Author's Note: Alright, Final Chapter, this was such a long wait and I'm sorry once again I have had no time to upload it. But please enjoy.
Chapter 5:Final Chapter
This seems familiar. Strolling through the Ashenvale forest, with the cool breeze rushing towards me, carrying with it the entire forest's belongings. It probably brings to me the scent of a certain troll as well. With the ashes of Ironforge upon her, or perhaps she is bathing now, washing the sweat and dirt that are of her. Or could it be that she isn't even here and in fact she is in her own safe and humble towns. Gathering her armor and her swords for the vengeance she so dearly seeks to have.
Hmm. I find it all troubling in the end, it's only been ten hours since she escaped from the prison, and thirty-six hours since I last saw her. I have no doubt in my mind that she will find her way to me even though she was stripped of all her belongings when she was captured, I only wonder now if she stole her armor and weapons back or if she'll be able to replace them at all. I also wonder if I am thinking so much because I worry for my own life today. I have never felt death coming like I do today, in every moment. I have prepared myself heavily, I must have done so thinking subconsciously about it, I still don't feel comfortable with the many items and equipment I have with me.
I've really become something to dislike; even though my skills will never fail me, my mind as a soldier is lost. The constant notion of war has gone, the only action of killing and surviving is no longer there. A soldier with fear is like a wolf who has lost it's senses. And so I can somewhat already predict how I will mindlessly thrash out at my enemy and cause myself to fall in an endless amount of mistakes until I am in a position where a rogue's speed will out due me and I will fall into my endless state of sleep. Even now I am more unlike a soldier than I need to be, thinking about my own death when it is hers I should be thinking about. Of how my claws will rip her and the taste of her sacred fluid will be the only thing I remember.
My legs feel bound and so I sit where I am, gazing at the soft green all about me. My throat is dry and my nose stings, that of course is from the poisons that have been lingering about me for a short while now. I roll my round staff in between my fingers as she nears even more. She wont attack, I am sure of it, but I must be cautious because rogues are mysterious and even more so when they are the enemies. Her dark leather comes to my side, giving me a better smell of the poison but also the smell of something sweet. A perfume maybe. The longer of her blades taps the base of the tree behind me, one can easily distinguish her impatience to get this through, or to get it started rather. Yet, I only feed onto that dangerous enthusiasm of hers as I stay sitting, picking at the grass and then flicking it at her boots.
She gives me a sigh and shifts her feet, then kneels down meeting her face with mine, I cant see her eyes through her helm and that bothers me. It brings me uncertainty and that is a soldiers greatest fear. The troll crosses her arms over the top of her knees and leans her head close to me. She again taps her blade against the rough bark and waits. I turn my head away from her and then close my eyes getting a feel of how truly tired I am. I slightly smile and gaze at the rogue, I can feel her awkwardness as she seems to try to get away from me, but when she is caught between the discomfited situation and the dodging of an attack she stumbles backward. I entrap her perfectly with the roots from the trees that surround us. She is held tightly to the ground, her body is stiff with the shock of the sudden attack and as I approach her she struggles, her back lifting violently from the ground, she squirms for her freedom. How quickly she loses her calm appearance when entangled in my roots. I can easily find enjoyment in this for… various reasons.
She let's out a few soft moans, trying to get free, I use this opportunity to change my being and vanish from her eyes. The roots sink back into the earth and she hastily gets up and tries to stealth but I am quick to catch her before she can truly get away from me. My claws rip her leather, I make sure to dig them into her skin as well making a clean gash on her side. I almost have her on the ground again as she stumbles forward but, she catches herself, gasping and then quickly turning her body only making the cut widen as my claws are still planted firmly in her, but I am not nearly aware enough. The bottom of her blade comes down on my back causing me to spasm from the pain and let go. For a few moments my vision is blurred from the assault and she catches onto this as she watches me shake my head for it to come back. Her breathing is heavy, she has her hand against the bleeding wound.
