The tavern was bustling with activity, holding a jubilant crowd on the inside that made cheerful conversation amongst the backdrop of joyful music. An Elf, Evelysa, sat at the bar with drink in hand, sipping from its contents while she listened to those around her, ears twitching at the celebratory remarks of those who had learned of what had happened. News of most recent events had been vague, but the populace had learned of a happening not too long ago that they could understand, which is that of the hole in the sky in Icecrown closing. The adventurers who had went through that hole returned with bizarre tales that were difficult to fathom, but it wasn’t hard to understand that no more mysterious flying creatures and other such threats could haunt the populace with their entryway sealed off. Not only that, but the adventurers who had returned were helping with taking down the lingering Scourge threat, which was still posing a danger to the various populations of the world.
They didn’t understand the tales from the otherside, but she did. She had been there, covered in mail armor shooting down foes with her crossbow that she had never imagined. Now she was here, dressed like everyone else in pants and a short sleeved shirt, except she didn’t relate to them and couldn’t celebrate like them. She finished her drink, putting the empty container on the bartop before wandering outside, the sounds drowning out behind her into a muffle. Now outside, she could feel the breeze of Elwynn Forest lightly blowing in late night air.
She was in Eastvale, a small tourist town situated atop a hill somewhere between Crystal Lake and the Tower Of Azora. The logging camp further east was named after it, as it had been created by former townsfolk turned lumberjacks. It had a small population and was mostly known as a tourist spot for those who wanted to spend time at the lake, and the recent celebration was a preamble for the soon-to-come Midsummer Fire Festival. Immediately outside the entrance was the stable, and near the living creatures was Evelysa’s mechanohog, a transportation device that she herself had made. The metalic machine stood out like a sore thumb amongst the living beings.
The Elf eyed her contraption, swaying as she stood in the warm outdoors. She was in no state to drive safely. Her only option was to get the assistance of one of the friendly patrons to take her home. Actually, that was not reality. There was another way.
She stared off into the distance for a time, thinking. No one but her was outside, and no one came for her. Go. Run. Just do it.
She hesitated, then after a small moment sprinted. She made her way down the road, but then tumbled forward, hitting the ground hard. She felt a sting under her right bicep and winced. But she didn’t move. She layed there.
She had drunk too much bourbon to be moving so fast. With this realization, she remained where she was, staring down the path. It wasn’t much longer that she could see lights shining from a stagecoach in the distance, a couple of horses carrying it beginning to approach her direction. Come on. Get up.
Reluctantly, she rose to her feet and shuffled off the road, taking a turn east and continuing on her way. The stagecoach eventually rode over where she had been laying, with no knowledge the Elf had been there. Walking, Evelysa lifted her arm and looked to the sting, seeing that she had scraped her arm. Blood dripped down and fell from her elbow. Ignoring it as she walked down an incline, she looked up to see a Human man walking towards her from the opposite direction.
Around the location of Eastvale was a smaller hilly area, giving way to variations of elevation. The Elf was on one, the decline giving a dip that lead to another incline, and when she reached the bottom she began to jog upwards, not as speedily as before but still fairly fast. The lone Human looked alarmed as from his view Evelysa was heading right towards him, but he cautiously continued onwards. His reaction was justified; she didn’t know why he was here, but anyone traveling by themselves late at night was correct in being wary of the possibility of danger. The Elf must have looked crazed to approach so boldly.
“Greetings.” She called out to him somewhat cheerily as she strode past. “Hello…” He replied with a hint of fear to his voice. They continued moving, without stopping, the fearless and probably foolish Elf not interested in stopping for conversation.
The top of the incline gave way to a fourway intersection, as desolate as the road she had come from. Evelysa moved to a patch of grass to the side and collapsed atop it, feeling the world spin as she layed on her back. She used this moment to collect herself after having so quickly moved up the hill. Staring upwards, she saw a smattering of lights far above her, seeing the stars that populated the sky. So many stars.
