"Come on ya blasted elf! Wake up!" It was Zen'tabra. "Ya just gonna sit there and let the flames take ya?!" Another strike in the wood, and the planks gave way, causing Luna to fall backwards out of the hut, unable to move. Several pairs of hands grasped at her, pulling her away from the fires, near the beach.

Lunaea gasped and choked as cool water was forced down her throat, before greedily sucking in the fresh clean air. Rolling onto her side, she coughed up black fleghm, as her chest heaved and wracked itself to get rid of the smoke.

A hand pulled her hair out of her face as she coughed, gently petting her as a soft blue overcame her. It was Vanira, healing her with what little healing magic she had. She was more of an attack now ask questions later kind of woman.

"Wha happened?!" A loud voice suddenly yelled from above her. Lifting her head up, she faintly made out Vol'jin's spikey back piece through her foggy vision.

"The man.." She coughed, hacking up another black glob. "The man from Spitescale cove. He's a lich." She coughed again, but this time unable to catch her breath. She coughed up pieces of black gunk until she couldn't anymore, and finally, mercifully, she fell unconcious.

~Sorry for the long update. I promise I will keep updateing, no matter how slow. I won't let this story fade into the abyss!~