Vylaris' Perspective
As the hunter was carried off by the stream, Vylaris heard the panicked cry of her pet as it rushed past and dove into the water after his master. Vylaris watched as the two floated downstream and he balled his fists. What the hell was that? He completely missed her throat, he hesitated, he failed. The wound wasn't fatal, and he couldn't be sure that his poison would be enough to kill her.
He followed the river with a quickened pace but remembered to stay cautious; the hunter wasn't the only enemy he had to worry about. Luckily, it seemed like Scourge activity was infrequent in these parts. Vylaris saw a glimpse of the snowy white pelt of the hunter's beast and he quickly ducked behind a tree. He peered behind the twisted trunk and watched as the beast pulled the hunter up from the river, her body appearing limp. He slowly approached them, his hands up and open to show his passiveness.
The beast immediately noticed Vylaris and started growling fiercely, its body over the hunter in a protective stance. "Hey, hey, easy now." Vylaris said in a calming tone as he walked slowly towards the two. Getting a better look at the hunter, he could tell she was completely knocked out, if not dead already. This was his chance to be sure of the latter, and he went to grip the hilt of his blades but was stopped by that feeling again.
That same hesitation he felt before the hunter fell into the river, causing his blade to miss her throat. He frowned and returned his hands to the upright position, the beast still glaring at him wildly. It must've been some sense of honor, right? That must've been why he couldn't attack her here while she was incapacitated. Yeah, that's probably what it was; as to what stopped him earlier, he really wasn't sure. He sighed and kneeled as he got as close as the beast would let him to the hunter's body. "Look, I'm not gonna hurt her, okay? Well, more than I already have." It growled even louder at him. "That's not the point! She's bleeding out and there's poison in her wound. If you want her to live you're gonna have to let me help."
To his surprise, the beast eyed him curiously and seemed to relax its posture ever so slightly, its growls coming to a stop. It still looked like it would kill him if it had the chance, but it seemed to be listening to him for now. "Alright, I have to move her someplace safe, treating her out here would only attract ghouls." The beast stepped off the hunter's body but still watched him with an intense glare, its tail lashing behind it. Being this close to the animal, it would be unwise to even dare to try something, so he decided he might as well go through with this.
Vylaris kneeled close to her body and began to carefully lift her up, her sodden armor dripping down him. He grimaced; how uncomfortable, he hated getting wet. Rising to his feet, he looked towards the sky to get his bearings and started to move quickly towards his hideout, the beast following him closely.
It wasn't long before they reached the spire he was taking refuge in, and he slipped through the damaged doors and inside the building. It was dark and the air was filled with dust, but it was honestly a lot less gross than when he originally found it. Vylaris walked up the winding ramp that ascended into the upper level where he made camp. This level was filled with various belongings of his, glowing void crystals and vials of deadly poisons, among other dangerous items.
He carefully set her down on the ground and began to remove parts of her armor, her beast immediately running up to him with a low growl. "Do you want me to get to her wounds, or not?" Vylaris glanced over to the animal and then continued, sliding her shoulder pads off, allowing him to remove her cape. Her wound was revealed, a purple, burning gash across her collar bone. He frowned in slight frustration, he wouldn't be in this situation if he just sliced her throat like he planned.
Reaching for a vial in his pocket, the beast growled again and Vylaris looked at it un-amusedly. "It's just antivenom. I need to use this to combat the poison." The beast seemed to relax a bit and he removed the seal from the vial and carefully soaked the wound with its contents.
As the liquid hit her wound, the hunter winced and suddenly gasped, her eyes flashing open. She grabbed his hand defensively and glared at him. "Y-you..." she stuttered as she winced again.
"Woah there! Calm down, okay? I'm trying to help." He looked into her eyes, and they were filled with that same panic as before. She glanced over to the beast, who seemed agitated but mostly calm, and this seemed to convince her that she was safe. She looked back at Vylaris before falling back unconscious from her exhaustion, removing her grip from his hand.
Vylaris sighed in relief and continued to gently tend to the wound, fresh blood spewing out slowly. This was good, the poison should be leaving her body. He dressed it lightly with a bandage and got up to prepare an area for her to rest. Using his blade, he sliced a ruined tapestry down from the moss-strewn wall and shook it briskly to rid it of as much dust as he could. Vylaris laid it down along the cold floor and bundled up one end to serve as a sort of pillow; this was as good as it was going to get. He turned back to the hunter and carefully picked her up once more and laid her down on the tapestry. Vylaris wondered if he should try disarming her, but it seemed like the only weapon she ever used was a bow, and he assumed she must have lost it when she fell into the river.
He sat down near the sleeping hunter, leaning his back against the wall of the spire. He glanced over to the snowy beast, who now laid against his master's legs protectively, eyeing Vylaris in return. He never really got along with animals, it was probably due to the darkness that flowed through his veins, they always seemed to sense it.
