Voodoo Child

Chapter 21 – Gypsy Eyes

By Genoscythe

AN: For a long time, I had forgotten about Granik. For a long time after that, I was thinking about what to do with him. There really wasn't much use for a too-strong-to-be-there character after Xan got past the Barrens, but I've just thought of a role for Granik in the future. Enjoy!

"And…and then the bad man made the tree fall down," the sentinel sniffed. Meridia patted a hand on her cheek.

"What did the bad man look like, Liandra?"

"H – he was really short and green…and he was sitting on a big scary metal robot demon monster creature."

"You were too close to the Warsong Lumber Camp again."

"But why can't we kill them? The little green men and the big green ones? So then they won't get in our way anymore or cut down any more trees."

"Because that would be childis –" Meridia stopped when she remembered who she was talking to. "That would be bad. Now go get yourself some sweetbread, and we'll see if we can find that bow of yours." She tried not to shove too hard when she pushed Liandra out the door.

I thought I'd be leading an elite fighting force, not babysitting a bunch of air-headed little crybabies…she thought bitterly. OH WAIT, there are no elite fighting forces. They're all air-headed little crybabies!

"Whoah! Hot chick incoming!" The damn paladin cried, and with a sigh Meridia left the first aid shed where she'd been patching up one of Liandra's 'boo-boos'. As she drew up to the entrance of Astranaar, a pale Night Elf staggered up the road and nearly collapsed in her arms. This appeared to be what Marek was hoping for, and he was disappointed when she stopped short. The Night Elf appeared to be slightly injured, but it also looked like she was doing a good deal of acting.

"Oh…oh, it was horrible!" The Night Elf cried, grabbing the hem of Meridia's jerkin and pulling her down for effect. This elicited a small giggle from Marek.

"What was horrible? Who the hell are you?"

"High Priestess L-Luna…Earthwindfire…" She gasped dramatically. "Captain of the Silverwing Sentinels. Silverwing Hold was…completely destroyed…coincidentally right after I was relieved of command. So…it wasn't my fault, right?"

"If someone would actually believe that, then yeah."

"Thank god. I…I tried to go back and help them. But there were Horde everywhere. This orc – he had a big, big hammer. So you see…there was nothing I could do."

"Of course not. What reason, pray tell, were you discharged for?" Meridia queried.

"I was being…reassigned…" Luna spent a good minute huffing and puffing here, long after anyone who actually was winded would have gotten their breath back. "…here! I was reassigned here. I'm the new Captain here."

"Nice and believable. Where is here?"

"Ah…As…Astranaar?"

"Good. Now go get yourself some sweetbread, and we'll see if we can find you something to do that'll make you look important. Don't worry, we'll get that self-esteem up in no time!"

"Huh? What do you think I am, a child?" Luna balked, no longer huffing or puffing. She shoved Meridia away and got to her feet. Marek giggled again.

"I'm sorry, I'm just used to working with childish people."

"Oh, do you run the day-care here?"

Silence. Marek coughed uncomfortably.

"I'm the captain…" Meridia rushed toward Luna with murder in her eyes. "I'm the captain of the goddamn Astranaar Sentinels!" Before she knew what she was doing (but not too late to stop it), Meridia slapped Luna across the face. Marek cheered and pumped his fist in the air. Simultaneously, every one of the Stormwind Marines save Cygnus thrust their heads out of nearby barrels to watch. They had been waiting for days to witness a famous Night Elf cat fight, as rumor had it they were changing the name to tiger fight simply because of the magnitude to which Night Elves took their battles.

"Oh, my mistake," Luna growled. "Sorry about that – sorry your sentinels act like little girls!" With that, she pushed Meridia into a reflection pool (large wooden bowls - commonly found in Night Elf cities - filled with water and scented candles to provide atmosphere and a faux sense of enlightenment). Soaking wet, her leather clothes sticking to her shapely body, she picked up the bathing pool and hurled it at Luna.

"WOOOO!" Marek roared, and all the marines gave their applause. This was almost worth being shipped to an alien continent for the sole purpose of dying as quickly as possible.

Luna swiped a burgeoning piece of fruit from a nearby stand and hurled it into the air. Meridia thought she had missed completely, but just then an arrow pierced the fruit and it exploded sticky red juice all over her. In retaliation, Meridia tackled Luna and thrust her face into the now-muddy ground.

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Marek screamed, his voice starting to crack. The two Night Elves were now wrestling on the ground, ripping and tearing at clothes and hair. Marek yelled so loud that something in his neck popped, and a jet of blood squirted from a ruptured vein. The paladin collapsed; despite his best interests, Vismund Cygnus was immediately on-site and healing the wound.

The tiger fight carried well on into the following morning, and after all the fires were put out, the two Night Elves finally separated.

