Straydog Saga
Flea 12: The Safe Room
A field of sungrass met Hanriel's bare feet. The sun hung a little lower than he imagined and though his force of will was sound, still it hung. With a little sigh, sit sat at the base of what looked like a pale maple tree. Its red leaves shifted in the light wind that flowed through the safe room. He closed his eyes and began to regulate his breaths. His pounding heart began to slow, as his shaking shoulder sank. The smooth bark of the pale maple seemed to coax his back to it as he felt the tall sungrass blanket his legs. His mind began to slip into a blank state. There were neither imaginings nor worries, just a calm flow of his favorite colors, washing over his dampening mind. The thought of Lady Whitedeer's instructions came to mind but he quickly sent them away as the tension began returning to his back. He thought of the heavenly blue and indigo waves that always made him smile and spoke the words he was taught.
"Spirit of the mystic tree, what is it I should see?" He spoke, seemingly out of breath. A small smile began to form as moment after moment he was left with nothing but his meditation and the atmosphere of his own creation. But in his calm drifting state he did not hear the creeping branches, slithering to him like leaved vipers. It was not until they sprung, sinking their sharpened tips into his back and arm, did he even know they were there. Hanariel uttered a gasp as the thin but sharp appendages began splintering in his system, crawling their way through his veins until they clustered in and around his steady eyes. Suddenly he felt himself pulled back, though his body was still and bound by the tiny tendrils. The clam clouds of blue and green began to swirl into a maelstrom of color until images began to appear in the strange tunnel his mind was subjected to. His consciousness, manifested in what felt like his own body, as the mystified priest lifted one of two hands to block the stunning light that came through the hole in his mind. At once he found himself in a mist covered forest. The brilliant colors that should have surrounded him were tinted grey. He held both hands to his face, causing a look of wonder and confusion. Before his mind could process the growth, the sound of a whining female voice came into earshot. He watched as a night elf, dressed in the trappings of a mid-level druid, and his common-dressed teenage daughter emerged from the wood.
"I still don't see why we needed to cut our trip short for this. She didn't bother to come for my trials. Why should I drop whatever I'm doing for the brat?" The indigo- haired girl pouted, childishly kicking a pebble in her path. Her father wore a calm, almost serene expression in contrast to the fire the burned within his daughters pale eyes.
"That brat is your little sister and had she not been in her own trials at the time, you know she would have supported you." The girl's father looked to her with something that resembled sympathy. Hanariel found his feet moving in the direction of the pair, careful not to step on any tricky twigs as he moved. Though they seemed to be bathed in the same faded color as the rest of the scene, he did his best not to be seen.
"But this was supposed to be OUR trip. We planned it all out, and we didn't even get to see Ironforge. It's not my fault she's graduating early. Now we'll NEVER get to try dwarven ale." The teen crossed her arms and did her best to ignore the comforting look her father gave.
"It's not the end of the world, Wibble."
"Don't call me that, father. I'm not 5."
"Indulge me." The druid smiled as a crack in his eldest daughter's broody frown began to emerge. "You'll always be my little wibbler whether you like it or not, especially when you throw a tantrum."
"I'm NOT throwing a tantrum. I'm just sick of always being number 2!" She shouted, fists balling and shoulders tensing. Her father's smile faded a little.
"What do you mean?"
"You KNOW what I mean." She growled, heat flowing into her unmarred cheeks. "If you don't you can ask MOTHER, I'm sure she'd tell you all about it." She turned away, staring at the path before her with laser like focus. Her father sighed.
"Not everyone can be a priest or a druid, Shandori. Just because you are more suited to the warrior's path doesn't make you any worse in our eyes." He offered.
"Why does she always have to be so GOOD at everything?" She half grunted, kicking another pebble into the grass where Hanariel hid.
"Now Dori, stop being so dramatic. And why would you be upset about being a warrior? Look at lady Feathermoon, how wise and noble she is." Zadiel offered but the cool words did little to stifle the stoked rage. Hanariel could see the great restraint in Zadiel's actions. He could have mocked his eldest child about her slow progress in the sentinel's ranks. He could have truthfully told her that her scenarios were not totally unfounded. He, like his mate, could have berated the girl who seemed to do everything the hard way while exalting his exceptional younger daughter. And had he been a man with less wrinkles and graying green hair, those harsh words may have freely flown from his lips. But Hanariel had seen such looks before, heard such carefully kind words in his own ears. And though many might have judged the pouty, roaring teen as just another spoiled daddy's girl, Hanariel felt a pang in his chest.
