A/N
Is it sad that this is the longest thing I've ever written? Yes. Do I care? No.
Disclaimer: Do I own World of Warcraft. Do I own Blizzard? Do you even have to ask? No.
"Thanks for the help, Elariia. These serpents, there doesn't appear to be an end to them." The Livingston Marshal nodded to the night elf. There was visibly less tension around him after she had taken care of most of the serpents.
Elariia just smiled tightly in response as she turned to Bwemba's spirit, who had just floated to her side after healing as many poisoned adventurers as she could.
"Dere was somethin' not right about dem serpents, Elariia. Dere was a trace of some bad mojo in da poison an' dat don't happen naturally."
Her eyebrows creased in worry, "Well, what do we do?" She wasn't used to feeling completely powerless, and so far she wasn't liking it.
"Da bonfire in da middle of da camp, we can use dat to preform a ritual." The troll explained, "Whatever be makin' dese serpents attack, dey probably still watchin' over dem."
"Okay, let's do it." But Bwemba didn't do anything.
"Da only problem, Elariia, is dat I only be here in spirit form. I need you to be my hands. I need you to go to the fire an' prepare it for me. Den I'll handle the rest." She reassured.
Elariia hesitated for a moment, before striding over to the fire pit. "So, how do I do this?"
"Just sprinkle some of dis over the fire." Bwemba said as she pushed a small leather packet through the air towards the night elf. It was translucent, almost as if it was a spirit too, until Elariia grabbed at it and the mist surrounding it disappeared, the bag dropped into her open palms.
She did as asked, and poured the powder over the bonfire, immediately it made the flames glow blue.
"Now let's see what Bwemba's conjured up..." The troll murmured to herself as she stared, transfixed with the dancing flames.
Elariia watched just as intently, albeit a bit confused, when suddenly a big green puff of smoke appeared next to the bonfire and she jumped back in surprise. A troll appeared through the smoke, and he looked less than pleased with the two of them.
"You disssssturb the plans of Gurubashi, little one." He hissed, "It'sss too late for you. Too late for all of you! My ssssserpents, dey already ssssslither beneath every rock an' shrub of Ssssstranglethorn."
Her hand flew to the dagger on her side, but she didn't pull it out. She wouldn't be able to attack someone in a spirit form!
"We will reclaim thisss land. Gurubashi land. An' we kill anyone dat getssss in our way!"
There was another burst of smoke, bigger this time, and the troll was gone. Bwemba's face was drawn and grave, which did nothing to quell Elariia's fears.
"Dis is serious business. Venoxis ain't one to trifle wit'."
Venoxis? Was that his name?
"High Priest Venoxis?" She's heard of him, his name came up in a few of the books she read in the Stormwind Keep library. Not that she was paying much attention, of course.
"Venoxis..." Bwemba whispered to herself, before snapping back into focus and turning to the night elf. "Dis can't be good, Elariia."
She was about to demand an explanation, when a new voice almost made her jump. Almost. She was good at hiding her surprise, though for some reason this troll kept seeing through her.
"Great, just what we need, the Gurubashi on the rampage using serpents to lead the charge." It was that Livingston Marshal again. "Well, at least we know that much."
Which wasn't much at all, in Elariia's opinion. "Right. I think we're done here. Bwemba?" She looked to the spirit to confirm, but the Marshal interrupted.
"It's probably a safe bet that the hunters at Nesingwary's Expedition have some insight into this. If they don't they at least know how to fight the serpents." She nodded before she could stop herself. She knew what was coming. "Head there and let them know what you saw here. Let them know that the trolls are using serpents as their weapons."
Elune, help me. I thought I was here for a troll emissary?
Bwemba's thoughts seemed to echo her own, "What kinda mess did we stumble into?"
Elariia just sighed and started towards her mount, "Sorry, bud." She murmured, patting his side. "Guess this isn't over yet."
Elariia eased into a walk when they got to Nesingwary's Expedition. There were jungle serpent's everywhere, only unlike Fort Livingston all of them were dead.
"Da hunters seem to be holdin' da serpents off." Bwemba noted, "But sometin' else feel wrong... Like we bein' watched."
She had noticed it too, the spine tingling feeling of eyes on you.. She'd always hated it.
Elariia led her mount towards the dwarf standing in the middle of the camp with his gun hoisted onto his hip. He seemed to be in charge here.
She nodded to him, "Elariia."
"Hemet Nesingwary Jr." He greeted.
"We came to warn you about..." She trailed off, she clearly didn't need to say it.
"We know all about the serpents, Elariia. But there is something else out there lurking... The jungle has come to life, druid!"
Her glowing eyes widened, "What do you mean? I was just out there, besides the usual Vale creatures all I saw were serpents."
"We've been fending off serpents for days now, Elariia. But the serpents are nothing compared to what else is out in that jungle. We hunters are being hunted"
She shared a look with Bwemba's spirit before motioning for him to continue.
