Shadean's opportunity for escape came late in the night, when the sounds of battle raged outside the cathedral's no longer sacred halls. Her fellow crusaders were scrambling, desperate to keep up with the vicious assault, but clearly the heroes attacking were impressively coordinated. She watched from the shadows, carefully trying to slip past without their notice, watched them fell three of her former comrades without missing a beat. She gulped and pressed on, hoping to make it to the exit before someone caught wind of her.
Fortunately, everyone seemed too upset to notice one lone trainee running for her life. She reached the stables with ease, and found one of the horses, anxiously stomping his hooves as the smell of fire reached his nosrils. Calming the beast with a handful of oats and soothing words, the young paladin scrambled up onto it's back.
"We need to go," she said as a command, more to herself than the beast. Gently nudging the horse forward, she nearly fell out of the saddle as it reared and rushed out of the stables. Groaning, she wrapped her arms around it's neck, holding on for dear life as the beast charged out, past the other crusaders, past the heroes assaulting the cathedral. She closed her eyes and hoped the horse wouldn't try to throw her off as it ran. She had never been good with animals, and this horse seemed to have an idea of his own.
It was a little under fifteen minutes after she had fled that the horse finally decided to stop, and Shadean rather eagerly got out of the saddle. Again rewarding her mount with oats out of her bag, she hope he would stay near enough and at least get used to her. Looking around, she tried to get her bearings. They weren't in Tirisfal anymore, she could see the looming stone of the Graymane wall in the distance.
"Stillpine? Well you certainly know your way around, don't you boy?" She said to the horse and he whineyed loudly and shook his mane as she gently stroked his fur. She sat down and pulled some stale bread out of her bag, gnawing on it a bit before giving it up as a bad job. Laying back on the grass, she stared upwards at the still ominous sky. She wondered how long it had been since she had seen the sky as it was supposed to look. It had been a while, she decided and then sat up. She heard the snap of a twig and looked around, grabbing her training sword and unsheathing it.
"It's unwise to sit out here long," came a soft, high-piched voice. Shadean looked around wildly and spotted the speaker. Letting out a sigh of relief, she sheathed her sword and nodded. It was a gnome, a mage by the looks of her, and wearing the colors of the Kirin Tor. The paladin smiled and held out her hand to the gnome, who took it suspiciously. Shadean paused when she withdrew her hand, feeling somewhat offended, before realizing what made the gnome so suspicious: she wore the tabard of the scarlet crusdade.
"We don't see many crusaders this far out of Tirisfal," the gnome mentioned casually, pointing at the red flame crest on Shadean's chest. The garment was dirty, faded and splattered with blood, but it was unmistakable. The teenager grabbed the cloth and looked down at it, unable to take it off for now. Once it meant something, but now, she wasn't so sure she wanted to remember what she had just run from.
"I'm...not with the crusade anymore," she admitted, looking down at the grass as she crouched to be at eye level with the gnome. "They've...changed. I used to think they were something to believe in, but something's gone horribly wrong since I joined."
"I have heard rumors of demonic corruption," the gnome said, patting the paladin on the knee gently. "It's good that you at least recognize it, and had the strength to flee before you, too, were corrupted."
Shadean nodded her head and straightened up. "You don't know of any place I can sleep for the night. Like you said, this isn't a safe place to be," she gestured at the forest around them, which sifted the shadows into horrible monstrosities. The gnome nodded her head and began walking down the road. Shadean grasped the horse's bridle and led him after the gnome.
"If you continue along this road, you'll reach Hillsbrad. Keep on the road, and when it forks South, follow it. That'll take you to Southshore," the gnome said with a smile and several gestures indicating which way she should turn. Shadean nodded her head and slipped back onto the saddle of the horse. "But be careful, the Horde have a settlement near there too, they like to cause chaos for Southshore."
"I'll keep an eye out for them," Shadean said with a nod. "Thank you." The thanks were hastily added as she nudged the horse forward, this time he did not sprint off so quickly. Instead, he steadily picked up the pace, letting Shadean urge him onward until he reached full gallop. The trees rushed past, and Shadean heard an unholy howl out of the brush. She had been told that Worgen had been spotted in the forests, but had never believe the rumors. Now, in the dead of the night, she was being pursued by something, though the darkness made it a little more difficult to see what that beast was.
Only when a ray of moonlight hit the path did she see the creature behind her. It was a huge, black worgen, fur bristling and maw coated in foam. She closed her eyes and urged the horse faster, even as she heard the growling of the beast behind her. It's claws raked across the horse's flank, and it reared, knocking his rider off and galloping wildly into the night. Shadean hit the ground with a painful thud, the wind knocked out of her lungs, stunning her momentarily. The worgen leapt at her, clawing at her face and torso as she grabbed it by the muzzle and tried to push it off her.