"But she's not a druid, I'M not a druid." She sighed. "Warrior, bar wench, garbage tender, it's all the same to Mother. And when you and Luny get sent away I'll be stuck with her." Shandori's inner fire seemed to recede slightly. The steam in her words eased the pressure in her chest but caused the liquid in her stomach to churn. "It's just not fair…" She grumbled, eyes holding back bitter tears. Zadiel struggled to find the words, but was forced to settle for silence. As the pair continued their journey in tense quiet, Hanariel felt a tug at his back. His surroundings began to blur and the sounds that were so crisp just a moment before began to muffle like low hanging clouds. The trees transformed into walls made of white stone. The dirt and pebbles swelled into mortar and cobblestone. The sound of tweeting birds blended into the night watchman's call. Though the streets seemed drenched in gray hues, Hanariel knew the streets of the dwarven district well. He noted that the signs still led to the park, long blown into oblivion during the terrible cataclysm. Two guards came into view, walking towards him with lanterns in hand.
"G-Good evening…" He offered, but no surprise filled him as the guards appeared to overlook his presence. When they were upon him they did not hesitate as both their bodies seemed to melt through his own. Hanariel brushed himself off and felt the careful tension that ran through him abate. Rowdy voices coming from a nearby pub drew him in. Through the dusty window he saw many tiny forms drinking and some even singing in drunken merriment. A few larger forms dwelled within. Two figures, a human soldier and what looked like a night elf warrior sat at a table, steins tipped high and the small crowd around them cheering them on. It took Hanariel a moment to recognize the long, indigo haired night elf was the teen he watched only moments before. As she placed her stein down he noticed her matured features, but her eyes still seemed as bright as the ones she wore as a youngster. Her cheeks were deep purple, while her drinking partner's face was three shades of bright red.
"I think yer done, Jenkins!" She slurred, nearly missing the table as she attempted to place the stein back down. The dwarves called to the bar for another round, seeing how far the weak-stomached human and elf could be persuaded to go. Hanariel entered, nearly tripping over a gnome as he made his way closer to where Shandori sat. He arrived and took his seat at a nearby table as the pair's next drinks arrived.
"5 gold on t'night elf. She's gotcha beat, lad!" One of the dwarves chuckled. He looked around and found a human taker. The soldier seemed confident that Private Jenkins could out do the foreigner, despite the watery look in his gaze. After the next pint was drained, Private Jenkins had an intimate meeting with the floorboards and the pocket of many a patron shifted coinage. Hanariel watched a genuine smile come to Shandori's face. Her dwarven friends pat her on the back and thanked her for their fatter wallets as she assured them that she would never dare do liquid battle with any of them despite their pleas. A barmaid arrived shortly after with a large pitcher of water as Private Jenkins's fellow soldiers came to take him to bed, or disrobe him before throwing him in the canals in retribution for their losses, Hanariel did not turn to confirm either way. Hanariel looked around with a small smile. Despite the grey wash in the scene he could almost feel the warm energy within. He could see the look of genuine happiness on Shandori's face as he watched her continue to laugh and converse with her fellow patrons. A shifting in the room and the clink of coins on the table banished the happy pub, clouds and images swirling around Hanariel like vapor. He barely had enough time to stand before the chair beneath him vanished. The salty smell of grey water and brine replaced the pungent smell of past fermented brews. The Stormwind harbor was a buzz with nocturnal entities as passengers made their way through the moonlit scene. A familiar voice came from behind; once again the warrior with indigo hair met his eyes. She was in the company of her dwarven friends and a few off duty soldiers. Their bawdy jokes and loud conversation caused several raised Elvin eyebrows and upturned noses to form in the actions of the night elf dock dwellers.
"I'ma miss you jerk faces." she slurred, the slight smell of whiskey on her breath. "Get back in once piece alright?" she commanded with drunken zeal. Her concern, drowned in alcohol and nervous smiles, merely made the young recruits laugh. Hanariel gasped at the faces he saw. Had a few more wrinkles and thicker beards, he could have sworn that they had been the very faces of valiant Argent dawn soldiers he'd known; companions that tasted the bloodied snows of Northrend, never to smell another spring in the lower continents.
"Man Dori, you gotta come with us, man. They'll let you in they don't check credentials or nothin'." One of the men, one Hanariel himself had broken bread with before battle, offered. Shandori shook her head.
"I gotta go back to Darnassus. The old woman won't leave me alone about it. Hopefully I can pass the damn trial this time. Then I'll be kicking scourge ass, don't you worry."
"Not if we take them all out ourselves. We won't leave any fun for lazy asses." Another soldier, Private Jenkins, jibed. Shandori shoved him, nearly knocking him into the bay.
"Shut up Jenkins or I'll putcha in the drink!" She laughed as Jenkins struggled to steady himself. It was then a chill voice traveled on the night wind. A sharp "Shandori Sagesmoke!" pierced the warm mood, causing the young men to straighten to attention. From the disembarking crowd was a night elf woman, a priestess in action and dress. She gracefully strode towards the motley crew, long white vestments billowing behind like a white cloud. Her long indigo hair, with light blue and silver streaks was bound by a comb without a single piece of long hair to spare for her naked neck. Hanariel couldn't help but straighten a little himself. Though she wore an aged version of her daughter's face, the pair seemed as different as night and day. There was silence between the pair, eyes moving to conduct all the necessary communication. The nervous humans looked to their friend for guidance.