Evelysa wasn’t someone who gazed at the stars much. She was usually in places such as the Dwarven District of Stormwind, working on inventions and creating machines of war. That place had smog filling the air and thus didn’t give much opportunity to see the sky. Not that it was an excuse, as she was also often in nature. She was just too focused otherwise to give it the attention she was now.
Stars, like anything else, were now a question that the universe has given her. She recalled old myths that stars were special spirits turned into watchers to protect the world. More recent theories were that they were other planets that were far away and yet so near. She recalled being at the fallen Titan Argus’ defeat, in a place some called the Seat Of The Pantheon, a place that was a star which she currently couldn’t see. She recalled being at the fallen Dragon Ysera’s defeat, the green creature’s body dissipating to become stars, something that some believed to be a blessing.
But Ysera wasn’t stars. She had seen her as a spirit in Ardenweald, and that place had stars too. In recent years, the universe did not give her answers, just more questions. Thinking on them was maddening. She would not give it the attention it didn’t deserve, she would return to focus, she would run away and look to what really mattered.
The Elf rose back to her feet, catching her balance before continuing east. There was a long stretch of road in front of her, which she walked beside steadily. Halfway down, she moved to sit on an incline to the side to catch her breath again. Every now and then, a stagecoach or a lone rider on a horse would ride past, giving her no attention. It seemed as if she might as well have not been there.
After awhile she again stood and continued onward. The sides of the road were dense forested areas, wooden fencing blocking off passage to them. Though at one point it looked as if a lone tree branch was jutting through a fence’s bars, its leaves threatening to cover more fence with overgrowth. The Elf stopped where she was, staring at the overgrowth. She didn’t feel danger before, but she did now.
Something about this tree growing through the fence was off. There was a space within the leaves where she could look into the forest itself, but all she saw was darkness. She gazed into it, seeing nothing, before hearing a close yet distant growl. The longtime huntress knew the sounds of animals, and this wasn’t one of them. Scourge lurking in the forest was a known fact.
Evelysa hurried then. She jogged quickly, getting away from the overgrowth hurriedly. She didn’t stop moving, and eventually the dense growth on the sides decreased, giving way to more open and civilized area. First were visible clearings, before a row of houses on each side of the road populated her surroundings. Still jogging, she looked to the houses on her right, but one in particular caught her attention.
She slowed to a halt, looking to its front yard to see a collection of decorations, made of religious imagery and symbols revering the Light. Special glass tiles with Draenic phrases etched onto them were implanted into the ground leading to a doorway, a windchime hanging outside it mimicing small Naaru sounds while it jostled in the breeze. There was a statue in the yard chisled in an identical shape of tombstones that Evelysa had seen in Draenei territories. Her body froze, and she had a flashback. She was staring out over a landscape, the sky red, the ground littered with tombstones all shaped similarly and of the same style but etched with names of people who had come from all over the universe.
“Haha yeah, it didn’t matter where they came from or what they believed, they all landed here. Everyone pays in this place.” The dredger cackled as he picked up one of the tombstones, moving to haul it away, another being dropped in its place. Her body shivered then and she was back in Elwynn. She faced away from the home and almost stumbled on her feet as she continued to her destination.
She burst into tears. They had lied. The universe had lied, about creation, about meaning, about reason. Untold numbers of people far and wide were proven wrong, on a regular basis, given consequences they never would have imagined. They gave their life’s purposes, and adhered to what they believed to the core, for what they thought to be bigger than them only to discover that it barely mattered.
She remembered meeting Alexandros Mograine. She had heard tales of his being the Ashbringer, and undeath was his reward, even after true death. There was no embrace with the Light. The paladins had been untrustworthy to her, seeing their tenets as deceptable guidelines to rule those beneath them, but even they didn’t deserve that. Even a wrong belief should have an appropriate consequence.
She sobbed as she walked, eventually wiping her eyes when she managed to get back control over herself. A guard on a horse rode past, not even giving a glance in her direction. She was alone, still, the row of homes gone, but she was beginning to happen upon a set of buildings now on each side of the road with business signs hanging from them. She couldn’t read them in the night, but one building in particular stood out to her. On the left in a clearing was a single story shop, illuminated in the darkness by a Gnomish spotlight on each side pointing at it, its sign reading, “General Store”.
