Morning dawned, bringing with it light that lanced through the misted window and splayed over bedsheets that had been torn from the bed and thrown into a pile in the corner against the door. Leather armor lay in scattered heaps, and a few shredded pouches leaked precious herbs over the wooden floor. The fire was long dead, nothing but chill air wafting wisps of smoke into the seemingly empty room.
"Today, we're going to talk about feelings."
Brinella opened an eye and growled, burying her face in the dirt for a moment before realization hit and she hacked and coughed her airways clean. The smell of the sea assaulted her senses, and she clawed her face clean and opened her eyes again to peer around. The port town of Theramore was quiet, too much so. The sun shined brightly down on her, nearly blanching the surroundings. The sound of the tide washing in and out was, to her hearing, just a little bit off. There was no ambiance; no birds singing, no people walking, no people talking. The druid shielded her eyes and stood.
"Which of you have thought about how you will die?"
The docks were behind her, and she turned to try and catch the speaker. The words rang hollow in her mind, devoid of the laughter and mirth she had originally heard them spoken with. Yes, she knew those words. Her eyes went to the floor, and flashes of images painted themselves over the ground. People were sitting around the fountain, they were laughing and talking, listening eagerly to the woman who spoke. Yet none of the images remained for longer than it took her to blink them away.
"... you feel nothing?"
She turned from the fountain and it's blinking scenes, her eyes going out to the docks again. There were no boats moored, and even the lighthouse had vanished. People seemed to have ceased to exist, turning the lively port into a ghost town. But there was one; she blinked and he was there, and without even understanding why, she started to move towards him. His name formed itself on her lips, but she found herself afraid to speak it, afraid to blink and watch him disappear.
"I hate this swamp."
He looked at her over his shoulder, pale skin slightly burned by time outside that he had yet to become used to. His green eyes searched her face, and she felt herself smile. Yes, he had said that. This was how it went. Her mouth moved, forming the words she had spoken another day, another time.
"I like to fly. When I'm high up, I let the form go. Just before I hit the water, I change again."
His lips did not turn in a smile, and her ears flicked back. He hadn't found that confession funny then, either. Her eyes went to her hands, and she realized they were clawed. Something about that rang false, something about it tugged at her and screamed that there was a lie within, but she couldn't place it. The docks vanished, and she found herself abruptly placed at the very edge of a branch she had fallen from long ago.
"You like to play with fate?"
'This isn't how it goes!' Her mind screamed as she felt his hands grip her shoulders, felt his thumbs dig into her skin, felt claws appear and slice into the skin there. Brinella screamed, and the man laughed and pushed her from the branch. Frantically, she flapped her arms and spread her body, willing the change that would not come. Her body fell through endlessness, and she spied the bottom at last. Not the sea, but hard rock. Her eyes closed. 'This isn't real! It's not real!'
She jerked, uttering an oath as the back of her head made contact with something hard. Tears sprang into her eyes as she fought to catch her breath, feeling as though she had just run a marathon. Beneath the fear that washed over her in the aftermath of her nightmare, there was the feeling of complete loneliness. Clawed paws pressed at the wounded skin of her head while she curled up, the softest of whimpers leaving her.
They never stopped. Eaxoa had helped her, but no amount of help could erase the nightmares that plagued her. While she struggled to remember exactly what had frightened her so bad, she was dimly aware that she had somehow made it beneath her bed. Not the first time, and certainly not the most odd place for her to end up, but disorienting all the same. The druid untangled herself and scooted out from beneath the bed, and gathered up the fallen blankets without caring why they had ended up bunched near the door.
She slowly made the bed, tucking the edges down as they had been. Her hands swept over the spot where the gnome had sat the night before, and suddenly she lost her train of thought. Her eyes went to the window, and she sighed. Truthfully, she had never told the gnome that she would help at all, but there was no harm in actually getting a few words in. Brinella dressed, struggling only a bit with the lacing on her pants. The gnome had spoken of others. Maybe they would have more to tell her.
With the room cleaned, the druid grabbed the modified knife that the gnome had fashioned for her and left the room, shutting the door behind her. Her claws clicked on the wood as she walked, and the barmaid that served during the mornings smiled brightly as she came down the stairs.
"Mornin', Wolf. That gnome ever get to you last night? Came in with a group and wanted to find help as fast as possible." The girl's dusky cheeks flushed. "I hope that was alright. They really were desperate."
