Author's Notes: Timeless Isle was the last patch of the Mists of Pandaria expansion, and IRL Elforen and I spent so much time there that I have most of the achievements from it. I am taking a little creative license with it for the story, but going to it in game would be a good reference point while reading. The biggest changes I am making are expanding the Celestial Court, and making the center of it a temple, rather than an arena.

review replies: Ihsan: most of this was answered in PM but for everyone else: more on Zara's condition will be revealed as we go on. I wanted to show more that they were dipping into mainstream life. I'm sure Azeroth isn't made up solely of adventurers and pirates and military people: there are families and people that go on vacation and mundanities of life as well.

Astrid: I will definitely be dipping into the changes Pandaria has gone through in future chapters. Suffice it to say, they will not be spending their time only on the Isle.

"You know I am not much of a shopper," Zarabethe leaned over so Elforen could hear her in the din of the crowd around them, "but it is killing me to have to wait to buy souvenirs until we get back from the island."

She spotted what had to be the fifth kimono vendor in the same boardwalk they were traversing to make it to their boat on time. She grabbed Elf's arm excitedly as she saw one in miniature, so small it looked like it would fit a doll. It was white with delicate pink roses outlined in black and she made a noise that she was sure she should be ashamed of.

"Look! I have to remember to get one of those for Lorel!"

To his credit, he looked where she pointed, just like he had the last seven times.

"It's a little small for her, don't you think?"

Zarabethe punched him in the shoulder, nearly losing her hold on Dagra as she did.

"Not her, you oaf, the baby. She'd love it."

They were both forced to stop as the crowd became an immovable mass. There was an abnormal amount of people heading to the docks today. Apparently they were not the only ones escaping the heat of the upper continents of Azeroth; she saw more than one group of humans and dwarves, gnomes, even some blood elves and trolls. There was even what appeared to be a group of vacationing goblin death Knights, their bright colored Polo shirts and khaki shorts at humorous odds with their glowing ice blue eyes and the aura of cold that seemed to follow them everywhere. They'd already been in line an hour, and seeing all the souvenir stands right next to them, and not being allowed to buy anything was killing her.

"Even so, she just found out. She won't even have the baby at Winter's Veil. Which ought to make for an interesting holiday," she barely heard him add under his breath. Remembering the horrific fight she got into with Kalibose during her pregnancy with Zane, she tended to share his opinion. Dagra chose that time to pull to the right, and she reprimanded him sharply.

"Heel, Dagra! Honestly, I'm never taking you on vacation again." Elforen chuckled beside her, but she wasn't really kidding. Taking a pet so early into their training on a crowded journey was something she was quickly regretting. And if she was being honest with herself, it was a mistake that she wouldn't have made so readily if she were younger. Was she that lonely, that she had to have an animal with her even if it was a hazard to the rest of the trip. It was a sobering thought as the crowd lurched forward again. A boat up ahead of them, far smaller than the one they came in on, was filling up fast. It was the first in a line of smaller passenger boats bound for the Timeless Isle.

After an afternoon of stretching their legs and a night's rest in a balmy open-air inn, they were preparing for the last leg of their journey. After the week at sea to get to the southern continent, four hours by boat to the mysterious safari island would be a breeze. That is, if they made it to their dock on time. Following the advice of the innkeeper to arrive two hours early seemed to be their only lifesaver as they shuffled forward again.

They made it several yards this time, past an egg roll vendor and to the left onto another boardwalk. Once again they were pulled to a halt by the stagnant crowd, but there was more room here, and people did not immediately fill in the space as before. The first boat was full, preparing to leave port, and with it a chunk of the crowd.

"What ship are we booked on?" Elforen shaded his eyes as he strained to see the names of the boats in the too-bright morning sunlight. Zarabethe was already distracted by the next kimono vendor. This one was silk: extravagant but so vibrant in the light filtering down through the wispy clouds that the expense would be worth it.

"The Rose Petal. Are you sure I can't smuggle just one present in my bags to the Timeless Isle?"

Elforen dropped his hand, and although they'd been joking around all day, his next statement was more toward the serious side of the spectrum as he peered into her face.

