Uh… I've noticed how I use single AND double quotation marks throughout my last chapter. I apologise for that... –mutters something about muscle memory--.

And my alerts have started working again… flooded my inbox with alerts, too. Argh…

I wanna say a HUGE thank you to ALL my reviewers! And welcome to a new reviewer, Bienvenido S. Canonizado… can I call you "Bien" instead? Anyway, thanks for everyone's great, awesome, whoot-whoot reviews! To you all I say THANK YOU!

Enough rant-and-ramble… to the east, we go! HOORAH!!

Disclaimer: I wonder how many people actually read through this every single time, but… Blizzard owns Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 and Diablo 2 Expansion and Diablo 3… when it's out. Ophelion owns everything else in this story.

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Chapter 11: Intervention

Dawn illuminated the horizon and divided land and sky with a blade that glowed with blood. We were heading east, and the yellow-white rays soon seared through the fragile darkness of my eyelids, stabbing into the front of my mind, forcing me awake.

I took a breath in and opened my eyes; the air had gone still drier and hotter. It was, as Warriv warranted, one of the last few days of our journey. By tomorrow night, we should be able to see Lut Gholein – 'the blue gem that glitters in the sun', he said; the blue being the Palace of Lut Gholein... yes, the small town had a palace. Their empire must have once been spread far and wide.

Now, only a small town remained, sitting idly in the centre of the golden desert.

Oread's fever had worsened, slowly but surely. She was no longer in peaceful unconsciousness, but restless delirium. A few times I had heard her mumbling in her sleep, and once I was sure that she was close to crying. Most of what she had said was indistinguishable to my ears, but she repeatedly uttered one word, with increasing clarity the more times I hear it.

'Nai-yad', she said. Naiad.

When I first realised that this was what she said, I thought I had heard it before, but could not remember when. A few days later, I remembered the bag of items I gathered before I left, when I returned through the still-open Portal to Andariel's chamber. I got Cain to identify them for me, and as I went through the amulets, charms, gems, damaged armour and weapons, I suddenly remembered as a memory floated to the forefront of my mind.

The wounded and dying woman of Oread's tribe that we found in the Cathedral – Alseid, had said that word. She had mistaken Oread for one whom she called 'Naiad'.

Who was this person that Alseid spoke of, and now haunted my master in her dreams?

But this was not my main concern for now, of course; Oread's injuries were not improving, perhaps even worsening. Akara's magic was unable to fully restore the damage. Cain had agreed, as he watched me change the bandages that were soaked in pale, yellow-diluted red, that we had better be arriving at Lut Gholein soon.

There had been several assaults upon our caravan; most I had easily taken care of. There had been several swarms of blood-sucking, disease-spreading scarlet insects, and giant vulture-like demons circling the skies above us. A few had even dived down before they were halted midair by my arrows.

The sun powered to full strength by noon, and I supposed that at this time, even the predators would be escaping from the torturous rays.

In heat-induced restlessness, I wiped the layer of perspiration from my master's face, before plonking down to lie beside her. I was about to doze off when –-

'Cel…'

I jerked my head toward her; her face was still pale, and her eyes were moving sporadically beneath the tightly-closed lids.

'A…don.' She had called me, called for me in her delirium. 'Celadon…'

I immediately shot up and gripped her hand – unexpectedly cold against her raging fever. 'Oread, master, I'm here.'

Her hand tightened around mine, quivering fingers searched out mine. I held her hand with both of mine. After a few seconds, her hand relaxed. I placed it back down and noticed the red blooms on the bandages – from the many cuts over her palms, made by the splintering wood of her spear's disintegrating shaft – so I reached for some clean bandages beside her, and began changing the bandages.

'Naiad...' She said with a calm tone, starkly different to one she had called my name with before.

So I was in her dreams, as was the one whom they called 'Naiad'. Who was this, and how are we linked within the chaotic mind of Oread?

I had a feeling then that I would not find out anytime soon.

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Night fell like a red curtain that gradually faded into violet, then black. The land cooled at an amazing rate as the zephyr that descended from the heavens swept across the burnt earth, soothing the land and the things upon it.

I shivered as the chill engulfed me, despite the blanket that I hugged around myself. In the caravan behind the one that I shared with Oread, Cain snored. The sound resonated in the silence of the night, previously only disturbed by the occasional scuttling of night-feeders. I grimaced at the sound and forced myself to focus at the small fire that we had set up to the left of our trail of caravans. Warriv was in the last caravan, also the one with all the supplies, and no doubt was fast asleep after his daily intake of spirits. In front of me, the two camels were asleep, only flexing a leg infrequently.

I hated early-morning sentry duties, but I was the most competent for it at the moment. Darn it.

The sound of sand sliding…

My eyes snapped wide. Silence again.

I nocked an arrow; the bow's squeak was louder than ever as I drew back the string. I focused my mind, and a dull glow of silvery-blue coated the head of the arrow, and extended a little toward me.

