Once leaving Hearthglen, Jaina let out a tense sigh as she dreaded what was to come. None of the guards even questioned what she and the young paladin beside her were doing. It was a relief as she was not in the mood. Ethan, pale with fear, looked briefly up at her.

"Do you want me to come with you?" He asked nervously. It was clear he did not want to, but felt honor bound to offer.

Jaina laid a hand on the boy's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.

"No, I will be fine. Why don't you try to find Sapphire and see about comforting her? You said she was upset."

He bit his lip and nodded. As he left in one direction, Jaina went down the road a ways before veering off into the forest. When the pine needles crunched under her feet, she did not smell the comforting scent that often accompanied them. Instead, a vile stench like mold and sulfur wafted up.

It did not take long to find him. The air took a noticeable chill as she drew closer and there was even frost overtaking the sensitive grass. She entered into a clearing. Sapphire's ghoul companion cowered against a strange collection of bones and wood.

Arthas stood there, a stoic pillar of rage with his arms crossed. He turned to face her.

"Jaina."

She braced herself for any aggression, yet he made no obvious moves toward her. Thinking back to when he first reappeared among the ruins of Theramore, Jaina had to push her own emotions about him. The overwhelming feelings of grief and rage had passed, at least for now. Jaina still desired for the Horde and especially Garrosh Hellscream to burn for what he done, yet the pain had diminished somewhat.

"Arthas. What are you doing here?" She asked tensely. The answer was obvious but she wanted to give him a chance to explain.

He flippantly waved his hand at her. "I came to the Plaguelands to collect my daughter, yet when I arrive I see that you have beaten me to it."

Jaina gave the man a withering look. Since learning of Sapphire's survival, everything had changed. The closest thing Jaina had to a child of any kind would have to be Anduin, the Prince of Stormwind and he was more of a nephew than son. Motherhood never seemed to be option for her. Turmoil and constant fighting between Horde and Alliance always happened, leaving Jaina too busy to even think of it. It was now clear to her that she had been wasting her live for peace that was impossible.

"I only came to meet her, since I did not even know so much as her name," Jaina snapped back.

Arthas did not react to her tone. "As soon as I found her I was going to tell you about her."

He sounded sincere. Jaina did not believe him.

"Would it not have been better to just tell me and we go find her together?" Jaina questioned, only to see Arthas's façade break slightly.

She continued, voice raising in anger. "Even more, why did you not tell me the first time we met again?"

Arthas shrugged. "You were not doing well. I didn't want to overwhelm you."

The people she cared the most. She had lost so many of them. His nonchalant attitude toward her only worsened the situation. He could see her anger wasn't dissipating so attempt more consolation.

"Sapphire is alive though. I think all of this can blow over if we sit down together and-"

Jaina interrupted him coldly. "-I am not letting you anywhere near her."

The temperature in the meadow decreased even more. Jaina's breath started to come out as a mist. She had not dressed for such cold, yet she refused to show weakness by covering her arms or wrapping her cloak around her. The forest itself had grown silent. No bird dared make a noise.

"She's my daughter. More so than yours. I didn't abandon her as if she were some runt of the litter."

"I never abandoned her!" Jaina snapped back and shot back, "Where did her scars come from, Arthas?"

At that, Arthas snarled like an animal and made a move toward her, jabbing a finger at her aggressively. "I own up to my mistakes. Own up to yours!"

His aggression scared Jaina. This was not the youthful paladin she knew and loved. This was a dangerous deathknight. Years ago when she broke into Icecrown, he had shown every intent to kill her. She let her guard down both previous times she had seen him, but now she knew better. She would not make that mistake.

When he moved one step more, Jaina suddenly summoned her reserves of magic to the surface and cast a defensive ring of fire around her. This caused Arthas to rear back slightly in surprise.

He curled his lip up in disgust. "Seriously? Why not just turn me into a sheep if you are so scared?"

If looks could kill, Arthas would have dropped dead from Jaina's.

"I will do worse to you if you test me," Jaina declared without an ounce of mercy.


With her heart pounding, Sapphire ran wildly through the forest without an idea of where she was headed. All she desired was to be free from her father, yet her own body betrayed her. Her heart throbbed painfully. The scar on her chest felt freshly made.

Eventually her body forced her to stop. She collapsed into a pile of leaves and pine needles. Her chest heaved each time she took a breath. Sweat coated her brow. Though tears threatened to appear, Sapphire tried to compose herself. Crying would not solve anything.

As she sniffled, a faint scent caught her attention. It smelled familiar and edible.

Sapphire forced herself to sit up and look around the forest. A short distance away was a dark thicket of thorny bushes. Sapphire tilted her head, remembering when she met Ethan. She had been collecting some apparently poisonous berries from a bush he had been hiding in. Yet when stood up and approached the bushes, she recognized the overripe, practically bursting berries that clumped together on the bushes. She had eaten black berries before. Her shan'do had taught her some basic edible plants to identify.

