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World of Warcraft and its species belong to Blizzard. The characters of Jayden Andereon, Alanea Sharphoof, Kirima Skychaser, and Ashton Arbury belong to me.", "writing": "Nighthaven inn was quiet tonight. The inn had few patrons present, a few locals plus Kirima Skychaser herself, sitting at a table alone. She sipped down a mug of moonberry juice as she tried to keep awake. Ever since her encounter with the worgen named Andereon, she couldn't get much sleep without being awoken shortly after by nightmares. The only peace she was able to really get was here in the Moonglade, but even then true rest was fleeting given everything going through her mind.\n\nShe hadn't known him for long. When she volunteered to help stop the Burning Legion invasions, she had served under him and answered to him personally. They were only a team for a few weeks, but she thought she had earned his trust as a comrade. He was a fierce fighter, proof of his time as a member of the Gilnean Army, and while she was a hero in her own right after everything in the Broken Isles and becoming the Huntmaster, taking the fight to the Legion directly in the Broken Shore, all the way to Argus itself...a part of her felt that maybe it should have been him. Or at the very least, that he should have been there with her.\n\nHer mind was trailing now. She knew, but she couldn't help it. It had been one of the things always on her mind since seeing him again, the state he was in. What could have been. Should have been. She hoped Arbury would be able to at least help clear her mind. Now that the Legion had been routed, maybe the warlocks learned something that could help control fel \"infection\". That is, if their resources weren't being used for this new conflict.\n\nThat poor tauren too. A young, aspiring druid taken against her will, innocence stolen, freedom lost...she ran a hand through her hair. What was he doing to Alanea, even now? Was she even still alive? She had checked with the girl's family in Thunder Bluff, and they assumed she was training, though the conflict with the Alliance was making them worried. Maybe it would have been better for her if it was the Alliance making her unable to reach out to them.\n\nShe heard a stool pull away slightly from the table, and looked up from her ever-emptying cup. Sitting down next to her was a human with blonde hair and green eyes and fair skin, wearing black robes with red accents, with a hood that was pulled back. A warlock.\n\n\"Ashton,\" Kirima acknowledged quietly.\n\n\"Huntmaster,\" the warlock said.\n\nShe frowned. \"...I'm not the Huntmaster anymore. The Unseen Path has practically gone their separate ways; my authority means nothing anymore.\"\n\n\"Really?\" Ashton chuckled. \"That's not like you to just give up like that. But given you're here and not on the islands, I guess all that bravado during the Broken Isles was all for show, huh? Ran away and all that?\"\n\nKirima winced. Was that what she did? Even if the Unseen Path had broken up for the most part, she still considered those she had grown to know during the whole Burning Legion mess as her friends and comrades. The Horde had called for her and other heroes to join them in the South Seas, but she had been using what happened the month before as an excuse to hide away, laying low in Mulgore and Moonglade, trying to recover mentally. Running away...\n\n\"...Yeah. I ran away,\" Kirima replied with a sigh. \"I can't turn my bow against people I fought alongside in the Broken Isles, on Argus. You were there, Ashton. There was a unity there that...that...\"\n\n\"Was tenuous at best,\" Ashton replied. The innkeeper, a night elf with green hair, brought him a drink, a cup of melon juice, and Ashton handed him five silver coins. He took a deep pull of the juice as the innkeeper walked away. \"That alliance was always just temporary. A new king, a new Warchief? There was going to be something that broke the camel's back. It just so happened that Sargeras gave them the excuse to fight. I mean, I wouldn't have torched an entire tree, but...\" He waved a hand dismissively.\n\n\"And you?\" Kirima asked, looking up at him. She was taller than him, but had been staring down at her cup the entire time up until now. \"Are you going to be fighting for the Alliance?\"\n\n\"Well, I'm working for Stormwind. Don't really have a choice in the matter, you know? I leave for Kul Tiras next week. King Greymane's made his way there with several ships already and apparently there's a lot of issues the Kul Tierans are dealing with.\"\n\nKirima sighed again. \"So you can't help much.\"\n\n\"Well, I knew I was going to be called away so I packed everything I needed in advance.\" He gave her a slight smirk. \"So I can spend a couple of days listening to you before taking a flight back to Stormwind.\" He took another swing of his juice. \"So, tell me. Your letter wasn't that specific. I'm interested in the part where he enslaved a druid. And hiding out in [i]Duskwood[/i]?\"\n\nKirima interlaced her fingers, looking down again at her mug, and nodded. \"Yeah. I was still lying low after Teldrassil was sacked and Lordaeron fell. I took a job escorting a trade caravan, and we got ambushed by a pack of worgen. I was on the ground before I could fire an arrow, there was a lot of pain, the whole group was overwhelmed...we thought the path was safe, but I assume the Horde's movements and what happened in Lordaeron around the land stirred up the worgen or something. They dragged me back to their den and...\"\n\nShe trailed off, casting an aside glance at Ashton. Ashton's expression hardened and he nodded back. \"So what happened?\"\n\n\"Turns out they also ambushed another tauren, the druid I mentioned, Alanea...Sharphoof, I think her name was. Jayden's her master, she said. Put that collar you made on her. Once the worgen were done with us, we tried to escape; it went bad, but he found us, took on the pack, killed the leader and scattered them all.\"\n\n\"And how is our old Gilnean wardog?\"\n\nKirima looked at her reflection in the moonberry juice and shook her head. \"Bad. The fel corruption in him spread a bit more since the last I saw him. One of his eyes is green now, and when he gets enraged the veins on one side of his head glow green with the fel energy. And he took a slave, Ashton. She was a druid of the Cenarion Circle, and she's been 'missing' for around two months now. Her parents are going to start wondering where she is soon. He's probably been torturing her all this time, forcing himself upon her, 'training' her...if she's even still alive, she's either been broken or turned mindless from the pain and misery.\"\n\nAshton nodded. Kirima knew he was thinking it over by the way he traced a finger around the rim of his mug; he always did that when he was contemplating. Worlocks had a slightly skewed sense of morality given they dabbled in the fel magic; he was the creator of the collar Alanea had been wearing, after all. But he had to see that this was too far, clearly. Right?\n\n\"So what's your plan?\" he finally asked after a full minute of silence. \"Go down there, challenge him, see what happens when a bow and arrow have to fight against a sword and shield, or two swords at once?\"\n\n\"I'd rather not kill him, no. I was hoping you would have found something while we were on Argus while working with the Council of the Black Harvest.\"\n\nAshton crossed his arms and took a deep breath. \"Well...I'll admit, I was worried for our friend after he vanished. Before the Legionfall went to Argus, I took some time to check the archives our order collected over the years. But there's nothing really that we can do. Perhaps use arcane magic to reverse the effect, but it might just outright kill him instead. The reason for the infusion is something I'm still unsure about. My theory is that the fel energy infused with incoming healing magic from a druid during the attack, and turned the healing into some infernal, corrupted version that still healed him. That, or the demon was trying to deliberately corrupt whoever it hit.\" He shrugged.\n\n\"That doesn't really help us fix him.\"\n\nAshtron leaned in, putting a hand on her back softly. His voice lowered, gentle but dark. \"You know he's becoming a monster. Fel corruption eats away at your soul. It's a slow process, but he's going to turn into a soulless husk sooner or later, as more and more fel flows into him via his soul getting devoured.\"\n\n\"I've seen a lot of things during my time on the Broken Isles,\" Kirima replied, hands balling into fists. \"Anything's possible.\"\n\nAshton took a deep breath and stood up. He began to rummage through the pack he had places beside the stool. \"There's another theory I had been thinking of, but you're not going to like it because it might force you to get involved in what's happening on the islands.\"\n\nKirima grit her teeth. She didn't want to fight, not in this conflict. Not against the Alliance. If she had to get involved, maybe she could without needing to kill any hunter on the Alliance side. But that meant leaving Alanea to Jayden's \"mercy\". She couldn't do that! But if she tried to stop him...\n\nAshton slapped down a piece of parchment onto the table. \"Do you know what Azerite is?\" he asked.\n\nKirima blinked as she looked at the parchment, shifting in her seat and tilting her head to get a proper look. It was a research sheet of sorts, talking about the material Azerite, a blue-and-gold colored liquid or solid that came from Azeroth, exposed after Sargeras plunged his sword into the planet. The blood of Azeroth, the paper called it. She knew that it was the reason the Alliance and Horde were interested in the site where the sword now rested, and was likely part of the reason why Warchief Windrunner sacked Teldrassil. Supposedly it had amazing qualities as a material, and rejuvenated anyone who consumed or even simply touched its liquid form.\n\nThe one thing that stood out to her, however, was the word that Ashton seemed to have underlined himself. \"Arcane\". Azerite was arcane in nature. Arcane was the opposite of fel. Not exactly a neutralizer, but nobody could be skilled in both.\n\nAshton followed her gaze and nodded once he saw what she was looking at. \"Yep. I think if we managed to get a bit of Azerite in or on him, it might fix him. Of course, Azerite isn't exactly easy to get. Both sides are keeping a close eye on their supply, so I can't exactly smuggle some out of of the mage hall. Even you wouldn't be able to just walk into Orgimmar and come out with a shard of it. Knowing how ruthless your new Warchief is, she'll have you going missing and then...\" another wave of the hand.\n\n\"So...what, we we have to go to the South Sea?\" Kirima asked.\n\n\"That's where a large amount of Azerite is, enough that some could go missing without anyone noticing. You could also try Kul Tiras. Though, considering you're Horde...\"\n\nKirima nodded slowly. \"Right.\"\n\nThere was a minute of silence. Kirima's mind was racing. So she had to go to the South Seas and secure some Azerite? And then maybe she could treat Jayden, fix him...\n\nAshton finished his melon juice, almost slamming the mug down on the table. \"What is it, Kirima?\" he suddenly asked. \"Why?\"\n\n\"H-huh?\" Kirima leaned back away from him, surprised by the sudden outburst.\n\n\"What is it? Why do you care so much? He's Alliance...well, he considers himself Gilnean more than Alliance...[i]considered[/i]. Either way, he's not Horde. Why feel so guilty over him? Is it because of the druid? Survivor's guilt?\"\n\n\"...Survivor's guilt?\"\n\n\"He took that blast of fel energy for you after Blackmane got injured behind the new enemy line. He slowly went mad and eventually abandoned his post, abandoning us, and according to you, he's slowly lost his mind. And he's going to eventually stop being himself. But it was a big blast. You wouldn't have survived it, right?