A/N: Thank you guys for the reviews! I try to address any questions people might have in reviews in a timely fashion, but I tend to add these A/Ns at the last minute, so half the time I forget them all together.

As far as Horde leaders go, Vol'jin is kind of amazing. Just saying. However, since most of my stories generally focus on the Horde, they won't play as big a role as in my other fics.

In regards to RedOak's questions/comments: most of those will be addressed in the next few chapters, but I will say that Deathwing is not going to be a huge part of the story.

…-…

I gotta say, I'm pretty happy right now. I shouldn't be. I should really sort this mess out, but…it's just so much fun seeing everyone mad at Nicolas. I mean, you'd think they'd have been mad at me, right? Or suspicious because I was sneaking around. So not what happened.

Well, when he tackled me to the ground, Nicolas unknowingly twisted my leg under me—yes, the same one that keeps getting hurt. I don't know what it is about that leg that just screams, "Injure me!" But it's there.

Anyway. On top of being pinned to the ground by a super pissed off guy who wanted an excuse to kill me, my knee felt like it was gonna snap, so I jerked it up. I think he thought I was trying to nail him in the nads or something because he caught my leg with his free hand.

Remember how I said that one of my pants' knees looked like it was about to rip? Well it chose then to do so, ripping pretty much from seam to seam, and the pant leg slid up because my knee was bent and Nicolas ended up gripping my lower thigh.

Neither of us noticed this right away. I don't know—or want to know—what he was thinking, but in my mind, all I could think was that I'd been a moron and that he was gonna kill me and then there would be no one to save my world. So I had tears brimming, though I did manage to keep from flat out bawling. I'm getting better about the whole crying thing.

Now, Clara may sleep through everything, but I swear she has a person-in-need radar or something. Maybe there's something to this light of theirs. Anyway, in seconds she was stumbling out of her tent and…Oh. My. God.

The look on her face when she saw Nicolas pinning me to the ground and 'groping' me while I looked ready to sob my little heart out?

I could die happy. I don't think she said a word to him for the rest of the trip north.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, I know I need to clear this up, but then it gives Nicolas' whole, "She's a damn rogue! She was trying to attack me from behind!" argument credibility. And I really don't want them suspicious of me when I need them to save my world.

And they might kill Brath.

I guess Nicolas told the dragons he'd watch the camp so that they could go get a meal and they were on their way back when the whole thing happened. So they pretty much saw me leaning toward him—Brath is adamant that I looked like I was asking what Nicolas was reading…my partner in crime—and then him whirling around and attacking me.

Well, while Clara was yelling at Nicolas—the ground actually got burned in a couples places with some sort of priesty magic and you could see Nicolas dodging something I could barely make out, it moved so fast—Brath pretty much dive bombed him.

But before Derres could come defend his rider, Brath darted over to me and circled me with his body and flapped his wings out, you know, like how some animals do weird things to make themselves look bigger than they are? It works really well when you're a dragon who's already bigger than a human. Then he crouched down low and hissed, like his priority wasn't tearing Mr. Jerk to pieces, but protecting me. Well played, sir.

Or maybe he really did want to protect me, since I can remove his reins. I guess that would make my life worth saving.

Well, with everyone glaring his way, Nicolas was quick to accuse me of being a rogue, like I mentioned earlier. This theory was tested by handing me a dagger. I think the intent was for me to duel someone, but I couldn't even grip the thing right, so they all gave up on that idea.

Even Nicolas didn't try to claim that I was just pretending to be incompetent. I guess he knows the difference between the real thing and a faker.

Well, I almost came out right there and cleared his name of any molestation charges Clara might want to throw his way, but…I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I liked not being the one everyone was staring down for once.

So now Clara can't look at Nicolas without getting angry. I think Derres knows the truth is a little different than how everyone's claiming it went, including his rider's version, so he's just been kind of quiet about it all.

I did tell Clara that I didn't think it would happen again—I sure wasn't gonna sneak up on him again—but she seems skeptical. That she would jump so quickly to such conclusions and then stick with them when I tell her it's okay makes me think maybe Nicolas is a degenerate, but…eh.

I almost feel bad for him.

And then I remember what a jerk he is and I feel borderline giddy.

If Brath is enjoying this—he must be—he hasn't really shown it. He's just been acting super grumpy and even more clingy than before. Goodbye sleeping in a tent. Why? Because it's not big enough for my dragon to stay and keep watch over me.

Not my dragon, but you get the idea…

I almost want to just take off his reins now and tell him to fly off into the sunset, but then I'd have to either ride with the guy I'm letting people think tried to do stuff to me or admit that I lied about being allergic to feathers. Either action brings my credibility into question.

This is why I shouldn't lie. Or just get better at it.

No one got much sleep that night, but we still headed out bright and early the next day. And no one did much talking that night or the next morning either.

I wanted to ask Derres about what Brath had done—he seemed like of my traveling companions, he'd be the one to know—to warrant the reins, but I couldn't get away from Brath to ask. And I didn't want Nicolas thinking I was having doubts about Brath's help because then he might kill him.

A true conundrum, if ever there was one.

I don't think we flew as fast as Brath would have if we were alone, but it took a total of seven days from when Brath and I had been attacked to reach the Exodar.