"Are you sure I didn't leave the real Zarabethe at home, and this isn't some changeling in her place?"

She wasn't sure what to say to that; even she felt that this was not at all like her usual pragmatic self. Perhaps it was just the excitement of the trip. Perhaps it was how the fresh sea air was working into her lungs and made her feel like she could take on the entire continent with just her bow, her husband, and her cunning. She moved with the crowd, whistling low at Dagra under her breath, as the mass surged forward again. She kept her eyes focused on the sea as she spoke.

"She was just so excited about it, you know? It's hard to not be excited as well."

Elforen gripped her shoulder briefly, but his reply was cut off as the crowd finally parted enough in front of them to make some real headway to their destination. Their ship was easy to pick out by the ornate rose design painted on the sail, and all talk was abandoned as they hurried to get a good spot.

Their passenger ship to Pandaria had departed in the evening from Stormwind Harbour. After leaving the keys to their house with Brekke and making one last round of the grounds, they had left early to pick up some last minute things. Dagra had been a peach in town, of course: he was used to Stormwind and she hadn't even had to hold on to him as they visited a few specialty shops in the marketplace. Zarabethe was waiting outside the general goods store for Elforen, keeping an eye on the nightsabre, when a large stormcrow nearly bowled into her. She ducked, letting out a curse, and the bird caught herself, and instead landed on a post right beside her. Before Zarabethe could do much more than take a startled step backward, the stormcrow melted into the form of her sister in law, still perched perfectly on top of the post, holding her sides with laughter.

"Zara, your face!"

"Lorel!" she stuttered indignantly as Lorel hopped delicately to the ground, still giggling.

"Oh that was funny. I'm going to tell Zane all about it when I get home."

The petite night elf bent over and scrubbed Dagra affectionately behind his ears. "So you guys all ready to go?"

"Yes, we leave in a couple hours. How did you know?" Her indignation made her blunt, and she realized how rude she sounded at the last moment. Lorel brushed it off with a careless wave.

"I heard it from Brek. Had to chase her down all the way to your house. Which was no problem for my tracking nose, of course." She paused and tapped her finger against her chin. "Although I'm pretty sure I scared a group of tourists from Darkshire. You'd think they'd never seen a four foot tall cat slinking through town before."

"Who are you terrorizing now?"

Elforen emerged from the general store with a bag slung over his arm and shading his eyes from the afternoon sunlight.

"Just a few gnomes and humans. Small children. The usual."

He snorted, packing his purchases into his bags that Zarabethe had been guarding. "What are you doing in Stormwind anyway? Don't you have a house, a job, a life?"

"Visiting your daughter."

The shit-eating grin on Lorel's face was too suspicious to not press further. "...for?"

"Can't I visit my favorite niece without an inquisition?"

"You? No." Elforen's dry remark made Zarabethe giggle. Lorel's grin got bigger.

"And checking in on your niece."

Elforen looked up in concern. "What's wrong with Amaryssa?"

Zarabethe was already ahead of him. She moved to touch Lorel's stomach, then held back. "You?"

Lorel nodded her head and to her surprise, jumped into Zarabethe's arms to hug her. "Yes, me! I can't believe I didn't realize until this morning, I've been pregnant for weeks already. It's a little girl this time, and Tzun doesn't get to hide that away either. I'm going to tell everyone."

Zarabethe hugged her back awkwardly, surprised at her enthusiasm. Elforen put an arm around them both briefly. "Does Tzun know yet?"

Lorel finally let her go and Zarabethe let out a breath. "Not yet. I'm telling him tonight. He's going be so thrilled!" She looked around as if she just now realized the time. "Which reminds me, I have some shopping to do. See you after your trip!"

With a puff of smoke and a stray feather, she was transformed and airborne.

Elforen shaded his eyes as he watched her form wheel out of sight. "Well, that was unexpected," he said half to himself as he hefted his bags up onto his shoulder. Zarabethe had barely caught the bag he threw her way as he started his way out to the harbour.

