Of Claws and Totems

Chapter 19

Stormrage

Once Blackheart recovered from the shock of seeing such a legendary figure standing before him, he finished climbing to the top of the island, dragging Kalara and Miakoda with him. They stood, panting, and stared at Malfurion Stormrage as he kept the massive swirling vortex above him in check. For a time, it seemed as though the powerful druid would not notice the trio. As Blackheart recovered from his climb, he took stock of the area around him. The top of the island that they were standing on was devoid of any form of plant life; it was barren of all but dirt. He looked around and saw the destruction radiating out from this central point, and when he looked up he could see many things from the forest swirling around the vortex. It didn't seem as if the suction was as bad here, in the eye of the storm, but Kalara still kept her shield in check.

"It seems as though I have guests," Malfurion rumbled in his deep voice, "and by your looks you know who I am. What I do not know is who you three are, and why you would risk coming here."

All three of them were still in a slight state of shock, however Blackheart was the first to recover. "I am Blackheart, and this is Kalara and Miakoda. We came because Kalara said she felt something containing this vortex… something she thinks she can help with."

Malfurion turned his attention to Kalara then. "Help is always appreciated, though what kind of help you can offer I do not yet know. One must wonder what your profession is, Kalara, that you think you can assist me. Surely not a priest or a paladin, for 'the light' would not have gotten you past the wind that this mighty storm brews. Not a hunter or a warrior, for I see no implements of war, and not a mage either I think. That leaves the last profession the Draenei regularly practice, though not often. You must be a shaman, and if a shaman you are then a great help you indeed could be."

Kalara could only nod, trying to hide how pleased she was at the opportunity to help one of the greatest mortals on the face of Azeroth. "How can I help?"

"The elements, while intertwined throughout nature, where never the specialty of druids. While I'm holding this vortex back, perhaps you could speak with a wind elemental and see if they can do something about this?" He gestured upwards, then resumed his trance, pouring energy into the vortex to hold it in place.

Kalara nodded, and then closed her eyes. Blackheart watched as her face took on a serene appearance and her breathing slowed. He knew her consciousness was no longer attached to the mortal plane. Once Kalara had reached the calm, steady state she needed to commune with the elements, she called out with her mind to Susurrus, the wind elemental she had made a pact with for her elemental powers. A voice filled her head then, like wind rushing through the leaves. "You called, young shaman?"

As Kalara opened her eyes, she saw the elemental hovering before her. As she looked around she noticed the entire place seemed to be one giant bank of clouds, as if she were floating in the sky. This was the realm of air. She could see other elementals, some greater and some lesser than Susurrus, floating around the realm, creating eddies in the clouds that they passed. A monstrous sound drew her attention to the side where two of the largest wind elementals she had ever seen, easily the size of large houses, grappled with each other. Each elemental had a look of effort across their… faces, if they could be called such. They each gripped the other's hands and were pushing with such a force that they were completely horizontal, the clouds and other things of the realm billowing around them in a tempest. She winced as lightning, so bright it left after images for many moments, flashed out from where their hands connected, one such bolt hitting a lesser elemental that was caught in the tempest and utterly obliterating him. Finally tearing her eyes from the spectacle, she bowed and voiced her request to Susurrus. "I've come to ask for assistance. A great storm is tearing apart Darkshore and I need help to calm it."

With a wave of his hand, Susurrus smoothed a cloud that rested between them, its surface turning to glass. With another wave of his hand the glass went suddenly dark, then became brighter as he scried the storm. Kalara saw that she was looking down the eye of the storm from above. She could see Malfurion, hand upraised, pouring power into the storm. She could also see Miakoda and Blackheart staring at what she realized, with a start, was her own body. Regardless of how often it seemed to be happening of late, she was never accustomed to seeing herself from far away.

An odd sound emitted from Susurrus then, and she realized he was laughing. "I haven't seen such a storm in a while. It's beautiful really, the way the wind can tear the earth and water apart." He looked at Kalara and one of his purple eyes disappeared for a second in what she could only guess was a wink. "It's always nice to get one up on my fellow elements. Earth will be furious." The elemental looked up to see the lack of amusement on Kalara's features. He studied her for a while longer; the huge elementals fighting in the background drew her attention once again. At a hissing noise from Susurrus she turned back to face him. "This tempest, however beautiful it seems to me, was created by Deathwing. Him and those thrice damned Twilight Hammer think they know better what to do with the wind than we do eh? Let's show them a thing or two." As he waved away the image he extended his hand towards Kalara. She felt an immense welling up of elemental energy suffusing her body as he touched her. "Tell your friends to hang on." When he released contact with her, the world went dark. Blinking, a roar filled her ears as she realized she was back on Azeroth.

Blackheart was looking at her, concern crossing his features. "What are we going to do?"

