I'm sorry to say that I did not spew any wittily smart ass remark at my captor. I can't even claim that I was kept silent by a gag around my mouth, because there wasn't one. But I was silent for a long moment, most probably because the shock of the situation was hitting me hard.

The undead stared at me hard with his glowing green eyes and I shivered, but managed to – barely – hold his gaze. Finally he sat back. I swallowed. There was an even longer stare, then he pointed at himself. "Ke'ii Nakutk."

"Huh?" Was my super intelligent response.

"Nakutk."

"Riiiight."

The undead stood and I could tell he was frustrated, though I'm not sure how I knew. You try reading the expression of a half-skeleton creature, much less one that's still sort of translucent and glowing purple to boot. He jabbed a finger at his chest. "Hp. Nakutk."

And the light bulb went on. "Oh." I licked my lips. "I'm Kelirien."

"Eymkeleeryan."

I couldn't hide a laugh and a shook my head. "Keli." I corrected. "Just Keli."

"Khelee." Nakutk sounded out my name and a nodded. Then there was a long pause. A hundred questions went through my head, from 'what do you want?' to 'will you let me go?'. But try expressing those questions past the language barrier. Finally, I turned and jerked my bound wrists in question. Nakutk grimaced and sighed, shaking his head and pointing out the door where the orc had gone. I nodded. Okay, so Mr. Nasty Orc was in charge. Good thing to know.

"Huts iulph." Nakutk said, giving me a motion with his palm out, a motion I could only translate as 'wait'. Like I was going anywhere. Then he slipped out of the building as well.

When Nakutk returned, he had a bowl of something that must have been considered edible by horde culture. I would have disputed that, but it turned out I was actually pretty hungry. So when Nakutk finally untied my hands, I managed to consume the entire meal. The whole time Nakutk watched me, as if there was something about me that he did not understand. I tried to ignore the gaze and focus on my own thoughts as I ate. I had died. I remembered that. But instead of returning to the graveyard, I had appeared here. How? I wracked my brain for any game explanations, but none came to me. The only answer I could think of was that, somehow, this undead had resurrected me.

Impossible. Completely, absolutely impossible. For one, because horde characters cannot cast beneficial spells on alliance characters. For another, because as far as I knew, the shadowform that shadowpriests preferred kept them from casting healing or resurrection spells. And that was precisely the form that my mysterious, purple glowing benefactor had yet to change out of.

Over the next day, Nakutk and I tried our best to communicate. I still don't understand most of what he was trying to say, but I gathered that it had something to do with King Varian. I was still puzzling over it all when Nakutk tied my hands back once more and left for the night.

I can't say that I tossed and turned all night, or that I slept soundly. Because in fact, I was awakened not an hour after I dozed off with a pair of cold hands. One clamped warningly over my mouth while the other pulled at my bindings. Nodding, I promised to remain silent and waited while Nakutk freed my hands. Then he handed me a bag and even in the dark, I could feel the worn, hardy leather of my own backpack. Silently, I threw it on, then accepted my weapons, armor and other bags. I admit that I was befuddled by the change of events, but a feeling in my gut had me convinced that, somehow, Varian had to be involved. I'd take it up with him later, I promised myself as I dutifully kept silent and followed Nakutk out.

When I stepped out of the building, I found myself standing in the sky. Or that was my first impression as I was surrounded by a clear night, sparkling with stars. There were a few other buildings around, but most of them were connected with hand built rope bridges. A sudden feeling of dizziness hit me and I had to brace myself on a wall of the building before I looked around again. I had to have been a thousand feet up into the air. In the distance I could see silhouettes of spires, huge mesas, rising up to our level. Very likely the similar to the mesa we were standing on. Even in the dark night I could see the glint of red on the distant towers and the red dust that kicked up under my feet. It didn't take more than a quick analysis of all of the horde communities that I knew of to pinpoint where I had to be.

We were at the top of Thousand Needles.

Nakutk was quick to steady me as I regained my bearings, but he didn't wait much longer before leading me hurriedly into the night. We ducked behind buildings and away from possible horde before finally making it to a small, very steep and extremely dark staircase that lead down into the canyon. "You want me to go down that?" I hissed, but Nakutk's dark glare and snarl reminded me of my promise to be quiet. Then he began climbing. It didn't take me long to assess my options.

I followed.