The news had startled Zarabethe more than she cared to admit on the voyage here. Especially with Lorel's staunch refusal to even consider the subject of more children, she had been so inordinately happy that Zarabethe had already planned to do quite a bit of spoiling. It was her duty and obligation as the eldest aunt and semi-matriarch of their little tribe, anyway. With all the exotic vendors and tradesfolk in Pandaria, she was eager to get started. They had agreed, before they even departed the ship, to keep their shopping until the end of the trip. They were still spending six weeks on the Timeless Island backpacking and roughing it, and not only would souvenirs get in the way, they would likely become broken and lost. Zarabethe felt dangerously close to sulking as they handed their tickets over to the harried looking pandaren man and boarded their transport. Too late now, either way. And it wasn't as if they wouldn't have time when they got back to civilization, anyway.

Getting settled into the crowded transport ship and fighting for an area to store their bags took the greater part of an hour, and by the time she and Elforen met at the front deck, she was less grumpy about leaving the mainland behind and more grumpy about people in general.

"I am so glad," she stated without preamble the moment she saw him leaning against the main mast having a conversation with a sailor, "that we are going to an island where we will be lost in the wilderness for the greater part of six weeks. Because if I have to argue over basic amenities with another mouth breathing tourist, I am going to murder someone."

Both Elforen and the pandaren sailor burst into laughter. The pandaren shook hands with Elforen and nodded to her as he returned to his duties, and her husband could barely keep his amusement in check as he regarded her.

"There's the Zarabethe I know and love. I guess I didn't lose you somewhere on the mainland after all."

"No such luck."

She joined him at the mast, feeling still trapped by too many people. Although there were less tourists above deck than below, the ones above were being loud and irritating. Dagra had been put below partly because with how her mood was at the moment, she was afraid he would see some of these people as a threat. Although at the moment, she would consider it a favor to the world. She scowled grumpily at a human group, possibly a family, who were all leaning over the side too far and exclaiming loudly over every wave.

"I hope they fall over."

Elforen chuckled again and took her hand. "Come on, let's find somewhere a little more reclusive."

It took some searching, and a little bit of climbing, but they finally finagled their way up into the rigging and to a spot where they could watch the sun reflect off the ocean. The view was magnificent, the noise of the crowd faded into the background and the air off the ocean refreshed her mind. They spent most of the rest of the journey in silence, just appreciating the view of a place they had never seen before, and Zarabethe felt much more refreshed by the time they haggled their way through baggage claims and stood in line to take a small skiff to the Timeless Island.

They had seen the evidence of it far before its outline became visible against the horizon. The ocean had seemed to grow flat and nondescript, but the wind was constant, a warm push that felt almost like the beginnings of a whirlpool. The ride was steady, but they picked up pace as they drew nearer their destination, and by the time Zarabethe realized the hazy smudge against the horizon was actually the island, they were flying along at a breakneck speed. She squinted her eyes at it, trying in vain to discern its features, but it had the eerie look that it wasn't quite there at all, and only seen through a bubble into another world. It was a smeared piece of the ocean one moment, then suddenly it was fully in view, as if they had finally broken through the membrane that kept it hidden from view. Zarabethe gasped, and beside her she could see Elforen lean back as well. The wind dropped off abruptly and the transport started to slow down, but her eyes were only on the area around them. The ocean was still flat, although she could see evidence of marine life, some of it very large, in the shadows of the reefs. The island itself was a clustered mass of living vegetation: it was so green and lush it felt she could almost hear the trees and bushes growing. There were different elevations, a kind of broken up mountainous ridge at the far back of it, and something huge flying around the top of it. No, several somethings: there were wind serpents nesting in the highest peaks of the rocky crags, and even from here, she could see the red and gold glint of their scales. The entire island was far smaller than she thought, but the more she focused on an area, the more details came to her vision, the more of it was revealed, so that she had the disturbing notion that the island only appeared small, but it was instead so vast that one might never reach the hidden depths of rustling, vibrant green.

