Haa'aji was contemplating suicide again. He wasn't sure, but he figured he had to have been on his own for at least six months. It had been almost three since he'd seen another living creature. A few weeks ago, he'd tried once again to go back to the Amani, thinking that in the worst case scenario, he would just steal some food from them.
However, the small village that he'd gone to, just on the border of his people's territory, had been decimated by the Scourge. While he'd been tempted to travel further into their land, to make sure that most of the empire still stood, it had occurred to him that it didn't matter. It wasn't his empire any longer and with all he'd seen the undead armies do, he didn't doubt that going home would merely extend his life a few weeks at best.
So he'd turned back to the west, thinking to find an end to the undead's influence. Surely, they couldn't control all of the known world. He would find other survivors. More importantly, he would find other fighters. People working against the Scourge. If he could get a damned group behind him, he knew he could make the damnable monsters pay for what they'd done to his people. Done to him. After all, if not for them, the elves never would have fled and he'd still be home.
He'd been weaving his way through the withered trees, avoiding plagued bats and lynxes, when in his fatigue he didn't noticed the fallen log and he tripped, sprawling headlong into the ground. As he cursed and looked back, thinking to kick the damned thing for tripping him, his eyes widened.
It was no log, but rather a small body. A breathing, elven body. She didn't seem to see him though, staring straight ahead as she lay on her side, wrapped loosely in a thin blanket of some sort. Her eyes barely lit up the air in front of her and her breaths were shallow and pained. He immediately drew away from her, fearing she had the plague. However, reason stopped him.
This area had succumbed to the plague already. Anything this far into the dead land that had contracted the disease had perished months ago. The woman looked almost skeletal and he had to wonder how she'd gotten so far into nowhere on her own.
Creeping back toward her, he poked her shoulder. "Hey, mon. Ya okay?"
Of course she wasn't okay, but he could hardly think of anything else to say. It didn't even occur to him that she probably didn't speak trollish. He sat there for a long moment, before giving up on an answer. A shuffling noise in the distance caught his attention and he hunched to the ground, listening. Something was headed their way.
He started to move away, but stopped. It had been so many long months since he'd had anyone to talk to and…even if she was a despondent husk of a living creature, she was better than nothing. He slipped his arms under her and picked her up, retreating into the shadows of the woods.
It was three hours before he made it to the coast. He was relieved to see that there seemed to be a clear lack of undead along the beach. He could relax for at least a few minutes...and his arms were killing him from having carried the little elven woman. While she was feather-light, he was still weakened from having spent so long on such a sparse diet.
He paused to seat the woman against a small cliff face near the sand and then sprinted into the waves, letting the water wash over his grimy skin. He scrubbed himself for a moment before tiring and turning back to look and make sure his new traveling companion was alright. She still sat where he'd left her, hunched forward as though life might leave her at any moment and let her body crumple to the ground.
Haa'aji sloshed back to the shore, though he tried to make as little noise as possible. The last thing he needed was to draw the attention of any nearby ghouls with carelessness. He shuffled back up the sand and squatted down in front of her, reaching out and lightly putting his fingers beneath her chin and lifting her head to see that she was still breathing softly.
He lowered her chin carefully and then looked around. Just as he was considering plopping down beside her, he caught sight of a scraggly, but surprisingly healthy looking plant sprouting up through a crevice in the cliff. Hopping to his feet with energy he'd thought long spent, he trotted over and jerked a few leaves off of it.
When he was a child, his brother had pointed out the plant to him, saying that its leaves were edible, though they didn't have much taste. As he bit into one, he couldn't believe how bland it was. No taste was far too generous a description. Rather, it seemed more like the plant sucked the memories of what real food tasted like right out of its devourer's mind. For an instant he wondered if he was thinking of the wrong plant, but then shrugged it off. The worst that could happen was that it'd kill him.
He held out a few of the leaves to his elven companion and then set them down on her legs when she didn't move to take them. Haa'aji didn't bother with a fire. He doubted it would be able to vanquish the perpetual chill that permeated the air and would most likely just draw ghouls to their location. Honestly, everything seemed to draw ghouls.
Sitting next to the frail woman, he patted her head gently, though he stopped when he had to catch her, as the action sent her tumbling over. He held her upright with an arm around her shoulders and looked out over the waves.
"Ah be Haa'aji, mon. Don' suppose ya got a name?"
She didn't reply.
"Ya be a liila ting, ya know? How de hell ya be alive out hea?"
Nothing.
"Suppose de same way Ah be alive out hea, huh?" He shrugged. "Ya don' like ta talk. Ah suppose Ah can respec' dat."
