Colin's eyes tugged their way open as he woke, a sweltering pain forcing his jaw to clench once his senses began to return. The first thing he noticed was the incredible pain searing his leg, the first thought going through his mind being that it must have been broken in the fall. His eyes clenched shut as the bright sunlight assaulted his vision, for some reason having been so much more magnificent of a light than he'd ever seen before.

He slowly began to register that he was, actually, not stationary. It wasn't due to his leg, back at the back of his head, he felt something like sand sliding along his scalp, as if being dragged along a beach. As his pupils worked their way along, he could finally squint to ascertain his situation, turning his head to see why the sunlight had been so blinding.

As far as he could see, there was nothing but a hollow grayness covering the ground, doing a considerable job at reflecting the light. Colin quickly realized where he was- a sharp tremor running through his heart as he took a quick breath. The material beneath his head was not sand- it was far more fine and felt hollow, nearly empty, like snow without the crinkle beneath the feet.

He quickly turned his head upward, noticing the dark shadow of a figure just in front of him, his injured leg being clutched at its side. Colin could only guess that this was Ulric, who was now dragging him along, but to what ends? He tried to yank at his leg to free himself, but his nerves failed to respond as a cold sweat began to trickle along his brow. His leg, truly, was broken.

Ulric moved along, deliberately, like a feral man on a warpath, his stance obviously having been weighted down by Colin's body. He gradually moved slower and slower as exhaustion set in, though Colin realized he had no idea just how long Ulric had been at this.

Just as Colin began to regain more of his faculties, a dark voice wandered through the air, like a serpent writhing into his ear from some darkly intoxicated stream of air, "Tire eas'ly, human!"

Ulric grunted, "Fuck off."

A light, yet demonic, giggle broke their air, "You are rather mean t' those 'elping you. You aught adjust yer attitude, human; 'owever close you git to yer goal, I'm more th'n capable of makin' sure it b'comes the last thing you'll ever even be able to imagine."

"You've you did me for years, yet you still seem unaware of just how little that bothers me," Ulric retorted, "Doubting me is a mistake people make only once."

The demonic voice snickered devilishly, "Pay 'eed, human. Pay 'eed."

Colin jumped in surprise as the dark body the voice belonged to suddenly appeared above him, walking behind the two of them with a hasty pace, approaching Ulric from behind, "If ya don't shape up, I'll tear dat snout clean thr'ugh yer skull, just like what happ'ned to yer father."

That seemed to quell Ulric's backtalk, as he failed to reply as his steps grew more and more haggard, the demon beginning to giddily skip along beside the two of them, seemingly unaware of Colin's presence, "Hee hee! Not'ing to retort? Yer body is not th' only thing that's been worn, human."

Finally reaching Ulric's side, the demon grasped his shoulder and yanked it back, turning him to face the demonic face as Ulric stopped in his tracks, the evil being grumbling, annoyed, "Ya lost th' god damned knife."

"Let me just climb up that mountain back there and get it back," Ulric shot back, sarcastically.

The demon rolled its ugly eyes, shaking its head disappointedly, "Truly worthless. I can't believe I w's stupid enough to make a deal with ya."

"You needed somebody to do your dirty work," Ulric replied, his voice nearly as hollow as the ash beneath his feet, his head cocking backward toward Colin, "Sure he's the one?"

The demon nodded, "He's rather close to Elune, I can tell. Perhaps even touched by her. Xavius was rather clear; with Ysera killed, there's only one Aspect with any such care of Elune's light, now."

Ulric's livid eyes gleamed with intensity, "Alexstraza…"

Cackling, the demon mused, "Kha ha! He should do just fine. Soon as she senses that mark on him, she'll show up to investigate."

Ulric's face screwed in confusion, "What mark?"

He turned to look over his shoulder, his eyes widening in surprise just as Colin cocked his good leg back, jamming it straight into Ulric's ankle, knocking the man to the ground with a deep yelp. Freezing his hands to catch himself, Ulric growled as he fell on all fours, turning to stare at Colin with a ferocious intensity as his prisoner started pushing himself back against the shimmering ash below, kicking up the grey silt, turning it over into a trail of black as he hurried away, dragging with him his bad leg.

Ulric huffed as he stood, the demon having evaporated at the slightest sign of trouble, leaving the rugged man to stomp over toward Colin, his fists both clenched in furiosity, "You'll pray that you hadn't done that."

Colin's face had already been turning in pain, but now he wore a deep look of rebellion as he stared up at Ulric, "You'll have to kill me before you use me to kill anybody."

Shaking his head, Ulric grinned evilly, "When I broke your leg, I didn't think you'd have quite this much fight left in you. Shame I'll have to tear up the other one. You have nowhere to go; it's just you and me out here."

