Simple Enough Task

Two hours had passed since Athrodar left Orgrimmar on the back of his Deathcharger and was now at the crossing between Northern and Southern Barrens.

He looked down at the giant chasm in the land that divided the now two areas and shook his head. "It's easy to forget Deathwing did this whilst we remain relatively safe in Undercity."

Crossing the newly constructed bridge between the two areas, Athrodar continued to ride at full speed towards the Horde Outpost, passing through a thick layer of jungle he hadn't seen before. "This place has changed a lot..."

Continuing through the jungle, Athrodar slowed his horse down and began to watch carefully for any signs of an attack coming his way.

Luckily none did as he left the jungle unscathed, looking into the distance and seeing both the Alliance Keep and Horde Outpost standing tall and close by.

Riding at full speed once more, Athrodar arrived at the Horde Outpost in no time at all before climbing off his horse and handing it to the stable keep who seemed to be fine around the skeletal beast.

"I take it you have Forsaken here?" Athrodar asked, catching a glimpse of another skeletal horse in the stables.

"A handful, yes. They are doing experiments in one corner of the outpost." The stable keep looked over to Athrodar, widening his eyes a little when he recognised the Death Knight. "A.. Apologies, the commander is waiting for you outside the barracks."

Before Athrodar could thank him, the Orc retreated into the stables, keeping his head down to avoid eye contact. "Strange... How did the stable keep know I was coming?"

Making his way to the barracks, several more peons and a few Orc guards moved out the way for the seemingly confused elf, some of them hiding from him altogether.

When he arrived at the barracks, the commander took his hand the moment it was offered out, shaking it profusely. "Prince Athrodar. Or is it Lord Athrodar?" He suddenly became terrified at the thought of getting his title wrong, stammering his words and making them unintelligible.

Athrodar let out a long sigh which seemed to scare the commander some more. "It's neither one. I don't know who told you to address me in that way, but it's just Athrodar." He placed a reassuring hand on the orcs arm which seemed to calm him down a little. "The Warchief sent me."

The Orc nodded his head. "You are here to help us. We got the message a couple of days ago."

"You did? I was only told about this yesterday." Athrodar frowned, looking over to the Alliance Keep in the distance. "Either way, I should only be here a couple of days."

The commander, thinking he forgot his manners, began to speak up. "Your designated area in the barracks is this way." He said, walking towards the building.

Athrodar couldn't help but smirk as the commander led him to his apparent room for the foreseeable future. Keeping his voice low, he began to talk to himself. "Now, should I exploit their fear of me... Or should I tell them I'm on their side.."

Once he was shown his room, he realised it was bigger than most rooms he had stayed in. "Okay.. I'm going to exploit this."

"Is... Is there anything else you need?" The commander asked with a tremble in his voice.

"Actually, there is something." He handed the commander his swords and daggers. "I need these sharpened and I have been putting it off lately." He dropped them into the orcs hands. "Thanks."

Athrodar spent the next hour resting in his room, waiting for nightfall that was just around the corner before he would begin surveying the Alliance Keep from up close.

Just as candles and lanterns were being lit in the Alliance Keep, Athrodar slipped out of the Horde barracks and began to make his way through the battlefield between both bases.

He stepped over bodies from both factions, some had been in the sun for too long, whilst others looked fresh from that day, all whilst keeping his eyes on the Alliance Keep and the many patrolling guards outside the walls.

As he neared the outer walls, he heard the guards talking amongst themselves. "They're too comfortable." He whispered to himself, moving to one of the unmanned walls.

He looked left and right, seeing two separate patrols coming his way and realising he left his weapons back at the blacksmith. "Shit..."

Quickly trying to come up with a plan, he began to charge one of the guards, knowing full well that the others would hear him. "Here goes nothing!"

The guard closest to the Death Knight was tackled to the ground, though he was quickly helped out by three nearby guards. "Pin him down!" One of them yelled.

"Get the chains and take him to the cells with the rest." Another said. He wasn't wearing a helmet and seemed to have authority over the others.

