"The child king is dead... slain in his sleep, all of Stormwind mourns their young kings death the murderer left no trace, save a ring... a ring bestowed upon those who had fought the Defias many years ago in the Stockades below the city streets. The times of peace had come to an end..."

The end of peace.

By: Eliot Barrow

Ten years earlier

The cold winds howled outside the butsling city of Ironforge, it's mighty gates shielding it's citizens from the harsh winter that is Dun Moro. Deep within the mountain lays a small tavern A fire roars in a large iron stove at the far end of the room. The smell of hot mead and fresh bread fills the air."HAHAHA" a stout dwarf belows, his tarnished mail armor clanking as he slams an empty mug on the wodden table in the middle of the room. "You're tryin' to tell me that theres some GIANT monster in the sewers of Stormwind?""YES! thats what I've been sayin all along!" Yelled the gnome in a high piched voice, obviously angered at the dwarfs continuing disbelief. "There is a bounty for its death." The dwarf nearly chokes on the mouthful of ale from his fresh mug. "Bounty? for the love of... why didnt you just say that, you almost made me spill my ale!" He cuckles as he quickly downs the whole thing, slamming it down on the table. He stands, grabing his gun and axe "Well, lets go kill it!" he chuckles as he walks out the door. "Junior!" he shouts at the giant grizzly bear sleeping in the corner. Junior yawns and rolls over obviously not wanting to leave his cozy spot by the fire. "Let's go, up and at 'em sleepy head" he says, snaping his fingers. "Hey theres a pretty she-bear out here!" he lied. Junior starts snoring. "Ursa, thats the sleepingest bear I've ever seen" the tavern keeper laughs. Frustrated Ursa tosses his things on the table and walks over to the enormous creature, he leans down and shouts "WAKE UP!" Junior rolls over knocking Ursa to the ground, his massive paw pinning the dwarf to the floor. "Junior! Get up now or no cheese for a week! Juniors eyes pop open as he quickly jumps up. Ursa picks himself up off the ground and brushes him self off. "Thats what I thought" Ursa scoffs as he retrives his things from the table. "Ok lets get to the tram" Ursa comands. "Hey Ursa, the tram is out of service" states the tavern keeper. "Some Orcs snuck in and managed to destory some of the cars" he shrugs "There is always those griffons" the gnome exclaims. Ursa frowns "I'll just um get Herbert. Ursa lets out a shrill whistle. From the stable in the distance, a large white and brown ram starts trotting in the direction of the sound. Ursa jumps atop his mount and heads to the gates of Ironforge.

