Demons At The Strongholds

"They're coming." Velonara said, reaching the human stronghold several minutes before the Burning Legion's forces. "They're a couple minutes out, but there's a lot of them."

"Clea, send a runner back to the orcs and another back to Tyrande." Sylvanas ordered, standing beside Jaina and Kael'thas who were in the middle of the stronghold, behind the humans and elves defending it. "We need to keep out exit secure." Sylvanas told them. "So we can continue to skirmish them between here and the orc stronghold."

Kael'thas nodded his head. "We'll keep it open." He told the General, looking over to the direction of the Burning Legion and hearing the howls of several felhounds charging towards them. "Here they come."

Sylvanas ordered her rangers to nock arrows into their bow and draw them back. "The moment we see them, let loose your arrows." She told them, pulling back on her bowstring a little more. "We have to kill enough of them to make the next hold easier."

At first, the felhounds charged in with their hound masters, fel guards who specialised in training and fighting beside the hounds. They weren't a tough opponent to face, but they weren't a walk in the park either as the felhound grew tentacles on their back that, when attaching themselves to spell casters, began to drain their mana and revitalized the demons, something that began to occur whenever a felhound or two broke through the ranks and went after the mages at the back.

"Clea, gather a group and defend the mages!" Sylvanas commanded when she saw them under constant attack by the felhounds. "Anya, gather a second group and keep the rear safe!"

"On it!" They both said, doing their respective tasks given to them by the General.

Shortly after the felhounds and fel guards attacked, several undead began to join in on the fight, being led by a Lich named Rage Winterchill. "Fools!" The Lich yelled. "You're just delaying the inevitable! The Legion will crush you all and take this world for the master!"

"More undead." Sylvanas muttered, letting loose an arrow into one of the felhounds. "Brilliant." She then said, looking over to the humans fighting on the front line whilst her rangers, as well as herself, were on walls and dotted around the stronghold, letting loose arrow after arrow into the demons and undead. "Keep holding!" She yelled, looking over to Lor'themar. "Theron!"

"General?" Lor'themar came to her side when summoned, looking up at the General who stood on the same wall she had been on since the start.

"Send half your company back to the orcs and tell them to get ready. We can't all retreat together, otherwise it will slow us down." Sylvanas watched him nod slowly. "We'll be leaving soon, the moment we take care of this undead leader, I think we'll be in the clear to retreat back to the orcs."

The fighting between the humans, elves and the Burning Legion had a short stalemate before more and more demons and undead began to pour into the Stronghold, forcing Kael'thas and Jaina to start teleporting several injured back to the world tree, followed by the rest of the humans when they elves began to skirmish with the demons, letting loose volley after volley into the demons and undead who were breaking through. "General, we'll meet you at the world tree!" Kael'thas yelled, seconds before teleporting him and Jaina back to the Kaldorei.

"Clea, let's go!" Sylvanas yelled, letting loose an arrow in between a demon's eyes. "Fall back to the second stronghold!"

"I'm so sorry about your father." Liadrin said, hugging Athrodar the moment he opened the door to Sunblade Manor. "I would have come by last week, but I have been so busy."

Athrodar smiled and hugged Liadrin back. "You would have visited nobody, I only found out yesterday." He said, feeling Liadrin pull back and frown at him.

"H-how? He died three weeks ago, there was a messenger sent to you." She widened her eyes at him. "D-did you make it to the funeral at least?" She asked, watching him shake his head. "What happened?"

"The General was told everything and decided to keep it to herself." Athrodar sighed and shook his head. "I left her, her company and the Farstriders the moment I found out. I can't trust somebody to lead me if they keep my father's death from me for that long."

Liadrin began to grow angry and balled up her hands into fists. "When I next see her..."

Athrodar laughed and moved out the way to allow Liadrin inside. "Whatever you do, don't drag me into it. I'm just a civilian now, I don't have any sway if I do something like that, even if my last name is Sunblade."

"Lucky for me then that my father is a part of the Convocation and I am in training to become the first and head of Silvermoon's Paladin Order." Liadrin told him, watching Athrodar look surprised and grinning at him. "That's right, your best friend Liadrin is about to become the badass of the group!"

Athrodar smiled and nodded his head slowly. "Then I am happy for you, Liadrin. Maybe you'll fight your own fights this time instead of asking me to help you."

"That was one time and there were five of them!" Liadrin yelled, glaring at Athrodar who loved to bring up the one time he helped her out. "It's not my fault their youngest brother sucked at being a priest."

"Never change, Liadrin." Athrodar said, looking over to his mother who made her way towards the Paladin in training.

"Where's the other two?" Illana asked. "The Dawnstriders? They're almost never away from you."

