Ulric's body was slumped over for the most part, leaving Shadowmoon with most of the task of keeping him standing up as his legs lazily moved along forward, the two already having to stop a few times as they shortened the distance between themselves and the camp where the others were. He had spoken a few times, though Shadowmoon's responses were either non-existent or were made up only a word or two, so he figured he shouldn't continue.

His mind had been blank, as if he'd just lost a massive amount of time worth of memories; he vaguely even remembered being in Tornir's room before his mind just went blank, up until he awoke with Shadowmoon's desperate attempts at dragging him along. She'd made it a considerable distance, though she was certainly less upset once he was capable of helping, even if it wasn't much.

"How long have we been gone?" Ulric managed, figuring it was a question devoid of anything that could upset her further.

"Few hours," she mumbled, emotionlessly, trying not to drag her own feet as her strength continued to wane under the weight of the load at her side.

Ulric nodded, trying again to step on his own, his leg reaching forward, forcing Shadowmoon to pause. He leaned forward, his foot hitting the ground as he groaned, painfully, his muscles still locked up, though he was still able to put enough weight on his foot to stand, his arms outstretched to balance himself.

"Okay…," he concluded, unsurely, "Well that's one thing solved."

He shook his head rapidly, freeing himself of any doubts of his ability to remain standing, as he began to walk, still with a slight grunt from the pain, Shadowmoon eventually turning her head to snap at him, "Would you cut it out?!"

He watched her, confused, "Uh, cut what out?"

"That…noise."

His eyes constricted, "I'm sorry; my painful noises that result from the shards of glass currently inside my legs?"

"Yes," Shadowmoon nodded, angrily, walking along, "That one."

Ulric sighed, following behind her, doing his best to keep from making any noise, though he found it difficult to do so with every step forcing his muscles to ache even further. Though, no longer having to worry about annoying his companion was a weight lifted from his mind, even if another one quickly replaced it as Shadowmoon's feet increasingly took her father away from him as he, more or less, stumbled along.

"Hey, uh," he moaned, masking another grunt, "Nothing happened, did it?"

"What gave you that idea?!" Shadowmoon shouted as she stopped, turning toward him from a considerable distance away.

Ulric still stumbled along, trying to catch up, "Oh, I don't know; just the constant antagonism, maybe? I mean, I'm not good at reading people, I don't think, but I think even Weaponsmith Wallace could see that you kind of hate me right now."

Shadowmoon glared at him, unamused, as Ulric's shoulders sunk as he explained, "He's a guy from back home. He's blind, so, you know, that's kind of why I said- Okay, can we just-"

"That's not why I'm staring you down," Shadowmoon clarified, easily.

"Oh, well that wording doesn't sound vicious at all," Ulric shot back, getting progressively frustrated between her attitude and his inability to walk, "I mean, it doesn't sound like the ramblings of some feral quilboar with an appetite for anything walking on two legs, which, as of right now, I'm pretty sure I don't qualify!"

His steps turned, slowly, into stomps, until finally his leg gave way, his body collapsing forward and into the ground, his face smashing right into the rough terrain beneath him. His hands slid up, clutching angrily as the dirt as he released an angry shout into the ground, his fist returning to pads. He laid there for a moment as he calmed down, though Shadowmoon gave an inaudible sigh as she returned to him, shoving her foot between his shoulder and the ground, kicking him over onto his back so that they could meet eye to eye.

"Say thank you," she instructed, holding her fists onto her hips.

Ulric rolled his eyes, replying near-sarcastically, "Thank you."

Shadowmoon nodded, her foot suddenly stomping onto his shoulder, causing him to recoil in pain as he shouted out again, "AH! Goddamn it! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Now say 'thank you for earlier'," she demanded, heatedly.

Ulric seethed, "Okay, okay; fuck. Thank you for earlier. Happy?"

She shook her head, though she still rounded around him, bending over to take his hand, "Not exactly, but it'll do for now."

As she helped him to his feet again, Ulric groaned, shaking his head, "You gonna tell me what all that was about?!"

"Probably not," she shrugged, "What are you gonna do? Kick your best hunter out of the group?"

Groaning, Ulric shook his head, treading slowly, though this time, Shadowmoon seemed to take slightly more care in walking at least a bit closer, so as to not leave him behind should he fall again. He couldn't begin to figure out what could have possibly happened that would have had this sort of effect on her, but he figured it best to wait until he was safely in the presence of their comrades, should he be unable to rely on her.

She had called his bluff, however; they both knew that she was, for the most part, beyond being kicked out of the group, no matter how insolent she could possibly be; despite her current mood, Ulric would still choose to trust her over any other.