She crossed the road and went down, approaching the shop and looking into its front window. Two Humans were inside, one with a broom cleaning the place while the other sat behind a counter idly. Evelysa went inside, the Humans looking to her as she approached the counter. The man sitting there seemed startled as the Elf greeted him. “Hello, how’re you?”
She must have looked a mess. Blood dripped from her arm, her cheeks were tear stained, and her hair was wild. “I’m well.” The Human answered, rising from his seat. He looked to her with attention.
“Are you religious?” She asked with curiousity. His expression became apprehensive, glancing to the worker with a broom out of her eyesight before looking back to her and replying. “I can’t answer that.” That made the Elf blink with some surprise, taking a moment to think before continuing.
“What is your least sold food item?” The man tapped his chin before walking around the counter to a shelf, motioning to it. “Tracker snacks. Customers usually think it’s just pet food but people can eat it too.” Evelysa reached out to the bag containing the snacks, eyeing it before nodding in approval.
“I’ll take it.” Returning to the counter, the man gave the price before she reached into a pouch hanging from her belt, taking out the appropriate amount and paying him before stepping outside. She opened the bag forcefully and shoved her hand in, grabbing a handful of rounded meat treats before guiding them into her mouth. The sizable bits were crispy with a nice crunch, having a pleasant sweetness to them that reminded her of northern spices local to Northrend. This snack was, indeed, more than just pet food.
As she stood eating, she came to the realization that after drinking so much that night, she had not yet used an outhouse. Finishing the food, she tossed the bag into a nearby recepticle before crossing the road, this time going to a different store, this one closed and covered in darkness. She moved to its side, finding a secluded spot to crouch in to relieve herself. She knew after leaving the tavern earlier that there was danger to be had in the darkness of night, yet even after her recent possible run in with Scourge, she did not care. She almost hoped someone would ambush her so she could let out her frustration upon an attacker.
Returning from the Shadowlands made her feel numb. Ever since the Cataclysm she had embarked on travels, visiting various diverse places of the universe, but Zereth Mortis had been the pinnacle of them all so far yet. That’s where the end for her had began. She could not wrap her mind around being in a place whose purpose was to create part of the universe, made by previous unknown creatures who had made everything, beings who all she knew about was a name: “First Ones”. How could she return to living a simple life after that?
Finished, she rose back up and returned to the road. She was passing by the tower of Azora next, and a couple handful of mages loitered around the sides of the road, having discussions and doing basic spells to entertain themselves. The loneliness of the stretch of road she had been on was disappearing. A little further down and the logging camp was coming up, its residents asleep in their homes, preparing for another busy day of logging that was to come. Then came the border to Redridge, guards in towers watching the roads, forest and mountain border region for any Scourge lurking around.
Evelysa was almost home. The roads of Redridge seemed to have more of a patrol presence than Elwynn, the mountains having been more threatened by the undead after the helm had broke. Much of the undead in Redridge had been eradicated, but the populace wasn’t going to take any chances. The dark night was starting to recede now, the sun not yet on the horizon though it was giving way to a burgeoning brightness. With the bridge to Lakeshire coming into view, the Elf took a turn and entered the wilderness, going a ways before finding a lone cabin.
Reaching into a pouch on her belt opposite of the previous, she took out a key and used it to unlock the door before stepping inside. Closing and locking it again, she listened for any intruders, only getting still air in response. Standing in her doorway, it’s then she realized that she had a cramp in her thigh, having strained it at some point on her return home. Exhausted, she went to her bedroom and fell back on the bed, able to relax now. In the morning, she would drink a health potion to absolve some of her injuries before going into town to pay for a ride back to her mechanohog.
The distance between her cabin and Eastvale had been two miles. Not too difficult a trek for an experienced ranger such as herself, but being drunk and careless somewhat changed that. Sprawled out atop her bedsheets, Evelysa yawned before closing her eyes. As the sun went up, she went down. The long night was over.