"Nothing to worry about Jun Jun! We're gonna be heroes! Well, at least, I'm gonna be one." Said Fibonn, a rather thin young gnome just starting to show peach fuzz on his chin and voice recently deepened about as deep as male gnomes' voices get.
"I'm not nervous, Fibonn, you know that. It's just...changes, you know? I've been happy enough chasing rabbits and picking flowers, and admiring how smart my siblings are, and now...well, I never thought about what would come next." Jun Frostmane let out a sigh. She was the youngest of her small family, the last of the Gnomes with the family name 'Frostmane', a name more commonly associated with a group of hostile trolls that pestered an old trade route between Gnomeregan and Ironforge. However, since Gnomeregan had fallen to Troggs and the few survivors fled to the relatively safe confines of the Coldridge Valley, few people that little Jun knew bothered with the origins of her surname. Instead they bothered with gnomish things like studying mathematics, building various engines, and otherwise annoying the Dwarves that shared their village in Coldridge. Outside of those volunteered to join the Alliance's war effort, few of the Coldridge valley gnomes ever left the Coldridge Valley, unless it was with an armed escort to brainstorm with other likewise smart, annoying gnomes in Ironforge, the Dwarven capital of Dun Morogh.
After letting out a sigh Jun Jun plopped onto the snow, which she often did, her short legs and roundish body combined so well that plopping just seemed the natural thing to do. Fibonn payed little attention. Though they had been schoolmates, they weren't particularly friends. Fibonn had always been the smartest in school, while Jun Jun hadn't taken her studies seriously, spending most of her time outdoors springing upon unsuspecting cute and cuddlies like rabbits, squirrels and schoolmates during recess. Fibonn never paid attention to the younger Frostmane girl. Her older brother was a friend of his, or rather a fellow intellectual as he thought of him, Though their ambitions differed. Sprocks Frostmane was to continue the family name while developing pyrotechnics, and Fibonn Fillibonn would join the Alliance and become a powerful Mage, a hero renowned far and wide.
These and other thoughts tiptoed across Fibonn's brain while he raised a small knobby staff that was no thicker than his scrawny arm, and scanned the horizon. He spotted a mangy white wolf and with wild eyes and flailing arms, he quickly conjured a smallish orangish fireball that singed the beast bad enough to cause it to limp towards him in protest. No use however, as Fibonn finished it off before it could drag it's half-starved, half-cooked, carcass to within biting distance of the newly trained mage. Jun Jun looked up admiringly. Since the two had left the valley a few days previously she had left most of the fighting to Fibonn, mostly because he seemed to enjoy it more. Besides, her sneaking about with a glorified bread knife was little match for Fibonn's magical conjurings. Though she wasn't comfortable killing things, she resigned herself to it, as those sent to join the Alliance's company of heroes seemed to do little else. There were whisperings from the outside world after all, and before long there could very well be war. Since her people were saved and protected by the Dwarves and Humans, they would comply with the tax of one tenth of young gnomes to join the Alliance army as Mages, Warlocks, Warriors and Rogues. But when Fibonn volunteered to join the Alliance there was quite a stir in the Coldridge Valley. Those wanting to send away their best and brightest were in the minority, and there would have been trouble, if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of Kaz Frostmane, a revered engineer and local civil servant. Kaz quickly volunteered his third child, little Jun, to be this year's other gnomeling to join the Alliance army. Sending little Jun would offset the loss of young Fibonn, as everyone knew how useless she would be in gnomish circles. She had no talent in any traditional gnomish disciplines, was rather careless, and probably would only dumb down the gene pool by sticking around. If Fibonn was so set on leaving then sending him off with little Jun before any other talented Gnomelings could likewise volunteer was the best solution. And so with minimal training the two had left the Coldridge Valley and were now adventuring, as Fibonn put it, or running errands as Jun put it, in the wilds outside Kharanos, the closest town outside the Valley's single entrance.
Still wide eyed, Fibonn pulled a tuft of fur and a bit of meat from the remains of his victim and satisfactorily put them in his backpack.
"Stick with me Jun Jun, before long we'll be cleaning the Trogg filth out of Gnomeregan and then, who knows?! Kalimdor?! We'll take on Thrall himself!" Fibonn laughed a very self-satisfying maniacal laugh, clapped his hands together and suddenly stopped, peering into the distance. "Do you see that Jun Jun?!" Jun Jun Frostmane stood up, the snow was starting to soak through her pants anyway. She crinkled her nose and tried to look as carefully as she could, but didn't know what Fibonn was pointing at.
"Over there," he pointed his trusty stave, and then wildly began running and screaming. When Jun Jun spotted his target she was more than a little distressed. The lanky white and blue figure that had popped up from behind a snow covered shrub about fifty yards away could only be a troll, perhaps even one of the Frostmane trolls, which she remembered briefly reading about in school.
