"Where are you taking me?" Caelwen asked again, following behind Se'jash's taller, reptilian shape. He glanced over to her and looked at her for a second. She was strong enough to walk around now, and the wound over her shoulder was almost fully healed due to the treatment he had given her. All that covered it now was a light bandage. Sniggering, he looked forward again.
"You will soon find out," he cackled through his sharp and pointed teeth. They continued forward for a while longer, and when they arrived at the spot where Se'jash intended, Caelwen could see it was a pool of water that lead into a tunnel flowing elsewhere. It was not unlike the others she had seen naga come and go in during her time here, and a positively dreadful realization instantly dawned upon her.
"You expect me to swim through what I'm pretty sure is a trailing subterranean river as black as pitch?" she asked, folding her arms and sharing with him a glare of vexation. "I beg your pardon, but my skills at performing such a feat are sorely lacking."
"Of course not," he said back. "I expect you to hold tightly onto me as I carry you through it. Today, I'm taking you to relax and recuperate on the surface of the island so you can regain your full health."
Caelwen was just as frustrated with this information, and practically ignored the second bit of news he had to share. "Why on Azeroth would I do that?"
"Because if I have someone cast a paralyzing spell on you in order for me to bring you through, you'll not be awake for what awaits on the other side," was his response. Caelwen still seemed disbelieving of his plan. Se'jash thought for a second before making a final gesture. "Do you trust me, Caelwen?" he asked, stretching his fin-lined arm out to her and unfurling the claw-tipped fingers from his palm.
Caelwen eyed the larger appendage for a few seconds, as if ever so slightly intimidated by its size. Finally relenting with a sigh, she placed her smaller hand into his own. "I do."
"Take a deep breath," he advised, "and hold on tightly."
She obeyed, and the moment she had taken in a great lungful of the stale air hanging through the cavern, the two fell into the cold pool and entered the wide, water-filled tunnel. For what felt like a meager few, but extraordinarily hectic seconds through darkness not even a night elf like herself could see through, Caelwen held firmly onto Se'jash's hand, and he did the same, keeping his charge close to his chest as his tail propelled the two forward. The salty water stinging her eyes, Caelwen instinctively clamped them shut. Then moments later, through her eyelids, she noticed the feeling of something bright shining against them, and the two suddenly parted from the water as Se'jash took a small leap, landing on solid ground.
The naga let go of the elf, and she proceeded to fall on all fours, taking in several deep breaths of the sweet air her lungs craved. Water dripped from both the bodies of Se'jash and herself over the dark rock they now stood on, soon drying. As she began to find the strength to stand up, the night elf could see that they were standing on a tidal pool-covered rock formation overlooking a beach, and past it sat the blue waves of the ocean. Crabs could be seen scuttling around over the sand, and other naga were spotted as well, patrolling the borders of the island with their constant and ever single-minded vigil. The afternoon sun showed its warm rays down upon Caelwen and se'jash, coating them in its glow as the night elf looked to him.
"Well, we're here," she blandly said, staring off at the many other islands that were positioned in a scattered formation in the short distance. Disinterest was sewn into her tone, but Se'jash knew it wouldn't stay there for long.
"Yes, but I did not bring you here for this," he enigmatically responded, before turning around and slithering a short ways off over the rock, motioning with a nod of his head for her to follow him. "The real sights lie further inland. Come with me and you'll see for yourself."
Quickly gaining her full bearings, Caelwen made it to his side, and together the two ventured from the sandy and rocky beach, into the forested and green mainland of the island. Among the many creatures they witnessed as they walked further on were many brightly-feathered birds singing exotic and exquisite songs in the trees above, and a small herd of red-scaled raptors that had built nests filled with clumps of ovular eggs in the ground, each one watching the two strange-looking intruders warily as they harmlessly passed them by.