\"\n\nIt was a large blast. It covered his body. Were it not for the shield...\n\n\"I don't know if it would have killed me, but it would have ruined my life,\" Kirima guessed.\n\n\"So he got to go mad, and you...went to the Broken Isles, helped gather the Pillars of Creation, helped save Suramar, brought the Highmountain Tauren into the Horde, became the Huntmaster of the Unseen Path, became a part of the invasion force into Argus...only thing you didn't do, I think, was deal with Sargeras personally. You got to do all of that while he was slowly losing himself, so you say.\"\n\nKirima couldn't counter it. Survivor's guilt...was that it? Seeing him in that state, so angry, so...hateful, while she ended up successful, famous, a big figure that suddenly vanished after the War of Thorns. She couldn't help but feel like she didn't deserve her spot. It was something they both should have done...but if Jayden were more lucid, he would likely have called her stupid for thinking it, since she rightfully earned her status. But she couldn't help it.\n\nSurvivor's guilt...\n\n\"It's been...what, maybe two years since the Burning Legion began its invasions until now? For all I know, maybe the theory of Azerite isn't going to help him. Maybe the fel energy is so ingrained in him that trying to cure him will fail.\"\n\nKirima furrowed her brow and shook her head. \"You don't know that.\"\n\n\"I don't, but that's too much danger to risk it. If you're so inclined to save this druid, take him out with an arrow. Didn't you focus more on marksmanship after you retired Blackmane? You should be good enough to just...\" He poked himself lightly in the forehead. \"That collar was too dangerous to keep around. I thought he had gotten rid of it until I got your letter. That alone is enough to warrant him needing to go. I'm happy the prototype worked, but it was meant for interrogation, assassination, and defections, not to create a slave.\"\n\nShe gave him an uncertain look. She didn't want to go through with the idea that he needed to die. He pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation. \"Think of it this way, Huntmaster. He's in pain and putting him down would be a mercy to him. Plus you save someone. Win-win.\"\n\nKirima let out a very exasperated grunt and sigh, and buried her face in her hands. \"This isn't what I wanted to hear, Ashton...\" she muttered.\n\n\"Jayden was a good soldier, but now he's something else. I'll stay for another day to see if I can get you to see reason, but for me this is just curiosity. You can't cling to the hope that things will turn out right. If you want to give it a try, you risk the consequences.\"\n\nThe consequences...getting killed by him? Becoming his prisoner? Maybe killing him would be for the best. Seeing her again might drive him into a rage, one she wouldn't be able to protect against.. But shouldn't she still try? She owed it to him, didn't she? She couldn't leave Alanea in his clutches, at the very least. The Earth Mother would appreciate her liberating a druid from a fel-corrupted creature...but if she could save them both...\n\nA lighter sigh as she stood up. \"I think I need to try and sleep.\"\n\n\"Try?\" Ashton gave her a stern look. \"Have you been having nightmares?\"\n\nShe nodded. He put a hand to his face and groaned. \"Hunters. You all are either way to empathetic or way too cold.\"\n\n\"Says the warlock.\"\n\n\"We care about studying the fel magics. Doesn't mean we don't have a heart, we're just willing to do things for the greater good. Most of us, anyway.\" He blinked and then glanced upward. \"...You know, now I wish I had the idea to study him. It would have been fascinating to see someone's soul degenerate over time as the fel energy slowly eats at them...\"\n\nKirima gave him an aghast stare. She wanted to say something about his disconnect from all this, but she knew that he was right. This was just something that happened; she was the one giving it an emotional connection. But all it did was make her realize this was something she needed to do, if only for her own closure.\n\n\"I'm going to bed,\" she said quietly.\n\nAshton waved as he drank from his mug.\n\nShe climbed up the stairs, reaching the second floor, a short walk leading to another flight of stairs and a room with a series of beds. One of them was hers, a small footlocker containing some of her spare tools, her armor, and her pack, since she wasn't doing much during her stay here aside form just...trying to relax and take her mind off things. Her bow and quiver leaned against the bed, still where she had set them, and she slowly crept under the blanket.\n\nAs she tried to get comfortable, she tossed and turned, trying to rest her mind. Was she going? She knew she was. But was she going to save him, or kill him? Or be killed by him? Or worse? Those were the questions. Would she be able to do what she wanted to do, or would she be paralyzed?\n\nAnd why was she more worried about this than she ever was while in the Broken Isles? On Argus? Was he so unnerving to think about that it was worse than dealing with actual demons?\n\nOr was she just that hopeless?\n* * *\nA branch snapped under Kirima's hoof as she ran through this eternal forest. This wasn't her first time here; no, she had been here many times before. She continued running, ducking her head under a large branch and snapping around to quickly fire an arrow from her bow into the darkness behind her before resuming her run.\n\nIt was always like this. She was always running, hearing the heavy footsteps behind her, the primal panting of a ferocious beast. She knew who it was, of course. During the night, this was her life. Her body slept, her mind brought her here, to this twisted Duskwood, nothing but forest.\n\nShe fired another arrow behind her. She knew it would have no effect, even as it vanished into the black of night. It didn't matter which direction she ran at the start. The footsteps were always behind her, always getting louder, the panting becoming more manic. But she still ran. There was that faint hope she might eventually make it out of the forest, a hope she knew didn't exist, but a part of her refused to let it go. Such was the nature of a nightmare, she supposed.\n\nHer body was beginning to tire out. She couldn't keep running forever. It always took just a few minutes of mad sprinting before she started to feel pain in her legs. As she turned to fire another arrow, she saw a green dot piercing the darkness, and aimed right for it. The arrow vanished in the darkness again, and the light continued moving forward.\n\nUsually, she kept running. She knew how that would end. It always ended in her body giving out and her collapsing, only for him to emerge from the dark, say something to her, and sink his teeth into her neck, killing her. But now...now, she had a thought. Ashton was right, it was foolish to try and save someone she had only known for a few weeks...but it wouldn't be the first time she did something foolish. She didn't have very much left to lose. The Earth Mother wouldn't have wanted this conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. The Moonglade druids had the right idea, as did the Earthen Ring. With the world wounded, they needed to focus on healing it, rather than another war.\n\nIn a way, she was going to be doing something good for the Earth Mother. If the theory was correct, she'd save someone. Two people. And she would avoid getting caught up in the faction conflict.\n\nHis voice, low, quiet, accompanied by a steady growl, echoing all around her. \"You were always a stupid tauren,\" he said. \"It should have been you, not me.\"\n\n\"I know,\" she said quietly. She threw aside her bow, knowing there was no point. It may have been a dream, but she knew she had no power here. \"For my sake, I hope Ashton's theory works.\"\n\n\"If you come to me, you'll regret it, Skychaser.\"\n\n\"Just wake me up already, Guilt.\"\n\nThe worgen emerged from the darkness, standing in front of her. She looked up at it, at him, but didn't do anything. The nightmare always made him taller, always made the corruption more pronounced. His eyes were completely mad, and his left eye was glowing completely green, like a demon, with green veins pulsing from the left side of his head, down his neck, to his shoulder and chest. His shield was a massive tower shield more symbolic of her fear than anything he used, and his sword, probably representative of the druid he captured, was a thick, sharpened branch covered in sharp barbs with a gruesome, jagged edge lined up suspiciously like a blade. And he was ten feet tall to boot.\n\nNightmares. They loved to exaggerate. But that didn't make this any less frightening.\n\n\"I will feast on your will like the druid,\" he told her.\n\n\"Whatever happens will happen. If the Earth Mother decides my body would be better used in the dirt...then so be it.\" She took a step toward him. \"I want to rest. Let me have this, just for tonight.\"\n\nThe nightmare worgen placed the wooden blade up to her throat, letting her feel the serrated barbed edge pressing there, hard enough that she could feel it. But this was how tonight was going to go. Soon she'd be forced awake and then try to sleep again, and this next time around she would probably forget her revelation after sleeping, and the cycle would repeat.\n\n\"So be it,\" both Kirima and the nightmare worgen said at the same time.\n\nHe then ran the blade along her throat at a high speed, and she felt a sharp pain.\n* * *\nA week and a half later she found herself stepping into Duskwood. A \"quick\" trip on a ship from Kalimdor to the Azeroth and then rode a wyvern to Stranglethorn Vale, and a long walk to Duskwood, and here she was. She still couldn't believe she was doing this, but most of her wanted to keep going. And it was far, far too late to back down now.\n\nSticking to the main road posed a risk. Now that the conflict was in full force, she had a target on her back. Not that there were places to hide off the main road...there was the farmstead that had been abandoned, but she knew from when she was trying to escort the caravan from her previous trip here, that the farmstead was too dangerous due to some assassins or rogues hiding out alongside the odd elementals...\n\nNo, she would need to stick to the main road. She just needed to retrace her steps, that's all. Simple. Simple and easy. She remembered every step she took, given what happened.\n\nIt had been afternoon when she arrived, not that it mattered in Duskwood. By the time she arrived at the part of the road that she needed to start walking off it, the sky was darkening even more as the evening came. She lit a lantern she had brought with her and attached it to her pack and continued on, drawing her bow and readying an arrow just in case. She began to focus, trying to be acutely aware of her surroundings in case someone tried to sneak up on her.\n\nHours later, it was night. She was no doubt getting closer to where the worgen who had raped her had taken her originally. Hopefully. But she would need to either power through the night or get ready to make camp soon.\n\nShe looked around, not seeing anything in the darkness. As much as she might have wanted to, she couldn't make camp. There was no doubt Jayden's home had to be here somewhere. Maybe he smelled her already? No, she had cleaned herself up very, very thoroughly in the Moonglade. she wouldn't smell like worgen, and she wouldn't be smelling like herself for at least another couple of days.