"What are you doing here, mother?"
"I should be asking you. Orientation began a week ago and yet here I find you…among the alliance elite I see." She looked to the rabble with the same painfully forced politeness that donned most Elvin faces when outside of their isolated sanctuary.
"But I've already taken those courses, 5 times now. Training doesn't begin until next week."
"So instead of refreshing you memory you choose to remain here, making an utter ass of yourself?" She hissed, careful to pluck her tone from the wind. Shandori's smirked, looking to her friend and motioning for them to leave.
"At ease guys, I'll catch up." At once they scattered, but not before one of them mentioned where they would be hiding while her mother was present. Hanariel noted the grey blanket in the scene getting thicker as he struggled to keep everything in focus. Though the cool night surrounded him, he could fee sweat forming on his brow.
"You came all this way to tell me that eh? You must be bored." She sneered as a quick hand pulled her away to a more secluded space with Hanariel unknowingly in tow. Shandori pulled her arm back, rubbing the spot where her mother roughly gripped. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Shandori grunted, still rubbing the sore spot.
"You listen to me and you listen well. I have pulled me last strings to get you back into the sentinel program. Instead you run around with those…dwarves and humans acting like a lunatic. I hear the whispers Shandori and my relations are becoming strained because of your behavior. Are you doing this to spite me?" Iona hissed with her piercing vision set on her daughter. Hanariel wiped the wetness from his face as he desperately tried to focus.
"No. I just…"
"Just what?"
"I…don't know. Can we talk about this later?"
"Certainly, we'll talk on the boat I had to charter to get out here." Shandori's eyes went wide as her mother pulled her back towards the dock. Her feet locked, causing them to halt just before they were in view of judgmental eyes. "What are you DOING?"
"Can't go. The boys are shipping out soon."
"So?"
"So this was supposed to be our big night, you know?" Shandori tilted her head as a sickened look came to her mother's desperate face.
"Your father and sister are leaving for Northrend too. I would be there myself if I could go but I have you to look after, at your age! Many brave young ones, far younger than you are stepping up to serve. Do you enjoy being left behind? This is your last chance to make something of yourself and protect your world. Why are you wasting it?" Iona did her best to keep her tone at its dignified as her darkening cheeks would allow. But there was no more words spoken between the two elves as the scene began to drown in the grey clouds. Hanariel nearly passed out as he felt a tug at his back. He could feel the tiny branches that weaved through his system begin to pull back out but the sensation was warm and soothing. There were not wounds, blood or bruises in their wake as the low hanging sun and fields of golden sungrass welcomed him.
The rain the fell on the bloodied leaves of Felwood was rank with corruption. Despite all the good work Druids and adventurers had done over the years its rolling hills were still covered with slime. The bark on the crooked trees pealed and fell to the ground in dry flakes. The animals, rabid and wild eyes, stalked the dark places in the cursed wood, where a small group of wary adventurers were left with little choice to tread. Daggerfang was still barely able to walk after the vicious mauling and relied on the sturdy backs of Ima and Meryld to help easy his passage through the gnarled ground. Shandori and F-Bomb conversed about their mutual next steps. Unless they reached the neutral sanctuary of Winterspring soon, both their guts roared that they would surely be caught by the army amassing in the south. Christoffel and a reluctant Maiev stalked just a bit behind of the pack, ensuring they were not followed.
"Man this place stinks." F-bomb whispered long green years held high to pick up even the slightest sounds of trouble. But she could hear little over the patting of rain on crackling leaves.
"How far to the Timbermaw caverns?" Shandori shivered, pulling the cloak she acquired in their mini-raid of the sentinel jail over her shoulders. The deep violet fabric suited her, but the glaive pattern on her back left much to be desired.
"About half a day's walk from here. I'll have to do some talking to get all of you through but me and those furbolgs go way back. I'm sure it won't be any trouble, especially with "big-bad" over there needing a healer and all. Once we get there you all can use my ski home as a hide out. I think that'll do for my payment?" she raised a brow to Shandori who smiled and nodded.
"More than enough. We'll just need a safe spot to lay low for a bit until we can scatter. Are you sure we wont' run into trouble up there?"
"No way, its way too damn cold for most bounty hunters and those that do head up there are hunting things of the four legged variety. And if any of those girlies start in on ya, the bruisers will wail on them good 'n throw um in the box." F-Bomb affirmed.
"Miss Dori, can we take a break? He's getting heavy…" Ima said with labored breath. Shandori turned to see two sweat-covered maidens with a lolling-tongued worgen between them.
