Twilight had come, and Xaedrienne followed it out into the dense trees that made up Valsharah, her weapon, Talonclaw, strapped to her back. Kyrie, her spiny raptor chittered beside her, her eyes wide and trained on a particularly shiny looking dreamrunner that grazed just outside the foliage that camouflaged them from the open air. Xaedrienne slowly drew her weapon, her breathing steady and low as she focused on the creature's movements. It needed to be a quick kill, the druids of Valsharah did not approve of the excess violence that some hunters had been causing, and her raptor was not known for her ability to cleanly eat.
The creature shifted its hooves carefreely, choosing a new patch of grass to consume, when Xaedrienne leapt from her place of hiding, using her weapon to slice clean through the throat of the creature, leaving a swath of blood in an arc on the ground, and a thud announcing the dreamrunner's fall to the ground. Kyrie chittered excitedly but Xaedrienne held up a hand, knowing the creature's impatience had a limit when she was hungry.
Pulling her knife out of her pack, she quickly set to work on skinning the corpse, careful to avoid tearing the thin hide, its fur worth more intact. Once the creature was skinned, she set to work on separating the meat. Meat sold high on the auction house, especially the delicacies that were found on the broken shore, but she mostly saved the meat for her pets, finding that they too enjoyed the strange meats found on the isle.
The horn was well kept and sharp as her hunting knife, still having a residual glow from when the stag had been alive. She lobbed it off of the creature's skull, admiring its beauty before placing it in a bag, making a mental note to give it to her sister, Crysanthemum, the next time she was in Dalaran. Her sister was still a proficient blacksmith, and could make great use of it. Tossing a chunk of raw thigh meat to her raptor, whom consumed it happily and noisily, she set to work on digging a small hold to bury the unusable remains. She'd gained quite a bit from just the one kill, and wouldn't need to hunt for food again for some time, though selling the skins was worth hunting more.
Blowing a strand of green hair from her face, she gazed up at the sky and sighed, seeing how close it was to the midnight hour. Despite this, dark, ominous clouds had gathered, and there was not a star in the sky to gaze upon. Disappointed, she turned to her task at hand, smoothing over the patch of disturbed earth with her leather bound hand, and making a series of clicking noises to her pet, who nearly galloped towards her in excitement.
"Easy, Kyrie." She said, rubbing the raptor between the eyes fondly. "We best move on now. There's plenty of nightmare outbreaks to weed out." Her raptor dithered excitedly and she smiled, strapping her weapon again to her back.
Traveling through Valsharah was one of Xaedrienne's favorite things to do in the Broken Isles. The lull was present, which she felt preceded the storm, and many champions of all different classes, specializations and training were taking a much needed break from the almost constant barrage that the Legion had converged upon, up until the most recent weeks. Xaedrienne herself had spent much of her time hunting game, trading and selling, as well as working on her leatherworking, which she had been slacking on ever since before Draenor.
Moving into nightmare territory was immediately evident of the amount of corruption that had taken root. Many creatures that were infected, once docile, spritely things, were now hateful and dark, charging and casting for the kill, oblivious to those who were once allies to them. It had saddened Xaedrienne greatly when she had spoken with Malfurian and he had told her of the degree to which the Nightmare had truly taken root. The nightmare consumed, and left nothing untouched where it had spread, and its influence was final. There was no recovery. Just death.
Pulling her hood over her head, and adjusting the dragon skull atop it shielding her face, she stalked slowly into the darkness, the chittering and pealing of sounds resounding about the trees and bouncing in every direction. Kyrie seemed especially skittish, her talons ripping into the earth noisily, her eyes bouncing between Xaedrienne and the clearly moving shadows.
