Warcraft IV: War of Legends
Prologue
A small village, on the border between Ashenvale and Felwood…A single Night Elf warrior watched over a small clearing. As he watched, a few wisps began to form into Ancient Protectors. When eliminating Undead forces, he liked to send large amounts of the Night Elf structures into the enemy base. With the Black Citadel removed from the land held for more than five years, ever since the second coming of the Burning Legion. Here, near his home village, the Undead could never be fully eradicated. He was not actually native to the village, but had arrived some time between the Sundering of the world and the Sleep of the Druids.
His past known only to himself, he had risen among the ranks until he became the leader of a small group of druids. These were known as the Druids of the Pack. They were able to become large wolves. He himself became a Dire Frost Wolf, largely different from any other of the group. His group had slumbered in the Barrow Dens along with the wardens and their prisoners, including Illidan, the famous Night Elf betrayer, and brother of Malfurion Stormrage. Malfurion had not needed to awaken them separately from the Druids of the Claw, who roamed free in the eastern parts of the cavern. The Druids of the Pack were constantly shifting in and out of the Emerald Dream, never fully able to stay within it.
They were still slumbering, though lightly, when Tyrande Whisperwind freed Illidan from his ancient prison. Few Night Elves truly considered ten thousand years to be ancient, as many were at least that old, though some were younger. He had been told to watch Illidan, to ensure that no true harm came of him. When Illidan consumed the Skull of Gul'dan, he raced to Malfurion to warn him of the demon Tichondrious, immune to all but the mightiest of strikes. When he heard of what had happened, he alone knew that Illidan had done the only thing possible to stop the Dread Lord.
His thoughts were broken as the wisps struggled to build on one spot, but they could not. As he turned, he understood the problem. Cursing, he threw Dust of Appearance on the spot. Sure enough, a Shade was revealed. It would still be a few seconds before all Undead structures would be revealed to his forces, but surely a single Shade could not signify…
His worst fears were confirmed as his forces noted a second base. Though it held no Necropolis or Halls of the Dead, many Undead units guarded it. Abominations, Ghouls, Necromancers, Banshees, Gargoyles, Destroyers, Obsidian Statues, Frost Wyrms… Many Undead creatures swarmed through, disregarding any sign of Night Elf threat. They focused instead on a small attack force of unknown origin.
"If there's one thing I hate fighting…" muttered Istraz Neverwinter, "It's Frost Wyrms. Undead Blue Dragons, the flight of the Dragon Aspect Malygos… Malygos the Spell-Weaver, Malygos the Blue, Malygos the Mad… He whose flight was brought to near extinction not once, but twice. Once by Neltharion the Earth-Warder, and then by the Scourge! No longer are they Blue Dragons. Now they are only the Undead. They must be slain without remorse, except that they had to suffer such a fate."
Istraz sighed as the Huntresses and Hippogriffs went to slay the Undead. He felt that Hippogriff Riders only weakened the naturally strong Hippogriffs, who were normally Melee fighters. The Glaive Throwers and Chimeras followed, ready to eliminate the structures as the crowd parted. As the Hippogriffs overwhelmed the Frost Wyrms, The Huntresses distracted the land units. The siege was barely noticed in time. The Undead could not anticipate the sudden attack from behind, consisting solely of Ancients. A figurative forest of Ancient Protectors consumed the Undead from behind, leaving the Scourge dead at last. A top priority of the siege was removing the Necromancers. By destroying the Graveyard and Temple of the Damned, The power for Necromancers to rise was reduced. Once those structures were gone, the Huntresses focused on the remaining Necromancers. Istraz himself ran into the fray, slicing the stitches of the Abominations. He saw one thing he hoped never to see, far in the distance: A single undead ship, too far to see normally, containing a single body. But within this one body, two minds lurked. One was old and wise, driven to consume the world by madness. The other had served for years, turned from Warrior of the Light to Bringer of Death.
Suddenly, Istraz knew why these Undead had amassed. The Druids had, in recent times, learnt to sense weak disruptions in the earth from vast distances, without tearing their minds trying to sense it all. What he sensed was no minor disruption, however: What he sensed, what he saw, could be no less than the King of the Scourge. It could be no less then Ner'zhul, the Lich King, in the body of Arthus. And he knew then that the two minds remained separate, and that the Lich King had allowed Arthus to control the whole Scourge for one final strike against the humans, and that these Undead were there only to stop scouts from warning the humans of Theramoore Isle…
With that realization, he cast a massive spell to destroy the monstrosities that flew above him, sending them into their own structures. He sent more Glaive Throwers at the first base, leaving it in ruins. As he watched, the Undead burned without the power of their structures to keep them ordered.
"A scout must reach Teldrassil and warn them of the threat to Theramoore!" The scouts nodded and left. Escaping the beasts of Felwood, they ran towards the massive tree that most Night Elves called home.
"And we must work to sink that ship! It may be far, but if that ship reaches the shores of Theramoore Isle…"
"Sir, what will it do? Can't the Undead survive underwater?"
"He can, but he intends to take a prisoner…"
AN: My first Warcraft fic! Three guesses as to which character he will kidnap, and the first two don't even count… However, there will be one character from Theramoore who will be fun to create, due to how insane he is…