Chapter 8: Shadows in the Darkness

The trio stared forward from behind a rock, seeing a horrible sight. There were goblin miners waltzing around the mine without a care in the world. They were being followed by, as far as Fliflax could tell, mine bunnies, serving cocktail drinks to the Defias scoundrels. The goblins weren't mining; they were supervising the real workers: the monkeys. Chains were strapped to their feet, connected to metal balls, restricting their movement.

"Okay," Fliflax started to explain, "We are going to take these goblins one by one-".

"What about the monkeys?" Resdlen said, distressed by the fact that the monkeys might not be freed.

"Resdlen," said Yeow, "Our first and most important task right now is finding Vanessa Vancleef. The chef on the ship is the only one that might know her whereabouts, and we aren't even halfway there."

"NO! MONKEYS, MAN! GOTS TO SAVES DA MONKEYS!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, running straight through the barricade of goblins. As he ran, he shot the metal balls that stuck the monkeys to the ground. Yeow and Fliflax followed close behind, silently hoping that, if he wasn't dead by the time he reached the end of the corridor, that they could heal him enough that he could open a portal to Moonglade to save them all. They passed by the attacking goblins to catch up to the psycho troll.

"For the Horde!" he screamed, "Free mo monkeys! Get mo troops!

They ran into the end of the corridor, a dead end. There was a door, but it would take their combined strength and a minute or two to open it. Fliflax turned, ready to be impressed by the sheer amount of miners. But there was, at least of what he could see, only two left. Two pick axes with blood-tipped edges went straight through the goblins' chests, causing them to fall down. Behind them, a group of monkeys had gathered, each with blood-tipped pick axes, and each standing over goblin corpses.

They all ran to Resdlen, crawling on top of him, showing their love and gratitude for the kindness he had done them. He quickly summoned a portal to Moonglade, stuck his head in, obviously talking to someone, and then shoved all of the monkeys through. Resdlen closed the portal and smiled at the Tauren. "My friend said dat he would take care of da Jack, Phil, Bob, Lewis, Joe, Joey, Bobby, Billy, Amy, Emma, Courtney, and other Jack! Hooray for da Cenarion Square!" he exclaimed happily.

Fliflax decided against telling him that it was called the Cenarion Circle and said, "Guys, let's push this door open."

They pushed the door open, revealing a goblin on top of an oaf. He laughed at them and forced the oaf towards them. He rammed into Fliflax, knocking him from his bear form into his humanoid one. Though, Fliflax wasn't worried until the bomb landed next to him. He jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the explosion.

He looked up, seeing Resdlen shooting Wrath and Starsurge at the goblin-carrying oaf, and Yeow fighting a group of goblins standing on top of a large log, hurling down bombs. Fliflax charged at the oaf, knocking him out from under the goblin. "You cannot defeat me!" the goblin said, "I am the mighty Helix!"

Fliflax went cat from and made a large gash in the oaf's stomach. He bled heavily as he slowly collapsed on the ground. Meanwhile, Resdlen was busy with his own problems. He shot another Starsurge at Helix, which Helix dodged quickly and stealthily. Resdlen shot a few Wraths in quick succession. Helix dodged the first two but fell victim to the third. Aimed toward the despicable goblin lying on the ground, Resdlen charged an extremely powerful shot, but was still in danger.

One of Helix's crew (the goblins on the platform above them) dropped a bomb over Resdlen. Resdlen, channeling his spell, was completely oblivious to the bomb above his skull. As the bomb touched the Darkspear's hair, Yeow shot a spell, knocking it into Helix. It exploded as it landed, spreading crimson across the room.

Helix's crew ran, cowards acting large behind a strong goblin. Fliflax turned into a bear and ran through the door at the end of the room, Yeow and Resdlen following. They flew down a metal ramp, fighting robotic gear shredders as they went. They got to the bottom, surprised at what they saw. An orc inside a large Prototype Reaper was fighting, according to the label on the suit, a Foe Reaper 5000. The Prototype smashed the Foe Reaper's head in, halting the mechanical monstrosity's movement. The orc climbed out of the suit, looking angry, but not quite furious.

"Stupid dwarves," he muttered, "Always building this ****."

Resdlen gasped at the surprising language, but Fliflax just laughed. "So," Yeow asked, "who are you?"

The orc just turned back toward the entrance to the room. Resdlen, in the part of the mind that wasn't totally crazy, was wondering how he got this far into the dungeon without killing any of the creatures in the previous rooms. He stopped in front of the door.

