Carena Meia Vhitaker-Vasile sighed heavily as she hopped off her furline mount, Mischief-Essa near the Tavern in the Mists. She could hear her twin brother Danner, his wife Mandi Ellyia, her worgen cousin Vailey, his kul tiran partner-for-life Unity Holli and the blood elves; Coriani Arrowind and her younger adult cousin, Failiani Arrowind in the tavern nearby talking about various subjects.
One might wonder why she outside of a tavern when she didn’t drink alcohol of any type. She was retiring and going to travel on a ship with her worgen uncle Greywell Vhitaker-Vasile for an very long, extended period of time with no ending date as they had the funds to do so. The others in the tavern were going along, too as he (and her) extended the invitation to them and this was the meeting place.
Granted, she hadn’t planned on retiring until she was much, much older as she liked to keep busy. Between helping running the former family business when her other worgen uncle Erdin was ill, doing countless tasks in Dragon Isles, taking care of her many, many pets she owned after the caretaker for them quit plus helping to rescue her Uncle Greywell three months earlier from the captivity situation he was sold into; she had kept herself busy and that was just in the past year or so? The more she thought about it, she had never given herself much time to relax (or eat much) since reaching adulthood and was always working.
It wasn’t surprising that this retirement had been forced onto her far sooner than she would like due to her health. She collapsed and barely survived a massive heart attack about two weeks earlier while she was in Gilneas City. The healer (and family) told her bluntly to “quit everything and retire now or die and be in the Shadowlands on a permanent basis.” As the rogue still had flashbacks to that horrid place, Carena took the advice very seriously.
About a week ago, her uncle Greywell told her of his plans to retire and travel as most of his crew decided to quit seafaring following Gilneas being taken back. He asked her if she wanted to come along and she readily accepted his offer. She just had to finish her old business first, including finding someone to take care of the many, many pets she had and recently put them into an old, but modified cushy guild vault she had.
Carena left a note on a board (at least she thinks it was a board, err… bad eyesight!) in the main inn at Valdrakken that if read;
“Ahoy to the Stormwind Watch, Da Doctas, AAMS and others; including that tavern in Booty Bay! Thanks for generous support you have given me, my family, and my blood elven friends; Coriani and Failiani of the Arrowind House over the years. Due to events, I and they must retire now. Fair you all well and safe travels! Carena M. Vhitaker-Vasile”
She smiled, it had taken time but she found someone, a fine gentlemen named Rumos to take care of the pets she had and left them with more than enough gold to take care of them, at least she hoped it was enough gold…
“Co-Capt’n Carena! Good to see you still alive!”
Carena turned and smiled as she heard Failiani at the doorway of the tavern. The human and Mischief-Essa walked up the stairs and the blood elf gave Car a big hug as she near the doorway. “Good to hear ye too, Faili. You know I don’t need to be called Co-Capt’n anymore…”
“I know but… you’ll always be Co-Capt’n… at least to me.” Faili shrugged.
The human smiled, “It’s know and it’s fine if you still call me by that title, Faili. Don’t be hard on yerself and relax; We’re retired after all.” She replied and heard Failiani nod as she entered the tavern where the others inside instantly greeted and hugged her. Interesting enough, she used to hate being hugged but her horrid experiences in the Shadowlands started to change that perspective. Since the heart attack two weeks ago, she was now good with hugging.
After some minutes, she and the others sat down after Mandi handed out various non-alcohol drinks and snacks including rice cakes and jerky. She sighed and looked at her wristwatch and noted it shouldn’t be too much longer before Uncle Greywell showed up and teleported everyone to the ship where the fun would began.
“I assume that’s one of your new pets I’m hearin’, Cori. What’s it’s name?” Carena asked quietly before chewing on a piece of jerky as she heard a duckling of sorts near the western doorway, making noises with its quacks.
“Yes and that’s Duckie. He can be quite… talkative in his own way compared to Whiskersia. Featherwing and even TigerCat are out there as well.” Coriani let out a long sigh, “I have to say, I’m more than ready to retire now and give up hunting… thank you for the invitation to come along with my pets.”