Brinella nodded once, dropping a few of her hard earned coins on the counter as she spoke. "I spoke to the gnome, yes. The others she came in with, are they around?"
Michette seemed to think about it for a few moments. "It's a weird group, to be honest." The worgen's look spurred her on, and she leaned on the bar to drop her voice. "Things have been awful quiet since the war ended. Up here, we don't have to deal with anything that happened when Deathwing came tearin' up. Honest, most of the boys made their way back home once there was no more valor to be found up here. Sure, we get the few who like to attend the tournament and visit the floatin' citadel, but no one really special. These ones, though? I don't know. We don't get many like them around. Only four of them came in, but I think another one may have stayed outside."
"In this weather?" Brinella pursed her lips, which looked something more like a snarl. "I could barely see outside my window this morning, someone staying out there all night is a death sentence."
"I know." Michette held up her hands in a helpless gesture. "I didn't say I agreed with it, and I don't think they were very happy about it either. Anyway, you'll want the back room. There may only be a few of them, but they're pretty much loaded. Rented the entire back room for themselves, and the three biggest rooms to sleep in." The maid pointed the way, her eyes turning to the door as the night shift swept through the door.
The druid watched the maid work for a few moments, then shrugged and made her way to the back. Aside from the soldiers just coming in from their long shift, there was no one else in the tavern. It was far too early for the people to be up and wandering around, and Brinella had found that people were likely to remain safe in their beds until the mists and snow had stopped. It reminded her briefly of home, and she stifled the pang of homesickness by opening the door to the back room.
There was, truly, very little difference between the front half of the tavern and the back half that she now entered. It had been built on after the war in Northrend had reached it's climax, meant to hold the seemingly endless number of troops rolling in to fight in the final battle against Arthas, but now it stood empty, used only when nobility or well-off travelers desired something quiet to themselves. There were some who thought the room to be pointless, but it had allowed the tavern to add more rooms, and those were, at least, commonly used.
The room was sparsely decorated when it came to furniture. Brinella knew that there were tables that could be moved into the room if needed, but three tables were permanently sealed to the floor in the room itself. Each held four chairs that could be moved, and several had been set against the wall. On the walls were large tapestries, one depicting the expanses of the frozen north, while others on the flanking walls showed tales of times long gone. The floor was decorated with thick furs, the heads of the beasts they had come from mounted on the walls in typical hunter fashion.
The most prominent decoration was the massive fireplace against the far wall. It was there that Brinella spotted what she assumed was one of the unknown party, and she closed the door quietly behind her before stepping closer to the fire. A warning growl from a darker corner of the room made her pause.
"She's harmless." The voice was deep, enough to mark the figure as a male even if the broad shoulders hidden beneath a thick cloak didn't. He sat with his back to her, one foot propped up on a chair while he half sat on the table closest to the fire. A tray of cheese and meat was on the wood behind him, an open bottle of mead muddying her senses for a brief moment. Her eyes focused instead on the corner, and the darkness faded a bit. Two deep green eyes peered back at her, a broad muzzle curling just so.
"Well, normally she's harmless." The man moved, and the eyes left the druid and turned to him. The warning growl faded and became a series of odd chirrups and whines before finally falling silent. "You smell odd. It upsets her." He turned, and Brinella froze like a deer before headlights, a lump forming in her throat. His eyes were a strange golden brown, and held a light that made them seem almost bestial in the low light. Dark hair was let free around his features, rugged and befitting someone who stayed outside, and he sported a slight beard that suited his overall look.
"Worgen. That'd do it. Bestryx isn't real fond of your kind, but I'm alright if you are." His smile was warm, and he gestured to the chair beside his own. "Care to sit? You look like you've seen a ghost, and could use a little time off your feet."
Rendered mute, Brinella slipped to the offered chair, breaking her gaze from him to focus on the fire. Her claws pierced her palms; her own little way of trying to clear her head. They sat for a time in silence, both watching the flickering flames of the fire, but it wasn't long at all before the door opened behind them, and the room rang with sound.
"Oh! Hello! You came! I'm so glad. How's that knife doing for you? You have the knife, right. I built that just for you. Dream emerald and jade handle, you won't find anything like it anywhere! Yairek has one too, but his is red. Like blood. Blood crystal and star ruby handle for him! Oh, and Jordan has a purple one and -"
"It's too early for this, Kika. Shut up."
