Deception (a World of Warcraft Fanfic)

The Concequences of One's Actions

Suddenly a rush of wind blew at our backs. The cause was a native mounted on a serpent. I have never seen anything like him, he was a bear creature, black and white, were these the Pandaren? He began to cast something on Nazgrim. I began to move in defense, but I saw the color slowly returning to his face, this panda person meant good. The others did not catch on so quickly and began to move into attacking position. I put my arms out and they screeched to a halt. As he drew the darkness from Nazgrim, strange, demon like creatures spawned in a circle around him and throughout the temple. With a swift blow of forceful wind the native killed the circle of spiky creatures. They. were from the dream I had! similar to the one that the priest boy struck down by casting penance. This must mean the boy is real, too.

Nazgrim fell to his feet, breathing heavy breaths, one of the Kor'kron helped him to his feet. "I-I did not have control... of my actions." He made out, coughing. As we gazed upon the General, horrified by the sudden events, the Pandaren looked down at him in disgust. He then turned to me, allowing a slight smile to show.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Taran Zhu, lord of the Shadow Pan. I do not know the history of this war you have brought to this land, and I do not wish to. You have brought along with you negative energy, and this land does not mix well with it. The hatred, doubt, and violence you've brought will now ooze out of Pandaria like blood from an open wound! Here they take form of sha. Look at the havoc you've brought to these quiet ruins!" he gestured to the temple, where these "sha" as he calls it, were everywhere, and they did not look friendly. "What a mess you have made. I suggest if you would like to be welcomed with hospitality, you clean up this mess. It won't be easy, the sha are not a force to be reckoned with, but you must face the consequences of your actions. Meet me in the village below once you have taken some responsibility. " He scolded, swiftly remounting on his serpent and descended to our meeting place.

"Well, you heard him Saerah, we need to clean this up. They will not control our war, but we are now at a shortage of men, and I do not expect more until much much later, the Pandaren were meant to be part of the Horde! Did you see how swiftly he killed these sha things? Perhaps Hellscream will allow me to keep my head after all. Come on men, lets fight our way out like warriors. FOR THE-" he cut himself off, there were no living men left, they had been attacked by sha and were left in more pieces than Raven had left the alliance. It was gruesome, but we had to continue on, for honor, for strength, for the Horde, and for our very own lives. "I have a plan, but first, test your shot on the big one over there. It should be easy to single out and I need to see how many hits it takes to see if this plan is sane."

"Alright then." I targeted the sha being. My first two fired were to apply poisons to the monster, slowly but effectively helping kill it. I then fired arcane shots, one, two, three, still alive. I called a beast to my assistance and fired a few explosive shots to mix it up a bit, shooting slow shots in between to regain my drained focus, without it my accuracy would be straight out of a nightmare. With a final critical hit the sha beast dropped to the ground. "These things are not the alliance, sir, they fight differently, and they fight back, well." I reported, tending to Raven's wounds. He paced back and forth, holding his axe with a tight grip.

"Well then, looks like it's my turn to get involved in the action. They appear to spawn in bunches, three to four small ones surrounding one big one. Stand back! I'll tank, keep them off you while you kill 'em. How's your first aid? Got a good supply of bandages?"

I nodded. At Baine's request I had mastered first aid for battles I didn't do the best job staying out of the crossfire in. Spare cloth I looted from the fallen could be transformed into a lifesaver, or just a way to touch up a few cuts. I had an ample supply in my bag, at least fifteen, enough to get out of this place alive and well. "Well then, lets go!" he shouted, dashing to the closest group. I ran after him, shooting the group with multiple poisonous arrows. The smaller ones let out a cry and reduced to nothing. The bigger one took a few more hits, but it went much faster with Nazgrim's assistance. For someone who commands rather than fight, Nazgrim was amazing! we were outside in no time.

"Since when did you fight?" I asked, killing one of the smaller sha.

"I always have, just never had to. When you're in charge you have at least a hundred men in front of you in battle, so I rarely get a taste of it." he responded, hacking at the bigger sha, he had chopped off some of its- er, limbs? "but I share something in common with you."

"And that would be?" Kill shot! The blasted thing dropped to the ground, returning to the unearthly place from which it came. I couldn't stop thinking of the Pandaren's metaphor, open wounds in the earth, bleeding with sha. I understood, I felt deep disturbance. The Earthmother was bleeding.

"I crave it, action, some call it warriors blood, you have your fair share."

"Is that so?"

"Garrosh likes warriors like you, I see a bright future after conquering Pandaria, you'll have earned your place at his right hand."

"That's the thing, I don't want one."

"You're a strange kid, you know that?"

"I couldn't possibly bear being locked up, indoors, protected by those weaker than me. My blood must be of true warriors, all I desire is to be on the front line. I seek no recognition, the pleasure is the kill."

We descended down some stairs to the camp I had slaughtered just minutes ago. The flaming supplies still lit, but burning low. New flames engulfed the area, black and white ones from the sha. They had consumed the bodies of the fallen alliance and a new enemy had taken over. Sha, sha everywhere, larger ones followed by their haunts. It was a nightmare!

"I've got a plan, it's bold, but it'll work. I'll pull them all to one corner, they're gonna beat on me, beat on me bad, so I'm trusting you to fire, fire spontaneously with no end, no end until all the sha are dead. Think you can handle it."

I nod, giving him a solemn gaze. Again, he was crazy, the kind of crazy that wins wars.

With a loud grunt, seemingly mechanical to him, he ran around the level, drawing the attention of all the sha, who chased him mindlessly, trying to claw at him, but he was simply too quick. "Any day now!"

I rapidly fired, missing a few due to the inhumane speed. I could barely see my fingers, let alone what was leaving the bow, it was so frantic, so thrilling. "Die you fiends!" I let out in frustration, managing to only kill half at this point. He slashed them the best he could, blindly wacking them with his axe. I could tell by the limp attacks that his good arm was hurt badly. I continued to bombard them with arcane, poisons, screaming, cussing, filling to the brim with frustration. Whoa, the sha seemed to be getting to me, had they taken over like they attempted to Nazgrim? I studied my hand, nope, still retained it's color. perhaps it was not wide to breath the fumes of their flames. While I sat pondering Raven and Nazgrim managed to finish off the rest. He would be barking at me about how he trusted me and I bailed halfway through if her weren't to preoccupied to notice my effort. He then winced in pain, longingly starring at his bleeding arm. I sighed and pulled out a bandage, they were going too quickly on this voyage and I haven't salvaged enough cloth to replenish my supplies.

"Well then, seems your plan worked. we only have the stairs to go before we're out of this blasted place. May I suggest you sit out until we get to the village? You took quite a toll up there."

He made a noise from throat, keeping a serious glare, I continued on, keeping my mouth shut as he watched me kill of the final group of sha, not moving a single muscle. I didn't question his silence, for I too was as good as deaf. At our feet, all around us, everywhere rested bits and pieces of the prided war zeppelin and its crew, dead. The once meek, terrified wildcats were all consumed by the sha, they were now prowling, seeking fights among one another, all so angry.

I noticed something about them I didn't before, they were tiger like creatures, striped with orange and black. Raven, however, did not have a single trace of orange on her, a pigment mutation? I took a close look at Raven, who looked much like the others, without the stripe. 'Some people are different than others, cats, too'

"You're different, me too." I whispered to her, holding the orb of deception out long enough for her to see it, then carefully returned it to my pocket for use another day.

__________________________

Note:

Thanks for the reads! I know it's slow right now, but it picks up once Anduin comes into play.