He patted her shoulder and took a bite out of one of his leaves. "Dese be some crazeh times, yeh? De dead wand'rin' 'round like dey tink dey livin' a sumtin. Ah suppose mos' a dem not be too bad. Da ones dat still tink, dey be the scareh ones, yeh?" He paused and eyed her. She still hadn't moved aside from her shallow, faint breaths. "Ah like ya. Ya got a hea'tbeat..." He hesitated again, checking her neck for a pulse. When he found it, he patted her shoulder. "A nice hea'tbeat. Liila faint, but dat be okay. Ya don need no drummin' ta let dem dead folk know we hea."
It felt good to talk, even if it was a monologue. For all he knew, his whole tribe had been wiped out, so he felt pretty fortunate to have stumbled across another living creature. He scratched his stomach, wishing a mere touch could alleviate the hunger pangs in his gut. As he took another bite of leaf, he glanced at her again. Pausing, he set his own food down and held up one of the leaves to her. "Can ya eat? Ya not gon' ta las' long, wit' out food."
She didn't respond.
~"~
They stayed near the coast for almost three days, until Haa'aji couldn't find any more food. He often regretted not learning how to fish, as he could see the little bastards flopping in the waters just off the shore. He tried to catch a few, but it just resulted in lots of splashing and noise.
As hungry as he was, he made sure not to take any of the food he'd left for the little elf woman. Not that she'd touched any of it.
On the third night, he frowned and squatted down in front of her, lightly cupping her chin in his hand and forcing her dim gaze to meet his. "Look hea, wooman. Ah don mind sharin' wit' ya, but ya got ta at least meet meh half way. Eat ya damn food. Don' be lettin' it waste. Dere be hungreh people hea."
"Stop it."
He froze. If he hadn't just seen her chapped lips move, he wouldn't have believed she'd spoken. And in trollish too, though it was with a strange elven accent. Even as he floundered for what to do, tears pricked her eyes.
"I won't...believe that this is real." Her voice scratched against her throat like an animal struggling to stay in its cage. "So just...stop it. Let me wake up." With that, she burst into hysterical sobs.
Haa'aji watched her, his jaw slacked as she crumpled against him, her whole body shaking violently from her crying. It took him a moment to gather his wits about him and he wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could, without doing any damage to her frail frame.
As he rocked her back and forth slowly, he rested his chin on her head. "It be okay, mon. Ah don' know wat ya be talkin' 'bout, but dis be real, mon. Ah know it be scareh, but it be okay, yeh? If ya 'n meh both be alive, dere gotta be more, yeh? We find 'em 'n e'rehtin' be okay."
Despite his words, she simply cried harder and he found himself stroking her hair as he scanned the trees, worried that her tears might draw death to them. "Tings gon ta get betta, yeh? Ah promise."
~"~
Light didn't seem to matter to the ghouls, so Haa'aji had merely waited until he felt too restless before he'd carefully lifted his new found companion and headed down the coast in search of an end to the undead menace.
They'd gone for almost a day and a half—having to backtrack for a few hours after finding that the beach ended, leaving only jagged cliffs. He doubted either of them would have had the strength to swim very far and so he'd instead gone back far enough to travel along the top of the cliffs.
When he'd found a small cave, almost completely blocked off from the world by heavy shrubbery, he'd decided it would be as good a place as any to rest for the night and he'd helped his little elf slip into it before heading off to look for something to eat. He was rather displeased to learn that they weren't far from a decimated human town. So even the humans were falling to the undead? He'd been more concerned to see that the thinking undead seemed to have taken a liking to the town and eerie, unnatural fires burned blue and black inside the houses' windows as crumbling corpses shambled along the streets.
As he'd watched one of the living spell casters hurry along, he'd frowned when it occurred to him that he was still naked. It hadn't really mattered to him while he was alone. After all, who was there to see? But now that he had the little elven woman with him...
He'd cased the outskirts of the little town and grinned when he saw a hideous banner flapping in the breeze. Really? The undead had their own banners? He watched a hellish looking creature lumber by and nearly forgot his goal as he wondered who in their right mind would stitch different creatures together like that.
However, as the creature disappeared down a street, he regained his wits, darted out to the pole the banner was on, and with a quick motion ripped the cloth away from its place. He tore back into the woods and ran haphazardly through the trees for almost fifteen minutes before he bothered to slow and see if he was being followed. When he was content that he wasn't, he made himself a quick loin cloth and then headed back to where he'd left his companion.
Haa'aji had been terrified when he came back and at first he thought she wasn't breathing.
However, as he'd touched her shoulder, she'd shuddered and her eyes had fluttered open, fear dancing in them until she finally seemed to recognize him and merely slumped back against the rock.