"Okay," Luna gulped, huffing for real this time. "We'll see which one of us should be captain." The pale silvery elf hobbled into the center of Astranaar, sweeping her scratched arms out to encompass the whole thing. "Who here wants to kill some Horde?"

Unanimous cheering.

Meridia took her cue, getting up and limping next to Luna. "Who wants to create a stable, peaceful living environment for all of Azeroth?"

One sentinel cheered, but Meridia was certain she would cheer if Archimonde Himself were there proposing they have a satanic orgy and follow it up with a mass suicide.

"Who thinks the Horde owns this forest?"

Boos filled with righteous indignation.

"Who thinks this forest is big enough to share?"

Meridia's only supporter had been silenced by her friends.

"Who has an overwhelming, maddening, soul-crushing desire to get revenge for being humiliated and ruined by a bunch of savages?"

Astranaar remained still.

"I mean – victory for the Alliance!"

Cue riotous applause; even Marek pitched in with a hoarse "What-what!" The sentinels all rushed forth and hurled their new leader into the air, carrying her on their shoulders into the armory. Meridia was left alone on the streets of Astranaar, accompanied only briefly by Cygnus asking her what all the screaming was for, and why in the Light's name he smelled smoke.

Meridia knocked him out cold.

A few solitary minutes later, Luna strode out of the barracks wearing a fresh set of armor and a captain's badge. The entire population of Astranaar waited behind her, starving for her next words of wisdom.

"Ladies, it's time to do what we were born to do," Luna screeched. "Let's go hunt some Horde."

As they all prepared for battle, Cygnus got to his feet.

"What did I do wrong?" Meridia asked, hoping he was listening to her monologue.

"Perhaps they don't respect you because of your deformity," Cygnus replied, to Meridia's silent glee.

"Of course not! They've been nothing but kind about it."

"I noticed you don't interact well with the other elves."

He noticed! "Well, that's not necessarily their fault…" Meridia turned her gaze to a circle of Night Elf men, all of them shirtless and pelvic thrusting at each other in turn. For a male Night Elf, a pelvic thrust could mean any number of things. This looked to Meridia like a thrust of victory. "Not entirely."

"I think your goals are more logical and noble. Convince them that your mixed blood is nothing to scoff at. You do have mixed blood, don't you? That explains the – "

"Yeah…" Meridia headed for the armory herself. "Thanks. You'd think it would be obvious that my goals are more logical."

"And yet logic hardly figures into the lives of average people."

"That's a narrow-minded way of looking at it."

"So you think I'm wrong?"

"I think the world would be a better place if you were."

"Are we ready to move out?" Luna yelled. The Sentinels filed out of the barracks, inexplicably transformed into a disciplined fighting force.

"Wait!" Meridia cried. "I still get to be Lieutenant, right?"

"Son of a bitch," Melchiah affirmed. "We're lost."

"We can't be lost," Zuridan pointed out. "Those are our tracks, right there. We're just walking in a big circle, so if we – "

"Those aren't our tracks, dumbass. I've been tainting the trees as we go along, and I haven't seen a single decayed log yet."

"Who else got tracks like us?" Xan piped in.

"Nobody. There's about seven sets of tracks here, and they're all human-shaped."

"Great, so we're following a gang of pinkskins."

"Xan, my fish is getting soft!"

"What do we do if this turns out to be a trap?"

"It's simple," Melchiah began. "I get myself killed, you all get taken away or killed too, the curse revives me and I look for someone else to help find Araj."

"There's a big bunch of flies following me now."

"I don't like the way you plan things."

"Hey, guys." Xan's voice sounded urgent, but the situation was out of control now.

"Hey, I never gave you any illusions about what kind of person I am."

"The fish is starting to smell really bad. I think that's making the flies worse."

"But you're…invincible or something! At least tell me you'll help us fight."

"HEY!"

Finally, they all turned to look at Xan'Jin, who was looking at the translucent Night Elf in the bushes ahead of them, who was looking all around at the twenty-odd archers and their gleaming twenty-odd arrowheads pointing toward the group of Horde soldiers in the midst of the clearing.

Reflexively, Melchiah charged forward and impaled the Night Elf. Before the others could do anything about it, twenty-odd arrows were sticking out of Melchiah's body. He collapsed with a thud, and his corpse began to glow. Before Xan's eyes, a ghostly image of Melchiah tore itself away from a rapidly decaying pile of bones. Oddly enough, his armor was now part of the apparition.

I just might come back for you three, Melchiah's voice whispered in Xan's head. However, when the ghost made ready to take off, a pale Night Elf flung out her hand, muttered an enchantment, and seemed to suck his spirit into her bracer. Melchiah's detached voice sighed. Well, fuck.

The overbearing, pale elf snapped off some commands to her subordinates, and the Horde soldiers heard twenty-odd bow strings tighten. Another, different string of commands loosened them. A hooded Night Elf emerged from behind the pale one, elbowing her out of the way.

