Invincible whinnied in excitement. He bucked and trotted friskily. He knew as soon as Arthas had mounted up onto him that he was about to see some action. The horse was pleased, knowing that he was Arthas's preferred mount.

Arthas was angry, and Invincible could tell. Several frostwyrms were in a circle around them. They were growling impatiently.

Lethumo stood to the side, trying to be stern with Silvia. Apparently, the little girl was wanting to save Aunt Sapphire and kill a bunch of stuff. Normally, Lethumo applauded her bloodthirstiness. Not today. She was crying, but Lethumo was being as cold as ice. Arthas was tempted to get involved, but that was not his child and not his right to tell Lethumo how to deal with her. However, he told himself to be less angry next time Silvia brings in a random wild animal. Excepting all except a mammoth. When Silvia had once brought a mammoth into the Citadel, it had been chaos.

Rot and Terra came running up, barking like mad. Arthas narrowed his eyes when they came over to him and looked at him.

"What?"

Rot barked, and stood up on his hind legs. Arthas scowled.

"No, you are not coming with me!"

The dog sat back down. He stared at the man with dead black eyes. Arthas blinked in surprise as the two dogs just sat there, staring.

He was adamant. "No! You can't come!"

Terra tilted her head, perking up her ears. Rot was silent. Their stares were unnerving.

"...Fine! All right? Stop giving me those looks! Light damn..."

The plaguehounds gave each other knowing looks. Invincible snorted at them in derision. A shadow covered the plaguehound puppies, which turned out to be Ni'kua. The dog growled at them, then laid down. Rot and Terra clambered up onto the bigger dog's back.

"Ready?" Arthas asked in annoyance. The dogs all barked. Invincible whinnied.

Zyperias pushed Sapphire to the ground. She fought against him, but she was fighting more against the fear. She felt like the naive little girl she used to be. The one that didn't even know what a tree was. She felt pity for her younger self. If she had known then what she knew now...She didn't know how it might have turned out. She would have never touched Frostmourne. She might have found Ethan, went back with him to live with Jaina. Most likely, they would have married, but they would have never had children. Ethan would still be undead.

Sapphire suddenly felt grateful that she had touch Frostmourne. Grateful her father had been a cruel person.

"I would have preferred to do this in my body, but that is impossible. I will just have to make do."

Sapphire felt sick. She just closed her eyes. A small tingle forced her to open her eyes. It was just a slight feeling, but Sapphire knew she had some magic somehow. She had no idea how, but she was about to used that to her advantage.

A roar was in the distance. Zyperias grabbed Sapphire and kissed her on the lips. She bit him hard. Zyperias laughed.

"Sweetheart, I didn't think you were so eager. Bite me, and I will bite you back."

Before Sapphire could react, Zyperias lunged forward and bit her on the neck. Sapphire screamed as the San'layn's teeth sunk into her flesh. Sapphire decided to chance it now. With her hand, she made ice crystals in the shape of sharp needles on her fingertips. With a quick movement, she dug them into Zyperias's side. They sliced right through his clothes, and hit flesh.

Zyperias snarled in pain, but then make a choking sound. Sapphire stared at him. Blood dripped out of his mouth, but it was not just Sapphire's bright red blood, but some black too. Hands grabbed the San'layn and pulled him off of Sapphire. A hooded deathknight stood there, runeblade dripped blood. Sapphire stared at him, and realized it was Randall. The deathknight that her father trusted so much. She saw that the trust was well-founded.

"Come on! Quickly. I have your sister hidden nearby!"

Sapphire scrambled to her feet, and gasped. She looked at the bloodied Zyperias. He was still alive. He was getting up from the ground.

She looked at him, and growled. "No. I am going to finish him. Give me your sword."

Randall looked like he was going to protest, but a look from Sapphire changed his mind. He held out the sword. Sapphire took the hilt, and turned to Zyperias.

Serenity hugged Jaina tightly, as she carried the girl into the Violet Citadel. Serenity had never once been in Dalaran. She had wanted to, but Sapphire had been waiting to let her go to the floating city. Not because of anything bad. But Sapphire had wanted Serenity to be overwhelmed by the city when she went there to go train as a mage.

