Site Write Round 3
Finale Entry
The Long Way Home
The sun sat high in the sky, half hidden by the orange smog of the
Eastern Plaguelands. Were one watching from above they would have
seen the creatures of the area, as diseased and mutated as they may
be, running this way and that, going about their days. To the west
stood the bridge that connected the Eastern Plaguelands to their
Western, healing, sibling. Crossing it was a deceased Worgen.
Resting on his head was an old leather hat, its condition better
than it should be based on its age. One could still identify a few
black marks where, though they likely wouldn't know it, Beckyann
Eastberg had cried against it while she waited for the Worgen to
hopefully wake up after an incident. It had holes cut in the top of
it for his ears to poke through while still doing its job, that being
to cover his head. Below the hat the Worgen's face was rather
neutral, glowing blue eyes signifying him as a Death Knight, his fur
a darker shade of blue. The armor he wore was a black-blue, Saronite,
covered with his black and white tabard a skull on both sides of it.
Unlike some, he wore no pauldrons, no helm, and no cloak.
His pace was slow and steady, arms slowly shifting back and forth
while he walked, eyes slowly shifting around to examine his
surroundings, not that he needed to. He had walked down this path
enough times to know the land well. Of course, there wasn't much land
to see. Plagued grounds, and trees for some time, before the old
homes would start, some in one pieces, others having degraded to the
point where you could easily see inside them. As he came upon the
first one, his pace slowed, before out right stopping as he stared at
it. Rather, at those in front of it.
He could recognize it easily as the first house one might encounter
on the road, as well as it being one of those that had survived well
enough to be in one piece, roof still hanging overhead, walls still
supporting it. In the past, though, it had been abandoned. Now there
were three men standing outside of it. One was pounding his fist
against the door, the other two standing behind him. Of those two,
one was resting against an ax, the other a club.
“Come on! Open it up! We just wanna talk!” the man yelled,
pounding more against the door. Redamous silently approached them,
standing back, arms crossed. The man kicked the door, “Open it now!
We can break it down! Ken back here's got an ax!” He glanced over
his shoulder at the two behind him, namely the one on the right, “Get
the ax ready.”
Ken nodded to the man, bringing the ax's head from the ground,
holding the weapon with both hands now. He slowly stepped forward,
offering it to the man at the door, who turned to take it. “Lewis,
get ready to bash her brains out. Let the plaguehounds find her for
all I care.” Lewis nodded, stepping up to the door, raising the
club's head up and dropping it down into his hands over and over.
Red coughed into his hand, causing the three to turn with a start.
The Worgen slowly looked them over, examining their respective
weapons, before looking directly at the man knocking on the door.
When he spoke, his voice maintained a fairly neutral tone,
“Problems?”
The man knocking took in a deep breath, looking at the Worgen. He
shot a glance to both of his sides, slowly offering Ken his ax back,
before drawing a knife from his belt. Using the knife, he motioned
for Red to continue on up the road, smiling as politely as a shark
would to its prey, “Just. Keep going. Nothing to see here. None of
your business.”
“Well,” Red said, looking at the knife, “When you put it like
that, suppose it ain't none o' my business. But now I'm deathly
curious, 'cause now you're kinda threatenin' me there mate. So. Maybe
you folks should be the ones to keep walkin'.”
“Can't,” the man said, tapping the blade against the palm of his
hand, “Kind of invested in this, you see.” He turned the blade in
his hand, grabbing it by its tip, before flinging it at the Worgen.
Red ducked, watching the knife fly over his head. Turning to look at
the men again, he frowned, shaking his head, “Oh you're gonna wish
you hadn' done that one, mate.”
Without any warning, Red reached out, unholy energies slamming the
two men at the knife thrower's sides against the ground, pulling them
closer to the Worgen. The remaining man blinked, eyes widening as he
retreated only to find his back hitting against the door. The Worgen
charged, slamming into him, before grabbing his shoulders and tossing
him to the ground. He stared down at all three of them, face the
picture of calm. Lewis began to slowly rise from the ground, only to
find the Worgen's foot pressing him back towards the dirt, and his
weapon tossed somewhere. Ken didn't even try to rise, only hearing
the snapping of the wooden ax across the Worgen's knee. Both of them
watched, horrified, as the Worgen brought a claw close to their
leader's throat.
“Now. You get a few options here. All of them involve you leaving.
One of them involves you walking while you do that. Another don't.
Take your pick,” Red said, not even trying to sound threatening by
this point.
The man stared at him for a few short moments, testing to see if he
could actually physically end the Worgen with his gaze. Sadly for
him, he could not. “Fine,” he finally said, growling more than
the Worgen had the entire time.
Red nodded, rising, motioning for them to leave. They slowly pushed
themselves off the ground, the first two not even leaving the Death
Knight a second to go back on his word, bolting The third stared Red
down, before doing the same.
Once he was certain that he was the only one left nearby, Redamous
turned to look at the house. He wanted to just continue up the path
and leave it be, but a morbid sense of curiosity wasn't about to let
that happen, especially not after all of that. Approaching the house,
he looked left and right, trying to peek through the windows to find
them too dusty for such. Slowly, he reached out to try the doorknob,
surprised when he found it unlocked.
