WoW: Waiting

WAITING

In the hours before what will become known as the Shattering......


...A dwarven hunter lies injured on a bed in the Aldor Rise inn, after a brutal fight with elementals in Stormwind.  Nothing a healer can't fix, but she'll need a healer before she can even think about fighting again.  Her pets hover nearby, agitated.  Even the ravager looks concerned for his mistress.

...A draenei paladin rests at the Wildhammer Stronghold in Shadowmoon Valley.  For the moment she plans another day of subterfuge against the Dragonmaw fel orcs, but those plans will change soon.

...A gnome mage sits outside the Aldor Rise inn staring blankly into space.  She fulfilled the request -- more like a demand -- of the dwarven hunter, who is also her guildmaster, and brought a reluctant dwarven paladin to Shattrath to heal the hunter, who is also his cousin.  He didn't want to leave, seeing it as abandoning his king.  The mage finally convinced him to go by saying that her orders were only to get him to Shattrath, not to keep him there.  She fulfilled her orders and the guildmaster will receive the healing she needs, but now Ironforge will have one less defender as the elemental attacks continue... and now she wonders if she did the right thing.

...A night elf hunter sits on the floor near the back wall of the Aldor Rise inn, near the bookcases.  Two large cats lie next to him, one his faithful spotted nightsaber companion since his early days as a hunter, the other a terribly agitated druid who can only find some semblance of peace by assuming cat form and letting the hunter scratch her ears and spine.  The hunter isn't faring much better, unable to sleep as all his senses and instincts remain on high alert.  He is no druid, but even he can sense that their world is in great pain, and that something terrible is about to happen.

...A rogue, only tenuously human now, hides with the other outcasts at Pyrewood Village in Silverpine Forest.  For now she weeps in sorrow, not just for herself but for everyone around her, but soon the night will come and the madness will take her again, and she will know nothing but feral bloodlust.

...An elven death knight -- nominally quel'dorei, though most call him sin'dorei these days -- stands guard outside the Aldor Rise inn, though this area is quite well protected so there is little to do other than chat with the gnome and discuss tailoring and enchanting techniques, and the often predatory pricing of their respective auction houses.  It provides a welcome distraction for both of them, and has the added benefit of letting him know how all his Alliance friends, who he cannot publicly associate with, are faring.  It troubles him that some of his clandestine friends are hurt, or even missing, but there is nothing he can do about it.  At least his own charges are all safe.

...A tauren druid tosses and turns fitfully in her sleep.  The beautiful green dragon she has seen so often in her sleep has opened her eyes.  That is very bad, because it can only mean terrible things.  Even worse, the nightmares have suddenly grown exponentially more powerful, overwhelming the mental armor the naaru have provided, and she suffers visions of violence and death ravaging her home.  Not the elemental kind, no, this is something more homegrown, far more brutal and treacherous...

...An undead rogue rests at the inn at Thrallmar, in Hellfire Peninsula.  As dry and hot and thin as the air here is, it does have the advantage of better preserving what remains of her flesh, although she doesn't want to mummify herself too much.  For the moment there is nothing to do here as she lacks needed raw materials, so she fiddles idly with her engineering tools, watching her adoptive elder sister tinker with her jeweler's kit.  There is plenty of fel iron to be had in Hellfire, and she looks forward to making new explosives -- "boomies", as she calls them -- soon.

...A blood elf paladin tinkers with her jewelcrafting tools.  Part of her wants to be out there smiting fel orcs and looking for fel iron with which to make more jewelry -- "shinies", as she calls them.  But her elder brother has tasked her with keeping the rogue and an elven priest safe this night, and she will not fail in this task.

...A goblin middle manager works away at her desk in Kezan, occasionally sneaking glances at the study books she always keeps nearby.  All these earthquakes and disturbances are really affecting the bottom line and the bosses aren't thrilled about it, but it's not her problem and she can prove it.  Besides, this place is way far away from all that stuff going down on the mainlands.  What could possibly go wrong?