Coming to Stormwind (part four)
I hated them.
They were short. But despite their size, they made a lot of noise.
And there were so many of them, like cockroaches, scuttling around, darting this way and that. Like insects. Some were fat. I thought were I to shove them over, they would lay on their backs failing like beetles. They all looked so different, it was a dizzying busy array of colors. Some had brown hair, some dark skinned, some red hair like flames.
They spoke in common so quickly and with slang and phrases I did not know the meaning to. It infuriated me. I knew common, but it was like a different common language I could not begin to follow. "Can you come 'ere a second?"
A second? Why do you wish for me to go to you for such a short amount of time?
"Well ain't that the pot that called the kettle black?"
"Be cool, man."
"I can feel my ears burning!"
"He is so down to earth."
"She passed the buck."
These are just some of the things I had heard and did not fully understand. I could surmise some meanings by the context they were used, however it was still befuddling.
I also did not travel in the Eastern Kingdom in my elvish form, for at the time there were few to no Kaldorei there. I traveled as a feline, and at night, slept in Elwynn forest as a bear.
Although I was still conspicuous as a cat, I was less slow for often in the busy city there were many large and exotic animals. Animals were bought and traded, used as mounts, and were hunter's companions.
I stalked the ally ways I had no money, and so getting around had become difficult, as I could not pay a griffon master or buy food. I hunted at night, however the game in Elwynn was small and I often went hungry- as well as other human criminals were using the forest as their hide out. I often fled for my life from them.
When the hunger pains had become unbearable, I broke down and began to steal. I would stalk into the back of bakeries and butcheries, and blindly grab with my teeth whatever was easiest and quickest. Often the food was foreign and was not to my liking, but it was enough.
I had stolen pies of meat and spiced beers and thick sausages.
It began to be a frequent dance. I favored the foods from a specific butcher who was fat and stupid, but the meats he had cut were fresh and good. His hardworking son was the hunter who would bring in the carcasses for him to carve. I would admit, I was getting lazy in my theft. I was getting complacent and over confident.
The son had caught me stealing while I was in the locker feasting on chunks of boar meat. He was dropping off a deer onto the chopping slab. Carcasses hung on hooks like morbid draperies. He was as stunned as I was. Our eyes met. My yellow cat eyes twin orbs in the darkness, and his stunned, pale and dirty face locked together.
I think we were equally frightened of each other. He hadn't expected to see a panther cat in his meat locker, and I had not expected to get caught. I saw he did not have his hunting weapon with him, so I charged. I did not to kill or even hurt him, just escape.
I pounced on top of him, knocking him to the ground.
But it was too late. I was making a dash for the door but the butcher was barricading my way with a menacing meat cleaver in hand.
In a way, I was glad I was caught. The weeks eating the human foods and animals had left me sick. Being exposed to a new world without a built up immunity will do that. My fur was coming out in patches. I was sick and weak. I was constantly sneezing and vomiting. I probably looked a mess.
After the guards were called, they talked of simply killing me for my own mercy. I clearly looked like a strayed pet belonging to a hunter, and the hunter let loose and no longer cared for.
They also said I was diseased and was better dead for the community.
The female guard felt pity for me, and patted my head.
It was at that moment that my dislike, near hatred, for humans waned. I did not realize that this younger, foolish race was anything but barbarians.
And here this human female was, she pitied me. She did not wish to just butcher me, she wished to feed me and brush my fur before having mercy on my life.
However, I of course would not be killed.
I shifted from my feline form into a man.
It was like a large yawn, or a stretch. My joints ached from being in that form for so long. My voice sore and unused. The humans all fell back and gasped in unison surprise.
The butcher held his knife up and ordered me to stay back, the guards hesitated but held their swords at ready.
"It's … it's a Kaldorei…" By now, the butchers shop was filling with more guards and rubber-necks. We had quite a crowd.
"I…thought they had antlers."
"What is HE doing HERE?"
"Does he speak common?"
The female guard approached me slowly, respectfully. She had a rope. I turned, calmly placing my hands behind me. I let her bind my wrists without a fight. Ducking my head as to not hit it on the doorframe, I let her lead me out into the street.
As citizens approached, none of them ever having seen a night elf before, the guard barked at them all to stay back. I was dangerous, she said. She was taking me to the Stockades, and for none of them to follow.
