First Night Out At Sea

"The ships should have left and made their way to Kalimdor by now." Larysa said, standing near her King as he was placing the final touches to his attire. "We should get word when they arrive on the shores of the continent."

"And the Amani?" Anasterian asked, looking back to Larysa who was now flicking through the reports in her hand.

"Aerinan and his company haven't reported anything out of the ordinary. The mages with them are keeping the illusions down so we know that they're still in there, but Dael'Thaelas is returning south to check on them today. So if anything was to happen, we have two companies full of rangers over by the Amani city."

"One more thing." Anasterian said, looking out towards the city from a nearby window. "When they return, have both Sylvanas and Athrodar sent here as soon as possible."

Larysa tilted her head a little at her King. "Any reason, my King?"

"Of course, but not one I am willing to share with anyone other than those two." He said, looking over to the Sunblade politician. "You can go now. Tell the Convocation I will be there in ten minutes."

Larysa bowed her head to him. "Right away, my King." She said, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Anasterian looked down at his hand and began to cast a flame on the palm of it, smiling when he could feel he still had some form of power in his spells but then closed his eyes and sighed when the flame began to flicker, closing the palm of his hand too and placing it by his side again. "I'll be with you soon, my heart." He said to himself, opening his eyes and looking over to the picture of his late wife beside his bed. "One more decade of me trying to make Kael'thas ready for the throne and then we can be together again."

As he made to leave his room, he looked over to the ring beside his late wife's picture and smiled a little, walking over to it and placing the ring in his pocket just to be close to her again and making his way to the council hall.

"Okay..." Sylvanas panted, drawing circles on Athrodar's chest with her finger. "Now.. You're never... Ever... Leaving my side."

Athrodar chuckled and placed his hand over the top of hers. "And you said we have about a week in here, right?" He asked, getting a laugh from Sylvanas in return. "Fun week."

"Definitely a fun week." She agreed, moving over to lay face down on top of him and planting a kiss on his lips and then pressing her ear to his chest. "Wrap us up, just in case someone comes in." She told him, closing her eyes and smiling when Athrodar placed the duvet over the top of them. "I want to stay here forever, lying naked on top of you in our bed and not having to worry about a thing."

"That does sound tempting." Athrodar agreed, closing his eyes and enjoying the post coital bliss with the General. "You were really good, by the way. I am exhausted." He squeezed her a little. "I think that was the best sex I've had."

Sylvanas giggled and held onto Athrodar tightly. "Thanks." She said, making Athrodar laugh.

"Glad to know you're taking all the credit." He said, planting a long kiss on the top of her head.

"Because it was all me." She told him, laughing when he laughed. "Okay, I suppose you deserve some of the credit."

"Thank you." Athrodar said, wrapping his arms around her. "I could sleep for hours now."

"So could I." She whispered to him when she noticed he had closed his eyes. "Hey," She then whispered, watching him open his eyes a little to look at her. "I love you."

Athrodar smiled and looked her in the eyes the best he could, trying to fight off sleep for a little while longer. "I love you too."

"You can sleep now." She told him, moving to lay beside him now instead of on top of him. "I'm going to lay here and watch you sleep."

"A little creepy." Athrodar told her, getting a laugh in return.

"I don't care, after what we've just done I want to watch you sleep all the time when I'm not tired, just to make sure you're both real and that you'll never be taken from me." She leaned down and kissed him lightly, pulling back and watching as he began to drift off to sleep. "You'll be safe here." She muttered, stroking a hand through his hair. "I'll do everything in my power to make sure we stay together and away from Dael'Thaelas when we get back."

Whilst she watched over him, there was a light knock on the door after almost an hour had passed since he fell asleep and Melonara slowly poked her head in when she heard Sylvanas tell her to enter. "I hope I'm not interrupting?" She asked quietly when she noticed Athrodar asleep and Sylvanas laying beside him.