They remained quiet after that small quarrel, the two slowly pressing onward as the sun began to descend down its arc. Eventually, they were finally able to eye the forest that concealed their group's encampment, Shadowmoon tailing back to help Ulric make his way through the now-dense ground beneath them, helping him over vines and tree trunks, helping to quell some of Ulric's apprehension, if only slightly.

As they made it closer to the others, they began hearing their chirping, particularly Remnaar, who seemed to be in charge of the conversation at that point, his voice rather heated, "Hmph! I wouldn't expect a tauren and a blood elf to understand! You two can come at me with whatever accusations you two may have; I'm not budg- Get that knife out of my face!"

Ulric turned to Shadowmoon, worriedly, as the two suddenly sped up however fast they could, rounding the last set of trees before the small camp came into view, Remnaar desperately pushing away Parvaen's arm, "That stuff smells absolutely rotten!"

Parvaen retrieved his knife, which had a collection of rolled up fish atop of it, wrapped up in seaweed, "How can it be rotten if it's cooked?!"

"You've desecrated perfectly good snapper, you dolt!" Remnaar retorted, pulling his own dish up to his mouth, "These lakes teem with fish whose very flesh tastes divine without you charring it to a crisp! I'd have thought you, Kota, would agree with me!"

The tauren shrugged, slowly, "I eat what tastes good."

"Oh, and I'm sure Parv, here, has turned you onto a smorgasbord of culinary delights up here; what with his herrings and-"

"It's good," Tandkota interrupted, confirming his thoughts on the matter, leaving Parvaen beaming with pride.

"Well, Rem," Parvaen smugly began, "I suppose I win."

Remnaar scoffed, "We have one other opinion yet. If she ever wakes up, I'm sure I can rely on the sophistication of the Kaldorei pallet. When my parents first arrived on this land, they were introduced to the finest delights your tongues could ever indulge in!"

He cleared his through, continuing rather embarrassingly, "Thank the Eredar she's still asleep; I didn't mean it anywhere near-"

"You're the one who thought it that way," Parvaen's eyes rolled.

Snorting dissatisfactorily, Remnaar shook his head, looking away to get some fresh eyes before coming to Shadowmoon and Ulric, trudging along toward the group, the draenei jumping up to his feet in a split second, "My god! What happened?!"

Parvaen and Tandkota both rushed to their feet as well, Shadowmoon relinquishing Ulric's care to Remnaar, who quickly took him from her shoulder, "You want the short version?"

"Isn't there usually a-"

"Not in this case," Shadowmoon replied, drolly.

Parvaen replied, "Okay, uh- the short vers-"

"Shit happened," was all she muttered as she walked toward a log by the fire, falling to sit down, rubbing her shoulder to relieve it of its stress, eyeing Vylira lying down across from her, "What's she doing?"

Remnaar replied, helping Ulric to the ground, wrapping a blanket around him, "She's been dozing off and on. Didn't seem like an issue, seeing as how we've just been waiting here."

Shadowmoon shook her head, annoyingly, as she leaned over to warm up by the fire, rubbing her hands together. Parvaen was quick to pass Tandkota a sack of medical supplies before he began preparing a bowl of food for his captain, though Ulric was quick to turn both of them down.

"I'm fine," Ulric smiled, weakly, "I actually feel more nauseous than anything. I just need some rest."

Remnaar toyed with the idea of asking what had happened, but a quick glance toward Shadowmoon's standoffish posture deterred him from doing so. He simply sat down as well, shaking his head at the sight of his leader coming across as so fragile- it certainly wasn't a state Ulric was in, often.

The draenei took a seat while Tandkota rounded the group to return to his own spot beside Vylira, his eyes trailing further along the circle past here, suddenly realizing the vacancy. His eyelids fell as his mind began to wrap around what they'd done, and how long ago that was, though before he could speak up, Shadowmoon's voice came out from her hunched-over body, her hands clutching around the edges of her pelt that she had pulled around herself.

"Where's the other elf and the human?"

Tandkota didn't move, but everyone else suddenly jumped up at her question, even Ulric, all of them looking up to where Tandkota was already surveying. They'd slept there the night before, and were seated there when the two had left earlier in the day. Vylira's eyes quickly shot open at her sister's words, staring up into the sky, listening.

Shadowmoon lifted herself up, turning to the three who had remained at camp, getting only stares as vacant as the two spots that had been made for Kyra and Colin; even his supplies remained sitting there. Her eyes constricted as Remnaar sighed, innocently shrugging as he hunted for an explanation.

"We don't know," was all he could conjure up, "They just went off to talk, into the woods there. Haven't seen 'em sin-"

With the quickness of a pouncing nightsaber, Vylira burst up from her laying position and immediately dashed into the forest in a mad sprint, Ulric's face appearing equally as mad as he complained, angrily, "You let them into the woods?! Do you even know what-"

Putting the pieces together herself, Shadowmoon hopped up to her feet, dashing into the dense underbrush with the same speed as her sister, leaving the group behind. In a second, Parvaen followed along with similar elven swiftness as Ulric pointed to him, the blood elf with a concerned expression of his own after seeing his own comrade disappear into the wood.

