Her eyes started to flicker open. She took a few breaths and saw a figure not far from her. But she only had a few seconds before she fell into the darkness again. All she heard was, "It's okay, it be over…"
She awoke again, what felt like hours later. There was a fire, warming her body. She was lying on her back. She tried to get up but she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She clenched it, feeling not blood or a scar, but… Soft cloth? Warm cloth? It was… Emberweave cloth. Embersilk bandages to be exact, wrapped around her shoulder. She looked around, and saw a figure sleeping. Next to him was a spear, stained in blood. Her blood. He snored softly into the flickering embers. She looked around. They weren't far from the hill they had fallen down. Yes… The hill… Things started coming back to her. She looked around again. They were deep within Ashenvale, and she didn't know which way was North or where the path was or anything. She looked to the sleeping troll, who began to stir. She panicked a bit, and quickly began to play possum.
When he awoke from his sleep, he looked around. He yawned, his tusks glowing in the light of the fire. He poked at the flames with a stick, fueling the flames; he looked to the sleeping elf.
"I know you be awake, mon." He spoke. She jumped a bit out of fright, and had no choice but to sit up. "It's okay. I'm done fightin' wit'cha." He sounded frustrated, troubled. She was confused, and her face gave away that expression.
"Wait… Why would you… Spare me? You had me right there, why did you let me live?" She was perplexed. Never before had she been shown kindness by a troll, nor any member of the Horde.
"It's pointless. What do I gain? If I kill you, I just go back to de bloodbath. If you kill me, you jus do back to healin' your troops, exhaustin' your energy over pointless fightin'. De world be broken, mon. And dere be bigger problems at stake. C'mon. It's only been a few hours, mon. Be careful wit'cha arm, though. It be broken. Nasty fall I took ya for." Ailyne looked at her arm, wrapped in a sling of Embersilk and Frostweave. "C'mon, now. We should get back before our friends all kill each udda."
"Wait…" She weakly stood, balancing herself on her staff which he had placed beside her.
"What is it, mon? Deres not much time."He looked at her and waited for her responce.
"Thank you… My name is Ailyne…" She extended her good hand toward him to shake. The concept of a handshake is foreign to the Horde, and the troll clasped his hand in hers the only way he knew how.
"My name be Pyronaptor. Call me Pyro if ya like. But now isn't de time for pleasantries. We must be goin'. If de battle is still goin' on, it can't be good." He sheathed his spear and wrapped his bow around his chest, took her hand, and started to walk. She stumbled a bit, but using him and her staff as braces, she could keep up with her new found friend.l.
It wasn't long before they found their way up the hill. Pyro had to fend off a few bears and spiders, but he easily handled them. As they approached Thunder Peak, very few blades still clashed. As a matter of fact, all they could hear were the tired grunts of familiar people. The two looked at each other with a worried look and hurried around the hill. They found their way to the path, and as they walked up, the smell of rotting corpses and Death Knight Disease permeated the air. There was dust everywhere. And corpses. So many corpses, Horde and Alliance, littered the ground. They could hear a few blows still being landed, and they ventured into the dust. Ailyne smiled at her new friend and held out a little light from her hand. As they went through, they saw their friends, Titan, Lull, Koro, and Nel, all fighting each other, still going at it, having gone at it for hours straight. Their conditions looked terrible.
Koro and Titan had masses of Tauren fur falling off their bodies. Nel's armor was brittle and cold, cracking at places. Lull's blade was dull and worn, and all of them were covered in cuts and bruises. It was painful for the two new friends to watch, and the combatants didn't even notice their approach. They kept lazily swinging their spells and weapons trying to best the other, furious intent showing on their faces. It was too much for Pyro to take.
"ENOUGH!" The combatants stopped to look at the troll and elf. But just then, they all buckled at the knees as the ground began to shake. The air around them thickened. They looked to the sky. Thunder Peak! It was erupting again! Molten lava spewed out of its top toward the heroes. Ailyne reached out with a holy hand, and, in a dramatic leap of faith, was able to yank all four of their friends out of the lava's path. "QUICK! To the refuge! Dere may still be some Wyverns!" They ran to Silverwind and Pyro rallied the few Wyverns that were there. They seemed restless, stirred up by the eruption and quake. He did his best to calm them down, but then something struck him like lightning. He looked around drastically, trying to find his best friend. "Veloci! VELOCI!" But his search was cut short when Titan swung him onto the back of a Wyvern and the 6 of them flew off.
They landed a respectable distance away from the lava. Pyro leaped off of his wyvern and made a bolt back up the path to find his friend.
"Pyro! No!" Ailyne sent the same hand of light to yank him back, away from the danger.