It was terrifyingly quiet outside, not even cricketsong filled the air of this land. Ghostlands was properly named, the ground littered with bones and all manner of life here being a ghastly abomination. What was even the point of fighting over this land anymore? The evil here seemed as if it would never be destroyed. Vylaris sighed, knowing very well why they fought for this land; it used to be part of their home, the home of the blood elves. He balled his fist at the thought; he might not have been a 'blood elf' anymore, but he was still the same kin, and he still deserved to be treated as such. Looking over to the hunter, he let his fist relax and he tried to hold back his emotions. In the end, it wasn't this elf in particular who was at fault; it wasn't even his own fault. The hunter's eyes slowly fluttered open and she glanced over to Vylaris, causing him to quickly turn his head away from her.
Azdralin's Perspective
The last thing Azdralin could remember was a sharp, burning pain across her chest, and the cold shock that enveloped her body afterwards. She felt soaking wet, she deduced that she must have fallen into the river, but that pain, she was attacked, wasn't she? Yes, that damned void elf she had been tracking for days now, he managed to get close enough to hurt her this time, that must've been the pain she felt. As her eyes fluttered open, she was met with a dark room and felt a presence there with her; she glanced towards it, and there he was, her enemy, looking right at her. Well, 'looking right at her' was an assumption, at least, seeing as he wore a hood and a skull-marked mask that completely covered his face. When Azdralin's eyes fell on him, he turned his head away from her.
She looked down towards Loque'nahak, who seemed to be asleep beside her, and she smiled softly. Azdralin knew he would have ripped the void elf to shreds if he tried to harm her, so he must have been telling the truth when he said he was trying to help her. She moved her hand and touched her bandages lightly, wondering why he would've helped her; she was certain he had orders to kill her, just like she had orders to kill him. Azdralin looked back towards her savior, rather than her enemy, and spoke softly. "Thank you."
The void elf shifted and turned his head, seeming reluctant to respond. "Yeah." Was all he said. Azdralin carefully sat up and looked around for a moment, seeing her shoulder pads and cape in a pile on the floor a little distance away from her, but nowhere did she see her bow. She must have lost it in the river, she didn't really think the void elf would've taken it at this point.
"So..." she started "...what happens now?" Even though they had been fighting each other, this void elf had saved her, and now was casually sitting in the same room as her.
With a shrug, the void elf answered. "I'm not really sure. All I know is that I saw you needed help, and I helped you, simple as that."
"That doesn't seem simple to me." Azdralin retorted, narrowing her eyes at him. "You and I both know that you should've killed me, so why didn't you?"
"Does it really matter?"
"To me it does." Azdralin was getting a bit frustrated with him and his short answers.
He sighed and seemed equally as frustrated. "Call it honor or whatever, I just...couldn't kill you when you were lying unconscious."
Azdralin narrowed her eyes at him. She really didn't believe him, she was told he was a merciless killer, and to be wary of him when engaging in battle. Yet, when he had the chance, he merely sliced her chest and not somewhere more fatal. Then, when he had the chance to make up for it, he saved her life? It didn't add up, but she sensed that she should probably just change the subject.
"Fine, I guess it doesn't matter." Azdralin watched him sit silently, eyeing his dark ensemble. "Can I at least know the name of my honorable hero?" She mused.
"Vylaris." He replied, his voice blunt.
"Hello, Vylaris. My name is Azdralin, if you care to know."
He turned his head towards her. "I don't."
Azdralin raised a brow and shrugged. "Okay, I get it, you're supposed to be dark and brooding." She could feel the bandages around her collar bone were rather bloodied at this point, and they weren't exactly wrapped very well in the first place. Glancing around, she addressed Vylaris once more. "Do you happen to have any more bandages? I would like to redress my wound."
The void elf rummaged through one of his belt-pouches and lightly tossed a roll of linen towards her, to which she caught. Azdralin carefully removed her bandages and set them down beside her. She was going to need to remove her chest armor in order to properly wrap her wound, so she turned to face away from Vylaris and she carefully removed the dragon-scaled breastplate. Within a few moments, she was able to carefully but tightly wrap the fresh linen bandages over her chest and neck to help support the strip going across her collar bone.
She tied it off and went to hand the roll back to Vylaris, who waved his hand towards her to keep it. "You'll make better use of it." He said.
Azdralin set the roll down beside her and carefully laid back down, sighing softly as she tried to relax. What a strange predicament to be in, what was she even supposed to do? She could probably just leave once her wound healed a bit more, but would this Vylaris guy stop her? It wasn't like she was chained up, so maybe he wouldn't care. Either way, she wasn't going anywhere at least until tomorrow. Although, the sun didn't exactly shine in the Ghostlands, so it's not like she would really know when 'tomorrow' would be.
