What once was (A World of Warcraft fanfiction)

Young hearts, younger minds

"You have a great destiny ahead of you son, you'll understand what it is when you grow older and your will is your own." Those words rang in Karns ears as he dreamed of the rolling plains of mulgore and the kodo who would graze in its fields. But just as quickly as he saw it, it vanished when beams of light struck his face through the small window opening of his house. It was then Karn realized he was late for training. He rushed to the door grabbing his vest and robes and quickly dashed towards the roots of the world tree.

'I'm late' was all he could think while running down the stone pathways, knocking over other druids who were not quick enough to dodge him. 'I'll apologize later' he thought. For a tauren of his size he was pretty quick he was only a few inches taller then most of his kind. His left horn had been damaged at birth and only came up about two inches shorter then his left one but it was just as strong. He quickly dashed through the open door without even greeting the other druids standing watch at it.

"Sorry I'm late master i.." he was cut off by his mentor. "It's ok Karn I understand but I think you should be apologizing not to me but to your fellow druid, Usileth,". Karn turned to see his fellow druid in training Usileth starring at him almost ready to explode. "Usileth I'm sorry for-" once again he was cut off. "Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you!?" Usileth demanded of Karn, "I know tauren are slow creatures usually but you bring a whole new meaning to the word" the female night elf said to him through clenched teeth.

Karn was speechless and the only sound he could hear was his master behind him laughing. "I'm sorry I'll be here on time tomorrow." Karn said. Usileth shot him a glare that Karn could only assume meant 'You better' then they both Sat down next to eachother and watched as their master began to conjure a spell. "Now today I'll be teaching you both how to summon an ancient guardian of the forest, a tree-ent." their master began to chant the words and before their eyes a creature of wood and leaves arose before them from the bark of the tree. They both watched in amazement as the creature stood before them and shaked the dead leaves from its branches.

"Now as you can see he is as hard as the wood of the world tree but that is only because he is from the world tree, if he were from a regular tree then he would be as strong as that tree." Their master said to both of them. "I want to try it!" Usileth said standing with confidence. Their master looked at her with a questioning eye but waved his hand and allowed her to proceed. Usileth then began to chant the words and a tree-ent began to rise from the bark but this one was a bit smaller and sickly looking. "Well it's a start Usileth" the master said.

"Karn your next" the master said looking at the tauren. "Of course" he answered and he stood up walking past Usileth who stuck out her tounge at the passing tauren but Karn just smirked to himself. As he stood in the center of the room he began to chant the words, but half way through the spell the lights in the room started to go out one by one until only the light from outside was shining in. The master and Usileth looked around with concerned looks on their faces. Then the very foundations of the house started to shake and the master tried to stop Karn but he was in the spells trance.

"Karn you must stop!" The master said, Usileth jumped to her feet and ran over to Karn and grabbed his arm yelling at him to stop. But Karn kept chanting and the a loud boom was heard all around Hyjal.