Chapter 8

Eighty-nine days.

She hurt her leg in a fall, and I wanted to hurt the mountain.

Instead I used a torch and melted snow in her path, just out of sight, and carefully cleared a way to a cave, saying fuck all and lighting a fire for her. Before taking perch in a tree near the entrance and watching as she limped inside, flopping by the fire and tending to her leg.

I watched carefully for infection, nostrils flared for the smell of death, but it never came, and I let myself sag in relief.

She fell asleep, and I took flight-

My gryphon screeched suddenly, and I was dropped.

I yelped as I fell through the air, crashing into tree branches and landing quite ungracefully on my ass, and I looked up into the sky, flabbergasted.

What the fuck?

I shoved bones back into the correct place, forcing oozing wounds closed, before stomping away a bit and whistling for the gryphon.

I waited.

It didn't come back.

"Ruddy bird," I grumbled, stomping back towards the cave and heaving myself into the tree, curling up in the shadows to watch her.

I felt something akin to fatigue in my bones-too long away from the necromancers left a knight feeling a bit drained-and I allowed myself to drift, my consciousness sleeping.

The screaming had been gone for so long, it was peaceful. This elf, my elf, she was so…calming, life bringing?

I suddenly slammed back into focus as I hit the ground with a crunch.

I shot to my feet, only to be slammed back into the tree trunk by-

Oh Azeroth, the elf woke up.

Her eyes were narrowed, nostrils flared, and lips pressed into a thin line-her body was flush against mine, with one hand pinning my wrists above my head and the other holding a blade at my throat. The sheer amount of sensation and scent assaulting me left me a little slow on the uptake.

"Who are you?" her voice was melodic, and her accent was thick as the blizzards.

"I am Harbinger." I think my name may have once been Teir, but I was the Harbinger.

"That is no name. Who are you?" The blade pressed into my neck a little bit, and I felt the oil ooze out.

"I have no name," I ground out, craning away from the blade, "I am Harbinger."

She pulled the blade away slightly, and I relaxed, realizing that she had bent down to level her gaze with mine-she towered over me.

"You have been following me." She said it so matter of factly that I was almost embarrassed.

Instead I saw nothing, jutting my chin out and eyeing the woman, "You trespass in my king's lands. I watch."

She cocked her head to the side for a moment, "No king resides over-." Her breath hitched, and I heard her heartbeat go up erratically as her entire demeanor changed, and I was suddenly ripped forward and thrown into the snow, landing quite gracefully on my face. I was so confused then I realised-.

She was seeing me in the light.

I didn't attempt to get up, only turning to look at her from the snow, blue strands falling into my face, and I made the conscious effort to breathe, thinking it may help offset her shock-

Why do I care so much?

She was staring at me, heart beat still rabbit speed, both blades unsheathed now, "You're-you serve-."

"I serve my King. I am his harbinger. I protect his lands." I looked into the snow, for the first time feeling something akin to regret-but why?

"When did he turn you, blood elf?"

I looked at her again, to see the blades sheathed but her guard still up.

"Blood elf," I huffed, "Seems no one remembers the Quel'dor-."

Searing pain sliced through my head, and the screaming slammed into me with such force that I cried out, holding my head and burying it somewhat in the snow.

Hands were on my body, and I continued to hiss through gritted teeth as the pain threatened to overwhelm me, then-.

The screaming, and the pain, were gone.

But what was more…I had a…a…

Light, brilliant, golden light. Beautiful white trees with golden leaves. A woman with sunny blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes.

I dry heaved, coming out of what must've been a…memory?

The hands moved from my arms to my back, moving gently, and I came back into focus to whispers in a language I didn't know.

"Your lord stole your memories, Harbinger,"

Stole my memories? What memories?

What did I have before my king?

I felt ill, my head weighed too much and I was sore-I've never been sore before.

I was suddenly lifted from the snow, long arms curling around me, and hunter green hair fell into my face.

"I don't know why you follow me, but you have saved my life many times. I owe such to you."

I was lain down by a…a fire? I haven't been near one, and then a soft, furred thing hit me. The scent of earth filled my nostrils.

"Be here when I return, Harbinger."

The stronger scent faded off, and I stared into the fire, warmth curling through me in a way it never had, and I felt as though I had drifted.

Thud.

I shot into focus, in a crouch with blades unsheathed, hair flopping about, disoriented for a moment by the sight that was…. not normal.

Roaring fire, blizzard outside, and elf.

And meat.

"Do the dead eat? I never could tell." She was sitting cross legged, cooking what looked like bear over the fire, and her hair down around her neck and shoulders-.

She had no cloak on.

"You will freeze." I took her cloak off of me, realizing that I had been sleeping-or just laying under it, and the scent of earth clung to me even as she took it.

"Answer my question."

It took me a moment to remember her question, then I replied, "No."

She paused, eyeing me, then nodded, "More for me then."

We sat in silence, me staring at her and her staring into the fire, with the wind roaring outside.

"Why do you follow me?"

I was snapped back into the moment by her voice, and saw that her eyes were on me, brilliant and silver.

"You trespass-."