"Lieutenant, he has no weapons." The third one said, helping the other two guards lift Athrodar to his feet.

"What are you doing here, elf?" The Lieutenant asked, widening his eyes a little when he looked at his face. "Well, well, well.. You are more than just an elf."

Athrodar sighed. "Does everyone know me here?"

The Lieutenant grinned at him. "Most of our veterans here are from the Northrend Campaign. So we know exactly who you are, Prince."

Athrodar nodded slowly. "Then I suppose you have a big cell fit for my rank?"

"Guess again." The Lieutenant pushed him forward. "Lock him up with the rest of the Horde prisoners."

Viraleth stood by Sylvanas' side as she steered the ship around the Maelstrom. "You're quiet today, my Lady." She leaned forward to get a better look at her Queen. "Is something wrong? Other than the obvious."

Sylvanas gripped onto the wheel tightly, making the wood splinter and crack, letting go of the wheel before she broke it. "Garrosh is taking over our campaign in the Eastern Kingdoms."

The Dark Ranger frowned. "But his forces are spread thin. Most of them are in Ashenvale whilst the rest are in the Southern Barrens."

"Once Athrodar has completed his task, it will free up his army in the Barrens so they can help with the final push into Ashenvale." She glanced over to the Dark Ranger, moving away from the wheel. "Take the wheel."

Viraleth nodded, taking over for her Queen. "When do you think the Warchief will take control of our campaign? I can't imagine they will conquer Ashenvale the moment Athrodar returns."

The Banshee Queen shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't say. Though I suspect it's within the month. At the very least two weeks from now."

"He's going to throw our people into the fight first, you know that right?" Viraleth saw her nod. "What are we going to do about it?"

"Nothing." She replied, slowly grinning at the Dark Ranger's confusion. "Not at the beginning any way."

"My Queen?"

Sylvanas placed both her hands on Viraleth's shoulders. "I have been plotting something ever since we left Durotar." She squeezed her shoulders, grinning wider. "Sometime soon, we won't have to worry about that Warchief of ours."

"You plan to kill him?"

"Me? No. But someone capable of such a task will." Sylvanas let go of the Dark Ranger's shoulders, moving towards the back of the ship and staring at moon. "As soon as he returns, he will help us plan for it."

Athrodar was pushed through the Alliance base and into the barracks, hearing several insults being thrown his way and keeping a grin on his face the whole time, hiding it under his hood.

The moment he was handed off to another guard, he knew his chances of escaping had increased drastically, overhearing their brief conversation about him and smiling at the sentence. "Just another Horde warrior we captured."

As he was pushed into the basement, he saw several rows of cells hidden under the barracks, one of them holding several Forsaken who bowed their heads to him. When he nodded his head back to them, he walked a couple more steps before deliberately tripping over his own foot.

"You've got to be kidding me.." The guard muttered, placing a hand on the neckline to Athrodar's tunic. "Get up!"

Athrodar rolled onto his back, kicking out a foot to wind the guard before kicking up his other and hitting him square in the jaw, knocking him out cold. "Well... That was easier than I thought."

All the prisoners in the cells watched as Athrodar knelt down beside the guard, searching his pockets for the keys to his chains and finding them almost instantly. "I'll be taking these."

When the prisoners in the cells saw him unshackle his chains, they tried to get his attention, succeeding in the task and asking him to free them. "Here." He said, throwing them over to an Orc. "Free the others."

Picking up the sword off the guard, he waited by the bottom of the steps until everyone was freed. "Go! The armoury is close by, if you run towards it, you can get to the weapons before they do."

Prisoner after prisoner ran past the Death Knight until they were all on the floor above him, climbing the steps and slipping away whilst the fighting was going on around him.

He made his way towards the entrance of the barracks unseen, waiting for the reinforcements to run past him before slipping out the building altogether and making his way into the unguarded keep.

He remained quick and silent, climbing up several flights of stairs before standing outside the commanders room, hearing raised voices coming from inside. "It's now or never..."