The door opened with a loud creak. He let it remain open for a time,
peering into the small one room home, until he decided that it had
to be empty. First one of his feet crept forward, before being
followed by the other, until he had brought himself fully inside. As
he peered further and further into the back of the room, he entirely
missed the figure sneaking up behind him, wielding a large piece of
wood, before slamming it against the back of Red's head. The Worgen
dropped to his knees, before slumping forward face first onto the
dusty wooden floor.
------
“Shit,” he heard someone say. A
girl, and not too old by the sounds of it. “Oh shit shit shit,”
they said again. He could feel a hand pressing up against his throat
in a few places, checking for a pulse that they would never possibly
find.
“He's dead. Oh shit he's dead,”
they said, voice growing more and more panicked, their footsteps
echoing around the room as they paced about, up and down to his
right. “What the hell am I going to do with a dead guy? I can leave
him here. Yeah, yeah. Who's gonna come looking for a dead guy? I mean
really. They'll just figure bandits did it, or something. Yeah. Oh
shit it's a dead guy. I killed him. I killed him. No. Wait. Maybe
they killed him. I bet they hurt him, and I just finished him off.
Yeah. That's got to be it.”
He could feel a hand poking against
the side of his head, yet he still decided to keep his eyes closed,
“Maybe I could take his hat.”
Red groaned, turning over to where
he was on his back, slowly opening his eyes, just in time to see the
girl recoil in horror. “You ain't stealin' my hat,” he grumbled,
sitting up and rubbing his head. He slowly looked her over, blinking
a few times, “What in the holy hell are you doin' out here?”
The girl couldn't have been more
than fifteen, if she was that much. She was wearing a red cloth shirt
that was untucked, leaving it to hang over ever so slightly her
darker cloth pants. Her shoes were older, and worn, brown hair tied
back to rest against her back. She slowly regained her composure,
crossing her arms across her chest to stare at him, “I'm out here
'cause I want to be out here. Simple as that.”
“Well you shouldn't be, simple as
that,” he said, still patting his head to make sure that nothing
was damaged. He was looking for any sort of structural damage. The
last thing he was worried about was brain damage.
“Not like it's any of your
business,” she said, moving over to a spot on the windows that she
had dusted off to have a view outside.
Red rose slowly, grunting slightly
as he did so, “No, it ain't, but still, you shouldn't be out here.”
Noticing what she was doing, he added, “They're gone.”
She let out a sigh of relief,
looking back at him, “Do I have to say thank you?”
“Wouldn't hurt,” he said,
“Maybe tack on an 'I'm sorry' while you're at it too.
She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, sorry
about that. Can't be too careful.”
“Uh huh,” he muttered, staring
at her, “Again. What in the world are you doing out here?”
She was only half paying attention
to him at this point as she wandered around the room, picking up a
few things scattered across the floor. A knife, what looked to be a
few cans of food, a bedroll. All those things were shoved into a pack
that soon went onto her back. She looked up at him when she was
finished, shrugging, “Stuff.” With that, she headed towards the
door, exiting the house.
Red blinked, following her. When he
exited back out into the Plaguelands, he found her walking further up
the road, the sun making quite some progress in its trek towards the
west. Sighing, he followed after her, a voice screaming in the back
of his head that he was going to regret it.
She could hear him coming up behind
her, but she never turned to look at him. Instead her focus was on
the sights around her, whether that be the number of dying trees, or
the old ruins of homes. Occasionally an animal would scurry across
the road in front of her, and she would try to follow it with her
eyes for as long as she could.
“Oi,” Red said, trying to draw
her attention while still keeping a distance behind her. She wasn't
walking extremely fast, making that rather easy. “Where in the
world do you think you're going?”
“This way,” she said, pointing
forward.
Red sighed, “Why.”
“I feel like it, I guess,” she
said, offering a simple shrug, “Let me guess. I'm probably gonna
get eaten, aren't I?”
“Ain't my problem,” Red said,
looking around himself. They were passing through by one of the old
ruins of a town.
“Then why are you heading this
way, huh?” she asked, turning around and walking backwards to look
at him.
Red blinked, staring at her,
“...'Cause.”
“Well if it isn't your problem,
why are you walking this way?” she said, looking amused now.
“'Cause you shouldn't be walkin'
through here. That's why.”
“Didn't you just say that wasn't
your problem?” She was smirking by now.
“It ain't.”
She turned, walking forward again,
“Then you're welcome to leave! Before you get eaten too! Besides,
haven't you heard that old story about a Worgen chasing a girl
through a dark forest?”
Red opened his mouth to speak,
before shutting it and simply following along. She said nothing more
to him, taking in her surroundings. They walked in silence, him a few
feet behind her. After awhile, his ears twitched ever so slightly. He
reached forward, resting a hand against her shoulder, feeling her
tense up under it. She turned, looking prepared to run, but he shook
his head, grabbing her shoulder to prevent her from doing so. When he
knew she was going to be ready to scream, he put a finger against his
lips, looking around again.
