Do not own SC or Warcraft characters. This chapter is mainly focused on Taki and Mina in the camp, there's some Sophitia; blood elf scenes. I hope it worked out well : )
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Chapter 7: Offenses and Defenses
It took nearly a day and a half to get through the closely fitted mountains to Dalaran, as Shandris had predicted. The wide and jagged mountains luckily had passages that were wide enough for the ancient trees to walk through and Sophitia had the smart idea of sending a few hippogryph riders over the mountain tops to map out the passes, scan for enemies and check for any crevices in and between the mountains.
There didn't seem to be very many creatures within the mountains, which took Shandris by surprise. There were a few critters the height of the goblin merchant that had long claws and dark purple and brown skin and fur that usually had the nature of jumping at anything that crossed its senses, but they refused to fight; they just ran into small holes within the mountains.
They had gotten passed the mountains and the forests of oak fir trees to find small samples of civilization. Celtic-looking towers were seen here and there along the paths within the forests.
"Is there anything within these forests or about this race that we should worry about?" Sophitia spoke as she eyed the woods, her eyes straining for any sign of sudden movement to show before her.
"Oh of course not; the blood elves are very close to us, we have worked with them in several occasions and I'm sure they'd be will to grant favors." Shandris explained simply, not turning to Sophitia as if she didn't care to worry herself like Sophitia did.
"We shall see what this favor might be." A male voice spoke above them. They both shifted their gaze sharply to see a man with long blond hair tied loosely behind him, his dark red pants were ragged slightly at the legs however his white collared shirt and dark red vest were in perfect condition. He seemed to have a tool belt around his waist consisting of merely a hammer, a notepad and pencil, an extendable measuring stick and bandages.
'I see their technology surpasses many other civilizations.' Sophitia noted to herself as she continued to stare at the intruder who sat on a boulder, one knee he held to his chest while laid his arm on the other and gave the women a sly look. He suddenly jumped down and walked toward them lazily.
Shandris noticed a few of her archers readying their arrows towards the man but Shandris simply raised a hand telling them to lower their weapons.
"My, my. I didn't expect a blood elf builder like yourself to show up with no sigh of some backup." Shandris noted simply. Sophitia noticed his long ears, the same shape and length as the night elves' poking out of his long locks and the iris of his eyes were scarlet and the centers were an illuminating golden color.
"Ahem." He raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Firstly; I consider myself an 'architectural genius' compared to just a 'builder'." He ran his fingers through his long hair and spoke in a tone as if the word 'builder' was the lowest label of any caste system. "And secondly; since you're night elves I didn't really see a point in calling for backup. If I had, they would've been here long ago." He spoke simply in an 'as a matter of fact'-like tone. "Besides, I had already heard rumors about you coming in our base camp, which is about a mile and a half from here. Kael'Thalas awaits your arrival and your report on the matter." His gaze shifted over to Sophitia and his eyebrows rose dramatically in surprise and intrigue. "A human? This is new." He noted aloud.
"Not as new as you think." Shandris stated with a smirk. "Lead us to Kael'Thalas." Her face melded to serious.
"Be honored to." He spoke with a sly smile as he bowed his head slightly at Shandris and headed in their original direction. Sophitia leaned in closer to Shandris so that she could speak in a low voice.
"Thinks rather highly of himself doesn't he? I mean, if you look at it in a certain angle." Sophitia quickly corrected herself so that she wouldn't feel as if she was being over-judgmental to someone she just met in ten seconds. "It's just rather strange to see a person who seems to be close to the class of a peasant to speak of themselves in such a way." Sophitia actually meant to have that comment within her thoughts but it subconsciously came out. In Greece, she and her family would be considered peasants as well and people within her caste sometimes acted much like the blood elf did but that was because they were just too foolishly self-righteous to actually think.
"Oh there's much worse in the base, just you wait." Shandris replied with a smile as if the way her cousin race acted amused her slightly. Sophitia raised an eyebrow at her statement.
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Thrall led his visitors pass into his battle-planning quarters, which was a small circular space with a rounded wooden roof. To the left was a dark wooden desk and large chair that weren't very well sanded, in fact it didn't even look sanded at all but the scarlet and black drapes with golden hems that were pulled back slightly against the wall cascaded over to the sides of the desk made the room look a little more attractive. To the very back of the room was a fireplace that was lit ablaze, even though it was the middle of the day. The strong scent of freshly carpentered wood filled the room.