Ursa's breath fell in heavy clouds of smoke aginst the cold night air as another gust of freezing wind rustled the mighty evergreens that lined the sloping path from Ironforge to Kahranos there were three guards huddled around a small camp fire, fighting the urge to leave their post. Due to the resent attacks by the horde alliance officals had ordered double the man power at every watch. "Somethin's got those politics spooked." Ursa says to Junior. Junior looks up almost in agreement with Ursa's statement. As they continue on their path Ursa's sharp eyes glare through the snowy white distance, he could just make out the the southern path that led to loch modan through the thick forest. Junior started to run ahead, wanting to get to the mild climate of the loch as quickly as possible. Ursa startled by the sound of the hammer of a gun being thumbed into position, dives off of his mount as the report from a rifle rings through the forest. He quickly jumps to his feet and pulls two large revolvers from their holsters, aiming in the direction of the sound. Junior dashes from behind Ursa with a monsterous roar as another shot whizzs past Ursa's ear. Ursa fired two shots at the muzzle flash, a horrible shreek cuts through the echo of the gun fire. Silence. Ursa holsters his pistols and causiously walks towards his shots. There is nothing, no tracks, no body, no blood. Junior sniffs the ground franticly knowing that he had smelled something earlier he looks back at Ursa with a puzzled look. "I know big fella, I know" Ursa muttered as he slowly scanned the woods for any sign of life. There was something there. "Be on your guard" he said to Junior as he jumped atop Herbert, "These trees must have eyes tonight." He spured his mount and they were off. Traveling the mountain paths nowadays isn't the daunting task that it used to be, where encampments of hundreds of orcs were, now stand bustling trading posts, and caves filled with wolves and bears are now lavish tunnels, decorated with plush tapestries and enormous golden torches, thanks mainly to the Explorers league, Goblin explosives and Gnomish contraptions. The tunnel began to get brighter and the air was getting warmer, Ursa spured Herbert and they were off. As the warm sun hit Ursa's face he smiled, Junior ran to a break in the shadows and rolled around in the sun light beaming throuth the thick canopy of the trees. TING. Something ricocheted off of Ursa's helmet. TING TINGTING! Ursa frustrated that something or some one was ruining his first trip to the loch in over a year readyed a gun nearly 3 times the size of his arm and pulled back the hammer of the gun, aiming into the trees. "ALRIGHT funny guy" Ursa yelled, "Come out, this thing has really big bullets and altho I dont know where you are it wil probably hit you." Someone laughed. "Why so jumpy stumpy?" A voice came from no where. BOOM the gun lobed a cannon ball into the trees it exploded leaving a hole the size of a kodo. "OH nice gun!" said the voice. TINK an acorn bounced off of ursas helmet and landed on his sholder, Ursa reached into a pouch and pulled out an orange sized shot and placed it in the barrel of the gun. "Whats with everyone hiding to day?" Out of the corner of his eye Ursa saw a bush move, he pulled the trigger and the bush was replaced with a crater. "Did I get ya?" Ursa asked looking around reaching back in to the pouch. "No" said the voice behind ursa, and with that there was a dagger at ursas throat. "You never were any good aginst me" the blade was removed Ursa turned around with a puzzled look on his face. standing behind him on Herbert was a woman clad in black leather that seemed to darken the surounding area. Looking up he saw the face of a young woman, the lower portion covered in a black mask her eyes black as night it self seemed to smile."GUERRA!" "Yep!" She smiled, pulling off ursas helmet gracefully bowing as if on stage, kissing him on the head. "The Great Guerra!" Ursa chuckled "How have you ..." Ursa trailed off mid sentence. "Junior? JUNIOR? WHERE ARE YOU YA SMELLY OAF" Ursa climbd off his mount looking this way and that "JUUUNIOR!" just then he saw Junior laying on his back asleep, there was some one rubbing his stomach. "JUNIOR!" Ursa barked, "have you lost your everlivin' mind! the person rubbing his stomach stoodup and smiled, clad in shining golden armor glowing in the bright sun, another young woman, slightly older than Guerra, "Hi Gramps" she said, her smile widening, "Well well well, Commander Gilbertson, you know, you should show alittle respect, "I am still considered a Field Marshal although I..." "Ah ah ah" Gilbertson interrupted as she pulled a large medal out from under her armor showing him "Grand Marshal?" Ursa exclaimed "Who did you pay for that?" Gilbertson laughed "Well when you bring someone like Vancleef to justice the Alliance tends to take notice" "You did nothing of the sort, me and you know who took him down befor you were even born" Ursa scoffed. Gilbertson laughed again "well gramps, you and Asz..." "HEY!" Ursa interrupted "last thing I need is that smelly tree lover to show up." Gilbertson just rolled her eyes "Ok, you and you know who killed Edwin Vancleef, his grandson Emaniso Vancleef was twice the fighter with three times the resources and ten times as many followers. So how old does that make you anyway?" "Why you smart mouthed little..." Ursa was intrupeted again, a loud fog horn was sounding to the north. "We had better get to the inn" Guerra stated and climed atop her chestnut mare and headed in the direction of town. Ursa turned back to Gilbertson, shaking his finger at her"You an' me are gonna' have a talk about this gramps stuff later" Gilbertson laughed again "Dont point that sausage at me" and raised her hand in the air and began glowing brighter and brighter, and with that a gigantic war horse covered in similar lookin armor as gilbertson was, "Bless the power of light!" Gilbertson laughed as she spurred the horse and rode off in to the distance. Ursa just scoffed and mumbled something under his breath. "JUNIOR!" Ursa bellowed "Lets goin unless you wanna get lost in this blasted fog and fall straight into the loch" junior groaned and slowly rolled over, streached and got on his feet. "This has been a weird day buddy, lets go get a pint" Ursa chuckled as he climed upon his mount.