Disclaimer: The characters and settings created by Blizzard Entertainment Inc in this story are owned by their creators. I do not claim them as mine in any way, shape or form. I am not receiving monetary profit from this story and no copyright infringement is intended.

Note: Sorry for the delay. Things are slowing down now as I work on other projects. I'm also trying to take my time, write ahead and make this fanfic good.

But! I have something cool to share—I confess that this fanfic is actually inspired by a series of novels I stumbled upon which are insanely good. You can read those while you wait. Lindsey Davis writes the Marcus Didio Falco novel series. Falco is a hard-boiled detective solving mysteries in ancient Rome. So Rome comes alive for you, a lot like Rome the TV show, while you laugh and worry and wonder at the amazing scenes and capers she creates. Go read "Saturnalia", that is what got me hooked! After that great read, I thought… How fun would it be to try writing a Tauren-themed mystery? Muahaha.

I've always wanted to say the following: "And I did it aaall thanks to a book from my local library."


Chapter 12: Catch A Tiger By His Tail

Let's start this out with me complaining again, why not.

Mey went, "The Night Elves were desperate to have somebody finally fix their tree, that's all they care about, that's how all of their policy has been aligned these last few years."

And then I went, "But this Al guy—"

"I don't care!" Mey's voice flew up again. She could be smoky, sultry, but when she got upset, she had a habit of getting as nasal as a Goblin. "Whatever he told you, it's a lie. I mean, Turaho, he's the flipping Master Rogue of Darnassus!"

"Triumvir Rogue." Then, I grumbled, "They don't have master rogues anymore."

Well, we'd made it to bed. But, being us, we got distracted with business and had been up for the last hour, discussing my case.

Pretty girl, and pretty nice to be scruffy, talking about work beside her and have her still be interested in me… I snuffed a sigh out of both nostrils, then I rubbed my tired eyes. Mey turned to me in bed and smiled until I finally smiled back at her. I always liked a girl who could keep up with me.

"You goof." She nuzzled me, "You needed all that chatting up to accept that Night Elf in your life is lying to you."

"But he did make some good points."

She snuggled in closer, "And look how easy you are. I got you into bed so fast—"

Wow. And stealing my lines as well…

I took Mey's hand, then looked down at our hands together on the blanket. My hut was quiet, it must have been close to dawn. However, I didn't dare mention the hour and so break the spell, "So the Night Elf connection to this whole thing isn't just Alessandre, really? His mission to hunt Kael'thas?"

"I find it laughable, one man taking on Kael'thas Sunstrider."

"So there is something more that the Night Elves want, something that will help them save their tree Nord-"

"Teldrassil."

"Right. I was going to say that."

"No, you were about to say Nordrassil." She poked my beer-belly. Twice. "Learn to lore, Turaho."

I ignored that, "Thanks for helping me work out the Night Elf angle. But Greatfather Winter, still missing, has something to do with a World Tree? I can't see the connection."

Meydiri leaned up on an elbow. Her large brown eyes looked more innocent than usual in the moonlit dark of my hut. Slashes of white tribal marks almost floated over her muzzle, in the near dark. For a Tauren, she looked exotic, dangerous. I couldn't help kissing her cheek, then.

"Teldrassil and Greatfather Winter…" she shook her head and her horns, "I'd say they're both creatures of magic. That's gotta be your connection." I stroked her arm, and she reached over to pat mine, get me to pay attention again, "A world tree, and an immortal Dwarf like him? The world tree is sick. Maybe Greatfather Winter has the power to help. And then Greatfather Winter was in Darnassus before he visited Thunderbluff too, right?" she waited for me to catch up, then got impatient, "Turaho, that's the one piece you've been missing. I'm telling you, this… fancy Night Elf rogue you've been talking to? He should have told you all this, not me. He kept if from you. He sold you some other story about a mutual enemy, Kael'thas, to win you over. But all the while, 'the' Alessandre has been keeping those cards very close to his chest."

"Is he really technically lying to me, though? I mean, if it's a top secret project the Night Elves don't want anyone to know about…"

"Turaho. Alessandre has been playing you. Big."

"Mey, you're the one who said you'd sell out the Horde to a Night Elf if you had the chance."

