Into Lordaeron

"What was the damage in the end?" Anasterian asked, pacing back and forth in front of his throne.

"Windrunner Village was slightly damage, the first elf gate was totally destroyed and much of the land south of Tranquillien has been affected by some sort of magic, leaving a black scar in the land." Larysa flicked through the reports handed to her from all the scouts of each company in southern Quel'Thalas. "They believe it will take some time with the priests and mages, but they could heal the land within a year, maybe two. The gate will take the same time to be repaired and the parts of Windrunner Village that were destroyed about two months."

"Does the Ranger-General know about her village?" Anasterian now asked, looking at Larysa.

"I don't believe so, my King." She told him.

"I'll send someone to find her later." Anasterian said, going back to pacing back and forth. "We should send a scouting group into Lordaeron to keep an eye on the undead, make sure they aren't marching north again to try a second time."

"I'll get my grandson's unit ready to go once this meeting is over. They're usually reliable with this sort of task and I'm sure he will accept just to make sure the attack doesn't happen again." Larysa flicked through the reports again, making sure she didn't skip anything. "Oh also," she began when she came across a report, "there have been reports on the Amani becoming restless again. We've got a company checking it out, but they don't know if it's just that time of the year again for them or they're actually planning something."

"What company?" Anasterian asked.

"My husband's company." Larysa told him.

"At least it's someone with experience against the Amani." Anasterian then said, knowing how seasoned all of the Sunblade members were against the Amani trolls since Zul'Aman was right on the Sunblade Village doorstep. "How long until we have an accurate report on them?"

"A week, maybe two at most." Larysa told him.

"Try to get the report done in a week." Anasterian told her. "The sooner we can sort them out, the sooner we can focus on Arthas and the undead."

Larysa bowed to him. "I'll tell him right away, my King."

"Good, thank you."

Melonara walked beside Tahnir as they entered Sunblade Village. "Did you know he hasn't taken more than a week off since he became a Lieutenant?" She asked the Ranger Captain, watching him nod slowly.

"I've told him he can, but the nature of the job and how much he enjoys it keeps him busy more than it should." Tahnir opened the door to his family house and let Melonara in first, following her shortly after and walking into his wife Illana who smiled and kissed him on the cheek when they were close enough. "He is here, right?"

"He is." Illana told him, placing a hand on his chest when he took a step forward and stopping him from moving any further. "He has company." She said quietly, glancing over to Melonara who raised an eyebrow at her. "Does she know?" She then whispered, nodding over to the second in command.

"She does, I told her everything before coming over here." Tahnir said, looking over to Melonara who made her way over to Illana and hugged her.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret. Nobody else will know." Melonara told her.

"They're in his room." Illana said, going bright red when she heard what she said and saw the raised eyebrow from Melonara. "N-no, not like that! Th-they're not doing that."

Tahnir chuckled and kissed his wife. "You're really cute when you're flustered." He told her, walking up the stairs and towards Athrodar's room, knocking on it twice and announcing himself to his son.

"Come in." Athrodar said, glancing over to Sylvanas who was waiting with him and watching her clench her fist tightly. "What are you -"

Before he could finish his sentence, Sylvanas made her way over to Tahnir and punched him straight across the right cheek, making him stumble a couple of steps out the way of Melonara who slowly nodded her head at the hit. "That's for lying to your General." Sylvanas spat, glaring at the Captain. "Keeping me waiting for almost three decades just to find out you've not even told your son to make his mind up about that mage!"

Tahnir opened and closed his mouth to test his jaw, placing a hand over where he was hit and looking at both his son and the Ranger-General. "Why does everyone feel like it's necessary to hit me?" He asked when he was certain his jaw wasn't broken.

"Maybe because you lie to everyone, including family." Sylvanas told him, being pulled back by Athrodar a little so he could speak to his father.

"A little overboard, don't you think?" He asked her quietly, watching her blow a few strands of hair out the way of her eyes.