As Se'jash could plainly see, to his great delight, Caelwen was absolutely ecstatic to be within the lively folds of green nature again, as opposed to the lightless and dank caverns she was once held in. She had a large smile stretched over her face that seemed to grow wider with every sight her gray eyes beheld. Just seeing her so happy made his heart soar, and his mind raced forward to what last thing this island had in store. To where he was really leading her. Pushing back a large branch after encountering a rather thick cluster of bushes, he finally revealed to Caelwen the treasure that had been kept from her.
It was an orchard filled with a wide manner of bushes and small trees that bore ripened fruit on their long, leaf-covered branches. In the center of it, as though watching over the area like a stalwart guard, was a tall stone statue of Queen Azshara. Long had it been since plant life had begun to grow and encircle the finely-crafted construct, but it was very much visible above the shrubs and bushes, and still more than clear enough to tell all of who saw it of who it was portraying. Down a small dirt path that lead away from the orchard sat a waterfall overlooking the wondrous place and made a large and deep pond of fresh water.
"This place is... incredible," Caelwen finally breathed as she finished witnessing the grove's full splendor. Walking lightly over the soft grass, she approached a branch holding a yellow, pear-like fruit hanging on a thin stem off of its end. Picking it off, she spun it around and examined it before her growing hunger convinced her to take a bite out of it. Her eyes closed briefly as she admired the impossibly sweet taste she experienced next, while Se'jash carefully approached her from behind.
"How is it?" he asked.
"It's good," she answered as soon as she swallowed it, spinning about to face him. "Certainly better than that stuff you've been serving me."
"Well, I did try my best with it..." A small chuckle left Se'jash's mouth. Caelwen couldn't help but join him and the two were soon laughing out loud together, unable to contain themselves in the presence of the other, and uncaring of anyone who was doubtfully around to hear them.
Night approached quickly. In the cloudless, star-laden sky above, the two moons that orbited Azeroth, the White Lady and the Blue Child, showed brightly. The naga and the elf were lying on the soft grass together, below the gaze of the old statue of Azshara. Their activities concerned with the bounty of the orchard had rounded to as much completion as they felt was necessary, and now they were just... talking.
As Caelwen finished up a humorous tale of an incident when she was still in training to become a Sentinel, she took a chance and decided to turn her head to Se'jash. He was gazing at her face, and now into her eyes with his own two, bright red ones; each like a handsome and glistening ruby from where he lied just a few feet from her. She gazed back in silence, and as a time she could not calculate passed them by, she soon realized her face was blushing. Deeply unsettled by this, she quickly let a sour visage come about her face, and pulled at the grass by her sides with her idle hands. "What are you looking at?"
"I... just... those markings over your eyes," Se'jash quickly said, blinking twice as he broke eye contact with her. "They are... very odd and have provoked my curiosity. If I might ask you, what do they mean? We naga have forgotten most parts of kaldorei culture that minuscule."
"These? They're... facial tattoos," Caelwen responded, brushing a pair of fingers over them. "Female night elves can choose to receive them when we come of age. Mine stand for the mark of the serpent. It represents the cycle of life, rebirth, accuracy, speed, stealth, and a select few other meanings."
"The serpent?" Se'jash repeated with a cocked brow, visibly interested by the way he strummed his hand through his facial tendrils. "I admire the sound of a representation such as that..."
"It's not like how you would picture it." Caelwen uttered a grunt as she sat up on the grass. Se'jash remained where he laid, looking at the elf as she explained what she meant. "It, along with the other markings, represent the varying aspects of nature alone. Not an individual creature, much less something such as a naga."
She lied back down as Se'jash let out a quiet, hissing snicker, and silence once again came between the two. Caelwen took this time to look to the sky, and stroked one of the locks of her hair with her hands. "Can I... tell you something, Se'jash? Something I've never told anyone else before?"
"Of course," he responded in a polite and respectful tone. "And you have my word that I'll not tell another."
Caelwen took her hands off of her hair and placed both of them together over her chest, closing her eyes after taking a final look at the one specific moon her people held sacred. "I've... never been as close to Elune as most of my other kin," she quietly revealed, her typically stubborn tone now soft. "She is the moonlight my people follow and the one who has lead us through times that lesser kingdoms would give up and burn through. But I just can't... see myself in that moonlight. Not anymore, anyway. I try and I try, but I fear she just... has not been there for me when I needed her. My family was taken from me, I eliminated their murderer, and I have not felt anything except emptiness within my soul since then. What if she... isn't there?"