"I hate dwarves."

He then walked through the door, gone from the party's senses. They turned around to the door that would lead them further in. They opened it, leading them into a large room. There was no ceiling and there was a large lake in the middle. Inside the lake was a large pirate ship with the crest of the Defias Brotherhood on the side. It looked kind of nice until they saw the pirates and the cannons. It looked even less beautiful as the cannonballs flew toward them.

"RUN!" Fliflax screamed as he was running back toward the entrance to the room. Resdlen ignored all warnings and ran toward the ship. Yeow and Fliflax started to freak out and follow him.

"Shoot dem from 'ere mon!" Resdlen said, shooting at the pirates and their cannons. Fliflax and Yeow followed his orders, shooting as they went. They finally made it to the top of the ship, the pirates around them massacred. A worgen was waiting for them at the ship, fangs bared. He charged toward them, running past the druids as they jumped away. He stopped at the edge of the ship, charging toward them again.

Fliflax morphed into a bear and took the heat from the worgen. As he collided, he saw that the worgen had a tag that identified him as "Admiral Ripsnarl". Admiral Ripsnarl continued to attack Fliflax while Resdlen shot from afar and Yeow healed Fliflax. With every attack, Fliflax felt Ripsnarl getting stronger. Fliflax tried to scratch him, but Ripsnarl's fur was just as strong as the bear's. Resdlen shot an extremely strong shot, knocking the worgen back. He instantly summoned a bank of fog, disappearing in it.

An army of vapor elementals came out of the fog, attacking the party with wind attacks. Resdlen used a tidal wave attack, blowing the vapors back into the fog. The tidal wave also revealed the coward of a wolf-man. Fliflax felt the presence of Yeow and Resdlen, drawing their powers into him. He released it in a furious charge. As he ran, he transformed into the ultimate creature. A tyrannosaurus of sorts, except with wings of a pterodactyl, horns of a triceratops, and a shell of a turtle, except with spikes.

As he came in contact with the admiral, the admiral flew back into the wall of the cave, instantly dying as he hit it. He fell into the water as Fliflax turned back into his Tauren form, looking pale and drained from the transformation. Yeow felt a presence and turned toward the ship's cabin. A murloc wearing a chef's hat jumped out at them.

"Chef Cookie!" Fliflax exclaimed as he got in his transformation stance.

"That's Captain Cookie to you!" the murloc responded in a croaky voice. He started to throw food at the druids. The druids dodged, but soon, the murloc was throwing them too fast and the trio was getting hit almost every time. Resdlen was still jumping from side to side when he finally realized that Cookie had stopped throwing things.

Fliflax and Yeow were already examining the body. An arrow pulsating with arcane energy was lodged deep inside the creature's throat. Yeow spotted something on a ledge on the west side of the boat. The orc was standing there, carrying a bow with a quiver on his back.

"So," Yeow yelled, "you're a hunter. Anything else you fell like telling us?"

"I only killed that thing because I thought it was a dwarf." He then jumped down from his ledge and walked back to the entrance of the cavern.

Resdlen just shrugged as Fliflax discovered a note on the ground. As he read it, a look of fear crossed his face. He looked up to a ledge above the cabin as the others followed his gaze. Sitting there, on top of the cabin, was Vanessa Vancleef.

"Hello, Uncle Resdlen," she said in a mocking tone.

Both Yeow and Fliflax gave Resdlen puzzled looks, which just made Vanessa more cheerful.

"He didn't tell you, did he?" She jumped down from her perch.

"I was never the master of hand-to-hand combat that my father was," she said, "but I have always been great with poisons." She threw poisonous darts at each druid, stunning them and blurring their vision. They woke up at the top of the ramp in the metal room.

"Have you ever had nightmares?" the daughter of the former Defias Brotherhood leader said, "Or worse, have you ever been in someone else's nightmares?" Vanessa looked like a spirit, like she wasn't really there. They saw Glubtok, the arcane mage Resdlen had previously destroyed. He was screaming. The druids looked around and saw that the entire room was on fire, and arcane beams were shooting everywhere. Glubtok was reacting to the damage like it was his fault.

"Poor Glubtok," Vanessa said cruelly, "When he discovered that he had some of the most powerful arcane power in all of Azeroth, he lost control of them. He destroyed his own village. Get to the bottom of the ramp. Or the fire will get to you first." She smiled at that, and then disappeared. They ran down the ramp, dodging arcane blasts. The fire was getting larger and more spread out, only giving them a few seconds left. They made it to the bottom, immediately feeling the poison through them again.