"Sorry. Force of habit when I get angry." Sylvanas told him, opening and closing her hand. "It was a good hit though."

"I'll hold you to that claim." Athrodar said, looking over to his father. "Why are you here, dad?"

"For two reasons. To talk to my son who has been avoiding me for over a week and now I know why." He looked over to Melonara who nodded once to him. "The second option is that the King has ordered for a scouting unit to go into Lordaeron and find Arthas and his army."

"W-wait, what?" Sylvanas asked, surprised by this order as she wasn't even told about it, even as the Ranger-General. "Why wasn't I told this?"

"It came straight from the King." Tahnir told her, looking over to Athrodar. "Larysa recommended you to him and he accepted."

Athrodar closed his eyes and sighed. "So my grandmother has sent me into unknown territory without even telling me." He looked over to Sylvanas who looked angered to have such a command go over her head, especially because it was Athrodar's unit. It felt like a targeted attack on her but she no proof right now, though that never stopped her in the past from getting what she wanted. "I should get ready to leave then."

"Be careful." Sylvanas told him, smiling a little when he nodded at her. "Before you leave."

Athrodar raised an eyebrow when he knew what she was about to do. "Really, here?" He saw her smile a little wider. "You are getting confident." He said, taking hold of her hand and kissing her lightly before making his way out the room. "I'll send you a report in a week, hopefully we'll find them before that but it's a big country. They could be all the way back in Capital City."

Melonara followed Athrodar as he began to leave, picking up his bow and quiver for him and handing them to her Lieutenant once they were outside. "So... You and the General, huh?"

"Don't bring this up with anyone else other than my family, got it?" Athrodar told her, taking his quiver and bow off his second. "She doesn't even want my family to know, but given the nature of my family that was always going to be impossible." He looked over to his second and saw her smile, smiling a little back at her. "It's new and exciting, okay? She is this beautiful, rare creature that I want to take my time with compared to all the other women I've been with."

"And that's a lot of women." Melonara said with a laugh, getting a sigh from her Lieutenant. "And that's an understatement about the General. She's fucking gorgeous. I'd happily give up being a ranger if that meant I got to be with her for even a night."

"That's all it takes to get rid of you, huh?" Athrodar asked, getting punched in the arm by his second and laughing. "Ouch, okay. I'm kidding."

"I know you're kidding, I still wanted to hit you for ignoring me these last few days. All I knew was you were taking a week off and I was in charge. You never told me why!" She glared at him now, sending a chill down Athrodar's spine. "I'm meant to be the one person you tell everything to, like everyone else's second. That way you don't have to keep everything bottled up."

"I know and I'm sorry." Athrodar said, looking over to his second who continued to glare at him, though it softened the longer she looked at him. "Forgive me? Since you know why I was away for a week?"

Melonara looked away from him and sighed, folding her arms and taking a couple steps towards him. "Fine... But I am still going to take you up on that offer of having a night out sometime soon. Even if you are working on being tied down to her."

"Deal." Athrodar said, laughing a little. "Perhaps I could convince her to join us."

"If you manage to convince the Ranger-General to join us on a night out, I will never doubt you again." Melonara told him. "As long as I get to witness her let her hair down, it would be worth every night out in the future."

"She won't sleep with you." Athrodar told her with a laugh, getting punched in the arm shortly after.

"I didn't say that! I just wanted to see the General let her hair down and have some fun!" Melonara let out a groan when she heard him continue to laugh. "Why don't I ever ask for a transfer? You're insufferable at times."

"Because it's like you've said in the past, we're your family." Athrodar told her, placing an arm around his second. "And we look after family in my scouting unit."

"D'aww, does my brother want a hug from his sister?" Melonara asked with tongue in cheek.

"Actually, I do." Athrodar said, calling her bluff and laughing when she hugged him. "Okay, that surprised me."

"What can I say? When you're not an ass, you're really nice." Melonara told him, letting go and nodding her head in the direction of Tranquillien. "Let's go, the rest of our unit are waiting."