"Not at all." The General told her, looking over to the ranger. "What is it?" She then asked.

"I just wanted to check in on him." Melonara said, smiling a little at the pair of them when she saw how peaceful they looked. "I haven't seen him since you both walked onto this ship, so I was just checking in to make sure he was okay."

"He's just very tired." Sylvanas said, looking back to Athrodar and smiling at his sleeping form. "I'm just letting him sleep now."

Melonara began to grin when she noticed the clothes thrown on the floor. "Had fun I see." She said, placing a hand over her mouth when she realised she said that out loud. "A-apologies, General. I didn't.."

"It's fine." Sylvanas told her, laughing at the same time. "I should have guessed you'd be similar to him. You've spent decades working together, I can only presume you have nothing to hide and speak your mind a lot."

Melonara smiled and looked over to Athrodar again. "He's my brother out there. We have each other's backs more often than not."

"I'm hoping that remains true now that you'll be in my company." Sylvanas said, looking back to Athrodar again and lightly stroking her fingers through his hair. "I want you to promise me you'll keep him safe or at the very least try your hardest to keep him safe whilst you're both on Kalimdor as my scouts."

"I will." Melonara told her, watching Sylvanas continue to stroke her hand through his hair. "Was it really three decades?" She asked the General, watching her nod her head slowly. "I don't know how you could wait that long to tell someone you love them."

"It's going to sound really sappy and a little creepy, but I only waited this long because I really do love him. I watched him for years, learning everything about him from Viraleth and that just made me certain that he was the one for me. The only reason I waited this long - outside of his family stopping me - was because I needed to if he was the right one." She began to smile brighter than she had since Melonara knocked on the door, keeping her attention on Athrodar and only Athrodar. "Now that I have told him, I don't want to lose him. Especially because he said he loved me too."

"Wow..." Melonara said, genuinely surprised by that piece of information. "He has been with a lot of women and I think you're the first one he has ever said those words to." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Sorry... I'm sure you didn't need to know he had been with a lot of women."

"It's fine." Sylvanas told her again, smirking at the ranger standing by the door. "We live for centuries at a time, some of us even go for millennia. I don't hold it against him that he has been with a lot of women before me. He's the youngest of the Sunblade house, I'm sure he had women throwing themselves at him whenever he wasn't on duty."

"Or when he was on duty." Melonara said, laughing when Sylvanas laughed. "Like I said, you're the first I think he has ever said 'I love you' to, so you must have done something to win him over so easily and quickly."

"We just talked." Sylvanas told her. "For hours and hours, we just talked and I think he loved having someone to talk to. I know I did."

Melonara frowned and folded her arms across her chest. "What did you do to get him to open up? He seems to want to keep things from me whenever I ask about his family."

"The trick is to never ask about his family." Sylvanas told her, smiling a little and placing a hand over the top of his. "He doesn't like talking about his family. You'll probably get something about his mother, maybe his father, but nobody else." She frowned and watched him sleep, feeling her heart tighten in her chest a little when she thought about one person in his family. "He never wants to talk about his great grandmother. All I know is she died during the second war and he loved her so much."

"Okay, he never speaks to me about his great grandmother either. I was hoping you would get something out of him about her."

Sylvanas shook her head. "I don't want to ask him either. He seems to almost shut down the one time I asked him, I just hugged him and basically told him to forget that I asked. He's never brought her up again since."

"I didn't know he loved her so much, I only knew that she died during the second war." Melonara looked over to Athrodar and let out a small sigh. "Maybe that's why he and his family hate the Amani and everyone who stood with them during that time."

"Let's hope we don't run into any orcs, trolls or red dragons whilst we're in Kalimdor then." Sylvanas said.

Melonara smiled and bowed her head slightly. "I should get going, leave you two alone some more before we get to Kalimdor."

"Thank you." Sylvanas said, watching her open the door slightly. "And thank you for being there for him over the years. I am happy you're in my company with him."