\n\nWalk, walk, walk. Nothing but insects and her hooves crunching the grass and dirt, and occasionally a clank from the lantern hitting parts of her pack. Silence. Minutes. A half hour. An hour. Her senses were starting to dull as time went on. She continued to have nightmares every night, and while she was getting used to them now, she still lost valuable sleep each time. And now it was starting to affect her.\n\nIt was starting to affect her so much that she didn't realize something was stalking her until she felt something beside her. She blinked in surprise as something brushed against her shoulder and she immediately took a step on the opposite direction and spun, pulling the string of her bow back almost entirely.\n\nIn front of her was a naked female tauren with white fur and a long strand of braided hair. Around her neck was a metal collar with runes scratched around the circumference, and a green gem inlaid at the very front. In the few seconds it took for Kirima to register who she was looking at, she noticed that the tauren's fur was clean and well maintained. And then it hit her.\n\nAlanea.\n\n\"Skychaser?\" Alanea asked in a quiet voice.\n\n\"Alanea?\" Kirima asked back. She lowered her bow, relaxing the string slightly. \"You're still alive?\"\n\nAlanea nodded slowly. Kirima focused on her eyes, seeing if she could gleam anything from them. They weren't glazed over or listless. She didn't look in distress except for the nudity...\n\n\"Are you okay?\" Kirima asked, looking around. Was Jayden around too? She pulled the string back again and scanned the area, eyes following the arrow.\n\n\"I'm..I'm fine. What are you doing here?\"\n\n\"Where's Jayden?\"\n\nAlanea stared at her.\n\n\"Andereon, Alanea,\" Kirima added, with some urgency.\n\n\"Master is...Master is back home.\"\n\n\"Where are your clothes?\"\n\n\"I don't have any. I'm not allowed to. Master says that...that it's hard to get anything sent here since the Horde has mostly left Azeroth anyway. So...\"\n\nHer manner of speaking was subdued, quiet. She didn't speak slowly, but her cadence was certainly slower than normal. Kirima frowned as Alanea spoke, and shook her head lightly once Alanea finished.\n\n\"I need you to take me to Jayden.\"\n\n\"I'm...finished with practice anyway,\" Alanea replied. \"We can go home.\n\n\"Practice?\"\n\nAlanea began to walk. Kirima stared at her walking away, and then quickly moved to join her. \"What do you mean by 'practice'?\" she asked again.\n\n\"Master says...that I need to continue connecting with nature...as a druid. I've learned to stay...close to home, but as long as I behave, I can be outside of the house if I'm careful.\"\n\n\"What did he do to you after what happened with the worgen?\"\n\nAlania answered slowly. \"We went back home. Life...continued. During the day, he trained me to obey. If I was a good tauren, and I tried to be after what happened, I got to sleep on a bed and his training didn't hurt as much the next day.\" She turned her head slightly, keeping an eye where she was walking, and Kirima noticed a very faint smile, like she was proud of herself. \"He trained me to please him, and I think I can do it well now.\"\n\nA tauren druid sex slave. Kirima felt her stomach lurch. This was no fate for a young girl, regardless of race or faction. And Kirima couldn't help but feel part of it was because she herself was a tauren. In the aftermath of the Legion invasion in the Northern Barrens, he had become...taken with her, likely seeing Kirima as something he could control in his corrupted state. But he had abandoned his post...to protect her. But time past, and then Alanea had the misfortune of running into him.\n\n\"Two weeks ago,\" Alanea continued, \"he ordered me to train in the woods after dinner. When he's nice, he's...nice. I try to make sure he stays nice. But I'm getting used to him being mean too. It doesn't hurt as much.\" That proud smile again. \"He says I need to practice my magic and my shifted form. So I've been walking around, making sure nothing gets too close to home, with roots, or my cat form, though I need to go to him after that to make sure I don't kill myself shifting back. Sometimes he trains my cat form, too.\"\n\n\"And to train your magic...?\" Kirima was afraid to ask, but her curiosity was starting to overwhelm her. Something about how morbid it all was, how open Alanea was being about it...it was so odd, so unexpected. She had been expecting to find the druid a comatose, broken mess. And it was clear she was changed, different from the girl she met before. Jayden's training had paid off, but then he stacked the deck entirely in his favor, considering all of the circumstances.\n\n\"Well...I heal myself when he gets violent. Sometimes it's because I screw something up, sometimes he just wants to make sure I know how to treat myself.\" She let out a hollow laugh, like she tried to make light of the situation. \"Sometimes I have to tie myself up in various ways with roots and vines to practice finer control. He says I'm doing well.\"\n\nA distant howl. Very distant, faint, carried by the wind. Kirima immediately readied an attack, scanning the area again, but Alanea, aside from tensing and looking afraid for the first time since meeting her again, didn't do much.\n\n\"That was one of the feral worgen,\" she said. \"You can tell Master's howl from them. Well, I can. If his howl is ever that far away, I know I'm in big trouble. But, thank the Earth Mother, I've been smart enough to stay around home.\"\n\n\"And...and escape?\"\n\nAlanea stopped walking and turned to face her. \"...Escape? Where? I don't know the layout of the land entirely. And I can't escape anyway. We know what happened last time.\"\n\n\"If we go back to the road, we can make it to Stranglethorn Vale, and get to Grom'gol and get out of here.\"\n\nAlanea laughed again, only this one was a sad laugh, a defeated tone that made Kirima wince. \"Why? Master takes care of me. He...hurts, but he feeds me, makes sure I bathe regularly. He's even teaching me to cook...but I can't do much of that yet. He says if I'm a very good girl and complete both parts of my training, I can go out with him outside of the forest. And...and...and besides, if I disobey...if I...\" she trailed off.\n\nKirima took Alanea's hand in hers, dropping her bow and the arrow completely. \"Listen to yourself. He's isolated you and broken you down so much...if we make a run for it, we can make it to Grom'Gol, then take the zeppelin to Orgrimmar and get you back to your family. Even if he found out you escaped, he wouldn't dare cross the sea. The Horde is too concentrated in Kalimdor after they sacked Teldrassil.\"\n\nAlanea stared at her for a few seconds. Kirima could tell she was trying to connect the dots and figure something out. A mix of fear and apprehension spread over Alanea, and she begam to stammer. \"I...but...there's...there's always the chance that...he's...he's waiting for me, I know. We're deep in Alliance land...We can't...I can't...\"\n\nKirima looked at her with extreme pity. The damage was extensive. But..even if she couldn't get her to see reason right away, there was still time, hopefully. She needed to talk to Jayden! With a sigh, she let Alanea's hand go, and picked up her bow and the arrow, and gestured for her to lead on.\n\nAlanea took several deep breaths to calm her mind, and then resumed the walk.\n\nTen minutes later, she gazed upon the home. Modest, not lavish. Definitely large enough for a family, but not nothing extravagant. The door was closed, but Alanea opened it easily, showing it wasn't locked.\n\nFor a slave, he had a lot of trust in her. But maybe she long ago accepted that she was never going to get away, especially after getting raped by wild worgen.\n\nInside the entrance room, she saw Jayden staring at her. The worgen was sitting on a simple chair in the mostly-bare room, an arm resting on the table in front of him. A blue left eye and green right eye stared at her intently, a predator looking at prey. He stood up and moved around the table, eyes locked on her.\n\nHe was wearing his old Gilnean breastplate, tarnished and battered, and the pants he wore were more like rags than pants. The table had one of his swords, and his shield was strapped to his back. His feet made heavy steps toward the tauren, and with one gesture, he ordered Alanea to move to the side. She did, very quickly.\n\n\"What are [i]you[/i] doing here?\" Jayden asked her in a threatening voice.\n\n\"I came to talk,\" Kirima said. Her wanted to sound confident, but even she noticed the wariness and volume of her voice.\n\n\"Talk? About [i]what[/i]?\" He narrowed his eyes.\n\n\"About your condition.\"\n\n\"There's nothing to talk about,\" he growled.\n\n\"There is. Ashton thinks there's a way to fix it.\"\n\nJayden laughed. \"Fox it? I told you, Skychaser. That's been tried.\"\n\n\"Not with Azerite,\" she replied.\n\nJayden's stance changed. It was enough that Alanea whimpered and took a step back from the two. He straightened up slightly, his left ear twitching. For a second, his left eye's iris glowed green, but it subsided just as quickly as it appeared. \"Azerite?\"\n\n\"The stuff that started coming out of Azeroth after Sargeras plunged his sword into the planet. You must have heard something about it when you kidnapped her, considering she was in Ashenvale and you took her here.\"\n\nHe stared at her. not in anger, but confusion. She continued quickly, knowing she was just on borrowed time now. \"it's the reason Warchief Windrunner had Teldrassil destroyed. The Alliance and Horde are gathering Azerite in Kul Tiras and the South Seas. It's pure arcane energy, basically. The opposite of fel! And-and Ashton's report said that if you hold it, it can heal you, and other things. Since it can do that, I thought...I thought if we could get a chunk of it, we could heal you.\"\n\nJayden stared at her, dumbfounded. He looked at Alanea, and then at Kirima, and then back at the druid, then to the hunter. He opened his mouth, then closed it, and then opened it again, and then made sounds.\n\n\"...You came from...where, exactly?\"\n\n\"Moonglade,\" Kirima replied.\n\n\"You came from Moonglade, all the way here, to tell me that the Alliance and Horde are fighting over something that is supposedly great and powerful and might help me...and what am I supposed to do with that knowledge?\"\n\nKirima began to respond. She...hadn't really thought this far, if she were to be honest with herself. \"W...well...I was thinking of...going to the South Seas and seeing if I could get some.\"\n\n\"How? What little contact I have with the outside, even I know that the Alliance is restricting movement to Kul Tiras, and I imagine the Horde is doing the same wherever they went.\"\n\n\"How did you get a tauren from Ashenvale to the Earstern Kingdoms?\"\n\n\"Bribery can only get you so far,\" Jayden countered. He was keeping calm, but Kirima was starting to sense that he was probably doing his best to keep himself together. She had to speed things up.\n\n\"Look...look, go ahead and call me what you want,\" she began to pace up and down the room slowly, figuring she may as well just let it all out. \"I feel responsible. Blackmane was out there, you saved me and...look at you, Jayden--\"\n\n\"[i]Don't[/i],\" Jayden warned her.\n\n\"Look at yourself! You've...you're out here, in the middle of nowhere, You have a slave! You're...you look like a wild worgen, with all that fur...you looked so...so noble during the invasion. And look at you now. And it's my fault.\"\n\nJayden bared his fangs, growling quietly. She continued. \"Her family is going to start worrying, if they haven't already. You've...you've raped her, beaten her...you've robbed her of her freedom. She's a [i]druid[/i], she's not here to serve you! You've put her through something nobody should ever go through!\"\n\nJayden stomped down on the floor with one foot, his voice suddenly a roar. \"Shut up!