If the wardens were annoyed by her new question after having been badgered only just recently, they made no sign of it. Unfortunately, they still were of no help to her, though she couldn't find it in herself to blame them. There were many who passed through the glade now, and many of them had mounts of their own. One dull colored bird in a herd of dragons, kodo, and the occasional silithid was like a needle in a haystack.
But when her search had gone unanswered for another hour, and then two, she found she had no real desire to wander back to the other two. In part, because they had already made it quite clear that she was not welcome near them at the time, but mostly because she was afraid she would not be able to control herself if she did. The words that the Magistrix had forced into her mind still beat there strongly, darkly promising, and though she knew that she had every right to feel spurned and scorned, she simply felt guilty.
Guilty, and stupid. She should not have expected it to be so easy, this choice she had made. The fingers of her left hand toyed with the base of her ring finger on her right, more out of frustration than the memory of something, and her eyes went to the place where she knew Kalthor and Leybright still sat and spoke together. To anyone looking at her from the outside, she'd have seemed forlorn and lost. In a way, they would not have been too far from the truth. She was a selfish woman, to have done what she did and expect Kalthor to remain with her as he always had.
But that had never stopped him before, nor had it hurt so much to consider the problem from both ends. In her mind, she wanted to believe that he was simply moving on as quickly as he could. That he had taken her words to heart, and would be working through his pain in whatever manner he deemed worthy. In her heart, however... she had hoped she would not be so easily forgotten, and the conflict between the two, mind and heart, sickened her.
She had begun to walk while thinking, and she did not stop until her boots sunk into ground that was not quite as firm as it had been. Her eyes went up from the floor, taking in the sight of the lake that Nighthaven was situated above. She was not certain on the lore that surrounded such a body of water, but she knew that it really didn't matter to her in the end. It was a calming fixture in the middle of an area that already had plenty of power to ease the burden on someones shoulders. Triadae took a deep breath, felt her chest press against her breastplate, and held it until her lungs burned.
Tikros had been a gift, from Kalthor himself. After a life of horses, she had no real desire to throw down the gold for one of the overgrown chickens, but she hadn't complained when he had appeared in front of her home with the soot-colored bird. She had only fawned over it, and him, thanking him for such a beautiful gift. She could still remember his smile, the way his cheeks flushed with pleasure under her compliments. Looking back, it was so easy to see that he had been in love with her, she wasn't certain how she had remained blind to it for so long.
That he had cast aside his gift, the first gift he had ever given her besides that of his constant and unwavering friendship, burned deeper than watching him be with another woman. She bent down and plucked a stone from the water's edge to roll it around in her hand for a moment and then skip it across the water with a flick of her wrist. A second stone followed, and then a third.
Before she knew it, she was simply bending and throwing, until the most she was doing was sending the rocks a good distance into the air before they splashed into the water. Every bit of her anger and shame seemed to fly with each stone, and she hadn't even noticed that she had begun to cry. Not the heaving sobs she had done once before, but the bitter tears of despair that slipped out only to embarrass the one who shed them.
And she likely would have stayed that way for quite some time, if something large and brown didn't fly over her head to land with a giant splash no more than five feet from her. Triadae found herself caught between gaping at the ripples that remained and focusing on her breathing to calm herself.
"Hmm. Perhaps a little more lift next time." The voice was slow and calm, a deep rumble in the depths of eternal patience. Tria glanced over her shoulder, and found only a broad chest there. Her head tipped back, the rest of her turning to make such a thing more comfortable. "Or, you could teach me?"
His eyes met her own, and she was simply too shocked to speak. It was not the first time she had seen a Tauren male, not in the least. There had been countless who fought on the front against the Lich King, and many more that she could recall stepping foot through the portal. It was only that he had come upon her so quietly, and had not bothered her.
"Unless, of course, you wish to simply continue throwing stones. I admit, you've quite an arm for a little thing like yourself."
She could not tell if he was mocking her or not. She wanted to believe that he was not, but she wasn't sure she could ever believe anything anymore. When he bent to pick up another stone in his massive hand, she took a step back, fully aware of the intimidating horns he bore. "Ah, this one looks like it would suit you well." He held his hand out to her, waiting until she held her own beneath his before he dropped the stone into her palm.
It fit in her hand easily. Like a weapon that had been crafted just for her and only her, she felt the immediate bond of earth to her skin in intimate detail, and the curiosity of that fact actually calmed her and distracted her from all of her troubles. She flipped the rock between her fingers, and found that she didn't really want to throw the rock away from herself.
"No tears. That is good." He smiled, brown eyes glinting at the confused expression she turned on him. "The earth heaves and splits, but the world continues on. Time heals all wounds, the growth will continue, and the cycle goes on. You are like the earth; strong and determined. You must remember that even the earth will bend to the fire of passion, the winds of change, and the tides of longing. However, I admit that I am curious as to what you have become so frustrated by."
"I..." Her brow furrowed as she considered it. All of it seemed so silly now, and not worth the trouble that she had made it seem that it was. But when she looked up at him and saw that he expected an answer that was not one that was simply brushing off all of her problems, she was at a loss of how to form it all in a way he could understand. So she just told him all of it, and found that the more she talked... the better she felt. Everything that made her feel like she wanted to burst, she let go, until it was all out and she was left breathless.
The tauren listened without ever speaking once. If she paused to glance at him, he simply gestured her on, as if he knew she was not finished. When she finally was completely done, he simply turned his head and motioned with his head. "Would your 'Tikros' be that beast, there?"
