Sorry this took so long. I went deaf in my left ear and haven't had much time to write because of it. But anyway, Happy Valentine's Day!

And to the coward too afraid to face me, hiding your malice behind a mask of anonymity, thank you for the correction on Swamp of Sorrows. I did indeed mean Dustwallow Marsh. :)

Jazax was startled out of his sleep by a hand over his mouth. He shifted groggily, displeased to have been woken. He'd been having that pleasant reoccurring dream about owning an emerald mine. He'd been in the midst of swimming through a river of the gemstones, when he'd been pulled back to consciousness.

Tiredly, he opened his eyes and looked up. The image of Syrise came into focus, her face cast with long shadows from the moonlight coming through the inn's open archway.

"Syrise?" He mumbled tiredly against the leather glove, "What's goin' on?"

"C'mon," Syrise nodded towards the archway, "We're leaving."

Syrise slunk back, eyeing where Khail and Mythene were sleeping in their own corners of the inn. Jazax gave them a cursory glance before rubbing his eyes. Then he got up quietly and began to pack up his things. This wasn't the first time Syrise had called him to depart in the middle of the night, and by this point he was beyond questioning it.

Even so, it wasn't until they were on the road out of Nighthaven, that he finally shot a quizzical glance up at his sin'dorei companion.

"Where we goin' exactly?" He asked quietly, as though afraid the wisps fluttering through the night sky would reveal their departure.

"After Z," Syrise answered shortly.

Jazax nodded, expecting as much. In truth, it hadn't sat right with him, either. Zami had known the two of them for years, and they'd been through thick and thin together. That he'd leave without even saying goodbye was… odd, to say the least. Mythene hadn't given them any substantial information, either, only saying that Zami had something he needed to do. Yeah, great, thanks Mythene, that cleared everything up. Sheesh…

Suddenly, Syrise came to stop, and Jazax crashed into the back of her legs. He perked an eyebrow up at her, seeing her studying something in the distance. Jazax followed her gaze across the lake, towards the mouth of a cave.

"That's our way out," She explained, gesturing towards the cave, "But the furbolg don't let just anyone pass."

"Well, they let Zami pass?" Jazax shrugged.

"Probably not," She shook her head, "He likely stealthed himself, like I had to do when I went to Everlook."

"So then what-"

Before he could even finish his question, Syrise's gloved hand reached down and took his. Jazax furrowed his brow as she grasped his hand tightly, shooting her a confused glance.

"Let's hold hands," She said with a firm nod.

"I… uh, sure? I mean, if you want?" Jazax cocked his head to the side, fairly certain he started to blush a bit.

Syrise nodded again and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. A moment later, Jazax felt tingly all over his body and went to pull his hand back from Syrise uncertainly. But her hand clamped onto him tighter, not allowing him to draw his hand away. Then she opened her eyes, exhaling slowly.

"There," She whispered, "That should do it."

"Eh?" Jazax perked an eyebrow, "What should…?"

Syrise rolled her eyes and pulled Jazax over to the water's edge.

"See for yourself," She said quietly, gesturing to the water.

Jazax perked an eyebrow at her again before leaning forward, looking into the water. He did a double take when he realized he had no reflection.

"Whoa! What the-"

"It's my stealth," Syrise explained shortly, "We're invisible."

"Oh, cool!" Jazax grinned, immediately thinking of all the mischief he could get up to with the power of invisibility.

"I said we're invisible, Jazzy," Syrise sighed, "Not inaudible. So keep your voice down, or the furbolg will hear us."

"Oh, uh, right," Jazax nodded quickly.

"Now come on."

Syrise tugged him along towards the cave, holding his hand all the while. Jazax was a little glad she always wore those gloves, because he was pretty sure his hand was starting to get sweaty under her vice-like grip.

When they reached the mouth of the cave, Jazax wrinkled his nose in disgust. It smelled of wet dog, urine, and mud. He looked up at Syrise with a furrowed brow, as though to ask if they really had to enter that musty pit. Syrise looked back down at him with a firm nod, making his shoulders slump.

But even so, they proceeded forth silently through the cave. The furbolg walked about, on patrols by the cave entrance. As they got deeper into the tunnel, however, the furbolg became less alert and were mostly just going about their day-to-day business. Cooking, talking in their strange grunting language, or mixing herbs in bowls as some kind of primitive alchemy. Jazax paused a moment to peer at what herbs they were using, before Syrise yanked him back to her side.

"Stay close to me," Syrise whispered, barely audible, "Furbolg have a good sense of smell."

Jazax nodded back silently, peering over his shoulder again as he moved closer to Syrise. Furbolg were quite strange when compared to goblins. They may as well have lived on different planets. How could anybody live without technology? He paused to glance up at Syrise. Even the magically-fueled technologies of the sin'dorei were impressive.

Syrise noticed him looking up at her and perked an eyebrow. Jazax was quickly broken from his thought and he glanced aside in embarrassment. It was bad enough that he was already blushing from holding her hand. Did he have to go and make it worse for himself?

They continued along the underground tunnel until they reached a fork, leading to two separate paths. Syrise paused, looking like she was trying to recall something. Jazax, meanwhile, looked around at everything except her. If he didn't even look at her then he couldn't stare at her creepily, right? That was the plan, anyway.

But as he was staring over at a furbolg with two sleeping young, he caught a whiff of the unmistakable stench of stranglekelp.

The worst plant in Azeroth, in his not-so-humble opinion. That and mageroyal were the bane of his existence. Ever since he started doing alchemy for coin all those years ago, it was all about those two plants, over and over. Mages wanting mana potions, warlocks wanting mana potions, even other priests wanting mana potions. It was without end. And the endless usage of stranglekelp at all the restaurants of Booty Bay quickly loses its charm to non-tourists. Especially to someone allergic to the weed, as he was.

Jazax furrowed his brow, beginning to feel a tickle in his nose from the all-encompassing smell of that vile weed.

"The path left goes to Winterspring," Syrise whispered to herself, "So the right must go to Felwood…"

"Um, Syrise?" Jazax whispered, rubbing his nose in a futile effort, "Can you just pick already?"

"I'm thinking," Syrise shushed him, going back to looking between the two paths.

"But I'm… I'm…"

Jazax wasn't able to finish his sentence. His sneeze came on too quickly, and it caused him to wrench his hand free of Syrise as well. The result? Him standing alone in the middle of the pathway, his nose running, as dozens of furbolg looked on.