Bursting into the room, Athrodar saw both the Commander and Lieutenant in a heated argument that ended the moment he interrupted them. "Bah! I knew those fools would allow you to escape!"

Athrodar twirled the blade in his hand, parrying the first and last attack from the Lieutenant, swinging his blade around and slicing deep into his neck. "It's just us, Commander." Athrodar said, picking up the Lieutenant's sword and pointing it at him.

"So the Horde send an assassin to do a job they could not." He unsheathed his double headed battle axe, gripping onto it tightly. "If I am to die, I will go down fighting."

Athrodar ducked under the first swing of the axe, bringing one sword up to finish he fight quickly and having it knocked out of his hand in a blind attack. "Huh, you are better than I thought you would be." He held his other sword behind him, taunting the Commander to charge forward.

"I didn't get this rank with just my good looks alone." The grey haired warrior charged forward, swinging the axe with both speed and precision, forcing Athrodar to go on the defensive.

"I'm impressed. Normally someone of your age would have fallen to me by now." Athrodar began to circle the Commander, keeping his sword flat on his back. "Let's see if you can go on a little longer."

The Commander charged him once more, making the Death Knight lean left and right, forcing him to duck when the axe was too high or lift his leg up when the axe was too low.

Learning from his enemy, the Commander swung his axe low and forced Athrodar onto one leg, charging with his body into the Death Knight and knocking him over. "Perhaps I'm not the one who is dying today." He said, kicking Athrodar's sword away.

Watching the axe swing down towards him, Athrodar rolled away. Unfortunately it was further away from his sword, rolling two more times as the Commander continued to swing his axe down at him.

Rolling once more, Athrodar found himself against a wall and knowing he had nowhere to roll. "I say we go again, best two out of three."

The Commander readied his axe, raising it into the air and looking to take out the Death Knight, only to have his legs frozen in place when Athrodar place his hand on the floor. "Who are you?" He asked with a genuine curiosity on his face. "I've never seen someone freeze the floor as easily as you just did."

Athrodar got to his feet, picking up his sword from the other side of the room and walking over to the Commander. "I'm surprised your Lieutenant didn't tell you." He pulled down his hood, watching the ice creep up his body and freeze his waist and slowly work its way up to his chest.

"Tell me what?" He groaned, trying to fight off the approaching ice.

"I'm the former Prince of the Scourge, former Lieutenant Ranger of Silvermoon, Captain of the Banshee Queen's Royal Guard and her Consort, as well as the personal assassin to the Warchief." Athrodar frowned. "You know what, in all fairness that is a handful to remember."

He looked down at the Lieutenant on the floor in a pool of his own blood. "Besides, I don't think he knew half of them." He laughed lightly. "I don't even think he knew any of them apart from the first one."

By the time Athrodar returned his attention to the Commander, he lowered his head an sighed deeply. "Aaaaand he is completely frozen." Athrodar tapped the hilt of his sword on the frozen Commander, smirking a little. "Kind of ironic since I don't want to just freeze my enemies."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose I'm done here."

Both Forsaken ships pulled into port in Tirisfal Glades, Serathea and her five guards led the way back to Undercity after three days at sea with Sylvanas and Viraleth following them close behind.

"If it went to plan, Athrodar should be back." Viraleth looked over to Sylvanas who remained neutral, an expression that terrified the Dark Ranger as she found it difficult to know what she was thinking. "R-right?"

Sylvanas, not paying attention to the conversation, looked over to Viraleth who had a worried look on her face. "What happened?"

"If.. If everything went to plan, Athrodar should be back now.. Right?"

Sylvanas nodded. "If everything went to plan, yes." Her gaze returned to the Ruins of Lordaeron in the distance. "I just hope it did."

As they entered the ruined city, Sylvanas caught a glimpse of Athrodar's Deathcharger in the stables, frowning at it as they continued to walk through the ruins. "Viraleth."

"My Queen?"

"Did we bring Athrodar's Deathcharger with us to Orgrimmar?"