" - but I told them that I couldn't sell them, because that wouldn't make it fun for me anymore and – Hey! Yairek started eating without us. Or did you even go to sleep? Aw, come on! Maybe you spent all night with Bear-Wolf? That would be awesome, wouldn't it. Procreation could happen, right? But all that fur would be a bit of a hazard. Might get in your mouth and -"
"Kika, please, for the love of Velen -"
" - they'd have puppies! Puppies, right? A whole litter of them! We could sell them, and then they'd grow up to be the best elf-puppy-bear-wolves ever! I think you two should start right now, we'll leave you alone. Just tell us when you're – eep!"
It was hard to tell what silenced the gnome. At the mention of puppies, Brinella's features had become quite feral, her lip curled and ears flat against her head. While Kika may not have noticed the change in her rapid-fire speaking, but her companions certainly did. The hunter that sat beside her had his palm firmly planted over his face, and his head shook slowly. Behind them, Kika rubbed her head while she dangled in the air.
"Put me down, Jordan! This isn't fair! They'd make great pu – erk!" The gnome was stifled, and Brinella slowly calmed herself enough to peer behind at the gnome. Jordan swayed the gnome a bit, keeping her quiet by seemingly keeping her on the border between perfect health and nauseous. The draenei was just a bit taller than Brinella herself, an additional foot of height over that granted by her horns, which reminded Brinella of a rabbit. Her armor was a mixture of plate and mail, meant for mobility rather than defense. Contrasting heavily with the dark skin and armor, her hair was a snowy, downy white.
Beside her was a young male of the same race. Brinella knew that they were very long-lived, but this one seemed to be young even by the average standards. He had not quite come into the build of most males of his kind. Had she not seen him from the front, it would have been hard to tell the difference between him and a female. He was slender, and dressed in the robes of a healer. Once in a while, he would prod the gnome, sending her rocking and scrabbling for purchase in the female's grasp.
"Put her down, Jordan." The male beside her spoke, and she was certain that she sensed the tell-tale signs of someone trying desperately not to laugh in the depths of his calm voice. "Kika, you must learn to keep yourself quiet, or Jordan will continue to pick on you."
"It's not my fault! I'm just so small, and fragile. Like a puppy!" The gnome brightened considerably for a fraction of a moment, and then squealed as she was dropped. With a thunk, she hit the floor and groaned, unmoving.
"Do not be concerned." The male was watching her, his blue eyes glimmering with mirth. "Kika and my mother get along well, and there's really no harm being done. Kika just... requires a little bit more handling than the average person." His hooves clicked on the floor as he approached, and held out his hand in a very human gesture that confused her. "I am Yairek."
Brinella stared dumbly at the hand, her mind having gone completely blank at the simple gesture. When he seemed intent on getting the handshake, she extended her own hand, careful not to nick his pale skin with her claws. Instead of being frightened, the man brightened considerably and looked her hand over, turning it over in his own soft ones.
"Interesting, interesting! These are perfect for tearing, quite different from the wolves your kind see -" He glanced up as she twitched and tried to draw away, and he released her with an apologetic look. "I am sorry, friend. I am a scholar, not a fighter as my mother is. All things are something to be discovered and learned. I did not mean to offend."
There was silence for a long time, and the hunter cleared his throat to chase away the tension. "I suspect that she is not used to people who are simply accepting." He grinned as the worgen shifted in her seat, her eyes downcast. "It's hard to accept the praise of others, when you cannot accept the truth for yourself."
"You speak wisely, woodsman."
The door closed behind another figure, and Brinella found herself calmed. The creature was short, bear-like in features, but walked with a steady human gait. Around it's neck and hips were fetishes and trinkets, and it was dressed in nothing more than a simple loincloth. The furbolg sidled up to the table, and peered up at the worgen.
"I am Gnarlpaw, of the Timbermaw. You are -"
"Bear-Wolf!" Kika appeared without preamble atop the table, and Brinella flinched, nearly falling out of her chair. "She's Bear-Wolf, the mighty one who will help us! She said so, last night. While you were all sleeping, I went and did something! I got us someone good. Yes, yes I did!" The gnome planted her fists on her hips, looking at them all as if expecting them to doubt her. After a moment, Jordan spoke.
