"Walk, you said! It's good for us, you said!" Kika sputtered as Jordan plucked her out of the snow for the third time since they had left their horses behind, and she grumbled even though the woman allowed her to perch on one of her pauldrons. "I'm cold, and wet, and I think I lost some of my tools in that last pool. Yairek!" The gnome whined, and Brinella increased her pace to escape the high pitched sound while they fussed with the smallest of their companions. Ahead of her, the snow fell away from the massive cliffs of northern Dragonblight, their shadows spilling over the ocean of white that she and her companions now struggled through.
"It's a little intimidating, isn't it?" Her tail flicked, and she nodded once before she looked back at the group. Perin came to stand beside her, moving his feet to tamp down the snow in an effort to make a path for the others to follow. His hand reached out, stroking the tip of one of her rounded ears, and she released a low growl that he merely chuckled at. "Ellie vanished somewhere near here. I know you say that you do this for her, but I don't know what to expect. Thank you, regardless. Do you have family?"
Her silence was all that he had until she shifted, slender feline becoming rippling muscle as the worgen rolled her shoulders and stood straight. "My brother still lives, I feel. No one else." She lifted her muzzle catching scents on the air that made her fur stand on end. Perin nodded, seeming to share her dislike.
"The cleansing goes slowly. I don't think that we will ever truly be rid of the undead, not as long as there is evil in the world." His hand scratched at the muzzle of his feline, though his attention was caught as the others finally stumbled closer. Kika grumbled something under her breath while Yairek carried her in one arm, his staff balancing himself as they moved.
"Remind again why we leave horses behind?"
"They aren't goats, Jordan. There's no way we can get them up to where we need to go." Perin smirked as the disgruntled woman moved past them, her very weight making her sink into the snow. Yet, as they progressed nearer and nearer to the mountains, the snow thinned to become ice and rock that tore into Yairek's robes if they did not pay attention. Eventually, the ground became so treacherous that they had no choice but to rely on Brinella herself, who took to the air to find the best way to continue.
It seemed hours before they hit flat ground again, all of them tumbling into the opening of a cave several hundred feet above the ground that they had started on. Within moments, a careful fire was started and the chilly companions huddled around it for warmth while Brinella scouted ahead. When she returned, the snow was coming down harder, and they had a warm blanket ready for her when she sat down.
"The snow will make it hard to travel." Kika began to whine again, rubbing her tiny toes with equally tiny fingers.
"We will not need to walk outside again." Gnarlpaw rumbled the words from where he sat, prodding the ground with his gnarled staff. "The mountain is angry. Many died here. Many remain."
"How do you expect us to sleep, with you going on like that!" Kika tossed her boot at him, gaining laughs from the others while she squirmed closer to Yairek and pulled her own blanket over her. The male draenei chuckled, pulling his fingers through her candy-colored hair until her breathing became even and quiet. For a few long moments, there was no sound but the crackle of the fire and her even breathing.
Brinella, weary of the waiting game, stood once more and padded around the cave that they sat in. Something felt odd to her, something that she couldn't explain. The feeling of being watched, of a hundred eyes peering at her, and nameless breath tickling the tips of her ears. Walking did not help, but she found herself peering into the cracks and crevices that she found, until one proved fruitful. Perin and Jordan joined her as she pulled rocks from a crevice, and it was not long that they opened a larger crack that each of them could slide through.
"Cold back here," Jordan remarked. "Dark, too. Too dark for the night. Eerie, too. I do not like it." Her eyes flicked to the glass-like walls, and she shuddered. "Makes me see things that are not there."
Perin nodded while taking in the chasm that they were perched on the edge of, going so far as to take a piece of stone and toss it over. Despite their fears, the sound of bottom was not too far off. "You won't be able to wing it through here, Dreamer." He used the nickname offhandedly, as if Gnarlpaw had simply beaten it into him. Brinella merely shrugged. "Bottom doesn't seem to be too far off, but those jagged bits up there? I bet a good yell would bring them down. No, you'll have to walk with us."
"There is room, if we move like this." Jordan scooted along the wall, the slope taking her gently down a few feet. "The shaman may have issue, it is small ledge, and he have big feet."