Even the sky above them seemed changed: they had left port in the bluest of skies that could only exist over an ocean in the late summer, and although the center of the sky was blue, the edges of it looked curved, fading into almost an amber-yellow, perpetuating the feeling of being inside a bubble. Zarabethe was both incredibly intrigued and a little disturbed by the time it was their turn to take the skiff to land. She held on tight to Dagra's collar, but for once he didn't try to poke his head overboard or get up close and friendly with the other people on board. He sunk down into a crouch at the bottom of the boat and looked as if he wished he were any place else. Once they reached the beach, it took several seconds of coaxing, firm commands, and exasperated pleading to get him to move at all. She practically pulled him out of the boat with her, and so when she stepped foot onto the strangely iridescent amber sand of the beach, she was completely unprepared for what happened next.

A jolt went through her like electricity, leaving numbness in its wake, from the bottom of her foot where it contacted the ground, up her legs, pulsing painfully in her middle, before spreading to her arms, flaring angrily at the large scar on her shoulder, before getting inside her head and turning her vision sickly yellow. She had no idea how long it lasted: she felt as if it took its time to slowly torture her, but by the time her vision returned she had only had enough time to take a stumbling step forward and breathe out harshly. She dropped both Dagra's collar and her bags on the ground, but it felt like a reflex: the sensation was fading so rapidly she was starting to wonder if she had only imagined it. She took a breath, sucking in air as if through a straw, then another, and by the time Elforen had finished speaking to the tour guides that were gathering up the visitors to take them to the main pavilion and was heading her way, she was breathing normally and had started to pick up her things again.

"They are bringing everyone to the Celestial Court first by wagon, then-"

He paused, and even through her best efforts to put herself back together, he looked concerned.

"What happened? You look a little pale."

She shook her head. Her vision remained fine, and as she took a step forward, there was no trace of the strange sensation of earlier. It was quite possible she had imagined the entire thing.

"I just took a bad step. I'm fine."

He didn't look like he believed her, but he continued speaking, handing her a flyer. "They are taking everyone to the Celestial Court first. We should probably ride along, as that's the only place to get supplies." He directed her to unfold the flyer, which revealed a map of the island. Again, she was struck by the idea that there was much, much more to the island than what was shown. The tours, as they were mapped out, skirted around the majority of the mountainous region and barely penetrated into the dense jungle that surrounded it. There were some ruins mapped out in the middle and on an elevated ridge at the far east side of the island, with a hesitant sketch of a humanoid with horns and a large flat nose up on the rising hills. Elforen pointed to a rectangular area in the center of the western half of the island.

"Here is the Celestial Court. All guided tours leave from there, and there are supplies and some housing available. If you end up leaving out on your own, they suggest you head northeast from there, around the lake. "

Elforen's tone turned mischievous as he drug his finger down the longest side of the rectangle to the far southeast corner. "Of course, we are not planning on following the given path, so I thought we'd try here first. "

Zarabethe glanced up across the island and tried to pinpoint the direction he was indicating. Her instinctual ability to tell direction was going haywire here. It was a good thing she had decided to throw a compass in her pack at the last moment. She nodded slowly to herself as she started to match the terrain with the map: peaks of wind serpent nests, ruins with tauren-like creatures, and a kind of ancient fishing village in the far south that looked as out of place on the secluded island as she felt. There was so much to see here, even without the feeling that there were places that weren't mapped out at all, she was glad they had almost six weeks to explore.

"That sounds like a plan." The skiff arrived on shore again, bringing with it the last set of passengers. Stuffing the flyer into her pack, they both hurried to the wagons to get a spot before they filled up.

The thing that struck Elforen the most about the island as he got an eyeful of it through the wagon windows was how populated it was. He blamed some of it on how scattered the trees were on this side of the Celestial Court: it was easier to see through them, so it was obvious that he would see more animals. But this seemed ridiculously excessive: in every direction he looked there was a crane, an irontusk, or a tiger, and almost every time, an adventurer right behind them with a weapon. If he wasn't seeing it partially through the sparse vegetation, the carnage might have been a bit disturbing. as it was, there seemed to be an endless number of creatures, an endless number of hunters, and the no one else seemed to think it odd. he snuck a glance over at his wife: Dagra seemed to be trying to smell in every direction at once, and she was preoccupiedwith that, but there was no trace of her earlier expression. The wagon hit a bump, and Elforen got a tighter grip on his pack. he tried to put the idea out of his mind, but he could have sworn when he had met her eyes straight off the boat, they had seemed to glow bronze.