Somewhere behind them, a twig
snapped. Her eyes grew wide, and she slowly nodded, stepping slightly
closer to him. Red's eyes shot around, this way and that, seeking out
the source of the noise. A figure slowly moved through the trees
around them, first appearing here, then there, before finally
emerging to their left.
Its skin was rotting, and it was
missing an eye that it didn't bother to cover. Adorned in leather
armor, two knives on its belt, the Forsaken tried to grin with what
was left of its face. He tilted his head this way and that, trying to
make sense of the situation, only finding it more and more amusing.
His voice was a horrible cracking tone, “Well isn't this
interesting.”
Red slowly slid the girl behind
him, staring the Forsaken down as it slowly inched closer to them.
“Suppose you could see it that way,” he said, keeping his cool
about him.
“Oh I think it is,” the
Forsaken crackled out, tapping a finger against the side of his face,
“A Gilnean mutt, and a bald little pup to go with him. That's quite
the picture, you know. It's very entertaining.” He slowly began
circling the pair, Red turning to make sure that he kept himself
between the Forsaken and the girl. “Protective one, aren't you?”
“An' you're a patchworked creep,”
Red said, staring, “Now that we're all established, why don't you
just keep walking.” From behind him, the girl glanced up at him,
looking thankful.
“No fun in that,” he cooed,
stepping closer to the Worgen. The space between them was shrinking,
the two of them waiting for the other to make a move. The Forsaken's
fingers played over the hilt of his daggers, waiting. Upon the
Forsaken's next step, Red muttered something under his breath,
rushing forward.
The Forsaken grinned, trying to
pull his daggers from their resting places, only to find that he
couldn't down. He looked down to find that they had been frozen in
place. When he looked back up it was in the split-second before the
Worgen slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. Red stared down
at the other undead, who hardly looked worried. The Forsaken brought
his elbow up against the Worgen's nose, using the point where he
lifted his head up from it to bring his knee against Red's stomach,
flipping him over to where the Forsaken now sat on top.
Smashing a hand against one of his
daggers, the ice around it broke and the Forsaken drew it against the
Worgen's throat, “Someone decided to be all playful, didn't they. I
knew you were a playful puppy all along. You just look it. Pent up
rage and all that. So come on little puppy. Toss me around a bit. Or
try.” He brought the dagger closer to Red's throat, smiling, “Off
with his head, they said.”
He began the motion to begin
cutting into the Worgen's neck. Red began to try to push the Forsaken
off of him, before seeing the girl standing over them, a large rock
in hand. She heaved it against the Forsaken's head, it landing with a
large thud, his teeth slamming against each other a few breaking out.
There was a horrible crack as Red could practically feel
the thing's skull crunch. Red jerked his head to the right, nearly
being hit by the rock as it slid forward off of the Forsaken's
squished head.
Casually pushing the at least
stunned Forsaken off of him, Red stood. Staring down at the it, he
took a step back, running forward and kicking its head clean off for
good measure. He sighed, looking to the girl, offering her a faint
nod, “Thanks.”
“D-did...D-did I...” she
covered her mouth, stepping back from the decapitated creature. “Did
I kill it...” Her voice was hoarse, and worried. She didn't even
wait for a reply, heading for a dry bush, retching into it.
Red sighed, walking over to gently
pat her on the back. When she had recovered someone, he looked down
at the re-deceased, “I think I did. So lets put that one on me, and
you not worry about it. Okay?” She slowly nodded, hands still
covering her mouth. For a moment, he was worried she was going to be
ill again. He sighed, trying to lead her a bit further up the road.
“Come on. You need to lie down, and it's getting late. You got food
and a sleeping bag or somethin', right?”
She simply nodded, and said nothing more.
-----
Night found the two sitting around
a campfire that Red had started. He sat on one said, resting back
against a log, watching her on the other side eat while curled up
halfway in a sleeping bag. Her eyes mainly rested against the fire, a
can of soup and a spoon in her hand. She slowly ate, he simply
watched.
Earlier when she had pulled out the
cans, she had offered him one, but he had declined, leaving her to
give him an odd look. He was certain she was eventually going to ask,
but as of yet she hadn't. Yet.
“So,” she said, glancing up at
him, “Why are you out here?”
He looked towards the dark woods,
before looking back to her and shrugging, “Live out here, I guess.”
“Odd place to live, if you ask
me,” she muttered, looking back at the fire. “Do you have any
family or anything?”
“Kinda,” he said, shrugging
again, “Kinda. I got folks I hang around. I trust 'em enough. They
ain't blood or nothin', but they're close enough to count. Make
sense?”
“I guess,” she said, looking up
at him again. She eyed him over, before looking up at his face, “Why
are you following me?”
“'Cause. I ain't gonna let no kid
get killed out here 'cause they ain't gonna turn around and be
sensible.”
“Uh huh,” she said, looking at
the fire, “I have to be out here. I have things I want to do.”
“And what kinda o' things are
those,” he said, shifting forward a bit, elbows resting against his
knees, “Gettin' yourself robbed or worse by bandits or whatever the
hell those guys were? Maybe getting' eaten by an animal or somethin'.
What could you possibly have to do out here?”
“I don't think that's any of your
damn business,” she said, glaring at him, for a moment sounding
older than she was. “If I wanna come out here, that's none of your
business. Didn't you already say it wasn't your problem?”
