"Have I told you about why not many people journey to Darnassus?" the Traveler stated, smirking when Maiev forcefully ignored him. "I mean, the city is a beautiful place—wonderful architecture and all that—but the even the tourists would rather pass up the offer to visit."
The Warden pounded her boots heavily against the bridge they were crossing. Try as she might, she could drown out his voice.
"Do you know how much hassle it is just to get to Darnassus from...well, pretty much anywhere? Quite a lot. And sometimes the guards are picky as to who gets to go in or out."
"Are you done?" Maiev asked without turning her head.
"Do you want to know how much you could accomplish when you're not always looking for a place to urinate?"
The Traveler barely caught Maiev's swing that knocked him off the railing and sent him tumbling down onto the levee below the bridge. He heard her flutter through space and correctly guessed that she Blinked down to the banks to retrieve him.
"Foolish human," she muttered angrily, dragging him by the collar out of the mud.
"Keep your mouth shut," he said just as the hasty patter of boots beat against the beams of the bridge above them.
"Where are they!?" a gruff voice demanded.
"I don't know! She just suddenly disappeared!" another replied.
"Idiots! We had our chance. Now we have to wait hours for someone else to come by!"
"Bandits," Maiev mouthed but she knew better than to attract anymore attention. Emerging out of the shadows, she pulled the Traveler out of the muck and hauled him over to the bushes without so much as a sound.
"Well, that worked quicker than I expected," he breathed, rubbing his jaw.
"You did that on purpose, did you?" the Warden growled. "You knew I would knock you over and jump down to pull you back up..." She paused. That did not sound like her at all. "You sly bastard."
The Traveler grinned, mainly to exercise some muscle back into his throbbing chin. "What can I say? I'm just being smart."
"They're gone now. If we pass through here, we could circumvent them," Maiev said.
"I'm surprised you are not planning to kill them. They are thieves—criminals—after all."
He caught her glower and shrugged. Maiev snarled, drawing her crescent. How could she forget? She was a Warden, a deliverer of justice! "They are not Kaldorei."
"They tried to rob a Kaldorei."
The Warden grimaced. "Don't tell me what to do." Then she Blinked and the Traveler could hear the first cries of pain that bounced against the trees.
"Do night elves have mood swings?" he wondered, drawing his sword and joining in the fray.
Jarod watched the wind sweep away the ashes of the demons' remains. His men were tired and weary after a long fought battle. The humans were the most fragile in most any conflict and he was grateful that Akama's Ashtongue Deathsworn were willing to provide their pragmatic medicinal remedies in place of insufficient healing magics. Not that the Horde or Alliance forces generous enough to lend them their own.
The night elf commander wiped the sweat off his brow, noting the smear of dried blood that came along with it. The minor laceration below his hairline would fade in time. His troupe had so far suffered minor burns and mostly blisters from swinging their weapons too much. Thankfully, none among them have died though they were growing increasingly cranky at the lack of rest.
"We have done as you asked," he reported to the waiting Broken elder.
"Indeed, you have." Akama gestured for him to follow. "Thank you for your assistance. However, before you depart, I must tell you something."
Jarod narrowed his eyes. "I have only agreed to help you once."
"I only hope and pray that you find your sister soon," the elder continued, emerging onto the rubble of a razed barracks. "I stood guard over her long enough to see her seasons shift."
Jarod was uncomfortable with what he heard but decided to hear the rest of the tale.
Akama planted his blade perpendicular to the soil and measured his palm at its tip. "Do you see how high this is from the ground? That is how much money and treasure we can store in one of our coffers."
"I do not expect any payment other than information," Jarod replied.
"This much gold I promised to give away to a man whom I trust. I asked him to do a task that I myself would have done if circumstances were not as they were." Akama exhaled, sounding more tired than he often did. "When Mistress Shadowsong felled Lord Illidan, she had lost herself. I could not stomach her ceaseless wandering...so when a mercenary passed by, I contracted him. And in his eyes, I could see his determination to fulfill it as faithfully as your sister has in her hunt for Lord Illidan."
Jarod was near the tip of bringing his sword against this sage. Instead, he swallowed the stone in his throat, feeling his hands clenched so tight. "Why have you not told me this before?"
"I had to be sure. Many impostors have come seeking her head. The fact that you conducted yourself zealously against the demons proves that you are indeed of the same blood. It was a necessary precaution," Akama confessed.
"What did you have this mercenary do?" The night elf swore that if he heard him say anything about spilling Maiev's blood, he would draw on all his might to raze everything to the ground.
"Simple. Guide her back home."
Zeppelins, especially those of goblin manufacture, were the bane of all forms of transportation...only to the Traveler. Though Maiev had proudly displayed her immunity to skysickness, he felt as though she had beaten his stomach into submission. He was constantly hanging over the bannister, frequently coming close to heaving out the previous meal.
He did his best to smother his face in the clouds, daring not to look below for fear of instigating another gag reflex. Even then, the condensations scraped against his face, giving him an uncomfortable burn that rendered his cheeks red.
"For a brash man, you have little stomach for the skies," Maiev remarked rather calmly.
"I was never suited for flying," he said with a soft chuckle. He quickly forced down another bubbling pool of bile. "But we must all face the challenges of seeing the ground...far lower than you are used to."
The Warden crossed her arms. "I am disappointed in this disparity between your swordsmanship and your weak stomach."
"And since when did you become my drill sergeant?" he spat.
Maiev suppressed her impulse to lash out. She had spent much of her centennial duties devoted to carving out pure warriors out of those who had opted to join her order and she drew upon her military background to heavily critique this pathetic human's excuses for vomiting over the side of the zeppelin.
"Do you want me to force a herb down your throat?" she offered.
The Traveler gawked at her. Cocking his head sideways, he snarled, "What? No! I'm fine, damn it."
"Keep your bile to yourself," Maiev icily warned. "Better yet, for the duration of our trip, keep your distance from me. I would rather not be bathed in your half-digested breakfast."
He snickered snidely. "It's not like I want to stand inches from your face. I barely see it. Maybe I don't want to see it for all the world that it's been kept hidden under that ridiculous mask of yours."
The Traveler braced for impact a little too late. He quickly felt his legs stolen from underneath him and the underside of his belly crumpled by an ironclad fist. At least, she did not toss him overboard; that would have been very, very unfortunate. When he landed hard on the deck, he felt Maiev's heated breath against his cheeks.
"Do you want me to throw you off?" she hissed.
"I thought you already did," he groaned.
"Hey!" the goblin quartermaster hollered from the upper deck. "Everything alright down there?"
"We're good!" the Traveler called back, raising a tired thumb. The goblin shrugged and disappeared back into the boiler where the gas-fed mechanical turbine engine propelled the balloon forward. "Warden, are you going to pick me up?"
Maiev strode over him towards the bow.
"I guess that's a no," he groused, crawling onto his belly, and staggering stupidly back onto his feet. His stomach tightened and he once again planted himself by the bannister, ready to heave away.
LAST EDITED: June 26, 2015
UPLOADED: June 26, 2015