It was that type of unsettling feeling one would get when something wasn't right. It could be a problem, or some sort of issue conflicting a situation, but truth was, no matter how hard she tried, Taiva couldn't pinpoint what it was. That, or either she didn't want to, and shoved it down, convincing herself over and over there simply wasn't. Even so, it never did fully dissipate. It still clawed at her like a disease that could never be abolished if not cured.

Taiva found time to rummage through the thoughts that swam in her mind, made murky by the encounter of the previous night. For now, she found the air her feathered wings allowed access to a safe domain, and as her avian eyes wandered the scarred lands of Wintergrasp, she wandered through her own mentality. It had never occurred to her before that she could actually be averse to the task she was expected to complete. A gust of chilling wind brought the shape-shifted druid up higher above the landscape. Bones, weapons and armor were concealed within the shimmering snow and ice, the sun's heat-less rays would make them sparkle a smattering bit more than the colorless particles that heavily sheeted the terrain. It could have been a beautiful sight, but in fact, to Taiva, it was foreboding, nothing but the ominous moment of silence before a storm. The storm to her would be known as war. Such a moment would bring flashbacks to the night elf, and she could once again imagine herself several years back, ducking low in the underbrush of the silent Ashenvale forest, the quiet moment before an ambush on the enemies that plagued the area. They would call it 'training', and she wouldn't think much of it then, to kill another member of an opposing faction would rouse no remorse whatsoever. But she had changed, and that's why as she soared closer to Wintergrasp Fortress, her stomach would involuntarily knot again.

Taiva made sure to circle around the grand outside walls of the fortress to the large gates at the front. She knew of the shield mages would put up to prevent a mounted enemy from flying in, and she would not want to risk being perceived as one in her shapeshift. Her race would be difficult to identify. They would leave the heavy gates open before an assault, watchers would perch in the high towers of the fort, to tell when an attack would be happening, they'd sound the signal, and Alliance soldiers would rush into battle to try and keep what they had claimed.

As the bird-creature dove down lower near the guards, she could see them move their hands to unsheathe their swords. Taiva unshifted to show she wasn't a threat, flight form becoming humanoid again as both feet planted themselves carefully on the snow. With one look at the night elf, they stood back at their posts without bothering a second glance to her. Taiva gave them a nod in acknowledgment before proceeding forward through the gates. To say that the fortress was crowded would be an understatement. The first outer court-yard of the fortress was almost barren. But as she proceeded through the next entries in the complex design of the entire thing, the statement from beforehand was obvious. She could see many different races of the Alliance, not wasting a moment to prepare for whatever and whenever an assault could happen. She could see men and women approaching certain individuals to receive last minute repairs on their armor. She made note to do so soon as well, thinking a torn up leather boot wouldn't serve well to keep out cold. There were some members of armed classes who were sharpening the blades of their weapons hastily, rubbing the edges of them, fumbling with sharpening stones in numbed, frozen hands. These people would stick along the sides of the walls. She could see them over the heads of the crowd. Like them, Taiva seemed to just be bustling about, not sure what to do for the time being, just waiting for something to happen. As she pushed her way through the final entrance way between the high walls, a ravishing display of architect came into view. The druid would of liked to see the inside room of the fortress, in which magnificent metal rimmed stairs led up to. She imagined the indoors would be the same-breathtakingly sculpted. She tried to make her way through the chaos of busying people, but only had the chance for few quickened steps before something had made her stop in her tracks.

"Sestri!" Taiva called out in the direction of the night elven woman with unmistakable midnight blue hair, clad in druidic robes, who was conversing- or at least listening to some Human man on a horse mount. When she turned around to face her however, Taiva began to wonder if she would have recognized her own childhood friend had she not seen her from behind. There was something different about Sestri, a type of matronly aura she gave off. Perhaps it was that her once unruly, waist-long locks had been cropped to her shoulders and pulled back from her face neatly. The rebellious light in Sestri's silver eyes Taiva came to know almost seemed to be dimmed. Sestri was a living example of how much one could change over a decade. The apathetic expression the dark-haired night elf had upon locking eyes with Taiva stung worse than any wound could have. Did she not recognize her? The next thing she said made it clear that she indeed did, but that could of only made it worse.

"Oh, Taiva. Commander Zanneth requests that more personnel are on foot during the next assault by the Horde, which will be presumably soon. The Alliance has kept Wintergrasp Fortress for nearly a fortnight as of yet, therefore the beasts have came to actually use some strategy in their attacks. We barely held on last time because more of them are manually destroying our siege weapons. We need more to defend them."

Taiva tilted her head at the other night elf and gave her a look.

"I just thought I'd inform you. You were absent when he gave orders." Sestri concluded.

