We rushed out of Silvermoon with alarming speed and reached the outskirts of Eversong Forest. Lynnius checked our surroundings and made a “follow me” motion. She slipped into the shadows of the forest and immediately blended in with her surroundings.
“Stupid… rogue… pointy eared… pink skinned… good for nothing…”
“Jarisi! Over here!” Lynnius whispered in harsh tones. I stopped my complaining only to replace it with a low growl. I miss the bar already, assassin and all.
Lynnius crouched near a large tree that had many branches sagging low to the ground, it created a make-shift tent of sorts. She dropped her knapsack and took out a loaf of hard crusted bread and two small apples. With frightening ease she sliced the apple into bite size pieces and offered some of them to me along with a chunk of bread.
“What am I supposed to do with that?” I asked looking at her out reached hand.
“Eat. We will need to think of a plan, and to also try to figure out how our paths crossed and why I was sent to save you.” While she was yapping her perfect elf mouth, I was still trying to figure out this “food” she was trying to kill me with. Closing my eyes I put a piece of it into my mouth and started chewing.
“Oh Gods… this is horrid.”
“Well get used to it. Your diet of ale and spirits is over with. I’ll need your brawn and strength for the road ahead….. and you could lose a few pounds too.” She looked me up and down and shook her head and mumbled something under her breath.
“What, you didn’t save me for my good looks and wit?” I then began to do a dance that would make even the raunchiest person blush. I grinded my hips and then gyrated back and forth while holding my hands in the air. The Elf’s eyes grew wide and I thought I saw a slight hint of smile cross her lips before it faded away back into her expressionless stare.
“Stop that, you’ll scare all the animals within a half mile and then everyone would know our location. We need to keep a low profile the next few days. I suggest that you keep to yourself and not talk to anyone for a few days, excluding me. Don’t try to get in touch with family or friends for they may try and alert the guards, or worse, your assassin to our temporary hiding spot.”
“I killed my family.” I couldn’t believe those words were coming from me.
“What was that?” Lynnius asked.
“I killed my family.” I repeated, shocked again at saying it. I looked up to meet her stare and was a little taken back when I didn’t see a look of surprise or disgust on her face. Her eyes held mine and for a moment it looked like she was about to say something, then thought better of it. She dropped her gaze and began to shove everything back into her sack.
“Come, we can talk about a plan later. Let’s move further away from the city and find a cave or hollow tree that we settle in for the night.” She stood up and began moving through the forest as if she was part of it.
“You aren’t even going to ask any questions? Don’t you want to know what happened and why I would do such a thing?” I struggled to keep up with her pace and kept tripping over stones. More than once a tree branch seemed to come from nowhere and slap me in the face.
“We all have to do what we need to do at times. What happened in your past is of no business of mine. But this may make things more complicated. Have you ever thought this was the reason why someone was sent to kill you?”
“I… “
Before I could even continue speaking, the ground in front of us shot up and a loud explosion filled our ears. I grabbed the elf and pushed her hard to our right. We fell, coughing and sputtering and brushing dirt and plants from our selves. As the smoke was settling, tufts of white fluffy particles were falling from the sky and landing all around us.
“Snow?” I asked trying to grab one in mid flight. It definitely wasn’t snow, but I couldn’t seem to place this familiar fluffy substance. Then I remembered. “Sheep.” I said correcting myself.
I got up and put my hand down to help the elf but she was already on her feet, daggers unsheathed and at a ready position. Suddenly a figure popped out in front of us and before I could even blink, two daggers were sticking out of its chest. The figured swayed back and forth repeatedly but didn’t fall. It even seemed to be waving at us, taunting our failed attack. I approached the target only to find it a wooden dummy attached to springs and a box. I plucked out her daggers and handed them back to her.
“What is going on here?” Lynnius asked. Just as the words escaped her mouth, a male Blood Elf appeared from the woods followed by a giant white bear. He was talking to his bear and looking confused at the giant hole where we were just standing.
“Now that’s just not right Art, how could our exploding sheep have wandered off this far? I gave it specific instructions to explode directly on top of the snow shoe hare over to the west of here. Why did he come this way? And what is my target dummy doing out of its box!? Art, are you playing pranks again? Well I don’t think it’s very funny. You know I take my engineering very seriously! Don’t look at me that way Art! OH LOOK! Spare parts! Help me gather these. Did I say eat that mushroom? NO. Get back here and put this dummy back in his box. Art? Oh bother. Hey look footprints. OH. Well hello. Art, you didn’t tell me you invited friends over!”
Lynnius and I stood and stared and didn’t speak. I think we were both stuck in a stupor by this time. The occurrence was just too strange to have just happened. I reached for my axe but remembered it wasn’t there, and hasn’t been for a while.
“Art, your friends are very rude and haven’t introduced themselves. Bears have the strangest taste in people. Not literally of course. Hi. I’m Uros, Hunter Engineer extraordinaire. Pleased to meet you!”
He outstretched his arm to shake our hand, only to have all the engineering parts he was gathering fall to the ground. Mumbling and cursing he dropped down to pick them up again, seeming to forget our presence for the time being. Lynnius and I looked at each other and shrugged in unison.
“I’m Lynnius and this Orc is Jarisi. You almost killed us with that exploding sheep you know.” She lowered her brow and stared at him with her hard cold eyes. Instead of being intimidated he smiled and laughed.
“Art! Did you hear that? They think we tried to kill them! Now why would I waste an exploding sheep on the likes of you two? I save those for more ferocious animals. Speaking of which, where did that snow shoe hare go?” He turned and began to wander back in the direction he appeared from. Oblivious to the two of us again.
“Hunters….” Lynnius said through clenched teeth. “Think they know everything and can do anything. Come Jarisi. We didn’t cross paths with this one on accident. Something greater is at play here and I want to find out what.”
I blinked and tried to figure out all that was happening. Oh how my life has changed in the past few months. I just can’t wait to see what I stumble upon next. Maybe an Ogre!? A Dragon?! Or maybe Arthas himself?! Ha… That one made me laugh.