He frowned, “Yeah, I did.”
“Well it isn't your problem. And
I recall you saying you don't care, either, so why are you really
here?” she said accusingly.
“'Like I said. I ain't about to
let you get yourself killed, kid,” he said, “'Cause you're in a
place that ain't safe for you, and you got a bit of a ways to go
'fore I can make sure some paladin makes sure you get shoved on a
gryphon back to Stormwind. That's why.”
“So you do care,” she said,
pointing her spoon at him, “You just don't want to admit, right?
Come on. Just say it. You're worried about me.”
“I ain't havin' you dyin' on my
conscience.”
She sighed, shaking her head, “Good
to know.”
They sat in silence for some time,
her eating, him watching. Every now and then he would toss a stick
into the fire, letting out a short sigh. Finally, he broke the
silence again, “You got a name?”
“Well duh,” she said, sticking
her tongue out at her, “Everyone has a name.”
“And yours is...” He sighed,
tossing another stick into the fire. He was far from in the mood for
this.
“Ashley,” she said. She set her
can aside, now that it was empty, leaning forward to caustiously
stick her hand over the fire, “Ashley.”
Red tried to smirk, shaking the
hand, “Redamous. You can call me Red, if you want.”
She nodded, “I guess I'll go
with...Red? Red works. You don't look very Red, though. More blue.
'Specially your eyes. What's up with that?”
“It's a long story that ain't
worth tellin' right now,” he said, frowning slightly. No, she
actually had no idea. Odd.
She let out a yawn, nodding, “Maybe
another time?”
He nodded, “Maybe another time.”
Ashley tucked herself deeper into
the sleeping bag, resting back against the ground, and closed her
eyes. Silence over took the small makeshift camp again, leaving the
Worgen to watch her, the only thought running through his mind being
him questioning why in the world he was still there.
-----
“I'm heading home, Dom.”
“Well I sure as hell ain't. If
you wanna let some deader push you around, that's your problem,
Lewis. Girl's probably still alive, if he didn't eat her or
something.”
“And if he did?"
“Then I doubt he took her shit.”
“I'm with Lewis, Dom. I'm going
home. Not worth it. How much do you even think we'd be getting?”
“Easily three hundred."
“You really want to do all of
this for a hundred gold. You're gonna mess around in the Plaguelands
for that much? Not worth it.”
“Well screw you then. Mine.”
“You're freaking nuts.”
“Hey, if he wants to meet his
maker, let him. Not our faults.”
“Yep. Good luck with that, Dom.
Really. Don't screw the pooch too hard.”
-----
As she rolled up her sleeping bag
and put everything back where it belonged in her pack, Red idly
kicked out the remaining embers of the fire. Considering he had
nothing to collect himself, they were only waiting on her.
“Sure you don't want me to carry
that for you?” Red said as they headed off down the back.
She grunted a little as she
adjusted the bag, shaking her head, “Nope. All mine."
“I ain't gonna steal nothin', you
know,” he said, smirking.
“I don't care. I got it. You're
just gonna keep following me, aren't you?” She didn't sound sad
about that fact. Though she still didn't sound certain about it
either.
“For now, I guess. At least gotta
make sure you get to the Chapel. Gryphons are there.”
Even though she liked to think she
said it quiet enough that he didn't hear it, his ears twitched
slightly as she muttered softly “Keep telling yourself that.”
There was nothing of note for some
time after that. The path was much like others in the Plaguelands,
deteriorated. Around them, the trees remained dead, the ground dark
and dead, the trees dying. Suffice to say the Plaguelands lived up to
their namesake. Eventually a tower in the distance came into view,
the bright light shining from its top shooting straight into the sky
seemingly forever. She stopped in her tracks, staring up at at it.
“What is it?” she said, craning
her neck as far as possible.
“It's a tower?” Red said, not
entirely certain what she was asking.
“No, no. Why's it all bright up
there?” she said, turning his head up towards the light.
“Oh. That? I dunno. Beacon or
somethin'? Paladin's tower. Probably the Light or something,” he
grumbled.
“Can we go look at it?” she
asked, looking up at him. She immediately coughed into her hand, “I
mean. I'm gonna go look at it. You can stay here if you want to wait
for me or something.”
“Think I will,” he said,
glancing at her, “Just. Please don't go running off without me.”
She shrugged, running up the hill
towards the tower, “Don't start caring or anything.”
From where he stood, arms crossed,
he could see her talking to one of the paladins at the tower. He
sighed, shaking his head. Why in the world was he even still here?
The obvious and most likely answer he hated. To make sure she was
okay. Wasn't that the exact same thing he had criticized Beck for the
other day? Trying to take care of a kid that wasn't her's? It was
that or she was probably going to get herself guild, and like he
said, there was no way he was going to let that sit on his
conscience.
When he saw her returning, he
frowned slightly. A paladin was following at a distance behind her,
and as best as he could tell, she wasn't aware of it. When she got
reached him, she began to speak, before the paladin beat her to it,
“Has this man been following you?"
She turned suddenly to look at the
paladin, mouth dropping open slightly, “Uh. Well. Kind of.”