Now alone with the two largest of the group, Ulric groaned, shaking his head as his hands constricted into fists, Remnaar's carelessness now putting two of his own companions in danger. He could feel his muscles constrict down his legs, suddenly relieving his pain for a moment as their decompression was halted. He slowly began to push himself up to his feet, earning the worried glance of Remnaar, who quickly offered his two hands to help him up.

"Ulric, in your state you don't need to be-"

Ulric turned away from the draenei, peering into the forest, suddenly breaking away from Remnaar as he bolted into a sprint of his own, not following Vylira as much as he was chasing after his two stewards. Remnaar sighed, rubbing his face in dismay as he sat back down, shaking his head.

"What was he expecting us to do? Chain them to the ground to keep them from wandering off?" Remnaar wondered aloud, frustratingly, "Did you see how fast he tore out of here?"

Tandkota nodded, breathing a blast of steam from his nostrils as he sat down, staring deep into the flames as he noticed the darkness settling in around the camp, Remnaar's voice breaking his train of thought, "Well, do we go after them?"

Tandkota replied, his voice as steady in its stoicism as ever before, "No. We'll be of more use here."

Remnaar sighed, falling back onto a log to sit down, "I hate when you do that."

The tauren grinned, poking a stick into the fire to stoke its members, "Your gods may be from the skies above, but mine has filled this earth for millennia. She knows what's best."

"If you say so," Remnaar frowned, shaking his head in worry.


The sun was still young as Kyra and Colin figured out that they had stayed too far from their path, leaving them unsure of where to go. While the hills were described as such because of its most well-known inhabitant, "grizzly" could easily describe the dense forest as well, Colin soon figured, his arms frequently raising up to push back tree limbs from came into his path. It took Kyra a short while to realize that Colin had gotten lost, though once she had done so, she remained the follower, knowing less of these lands than even her companion.

"Well," Colin finally spoke up, defeated, as he turned back toward Kyra, "We're-"

"Lost," Kyra nodded, interrupting him.

With a groan, Colin dropped his head in loss, shrugging his limp shoulders, "Any ideas?"

Kyra frowned, "Not really. I mean, I looked over maps, but I didn't bother checking anything out of this place. To be honest, I was enjoying our time together just exploring."

"As was I," Colin admitted, softly, along with a smile, "Kind of like our other adventures this last year, huh?"

"Not exactly," Kyra noted, peering over her shoulder, "We'd need some exotic beasts chasing us, or a roving band of knolls, or a massive-"

"Okay, okay; I get it," Colin interrupted, amused, "Look, I'll just climb up a tree or something and I'll get our bearings."

"You?" Kyra goaded in amazement, "Sorry, my love; if you tried scaling one of these trees, I'm sure I'd-"

She paused for a moment, her ears twitching before she quickly reached over and grabbed Colin's shoulders, pulling him to the ground with her. She pressed a finger to her lips before pulling him to the side, signaling him to follow her over closer to a tree while she stared off into the thicker portion of the forest. Colin couldn't sense much of anything, though within a short enough time he came to hear the pounding of footsteps rolling along, approaching the two of them.

"Trolls?" Kyra wondered aloud.

Colin answered, "Up north there's a large enough group of them, but I don't know why they'd be down here."

As soon as he finished, he saw the small band of trolls rushing by, armed to the teeth with primitive-looking weapons as they dashed forward, almost as if chasing after prey, though Colin couldn't have begun to tell what it might have been that they were hunting- he hadn't seen anything bigger than a squirrel during this sidetrack.

As the band of long-faced beings stomped along, Colin felt something sliding up his back, trailed by the dull sensation of something sharp along his shirt, coming to recognize the sensation as Kyra bringing her hand up to cover his back, her daggered hand resting at the ground on his other side. He felt a certain warmth surrounding him in the presence of this highly protective act, though he thought it to be rather uncalled for as the trolls finally passed by without incident.

Kyra sighed, relieved, as she pushed herself up to her knees, watching Colin blithely roll onto his side, looking up toward her with a smirk, "You're really sexy when you get like that."

She scoffed, shaking her head as she rose to her feet, hiding a childish grin, "Just shut up. We have a task here."

Colin laughed as he jumped to his feet as well, brushing off the dirt from his clothes as Kyra eyed him, steadily, her eyes wandering up and down his body before she spoke up, "Does that bother you?"

"Bother me?" Colin wondered aloud, "Your harsh language?"

Kyra's lips curled in worry as she looked away, locking her arms in a cross, "You know. That I'm sort of the protector, not you."

