Having lost their guide Taurenpunter to fall damage, the party stood bewildered before the caves of Hive’Zora.
“I know the way,” Shin said, “I’ve been through here, follow me.”
The party went in; into the twisted cavernous labyrinth beneath Silithus, bug and rat infested, dark and still.
“So, Shin, what brought you here before?” Legolas said.
“If you must know, and I’d rather not say, but truth be told I went on a tactical mission to Orgrimmar to liberate a prisoner of war, a night elf druid taken during a skirmish in the Barrens. It started with a raid on the Darkmoon Faire. A company of Alliance troops had set sail from Menethil Harbor to Theramore. It was Darkmoon Faire week and we needed to know our fortunes, somehow that makes us stronger. The Horde had other plans.”
The party wandered through the caves, killing tunnelers, swatting wasps, and dodging dead ends listening to Shin tell his story.
“We grouped up on the edge of Dustwallow Marsh. There were forty of us. Several gnomes since we tend to be brave. A few dwarfs, some from Dwarven Overlords, Brindelass was one. She saved my life that day. Shot a Horde right off me. Someday I’ll pay her back for her courage. There were some humans, of course, and a couple night elves, mostly druids, one was named Zhay-za.”
Shin paused at the name.
“Zhay-za was taken prisoner that day. Once combat started things devolved into chaos. Healers were dying, melee was snared, CC’d, Shamans were everywhere; we were tripping over totems there were so many. Several members of WoTop fought on the horde side and died miserable deaths that day, many still had the blood of low level Alliance players on their weapons.”
The story stopped so the party could kill a group of five wasps. Shin continued.
“I was engaged with a warlock on the margins of the battle. I got dotted up, couldn’t stealth, but then I felt better, still dotted the power nature pulsed through me, I was like some kind of hippy for a minute, leaves and flowers and branches swirled around me and everything seemed ok. The warlock pelted me with shadow magic and from behind I was showered with nature magic, shadow, nature, shadow, nature, I glanced behind me and there was Zhay-za, keeping me alive so I could kill this warlock. Empowered, I stabbed, stabbed, kidney shot, gouged, stabbed and killed the warlock. I looked back and Zhay-za was gone and the Horde were swarming the area where she had been. The dots on me cleared. The Alliance was overrun. I vanished and found my way to a safe spot, snacked on some [Roasted Quail], then stealthed and went looking for her. No body. She was just gone, my only guess, she was taken prisoner. I decided then to free her. But getting into Orgrimmar would be impossible unless I found a secret way.”
The party moved forward, killed a bunch of wasps. Shin continued.
“The gnomes knew of a large space called ‘underneath Orgrimmar’. We have the original plans for the city, we don’t share them because we are gnomes, and the prints indicated a massive space there. I did the math and looked at the Silithus tunnel system and could see that the two likely connected. Into the tunnels I went and moved, sheathed with tons of consumables. Alone I traveled until I broke through a thin wall into ‘underneath Orgrimmar’. From there I searched for Zhay-za.”
The party continued through the maze of tunnels, the skittering of rat claws faint and in the distance. Shin continued.
“I wrote Zhay-za a poem. Would you guys like to hear it?” Shin said.
The party responded with a collective “No.”
“Here it is, the poem goes like this…”
Read on Reddit at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Grobbulus/comments/j8qh0u/a_wolf_in_wolves_clothing_grobbulus_fan_fiction/