"Brought some friends I see." Thrall noted as his brown-red eyes surveyed Mina and Taki as he sat himself in his massive chair beside his desk. Naisha and Maiev he didn't seem to pay much attention to. "I hope my guards didn't cause you too much trouble, besides him." Thrall pointed over to the troublesome guard by the door that refused to let them in, the guard in return just looked at him and shifted his standing position as he looked back to the ground, trying to keep what self-dignity he had left.
"Not really." She answered simply then paused to wait for him to bring up an idea of an alliance. "We heard your news of the undead attacking your camps and, as you can well see by the number of warriors we brought with us, we are willing to help." She stated in a rather bright and proud tone.
"You didn't run into any of the undead on the way over here did you? Their raids become so consistent in some of my camps that I have my own warriors patrol the areas surrounding the camps twice a day." Thrall stated as his gaze swept over them all, waiting for an answer.
'That would explain the tracks.' Taki thought to herself, she knew Maiev was thinking the same thing. Jaina simply shook her head in reply.
"Good. They seem to be slowing then. I'm pleased to hear your acceptance. Surely you Night elves want something in return?" He raised an eyebrow and held a sly smile as if he knew the elves were going to say yes. "I know you elves always want something in return for your efforts, whether it's from an Orc or not."
They all stood in silence, mostly waiting for Jaina to say something since she seems to be the spokeswoman of them all. She was trying to find a way to place the right words in the right order but Maiev just rolled her eyes in impatience and with a quick spark she disappeared behind them then reappeared right in front of Thrall with another spark. She leaned forward slightly on his desk and gave him a narrowed-eyed glare.
"H-how did she do that?" Mina leaned towards Naisha, pointing and still looking at Maiev and a stunned expression on her face. Naisha didn't take her eyes away from the scene either, she just bent her head towards Mina.
"It's a spell all wardens such as her learn; it's called 'Blink'."
"Join an alliance with you against Arthas?" Thrall spoke just after Naisha's sentence. He looked both shocked and taken aback. "The Scourge I don't bother with and Arthas is none of my concern. All that is a threat to me is the Burning Legion and all Arthas should care about is the human race." He spoke as if he was surprised none of them knew that.
"Yes but Arthas has obtained a second demonic weapon from where we come from." Mina suddenly spoke up, she became nervous when everyone's attention, besides Taki, turned to her. "Arthas is a threat to both your world as well as ours. The blade he took was called Soul Edge, wielded by a dark knight by the name of Nightmare. We're trying to gather as many forces as we can to stand up to both Nightmare and Arthas." Mina continued, saying as much as she can about Nightmare so that she could get her point across enough for Thrall to understand the danger level of the situation.
Thrall was silent, looking straight at Mina with a look of aggravation on his face that was really directed at Mina, but mostly the idea of going back to battle against such a large force for the sake of other races. He looked at his desktop for a few seconds, lost in thought. "Does my messenger know of this newly made decision?" His eyes didn't leave his desk as he asked in a plain voice. The others pulled back at how off-the-topic it was.
"M-messenger?" Mina raised an eyebrow, wondering what a messenger had anything to do with this.
"The messenger I sent to Ashenvale with the letter to Tyrande." His gaze switched to Mina and the other Night elves. Naisha, Maiev and Jaina turned to the two who actually went and knew what happened to him and his group.
'Oh... no...' Taki's voice drifted in her head as she looked up at him with a straight face but a worrying heart, Mina gulped slightly feeling the same way.
"W-well..." Mina started, clasping her hands together in front of her and looking down as if the explanation was simple as she looked up to Thrall's confused expression. "He... well, let's just say he didn't make it to Ashenvale to complete his task personally." She tried to sound as strong and upright as possible although some of her words came out in a nervous voice. She slowly looked up to see his shocked face of realization. He sharply rose from his seat.
"All of them? You killed all of them?" Thrall's face melded from one of shock to one of rage. "You didn't even take the time of asking for their reasons of possible trespassing? You just killed them at first sight?" His voice steadily grew with each sentence.
"Your messenger was spared only to speak his reasons for coming, but he didn't live due to his wounds." Naisha spoke up in an even tone.
"It was kind of an accident, really." Taki spoke up in a stable tone, ignoring Mina's questionable gaze at Naisha. His piercing stare turned to Taki, she didn't turn her eyes away from his burning ones.