"Ah ha," Colin quipped, notably, "We ran into this Ulrich guy and you think I'm jealous of his rugged, dogged masculinity, right? That head that's nothing but hair and scowl?"

Shrugging, Kyra answered with a steady, unsure, "It crossed my mind. I mean, I often worry that you may want a more dominant role; I know when we met, it was more or less the same way, but I don't know-I try and allow you the opportunity to-"

Colin nodded, reaching over with both arms, holding her at her shoulders, "Kyra, my love –my moon, no less- I have zero issues with being led by a Silverwing-class Sentinel; you've seen me when I travel- most of the time I'm just aimlessly wandering along. I wouldn't have half the scars on my body if I was smart enough to stay on the beaten path."

He lowered his head, his eyes still locked with hers as if in submission as he continued, "But then I wouldn't have met you. A smart man would have heard the invitation "get in this basket in the back of the cart and I'll get you to Teldrassil" and immediately refused!"

"Was that really Tyriel's sales pitch?" Kyra questioned, amusedly, remembering her mentor's matter-of-factness that made her such a fine warrior.

Colin chuckled, "More or less. My life before meeting you is sort of a blur anyway."

She immediately threw a soft punch against his chest, shaking her head, "We're in the middle of nowhere and you still can't help but throw such sweet nothings toward me."

"I guarantee you that brute back at camp wouldn't afford you the same pleasantries," Colin assured, proudly, his grin swirling into a wildly coy leer, "And speaking of pleasantries, we both know-"

"Quit while you're ahead," Kyra advised, sticking her tongue out at him as she grasped his hand to pull as she started off, "I'm not going to allow you to get to where you want to go while we're lost. There are too many things within these trees for me to not be on edge."

"True," Colin agreed, "Though I'm rather curious what those trolls were hunting. There was, what, ten of them? I shudder to imagine the beast that ten men are needed to fell."

He could feel Kyra's hand tighten around his as her pace slowed, her face slowly spinning over her shoulder, "Unless it's the other way around…"

Their eye met with a tension that could have scorched the air between them as they wondered over the thought, Kyra's ears fluttering as she focused her hearing, just to be safe. Her feet drew forward slower, more carefully, as they advanced, the both of them suddenly further cautious of their surroundings.

As they started over a collection of twigs that had been strewn along the ground, their footsteps grew much louder as the crackling broke through the air around them, forcing Colin to lower his head to watch his step, his feet carefully maneuvering along the messily thrown bits of wood. As he returned to looking ahead, however, he caught Kyra's shoulder as a pale grey light shone from its taut skin, Colin's eyes drawing wide as he pulled his hand away from Kyra's, shooting it up toward his cheek as Kyra spun around in surprise.

Their eyes met, terrified, as Elune's light emanated from his cheek, both of them immediately drawing back to back, Kyra's sword flashing through the air as Colin pulled his hands away from his side, his fingers running along licks of flame as he scanned the horizon threw the dense foliage, "Hear anything?"

"No," Kyra replied.

Suddenly, as if in a dream, a massive pair of scowling eyes appearing throw the trees as Colin shuddered coldly, his eyes following them pass behind the series of trees before him. He heard slow, stomping footsteps that reverberated through the air, almost like telepathic waves crossing only his mind, he assumed, as Kyra hadn't spun around toward it yet. Colin lifted his arms in a defensive posture, which seemed to give the entity a reason to growl a dull, brooding roar as its quaking footstep stomped, again, toward them.

"Who…" the rolling, masculine roar spoke, forcing Kyra to finally spin around, holding her sword out as she stood beside her companion.

The eyes exited into a soft clearing where light managed to pour down to the forest floor, a celestial collection of light appearing through the sunlight as the form of a gigantic bear passed through the screen toward them, his teeth barred in a fierce manner.

"Who trespasses…" the beast growled, lowly, "Who stands upon the grounds my brother watched over…"

As if on instinct, Kyra threw her arms up over her head, holding her sword up into the sky as if prepared to strike were the beast to come closer. However, the ursine beast seemed to take offense at the aggressive action, its massive teeth disjoining as he roared, angrily, suddenly charging toward Kyra, his gigantic paws rumbling the very ground of the hills, his eyes widening with malicious intent.

"Trespassers!" the beast barked with reckless abandon, launching his massive body at Kyra.

In a split second, as Kyra's mouth dropped in horror, Colin reached across her midsection, throwing his arm toward her and knocking her back, though also putting himself in the crossfire of the giant bear's leaping path. The last thing he remembered was shutting his eyes with such force that he could feel the muscles in his face in pain, so desperately not wanting to feel what was sure to hit him.

Then, in only the most faint of instances, he could tell that he was knocked out. Cold. As if his life had been thrown from his body and into some other, netherous place.