She was having trouble controlling the amount of energy built up in her body as she tried to answer. Her hair was starting to stand on end, and a bright white arc of electricity ran up one arm before meeting her shoulder and striking out at one of the islands nearby, cracking it in half and sending dirt spraying up into the vortex. Blackheart didn't move, merely looked at the island, looked back at her, and cocked an eyebrow up. Through gritted teeth she told Blackheart and Miakoda, "Hold… on. I… I can't… contain…." She trailed off as another arc of electricity ran the length of her body. She could feel the well of power within her, begging to be released.

Blackheart didn't waste time in doing what she asked. He lifted his sword off his back and, uttering a feral growl, slammed it into the ground with all of his considerable strength. The long blade sank almost to the hilt securing it to the ground. As quick as he could, Blackheart pulled a rope from his pack, cursing his luck that it was wet as he wove it around the pommel, avoid the blade. He knew a wet rope just didn't last as long as a dry one. First securing himself, he ran to Miakoda and wrapped the rope around her before sinking his claws into the ground and holding on. Miakoda gripped the sword itself. By this time he could see that Kalara was floating a few feet off the ground and in front of Malfurion. The arcs of electricity that had gone the length of her body occasionally were now there continuously, one right after the other. He could feel his hair standing on end and could sense the amount of energy about to be released. Electricity was sparking between Kalara and the ground now. With a grunt Malfurion nodded to Kalara and raised his hand, pouring even more power into the storm. At the same time, Kalara's arms shot skyward and a deep, loud noise reverberated through the air. It was like a hum, but loud enough to be deafening; he could feel the waves of energy buffeting him as she struggled to release them into the storm.

Kalara had never felt this much energy before. She had called down lightning to strike around her, and when she had completed her contract with the elementals she had been filled to the brim with energy. Now though they seemed faint things in the face of the raw torrent of power she could no longer contain. She was not only filled to the brim, she was overflowing with it; it was a miracle she hadn't injured anyone with lightning and lucky that the initial bolt that escaped had struck that island instead of Blackheart or Miakoda. As she raised her hands and released the energy she felt as if she might be torn apart. The energy froze her in place, escaping in a massive blast starting deep within her chest, racing to the rest of her body, and then escaping upwards. Her entire body shook and reverberated with each pulse of energy being released. She could no longer hear or see anything; she only felt the energy within her. She started to panic as she realized this was just too much energy for a normal being to possess. As her body shook more violently, she heard Susurrus whisper in her mind, "Be at ease shaman. I have it from here." As she felt the power slip beyond her control, the world first went a brilliant white… then she was falling into blackness.

At first Blackheart thought that the hum was the worst that was to come. He was sorely mistaken. The sound increased in intensity until he thought his eardrums would burst, vibrating him to his core and rattling his teeth. A light shot out from Kalara's hands towards the eye of the storm and the humming began to pulse, with each pulse sending a torrent of energy into the sky and the vortex. With each pulse also came the sense that he was no longer as stuck to the ground as he had hoped. A string of curses reached him between the pulses and he looked over to see Miakoda's feet rising off the earth. The tauren's eyes were screwed shut and the muscles on her forearms were bulging as she gripped the sword. Blackheart felt his grip on the earth diminishing, as if a giant hand had hold of him and was pulling him up into the sky. With each pulse the pull grew stronger than the last; with each pull his grip failed him a little bit more. He could feel his claws being drug out of the earth until finally a pulse ripped him free, tearing the chunks of earth he was holding free with him. He cried out in pain as the rope snapped taught and jerked him still, injuring his waist with the pull it had on it. He also heard Miakoda's voice change from cursing to a strangled cry. He looked down to see, to his horror, the rope that attached him to the sword had somehow gotten caught around one of her short horns and was wrenching her neck to the side. He could see from the position and pain she was in that much more would likely spell her death. The force pulling him into the sky was keeping the rope taught. The tauren opened her eyes then, meeting Blackhearts and letting out a painful bawl. He knew what he had to do then. With one last look in Miakoda's eyes, and one last look at Kalara, he forced his arm down and, using his sharpened claws, he severed the rope, releasing the pressure on Miakoda's neck and sending him spiraling skyward, leaving the ground far behind.

The last pulse that Kalara emitted hit just after he cut himself loose from the rope. A huge blue ripple of elemental energy coalesced above her hands and blasted outwards. From his vantage point in the air he could see the remaining trees that surrounded them get flattened. Nothing within a mile of Kalara was left standing. He could also see the pulse racing up the vortex towards him. The precursors to it hit him, buffeting him as the vortex had before Kalara had put her bubble up. He could see the main wave of energy coming and did the only thing he knew to: he curled up into a ball, shut his eyes, and prayed. The wave of energy struck him a moment later. It felt as if every point on his body was struck by a lightning bolt. His entire body was thrown upwards once again, into the sky and into blackness.

