Day 40

Smoke blew in from the East this morning along with a swarm of adventurers heading to the cities. I almost miss the rain. The quilboar had fallen entirely in that area and their constructions were burned. The quilboar to the Northeast were stubbornly holding their ground against any trespassers with a strong force of centaur reinforcements. Nobody was eager to attack that stronghold and our troops were all over the Barrens keeping the rest of the threats contained.

Contact with Freewind Post has been frequently interrupted lately by quilboar watching the roads. Anything less than a squad of ten men would be assaulted and even those often faced danger. The tauren in the South weren't interested in assaulting the quilboar unless they tried to take the Great Lift so they simply reinforced the guard and left the situation standing. That is a terrible idea but politics are like that.

Construction has begun on a watchtower overlooking the road from a mountain to the South. Teams of wyverns were flying material and men from all over the place so we've seen a lot of increased traffic here. The poor adventurers had to wait an hour to get a flight! Some of the nearby merchants were thankful about that as money exchanged hands during the wait.

Not too much else happened and I'm kind of disappointed we didn't get to stop a brawl but I suppose the heavy tauren presence stopped that. A couple of the adventurers had a few duels during their wait but despite the trash talking that was simply friendly sport. Boredom, blades, and magic? Gotta have a duel!

Day 41

Dashade rode into town today on a demon horse with no name. A soft pat once he dismounted had the beast disappearing before my very eyes. Judging by his smirk I didn't manage to hide my surprise at the action. Well played warlock, well played.

Unfortunately for my hopes he took one look at the soul shards and determined them to be humanoids. I did get the pleasure of watching him free the souls from their entrapment and smiled as the spirits briefly flickered into existence before passing on. Dashade gave me a pat on the shoulder before hearthing away while I was wallowing in the feeling of a good deed.

A new batch of guards just transferred in today and I've been assigned a new partner. Tall, powerful, and strawberry blonde my partner was a blood elf paladin named Taliaa. The look she gave Logmar when he cracked a joke convinced me she was highly focused. Or a bitch, but I won't suggest that. She was friendly enough to me and decided to pet Nyx's head so I guess my cat theory is out the window.

Her shield and plate armor helped in her role as a heavy frontline tank and she is more than welcome to it. I'm not equipped for that and she's strong enough to knock me around, as she displayed during my morning training. That was unpleasant on so many levels but at least she was simply one of the better off recruits because if the rest were throwing me around like that I'd be sulking in a corner somewhere by now.

An experienced team of the guards here would soon be called out for another assignment but I don't expect to go anywhere soon. Not only do Taliaa and I need to get to know each other, I'm still not the most experienced and we also just got here. Though I suppose they could send us into a meatgrinder if they really wanted to but I try not to think of that as a possibility.

Our housing wasn't impacted much as the new guards were of more mixed culture. An orc and two trolls bunked in another house while another orc joined Taliaa with us. The two tauren were apparently natives and went back to their families so I guess the last long house probably breathed a sigh of relief.

Day 42

Well I wasn't expecting mandatory training today but we beat the snot out of each other with blunted weapons earlier. I'm also not sure if they were avoiding live edges to avoid danger or to make sure we built up pain tolerance via repeated fighting. Either option sucked to me but at least I didn't have to get a hand reattached so I didn't open my big fat mouth.

Getting to know my partner in organized chaos was kind of fun in a way. I am proud to announce I wasn't the only one with a slack jaw when Taliaa stopped a tauren charge with her shield. Poor guy is still in pain from meeting it with his face. A soft tap to his throat 'killed' his stunned form for the round as I 'gutted' another tauren while laughing like an idiot.

We fought several times and while I was mostly overpowered by any tauren I held my own against all the rest. The key to fighting a tauren is remembering that they can move just as fast as all that power represents and to try not to be where they swing. Pretty sure I had a cracked rib before the healing magic got to me. Also of note is that ending up on the bottom of a dogpile when tauren are involved is a good way to repeat said cracked rib.

I did take some time to sit with the others around fires earlier and speak with them. I'm not the best with spoken words but most of the others aren't either so most of our conversations are humor or common interests. Kodo meat for example is tougher than most people expect but also easily consumed if you know how to prepare it. Unfortunately the tauren nearby wouldn't share any cooking tips with me yet, boo.

-Borgin