"Just a bit further, alright? We're still pretty close to the druid camps. We can take a break while F-bomb talks to with the Timbermaw." She offered but the looks on the troll and older worgen's faces spoke when their mouths could only move to breathe. Shandori sighed and the group stopped to rest near a fallen elm tree. Christoffel and Maiev appeared sometime later after circling the perimeter for hidden enemies.
"We were not followed by the sentinels." Maiev shivered from a cold that no one else seemed to share. She did her best to contain it and if anyone saw the action, no one commented on it. "We should not be bothered by them." As others took their seats to rest, Maiev stood at the ready, cautiously looking at the corrupted landscape.
"Do you want anything to eat Ms. Maiev?" Ima asked, rummaging through her supply bag. Maiev shook her head and said nothing.
"Maiev, that name sounds familiar…" Shandori pondered for a moment before shrugging. In their hurry she had not been formally introduced to the newcomer, but judging by her pale hair and fine wrinkles, she assumed she was a friend of Meryld's.
"It is a common name." Maiev spoke before anyone could confirm her old identity. Though the person she used to be no longer breathed, she found no want or will to change the name she was given at birth.
"Well thanks for your help." Shandori said, cutting her speech short when Maiev's gaze rested upon her tensing shoulders.
"I'd say Ms. Shandori owes Ms. Maiev quite a lot for hiding us and showing us the hidden paths out of Ashanvale, don't you think?" Ima innocently asked Meryld who smirked at Shandori's darkening cheeks.
"At least a half a year's worth of debt by my measure." Christoffel chimed in. The little smug smile was shared by those who were capable. Maiev stood as stony as she always did, eyes ever watching.
"Well if Ms. Maiev doesn't require any payment then that's her right." Shandori said through gritted teeth. Maiev's gaze quickly snapped to a thicket of sparse shrubs and remained there as shadows of the past began to shift in her mind. She barely managed to beat them back before looks of concern were cast her way. A clawed hand began stroking her trembling mind before her thoughts began to shift in its terrible grip.
"I will absolve your debt to me if you answer one question."
"Hell, ask!" Shandori's momentary excitement diminished as that hard, haunted gaze slowly came to rest on her once more. Words that seemed laced with darkness spewed forth from her unhinged lips.
"I have had ample time to observe you. You are bawdy like a dwarf, money hungry like a goblin, and fast talking like a human. What's more you surround yourself with the worst sort of rabble imaginable: arcane addicted traitors, trolls, feral monsters, and double dealing thieves. I know the line of Sagesmoke to be an old and noble Kal'Dorei family. How did such a brave and wise man as Zadiel Sagesmoke bare such a morally incapable and traitorous offspring? I'm sure he turns in his grave at the vision of you." Shandori couldn't move. The words cut her worse than the sharpest blade. Most insults just bounced off the thick skin she'd built but Maiev deftly aimed for the sensitive areas, where no armor could cover. The color drained from her face as the entire party sat there stunned at her reaction. She tried to speak but only a quiet stammer escaped her lips.
"Perhaps you should get your eyes checked, my lady. Your observations aren't quite accurate." A voice came from Shandori's side. Christoffel spoke with a scowl. "And if you find us all so disgusting, why did you even help us in the first place. The sentinels out numbered us and would have killed us all. And yet you stepped in, why?" Christoffel's harsh expression softened a little as the haunted eyes slowly turned soft. Maiev closed her eyes, and leaned her head back, as if something had gently taken hold. When she opened her eyes again, the specter that haunted her steps shifted its clawed hands with a wicked smile. At is spoke, so did she.
"You do disgust me, but then again, so do I." She whispered, the clawed hands at her throat ever threatening to clamp down on her windpipe. A voice spoke from beyond imagination, hissing insults into her ears. But a shifting and a hard slap to the face banished the demon and brought Maiev back to reality. She looked up with questioning indignation on her face as Shandori angrily spoke.
"You can say what you want about me. I don't care about the opinions of a washed up old nobody. But you say one more thing about my father I'll give you a one way ticket to the bottom of a lake, IS THAT CLEAR?" Shandori's last words seemed to shake the branches around her, sending several black birds fleeing to the clouds. Maiev closed her eyes and sighed.
"I am sorry…sometimes ill things speak through me." She shivered looking around the area for any signs of the demon. Ima came to her sighed and offered her a hand up. Maiev took the troll's hand without hesitation.
"We all have inner demons I guess." Ima offered.
"Some more literal than others…" Maiev muttered too lowly for anyone else to hear.
"We should getta goin'. Sun's startin' ta get low." Daggerfang rumbled, jaw aching from his ordeal. The group lingered a little longer to finish eating or the doing of other business before continuing their journey north. Neither Maiev nor Shandori brought up the incident again, both content with mutual silence.