One fist struck it in the eye and it reared back, howling, rolling away from the bleeding paladin. Shadean scrambled desperately to her feet, drawing the cold steel out of the scabard on her hip and brandishing it at the beast. Once the Worgen recovered, it prowled back toward her, claws digging into the ground as it hunched, ready to strike. It leaped at Shadean, only to be parried by a swift strike from the blade. Growling low, it slashed at her mostly unprotected legs, catching her right thigh with it's claw.
Crying out, Shadean collapsed onto one knee, the tip of her sword buried deep in the soil, effectively disarming the paladin. She brought her offhand up to block the incoming blow as the worgen lunged again. Even as her eyes closed involuntarily, she was thrown back by a sudden ray of light. The beast errupted in holy fire, falling to the ground midway through a leap, shrieking and howling in pain. Another blinding blast of Light and it gave out a single high pitched howl before falling still. The paladin fell back slightly, her grip slipping from the hilt of her sword. She looked at her weak leather armor, pressing her hand to the vicious scratches in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding. She looked around for her savior, seeing a figure in red rushing toward her as her vision faded.
The brush of something cool and soft against her forehead brought her out of the fatigued sleep. Droplets of cool water rushed down her forehead; someone had placed a cool, wet rag onto her forehead. She groaned and tried to sit up, only to find a forceful hand pressing her back onto soft cotton. Her vision was still blurred, either by water or by the loss of blood.
"Stay still, human," came a grunt, low and gutteral. She recognized the tone well enough: it was an orc. Many of the orcs that once lived in the Internment Camps of Lordaeron knew common well enough to carry on a conversation. Shadean again tried to sit up, only to have a softer hand, this time, press her back down on the sheets. A soothing hand pressed against her collarbone, warmed by some magical force and she felt life run through her veins again. Vision clearing, she looked up to see the delicate features that were unmistakably high elven. Sharp, upward angled ears, high cheekbones...and green, glowing eyes.
Not a High Elf, a Blood Elf, traitor to the Alliance in the Third War. Behind her, the hulking form of the orc stood, curiously watching the much smaller paladin. He spoke low in his own language, the sin'dorei responding in kind, the low, gutteral tones seeming strange coming out of a creature so delicate. Shadean frowned and looked around, trying to figure out where she was. A cheery cooking fire was a few feet to her left, a makeshift shelter made of a few sturdy pieces of wood and a couple cloaks stretched between them stood nearby.
"You are all right, yes?" The elf questioned, gently guiding Shadean's chin back to look her in the eyes. Shadean sighed and sat up, nodding her head. A smile touched the elf's lips and she gently cupped the girl's cheek in her hands, looking over her shoulder at the orc and speaking again in that same, strange language. He laughed and shook his head, walking over to the two of them. Shadean involuntarily drew back as the huge orc came near, and he sighed, attempting to make himself look a little less fearsome by smiling; the effect only made him look bizarre, the wide toothy grin revealing his viciously sharp incisors and yellowing maw.
"You're going to scare her more, Kirigg," the elf purred in Common, shaking her head as she turned back toward the human. "We're not going to hurt you, if we had that in mind, we'd have let the worgen feast on your entrails." She quirked an eyebrow darkly, as if thinking for a moment about the concept. Shadean sighed and looked down at her body: both her tabard and most of her armor were gone, leaving her only in her leather pants, boots and the heavy wool dressing covering her clawed form. Pink tinged her cheeks as she thought about these two strangers having obviously seen her mostly nude.
"Just a kid, what are you doing running around with wolves?" Kirigg asked slowly, carefully enunciating his words. He crouched down and poked her in the stomach with one stubby finger. "You barely have any muscle at all, you would not have made much of a snack for the worgen." The elf batted away his finger and frowned before reaching into her pack, handing Shadean a smoked haunch of meat. The little paladin was about to ask what the meat was from, looked at the orc and thought better of it. As long as it was edible, knowing what it was could only make the process of eating it worse.
"He is quite right, what is a lone teenager doing wandering around Silverpine at night?" The Elf said, holding out her hand. "I am Mis'rea," she said as Shadean took her hand uncertainly. "And I have to say, you're far more pleasant than most Scarlet Crusaders I've run into. Most of them have a kill on sight order for anyone not wearing their colors."
"We had a bet that you'd try to strangle us as soon as you woke, I owe Mis three gold," Kirigg laughed, holding out three fingers to indicate his point. Mis'rea sighed and shook her head, looking over at the orc. "I pay you later," he said hastily, grinning again at the elf.