"Fibonn No!!" She ran after him, but he had a headstart and running fast wasn't her specialty, no that would be sneaking up on bunnies, with picking flowers a close second. The scene in front of her unfolded quickly, both Fibonn and the troll exchanged a few rounds of fireballs and blue orbs, but it was clear that Fibonn was outmatched. With the second blue orb Fibonn was down on one knee, screaming in pain, and with the third he was on his back, silent. Jun had only meant to save Fibonn, but seeing the ease with which he had defeated his opponent, the Troll Shaman swung his staff in a wide circle and with a piercing whoop released another blue orb directly at Jun Jun. Unable to dodge she was knocked clean off her feet, and she landed in a rough squishy bounce. The Troll ran toward her, waving and yelling in an unknown tongue, but with clear jubiliance. Jun Jun managed to get back to her feet, her face stinging with tears and whatever magical powers had just walloped her across the left cheek. She fumbled for her knife but found it stuck in its sheath. Looking up she screamed as the troll leaped at her...and was suddenly disintegrated by a vertical line of bright fire. She was dumbstruck. If she hadn't seen it she wouldn't have believed it. No, that's inaccurate, she still didn't believe it, not until she noticed a cow wearing a dress walking toward her. Taking one look at this new creature was enough, she promptly fainted.
Jun Jun opened her eyes. She was laying on her back next to a warm fire just inside the mouth of a cave. It was dark outside, not something she wanted to face alone. What had happened? Where was she? Had she died or was this the nightmarish result of eating those crab boar ribs just before bedtime the night before? She tried to get up, but when she did her head felt like it was getting hit with a rock.
"Don't try to get up yet." The voice came from the darkness just beyond the light of the flickering flames, it spoke in broken common, and wasn't the voice of a Gnome or Dwarf, or a Frostmane Troll, come to think of it. It wasn't hostile however, and her head hurt a lot, so she complied.
"Who are you?" She asked hesitantly. "And where's Fibonn?! Is he ok? Did He..." She paused, choked by a sudden lump in her throat. She swallowed. "Did he get up?"
"Your friend is dead, little one." The voice stepped into the light and revealed its master to be a large cowman, cowmen were not part of her school curriculum, but they were mentioned in her brief Alliance Army training. Kill all Cowmen on sight, Cowmen are only one evolutionary step above fishmen, which ought to be killed before you see them if possible. This cowman however, didn't look particularly killable, and besides it had some explaining to do...and Jun was two feet tall.
"My name is Aono (Ah-Oh-NO)," he was crushing a powder that would be added to a tin of boiling water. "I am a Tauren druid from Thunder Bluff, though I imagine you don't know where that is." The confused expression on the little gnome's face confirmed his imaginings. He poured a little of the tea into a goat skin canteen and shook it lightly before handing it to Jun Jun.
"Drink this and sleep, by morning you will be able to return to your village." He held up a blue signet, "you won't need this anymore, it'll bring you nothing but guilt and pain. Go home, and forget you ever heard of the Grand Alliance." Jun Jun drank a gulp of the tea. Silverleaf perhaps? it was soothing and she slowly sat up, this time with managable pain. She looked into the eyes of the great cowman, or Tauren, which were stern but not hostile.
"I have no home." When she was told by her Father that she would join the Alliance army and be a hero, she hadn't asked why, but deep down she knew. Only now was she being forced to face it.
"My brother will help rebuild gnomish society, and my sister will teach the gnomelings and likely have a whole brood of her own. But I have no purpose in Coldridge Valley." The words came slowly and painfully, but she hadn't cried, she was grateful of that, "Besides, the other gnome, he was the pride of the village. I would never be recieved back unless it was as his sidekick." The Tauren exhaled a quick snort from his huge nostrils, but said nothing. Before she was able to continue, the hot stinging tears began to flow.
"I've never...been really good at anything..." she wiped her eyes, "Everyone could see that. I just wish I could be..." She looked up, at the solemn figure of calm, bullhorns and power beads,
"What is it like...to be strong?" The great creatures eyes narrowed, and it stood towering over her
"Listen well little one. This war will not make you strong. You stay in this cave. This is your home now. If I see you outside of Dun Morogh I will kill you. Because that's what I do. That is my responsibility to my people and to the Warchief. If you continue to fight, you will only have grief, and then death." Aono shouldered his bag and headed for the snowy night.
"Wait!" The gnome yelled in a clear voice. The Tauren stopped without turning around. "Give me my signet." Jun said with resolve. Aono dropped the cloth insignia with Jun's name on it to the cave floor. turning his head so his left eye could see her he said softly,
"You remind me of my infant daughter. Would that I could insure both of you a peaceful existence." There was silence, long and hard, that was finally interrupted by another snort from the giant. "I won't give it back the next time. Don't meet me out there, Jun Frostmane." a green aura briefly enshrouded him before he transformed into a horned lion, which took a few steps into the snow and disappeared from sight.