Sometimes the things Devrialstrasz had told her seemed to be as much of a curse as a blessing.
She wondered what he'd think of her new night elf form. She felt another twinge of sadness when she realized she'd never find out. She'd never see his mortal form either.
Malfurion said, "Hmm, I believe I have an idea. Occasionally others come to the Emerald Dream, via unusual circumstances. Perhaps we could say you woke up here, with no memory of how you arrived or where you came from, and I found you. That will keep suspicions to a minimal level."
"Mm, I suppose that would work.", Ebonia replied.
"You seem to be thinking about something.", Malfurion commented, "What is it?"
Ebonia shook her head. "It's nothing, really."
Malfurion gave a slight nod of understanding. The two continued walking, stepping over a log across the path. Ebonia was quickly getting used to two legs, although it still felt rather strange. Her ruined eye was making it tricky, however.
The two of them continued on in silence, Malfurion gliding silently across the ground, while Ebonia stumbled uncomfortably through the forest. She could tell why he was a druid - he moved like he was a part of the forest itself.
Meanwhile, she...didn't. Which was rather odd, considering that she was a literal wild creature.
But then again, she'd never actually been in a forest before, either. Another thing that made her feel sad.
After a long while of silence, Malfurion stopped. "We are quite close now. Remember, stay quiet, and follow my lead. I believe we need to give you a cover name as well, seeing as 'Ebonia' is not exactly a night elf name."
"Hmm...I'm not sure what I could call myself.", replied Ebonia, "I don't know much at all really about night elf culture."
Malfurion nodded. "That will definitely need to change. Hmm...for now, let's say your name is Kirana. Distinctive, but not out of place. What do you think?"
Ebonia replied, "I think it sounds alright. Let's go with that."
Malfurion smiled. "Excellent. Well then, let's go."
They walked forward for another minute or so, until they came upon Eludian sitting on a rock in the center of the stream, watching Faewing play around with the water. As soon as he saw Malfurion, though, he immediately bolted upright.
"Archdruid! You're bac- wh-whoaaaa!"
He lost his balance and fell into the stream, which was thankfully shallow. He blushed deeply and stood back up, water dripping from his long hair and clothes. The faerie dragon was giggling and pointing at him, which only made him more embarrassed.
Malfurion chuckled. "It is good to see you, Eludian. Come on out of the stream, please."
Eludian walked out, shaking the water off of him. When he noticed Ebonia, he froze.
"Oh dear...you saw that too, didn't you?", he said, "I'm not always that clumsy, I promise you..."
Ebonia replied nonchalantly, "Oh, I'm sure you aren't."
His eyes widened. "Wait a second...aren't you that dragon I saw in the woods yesterday?"
Malfurion frowned. "You already knew of her presence?"
Eludian looked abashed. "I promise, Archdruid, I was going to tell you..."
Malfurion sighed. "I suppose it's too late now, but do you have any idea how dangerous that could've been?"
Eludian lowered his head. "Yes, Archdruid, I swear to Elune that nothing like it will happen again."
"That's alright then.", Malfurion replied, "You know I can't easily stay mad at you for long, and there are other matters that require my attention. Specifically, this young dragon-in-disguise. Ysera sent me a message that told me that she had brought Ebonia here to give her time for her mortal body to heal and to 'expose her to more positive influences'. I believe that means us, although she didn't give me many specifics."
Eludian frowned. "But isn't there that other problem you were working on?"
Malfurion nodded. "Correct. That is why I am passing this task onto you, Eludian."
"Um..what?", replied Eludian, startled.
Malfurion explained, "I believe it would be good for you to train her in our way of life until Ysera sees fit to take her back to the real world. Ebonia has recently lost her only friend and has presumably suffered under the influence of Deathwing, so this will not be easy. But I have faith in you, Eludian."
After a moment's thought, he added, "You will have to keep her identity a secret from the other druids. I am not sure how'd they respond to a black dragon in their midst. We will refer to her as Kirana, and our story is that she simply appeared here with no memory of her past life."
"It will be done, Archdruid.", Eludian replied, bowing slightly.