Without thinking about it, he glanced her way again. She was peering out the window, but sensing his gaze, turned to meet his eyes. He smiled at her, and her eyes were so perfectly normal, and her expression excited, that he put the thought out of his head immediately.

Besides, it was impossible. Zarabethe had been cleansed from the dragon's curse more than thirty years ago. !t had to have been just a figment of his imagination. As if to reassure himself, he reached across the wagon and took her hand. He normally would not surprise her like that: even now, years after she had begun to trust him enough to allow his touch, he usually would let her see the action instead of forcing it on her. But all of a sudden he needed the solidity of her hand in his, feeling her heartbeat flutter under her skin, her warmth reminding him of how alive they were and how much it meant for them to be together in this moment. He felt her tense, then she squeezed his hand back, and did not withdraw as the wagon shuffled it's way slowly along the road to the Celestial Court.

Less than an hour later, it finally pulled to a creaking halt. Both he and Zarabethe popped up immediately and even though they were laden down with more gear and packs than the other passengers, they were the first out the door. Dagra seemed more reserved than he had been the entire trip: he stayed mostly pressed to Zarabethe's legs as they strode forward to the group of shops and vendors that decorated the outside borders of the only place that represented civilization on the entire island. Elforen took in the view of it clinically: surrounded as they were by vibrant vegetation in an area that they had never been in before, his warrior instincts were beginning to kick in. The swooping lines of the arches around the temple that contained the Celestial Court should, by all rights, be visible from most high points on the island. It was bright gold and red in a sea of veridian and blue: if, Elune forbid, they did get lost, all they had to do was scale a tree or a cliff and get their bearings off of the temple here. The forest, jungle, or whatever you might consider the growth on the island, seemed to grow right up to civilization and attempt to take over. Elforen spotted a pandaren woman bent over with a pair of sheers clipping grass and leaves away from her pavilion, and damned if the grass didn't seem to wave in irritation at her for doing it.

"Is it just me, or does everything seem a little strange here?"

His wife spoke quietly into his ear, and he nodded without looking at her. Even the air felt more real and vivid than what he was used to breathing back home. Everything had a powerful life force running through it and it was both invigorating and exhausting to think about.

They stood at the back of the tourist group, slightly reserved as they half-listened to the welcome speech, and half-made their brief shopping list while they were there. They needed food, and Zarabethe needed to buy some thick thread for repairs. As far as they could tell they were the only ones roughing it, and they didn't want to call too much attention to themselves. As soon as they found an opening, they sneaked away.

Elforen felt more than a little like an adolescent as they slipped between a large decorative bamboo and a Hozen vendor selling noodles and walked along at a fast clip away from the expedition leaders directing the tourists how to blow on a whistle if they got separated from the crowd during their guided tour.

"You got that? You blow three times."

Zarabethe's whisper barely reached his ears as they met up at a bored looking pandaren teen selling more practical camping supplies, like rope and firestarter and food that more closely resembled military rations than the hot food the other vendors were selling.

"I don't think I do. Can you demonstrate to me?"

He grabbed several packs of the rations and Zarabethe handed him a spool of heavy thread. He glanced up at her, and her eyes danced with mischief.

"That depends. Do you have something I can blow?"

Elforen tried to swallow down his snort of laughter as he paid for their purchase and handed the thread to Zarabethe. They left the vendor and headed toward the south end of the Celestial Court. He leaned over so that only she could hear him.

"I do, but I don't think it would help much if we were lost."

