The Shimmering Flats, many years ago

Someone observing the two young tauren would have thought there was some kind of magical barrier keeping them from stepping down the shelf of rock and onto the wide, flat plain before them.

The youngest of the two, a little black furred female, glanced over at her brother and edged forward, placing a hoof firmly on the cracked, dry earth of the salt flats.

There was no real barrier up except rules imposed on them by an older brother who was quick with his fists.

Merle scowled at her and she giggled, darting back to his side. He shook his head in exasperation. Five years older and already carrying an aura of power around him, the young shaman had a jet black mane like his sister but his coat was streaked and mottled with gray. He tugged on one of the forelocks of her mane lightly, his exasperation ruined by the fondness in his eyes. "We should go home, Jama."

"We have a few hours before we're supposed to be back. We could at least see a little bit of it," she replied, looking back toward the long stretch of the Shimmering Flats. "All this used to be underwater!"

"Air and water," Merle murmured, following her gaze.

The longing in his voice made Jama take a step toward the border, tugging on his arm determinedly. "You want to see it."

"Van said it's dangerous..."

"What isn't around here?" Now it was Jama's turn to sound exasperated. "We had to dodge two centaur scouting parties just to hunt for food yesterday."

Merle frowned, not liking the reminder she was in constant danger out hunting in Thousand Needles even though it was necessary for the good of the tribe and Jama had a talent for it.

"You said you wanted to see an ocean one day. If you go far enough, out across Tanaris, you'll reach the ocean," Jama coaxed, tugging on his arm again.

"And you know that how?"

"There was an orc passing through on his way from there to the Great Lift. He said there's a big goblin city called Gad...Gadjustin? I can't really remember. But if you go past it, you can reach the sea! And you know what, Merle? He said if you go to the other side of the canyon you'll reach a place that's all green and lush and..."

"It's called Feralas and I'll take you there when you get older. You shouldn't be talking to any passerby, Jama," Merle said, frowning again. "Especially if they aren't tauren."

"The orcs are Horde, they're our friends," Jama protested.

Merle didn't bother to try and explain that they weren't really part of the Horde. She was too young to understand. Cairne Bloodhoof might put his faith in these orcs and trolls that had taken over land the tauren had walked for centuries but the Elder Crone knew better. The tauren were the true heart of Kalimdor and one day Magatha Grimtotem would make that understood. But until then..

He understood this in his heart. But Jama was too curious for her own good and even Van's discipline hadn't taught her how to keep her mouth shut. It was a deadly combination. Having an orc influence her was bad enough, but the idea of going out there where there were so few tauren and so many unknown races he didn't understand...that was dangerous.

And if Van found out...

Merle shook his head. "No, Jama. I don't want to feel the back of Van's hand if he finds out about it."

Jama flinched, her ears flattening against her head. Dark fire flashed in her eyes for a moment at the mention of their brother, a spark of defiance that he'd never seen before. It sent an odd chill through Merle. He shook his head again and turned, firmly gesturing for her to follow. He'd gone a few steps before he realized she wasn't and turned back, impatient. His eyes widened. Not only was Jama not following behind him, she'd run out onto the salt flats and was standing several yards over the border. She stood stock still, a dark figure against the bright ground, grinning at him, her tail swishing.

"Jama!" Alarmed, Merle strode toward her.

"You're supposed to keep me out of trouble, right?"

He tried to make his voice sound stern and commanding like Van's. "Jama, get back here!"

She giggled and ran full tilt out across the Shimmering Flats, her hooves creating little clouds of dust. Merle cursed and ran after her. He had no hope of catching her and he knew it. She was so fast and agile even the most fit and experienced hunters of the tribe had a hard time keeping up with her. But he couldn't let her run off alone like a maniac.

Jama didn't run far. They were still in sight of home when she paused and waited for him to catch up, wearing a sparkling coat of dust on her black fur and an innocent expression. Merle paused, panting, and glared at her. Before he could start scolding, a stray breeze ruffled their fur and he paused, lifting his head to meet it. The spirits of the air, the ones that called to him the loudest, sang in his ears. The tone of it was slightly different from the ones he knew and the scent of the wind brought a scent he had never smelled before but somehow understood it to be the salt of the sea, leftover from a time long, long ago. He closed his eyes and for a moment despite how dry the area was now, he could feel the movement of water, tracing it back even to the mighty river that much have carved out their home canyon so very long ago. The air rippled around him, enough Jama could actually see it and watched with wide eyed fascination. The song of it seemed to carry his sight out across the flats that had once been submerged, beyond them to the hot winds of the desert beyond it, a desert that ended at the sea. Whirlwinds of sand, dry earth and water, a contrasting mix that he found mesmerizing.

