Of Claws and Totems
Chapter 8
Emberglade
"You?" Kalara paused for a moment, then a smile broke through her tear streaked face. She leaned back into Blackheart's chest then, whispering, "You're right, I do have you. How could I forget the big hairy worgen that's always with me?" She leaned up and kissed his cheek then and buried her now burning face back into his chest. The move surprised Blackheart and let loose a torrent of feelings he wasn't familiar with. He felt… warm and fuzzy. He almost laughed at the irony.
He was still sorting through the emotions when he noticed that Kalara's breathing had steadied and her grip had loosened slightly. Moving as carefully as he could, he scooted himself back to the wall so as to not wake the sleeping draenei up. He leaned back against the wall and cradled Kalara to him. She looked very peaceful in her sleep, and he brushed the hair off her face before pressing his wet nose to her forehead and drifting off himself. His sleep was only interrupted by High Chieftain Stillpine when he returned later that night, but the furbolg merely went quietly to bed. Blackheart slept, and for once was visited by good dreams, those of the sunshine and a draenei.
He awoke at sunrise as usual; Kalara was still asleep on him. Blackheart slowly eased her onto a pallet and left to watch the sunrise as best he could. The effect was lessened in the middle of the forest, but it was still there nonetheless. He could sense all of the nocturnal creatures returning to their dens, and the denizens of the day emerging from their holes to start scavenging for food. He could smell the trees waking up, competing for the sun and trying to soak up as many rays as possible in the crowded canopy.
Kalara was still asleep when he returned. He gently shook her awake. She stood up and stretched with her arms going straight above her head and her tail straight out behind her. She blushed every time she looked Blackheart in the eyes, but otherwise prepared to leave as normal. The chieftain, who had gone out after Blackheart, returned then with more stew. "Eat breakfast, before you leave you must." The two readily agreed to partake more of the delicious stew, and then set off towards Emberglade with the chieftain's departing wish of luck.
"The burning forest is due east of here. We should get there in a couple of hours, if what Master Tuluun said was correct." The two walked on a trail that was overgrown with ferns, roots, and other small plant life. Kalara was constantly making a cacophony of noise. They definitely weren't going about this the stealthy way. He had to admit, she was right... no one would hear his chainmail, especially with her around. Blackheart resigned himself to teach her how to be silent someday.
After the couple of hours that Kalara had mentioned, Blackheart noticed signs that they must be close. The smell of smoke was becoming clearer as well as the air taking on an ashy haze. The one thing that didn't seem in place was the temperature. It was getting colder. Kalara slowed to a stop and looked around. Her perplexed look told him that she knew too. "So you've noticed that the temperature has dropped." She nodded and responded, "Something is definitely wrong. The trees should be on fire and it should definitely be hotter. We have to find out what's going on."
The further into Emberglade they went, the lower the temperature dropped. Soon the two could see their breath as they warily trudged through the burnt forest. Blackheart stopped to observe the ground and bent down to it, slowly inhaling the scents that were there. There were definitely humanoids here not too long ago. I can smell…" A perplexed look came across his face then. "What? What's the matter?" Kalara asked him. "I smell humans, orcs, dwarves, and blood elves all at the same time. Those generally are accompanied by the smell of shed blood, but the only blood I can smell is… I haven't encountered it before. At least not while a worgen. It seems familiar though. It seems as though those I can pick out were traveling together."
"Together? What of the Alliance and the Horde? Sure, they can work together sometimes, but I have never seen either the Argent Dawn or the Cenarion Circle take any interest out here before." As the two delved deeper into the forest they came to a small rise which they needed to climb to see over. Blackheart stopped Kalara then, saying, "I smell much more blood over the next rise. Be on your guard and be silent." They pair crept up the rise quietly, and the question of who was there was answered shortly.
The bloody scene made Kalara gasp and cover her mouth. A tauren was tied and staked through the heart to a tree. The insignia at the end of the stake covered in dried blood was that of a hammer on top of a sunburst. It was the insignia of the Twilight Hammer. Blackheart's senses tingled as the aura around Kalara changed from revulsion to that of utmost anger. In a menacing voice, she said, "The Twilight Hammer is here? They didn't get enough the first time we saw them apparently." She let out a quiet moan of anger then. "Argh. Let's show them what they're dealing with!" She got started running towards the place where Temper, the fire elemental they needed to see, should have been.