"Yes, I just got here… thank you." Taiva was completely taken aback on Sestri's lack of emotions towards someone she had known for almost, if not more than a century. "How about hello?"

"It's a pleasure to see you again." Sestri flashed Taiva a small smile, if only for the point of being polite, she realized.

"I've been anticipating seeing you again too." Taiva stepped forward to wrap her arms around the other druid in a friendly hug. She felt Sestri tense uncomfortably before bringing one arm around her shoulder. Something was prickling the skin there. Taiva stepped backwards and took Sestri's ungloved left hand off her shoulder, gaping at it.

"You have a husband!" She stared at the metal band around the other druid's finger.

Sestri nodded her head fondly, ice blue cheeks flushing, although it may easily have been because of the cold. "Indeed."

She gently ushered her own hand away from the grasp of her friend and brought it to her side.

Taiva subdued the urge to frown, "Goodness, it seems like the little trouble maker has grown up." She couldn't help but feel her own life seemed to be stilled during her tranquil years in Moonglade, and Sestri had continued on her own path, it seemed, even found a mate. Now she had acted as if she outgrown her own companion. Maybe Taiva was just being immature for expecting her to act as if they hadn't parted for even a day. "Do tell me who he is." She prodded.

"Dholon."

Taiva raised a brow at Sestri's unexpected reply. "Oh?" She nodded her head and smiled. "Well then, I'm very happy for the both of you."

Opposites attracted, or so it seemed. Marrying the easy-going, disciplined druid trainer was almost the last thing she thought would be happening with Sestri over the last ten years. He had an affect on her personality too, and it was obvious. What troubled Taiva though was she wasn't sure herself whether or not it was for the better. She didn't know the woman before her anymore.

Any prolonged conversation the two of them could have had standing around the fortress was cut rather short. Sestri had only begun to go on some more about battle strategies, and Taiva reluctantly bobbed her head to show she was listening. It could have been hours, or it could have just been that she wasn't at all interested in what she should have been, but a long low horn immediately quieted everyone gathered in the fortress. She knew what it was. An assault was on the horizon.

"Stay by me in combat, Taiva. Just like old times, right?"

Taiva eyed the other night elf and feigned a pleased smile before she turned away to follow the flow of the crowd. "Of course."

…

The first thing she heard was the clanking and sputtering of machinery, even her own breath was controlled and silent, and she muted it out to intently listen on the approaching craft. The first thing she caught sight of was their dark metal forms, edging over the snowy terrain, hues shadowy in contrast to the bleach around them. There was luckily only one in the area apparently, but since the siege engines were none of her concern, never mind the fact her pursuit to take them down with tooth and claw would be a failing one, she let them pass to the casters waiting further up ahead. She and Sestri were stealthed as large felines, waiting for the enemies who would follow shortly behind, along with an unnamed group of comrades she decidedly followed into the battlefield. Other Alliance soldiers were hidden over the hill nearby- across the path that ran through like a shallow valley; archers she believed, pulling arrows back on their bows, ready for release. Even she couldn't see them, but rather could sense they were there.

Taiva flexed her claws in the snow, making her best attempt of crawling over silently a bit up ahead to peer over the hillside. She glanced over to the path that winded and eventually disappeared between a few miniature ashen-coated fells. There'd be no way to see any approaching enemies down the path easily if there were so. It'd be merely a waiting game. Even at her certain vantage point, she could do nothing until they actually came into view.

When are those damn beasts going to show? She just wanted it all over and done with, frankly though, even she didn't know why.

A shakily moving figure on the hill's peak drew her attention almost immediately. It was too late for the archers to strike, starting off what could have been a well placed ambush. Could have been, if not for the fact one of them came stumbling down the hill with a dagger between his shoulders. She narrowed her eyes and identified him as a dwarven hunter by his stubby body. It was then when Taiva heard some sort of strange guttural sound that could have been the maniatic cackle of a forsaken rogue who showed himself shortly after, blurredly rippling out of seemingly thin air. She could feel the atmosphere around her tense, and heard one of the comrades behind her curse under his breath. However, no one would come out of their cover to give aid in the least. There was a sickening kind of pang Taiva felt with the fact.

Mutilated, the dwarven hunter stopped and fell face down in the snow, sliding down the slope until his motionless body came onto the grey cobblestone path. His stocky arms surprisingly flailed out, after what Taiva thought was his inevitable demise, trying to reach the weapon he had dropped along with him the way down. That rogue she caught sight of crept over silently as the dwarf made an attempt to grab hold of his crossbow and arm himself again. It was ignorance that drove the hunter to outstretch a thick hand, shifting forward in his place while the rogue loomed silently behind him. Before the dwarf made any movement, he could have very well been taken as dead. He should have stayed still- but hell, he didn't. As Taiva watched the course take place, she almost regretted his actions for him. He was completely unaware of the undead unsheathing the other of his long dagger, extremely similar to the one that stuck out of the dwarf. He bought it over his neck, and Taiva couldn't bear to watch. If no one was going to do anything about it, she would.