“I see,” the paladin muttered,
stepping forward, pushing the girl behind him much as Red had done
the previous day. The Worgen was less than pleased with the motion.
“Is there a reason for that?”
Red frowned, “I'm makin' sure
she's not gonna get 'erself killed, pal. You got a problem with
that?”
“Actually,” the paladin began
to say.
“He's fine,” the girl said.
When Red looked at her, her eyes shot straight to the ground, before
she found the nerve to look back up at the paladin. “He's fine. I
know what I'm doing, and if I say he's fine, then he's fine. It's
none of your business, buddy.”
Red glanced at the paladin,
smirking slightly, but shrugging. He scowled in return, mouthing the
words “Watch it.” The Worgen nodded, tipping his hat politely to
the man, before looking to the girl, “We movin' on?”
She nodded in return to him, “We're
moving on. Have a nice day, sir.” She bowed slightly to the
paladin, before they began to walk up the road again.
-----
“Why'd you do that?” Red asked,
staring at her back.
“Why'd I do what?” she said
innocently enough, not returning his look.
“Stick up for me.”
“That? I don't know. Don't think
about it. I don't care, if that's what you're thinking.”
“Not implying that.”
“He was gonna yell at you or make
a scene when you haven't done anything wrong. Yet.”
Red raised an eyebrow slightly,
“Yet?”
“It only takes once, I guess,”
she said in return. “And you never know when that once will be, do
you?”
“No, suppose you don't.”
-----
They stopped further down the road
when they came to a fork. To their left stood another tower, the road
passing right by it. The road to their right ran off towards a town,
a wooden signpost on it bearing a skull and crossbones. Beyond the
sign, a number of shapes could be seen moving in and out. Some where
transparent spirits, other more physical, yet ghoulish. She slowly
backed up towards him.
“What's that way?” she said,
peering up at him.
“That's uh. Oh what's it called.
Corin's Crossing. Little town. Was a little town,” he said, looking
down at her.
“Oh,” she said, peering back at
the town. She started leaning this way and that, tilting her head as
if searching for something, “My mom's from Corin's Crossing. What
happened to it?"
“Well,” Red started, before
pulling his hat off his head and scratching behind one of his ears,
“Somethin' bad, obviously. Same thing that happened to the rest of
the stuff around here. It got plagued, an' well. It wasn't a very
happy endin'.”
“Oh,” she said again, frowning.
Ashley pointed towards one of the houses that sat on a corner near
the center of town, “I think that was my mom's house. She said it
was somewhere near there. On a corner.”
Red nodded, glancing downward
again, “Ain't your parents worried about you?”
She blinked, looking up at him, her
voice never faltering once, “Nope.”
“Right,” he said, leading her
towards the left path, “Lets not wait too long, then. Night's gonna
be gettin' here soon.”
-----
As they passed the tower, the Light
not present at the top of this one for some reason, he could feel at
least a dozen eyes on him, most of them with some degree of malice.
All the same, no one stopped them, and they continued on without any
sort of conflict from those of the Light.
By now they were following the
river, their reflections barely visible against its dark waters. In
front of them, a few slugs crossed the road. She stopped and stepped
back when one of them grew close to them, but he assured her that it
wasn't likely to harm them. If it tried, it wouldn't be too hard to
either get rid of it, or leave it behind.
They eventually saw a pair of
figures in the distance, slowly approaching them. Based on the noise,
they were invested in their own conversation, and Red was fairly
certain that they had yet to see him. He led her off the path, much
to her annoyance, positioning them behind a tree. When the other pair
passed, her eyes went wide and she pressed her back against him when
she saw that they were two Forsaken. Red assured her when they were
gone, shooting a glance up at the sky and the dying light. With that
said, he went about gathering wood, and soon enough they were sitting
at a camp again.
“What's wrong with those guys?”
she said, much as he had expected her to, taking another spoonful of
beans out of a can.
Red frowned, looking at the fire
over looking at her, “Honest answer?”
“Sure.”
“They're dead,” he muttered.
Red glanced up at her, noting the odd look she gave him, “Well.
They were dead. They aren't now. Somebody kind of brought 'em back.
'Cept they ain't alive again.
“Oh,” she said, looking down at
the fire, “So they can get hurt worse and stuff? That must suck.
Are they all mean like that?”
He chuckled, shaking his head, “I'd
like to think not all of us are mean like that, no.
Ashley blinked, finishing off her
food and setting it aside, “Us?” She gulped, realizing what that
meant, “Is that why you don't eat or sleep or anything? Because
you're like them?”
“Not entirely, I guess,” he
said, shrugging, “We're put together differently, if that makes
sense. Held together by different things. Kinda like how you can make
somethin' outta different metal, I suppose.”
“Sounds like a shitty deal,”
she said, frowning at him.
“Kind of is, I suppose. Things
could be worse. Could be some mindless thing looking to kill folks or
somethin'. I sure as hell ain't that. An' no. I ain't gonna hurt you
or nothin'. I'm not like them in that regard,” he said, smiling at
her.
“Hey,” she said, raising her
hands defensively. “I never said anything like that. You did.”
“Right,” Red said, nodding,
“Just wanted to make sure you got that.”