"We'll figure something out." The man backed from the ledge, his eyes not leaving the eerie scene even as he moved back through the way they had come. Brinella followed, with Jordan slipping through not even a moment later. They did not have to speak to know that each felt uneasy in their own ways, though none made any notice of it to the others. No words, no glances, just the silence of understanding.
Sleep came to the others quickly. Travel had been hard, and Kika was the only one who stirred against Yairek's side. Brinella tended to the fire while they rested, not wishing to join their nightmares. She did not know how she knew that they slept uneasily; each breathed deep and even, making no sound that might have foretold of such things, but she knew it all the same. Felt it, as if it were in her blood as well as their minds.
"Amusing, that sleep comes so uneasily to the Dreamer." Gnarlpaw spoke only once, his eyes drifting closed again while he leaned against the icy wall. She did not bother to ask what he meant when he said what he did, knowing that he could feel her the same way that Eaxoa could, and for the same reason. Her eyes watched him for a time, before they closed, and she drifted in fitful slumber.
Morning came with grumbling from all of them, and it was not long until they were ready to go. The narrow passage they had cleared proved to be some trouble for Gnarlpaw, but with much laughter and gentle tugging, they were able to get the shaman through and onto the ledge, where they all peered around with frowns and groans. Brinella took the lead, her claws digging into the sheer ice that touched her back. Twice, they were forced to stop when the icy stone became too slick for the hooves of the draenei, and all of them worked to score the ground as best they could, though it was her own claws that worked the best. Jordan took the worgen's belongings while she crouched and scratched her way down the ledge.
What seemed like hours later, they touched the bottom of the narrow ramp. None were so happy as Kika, who promptly let out a whoop of joy that sent several stalactites crashing down around them. "I think it best to stay quiet," Jordan pointed out after the sounds had died, "and watch all that you can."
"I don't like this place, Yairek." Kika tugged the priest's sleeve, her wide eyes taking in the shattered pieces of ice not far from them. "It feels wrong. Like I'll never be happy again. Or warm."
"There is unease here," Gnarlpaw added, crouching down and running a paw over the cold earth. "Darkness has long fallen on this place, and there is no hope left. Something draws evil this way, something powerful. Yairek..."
"I know." The draenei moved forward, and Brinella caught the look of pain on Kika's face as the man moved away. His staff touched the ground in several places before he slammed it into the ice, pieces spinning off and slicing against Brinella's fur. She barely noticed, her eyes trapped on the gem that topped the simple staff. It glittered, the orb-shaped stone seeming to spin madly with an inner light, and where the light touched...
"By Goldrinn's fang..." Perin's eyes were fastened behind them, and the others looked, and were met with a sight that horrified them all. Jordan hissed softly, taking a step back from the ice wall, where the light illuminated a hateful spectre frozen in time, it's eyes boring into her as if she had brought about the creatures rising. There were more, all appearing and then vanishing as quickly as the light winked out light a spotlight. Some were small at first, and every pass of the light showed them getting closer, anger and hate clear on their features every passing second.
The light faded, the staff tilting and falling back into Yairek's open palm. There was silence for a long moment, each of them afraid to look away from the walls and ceiling, uncertain if the apparitions were truly trapped, or if a single glance away would bring them falling upon them like a swarm of locusts. Kika sniffled, her terror clear in the way she tried to back against anyone who would let her. Her whimpers became louder until they were finally stifled against Gnarlpaw's stomach.
"Anyone else alright with getting out of this hell pit?" Perin's voice was quiet, but Brinella heard the fear therein. Her nose flared, muzzle lifting as something new came to her senses. Her eyes narrowed, ears twitching before perking straight up. The conversation, as whispered as it was, began to die around her as she focused on that scent. Images filled her mind, bringing with them the feelings of disgust; of worms churning through blood-stained earth, of rotting bodies. Her growl sounded, silencing the others. Without realizing it, all of her senses strained towards aggression, and Perin noticed it first.
They were watching her, she felt it in the back of her mind. They were waiting for her, waiting for the pack leader to take flight. Brinella growled again, and the sound left her through a snarling visage as she bared her teeth. Her eyes were not focused on them; there was another tunnel, she was sure of it. Several of them, if the instincts that she held to were reliable. She knew that they were. Beside her, she felt the furbolg pad up, his eyes watching the area as eagerly as she did. They were watching her...