I let it loose toward the flame. At the moment darkness swallowed the small radius of light, a voice hummed in my head, and my mind's eye opened to illuminated shapes, leaping up and down, hopping quickly toward us.

Enemies. Tens of them. I fired, but they were fast. After ten arrows, I had only been able to take down three of them.

And the shapes grew larger, their heads bowed to the ground, tracking our scent, and then they leapt up again, and gradually closed in.

I did not know what to do. Calling for my companions would not help; even if we ran, the camels would not even come close to escaping from the monsters. They were fast when they were tracking; how much faster would they become when they were chasing? As far as I know, the ones that died did not know what had hit them. I dared not enchant my arrows now; they were close enough to pinpoint our exact location, should anything give us away.

I was still weighing up the options, when a rumbling, rolling snore came from Cain's caravan.

I swore, and did not need to lower my voice for it; they had already pinpointed us.

I sent a Fire Arrow flying to relight the pile of wood as I cried out. 'Cain! Warriv! We're under attack!'

Cain poked his head out, and forgetting all the teachings I had received about respecting the elders, I shouted at him. 'Cain! Get your fight-less ass back and stay in there! Warriv, I'm cutting the camels loose for some distraction! Back me up!' I sliced through the harnesses, and taking a length of the remainder still connected to the caravan, I whipped at the camels' rumps. They headed toward the illuminated foes, and a few immediately changed courses and latched themselves onto the beasts. I heard two long and echoing calls of the camels, followed by two thumps,and razor-sharp teeth and claws slashing into their skin and flesh, ripping, tearing, swallowing.

It made me feel sick, but I forced my mind to concentrate on the remaining enemies, which accounted for the majority, of course. I fired Ice Arrows followed by other normal and flaming ones. The ones which I happened to be able to slow down were much easier targets, but we were still losing ground fast.

One suddenly entered our radius of light from the small fire, and I slashed it in half between the jaws with the short sword, dodging the incoming claws. I heard a grunt from Warriv and a sick slashing noise, before I was tackled from my right. I kicked off the monster that latched onto me, its claws drawing blood and leaving parallel lines over my right upper arm and shoulder. I beheaded it, but my mind's eye told me that there were still about nine of them left, and when I turned around, the caravans had been turned over.

Cain was hiding beneath the fabrics of the caravan walls and moaning. Warriv was fighting back hard with a long knife, his clothes ripped in several places. The supplies were scattered all over the sand, damp with the water and spirits that were leaking from barrels and bottles.

Before my eyes, the first caravan fell over, and the two monsters, skinny ape-like beings with spikes poking out from their vertebrae and yellow-olive skin pulled tight over their skeletons, tore at the walls.

'No!' I fired an arrow, but missed as a felt a bolt of pain from my leg. I looked down at a monster with its fangs sunken into my thigh, and yelled as I shook it off and stabbed through its chest. I was about to run to Oread's aid when –-

The caravan blew outward. It glowed and with a soft bang, the two monsters were thrown back, a fang-shaped projectile glowing bluish-white lodged in the head in one of them, and in the abdomen and arm of the other. Two remaining projectiles flew off, hitting nothing before the glow winked out at a distance.

I shifted my sight back toward the caravan; there was a faint glow of icy blue from within, and before my eyes, Oread's figure rose up as she slowly got to her feet. The fire whipped violently, and went out as a deep chill surrounded us.

Warriv uttered a cry as a monster hit him about the head. He fell to the ground, and was out-cold, by what I could see with my Inner Sight. The monster pounced to feed on its prey, and let fly an arrow, despite knowing that it would not be strong enough to throw it off.

But before the monster landed, Oread held out her left hand, and without any other movement, a blue-glowing fang shot out of her outstretched hand.

Within my mind, in the world of energies, I saw the fang hit. As the monster fell, the blue energy seeped through its body. When it hit the ground, its greyish-green life force had disappeared.

I looked at Oread, and her usual deep-indigo energy was diminished; instead a fierce icy-blue glow, the same colour as that of the fang-like projectiles, raged through her.

All this only lasted for a few seconds. After that, the blue energy blinked out, and Oread collapsed.

I was alone now. I did a quick count; there were still five monsters left. If they ganged up on me, I had no chance.

The horizon was brightening; the monsters must have sharp eyes, for at the first glimpse of dawn, they all turned their eyes upon me.

'Shit.' I uttered, as I readied my sword. The bow was of no use at such distance, against such foes.

One pounced, and the others followed. I squeezed my eyes shut and prepared for the worst…

Suddenly, there was a sound of swooping wings, followed by a cry of pain from the leading monster. I opened my eyes to see a raven anchored onto its face, its claws dug into its nose and its left eye, and its beak sunk most of the way into the other eye. Dark greenish-purple blood oozed out of it, and before I could react to the sudden change in situation, two monsters landed on me and I was thrown to the ground.

But the weight upon me did not take long to be lifted. There were growls, as the sound of impact was heard. Bones crushed, jointed popped out of their sockets, muscles ripped, and there was more sounds of tearing. I moved my arm that shielded by face, and saw a… a wolf?

