When I first arrived at Stormwind, it was miserable. The flight master guy was super busy with arrivals and departures—another reason they should just build some airplanes and get rid of those stupid griffons—and I nearly got put on one going out to somewhere called the Burning Steppes as I tried to get my bearings and wade through the masses and masses of people.

Eventually I made my way away from the griffons' area and into the main part of town. There were so many people. A lot of them rode on creatures I couldn't even dream up. Some were on dragons. Real, honest to God dragons.

I bumped into one when I was walking around a corner and I just about had a heart attack. However, it just looked at me and said to watch where I was going. The dragon said that. It spoke.

I don't know if it was in a dragon language or not, though. I'm grateful for Fizz's translation spell, but it's kind of nerve-wracking wondering if I'm gonna say something in the wrong language. Like, what if an elf is talking in elvish and I hear them while I'm trying to talk to a draenei and I slip into a language they can't understand?

I tried to ask what I think was a dwarf—I'm basing that guess on Lord of the Rings—if there was somewhere I could go to recruit people for my cause, like an old school soap box or something, but I'd barely said, "Excuse me," when he whirled around and yelled that he wouldn't give me any gold and to leave him alone.

I ended up talking to one of the guards. He told me that for a fee I could post up a flyer on some board thing asking for help. I asked him if that was a good way to go about it and started to explain my dilemma, but I guess two guys got into a brawl in the market over wanting the same item and he had to leave to help break it up.

Even though that guard had seemed kind of like he wanted to answer my questions ASAP and have me move along, I figured I'd wait for him, since he was easily the nicest human I'd yet to encounter. Greg used to always complain that humans were always the jerks in fantasy worlds and I'm totally seeing the pattern here.

Makes me sad to be the same species as them. Maybe earth humans are different and less mean than Azeroth humans. Though...with all our wars and stuff, we're probably about the same.

Well, for a little while, I sat, watching the crowds fatten and thin, and the people barter—I think they were bartering anyway...I've never seen people actually do that except in movies and those are generally those comedies where someone doesn't know how to do it and gets scammed.

At some point, my guard headed off and disappeared into the city. Great, right?

I was beginning to feel seriously overwhelmed when I happened to look over near one of the buildings that everyone kept running in and out of. There were a few people standing near the entrance in threadbare clothes, begging all the people in shiny armor and pretty dresses for money and handouts. For a really, really short second, I thought about joining them, only to ask for help instead of money. But, they were totally being ignored...and ridiculed on occasion. I didn't want to get dismissed as a beggar.

I was just starting to dejectedly go back to my people watching when I noticed the area along side of that building. I think it said auction house on the sign above it, but I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't paying attention. It's not like it was a sign telling me where the draenei were.

Anyway, along the side was like the mount equivalent of a bike rack. All the people in the fancy stuff were leaving their noble steeds and mechanical birds—one guy even had a turtle—right next to the building.

As I watched, a guy on a dragon came shooting down from the sky, only to pull back in the last few seconds and make an graceful landing. His dragon just kind of sat down and folded its wings back as he hopped off and headed into the building.

And that gave me an idea.

I stood up and wandered near the dragon, trying to be nonchalant so that no one would think I was trying to steal it or anything. Can you really steal dragons? I mean, if they don't want you to? It seems like it'd be really hard, what with the claws and teeth and ability to fly away and the probably being smarter than humans. I always thought dragons would be—this is when I thought of dragons, which was rarely—basically giant lizards. Now I think they might be the ones running Azeroth. Especially after talking with Brath.

I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself.

So I wandered over to him and was wondering if I could speak to him in his dragon language. But then I remembered that I'd been speaking in the human one and wondered if the dragon would understand me or not.

Well, I was kind of looking him over and then looking away and wondering if I could somehow focus enough and get myself to speak in dragon when I suddenly felt my hair fluttering and a hot wind against the side of my face.

I turned and came face to face with that dragon.

And made my trademark squeak.

So, I'm gonna say that dragons are definitely predators. Because the way he was looking me over, like I might be a tasty little snack, or something he might want to chase through the streets, was definitely the way a cat watches a mouse. I half expected him to bring his clawed feet down on me and then peer under them to make sure I was still moving and that the game was still on. You know, the way cats do with flies.

It seemed pleased by my fear.

"You wish to ask for a ride, little creature?"

It was a him. And his voice was gorgeous.

I didn't trust him for one second. I think I whispered a no, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was just the terrified expression on my face that made that amused light dance in his eyes. I think he smiled, but with all those teeth, it was kind of hard to tell. It didn't seem like that other dragon had been nearly as scary.

I was having definite second thoughts on asking for his help.

I mean, it was just something about him that seemed cruel. I keep trying to tell myself that I need to be more open to other sentient species and I think I'm slowly getting better. Anyway, as I looked over the sharp toothed, sharp clawed, lithe, sleek black creature in front of me, I was torn between giving him a chance or just running screaming. His black scales even seemed to gleam menacingly in the light, if that's possible.