“Like you would tell me if you
were gonna hurt me,” she said.
Red frowned, nodding, “Right.”
“So are you as uh,” she said,
breaking the silence that set in after his last word, “Those people
you talked about earlier. Do you act like this around them? What's
the word for it? Detached?”
The Worgen frowned even more,
staring at the fire and thinking. After a bit of time, he shrugged,
“Maybe. Sometimes.”
She yawned, resting back and
working her way deeper into her sleeping bag, “It sounds lonely.”
After he was certain she was
asleep, Red muttered to himself, “I guess it is.”
-----
By the middle of the next day, they
stood outside of the walls surrounding Light’s Hope Chapel. The
Worgen’s arms were crossed, the girl staring back and forth between
him and the Chapel itself. Inside the walls, people were going about
their business. A dwarf was smithing, a few of the guards were
talking amongst themselves, while others were haggling with a
merchant or two. Somewhere in the camp Red could smell someone
cooking.
Ashley looked between the Worgen and the Chapel, frowning. She shook her head, pointing back down the road, “I’m going that way.”
Red sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Just how far are you goin’, exactly?”
“The ocean,” she said, looking past the Chapel to the lands behind it. “We’re close, right?”
The Death Knight sighed, nodding, “Yeah. We’re close, I guess.”
“Well,” she said, “I guess if I have to, I’ll just make sure one of those guys gets me there. Sound like a plan?” He shook his head. “What? It’ll be ‘safe’. That’s all you really care about, right? Besides, if I die, it won’t be your problem.”
“You ain’t doin’ that,” he said, turning to walk back the way they came.
She stared at him in disbelief, walking after him, “And why the hell not?”
“’Cause. No need to bother those folks when I’m already makin’ sure you’re gettin’ there.”
Behind him, the girl smirked. She bit her lip and shook her head, doing her best to hold off a remark.
-----
They stopped in Tyr’s Hand come the evening, and he rested by the fountain, allowing her to wander the settlement. He could only hope that she wouldn’t run off without him, what with the light of the day fading, but they were close enough to her destination that he was certain that should she decide to do so, he would be able to catch up quickly.
A few of the people walking around the settlement shot him odd glances, but most were polite enough to offer him a faint nod. The Ebon Hold was close by. The last thing they wanted was to make one of its inhabitants angry. In return to their nods, he would politely tip his hat, and offer a smile in return. Though it struck them as odd, they weren’t about to deny the seemingly passive Death Knight that he was at least courteous.
Every now and then he would see her
leave one building and wander on to the next, moving from the inn, to
the library, to the chapel, and finally up the hill to the large
Cathedral near the northeast end of the settlement. As it got later
and later, he could smell food being cooked somewhere and hear people
talking. A glance over his shoulder confirmed that there was smoke
rising from one of the buildings, and probably most of the
settlement’s inhabitants wandering over in that direction. He spied
Ashley among them.
He sat, enjoying the constant buzz
of conversation somewhere behind him, eyes closed, before someone
nearby coughed. A single eye opened, looking around, before it
settled on an older woman standing in front of him.
Redamous sat up a bit straighter,
nodding politely to the woman, “Somethin' I can help you with,
miss?”
She slowly eyed him over, taking
him in. The Worgen was pretty certain he was being judged in some
way. Without any forewarning, she squeezed in beside him on the
bench, staring at him. She sounded somewhat amused, as she spoke,
“Quite the pair, if I may say so myself.”
He blinked, an eyebrow slowly
raising, “Pardon?”
“You and that girl,” she said,
smiling. “A giant dead Worgen, and a teenager. I've heard a lot of
odd pairs in my time. But that's the oddest I've heard in some time.”
His eyes shot around for a moment, noticing that no one else was
nearby. She chuckled, shaking her head, “Give an old girl points
for at least trying to
be subtle, please? Fine. The point. Why are you with her?”
Red shook his head, trying to find
the words, before managing to mutter, “I don' know.
“You don't know,” she said,
sounding more and more amused, “You don't know, but you're doing it
anyway. Oh if that isn't the funniest thing I've heard in some time.”
“'Cause if I didn't, she'd get
'erself killed,” he grumbled, “I'd have trouble sleepin' if I
knew that.”
She laughed, shaking her head, “You
would've passed a number of people coming up this way, my friend.
Unless you tried to avoid them, which doesn't look very good in your
favor does it? Large man, escorting a young girl around, trying to
avoid other people. That would sound a bit weird.”
“Suppose I did,” he said,
nodding, “We walked by the towers an' such. What about it?”
“Well you could have easily
passed her off to some well-to-do follower of the Light, who would
have seen her safety as his sworn duty,” she said, laughing again
as if the thought was silly. “But you didn't. It's interesting.”
He stared at her, but she simply winked, “I'm old. I don't exactly
get out much. I thrive on this kind of thing. I'm just curious. I'd
like to think she'd have run off if this was a bad situation. And
that looks very good
in your favor.”
Red sighed, looking off forward,
“It's...Nice. I guess.”
“Nice, hm? Interesting way of
putting it,” she said, prodding his side. “I need more.”
