There's little worth mentioning about the next day. I learned that Whisper loves to eat, that ogres are mean and that I'm actually pretty damn good with a bow. Heh. I also learned that Iron Forge is worse than Times Square on New Years Eve. No, really. I'm not joking.

You know those pictures you see on TV of the stock market? With all the men standing around, yelling and waving, selling stocks and buying entire countries? Well, entire businesses anyway? Yeah, that's the Auction House. I swear, it could be the final test for boot camp survival. I escaped two hours after I arrived with ringing ears, empty pockets and an "I survived the Auction House" T-shirt. Yup, a successful evening.

And with that it was time to decide where to bunk down for the night. I was exhausted, but I'm not an idiot – I was not about to try to sleep at the Iron Forge Inn. That would be worse than trying to sleep in a frat house after the last day of finals. Wasn't happenin'. So I headed to Stormwind instead.

Which, of course, involved experiencing a griffon flight for the second time. Which, I must say, is only marginally better than experiencing it for the first time.

Now I've always been your average American. You know, driver's license at sixteen, dependence on a working car ever since. You're lucky if you can get me to ride my bike to work. And I certainly had never spent more than a vacation day or two riding a horse. So, convincing me to get on a griffon was a little like convincing Harry Potter to get on that Hippogriff. Those beaks are really sharp. And the griffon is very tall. And there are no saddles. When I finally did get up the courage to pay someone to let me climb onto one (why would I pay someone to let me do that?), that continuous up and down motion brought on by the beating of wings big enough to smother an elephant very nearly made me nauseous. Staring down at the massive red dragons in the Searing Gorge helped, though. There's nothing like absolute terror to clear up a little motion sickness.

At any rate, I made it back to Stormwind and after regaining the blood flow to my legs, I hobbled my way to the inn and collapsed into a bed.

And woke up 2 hours later to a very hungry kitty. I fed the kitty and fell asleep again. Only to wake up 2 hours later to the same, very hungry kitty. This continued throughout the night. Note to self: get a self feeding cat bowl.

Come morning, I made my way to the fountain just outside the inn and was immediately greeted by another tall, female night elf with the same blue and white tabard as I was wearing. "Hey, Vrand. Where are the others?"

Vrand shrugged. "It's hard to see Tori sometimes – she's so short! But I'm sure they're coming."

Sure enough, we were joined moments later by Tori and Brecki. "Is this all?" I asked, "No sign of other guildies?"

"Nope," Tori shook her head. "I think it's just us."

Together we started to walk around Stormwind, as if our worry and confusion was turning to excitement that wouldn't let us stand still. "So, what do we do now?" Vrand asked, a question to which none of us had the answer.

Around us the great city of Stormwind was already wide awake. Some kids at the canal docks were talking about fish that could eat people. A man and dwarf, already drunk, stumbled down the street. And then I perked up at the soft tug on my tabbard, "Excuse me?" I stopped, turned to look down at a young boy with two white kittens – one in his arms, one following behind. "Excuse me? I'm looking for a home for my kitten. Will you adopt her? Daddy won't let me keep her."

I blinked. Then I stumbled as Whisper head butted me in the knees, purring. "What? Okay, okay!"

The boy grinned, "Thanks!" And before I knew it, my pockets were even lighter and there was a tiny white kitten in my arms.

"Bye, Timmy!" Brecki waved, laughing.

The boy frowned, turning back, "How do you know my name?"

"Uh..." We all got a good laugh out of Brecki's discomfort.

The boy skipped back toward us, "Hey, you're not one of Andy's friends, are you?"

"Who?" Tori asked.

"Andy! The king, silly."

"Oh..." We were all very very confused by now. "Actually, we're on our way to see him." I told Timmy. Way to improvise Kelirien.

Timmy's eyes lit up. "Great! Here, take this!" Pulling a sealed letter from his pocket, Timmy handed it to me. "I have to get home. You'll make sure he gets it, won't you?" But the little boy was racing off before I could answer. There was a silence as we all stood there, staring down the street.

"What just happened?" Brecki asked.

"I think we just became friends of the king," Aurowen replied.

"Andy?"

I laughed, "Andy... Andruin Wrynn. The boy king of Stormwind. Andy for short."

"You're kidding." Brecki snorted. "What kind of name is Andy, for a king?"

"I'd like to know what kind of little boy like Timmy knows the king by his first name," I replied.

"Well, let's find out!" Vrand suggested and we all nodded. Hey, we didn't have anything better to do. I glanced down and eyed the kitten still purring in my arms.

"Great. Now I have 2 cats to feed."