"I was joking, Turaho." She tried it, but I wouldn't buy it. I rolled my eyes at her instead, "Alright, well, mostly joking. It's Sylvanas and Saurfang and the war, everyone's at their wit's end with this." I had to give her that. I sometimes found myself saying terrible things about our faction these days, I was so frustrated, "But I'll tell you one thing, if I wanted to make a change for the better and hand Horde leadership off to someone else, I sure as hell wouldn't hand it off to that smug bastard Alessandre. You'd better watch yourself."

We rested for a moment longer. Sleeping with Meydiri again the previous night was hot. That girl was part Tauren, part bonfire. She crackled, she smoked. I was pretty good kindling, I think. Together, we burned alive.

"Actually, I hate to bring this up, Turaho, but your hooves need trimming. And when was the last time you polished your horns…"

Well, she was also an ex-girlfriend.

I chose to re-live the magical night while Mey fussed at me. I had chased her off the road, out into the wild. She let me catch her while we were alone in the hills, beneath the stars. Mey had always been a lot of fun, and so she didn't hold back when I carried her home, into my hut.

And Mey loved it. In fact, I think she made me take about ten years off. I also remembered that I got very grumpy at one point and had started to complain, likely the drinking and the running all the way up into the hills gave me some kind of old-man headache. But Mey hadn't cared about that. She only cared about me. And she said she was proud of me, too. Proud of how hard I worked, to finally become a Sunwalker. I could only believe her.

That one's a tip for the ladies out there—arouse the whole me, why don't you?

And here's one for the fellas. Never let a girl get away who cares about you like that. Who makes you feel real again.

Mey had quieted herself down. She'd become enamored with stroking the mussed hair on my head. I grinned and tugged around Mey's waist. But then she sat up again with a new idea. Timing. Darn.

"Turaho…"

"Yes, my little muffin?"

She eyed me. I never have called her that or anything close to it, and she wasn't one to let it slide.

"Don't laugh at me. I'm trying to get the hang of us again, I think."

"I won't laugh," and I noticed she dodged the 'us' part, "I want to stay on topic. Turaho, there is something I realized I should tell you. I do know a little more about this Alessandre guy. If I held it back and it came up later… it's best that I just come clean."

"Oh?"

"My assignment with the Twilight Culists… I've learned things from them. I know what they know, who they fear. He's one of the people they're afraid of."

"Right. That whole spooky voice on Thunderbluff, bragging he was a man with many heads—"

"That's the thing, Al would never say that. He would never brag about how he took out one of our own. Well—here I am talking like I'm under cover again. One of their own." She bounced a bit when I stretched and shifted myself in the bed. Mey waited to see if I'd been paying attention. Sometimes, she made me feel like I was the pupil and she was some haughty, naughty schoolmistress… I cleared my throat, for her to go on. "Turaho, this Alessandre guy has had the worst luck. I'm sure his current wife used to be a Twilight Cultist. And years before that, maybe a thousand years before, he was involved with another woman who succumbed to their cult."

"Okay, talk about having a type. Whew!"

"He is a sworn enemy of the Twilight's Hammer. If there was a voice up on the bluff that you heard, bragging about having their powers, bragging about how he made a name for himself that way, it couldn't have been him. It shouldnt've been. It does not match Al, like at all. He hates everything to do with them. I mean, would you brag about, I dunno… sticking the knife in Magatha Grimtotem?"

"No." I didn't even have to think about it.

"I mean, we Tauren are glad that the Grimtotem threat has been ended here in Mulgore, we're relieved that Magatha's betrayal is over. But we have some level of abhorrence for the whole situation, some… sensitivity about it. It should have never happened, it almost makes us feel… It's hurt, it's shame. We wouldn't open that wound for the world to see and start laughing about it. We'd be happier to forget about it."

I nodded. Mey was good. She'd translated her thoughts, and the culture of the Twilight Hammer's Cult pretty well. Mey was an excellent infiltrator. She could play up the big, dumb and angry Tauren bit to anyone who might fall for that. But then, next thing you know, she's facing someone like Baine Bloodhoof, going over her mission, the minutae of what the enemy thought and felt, in granular detail.

"I adore you, you know." I had to look deep in those intelligent eyes.

Mey kissed me. "You sexy devil. Right in the middle of me giving you some life-saving advice, and you want to distract me. I was about to tell you what to do. I know the perfect solution to all of your problems with this case."

"Order me around all you like, then—"

"Turaho," she pushed in the middle of my chest, to get me to slow down. "This next part is serious. Are you listening to me?"

I wasn't, but I knew how to look it.

"I'm the expert. You clearly need me."