She crawled further ahead up the slope, so that one could have possibly seen her silhouetted against the skyline, if not in stealth. A suspiciously familiar feminine voice was snapping at her, and made her whip her feline head around. "Taiva."

The other druid in her dark, feral form was calling at her in the loudest whisper she could have likely mustered up. "Don't-"

Taiva's eyes glared resentfully as she interrupted Sestri. "I'm not hiding back here like a coward to witness someone die. This is disgusting. I did expect better from you, Sestri." There was no reply from the other night elf after the last remark. That, or either she didn't stay around to hear it by then. Both adrenaline and anguish pulsed through her entire being and made blood roar in her ears. Taiva was already sprinting half way down the slope, a blurry alabaster hued figure in the midst of a bounding stride. She already broke off her stealth to excel at such a speed, but it didn't matter. The rogue's back facing her was an opportune moment for the druid to take her leap, and that she did.

Barreling into the undead didn't do much to capsize him, but in fact, when curved claws gripped into his bony shoulders, she couldn't possibly be more pleased. Rogues wore leather, she could recall, and with knowing her fangs would pierce through the armor at the enemy's neck as competently as the steel teeth of the trap had done to her boot, came the next action of lunging her gaped jaws forward to the former subject. The same arm that was equipped with the dagger whipped back with a speed Taiva couldn't possibly prepare for. Both velocities of her cranium diving forward and the elbow lashing back landed a blunt hit to her skull that made her vision nearly engulfed by blackness. It also managed to knock her off quite swiftly, and it only came into her realization when the solidity and coldness of the rogue's body was replaced with moving air, followed by impact on hard, stone path.

It was then that her gaze involuntarily fell upon him, as he kicked the motionless dwarf to the side purposely. The body rolled over on the cobblestone, leaving a trailing stain of dark blood, and was staring blankly at her with eyes only a dead being could possess, void and unblinking. The rogue loomed above the night elf as she struggled to regain composure, lithely muscled feline frame suddenly beginning to feel weakened as she dissipated into her humanoid form. Her breaths were quick, jagged and panicked, but her golden eyes burned with deep, unforgiving hatred. The undead bent down slightly, chuckling in that deathly way he had before. "Stupid girl." And as if he were never there at all, his entire visible presence rippled away.

Out of any reasons why having an understanding of the enemy's language could bring dismay, that would likely be it, to hear the taunt or insult, and unable to do anything about such a thing that fueled her anger. "Bastard!" Taiva screamed into the nothingness that surrounded her. Truth was, it only ate at her more because she seemed to be proving the remark true.

Her eyes shot over to several shapes winding around down the path and she knew she really was stupid.

This ambush, set up, or what ever you would call the failing attempt was taking another turn, and once again only for the worse. The initial purpose of the rogue was clear there and then. The druid and her comrades were victims to their own intended trap. Humanoid figures, at least several dozen of them came into her view, and she quickly knew there were more members of the Horde, taking advantage of the distraction the undead caused as they crept up with undeniable speed over the horizon.

Taiva was dumbstruck, almost as frozen as the lifeless being on the path beside her, and now she was alone and defenseless in the midst all of it. Her head whipped around to her name being called. What the hell was it now?

It could have been a curse or a gift that Sestri had apparently followed her quickly behind. She couldn't decide, but the pathetic display of her bolting to unaffectedly better the situation was nothing she should waste time being worried about at the moment. Pain still pounded at her skull, but she could still give focus onto what the other druid was saying.

Sestri narrowed her eyes at her. "Don't- go on without me." She said, a sly kind of grin spread across her feline face as she allowed herself to complete the sentence Taiva hadn't stayed to hear from beforehand.

"Come out and fight, idiots." Her voice echoed over the hills, clearly aiming to reach the Alliance members hidden behind them. Taiva smirked, an action slightly out of context to the situation. Well, there was one thing to count on. She hadn't lost the straight-forward Sestri yet.

Sestri's dark ears flicked towards the direction of the Horde Taiva herself was aware of before. And few by few, the hidden Alliance members came out from their perch and joined the two on the path, apprehensive as if the stone were cracked thin ice with a potential to break at any given moment.

"We're leaving now. Follow me." Sestri spoke out sternly to Taiva, glancing out down the path as the shapes of enemies grew larger and evidently closer. She unshifted and held out a hand towards her companion. When Taiva did none but stare at her in disbelief, she finally turned to catch the expression on her face.