The moment I try to move, doom is upon me. I stagger, opening great opportunity for the troll. She rushes me with admirable speed pulling out her dagger which had been left on the right of her hip sheathed. Now with the anger and adrenaline she gained from my sudden attack, she strikes at me. I bounce back using every limb to my advantage and yet she gets me. A clump of black hair falls from my dark paw, a sharp pain surges my entire arm as I land on it. I once again change my form back into my original state, seeing just how bad the wound is. My entire right hand is badly bleeding from one long and deep gash. I must hold my staff with my left hand now, I cant grip it with the other. I watch her just as closely as she watches me now, her dark leather chest lowers and rises quickly and heavily. I match her breathing with mine and wait, feeling the blood of my hand swiftly drop to the green grass beneath.
My eyes are unfocused, and I am slowly becoming lightheaded, I cant identify what this is due to; the large amount of blood I am losing or the heaviness of my breath. Perhaps both. I feel a great urge to just lay on the soft, luscious ground that surrounds. But I also have no wish of dying so simply. Do I want to die at all? These sort of thoughts shouldn't even cross my mind and yet, as I look so very closely at the rogue I have to wonder about these things. And because I am thinking about them I suppose I have concluded that I am…selfish. Because I want to live…and I want to kill, I want to take the lives of others because that is the only way I can live. I want to become stronger, I want to fight not for my people but for myself and the benefits I can receive from winning. I want to win this fight.
But winning this fight means…
She moves. It seemed as though it was only a twitch but in fact she is jerking herself toward me with full speed. I almost cant prepare myself for the impossibly swift attacks she throws at me. But that is why I made sure I would match my breathing with hers so that I could prepare and just as hers does, my breath comes excited. My staff is quickly removed from my hands and thrown off somewhere beyond my reach, but her moving slows as well. I use this chance to strike back. Instead of backing away from her, I move at her careful to avoid her sharp weapons which have done a very good job at tearing my body up. She jabs at me with a little more force then her earlier strikes but it also is a slower move and I easily dodge it and then am very close to her. I place both hands on her shoulders, mostly because I am struggling to keep myself up but also to push her to the ground. When I am on top of her, I quickly call up the entangling roots once again to trap her arms from damaging me further.
Our breathing is still synced, though mine seems to come out a little heavier than hers. I use her body once again as support so that I can stand myself up as she struggles against the binding plants, I raise my arms and cast a healing spell. My wounds are quick to close as the magic spreads across my entire body, but my uneasiness does not vanish with it. As the roots begin to retreat I change once more this time into the moonkin form and quickly catch her before she can stealth with moonfire. She is getting weak, and tired with how much blood she has lost from my earlier attack. I hit her once again with a powerful moonfire as she tries to come at me. It knocks her down to her knees and she grasps her continuously bleeding wound. Her head is down, breathing deeply, and suddenly our breath is different.
I should have seen it coming right away. But it's far too late now. She comes at me, vanishing with a thick dark powder. Oh how quick she is.
…
Now that I am able to move and see clearly again, the rogue is nowhere to be found, I can see long strips of bloodied bandages on the ground beneath but that is all, there is no sign of her anywhere. I cant even sense her anymore. I could stealth, but that could take too long, plus the possibility that she will know what I am trying to do and get me to her advantage. I could change so that I have a better resistance in an ambush attack or…I could run. No. Even if I wanted to run she would surely catch me. She would always come after me, even in death. I hope she would… And maybe that is what I want, more than anything. To be with her in a state where war will have nothing to do with our affairs, and the memories of our past lives will come as mere feelings one at a time until our spirits are intertwined with the ambitions of fighting, the courage as soldiers… and the love that I so foolishly feel for her.
I have been attacked again, suddenly as my vision comes clear I feel knew wounds all across my back. I fall to the ground to avoid the next swing she makes from behind, quickly I turn on my back, wincing from the deep open wounds against the ground, but I must endure to resist the pain of anymore wounds that she wishes to provide to me. I crawl back with her in my sight the whole time as she raises her blade up and suddenly I cant move at all, I have backed up to the same tree I sat at in the beginning of this but even though I am free to move aside, I just cant.
And so my blood pours.
Author's Note: There you have it. I apologize for the long wait, was finishing up school and for those who didn't catch it in the middle the elf had been stunned. I hope it was alright. Sad way to end it for the Final Chapter but that's how it goes damn it! Anyways, please review and look forward to upcoming fan fiction.
Yours, Ank7.