Liadrin smiled and hugged Illana. "There is always one or the other following me, but not today." She said, looking over to Athrodar who began to make his way towards the kitchen. "I came to check on a friend by myself today, since those two are busy."

"You know you're always welcome here." Illana told her, getting a smile and a nod from Liadrin. "Oh, that reminds me. Athrodar, wake Melonara up, it's almost time for lunch."

"Late night again, huh?" Athrodar laughed lightly and shook his head. "I think no longer being a ranger will make life tough for her."

"Wait, she's not a ranger anymore?" Liadrin asked, watching Athrodar shake his head again.

"No, she quit when I quit. I don't think she thought it through, but she was determined to follow me and stick by me, so I didn't question her." Athrodar looked up the stairs he was about to walk up. "Anyway, I best wake her up before she sleeps in for too long."

Liadrin watched Athrodar walk up the stairs and turned her attention back to Illana. "How are you feeling?" She asked her, getting a small smile from her in return.

"I've had better days, but I am okay." Illana told her, placing a hand on Liadrin's arm and smiling at her. "I'm a lot better now that he's here, though having him give up being a ranger like that does make me sad. Dael'Thaelas should be returning home today and the moment he finds out, I fear for what he will do to Athrodar when he confronts him."

"If you'd like, I can be here when he returns? Have Athrodar's back as the daughter of a council member."

Illana smiled and nodded her head. "That would be lovely, thank you."

"Any time, Illana." Liadrin told her, following her to the living room.

"They're on their way here." Sylvanas told Thrall and Cairne, signalling Clea to set up a defense on the walls. "We slowed them down a lot, but there's still thousands of them."

"We'll hold them at bay for as long as possible, hopefully their numbers should have fallen a lot more by then." Cairne told her, looking over to Thrall who nodded his head in agreement. "The rear of the stronghold is clear and should make it easy to retreat."

"Good, thank you." Sylvanas said, looking over to where they had just come from and noticing the tide of demons and undead charging their way. "Get ready." She told them, placing a hand in her quiver and counting only ten arrows left. "Shit..." She muttered to herself, pulling out an arrow and nocking it in place on her bow. "We may have to join in on the melee." She said, looking over to Anya who was standing beside her.

"That's not a bad thing, General." Anya told her. "This is what we do after all."

"I was just hoping we could wait until we were by the world tree before we used our swords." Sylvanas then said. "Now we may lose several brothers and sisters before we get there."

"I don't think we were ever going to get out of this fight without losing any rangers." Anya said, watching Sylvanas nod. "We'll make it through this though, I know we will. We have to get back home so you can have your little Windrunner and I can be its favourite aunt."

Sylvanas smiled and shook her head. "Of course you're thinking about that." She said, drawing the arrow back on her bow. "Make sure we survive then and you can be the best aunt you can be."

The moment the tauren and orcs began to clash with the demons and undead, there were several screeches that echoed through the valley they were in, making several rangers look up at the skies and spot tens, if not hundreds of gargoyles flying down to attack them from behind. "General!" Lor'themar yelled, warning her seconds before she was attacked.

Sylvanas looked up at the gargoyle flying down towards her, letting loose an arrow into the chest of the flying beast, pulling out both of her swords and slashing them at two more gargoyles that followed the first one, being knocked off her feet when a fourth one attacked her from behind and watching Clea cut it down when she ran to her side. "Are you okay?" Clea asked, offering the General a hand and pulling her up onto her feet.

"That thing caught me off guard." Sylvanas told her, picking up her bow and looking over to Thrall who cast a chain lightning spell at a group of gargoyles and knocking them all out the air. "At least they're doing better than I expected."

"Their shaman are quite strong." Clea said, getting a nod from Sylvanas.

"I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of their spells." Sylvanas told her, looking over to the demons slowly pushing through the front lines. "Clea, gather our rangers and patch the holes the demons are making in our lines, the longer we hold them off, the more of them will die. We have the better fighters, but they have the numbers. If we can keep them contained, they will fall a lot easier than they are now."

Clea nodded her head once and left to gather several rangers. "On it." She told the General, gathering half of the General's company and making their way to the front lines.

"How long do you think we can hold them off for?" Lor'themar asked, fighting beside the General.

"Not for long, but hopefully long enough to put a dent into their numbers." Sylvanas told him, letting loose one of her last arrows into another gargoyle and hearing a loud, boom roar echo through the valley. "What now?" She asked, looking up at a skeletal dragon flying down towards them. "Oh, come on. Give us a break!"

"I don't think we can hold them off for long anymore." Lor'themar told her, watching a barrage of spells fly towards and hit the skeletal dragon, but it looked to do no damage as the giant beast continued to fly towards them at speed.

