Chapter 4

The Lecture

A band of five humanoids were making way through the lush forest, cutting their way past the plentiful growth with crude axes which seemed to be made out of stone. The humanoids themselves resembled humans, only way too uncivilized. You could say they were almost naked, wearing only rags around their waste for clothes and the rest of the things they had with them were weapons or leather paunches, probably for food supplies. As the five continued through the forest the one leading them suddenly stopped, making the few behind him to stop as well.

"What's the matter?" – one of the primitive humans asked.

"I think I heard something" – the leading human replied.

And as he said those words, a spear flew from the shadows of the forest and thrust itself into the leading humans' chest, killing him in an instant.

"Trolls!" – the human with all the questions yelled and charged into the same direction, from which that death bringing weapon came, with his companions following him.

The remaining four charged forward only to meet a war band of forest trolls, which could be easily understood from the fact that they had green skin (and that everything was happening in the forest). The trolls were armed with spears and axes and replied to the human war cry with the same ferocity and anger in their voice. The troll war band numbered in twelve and it seemed that the humans were desperately outnumbered, but it mattered not. One of the humans, armed with a crudely made wooden shield and an axe charged in first and with one swing spilt a trolls' skull in two, obviously killing his opponent instantly.

The trolls did not react to such brute strength and quickly charged at the first human, aiming to rip him apart. As two trolls quickly approached the human, one of them quickly fell as his neck got pierced by an arrow. The second troll on the other hand made it to his target and swung his two axes at him, only to get blocked by a shield. As the human blocked the trolls attack, he quickly countered with his own axe and thrust its stone edge into the trolls' neck, dispatching the poor troll as fast as the first one.

"Leave some for us Sitrim!" – One of the fighting humans shouted, and finished off a troll, by stabbing him in the neck with a spear.

"It's your own fault for being slow Vryn" – Sitrim replied, as he killed off a third troll, that threatened to attack him with a huge battle axe.

As the fight continued, the troll war band got killed off and the rest escaped in fear of such dreadful foes. The humans then made sure that all the trolls are dead and returned to their dead comrade.

"We should carry Tirrol back to our village. His woman will want to say goodbye properly"- Sitrim said.

His three companions all agreed and took the body with them, while going back the way they came from. As they continued back through the forest, with the usual noises of animals and birds all around, one particular sound was out of place.

"Sitrim…"

The mentioned person looked around after hearing his name, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, deciding that it was just the wind (obviously...the wind is always the one at fault).

"Sitrim…"

"Did you hear that?"- Sitrim asked.

"Hear what?"- Vryn asked.

"I think someone's calling me"

"Do you think it's the spirits talking to you? – one of the other humans asked.

"You should discuss it with the village shaman" – Vryn then suggested.

"Yeah, I probably should" – Sitrim replied, and the four went back to silence, letting the noise of the forest once again dominate the air, filling it with its "music".

But obviously the voice did not stop. It continued to call the same name, over and over again.

"Sitrim…"

"Power…your destiny awaits you…"

"….Sitrim"

"Sitrim!" – Myriam shouted, and woke the person in question up from his dream –"I knew I heard your name somewhere else before! I just knew it!"- She kept on shouting with excitement in her voice.

Sitrim, completely awake from his dream sat up and looked at the human female, that was standing in the middle of the room, with Zal'jin behind her, his hand ready to take out his curved sword and strike.

"You are the reason for the second catastrophe brought by the Burning Legion, upon Azeroth aren't you? You're Sitrim the Death Lord, or called such in the history books."- She continued, looking at Sitrim with eyes full of expectation.

"Yes"- He then replied, after a few moments of silence, with his eyes sharply looking at the human.

"Fantastic!" – Myriam replied to everyone's surprise – "A lot of human written history books state that you were slain in a battle that decided the fate of Kalimdor not far from the High elven kingdom of Quel'Thalas. But I found one specific book, written in the dragons' language that states that you were in fact imprisoned by Alexstrasza of the red dragonflight with a sealing spell. That specific book helped me to come to the realization of who you really are, simply wonderful!" – She explained.