"ACCIDENT?" He boomed in a voice that even made Jaina jump. He hastily walked around his desk though seemed to take his time as he made his way towards the two human visitors of Azeroth. "If one of your brothers or sisters fell off of a cliff would you consider it 'just an accident'?" The rage shown in his features would certainly make any one feel small, but Mina and Taki stood their ground even though Mina seemed to be a bit more wary than Taki at that task. "To me, considering anyone's death 'an accident' is the same as taking whatever honor they held and crushing it beneath your own sole!" He snarled as he turned back to walk to his desk. "Your senseless minds aren't needed here; we can take care of our own without you. So consider your request and even my request of alliance turned-down!"
Maiev was already sick and tired of his babyish insolence and sharply grabbed a hold of his shoulder and turned him towards her before he could even get behind his desk again.
"You are even more senseless if you deny our help!" She retorted. "How many of your men do you think will survive the constant raids without us?" Thrall ripped his shoulder out of her rather painful grasp. "Since you are so thoughtful of your own brethren's health and peace, I'm sure losing that as well as probably the last piece of land you can obtain and call home to hordes of mindless undead is something you'd rather not have pass." Maiev spoke in a tone that stated that she had no fear whatsoever. Her fierce gaze stared straight into his. He kept his now mildly rage-filled face in tact as he remained silent and returned Maiev's gaze.
'CLANG!' 'CLING!' 'CLANG!'
Battle cries and sounds of metal clashing against metal and even metal against bone could be heard from outside, drawing everyone's attention. Thrall hastily made his way over to one of the two small, high-risen windows across from the desk. He gazed for a few seconds as the cries and wails continued, his eyes became wide and suddenly sped out of his quarters and bar.
Taki walked over to the window and Thrall's expression before he left became hers as hordes of creatures that looked both dead and alive, most being even partially decomposed. The sight of them gave Taki an uncomfortable feeling in her throat and stomach.
"Ugh!" Mina was looking over her shoulder and the sight obviously gave her the same feeling.
"Well, this should be interesting." Maiev looked through the other window, she at least seemed to be unmoved by the scene. Without another word she headed out the door to gather her watchers and fight against the mindless creatures that somehow obtained axes and short swords to use for their defense against the orcs, who ran up and swung their own axes and spears like mad against their foes.
Once they were outside and getting a clear look at these death-mourned beings, Mina raised her Zanbatou, ready for any aimless strike from the foes although had a disgusted look on her face as if she thought she was going to be sick at any moment by watching these creatures. She looked to her side to find Taki with a wide grin on her face as her gaze swept across the campsite, as if she was counting how many foes there were.
"You're going to have fun, aren't you?" Mina raised an eyebrow at her as she asked skeptically. Taki laughed rather evilly within her throat as she turned to Mina.
"Oh ho, you know it!" With that she took off into the midst of undead groups that outnumbered the Orcs in some areas of the campsite.
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"Erm, this is him?" Sophitia's gaze drifted up the Blood Elven General who looked nearly like the builder who brought them to this slowly expanding campsite except he was much taller and his cloak and robes were more fit for a higher class such as himself. His face was very solid and serious but his soft voice and rather positive mind gave off a certain gentleness about him.
"Hm." He looked back at Sophitia and surveyed her appearance as if he was mildly surprised. "You don't look or dress like any of the other humans that I obey." He noted aloud.
"She's from the outer lands." Shandris explained simply as she looked over at Sophitia briefly.
"Ah, I see. That makes sense then." Kael'Thalas nodded in agreement, then suddenly shifted over to Shandris. "Anyway, I received the news from your runner and I pretty much understand the situation. The human alliance will surely send me to scout out the lands for Arthas so I'll gladly help, perhaps then my generals can actually give my race and myself the respect we actually deserve." The last part his sentence he actually wanted to remain in his head but it actually slipped out, but he merely mentally shrugged at his mistake.
"Glad to see that you could join us so willingly. I'm sure the Orcs will be a bit of a different story, but since the toughest warden is there I'm sure that disputes won't last long." Shandris noted. "I'll leave departing time up to you since this is a bit short notice; we need to return to Ashenvale."
Kael'Thalas place his thumb, index and middle fingertips on his chin in thought, then he turned and surveyed how well abundant his people were at this point. "Two days perhaps, then we'll leave; we need to gather more resources for the trip as well as the stay."