"The classes have actually gone really well." Liadrin said, standing beside her father and looking over to Belo'vir who was talking to the two of them in the council room. "She says having her father as the teacher actually made it a whole lot easier for her to learn because she's not under any pressure."

"And yet, when I taught you, all you did was mess around." Vandellor said, getting a laugh from Belo'vir and a pout from Liadrin. "You know I'm telling the truth when she pulls that face."

"This face comes out because you're bullying me." Liadrin said, getting a laugh from both of them now. "This is why I don't join you both when you're alone."

"She also doesn't join us because she thinks we're boring, old politicians." Vandellor then said, smiling when he heard Liadrin gasp.

"I don't think you're -"

Liadrin was interrupted when Sylvanas pushed open the doors to the council chambers, storming her way over to them with her hand placed on the hilt of one of her swords. "That's not good." Belo'vir said, making his way past Liadrin and Vandellor and towards Sylvanas. "General, it's always a pleasure to see you here."

"I'm not here to talk to you, Belo'vir." She told him, looking around the room and noticing it was just the four of them. "Where's Larysa?" She asked, slowly pulling out her sword from its hilt. "I'm not here to hurt anyone, but I will if nobody tells me where Larysa is!"

"She's in there." Belo'vir said, gesturing to the twin doors leading to the royal chambers. "She's not alone, the King and Lord Sunblade are in there too."

"Thank you." Sylvanas said, placing her sword back in her hilt and making her way towards the set of twin doors and taking a deep breath. She was hoping she could catch Larysa on her own and scare her a little, but knowing she was with the King and worst of all, Lord Sunblade, made things a whole lot more difficult for her. But she was never one to back down from a challenge.

When the doors to the royal chambers opened up, Anasterian, Dael'Thaelas and Larysa all looked over to Sylvanas who locked eyes with Larysa and instantly glared at her, making her way over to the Sunblade politician.

"General. It's good to see you." Dael'Thaelas said, raising an eyebrow at her when she took hold of Larysa's robe and began to push her towards a nearby wall. "Ah..." He muttered, watching the General keep his daughter-in-law pinned up against the wall. "This is about Athrodar, isn't it?"

"Your great grandson?" Anasterian asked, standing beside Dael'Thaelas as they watched Larysa's normally calm demeanor begin to fade under the intense glare of Sylvanas. "Isn't he off to Lordaeron to find Arthas and his army?"

"He is." Dael'Thaelas said, glancing over to the King. "The General is upset because she has finally told Athrodar of their arrangement and now she doesn't want to lose him."

"Finally told!?" Sylvanas looked over to Dael'Thaelas, moving her hand across Larysa's neck to keep her in place whilst she glared at Lord Sunblade. "Athrodar's father has been lying to us for decades! He never told Athrodar to make his mind up about that mage. He only said he did so he could keep the arrangement going for as long as he wanted, denying me what I want in the meantime."

"So you've come here to punish me?" Larysa asked, looking at the General. "Let me guess, it's to make me a better mother?"

"It's to teach you to never go over my head again and order one of my units to do a task without taking it up with me first." Sylvanas told her, tightening her grip around her throat for a few seconds longer, making it difficult for her to breathe before letting go, hearing the elf cough and choke when she finally was able to catch her breath. "The next time any of you want to order my companies or units into doing something. Do the decent thing and inform the General first, otherwise there will be more of that."

"Threatening the King?" Dael'Thaelas asked, smirking at Sylvanas as she walked away from them. "You're getting either bold or stupid now that you've told Athrodar about the arrangement."

"I'm just trying to protect what little I have." Sylvanas told him, opening the doors to the royal chambers. "If this happens again, you'd best start doing the same."

"This place looks sick." Melonara whispered to Athrodar, slowly walking beside. "Almost like a terrible disease has just made everything here rotten."