… but so was something else.
She would have missed it if she was anyone else. Had her focus been anywhere else but where it was, she would have mistaken the lurking thing for just a shadow, a trick being played on her mind. When the shadow moved, so did she. It lunged, and she met it with claws outstretched and fangs bared. Together, they hit ground in a tumble, and with a ghastly screech, Brinella was the victor. Relief was momentary, sanity pushing back on her as she backed away from the corpse of a corpse, her breathing rapid and mouth full of rotting flesh.
They were not alone. Kika shrieked in pain as more fell from the shadows, grabbing her hair and throwing her as if she were a tiny missile in their efforts to get to the others. Jordan's sword raised, a flash of golden light spiraling around the blade as the woman fought off their shadowed attackers with one hand. Brinella grunted as Kika landed against her, curling arms protectively around the gnome before she dropped to all fours, laying the gnome beneath her as her form shifted.
The change was never painless. In the months she had taken to become one with her forms, she had learned to channel the pain of bones shifting and skin stretching into something else; rage. Rage befit the form she took now, and slender limbs bulked and agility and speed gave way to size and strength. Pointed ears rounded, her muzzle shortened, her fur thickened into a coat that could rival even the strongest of armor. Brinella roared, and the very walls shook with her will, the shadows turning their attention towards her with leering grins.
Brinella felt Kika move from under her, but couldn't see her. All she knew was that the gnome was not in the way of her paw when it came up to drop an approaching shadow. The thing squealed, a nauseating squish heard as her paw collapsed it's skull. She moved forward, jaws closing on limbs, claws raking, her bulk forcing everyone to move towards what she believed would be sanctuary. Behind her, a line of dead began to form, leaking ichor as their cries resonated in the chamber. As the last was peeled from her, Jordan throwing the halved ghoul aside, Brinella spotted little Kika scurrying in just before her bulk filled the tunnel.
"Geists? Ghouls? What in Light were those?" Yairek ran a hand over his face, hissing in pain as his fingers smeared his blood over the gash on his cheek. Jordan moved forward, running a glowing hand over his wound. "They have a nasty bite, that's all I care to know. Anyone else get scratched hard enough to draw blood?" There was shuffling as each accepted Jordan's cleaning touch, and Brinella began to smell the sweat of the paladin's effort.
Kika was next to speak, piping up from further in the tunnel. The others moved towards her, shuffling through tunnels that made the druid grunt as hard ice scraped at her pelt, reaching skin and scratching painfully. Still, she refused to drop the form, uncertain if it would be what ended them at a bad moment. It seemed like hours before she realized they had been talking, and she had been simply following along.
"I feel like I can't breathe," the gnome complained as she stepped down another tunnel. "You don't think I'm one of those people who hates tight places, do you?"
"No. I've found you in Jordan's bags more than enough times, and you've been fine."
"Perin, there's tighter things of Jordan's that I could – ow! Can't you keep your hands to yourself?"
"Once you learn to mind your mouth," the woman growled. "Go left, I feel something familiar."
"Familiar, mother? This is a land of death and pain. Of course you would be familiar to such things." There was a pause, so tense that Brinella wished to reach out and slap them with her paw before Yairek was speaking again. "No, you are right. I feel it as well. There is warmth nearby. Hope."
"Hope? Yairek, I think you've been sniffing a little too much of your – ow! Jordan, stop hitting me!" Kika grumbled as the draenei pushed ahead, leaving her behind to pout beside Perin. "Yeesh. I'd forgotten how hard she could hit when she felt the need to do so."
"You do make it just a little too easy for her, Kika. Oof, don't mind us here, Brinella." The hunter joked as the worgen moved her bulk past them, but his laugh quieted as she growled. His hand lifted and fell on her flank, felt her tense there and knew that she could see something they could not. "What is it?"
Brinella uttered another growl before following after the other two, pushing violently against the walls of the tunnel as they narrowed around her shoulders. The ice gave, the tunnel becoming easier for her to slip through into another cavern. Her eyes scoured the mirror-like ice around her, looking for the faces that she swore she could still feel watching her. Yet there was none, simply an ethereal light that glittered off the stalactites and walls, sending rainbow veins along the snowy floor.