A few strides ahead though and she came to a dead stop as Blackheart cut in front of her and held her back by her shoulders. "Let me go! We have to go and finish off these Twilight Hammer bastards before they hurt anyone else. Come on, what are you doing?" She flailed ineffectively at Blackheart for a few seconds before calming down enough to listen to him. "Do you remember what I told you that I had smelled earlier?" the worgen calmly said. "Yeah, some humanoids are there, so what?"
"Yes, 'some humanoids'. We don't know how many. We do know that there are at the very least four. There could be more with them. I couldn't figure out how many there were, but if they were able to overpower and kill that tauren then they are most likely quite formidable. What would you do if you ran right into four of them? What if there are six, or even ten of them? What then? Can you react that quickly? Do you think you can march in and kill all of them? Could you kill one? Have you ever killed another sentient being before?"
The anger he had smelled slowly melted into shame. She tried to tell him what all she was going to do to them. How many different ways that she would make them pay, just how she was going to… what was she going to do? She would see them all and then… and then she would use… what could she do? She slowly slumped in his grip then, knowing if he hadn't stopped her she might have ended up like the tauren nearby, or worse. "I… I don't know, ok?" Her face dropped after the admission. Blackheart could understand her anger and rush to act all too well. He lifted her chin up with a finger and said, "What we need to do is to sneak up and see what's going on before we rush to act. That way we can even the odds if we do attack them." Kalara nodded and followed as Blackheart led her off the road and started making his way further into the forest.
Thirty minutes of careful sneaking later, the two topped a small ridge and saw the encampment. There weren't just four cultists there. Blackheart could count at least twenty. There was one other creature there: an unconscious tauren in a cage. To Kalara, what was more disturbing than the numbers was what most of them were doing. The cultists had three elementals magically bound to stones and were casting some sort of spell on them. She knew the fire elemental must have been Temper, and the other two, a wind and water elemental, must have been Susurrus and Aqueous. She was supposed to go appease them after Temper for their respective totem powers. She studied the elementals for a short while. They weren't moving an inch and Kalara finally understood what was going on. They were trying to bind the elementals to their will. And they were almost complete.
She turned to Blackheart who had been trying to come up with some plan of attack. "They are trying to enslave the elementals down there. If we can somehow set them free, then we should be able to use their help in order to kill or drive off the rest of the cultists." The worgen narrowed his eyes and slowly nodded. He had been watching the elementals as well, and had noticed that any one cultist could only focus on binding the elemental for a minute at a time, and then had to switch out with another one. That must mean if enough of them were to be interrupted then the elementals would probably break free. He took a quick survey of the area, noting all of his surroundings and trying to find something to use to his advantage. He located the answer to this problem in a few seconds and pointed it out to Kalara. "Ok… here's what we're going to do…"
Two hours later, the current overseer of this particular camp, a blood elf by the name of Calden was finishing up checking on the cultists who were binding the elementals. Soon, possibly within a couple of hours, they would be done binding these elementals who foolishly thought they could hold out against the coming armageddon. They would prove useful on this tiny island. The binders were at the base of a large hill in the forest with the rest of the camp spread out before him. He was headed to where the other tauren prisoner was. It was time for more interrogation. He was a few paces into the camp when one of the cultists who was channeling gasped. The blood elf turned to see a lone draenei just finishing her decent of the steep hill.
Calden looked around to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Sure enough, the other members of the camp were sharing the same perplexed look, and most likely sharing the same though: What was a lone draenei doing walking into their camp? Before any of them could voice this thought though, Kalara took an impetuous stance and forced her death glare on them. She had one hand on her hip and one behind her back. The look of her face, that of pure rage and anger that was being projected onto them was enough to make even Calden step back. In a low tight voice dripping with malice Kalara said, "Listen up! I've had about enough of you cultists on MY island! Stop what you are doing, pack up, and get out of here now, or I'm going to get really angry." The pure killing intent of her voice and eyes pushed everyone in the camp back another step. Soon though, they recovered their wits and saw what lay before them. A lone draenei ordering twenty Twilight's Hammer cultists to leave. What a joke.
