Welcome to the last chapter of this story! It's been an wild ride, but I'm happy to finally get this last chapter written and posted. I hope you enjoyed the story. I'd love to hear what you thought of it, if you have a few moments to write a review. Thanks again for reading and enjoy!
About One Year Later…
Anduin looked out over the balcony of the empty conference room, enjoying the quiet of Ashenvale. The peace talks with the Horde had been difficult and heated at times, but would hopefully be rewarding in the long run.
Rather than select a single warchief, the leadership of the Horde decided to form a council, with Baine Bloodhoof at its head. Considering two of the previous four warchiefs had nearly destroyed Azeroth, the Horde races decided a more democratic approach was needed to keep things from going off the rails again. Neither side could afford for things to stay as they were before their warchief's death.
The peace summit had been held in a once openly contested area in Ashenvale and had been peaceful, for the most part. There had been talk about retribution for the assassination of Sylvanas, but the idea was quickly dismissed, considering the assassin had been fully in Kia's rights to defend herself after being exposed to a biological weapon before the attack. Some of the undead weren't happy about the decision, but it turned out more of that particular race were on the side of peace than on the side of their slain warchief. The war had been costly for both sides.
All the leaders of each Alliance and Horde race had been in attendance, though Anduin had attended the summit without Kia, who had remained in Stormwind, just to be safe. The chance of some type of violence at the talks was fairly low, but even the smallest chance was too much to put the king's new family in danger. Besides, Kia had done her part to make the talks possible. Diplomacy was Anduin's area of expertise.
Even though the summit had been a success, and Anduin longed to get home, he had one last bit of business to attend to.
The doors to the conference room opened and Anduin turned with a smile when he heard two sets of footfalls approach from people with hooves.
"I'm glad you agreed to stick around for a few minutes." Baine said. Walking next to him was a young female tauren, who was very obviously pregnant. "I'd like you to meet my wife and soon to be mother of my calf, Anya."
Anduin bowed to them both. "I'm honored to meet you, Anya."
"I didn't completely believe Baine when he told me about his friendship with the human high king." Anya said, almost shyly. She ran her hands over her swollen stomach gently. It was a motion Anduin had seen Kia do over and over during the later months of her pregnancy.
"It hasn't been the easiest friendship to maintain, more from the conflict between our factions than any falling out between us, but I'm happy to be able to stand in the same room with you once again as a friend." Baine replied.
"Indeed. With any luck, the talks over the last month will allow for many more friendly encounters." The door at the back of the room opened again and Kia walked in, carrying a small child. "And speaking of friendship…"
Kia smiled at the group, handing the child over to Anduin. The infant had light blonde hair, slightly purplish skin, pointed ears like his mother and bright blue eyes that seemed to glow slightly. "I'd like both of you to meet my son, Varian Baine Wrynn. We named him after two of the bravest and most honorable individuals both of us have ever met."
Baine looked at the young boy in disbelief for a few moments, then smiled and reached his hand out to the infant. Varian reached out and grabbed Baine's hand with both of his, holding on tight. The boy had obviously inherited a bit of his mother's night elf strength.
"I'm honored." Baine said.
"You saved my life twice while I was pregnant with him, so the name seemed appropriate." Kia said.
"Someday maybe this little one and Varian will be friends." Anya said, again running her hands over her stomach.
"That would be nice." Anduin said, adjusting his grasp on the squirming child. Varian was very much like his mother in that he didn't like to stay still. He was happy to note that his son seemed to have no fear of the tauren, regardless of their immense size and differences. Anduin wanted to teach his son that the races of the Horde shouldn't be considered enemies from first sight.
"I pray these two will only ever see each other as friends, never enemies." Baine said.
"It will be three, actually." Kia said, placing her own hand on her stomach, though she wasn't actually showing yet. "Apparently, the theory that being a hybrid would make the conception of children difficult was a bit inaccurate."
Anduin laughed. "We're hoping Kia won't require any saving during this pregnancy."
"I'm going to avoid burning cities all together this time around, if at all possible." Kia replied.
"I'm also assuming you'd prefer not to go into labor while imprisoned in Orgrimmar, either?" Baine asked.
"Light willing." Kia replied.
After a few more minutes, Baine and Anya excused themselves to return home. Baine explained that Anya was not supposed to be on her feet for long this late in her pregnancy. This left Anduin and Kia alone with their son in the empty room.
"That was nice." Kia said. "I really do hope this peace will last long enough for Baine's child to be friends with Varian and his brother or sister."
Anduin moved Varian from his right hip to his left, then wrapped his arm around Kia. "I hope so too. Peace between the Alliance and the Horde will probably never be perfect, but maybe by the time Varian inherits Stormwind, differences will be ironed out through talking, not war. We can only hope."
Kia sighed contentedly. "If your father were alive today, he'd be so proud of you, you know that, right? Proud of what you've accomplished here."
Anduin looked at his son in his arms, who was happily trying to remove one of the golden decorations from his father's coat. "I know."
"Let's go home, Anduin. Jania is waiting outside to open a portal for us. I'm starving, not that anything I eat wants to stay down for long, but that's beside the point."
They began to slowly head out of the building to their waiting portal.
"You never had this kind of illness with Varian?" Anduin asked, feeling guilty that he had been off to war during most of Kia's first pregnancy. He'd missed so much. He vowed to be there for Kia this time around. For Kia and Varian.
"No, this is new. The healers seem to think it'll only last a couple of weeks, but since I'm different, they can't really know for sure. It should be an interesting journey."
"This time, we'll be taking this journey together. I'll do anything you need me to do. Just ask."
A sly smile formed on Kia's face. "Anything?"
Anduin sighed, but was smiling, too. He had too many reasons to be happy to hide it. "I'm going to regret saying that, aren't I?"
Kia turned and hugged Anduin as they walked. "Most likely."
The End.