"Pyro? Who's Pyro?" Nel asked. But the ground shook again, and they all fell flat on their faces. "Brace yourselves! Aftershock!" When it was over, Pyro looked around desperately, and started to bawl profusely.
"Pyro? What's wrong?" Ailyne placed a warm hand on his shoulder. He just curled up.
"Veloci… My best friend… Veloci… I... I can't find her…" he spoke between sobs. "My Raptor… My friend for as long as I can remember! She... She must have died in da battle…" That last sentence made him cry even harder. Lull looked sympathetically at the troll. Never before had she seen a Horde race weep so. Nel saw it as weak and turned a cold shoulder and looked around at the surrounding forest, never turning her back to Titan and Koro, who were standing by a bawling Pyro. Lull walked toward him.
"Your friend may not be dead, Troll… The Light watches over us all…" She place a warm hand on his shoulder as well. Koro tensed up and Titan kept an eye on her. Nel was outraged.
"What are you doing! He is the enemy! We should strike all three of them down right now!" She drew her Runehammer, and Koro leaped in front of her.
"Don't you dare harm my comrade! Another step and I'll-"
"Stop! Both of you!" Ailyne yelled at them. She was tense and a bit angry now. "Didn't you see all of the bodies at the Peak! Pyro here spared my life, and we spoke of whats happening, and he's right! This fighting has gone on long enough! We can't keep warring in the face of the Cataclysm... Now he could be dealing with the loss of his best friend!" She narrowed her eyes at Nel. "Or have you forgotten what friendship is like, Darkcaller? Did Arthas really strip you of all of your humanity?" Nel scoffed and turned away.
"Either way. We need to get out of this forest before another aftershock hits. The Wyverns. Can they fly through the branches?" Nel spoke with a dark growl in the back of her voice.
"They aren't used to it. They normally fly over the canopy and fly through gaps in the treetops to land." Titan responded to Nel.
"I reckon Astranaar isn't far. Think we can fly them there? Would they know their own way back?"
"I suppose they would…" Titan was becoming a bit mistrustful. "Why should we trust you with our Wyverns?" Lull spoke up.
"I give you my word that they will find their way home." Lull bowed before the Darkreaver, who crossed his arms. "I suppose so… But first, we try to find Veloci." He looked to Pyro, who wasn't crying hard anymore, but was curled up in Ailyne's good arm, with Koro holding his shoulder. "I know what it's like to lose a friend… And we will not rest until he is found." Pyro gave a small smile at the offer. "Wyverns!" Titan spoke to the beasts. "Take to the canopy. Search for the Raptor. We will not rest until she is found." With that, the Wyverns took off in different directions. Nel let out an annoyed sigh.
"So until we find this beast, or its body, we're stuck in this forest? Why should I help you find this mangy animal? We were trying to kill each other not long ago..." Pyro's heart skipped a beat at the word 'body'.
"You can either help us, or walk through this forest aimlessly trying to find your way home. Without your Sentinels, you're as blind in this forest as we are. Now, we must stick together. I know that all manner of nasty spiders and bears roam these forests. Let's go." Titan led the way down the path toward the battlefield. The others, even Nel, picked themselves up and followed.
When they reached the top, the lava had hardened over the battlefield. A few arms or blade tips stuck out of the warm, hard rock that had recently taken over the base of the mountain. The soldiers were buried, and potentially Veloci with them.
"Well, if she was dead here, she gone. Can we go now?" Nel asked. She was becoming angrier by the second.
"No... She be alive..." Pyronaptor looked to the eastern part of the battlefield, where he saw an opening in the brush. There were claw marks on the ground. "Dere..." He pointed toward them. Koro walked up to the claw marks and knelt beside them. They weren't fresh, but they were evidence that Veloci was alive, maybe the battle had found it's way into the trees. Maybe she chased a soldier that tried to run away. Either way, one could argue she was alive. "I won't stop till I find her..."
The crazed hisses and roars of an animal echoed throughout the camp. It had a pink skin, covered in bright scales. Blue feathers stuck out at her joints. She was unmistakable. It was Veloci. And she was in a black cage. She stared at her jailer, a human in a black robe with purple markings on his face.
"Oh you're not going anywhere, clever girl… The boss has special plans for you…"
The Raptor clashed her claws and teeth against the cage bars to no avail. The bars gave off a dark aura, as did the entire camp. The ground had a desecrated, purple hue. Guards with giant maces and axes walked the ground, and Elementalists, with bound Fire Elementals in tow, marched around the camp. Sitting on perches above were dragons with purple scales, and twisted, evil looks on their faces. Toward the opening at the end of the camp was an emblem brandishing a dark mallet. Instantly recognizable.
It was the Twilight's Hammer.