"Thank you, Eludian. I must leave now, but feel free to show her our grove, help her get to know the area. I should be back by nightfall.", Malfurion said.
Eludian nodded, and Malfurion smiled, before turning and gliding back into the forest.
Ebonia looked around, and gave a small frown. "So, where is this grove of yours? I don't see anything."
Eludian replied, "It's just across the river.", gesturing at a thick cluster of trees on the opposite bank.
"Well, then, let's go.", Ebonia said.
Eludian waded to the other side, and Ebonia followed, marveling at how cold it felt on her skin. Her scales were certainly less sensitive than this.
She followed Eludian as he slipped nimbly through the trees, and found herself in a large clearing filled with plants and various animals. There were several night elves who were hanging around, chatting, or meditating. All of them froze when they saw her, though.
Eludian declared, "This is, uh, Kirana. The Archdruid found her in the forest with no memory, and requested that we take her in for now. He has given me the responsibility of helping her settle in while we try to find out where she will go."
Some of the night elves muttered amongst themselves, while others waved and greeted Ebonia. She smiled nervously and waved back.
"There's, uh, not a lot to see here, since we do our best to remain as closely attuned to nature as possible.", Eludian said, "But I can show you where we normally sleep."
He led her over to a secluded cluster of trees, where several druids were napping on mats of leaves or even curled up under the trees' roots. Some were sleeping in their cat or bear forms.
Faewing, who'd been flying behind them this whole time, chirped cheerfully and flew over to a nest of leaves, where she curled up and immediately started snoozing.
Eludian smiled, then froze as he heard a loud voice.
"Well well well, if it isn't the Betrayer's bastard!" A tall muscular night elf strode over, smiling as if the world belonged to him. He wore a light leather tunic that was tightly fitted over his torso, contouring to his buff abs and chest, and he had tight pants that showed off his well-toned legs. His dark blue hair and goatee were exquisitely well-trimmed, and his dark eyes glittered mischievously. Some silver blade-like earrings shimmered from his long, perfectly pointed ears.
Eludian turned towards him as the new night elf strode over, and it was pretty clear that he was not quite as tall or muscular. But his voice did not falter as he spoke back to the stranger.
"Faelian. Can't you see that I'm too occupied for your meaningless words?", Eludian replied.
Faelian chuckled. "Ah, Eludian, aren't you just hilarious? But I didn't come here just for you."
He turned towards Ebonia and flashed her a winning smile. "Hello, Kirana."
Ebonia was a little taken aback by this development.
"You would be quite beautiful, if it weren't for that scar.", Faelian said, "Where'd you get it from?"
Ebonia retorted, "What's it to you?"
Faelian chuckled. "Ooh, you're a fierce one! I like that. Come, let's leave this lower behind."
He strode over and attempted to take her hand, but he had not accounted for her years of defensive instincts. She whipped around and blasted him with a searing jet of flames.
He stumbled back, extremely startled, which probably saved him from Ebonia's full attack. But it still burned his marvelous eyebrows off.
As he stood there, looking aghast, Ebonia threatened, "Try anything like that again, and I'll take more than your eyebrows."
Faelian looked furious. "You have not heard the last of this! You and Eludian both!"
He ran off, and as soon as he was gone Eludian looked Ebonia directly in the eyes.
"Arcane magic is highly frowned upon in elven society.", he said, "Faelian is going to be spreading word around about you, I guarantee it."
"Let him.", Ebonia simply replied, "I don't care what they think about me."
Eludian sighed. "That's one of the things we're going to have to work on, aren't we? You can't just ignore things like this if you're trying to mingle with society."
"Fine, I'll be more careful in the future.", Ebonia grumbled. But she wasn't sorry at all about what she'd done to Faelian.
"So anyways, why did he call you the Betrayer's bas-", Ebonia started.
Eludian shook his head. "Not right now. Maybe I'll tell you about it later, but I really don't like talking about it."
He looked around. "Perhaps we should find something else to do."
Ebonia rose an eyebrow at that, but he was already trodding off, and so she followed him.*