"A large panther named Mauti has been dragging my men off into the bush." And it's watching them? Even now? "We sent Grent Direhammer, one of our best hunters, to track this beast down."
"Where is he now?" Elariia demanded. She had a feeling not even their best could do this alone.
"Direhammer headed off to the east, perhaps you can find them there."
She nodded and pulled on the reins, her mount responded by turning towards an entryway to the jungle. Elariia took off, Bwemba's spirit floating behind her.
She soon came to a stop in front of a rocky slope, her Stormsaber couldn't climb it and going around and up would take to long, according to the twisting feeling in her stomach. Elariia hopped out of the saddle and shifted into her flight form mid jump. She flapped her wings a few times, shaking the stiffness gathered there from keeping them dormant, and charged into the air for a birds eye view.
She soared over the hill that was propping up a long wooden bridge, and realizing she couldn't see a thing, swooped under the trees. Elariia must have timed it perfectly as she came face-to-beak with a dwarf with a green cloak and red beard. He jumped from his kneeling position on a small outcropping of rocks and stared at her, wide eyed.
He shouted in surprise at the same time she cawed and flew backwards.
Elariia shook her feathered head and changed back into a night elf, landing gracefully on a flattened boulder. She swore if she wasn't already purple she'd be blushing. Way to make yourself look like a complete fool.
She coughed lightly into her hand and smiled sheepishly, "Hello. I'm looking for Grent Direhammer, are you him?"
After the dwarf recovered from the slight shock he scowled at her, "Shhh! You'll alert the beast to my whereabouts."
As if all your girly screaming didn't already do that, she thought bitterly.
"I am Grent. What do you need?" He asked her after he stood, bringing himself to his full height. Elariia had to resist kneeling down to speak with him.
"My name is Elariia. Nesingwary sent me to check on you..." She trailed off as he bent down and sniffed the jungle floor. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing?"
Grent looked up at her, "The beast that's been hunting us... I've been hunting it. We call him Mauti. He's a clever one. But he made a grave mistake when he killed my brother. Now that mistake is going to cost him. Ol' Direhammer has got his scent."
"His... scent? Literally?"
"I've noticed him roaming just above Kurzen's Compound." He continued as if she never spoke, "If we act fast, we can take him down. Are you ready, Elariia?"
She sighed and ran a hand down her face, "Yeah, alright."
"Excellent." He grinned and stood up
At least the worried knot in her stomach was finally loosening.
After navigating through the jungle, on foot, they had finally reached Kurzen's Compound and were now climbing up the ridge where Grent claimed Mauti was hiding.
"Just, hold on a minute there, lass."
Elariia barley suppressed a groan of annoyance, she had barley suppressed a lot of those since they began their hike. She paused on a long plateau, peered over the side and watched as an out of breath Grent attempted to grab onto a rock that she could clearly see was loose.
"You probably shouldn't–"
"Gah!"
"Too late."
She grabbed onto his arm, seconds before he smacked his head against the ledge they had just been on, and pulled him up easily. "What kind of hunter are you?"
"We're hunters," He panted, "Not mountain goats."
He rested his hands on his knees, then righted himself after he caught his breath. "Right. Let's get on with it then." He started to walk out onto the open plateau when Elariia grasped onto his shoulder and pulled him to the ground.
"Get down!" But she was too late.
There was a feral snarl as the large black panther charged at them. Elariia jumped over it, and in it's confusion she dug her dagger into it's back. She didn't have to change forms as it collapsed to the ground without putting up a fight.
Was that Mauti? Seemed a little too easy.
"Let's see what we got here..." The dwarf stood up and hovered over the corpse, "Hmm... The beast looks smaller than I would have thought."
There was a ground breaking roar and in a flurry of action, a panther, bigger than any nightsaber she'd ever seen, with flaming green eyes and giant fangs leaped from the bushes and picked Grent up in it's mouth.
"It's got me!"
Elariia tried to help him, tried to move, but it felt as if her entire body was locked up. She watched as the panther, Mauti, leaped away from her, dwarf and all.
After a few seconds of complete silence, she was able to move again. She fell to her knees and gasped, she hated being stunned, it made her feel as if she were suffocating. She regained her senses stared in the direction the panther had taken off in.
Well that explained why "Mauti" seemed smaller, looks like the real Mauti was tracking Grent Direhammer all along. Credit where credit is due. Clever beast.
She glanced at Bwemba's spirit, who looked as shocked as she was. Elariia stood up and pointed into the distance, "Follow that cat!"
She had always wanted to say that.
Being the wise hunter that he is, Grent had fired all of his flairs, leaving a smoking trail so Elariia could track him. She had flown halfway around Zul'Gurub, but she finally found Mauti's Lair overlooking a small, secluded lake. It was actually quite pretty, if you looked over the giant dwarf-eating cat. Apeaking of which, was now asleep near a cave with some sort of ogre markings on it.
