Alexei stared over the land, his hand on the elekk's neck. Beside him, Ranith's talbuk danced fitfully, and she had her hands full keeping him calm and firmly beneath her. Alexei would prefer to have her on an elekk as well, but he understood the logic. She weighed a third of what he did in full combat load. She simply did not need an animal as large as he required, space and resources were better served by this.
"This place is… uneasy." He stated, and she tore her attention from the mount to glance around. It was less pervasive than Draenor's blatant despair, but compared to the isles they had claimed, and the heart of Stormwind, he could feel it spreading just under the surface. The fields were sparse, and poorly tended. The farmhouses empty.
"It is, indeed." She agreed, sliding from the buck's back, and dropping to her knees in the dusty roadway. She rested her hands in the dust. "Darkness grows here. It spreads from the direction we travel in…"
He nodded. There was no great surprise in that statement. Darkness spreading from the Portal was to be expected… but he also expected the great defenders of Azeroth to be here, facing it. There was…nothing. No hails, no challenges… he had landed a large group of mounted and armed things on their shore, and had moved them quickly inland.
"Where is everyone?" He asked, and she shrugged, standing and rubbing her hands off on her thighs. The dust remained there for a moment, before the shadow below devoured it, and she was clean again. "Or have they perished?"
"They have…not. Most of them survive. They have fled, or they hide." She fought her way back into the saddle, and got the buck headed again in the direction they were traveling.
"Where are their defenders?" He asked, and she shrugged, exactly the answer he was expecting. How would she know? But if they could not, or did not, defend against this, how did they mean to stand against the Legion?
"Perhaps they have a situation more pressing that requires their attention, and they mean to clean this up later."
"Perhaps." He agreed. That argument made sense, but it still pained him to see a people left undefended. It was a breach of faith…
"Halt!"
The yell had been directed at Ranith, by then a few paces beyond his lead elekk. She had passed into a cut in the road, out of his vision, and he cursed, kneeing the elekk. Now, they got a response…. A squeal... female, high pitched, and angry… Ranith. The bleating of an equally angry warbuk… He wouldn't want to be trapped in that cut with the pair of them…
"Your money or your life, woman…!" A male voice, loud over the chaos, and closer to Alexei than Ranith's yell had been… he was going to come into the cut right behind the speaker. "Somebody get a hold of that damned goat before it hurts somebody!"
"What the hell is it?" Another male voice. Two of them, at least. Probably more, if they had managed to stop Ranith. Bandits. Those, at least, Alexei understood. They wanted loot… and the group was heavy with it… A rifle team of fourteen, a vindicator, and a priest… They were worth a fortune in gear alone, if he didn't consider their value in other ways. Ranith was a beautiful young female, from a fine family, untouched, there were those in Draenor who would have paid a fortune for her alone… and she was not the only one in the group. He'd been foolish enough to let them get a hold of Ranith, but he should be able to break this assault quickly, without letting any other advantages slide to the bandits.
There were eight of them, trying to gain control over the plunging, striking warbuk. All human, all touched by darkness, with red bandannas over their lower faces. "Release her!" Alexei boomed, although they had obviously not managed to hold her well enough to release her. It did get the desired response of making him more of an immediate threat, and the men spun on him, still unable to get a grasp on Ranith or the warbuk. She took immediate advantage of his sudden appearance, riding on through the ambush zone rather than trying to fight back to him, and he watched her go with a large amount of trepidation… that had worked so well the last time she'd tried it…