\" His eye glowed again, and the veins on the left side of his head glowed under the fur briefly. Kirima took a step back, instinctively readying an arrow, while Alanea cowered, backing up several more steps.\n\n\"What's done is done, Skychaser,\" Jayden said, his voice lower now, eyes piercing right through her. \"She's already learned to not think of escaping. This is her life now. Her family will mourn her loss, but everyone will think she died when the Horde tore through Ashenvale.\"\n\n\"If Ashton's right,\" she pointed at the collar around Alanea's neck, \"and you know he's right because that collar is working just like he said it would, then it's worth a try. Look at how...look at how you haven't killed me yet. You said that you were some wild animal, but there's still some Alliance in you, some...Gil...nean? Some Gilnean in you. You say you're not Jayden, but there's still some of that left in you. Otherwise you would have...you would have tried to attack me by now.\"\n\nJayden glared at her, breathing heavily through gritted teeth, growling when he wasn't inhaling air. But he didn't do anything. She continued in a quieter voice, \"Look, if...if it doesn't work out, you can have me too. It's the only way I can make up for what's happened, right?\"\n\n\"I heard tales,\" Jayden replied. \"You become some big shot hunter, leading others against the Legion.\"\n\n\"That doesn't mean anything anymore,\" she replied regrettably. \"You should have been there with me and Ashton, even if he was doing his own thing.\"\n\n\"So let's say you get to where you're going. You can't think it's going to be as easy as just grabbing a piece of this Azerite and then leaving. If it's a big part of what's happening, it's going to be kept under close guard.\"\n\n\"What they have, sure, but the islands, despite how small they look on a map, are big and spread out.\"\n\n\"Alone?\"\n\nShe opened her mouth to answer, and then realized she couldn't answer. She hadn't thought of involving anyone else in her plan. She half was expecting it to be a suicide mission, so she didn't think to plan for anyone joining her. \"W...well...\" She avoided his gaze. \"I haven't...really figured that out yet.\"\n\nJayden scoffed. \"Stupid tauren. You may as well just cast off that chain mail and stay here.\"\n\n\"Until you die?\"\n\nA growl. \"I intend to live out what's left of my life to the fullest. That means enjoying what I can, that means doing what I want, and what I want--\"\n\n\"Is to not hurt anyone. That's why you're out here, where there's few settlements and mostly feral worgen, right? A part of you realizes the danger you are to everyone. If it wasn't for Alanea running into you, you would have been here alone.\"\n\nA louder growl. \"You...you...!\"\n\nHe took a step toward her, and she took one back, recoiling.\n\nHe was much faster now. Grabbing his shield, he suddenly rushed forward and pinned her beside the doorway, teeth inches from her face as she was sandwiched between the shield and the wall. \"You bitch!\" He snarled at her. Alanea flinched at his quickness, and Kirima was wide-eyed as he closed the distance like it was nothing. She couldn't help but tremble.\n\n\"You don't know when to leave well enough alone, do you?\" He asked her, practically screaming in her face. \"I just want to be left alone with my tauren! I may turn into a wild animal but at least I'd have peace!\"\n\n\"You can have peace if you're healed, too!\" Kirima shot back, though her voice was shaking, fear obvious in her face. \"Y-you wouldn't have to hide out here in the middle of nowhere!\"\n\n\"There's a [i]war[/i] going on!\" Jayden countered. \"The Alliance probably thinks I died during the invasion, and you...you deserted the Horde! If you go and get spotted, you'll probably be thought of as a traitor and executed! Think with your head for once in your life and realize that what you're doing is stupid!\"\n\nShe grit her teeth and tried to push him back, to no real success, though she did manage to relieve the pressure on herself slightly. \"You told me back then I was thick-headed, remember? Some things don't change!\"\n\n\"You're damn right they don't!\"\n\nJayden gave one quick push with the shield, making her gasp for air as she was squeezed between the battered metal and the wall, and then he stepped back, letting her catch her breath. She dropped to one knee and gasped for several seconds. He put a hand to the left side of his head and clutched it for several seconds, seething.\n\nKirima stood up. She realized she had one wild card left. She may as well use it. \"...Alright. You're right. I'm stupid. You tell her that all the time too, I'm sure. And maybe it's true. Neither of us have done bright things in life, given where we stand right now.\"\n\nThere was an uncomfortable silence. Jayden didn't reply to her, but he was still taking a threatening stance with her. Alanea was shaking, as if worried he'd turn around and take it out on her for bringing Kirima here.\n\nThe hunter gestured with one of her fingers toward Alanea. \"...You took her because she's a tauren.\"\n\n\"So what if I did?\"\n\n\"I know you were thinking of putting that collar on me,\" Kitima replied. \"You ran instead. I know you want to put another on me still. The great Huntmaster, a slave. That's sick, but a lot of sick things are happening in Azeroth right now.\"\n\nShe was going to regret this, she knew, but she had to try it. She took a deep breath and held it for a seconds before continuing. \"...Since I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm probably going to get myself killed...maybe you should come with me.\"\n\nAlanea's eyes widened. Jayden cocked an eyebrow at her, unsure if he should get upset or not. \"...You want me to go with you?\"\n\n\"If I get killed out there, you're never going to have me.\"\n\nJayden scoffed.\n\nKirima gestured to herself with a hand. \"Scoff all you want. if I get killed for deserting the Horde or if something happens out there, you're going to lose me. And I know that you want to be the one doing the hurt, because you want the revenge. You want to break me like you broke Alanea.\" She paused. If she continued talking it wasn't going to end well for her; her future was going to be decided now, whether she wanted it or not.\n\n\"...After everything that's happened...all of the pain and terror on the Broken Isles, the naga, the Emerald Nightmare, Argus...I made a lot of friends, Jayden.\" She looked at him with earnest eyes, voice still shaking, more now from sadness than fear as the memories flashed by her. \"I've come to know people on the Alliance side I've only heard about before. The Trueshot Lodge...you should have seen it. It was almost like a hunter's paradise. Then we come back home, a large sword inside our very planet...for us tauren, we could almost hear the Earth Mother crying in pain. I helped stop the blade from causing more harm, but even as we speak, the planet suffers. And now the Alliance and the Horde are fighting again. Even the druids are fighting.\n\n\"I can't bear the thought of having to fight against the hunters that called me Huntmaster. I don't know if they would hesitate to do the same for me, but I can't bear to face them on a battlefield, or on a mission from the Warchief or any of the other high ranking members of the Horde. And seeing what's happened to you...I was very successful, and you weren't. And part of me knows I owe you for it since you could have just let me die in the Barrens.\"\n\nShe took several more deep breaths, trying to fight back tears. She tossed her bow at him, and he caught it with his free hand.\n\n\"You want me? Fine. Have me. Hurt me. Rape me. Break me down until I'm just like Alanea. But I ask you—I beg you—let me have this at least. Come with me. To Kul Tiras, to the South Seas, I don't care. Come with me and let's at least try. If it works...if it works, we'll see what happens. if it doesn't work, then you get to come back here and enjoy two young tauren for as long as you live.\"\n\nShe couldn't take it back now. Ultimately, she didn't care what happened to her anymore. Like him, she had deserted the call of their faction. And like him, if she were to be found out, she would likely get locked away if not outright killed. She would need to be like him, living a fair bit away from others, only doing what she needed to survive. As far as she cared, she was going to be in hiding anyway, she may as well make someone else happy while in exile.\n\nBut if this worked, then she could at least have a clear conscience about it. And he would find peace while still being himself...mostly. Ashton was gone now, so she couldn't go for any more details than what she had already, but what she had was nothing, really.\n\nShe kept an eye on Jayden's reaction. His eyes flashed with a dangerous anger, but once again, they subsided. The glow in his eye appeared and vanished just as fast. He huffed, scoffed, and pasted back and forth between her and the table. She knew he was mulling over if he should entertain her or just capture her right now. That only proved her point more; he wasn't a feral monster yet. He was probably close, but there was still some of who eh used to be in there. And maybe he reveled in being some monster worgen, but he wasn't far gone yet. There was still a chance.\n\nHis fists clenched tightly, and Kirima held her breath. He cast an aside glance at her for several seconds, and then growled. \"You're staying for the night,\" he said.\n\nKirima blinked, unsure what to make of the statement. No, it wasn't a statement. \"...So are you--\"\n\n\"I'm going to think it over,\" he told her. He then added quietly, \"Stupid calf doesn't know when to leave well enough alone...\"\n\nHe grabbed his sword from the table. \"Alanea, bed.\"\n\n\"Yes, Master!\" Alanea exclaimed quickly, practically tripping over herself running out of the room.\n\nJayden pointed the sword at Kirima. She didn't dare move as he stared her down. \"I hope you brought a sleeping bag, unless you want to risk sleeping with me and what that will entail.\"\n\n\"I have a sleeping bag,\" Kirima replied.\n\n\"You're lucky I have my eye on you or you never would be leaving this house.\"\n\n\"I know...\"\n\n\"And from now on you address me as Andereon. Jayden's gone.\"\n\n\"I don't believe that. But...but alright, Andereon.\"\n\nAndereon let out a huff of air and began to walk to the back doorway. \"You're sleeping in Alanea's room tonight.\"\n\n\"Alright.\"\n\n\"And this,\" he held up the bow in his other hand, \"stays with me.\"\n\n\"That's fine.\"\n\n\"Good. I'll see you in the morning. Pray to your precious Earth Mother that I don't decide to see you earlier than that.\"\n\nHe left her sight as he stepped through the doorway. Kirima began to breathe heavily as the weight of the situation finally hit her. She was throwing her life away. Now that she had stepped into his house, she was his, and he was going to keep her no matter what. But the price was worth it. If she was going to be some hunter in exile, a fallen hero of the Horde, then it would be better it be this way than be alone. Their new lives, intertwined in one way or another.\n\nShe just hoped they all would be able to actually [i]live[/i] their new lives after this.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Nighthaven inn was quiet tonight. The inn had few patrons present, a few locals plus Kirima Skychaser herself, sitting at a table alone. She sipped down a mug of moonberry juice as she tried to keep awake. Ever since her encounter with the worgen named Andereon, she couldn't get much sleep without being awoken shortly after by nightmares. The only peace she was able to really get was here in the Moonglade, but even then true rest was fleeting given everything going through her mind.

