A/N: Thank you for reading and reviewing :3

…-…

So…I should apologize. Last time, I was…upset.

Not that I'm not now. But, well.

I think it's important to get the details right. I don't know why. I mean, if I succeed it's not like anyone has to follow in my footsteps or anything. And to say it's for history seems kind of arrogant.

I don't know. I just need to review what's happened.

It helps me focus, I think.

The portal they made led to New York, of all places, so I'm totally in enemy territory. And if I want to find the others, I'm gonna need to keep my wits together. So it's time to think.

To focus.

Last time, I left a lot of stuff out.

Like the only reason Cisty and I stayed in Shattrath was because I was too focused on not riding a gryphon. Since Brath wasn't there yet, everyone was totally fine with just leaving him a message and heading out.

And honestly? At first I kind of was, too. Because, well, I'd say I have a world to save, but really it was just that I wasn't looking forward to seeing him be all buddy buddy with Mr. Blackheart again, even if it is just an act. Or seeing Mr. Blackheart again in general.

Finding out that that warlock was tragically trampled to death by some large creature would not bother me much. And the little humanitarian in me would be drowned out by the general cheering of the rest of my conscience, so it'd be okay. Too bad he seems incapable of dying…again anyway.

Anyway. We were packing up and Michel asked who he was going to be flying with, since, you know, he has no flying mount. Or mount of any kind really. Not my point. Well, that made everybody pause.

Turns out Fizz has a magic carpet—they really have everything in Azeroth—but he won't be pulling an Aladdin anytime soon because the carpet doesn't move right if you add bodies? Like, it has a certain way it's supposed to ripple through the air and if there's more than one person, it offsets it and it won't even lift off the ground.

Neesera has a helicoptor thing. She made it. Dear god, she could be a rocket scientist with her inventions and you wouldn't know it behind that quiet smile and sweet demeanor. Not that rocket scientists are all condescending jerks or anything. I'm sure they're nice… She just doesn't seem the type, right?

Anyway, her machine is pretty much built for one person. She has all these buttons and levers she has to keep up with to stay in the air and so she can't afford even little Michel to be with her in the cockpit. She said someone could ride on the landing ski-looking things, but that just seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Well, Clara was a bit too quick to say that she was very sorry but Nicolas was riding with her. I guess with Derres gone, he didn't have a mount either. So that tied up one gryphon, though she did suggest that worst case scenario, Michel could ride Muffins with her. Not that I think gryphons deserve any type of pity or anything, but I think it would be hard on it to go from a one person mount to a three person one.

Cisty and Eric both ride gryphons. So they said it would be okay if one of each of us non-Azerothian humans doubled up with them.

And that was when it hit me that they expected me to get on a gryphon.

Um, no. I'd rather die.

Well, Clara saw the look on my face and started asking how bad my allergy was—I'd totally forgotten about the feather thing, so I was happy she mentioned it—and then Eric was all like, "Well, I can try to cast an anti-itching spell," or something.

In retrospect, he's been so nice. But, at the time, I didn't know he was a werewolf, so I was still thinking he was like super creepy and I didn't want to ride with him. So I just said that I really wanted to wait for Brath. Let them think what they want, Clara and Nicolas already seem to think that I'm banging a dragon—how would that even work? He's a giant lizard. I mean, yeah, I guess he looks human in his human form, so he probably has all the parts, but…

I'm gonna stop that train of thought right there. The last thing I need is to get hot and bothered every time I look at Brath and picture him naked or something. He'd totally pick up on that and my life would be even more hellish than it is now.

Anyway. So I was letting them think I was waiting for Brath for whatever reasons their minds might come up with. Well, Eric seemed oddly disappointed that I wasn't jumping up and down to go with them, but Fizz stepped in and suggested it might be good for some of us to wait for the Horde, so that they didn't get all up in arms that they were expected to just tag along after us.

When he said that, Nicolas gave him this look and I just knew that was gonna end poorly if Fizz suggested he stay with me. So I volunteered Cisty, saying that Eric—so he wouldn't suggest he stay with me—and Fizz would probably both be needed to open the port.

So I'm pretty sure Nicolas has figured out that Fizz is somehow affiliated with the Horde and that I know about it. Stupid rogues, using their people reading skills, or whatever…

Oh, you may be wondering how horrible I am for being willing to let Michel ride with someone I thought was a pervert, but I was thinking that, you know, perverts are generally kind of…specified in their perverseness? So like, if Eric was into young women, he probably wouldn't do anything to a little boy?

And you know, since he isn't some pervert freak, my assumptions don't really matter, anyway. I really hope he never realizes that I thought he was creepy… I really hope he's okay.

Him and everyone else.

Anyway, so Cisty and I stayed behind and waited.

And waited and waited and waited.