"Troll, listen to me," the Night Elf said in startling trollish. Both Xan and the Night Elves gaped in shock – to Zuridan and Argam, it was all still gibberish. "You know a weakness in the defenses at Splintertree Post, understand?"

Xan narrowed his eyes. "Mebbe if I could find the damn place…"

"No, shut up. They'll kill you if you don't know anything. You know a weakness in the defenses at Splintertree Post…but you're not going to tell it to us without an undue amount of torture." Xan had to admire this Night Elf's theatrical skills, even amidst all the confusion. She made it look like she was interrogating him. Xan tried his hand at it too.

"Gotcha," he spat, as defiantly as possible. The hooded elf was now talking rapidly to her peer with the pale skin, and it seemed like they were negotiating something. After a bit, she turned back.

"You also know who it was that destroyed Silverwing Hold."

"Oh, ja. Dat be us," Xan replied, still trying to make it look like he was withholding information. The elf actually broke character for a bit, staring at him in blank fascination. Then it was back to business.

"No, it wasn't. If you really do know that, then she'll kill you."

"Fine…" The elf turned to her peer. At length, they seemed to come upon a conclusion.

"We're taking you in for questioning," she told him.

"But we don' know anyting!"

"Shut up! You do, or you're dead."

Son, I'm ordering you to stay alive and get me out of this damn bracelet! Melchiah roared inside Xan's head. Don't do anything stupid.

"Sure ting," Xan replied at length. "I know tons."

"So…Meridia," Luna began, her voice full of bravado. "How are you going to convince me that a little rat like him knows a weakness in the defenses around Splintertree?"

"He's a rogue," Meridia explained, striding hastily up the spiral staircase of her favorite watchtower where the troll was being held. "He knows all kinds of little secrets like that."

"We'll see…" Luna finished. When she began to turn around, Meridia cast her a sidelong glance. "Against all my best judgment, I'm leaving you with the troll," she explained. "I have people to impress."

Inside the tower, Xan'Jin was hung limply over a couch due partly to exhaustion but mostly to the fact that he had never sat on something so comfortable in his entire life. The Horde made it apparent that they despised furniture of any kind, as there wasn't a single chair in Orgrimmar and only few tables. The chairs Xan had sat in were rough, un-sanded blocks of wood that looked and felt like an ogre had broken a tree into pieces and forcefully coerced the remains to stick together.

Splinters up the ass build character, or so Rai'Jin said.

"What's a troll doing so close to Astranaar?" The hooded elf queried, having appeared at the top of the stairwell. Xan turned his crimson eyes on her fully for the first time. After all he'd heard about Night Elf females, he found himself disappointed. Not to say she wasn't the most beautiful humanoid creature he had ever seen, but it seemed the stories were greatly exaggerated.

"A troll be lost," Xan replied, rolling over onto his stomache the better to see her. The hood was puzzling, but it merely added extra mystique to her already mystiquey countenance. "We headed to Splintertree, far as I knew."

The elf shook her head. "When you said you didn't know anything…"

"Hey, I got more questions den joo," Xan interrupted. "Wha's your name? Why you helpin' us?"

"My name is Meridia Darkwater," she answered. "My reasons for helping you are my own."

"Obviously," Xan snorted. "Nex' question. How joo speakin' trollish?"

"Same reason why I'm helping you."

"…huh?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Probly not," Xan conceded. "Nex'. What joo want from me?"

"I want to be reminded that everyone on Azeroth hasn't completely lost their minds."

"Good ting joo ain' talkin' to Argam…"

"That tauren waving the big fish in the air?"

"How'd ja guess?"

"He's being transferred to an underground holding cell, along with the orc."

Xan raised an eyebrow. "Joo have those?"

Meridia sighed. "We will. 'Captain' Luna insists that we start fortifying Astranaar, so they're hollowing out some moonwells and building a prison under them. I'd like to see their faces when we start to run out of water…"

"Captain?"

"We had a bit of a power struggle. The white elf used to run Silverwing Hold, but it was just blown up or something."

"Smashed," Xan corrected. "Wit a big saw."

Meridia shook her head, not wanting to be educated. "She just waltzed over here and took over my job. She and the whole town have been on a xenophobic rampage ever since."

"So joo wan' me to help get rid of her," Xan concluded.

"I was kind of hoping, yes."

"Well, as long as we get our friend back – "

"The Forsaken?"

"Ja."

"You'll have to pry that bracer from her cold, dead arm."

"I got no problem wit dat."

"Good," Meridia intoned, and made to leave. She stopped herself. "What's your name?"

"Xan'Jin. Now dat we're even, can I see joo face?"

"I'll show my face when you find out why I'm helping you," she replied. "If, of course, Luna hasn't killed you by then." If she hadn't been wearing the hood, Xan would have seen her roguish smile and been envious – nobody grins like a Night Elf.

End