Overwhelmed, Serenity was. She had read about Sapphire's first impression about Dalaran. Her mother had not seen anything like it. Unfortunately, Serenity couldn't see that much before she was taken into the Citadel. The floor had a beautiful symbol. The ceiling was dizzily high. Jaina took her to her office.

"Sweetheart, stay here. I will be back for you."

The girl sniffled, and nodded. Jaina kissed her on the forehead, and left without another word. Serenity looked around. Books sat on the desk in the room. Serenity smiled, and picked one up. She started reading it, trying not to worry.

"Ow!" Ethan yelped.

The cultist trying to remove the arrow from his shoulder scowled. "Stay still."

Glacier had brought Ethan to Calwood Lodge, where most of the refugees from New Alterac had went to. Ethan was relieved to see them safe. He recognized some, and greeted them. They all seemed happy that he was all right. The cultist, a woman named Mira, immediately had started to help him. And was now trying to get the arrow out of his shoulder, but Ethan was not having it.

When she tried again, Ethan howled in pain. He snapped at her.

"Stop it! Just...Do you have any pain killers?"

"No, Your Majesty. We used it all up for the refugees with injuries."

Ethan sighed. "Go find a deathknight then. A disciple of Frost, if you don't mind."

The cultist looked at him in confusion. He just scowled. The cultist went off in search of deathknight. Ethan laid down on the ground, sniffing. He was on the main porch of the lodge. The wooden was uncomfortable, but Ethan did not feel like walking inside. There were footsteps up the steps. Ethan looked up.

A teenage orc girl was looking at him. He smiled. "Hello."

"You have an arrow in your shoulder," She said bluntly.

Ethan looked at it. Blood and fur was clumped around it. He glanced back at her. "Yeah."

The deathknight and cultist came. The girl was shooed away. Ethan sat up, and looked at the deathknight.

"You are a Frost deathknight?"

The deathknight said he was, and Ethan continued.

"All right. I learned this when I was deathknight. You can use your freezing powers to freeze my nerves. Can you see if you could freeze the nerves around my shoulder?"

The deathknight looked skeptical. He was a young one apparently. Had only been a deathknight for a year. But with Ethan's guidance, he was able to freeze the nerves in Ethan's shoulder. It hurt, but soon the boy's entire shoulder was numb. Ethan then told the cultist she could pull the arrow out. The deathknight offered to do it, and with a disturbing squelch, tore the arrow from the flesh. Ethan groaned. The cultist started to heal it. Ethan laid his head down, groaning. Once it was healed over, Ethan stood up weakly and headed over to Glacier.

"Take me back to the Forsaken," Ethan said. Glacier jerked her head back in surprise.

You just had an arrow ripped out of you. You are in no shape to fight.

Ethan was in no shape to argue. "Glacier! I will be going! At least let me stay on your back, and help you."

The frostwyrm growled, but knelt down.

Jakjak the wolvar sniffed. He looked at all of the walking dead things. They smelled bad. Jakjak clutched at his spear.

The wolvar looked at his companions. Other wolvar, tuskar, furbolg, and even a couple of weird things called tol'vir. The big chief of the undead Scourge tribe had spoken with Jakjak, and told him where he needed his group of warriors to be. Jakjak had been confused by the maps, and other stuff, but he had a furbolg told him what needed to be done. The big human talked funny, and wore funny spiked metal. He was called "Snow" by a small elf thing, so Jakjak called him Snowfur because of the human's white fur on his head. The furbolgs called him the Dark One, but Jakjak did not know why. Maybe because his big metal den was in a dark cold place.

Jakjak did not like the smell of dead things, but the Scourge tribe helped his people sometimes, and were friendly. The undead that he looked at right now were a tribe called the "Forsaken." They were bad things. Jakjak had seem the smoke from the big village that Blackfur, Snowfur's daughter's mate, was chief of. It was huge, with a giant den for Blackfur. Blackfur was more like wolvar, looking like a big black worg. It seemed all of the creatures of the Scourge liked having big dens. Jakjak wished he had a big den like them. He wasn't even chief of his tribe. Maybe he could become chief, and get a big den made of rock or metal.

An owl hooted in the distance. That told Jakjak that the others were in place. He put his paws to his snout, and made a hooting sound back. The bushes rushed nearby, and one of the humans came by. He knelt next to the wolvar.