"Two days?" Sophitia sounded as if she was worried. Shandris looked at her and mentally sighed, knowing why she was worried.
"Two days at the most. Since finding a place to stay is probably new to you here, I'll have my most well-educated sorceress escort you around the camp if needed." Kael'Thalas assured her with a faint smile.
"I'll have a temporary housing tree built for you; I remember that back in Ashenvale you slept on hard ground for two days." Shandris added. Sophitia didn't want to say anything although she was right, but she didn't want to sound as if she was spoiled if she did say something.
'Wait...' "Housing tree? Is it like one of those walking ancients you showed me?" Sophitia asked as the words 'housing tree' intrigued her.
"Something like that." Shandris smiled as though she was amused.
"Odd fashion statement, you must be a newbie." Sophitia turned as a deep and rather sultry voice spoke behind her. A woman with long brown hair with streaks of gold, wearing a scarlet and golden hem dress that seemed to lift slightly at the front of the knees and showed quite a bit of her upper chest, and bright ruby eyes with golden pupils stood behind her, eyeing Sophitia's 'alien' skirt. Her gaze moved up to Sophitia's face and pulled back in surprise after noticing her dark pupils. "Oh! a human?"
"Your timing couldn't be more impeccable, Tasia." Kael'Thalas stated. The woman lifted her gaze to her general.
"Isn't it always? But anyway, why do you say that? Did the Sanctuary invent a new spell that they want me to test out on her?" The woman pointed at Sophitia and smirked but spoke as if she knew that wasn't really the case.
"No, I just need you to watch over our human from the outer lands until we leave for Ashenvale in two days." He explained with a sigh that was mostly directed at the woman's question.
"She's from the outer lands?" Her eyes ran up and down Sophitia again. "That explains a lot of things." She muttered as she looked down and rubbed the back of her head as if she thought it would drown out her voice, which was obviously unsuccessful. "If you insist." She sighed.
Shandris prevented Sophitia from narrowing her eyes at Tasia with an 'Ahem'. "I'll get the tree set up for you now since there isn't much left for us to do in the time being." Sophitia figured it would be better to follow Shandris before any possible outbursts and arguments between them, which was highly unlikely for Sophitia to do but she was aggravated enough as it was.
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The housing tree was built just along the edge of the camp itself, mostly for privacy purposes. Basically it was a tree with a living quarters below the trunk built by something called a Wisp, which were the spirits of passed Night elves.
The interesting part about the tree was that the entrance way to the quarters was a mossy downhill chute and the exit was a ladder to the surface. Three long-handled torches that were clung to the walls at an even space apart were the only light of the room during the night besides the moonlight that shown through the top of the now-hollow tree and small, high-risen and wooden-bared windows. The root-entangled ceiling had long drapes that were thin enough to be see-through, each were deep-aqua blue, scarlet and silver colored.
'For a burrow, it's actually quite roomy, even with a bed and a desk with a chair.' Sophitia thought to herself as she surveyed the room. The bed was quite large, perhaps just big enough for two people, and was covered with layers of animal fur, although she had no idea how Shandris got them, but then again why question it?
"Think you can live with this?" Shandris asks softly as she raises her eyebrows. Sophitia chuckled slightly.
"Yes, I think so." She smiled faintly.
"Good. Then I'll leave you while I try and get the rest of my warriors settled." Shandris stated as she climbed up the ladder. Sophitia watched her leave, as soon as she had reached the surface Sophitia let herself fall upon the bed, and of course this sudden and even softness gave her the immense pain and some pleasure in her lower back. She breathed deeply and exhaled as the pain slowly dissolved and looked over to the side of the bed that wouldn't be taken by anyone else.
"Well Taki," She breathed then looked down at Taki's gift on her finger. "I hope you're having better, faster luck then I am." She took the ring and clasped it in her hands and brought it close to her chest as she rolled over and closed her aching eyes.
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"Shyaaa!" Taki raised her glowing Rekki-Maru high into the air and slashed it forcefully down as she came down from the air into a group of moaning and limping creatures. Cutting clean through half of the first, jabbing into the stomach of the second behind her, thrusting into the throat of the third to her right and kicking the forth and final ghoul of the group square in the skull with a kick so fierce that the skull was kicked off completely.
Of course to her horror, the headless body kept coming at her. She just responded with a small smirk at hit's first attempt of attack at her shoulder and slammed her blade through its waist.