"Take cover!" Sylvanas yelled when she saw a blue glow begin to appear behind the jaw of the skeletal dragon, hiding next to a nearby wall when the skeletal dragon breathed ice in a strafing run across the stronghold. "Thrall, Cairne, take it out!" She yelled, watching Thrall cast another chain lightning spell but directed it towards the skeletal dragon.

On contact, the lightning spell hit one of the bones connecting the wing to the skeletal body, severing the limb from the beast and sending the dragon crashing down into the middle of the stronghold with a loud bang. "Keep it up!" Thrall commanded his shaman, sending a bolt of lightning towards the fallen dragon. "We can kill this beast here!"

"General!" Clea yelled, taking several steps back as well as everyone else on the front lines when they began to get overwhelmed. "They're breaking through." She yelled, parrying a strike and sinking her sword deep into the demon who tried to kill her. "We can't... hold.. them!" She strained, pushing back the axe she held between her two swords and taking another couple steps backwards. "General."

"Damn it!" Sylvanas hissed, looking over to the crumbling front lines and gritting her teeth. "Fall back!" She yelled, looking over to Thrall and Cairne who nodded at her and began to call back their units too. "Back to the world tree!" She yelled, placing her hand on her quiver and counting four arrows remaining and pull out one of them. "Anya, slow them down whilst the rest of them retreat!" She commanded, getting a nod from the ranger who told Lor'themar it was his turn to skirmish with his company whilst the rest of them retreated.

It sucked, but they had no other choice, especially with how easily they had broken through both defenses. But there wasn't much the General could do and that's what made it painful. She hated this sense of uselessness when it came to a fight and right now, she couldn't do anything but retreat back to the final position.

"He's here." Illana said, looking down at her son who was sat on the chair in front of her. "He doesn't look too happy."

"I didn't expect him to be." Athrodar told his mother honestly. "Might as well get this over with, stay here."

Liadrin poked her head into the room along with Melonara when they heard Athrodar talk, watching him make his way out of the room and frowning. "Where's he going?" Liadrin whispered to Illana who let out a small sigh.

"Dael'Thaelas is here." She told her, watching Melonara push her way past Liadrin and quickly making her way over to where Athrodar had just walked to, being stopped by Illana before she could get there. "He wants to do this on his own."

"What did you do?" Dael'Thaelas asked Athrodar the moment he entered the same room as his great grandfather.

"You know what I did, otherwise you wouldn't look so angry." Athrodar told him, folding his arms and looking at him. "And you know why too."

"Yes, your father's death is a tragedy, that doesn't mean you can just throw your entire life away as a result of it." Dael'Thaelas told him, placing up his hand to cut off Athrodar when he saw he was about to speak. "I know the General didn't tell you what had happened and you had to find out from Aerinan, but still. Three decades in the making to get you to partner up with the Ranger-General, thrown away within a few, not very well thought out, reactions."

"I left the Farstriders because I can't trust the General that leads them." Athrodar told his great grandfather. "She knew about the Amani leaving and my father's death for three weeks and said nothing. During that time, she planned our future together, told me how much she loved me and cared for me whilst sleeping in the same bed as me, yet she failed to tell me my father was dead?" Athrodar shook his head. "I don't want anything to do with her now, which is why I left."

"You do realise that leaving the Farstriders makes you nothing in this family. Are you prepared to live like that?" Dael'Thaelas asked him.

"I am." Athrodar told him, hearing Dael'Thaelas sigh. "My mother is already nothing in your eyes, why not make your lives easier by having me join her? Besides, I'm planning on moving us away from this place and far away from the General and you."

Dael'Thaelas began to smirk. "And go where exactly? Lordaeron has fallen, Gilneas has walled off their people. Arathi is crumbling and Stromgarde isn't doing any better."

"Stormwind." Athrodar told him. "They're welcoming in refugees from Lordaeron and I don't think it will be too much of a stretch to convince the people there we're also refugees from Lordaeron, banished from our homeland because we spoke up about breaking off from the Alliance." He shrugged his shoulders and folded his arms across his chest. "So make the most of this time with your great grandson, Lord Sunblade. This will probably be one of the last times you see him."

Dael'Thaelas narrowed his eyes at his great grandson. "A day will come when you want to return here, if you really want to leave this family behind, I will make it so you are never welcomed back into these forests."

"My mother hasn't even been welcomed into this family, so not being welcomed back here is something she can adjust to." Athrodar told him, glaring at his great grandfather. "When he returns, I will inform the Prince of my decision and I am almost certain he will welcome us back here whenever we decide to return. After all, he has more power than you and that's something that will eat away at you over time. Not having your way when it comes to my mother and I."