"Ch-ch-kah." Xaedrienned muttered, the command simple. Kyrie seemed to recoil smaller for a moment, before pouncing onto a corrupted dryad that had been observing them from behind a large tree. The nightmare-infected dryad screeched, immediately drawing the attention of several sentient plants, and a Cenarius look-alike with infected red veins pusling around his torso. Xaedrienne cursed beneath her breath, spinning around quickly, effectively slicing off the dryad's head, ending her foul call for assistance. Enraged, the plants sent their vines to coil around Kyrie's legs, causing the raptor to become imbalanced. Xaedrienne grit her teeth and struck the vines, shredding through them and slicing the plants apart, freeing her raptor. The corrupted grove-keeper growled, stomping his hooves and striking at her with his extended talons. Xaedrienne dodged carefully, making more commands to her raptor, who roared and charged, biting into the flesh of the corruptor, earning a pained yowl from the creature. Xaedrienne jabbed Talonclaw into the belly of the beast, causing it to fall to the ground, gurgling sickly. Xaedrienne backed a few steps away, breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
She whistled two short tones, and Kyrie came limping back, her teeth bloodied and bared angrily. Xaedrienne plopped down, pulling out her bandages, dousing them in salve, and slapping them over the raptors torn flesh. The creature hummed in approval and nuzzled her snout into Xaedrienne's ear. Xaedrienne sighed, pulling out a small fried mackeral strip and chewing on it thoughtfully. Observing things in the dark was almost second nature, but she hadn't seen the grove keeper, and that concerned her. It was always possible more dangerous things lurked behind the innocent looking foliage, and no matter how much she culled, there would ever be more.
Standing, Xaedrienne brushed off her mail greaves, clasped her pack back to her back, and began creeping through the deeper brush, listening intently for sounds of corruption.
Instead, she heard the sounds of clinking metal, slicing through lush plantlife, and low grunting accompanied by low curses warped by a metal helm. Curious, and slightly apprehensive, Xaedrienne stealthily made her way through the dense foliage, peering into a clearing where she beheld a strange sight.
Blood red light filtered through the corrupted trees from the bits of moon that were visable, illuminating a man fighting an onslaught of nightmarish creatures. Treants. Grove-keepers. Dryads. Imps. You name it, the man was holding his own, his twin blades slicing and twirling as they sliced through the creature's like butter. Xaedrienne stood in awe, amazed that a goblin could take on so many creatures at once, his muscles visable even beneath the thick plated armor he donned. Xaedrienne stepped forward unconsciously, amazed at the finesse with which the man moved. As his blades made full circle, and the last creature fell, and, breathing heavily, the goblin stood straight, and Xaedrienne realized how tall he actually was. He had at least a head on her, and she wasn't a short goblin by any means. A small area of his skin was exposed, which Xaedrienne noted was a dark green shade, almost the color of dark pine.
The goblin sheathed his blades, unclipping his helm and pulling it off his head with a huff, sending a shocked gasp to Xaedrienne's throat. She walked out from her hiding spot, her face flushed and her eyes wide. The goblin turned to her, his burgundy eyes observing her curiously. She hesitated, unsure of what to do.
"…Hector?" She said, her eyes wary, holding her hand out to wave off her raptor. "That you?"
The goblin looked startled, but controlled his expression, narrowing his eyes.
Xaedrienne remembered that she was wearing her helm, and scrambled to remove it, scrambling her hair and making her seem even more wild and untamed, but she didn't care. She could see him clearer now, without the hood imparing some of her vision. Hector's eyes widened and a smile found its way on to his serious visage. He bounded over, his blades dragging against the ground, and came up close to Xaedrienne, his eyes lighting up.
"Xaedrienne!" He said, his deep voice washing over the goblin in question. "What a pleasant surprise to see you out here!" Xaedrienne giggled, her face darkening.
"I just happened to be hunting in the area." She offered, shyly grating her foot along the dirt. "I was impressed by your finesse." Hector beamed, his chest puffing out ever so slightly.
"You don't say." He said slyly. Xaedrienne rolled her eyes, but smiled none the less. "It has been quite some time since we last…" He paused, thinking. "It's been at least a couple years. How have you been?" Xaedrienne smiled, looking to the east as the sun began to rise.
"I'd love to catch up, if you'd like to go back to Dalaran." She remarked, her voice bright and chipper. "They have some marvelous brews just waiting to be drank." Hector nodded, a smirk upon his face, and wrapped his arms around the little hunter, earning a surprised yelp.
"I missed ya Xae." Hector said, squeezing her tightly. "I intend to make up for a lot of lost time." Xae blushed, but embraced him back, excited for the chance to start again.
...
Woo. That was a doozy. Xae's story was extremely hard to write, which is strange, because she's one of the first OC's that I actually formulated a personality for. But over time, I fell in love with plenty of other characters, and I just fell off a little on Xae. But, here is her and Hector Dos's story. Well, some of it anyway. Anyone who has read the "Heroes rise and Fall" story have already seen Dos and Xae have a little sum'sum going on. At any rate, I hope you enjoy! Xaedrienne is a survival hunter, and Dos is a Fury warrior. Both goblins.