She hadn't known him for long. When she volunteered to help stop the Burning Legion invasions, she had served under him and answered to him personally. They were only a team for a few weeks, but she thought she had earned his trust as a comrade. He was a fierce fighter, proof of his time as a member of the Gilnean Army, and while she was a hero in her own right after everything in the Broken Isles and becoming the Huntmaster, taking the fight to the Legion directly in the Broken Shore, all the way to Argus itself...a part of her felt that maybe it should have been him. Or at the very least, that he should have been there with her.

Her mind was trailing now. She knew, but she couldn't help it. It had been one of the things always on her mind since seeing him again, the state he was in. What could have been. Should have been. She hoped Arbury would be able to at least help clear her mind. Now that the Legion had been routed, maybe the warlocks learned something that could help control fel "infection". That is, if their resources weren't being used for this new conflict.

That poor tauren too. A young, aspiring druid taken against her will, innocence stolen, freedom lost...she ran a hand through her hair. What was he doing to Alanea, even now? Was she even still alive? She had checked with the girl's family in Thunder Bluff, and they assumed she was training, though the conflict with the Alliance was making them worried. Maybe it would have been better for her if it was the Alliance making her unable to reach out to them.

She heard a stool pull away slightly from the table, and looked up from her ever-emptying cup. Sitting down next to her was a human with blonde hair and green eyes and fair skin, wearing black robes with red accents, with a hood that was pulled back. A warlock.

"Ashton," Kirima acknowledged quietly.

"Huntmaster," the warlock said.

She frowned. "...I'm not the Huntmaster anymore. The Unseen Path has practically gone their separate ways; my authority means nothing anymore."

"Really?" Ashton chuckled. "That's not like you to just give up like that. But given you're here and not on the islands, I guess all that bravado during the Broken Isles was all for show, huh? Ran away and all that?"

Kirima winced. Was that what she did? Even if the Unseen Path had broken up for the most part, she still considered those she had grown to know during the whole Burning Legion mess as her friends and comrades. The Horde had called for her and other heroes to join them in the South Seas, but she had been using what happened the month before as an excuse to hide away, laying low in Mulgore and Moonglade, trying to recover mentally. Running away...

"...Yeah. I ran away," Kirima replied with a sigh. "I can't turn my bow against people I fought alongside in the Broken Isles, on Argus. You were there, Ashton. There was a unity there that...that..."

"Was tenuous at best," Ashton replied. The innkeeper, a night elf with green hair, brought him a drink, a cup of melon juice, and Ashton handed him five silver coins. He took a deep pull of the juice as the innkeeper walked away. "That alliance was always just temporary. A new king, a new Warchief? There was going to be something that broke the camel's back. It just so happened that Sargeras gave them the excuse to fight. I mean, I wouldn't have torched an entire tree, but..." He waved a hand dismissively.

"And you?" Kirima asked, looking up at him. She was taller than him, but had been staring down at her cup the entire time up until now. "Are you going to be fighting for the Alliance?"

"Well, I'm working for Stormwind. Don't really have a choice in the matter, you know? I leave for Kul Tiras next week. King Greymane's made his way there with several ships already and apparently there's a lot of issues the Kul Tierans are dealing with."

Kirima sighed again. "So you can't help much."

"Well, I knew I was going to be called away so I packed everything I needed in advance." He gave her a slight smirk. "So I can spend a couple of days listening to you before taking a flight back to Stormwind." He took another swing of his juice. "So, tell me. Your letter wasn't that specific. I'm interested in the part where he enslaved a druid. And hiding out in Duskwood?"

Kirima interlaced her fingers, looking down again at her mug, and nodded. "Yeah. I was still lying low after Teldrassil was sacked and Lordaeron fell. I took a job escorting a trade caravan, and we got ambushed by a pack of worgen. I was on the ground before I could fire an arrow, there was a lot of pain, the whole group was overwhelmed...we thought the path was safe, but I assume the Horde's movements and what happened in Lordaeron around the land stirred up the worgen or something. They dragged me back to their den and..."

She trailed off, casting an aside glance at Ashton. Ashton's expression hardened and he nodded back. "So what happened?"

"Turns out they also ambushed another tauren, the druid I mentioned, Alanea...Sharphoof, I think her name was. Jayden's her master, she said. Put that collar you made on her. Once the worgen were done with us, we tried to escape; it went bad, but he found us, took on the pack, killed the leader and scattered them all."

"And how is our old Gilnean wardog?"

Kirima looked at her reflection in the moonberry juice and shook her head. "Bad. The fel corruption in him spread a bit more since the last I saw him. One of his eyes is green now, and when he gets enraged the veins on one side of his head glow green with the fel energy. And he took a slave, Ashton. She was a druid of the Cenarion Circle, and she's been 'missing' for around two months now. Her parents are going to start wondering where she is soon. He's probably been torturing her all this time, forcing himself upon her, 'training' her...if she's even still alive, she's either been broken or turned mindless from the pain and misery."

Ashton nodded. Kirima knew he was thinking it over by the way he traced a finger around the rim of his mug; he always did that when he was contemplating. Worlocks had a slightly skewed sense of morality given they dabbled in the fel magic; he was the creator of the collar Alanea had been wearing, after all. But he had to see that this was too far, clearly. Right?

"So what's your plan?" he finally asked after a full minute of silence. "Go down there, challenge him, see what happens when a bow and arrow have to fight against a sword and shield, or two swords at once?"

"I'd rather not kill him, no. I was hoping you would have found something while we were on Argus while working with the Council of the Black Harvest."

Ashton crossed his arms and took a deep breath. "Well...I'll admit, I was worried for our friend after he vanished. Before the Legionfall went to Argus, I took some time to check the archives our order collected over the years. But there's nothing really that we can do. Perhaps use arcane magic to reverse the effect, but it might just outright kill him instead. The reason for the infusion is something I'm still unsure about. My theory is that the fel energy infused with incoming healing magic from a druid during the attack, and turned the healing into some infernal, corrupted version that still healed him. That, or the demon was trying to deliberately corrupt whoever it hit." He shrugged.

"That doesn't really help us fix him."

Ashtron leaned in, putting a hand on her back softly. His voice lowered, gentle but dark. "You know he's becoming a monster. Fel corruption eats away at your soul. It's a slow process, but he's going to turn into a soulless husk sooner or later, as more and more fel flows into him via his soul getting devoured."

"I've seen a lot of things during my time on the Broken Isles," Kirima replied, hands balling into fists. "Anything's possible."

Ashton took a deep breath and stood up. He began to rummage through the pack he had places beside the stool. "There's another theory I had been thinking of, but you're not going to like it because it might force you to get involved in what's happening on the islands."

Kirima grit her teeth. She didn't want to fight, not in this conflict. Not against the Alliance. If she had to get involved, maybe she could without needing to kill any hunter on the Alliance side. But that meant leaving Alanea to Jayden's "mercy". She couldn't do that! But if she tried to stop him...

Ashton slapped down a piece of parchment onto the table. "Do you know what Azerite is?" he asked.

Kirima blinked as she looked at the parchment, shifting in her seat and tilting her head to get a proper look. It was a research sheet of sorts, talking about the material Azerite, a blue-and-gold colored liquid or solid that came from Azeroth, exposed after Sargeras plunged his sword into the planet. The blood of Azeroth, the paper called it. She knew that it was the reason the Alliance and Horde were interested in the site where the sword now rested, and was likely part of the reason why Warchief Windrunner sacked Teldrassil. Supposedly it had amazing qualities as a material, and rejuvenated anyone who consumed or even simply touched its liquid form.

The one thing that stood out to her, however, was the word that Ashton seemed to have underlined himself. "Arcane". Azerite was arcane in nature. Arcane was the opposite of fel. Not exactly a neutralizer, but nobody could be skilled in both.