If it was one, it was a very big one. Its coat was unevenly grey, darker at the face and the back, and lighter on its shoulders and belly. I got to my feet and noticed another one, looking almost identical except for its more brownish coat. Both were ripping into the monsters, with two ravens finishing them off. The wolves' shoulders must at least reach mine; they were huge.

Before I could put in any useful contributions, the remaining five monsters laid dead around me. The wolves licked their bloody muzzles, then grimaced and flicked their tongues in and out, grinding them along their front teeth, as if the blood's taste was not to their liking.

As for me, I stood, dumbfounded. Then my eyes focused on a quickly-approaching shape. A brown-clad figure upon a black wolf standing almost twice my height. As they got closer, I could see more clearly: the figure was wearing a brown fur cloak, and its hands were gloved, holding onto the wolf's neck. A red helm that resembled a hawk's head served as a helmet for the rider. Two long bundles of autumn-bronze hair flew behind the rider's head. I also noticed that on the ground on either side of them, there were things sliding in and out of the sand like dark, dull-scaled pythons.

This must be one they call a Druid.

The wolf soon stood before me; there were small rings of white around its dark-brown eyes, as well as white on its paws and tip of its long tail, and a small white star-like mark upon its black chest.

The rider hopped off with grace, landing before me. The Druid stood only a few inches taller than me. I was about to speak when a voice, light and ringing, projected from her lips. 'You're in trouble?'

It was a Druidess, then. I had never seen or heard of such a case. Before I could answer, she walked over to where Oread collapsed, where the two ravens had perched, upon the broken caravan. The Druidess looked down, as I realised what the python-like things were; they were vines. One was tinted green, the other crimson. The latter spread its roots upon a corpse of a monster, then, with a sickening loud pop, the corpse opened and the innards spilt everywhere. The surface of the vine, surprisingly, was blood-free.

The smaller wolves were sniffing the other caravans; Cain uttered a terrified yelp and poked out of his overturned trailer. The wolves then returned to the side of their master, making low whining noises. The Druidess stroked them behind the ears, then looked up at me, the helm obscuring her whole face except her thin lips, set upon her tanned, cool-toned skin. Her cloak hid the rest of her body. 'You've got three people with you, two are unconscious, and this one,' she nodded at where Oread laid, 'is in danger, isn't she?'

I bit my bottom lip and nodded. 'You're a Rogue, right?' I nodded again. 'That was quite impressive, a sword-wielding Rogue…' The crimson-tinted vine crept towards the Druidess, before reaching into the broken caravan.

'What are you doing?' I ran toward the vine, and fell down from the pain. I had forgotten about my wounds, and my sudden movement had made me remember in a very cruel manner.

'Don't worry.' The Druidess said calmly. 'Lava's going to give this woman a little boost in her life force, that's all. Now, where are you heading?'

'To Lut Gholein.' That was Cain, whom had climbed out of the wreckage and was dusting himself off shakily. 'You're a Druidess, I see? A rarity amongst your race.'

'Hmm.' The Druidess grunted, apparently not taking Cain's words as compliment. 'If we ride there, we'll make it there before tomorrow at dawn. Riding non-stop is not a problem for me, or them.' She looked down at the wolves, and smiled as she patted them some more. The wolves panted happily. 'Is it for you?'

'As long as we have water and a bit of food, we should be fine.' I replied. I had stopped my wounds from bleeding as we spoke; they were nothing too critical.

'Right.' The Druidess nodded abruptly. 'Dawn, take this Rogue and her master. Dusk, you take the men. We'll lead you there, and if anything pops up, we'll take care of it all.' She patted the enormous black wolf beside her. The grey wolf came up to me and poked me with its nose. I patted it lightly on the head, and found its fur smoother than I had expected.

The Druidess helped us all onto the wolves' backs; she was much stronger than I was, lifting Oread with both arms with relative ease.

We rode into the sunrise. Oread's fever was still burning, but her breathing was more regular, and her colour was slightly better. Still, I knew that we had to make haste.

We only stopped once for the Druidess and her black wolf to eliminate a few leaping monsters. We came across a vulture two swamps of blood-suckers; the ravens took care of those.

By midnight, we could see the lights of Lut Gholein, illuminating the small town with yellow and orange glows… but the blue gem could not be seen. Rather, the fires of torches and lamps cast a shadow over the palace's dome, and it looked black and slightly violet – the colours of corruption.

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Ophelion's random notes:

Wow! Longest chapter! Yayness for new characters, new skills, new Act and NEW LINES!!! WHEEEE!! --Flings out lines from flowery basket while skipping along--

'Naiad' is a kind of water nymph. I like naming Amazons after nymphs, okay? It adds an air of Greek mythology to them. I'm sure many of you have figured out who that is… poor little clueless Celadon…

I've been reading a lot lately… STEPHEN KING MARATHON!!!