"Not only did I read the dragons' book, but I also looked up the specific spell used against you, with detailed info on it as the spell has been used many times later by multiple races. It even described the result of the spell and in what kind of object is the victim sealed" - Myriam continued – "The only thing that I could not make sense of is how did they manage to seal you with such a spell, which has such a crucial flaw"

And the last words caught Sitrims attention.

"Flaw?" - he asked.

"Yes, it seems that you can just walk out of the circle of fire while it is still forming with minimal damage. Of course it's made to seem like the fire is extremely hot and impossible to walk through, but I guess that's just a cover"- Myriam explained while waving her hands in excitement over the subject at hand.

But the information given did not seem to make Sitrim happy, on the contrary he seemed quite angry and suddenly stood up after the last words spoken by Myriam. He started walking back and forth from one end of the room to another.

"That Alexstrazsa completely fooled me. To succeed in sealing me with such a simple spell!" – Sitrim shouted, while waving his right arm hastily, but seemed to calm down, while continuing his speech – "I will have to repay her for such an insult, but first I need to know the political situation in Kalimdor and what remains of my kingdom. Explain it to me, mage"

"I had a hunch that you will want that, thus I brought a map for just that reason"- She replied. Myriam then lifted her hand and with a flick of the wrist moved the single table present to the middle of the room. She then approached it and placed the map on its' surface.

"We are currently in the territory belonging to the kingdom of Benlor. Your resting place was found in its southeastern territories, with Graytown being right in the middle" – Myriam explained to Sitrim who approached the table and looked closely at the map, with Zal'jin by his side once more – "Now the major powers of the continent are considered only a few. The high elven kingdom of Quel'Thalas to the northeast, the Night elven domain to the west and the Dwarven kingdom of Ironforge to the southeast. But the kingdom holding the biggest political as well as military power is the Kingdom of Egmir. Oh and I should mention that the orcish clans have recently grown in power, after uniting the native races"- Myriam continued, only to be interrupted by Sitrim.

"To what kingdom do these lands belong?" – He asked, while pointing at the middle of the map, where a large territory was colored grey.

"Oh, those lands belong to no one. Those are the forbidden lands that are sealed off from the continent. Not much is known about them, but they say that they are covered with dark forests, full of dangerous creatures. – She explained and continued with the "lecture", without noticing Sitrims deep interest in the forbidden lands( well that's a rarity) – "Since most of the kingdoms in Kalimdor are of human nature, thus there has been decided, that with the need to avoid war and unite all the races, a High King would be elected from the rulers of each Kingdom. The High King would regulate the diplomatic relations on the continent and would carry the last word in the gathering of rulers that happens once every year. But honestly, the High King is more of a show then a real position, since it simply mirrors which kingdom carries the most power and influence. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that the High King is reelected once every 6 years, but the same king can be reelected a second time. And that sums up the most important parts. Any questions?"- Myriam then asked.

"Yes, how do we get to the forbidden lands?"- Sitrim then asked to Myriams surprise.

"I explained so much to you, and this is what you're interested in? Why do you even want to get there? The place is completely sealed off by the combined efforts of the continent. They build a large wall around that whole territory and guards are always stationed there"- She replied with an irritated tone.

"I have my reasons"- He then replied.

After a few moments of silence, Myriam regained her composure.

"Well the guards let mercenary parties led by a lower nobles in there, so I guess we should find one and sign up"- She explained – "and since we're done here I'll go pack my things, we can leave today"

After saying those words Myriam quickly picked up the map she brought and left the room leaving Sitrim and Zal'jin alone.

"It's time to return to my kingdom"- Sitrim then said in a lowered voice and turned to pick up his sword, which was left on the bed.

"It be long since my people served you my master, but many of us still live in your lands, protecting them even though they long forget the reason"- Zal'jin then said.

"Good. I hope they still bury their dead in the same way"- Sitrim then replied, and with a grin on his face left the room, with Zal'jin right behind him, leaving the quarters empty and silent.

Those who want to see the speculated map of old kalimdor, with the borders of mentioned and some other kingdoms will find the link in my profile. ( Since somehow I failed to add the link here, oh well)

P.S. There might still be some changes to the map.