As she laid there, she could sense that Vylaris was looking at her again and she decided to clear the air. "You know, I didn't want to be out here fighting this...war or whatever you'd call it," she started "I'm only here because the Scourge are running rampant again, and they at least need to be cleared out. I don't really see the need to fight you void elves over it."
"Yeah, well, tell that to your shoddy leader who banished us." Vylaris retorted.
Azdralin frowned and glanced towards him. "He's only trying to protect his people, we already lost the Sunwell once we couldn't afford to lose it again..."
"We deserve to see it too..."
"I know you do." Azdralin sighed and looked up towards the ceiling of the spire. "I was there when Alleria, your leader, visited. Lor'themar allowed her to enter the sanctum of the Sunwell and once she did, it reacted terribly to her, and creatures of the void poured out from it. I don't blame your kind but..."
"My kind?" Vylaris suddenly stood up and he seemed angry by the tone of his voice. "We are the same kind; your people were my people...until they out casted us for turning to void magic. We had nothing left when Kael'thas took the Sunwell from us all, but Lor'themar saw us as monsters because we found an alternative." His fists were balled and his anger was causing Loque'nahak to awaken and he growled fiercely as he approached Azdralin. "You don't get to tell me what you think, I don't care what you think, but we are the same." Vylaris turned and stormed out of the room.
Vylaris' Perspective
Vylaris was enraged as he stepped out into the dark forest of Ghostlands; how dare she speak to him like that? She had no place to talk to him like he was some kind of...creature. He stopped at the edge of the river and started pacing, trying to control his emotions. It felt like his very soul was burning as his shadowy tendrils tried to tear through his mask. This was wrong, this was all wrong, he should've killed her when he had the chance. He grabbed his blades and ripped them from their sheaths, walking back towards the spire. It was time to end this charade, he had far more important things to do than tending to some insolent girl who didn't know what she was talking about.
He approached the spire and hastily ascended the ramp towards the upper chamber, gripping his blades so hard he felt like he could snap the hilts right off. As he entered the room he stopped, seeing Azdralin facing away from him, looking out towards the forest below. She heard him enter and she spoke softly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to anger you..."
Vylaris' hands were shaking from rage and everything in his body was screaming at him to end her right here, but...something else in him, something small, told him he shouldn't. He took one of his blades and drove it into the wall next to him and he grimaced as he tried to contain himself. He let go of the blade that was stuck in the wall and he quickly sheathed the other one as he sat down on one of the decrepit chairs. Putting his head in his hands he tried to calm his breathing when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Azdralin.
"Hey...are you alright?"
"Just...just leave me alone." He tried to shoo her away with one hand as his other hand was still holding his head.
Azdralin took a step back and she returned to her makeshift bed. Vylaris took a deep breath and he finally felt like he was starting to calm down. The tendrils that were grabbing at his mask seemed to have stopped and returned to their resting position along his neck. He was feeling much better, and the voices inside of him stopped screaming for once. Turning his head, he looked to see Azdralin sitting quietly, petting the snowy beast as it rested its head in her lap.
"Look I uh..." Vylaris stammered. "...I can't control myself very well, I think I may have overreacted...maybe we can start over?"
Azdralin looked up and offered a soft smile. "I think we can."
Vylaris took another deep breath. "I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it...it's just a sensitive topic."
She nodded. "I understand, and I really am sorry. I wasn't wording it properly."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it. You were kind of right, though..." Vylaris removed his mask and started to slide his hood down. "We aren't the same, at least, not really." He revealed what he had kept hidden, his pale, purple-toned skin and his sunken, glowing eyes. That wasn't the only abnormal thing about him, though, for within his long, deep blue hair, were glowing tendrils that draped down his neck. His hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, and the largest tendril protruded from there. The tendrils were a dark violet tone and the tips glowed with a magical aura.
Azdralin's Perspective
Azdralin's eyes widened ever so slightly. She hadn't really seen a void elf this close before, at least, not without some kind of facial covering. With such features hidden, they were seen as regular blood elves; but Vylaris had been attacking their forces as a known void elf for a while now, what was the point of such an illusion? Vylaris caught her staring at him and she quickly stopped, feeling her ears burn in embarrassment. "Ah, sorry, I just...I'm not used to seeing you without your mask."
She watched as he draped his hood back over his head and he turned away from her quietly. Azdralin felt terrible, she didn't mean to make him cover himself up again, but she wasn't quite sure what to say. "Oh, I didn't mean that you look bad or anything, I think you're quite...handsome..." She widened her eyes again and felt completely flustered. What did she just say? This man has tried to kill her. She didn't want to give him the wrong idea. "Er...that's not what I meant."