"Regardless, I take it you have a reason to be so far south of your little outpost," the elf said, and Shadean gulped. Here it was, now they were going to interrogate her, torture her for information. She knew she should have tried to run for it as soon as she had woken up. She shifted her position sightly, fist clenching into the dirt. Mis'rea's ears perked and she looked down at the girl's fist, chuckling.
"I'm not going to kill you, torture you or otherwise coerce information out of you. You're a child, and we're not as much monsters as that," she calmed the paladin. "I just want to know your name, and why you're out here," the elf's eyes glittered. "After all, you have our names, and it's only fair."
"Shadean Dresner," Shadean said appolgetically, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry, it's just...you're with the Horde."
"We are Horde. Does not mean we kill defenseless children," Kirigg retorted, frowning slightly. "We are not beasts, not like the worgen, not even like the Scarlet Crusade." He pointed over to a pile of tattered armor and clothes, where her tabard sat, still bloodstained by largely intact. "They are monsters, they torture and murder."
"I know, I-I am not with the Crusade anymore," Shadean said, feeling like she had repeated this far too many times for her own comfort, having even had to say it to herself a few times before her departure from the Monestary. "They've been corrupted...I couldn't stay in a place where they tortured the innocent. I...I saw horrible things there." She shuddered and wrapped her own hands about her body, frowning slightly.
"So you fled? And found yourself running from Worgen, probably in the same day too."
"How long was I out of it, anyway?" Shadean asked curiously, looking up at the night sky. She was certain it was just as dark when she had been attacked, so her unconsciousness could have either been quite a short event or she could have been out for days.
"Just about a day, Kirigg spotted you. So I blasted the worgen and he carried you here," she said, leaning over to stir the fire a bit, pulling the hotter embers to the surface. Kirigg grunted and leaned over, pulling some meat out of his own bag and jabbing it onto the point of his blade, carefully propping it over the fire.
"Thank you...where are we anyway?" Shadean said, picking at the meat the elf had given her again. She ate it quietly, still somewhat curious as to what it was, but feeling so hungry it didn't matter anyway.
"East of the town of Southshore. Someone was leading a raid on Tarren Mill, so Kirigg and I decided to stick around here. Where they don't expect us to be." She added, looking off toward the West, where the scent of fire and destruction was wafting slowly in their direction. "And it seems the Horde took the fight back to Southshore...will they ever learn that all we've been doing here is retaliating for attacks?" Kirigg smirked and shook his head, saying something in orcish.
"Southshore, that's...where I was supposed to go.." Shadean said, looking off to the West and beginning to stand. The elf grabbed her wrist and tugged the paladin back down, shaking her head.
"You are better off heading into the Arathi Highlands and making your way to Ironforge from there." The Orc suggested, grunting as he shifted positions. "Less likely to end up dead that way. Southshore is not safe for anyone. Not even the Horde who attack it now." He flicked a piece of bone out of his teeth and sucked on them for a moment. "I battle as much as the next orc, but I am not so stupid to think that won't get us in trouble."
"We're perfectly content to leave well enough alone, right Kirigg. No sense in starting a fight when you don't need to. That's just a fast route to a shallow grave," Mis'rea nodded her head to end the conversation. Reaching into her bag again, she pulled out a ragged leather jerkin, handing it to Shadean. The Paladin put the armor on, wincing slightly as it brushed a little to hard against one of her bandaged wounds.
"You're going to have to follow the road east, toward the wall you can kind of see in the distance," She said and helped the paladin to her feet. "But you should probably go before the stragglers from Southshore come this way. Sometimes they take shelter in the Dwarven Fortress along the southern part of the wall, and if they saw you with us, you'd likely be killed too."
"Right..." Shadean said, wishing she had her horse still. It had either been run down by the worgen or had run off into Hillsbrad somewhere. She sighed and nodded to the elf and orc, bowing at the waist. "Thank you, for your help."
"Just remember us when you see some poor little member of the Horde fighting off a mob of monsters," Kirigg said with a chuckle. Shadean grinned and grabbed her torn tabard from the pile of garbage.
"I need this to remind me of what I'm supposed to be, and what can happen if I let corruption in..." She said, more to herself than the other two. The elf and orc watched her for a bit as she ran off into the night, turning back toward the fire.
"I give her a day before she realizes she doesn't have a sword," The elf laughed, nodding over to the tarnished blade by the pile of discarded, destroyed armor. The orc laughed and brought his coin pouch out, shaking it in front of the elf's face.
"Want to make it a bet?"