"This has to be that plague we heard about." Athrodar told her, looking back to the rest of his unit. "Stay close and stay sharp. We don't know what could be hiding here and I don't want to be ambushed by the undead without any mages."

"Why don't we have any mages again?" Viraleth asked, walking behind Athrodar and keeping her bow tightly in her grip. "Lieutenant?" She called out when he didn't respond.

"We were only told to scout, not to engage." Athrodar said, slowing down to walk beside his chief scout. "When were you going to tell me the real reason you're in my unit?" He whispered to her, glancing over to the ranger who looked at the floor.

"After the General told me I could." Viraleth told him, looking over to the Lieutenant. "I'm sorry about keeping it a secret too. I was only doing what I was told and I love Sylvanas too much to go against her wishes." She saw Athrodar look forward and towards the rest of Eastern Lordaeron. "She's my best friend and I'm hers. I didn't want to keep lying to you the entire time I was here, but she told me I had to."

"Unless you're on my father's side of things, I don't blame anyone for what happened and how it happened." He looked over to Viraleth and saw a brief sense of relief wash over her and lowering his voice so only she could hear him. "We spent most of last week together and as far as I am concerned, we are going to see where everything takes us. She really wants this to work out and I want it to work out as well."

Knowing his mannerisms when it came to women, Viraleth narrowed her eyes at her Lieutenant. "Why? What do you plan to do with her?"

"Nothing." Athrodar told Viraleth honestly. "I respect the General for starters and I can see how much she has wanted this to happen by just talking to her. I want to at least try to feel for her what she clearly feels for me."

"That's good." Viraleth said with a smile, looking around at the rest of their unit who weren't paying attention to either one of them. "I do hope it works out. After all, working so closely with both of you gives me a better idea than anyone else how you two would be together and I think if anyone stands in the way of either one of you, they will be in serious trouble."

Athrodar laughed at her assessment. "If that's true, I think she might be the one."

"D'aww." Viraleth smiled brightly at the Lieutenant, making him roll his eyes. "That's so cute that you're already thinking like that about her." She hugged his arm and smiled up at him. "I hope you do stay with Sylvanas, that way I get to be close to the both of you."

"I doubt we'll be able to join her company. At least, I probably won't." He glanced over to Viraleth who kept the smile on her face. "What?"

"I'm sure she can find a way around it." She told him. "I know that when Sylvanas puts her mind to something, it will happen. So if she wants you in her company in the future, she will do everything in her power to make that happen." She nudged the Lieutenant with her elbow. "Expect it to happen."

"Lieutenant, you're going to want to see this." Melonara said with a raised voice full of concern.

"What is it?" Athrodar asked, making his way towards her and looking at what she was looking at. "Belore..." He muttered, watching hundreds of undead march west and in the opposite direction to Quel'thalas. "Where are they coming from?" He asked.

"Stratholme." Viraleth told him, pointing towards the huge cloud of smoke in the distance. "It's been burning for weeks, I'd have a guess and say the entire city has been raised into the undead."

"The entire city?" Athrodar asked just to make sure he heard her correctly, watching her nod and feeling sick all of a sudden. "There's almost one hundred thousand in Stratholme. Surely they're not all... Like that?"

"I'm sure many got out." Viraleth said.

Melonara shook her head. "I hate to say it, but I don't think so. Where could they have gone from Stratholme? We had no refugees come to our gates." Melonara looked over Athrodar who looked in pain at the losses Stratholme alone suffered, let alone all of Lordaeron. "It doesn't sound great to say, but maybe a lot of them burnt in the fires and were spared this harsh reality."

"No, it doesn't sound great to say. But a part of me really hopes that's true, just so they didn't have to become that." He said, pointing at the undead marching in the distance.

"Well, we've found them." Viraleth said, watching the undead march. "We're done now, right?" She looked over to Athrodar who remained silent, watching the undead too and getting lost in thought. "Lieutenant?"

"Send word back to Sunfury that Stratholme has fallen and the undead are marching towards Capital City." He told them.