She did not even hesitate to start picking the berries and stuffing them in her face. Despite living in the poorly abused forest of the Plaguelands, the blackberries themselves were not any different in taste than the ones she had eaten before. It was a bright light in the darkness that Sapphire currently existed in.

Juice soon ran down her mouth and neck from the berries. She almost felt like taking a nap after all the gorging, but then she heard distant laughter. Curious, Sapphire cleaned herself up as much as she could and went off to investigate.

"Did they have anything good?" One voice said.

"Nah, these stupid things never do. Have you ever seen a gnoll with good shit?"

Sapphire came upon a kind of simplistic camp with tents and roughly made tools scattered around, but they weren't the only things scattered around. Sapphire looked around in horror at the bodies. They looked very much like humanoid Stubs. Sapphire knew what a gnoll was, but had never personally seen one alive. And still hadn't for the group were all dead. Sapphire looked around and didn't even see any weapons or armor on any of them yet all of them had been cut down by weapons.

In the middle of the camp were the three paladin squires that annoyed Sapphire so much. The two humans and the orc. Stockley, the one that Sapphire had punched, tore through the belongings of the gnolls. The orc suddenly saw something in one of the tents and reached in, yanking out what could only be a tiny gnoll baby. It flailed about in rage, squeaking and attempting to scratch the orc.

"Look what I found! A rat!" He said triumphantly.

The other boys made sounds of disgust.

"Gross!"

"Look at how ugly it is."

Stockley grabbed the baby and was about to say something, but then he caught sight of Sapphire. He dropped the poor gnoll immediately.

"Oh, it's you," He said with a distinctive sneer. Sapphire was more concerned about the poor gnoll baby over his feelings. She rushed over to the gnoll and picked it up. It cried out in fear and tried to bite her but Sapphire was an expert at avoiding getting bitten from things like rowdy ghouls and Rot. She pet the small creature comfortingly until it calmed down and then turned onto the paladins in training.

"What are you even doing here? What happened to these gnolls?" She demanded.

"Got in our way," the one named Verril replied.

Sapphire narrowed her eyes and again examined the bodies. Not only did she confirm they had not a weapon between the lot of them, but she also realized not a single one of the boys had a scratch on them. "These unarmed gnolls attacked you?"

The orc, named Durl, snorted in amusement. "They are gnolls. Claws and teeth are all they need to be a threat. The only good gnoll is a dead gnoll."

That sounded wrong. No blood covered the gnoll's claws or teeth. They had not seemingly put much of a fight. Why would they even attack the squires with a vulnerable baby with them? The gnoll in her arms trembled fearfully. It looked up at her with terrified eyes that almost matched her own. Sapphire tightened her arms around it comfortingly.

The taller boy, Stockley, leaned into her personal space menacingly. "Since you are here, I believe you owe me an apology?"

Sapphire curled her lip up, but remembered how upset Ethan had gotten when she had punched the boy. So she bit down her anger.

"Fine. I'm sorry I punched you. I should not have done that," She muttered.

Verril forced out a smile. "No hard feelings, right Stockley?"

"It didn't sound very sincere," Durl snapped back.

Stockley straightened up with a smile on his face. "You are right! You know, I would be much more willing to forgive you...if you gave me a little kiss."

Ethan was not there to check Sapphire's temper.

"Excuse me?" She blurted out.

The boy grabbed her arm and slipped his own arm against her like Sapphire had seen couples do before. She tried to pull away but he had a rough grip on her. behind the two of them, Verril looked uncomfortable while Durl had a smirk on his face.

"Come on. You might be ugly but I'm far too noble to judge someone based on their looks. You should feel lucky to kiss someone as handsome as I."

Sapphire bared her teeth at him, disgusted.

"I'd rather kiss a dreadlord!"

The boy then shoved her away, irritated. Sapphire fell against the ground. Pine needles stabbed into her skin. The little gnoll baby in her arms leapt out of them and ran off to hide under a fallen tree, hissing.

"No, you'd rather kiss that dog! Where even is he? Not here to protect you?"

Sapphire forced herself to her feet.

"I don't need protection from anyone. If anything, you are the one that needs protection," She snarled.

The orc boy laughed and Stockley joined in, while Verril looked down at his feet. When they realized she wasn't joking or smiling, it only angered them more. Durl stomped over to her aggressively. He attempted to grab her, but Sapphire dodged his lame attempt and instead grabbed one of his pauldrons and yanking him forward.

She smiled and leaned in as if she were going to kiss him, only confusing the orc. He did not even suspect anything until Sapphire lowered her gaze and proceeded to lunge toward his neck.

Her teeth sank into flesh and blood poured down her throat. She then ripped her teeth backwards, tearing flesh. The orc staggered back, clutching his own throat as blood just spewed out of it. The two human boys flinched back when the orc turned to them and collapsed to his knees.

Blood ran down Sapphire's throat like the blackberry juice had.

"What the fuck," Stockley screeched. Verril fell backwards, horror written on his face.

Pain exploded out of Sapphire's chest and she soon saw nothing but black and heard a distant roar. Screams rang out. Sapphire tasted more blood.