"Uh huh…"

"Take me with you, Turaho. I need to go to Silvermoon with you and see this through myself. You could use someone to watch your back. It's the only way to ensure the success of this mission."

I blinked, then I had to sigh and rub my eyes again, "Mey, we already did this. You cannot come with me to Silvermoon. End of. This is too important. I mean it did seem like a crap assignment at first, but now that I'm inside of the damned thing…"

"Well, if you had said 'too dangerous' I would have clocked you."

"And aren't you supposed to be finishing up with the Twilight's Hammer Cult? I thought you had one final run to go, but that was two years ago when we spoke of it last."

She turned from me. Oh, I'd hit a note.

And, of course, that meant we had to talk about it. I said this next thing gently, "Meydiri. How's your mission going?"

"Well, obviously, it isn't finished yet."

"…Okay."

"You're judging me."

"I'm not judging you, Mey. Not after last night, how could I ever find you wanting?"

She crossed her arms. Alright, here it comes…

"The Twilight Cultists are very, very hard to untangle in Thousands Needles. If I wanted your opinion, I would have asked for it."

"So you're still, uh, in the process of finishing things with them? Well, what the hell are they up to, now?"

"See? Judgement. And didn't I call it?"

"Mey, it's damned suspicious. I can't lie to you about that. What more can the Twilight Hammer cult possibly want from 'a passing Grimtotem trader' at this point?"

She huffed, crossed her arms again, tighter.

"Look, I'm worried! You've probably fatally compromised your own mission."

She got heated at me, right away, "Alright, I'm done! You don't want me to come to Silvermoon with you, fine. And it's because you want to chase around that Saturna Whiteblade, isn't it?"

Wait, was I really doing that? Like, deep inside and I didn't realize it? Woah. Well, if there was a mystery to solve between me and Queen Saturna, Mey would be the perfect one to get to the bottom of it. Either way, I made sure I gave Mey what I hoped was a very noble look.

"Fine, Turaho! I won't ask you a third time. Let's just get up, go bathe in the pond, and watch the sun rise like we always do. We can pretend we aren't actually horrible enemies."

"Mey, I'm sorry."

"You are not sorry. You aren't sorry about any arrogant thing you have ever said or done to me. You always thought that you were entitled, you put your so-called instincts above all else. Be insulting, ignore or belittle me, whatever—'Sorry Mey, I just had to say it, my instinct was killing me.' Like that's an excuse! And even when you struggled after your mom and Zoca, you refused to accept anyone else's help."

"That's low."

"No, it isn't. I did try to help you. I tried to be with you back then, but you kept pushing me away. Two world powers had to finally force salvation on you, Chief Baine and Queen Saturna. Your selfish stubbornness made you this—overblown, hot-shot Pathfinder, a crap boyfriend, and it's still with you, isn't it! Right now, it's making you a big-headed, asshole Paladin!" She shoved me. I let her, "I am not stuck working on a failed mission, Turaho. I do good work! Not everyone can have Chief Baine himself and the queen of the Elves swan down and offer me a… a friggin hand up."

"Sunwalker. I'm a Sunwalker now."

Mey turned on me. I shut my mouth this time. And yes, I guess I skipped over a lot of what she just said to piss her off. But it felt like she was being so ridiculous, flying off the handle. Was it really so horrible what I said about her mission? I thought I was trying to watch her back.

"Well? Are we doing this or not, Turaho! I'm trying not to just storm out this time."

I got my soap while she got her things.

Then, she twisted the knife, "And don't take forever with your morning pee either. We both know you're getting to be an old man!"

Yeah, I definitely let Mey go out there first.

I dragged my feet following Mey outside to the pond. I tidied a few things around the hut first, packed the last of my stuff for Silvermoon. All the things I intended to do after my charming guest had left.

But she wasn't charming anymore and she was seriously wearing out her welcome.

Worse, as predicted, my morning, um… peeing situation was taking longer than I had wanted it to, with her having made a big deal about it and all.

Hold on, there is a reason why I'm mentioning it.

"Psst!"

I swear, this asshole Night Elf…

"Cut that out!" I snarled at Alessandre. He'd barely waited for me to finish. At least that was smart of him. I wasn't above an ironic punishment for him sneaking up on me while peeing.