Vylaris seemed very surprised at her reaction and he looked back towards her, raising a brow. "And what did you mean, then?"
Fuck. Why did she say that? "I mean...you don't look bad, you look...nice. I was just caught off guard, that's all." She laughed nervously.
"Hm, I see." Vylaris looked at her curiously but seemed to drop it. "How is your wound, by the way?"
Azdralin sighed quietly in relief at the fact that he changed the subject. "Oh, it's fine, I'm sure it'll heal quickly. You somehow didn't cut me that deep at all..." She thought again about why he hadn't killed her; it was quite peculiar, even more peculiar that he didn't want to talk about it.
"Yeah...about that..." Vylaris crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "The whole reason I'm out here is to kill any blood elf I see, yet I somehow ruined the whole thing and even brought you to where I've been camping. Apparently, I can't kill you. I don't know why." He looked rather frustrated with himself.
What a strange conversation to have, Azdralin thought. "Okay, well...maybe we can convince our forces to just work together? It can't be that hard..."
Vylaris looked at her like she was stupid. "Are you serious? Why do you think I'm in this situation? Why do you think I wear this damn mask? Our sides hate each other, and for good reason!"
He seemed to be getting angry again and Azdralin didn't like that. She had to think of something. "I just think...if we can stop fighting each other...why can't others?"
"It doesn't work like that. Besides, I would probably get exiled from the void elves for disobeying my orders."
"Well," Azdralin started, "it's not like my people can exile me, because you saved me without me having a say in it. They could take that as a sign of good will and reconsider fighting."
Vylaris scoffed. "Oh come on, you seem smarter than that. You really believe everybody is gonna forget all about fighting just because I didn't kill you? What if I change my mind, huh?"
Azdralin felt slightly panicked but she also felt like he was just bluffing. "You...you would've done that by now."
Balling his fists, Vylaris slammed one down on the table beside him and it shook slightly with what she assumed was anger. "I've tried. I really have. Something about you won't let me and it's frustrating as hell. Either way, nobody else is gonna give a damn about that. Just forget about it, okay?"
Azdralin frowned and sighed softly. "Okay." She tried to make herself comfortable and Loque'nahak nestled himself beside her, eyeing Vylaris one last time before closing his eyes. Azdralin placed a hand on his snowy pelt and closed her own eyes. "I'm gonna get some rest...good night...Vylaris."
"Good night." She could hear him mutter as she started to drift into sleep.
Vylaris' Perspective
She was quite persistent, thought Vylaris as he glanced over to her now-asleep form. He wondered if there was some truth to her words, if they could really convince both sides to work together. Obviously, it would be much easier to wipe out the Scourge this way, but it just wasn't that easy when it came to the territory itself. The void elves wanted it because that's where they went when the blood elves banished them, and the blood elves wanted it because it was theirs before the Scourge took it. Both seemed like valid reasons, so that's probably why neither side could give it up.
The simple answer was just allowing the void elves back into their fold; but that wouldn't work either since the void elves were now allied with the Alliance, while the blood elves have always been allied with the Horde, factions that have been at war for entire generations. Vylaris sighed, this all was becoming such a headache. Now he had even more issues to worry about, all because he couldn't kill a single blood elf. He's killed plenty of others, none of them mattered to him, so why did this one have to be different?
He quietly rose from the chair and looked down at Azdralin's still body. Even now, he would have the perfect opportunity to kill her, yet he didn't even feel the desire to do so anymore. When he was angry, sure, but now he just felt...tired. Vylaris laid down in the spot he had prepared for himself to sleep a few nights before, which was nearly as makeshift as Azdralin's was. He was quite ready to be done with this whole endeavor; he just wanted to go home, but he didn't even have a home to go to. After the void elves were forced out of Ghostlands by the Scourge armies, they made a home in a sort of pocket dimension that Lady Alleria had found for them. A dark, empty plane of existence somewhere in the depths of the Twisting Nether, filled with void creatures, including themselves.
He sighed and placed his hand on his chest, feeling a pang of sorrow in his heart. None of it was fair, and none of it felt deserved; he wanted a real home and a real purpose. Shaking the thought away, he glanced back towards Azdralin, who was probably in a deep sleep by now. His gaze softened as his thoughts shifted. Handsome, huh? Is that really what she thought? Vylaris felt ridiculous even considering the gesture but there was that damned feeling again. That feeling that made him hesitate when he attacked her, when he found her washed up, and again when he tried to finish the job.
His general had told him she was dangerous, is this what they meant? Maybe she had some kind of strange mind controlling powers. No, that wouldn't make any sense, she was just a hunter, she spoke to animals or whatever. With another sigh, Vylaris tried to close his eyes and get some rest himself, imagining tomorrow would be an even more frustrating day.