Death's Redemption

Chapter 4: The Female

Neltharion had been following the trail of the lost female for almost a month now, but he had little to show for his efforts. It seemed that he would hear of a dragon going to one town, and when he gets there, they say the dragon left days ago. He was starting to lose hope that he would ever find her. She always seemed two or three steps ahead of him. He would not rest until he found her, though, even if that meant he would spend decades searching for her. The trail had almost gone cold until one villager told him that a dragon had flown towards his mother's town of Northshire only a couple of hours ago. This location intrigued Neltharion since it was so close to the first place that reported seeing the female: Goldshire.

Northshire served as a recruitment camp for those willing to fight against the world's evils, Neltharion once upon that list. Many of Azeroth's greatest champions had started their adventures there. The camp was protected by the mountains surrounding it, making it a safe place to train recruits.

At first, Neltharion was looking at the sighting locations of the female as individual places, each unique. As he thought more about the places the female had gone to, the more he understood her motives. She was not going to different towns to run away from something as he had initially thought. Each place she went to was a town with an excess of food and little people to protect it. Goldshire had been a small town with hardly any guards that had lots of farmers. Every other spot the dragon visited had been similar. He realized that the female was trying to survive, likely eating some of the food that would be unmissed in the small towns. He also started to think of the different cities as part of a puzzle that made up the dragon's location. In doing so, he realized that the towns made up a pattern that circled a large part of the Eastern Kingdoms. Each town was close to the next and would make easy targets to take food from. Thinking of where the dragon's den must be, he calculated that it would be too far away from each village if the dragon were to travel back to her den after a pillage.

"She must by staying nearby each town," Neltharion told himself as he flew towards Northshire. It was a precarious move for a dragon, especially a black one since many animals and even members of the Alliance would want to kill the beast. He thought that the female must be desperate if she would take such a risk just to steal some food. It was an intelligent plan, he joked, making a pattern of stops that would seem impossible to most dragons. The only problem was that he was not "most dragons."

As the stone gateway into Northshire started to come into view, he transformed into his human form while landing away from the camp. He followed the stone path that took him through the dangerous forests of Elwynn. As he walked along the road, he saw two guards pass him along the way before seeing Northshire come into view. Seeing traveling guards this far out from Stormwind was a rarity Neltharion had come to learn. He walked up to the walls that protected Northshire, noticing six guards standing watch.

"Welcome to Northshire Abbey, friend! What brings you here?" one of the men asked him. This guard wore a golden patch on his armor, signifying his higher rank.

"I have come to inspect your town's food storage; my agency has learned of a potential hazard that has been affecting nearby towns. If you could give me directions to them, that would be wonderful. Also, why are there so many guards of late?" Neltharion responded in a critical tone.

"Sure thing. To answer your question, sir, the king has deployed many more men to the nearby small settlements to ensure their safety. Something about beasts, I think." the guard responded before telling the dragon where to go. He thanked the guard and went on his way into the city.

As he came up to a building after following the directions given to him, he noticed the building said "Food Market." He opened the wooden door to the store and walked inside, seeing a human standing at a counter ahead. He walked up to the man and saw the racks of food around the store.