Ashton followed her gaze and nodded once he saw what she was looking at. "Yep. I think if we managed to get a bit of Azerite in or on him, it might fix him. Of course, Azerite isn't exactly easy to get. Both sides are keeping a close eye on their supply, so I can't exactly smuggle some out of of the mage hall. Even you wouldn't be able to just walk into Orgimmar and come out with a shard of it. Knowing how ruthless your new Warchief is, she'll have you going missing and then..." another wave of the hand.

"So...what, we we have to go to the South Sea?" Kirima asked.

"That's where a large amount of Azerite is, enough that some could go missing without anyone noticing. You could also try Kul Tiras. Though, considering you're Horde..."

Kirima nodded slowly. "Right."

There was a minute of silence. Kirima's mind was racing. So she had to go to the South Seas and secure some Azerite? And then maybe she could treat Jayden, fix him...

Ashton finished his melon juice, almost slamming the mug down on the table. "What is it, Kirima?" he suddenly asked. "Why?"

"H-huh?" Kirima leaned back away from him, surprised by the sudden outburst.

"What is it? Why do you care so much? He's Alliance...well, he considers himself Gilnean more than Alliance...considered. Either way, he's not Horde. Why feel so guilty over him? Is it because of the druid? Survivor's guilt?"

"...Survivor's guilt?"

"He took that blast of fel energy for you after Blackmane got injured behind the new enemy line. He slowly went mad and eventually abandoned his post, abandoning us, and according to you, he's slowly lost his mind. And he's going to eventually stop being himself. But it was a big blast. You wouldn't have survived it, right?"

It was a large blast. It covered his body. Were it not for the shield...

"I don't know if it would have killed me, but it would have ruined my life," Kirima guessed.

"So he got to go mad, and you...went to the Broken Isles, helped gather the Pillars of Creation, helped save Suramar, brought the Highmountain Tauren into the Horde, became the Huntmaster of the Unseen Path, became a part of the invasion force into Argus...only thing you didn't do, I think, was deal with Sargeras personally. You got to do all of that while he was slowly losing himself, so you say."

Kirima couldn't counter it. Survivor's guilt...was that it? Seeing him in that state, so angry, so...hateful, while she ended up successful, famous, a big figure that suddenly vanished after the War of Thorns. She couldn't help but feel like she didn't deserve her spot. It was something they both should have done...but if Jayden were more lucid, he would likely have called her stupid for thinking it, since she rightfully earned her status. But she couldn't help it.

Survivor's guilt...

"It's been...what, maybe two years since the Burning Legion began its invasions until now? For all I know, maybe the theory of Azerite isn't going to help him. Maybe the fel energy is so ingrained in him that trying to cure him will fail."

Kirima furrowed her brow and shook her head. "You don't know that."

"I don't, but that's too much danger to risk it. If you're so inclined to save this druid, take him out with an arrow. Didn't you focus more on marksmanship after you retired Blackmane? You should be good enough to just..." He poked himself lightly in the forehead. "That collar was too dangerous to keep around. I thought he had gotten rid of it until I got your letter. That alone is enough to warrant him needing to go. I'm happy the prototype worked, but it was meant for interrogation, assassination, and defections, not to create a slave."

She gave him an uncertain look. She didn't want to go through with the idea that he needed to die. He pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation. "Think of it this way, Huntmaster. He's in pain and putting him down would be a mercy to him. Plus you save someone. Win-win."

Kirima let out a very exasperated grunt and sigh, and buried her face in her hands. "This isn't what I wanted to hear, Ashton..." she muttered.

"Jayden was a good soldier, but now he's something else. I'll stay for another day to see if I can get you to see reason, but for me this is just curiosity. You can't cling to the hope that things will turn out right. If you want to give it a try, you risk the consequences."

The consequences...getting killed by him? Becoming his prisoner? Maybe killing him would be for the best. Seeing her again might drive him into a rage, one she wouldn't be able to protect against.. But shouldn't she still try? She owed it to him, didn't she? She couldn't leave Alanea in his clutches, at the very least. The Earth Mother would appreciate her liberating a druid from a fel-corrupted creature...but if she could save them both...

A lighter sigh as she stood up. "I think I need to try and sleep."

"Try?" Ashton gave her a stern look. "Have you been having nightmares?"

She nodded. He put a hand to his face and groaned. "Hunters. You all are either way to empathetic or way too cold."

"Says the warlock."

"We care about studying the fel magics. Doesn't mean we don't have a heart, we're just willing to do things for the greater good. Most of us, anyway." He blinked and then glanced upward. "...You know, now I wish I had the idea to study him. It would have been fascinating to see someone's soul degenerate over time as the fel energy slowly eats at them..."

Kirima gave him an aghast stare. She wanted to say something about his disconnect from all this, but she knew that he was right. This was just something that happened; she was the one giving it an emotional connection. But all it did was make her realize this was something she needed to do, if only for her own closure.

"I'm going to bed," she said quietly.

Ashton waved as he drank from his mug.

She climbed up the stairs, reaching the second floor, a short walk leading to another flight of stairs and a room with a series of beds. One of them was hers, a small footlocker containing some of her spare tools, her armor, and her pack, since she wasn't doing much during her stay here aside form just...trying to relax and take her mind off things. Her bow and quiver leaned against the bed, still where she had set them, and she slowly crept under the blanket.

As she tried to get comfortable, she tossed and turned, trying to rest her mind. Was she going? She knew she was. But was she going to save him, or kill him? Or be killed by him? Or worse? Those were the questions. Would she be able to do what she wanted to do, or would she be paralyzed?

And why was she more worried about this than she ever was while in the Broken Isles? On Argus? Was he so unnerving to think about that it was worse than dealing with actual demons?

Or was she just that hopeless?
* * *
A branch snapped under Kirima's hoof as she ran through this eternal forest. This wasn't her first time here; no, she had been here many times before. She continued running, ducking her head under a large branch and snapping around to quickly fire an arrow from her bow into the darkness behind her before resuming her run.

It was always like this. She was always running, hearing the heavy footsteps behind her, the primal panting of a ferocious beast. She knew who it was, of course. During the night, this was her life. Her body slept, her mind brought her here, to this twisted Duskwood, nothing but forest.

She fired another arrow behind her. She knew it would have no effect, even as it vanished into the black of night. It didn't matter which direction she ran at the start. The footsteps were always behind her, always getting louder, the panting becoming more manic. But she still ran. There was that faint hope she might eventually make it out of the forest, a hope she knew didn't exist, but a part of her refused to let it go. Such was the nature of a nightmare, she supposed.

Her body was beginning to tire out. She couldn't keep running forever. It always took just a few minutes of mad sprinting before she started to feel pain in her legs. As she turned to fire another arrow, she saw a green dot piercing the darkness, and aimed right for it. The arrow vanished in the darkness again, and the light continued moving forward.

Usually, she kept running. She knew how that would end. It always ended in her body giving out and her collapsing, only for him to emerge from the dark, say something to her, and sink his teeth into her neck, killing her. But now...now, she had a thought. Ashton was right, it was foolish to try and save someone she had only known for a few weeks...but it wouldn't be the first time she did something foolish. She didn't have very much left to lose. The Earth Mother wouldn't have wanted this conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. The Moonglade druids had the right idea, as did the Earthen Ring. With the world wounded, they needed to focus on healing it, rather than another war.

In a way, she was going to be doing something good for the Earth Mother. If the theory was correct, she'd save someone. Two people. And she would avoid getting caught up in the faction conflict.

His voice, low, quiet, accompanied by a steady growl, echoing all around her. "You were always a stupid tauren," he said. "It should have been you, not me."

"I know," she said quietly. She threw aside her bow, knowing there was no point. It may have been a dream, but she knew she had no power here. "For my sake, I hope Ashton's theory works."

"If you come to me, you'll regret it, Skychaser."

"Just wake me up already, Guilt."

The worgen emerged from the darkness, standing in front of her. She looked up at it, at him, but didn't do anything. The nightmare always made him taller, always made the corruption more pronounced. His eyes were completely mad, and his left eye was glowing completely green, like a demon, with green veins pulsing from the left side of his head, down his neck, to his shoulder and chest. His shield was a massive tower shield more symbolic of her fear than anything he used, and his sword, probably representative of the druid he captured, was a thick, sharpened branch covered in sharp barbs with a gruesome, jagged edge lined up suspiciously like a blade. And he was ten feet tall to boot.

Nightmares. They loved to exaggerate. But that didn't make this any less frightening.

"I will feast on your will like the druid," he told her.

"Whatever happens will happen. If the Earth Mother decides my body would be better used in the dirt...then so be it." She took a step toward him. "I want to rest. Let me have this, just for tonight."

The nightmare worgen placed the wooden blade up to her throat, letting her feel the serrated barbed edge pressing there, hard enough that she could feel it. But this was how tonight was going to go. Soon she'd be forced awake and then try to sleep again, and this next time around she would probably forget her revelation after sleeping, and the cycle would repeat.

"So be it," both Kirima and the nightmare worgen said at the same time.

He then ran the blade along her throat at a high speed, and she felt a sharp pain.
* * *
A week and a half later she found herself stepping into Duskwood. A "quick" trip on a ship from Kalimdor to the Azeroth and then rode a wyvern to Stranglethorn Vale, and a long walk to Duskwood, and here she was. She still couldn't believe she was doing this, but most of her wanted to keep going. And it was far, far too late to back down now.

Sticking to the main road posed a risk. Now that the conflict was in full force, she had a target on her back. Not that there were places to hide off the main road...there was the farmstead that had been abandoned, but she knew from when she was trying to escort the caravan from her previous trip here, that the farmstead was too dangerous due to some assassins or rogues hiding out alongside the odd elementals...

No, she would need to stick to the main road. She just needed to retrace her steps, that's all. Simple. Simple and easy. She remembered every step she took, given what happened.

It had been afternoon when she arrived, not that it mattered in Duskwood. By the time she arrived at the part of the road that she needed to start walking off it, the sky was darkening even more as the evening came. She lit a lantern she had brought with her and attached it to her pack and continued on, drawing her bow and readying an arrow just in case. She began to focus, trying to be acutely aware of her surroundings in case someone tried to sneak up on her.