"What are we going to do?" Melonara asked, knowing the look on Athrodar's face to mean he had a plan. "You're going to want to follow them, aren't you?"

"What?" Viraleth moved to stand in front of Athrodar. "Lieutenant, I respect you and all, but that's not our task."

"You're right, our task was to find Arthas and his army. I don't see Arthas and these are clearly his reinforcements. We have to keep going until we are certain we know of his whereabouts." Athrodar looked back to his unit and saw all of them except Viraleth were getting ready to move out. "Let's go."

"No." Viraleth said, holding her ground. "I'm not going further into death when we can clearly see Arthas is both retreating and taking his army with him."

"Or they're regrouping and getting ready for a second assault with more undead than before." Athrodar told her. "Now let's move."

"I'm not going further into Lordaeron." Viraleth told him, standing her ground and looking at Athrodar and only him.

"You've fought many battles with us in arguably more dangerous situations." Athrodar told him, narrowing his eyes at his Chief Scout when she looked away from him. "There's something else isn't there?"

Viraleth looked around at everyone in her unit, lowering her head and placing her hand on her stomach. "I just... I don't want to risk my life in a place and against an enemy we know nothing about."

Athrodar looked down at her hand and slowly widened his eyes and raising his eyebrows. "A-are you...?"

"I found out on your week off." Viraleth told him, hugging herself and looking away from all the eyes on her. "I haven't even told my husband, I've not had the chance."

Athrodar hugged his Chief Scout, not noticing a couple tears roll down her cheeks. "I get it now, why you're reluctant to go further into Lordaeron." He whispered, pulling back from the hug and looking down at her. "Does Sylvanas know?" He whispered, watching her shake her head.

"Like I said, I only found out last week and I've not had time off to tell my husband, so Sylvanas definitely doesn't know."

Athrodar smiled a little and watched Viraleth wipe her eyes. "When were you going to tell me you're married by the way?"

"I was never going to tell you." Viraleth told him, getting a laugh from Athrodar and laughing herself. "You think Sylvanas is a private person, that's nothing compared to me. You don't even know my family name."

Athrodar's smile began to drop when he tried to remember her family name, suddenly realising he was never told it and gasping at the Chief Scout, pointing at her when she began to smirk. "You've never told me it!"

"I know." Viraleth said, looking around at the rest of the unit. "Listen, I know this isn't a good time to do this, but I was going to hand in a request to transfer back to Sylvanas' company. It's safer for me now and I know she would accept when I tell her why."

Athrodar looked down at the folded parchment Viraleth pulled out of her pocket and placed his hand over hers, closing her hand around the parchment. "Take it to my father, I'm sending you back so you don't have to be here." He saw her looked up at him and smiling down at her. "I don't want to see you in our company when we return, okay? I want you and your baby to be safe."

Viraleth smiled and looked down at the parchment in her hand. "This is going to be another thing I tell Sylvanas, you know. This will make her love you more, knowing you cared so much for her best friend that you sent her home to keep both her and the baby she was carrying safe."

"Tell her we are closing in on Arthas and his undead army too. I will send a runner back in a week with an update." Athrodar saw Viraleth begin to leave, looking over to Melonara who was waiting for him. "Let's get going." He said, making his way over to his second in command. "We need to stay sharp and hidden."

"You do realise you've just let the best Chief Scout in the entirety of the Farstriders go, right?" Melonara reminded him. "She was the General's Chief Scout for decades for a reason, I thought it was a reward for all of our hard work, but she's gone again." She let out a long sigh just to guilt Lieutenant. "Now we're weaker as a unit."

Athrodar hooked his arm around Melonara and pulled her in close to him. "I would have thought doing that makes you look better, no? Surely you're now the best scout in our unit?"

Melonara looked away and began to smile slowly. "That's true..."

"There's the Melonara I know." He said with a smile. "Let's go find Arthas and get back to Quel'Thalas as soon as possible."