We were starting to talk about leaving without the Horde in the next day or so—it didn't help that I could totally see that dumb dragon riding off into the sunset with Mr. Blackheart, even if he did say he was just using him and saying screw saving some other world. I mean, who's to say he's not using me? I mean, duh he is.

Argh. Whenever it comes to Brath, thinking only leaves me with a headache.

So we were ready to leave if they didn't show up in the next day or so.

And of course, as soon as we made an ultimatum, suddenly they're there. And by they, I mean that wall of a creature, the tauren shaman. I guess he was the only one of them who befriended the Aldor—which we hadn't even considered being a problem—and so he was the unlucky guy who had to search the whole terrace for us. I guess he had to ask a bunch of the guards for us, too, and they gave him a really hard time because it's super weird for a Horde member to be actively looking for Alliance.

So we met with him and then there was talk of meeting with the others and I was really worried I was going to have to go back to the elf-riddled part of the city and have my fel-dar going off like crazy again.

But after a really confusing conversation, Cisty agreed to go get the others and it was decided that since windriders don't have feathers, I could ride out of the city with the tauren guy—who never gave me his name, by the way; I totally asked and he just laughed, patted my head and told me to get on his mount. Maybe he didn't understand me? He seemed to have a bit of trouble with common and Cisty actually spoke orcish to him.

…Which wouldn't make sense, since I can speak whatever language I'm spoken to… So I guess he really was just avoiding giving me information. Do he and the other Horde guys think I'm like some sort of Alliance spy or something?

Hm.

Anyway.

So we rode out to the outside of the city and he went to meditating while his freaky scorpion-lion-bat eyed me like it could use a meal. It was kind of following me around, too. Like, I'd move a little and then let my gaze wander, and when I'd look back, it'd have edged up next to me again, it's paws flexing its claws in the dirt like it might pounce.

The tauren guy never seemed to notice my discomfort.

Just as I was edging away from that thing for like the seventh time, suddenly there was a swooshing sound accompanied with snapping branches and shouts and the tauren guy shot to his feet and his windrider hissed and hunched low to the ground.

But before I could even react—maybe grab my daggers or something—suddenly I was up in the air, being hugged rather tightly and twirled around.

When my world finally stopped spinning, I was still being crushed against Brath's toned chest and he was going on about having missed me and knowing that I must have been horribly lonely without him—it's like he has to be more annoying when Mr. Blackheart's around. Though…I kind of wouldn't mind having him around right now…I shouldn't have run through the portal without him.

While he went on, I kind of looked around and found that my newfound traveling companions were all staring at us and that they'd pretty much come to their judgments about me and Brath.

The burly orc—I have never used burly to describe someone before, but it is like the word to use when talking about orcs—looked kind of disgusted. He's a warrior and our other 'tank', I guess.

So, a side note. I recognize that term from when my brother—

From when my brother and his friends would talk about the game. I never had a clue what it meant, but there's some kind of cool parallels here. Apparently the raiders—like Nicolas and the others—use the same terms for their fighting that gamers in my world use? So like, if a gamer were talking to these guys, they'd be all LoSing and AoEing and watching for pats and mobs.

I have no clue what I just said, but I recognize it. You know, like how you might not be able to speak Japanese, but you can recognize it when you hear it?

Yeah. So Cisty and that orc guy are tanks. And then I mentioned the troll hunter. And beside them, there was an orcish woman. I think she's another rogue.

Apparently the reason most of them came—were 'chosen' as Mr. Blackheart implied—was because aside from him and the shaman, they don't rely on magic.

Well, seeing as they weren't so keen on introductions, we pretty much left as soon as Brath would bother to set me down and shift to a form I could ride.

...

And I'm picturing Brath naked.

Here's hoping he'll be a scaly lizard the next time I see him, because otherwise, I'm totally gonna end up undressing him with my eyes…

I don't know what's wrong with me. I mean, everyone's in danger and all I can think about is how right now I'd really like to be cuddling up next to the dragon I left back in Zangarmarsh.

I've always sort of prided myself on not being overly dependent on others. I mean, yeah, my parents give—gave—me money for gas and stuff, but I've never needed a guy around to make me feel better. Or maybe I did. I mean, there was my dad. I totally wanted him back in the house when the demons first came. Just to know he was there would have made it so much less scary. Him or Greg.

But then, if they'd been there, I never would have had the guts to come to Azeroth.

I guess it's just…I don't know. It's not that I needed them, but I did want them around? And now that I can't have either of them, I just… I no longer have any dependable male figures in my life, so I'm grasping at sociopaths?

God, that sounds pathetic.

And, you know, like I said before, maybe Greg has a good reason for being with the demons. Maybe he's undercover or it was staged or…something.

He can't be a bad guy. I mean, this whole time, while everyone's been so busy making sure not to call themselves heroes, the only person I ever really, truly considered one, was him.