He stood from the bushes while his shadowmeld spell faded. For several blinks of the eye, it looked like the daylight and its sparkling reflection on the leaves was simply melting off of him. Alessandre checked over his shoulder for the other Tauren, and then crept close while Mey wasn't in sight. She shouldn't have been. I heard her splashing around in my pond. Sun was nearly risen by then. Guess I was going to have to miss that, too.

I fixed myself up, "Look, before you say anything—I have a lady out there. A very feisty, yet beloved friend who I will gut you for bothering if you raise your voice or so much as step anywhere outside of these bushes where she can see and hear us. Got it?"

Alessandre gave me a solemn nod.

I finished tying off the drawstring of my pants. "It's just as well you're here, I guess. I have a bone to pick with you before I leave Mulgore, you liar."

"Turaho, I came to tell you that your life is in danger."

"Haha! This is rich. You really are good, I'll give you that. I finally figure you out, but then you turn the heat way up so that I can't even question it. And then! You're the trained killer, you're the assassin, stalking me for a second time—and you're the one warning me about danger?"

"Listen, there isn't much time—"

"No, I ask the questions. Because you really are on my land this time, and I am tired of you messing with me. Tell me, where the hell does a Night Elf get off using Twilight Cultist tricks to scare someone? And if you wanted to collaborate with me yesterday, then why did you waste time and energy with that stupid stunt?"

"What." he looked incredulous, "That wasn't a stunt."

"So you're going to keep carrying on, pretending that you were the one?"

"Alright, calm down. It actually sounds like we're on the same wavelength here…"

"How dare you. Don't you patronize me, Night Elf, when you were the one—"

Alessandre raised his black gloved hands in surrender, "Are you seriously gearing up to blame me for pretending to scare you with that Twlight Cultist bull-crap in Thunderbluff? Wouldn't it make more sense if I were coming to tell you that I didn't do it, and that I know who did?"

I got lost trying to think through that, "But you knew about it! That means you were there."

"I'm everywhere." Yes, he said it and I had a bad reaction to it because it sounded so awful and conceited. And I was beginning to sense how Mey felt whenever I decided to be a smart mouth. Al let out a frustrated breath, "I'm trying to say that it's my job. I sneak around. Of course I know about that voice."

I shook my head at him.

Al let his shoulders drop, "I make you nervous, so you're standing here trying to outwit me. It's making you over-think everything, Turaho."

Al then arched a deep blue eyebrow at me, "You're quick. But you do need to trust yourself more. You're nearly there." He pinched fingers together in the air, "Just barely. Looks like if I try to tell you again, you won't believe me. So, go ahead. Work it out for yourself."

It took a moment, "So you were not responsible for that voice, in any way? Not you, not one of your miffed agents from Ashenvale? Well, then it's like Mey said. I guess it couldn't have been a Night Elf. That Twilight Cult stuff just too close to home for you guys." Then, I decided to try tossing him some bait, "…You especially."

Alessandre smirked, somehow missing that. "The voice freaked me out too, actually. It made me wait and re-assess before following you into the plains yesterday. Or else, I would have stopped you to talk before you made it to the Venture Co. mines."

I tilted my head, and my horns, thinking about that. We Tauren can't avoid looking that way sometimes. I've heard other races describe it as…. cute.

And I think that, sometimes, when he could get away with it, Alessandre smiled at me. I looked up again, and his face looked like it had just freshly become stone-serious.

I told him, "Alright, I get it. That threat was meant for you, not me."

"Good, Turaho. Though, I disagree about being the only one in danger. If you can work through who really did it, then it'll be obvious to you that threat was meant for both of us, actually."

"He's not… Kael'thas is not some god. He's all the way across the Great Sea! He's in his castle, in Silvermoon."

"Wrong. Kael'thas is a mage. That means he can be here, or over there." Alessandre shrugged, glanced over his shoulder. The pond was a little quiet, I noticed it too. And a nagging ex-girlfriend would have shouted at me by now, but I didn't dare take my eyes off of him. "…Or be anywhere else Kael'thas likes to be." Then, his eyes met mine, he was reading me, "Hrm…"

"What?"

"I see—it's a matter of you not understanding his powers."

"Last warning. Don't talk down to me, Night Elf."

"It's not an insult."

Funny, half of what he said to me felt insulting. Even the way he stood, so carefully, so neatly put together in his expensive rogue clothing I could never afford… or fit.

Well, okay, I'll admit most of the hatred was coming from my issues. But at least I can admit to having flaws!

