After a good night's rest, and all rest was especially serene and peaceful in Moonglade, the group was ready to continue their quest. Rhukaa's leg was completely healed, though it had been shattered into hundreds of pieces the day before. He wa ready to walk on it by the morning and nothing stopped progress. Garne equipped the group with Hippogyphs, which were special Hippogryphs blessed by Cenarious Himself and Lp had no control over the animals, whether he came to claim them or not. The group left quickly, saying a fast farewell to Garne, Hector and all of the other druids. A novice had prepared a great deal of vials, all filled with Rhukaa's cure. These were placed in boxes and strapped to seven Hippogryphs. With everything set and ready to go, the companions took flight. Hector winked at Tyran and the elf rolled his eyes. Humans were so weird.

The Hippogryphs flew swiftly and beautifully across the dread land of Felwood, staying far above the land itself. Everyone was enjoying the careful, gentle ride, except for Ylanna. Ylanna was wishing quite vigorously that they could have traveled by ship. Even sea sickness was worse than what she was feeling now. The Hippogryphs flew with soft measure and couldn't have possibly been the cause of anyone's illness. Ylanna was having difficulty with the height. She tried to close her eyes and ignore it, but found that she could not.

"How long until we get there? How long until we reach Orgrimmar?" Tyran asked.

Shei weighed the question. "Well, we're definitely going to have to make a stop for rest, at least once. If we travel at this speed, we might be able to make it to The Crossroads after rescuing Rehck."

Tyran had forgotten about Rehck. He felt ashamed for having forgotten his friend. He was just so focused on Lp. They had quite a while to travel still, until they reached Splintertree Post. Tyran smiled. "So, when I get there, I'm going to go up to Lp and be like 'Prepare to meet your doom, vile scourge!' and he'll battle me. Everyone will be watching! I'll pull a few moves and Lp will be so surprised at the sheer awesomeness, he'll give up! He'll run, even..." Tyran continued to explain his exploits to the group.

The group was not paying attention. Rhukaa had fallen back with the Hippogryphs that were carrying the cure to the plague. There were seven of them. They were loaded down with thousands upon thousands of vials. One of the Hippogryphs would provide Splintertree Post with the cure and then head back to Moonglade. The other six would travel with them to Orgrimmar. Rhukaa decided he had better keep watch on them in case anything fell or went wrong.

Ylanna, reminded of Rehck, forgot her sickness. Rehck and her mother must be suffering horribly from the plague. The mage gripped her Hippogryph tighter. Tyran might well destroy Lp. But would it be too late? Ylanna squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into her Hippogryph's neck.

The animal sensed the girl's fear and instinctively slowed down. The Hippogryphs were trained to respond to emotions by the druids themselves, concerned about their visitors. The druids imagined flying must be a dreadfully scary thing. No druid has ever flown any animal, because animals quite frankly do not enjoy being ridden. The Hippogryphs the druid raise never have to carry anyone if they don't want to. For some reason though, the Cenarion Hippogryphs didn't protest as much as other animals did.

"Oh my!" Shei gasped. This gasp caused her Hippogryph to stop dead in flight. The others also came to a half. What lay in front of them was Ashenvale, but it wasn't like any one remembered it. The towering trees were now small plants. The grand bushes were now mere shrubs. The brilliant flowers in full bloom were small buds popping out of the ground. What made Shei gasp and the others stop, however, was none of this. The ground was covered in ash.

Rhukaa groaned. Seeing the burnt ground reminded him of his crime and it pained him. "Who did this? We were here just a few days ago... not even a full week." The warlock gazed at the buds and shrubs with a sickness in his stomach.

Tyran quit telling his tales as soon as he saw the ruined and reborn forests. It was a wretched sight and a beautiful one at the same time. Someone had had enough careless cruelty in their heart to burn down a harmless forest, but still life prevails unabated. The elf shook his head, it was no time for reflection. "Maybe someone at Splintertree Post knows something."

The Hippogryphs flew onward towards their destination. A few of the animals gave a small outcry at the horrible sight, but other than that they were purposeful in their measure. When they reached Splintertree Post, it was in worse condition than the forests. The fence that had barred it in was broken and beaten. The people inside could be seen rushing about with pails of water and boxes. Shei motioned for all but one of the Hippogryphs carrying the cure to remain in the air. The other and the animals carrying passengers, lowered onto the ground.

Ylanna jumped off and ran up to the Post. The same two guards were standing by the gate, and both were snoozing. They heard Ylanna's brash footsteps and woke up. They were both annoyed. They had been enjoying a nice nap after a very nice supper. Ylanna didn't care about how they felt, she knew what she wanted. "Where's Rehck? We brought you the cure, now hand him over!"

The guards blinked at the elf and saw her companions approaching them as well. The two looked at each other for a minute and then a look of realization came across their faces. "Oh you're those damn kids from a few days back. Look, you caused us a lot of trouble-"

"We cause you trouble! Look bub, give him back or I'll make you pay I swear!" Ylanna was hysterical.

"Yes kid. Look here, you had royal warriors after yourselves. From King Lp himself. Blast, they tore apart the Post just lookin' for ya! If it were up to me, we'd keep your little friend and let him rot of the plague." The guard was quite sick of his job anyways. If everyone died, he'd be able to leave his post. He was sick of stupid people. The kids, the warriors, the plague victims. Damn them all for wasting his important time.