"You said it yourself, Taiva. It'd be a disgusting thing to do to watch someone die when there's a perchance of prevention."

A perchance of prevention? Then why hadn't you come to aid earlier?

Taiva, on the ground felt quite pathetic needing help to get up. But after trying to lift herself up on her own, she noticed how weak she really was, and the motion nearly made her see non-existent dark blotches again. She finally gave herself consent to take the hand, but made best attempts to shove the feeling of weakness off.

"What are you talking about?" She questioned, failing to keep the fire out of her tone after finally regaining an upward stance. She let go as soon as she no longer needed to grip the hand. "We need to be here."

There was an orange flickering light in the corner of her weary vision, and a large rock landed ablaze, just a little way stray from the group and shook the nearby terrain.

"They've got demolishers!" She heard some woman's voice in the midst of several dozen Alliance members. And Taiva could tell the statement correct, when the same sputtering of machinery that had bypassed the area before, or at least almost equivalent. This time, it wasn't as pronounced in the atmosphere, merely because this craft was smaller.

Sestri already turned her back, as if expecting Taiva to let her lead out of the area. She didn't bother making eye contact. "This time, you may not get a lucky break scampering off into the battlefield."

Taiva balled her fists at her side. How dare she say that.

"I'm fine. Don't be like this, we can't just go." She snapped.

Sestri turned around again, with the same apathetic expression across her soft features. "It's a miracle you weren't knocked unconscious from that blow. I can tell more than you from just looking at you. You're not fit for combat, and doing so because you think it's your 'duty' like how it just was with that rogue and the dwarf is suicide."

Another one of those flaming boulders hit the slope nearby, and war calls rang through the air, followed by the sound of shifting metal armor and hurried footsteps. Taiva was still staring at Sestri, so she couldn't distinguish which party the noise was coming from. Perhaps it was both.

She gave distasteful grunt, but stepped towards her to show she'd finally gave in, if only to end the vexatious reasons Sesti would find why to leave. She studied her though, there was something else, something she wasn't revealing to Taiva. And she could tell purely from the forcedly impassive demeanor one would have if they were lying.

The two trotted around the hill; eventually coming completely off the path, pushing through lifeless underbrush that seemed so frozen and cracked it hadn't had life in the first place. The same type of bush grew all the way down the ravine surprisingly well-spread for the type of habitat it'd have to thrive in. It was a type of groove in the ground they walked along, perhaps rutted awhile ago from a stray vehicle. Even so, it seemed a pretty barren area, the constant snagging of the branches as Taiva would try to get through, was to her annoyance, and it was quite obvious someone would have to actually cause damage to the icy plants before anymore steps were accessible. In this case, Sestri had already taken a lead, leaving the addled druid to try and keep up, bearing through the misplaced and dismantled twigs. In the nearly concussive state Taiva had been in, moving at a similar pace to keep up wasn't an easy task, and it only came to her that Sestri was slowing her own when every now and then she'd wander off too far ahead, then obviously curse herself for doing so after the realization of it. Taiva would follow up and catch Sestri stopped and waiting for her.

It was one of these moments when Taiva decided to unbind the silence the two of seemed to suffer and say something, rather loud to the figure ahead she couldn't see at all.

"If I do recall correctly, there are direct paths that fork off from the road we came off of awhile ago… is there a reason we are taking this way back to the fortress?" She moved another broken branch out of the way that Sestri had previously torn through, snow flinging to and fro, only regaining a brief glimpse of her before she started off at a fast pace again, hearing that her follower had caught up.

Taiva let loose a sigh. As Sestri disappeared from sight, she wondered if sustaining herself through bushwhacking like this was really any better for her than the combat the other night elf seemed too eager to avoid.

"It lessens the chances we'll go detected." Replied the unwavering voice of the woman she couldn't even see.

Taiva halted, considering what had just been said. "Undetected? I'm sorry, but I haven't a clue why you're so driven to get out of here at such a rapid pace. It's not like I'm just going to drop dead any second, you know."

Oh, the irony in it. If it had been that she did not take a blow to the head, and her senses were acute like how she had trained herself to be, she could have heard someone creeping up from behind. Unfortunately, not paying attention seemed to be becoming a crude habit of hers lately. Reality gave her a hard punch, though, square in the face. Before she could relatively tell what was happening, something unnaturally frigid touched her exposed neck. A blade was pressed against her throat, after an arm seized her in her place, re-whetting the adrenaline she left on the battlefield.

Sestri was off ahead somewhere, so when the branches shook and parted, a figure stepping out was confirmed almost immediately not to be her. With all words she could have said at the moment, three could only escape her. "Not you again."