Alessandre proceeded to give me another lesson I did not ask for, "A Bloodmage has control over every school of magic… except for the Light. I suppose, though, he has Saturna for that. A lot of people forget that Kael'thas was a prodigy, still is. He didn't go away to Outland and stay there because he had no other choice. He figured out how to bend things there to his will. No sovereign power to slap his wrists, the region was totally vulnerable… Outland became a giant sandbox for him, a place to experiment and manipulate with no one to stop him. Many just get stuck on Kael'thas' bad reputation, how he hurt people. And yes, he did. However, there was also always an academic side to it. This man has the brain of a brilliant Gnome and the ruthlessness of a Nightsaber."

"You sound like you admire him. And Night Elves claim to be so different from the sin'dorei."

Alessandre set his teeth. He wanted to be insulting, but his problem was, he also insisted that he was some gentleman. "I respect what Kael'thas can do. If a conflagration is blocking the road home, I can't get huffy and claim that fire doesn't burn, just keep on going anyway, can I? So you don't go thinking like that, either."

I let him have that point.

Alessandre looked around anxiously again. He was being very nice about me wasting his time, I realized. So, he really did need me, or so he thought. What was making him so desperate all of a sudden?

Alessandre leaned in, "Kael'thas was also once a member of the Kirin'Tor. Those guys don't just sit in libraries, writing up reports. Think Khadgar and Jaina Proudmoore. These mages are out in the world, making and breaking the realm of possibility itself. I don't think Kael'thas is actually the type to sit at home while all this is going on and he's being targeted. Especially not with his wife out here in Mulgore, alone. And then, he saw Baine with Saturna through her scrying orb—of course Kael'thas came here." Alessandre's leather glove tightened, when he squeezed the hilt of his rapier. A sound that made me nervous, again, until I realized that it meant Alessandre was worried, too. It was, in fact, his little nervous habit, "Kaelt'has was here, Turaho. I don't know how he did it, but he was standing in the space between us, up on the middle rise of Thunderbluff. Standing right where that drunk was. He either stealthed in some way, or he used a rapid blink spell that made him move faster than we could see. But he was the one who conjured a spell through that man, some kind of curse of tongues or… I don't know. But Kael'thas was the one. He exposed me."

"Why didn't he light you on fire then, for the whole of Thunderbluff to see?"

Alessandre didn't like that. He refused to respond.

I thought it over, "Well, maybe that would have slowed Kael'thas down, a showy fire spell. Maybe that's the other reason he did it. How did he know about your history with them?"

"Are you asking that just because you didn't already know about me? Turaho, I'm popular."

Jerk.

Then Alessandre looked bored, "Anyway, the more obvious reason being that Saturna would have known he was meddling in her work. An obvious fire spell would have got him into big trouble with his wife."

"They're working together."

"Funny. Kael'thas and Saturna don't seem like they're together." He smiled at his genius.

"You think they had a fight? I mean, more than just the Baine thing. Something big enough for them to lose their heads and slip up with Thalassian security."

Alessandre stopped short of twirling a slip of his dark hair. He gripped it, let it go. Probably years of training himself out of a particularly vain male Elf habit. "Looks like I gave Saturna more credit than you did. Turaho, I know that you're lusting after her, but I don't think Saturna throws herself at every man possible. That's an upset wife if I've ever seen one. She's simply pissed at her husband."

"Your evidence?"

"Life…" then Alessandre sighed at himself, no doubt realizing he had to finish his sentence, "Life experience."

"Ah. So you have problems, too. You're not perfect, either. Especially with women. Elf women!" I pointed, accusatory.

"No, I'm just married."

How did he manage to make me feel small, again, with half a breath? Was it so obvious I was a pathetic bachelor? Scraping around for scraps, relieved for crumbs with my ex? Well, the way I was still bummed about Mey while also poking around Saturna and moping that nothing was happening, that probably gave the game away.

"So, now we finally arrive at my original point. Kael'thas is hunting both of us. Let me escort you, and your Grimtotem friend—"

"She's not a Grimtotem."

"Oh, excuse me. Then I guess she's a Twilight Cultist after all."

"Good gods are you not helping your cause! No, you cannot 'walk us back to Thunderbluff for our safety.' That's as flimsy as they come anyway!"

"Turaho, there will be times during this mission when you find you need to collaborate with your enemy. Or, whoever you think is your enemy. Don't turn down my help so easily. Slow down and think. Could you ever forgive yourself if anything happened to Meydiri? Just because you turned down walking closeby a Night Elf that got on your nerves."