"So what, are dragons your definition of big game?" Colin asked, skittering backwards along the ashen ground.

Ulric's teeth showed as he seethed, maliciously, "You've no idea, kid. Now, no more games!"

He suddenly broke into a dash toward Colin, whose brow fell angrily as he clenched a fist, suddenly slamming it into the ground as a massive burst of flame scorched the air around him, forcing Ulric to skid to a stop along the ash, his body quickly reorienting himself as a plume of smoke began to rise into the sky from the sudden conflagration.

The group quickly stopped, having gone about halfway down the mountain's face when a sudden explosion caught their attention. Kyra gasped as her eyes squinted, trying to make out the source of the blast, but all she could see was a horribly out-of-place cloud of dark smoke far off into the distance.

"That has to be Colin!" she shouted, almost worriedly.

Vylira frowned as she agreed, "There isn't any other mage out here who could cause a cloud that thick into the sky, that's for sure…"

"Did he encounter trouble, thought?!" Kyra wondered.

Syheath glared toward her sisters, "You think Ulric is with him?"

"If he is," Vylira muttered, unenthusiastically, "Was that blast for him, or something else?"

Tandkota and Parvaen shared glances as Syheath groaned, "I just don't… What's going on with him?! I've known him for years and he's never been this strange in all that time; this is far beyond a mood swing. and Remnaar has known him longer than anyone-"

She paused once she turned to Remnaar, the draenei staring worriedly across the bitter landscape of the Blight, his voice escaping him unfortunately, "Could that have been a dragon?"

Vylira turned to him, curiously, "What do you-?"

"The Red Dragonflight, perhaps?"

A chill ran down Kyra's spine at the assertion that it might not have been her mate down there. That there was still a possibility that he'd been killed in the fall. After all, given his connection with one particular being of the dragonflight…

"What are you talking about?" Tandkota muttered, breaking his silence as though he'd been bound by something divine, "The dragonflight don't meddle in the affairs of mortals."

Remnaar sighed, pulling Ulric's bag from off his shoulder, reaching into its depths, "I remembered a while back, but… Knowing Ulric might have perished, I didn't want to needlessly tarnish his image."

"Tarnish his… Rem, what's going on?!" Syheath wondered loudly.

He bit his lip as he pulled out the knife from earlier, a particularly devilish-looking thing, which caused Parvaen's eyes to widen, "I noticed this when I was picking up his stuff. Parv, you said it's used to pierce dragon scales?"

The blood elf couldn't nod in reply, as he and everybody else came to the same conclusion, though it was Kyra who spoke up first, to Vylira, though everybody else heard her, "That's why he needed us alive."

The others stared as Vylira nodded in reply, leaving Syheath to exclaim, "What?! What's going on?!"

Kyra raised a hand to bury her face within her palm while Vylira answered with a sigh, "Colin was touched by a Sister two years ago. For whatever reason, Elune left her mark on his cheek; I don't know how, but Ulric seems to have figured that out."

She groaned, "He must be using him to lure Alexstraza out."

"Is he insane?!" Parvaen exclaimed, "The dragonflight may well be gods! What is he trying to do, just hunt down the fiercest of them all?!"

Kyra quickly looked back out across the Blight, a determined expression reaching across her face. She suddenly made a dash toward the edge of the cliffs, sliding to a stop and peering down as if ascertaining a quicker way down, much to Vylira's chagrin.

"I hope you're not thinking what you, indeed, already are," her elder sister spoke, sardonically, crossing her arms disapprovingly.

Kyra looked back over her shoulder, only offering an assertive glare before spinning backwards and beginning to shake down the side of the mountain, leaving Vylira to stomp over to the edge herself, shouting, "Kyra!"

"I won't allow myself to go anywhere else but to him," Kyra replied, louder, as she made her way further down, "At least, this way, I know I did everything I could."

Vylira rolled her eyes, turning toward Syheath and the others, who all held surprised faces while their leader frowned at her sister, "I know what you want to do."

"You know it's only because I know and trust that you'll be safe, right?" Vylira clarified, "If I leave her alone for any scale of time, she'd have been dead long ago."

Syheath replied with only a deep stare, quietly stipulating, "Don't kill him. Whatever's going on, it's not the man we know."

"You have my word."

"Alright," Syheath finished, turning to her men, "Let's get all this stuff down there yesterday."

Tandkota readily picked up what Vylira and Kyra had dropped, gently kicking Remnaar forward from behind, "You're up, my azure brother."

The draenei chuckled, taking the lead at dredging through the snow, "I'll try not to show off too much!"

Vylira nodded as Syheath waved her off, turning to join her group, leaving her elder sister to begin working her way down the sharp, jagged cliffs that ran along the edge of the Blight, down toward the shimmering land below.