He came back to himself slowly, shaking his head. Jama stood and watched him with a quiet smile, her eyes alight. She didn't say a word, just letting him get swept away.

Despite the fact they came from a long line of shamans- their family line went directly back to Grimtotem the Elder, in fact -neither of his siblings had ever heard the call of the spirits. Van, despite being proud his brother was growing into such a powerful shaman, always became impatient when Merle had these moments of vision.

But not Jama. His precious sister had always understood the joy that it gave him even though she couldn't feel it herself and had never interrupted such moments even when she'd been a small child.

Merle gazed out over the Shimmering Flats, his instincts fighting with his upbringing for the first time in his life, caution fighting against longing. He looked down when Jama took his hand and squeezed hers in return, starting to draw her back toward Thousand Needles. "We should get home."

But they would come back. They both knew it.

Of course, it wasn't perfect.

There was a blight on the flats they didn't become aware of until later. Merle knew there was going to be trouble from the first moment he heard Jama say, "What's that?"

After the first time, they'd slowly started venturing further and further out with each visit. Between his mace and powers and Jama's bow, they were able to take on any manner of creature who attacked them. They weren't that much different from the dangers of home, really.

Walking along the flats gave him a sense of peace he'd never felt before and he kind of felt guilty about that. Like home wasn't good enough even though it certainly was. True there were camps of other people here and there but they were easy to avoid despite Jama's curiosity about them.

They'd finally gotten the courage to go far enough the border of their canyon was just a dark line in the distance. Merle was standing with his ears pricked, finding not just the spirits of air but all the spirits curiously sparse in this area and the ones present seemed agitated. He heard Jama's exclamation and turned toward her just as an unearthly rumble filled the air. Something was coming straight at them across the flats at an alarming speed, the rumble becoming a roar that got louder and louder until they were both covering their ears. Alarmed, Merle dragged Jama behind him and backed up, shoving his hand into his totem pouch. Before he could fumble one out, the strange thing veered away from them suddenly and sped off, leaving a huge cloud of dust behind. But it wasn't over. A second thing, this one larger and even louder, looped around a spike of rock, headed briefly in their direction and then took off after the first one. Both vanished out of sight and hearing quickly, thank the Earth Mother. Merle kept a hand on Jama's shoulder to hold her back behind him. "What manner of beasts are those? They can't be natural!" There was an odd, burning stink in the air now.

"They aren't, they're made of metal," his keen eyed sister replied. She was straining to look around him, staring off in the distance. "I've heard of zeppelins. Are those zeppelins?" She sounded excited. Jama edged around him despite his protests and stood up straight, staring hard at the direction the things had disappeared in. She was going to be tall, Merle noted. She was growing like a weed. It seemed like every time he was called away for training he returned to find her another inch taller. Her legs seemed too long for her body, something the other young ones of the tribe teased her about.

The males won't be laughing when she grows into them, he thought out of nowhere. He scowled. Since ordering her to stop growing up wasn't an option, he decided he'd need to tailor a lightning spell for those males. One that wouldn't kill them but painful enough to discourage any ideas.

"Merle, I think there are buildings over there," Jama said suddenly.

"Buildings?"

"Metal ones. I can see the sun shining off them. Is that Gadjustin, do you think?"

"I don't think we've gone far enough to be in Tanaris. I don't think we're even halfway across the flats."

"Let's go see!"

He caught hold of her before she could take off this time. "What if one of those things comes back?"

"I want to see what those are too!" She pulled free and jumped back a few paces, staring at him with more than a hint of challenge.

It was hard to see bruises against black skin and fur but he could see the left half of her face was still swollen from when she'd looked at Van like that the other night.

What was he supposed to do? Force her? Drag her back? He couldn't do that. He loved his brother but he seemed to be getting more violent lately, especially toward Jama when she provoked him. Merle sighed. "We keep a safe distance until we know for sure there's no danger, all right?"

Jama's eyes lit up and she nodded in easy agreement, all challenge vanished. She trotted off the same direction the things had gone. It was amazing how much she changed when she was outside Darkcloud Pinnacle and had something new to explore. Stop growing up, he thought at her before laying a hand on his totem pouch and following her.

It was far too small to be called a city and it seemed mainly populated by goblins and creatures Jama was pretty sure were called 'gnomes'. That much they gathered from the first time they took a closer look at it. And those loud things passed by all the time, filling the air with that burning stench and all that noise. Merle didn't like it at all. He thought the reason the spirits were so quiet was because they'd been scared off.