"And now, you're using her to get your way."

"Kael'thas has been denied blood for three days now, since Saturna arrived. He is like an addict and he's furious. He is craving a kill."

"Is he a San'layn? Heh, the way you describe him…"

Alessandre wasn't laughing. "I will ask you one last time. Let's all walk together, back to Thunderbluff. Let me get close to you guys and trail you. I can make my way from there. Don't you at least want to keep your options open? Once you get to Silvermoon, once you see what he's capable of, how sinister and cruel Kael'thas truly is… you may beg for the assistance of someone with the power and the connections to end his miserable existence." He gave me a hard look, "I would keep me in your good books, if I were you."

I squinted an eye at Alessandre, "You go between mentoring me and threatening me."

"I'll do whatever it takes."

"I think I'm done talking to you."

"Fine." He tugged his leather vest to straighten it, "As long as you understand that I'm not through with you, yet. If you live." He waited, I didn't bite. He waited even longer, I let him feel that his best efforts were worthless on me. At last, resigned, "…See you in Silvermoon."

"Is that a threat? Keep messing with me and I'll tell Saturna that you're following me around."

"Do that and I'll turn on you, fast. You may be fun, but you're expendable, Turaho. I already told you, I need to get close to Kael'thas. I'd like to get that bonus during the holiday, but I've already waited a few years to get Kael'thas. I can wait a little longer. Malfurion is pretty patient, too." Then he lightened up. Felt like it came out of nowhere, "Fair is fair. I can be the better man. I see you made your choice."

I considered pointing out that Al was probably lying about the Kael'thas assassination, too. I could have easily brought up the Teldrassil thing as well. But I'd be showing him all of my cards then, and I might still need them. Instead, I scowled at him.

"Come on, cheer up." Alessandre smiled and managed to reach in and give my shoulder a friendly pat before I could react. He sure changed his tune quick, he was all over the place. "You know, I'm actually very good company. We'll even go fishing, sometime. There's great salt-water fishing on Quel'Danas Isle."

As in… near the Sunwell? A Night Elf rogue fishing and taking a nap near the Sunwell, just like he did at my initiation, right across from Stonebull Lake? It was enough to make me see red. How did he think the Blood Elves would take it, him swanning around near their Sunwell? Was he insane?!

Alessandre must have read that in my eyes. He reassured me, "If I had the balls to kill a man in broad daylight, but not enough confidence to go fishing near the Sunwell—I'd be a pretty weird guy, Turaho."

I huffed a laugh. When I looked up, he was gone.

Well, I'll give Al one point for that. He was a pretty amusing guy.

Wait… why am I calling him Al? When did that start?

It occurred to me that two people so far had begged me to take them along. First, Mey wanted to go to Silvermoon when her work was actually in Thousand Needles, and I couldn't have been that great of a traveling companion, being her ex. And next, Alessandre was desperate (I had to assume he was, when he changed his tactics lightning fast) to just walk half a mile with me over to Thunderbluff. They were like kids begging to go the Darkmoon Faire, geez.

What had gotten into those two? Ever get the feeling that there's this… giant rogue underworld thing where stuff comes up that everyone else knows about and then make their dark decisions each morning, over their coffee with no sugar or cream, base their whole day around the sinister goings-on that don't involve mere mortals like you and me? For us, when a bunch of SI:7 agents suddenly bust out of ground, like from beneath Dazar'alor for instance, it feels like someone went upside our heads out of nowhere with a two-by-four! But they're checking their watches and are all like, 'Hrmph. Five minutes late for an invasion. The SI: 7 isn't what it used to be.'

Friggin rogues.

I was a Pathfinder, never anything like a rogue. So the whole thing about Greatfather Winter being over in Darnassus in the first place to heal Teldrassil—that was really hard to wrap my brain around. But Mey acted like it was as normal as the sun shining. And Alessandre's presence in Mulgore practically cinched that intel. He was a high-ranking Night Elf spy—perhaps the highest-ranking one in existence—and he was investigating the disappearance of what I always thought was just a jolly Dwarf in a holiday suit.

I'd misjudged about one of them, possibly. Something was going on that both Mey and Alessandre knew about. Neither one was going to tell me.

When I stepped out from behind the bushes, Mey was standing right there.

"Well, you took your sweet time. I thought about screaming at you to hurry up, but what if it was a number two?"