Haa'aji offered her a few dried and partially rotten looking carrots. As he crunched into one, trying to hide his own disdain for what he'd found, he eyed the little elf. "Ya know, ya neva did give meh a name."
She didn't respond at first, instead lightly biting off the tip of the carrot and chewing slowly, as though she had trouble. Finally, she swallowed and shrugged. "I don't remember."
"Damn, mon," Haa'aji cursed himself as he realized he'd already wolfed down his food. It hadn't even eased his hunger pangs in the slightest. "Do ya know how ya got ta be way out in nowhea?"
She shook her head, pausing to frown as some of her hair caught between her shoulder and the rock behind her. Haa'aji inspected her and then flipped his knife out, pausing as she jerked away from him. "Ah nah gon ta hurt ya, yeh?"
He held his hand out to the skittish little elf. When she didn't offer any type of faith in him, he frowned and moved toward her again, taking the longer locks of hair that fell messily around her shoulders and cutting them so that they were closer to the length of the rest of her hair. "Jus' didn' tink ya needed ta get caught in stuff..."
She looked down at the carrot in her hands, ashamed. However, before she could voice an apology, her ears picked something up and her eyes widened, her dim blue gaze turning to the entrance of their little hideaway just in time to see a hook swing into the opening and slam into Haa'aji.
He let out a quick gasp as the hook managed to catch his side. A moment's pause settled over the two as horror overtook them and then the chain the hook was on jerked back and Haa'aji found himself ripped out of their sanctuary.
The hook hadn't been in him far enough and it tore through his flesh when he was about halfway to the abomination it belonged to. He clutched at his gaping wound and then felt at his side for his dagger. Of course it was still in the cave. He almost glanced back for it, but stopped himself. Perhaps the monster didn't realize that his companion was in there. There was no reason to alert the creature to her presence if that was the case.
Empty handed as he was, Haa'aji wasn't about to wait for the creature to attack again. He stumbled to his feet and charged after the receding hook. The creature had three arms and one of them swung a cleaver at him, though he merely dodged to the side and grabbed onto the arm, letting it lift him into the air as the creature tried to raise its arm for another swing.
Even as he came to rest on the thing's back and with a quick twist shattered the bones in the wiry little appendage holding its sickle, it attempted to grab at him with its other arm. In doing so, it dropped the chains it had been holding and tripped upon them as it staggered, attempting desperately to remove the troll from its back.
Haa'aji wrenched the sickle free from the creature's broken limb and then brought it around its neck, pulling up toward him and decapitating the mass of flesh.
It gurgled once as it sloshed forward, organs and rot pooling out around it. Haa'aji staggered a few steps away from it and grinned to himself as he flipped the sickle in the air. He was damned good with a blade.
However, even as he looked toward the cave and saw that his companion had come out of hiding, he heard a shrill screech and looked up in time to see several stone-like creatures, mixes between bats and men, descending toward him. He cursed and ran back toward the little elf, motioning for her to go back into the cave. If he could get back into hiding, the creatures would have to try to come at them one at a time and perhaps he could methodically kill them.
As he ran toward his companion, again motioning for her to hide, he felt claws dig into his shoulders and he cursed as he abruptly found himself in the air. Another set of claws grabbed at one of his legs and started to pull away from him.
Just as he felt his hip beginning to dislocate, shadows flickered through the air and slammed into the one that was holding his shoulders. The creature screamed as it plummeted to the ground, one of its wings completely severed. The one holding his leg was unable to support its weight, the weight of its prey, and that of the injured monster still clinging to Haa'aji's shoulders and the three of them dropped back to the earth.
Another tried to grab hold of him just before they hit the ground, but the shadows from earlier seethed around it and speared through its neck, sending its head spiraling off through the air as its body thudded to the ground. He cast a quick, worried glance toward his little elf, only to pause as he realized she was the one controlling the shadows. With a grin, he turned his attention back toward their enemies.
Haa'aji used his sickle to make quick work of the one still clawing at his leg and then reassessed their situation. There was only one of the flying demons left, but it had already started to retreat.
His urge to cheer triumphantly caught in his throat as he realized that it was probably going back to that town. Haa'aji baulked at the thought of the rest of those creatures coming for them.
However, before he could recover from the horrors that would be stalking them soon, he felt hands pressing into the gash on his side and winced. He looked down to see that his little elven companion was beside him, her dim gaze on her fingers. For a moment, he almost forgot to breathe as he wondered what she was doing.
Then, abruptly, light flickered across her finger tips and illuminated the dull air around them. He blinked as he felt his skin stitching itself back together and smiled as the warmth of the little elf's light washed over him, mending his leg and shoulders as well.