Melonara smiled and bowed her head again. "It's nothing, General. Like I said, he's my brother."

Once they were alone again, Sylvanas looked back to Athrodar who had opened his eyes after his brief hour sleep, frowning at him when she saw he was looking off into the distance. "Are you okay?" She asked him, not getting a response from him. "Athrodar?"

"Huh, what?" Athrodar looked over to her and smiled a little. "Sorry, I was lost in thought."

"What were you thinking about?" She asked, tilting her head a little. "Also, why are you awake already?"

"You two weren't exactly whispering." Athrodar told her, laughing when he saw she felt guilty for waking him up. "And I was thinking that she would have loved you so much."

"Who?" Sylvanas asked him now.

"My great grandmother." He told her with a smile. "You mentioned her when you were talking to Melonara and it reminded me of her and how much she would have loved to have you in her family." His smile turned sad when his memories of her began to turn towards the Second War again. "You would have been the daughter she always wanted. Larysa and my mother aren't rangers and I think she was sad she didn't have that in common with the women of this family."

Sylvanas wrapped her arms around Athrodar when she saw him looking upset at the memories, hugging him tightly against her and quietly humming a song she used to hum to her younger siblings when they were upset. "I'm sure I would have loved her too."

"My mother would love you a lot too." Athrodar told her, closing his eyes and leaning into Sylvanas as she continued to hug him. "She loves everybody to be fair, but I think the idea of her having a daughter, even if by marriage, would make her happy."

"Thinking about marriage already?" Sylvanas asked, chuckling a little and hearing Athrodar laugh a little too. "I would love to meet her properly. The only time I've met her was when we were waiting for you father to come home so I could punch him in the face."

"That wasn't why we were waiting there, but I have to agree with you that it was a good hit." Athrodar began to sink down a little, going back to laying down in the bed. "Come here." He said, opening his arms up so she could cuddle up to him as close as possible and wrapping them around her when she did exactly that. "In your three decades of waiting, did you ever think about a future where we had kids?"

"All the time." Sylvanas whispered to him, looking him in the eyes and knowing he was smiling at her without looking anywhere else. "Sometimes two, sometimes three. But I am also open to having an entire army of kids if that's what you want too. I was just being realistic in my day dreams."

"I'd be happy with three. Just to start off with." Athrodar whispered back to her, hearing her chuckle a little. "Then when they're old enough and do their own thing, we could have more?"

"That sounds like a solid plan to me." Sylvanas agreed, planting several kisses on his chest whilst she remained cuddled up to him. "Of course I am going to make you the one who stays at home to look after them. I'm the Ranger-General, I'm not going to stay at home to look after them all the time."

"I understand that, but you will try to visit us, right?"

Sylvanas pulled back from the cuddle and smiled at him. "Of course. If we get to that point in our relationship, where we're married and with kids, I will have a hard time not visiting you and our kids." She told him, leaning forward and kissing him lightly. "I'd probably spend more time at home and around Windrunner Village than actually out there fighting whatever enemy we next have."

"I think you will find it tough to leave." Athrodar told her, watching Sylvanas tilt her head at him. "I will be trying my hardest to keep you at home with me."

Sylvanas laughed again and cuddled up to him once more. "Listen to us. Three weeks together and already we're talking marriage, kids and moving in. I think Dael'Thaelas may have his plan completed by the time a year is up at this rate."

Athrodar closed his eyes and smiled. "Not a bad way to spend a year together."

"Exactly." Sylvanas then agreed, closing her eyes and letting out a yawn. "I think I should sleep for a while. I have nothing to do until we reach Kalimdor."

"Already one step ahead of you." Athrodar told her, keeping his eyes closed and focusing on sleeping again, but this time with the General joining him.

"Any movement?" Dael'Thaelas asked his son, arriving on the outskirts of Zul'Aman a few minutes ago and looking over to the ancient Troll city.