"Would that necessarily be a bad thing?" asked the naga, sincerity backing his voice.
She flashed him a brief look of worry, before returning her gray eyes to the bed of stars above. "Yes, it would be. To me. To all other night elves who know me. I know not what it would mean if that is the ultimate truth..."
More silence. Se'jash could not think of anything to say, fearing he would ruin the tender moment, and Caelwen regretted bringing it up. "It's very beautiful here," she suddenly sighed, changing the subject. "I never knew naga had such a taste for location."
"This archipelago we live upon is a pearl indeed. A small oasis if the ocean were a desert. We have many rival tribes that have tried in the past to take it from us, but each has failed. Perhaps because of that, none have attempted to take it for many years," said Se'jash. "Life has since become quite dull."
The two began to converse for a while longer about the island and its history since the Depthweaver tribe inherited it. It even seemed as though it would go on forever, but with a final yawn, Caelwen slipped quietly into unconsciousness after having a final question of her answered. Se'jash took notice with a flicker of his earfins, and pointed his resting head to her.
He continued to watch her as she lied there, sleeping calmly on the grass, unmoving and still as death with only her breathing to assure him the case was otherwise. As the naga looked over the kaldorei, Se'jash could not deny one fact any longer. Caelwen was a beautiful creature, and he wanted her. He wanted to be hers. He wanted to hold her closely and intimately; if only to feel her warm flesh press against his cool scales. Just being near her with these damning thoughts made his heart pound harder than when he was living off of the otherwise incomparable thrill of a fantastic battle.
He could not fathom why he saw her, a night elf - the archenemy of his kind - in such a queer light others of his kind would find perverse and abominable, but he decided not to dwell on such unanswerable mysteries. Mysteries that were caused by his antics originally meant to simply comfort the being he was surely destined to slay. Even so, he still had the wish to fight her to the death in the gladiatorial arena, but at the same time he still did not, and only now did he know the true reason why. And because of that, he started to fear what the conflict his current emotions could give him.
But having stayed active for more than two days in his to care for the once-ailing elf, the lure of sleep began to take a predatory hold of his weary mind. His own eyes drooping and will to stay awake quickly faltering, Se'jash's head limply fell to the cushioning grass and he eventually joined her in peaceful slumber.
Vesh'ari watched it all through the magically-contructed orb of water she had levitating in front of her and above the shallow cavern pond she dwelled in, all four of her hands surrounding it and keeping it powered and afloat. She often came into this otherwise empty, but silent and peaceful area to meditate and reflect on things of importance, but this was simply something she had never before had to deal with. She knew what her brother was now feeling for that elf. The blood within her serpentine body coming to a boil, she unleashed a sharp hiss and the clear image reflecting from the sphere blurred and vanished as Tidepriestess Zajra's final words to her echoed through her mind.
Putting the effort to form the spying orb of extra vision barely placed any strain upon her practiced body, but witnessing what she just saw began to take its toll. Her concentration soon completely lost to seething rage, the orb of water collapsed upon itself and splashed into the pool below her. Sneering hatefully, she clenched her clawed and webbed fingers together.
"That moronic, misguided, ignorant fool!" she growled to herself, her voice echoing throughout the lonesome area as she started to leave it, ripples scattering in all directions. "That elf has him completely under her thumb, and she does not even know it! By Azshara..."
As she neared the small cavernous pocket's exit, Vesh'ari began to do one of many things she did best, and think. "But she is now healthy, and healed. Yes... tomorrow is the day she shall meet her fate, once and for all..." she began to mumble, her furious visage regaining its refined and calm posture. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and reopened them a second later. "And should the elf instead slay Se'jash, then so be it. It is what such a blinded idiot deserves, and I'll not have one such as he serving by my side if he bears such a pathetic weakness."