Carena nodded as she heard the mouse in Coriani’s small pack; from the rumors she had heard, Coriani had the worst luck of any hunter on the Dragon Isles when it came to keeping newly-tamed pets alive and supposedly lost over 100 of them due to various threats. She also wasn’t going to get any confirmation on said rumors from her friend. After all, it was just hearsay and not like it had any truth in it…
“No problem, Cori. You, Failiani and and yer uncle Taelis are family to us. I wouldn’t have it any other way. How’s Junior doing?” She smiled, hearing the Springpaw Lynx. Junior was another nickname for TigerCat as her late father had the same name; she was severely injured in a stable fire that killed the rest of her litter and mother when she was younger cub that left her lame and unable to fight. It was one of the reasons Coriani traveled to the Dragon Isles as she only had Featherwing, her gryphon as a fighting pet due to original TigerCat’s old age.
“TigerCat is doing better now; I know she grieved for her father as I did these past few months. I did raise him from when a young cub after all; I suppose I should be thankful he lived to an old age.” Coriani sighed briefly, “I made special braces for TigerCat’s front legs last week.”
“She does seem to be walking better with them.” Faili remarked. “Oh, she made a new friends… umm, friends I mean.”
The human smiled as she heard her reddish-colored tabby furline mount wagging her fluffy tail near TigerCat. "Aye, that be Mischief-Essa for ye. She has taken a real liking to Uncle Greywell. " Carena remarked. Luckily, the furline wasn’t interested in eating any type of bird or land critters in general so Cori wasn’t in any danger of losing her pets from the mount.
“I got more drinks and snacks in case anyone wants them.” Mandi sighed as she got up from sitting down and walked over to hand Car another tea and small bag of jerky.
“You should eat more, Car since I’m going to assume you skipped dinner with finishing up the business. I think I can speak for everyone here that we don’t want to see you faint again.” Danner shivered briefly as Mandi walked over and sat down next to him.
Carena heard the others nod as she put the new drink and snack next to her. She shivered briefly had skipped a meal but not intentionally. Besides, she knew there would be plenty of food on the ship but it wouldn’t hurt to eat a bit more to put everyone else at ease.
Her whole family but especially her brother and sister-in-law had been quite worried about her since the heart attack. Not surprising since they had been near her when she first collapsed from it. She did have them thank for quickly getting the healer that saved her life.“Aye. Believe me, I don’t wish to repeat that again. It’s why I’m retiring after all.”
“As we all are.” Vailey commented. “I think it’s safe to say with all the various hardships, long work-hours and dangers we’ve been through the past several years, it’s a great time to just… relax. Maybe I’ll actually be able to finish reading a book.”
“Aye. It has been a hard time I can say. Even during a time of ‘peace’.” Unity sighed loudly after speaking.
Carena took a sip of her tea as she heard Unity frown. Unity’s mother died two months earlier. “I assume the funeral of yer mother and meeting with your many… siblings didn’t go well.” The human sighed as she knew Unity came from a large, blended family of 16 siblings- 14 of them were half siblings. From what the rogue had found out, ‘utter chaos’ was the accurate description of that living situation from the neighbors before Unity’s birth parents divorced.
“Ye be correct, Car. My 8 surviving siblings disowned me for being with Vailey and barred me from going to the actual funeral; we had to watch from a distance. That’s fine as they all are jerks and I will not speak to them again.” Unity commented, “Frankly, ye are all my real family to me and I’m grateful for that.”
“That’s quite… rude. Good riddance to them.” Coriani commented briefly as Unity nodded.
“Indeed.” Mandi sighed briefly. “I know I’ll never speak with my birth… spawners after what they did. My late trainer told me there’s the family you’re born into and the family you choose. Sometimes it’s both and sometimes it’s the one you chose that’s not blood. You are all my family.”
The human nodded. Mandi’s birth parents abandoned her in the cold when was 10 weeks old due to her gender. Fortunately, a couple that had recently had a stillborn found and raised her as their own child until they died a few weeks after she turned 11. Sadly, Mandi’s birth parents were still living and weren’t aware that she was still alive and it would stay that way. “That’s something I think we can all agree with.” Carena nodded.
“Coriani is my cousin and I’m thankful for that. Mandi, Danner, Unity, Co-Capt’n Vailey and Co-Capt’n Carena; you are the siblings I never had. To family!” Faili remarked and the others around her did.
Carena blinked as she heard the sounds of a familiar teleporting spell nearby. Based on the sounds of Mischief-Essa’s quickly flying over the tavern’s building; Uncle Greywell had just arrived and gave the furline her ‘few but very needed’ pets on the head. She smirked as she heard his familiar foot-paw coming up the stairs, possibly a bit of sparkles? She and the others greeted him warmly as he entered.