“It's nice to have a place to go,
a person to watch, I guess. Somebody to talk to, a bit. I mean. We
don't talk too much or nothin', but it is nice,” he said, “I've
had some trouble with that as of late, I guess. Knowin' where to go,
or havin' a place to go. Or havin' somebody to have to watch.”
The older woman offered a gentler
smile this time, nodding, “I'm sure it is. Aren't there plenty of
your kind to have to watch though, hm? I've seen many of them pass
through here. All high and mighty and making a fool of themselves.
Why you'd think they were a person of the Light.” She chuckled to
herself, elbowing him, “That one stays between you and me.”
He brought his right hand up,
nodding, “Got my word. An' I suppose you're right, and there are
times I do try to do that. But I guess they just happen to be grown
folks, an' for the most part, the ones I can watch know how to take
care of 'emselves. This is different.”
“Well then,” she said, staring
forward herself, “That
will make for an interesting story. If you ask me, it appears to be
going well. Don't screw it up.” She laughed again, elbowing him,
“And take an old woman's advice, would you?”
Red smirked, “I'm listenin'.”
“Enjoy it,” she said, slowly
standing back up, resisting his attempt to assist her, “Stuff like
this only lasts for a bit.”
“Right,” he muttered, watching
her walk off. “Right.”
-----
Once she had finished eating, they
moved into the Enclave, making camp there. He had to search high and
low to find any wood worth using, but in the end got the job done.
She didn't need to worry about cooking anything, having already eaten
alongside everyone else, and simply took to her sleeping bag, staring
into the fire.
“Hey, Red,” Ashley said, not
looking up from the fire.
“Yep?” Red said in return,
glancing past it at her.
“Thanks,” she said, sitting up
a bit to look at him. “For this.”
“No problem,” he said, smirking
slightly, “We ain't there yet, you know.”
“It isn't that
far, is it?” she said, trying to squint past him into the gloom.
He shook his head, laughing, “No.
'Bout maybe half an hour from here. Not that far.”
“Well I'm gonna be up bright and
early to get to it.”
“Bright an' early,” he said,
shaking his head, “Darlin', you've been up at maybe nine each
mornin', every day. That ain't bright an' early.”
“Yeah, well. I'll show you,”
she said, sticking her tongue out at him.
“And what exactly are you gonna
do after all this?”
“I don't know yet,” she said,
trying to shrug as best she could in the sleeping bag. “I'll figure
it out when I need to. Right now, I know where I'm going, and I know
what I'm doing.”
“Good feelin', that,” he said,
chuckling softly, “Guess I do too. Up until tomorrow.”
“And what do you plan on doing?”
“I dunno yet. Guess I'll figure
it out, won't I?”
“I'd hope so. Unless you're
really boring or something.”
“Sometimes, yeah. Yeah I am.”
-----
After she had nodded off, the
Worgen remained awake. He rested back against a house they had
decided to camp near, staring up at the sky. He could see no stars,
and the moon was barely an outline. Every now and then he would sit
up, poke at the fire or maybe toss a log in, and then rest back.
There was something calming about
the quiet of the night, yet his mind was anything but calm. Try as he
might, he couldn't dispel the thought that maybe, for some ungodly
reason, he did care. There was no reason to care. He couldn't think
of anything he had really cared about, beyond his own people, in
years. Even that was pushing it, sometimes. It was hard to believe he
'cared' when he couldn't even bring himself to blink at one of them
acting stupid and getting in trouble. Maybe that was natural.
He allowed his arms to cross,
sighing quietly to himself. The morning would come soon enough, they
would hike out to wherever she wanted to go, and then he would make
sure she was on a gryphon back towards Stormwind or somewhere safer
than this. That would be that. And then what? What would he possibly
do after that? Go back to prowling Stormwind here and there?
Red sighed again. He was boring.
More than sometimes. This was at least something different. Not only
that, but he let himself actually laugh
at things today. He had actually conversed with people outside of his
own kin. Yet once this was all said and done, what was he likely to
do? Go back to sitting around brooding. Dig himself back into the rut
he'd created at some point in his un-life.
She started turning a bit in her
sleep, the smallest of smiles on her face. Red allowed one of his own
as he watched her. It was a sight he certainly hadn't ever planned on
being able to see again.
Savor it. The woman had told him to
savor it. He might as well.
Once she had quit tossing around,
Red lay his head back against the wooden wall of the house, watching
the sky. He pulled his hat down over his eyes, closed them, and
waited for her to poke at him to get up. Without even trying,
somehow, someway, the Death Knight found sleep. A dreamless sleep,
but sleep nonetheless.
-----
Red jerked up, hat falling off of
his face and landing on the ground. Blinking a few times, he rubbed
his eyes, looking around. The sun was barely poking its way over the
nearby hills. He had to blink a few more times before he realized
that he was alone. He quickly rose, brushing himself off and silently
cursing. He should have known she was going to do something like
this.
In the distance he heard a shrill
scream. Were his heart still functioning, it would have began to beat
quickly, but instead his entire body was still, calm. When the scream
came again, that calm was gone.
Red started sprinting towards the
noise, before dropping to all fours, rushing forward as quickly as
possible. His mind focused on the source, vision narrowing to nothing
but the ground in front of him. As he ran across the land, in the
distance he managed to identify shapes in the growing light.