"Ugh! Get off of me!" Mina shouted in disgust as a group of undead came to her at all sides, one pounced on her back wrapping its skin-and-bone arms around her neck and used its weight to try and bring her to the ground. Its grunting and moaning breathed into her ear making her grimace and hastily reached her hand behind her to try and rip the cold and clammy creature off. Much to her displeasure, she reached for its collarbone and the flesh was so decomposed that she could feel her fingers slowly yet easily digging into the flesh.
Despite the feeling she gripped its collarbone and flesh and through the creature over her head and into a group of undead surrounding in front of her, making them all fall to the ground due to their lacking muscle to withstand the thrown body. They took their time as they raised themselves and walked slowly over to Mina. "This is problematic." Mina went into a defensive stance as she looked over the number of undead bodies heading towards her and counted seven coming to her in a half-circle. She took a few steps back as she tried to find a strategy of attacking them effectively and hopefully all at once.
"Duck your head!" She recognized Naisha's voice and looked behind her only to see eight open-bladed moon glaives spinning her way. She quickly ducked and watched and listened as the glaives cut off their arms that held their axes. Mina grinned at the odds of death, or to be better put, second-death between her and the weaponless creatures. Using the bladed end of her Zanbatou, she spun herself around as she cut through the creatures one by one and watched them fall to the ground in that order.
She grinned as she turned to Naisha to thank her, but her smile faded as she saw a tall undead figure standing behind her and raising his dagger over the unsuspecting Night elf. She aimed her bladed end of her Zanbatou and tossed it in Naisha's direction, Naisha looked a bit shocked in return and turned her head to the side so that she would miss it but heard a low growling noise behind her and finally a yelp of pain as the Zanbatou passed her head.
The creature was of course still alive even though the blade went through its face, but the weight of her Zanbatou slowly brought it to the ground. Naisha turned to the fallen undead being and ripped Mina's Zanbatou out of its face and jammed it hard into its abdomen, twisted the blade and ripped it out of its body harshly at its side then went back through its stomach so that it no longer had legs. The creature appeared to shudder as its strength completely left its body.
"I guess that makes us even." Mina spoke behind her, taking her Zanbatou as Naisha handed it back to her. Naisha smiled.
"I guess so." She nodded. She turned to the fast red blaze far behind them. "Taki's a tireless one, isn't she?" Naisha noted as she watched the fast-paced ninja jump from zombie to zombie, each one falling to the ground within seconds. Mina raised an eyebrow as she watched.
"I never thought I'd say this aloud, but I think only Sophitia can answer that with more examples than one." Mina held back a smile until she heard Naisha laugh slightly.
"I'm sure that's true."
"How many more of these things do we have to worry about?" Mina asked, afraid to hear the answer. Naisha breathed in and sighed as she surveyed the surrounding areas. With the combination of orcs and night elves fighting against a common enemy, the undead's forces greatly slowed and few were remaining. She watched as three undead beings ran from Thrall and his mighty hammer as well as his wolf companion known as Snowsong.
He roared as he raised his hammer high above his head and summoned a powerful attack where his hammer began to glow a magnificent white. He slammed his hammer down against the ground so hard that the earth around him shook slightly and a lightning bolt struck all three undead creatures at the same time, making them twitch and jerk violently at the bone-shattering feeling.
Maiev was busy defending her sisters that were either defenseless at the moment or just outnumbered. Jaina summoned her favorite spell, Water Elemental, which was a tall water-based figure that slammed its gigantic fists against the undead.
"I think we've won; they're beginning to fall back." Naisha noted.
"Good." Mina sighed. "Their reeking stench is turning my stomach."
Taki wiped the sweat from her forehead as she calmed herself and looked around the camp to see that almost all of the undead had fallen, the remaining few were being dealt with so they were no longer her concern.
"Seventy-seven downed by me... a new record." Taki grinned triumphantly as she reached for her rag to wipe off the extra slivers of skin and blood from her temporarily spent blade. She felt around her hips to find that she didn't have it anywhere on her. "Hm? That's funny, where'd it go?" Her attention was taken away as she saw a single zombie within the woods trying to escape. "Oh no you don't!" Taki took off for the temporarily spared ghoul. 'If it's one thing I learned from years of training back at the Hoko Temple, it's to never let one enemy be spared; you never know if he might warn his leaders of people like me and send more time-wasting soldiers against us.'
