Shelly's Revenge - A World of Warcraft Story

Chapter 3

Today they would pay. Today she would exact some small amount of revenge and yes, perhaps even satisfaction at the death of the creatures that had taken everything from her. Primitive though they may be, today they would know their own fear. They would know loss. Shelly narrowed her eyes and gripped the knife in her hands tighter. Today there would be blood.

"Do you see them there love?" The voice beside her whispered. "There! Many of them! That is where we must strike!" Shelly winced at the words. She knew her husband was dead. She'd watched him die. But here he was, his spirit still bearing the wounds of his death. And whether it was the fear of being so close to the vengeful spirit, or the pain of seeing his torn remains over and over again she didn't know, but every word he spoke was like a spike at the base of her skull, causing a searing pain that dulled her vision and shortened her breath. She turned away from him to look down at the podling village below them.

"Yes.. Yes I see them." she whispered. She was crouched in the underbrush at the top of a small hill within the forest. Below her was a small settlement of the podlings. A few huts, a cooking fire. And there were only a few podlings in the settlement. Two preparing something near the fire. Another in the doorway of one of the huts, doing something, making odd sweeping gestures. Another had just made its way into one of the huts. Shelly frowned. Something was odd here. Something about their behaviors. It seemed.. off.

"Come love!" the ghost whispered beside her. "Let's go.. Let's do this." The pain throbbed at the base of her skull. Those words.. a lifetime ago it seemed. He used that phrase before every difficult task they'd ever faced together. And so many of them they had faced. The tears sprang suddenly and unbidden as her mind raced over the memories. The two of them before the portal from Stormwind to Draenor, where they would go together to help the alliance establish a base. He taking her nervous hands in his own. Let's do this. Gone, all of it gone. Shelly moved down the hill silently. Her dagger already in hand, she drew her hatchet from its leather sheath with the other. Let's do this indeed love!

Years before she'd met Jarrod, Shelly had been at home in the forests. Growing up tending the farms near Elwynn, she'd spent most of the days of her youth wondering its forests, hunting and trapping for her family. And when she'd meet her husband, a lumberjack and woodsman himself, her knowledge of the forest only grew. As such, there were few humans alive that could move through a forest more silently and unseen than Shelly could. She was behind the podling out near the entrance of its hut without it knowing a thing. She paused a brief moment as she stared at its back.

"Do it love! Finish this!"

She swung the axe in a hard overhand arc and imbedded it in the back of the podling's flower head while simultaneously reaching around and plunging her dagger into its leafy chest. The podling crumpled without a sound, and she caught its weigh in her hands as it fell. She dragged the still body back into the bushes.

She crept forward to the edge of the light. The two podlings in the center of the village would be more difficult - there was no cover, and the area was well lit. It didn't matter. She would get to them. They were smaller than the others. Children perhaps? Did podling's even have chidren?She shook her head. She didn't care. Even if they were, they would only grow up to be monsters. They had to be put down like the rest. She crept around the edge of the circle of light until she was directly behind one of them. Then she sprang from her cover.

The one facing her saw her, but there was no time. Shelly covered the distance at a silent sprint, closing on the one with its back to her before the one facing her could even leap to its feet. Swinging her hatching in a vicious side-sweeping arc she decapitated the podling before her, head and body falling to the ground in different directions, the creature never having even seen its killer. The other podling turned and ran from the fire jibbering and waving its little hands. She hurled her hatchet at its fleeing form, the small axe catching the creature squarely in the back, knocking it to the ground. Grievously wounded, the creature continued to try to crawl away. Shelly covered the ground in three quick steps, put a knee on its back and sliced its throat with her dagger. The creature shuddered a moment, pinned beneath her knee, then was still.

"The hut love! Get the one in the hut!"

She retrieved her hatchet from the back of the creature below her, and began to run towards the hut she'd seen one of the creatures enter. She'd covered half the distance when the podling erupted from the entrance of the hut, holding a spear. Clearly it had heard the cries of its fallen kin. It saw Shelly closing on it and raised its spear with a cry. It leaped at Shelly with its spear held forward, but Shelly was ready for exactly that attack. This creature was not the first that had leapt at her with its claws held forward. At the last possible second she sidestepped to the right, around the attack, coming up behind her attacker. Hatchet and dagger both were imbedded deeply into the creature's back. It gave a painful cry and fell to its knees. Without a second's hesitation Shelly yanked the dagger from the creature's back and then plunged it in again, at the base of the creature's flowerlike head. It fell forward and lay still.

"Yes! Yes fantastic! Fantastic!" came the voice from behind her. She yanked up her weapons and whirled around to face the strange voice, her body still fueled by battle adrenaline.

A figure had emerged from the hut the creature had come from. And it was no podling. It was a dranei! She carried a jeweled staff, was draped in long purple robes, and bore a sardonic smile. Well done Mrs. Hamby - Oh.. I'm sorry, I guess that's Miss Hamby now. Jarrod you were so right! Her work is amazing." The ghost of her husband materialized beside the draenei.

"I have done as you commanded!" her husband's spirit plead. "Now you do as you promised!" The ghost turned to Shelly. "Don't fight it love! Soon.. Soon we'll be together again! Just as you wanted! As we both wanted!"

Shelly took a step back, the images and words pummeling her like stones. What in the hell was going on?

"Oh do not worry my dear departed spirit. You both shall soon get your what you deserve. But first, don't you think we should let our dear Shelly see what she has done for us! Behold!" And with that the draenei uttered a short incantation and thrust her staff towards Shelly. Pain exploded in Shelly's head. She cried out, dropping her weapons and grasping her skull as the pain rocked her to her knees. Her vision swam, blurred, went black, and then slowly returned.Only now.. everything was.. different.