I did not know what the Stockades were, but I suspected it was some sort of cell. Perhaps there I would be able to explain myself, perhaps I was going to be lead there to rot and die. I did not feel this was the right place to argue, as if things were to get out of hand-- there were much more of them and only one me.
Sure enough, the Stockades was a dank, dark prison. The iron bars caked in rust and mold. It was chilled with the air sucked of hope. Stagnant water lurked in the corners of the dungeon. She shut the door, and locked it with a heavy clunk.
"Speak common?" the female guard asked curtly. I nodded.
"Good. I sent someone to fetch the night elf Ambassador, he will have a word with you. We don't know who you are or what you are doing here." She paused. I saw her eyes move to the corner, she was seeing if anyone else was listening.
The other guards had left. We were alone.
"Your people aren't known to be thieves." she said quietly.
"I am not a thief. I was hungry."
"You are a long way from home, what are you doing in Stormwind?"
I stared at her for a while before answering. I was having difficulty deciphering her intentions. She seemed like she was asking out of compassion, from her tone. However, she was also hardened. She may have been asking to use against me. I wasn't sure. I was hungry, tired, ill, and now locked away.
She had sensed my unease.
"You just seem… out of place, and lost. Here." The woman had dug into the small leather satchel at her side, and pulled out an apple. "You need this more then I do."
I snatched it more eagerly then I intended. And ate it faster then I anticipated, the juices soaking into my beard.
"I was on a quest to find my sister." I told her.
The guard smiled. I sat on my haunches, my back to the wall. I peered at her, yellow eyes casting a glow on the slick wet walls.
"My colleagues and I had thought you strayed from the Ambassador's tent. The first Kaldorei had just arrived in Stormwind days ago."
"I am not with the Ambassador." I said, peering at her from a distance. "And Kaldorei have been trading furs for centuries…" I paused as she stared at me curiously. I had never been stared at before, it made me uneasy. She was fascinated, as if I were an animal at a zoo. "However, officially, we have never set foot to your lands."
"Your accent is beautiful to listen to." She said, then immediately, I felt her embarrassment. I laughed, slightly-- in an attempt to ease her of her embarrassment and no more. I wasn't a person to her. I was a freak curiosity. A novelty.
After finishing the apple my hunger pains were mostly quenched. I had become aware of my surroundings, dampened by being locked in a box. I wanted the open air, the sky. I disliked being so far away from my mother-- the green land and fresh air.
I knew I'd wilt and die like a plant were I to stay here long.
There was a clamor at the door. Guards began to pile into the dungeon, behind them I could see the towering heads of my people. Several women and a man. They were dressed in fine silks and gold. It was a sick fusion of human cloth and Kaldorei designs with human taste of decadence.
The Kaldorei pushed the humans aside, and all of them lined against my cage, and stared at me.
One of the women stared at me, and spoke in the language of my people.
"who are you?" She asked. Her tone was flat. It was not unkind, but it also had no compassion. No emotion could be drawn from her.
"I am Silwyn Hollowind, Druid of the Talon"
"Feralas." She replied. "What are you doing here?"
The man Kaldorei nudged her. She looked at him as he smirked. He was a very tall elf, and unlike most of our people, he was lanky and thin. He did not smell like my people, he smelt like the humans. I could easily smell the reek of milk from his skin.
"Hollowind," he said snidely. "His mother is the sister of the whore who slept with Father Snow. Had those bastard children."
The woman and the man night elves laughed. The other Kaldorei smirked.
I threw a cold look at them. They only smiled at me. I stood, drawing my shoulders as huge as I could, confronting them as a bear would.
"What brings you here, Hollowind? This is far from you savages in south Kalimdor."
"My sister, the humans had kidnapped her in Darnassus…" I took a breath, "You must believe me. I did not come here for any ill purposes."
The woman raised a white brow as if that were the stupidest story she had ever heard. Then she looked at me up and down. My leather kilt was torn. I had lesions and scratches and sores on my skin. I was sour and unwashed. I probably looked like a raving lunatic, but there was humility and sincerity in my eye. I could feel the beat of her thoughts as she bit her lip and considered.
"The humans say you were stealing their food." she stated evenly. "You must be starving." Then, she turned to the humans saying in common, "Release him. He is one of us."