"There have been a couple of skirmishes started by the trolls, but nothing we couldn't handle." Aerinan told his father, looking over to him. "What's this I hear about Sylvanas moving Athrodar and his second into her company moments before sailing to Kalimdor?"

"The King has moved them into that company as an experiment and a test for them both. They're going to Kalimdor to help the humans, but the Prince suspects something else is happening on the Continent, hence why the General and Ranger Lord Theron are joining him with their companies." Dael'Thaelas looked over to his son and smiled a little. "I'm hoping it works out otherwise this has been a waste of three decades and I will put the entirety of that failure on your son's shoulders."

"Because he stopped them from being together for three decades, or because Athrodar and Sylvanas couldn't make it work?" Aerinan asked, just to get a clear answer.

"Both." Dael'Thaelas said. "Tahnir is to blame for keeping them apart for three decades and for not raising a son that could do the simple task of wooing the General." He looked over to his son who seemed to be thinking about those answers. "He may not like it, but his job was to raise Athrodar to be a Sunblade, not an elf who sleeps around just because his family has the money and the power to get away with it for so long."

"You can't blame Tahnir for -"

"I can and I have." Dael'Thaelas snapped back, interrupting his son before he could finish his sentence. "Just because he doesn't want to join in on securing this family's future, doesn't mean you have to start defending his actions." He looked over to Zul'Aman in front of him once again. "I raised you better than that." He glanced over to his son who looked down at the family ring on his finger. "I'm hoping Athrodar has the common sense to see what I have planned and will not turn his back on this family like his father."

Aerinan kept his focus on the ring, glancing over to Dael'Thaelas when there was a long silence after he had finished speaking. "I'm sure he knows what would happen if he turns his back on us too." He said, agreeing with his father just to not be on his bad side. "I don't think she will agree with it, but the General will probably understand that and make him focus on increasing our family name too."

"We can't expect the General to be that understanding. If she is against it, she will try to drag Athrodar away from us and turn him against us." Dael'Thaelas said.

"When they return, we need to make sure he understands that family comes first and we will secure his future if he isn't stupid."

Aerinan bowed his head slightly. "I will see what I can do. Maybe Larysa will have something to say, or she can talk Illana into doing something." He looked over to Zul'Aman now. "He always was closer to his mother than he was to Tahnir."

"Good. Maybe she will become useful after all." Dael'Thaelas said, making his way towards Zul'Aman now. "Come on, let's go see if anything has changed."

"It's quiet tonight." Kael'thas said, standing beside Athrodar who was on the side of the main deck, looking up at the stars. "Clear skies too."

Athrodar smiled and kept his gaze on the blanket of stars above him. "I haven't been on the water for as long as I can remember." He said, looking over to the Prince who stood close by. "I was barely a decade old, but I remember it being a family day out before politics really took hold of everyone. I barely remember the details of that day, but the one thing I do remember about the trip was having my great grandmother's arms around me whilst everyone else was asleep, looking up at the stars with her and listening to her tell me something I don't think I'd ever forget."

Kael'thas smiled when he saw Athrodar's attention remain on the stars above. "Would it be rude of me to ask what she said?" He asked the Lieutenant, forgetting about their political and social ranks and just talking to kin for a moment, sharing stories about their respective pasts.

"It's okay." Athrodar told him, looking at the Prince for a second before returning his gaze to the stars. "She said the stars are our ancestors, looking down at us from the heavens and protecting us even after they have gone." His smile lessened a little, though he continued to look at the stars. "I don't believe the story now and I don't think she believed it then, but a small part of me wants to believe, and I think it does believe, that she is up there, looking out for me and making sure I am safe." He looked back to Kael'thas who was smiling too, but looking down at the water below. "I think she told me that because she knew she wasn't going to be around forever and was giving me something to always believe in after she had gone."