Vanessa returned and smiled a cruel smile once again. "Helix is an unusual rogue. He chooses to make bigger bangs instead of stealthily moving along. You never know what might skitter in the darkness."

Helix appeared in front of the group, and hundreds of large spiders appeared in the middle of the room. The spiders attacked the group as Resdlen's intelligent side of his brain kicked in, telling him to kill Helix before the spiders.

"Kill da goblin, not da spiders!"

Fliflax scratched Helix in the chest, barely wounding him. The spiders were all over them, and Yeow was having a hard time healing the two fighters and her. Resdlen shot spell after spell, each steadily deteriorating Helix. Fliflax finally broke Helix, making the rogue fall to the ground. The spiders all disappeared as the door in front of them opened. Vanessa appeared once again to tell them of the next nightmare.

"The life of a machine must be hard, especially on of the Foe Reaper 5000, a machine that requires so much power. One spark can make the difference between life," she paused for a moment, "or death!" She disappeared as spinning spark rods spun in the next hallway. Yeow assessed their damage output. Each one had more than enough to kill them in one hit!

She nodded an urgent nod at the others and they ran in, dodging the sparks. Resdlen tripped over a rock right in front of the rod, just about to land on it when he put his hand out and stilted over the last rod. He landed on the other side and smiled, followed by the feeling of the poison.

Vanessa Vancleef appeared once again. They saw the image of a man, growing fur. "Ripsnarl," Vanessa said, "Formerly known as James Harrington, he had a family. Until his tragic transformation." She smiled once again. "Save his family from his clutches, or no one will save you."

They killed the crazy wolves one by one until everybody was safe. Except for his wife. Ripsnarl ripped the girl's chest open and dropped her onto the bridge below. Yeow was the one to summon the other's powers now. She grabbed onto their essences as her arms turned to branches.

In seconds, she was a tree elemental, her hands glowing with the green light of healing. She completely healed her wounds, bringing her back to life. She looked over to see the corpse of James Harrington on the ground. Resdlen and Fliflax high-fived each other in excitement of their successful kill.

They were instantly taken to a forest, and they saw a troll woman and a small troll child. It kind of looked like… Resdlen! Both Tauren looked at the Resdlen from the present. He was keeping his head down, almost knowing what this flashback would show. The other two looked at the scene. A small human baby boy was lying on the ground, in a cradle. The troll picked it up as the past Resdlen looked questioningly at the mother.

The dream shifted to a house. The small boy had grown up, and Fliflax recognized him instantly as Edward Vancleef, father of Vanessa Vancleef. Edward was answering the door, and Resdlen walked in, saying, "Ello, brudah!" In a chair, a woman was cradling a baby girl. Vanessa.

"Happy late baby shower gift thingy!" Resdlen said. The weird thing was that he looked exactly the same as the Resdlen from the present. Vanessa had aged a lot… Resdlen had not. Fliflax contemplated this as the dream shifted to a funeral.

Edward, little 4 years old Vanessa and Resdlen were sitting in the front as the service ended. Yeow assumed that this was a funeral for Edward's wife. Edward asked past Resdlen to look after Vanessa for a few minutes. He walked to the back of the room, his eyes watering. Two men with the badges of the Defias Brotherhood walked up to him as the dream shifted one last time.

Edward was standing on the top of the ship. The present Resdlen was starting to look very angry at the sight of this nightmare. The past Resdlen, still looking the exact same age, was ready to give Edward an ultimatum.

"Edward, you have to stop dis, mon!" Resdlen said, "You already tried to destroy the entire city of Orgrimmar. This Defias Brotherhood has turned you into a monster."

Edward didn't answer. He shook his head vertically. He would not stop. Suddenly, his eyes almost popped out of his head. He fell to the ground as a teary Resdlen holding a bloody knife stood behind him. "I'm sorry, brudah," he said. He saw a little 8 years old girl looking out from the cabin. Resdlen got wide-eyed and ran away in guilt. All of a sudden, the dream morphed around them into one beam. It shot into the head of the present Vanessa. The present Resdlen was also crying and he was the one that was controlling the nightmare beam.

Vanessa, a grown woman, was curled up in a ball on the ground screaming and crying. Resdlen was shooting things worse than Hell itself into her head. She pulled a remote out of her pocket. Yeow was the first to notice. Vanessa pressed the button.

Moments later, the ship was nonexistent.

This one was long! Well, this is Groose, signing off!