The things were mechanical vehicles, not like anything he'd ever seen. Jama would stand a safe distance away and watch them pass by again and again. Her clear fascination made Merle willing to indulge her as long as they didn't get to close or stay for too long. The entire area made him uncomfortable and he hoped this fascination of hers would pass when she figured it out enough to be satisfied. It had been the same way with her and the Great Lift earlier in the year. He'd found out she had been riding it up and down over and over again as she tried to figure out how it worked, much to the mirth of the guards who looked after it. They were all braves from Freewind Post, not a single one Grimtotem, so they'd let her do it. Worse, people who weren't even tauren passing through going to and from the Barrens had seen her. Thank the Earth Mother he'd found out before it got back to Van.

"They're racing," Jama spoke up one day when it was quiet enough they could hear each other.

"Eh?" He was rubbing his head, feeling the beginnings of a headache from all the noise.

"Racing. The vehicles. See? They go the same place every time, there's a track worn into the earth. And you can see them in the distance sometimes. I think they're driving in circles around the buildings. They're racing."

Merle flicked an ear. "Why?"

Jama shrugged. "For fun?" She shot him a sly look. "We could go ask."

"I don't want to get any closer, thanks, my head is already hurting."

Jama immediately looked contrite and padded over to him, nodding. The two walked away from the track which was actually a bad decision. The owners of the Mirage Raceway could have warned them that they had recently been having problems with a kind of threat they hadn't come across before and neither of the tauren had ever even dreamed existed.

"Those cow kids are back again."

Pozzik turned at the crewman's remark and squinted, shielding his eyes against the sun. Yep, there they were. Quite a few amongst the populace of the Mirage Raceway had grown curious about the young tauren who had started watching the races recently. At first, they'd been wary because the black fur said 'Grimtotem' and even out here everyone knew to be wary of that particular tauren tribe. Pozzik had taken note of them in case he needed to send someone out to straighten them out if they were trying to start trouble. But they never came close and the boy would lead the girl away if any passerby appeared. After observing them for a bit he'd come to the conclusion the girl seemed to be curious about the races. If they ever came closer, he'd love to ask her which car she liked best since she'd have an absolutely neutral opinion and wouldn't it burn old Brassbolts and his gnome flunkies if she said she liked the goblin car better?

He wouldn't ask her in front of Fizzle Brassbolts, however. Just in case she liked the gnome car better and needed someone to gently help her see her error.

Pozzik chuckled to himself and turned away to watch the pit crew prepare their newest car design for the next race.

The same crew member who'd pointed the kids out jerked up straight from his work, his eyes going wide. "Oh, shit. Shit! Pozzik!" He pointed behind him and Pozzik whipped around. The tauren kids had moved away from the track but they hadn't gone so far he couldn't see them clearly. He could also see the furrow in the ground behind the boy, the earth churning from the force of something moving underneath it and heading straight for him at terrifying speed. Pozzik swore and shot out from under the overhang shading the cars and crew from the sun. He heard several of the crew shouting and coming out behind him and tried to call a warning to the tauren but it was too late. The boy turned, raising a mace, right as something exploded out from under the ground right beside him with a hair raising screech and knocked him to the ground.

Despite the rivalry between the goblins and the gnomes, no one at the Mirage Speedway was particularly interested in fights between the Horde and the Alliance. If the dwarves wanted to dig around in some ruins across the flats that was no skin off Pozzik's back and if the orcs settled in Ironstone Camp didn't like it, that was their problem. As long as no one started trouble on his Raceway, they could do as they pleased. Unfortunately, they'd gotten caught in the crossfire recently when a battle between the two had stirred up some kind of underground hive of bizarre insects that had been plaguing the track ever since.

The creature rearing up over the boy looked like some kind of beetle but big enough to put even the scorpid that roamed the flats to shame. It pawed the air with heavy, barbed front legs and brought them down hard. The boy rolled out of the way just in time to keep from being impaled and thrust a hand out. Dust whipped around him in a whirlwind as he hit the thing with some kind of force of air. It knocked the creature back a few paces but with its thick carapace and heavy body it was only enough to knock it off balance for a moment. Pozzik knew from personal experience the things were heavy enough to plow over most anything that came up against them.

Of course, he'd only seen small people fight against them, never a tauren.

With a screech almost as loud as the creature's, the little female came charging out of nowhere and simply bodyslammed the damned thing, hitting its side with her shoulder and heaving upward. It worked like a charm. The creature, already off balance, was flipped over onto its back as neat as you please, letting out a rattling cry that actually sounded startled. The boy shouted something, scrambling to his feet and the girl dodged around the writhing legs before the thing could right itself, nocking the arrow on a bow taller than Pozzik's entire body and putting it directly into its head. The thing screamed again, its legs spasming wildly, and she put another arrow into it. Pozzik and the rest of the crew were standing not far away by then, just watching in astonishment as the creature writhed for a few minutes longer before it finally went still, those legs curling in toward its body.