"I'll make sure you're not welcomed back here, don't you worry about that." Dael'Thaelas told him, though he could see Athrodar remained unconvinced and began to get angry at his smug face. "Don't bother informing me when you're leaving, you two aren't a part of this family any more."

"Good." Athrodar said. "I didn't plan on telling you anyway, but since you're here I thought I might as well." He looked back to the door he was standing in front of. "Now if you don't mind, I need to get back to Liadrin and Melonara. We were having a conversation before you interrupted us with your arrival."

Dael'Thaelas watched Athrodar return to Sunblade Manor with a glare, clenching his fists tightly and storming away shortly after.

"Is he gone?" Illana asked, watching Athrodar nod his head. "What did he say?"

"He isn't happy with me, but that was to be expected." He hugged his mother who hugged him shortly after. "I told him we are leaving for Stormwind when Prince Kael'thas returns." He felt his mother pull back from the hug and smiled at her. "What do you say? Get away from everyone here and start again with the humans? I'm sure they'll accept us."

"A-are you sure?" Illana asked him watching Athrodar nod. "I don't know..."

"It will be fine." He said, looking over to Melonara and Liadrin. "Me, you and Mel. We'll find a place in the city, you can work on your jewelcrafting -"

"Tailoring." Illana corrected, laughing when Athrodar looked shocked he had forgotten. "It's okay, I know it's not the most fun, but I enjoy it."

"Right, tailoring. You can work on your tailoring, Mel wants to open up a tavern at some point and I suppose I could help her with that." He looked over to Melonara who smiled and nodded her head. "We'll be fine."

"I have always wanted to visit Stormwind." Liadrin said, smiling at the three of them. "It would be nice to visit you all in Stormwind in the future, just to get away from this place if it becomes too much for a week or two."

"We leave when Kael'thas returns right? So you can tell him?" Melonara asked, getting a nod from Athrodar. "I suppose we just wait then." She said, sitting down on a nearby couch and resting her head on Illana's shoulder when she joined her. "This is going to be fun."

"I wish I could stay longer, but I have to report back to Halduron who doesn't even know that I have left for today." Liadrin said, grinning at them all and watching Athrodar shake his head. "What? You know I love to do what I want, especially if it messes with people's plans for the day."

"Well I love having you visit. And the Dawnstrider duo, but they're busy so I won't complain." Athrodar hugged Liadrin who hugged him first, feeling her tighten the hug a little and frowning at her. "Are you worried you won't get to hug me again in the next few days?"

Liadrin nodded her head against his chest. "You know how close we are when those pesky Dawnstriders aren't here. I want to hear you say you will say in touch after you leave for Stormwind. I need my Sunblade friend to talk to when they're busy."

"You know I'll always want to talk to you, Liadrin. I'd miss out on all the ways you annoy Vilandil or how well you are doing in your studies and now apparently paladin training." Athrodar pulled back from the hug and smiled at her. "I'll send you a letter the moment we find a place in Stormwind, then you can drop by whenever you want, okay? We'll always welcome you."

"I know you will." Liadrin said, smiling back at him. "Anyway... I do need to leave." She looked over to Illana who was making her way over to her. "Stay safe, okay?" She said, getting a kiss on the cheek in response.

"I will." Illana said, looking over to her son. "He's here now, nothing will happen until we get to Stormwind. Then we'll be truly safe from the likes of Dael'Thaelas or anyone else who might do us harm."

Melonara yawned and stretched as she began to lay down on the couch she had moved to. "Plus we'll own the best tavern in Stormwind that even the regulars will protect us." She told them, closing her eyes and wrapping the nearby blanket over herself. "Then we'll see what Dael'Thaelas does to us."

Liadrin frowned and looked over to Athrodar. "Is she...?"

"Oh she's serious alright. I think she'll work hard to make it happen too." Athrodar smiled and folded his arms, watching Melonara fall to sleep as a way to pass the time. "And with the many years I've spent fighting beside her, I think we'll have fun running a tavern too."

"Well, again. When I come by, I will want and expect to be welcomed with open arms and even a flagon or two." Liadrin walked out of Sunblade Manor and span on her heel to face them once more. "I'll send Thal and Vil over when they have some free time, so they can hear from you how you're going to leave them."

"Come on, it's not like that and you know it." Athrodar sighed when he heard Liadrin begin to laugh. "I don't know how many decades it's, but you still find a way to tease me."

"That's because it's so easy." Liadrin told him, smirking at the young Sunblade. "I don't know when they'll come by, but I'm sure I can get them to visit within the next couple of days."

"I look forward to it." Athrodar told her, watching Liadrin leave and make her way towards Silvermoon to the north.