The zombie turned as it heard fast-paced footsteps and immediately tried to hurry itself, although his limping slowed it down terribly so even the thought was futile. Taki smirked as she noticed that it was trying to escape although failing miserably. She jumped high into the air and raised both her blades above her head.
"Now, now; you have to finish what you START!" She shouted as she slammed her blades into its back and ripped them upwards making both her blades sear through its head. She decides to fuzz the view of her eyes as the body split apart and fell to the ground.
Taki straightened herself as she sheathed her blades and brushed off her arms with her hands. "Well." She turned to walk back to the camp. "Another job well don-Ow!" Taki stopped as she felt a hard prick in the back of her ankle. She looked down to find a feather a bit wider than her thumb sticking out of her ankle, pulling it out she noticed that it was a small needle that had a hint of black residue on it. Suddenly she began to feel very dizzy and weak as the dart dropped from her fingers. The more she struggled to find the feeling in her knee joints the weaker she felt. Her knees gave way and she fell forward upon them for a few seconds before muttering "Oh... damn it." and finally collapsed onto the ground as her vision faded into black.
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Taki's eyes blinked and fluttered open as she groaned from the feeling of her insides being washed over with something. She tried to move her hand to her head but realized that her wrists and ankles were in shackles that were attached to a wide tree.
"What the hell?" Taki's eyes widened as she looked at her surroundings, she was in a deeper area of the woods and strange markings were etched into the ground around the tree she was chained to.
"Ah, I see you're finally awake." An elderly voice spoke next to her. Her eyes darted over to a man with a long white beard and staff, a strange horned headdress and questionable robes.
"What the hell do you want?" Taki spoke harshly as her gazed narrowed at him.
"Oh, nothing really... I just want some information from you." He spoke simply as he strode over to her and leaned forward slightly.
"Information? About what? I hardly know anything about this place, what use am I to you?" She gave him a look of sheer confusion, which only made him smirk beneath his beard.
"It's not information of Azeroth or the leaders within it, it's about the person that we are looking for that you traveled with to Azeroth and seem to know quite well. Sophitia, was it?" He knew that he was right but he just liked to watch his enemy's rage grow, which certainly happened to Taki as she shot up and stared daggers into him.
"I'm not telling you a thing, you freeze-dried old hag!" Taki spat viciously as she pulled against her chains. The necromancer stood himself up and shrugged.
"Alright, I knew that your closed mouth wouldn't be a problem, although I love to pry the answer out by torture I'm afraid I don't have enough time for that. So I'm just going to take what you know by force." He spoke simply then suddenly shot out his hand, his cold palm pressed against her forehead and his fingers pushed back her bangs. His thumb and little finger laid themselves onto her temples. Taki pushed her head against his hand.
"Just what do you think your doing?" Taki raised an eyebrow, she watched as he grinned widely.
"Oh you'll know in just a few seconds." He spoke softly and simply, his wicked grin widened slowly. "Veniant spiritus glaciales obscurants, cum obscurationi flet tempestas nivalis. Nivis tempestas obscurans." Taki raised an eyebrow at the words he was muttering with closed eyes.
' "Darkness obey, a blizzard, ice and snow of the night"?... Latin?' Taki's eyebrows lowered with confusion as she translated his words in her head. Her eyes slowly widened as she noticed that the etches around herself and the tree began to glow a faint red.
"Come! Oh mighty shadow masters and mistresses of darkness! Lend me your hands so that I, a loyal servant of damnation, may gather the information needed to prevent your thrones from being desecrated by the hands of these petty mortals!" He shouted to the skies as his grip on Taki's forehead tightened. The illuminated etches became brighter and even seemed to move as Taki felt a strange sensation in the center of her forehead.
She grunted slightly as the small pricks of pain on her forehead became wider. Her eyes narrowed and her teeth gritted together slightly due to the pain as what felt like a cold ghostly mist seeped into her head. The necromancer chuckled evilly at Taki's repetitive grunting and her forehead move side to side against his hand trying to free herself.
Finally the seeping feeling stopped but she could still feel a could mist enveloping her brain and penetrating through her forehead although it was still.
"Now...let's see what your memory has in store for me." He spoke in a low voice that sounded full of anticipation. Suddenly, Taki's brain began to burn in random areas, then it felt like her mind was freezing over in what felt like slashes, then it went back to burning even more. She tossed her head every which way, trying to get his cold hand off of her, but it didn't help; his grip was too tight. Out of nowhere flashes of memories came before her eyes, all of which had to do with Sophitia. When this realization came to her, her stopped tossing her head for a few second before her face twisted with rage.