She followed his gaze, and her mouth dropped as she saw the silver-limned form of her mount bobbing on the surface of the lake, clearly spending his time fishing for a meal with the gentle patience of someone used to hunting on his own. Her face flushed pink, and then she noticed that his saddle sat crooked, and that nothing at all remained there atop his back. She couldn't hope to muffle the groan that escaped her, but she still tried. "Yes. Thank you. I should fetch him before he eats the lake clean."
She spun the stone once more in her fingers before she pocketed it, and made her way towards the swimming hawkstrider. From her lips passed a soft whistle, one that he had been trained to follow, and it was nothing different this time. Tikros' head lifted from the water, a large fish trapped in his beak, and once he spotted his owner on the shore, he turned and paddled back to her. The fish was offered, an attempt at an apology, and the bird remained still as Triadae adjusted his saddle to sit right once more.
When her eyes turned out towards the water again, to where the packages she had labored to keep atop her mount were now bobbing on the silver surface, she was surprised to find the tauren stepping easily across the liquid, lifting each bag and throwing it over his shoulder in a pile that was growing larger. Once more, she was struck completely dumb. At last, the broad-shouldered male made his way to her, looking from her astonished face to the soot-colored bird.
"Here, my friend. Be still, and let us aid the young lady in her endeavor." Slowly, the tauren passed on the other side of Tikros, readjusting straps and buckles as he placed each bag until the bird was once more loaded and ready to go. Triadae was not one to miss the way that the bags did not move in the least, no sound of jingling or clinking coming from within. Tikros made his own pleasure clear with a gulp of his fish, and a rather wet nuzzle to her head that nearly sent her reeling.
"I believe that he will have a much more difficult time shaking off your items, now. Your friend chose wisely when he decided this one would be his gift to you." The bull's large hand dropped gently atop Tikros' head, scratching just above his eyes with a touch that sent the bird into an oddly content coo. "But we should go, Lady Gildedsun. The Twilight wait for no one, and they are becoming a greater threat every day that passes."
"Yes..." She moved a few steps, then stopped so suddenly that Tikros released a startled sound. "Wait, 'we'? I don't mean any offense, Master Tauren, but I've very little time already and too much to do. Too much to deal with someone hanging on me and my peo - … oh, Fel." Her lips pursed, and she released a heavy sigh through her nose that nearly had the bull laughing.
"My apologies." The male bowed, his armor clanking and the two axes on his back threatening to go over his head with how deep he did so. "I should not have kept you waiting as long as I have, especially given the urgency of our mission. I was lost in conversation with the last of our contacts, and wandered far from Nighthaven in my ramblings. I am Gandret Stormhoof, and I am here to aid you."
For a long moment she stood silent, and then her cheeks puffed out and she expelled her breath in one slow motion. Her hand waved idly, dismissing him from his low bow, and she caught the amused flash of his brown eyes out of the corner of her own. "Do not keep me waiting again, Stormhoof. The urgency of this is not worth … all this." She motioned for him to follow her as they walked. "You've already spoken with the last of our group, then?"
"Yes. Bruzju Shadowpath, a Spymaster by trade. Or he'd like to say, at the very least." His long stride kept up easily with her own, his voice a level rumbling deep in his chest. "He has been there for a week already, and claims that we would be best taking our path into the Gorge, instead of meeting with the Druids at the summit. There are barriers aplenty between the Twilight and those who work against them coming down the mountain, and he says that it would be easier to begin our journey from the other end."
Triadae stopped short, her features musing. After a few moments, she turned to face Gandret, and held her hand out to him. "I'd like to speak to him. However you did it." After another moment, she added. "Please."
The tauren rummaged in a pouch on his hip, drawing out an item that was dwarfed by his palm. She knew well enough about the goblin communicators that some used, and found them rather silly given that there were many other options, but she said nothing at all as he offered it to her. "It's directly tied to him. Just push that button – no, the other one, and speak."
Fumbling with the device a bit, she finally managed to cup it between her hands and did as instructed. "Bruzju Shadowpath, my name is Triadae Gildedsun. Do you... read me?"
She closed the connection and stared at the communicator as it crackled in her hands, and then a voice spoke. "'Ey, I 'ear ya, mon. Loudah d'en I be wantin'. Don' hold de t'in so close, ya?"
"Sorry," she muttered, some of her stiffness vanishing under the thinly veiled rebuttal. "Gandret tells me that you've already scouted the surrounding area, and that you believe the best route to take would be through Winterspring. Is this correct?"
"Eh, dat's de right thin' ta be doin', ya. No' dat many on de east side, no' when dey be watchin' de west li'e hounds."
She remained quiet for a few moments, as if considering something complicated in her mind. When she spoke again, her voice was steady and somewhat slow, as if she wanted him to catch her meaning the first time and ask nothing more past that. "Your first order, Shadowpath. I want you to club a few of the lesser ranked ones down and get us their uniforms. Three elves, yourself, and a bull. Kill them somewhere, do it clean. I don't want anything but dirt on that cloth, you understand?"
"Ya, mon. I undahstan' perfe'ly. I be getting' de uniforms for ya, and I be keepin' dem cleana den they be doin' demselves. No worries, mon. Ol' Bruz is on dah prowl. We be getting' alon' fine, I be thinkin'. Jus' one ques'ion, mon." He let static run through the line for a moment, and they heard the keen of a dragon clearly over the speakers. "Whatchu be plannin' wit dese t'ings, eh?"
Triadae grinned up at Gandret. "Something an old friend told me a long time ago. If you can't beat them, join them."