Calden stepped forward then, raising his hand in preparation to summon the flames he would need to kill this insolent creature. "I think not, little draenei. It is you who will be leaving, though you'll be leaving Azeroth." He summoned a small ball of flame then and sent it hurtling towards Kalara. She didn't flinch as it approached, and Calden's jaw dropped as the fireball engulfed the shaman standing before him and then dissipated, seeming to only scorch the clothes she was wearing. "What was that?" one of the cultists whispered.
Angered by his lack of effect, Calden summoned a much greater sized fireball and sent the pyroblast flying in at Kalara. When it hit and detonated, the nearest channeling cultists were almost knocked off of their feet. When the smoke cleared there was a small crater in the ground, and in it lay the shaman, tendrils of smoke rising from her body. The blood elf scoffed and went to continue his check on the prisoner, until gasps turned him back around. The shaman slowly stood up again, holding tightly to her earth totem. Whisps of smoke came from the edges of her clothing, and some of it was burnt through to her skin, but she remained unharmed. As she dusted some of the soot from her person and her stoneskin faded, Kalara said, "I gave you a chance. Now it's my turn."
She raised her earth totem up in front of her with both hands and slammed it into the ground. Silence followed the impact until a few seconds later a rumbling was heard. A cry from one of the cultists brought Calden's eyes to the top of the hill where a landslide of boulders and tree trunks was headed towards their encampment. The blood elf watched in dismay as the tons of rock came crashing down and seemed to flow around the kneeling shaman while cleanly smashing into the ranks of cultists who were channeling their control spells. They had been trained to never stop channeling, even in the face of death. If he had cared about their lives, he might have been proud that they kept the spell up, even until a dwarf sized boulder or tree trunk crushed them to death.
One by one the elementals slowly broke free of the enchantment placed on them as their captors were slain and the binding stones were smashed to bits. It had been hard enough to subjugate them when they were taken by surprise, and they had lost nearly half of their members in trying. Now that the elementals were aware of their presence, and angry, it would not be possible. All hell broke loose in the camp then as the three elementals sought revenge on their captors laying waste to anything and everything in their path. Calden decided that if he were going to die this day he would take that damned shaman with him. He cast an invisibility spell on himself, effectively blotting out everything around him except the terrain and moved to where he knew Kalara was kneeling at. He unsheathed a small dagger from his belt and knelt behind the crater, waiting for the invisibility to fade.
When the rest of the world came back into view, he could hear the screams of the cultists as they were burned, frozen, or ripped apart by the angry elementals. Human, orc, and dwarf alike fled in terror of the elemental onslaught. Not one of them would escape. None of that mattered to him though. This lone draenei, kneeling still in front of him, was what mattered. He could hear her ragged breathing; she was completely exhausted and wouldn't be able to do a thing as he fit his dagger neatly into her spine. He slowly crept up to her within reach of her, reared back his dagger and thrust it towards her back.
He knew that once he killed her, that would be enough and he could accept his fate of death. After all, they were bringing about the end of Azeroth, and even he had no place in it. He expected to die after the dagger sunk into her flesh and stole the life from her. What he didn't expect was the bone crushing amount of pressure that was keeping his arm and the dagger a mere inch from the dranei's back. He also didn't expect to be struggling to breathe as an eight foot tall angry worgen held him off the ground by his neck. Looking into the worgen's glowing red eyes, he knew fear that he thought he had rid himself of.
"So Kalara, what should we do with our little back stabber?" Slowly standing up from her kneeling position, Kalara withdrew her earth totem and said, "It's about time you got here. Hmm perhaps we should let the Vindicator have him? I'm sure she would love the chance to... talk... with a Twilight's Hammer cultist. Until then though, I don't think he needs to be awake." As Blackheart reared his other fist back he said, "As you command." The last thing before stars that the blood elf saw was a black furred fist coming for his face.
After the two secured the unconscious blood elf, they turned to see Temper approaching them. The intense heat from the fire elemental made Blackheart want to step back, not to mention just standing in front of an elemental was intimidating. He stood his ground next to Kalara though, and waited for her to do the talking. Planning, hunting, protecting, killing, these were his specialties. Talking to fire elementals? Not so much.
