Ashera woke abruptly from her fitful sleep. She could practically feel the bags under her eyes.

'I feel like shit.'

Sitting up she pushed the thin blanket off and found a rather obvious stain on the white sheets she'd slept in. She glared at it and threw up her hands in revulsion.

'Disgusting. Don't these shit bags ever change the sheets, or wash them even?'

She cringed knowing she'd just spent the night in some couples dried fun juice and it did nothing to lighten her mood. Rubbing her eyes, she sighed and looked over to her brother, Falion, who was still sleeping.

'That piece of shit. Everything is just shit, shit, shit today.'

The sting of humiliation hurt more than the welt he left. Her heart burned with rage and self-pity. She couldn't figure out why she put up with it. Every time she felt that sinking feeling in her chest, she questioned whether she was really meant to be a druid; What with her volatile moods and frequent cases of sailor's tongue. She offhandedly imagined what life would've been like if she had joined the Sentinels. Maybe she could've been a warrior priestess like Tyrande.

Pushing her fantasies out of her mind, Ashera pulled on her boots and quietly made her way downstairs. The innkeeper gave her a slight nod of acknowledgement as she entered the lobby. She came up to the counter and rested her hands on it looking down.

"How was your stay?" he asked in a smooth, deep voice. The druid raised her head, looking him in the eye and paused before responding. "Do you ever clean those sheets, or do all your guests roll around in old filth?" she hissed, making no attempt to mask her mood. The man merely chuckled and crossed his surprisingly muscular arms. "Once a week. Though I suppose anytime a pair of humans stay the night I should burn the beds. Their whole race lacks modesty, decency, and manners," he spoke offhandedly.

"Maybe you just lack the will to get off your ass and change the sheets," she replied rather crossly, throwing several copper coins on the counter, "a bottle of Sweet Nectar." He reached under the counter for the drink and completed the transaction with a smile.

"Indeed. Maybe," he agreed nonchalantly as he slid the coins towards his edge of the counter. Ashera scoffed and turned to leave with her drink in hand when something smashed into her hip, forcing her to drop it in order to steady herself. The bottle smashed open and her savory drink spilled out over the wooden floors of the inn. Her eyes flicked angrily to her lost drink then to the cause of it. She gazed down four head's height into the wide eyes of a partially bald gnome. "Oopsie daisy," he squeaked through a red bandit mask.

"You little shit!" Ashera shouted angrily and grabbed his left earlobe. She tugged harshly forcing a squeal of pain from the tiny thing. Something else drove into her hip, but this time she was sent stumbling, barely staying on her feet. Recovering once again, she turned to find her new assailant. A young dwarf with a head full of bushy gray hair that was attached to the gnome at the waist by a length of knotted rope looked at her nervously. "Look what you got us into Binkle," he cried out and ran for the doorway arms flailing, his lightweight companion in tow. She took a menacing step towards them when the third, a gnomish girl with two silver ponytails, jumped in and kicked the elf's shin before bolting out with her friends. Ashera hobbled after the trio, yelling obscenities and violent death threats. Falion walked down the steps to find his crazed sister chasing after three midgets.

-

Meldric stepped onto the lift, offering a chivalrous hand to his partner. Tessaine batted it aside with her elbow and stood beside him. She sighed, though the air leaked out a narrow tunnel of missing flesh in her throat, creating an odd whistling sound. These missions assigned by the Lady progressively grew in distance from the Undercity. She thought it a misallocation of resources. Any pea-brained team could take bat rides out to these dull mountains to retrieve messages or test out new toxins created by the apothecaries. The tauren manned at the Great Lift untied their platform from the station and signaled up to his partner waiting at the top with a simple firework. The counterweight was dropped and the lift ascended suddenly and Meldric's arm snaked around her waist to steady her. The ascent slowed as the weight was eased down. She turned to her partner and gave him a withering stare. "Just trying to be friendly," he said charmingly, obviously with no intention of moving his arm away. Instead his hand moved down to fondle her through her chain mail.

Death hadn't numbed his drive any. She let him indulge in this small pleasure in private. Trying to deny him of it only made him seek more from her when the tension built up and the dam broke. The pressure built quick and the dam was weak. Since they were paired for nearly every mission they went on, she tried her best to stay on decent terms with the horny bastard. A cold, dry tongue ran up her neck and stopped behind her ear as he nibbled on her nape. Shuddering, she recalled the one and only time she had brought the issue to Sylvanas.

Tessaine stood in the throne room and waited eagerly for Meldric's punishment. The Dark Lady beckoned him to stand before her and with lightning speed she drove her left hand into his mouth and pulled down as the heel of her right palm smashed into nose. Tessaine smiled as he grunted in pain and fell back on his ass, jaw hanging loose and nose crooked, gushing black blood.

"Ngh Athpollogeeshz, Hrhchde," he managed to say before staggering to his feet and bowing. Two of her guards moved in and dragged him out by his arms. Sylvanas walked down the stairs towards her with noble grace as she discarded her gloves. The hand lashed out once again and the unexpected backhand struck with a force to send the deathstalker spinning off her feet. Struggling to rise, she looked up at her incredulously.

"As one of my favored I will NOT allow you to cower under the hands of a men like him, Tessaine" she spat the words with venom. She silently beckoned for the servant, Varimathras, to follow her as she walked towards the door. The dreadlord gave the prone woman a cruel smile that chilled her soul as he left the room. The Banshee Queen stood at the double doors of the throne room and called to the remaining ten royal guards, her voice echoing off the cold, stone walls. "You have three hours with her. If she resists, kill her." She motioned for the guards outside to shut the door. Screaming, Tessaine jumped to her feet and dashed toward them in vain hopes of escaping. She heard the bolt slide into place as the gate locked, her fists thudding against the reinforced wood. The guards advanced on her slowly, sheathing their weapons and shucking their armor. The captain of the guard stepped ahead of his subordinates and leered. "Two men at a time for a half hour each," he spoke with a sadistic, raspy voice, "we'll give the bitch a few moments rest in between."

Tessaine snapped out of her nightmare but felt the frigid hands that stripped, beat, and held her down crawling across her skin. She shivered again as Meldric planted soft kisses on her neck. He never found out what had happened to her after he had been dragged out. When she threatened to tell Sylvanas if he laid another lecherous hand on her, he shrugged and gave her a crooked, boyish grin. "You were and still are worth the punishment," he told her with that damn deep, rich voice of his. She couldn't help but feel flattered. She didn't even know what caused those flashes of anger. Was it his insatiable lust or her own weakness? What any one man could do to her would never compare to the lesson she received that day and she had never really stopped Meldric from doing what he wanted. He was, after all, a fantastic lover and a deadly swordsman. There was a part of her that wanted him to treat her like a woman he desired. Maybe it was all her time spent serving this unholy cause, having to make decisions for others and herself all the time. Meldric took care of everything for her when they traveled, even things that weren't his responsibility. She knew he did it only to please her and though she showed no outward sign of it, it pleased her greatly.

She pulled back and looked into his eyes that were like pale, yellow moons in the dark night. Locking her fingers with his she gave him a short, but sweet kiss on his black lips. He gave her that same boyish grin as she warmed up to him and tucked a wisp of rotting hair behind her ear. She wanted a new life with him, but as the lift approached the top dock, her hand left his and both their faces were instantly void of any emotion they had just felt. Meldric drew his sword and Tessaine pulled her daggers from the single scabbard strapped to her back. They were the Forsaken, and they had an image to maintain.

-