Hours later, it was night. She was no doubt getting closer to where the worgen who had raped her had taken her originally. Hopefully. But she would need to either power through the night or get ready to make camp soon.

She looked around, not seeing anything in the darkness. As much as she might have wanted to, she couldn't make camp. There was no doubt Jayden's home had to be here somewhere.  Maybe he smelled her already? No, she had cleaned herself up very, very thoroughly in the Moonglade. she wouldn't smell like worgen, and she wouldn't be smelling like herself for at least another couple of days.

Walk, walk, walk. Nothing but insects and her hooves crunching the grass and dirt, and occasionally a clank from the lantern hitting parts of her pack. Silence. Minutes. A half hour. An hour. Her senses were starting to dull as time went on. She continued to have nightmares every night, and while she was getting used to them now, she still lost valuable sleep each time. And now it was starting to affect her.

It was starting to affect her so much that she didn't realize something was stalking her until she felt something beside her. She blinked in surprise as something brushed against her shoulder and she immediately took a step on the opposite direction and spun, pulling the string of her bow back almost entirely.

In front of her was a naked female tauren with white fur and a long strand of braided hair. Around her neck was a metal collar with runes scratched around the circumference, and a green gem inlaid at the very front. In the few seconds it took for Kirima to register who she was looking at, she noticed that the tauren's fur was clean and well maintained. And then it hit her.

Alanea.

"Skychaser?" Alanea asked in a quiet voice.

"Alanea?" Kirima asked back. She lowered her bow, relaxing the string slightly. "You're still alive?"

Alanea nodded slowly. Kirima focused on her eyes, seeing if she could gleam anything from them. They weren't glazed over or listless. She didn't look in distress except for the nudity...

"Are you okay?" Kirima asked, looking around. Was Jayden around too? She pulled the string back again and scanned the area, eyes following the arrow.

"I'm..I'm fine. What are you doing here?"

"Where's Jayden?"

Alanea stared at her.

"Andereon, Alanea," Kirima added, with some urgency.

"Master is...Master is back home."

"Where are your clothes?"

"I don't have any. I'm not allowed to. Master says that...that it's hard to get anything sent here since the Horde has mostly left Azeroth anyway. So..."

Her manner of speaking was subdued, quiet. She didn't speak slowly, but her cadence was certainly slower than normal. Kirima frowned as Alanea spoke, and shook her head lightly once Alanea finished.

"I need you to take me to Jayden."

"I'm...finished with practice anyway," Alanea replied. "We can go home.

"Practice?"

Alanea began to walk. Kirima stared at her walking away, and then quickly moved to join her. "What do you mean by 'practice'?" she asked again.

"Master says...that I need to continue connecting with nature...as a druid. I've learned to stay...close to home, but as long as I behave, I can be outside of the house if I'm careful."

"What did he do to you after what happened with the worgen?"

Alania answered slowly. "We went back home. Life...continued. During the day, he trained me to obey. If I was a good tauren, and I tried to be after what happened, I got to sleep on a bed and his training didn't hurt as much the next day." She turned her head slightly, keeping an eye where she was walking, and Kirima noticed a very faint smile, like she was proud of herself. "He trained me to please him, and I think I can do it well now."

A tauren druid sex slave. Kirima felt her stomach lurch. This was no fate for a young girl, regardless of race or faction. And Kirima couldn't help but feel part of it was because she herself was a tauren. In the aftermath of the Legion invasion in the Northern Barrens, he had become...taken with her, likely seeing Kirima as something he could control in his corrupted state. But he had abandoned his post...to protect her. But time past, and then Alanea had the misfortune of running into him.

"Two weeks ago," Alanea continued, "he ordered me to train in the woods after dinner. When he's nice, he's...nice. I try to make sure he stays nice. But I'm getting used to him being mean too. It doesn't hurt as much." That proud smile again. "He says I need to practice my magic and my shifted form. So I've been walking around, making sure nothing gets too close to home, with roots, or my cat form, though I need to go to him after that to make sure I don't kill myself shifting back. Sometimes he trains my cat form, too."

"And to train your magic...?" Kirima was afraid to ask, but her curiosity was starting to overwhelm her. Something about how morbid it all was, how open Alanea was being about it...it was so odd, so unexpected. She had been expecting to find the druid a comatose, broken mess. And it was clear she was changed, different from the girl she met before. Jayden's training had paid off, but then he stacked the deck entirely in his favor, considering all of the circumstances.

"Well...I heal myself when he gets violent. Sometimes it's because I screw something up, sometimes he just wants to make sure I know how to treat myself." She let out a hollow laugh, like she tried to make light of the situation. "Sometimes I have to tie myself up in various ways with roots and vines to practice finer control. He says I'm doing well."

A distant howl. Very distant, faint, carried by the wind. Kirima immediately readied an attack, scanning the area again, but Alanea, aside from tensing and looking afraid for the first time since meeting her again, didn't do much.

"That was one of the feral worgen," she said. "You can tell Master's howl from them. Well, I can. If his howl is ever that far away, I know I'm in big trouble. But, thank the Earth Mother, I've been smart enough to stay around home."

"And...and escape?"

Alanea stopped walking and turned to face her. "...Escape? Where? I don't know the layout of the land entirely. And I can't escape anyway. We know what happened last time."

"If we go back to the road, we can make it to Stranglethorn Vale, and get to Grom'gol and get out of here."

Alanea laughed again, only this one was a sad laugh, a defeated tone that made Kirima wince. "Why? Master takes care of me. He...hurts, but he feeds me, makes sure I bathe regularly. He's even teaching me to cook...but I can't do much of that yet. He says if I'm a very good girl and complete both parts of my training, I can go out with him outside of the forest. And...and...and besides, if I disobey...if I..." she trailed off.

Kirima took Alanea's hand in hers, dropping her bow and the arrow completely. "Listen to yourself. He's isolated you and broken you down so much...if we make a run for it, we can make it to Grom'Gol, then take the zeppelin to Orgrimmar and get you back to your family. Even if he found out you escaped, he wouldn't dare cross the sea. The Horde is too concentrated in Kalimdor after they sacked Teldrassil."

Alanea stared at her for a few seconds. Kirima could tell she was trying to connect the dots and figure something out. A mix of fear and apprehension spread over Alanea, and she begam to stammer. "I...but...there's...there's always the chance that...he's...he's waiting for me, I know. We're deep in Alliance land...We can't...I can't..."

Kirima looked at her with extreme pity. The damage was extensive. But..even if she couldn't get her to see reason right away, there was still time, hopefully. She needed to talk to Jayden! With a sigh, she let Alanea's hand go, and picked up her bow and the arrow, and gestured for her to lead on.

Alanea took several deep breaths to calm her mind, and then resumed the walk.

Ten minutes later, she gazed upon the home. Modest, not lavish. Definitely large enough for a family, but not nothing extravagant. The door was closed, but Alanea opened it easily, showing it wasn't locked.

For a slave, he had a lot of trust in her. But maybe she long ago accepted that she was never going to get away, especially after getting raped by wild worgen.

Inside the entrance room, she saw Jayden staring at her. The worgen was sitting on a simple chair in the mostly-bare room, an arm resting on the table in front of him. A blue left eye and green right eye stared at her intently, a predator looking at prey. He stood up and moved around the table, eyes locked on her.

He was wearing his old Gilnean breastplate, tarnished and battered, and the pants he wore were more like rags than pants. The table had one of his swords, and his shield was strapped to his back. His feet made heavy steps toward the tauren, and with one gesture, he ordered Alanea to move to the side. She did, very quickly.

"What are you doing here?" Jayden asked her in a threatening voice.

"I came to talk," Kirima said. Her wanted to sound confident, but even she noticed the wariness and volume of her voice.

"Talk? About what?" He narrowed his eyes.

"About your condition."

"There's nothing to talk about," he growled.

"There is. Ashton thinks there's a way to fix it."

Jayden laughed. "Fox it? I told you, Skychaser. That's been tried."

"Not with Azerite," she replied.

Jayden's stance changed. It was enough that Alanea whimpered and took a step back from the two. He straightened up slightly, his left ear twitching. For a second, his left eye's iris glowed green, but it subsided just as quickly as it appeared. "Azerite?"

"The stuff that started coming out of Azeroth after Sargeras plunged his sword into the planet. You must have heard something about it when you kidnapped her, considering she was in Ashenvale and you took her here."

He stared at her. not in anger, but confusion. She continued quickly, knowing she was just on borrowed time now. "it's the reason Warchief Windrunner had Teldrassil destroyed. The Alliance and Horde are gathering Azerite in Kul Tiras and the South Seas. It's pure arcane energy, basically. The opposite of fel! And-and Ashton's report said that if you hold it, it can heal you, and other things. Since it can do that, I thought...I thought if we could get a chunk of it, we could heal you."

Jayden stared at her, dumbfounded. He looked at Alanea, and then at Kirima, and then back at the druid, then to the hunter. He opened his mouth, then closed it, and then opened it again, and then made sounds.

"...You came from...where, exactly?"

"Moonglade," Kirima replied.

"You came from Moonglade, all the way here, to tell me that the Alliance and Horde are fighting over something that is supposedly great and powerful and might help me...and what am I supposed to do with that knowledge?"

Kirima began to respond. She...hadn't really thought this far, if she were to be honest with herself. "W...well...I was thinking of...going to the South Seas and seeing if I could get some."

"How? What little contact I have with the outside, even I know that the Alliance is restricting movement to Kul Tiras, and I imagine the Horde is doing the same wherever they went."

"How did you get a tauren from Ashenvale to the Earstern Kingdoms?"

"Bribery can only get you so far," Jayden countered. He was keeping calm, but Kirima was starting to sense that he was probably doing his best to keep himself together. She had to speed things up.