"No... NO!" Taki screamed as her head thrashing became more violent. "I won't let you touch her! Do you hear me?"
"Stop struggling!" He snarled as he slammed her head against the tree with all his might, trying to still her movements. Luckily, it didn't knock her out because she was pressing against his hand when he did so, so that the impact wouldn't be as painful. The ghostly mist dug further into her head, pressing harder into her mind. More and more memories came into her head, she noticed that the necromancer was smiling so she knew he could see them as well. Taki's heart began to beat faster with fear of how much he knows already.
"Get out of my HEAD!" Taki shrieked at the top of her lungs, almost deafening the necromancer as she thrashed her head and her arms against her shackles more violently.
"Your screams won't get you anywhere foolish woman!" He snarled back as he slowly leaned his hand harder against Taki's head. Taki closed her eyes tightly as the pain became so intense that it felt like her brain was begin ripped apart. A bright blue light appeared in the corner of the necromancer's eyes.
"Flans exarmatio! Wind flower, disarm weapon!" A female voice shouted from the direction of where the blue light came from. He looked up to see a white wind-like mist flow towards his direction. The mist, much to his surprise, was powerful enough to blow him five yards away, thus releasing his grip on Taki's forehead. Taki, rather exhausted and about ready to lose consciousness, let her body lean on the shackles until he heard a 'clang' and the shackles were broken from the tree. She nearly hit the ground had it not been for someone with long red-brown hair swooping her into her arms and kneeling the both of them on the ground.
"Taki, what happened?" She heard Mina's voice but didn't have the strength, nor the care to answer. She just felt Mina lift her head to rest on her shoulder as she went back into a deep sleep.
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Mina sat herself in a chair beside Taki, who was still sleeping in bed inside something called a 'housing tree' that Naisha built for them. Mina had her head propped up on her elbow and stared aimlessly at the floor, glancing at Taki every so often just to check for signs of any movement.
'I can't believe I had to undress her!' Mina sighed as she shook her head slightly. 'I know it's for comfort's sake but next time, I'm going to make sure that Sophitia comes so that she can do it herself, knowing that she won't refuse. I didn't even know how to get half the damned thing off!' She looked back down at Taki again, her loose long ebony hair spread itself across some of the pillow. 'At least she's wearing the old yukata I bring everywhere with me just in case I feel like wearing it. And I kept her chest bandages and underwear on her, there's no way I'm taking those off.' Mina breathed in deeply. 'It was strange though... when she passed out... her eyes were still half-open.'
Mina's attention turned to Taki as she began to mutter something in her sleep and her position shifted slightly. She became nervous as Taki's breath became heavier and a bit faster and made hardly auditable noises within her throat as her eyes clinched together. Mina sighed. 'Gods, if she's having an erotic dream concerning Sophitia and herself I swear...' Mina stopped her train of thought as she gently sat herself onto the edge of the bed and nudged Taki slightly with squinted eyes and a cautious expression as if she was afraid that Taki was a barrel of black powder and she chanced throwing a burning stick into the barrel that might explode. "Taki."
Taki didn't wake as she turned her head slightly and let out a dull groan. Mina nudged harder on her shoulders and raised her voice slightly. "Taki wake up!"
Taki's eyes suddenly snapped open and shot herself upwards into a sitting position as she yelled slightly into the room with a stunned look on her face. Mina jumped at the sudden movement and hastily threw her arms on her head.
"I'm sorry! I won't disturb you when you're having an erotic dream again, I promise!" Mina yelled in fear as she closed her eyes tightly, expecting the worst. Mina slowly and cautiously opened her eyes when she didn't hear or feel Taki move.
Taki was breathing heavily and kept her eyes locked on the opposite wall until they began to dart as she lowered her head to the sheets. "Wha-what happened?" Taki asked in a soft voice as she rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm.
"Don't you remember?" Mina raised an eyebrow. "You were taken and tortured somehow by that guy with the long beard." She explained as Taki continued to not look at her.
"Oh...yeah, it's coming back to me." Taki's hand made its way to the back of her head, her face tightened at the pain as she rubbed the bump on the back of her head. "Damn son of a... he gave me a bruise half the size of a lime and a head that feels like it has an anvil in it." She let herself fall back on the bed since in made the throbbing inside dull slightly. She sighed and turned to Mina. "Did we get him?"
