InsaneJournal

“Knight Wrathkin!”

A man with his dark hair bound into two braids trailing over his shoulder turned at the shout, frowning at the boy that ran up to him. “What is it, Tomas?” he asked softly.

“Commander Walrick’s summoned you to the Stockades, sir,” replied Tomas after he’d gotten his breath back. “I dunno about what but…but…”

“But what?”

“Well…there’s a rumor they’ve captured a Tauren, sir!”

Tomas didn’t notice the small intake of breath and skittered off as the knight said, “Thank you, Tomas. You head home now as you’ve probably worried your mother sick again with your running about.”

“Okay. G’bye!”

The knight nodded absently and looked around him at the buildings of the trade district before beginning the walk towards the Stockades. His heavily armored boots – the only part of his armor he was still wearing since going off duty not long before – clanked loudly against the stones of the street as he walked, alerting people to his coming. A good few recognized him and respectively bowed out of the way for he had been a member of the Stormwind guard for six years now and helped hold back two Horde assaults. He had even been the one to warn them about the first one.

He was a hero in the eyes of most of the children in the city. But Taemmur Wraithkin – formerly Bloodwolf – felt nothing so much like a hero.

Frowning as he walked, he rubbed his thumb against a silver ring on his left hand, waiting until it warmed before he stopped. When he reached out of the bridges crossing the canal, he halted in his tracks and waited.

With a brush of robes against the cobbled streets the only warning, Hresden appeared out of seemingly nowhere and the two strode forward off the bridge in perfect step with each other. The High Elf mage frowned and said, “Something’s happened.”

Taemmur just nodded and replied, “I’ve been summoned to the Stockades for something. And Tomas…Hres, the boy told me that there was a rumor of them having a Tauren captured.”

Green eyes widened at that and the mage breathed, “Why would they summon you for such a thing?”

“I don’t know,” replied the weary twenty-three year-old. He ran a hand back through his bangs before muttering under his breath, “Maybe they’ve found us out.”

Hresden snorted at that. “If they had done that, Taem, our heads would be mounted on SI:7’s walls. Its probably simply that man wanting you to prove yourself again – I assume it was Walrick that summoned you?”

Taemmur nodded and the mage frowned before flicking his hand at the two guards standing outside the Stockades door. They looked at each other nervously – obviously having orders to not let anyone else in – but few people in Stormwind were able to disagree with Hresden. He was, after all, a High Elf mage of some power and one who wasn’t hiding away in Theramore or the Hinterlands. And most of the guards had seen his temper tested when the mage had accompanied them to a breaking up of a marauders cave hideout.

The mage had found two children dead and a third abused beyond all healing since she was half-insane from being tortured. He had given her the gentle release she so needed then ordered the guards out in a voice that made not a one of them want to disobey, leaving him alone with the gathered marauders. They had only found four of the body parts of the thirty-score in the aftermath and the stench of fire still clung to the cave, keeping anything from entering it.

Hresden was most definitely not someone to deal with lightly.

Taemmur smirked as he followed the mage in then staggered to a stunned halt at the sight that greeted them in the middle of the room. The best of the Stormwind Guard seemed to be there, two dozen men and women all crammed into the room, and in the center…

In the center, forced to her knees was a female Tauren. Shattered links of mail armor still hung around her arms and clung to her chest, showing huge gaps where the plate breastplate that had likely been covering had been. Off to the side, a heavy helm and two short but vicious swords lay on the table where the Commander stood in silence. Her head swayed from side to side in obvious weariness but eventually her red eyes met Taemmur’s as her war-painted face lifted.

Alisadegeta stared at her adopted nephew for a moment then bowed her head again as one of the knights holding her up smacked his gauntleted fist against her neck. It took all of Taemmur’s will not to leap forward and take the man’s hand for striking his family.

“Knight Wraithkin,” rumbled Commander Walrick, tilting his salt-and-pepper head to the side. “I did not tell you to bring your pet mage.”

“Pet?!” exploded Hresden, taking a furious step forward. One Guard stepped into his path and he stopped, smoldering in anger. “How dare you…”

“No!” exploded Walrick, spinning towards them. “How dare you, mage! We have received a morsel of rather dire news about you – from a new Guardsman who grew up in Theramore.”

Taemmur stiffened and his horrified gaze flew from Hresden to Walrick and back. They were found out!

Hresden just sneered and spat, “And what could a meer boy tell you about me, Commander?”

Walrick smirked and replied, “He could tell us that Hresden Sylindaal let Theramore several years ago alongside his elder sister Lymalis…who was exiled for becoming one of those wretched Blood Elves! And that they were spotted latter in Orgrimmar itself!”