"Mey, I love you, but you are driving me crazy and that wasn't funny."

"What did I say? It's all true, hahaha!"

Her and her cute evil laughter.

We did our thing. We enjoyed the sun, though it had been up forever. We lathered up in the pond, we rinsed and repeated at leisure. However, I kept getting distracted from the beautiful Tauren lady with the curves, temper and deep brown eyes.

I find danger a lot sexier. Guess that's my problem, pure and simple.

I finally just let it out, "Mey, you need to speak with Chief Baine. I know you two fell out, but you are obviously in some kind of trouble with the culitsts out in Thousand Needles and he will see you again, I know it, if you let me do the talking. There is a reason why we—why the Pathfinders have to keep a good relationship with the chief. If you can't communicate with the leader of our people, then he can't provide the people you need to help you out of a fix. That was our training. You don't get to advance so high up the ranks that it's no longer a requirement."

She held onto me while we floated together, "You said you loved me, before."

Fun game. I pulled the same thing on her back in the hut, when I chose to focus on her getting the 'Paladin' thing wrong, above all the other fun stuff she mentioned.

"Because I do love you, Mey. It just keeps not… working out between us. Please let me at least protect you."

The irony was almost painful. Protection. That was what Alessandre had wanted. And wasn't that what Kael'thas was trying to give his own wife, regardless of how Alessandre tried to paint the King of the Blood Elves, as some bloodsucker? Good grain! I didn't even know whose side I was on anymore.

"…Okay."

"You sure?"

"I don't even think Baine wants me to get past the guards without being questioned, though. There's a reason I showed up at your party after dark."

"Damn, girl! What kind of trouble have you been getting yourself into?"

"Whatever I might have to say to Baine, it would be for his chiefy ears alone, not for anyone else. That's what I meant."

I somehow doubted that, but she did have a right to handle it her way. It was her life on the line, her mission, her contacts.

"Just…" she sighed, "Get me past the Bluffwatchers and I'll do my good girl thing." She drew a cross over her heart with a finger, "Pathfinder's honor."

We finished rinsing off, then climbed out of the water, dried, dressed ourselves. I picked up my large knapsack. Mey insisted on carrying something.

I wasn't having it, "At least one of us should have their hands free to defend us."

She was sharp, "From what? What's happened?"

"Defend us from anything else stupid that might happen on the plain. Harpies, prarie stalkers, you know the drill."

"Turaho, I know you're hiding something."

"Here, you take my gun. Look at that—you get to dual-wield guns, you look like a real hot chick."

Mey wasn't amused by it. Her eyes kept following me as I picked up the last of my things.

Then, she whispered, "…Think he's gone?"

"Who?"

"Let's just be upfront about this. What did the Night Elf say to you? I knew he was there. I just didn't want to get in the way."

"Did you eavesdrop?"

"A little. I guess that's what I'm admitting to now, yeah."

Maybe I should have reacted in some way to her admission. I didn't, "Mey, do you think I'm being stupid for saying no to him? He wanted to help. He was truly scared, I could tell by the end."

"He really is in the Alliance, Turaho. We're Horde."

Somehow, though, I was beginning to think life wasn't so simple as that. Don't get me wrong, it used to be. It really did use to be, for me.

"Look, Turaho. Kael'thas hasn't done anything yet because he can't. He won't do anything to that… Alessandre or to us while we're all here in Mulgore. Don't worry. I'm sure the Night Elf rogue will just crawl back under the rock he came from. Slither back under the earth and into Ashenvale. He has his own backup plans, of course. He didn't need you. He was just trying to play you, like you said."

"Yeah, it didn't feel right."

"And what kind of friend uses you as a meat shield anyway?"

Well, we would have been using one another, but that wasn't the point. She and I needed to get on with our day. Especially when Alessandre might have been sticking around, listening.

The Great Plain was sunny, clear, perfect. No sign of menacing Elves or that snowstorm on the day Greatfather Winter disappeared. It was cold, but not by much. I wanted to hold Mey's hand, but she already her hands full with my gun.

Well, I didn't mean it that way, but a hot Tauren lady with a gun has always been one of my best turn ons. And now she was carrying two.

I smiled at her again. She was rare, she was wonderfully frustrating. She was so close to being mine. So how long were we really going to do this dance together? I cursed the fact that I was going off to Silvermoon so soon. What she and I always needed was some solid time together. A real, honest talk. Now we were being robbed of that. No, the Blood Elves were robbing me of that. And I was just taking it like a mug.

