Hands All Over

Ever since she could remember, she had a bow firmly set in her hands. While her mother would scold her constantly about how un-lady like she was, her father always encouraged her towards the path of a huntress. Always smiling down at her when she hit the mark and always there to inspire her to try again if she missed. When Kaylrielsia tamed her first pet, her mother looked on at a distance with disdain written on her face while her father bent down and scratched the runty striped panther behind the ears and patted her on the head. It had been her father to shape her from the get-go. He had been her everything, her role model, her idol. He himself was a hunter, as well as the rest of the family on his side, so to say she came from a long line of hunters would be an understatement. Her father, to most people in their village, was called Tyndaniir, but to her, he was her Papa Tyn, or just Papi. His hair had been short and light blue while his skin was a magnificent shade of deep blue. In his short hair, she had noticed he had these small, intricate glass beads woven in, and when asked about it, he would laugh and tell her they were a gift from a friend. She never questioned him further, but she always had this temptation to play with them. His skin had been one of her favorite parts of him though; it contained so many stories from acquired battle scars and had this warm, leathery feel from years of being at the mercy of nature. Most nights he would tell her a story about a particular scar to make her fall asleep, and those were her fondest memories of him.

Sailyeen, her mother, was a different story. The woman was regal in every sense, from perfectly pointed nose to her dainty clean feet. Kayl was always told her appearance came strictly from her mother, seeing that instead of her father's light blue hair, she had snowy white starlight hair like her mother. Sailyeens' hair had always been in some intricate bun on the very top of her head and she wore nothing but the finest silk dresses, while Kayl insisted on keeping it down and short, just like her Papi's. Kayl also inherited her mothers fair purple skin and face. The only thing she didn't get from her mother was her personality, no, that came from her father.

He had been so care free and quick to joke around, it had always been easy for him to make a new friend or two. Sometimes Kayl would wonder how her parents even got together; they were so opposite in every sense. Her father so loving, but her mother so cold and calculating. It wasn't uncommon for arranged marriages, but upon asking, her father told her that they married for love. She had been confused about this at first until one night she snuck out of bed and tip toed to the kitchen to get a midnight snack. To her surprise, her parents were in there and talking in hushed voices. After standing behind the door frame and trying to eavesdrop for a few minutes, she became bored and decided to go to bed, but that's when she saw it. Her father pulled her mother in a protective embrace and then leaned down and kissed her. When they pulled back, they stared into each other's eyes with such a warmth, little kayl could feel it from ten feet away. She knew from then on that was what love looked like and would no longer question her parents about it.

She had been so naïve as a child. It never occurred to her that maybe one day her Papa wouldn't come home, or that her life would change. She hadn't been home when the news was delivered. No, she had been in the forest out behind their house play hunting with her loyal companion. Upon arriving home, she had walked into the kitchen to get a snack when she noticed her mother's shaking form braced against the wall. Kayl never had been close to her mother, but the need to comfort her had never been so strong. Slowly, small light purple hands reached out to touch the olders womans shaking shoulder, only to be slapped away.

In that time in her life, she had only been ten years of age, and to look back on it would only bring grief and pain. Sailyeen plummeted into depression and completely ignored her daughter. It was now that Kayl wondered where all of her other relatives were, where her supposed loving aunts and uncles who religiously sent cards and gifts had gone to. They never came to help consol. They never came to take care of her when her mother would not. With no one to turn to, not even the neighbors, she turned to the forest. Her play hunting turned serious and she hunted for food for herself, her cat and her mother. It became routine: Kayl would hunt, bring home the game and Sailyeen would wordlessly dress it and prepare it to be eaten. That was as far as their mother daughter bond went. When Kayl turned fourteen, Sailyeen decided to leave the house and live with her aunt. Not wanting to be tied to the broken woman anymore, she signed up on a mission roster, determined to start making her way in the world. Anything to leave this place not worthy enough to even call home anymore.

So she trained. Day and night, and until her blisters had blisters and until she had memorized every nook, cranny and texture of her bow. Around her sixteenth year, she took up skinning; interested in finding a way to be more efficient in her killing blows and to minimize the blood shed. It was a contradictory for her to pick up skinning since she had a weak stomach, but she told herself to suck it up and just do it. While her skills changed, so did her personality. The loving, carefree happy child had all but vanished, and a calculating hunter with a quick tongue and even quicker hands emerged. She did what she had to to survive, and that was that.

Sometime after her twentieth winter, she joined the Kings army as an archer, and just before her twenty third winter, she acquired her own squad to lead on raids. She cherished that squad and they became the family that she lost as a child. In the beginning, there had been five of them in total: a human priest, a gnome rogue, a draenei shaman, a dwarf warrior and herself. Not long after, their group doubled and two years later it increased to twenty five. She had what she had always secretly dreamed of since her father died, she had a big, loving family.