But it was not the walls that drew her attention past a few cursory glances. It was what lay in the center of the room; an obelisk of ice twice her height if she stood on her hind legs, thick and uncut around the base. Near the top, the icy monument joined with runoff from the ceiling, giving a rippling effect forever frozen in time. Despite the cold, Brinella realized that the air was warm even through her fur, and a sense of peace settled over her that she fought to resist.
"Ellie," someone breathed the name beside her, and she turned her broad head to find Perin staring in rapt attention at the pillar before them. "Light bless us, it's Ellie!"
The worgen frowned as best a bear could, her eyes focusing on the ice as she lumbered forward. It was only once she was but a few feet away that she saw what Perin did; a young woman stood suspended in the ice, her chin lifted and her expression serene. It was as if she had been caught floating in water, her blonde hair frozen in a cloud around her face, her tattered robes baring her ankles and bare feet as if the tide had pulled the skirt up just a bit. Her hands were cupped beneath her breasts, and something shimmered in her grasp. She could see the similarity in features between the frozen woman and Perin, but the nagging feeling would not leave her.
"No wonder she was never found. All the way in this cesspit." His voice was tender as he moved forward, a hand placed on the glass-like ice. Yairek moved beside him, and Brinella could smell the tang of salt. Tears, she knew and could understand.
"She never let go of that shard." There was weak laughter between the two, shared pain, before silence seemed to fall for moments unending. "How did she get down here? How was she forgotten, all the way down here?"
Gnarlpaw grunted beside her, and Brinella found herself looking away from the woman to the room itself again. The furbolg shuffled forward, peering through the ice at the shard, which glittered with ethereal light. The shaman was quiet for a while before lifted a paw, placing it firmly against the ice. Without warning, he dragged claws down across the surface, and all who were present were frozen at the sound that came, an unholy cacophony that had nothing to do with nails on ice.
The walls breathed and churned, the rainbows of color gone and replaced with something darker. The warmth was gone, Brinella's breath freezing before her eyes as the others backed away from the obelisk, where the claw marks had slip and cracked, sending out veins that shattered the peaceful serenity of the image before them. A wailing started, sharp in their ears until it was nearly a scream.
"What have you done?" Yairek shouted over the rising noise, his hands clapped over his ears, nearly doubled over in pain. He was not the only one, each of them in various stages of agony brought on only by the sound. None of them seemed to notice it was getting dark, the flickering purple hues of the shard in Ellie's hand limning the ice as it fell away from her body. The sounds died as the the last chunk of ice hit the floor, leaving nothing more than the newly formed gloom and the ringing in their ears.
Brinella felt something touch her side, and tensed. Perin's voice calmed her, and she was soon flanked by the rest of the group as they moved towards each other in an effort to find warmth. Kika ducked beneath Brinella's bulk and watched while the others debated quietly. It was Kika who drew Brinella's attention back to where Ellie had been trapped, a simple pat on her paw drawing her eyes along the shadow that was the gnome until her gaze swept to where something moved in the gloom.
The something moved, a glittering trail of purple and black shadows that swept up from the floor, acting like a lantern behind trees as more shadows fell on the glimmer, drowning it in darkness. Brinella growled, already hunching in preparation for something to strike, but nothing would prepare her for the blow that came.
She hit the wall with a crash, the cavern shuddering with the blow. Screams came, sounds of fright as glass shattered and sent out missiles that shredded through cloth and skin with ease. As air refilled her ursine lungs, the worgen thought she saw the flash of tell-tale magic, but it was behind a figure that could have haunted her only from a nightmare – or so she thought. Bloody eyesockets watched her, a leering grin revealing decaying teeth even in the gloom. White-blonde hair hung in clumps around a face that was drawn taut over a skeleton.
With a roar, Brinella rolled her bulk and heard the satisfying crunch of flimsy bone. Silence, and dark, fell again. Vaguely, she heard the sniffles of fear from Kika, the hiss of pain as those who had been thrown like herself found themselves able to move, though slowly. Sore, the worgen lumbered into the middle of the room, her paws crushing the ice that had formed Ellie's tomb, but she felt no body. No flesh, not even frozen.