Most of the trip was uneventful after that first night. I think that Clara and Nicolas did come to some understanding that in the very least it wouldn't happen again, because she stopped giving him quite so cold a shoulder.

Our last night, we stopped on a beach. While the prettiest beaches seemed to be near Booty Bay, this one had a weird sort of serenity to it, even though there had obviously been a tidal wave that had messed with the tree line. A lot of trees—which looked like pine trees, which thrilled me, since North Carolina's state tree is a pine, so it felt sort of like home—had their root systems unearthed and we actually camped underneath one, in case there was a storm or anything.

We'd been flying toward this giant twister and I totally freaked out, jerking on Brath's reins and everything to get him to stop flying forward. Brath was not amused that I'd actually used the reins, but he couldn't very well act on that irritation, seeing as he was being watched so closely. Even as Nicolas and Clara drew back to me and seemed genuinely surprised by my concern, Derres said that so long as we didn't get too close, we'd be fine.

Who ever heard of a stationary tornado? Even the weather is weird in Azeroth.

Apparently while random tornados are unheard of, it can still rain without warning—I know technically our weather forecasters can study cloud movement and stuff, but it still feels random to me—and so we hunkered down underneath a tree.

This night was the first time that Clara actually let Nicolas sleep near the rest of us since the 'incident', which makes me think she finally started to think better of him after he didn't try anything again.

So she passed out pretty early on. And the dragons left to go find bears to eat or something. Which left me alone with Nicolas.

It was fine. I mean, it wasn't like I had to talk to him or anything. He, however, was of a different mindset. The stars were beginning to come out—I didn't like looking at them because I couldn't recognize any of the constellations. Remember those mandatory camping trips? My dad made sure I could find the big dipper, Orion, Leo, and Cassiopeia. He figured that'd have me able to find my way for most any point in the year, if I ever got lost in the wilderness. Guess he didn't consider other worlds.

I wonder if he and mom tried to get back home. I mean, air travel was out, because of the mass panic and with marshal law, it wasn't like he could just drive across the country… There were people who had been doing it, of course, but I don't know if my parents would be the types to tell the law to screw off in a disaster.

What if the military managed to repel the demons from my town and my family made it back and thinks that I'm dead? That would be awful….

And unlikely, I know.

Anyway, I was staring at the waves since the sky was out, and Nicolas suddenly grabbed my shoulders. So I swung my book up to try to hit him in the face before I even realized it was him. He dodged it easily enough and sat down beside me, eyeing me with this hard to read expression.

"Clara didn't really trust you until that little stunt you pulled," he said pointedly.

Did he think I framed him on purpose? Like I could pull something like that off. "I didn't pull anything," I muttered, keeping an eye on him.

He shook his head slowly, suddenly holding my book. I couldn't help but glance down at my hands and wonder when he'd had time to steal it. He handed it back to me. "You can stealth, but your situational awareness is atrocious." Nicolas paused, leaning his chin into one hand as he watched the waves, too. "And your reaction time is pitiful."

"I guess it'll make it easier when you decide to off me," I grumbled, edging a bit away from him. I didn't like having him for company.

"If I was going to kill you, you'd already be dead," he abruptly stretched out and closed his eyes. "I have to say though, I was surprised to find out that you were a rogue—"

"I'm not." Something about his tone…he was impressed. I snuck up on him and he got accused of being a pervert and he was impressed? He can't let me have any triumph, can he?

"Would you like to be?"

I turned slowly to look down at him. He was watching me with a dead serious look on his face. Even as I tried to think of a good insult, like something Brath would say—I try to ignore that I've been using an evil dragon as a role model every now and then—he rose to his feet and stretched before heading toward his tent. "Don't rush your decision. As soon as we get you to the Exodar, we have to take care of some things. After that, if…" he paused for a moment and then shrugged. "When we get back, I'll teach you."

I glared at him. "And why would you do that?"

"Consider it an apology for treating you so poorly."

Jerk. Jerk, jerk, jerk. He's going to be practically as horrible as Brath—worse, really—and then just turn around and try to make it all better by…by what? Teaching me to hold a dagger? Like little old me could go around demon slaying? Is this his way of saying he's not gonna save my world, but point me in the right direction to doing it myself?

I hate him.

I pretty much didn't sleep at all that night—it's amazing that I can function in Azeroth with so little sleep. In the morning, Nicolas didn't even look at me or address the offer he'd made. It was like it had never even happened and I half considered that it had been some messed up dream. But that would mean that I'm dreaming about him, so I nixed that thought pretty fast. No way is that creep getting into my subconscious.

Anyway, I guess the ball was in my court, in regards to taking him up or not. …He wasn't gonna make me beg for training in front of people, was he? I'd train to be a freakin' warlock before I'd do that. And yes, I'm keeping in mind my inability to use magic.

As we were leaving, Brath joked that I was going to fall into the ocean because I was too tired, but that just left me having to assure Clara for the next ten minutes that I was capable of flying. It could have been ten years. The draenei were across some small expanse of ocean and she wanted to talk safety? They were out there, living on an island that I could almost make out if I squinted really hard at the horizon. Or maybe that was just my hopes building up.

Regardless, I was super excited. After what could have been an eternity, it looked like my journey might finally be over soon.

Fingers crossed, right?