"Look...look, go ahead and call me what you want," she began to pace up and down the room slowly, figuring she may as well just let it all out. "I feel responsible. Blackmane was out there, you saved me and...look at you, Jayden--"

"Don't," Jayden warned her.

"Look at yourself! You've...you're out here, in the middle of nowhere, You have a slave! You're...you look like a wild worgen, with all that fur...you looked so...so noble during the invasion. And look at you now. And it's my fault."

Jayden bared his fangs, growling quietly. She continued. "Her family is going to start worrying, if they haven't already. You've...you've raped her, beaten her...you've robbed her of her freedom. She's a druid, she's not here to serve you! You've put her through something nobody should ever go through!"

Jayden stomped down on the floor with one foot, his voice suddenly a roar. "Shut up!" His eye glowed again, and the veins on the left side of his head glowed under the fur briefly. Kirima took a step back, instinctively readying an arrow, while Alanea cowered, backing up several more steps.

"What's done is done, Skychaser," Jayden said, his voice lower now, eyes piercing right through her. "She's already learned to not think of escaping. This is her life now. Her family will mourn her loss, but everyone will think she died when the Horde tore through Ashenvale."

"If Ashton's right," she pointed at the collar around Alanea's neck, "and you know he's right because that collar is working just like he said it would, then it's worth a try. Look at how...look at how you haven't killed me yet. You said that you were some wild animal, but there's still some Alliance in you, some...Gil...nean? Some Gilnean in you. You say you're not Jayden, but there's still some of that left in you. Otherwise you would have...you would have tried to attack me by now."

Jayden glared at her, breathing heavily through gritted teeth, growling when he wasn't inhaling air. But he didn't do anything. She continued in a quieter voice, "Look, if...if it doesn't work out, you can have me too. It's the only way I can make up for what's happened, right?"

"I heard tales," Jayden replied. "You become some big shot hunter, leading others against the Legion."

"That doesn't mean anything anymore," she replied regrettably. "You should have been there with me and Ashton, even if he was doing his own thing."

"So let's say you get to where you're going. You can't think it's going to be as easy as just grabbing a piece of this Azerite and then leaving. If it's a big part of what's happening, it's going to be kept under close guard."

"What they have, sure, but the islands, despite how small they look on a map, are big and spread out."

"Alone?"

She opened her mouth to answer, and then realized she couldn't answer.  She hadn't thought of involving anyone else in her plan. She half was expecting it to be a suicide mission, so she didn't think to plan for anyone joining her. "W...well..." She avoided his gaze. "I haven't...really figured that out yet."

Jayden scoffed. "Stupid tauren. You may as well just cast off that chain mail and stay here."

"Until you die?"

A growl. "I intend to live out what's left of my life to the fullest. That means enjoying what I can, that means doing what I want, and what I want--"

"Is to not hurt anyone. That's why you're out here, where there's few settlements and mostly feral worgen, right? A part of you realizes the danger you are to everyone. If it wasn't for Alanea running into you, you would have been here alone."

A louder growl. "You...you...!"

He took a step toward her, and she took one back, recoiling.

He was much faster now. Grabbing his shield, he suddenly rushed forward and pinned her beside the doorway, teeth inches from her face as she was sandwiched between the shield and the wall. "You bitch!" He snarled at her. Alanea flinched at his quickness, and Kirima was wide-eyed as he closed the distance like it was nothing. She couldn't help but tremble.

"You don't know when to leave well enough alone, do you?" He asked her, practically screaming in her face. "I just want to be left alone with my tauren! I may turn into a wild animal but at least I'd have peace!"

"You can have peace if you're healed, too!" Kirima shot back, though her voice was shaking, fear obvious in her face. "Y-you wouldn't have to hide out here in the middle of nowhere!"

"There's a war going on!" Jayden countered. "The Alliance probably thinks I died during the invasion, and you...you deserted the Horde! If you go and get spotted, you'll probably be thought of as a traitor and executed! Think with your head for once in your life and realize that what you're doing is stupid!"

She grit her teeth and tried to push him back, to no real success, though she did manage to relieve the pressure on herself slightly. "You told me back then I was thick-headed, remember? Some things don't change!"

"You're damn right they don't!"

Jayden gave one quick push with the shield, making her gasp for air as she was squeezed between the battered metal and the wall, and then he stepped back, letting her catch her breath. She dropped to one knee and gasped for several seconds. He put a hand to the left side of his head and clutched it for several seconds, seething.

Kirima stood up. She realized she had one wild card left. She may as well use it. "...Alright. You're right. I'm stupid. You tell her that all the time too, I'm sure. And maybe it's true. Neither of us have done bright things in life, given where we stand right now."

There was an uncomfortable silence. Jayden didn't reply to her, but he was still taking a threatening stance with her. Alanea was shaking, as if worried he'd turn around and take it out on her for bringing Kirima here.

The hunter gestured with one of her fingers toward Alanea. "...You took her because she's a tauren."

"So what if I did?"

"I know you were thinking of putting that collar on me," Kitima replied. "You ran instead. I know you want to put another on me still. The great Huntmaster, a slave. That's sick, but a lot of sick things are happening in Azeroth right now."

She was going to regret this, she knew, but she had to try it. She took a deep breath and held it for a seconds before continuing. "...Since I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm probably going to get myself killed...maybe you should come with me."

Alanea's eyes widened. Jayden cocked an eyebrow at her, unsure if he should get upset or not. "...You want me to go with you?"

"If I get killed out there, you're never going to have me."

Jayden scoffed.

Kirima gestured to herself with a hand. "Scoff all you want. if I get killed for deserting the Horde or if something happens out there, you're going to lose me. And I know that you want to be the one doing the hurt, because you want the revenge. You want to break me like you broke Alanea." She paused. If she continued talking it wasn't going to end well for her; her future was going to be decided now, whether she wanted it or not.

"...After everything that's happened...all of the pain and terror on the Broken Isles, the naga, the Emerald Nightmare, Argus...I made a lot of friends, Jayden." She looked at him with earnest eyes, voice still shaking, more now from sadness than fear as the memories flashed by her. "I've come to know people on the Alliance side I've only heard about before. The Trueshot Lodge...you should have seen it. It was almost like a hunter's paradise. Then we come back home, a large sword inside our very planet...for us tauren, we could almost hear the Earth Mother crying in pain. I helped stop the blade from causing more harm, but even as we speak, the planet suffers. And now the Alliance and the Horde are fighting again. Even the druids are fighting.

"I can't bear the thought of having to fight against the hunters that called me Huntmaster. I don't know if they would hesitate to do the same for me, but I can't bear to face them on a battlefield, or on a mission from the Warchief or any of the other high ranking members of the Horde. And seeing what's happened to you...I was very successful, and you weren't. And part of me knows I owe you for it since you could have just let me die in the Barrens."

She took several more deep breaths, trying to fight back tears. She tossed her bow at him, and he caught it with his free hand.

"You want me? Fine. Have me. Hurt me. Rape me. Break me down until I'm just like Alanea. But I ask you—I beg you—let me have this at least. Come with me. To Kul Tiras, to the South Seas, I don't care. Come with me and let's at least try. If it works...if it works, we'll see what happens. if it doesn't work, then you get to come back here and enjoy two young tauren for as long as you live."

She couldn't take it back now. Ultimately, she didn't care what happened to her anymore. Like him, she had deserted the call of their faction. And like him, if she were to be found out, she would likely get locked away if not outright killed. She would need to be like him, living a fair bit away from others, only doing what she needed to survive. As far as she cared, she was going to be in hiding anyway, she may as well make someone else happy while in exile.

But if this worked, then she could at least have a clear conscience about it. And he would find peace while still being himself...mostly. Ashton was gone now, so she couldn't go for any more details than what she had already, but what she had was nothing, really.

She kept an eye on Jayden's reaction. His eyes flashed with a dangerous anger, but once again, they subsided. The glow in his eye appeared and vanished just as fast. He huffed, scoffed, and pasted back and forth between her and the table. She knew he was mulling over if he should entertain her or just capture her right now. That only proved her point more; he wasn't a feral monster yet. He was probably close, but there was still some of who eh used to be in there. And maybe he reveled in being some monster worgen, but he wasn't far gone yet. There was still a chance.

His fists clenched tightly, and Kirima held her breath. He cast an aside glance at her for several seconds, and then growled. "You're staying for the night," he said.

Kirima blinked, unsure what to make of the statement. No, it wasn't a statement. "...So are you--"

"I'm going to think it over," he told her. He then added quietly, "Stupid calf doesn't know when to leave well enough alone..."

He grabbed his sword from the table. "Alanea, bed."

"Yes, Master!" Alanea exclaimed quickly, practically tripping over herself running out of the room.

Jayden pointed the sword at Kirima. She didn't dare move as he stared her down. "I hope you brought a sleeping bag, unless you want to risk sleeping with me and what that will entail."

"I have a sleeping bag," Kirima replied.

"You're lucky I have my eye on you or you never would be leaving this house."

"I know..."

"And from now on you address me as Andereon. Jayden's gone."

"I don't believe that. But...but alright, Andereon."

Andereon let out a huff of air and began to walk to the back doorway. "You're sleeping in Alanea's room tonight."

"Alright."

"And this," he held up the bow in his other hand, "stays with me."

"That's fine."

"Good. I'll see you in the morning. Pray to your precious Earth Mother that I don't decide to see you earlier than that."

He left her sight as he stepped through the doorway. Kirima began to breathe heavily as the weight of the situation finally hit her. She was throwing her life away.  Now that she had stepped into his house, she was his, and he was going to keep her no matter what. But the price was worth it. If she was going to be some hunter in exile, a fallen hero of the Horde, then it would be better it be this way than be alone. Their new lives, intertwined in one way or another.

She just hoped they all would be able to actually live their new lives after this.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Chapter 3: A Hunter's Gamble", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/rtf", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" }, { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "66" }