In a voice that sounded like crackling flame, Temper said, "It is most fortuitous that you came when you did young shaman, or I fear that I and the other elementals would have been lost." The air was cooled as the two other elementals came to rest beside Temper. "These Twilight Hammer were trying to subjugate us, and bind us to the will of Cho'gall. You seem to be a resourceful creature, as well as the companion that you travel with."
Kalara bowed her head, saying, "Thank you Temper. I originally came to gain your approval so that I might ask for the aid of elemental fire to aid me. I'm glad that we made it in time to stop them." A fiery chuckle emanated from Temper then. "You have earned my approval." A voice that sounded like a loud whisper carried on the wind came from Susurrus, the air elemental next to him. "You have mine as well." A watery voice chimed in last that belonged to Aqueous, saying, "And mine. You have all of our thanks. Now if you'll follow us we will formalize our elemental contract with you. I believe that you've earned the right to have a contract with all of us."
The three elementals turned away then, and moved to a small area. Susurrus called forth a small tornado that cleared the tents, and the bodies, away from the area. Temper then blazed an arcane symbol on the ground. It consisted of four ovals that all went out in a different direction from a center point. Kalara was directed to the small circle that was created by the ovals meeting, while the three elementals went to their places at the edge of each oval, with one of them empty. Blackheart watched as the ritual began.
First Temper began to glow and burn more brightly, and the oval he stood in began to glow a fiery red, extending into the circle that Kalara was standing in. Blackheart's senses were hit with all the smells of fire, and it seemed that just being here he would be consumed by it, and yet he wasn't hurt at all. Next Aqueous followed suit, his oval turning blue. It seemed to Blackheart that along with the fire, all the water in the world was rushing at him, as if there was nothing else in Azeroth except water. Finally Susurrus started his portion, turning his oval white. Once again Blackheart's senses were hit, but this time it was as if the land didn't exist, as if the only thing in the world was air. As the wind elemental finished his part, the forth oval lit up, this one filled in with green for the earth elemental pact Kalara had already received. It was as if all the rock and earth, all the mountains in the world had come crashing down on him. His senses were starting to overload, as each distinct sense of fire, water, air, and earth tried to fight for supremacy. As he was at the breaking point, they all combined into a perfect harmony of the elements with such clarity and beauty that it made his knees buckle, forcing him to the ground. He could only watch now.
As the elements combined, Kalara was slowly lifted into the air. She had her eyes closed and could feel the massive amounts of elemental energy flowing around her, and into her. It seemed the most wonderful experience she had ever known. Then all at once it got better. The three elementals poured forth their energies as one, striking her chest and snapping her head back. She could feel the torrent of power flowing through her; it was rapture. It was like holding onto lightning, being covered in flames, being buried in the earth, being at the eye of a hurricane, and being washed away in a typhoon, all at the same time. She felt like she could do anything, could tear the world asunder and put it back again with just a thought. The feelings were constantly increasing, and when she reached the point where she thought she couldn't stand it anymore, the power was released. It exploded out of her towards the elementals, a torrent of raw elemental energy that could rend the earth, set the world on fire, drown it out, and blow it away. And in an instant it was gone, drawn into the three totems that were now in front of the elementals.
As she fell to her knees, her breath coming in labored gasps, she felt as if she could barely move, but the only emotion she felt was joy. Temper said to her then, "Take our power, and use it to better this planet. If you misuse our powers, we reserve the right to strip them from you. That is not a pleasant experience." Turning to Blackheart he said, "I have never seen a worgen helping a shaman before, but I have seen what you have done for us and done for her. I have also seen into the depths of your soul through this ritual. Care for Kalara well. There are very troubled times ahead, and she will need your help." In a rush of wind, fire, and water the elementals disappeared, and Blackheart's senses were released from their hold.
Once he regained his balance, he rushed over to see to Kalara. He helped her to her feet, but was speechless for a few seconds while he steadied her. "That was…" he started to say, and she finished with, "amazing." Still holding onto her, he asked, "Are you alright? You seem rather weak on your feet." Smiling she said, "I'm ok now, it was just a lot to take in and handle. Now though I should be just fine, I can already feel the strength returning to me. And I feel... different."