What she did feel, was the lance of pain along her flank as something struck. The silence was pierced with a grunt of pain, of more motion than there had been before. Brinella whirled with a roar, catching sight of her earlier attacker, broken arm jabbed into her hindquarters while the teeth of the thing chewed at her pelt. She sat, watching the thing flop for a bit before she rolled again, pinning it beneath her weight. Her eyes rolled as the pain continued, fire consuming her back leg. She kicked and squirmed, finally hurling the wailing thing away into a wall. It vanished in a swirl of shadow, leaving only the cackling behind.
"I can't see anything," Perin grunted his words from between his teeth, pain slicing through each syllable. "We're not going to get anywhere like this. We need light. Kika!"
"I-I have something! Just give me a moment to find it!"
"We don't have moment, gnome!" Jordan's sword was a brilliant slash in the gloom, revealing that there was no longer one attacker. The walls writhed, and all knew that what was coming for them was something that would not die until they were gone. "Find it now. Find anything now!"
"Just... just one moment!" Kika sobbed the words, her playful composure broken. Another flash of golden light, and Brinella barely made out the slumped figure of Yairek against a wall, his hair wet with blood. Blood that coated Kika's trembling hands and pooled around his unmoving form. "I c-can't find it. Jordan, I can't find it!" Her voice broke into a scream of pain as a ghoul dropped atop her, her bag spilling over and an assortment of items scattering over the floor. The twang of a bow sounded, and the ghoul flew back and was still.
Brinella kicked something in her effort to move, and she thought she heard the sound of triumph from the gnome before everything vanished into searing pain. Her roar echoed in the cavern, tearing the ceiling down around their ears. The world was white fire, and then it was nothing but sound. Screams; of pain and of fear. The worgen did not know where one ended and the next began, and so she swiped at any noise that she could.
Paws connected with skin and bone, the smell of blood and ichor choking her as she slammed blindly into walls, her bulk hurtling forward through empty air and gleefully tearing down anything that stayed in her path. There was no longer sense, no more reason. The bear had taken over, all of its instincts on full alert, and there was nothing but threats left in the cavern. Unable to tell dark from gloom, Brinella followed the sounds of breathing and of chittering, barely noticing as those who were her friends now became her enemies despite their cries around her.
"Jordan, stop her!"
"Cannot! I would kill her!"
"She must be brought down... woodsman," Gnarlpaw's voice was weak and labored, but he spoke as firmly as he could through pain.
"My arm is broken. You expect me to bring her down with a knife?"
"A knife? Hang on, I've got it!"
Brinella roared again, her jaws closing on the last that she could reach. Broken bone lanced into her gums, crunching beneath the power she held in her jaws. Her prey screamed, clawing at her muzzle and biting at her ears, and she slammed a paw into the unknown assailant until she felt something else crack. Like glass in her mouth, something cracked and shattered, turning quickly to sand as she gnashed and tore.
"I'm sorry, bear-wolf."
She didn't even feel the weight of the gnome on her shoulders, barely registered her presence at all as she waited for the thing beneath her to stop screaming.
"I'm really, really sorry." Perin shouted something beyond her hearing, and Kika sobbed once. Pain shattered Brinella's thought, and she pulled herself off of the lifeless corpse with a grunt, her growling slowly becoming merely grunts and snuffles. Her mind cleared, just enough to feel blades withdrawing from her shoulders, just enough to hear Kika begging for her forgiveness. She stumbled, losing her footing as her rage left her and she began to feel numb.
By the time she hit the ground, ursine had become canine. Still, she struggled. Even if the rage had died, she was afraid. There were no more sounds but the heavy breathing of her companions, of the clanking of Jordan's armor, of the muttered curses beneath Perin's breath. Even Kika was silent, but Brinella could feel her nearby. Feel, but not see.
"Kika," Brinella finally moaned the name, coming to lay curled and shivering over a pile of broken ice.
The rogue lay her hands on her, and she moaned in pain again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It went off right in front of your face. I had to hurt you, please don't hate me! It won't hurt for much longer... it won't hurt..." Kika's voice became dim, as if heard through a thick wall. Not knowing if she would even be heard, Brinella whimpered her words.
"I can't see."
The deathly silence that followed was unheard by her as weakness overwhelmed her at last, and she fell into oblivion.