"She married Dael'Thaelas right?" Kael'thas asked him, watching Athrodar nod. "I remember her. She was an excellent ranger and a kind soul. Whenever we visited your family, I would always see her looking after either you or Tahnir whilst my father spoke to Dael'Thaelas. She loved you all from what I saw and I can see you still love her as much as you did then."

Athrodar's smile turned sad as he looked down at the water below them now. "I don't really talk about her since her death, but that's because I feel like a part of me had died when I found out she was killed. Sylvanas knows about this and now you do too, but I can't speak about her for too long without being reminded of that day."

"Then we won't talk about her." Kael'thas said, looking over to the other ships in their fleet. "Word spreads really quickly here despite us being on separate ships." He then said, grinning when he heard Athrodar laugh a little. "Such as you and the General spending almost all day in the cabin together, making really suggestive sounds. Which only confirms the other word being spread."

"Let me guess, it's the two of us being a couple?" Athrodar asked, watching Kael'thas smile wider and getting confirmation. "It's not like we're trying to hide it now..." He muttered, shaking his head.

"I think you could have been a bit more open about it." Kael'thas suggested. "Maybe just telling everyone you're together would stop the whispers."

"I thought Sylvanas told one of the rangers to do that?" He asked, watching the Prince shrug his shoulders. "I suppose I should talk to her about it, maybe a confirmation from the General will stop any whispers."

"Speaking of Sylvanas, how are you two? I've never actually asked how you both feel about being together."

"I am loving every second with her." Athrodar told him, watching the Prince smile. "But... I feel like I have jumped into this whole thing too quickly." He looked over to the cabin and felt a little guilty for saying so. "It's not even been a month and we spoke about marriage and kids only a few hours ago." His attention returned to Kael'thas who raised an eyebrow at him. "Not right now, but as future plans of course. Here's the thing, I know nothing about her and I literally mean nothing. Her name, family and what her rank is, sure. But I don't know if she has any hobbies, what she likes and dislikes. I don't even know her age, not really. I know she's older than me, but that's it."

Kael'thas began to chuckle, looking out to the ocean again. "You have definitely jumped into this quickly, but I think you will find you'll enjoy finding things out about each other as the weeks go by."

"I hope you're right." Athrodar said. "She wants this to be a serious relationship, one where we do settle down, get married and have kids, but like I said I know nothing about her." He looked down at the ring on his finger. "I've not even spoken to my family about how I feel about her either."

"Are things really that bad since I last visited?" He asked, watching Athrodar shrug his shoulders.

"It's always been pretty rough between my father and Dael'Thaelas, but things are just getting worse over the years that I try not to say anything to them unless I have to." He sighed and bent his ears a little. "My mother isn't having a great time there either. With my father and Dael'Thaelas constantly butting heads, she is getting pushed out of the family more and more that she now feels like an outsider. She hasn't told me that, but I can see it."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Kael'thas said. "I remember things being a lot more... I don't know, calm?"

Athrodar let out a small laugh. "I wished I could have seen those days. Like I said earlier, the only day I remember being calm was that day with my great grandmother on the ship."

"I'm sure they'll return." Kael'thas told him. "Who knows, you might start that life with Sylvanas and create your own calm, happy family."

Athrodar smiled and nodded his head in agreement. "Maybe." He looked over to the cabin and smiled a little wider, knowing who was sleeping inside and wanting to return to her. "Thank you for this, by the way. Making sure I came along, giving us the cabin and now talking to me tonight. I think I really needed this time away from everyone and to clear my head after the last three weeks of chaos."

Kael'thas smiled and bowed his head to him a little. "It was my pleasure. I'm hoping that we have more days like this in the future as two members of two powerful families who need to get away from it all."

"Until duty calls us back." Athrodar told him, watching Kael'thas look away and smiling a little at him. "I must return to her now before she wakes up and wonders where I am."

"Go." Kael'thas said to him, watching Athrodar bow his head to him before making his way back to the cabin.