Zarabethe's muffled laughter rang in his ears as they made their way past a harried blood elf couple that was attempting to order food from a Jinyu. The Jinyu kept holding out different kinds of dishes, and they were shaking their heads adamantly. Their fancy mageweave robes looked completely out of place in the rustic beauty of the island anyway, and Elforen doubted they'd be able to catch their own food if they tried. In contrast, he saw Zarabethe slip ahead of him, her bow and quiver firmly attached to her back and sinuous as only one who studied with the Sentinels could be. She could survive out in the wilds for months, if not years, with only her weapons and her intellect. Her hair might not be sleek and fine in a jeweled clip, and she might not wear fancy silks or revealing attire, but her strength and her capability were what made her attractive. He jogged to keep up with her quick pace. It felt almost as if she were trying to lose him, and he fully intended to give chase.

He followed the vividness of her dark violet hair as she wove in and out of the vendors and tourists gathered at the Celestial Court, until finally they reached the edge of civilization, so to speak. He caught up to her as she paused, right at the edge of the cut grass that seemed to ruffle indignantly at how it had been tamed. Only a few yards beyond the borders the trees grew up taller and the bushes crowded in, and just beyond that, the densest part of the uncharted jungle began. She looked back at him, and her eyes were full of energy and anticipation. He grinned at her, showing all his teeth, and she took off into the trees, Dagra at her heels. With a rush of exhilaration, he followed her.

He let her take the lead for some time, going deeper and deeper into the trees. She moved in a diagonal southeast direction, zigging and zagging as if she had grown up here and knew instinctively where to go. The animal population was less farther in, as if they too avoided the thickest part of the jungle. They passed a few ruins that looked reminiscent of Pandaren architecture, but far older than it should be considering how recently the island had been discovered. He slowed his steps as he passed the crumbled residue of ancient civilization. It looked like the remnants of some kind of pagoda, its former gold and red glory reduced to bits and pieces of chipped paint. He stopped, whistling ahead so Zara could hear him. He admitted freely that he hadn't paid as much attention to the history of the southern continent as Zarabethe had, and he wasn't sure whether the symbols carved in the stone were Pandaren, Mogu, or something else entirely. He sensed Zarabethe come up beside him rather than hear it: the lush vegetation around them seemed to swallow up all sounds. She leaned forward where he was looking and ran a finger along the carvings.

"This right here is Pandaren I believe. It shows the Mogu in an unflattering light." She stopped her tracing as she got to the middle. Someone in more recent times had slashed something on top of the figures. It was deeper than the original carvings, and rough, as if made with a stone knife by someone of great strength. It was almost a perfect facsimile of the crude drawing of a tauren someone had put on the map in the flyer. Zarabethe frowned in concentration, then inspected the rest of the ruins. Between the two of them, they found a few more slashes, but no other drawings. Elforen watched as Zarabethe paused for a moment longer, tracing the

desecration of the ruins, her brow furrowed.

"I wouldn't think the yaungol would have made it over to this island," Elforen offered, taking the momentary break to swing his pack off and roll his shoulders. They had only been going for a few hours, but he was starting to feel how unused to this way of life he had gotten. He hadn't been out in full armor in years, and then only for a day or two at a time. She glanced at him before returning to her scrutinizing of the symbols.

"It doesn't make any sense chronologically, but there's something off about this entire island. I don't think it exists in a strictly linear fashion. It is possible that a small group found its way to the island hundred of years ago, which could be any amount of time on this island."

She dropped her hand and peered around into the vegetation around her. Elforen sighed and picked up his pack again, preparing himself for another hard run. "At least we'd be able to hear them coming. Yaungol and the like aren't exactly stealthy."

She caught him as he was buckling his pack on. She raised one eyebrow with just the hint of a smirk. "Already getting tired?"

"Just giving you a break. You looked like you were winded."

The jab met its intended mark, and her eyes flashed as she rounded on him. "Then you would have no problem beating me to that stone column up ahead."

He saw the column she meant just barely through the rustling trees and nearing the rocky cliffs that clustered at the far southeast corner of the island. It had to be at least fifteen miles away.

He made a show of stretching his arms above his head. "I mean, if you think you can run that far. I am fifty years younger, I wouldn't want to unfairly take advantage of you."

The look of righteous fury on her face was worth every sore muscle he was likely to have over the next few days. With a growl of frustration, she took off, and grinning, he scrambled to follow.