"Then you should've killed me." She interrupted me, and I jerked visibly, caught off guard by such a statement.

"I suppose I should have." I said after a long moment, not sure where the hell this was going.

"Then why didn't you?" She challenged, an emerald eyebrow raised, and I drank in the sight of her, relaxed, with the snow in the background-life in the dead land.

"Fascination." I said, deciding to go with the honest truth, and a second eyebrow rose, morphing her face into one of surprise.

"Elaborate." She tore a chunk of meat off the spit in her hand, consuming it with a grace that even made the slightly gory act look graceful, and the bit of blood on her chin from it-.

I shook my head, running a hand through the snarls, I'm so fucked up.

"You fascinate me."

Her head leaned to the side, hair falling away some to reveal the magenta length of her neck-.

My stomach clenched. God she was beautiful.

"How so?" She asked, taking another bite of her meal.

I watched the flicking of her tongue with near tunnel vision, "I am not sure."

"Oh, you're sure. You're just being bashful. Not what I expected."

I was startled by this revelation, looking at her to see-

Oh.

She looked hungry, and not for meat.

One Hundred and Eighty-Seven Days.

I had stopped simply following, but traveled with her-Kenlora, what a name.

I felt like I was in a trance, the screaming my silent and I felt...alive? I wasn't sure.

I guided her through the peaks, showing her the safer routes through the mountains, and I pressed to find what she was looking for.

It was revealed that night.

I dragged a tree trunk in front of the entrance to the cave, and sprinkled the myrtle leaves around it-to drive off wolves.

I climbed over, into the quickly warming cave, where Kenlora had already begun cooking her meal. Her hair was pulled into a bundle over her head, and she looked regal, even in the filthy armor.

I fiddled with the trinket in my hand, tucked behind my back-it had been around my neck when I had risen.

I sat beside her, watching as she cooked, until she spoke, "You know civil conversation isn't that hard."

I took a deep breath and held out my hand, looking away from her, over my shoulder.

Her breath hitched, and I felt her soft, warm fingers trace over the palm of my hand, the nerves there rekindling feeling with her touch, and the trinket was lifted from my palm.

It was simple, just a chain with a little charm on it, but it was elegant and I thought she would like it.

"It's beautiful. Where did you find this?" she asked, and I dared to look at her.

She was looking right at me, with a face filled with emotion, and it made my stomach warm.

"It was around my neck the first time I woke up." I said, not sure how to phrase it-It wasn't birth, but It wasn't death.

She looked at it again, tracing the lines with her finger, "I think I know where you come from."

I cocked my head to the side, confused, "I come from the Naxxramas. That was where I-."

"No," she shook her head, "not where you woke, where you were born."

I gasped as pain sliced through my head-

Blinding light, warm walls, a woman with honey blonde hair. Ly-

I was in Kenlora's arms, her hands on my temples as she whispered in Darnassian-the language of her people-and the pain began to subside.

I instinctively curled into her, seeking the warmth, and felt her tense for a moment. Oh no-

Then she relaxed and curled around me, and I smiled against her shoulder.

"Thank you."

She hummed, shimmying so that we were leaning on the cave's wall, and we laid like that for a while, her thumbs moving in circles on my back, and my head in the crook of her shoulder.

"There's an inscription on this."

I sat up, turning so that my back was to her front, and saw that she was studying the necklace-there were words there in a language that felt familiar.

"I think I know this language..."

I took the pendant, eyeing it, and suddenly I could read it.

My daughter, Teir.

"I think it says my name." I looked up at Kenlora, lost.

"Teir." She whispered, tracing the name with her finger, and something in me felt...less destroyed.

"My name." I traced the letters, our fingers tangling, "It says 'my daughter'...I had a mother?"

I felt...lost. All I have ever known was my king and his army. I didn't know that...

My head hurt, so I placed the pendant in Kenlora's hand and curled her fingers around it, leaning back into her.

"You need to sleep," I said, looking out into the storm, "I will watch the entrance."

I felt her hum, her arms circling my waist, and she fell asleep, her heart slowing.

I watched the snow fly past, the whistling wind whisking it away, and I wondered.

Why did my King take my memories?

I wondered about him too-would he ever emerge?

It has been so long...

Or maybe...maybe he has emerged and I just haven't been called.

But he would call me, wouldn't he?

I sighed, my mind a silent jumble of thoughts.

I stared at my hands, deep grey, cracked, and filthy.

I stared at her hands, deep magenta, alive and clean.

How could she even bare to touch me?

I extricated myself from her grip, my eyes burning with oil, and withdrew into the darker, colder depths of the cave.

Such a beautiful creature shouldn't be defiled by my filth.

"Teir?"

I looked up from my shaking hands to see Kenlora awake, looking at me in confusion.

"I... I'm sorry." My voice cracked, and her face softened.

She got up, coming closer, and I withdrew, causing her to still.

"My touch defiles you. I am not pure." I said quietly, and she sighed.

Suddenly I was being hugged.

I looked up to see that she had wrapped around me.

"A brave warrior dealt a bad hand does not a defiler make." She said quietly, and I felt the oil ooze down my face as I buried my face into her neck, shaking.

I knew what she meant.