"Feljek!" Jakjak whispered. The undead human, called a "deathknight" scowled.

The deathknight growled quietly, "It's Falric, you furball!"

"That what I say!" The wolvar snapped back, poking the deathknight with his spear. A furbolg came crawling forward. He was the same age as Jakjak, younger than the rest of the soldiers, and more friendly to the Scourge members. This furbolg was an auburn colored one, with flecks of black in his fur.

"When are we going to kill them?" The furbolg asked. Jakjak nodded eagerly.

Falric groaned. "Soon. Be patient you fluffy animals. Damn it...Why couldn't I have been with the vrykul? At least they aren't cuddly little animals."

Jakjak and the furbolg stared at him in confusion.

"Hey, you is ugly," Jakjak commented passively. Falric clenched his fist, and raised it, as if he was going to hit the wolvar. Then, he snarled and turned away. He went over to talk to a tol'vir. Jakjak looked at his furbolg companion.

"Humans be weird. And ugly."

"Sissy, I am scared."

Sapphire turned back to Angelica. The girl was following her older sister and the deathknight, Randall. Unfortunately, the deathknight was a novice, and did not know how to make a deathgate. Sapphire would have to bring up that topic to her father. What kind of deathknight didn't even know the basics and was supposed to be protecting her and Angelica?

Since they couldn't travel by magic, they had went to the smoldering ruins of New Alterac. The fires were low, but still glowing. Smoke billowed up. Sapphire felt like it looked a bit like Stratholme, and hoped it wouldn't stay like that. The cobblestone streets were covered in soot and debris.

Most of the people living in New Alterac were innocent. Cultists with children. Just the thought of any of them getting her make Sapphire angry. Most of them seemed to have fled in time. Sapphire only saw one corpse, and it was ghoul. She thought of Tryg. Above them, Storm clouds gathered. Maybe if it rained, and even if it snowed, the water would stop the fires.

Sapphire helped her little sister over a burnt timber. Randall tried to help Sapphire, but she smacked the offered hand.

A roar rumbled in the distance. Sapphire whipped around. She went to a ruined house, and climbed the hot, blackened wood. Her hands turned black immediately.

"Lady Sapphire!"

A frostwyrm was circling around the camp of Forsaken. It was a large dragon. Glacier, no doubt. There was something black on her black. Sapphire squinted.

"Ethan...Oh, he must think I am still there. Oh, if only I could get this stupid collar off!" Sapphire swore profusely. Her sister frowned, clearly upset.

"You shouldn't say stuff like that. It's bad."

The older girl looked down and spied Randall's runeblade.

"Hey...Maybe you could swing that and break this collar?" Sapphire suggested to the deathknight. He snapped his head up, alarm on his face.

"Wha...What? I can barely tell which is the part I am supposed to hold and which one to stab with. And you want me to cut...that off?" He pointed to the collar.

Sapphire frowned. "What kind of knight are you?"

"I...I am new. I used to be a merchant. A rich one. The sharpest thing I ever held was a letter opener," Randall said uncomfortably.

Sapphire tilted her head. Ethan's father had been a merchant. Rich, based on what their old house had looked like. Ethan's old home had been huge compared to other mortal's house, and filled with rich furnishings. Not nearly as nice as Icecrown Citadel and Howling Keep were now, but still nice.

"Well, maybe I will think of something else."

Angelica was looking thoughtful. She raised her hand, and gave her sister a smug look. Sapphire sighed.

"Yes?"

"Daddy could take it off in your book, couldn't he? And I can get to the scary sword room. You think I could get the mean collar off?"

Sapphire hadn't thought of that.

"I guess you could try."

Sapphire climbed down, and dusted herself off. Skipping over to her, Angelica grabbed the collar. She tugged at it, grunting. The girl tried her hardest, making whining sounds and pulling as hard as she could. Sapphire was patient, but Angelica got frustrated. She insulted the collar in cute, childish insults. Then, she screamed.

"Open you bloody thing!"

The collar clicked open. Sapphire gasped. Angelica blinked, taken aback. "I did it...I did it?" She sounded so confused.

Sapphire stood up. She glared at Randall. "Watch her."

"Wait a-"

Sapphire burst into her owl form, and whooshed off. The white bird disappeared over the rooftops. Angelica looked at the deathknight.