Earth Mother, we’ve been caught well and true, thought Taemmur with a sinking heart. His gaze flicked all around the room, looking for any other way out beside the door at their backs. Any way that he could get himself, Hresden, and…

“And now,” purred Walrick, “we’ve found this Tauren lurking around Goldshire with this missive…” He picked up a scroll from the table and tossed it at Hresden, who caught it with a swirl of magic before it touched his hand. Green eyes flicked sideways at the scroll then his fingers closed around it.

“No harmful magic on it,” he murmured. “Surprising.” Slowly he opened the scroll and read it to himself before tossing it back at the Commander’s chest. “So…now what, Commander? Are you planning to kill all of us in one fell swoop? Because, I assure you, I will be a hard foe to take down.”

The big man chuckled darkly and replied, “Oh no, mage. I was actually going to give you a chance to redeem yourself.”

Hresden arched an eyebrow and Taemmur stepped forward before he could, growling, “And what sort of way is that?”

“Oh ho! So you are going to admit to being a part of this as well. I knew I had my doubts about the two of you from the beginning…”

“Taem, don’t do this,” hissed the mage. “You can…”

“We’re caught,” snapped Taemmur loudly, lifting his head high. He could see the looks of disgust on the faces of the men and women around him but he could care less. Human he might be on the outside…but his heart and soul was Tauren.

Walrick smirked and picked up one of the short swords from the table, using its blade to lift the lowered head of the Tauren. She groaned in response then her pain-filled red eyes met Taemmur’s again. He stared back at his aunt Alisa coolly then moved his gaze up the blade to Walrick.

“Let me guess,” he spat, “I kill her and you forget any of this happened.”

“Exactly! I guess those brains you’ve shown over the years aren’t just an illusion.”

Taemmur growled then stepped forward, ignoring Hresden’s sharp intake of breath and gasp of, “Taem, no!” He took the sword from Walrick’s grasp and looked down into his aunt’s red gaze.

“Do…it…Taem,” Alisa managed to gasp in Taur-ahe through a mouth bruised and bloodline, her voice raw. Taemmur’s eyes narrowed as he wondered what tortures she’d been put through, what…

He slowly looked all around him at them, the humans, taking note of their accusing eyes and sneers. Those looks…he knew them well. He then knew from seeing them from members of the Horde who could not accept a human, even one raised by a Tauren.

Then he dropped to one knee in front of her and breathed in Taur-ahe, “I can not do this anymore, dear Aunt.”

“Taem, no!” she gasped. “You…!”

He spun to his feet before she could finish and grabbed at Walrick’s shoulder, shoving the blade of the sword through a space in his armor and into his heart. Teeth bared, he snarled, “For the Warchief, the Chieftain, and the Horde!” just before the life faded from the Commander’s face. As he jerked the blade back out and let the body fall towards the floor, there was silence.

Then the Guard started to scream forward but were thrust backwards off their feet at a wave of Hresden’s hand and a few harsh words. The mage then thrust out his right hand, a small rune held between two fingers, and snarled, “Grab her, Taemmur!” He muttered something then and let the rune drop from his hand, where it fell then was caught in the air as it burst into flame. It swelled up into a huge swirl of fire as Taemmur lifted Alisa up so she was leaning on his shoulder then settled into the gentle glow of a portal, showing the heights of Thunder Bluff visible beyond it.

“Go!” snarled Hresden as he lashed out at a rising Guardsman with a fireball. He spun in place then and shouted in Thalassian, his arms flung at the guards on either side of the room and their feet froze in place.

Then Taemmur saw the one that had gotten his hands on a bow and was drawing the string…

“HRES!”

The mage spun around but far too late to do a thing – the arrow caught him in the shoulder and he dropped with a grunt of pain. Taemmur snarled and flung the bloodied sword he still held at the guard through the portal, catching him in the throat. As the body fell back in a spray of blood, he limped forward a step under his aunt’s weight and grabbed a handful of the robe he knew Hresden abhorred, dragging the limp body towards him.

Another arrow flew past his ear and Hresden snarled weakly, mumbling something and flicking his fingers. As fire roared up around them, Taemmur gripped the neck of the mage’s robes and flung all three of them through the portal to the safety of Thunder Bluff just before it closed.

There was the surprised croak of Gutterspeak as they stumbled through, Taemmur just barely keeping all of them upright, then a cry of, “Human! Human in the Pools!”

“Wait!” he croaked in Taur-ahe. Portals had always made him sick since he could remember and he was swaying now perilously from the vertigo. “I’m Taemmur Bloodwolf! I need…I…need…”

He suddenly realized that Hresden and his aunt’s weight were gone and started to fall. But bony hands caught him and then he heard Resden’s rough voice from what seemed a very long way away.

“We have you, lad. Take it easy.”

At that voice, so familiar and missed, Taemmur let the blackness that wanted to overrun him have it way and collapsed, trusting the Forsaken mage to catch him.