Another thing, wasn't I supposed to be a new man? I was now a Sunwalker, capable of saving lives, souls. So I couldn't even fix the one thing in my life that I cared about the most? How could I keep lying to myself about Mey? Mom was gone, Zoca was gone... Mey was still here.

"You know, when I get back, Mey…" I lost my courage for a second. Then the immediacy of the situation, the danger in the air, the deceptiveness of a perfect day that could go wrong any moment, that finally pushed me. "We should set a date. I'll come back with a ring. I'll leave you to think about it while I'm gone."

"What? Did you just—" She began laughing, but it was in a good way. I smiled with relief.

"I would marry you in a shot." She smiled so beautifully, I could have fallen over. "But we would be fighting all the time."

"We'd have a better reason than ever to make up. And stay made up."

"Marriage doesn't fix everything, Turaho."

"You're mine." I closed in. "Mission or no mission. Silvermoon, Thousand Needles or not. I say we're doing this."

"Are you ordering me to marry you? Should I say yes to your… masterful command?"

"Yes."

"I'd be a bad wife. A very, very bad wife."

"Who enjoys getting her spankings."

We stopped walking. I realized May was waiting to be kissed.

Everything melted away. It was raunchy and yet heartfelt. Just what I like. Perfect.

And then it was blazing.

"What is going on?" Mey parted from me, looked to our right.

A grove of trees in the plain were on fire. And that isn't even putting it well enough… they could have been doused with a Goblin oil drum. I clenched my teeth, imagining those trees screaming for their lives. The blaze got loud and angry, it spiraled up high above the foothills we had just come from. The Bluffwatchers would have been able to see it from where they were.

And fire usually catches, on a twig, a leaf, then climbs up, hand over hand, tendril over tendril. That patch of earth was… soaked, is the best way I can put it. Just smothering with flame and smoke. The air around was getting hazy, it was so hot. I could barely see through to the actual problem. I'd never seen anything in the countryside burn in this way.

What the hell had done something like that?

Then the sun flashed in my eyes. Meydiri bumped into my satchel from behind, she was making us stand back-to-back, an old Pathfinder strategy. Then I barely heard her cock my shotgun. She had hooves spread and both guns out, sneering. Her excited tail swiped mine. Someone was there, right ontop of us.

I dropped the bags in my hands and reached for the mace at my belt. I felt worse than useless. All that sudden sunlight, we were soaked in it. So much light was a typical move similar to a rogue's smokebomb. My heart raced when I realized how ripe for it we both were. We'd stopped ourselves in the middle of the danger zone, we were completely distracted. Something had already attacked, that was what had destroyed the tree and we were next. Worse, Mey and I had decided to stand there and fight a powerful unknown, instead of going for cover. The final moments of a lot of dead Horde soldiers read like that. Even the best eventually got tested.

I saw the enemy before I understood how terrible he truly was. A translucent face, moving through light and time and space, at the speed of magic. Green eyes, no emotion. A passive death mask. He looked at me. No, Kael'thas mostly noticed me. In the fast heat of the battle, I was only seeing, barely able to believe or think it through all the way. I was looking right at Kael'thas Sunstrider himself through a mage's blink spell that was so fast and powerful that it popped my ears. And he was ignited in a way that terrified me. Living beings just weren't supposed to be able to do that to themselves. But he had done it. Kael'thas was a pure shard of the sun in that moment. His magic singed the hair on my knuckles. Instinctively, I raised my hands to defend myself. But raw fear of flame ran through me instead. I dropped my mace and recoiled.

I looked down to see if I was burning. I looked up again, I supposed, to feel myself or Meydiri be struck down next and killed.

He was gone.

All that in one flash of sun. So that's how he'd cloaked himself. That was how Kael'thas had sneaked all around Mulgore. I grabbed hold of Meydiri. She was alright, but startled like I was.

"Look! Over there!" She shouted at me.

I tried to see through the hazy heat, to the burning trees. Smoke had wafted up in a mushroom plume. But close to the ground, among the red-orange blaze, was the shape of a man struggling forward, step after step. It was hard for the eyes to focus on him alone, because he was on fire and there was so much flame. The man was shouting in the way I had only heard Night Elf men cry out, in the heat of fighting. When gored, when maimed. It was Alessandre.

Kael'thas had finally got him, in the worst possible way.