Shattrath was beautiful, a place of peace and calm, the joy of his people, and Alexei drank it in. It was better, brighter for the beauty who accompanied him, a woman of unmatched wonder. She walked beside him, laughing, his arm over her shoulder. He did not wear armor, for all was calm. He wore nothing other than a shirt and breeches, thin because it was summer, a thin silver chain and crystal drop visible in the v of his neckline. She wore a fine, pale blue gown that fluttered in the breeze, a thin golden chain and reddish pendant around her neck.
"You'll get wet." She teased when he waded into one of the pools which dotted the city's grounds.
"That's the point." He replied, watching her as she stood poised on the retaining wall that held the water. "It's hot. Live a little." He splashed at her, and she gave him a stare of regal distain. "Ranya."
She hopped from the wall into the hock deep water, darkening the edge of her gown. "Live a little, eh?" She demanded, dropping to her knees in the water to be able to push as large a wave as she could manage onto him, drenching more of herself in the process than she managed to wet him. He bellowed a laugh, picking her up out of the water. She was so damned beautiful, wet, her eyes dancing. She did not evade him when he pushed her under the small waterfall that fed the pond, her lips soft and her body softer…
"Alexei." It was her voice, but strident and concerned, and he rejected it. He didn't want strident, or concerned. He wanted the Ranith who laughed, teased, and promised him everything he wanted…
"Alexei, damn it! Wake up. You're drowning, you fool!"
What? The dream was gone, slipped through his fingers, and he was indeed drowning. This was not one of Shattrath's pools, but deep, cold, biting water that didn't want to release him. He fought to the surface and stared in disbelief. Water. A great amount of choppy water, as far as he could see. There was no such thing as this much water. Large white and gray birds wheeled and twisted in the air, filling it with their cries, that and the pounding of the water.
He turned a confused circle in the water, relieved to see that there was an end to this. Land… trees… ground. He swam to it, dragging his battered body onto the sand and collapsed. The last thing he coherently remembered was Ranith smiling at him, kissing him, not the joyous and teasing smiling and kisses of the dream, but a regretful touch. She'd given him a memento… his fingers found the necklace so that had been real, and then there had been…nothing. And now he was here, with these foreign birds and this unreal amount of angry water, alone.
"Ranya!" He finally summoned enough strength to yell for her, but the birds only mocked him back. His head thundered off tempo to the grinding noise of the water, and his hand was bloody when he pressed the leather palm of his hand to the spot which hurt the worst. So he was injured… He squinted into the overcast sky above him, getting his thoughts together enough to touch the blessed part of his soul. The naaru's mark gleamed just above his range of vision, and the pain retreated. "Where am I?" This looked like nothing he had ever seen before in his life. He had seen lakes before, but this stretched to the horizon, unbroken water. Why didn't it fall off the end?
He staggered to his feet, now thirsty and famished. What little food was left in his pack had been ruined by submersion… no great loss. He'd eaten most of it on the trip to Tempest Keep… Which was where he should be, but wasn't. He tried the water, and then spat it out as too salty to drink. That would dehydrate him further than he already was, like drinking blood.
There were spiders on the beach, scuttling sideways away from him, and he eyed them warily. They were tiny, but that didn't mean much. Poison was poison, and he rejected them as food. Beyond them were trees, completely foreign as well. He looked around, then sat and stared at the water, lost and abandoned. He'd been alone before, but this went deeper. Then, he'd always known why he was alone. Then, he'd always known where he was, and where he could find others. It was a cruel reality, the draenei, poised on the edge of extinction, were a naturally sociable and gregarious people and Alexei felt the loss deeply. "Ranith, my beloved?" He queried the very sky and water around him, and was not surprised when nothing answered.