But then I thought about Fizz and how his red eyes had scared me so much at first. I just wasn't used to dealing with dragons, like I hadn't been with goblins.

"No need to be shy..." his voice called me out of my thoughts. If he'd been a human man, I could definitely see him having women throw themselves at him. If not for the fact that I had a pitifully vague schedule to keep—aka the fact that I needed to save my world before everyone was dead—and you know, the whole he's a giant, winged lizard thing, I'd have probably talked to him just to hear his voice.

"I don't want a ride," I whispered.

However, even as I steeled myself to ask him about draenei, his humor abruptly vanished and he sniffed me. First my hair then my shoulder then my stomach then my knees, as though making sure I smelled the same all around. It was really awkward.

Then he inspected me with a critical eye. "What in creation are you?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Apologetic is not the answer I was seeking," the dragon murmured, tilting his head as he walked a few paces forward so that he could peer around my sides as though I might be growing wings myself or something. "You look human enough, yet...you are clearly not."

"I am so human," I hissed. I glanced around to see if anyone was staring. Everyone seemed too busy with their lives to notice some new girl chatting it up with a dragon. Maybe this sort of thing passed for normal.

When I looked back at the dragon, he did not seem convinced. "I'm from another world. I came here looking for help against the Burning Legion." The dragon sat back on its haunches, watching me with a half interested look. "The goblins said I should look for draen...something—"

"Draenei, most likely."

I nodded. "Yeah. But I don't know what those are."

"And so you plan to go up to every creature you are unfamiliar with and hope that they are a draenei?"

I didn't like how condescending he was being. "No...I just thought maybe..." I was so not going to tell him that I thought maybe dragons would be less judgmental than humans.

He looked so amused. Why do I seem to be the butt of everyone's jokes around here?

However, before I could apologize for bothering him and reconsider hanging out with the beggars—I mean, if those hero guys heard that I wasn't after their money, maybe they'd give me a chance, right?—the dragon extended one of its wings around me and drew me in closer. As I got closer, I could see spots of what looked like dried blood on a few of his teeth. Definitely a predator. And I was pretty sure I was a type of prey.

I did not like having my personal space invaded by a man-eating lizard.

"There is a boat you can take, across the ocean, to where the draenei live." I perked up. "But it takes weeks and weeks." The dragon looked toward the ground, an almost wistful look on its scaly face. "From what I remember of the Legion's attempts to take Azeroth, you do not have that kind of time."

I felt myself panicking. "There has to be a faster way to them—"

"There is," the dragon batted its eyes at me and I just knew that he was playing me. Worse, whatever he was after, he was making sure that I knew. "I have a bit of a dilemma." I frowned and his wing seemed to close around me a bit tighter. "Do you see these reins?" He tilted his head to the side so that I could see that he was hitched up, similar to a horse, without the bit in his mouth. When I nodded, he looked back at me. "I am being held prisoner...a slave, if you will, to a very cruel man."

I glanced around, as though expecting to see the man who'd arrived on the dragon to be heading toward us. He was still off doing whatever.

"These reins are enchanted," he almost nuzzled me but seemed to think better of it. Like whatever his problem, he wasn't desperate enough to get all cuddly. "Ownership is based on whoever claims the reins. However, the restraints of who can use them are based in magic, which, I couldn't help but notice, you...smell as though you are somewhat immune to." I assume he was trying to smile friendly like. I still didn't see what this had to do with me. The drake's smile vanished when I didn't make whatever connections he was going for. "I will fly you to your precious draenei. In return, you will free me."

I glanced around the street for a moment. "What about the other dragons?"

The one I was talking to seemed to be growing impatient. "Let's not start a crusade, hmm? Save me and the pieces will fall into place, I'm sure." He glanced toward the building his captor had gone into again. This time he edged back a step, his sharp claws clacking against the cobblestone beneath us. "Besides, you've a world to save, yes? Surely you can wait to right the wrongs of this one until after your task is accomplished."

I glanced around one last time. Fizz had said that I needed the draenei. And it didn't seem right that a dragon would be kept against his will. Though...that cruel look in his eyes that he was trying so desperately to hide made me think that maybe he wasn't a slave. Maybe he was being punished for something. But then...all the dragons I'd seen were people's mounts. None of them were free.

And I did have a world to save.

"You take me to the draenei and I'll take your reins off. But not before that," I spoke quickly. I wanted to make sure he wouldn't just fly me home for dinner. If I wanted to get anything done, I was going to have to rely on the kindness of others. But that didn't mean I needed to throw faith blindly to them.

He gave me an innocent look, as though he weren't the one who needed to be worried over. "I do hope you will honor our arrangement."

I nodded. "What do I do?"

"Climb on."