Chapter 17
"No… is that blood.." I shivered as I dropped the fabric on the ground. My heart was in my stomach, I looked on the ground to see more dried blood. I ran my hands over the patch of grass, it felt like dried ink on a paper. Then I felt something ruff like rock. I picked it up and examined it, it was of medium size with a dark red patch.
"He must have smacked his head," I told myself when I found small blonde hairs weaved into the cracks of the rock. I picked up the small piece of fabric and the dagger along with the poison I found,
"Ari, come we have to take this back," I spoke as I walked down the small path that followed the path away from the Horde camp. I followed the path back to the Pearl Village to find Manlan and Admiral Taylor.
"How did this happen, what happened?" I questioned myself as I walked down the path until I saw Jinyu soldiers walking around the pond,
"I'll just follow them until they get into the village," I thought as I turned to follow them. Ari walked by my side as I walked down the path until the soldiers stopped to turn around and started to walk the way they came. I stopped as they walked past me, one of them softly brushed my shoulder as he passed. I continued to walk into the village finding manlan looking pretty beat up,
"Manlan are you okay?!" I questioned as I ran up to the small group that he was in,
"Yeah I'm fine, really there are just scratches, really I'm fine," Manlan said, trying to reassure me. I start talk to Manlan on how he needs to be more careful when I feel Ari nudge my hip,
"Oh thank you Ari, found something you might want to see," I said
"Okay what is it?" Manlan questioned as I pulled the rock, piece of fabric, vile of poison, and the dagger out of my pocket as handed them to Manlan,
"Where did you find these," Manaln questioned
"There is a horde camp just a half mile outside of the Village. They looked like they left in a hurry," I stated
"All of there stuff is there," Manlan spoke as he looked at the fabric
"Yes, boxes of weapons some food and places to sleep," I answered
"Any signs of them coming back?" said Manlan
"Doesn't look like it, whatever scared them off is probably still there," I said
"Did you see what scared them off?" questioned manlan
"No," I stated
"Do you think they had Anduin there?"Manlan questioned
"Yes, it's the same fabric of the tabard he was wearing," I told
"And it's covered in blood," Manlan disclosed
"Yes," I confirmed my voice barely a whisper
"Thank you, I'll talk to Talyor" Manlan said as he stood up. I waited for him to come back, I could feel my thoughts start to cloud the logic and reason in my mind. I grasped at my dresses skirt trying to keep myself together,
"How did they find him before we did, how… He .. he'll be okay.. Right.. What… what if his," My mind raced as my thoughts only getting louder and louder on the possibilities on what happened,
"Ava… Ava," a voice squeaked
"Uh?" I looked up to see Cooperfire standing on his toes to lightly hold my arm
"It's okay, he has to be alive, right, the Horde can't kill him now. Especially if they are trying to get orders of what to do with him," Cooperfire spoke, trying to calm me down, all I could softly nod my head in agreement,
"Hey, your sword," Copperfire prompted
"What about it?" I asked
"Here, Manlan and I managed to get it out of the tree" Copperfire
"Oh, thanks," I thanked Cooperfire as I took the hilt from him
"It was tangled really bad in a few branches" Cooperfire stated
"It was?" I asked as I wondered how the sword got up there in the first place. Then my mind wandered back to the large bird that gave me the logbook from the shipwreck. I remembered how the bird looked. Large in size, black feathers, it had a sharp black beak like a ravens, and its claws were silver and long. The bird was quite at least with normal ravens you could hear them fly but with this one was quite like an owl. It just appeared and disappeared like magic. I didn't even hear the vase that it was sitting on move or wobble. I didn't recognize it at first, it just looked like a large raven. But remembering the bird, its feathers had a slight pearlescent shine,
"I believe the Lorewalker I mentioned earlier could help you in finding this white pawn you are looking for" Karasshi informed
"A Lorewalker?" Cooperfire questioned
"Yes, He is just a few miles that way, he will help you," Karasshi spoke as he pointed at the edge of the village
"Thank you, we will look for him," Manlan thanked as he walked up to us while stuffing something in his pocket,
"Lets go get our stuff and head that direction. It's probably going to quiet the ride" Manlan ordered as he walked over to where his bag was placed. I followed Manlan to grab my bag. As I picked it up I heard a clashing of mental pieces,
"Ava, here this is for Ari" Manalan said as he shuffled his way up to me holding a whistle
"Okay, why do I need a whistle? And why is it so big?" I questioned as Manlan handed the small but long piece of metal. The whistle was a well polished steel. It was quite large for a normal emergency whistle. But when I looked closer it had carvings I could not quite make out, they were in a language I couldn't understand.
"It's a Hunters whistle, some people use them to hold the animals they ride,"
"And… why are you giving me this?" I questioned
"Just in case we get somewhere where they don't let you have Ari, this is something to store him in and it helps you keep him close," Manlan explained
"Umm, I don't think he will fit in this," I stated confused on how a whistle could hold an animal,
"Right, you did go through the training on how to use it. It's a magical artifact the whistle is blessed to hold the animal it's signed to. I'll teach you on how to assign it and on how to use it," Manlan informed
"I'm confused on how this is going to contain Ari?" I asked further
"How do I explain this… hold on" Manaln said as he placed his bag on the ground and stuffed his hand in his shirt. After shifting around in his shirt he pulls out a whistle that is connected to a silver chain with bright white feathers and has some beads strung on the chain as well. He handed me the whistle to look at, the whistle was made of what looked like moonsteel. The feathers had a soft shine to them; they weren't too long. The color was of a deep gray and the beads where a navy blue,
"Feathers are pretty, is this for your owl?" I asked as I turned the whistle in my hand to look more closely at the engravings.
"Sea wing? Yes, this his whistle and my hypograph has one of his own," Manlan informed as I watched the sunlight shine over the engravings in the steel.