"I'm hungry. Do you like ice cream?"

Arthas dismounted Invincible, and walked over to the treeline. He looked at the camp. Glacier had done some serious damage. He raised his gaze to the sky. Glacier was circling. He felt impressed by her audacity.

Master, Her soft voice echoed in her head.

Arthas smiled, amused. Glacier. How is your day?

Productive. The sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing is music to my ears.

The man shook his head. Glacier was better company than Sindragosa had ever been. Mostly, because Glacier was willing. She treated everyone like a vulnerable baby dragon.

There was a rustling nearby, and Blight hopped out of the leaves. Speaking of baby dragons.

"Are the explosives in place?" He asked the purple little dragon. Blight nodded eagerly.

"Oh yes. And here is the detonator." He held up a box with exposed wires and a big red button. Arthas took it.

"This looks like a piece of junk."

Blight's wings drooped. He clutched his paws together and looked down. Arthas rolled his eyes.

"I trust you. I am sure it will work. Serenity will be very impressed."

The dragon perked up. He smiled. "It will work!"

Glacier flew overhead. Arthas mentioned to her that maybe she should try not to give away their position. Glacier replied with a scathing retort. She landed a while away, and Arthas was greeted by an injured Ethan.

"Get shot?"

"By the Banshee and others. Don't worry. I am fine. And still more attractive than you," Ethan said. He rubbed his bloodied shoulder.

"Don't mess with it. I will get Bolvar to look at it. He's coming with his group of paladins."

Ethan raised his head. "What paladins?"

Arthas and Bolvar had been keeping a secret. More than one actually. But they would stay secret until necessary.

"Yes. The Grey Knights are paladins, taught by Bolvar and me. Most of them have been raised by undead and cultists."

Ethan gave him a look. "Well. I thought Bolvar was the sanest person around. Obviously not."

Arthas flicked Ethan on the nose. He yipped. "Hey!"

"Bolvar is a good man. Better than anyone...Except you. You are the second sanest person in the Scourge. And Bolvar is religious. You aren't."

Ethan looked over to the camp. "He doesn't rip people apart with his claws."

Blight raised a hand. "That's a good thing, isn't it?"

The dragon had his metal claws on. Ethan glanced at Arthas.

"What's he doing here?"

The man gave him an uncomfortable look. "I-"

"Blight is not fighting! He's just a kid. A dragon with the mentality of a child."

"He's a predator. Don't treat him like a fluffy bunny," Arthas retorted. Blight frowned. They were talking about him like he was not even there. He hissed at them. The two stopped.

"I want to save Serenity! And Momma and Cousin Angel. I know how to kill stuff. You should see all of the snow rats at Dragon's Peak."

"Undead humans and elves aren't the same as rats. You are fine with killing sentient beings?" Ethan demanded.

"They are bad. Aren't they? Momma read me a book where the dragon killed the bad knight to save the princess."

Arthas looked confused. "That's not how the story-"

Ethan elbowed the man, and gave him a dark look. Arthas sighed. "Never mind."

Blight puffed out his chest, and spread his wings out. His tail curled up. His eyes narrowed. "I want to kill stuff! Be a hero and win a medal and be called Sir Blight. Or Captain Blight."

"Don't worry, Blight. You can have any kind of title." Arthas said comfortingly.

"Ooh..."

Ni'kua left the group of Scourge that Arthas had brought with him. The best of his deathknights, necromancers, and undead. Rot and Terra crawled under the hooves of deathchargers and rotting feet. Ni'kua had to slowly follow them, weaving around everyone.

The two puppies had went off as soon as they arrived. They were up to something. And Ni'kua didn't like it. He had to watch over the miscreants.

They left the Scourge's hidden camp, and were heading toward the Forsaken. Ni'kua chased them down, and growled at them. He circled around them, and stopped in their path. He bared his teeth, which were thicker than the dogs' legs. Rot barked unhappily.

Terra bared her teeth back, and barked angrily. Ni'kua tilted his head at such ferocity from Terra.

She told him what they were going to do. They would not be able to pull it off by themselves. He sniffed them and thought about it. He woofed. Terra licked the bigger plaguehound's paw and trotted off. Rot and Ni'kua followed.