When next he opened his eyes he wished he had remained unconscious. The thing his mind registered most predominantly was pain. His entire body felt like one giant bruise; he felt as if he was on fire. He could taste blood in his mouth, but none of his muscles seemed to want to work. He also couldn't seem to get enough breath; one of his many broken ribs had punctured a lung. There was also a great deal of pain around his shoulders… something was exerting a large amount of pressure there. The one thing that didn't fit in was the rhythmic motion and 'swooshes' of air that kept happening. He couldn't see well, but it looked like he wasn't on the ground. Following the swoosh he kept hearing, something was rhythmically flipping into and out of his field of vision. It took him many moments to realize it was a set of wings in their down flap he was seeing. Something was familiar about the wings, but he couldn't place it. Before he got any further along his line of thought the pain seemed to strike back at his consciousness and all went black again.

The next time his consciousness filtered back to him, he felt significantly better than he did upon his previous awakening. He was still unable to move, but at least the pain was gone. He couldn't hear more than mumbling, as if the sound was coming to him through a wall. He could breathe easy now though, so his lungs must be fixed. He could also smell magic. He could smell a familiar magic engulfing him… he identified it as Kalara's; she was healing him. The feel of his injuries being washed away was there, but an alien magic was there too… it smelled like plants. It brought to him images of laying in a forest, the sunlight nourishing him and his injuries growing out of him and shedding them off like a tree sheds its leaves.

Finally his hearing faded in. He could hear water in the background. The one thing he noticed that was missing was the sounds of the storm… Kalara and Malfurion must have succeeded. When he was finally able to open his eyes he was looking at a beautiful, clear blue sky. He could see both Kalara and Malfurion standing over him pouring healing energy into him. Miakoda was over to one side, struggling to retrieve his sword from where it was buried in the ground. Once his eyes opened they both stopped pouring magic into him and Kalara dropped to the ground by his side. Cradling his head in her arms she whispered, "I'm sorry," over and over again.

It took Blackheart a while to find his voice; his first attempts at speaking just didn't work. Finally he whispered, "It's ok." He reached up and cupped her face and noticed he was human again. "You did it," he croaked out, "you stopped the storm. That was amazing." She smiled in response.

Malfurion's deep voice rumbled, "Indeed she did. A most magnificent display of shamanism that I believe even Thrall and Nobundo would have been proud to accomplish. I want to thank you for helping me with the tempest." He looked to the sky mumbling something to himself in Darnassian. Looking back to Blackheart he said, "I have felt the touch of Elune upon you two. You are both destined for greatness. Although what you accomplished today is something of note, you both still have more to accomplish." He once again turned his gaze skyward. "I must go now, for I am needed elsewhere. Ande'thoras-ethil." With that he took a few steps and leapt off the edge of the cliff and, following a puff of smoke, turned into a large bird, winging towards Darnassus.

Watching him go and hearing the rhythmic thumps of his wings, something clicked into place in Blackheart's mind. He looked up at Kalara and asked, "What happened? Is he how I got down here?"

She smiled and nodded. "Once the storm was diminished I regained consciousness as he was taking off. You owe him your life; he flew up to you and caught you before you hit the ground and then helped me to heal you. You were…" her voice wavered for a few moments. "You were in bad shape. As bad as when Deathwing hit the boat, maybe worse. You were… broken and… and…" she started stammering then, unable to even say how badly injured he was.

Blackheart sat up and pulled her close to him. She was still stammering and on the verge of tears when he tipped her chin up with his hand and kissed her. He could sense the tension leave her then; he could smell her emotions go from worried to relaxed and happy. Ending the kiss he said, "I'm ok now, and that's what I want you to focus on." She nodded, and he stood slowly and found to his relief he had no problems. Reaching down he helped Kalara up as well. He looked to Miakoda, still struggling with his sword, and said, "Well, at least that held."

Kalara walked over and slowly pushed the panting Tauren out of the way. "I've got this," she said, winking. Falling into herself and calling upon the earth elements she put one hand towards the sword and raised it. The sword followed her movements, the earth pushing the sword up and sealing the ground. At its peak the sword fell over with a clang. As Blackheart reached for it he grunted in surprise as Miakoda engulfed him in a hug. "Thank you Blackheart. If you hadn't cut the rope then…" she couldn't continue. Struggling to breathe, much to the merriment of Kalara, he wheezed out, "It's what friends do. Now can you let go before my ribs get crushed a second time today?"

She set him down quickly with a muttered apology. Blackheart picked up his sword and strapped it on his back. He turned southward, flexing his recently repaired muscles. "Well, let's head to Astranaar and see what kind of trouble we can stir up there."