Leading them was no easy feat. Keeping up with twenty five men and women was trying and organizing them sometimes was even worse. She loved them all, but by Elune, they knew how to push her buttons.

Her group quickly became the go-to group if you needed a large scale task done. With this reputation they were allowed to do many things and travel across the world. Currently they were in Northrend waiting for their next orders. Camping in northern Dragonblight was no easy everyday thing though. Tents were clustered together and as close to campfires as they could be without setting themselves on fire. Even the mounts were irritated at the weather. Kaylrielsia though was in her tent huddled over a map marking multiple lines here and there. With a sigh, she backed up and pulled her dark cloak closer to her body. Just waiting for orders in a place like this sent her nerves on over drive. In attempt to heat her body up, she began to rub her arms up and down quickly to see if she could get some friction and get the feeling back in her arms. From the floor, her large feline companion yawned and swatted her with its large lavender tail. She had just reached down to scratch her friend under the chin when her senses screamed at her into alertness. Standing rim road straight, she focused and listened to her surroundings. The crackling of the campfire, the rustle of clothing, the cough and sniffle of a cold friend, no, no, no. She focused harder, and then after a moment of concentration, she heard it. The light footsteps of quickly approaching feet. Undead feet. Quickly she grabbed her bow and arrows and ran out of her tent to alert her group.

"Scourge! Everyone at the ready!" She bellowed out. Everyone was up and preparing themselves with in seconds. Barring her teeth, she turned and faced the direction the feet were coming from. Notching an arrow at the ready, Kaylrielsia fell into her stance, her party falling into place in front of her and around her. Pulling her arrow back so the feathers at the end of it was resting by her mouth, her small pink tongue darted out and licked the wood, a strange habit she had picked up somewhere along the way. A grin spread across her face as her first target came into sight, and with a battle cry, she released and watched with sickening pleasure as her arrow sunk cleanly into the scourges head, instantly killing him. Then all hell broke loose. Her twenty five men and women against fifty or so scourge, and so far, they were winning with no casualties. Somewhere after her tenth killing blow, Kaylrielsia got this tingling feeling of being watched, but not by the scourge they were fighting. No, by something else. Something much more sinister. Was this attack a diversion of some sort?

Eyes widening, she yelled out to her second in command, "Brian! Take everyone to the safe area! Forget the scourge and go! GO!" He studied at her for a moment before nodding and grabbing a device out of his armor and quickly pressed a button. The area was consumed in a bright green light and Kaylrielsia took this as her moment to run. Calling her pet over to her, she darted for her tent and grabbed all her important documents and threw them into a fire just outside her tent. After making sure they would be unsalvageable by setting a fire trap she started to run for her mount, the only one left tied up. The large sand colored saber cat looked anxious, but ready to follow her masters every order. Quickly mounting, Kaylrielsia sent her mount into a dead run, running from the scourge and whatever had been watching her.

Twenty minutes of hard running quelled Kaylrielsia's nerves down and tempted her to slow down so she could get a good survey of where they were. Not even before they could stop, they were slammed to the ground and she was dragged from her mount. Cold, well-manicured fingers latched themselves onto her wrist and drug her into the tree line. The cries of her pet tore a feral scream from her throat moments before she grabbed for her dagger and made a cut towards the offending woman's arm. She was released before her blade even made it close, and with that, she bounded to her feet, crouching low, teeth bared at her attacker. Blood froze upon looking at the female before her.

The Banshee Queen.

Why would she be here, and for me? Certainly even I'm not that important. Eyes narrowed. My group though…

"I applaud you for your quick thinking captain, but now tell me, where did you send them?" The she-witch questioned.

I scoffed, "And why would I tell the likes of you?"

"Because you're really not as stupid as you look, are you?" She retorted quickly.

"Well in that case, I'd rather die before telling you!" I spat back venomously. All I had time to see was her deep red eyes narrowing at me before I was disarmed and her hand was around my throat strangling me.

"That can be arranged."

The snowy world around me went black.

I was woken up by being dunked in frigid water that by the taste of it had life growing in it, and not the good kind. After blinking rapidly, my vision cleared and revealed that I was in a dark room with two death guards in it, who were holding me, and a shadowed figure on the other side. Their identity was quickly exposed by red glowing eyes. Looking away, I started to study the room. Dirty stone slabs on the floor, and stone walls and ceilings. How decorative.

"Now where were we Night Elf?" She asked me. I merely rolled my eyes.

"We were just at the part where I wasn't going to tell you anything."

"Ah, still set on that, are you?" the Banshee Queen asked while walking towards me.

"Yes."

"Well we have our ways in obtaining information."

"I'm sure you do, but if you think I'll degrade myself into telling you anything, you're sorely mistaken, She-Witch." I quickly retorted. I could practically feel my father's disapproving gaze and him murmuring something about my manners. She lowered herself in front of me and smiled menacingly.

Sorry Papa.