"No, you did not."
"Yes, I did!" Kika pouted and nodded so briskly that her goggles fell, skewed, over her eyes.
"No. You talked to her, yes. You did not ask her."
Kika opened her mouth to speak, and then clamped it shut again. For a moment, it was clear she was thinking very hard about the conversation the night before. "I was invited in, I fixed her knife, I... oh. I guess I didn't..." She shuffled her foot on the table, looking quite guilty indeed.
As one, the group groaned. Only the hunter did not begin to chastise the gnome, a smile on his lips as he turned back to the fire and warmed his hands. Brinella watched them for a few moments, and for a few moments, felt quite lonely. For a few moments, as she watched Kika scamper nimbly over the tabletop to avoid Jordan's grasp, Gnarlpaw shake his head, and Yairek laugh, Brinella had the deep desire to hear the voices of those she knew. For once in a very long time, she was homesick.
"I don't mind." Brinella spoke before she could think, shying slightly away from their eyes as they stopped to look at her. "Helping people is what I do, so if you need help... then I really don't mind. I just need to know details, is all."
"Yay! See? I told you I did good. You all didn't believe me, but I found the best Bear-Wolf there can ever be, yup-yup! Put me down!" Tiny fists clanked on Jordan's armor, and the woman rolled her eyes and dropped the gnome with a thunk upon the table. Kika rolled, and rubbed her head while she spoke. "Yairek says there's an artifact of great power," she wriggled her fingers, "hidden away in one of the caves to the north – Ow! Would you stop hitting me! I was talking!"
"It is wiser to let Yairek speak, Kika." Jordan flicked the gnome again, and turned her eyes to her son. "Go ahead, cherished one."
The other draenei flushed, but pulled himself up as much as he could to look important. "I was one of the last to be found when the Exodar crashed. My pod was flung far from the site, and was submerged under several feet of water. Somehow, I still remained in the stasis that the pod offered, but as the months dwindled by, the systems were shutting down. Very near to the end, I was found by a human woman who rescued me, and helped care for me.
"Her name was Ellie, and she was a good woman who served the Light as a traveling healer. Finding me was a stroke of fortune, as her health was failing her, and I could help her move around as was needed. To some, I looked like a beast of burden. To her... I was a precious gift, and she took very good care of me. I am not ashamed to admit that I began to feel affection for her as a man feels affection for a woman. Her vows prevented her from accepting me, I knew... but when it came time for us to part, I stayed with her.
"I had no home, and I was not yet ready to return to my people. I was afraid that they would judge me for being what was little more than a servant, and I was terrified to become one of those who had lost everything. With Ellie- with her," Yairek paused for a moment, and took a steadying breath before he continued, "I felt as though all was going to be alright. When she was called to aid the Offensive against the Legion, I went with her.
"In the fighting, she was struck down. For days, I stayed beside her as healers tended to a wound that seemed to not want to close. I realized then just how weak my friend had become, but all she would do was speak to me of the beauty of the world she had traveled. While she seemed eager to meet the end, I- I was not ready to let her go. I know that I would have had to face that one day, but I wanted it to be when she was old and grey, not- not then.
"I took her place on the front lines. I was little more than a neophyte in the ways of the Light. I had chosen my path long before coming to Azeroth, but it had been one of the arcane. Under her hand, I learned, and I was loathe to let her learning go to waste. My battalion forced their way through the to the Sunwell, and it was there that I was reunited with my mother." He paused for a moment, turning an adoring smile on the darker woman, who bowed her head in a humble gesture.
"Together, though we knew not what we were looking for, we stood by countless others as they fell against the Legion. Battered and broken, we lay M'uru and it's void lord incarnation to rest. Among the many things there, I was gifted a small, glimmering sliver of the once mighty Naaru. Though it flickered just barely, I felt as though it was the answer. All that I had toiled for, I had found it. I fell in combat later, against Kil'jaeden... but others succeeded. I know not what happened, but when I woke later in the recovery tents, I felt the sliver pulsing in my grasp."
"He refused to let go of it." Jordan chuckled softly, and shook her head. "We thought for certain that he had wounded his hand, but he had not. We knew he had awoken when he finally opened his hand, and we didn't get him back into bed after that."