He skidded to a stop, the dirt
crunching under his feet, and stared. Before him, the man he had seen
pounding against the door days ago was sitting on top of Ashley. Red
could barely make out the glint of steel against her throat.
In that short moment, something in
the Worgen simply snapped. He charged forward, letting out a
horrifying growl as he did so. The man looked up in time to see the
creature slam straight into him, the both of them sliding across the
dirt, Red on top of the man. The Worgen looked down at the man,
letting out a loud snarl, spit flying over the man's face. He
flinched, looking away in fear. Red raised his fist. In most
instances, he would have stopped himself, or at least tried
to stop himself, but this time he let loose, punching the man's face
over and over. After he had landed a few blows, he raised his hand,
the fist uncurling, prepared to begin slicing into his flesh.
“Stop!” He almost didn't hear
the voice. Almost.
Red held his hand in the air,
glancing over his shoulder to look at her. She had her hands covering
her mouth, a look far too close to how she had looked when he'd
finished off the Forsaken days earlier. He clinched his fists,
steeling himself. After a tense moment, he dropped his hand to his
side, looking down at the man. His face by this point looked closer
to tenderized meat than actual flesh, but he was still alive.
The Worgen slowly rose, the man
letting out a faint groan when he did so. Red turned to look at her,
eying her over. She was in one piece. That was enough.
“You alright?” he said, letting
out slow, even breaths.
She simply nodded, looking around.
When she spotted it, she retrieved her bag from the ground. “Lets
get this done,” she said, heading for the shore. Red shot the man a
final glance, before nodding and following after her.
-----
She found her way to a dock,
sitting down and crossing her legs. He followed suit. Tugging her
backpack in front of her, she began to rifle through it, finally
pulling out much to his surprise, a small vase, with a layer of clear
plastic across the top. She peeled it off, shaking the vase's
contents, before standing, walking over to the side, and dumping the
contents, dust by the looks, into the water below.
Red blinked, realizing the object
was an urn, looking up at the girl. She smiled sadly, offering a
small wave to the ashes as they fell into the water, before bowing
her head and muttering softly. His eyes never looked away from her.
Having finished her business, she
turned back to look at the Worgen, smiling sadly, “Guess I should
explain?”
Red simply nodded. She brought the
urn up to where he could look at it, offering it to him. He took it,
looking it over. It was a simple thing, and far from expensive. “My
mom was born in Corin's Crossing, and she always said she liked
coming up here.” Red blinked a few times, looking up at her,
motioning for her to go on.
“She,” Ashley hesitated,
rubbing her arm awkwardly, “She got sick a couple months ago. And
we couldn't really afford any medicine, and the priests couldn't
really do anything. And then a couple of weeks ago she. Well. You get
it.”
He nodded, sighing, “Yeah. I get
it.”
“And she always talked about how
much she'd love to see this again, the ocean. She said she walked
over here a lot when she was a kid. So I figured it would be nice if
she could. Those guys were supposed to help me get up here, but they
really just wanted the urn. It's not even that expensive. Guess they
didn't know that.”
“An' your dad,” Red muttered,
guessing he wouldn't like the answer.
“I don't know,” she said,
shrugging, “Never met him.” The Worgen was silent, nodding
slowly. She sat down, staring at him, “So.”
He ceased staring at the wood of
the dock, looking up at her, “So?”
“So,” she began again, “What
now?”
“I got an idea,” he said,
“Involves gryphons. You probably won't be partial to it, but I
think it's good for now. From there, well. I guess we'll figure it
out, won't we.”
She nodded, “I think I owe you at
least going along with you. This one time.” She held up a single
finger, “This one time.”
He smirked, holding up a single
finger himself, “This one time.”
-----
They sat on the steps of the
Stormwind Orphanage, watching people pass by. Every now and then one
of them would chime off a number, going off of the number of people
who looked at them oddly. They were up to thirty.
“Thirty-one,” she said, looking
over at him. “So you really think this is gonna go okay.”
“I don' know about that,” he
said. Smirking, he offered a small nod to the woman who passed by,
gawking, “Thirty-two.”
“You think somebody'll adopt me?”
she said, not sounding interested in the idea.
“Possible,” he muttered in
return. “Guess we'll see where that winning personality gets ya.
Thirty-three.”
“You know what I think you are?”
“What's that?”
“Full of shit.”
“Anybody ever tell you that you
got a really...Colorful vocabulary?”
“Yep.”
“Why ain't I surprised.”
“Because you shouldn't be.
Thirty-four.”
“I think this'll do for now, for
you. We'll see what happens.”
“Hey, you could always take me
home.
He glanced at her, shaking his
head, “I don't know about that. See those people lookin' at me?
That's the kinda look the people inside'd give me if I tried that
one. Not sure things allow for that right now either.”
“Oh,” she said sadly. “You'll
at least come around, right?”
“Oh, I'll come around,” he
said, elbowing her. “I owe you at least that one thing, don't I?
She grinned, nodding, “Yeah, you
do.”
“Then I'll be around.”
“Good.”
“Thirty-five.”