"Different? How?"
"More in tune with the elements. I think somehow my senses are sharper too."
"How so?"
"Well, I can feel the earth beneath us, and I can sense how far away water is... I can tell the quality of the air and I know that there's a campfire that's still burning here."
"That's pretty amazing. Now if I can just get you to walk quietly in the woods, you'll be all set." She gave Blackheart a mock punch, saying, "Oh hush you. It's not my fault, I have hooves you know." Smirking he said, "Deer have hooves too but are totally silent." He danced just out of range of her next swing, making her growl at him. "Come back here!" she yelled at him, slinging her hand out in frustration. Before she could stop it, a small torrent of icy power burst forth from Kalara's hand and struck Blackheart in the side, sending him flying into a tree and chilling him to the core. There was frost on the tree and the ground around where he landed, and he was so cold he could barely move. "Oh light!" she yelled and rushed over to the downed worgen. As Blackheart lay on the ground he said through chattering teeth, "Remind me to never run from you again." Kalara immediately set about trying to reverse the frost shock she had hit Blackheart with. She picked up a few pieces of nearby tent and very carefully called forth some flame to light it on fire, trying to get some heat for Blackheart, then she went to work with her healing spells. As she concentrated to coalesce the healing magic in her hands, she once again wasn't in full control of her power. The added power of the contract with the water element caused her healing magic to burst forth, cascading over Blackheart in such a rush he jolted upright. Instead of the peaceful stream in the woods he usually smelled, this was like a tidal wave coming at him.
Kalara cut the stream off immediately. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Are you ok?" As he worked out the last of the itchiness from the massive overhealing, he nodded. Blackheart could smell shame and disappointment emanating from her. "All this power that I wanted and now I can't even use it right." Blackheart rubbed her shoulder then, saying, "You'll get the hang of it, you just have to practice. Did you master your first spells instantly?" She shook her head no. "Well then how is this any different. I can only imagine the vast amount of power that you've been granted. It will take time to master, you will just have to practice." She smiled at him then. "Ya know, I'm glad you're here. You tend to save me alot, from other things and from myself."
He thought about what Temper had said. "Do you know what he meant when he said that there were very troubled times ahead?" Kalara sat quietly for a few moments before answering. "I'm not sure. But before now it has seemed like there's been something... wrong. A sense of foreboding in the earth, and now I can feel it in the other elements too, as if something catastrophic will happen soon." Blackheart nodded. "I too have felt something off. In the morning when the sunrises the wind has smelled... disturbed." Kalara nodded once before freezing and giving Blackheart an odd look. "The wind smelled disturbed? You can smell how the wind is feeling?"
Touching his nose with his finger and then hers once again he said, "Mine is better than yours. I can smell many things, besides herbs, that most humanoids cannot smell." Kalara crossed her arms and gave him a considering look. "Like what? How long it's been since someone has showered or what they ate? What do you mean?" Blackheart chuckled, saying, "No no, any humanoid with a sharp nose can catch those scents. I mean deeper things, such as emotions. Did you know that all humanoids and most animals put of certain scents for all of the emotions that they have?"
"You mean like fear and stuff? I'd heard that animals could smell fear, but I didn't know that it meant literally."
"Oh yes, fear, anger, shame, love, sadness. They all put off a particular scent. Magic as well, though it's harder to smell out." Kalara gave him a skeptical look then. "Magic? You're telling me that you can smell magic? What, like if I conjure up some lightning you could tell?" Blackheart nodded. "Oh yes, and to top it off, each person's magic smells distinct to them. Your healing magic and Master Tuluun's healing magic smell differently. His smells like he is drawing up water from the roots of a very old tree, while yours smells like I'm having my wounds washed away by a stream in a forest. It's quite relaxing actually." Kalara laughed and shook her head. "You're something else, you know that?" He smirked then. "Indeed I do. I'm a worgen." Their attention was gained by a moan coming from the cage on the other side of the cultist's destroyed camp. The tauren prisoner was regaining consciousness.