The Naaru Love You
"Just one is all you need", she told herself. "Be calm. All you need is one to listen and it will have all been worth it."
She looked comfortingly at the sign she laid against the wall; the sign that read:
The Naaru Love You
Andromeda climbed high atop the wooden boxes. She took a deep breath and then, looking ahead over the trade district courtyard, she began to speak:
"My friends! May I have your attention, ladies and gentlemen?" Her Draenei accent permeated the crowd of humans busy about the courtyard, "Today I'd like to talk to you about salvation! I'd like to talk to you about something so perfect and loving, it could only be sent by The Light! I've come to talk to you about the naaru! For I was once like all of you! Lost and desperate, wondering if there was anything more to life! I didn't know it at the time but the naaru had a plan for me!"
The humans of Stormwind stirred and took notice notice as the young Draenei missionary became more animated with every word.
"Let me tell you my personal story with the naaru!" cried Andromeda, pulling her arms back and clenching her fist. "I had no purpose in life! I used to rob, I used to lie and cheat! I was empty inside! And by grace I'm here to tell you I was saved! Only by turning to the naaru could I be saved; could I be here to talk to you today!"
A man sitting on the bank steps, snorted and shouted at her, "and for this we should thank them?"
Chuckles emanated from the courtyard.
The man was rugged and unkempt and he sat beside two other men who looked even worse, all of them drinking heavily from a bottle they passed to one another.
"Yes!", Andromeda fired back, without hesitation. "Yes, my friend, that is exactly what you should do. It is what you must do! For only through the salvation of the naaru can you come to The Light!"
"All paths lead to The Light!" another voice shouted, indignantly. The crowd began to gather, now. Clusters of humans formed around the crates on which she stood. Andromeda scanned the crowd, looking for friendly faces, but found none.
Growing up in the Shattrath slums, Andromeda rarely saw humans, except when on occasion one of them would come to the orphanage during "children's week". She would never forget the day when a human priestess came to visit. She had long blond hair and blue eyes, dressed in an elegant white robe with black markings that ran up and down and across her chest. The silk robe fit the contour of her body so eloquently that Andromeda couldn't help but stare as the priestess held her staff in hand and spoke with the matron.
"Pick me", Andromeda whispered quietly to herself. "Please pick me", but the tall human left with another child and Andromeda hung her head low that day; lower than the many low days before.
At the age of 11, Andromeda ran away from the orphanage and began what would be known to her as a "life of sin": stealing, lying, cheating, and doing whatever she felt justified to survive.
"Until one day my sin caught up with me!" she cried out to the crowd, " and I was arrested and thrown in jail! I sat there and began to weep. I was alone as I'd always been; alone and afraid and I wept." She slowed her pace now, her eyes narrowed, staring into the distance.
"Why did I weep? Because I thought no one could love me."
The tone of Andromeda's voice lowered further as she recalled all of it: The enclosed contours of the dark, damp cell, cold and isolating and adjoined with nothing more than a bench that came out of the wall. She remembered. She remembered when all hope and meaning seemed lost. She remembered the emptiness. The soul crushing pit of despair. The vapid, cold, dark pit of despair that overtook and enslaved her and would not let her break free. She remembered.
She remembered, that moment when, on the ground of the cold cell floor, she saw a simple piece of paper that read:
The Naaru Love You
Andromeda felt her throat thicken. "My friends, I had no idea, no idea the path I was about to embark upon that day" and then, lifting her arms to the sky she shouted, "but here I am, two years later, a saved woman, cleansed of my sin! Kurenai! Who but the naaru could have redeemed a miscreant like me? Who but the naaru could show me the love that softens a hardened heart- a hardened heart, just like yours!" She pointed at the man on the bank steps.
The man swilled a good portion from his liquor bottle and narrowed his eyes, "Go back to your spaceship, spacegoat!", he shouted, "either that or give us a dance!"
Everyone in the courtyard boomed with laughter and the man grinned smugly as he passed the bottle to one of his mates, his eyes never leaving Andromeda's.
Andromeda pointed again at the drunken man, "You won't fill your emptiness with liquor! You won't fill it with money, you won't fill it with mounts, or the auction house, or the bank! the naaru are your only way to salvation, friend! Accept the naaru as your savior and turn to The Light!"
The crowd grumbled with disapproval.
"I got a question!", one man bellowed out. "How come every time I go up to a Draenei and start talking to him he always says 'open your heart to The Light'? Why is that?", he asked, speeding up his talking, "It's because he's talking about The Light, not the naaru! Anyone can accept The Light! Even your people know it!"
The crowd exploded with cheers and applauded the man.
"The Light through the naaru!", cried Andromeda emphatically through the uproar. "He is saying that only through the naaru can you find The Light! You're leaving out half of the story, my friend", she said with a strained smile.
The man flicked his hand as though to dismiss her, and he left, pushing his way through the crowd.
"I came here to tell you only one thing!" Andromeda continued, desperately, "I'm here to tell you that the naaru love you! I love you! Love is the call! Love is the answer! Turn to the naaru and let them into your heart!"
Now the crowd became restless and agitated and they unleashed their irritation on the young missionary.
"Shutup already!" a man yelled.
"You're just preaching hate!" cried another.
"I'm not going to let some horned devil tell me about The Light!" yelled yet another. And the crowd became so noisy, one man yelling over the other, that each word mixed together with the next.
Andromeda shook her head. "My friends! I am not here to debate with you! I am not here to debate with you!" she cried, in convincing pain, "The hole in my heart was filled by the love of the naaru. It can fill yours, too! It can fill that emptiness inside you! Ask the naaru and they will answer! They will! "
But the crowd had heard enough. Everyone began to disperse and the noise trailed off, and those who had just moments before been so busy, now went home.
And as the crowd broke, the man on the bank steps stood up and walked over to Andromeda. He stumbled just a bit before catching himself and, looking up at her, he said, "'ey you know somethin', spacegoat...", now slurring his words, "you're alright. I kinda wish I had what you have", and then he cut himself off and chugged the bottle and stumbled away, his friends following like stray dogs.
Andromeda felt her heart sink.
The dusk was settling into what would soon be the night sky and silence descended on the courtyard.
Andromeda sighed and let her arms fall beside her. She climbed down from the crates and began packing her things, and pausing, she looked at her sign:
The Naaru Love You
She cocked her head and stared at the sign, intently; so intently that she nearly missed the quiet voice that came from behind.
"Excuse me", said the meek voice.
Andromeda looked back and saw a little human girl. She stood there, shyly, her head of blond hair hanging low, her blue eyes looking up. "Do you think the naaru could love me?"
Andromeda smiled and looked the girl softly in the eyes, "of course they can."