Merle's heart was pounding as he ran up to Jama. He'd never been so terrified in his life. He was the one who had been careless and if she was hurt because of him, he'd never forgive himself. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew back from the hideous creature, ready to fry it if it moved. When it didn't, he let out a breath, relieved to see it was dead. Jama's two arrows had pierced the softer underside of its head squarely. He turned to Jama, looking her over. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

She rubbed her shoulder. "That's going to ache for days but it was worth it. What about you?"

"I'm fine."

Jama looked him over anyway before nodding and retrieving her arrows. Merle stared at the creature, then at his little sister who'd just killed it single handedly. Jama turned back to him and went still, her eyes wide. Merle whirled around, afraid another beast was coming at them and blinked in surprise when he saw the group of people standing not far away and staring at them. They had to have come from the race track. Several of them had weapons or tools of some kind and Merle's first instinct was to assume they'd come to attack before realizing that made no sense. They'd been coming to help, he realized with a jolt. Why would they do that? They didn't even know them.

The goblin in the lead of the group squinted up at him and then at Jama. "That was one hell of a show," he said in rough but more than passable Taur-ahe, giving Merle another jolt.

"What is it?" Jama said, pointing at the thing.

"We don't know. Those dumb orcs in the camp across the way there call them silithid. They stirred a whole damned hive of them up a couple of weeks ago. They've been a pain since then, so watching you take one of them down like that does all of our hearts good, little lady."

Jama cocked her head at being called little by someone several feet shorter than her but didn't say anything.

"We should burn the damned thing," Merle growled. He didn't know what a silithid was but there was something wrong about it.

"Oh, no you don't," Jama said, narrowing her eyes. "It's my kill. I'm going to clean it and take it back as a trophy so I can show the tribe I can be as useful as anyone else. Especially Van!" She stomped a hoof for emphasis.

"He'll want to know where it came from and we're not supposed to be here," Merle pointed out. Jama blinked and her shoulders slumped in disappointment as she realized he was right. Feeling guilty, Merle was trying to figure out some way to comfort her when the goblin spoke up.

"Well, little lady, I'll tell you what. Since, as I said, those things have been a pain, I'll give you seven silver for that carcass. We've found we can put them to good use when they're dead, if only to stake them up as a warning." Jama perked up visibly and she looked at the goblin with interest. "Furthermore, if you feel the urge to kill off more of the things, I'll give you seven for every one of those beasts and ten for one of the big ones."

"They get bigger?" Merle said with alarm. Before he could object, Jama nodded. "All right, you can have it."

The goblin extended his hand. "A handshake is traditional when sealing a deal," he said when she looked at him in confusion. Jama reached out and put her hand around his, shaking it lightly, her demeanor almost shy. The rest of the goblins moved over to drag the carcass back to the raceway as the lead goblin counted out seven silver coins into Jama's hand. Merle stood silent, not quite sure what to make of any of this but Jama seemed so happy he held his tongue. She tucked the money away into a pouch. The goblin nodded. "The name's Pozzik, by the way. Co-owner of the Mirage Raceway over there and you are welcome there any time. You might find the races more interesting from the stands rather than outside."

"Maybe I will..." Still a bit shy, Jama moved back to her brother's side and Merle started to guide her away, relieved.

"Hey, kid?"

Jama paused and glanced back at the goblin.

"Which one of the cars do you like best?"

"Are you going to give that silver to Van?" Merle asked as they made their way home. They were late, they'd never make it back to Darkcloud Pinnacle in time, but for once Merle didn't hurry them along. He was too preoccupied with the events of the day and there was so much about them to think about.

"Why?" Jama's voice was sharp.

He looked at her, surprised. "For the good of the tribe."

"But it's mine, Merle. I earned it."

"That's greedy, Jama."

She flinched back, clearly stung, but her eyes still glittered stubbornly. "There are other things I can do for the good of the tribe. I proved that today." She looked up at him, suddenly uncertain. "Didn't I?"

Thoroughly regretting being so harsh and careless, he wrapped an arm around her tightly. "I'm sorry, little one. You saved my life today. But I've always known you're worthy of the tribe. Always. You don't have to prove anything."

Comforted, she laid her head on his shoulder. They walked on in silence for a few minutes, the canyon quiet and its colors subdued in the dusk. Jama spoke, her voice quiet, "I'll give it to you, if you want it." She withdrew some of the coins. "But not Van."

It wasn't greed, he realized. He of all people should have known that. Those coins were proof to her that she was useful. She'd earned it by being helpful and that's what she was taking pride in. Merle's heart ached as he closed her fingers gently around the coins. "No, sister, you are right. You earned those through your own courage and skill today. They're yours and yours alone."

Jama smiled and put the coins back, relaxed and happy again. Merle pushed aside all the confusion the day had stirred up in him and pulled her into a hug. "Stop growing up."