Have You Seen This Druid

Posted by Dawnforge
Below her, Shattrath was in ruins. Arienne could only stare as she pulled on her gauntlets, a foul wind blowing up from the Lower City. She had to go down there; she couldn't just stay holed up in her safe little stronghold. She'd been part of an army once, and no matter whose tabard she wore, the Scourge were always her enemy. Something felt different, this time. This wasn't the Cult of the Damned's plague, not the first one, this one was much too efficient and the hours she'd spent sorting through the earliest reports only saw the situation worsen to the point that she almost felt hopeless. She did a mental inventory: Zaniya had taken her little sister Tafari and fled to some remote island. Nexic was strong enough to fight it off, as was Damien -- not that the younger Duskwhisper would have appreciated her concern. Ishbaneer had conviction and fortitude enough that the paladin wasn't worried about him. Valendar was waiting to see what she would do; Alarius and Rethloris were paladins and therefore a non-concern.

Which left her with one name she kept coming back to, a grainy, rumpled picture in her hands. It was of a tall Tauren with a golden nose ring and a braided mane, carrying a distinctly elven staff.

On Zuriaku's wings she descended into the miasma, the swarms of infected overrunning the living. She prayed for those she could, trying to drive the disease itself from their systems, but it was draining. They beat back the rush of Scourge, and for a few minutes, there was peace. She patched wounds and cleansed bodies, feeling her strength slowly being sapped.

To every survivor she asked the same question, showing around the picture and reciting his lineage and his shapeshifted appearances. "Have you seen this druid?" All she met were blank stares, sadly shaken heads, a chorus of "no." Arienne walked south, picture in one hand and mace in the other, through the desolate husk of a city.

There was a wall full of missing faces; an orcish child, a troll that could have been Zaniya's brother, a rather plump looking blood elf with tanned skin, dark hair, gaudy earrings. Her own face didn't stare back at her. Carefully rearranging the postings, she added another face to the sad, terrible collection. Reward for information; please send your fastest courier or report to Scryers' Tier. Ask for Lieutenant Dawnforge.

"Nuhwoti," the blood knight murmured to herself, "where are you?"