Ylanna rushed at the guard and slugged him in the stomach. The other guard rammed into her and she went tumbling to the ground. The guard placed his foot on her chest and held his sword to her throat. "Look kid-"

Before the guard could utter another word, a large mass of blackness hit him and he was sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath. A figure in dark robes was standing over him with a look of purposeful insanity. The figure squinted his eyes at the guard. "We have the cure. Send our friend out. Now. Or I'll blow your brain- or what hardly passes for one- into oblivion. You too." Rhukaa glanced at the second guard, who was now between the swords of Tyran and Bjorn. Subdued, the second guard entered the city and brought Rehck out.

Ylanna stood up and ran to Rehck. He was covered in bandages and salve, he had caught the plague. Ylanna embraced him. She didn't care, they had the cure now, everything would be fine. As if in agreement, Rehck's wolf came out and jumped on Ylanna, giving her a nice welcome. Bjorn smiled and Tyran cheered. Their friend was back in their hands.

The guards looked at the group with disdain. "Well fine, we've done out part, where's our cure?" The guards smiled at each other, sure that the kids hadn't gotten a real cure yet. Who could possibly get a cure in under a week?

Shei walked up to the guards with several boxes of vials. "Here's some, come help unload the rest." the guards were about to tell her she could unload the cure herself but thought better of it when Shei raised an eyebrow. If they refused to help, they'd look like pussies.

While Shei helped the guards unload the cure, Tyran and Bjorn helped Rehck reach the other Hippogryphs. He had a hard time walking and couldn't talk much but he did manage a smile to let his friends know how glad he was. The time he spent in Splintertree Post was not a good time at all. The people, all angry because of the plague, were not kind to him, saying he was only one more problem. He hadn't gotten much to eat and had to sleep outside with the dogs. When he did catch the plague on his second day, a young doctor had come to see him and help him bandage up the pustules but after that visit, he saw no more people.

Bjorn and Tyran helped Rehck onto Tyran's Hippogryph and strapped him in so he couldn't move or fall off. It was Rhukaa who had suggested they bring something to this affect. Much to Ylanna's dismay, he had explained that it was possible for Rehck to have caught the plague within such a small window a time.

Ylanna hugged Rehck one last time before she mounted her own Hippogryph. Shei returned quickly, rolling her eyes at the stupidity of the guards. "So, I talked to the idiots, they say Lp sent royal warriors after us. If they had caught us... We would have been gone. Strange thing is, they couldn't have arrived here far after we left."

Tyran shrugged. "Guess we're lucky! Fate is on our side. Let us ride to victory!" And with that, Tyran took flight. The others followed suit and Shei told the Hippogryphs to take them to The Crossroads.

As they flew over the expanse of Ashenvale, even Tyran was silent in recollection as they each remembered the peaceful times at Gnell's camp. Though no one spoke it, they each wondered if Gnell was alright and although there was no discussion, they each agreed that Gnell was down there somewhere, repairing the damage done to his forest. Like Gnell said, life grows anew.

Once the group flew out of Ashenvale, over the gravity shield and into The Barrens, Tyran began his great banter once again, reminding the group of his purpose. He was still a bit upset that he had gotten no great epiphany from his trial like Hector said he would, but Tyran figured if he told himself what he was going to do, he would have to do it. It must be done, it will be done.

Time passed quickly riding swiftly and calmly through the air and before they knew it, the group was on the ground again, in The Crossroads. Bjorn wasn't surprised to see that the place hadn't changed at all since his childhood. The Crossroads never changed. Exhausted from the long day of flight, Bjorn motioned the group over to the inn. He was disgruntled to find that the inn was ran by a new family he didn't know, but he was far too tired to look for another inn.

When the group entered, no one came to their assistance right away and they had to stand around in the lobby area for quite a few long minutes before anyone even appeared. Finally a tall, lanky man entered the room and told them, "Rooms are 5 gold pieces. How many do you need?"

Bjorn was a bit taken aback at how fast the man said his words without so much as a "hi" or "how are you doing?" Bjorn shrugged and looked around at his companions.

"Just one room. In place of gold, could I pay with twenty Frost Lotus?" Rhukaa asked. He had been able to restock on herbs at Moonglade and now had a small King's ransom with him.

The man's eyebrow rose and he nodded. "Sure thing... room 4 is yours. It's past dinner. If you need food, you better find a restaurant."

Bjorn rolled his eyes. Every inn he had ever been in had a full-time restaurant inside and the innkeepers had been inviting, not tall, lanky and rude. He was tired though and so he went into room 4 and passed out on a bed. Or maybe it was a bench, he couldn't tell. Ylanna and Tyran helped Rehck get inside the room and into a bed. Then Tyran passed out as well.

"Ylanna." Rehck whispered hoarsely.

The elf smiled. "Shhhh, no talking." She knew that the plague infected the lungs and made it hard and painful to breathe and speak. Rhukaa had poured a vial of the cure in a glass and handed it to Ylanna. The elf carefully helped Rehck drink it. By the look on the Orc's face, the concoction did not taste like wine. Rhukaa smiled and shook his head. Nothing good for you ever tasted like wine.