The Dark Ranger was silent for a moment, casting her mind back to the trip there. "I don't think so, no."

"Okay.. Thanks."

When they entered Undercity, everything looked the same as usual. Commerce was everywhere they looked in the centre of the city, whilst experiments, teaching and crafting went on in all the different quarters.

"You spend a lot of time around the city, Viraleth. Do the people act different when Athrodar is here or not?"

The Dark Ranger frowned at her. "I get what you're saying, my Lady, but I think it's a little far fetched to think they would."

"You're right." She said quietly, watching a couple of blacksmiths hammer a piece of armour. "I didn't think so."

"Maybe he is waiting in your chambers, my Queen." Serathea said from the front. "He spent the last three weeks there whilst he was recovering, perhaps he is reading over a few reports until you return."

Suddenly believing that to be the case with no real evidence to back it up, Sylvanas quickly moved through the rest of Undercity until she stood outside her chambers, slowly opening the door to find the room empty.

"Something's not right.." She said, looking over her shoulder and towards Viraleth who remained by her side. "Something happened, that's why he isn't here."

"My Lady, he did say it could take up to a week." She stepped forward until she was next to her. "You said so yourself before we boarded the ship. He will be gone for a couple of days to a week maximum."

She sighed, slowly closing the door. "I know, it's just -"

"My Queen!" Anya yelled, running down the corridor towards her. "I've been looking for you ever since we heard you arrived."

"What is it?" Sylvanas asked, narrowing her eyes at the joy in her Dark Ranger's face. "Well?"

"King of the Hill rules." Athrodar said, pointing to the circle in the middle of the room with his glaive. "The one standing inside it must defend themselves from the other five. The one who knocked the person out of the middle is now defending themselves against the other five."

Wilfred looked around the room at the five other Death Knights waiting for the command to attack. "Any reason why I'm going first?"

Athrodar chuckled. "Trust me, you're going to love it." He held one hand up, looking around the room for a few seconds before dropping it to his side. "Go!"

As the six Death Knights duelled to get in the middle, Athrodar walked around the arena, moving out the way when one of the guards were thrown his way. "You're doing good so far, Wilfred."

His attention was grabbed by three Rangers walking into the arena, standing on the outskirts by the entrance. "Keep going." He told them, quickly making his way towards them.

Sylvanas sent both Viraleth and Anya away, thanking the latter for telling her Athrodar was back. "Here." She said the moment he stood in front of her, handing back his knife. "How long have you been back?"

"Close to a day now." He told her, placing the knife back in his boot. "I told you it shouldn't take me that long."

She smiled at his usual confident self, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. "I'm glad you're safe."

"Of course I'm safe. I had a promise to uphold." He kissed her cheek, pulling away to look at her and noticing something was on her mind. "What is it?"

"We need to talk. It's about our campaign to take the Eastern Kingdoms."

Athrodar frowned at his Queen. "What do you mean? What happened?"

Sylvanas told him everything she knew. His mission to free up Garrosh's army in the Barrens, allowing him to send them north to Ashenvale. Garrosh eventually sailing east to take control of their campaign and her fears he might throw the Forsaken into battle first.

"We can't let that happen." Athrodar told her after hearing everything.

"We won't." She replied calmly, placing a hand on his arm for reassurance.

"We won't?"

She smiled at him. "No, we won't. Because we're going to kill him."

Athrodar widened his eyes a little, though he was too surprised that she came to that conclusion. "We are?"

She nodded, dragging him to the furthest corner of the arena to limit those who could hear them. "Not right away, but I have a couple of ideas on when, where and how."

"There's just one problem."

Sylvanas tilted her head. "What?"

"We need the Orcs for this campaign. The moment we kill their Warchief, they will return home."

Sylvanas smiled at him once more, placing a hand on his face and leaning forward to kiss him. "Don't worry, I have an idea that will surely work." She traced a circle on his chest with her finger. "It just requires your talents to get it done."

"Well, what do you have in mind?" He asked, curious about her plans.