Before he could thank her, black runes flickered across her skin and she winced. The light vanished from her and he was left feeling incredibly cold. Haa'aji caught her as she nearly fell on top of the sickle he was still holding. He held her by her shoulders as she gasped as though she'd been the one to be stabbed in the side.
Unsure if elven healing magic worked in strange ways, he checked to make sure she hadn't somehow taken his injuries onto herself before hugging her to him and picking her up. He headed back to their cave only to get his dagger and what was left of their carrots.
"Ya be okay, mon?"
She nodded against his shoulder, and he rested his chin against her head for a moment. "Ah'd let ya get sum rest, yeh? But—"
"The gargoyles will get their masters."
Haa'aji nodded slowly. "Dem crittas be ga'goyles, eh? Well, yeh. Dey be back wit' all sorts a stuff, so..."
"We have to move."
He hurried along the cliffs until he saw a good opening in the woods nearby and ducked into it, hoping to make it harder for any aerial scouts to see them.
~"~
Leafless stared up at Shadow, where they'd hung him up on a few meat hooks. Chains had been wrapped tightly around his naked form, and he'd been put on display as a warning to anyone else who thought they could rise above the Lich King.
Honestly, she was amazed. Rumor was that he'd broken free from their master and destroyed all of Bloodsworn's pets and toys. He'd nearly killed Bloodsworn and even when their master had reclaimed him, he'd managed to break free a second time.
Half a dozen dead death knights were proof of that.
It had seemed to take all of Acherus, to bring him down. However, it had been decided that death would be too swift a punishment, and he had been strung up. Bloodsworn had been furious. He still bore the hellish gash across his face from Shadow's first escape, and he'd been quick to take a burning poker to the massive tauren, though he'd been even more infuriated when Shadow had merely laughed at him and called him a weak puppet.
While most death knights had merely lost interest in the hulking creature, content to let him suffer for the rest of eternity as their master had willed it, Leafless kept coming back.
She couldn't quite remember him, but a small part of her dead heart broke every time she thought of him hanging here. She'd tried to think of ways to lessen his pain, anything that might make her regard him with less despair.
When she found no way to free him from his chains without alerting any other passerby that she'd done so, she resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing she could do.
Just as she was about to leave, a thought struck her, and she turned back to him, her tail swishing behind her as she plodded up to stand in front of him.
"There's a chapel," she said softly, pausing as the knight opened his eyes to look down at her with mild disdain. "It's small, but...so far the people there have repelled our advances." He didn't say anything. "No doubt we'll be heading over to finish them off soon, but...I thought you'd like to know. You're not the only light in the darkness."
"I'm... no... light," Shadow whispered, half laughing at the idea.
Leafless shook her head as she turned away from him and began to walk off. "You really have no clue, do you? Because of you, people have started wondering if they can break free. Our master's whispers... they grow more desperate each day."
~"~
Haa'aji glanced around at the sky one more time before heaving himself up another branch and then offering his hand down to his little elven companion. As the two of them sat perched high atop one of the scraggly pine trees that had begun to overtake the plagued land, he allowed himself a half smile. The bark, while still tainted, had a resilience that they'd yet to see in the natural world, and it somewhat lifted his spirit.
As they looked out over the tree tops, ever vigilant for any signs of gargoyles or other flying monsters, Haa'aji took in a deep breath and lightly nudged his elf. "De breeze feel almos' fresh, yeh?"
Pungent as the smell of decay in the air remained, his elven friend nodded, though he suspected it was more so for his satisfaction than her own. She hadn't spoken of whatever had happened to her, but whenever she did manage to fall asleep, she always woke up screaming or sobbing, with a disorientation that sometimes took hours to wear off.
She'd been tortured, and every time her eyes closed, she was back there. When she woke up like that, if he was too close, her body would go limp as though she were dead, as if she had no will to fight off whatever it was that came for her in her nightmares. Then, he'd talk to her for a little while, and slowly—so very slowly—she'd come to life.
Sometimes, she whispered that she liked this dream, that she liked playing in a world where she was allowed to move on her own.
He wished he could show her that it was her nightmares that weren't real, not their escape, but she was so fragile. He wondered if she could face this reality, especially if something were to happen to them. If they were to get caught and lose their fight for freedom.
After all, all it would take would be a single misstep and their futile adventure would be over.
Haa'aji lightly hit her shoulder and pointed toward the west. Smoke wound lazily up into the sky a few miles off. He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better view. "Ya tink it be moa a dem undead?"
"I don't know," she glanced over her shoulder toward the plagued lands. "But I think...perhaps their hold is weaker here."
It was as good an answer as any, and Haa'aji nodded once before offering her his hand as he started back down the tree.
"Well den, c'mon liila ting," Haa'aji said gently and the two of them quietly slipped back to the ground.