Colin breathed heavily as he sat atop the endless ash below him, his heart having been sent racing after causing such a massive blow to stop Ulric in his tracks, though the hunter only smirked as he stood just a few paces away. Colin held his hand up high as if to defend himself, though Ulric only laughed, amused at the sight before him.

"You think that'll stop me?" Ulric teased, evilly, "You see him, don't you? Over my shoulder."

Colin's eyes wandered to where had mentioned, though he couldn't see anything besides the blinding light of the sun. As intently as he looked, his eyes began to water, forcing him to blink, though in the split second between closing his eyes and not even a moment before, that dark demon appeared, overlooking the two of them. Colin's face grew pale at the sight, causing Ulric to laugh at the sight.

"Aerxaxx allows no harm to befall me," Ulric mused, "Were you to send all the fires of Azeroth to descend upon me, he would protect me. He protected me from the one thing that frightens me the most, and if he can do that, my faith in him has only calcified."

Ulric stepped forward, forcing Colin to grimace as he blew a sharp, bellowing stream of fire from his fist right into Ulric's chest, the flurry of flame only dispersing across Ulric's body as he smirked, being snuffed out as it disappeared behind him. Colin's eyes widened in horror as Ulric continued toward him, though at a certain point, he stopped, turning over his shoulder, taking a serious look toward the dark entity behind him.

Colin heard the demon's incessant giggling, "Hee hee! Lost yer knife! Human, yer abilities leave lot's t' be desired!"

"I said fuck off," Ulric angrily sneered.

The demonic giggling continued, "Here! I give you 'nother!"

Despite the demon's seeming invisibily, Ulric reached at his side, grasping a bit of air until a serpentine-like dagger materialized in his hand, Aerxaxx musing in between sadistic giggles, "I want't tested! Kill this human with it! I want ta see him squirm just like tha otha dragon did at Xavius' command!"

Ulric turned toward Colin with a look of indifference, but despite that, he threw the curving dagger into the air, catching it backwards in his hand as if about to plunge it into a body right then and there as Aerxaxx cackled excitedly, dancing in place and clapping his hands together expectantly.

Colin quickly threw another ball of flame at Ulric, though he easily managed to throw an arm across his body, snuffing the ball of fire out of thin air, grumbling aloud, "It's time."

Resigned to remaining stationary, given his leg, Colin could only reach up to stop Ulric as he dropped to a knee beside Colin, forcing a hand past his awaiting hands to grab a large handful of his hair, yanking his head forward enough to give him a swift punch despite his resistance, rattling him enough to helplessly drop his arms, hanging only by his hair, seeing nothing in his vision but glittering stars, unaware of Ulric cocking his hand back, prepared to shove that knife into his chest.

As Colin's eyes lazily spun upward to meet Ulric's, the men suddenly threw his arm forward, teeth gritting with intensity as he drove the knife straight into-

*BOOM*

Before he could make contact, Ulric's body suddenly flew back in a burst, a divine sonic boom of a zephyr throwing him back onto the ground, furiously making his way back up, an immediate astonishment drawing across his face as Colin sat there, head fallen in a daze, but the brilliant light at his cheek was unmistakable. The pale blue light casting down onto the ash was light a fire as Aerxaxx stepped away in horror, throwing his arm in front of him in defense.

As Aerxaxx received, Ulric stared down at the glowing light, almost mesmerized, completely ignoring the demonic outburst from behind him, "Man'ari! Fucking hell; gor'om haguul!"

The demon kicked a hoof into the ash beneath him, grabbing ahold of Ulric and spinning him around, throwing him into the ground with a loud *THUD*, forcing Ulric's breath to escape him, "You fucking finish this, human! We'll never get a better shot, you…you… ARGH! A-rul shach kigon!"

Ulric's eyes strained as he peered skyward, Aerxaxx still on his tirade as he began swinging off, "I'm making scarce; that anach kyree will be here any moment. Do not fail me, human!"

As Aerxaxx walked off in a fury, a swift wind kicked up behind him, a spout of ash cloaking him as he vanished, behind the wall of sediment. Ulric quickly made his way onto his stomach, groaning painfully as he clutched his abdomen, cursing beneath his breath as he shoved his dagger into a pocket, eyeing Colin's limp body as he tried to figure out what to do. With nothing else, he reached down to grab ahold of Colin's leg again, simply deciding to meander on toward the mighty tower that rose above the ash.

Bending down, however, he paused, a cold breath escaping him as a powerful darkness surrounded him, his eyes dropping as he realized what had just happened. The mighty sound of gargantuan wings broke the air around him as he stood back up, tilting his head backward in disbelief before turning around, his eyes meeting the mighty silhouette of the Queen of Dragons.

Alexstraza had arrived.