Mina looked down slightly. "No, somehow he got away after Jaina blasted him with one of her spells." Mina looked up to Taki who now showed a face of aggravation at this news. "We heard a scream in the woods and we came and saw you chained to a tree and nearly crying with that thing holding your head." Mina watched as Taki closed her eyes and lowered her eyebrows as she groaned and turned her head on the pillow. "At least the good news is that Thrall decided to join us after seeing how many of those zombie-things came after us." Mina shuddered slightly at the memory. "And he also set free a guy that I've met before on occasion; Kilik." Mina explained as Taki looked up at her, not turning her head.
"I think I've met him once or twice as well." Taki propped her head on her elbow as she looked down at her black and blue yukata and ran her fingers along the hem with lowered eyebrows as if she was wondering where it came from. "What was he doing here in the first place?"
"He said that he felt a strong energy coming from the north and basically what happened with us happened to him, only the orcs didn't trust him period and kept him locked within their prisons since they couldn't kill him; they were afraid that he might be part of the Alliance and didn't want to take the chance of killing him." Mina explained as if she was telling a life story.
"I see." Taki sounded as if she suddenly wasn't all that interested anymore as she shut her eyes again. Mina lowered her eyebrows as a question that she didn't really want to know the answer to but was curious anyway came to mind.
"What were you dreaming about?" Taki's eyes shot up to hers, she paused then looked down again.
"It was just a nightmare, something about a girl that I've never seen before." Taki answered simply but spoke in a deep voice as she looked for something to occupy her fingers so that it would seem like the dream really didn't affect her.
Mina cocked her head to one side with curiousness to the nightmare, but decided to let it pass.
"What was that weird sorcerer trying to do with you?" Mina asked in a low voice as if she was afraid that she would bring a bad memory back to Taki. Taki slowly opened her eyes but didn't look at Mina.
"He was looking for information about somebody that we traveled with to Azeroth, although I don't know what he's talking about since I remember only traveling with you." She explained simply as she rolled over onto her stomach and wrapped her arms tightly around one of the pillows and closed her eyes.
Mina's eyes widened. "You... you mean Sophitia?" Mina already knew she was right and had to warn Jaina that they have to leave immediately to Dalaran.
Taki looked up at her with a look of confusion, thus making Mina's eyes widen even more. "Maybe... Wait, who is she?"
Mina was in complete shock. 'Did that guy wipe her memory clean of Sophitia? How's that even possible? To rid someone's mind of a single person?' Mina breathed deeply and ran a hand hard down her face as her eyes darted to random spots on the thin layer of soft brown soil scattered across the floor. 'Sophitia's going to be a wreck when she hears about this.'
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Well, as you can tell the next chapter is going to be quite interesting and you can also tell that since the majority of this chapter was basically only about Mina and Taki's current problems/events, the next chapter will make that up with more Sophie since the Taki/Mina group is heading back anyway. Sylvanas will show in the next chapter more than the previous ones, so hopefully that will make up for my lack of Sylvanas in this chapter. And as for the undead invading, pretty big graveyard, I know, lol.
With Kael'Thalas I know I had troubles pulling off his character and I'm going to try and make him more... well... 'himself' in future chapters. I had to put Tasia in there though and I know the idea was a short and half-baked one but she'll be very valuable in later chapters when Jaina happens to not be around, actually she'll be both valuable and an annoyance and that, to me, would make it more fun to read and write ; )
As a special note for those of you who plays Gamecube, the name 'Tasia' I got and wanted to use from 'Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes' and Tasia Valenza is the voice actress of another favorite villainess of mine; Sniper Wolf (you've gotta love her spunk and spitfire and sexy persona even if she is a terrorist). She also is the voice actress of the three main computers in the game (the ones where the key card has to be a certain temperature when placed into the right computer, and of course launches Metal Gear Rex). If you listen hard enough when the computer says that the key access has been confirmed, you can here Tasia's Russian accent, which cracks me up because I never thought I'd here a computer with a Russian accent ;P
I know I didn't give Kilik a very bold introduction into the fic (didn't have any other ideas of how to bring him in) but you'll like him a lot better when he actually makes his appearance into the fic.
The spells that were used were (or at least should be) in Latin. I got them from a rather funny fantasy/action/comedy manga called 'Negima!' by Ken Akamatsu. Really cool and funny manga, I highly recommend it.