“It’s great to see you, Greywell and recovered now. That is a great outfit by the way. I do want to thank you for the invite. It’s very much needed.” Coriani smiled as she got to her feet.
“No problems, it’s the least I could do considering all of ye rescued me from that horrid, dire, long captivity I was in and had little chance of surviving longer. Plus ye are a honorary crew-mate of me former ship. It’s certainly is the right time to retire and do so as long ye desire. I know ye blood elves can live a long time.” He smirked as Coriani nodded and walked to the western doorway before turning his attention to Car. “I assume ye finished yer business, my niece?”
“I did. Just got here a bit ago.” Carena got up from her feet and walked over to Greywell. He was very stylish, in her mind as wore a fancy pink shirt of Gilnean design and long pink skirt that had a lace overlay. “I assume Sonny Day decided to stay in the Dragon Isles.” A day or so earlier, he had gone to see his former second mate; a red dragon that he rescued many, many years earlier when Sonny was still a whelp.
“Aye, he has. He’s bonded with his black dragon friend, ‘Spys’. I tell ye, they have a great bromance going on and it’s be wrong to separate them. I gave the option to join us should he change his mind but I doubt he will, unless ‘Spys’ were to come along and he doesn’t have that option at this time.”
“I figured as much…” She smiled briefly and noted everyone seemed to be ready to go. “Well, since everyone is here, I guess we should be going?”
“Aye, we best be going! Thank ye for letting everyone meet here.” The worgen dropped a big bag full of gold coins for the innkeeper.
Carena heard the others get to the feet as he motioned with his right clawed hand to follow him out of the building. They all walked out of the western doorway where Coriani’s pets were hanging out; Mischief-Essa joined them a few seconds later. He muttered the words for the teleporting and before she knew it, they were all on the ship; ‘The Grand Aurora Delight’.
Carena
Formerly it was known as ‘Greywell’s Fury’ and the only surviving ship of her family’s former business; it was Car and Vailey ship they co-captained together but they let her uncle have it following the destruction of the family flagship, Hester Maria that happened during the mission to rescue him. The ship’s design was a mixture of Kul Tiran and Gilnean with great decor.
“For those that don’t have a room yet, go ahead and get one. A grand meal will be served on the main deck in a few hours, that’ll always include strict vegetarian and grain free options.” Greywell commented as Car heard Coriani and her pets along with Danner and Mandi walk left down the hallway. She along with Failiani, Vailey and Unity already had their rooms on the ship.
Car could hear music coming from the deck- a few of his former crew had stuck around to retire including the human Dame (aka Damsel and a great singer) and Vaylarn; the night elf stand-by chef that was also a great bard and could play many instruments. Taelis, Failiani father had also decided to come aboard and travel with them. He seemed to be on the main deck based on limping footsteps. Even Vailey’s younger sister, Kayleslia was aboard as she heard the sound of laughter coming from her.
“They be having fun on the main deck right now.” She remarked to her worgen uncle who smiled.
“Aye. A few of the former crew are still having a dance party before the next meal. I’d be joining them and ye can too if ye wish. I know ye like to.” Greywell said as he walked over to the stairs that lead to the main deck.
The human nodded slowly before heading to the deck. Dancing was the main activity she and Vailey’s former crew did before most of them quit to join the Dragonscale Expedition four months earlier. As she headed up the stair, she smiled as she somehow felt… relaxed. Hmm, maybe she could get used to this… retirement.
(( This is my good-bye thread and hopefully a good IC reason for my characters not being around. I still have them alive. TLDR; Carena had a major health scare that’s forcing her into early retirement and she’s traveling with her worgen uncle for a very extended/endless amount of time (rest of WOW’s days) and my other alt characters have joined her.
This should have been posted on 1/31/24 here on the forums but it escaped my mind. (It’s on the server’s discord) I temporarily un-deleted my account so the folks that aren’t on the server’s discord can see this. As soon as the cool-down period is over, I will be deleting my battle.net account as I’m moving on from the game.
Thanks for being the best and friendliest server I’ve been on. I’ve had a good time. I do apologize for not being able to log into the game and say any goodbyes there as my computer is having hardware problems and can’t handle WOW anymore.
I will be on the discord server if anyone wishes to talk with me there. 
))