Yairek laughed. "No, no they didn't. I brought the sliver to Ellie after I fashioned a necklace to keep it close to her. In days, she seemed to come back to life, was so much stronger than she had been before! She began to chase life again, like a pup among her pack. In weeks..." Yairek gripped his staff, and Kika scooted closer to wrap her small arms around one of his own. Her own voice was muffled against his clothes, but Brinella heard well enough.
"Ellie fell in love." The gnome peered at the worgen, her hand steadily patting her friend's arm. "Someone who had cared for her while Yairek was fighting. He was human, so was Ellie. It made sense... but it didn't mean that it didn't hurt. This is right about when I met Yairek. He was on the beach, and I was fiddling with something or another. It exploded, and he tended my burns. He started crying-" She fliched under Jordan's glare, but continued, "well he did, and he had every right to! I was there the night we knew it was something in the past. Ellie and her lover had snuck out of the camp and-"
"I left the next day. With Kil'jaeden banished, it seemed to be the best thing. I left her a letter, never telling her truthfully how I felt. It was hard to accept that she ever cared for me as anything other than a pack mule, and I admit that hate and rage filled my heart for a long time after that, but Kika was a stalwart companion."
"I didn't have a home, I didn't have many friends- I think they blew up-, so I didn't mind tagging along with him. He let me, though Jordan wasn't pleased." Kika leaned over, speaking out of the corner of her mouth, "I think she likes me now, though. Like... really likes."
"The war here in the north is what brought us all together, in the end." The hunter broke in, his rich voice quiet. "Ellie was my sister, and we kept in touch long after she and Yairek parted ways. I met the man who would later leave her for another woman, and Ellie began to regret what she had accidentally done. When the call to arms sounded, she was one of the first to answer it. Combat was her way of forgetting, but I had a feeling that she was hoping to find Yairek on the battlefield.
"She was the first to answer, and unfortunately, she was one of the first to fall. Her body was never recovered, but I received her things when the soldiers made the rounds. In them, I found countless letters that had been started, some were even finished, but never sent. They spoke of apologies, of understanding, of regret... and deep beneath the front my sister liked to put up, of love. She spoke often about the crystal that Yairek had given her, but I never found it in the belongings that were returned to me. I thought it lost. So many of these letters were there, I decided to seek out the one that they had been addressed to."
"I had not gone north with the others. I chose instead to stay and learn about the world that we had landed on. I learned many languages, experienced many traditions, ran from many things that were usually Kika's doing, but there was a day where I thought I heard a scream that contained my name. A voice I had not heard in so long, that the anger I had finally let go threatened to overwhelm me again. A few weeks later, I woke to Perin knocking on my door.
"He gave me all of Ellie's belongings, and I spent days reading everything. I knew why he had come, though he had not told me. At the end of it all, I was thankful. He had given me the closure that I had deeply desired. I felt no ill-will, nor bitterness. Yet... I began to sleep uneasily. A dream, where I was locked in a dark room, and I could hear soft sobbing, begging."
Perin nodded, and ran a hand through his hair. "I started to have the dream as well. I'm not big on magic or religion, it's part of the reason Ellie and I did not live together, but our mother had been prone to visions of the future. They bothered her so deeply that she set out to find members of the Bronze Dragonflight, and we never saw her again. Sometimes, I can understand her fear." The hunter waved a hand. "Regardless, we all began to see the same thing, despite that we did not speak to each other about it. Jordan broke the silence, and we decided that this was something that could not be ignored.
"I found the soldier that had brought Ellie's things to me, and was able to find where she had died. We hope that answers are there, but the closer we have gotten, the worse the dreams have gotten. What was once whispers, are now screams in the dark. We need someone who knows these wastes, and has a thick skin to defend us if it comes to it."
"That is where I come in." Brinella mused aloud. Her long claws tapped a steady rhythm on the tabletop while she considered the story. She knew about the Naaru, and the Sunwell, what little bits Eaxoa had explained in times of silence. There was no reason for them to lie, and honestly... no reason for her to deny them the help they desired. "I'll do it. For... Ellie."
"Yippee!" Kika cheered, and promptly fell off the table, much to the laughter of the others. As the others spoke to each other and planned, Gnarlpaw slipped up beside her, and spoke.
"Only one who knows the power of dreams would understand the need for closure." The furbolg patted her arm, managed what looked like a grin, and tottered off to observe the map that hung on the far wall. Brinella watched him for a moment before she smiled and shrugged.