Coming to Stormwind (part seven)
It was a week's journey. I spent much of the time shape shifted into a bird and sitting on the mast of the sail, away from everyone. I enjoyed the salt and sea breeze. Sometimes I took flight to stretch my wings and I followed the ship, flying across the waters.
We came close to Azuremyst Isles. The horrors of the crash came upon us slow, like a migraine. The first thing was the smell. At first the smells of the Isle were sweet, but slowly it became acrid. It smelt like fire, burning metals, and stale death.
The waters too were changing. At first it was a dazzling blue but as we came closer to the crash the waters were dirty and iron gray.
I had first mistaken it for a mountain made of sparkling rose quartz. It formed along the horizon like a glimpse of purple dawn. The stench in the air was beginning to become thick. I nearly retched.
I saw fires glowing in the distance reflecting off the rose quartz mass. Someone pointed to it, and exclaimed
"There is the Exodar!"
What I had mistaken for a beautiful mountain was the space ship, the Exodar.
Elfish ships were docked all along the coastline. I could see tents had popped up everyplace. There were tables, campsites, and stations set up for food and medical attention. I could see that there were knots of people working to douse the fires.
There was yelling and chaos everywhere. I could see my people were like calm snowflakes in a storm. Knots of female Kaldorei priests dressed in all white robes and hoods were tending to the wounded. Blood splattered their robes like red paint.
I couldn't help myself but stare at the Draenei people when we had gotten close enough. They were larger then I had imagined. Their legs were bent like a dryad, and ended with hooves. Their skin varied in shades of blue. I was uneasy with their presence already.
We landed at last. I began helping by doing much heavy lifting. I was a druid, it was true, but never had a talent for people or for healing. I shifted into a bear and pulled carts of supplies to the campsites where they were needed.
I worked all night and well into the next morning. We all did. We worked in shifts. The fires were put out in the Exodar and the dead were buried. It was an unpleasant, gruesome, and terribly sad.
I wish to not go in more detail about that.
The evening came quickly. Many male druids of my people were working to restore the land around the crash site. However it was not coming easily. The Exodar seemed to have left a strange magical residue on the landscape. As they healed it, it was morphing and becoming twisted. It was as if the alien presence brought with it something we druids had not before seen. The trees, grasses, and fauna were healing but also becoming something else.
The presence of the Exodar, the strange alien people. The morphing landscape. All of it made me shudder and frightened me to my core. I heard the Draenei people speak among themselves in their language. Their language was hard and awkward to listen to. A part of me was sad for them, and an even larger part of me was frightened of them.
As the night drew on, I ate food while watching the others. I watched the Kaldorei people walk like ghosts in their white robes, drifting from injured to injured. Emotionlessly, we fed and bound wounds. It was odd to watch these kind acts of selflessness with such an emotional detachment. I now understand why the humans feel we are hollow.
I built my own fire away from the tents. It was both away from the Draenei people and my own. After a hard days work, I was wanting to be away from the crowds. I was gnawing on a bit of fish when a group of Draenei had approached my fire.
"May we?" A huge, dirty male asked. I hesitated, but then nodded. They circled my fire and sat down.
The Draenei's common was rough, but most of them spoke it. The group that sat by my fire were two males and a female. They sat and spoke their language in a hushed tone. They shared provisions of water and food. None of them said a word to me after they asked to sit.
First, the male that approached me drifted off to sleep. Then the second followed soon after. The female sat on the log awake, staring into the fire.
She looked to be some sort of warrior. She wore metal armor and carried a shield and sword. Though as the night wore on, piece by piece she removed it. Under her armor she wore light cotton, filthy, sweat covered clothing. Her arm seemed wounded as it was wrapped. I could see brown blotches of dried blood on her. Her face seemed dirty from smoke. She looked strong.
Her dark eyes reflected the flames of the fire. The tongues of flame were a blazing orange and licked to the sky. Through her tangled mass of filthy brown hair, twin horns protruded and swept behind her. The end points looked sharp. I could not imagine the thoughts that were ringing inside her head.
I didn't speak to her nor she to me. I had not yet formed a real opinion of the Draenei people. However of the short time I had contact with them I felt a kinship with them. The few Draenei that were uninjured worked hard to aid the others without complaints. I could also relate to how they felt. They were thrown against their will into a strange land with an even stranger people…
I do not recall when I fell asleep, but I must have, as I was hurtled into a dream.
It was a frantic dream. I recall running. I do not recall if I was chasing something, or being chased. All I knew is I had to run madly through the woods, as if I was attempting to race the wind.
The longer I ran, the more the feeling within me lightened. It seemed stupid then to ever had thought I was being chased. I was not the prey, I was the hunter. I was chasing something I badly wanted. I knew that I was so close to catching it. However each step I took, the thing I wanted just flitted out of sight. It vanished under bramble, thorn, and leaf. We ran silently, my prey and I. We were dancing.
I remember feeling the sweat roll down my back. I remember my heart hammering in my chest until it was painful. I remember the cold drinks of air in my lungs. I kept seeing glimpses of white blinking in and out of the trees. It was exhilarating to see my prey so close, yet so far.
My prey and I reached a clearing in the woods. It stopped running, and looked back at me with liquid black eyes. In my dream, I remember speaking to my prey. I remember that, despite it's massive, black, thorn, horns reaching out to the sky from it's head we were equally matched. I remember speaking to my prey without opening my mouth. Yet it understood me perfectly, and I him. I had asked my prey one question. I asked where I might find her.
In my dream, my prey turned it's beautiful, long, white head at me. He looked at me. I saw my reflection in it's ink eyes. It did not reply to me, but began to move away. It did not run. I knew the chase was over. It began to walk away into the darkness and shadow.
Trailing behind my prey were hoof prints. The hoof prints were in ice, as if it were leaving a path of frost. I touched my forehead. As I watched my prey walk away I felt hard bone branching from my head. It was like we were both the prey, both the beasts. We both had antlers. I ran to see my reflection in the glassy ice. My reflection began to fade. It faded away just as…