She was thinking of a game plan when she heard Bwemba's voice from behind her, "We be here... Da hunter, he be in da cave. Da beast... Sometin' ain't right about her..."
Elariia turned her head slightly to look at the spirit, but Bwemba didn't seem to be speaking to her. She was staring intently at the cat, but suddenly jumped out of her thoughts and looked at the night elf flying beside her, "I got da feeling dat somethin' ain't right wit dat panther, Elariia. It ain't natural. I gonna need to preform some rituals over da body. Put Mauti down, an' den let's see what we can find out, Elariia."
She landed near the beast, and changed into her cat form as she jumped on it. It woke up with a pained yowl, and shook it's big shoulders, trying to throw off the druid clamping down on it's back. Elariia had stunned it at first, but knew as soon as it came to, it would be a hard fight to win. It was huge! Mauti slammed itself into a nearby tree, forcing Elariia to release it's shoulder to catch her breath. She stood up and rolled away as it swiped at her with claws the size of daggers. Elariia charged at it and rammed into it's side, but it had almost no effect, only causing the panther to stumble slightly.
I can't use blunt force against it, it's too big. I'll have to evade it.
Mauti tried clawing her again, but Elariia dodged by darting between it's front legs. She then raked her claws down it's underbelly, before jumping away from it. The cat snarled in annoyance as yet another of it's attacks were dodged, resulting in claws being slashed all across it's body. Mauti grew enraged and jumped towards the druid, but only managed to nip at her tail. Elariia jumped on it's back once again and bit down on it's neck, feeling her teeth scrape against bone. The beast gave one last, painful growl as it slumped to the ground, dead.
The night elf let go of Mauti and panted slightly. There was a giant puff of smoke just above her and the body, and Elariia jumped away from it with a small yelp.
Bwemba floated near her, "Ah... It be Kilnara. I shoulda known she be involved here."
There was another troll, hovering over the cat's body with green mist floating all around her. "You kill him - you kill my cat! Why must I suffer so?" She cried out in anguish. Then her cold eyes flashed towards Elariia, as if only noticing her now she composed herself, "Stranglethorn belongs to the Gurubashi. You best be leavin' before we bury you here. Or stay, if you want. We always be needin' more sacrifices."
The troll, Kilnara, cackled maniacally before disappearing in another burst of blue smoke.
"Da Gurubashi be usin' all sorts of voodoo to reclaim dere land." Bwemba whispered. "High Priestess Kilnara be behind dis abomination." She said to Elariia, who was looking over her wounds in distaste. Her usually spotless white pelt was covered in blood and deep scratches, and she was sure she'd have a few bruises from being slammed into that tree truck.
"Dis ain't looking good. We should see to da dwarf and then make our way to see what other trouble be goin' on."
Elariia shifted back into a night elf and walked into the cave carefully, she stopped in her tracks when she saw a panther cub sitting next to Grent, who looked to be out cold. Mauti was a... a mother?
She kneeled and pushed the cub gently away from the hunter, but it just came back, playing with his feet. She sighed, giving the dwarf a hard punch on the chest making him groan.
"Oh... Me spine... Brother, is that you?"
The druid rolled her eyes, "Of course I'm not your brother you overgrown gnome. Get up."
"Ah... It's you, Elariia." Grent sat up and rubbed his back. "You look like hell. Mauti...?"
"In worse shape than me, I'm sure."
"...He's dead? Then my brother has been avenged. I've only one request for ya... This scamp here," He gestured to the cub, "He's been pawing at me bare feet. No dwarf should go to the earth with bare feet. Please, bury with me boots."
Elariia nodded solemnly, and looked around the cave. Where were his boots? She got up and searched through the rubble and finally noticed the cub had a new plaything. Ah ha!
She smiled a little and picked up the leather boots, "Sorry, kitty. Not for you." Elariia brought the boots over to the dwarf, who had resumed lying down and was now breathing shallowly.
"Do ya have me boots? Grant a dwarf his last request will ya?"
"Got 'em right here.."
She handed him the boots and Grent slipped them onto his feet weakly, "Th-thank ye, lass." His eyes glazed over as he stared into the cave roof, not really seeing. "Pappy...? Is that... you..."
And he was gone.
She watched as Bwemba's spirit used her magic to cover Grent's body in dirt. Elariia was about to stand up, but the panther cub jumped into her lap and looked at her with a look in it's eyes that said, "Will you be my new mom?" And she couldn't refuse.
"Dis death ain't be in vain, Elariia. We figure out dat Kilnara be on da prowl. Tings don't look good."
Elariia nodded and walked out of the cave, both the cub and Bwemba following after her.
"We better check out da Rebel Camp to da north. Maybe we find my contact dere."
A/N
I added that scene with the powder being sprinkled over the fire, because really you just click on it, and I couldn't write that... XD
Next chapter will be at the Rebel Camp!